The unmistakable sound of something crashing down a mountainside rumbled in the distance, only just audible as it was severely muffled by the sound of the wind and swaying trees. J looked around for the source of the noise, which proved very difficult in the hazing snow.

"Gah! I'm freezing!" He mumbled to himself, knowing no one would be able to hear him anyway. He glanced around at the nearby houses, most of which had black smoke wafting up from the chimneys, and every house had a few lights on while the streets were barren of any life-sign. It was quite eerie. By now, the snow was almost waist high, and J was shivering like mad. He gave up on being unnoticed, as he knew he’d be barely visible through the thick snowfall as it was. He quickly activated his armor in a soft red glow. Circulation started to return to his limbs and his body instantly started to warm.

J looked around again as the sound of a big metal thing continued to crash down. It was getting louder and louder by the second. He slipped his visor over his eyes and his vision changed to let him see through the snowfall almost perfectly. Almost immediately he saw it. Back the way he had come from, just beyond the bridge he had just passed over, was what was left of a white car rolling hazardly down the mountainside. His eyes widened and his vision zoomed in as he sprinted back to the bridge. He could see someone still in the car.

It felt all too natural for J to do what he was about to do. He had done just this many times throughout his life, for the world he came from had many hazards and pearls. He had lived nearly a quarter of his life in combat. And in almost every battle there were innocent bystanders. Every bystander was his to protect.

J leapt strait over the side of the fifty foot high bridge—whipping off his backpack in mid air and throwing it into the snow so it didn’t get wet—landing with a large splash in the semi frozen, small river bellow where the car had finally come to a stop. He glanced over, noticing a young man garbed in many layers of winter clothes who looked slightly startled at the whole situation and even more so at the appearance of the armored man. But this was no time to pay him any heed. J quickly jumped over to the car, landing beside it in the waist high, frigid stream, the cold was only just starting to penetrate his armor.

There was a tall, fair woman in the passenger side seat, sprawled out awkwardly. She was unconscious, her head barely above the water. At first glance, it was obvious the tumbling car had taken a severe toll on her body. The car was also crushed in such a way that it had her pinned completely, almost like a cage.

The armored young man grabbed the passenger side door handle and promptly ripped it clean off. He stumbled back slightly but quickly made for another attempt, slamming his claw strait into the door and gripped it well with his right and pulled hard, ripping the entire door off with a loud, screeching snap.

Suddenly the wrecked car gave a lurch and sank into the water a few inches. The river had just become unexpectedly more fierce and the strong waves pushed the vehicle farther down stream into the deeper waters. J was taken off guard as his feet failed to stay planted on the muddy river bottom and he would have been swept away completely if not for his iron grip on the car frame.

This wasn’t good. The unconscious girl was still pinned underneath the steering wheal and the roof of the car. The vehicle was sliding and sinking fast. Almost franticly, J planted his feet just inside the car where the door had been pulled off, and lifted up hard on the roof, tearing it back like a sardine can. The car gave a second lurch and rolled almost completely on to its side. The side J was hanging on. The armored man was forced under the water

Things were starting to get annoyingly difficult.

Without warning, the ground came up abruptly fast, or rather, the water level went down unexpectedly. J had no time to think of what was the cause of this and quickly planted his boots into the mud and steadied the white vehicle, making sure it wouldn’t topple over or crush him. The water level continued to descend until it was only knee deep and the car was resting firmly on the ground.

“Get her out! I cant hold this forever!” It was the same young man that he had seen earlier. It looked like he had run by the side of the river to keep up with the floating wreck of a car, and was now holding his arms out and concentrating, warping the water around the vehicle. J nodded quickly and went back to work, carefully but swiftly pulling the steering wheel right off and unpinning her leg. He then slammed his fist into the dashboard, moving the whole thing a good six inches and finally freeing the young woman completely.

The armored soldier frowned behind his helmet at her battered body. Carefully, he picked the woman up into his arms and jumped out of the river. He fired of his thrusters as he landed, slowing his decent enough not to jar the unconscious woman in his arms. The woman was extremely pale from the severe cold, which contrasted greatly with the dark bruises and still flowing blood from the cuts on her head and body.

J raised his eyebrows in surprise as he noticed that the second man had cleared the snow on the ground in front of him completely. “Set her down, I can heal her.”

J obliged and set the woman down in the small crater and took a step back. The young man then knelt down beside her and held his hands over her head, emitting a soft, white and yellow glow from his palms. Gradually, the deep cut on her temple sealed. He then moved on to the next injury.

It then struck J how freakishly cold he really was. He actually had ice hanging from his armor in some places. He shivered and crouched down inside the crater of snow.

The blond haired young man continued to heal the woman, not looking up as he spoke. “We need to get her somewhere warm. Quick.”

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I)ragon11’s Art