This had never been his intention. To fight in broad daylight against a mutant criminal he'd been tailing had been furthest from his desires. The man had been a trickster, prankmaster, using his powers to steal and inconvenience, and even kill. Gates, he called himself, and he could open portals between places wherever he wished.

Benji had first heard of him in the news. A daring daytime robbery in broad daylight. He'd walked into the bank, dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask and cloak, looked at the bankers, and asked them to please check the vault. Nobody had done anything, and he hadn't drawn a weapon. With security focused on him, he'd turned with flourish and tore a hole in reality. Then casually, he'd stepped through the orange hole in the air and vanished. A crappy magic trick. But while they'd been distracted, his subordinates had entered the vault through another portal he'd made, and spirited away gold bars and everything not bolted down.

He'd pulled similar tricks numerous times. And he was capricious. Sometimes, money appeared where poor families could use it... and sometimes, crooked slumlords and rich people above the law found themselves falling from blue holes in the sky. Still above the law, mind. But rapidly, beneath it.

He'd waged his war on the city for a week and Benji had pulled some amateur detective work to tail a member of his crew. Which had lead to a confrontation, now, on the streets in the middle of Times Square. Not of his volition, either. Stupid portal maker. Turning this into a spectacle on prime time for all the world to see. Cheshire was certainly a public vigilante, now. Though they'd probably nickname him something stupid without his guiding hand. Stupid fighting in the middle of Times Square, mumble grumble.

Their attacks clashed in what would have been a cool moment, if he hadn't been fuming about bum luck. Gates punched through an orange portal, and Benji's arm shot through the portal and out the portal's blue counterpart in a cross counter that put him two places at once, with a fist against the smile on his helmet, and his fist against the smile on the Guy Fawkes mask. Sudden inspiration hit him, and he put on a brief burst of speed to snatch at the mask and tear it off, revealing to the entire world... a blue portal sprang up, censoring the tricksters face in a whorl of aqua and robin's egg blue.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Benji muttered.

---

Gates laughed at Benji's comment and surged backwards. "Not at all!"

The whorl was still there, whorling. Blocking the whole world from seeing his face. The man passed a hand across his face quickly, snatching something from within the whorl. A moment later, he spun on the spot and placed a new mask over the old. It was a pig's face. The whorl had gone. Benji had not been expecting that.

Oinking sounds escaped the portal maker's mask as he stood there, taunting him

Police were starting to arrive on the scene. News crews, too. The fight had been goin on for a couple of minutes. Cheshire needed to end this, and quick.

He stood for a few seconds. It would take some keen strategy to overwhelm Gates... who was still making pig sounds and looked to be having a wonderful time. His unpredictable nature combined with his quick usage of portals made this a hairy situation.

Benji took one step towards the side of the street, then another. Gates was watching him. What was he up to, the man had to wonder. Sunlight glinted off the motorcycle helmet's dome as he approached the crowd. He addressed one of the police officers, who was starting to direct people back so he could cordon off the area.

"Can I borrow some handcuffs?" Cheshire asked. "Pretty please?" The helmet's painted on grin smiled winningly.

Cops rarely worked with vigilantes. This guy was a one in a million exception. He tossed a pair of metal handcuffs at the helmeted man, then turned back to his work. Benji snagged them out of the air.

Gates' eyebrow rose, in a small moment of question. An 'oh?' What was all this then? Was he going to try and handcuff him and take this little piggy to market? Did he expect it to scare him into going wee wee, then going home? He didn't put a lot of faith in handcuffs. He could easily portal his way free with them in hand, and cut them later. It wasn't a threat. But this guy--

Benji blurred, and suddenly a lash of metal swung at Gates's face. If the portal master hadn't been watching for it, he might've gotten clocked. Instead, he took a hasty step backwards and threw up one hand. A blue portal whirled in the air in front of him, ready to intercept and redirect the next blow.

Benji had counted the seconds between his last burst and his stepping off to get the cuffs. His ability had reset. It was the real reason he'd interrupted the flow of battle. The cuffs were merely an afterthought. Gates didn't know about his limits. Best keep him unawares.

He lashed out again, blue lines trailing behind him as Benji moved to one side of the portal master and swung the cuffs. They clashed against his left side. A howl of rage and pain escaped Gates. Benji closed the distance with human speed, and brought his leg up in a kick to the same side. One blur left... he broke up combat again, and stalled.

A unique aspect of his powers was the effect of the cooldown. He'd counted it out. On a normal expenditure he would need about thirteen seconds to recoup the loss, maybe twelve. He'd timed it with a stop watch during the first week... because he was a huge nerd. ... yet if he burst, burst, then waited for about five seconds... it could reset. Not on the first. not on the third. Only on the second, before the third. He had no idea why, but dem's da breaks. So he stalled. Stalled with his fists.

Benji wailed on Gates with brute force alone, fists and legs moving in martial arts grace. The man tried to fend him off, but portals didn't help at this range. He was already well within Gates's guard. It at least, he THOUGHT portals wouldn't help at this range.

The constant assault should have hammered Gates until he'd given up and fallen to his knees. He'd punched and he'd kicked and he'd driven the man hard, but after a minute of hitting the man only to see him still standing, Benji started to get the sick feeling that something was wrong. He tried one more attack, testing his theory. At the very last moment, he drew back the attack as if it were a feint, and watched for... something.

It was small. Very small. If he hadn't been looking for it, he'd never have noticed. Every time he hit the man, a small portal opened, just big enough to absorb the brunt of the force without being obvious. Gates got some of it, but the portal directed the rest somewhere else. Benji wasn't sure where... but it felt meaty.

Benji took several steps back, and glared at Gates. "Oh you bastard," he muttered. "You've been faking it this whole time."

"Like your ex girlfriend, yes." The man replied cheerily. You could almost hear the manic grin in his voice.

Gates had been faking the fight. None of his attacks had hit. He needed to fight smarter, not harder. Super speed was great, but it wasn’t faster than thought. Sun Tzu would say that any time an opponent knows you’re going to do something, do something else. So, he did.

Benji ran off. Gates was laughing, until Benji came back with a trash can lid. Before Gates could figure out why the man had a trash can lid, Benji burst forward with a whoosh and a clang. The lid hit Gates full in the chest.

“You’ve been blocking with tiny portals, Gates.” Benji smiles. His helmet was already smiling so it was a smile within a smile. “My attack is bigger.”

He went for another attack, and left the man reeling. One more attack and Gates would probably be down. Benji rushed at him, and— Gates fell through a portal on the ground where he’d been cringing. He appeared somewhere else. Benji turned, looking for him, and felt a sudden tug at his head. Two arms had appeared on either side of him, each reaching through a portal. Without preamble, they tore the helmet off.

He was exposed. The cameras rolled. Before a second had passed, Benji hauled his jacket up over his head and hunched over, covering his face. Had they seen? On the big screen nearby, he was visible, hunkering down. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. A second passed, then another. He felt disgusted. He could see where Gates lay, arms retracting through their portals. He could still take him out. Then he’d run.

Benji gathered up energy for another burst. He covered his face with one arm, and lowered the jacket. Blurred forward, and— went between worlds.

Gates had the last laugh. At the final moment, he had opened a portal leading into the rip. Benji had burst through, onto the other side. Disoriented, he glanced around. A woman with a bob of brown hair spotted him, and rushed towards him with all the vigor of a security guard. Benji didn’t think. He ran. She chased him, which made him feel better about running, but not any less paranoid. He was in another world, and he wasn’t sure how he’d evade the woman to get back to his own.

There were guards stationed all around the rip. She hadn’t been the only one. As they watched, a motorcycle helmet flew out of the rip like it had been spat out of a mouth. Across time and multiple dimensions, one might have imagined an accompanying burp. It must’ve been the wind.