The Lost Boy, The Hollow, And The Courier [Request]

In a world driven by those with the power to break planets in two, it was hard for the average every day working man to find a means to pay his bills. To be honest, most men were either in construction, working in the military in some fashion or another, or were busy studying new ways to fight their own personal battles against whatever they deemed a worthy cause. For Steiner Franz, the man who had once found his place in life, he had found himself among none of these classes of people. He wasn't an educated man in the sense that science was something he yearned to exceed at. He didn't want to be a construction worker as it meant he could spend little time on his own training himself up to reach the next stage of his training. Neither was he a soldier, though he had tried it once, and that was due more to personal taste than anything else. His time in the Vanguard had been rather sour and after returning from being injured and learning that they couldn't help him get back what he lost, maybe just maybe he held a vendetta against them.

So for quite some time, Steiner had been what some would call "homeless", as he had no means to fund himself, and every little dollar he had earned from being a member of the Vanguard had evaporated after a mere few months of being without employ. Try as he might, the young man just couldn't find a job, and for months after losing his apartment, Steiner had found himself hanging out in the outskirts of where he had once called home, and sleeping under the stars. There were worse fates. Yet, it seemed luck had taken a like to the man who had at one time been so unlucky as to have lost his powers, luck gave him a job. Not a high paying job mind you, but one that Steiner didn't mind working as it allowed him to train, and also allowed him to travel around to different locations across the land that he had wanted to explore since he was young. He had become a courier.

He would pick up packages from Lonene Shipping Service (LSS for short) and then deliver them by land, air, or sea to their destination. Sometimes he would get a tip, other times he would meet some unsavory people who were looking to take advantage of him, and other times he would just actually enjoy himself. It was a typical nine to five job and for a man who had lost everything, maybe it was what he needed. A sense of normalcy, in a world that had just become so much more lonely for the young man, and for a while that had been good enough for Steiner. Traveling around, delivering packages, and picking up a steady pay check, but eventually Steiner got a familiar itch in his sword swinging arm. Training alone wasn't enough to sate his thirst for combat which had grown ever steadily since his days from returning alive and powerless to civilization. Yet, things would be hard for Steiner now to find a fight worth fighting. He had developed a reputation in the LSS as a guy who was squeaky clean, his days of fighting long behind him, and the owner of the company wouldn't allow someone to pick meaningless fights just so he could sate some kind of weird feeling of anxiety of not actually fighting.

So, Steiner adopted an identity. He started small, hiding his face, and fighting battles against thugs looking to pick on people making their way to the outskirts, people with jobs who were similar to his own. It began to escalate over time as he began to tackle more threats. Fighting roaming hollows, dealing with gangbangers in the wastelands, and sometimes playing the rescuing hero to a damsel in distress. Eventually his adopted identity gained a reputation of its' own, some kind of white hooded vigilante that protected innocent people from harm out in the wasteland. His adopted identity even gained its own name: White Phantom. He didn't really care for the name, but it was something the people had called him, and it stuck rather well for no apparent reason. As his deeds escalated, so did the injuries he received, and the questions that he had to answer from his boss became more and more difficult to lie as an answer for. He was never a dishonest man and bluffing had never been something that he was remarkably good at. Yet, Steiner had eluded being fired, and he still got to kill two birds with one stone. He fought for justice in his own way and got money for doing a good job from his employer.


It was on one particular day that Franz found himself out in the wastelands, doing his job, and delivering a package out in the middle of the wastes to some construction workers. For what purpose this package was designated for, Steiner didn't ask, all he knew was that the package was extremely heavy, and required him to deliver it with the company vehicle: a dark brown van. He wasn't too particularly fond of driving the van, its' breaks didn't quite work right, and sometimes the blasted thing just wouldn't start back up if you didn't shut it off in a particular way. It wasn't a very good method to transport goods, but it was the only vehicle the LSS had laying around for delivery services by land that required heavy lifting. Steiner sighed, remembering when picking things like this up would have been easy, and remembering a time where he had once had someone to accompany him across the world.

It was hard on the young man, not having what he had thought would have been his partner for life standing by his side in a spiritual sense to offer him guidance. Sometimes he thought he could hear his voice or he woke up in cold sweats with nightmares reliving the events that had occurred to him on that day. The psychologists told him it was natural for him to experience such things, but Steiner didn't believe anything happened that day was natural for anyone to bear. He had lost everything that day and to this day he was still looking for a way to make things right. Sometimes he imagined that he had found the sons of bitches that had left him to die and slowly, but surely exacted his justice down upon them, but it was all just his imagination. Those arrancar were in hiding, where he didn't know, but one day he knew, just knew, he would find them. And when he did there would indeed be hell to pay for what they had done to them and probably many more people before him.

Steiner grunted as he saw in the distance a distant sandstorm coming in, instinctively turning on the headlights, and readying the defunct set of windshield wipers on the van for what was to come. It had been a long trip and he was still a few hours out from his destination and he sure as hell wasn't going to allow some little sandstorm to get in the way of him finishing his big job for the day. After all, maybe if he braved a sandstorm to deliver the part he might get a tip. Oh who was he kidding, he probably would be called an idiot, and for his persistence in finishing this job the van probably wouldn't make it to its destination. He chuckled to himself, realizing that maybe driving through the sandstorm wouldn't be the most appropriate thing to do at this point in time, after all if the van died he would have to drag the package to the destination, or worse, have to call his boss and tell him about what had happened. Out of fear of being scolded and losing his job, Steiner decided to turn the van in a different direction. Maybe just maybe he could get around the storm.

Sure it would add time on to the commute, but Steiner would rather spend more time cramped up in a van than being broke down in the middle of a sandstorm. So he began to head North, hoping he could beat the storm, in that moment something passed by his vision. "Is that a...a boy?", Steiner spoke to himself, dumbfounded by the fact that anyone would be running around in the wastes by themselves, let alone with a sandstorm on the way. That is when his eye sight caught a second sight, something that helped him get a grasp on the situation in a much more complete manner. A hollow, a big, quadrupedal, rhino of a hollow was chasing the boy. And it was gaining on him. There was no doubt in Steiner's mind that the boy would be killed by this thing, it would destroy him, and that was something he just couldn't allow. He wanted to be a hero a year and a half ago and to be honest that feeling still was there, the drive to protect people from harm. He found himself looking in the back of the van for anything, not caring if the hollow was a threat to himself, after all this was a massive hollow, only caring for what was going to happen to the unarmed boy running through the wastes.

"I need a weapon...damnit I wish I had brought my sword.", Steiner spoke of course of the broken Excalibur he had left at home which he had regretted not bringing with him now. He spotted a crowbar and a bat, two things that probably wouldn't be too effective at doing any harm to a beast of that size and strength, yet he had to try. He had to do something because doing nothing would only make him out to be a coward. So after taking a big, deep breath, it was fight time. He found himself pressing down hard on the gas, putting the shitty van through its' ropes at ramming speed. He only had once chance for this and he would be damned if he would mess this up. He took careful aim for the beast's side, making sure to grab his bat and crowbar before pushing the van to go even faster. As it finally neared its' target, Steiner jumped out of the moving vehicle, tucking and rolling as all the books had taught him on the subject of acrobatics.

He didn't land gracefully and pain shot up his left leg, which was probably now all scratched up from hidden rocks in the sand. Yet, the thing that took the most damage was the van as a sickening sound of metal on flesh filled the air as the van full throttled its way into the Hollow's side. The Hollow didn't go far, but it was pushed a decent distance away, letting out a roar of pain, and confusion as to what had just occurred. Steiner stood up, clutching the bat in one hand, and the crowbar in the other. He looked over to the boy with a slight grin on his face to hide the pain in his leg before speaking loudly over the sound of the coming sandstorm: "Could you use a hand?"

"Don't die.", the boy said before Steiner could react to the events that were unfurling in front of his very eyes. Only moments ago had he risked his livelihood to save this boy and now the boy was off on his own, heading into something that Steiner had wanted to avoid in the first place. The sandstorm. More than likely the boy wasn't very well versed in the goings on of what the wastelands had to offer, but sandstorms were not the best place to be hiding. Especially in an area that was inhabited by constantly hungry creatures like Hollows. Well for a man like Steiner, powerless, and absolutely at the whim of the threats around him, going inside of a sandstorm was definitely not something he wanted to do even on a good day. He couldn't sense energies like people with powers could, he used to be able to do something like that, but now it was near impossible. Add on to the fact that visibility inside of a sandstorm would be next to nil and one could understand why it wasn't tactically not the best strategy in the world.

However, the grunting of the giant rhinoceros hollow made Steiner realize a lot of things in rather quick succession. For starters he wasn't armed with the right weaponry to take on something like this and even if he was armed to the teeth, if the creature got close. Well lets just say he was a dead man. Secondly, Steiner had hurt his leg worse than he had thought, and a quick visual run down would confirm that more than likely it was more than just cuts and bruises. If not for the adrenaline pumping in his veins induced from smashing the company van into a hollow and diving out of the van like a wild man, he would probably be able to tell what the bigger problem was. And lastly, but not least in the slightest, the boy had already disappeared into the unknown, and the creature wasn't going to wait for him to have an internal monologue about how this was a bad idea or allow him the gracious time to weigh his options for proper value.

"Well...shit...", Steiner swore as he rushed into the sandstorm, the sound of heavy hooves crunching stone and sand alike following behind him. Inside of the storm, visibility was out of the question, and worse the sand brought up from the storm caused his eyes to squint in pain and agony. Tears streaming down his face and the sound of howling winds reduced his only trust worthy senses down to nothing. He was running blind. Worse of all was the fact that the sounds of the hooves, which had been steadily gaining on him, were now mute, and silent. He had no idea if the beast was in front of him, to his side, or behind him and as such he just kept moving not wanting to risk being gored from out of no where at a moment's notice. Occasionally he would be hit by a large stone swung by the winds of the storm, either causing cuts or bruises, Steiner couldn't tell due to the lack of vision and the threat to his life around him.

In both hands he held his only salvation, a bat and a crowbar, which he had grabbed from the van before his expedient dive to the sands of the wasteland. The bat when held slightly above Steiner's face provided him with just enough deterrent to the sand to make out slight shapes of large rocks in his general vicinity. The crowbar, as useless as it was at this moment, was the only weapon he had to provide himself any form of protection. He could use it as a harpoon or stab out like a rapier, it had been a while since he had practiced his fencing, and he just hoped his rust didn't show right as he was about to take on any potential creatures lurking around him. For a brief second there was a lull in sound and in that brief second, Steiner heard a rather large crunch of something massive mere yards behind him. A normal man would have froze in fear, but Steiner wasn't normal, instead he decided to make a wild dash to his right, and not a moment too soon as a giant shape took off into the dark brown hued terrain around him. A loud crash echoing out over the returned howling winds around him, a rather nasty roar accompanied it.

This was the hollow's element, it had the advantage in this terrain, and no matter how many times Steiner had trained in this environment, he still didn't have home court advantage. Not yet, anyway. There were ways for Steiner to take advantage of all this terrain, but he couldn't do it without properly seeing or hearing his foe. So for now it was better to hole up and wait for the storm to pass, but even in that vein more than likely it wasn't the right play to go hide somewhere. He had no idea if the hollow could sense energies and more than that, the boy was still out there. Powered or not, he was vulnerable to the creature, and he knew that even though the storm was there it wouldn't last forever. Grunting in a combination of pain and concern as he tried his best to scout the storm for the boy he had seen earlier, Steiner began to trudge forward cautiously.

His concern was easily outweighing his cautious and tactical natures, but as soon as he took a few steps forward he was met with the triumphant roar of a hollow charging at him. Steiner had barely any time to react as he rolled to the left, wincing as his left leg decided to take the brunt of the roll, and as Steiner got back to his feet he realized that his bat was now missing. Silently cursing himself, Steiner put both hands on his crowbar, and readied for the next assault from his unseen assailant. "Don't die he said....if I'm lucky.", he whispered with an almost whimsical expression on his face.

For a moment, Steiner had been at the mercy of a charging Hollow, and as he looked upon the face of the beast he didn't blink. He stood there, not paralyzed in fear, but readying himself for some kind of counter attack of his own. It was true he was at a massive disadvantage in the blowing winds of the savage sandstorm and that he couldn't see more than a faint shape of the beast charging, but Steiner was trained. He had trained his whole life, he had worked non-stop to be in peek physical condition, and the beast charging at him would probably soon learn, Steiner wasn't going to be a damn meal for some buzzards. No, Steiner was going to kill this Hollow, like the many other Hollows he had killed before, mind you he had been better equipped, and had better visual of the threat during those instances, but Steiner wasn't going to let that stop him. He was not going to die there.

So like many times before, Steiner took stance, it was a basic stance, but the way that it looked for those that could see in this sort of storm, you could tell that this stance was tight. There were no openings in this stance, hence why Steiner was using it now, and also why he would be able to take the beast down a peg or two if drew any closer. That was until he heard someone dash by him, the boy by the looks of the feint image he had caught as he had rushed by, and for a second Steiner wondered what was going on. That was until the boy took flight, leap frogging into the sky, and then coming down with massive force on to the hollow. A splatter of blood hit the "pale man's" work uniform and probably stained it on a permanent level. Steiner's eyes were wide, not because he didn't believe people could do this sort of thing in this day and era, but because he had crashed his van into this very same Hollow earlier to save the boy, only to find he had the ability to do things like this.

With the greatest of ease this kid had taken down a massive hollow, not only with ease, but with a single punch! Steiner knew the creature wasn't dead, but he also knew that it had taken quite a bit of damage, and by the appearance of the kid he had created an opening in its' thick hide. Perhaps his crowbar would come in handy after all. He cringed at the kids' over-enthusiasm to their predicament, but he bit his tongue, and instead began to focus on the words that he had spoken. For a few moments, Steiner began to evaluate their situation, his strength was going to be put on display in that moment, and without much thought he began to itch the left side of his face. It was a habit that just wouldn't go away when he would enter into a deep train of thought. He already knew the boy had powers and he had displayed a few for him only moments ago. Maybe he could use those powers to open up an opportunity for a killing blow? The boy's punch had done damage, but it hadn't caused serious enough damage to end the creature, however the boy's pitfall creation had created a window for them earlier to escape. Maybe that same technique was their salvation?

The wind howled, reminding Steiner he was not alone in that sandstorm, and he looked over to the pink haired boy before stating his name. "Steiner is my name and I think I have a plan, but we need to get the hollow into a position where he can be visible enough for me to lash out at him. That might require more running, but I don't think that will be a problem.", Steiner shouted over the howling winds, knowing that he could easily outrun the beast if he just decided which direction he was going. "You injured it, that should slow it down just enough for us to get out of the cover of the sandstorm. Can you repeat what you did when we ran into the sandstorm? You know, make a pitfall? If you can do that we can knock it off balance just long enough for me and the crowbar to do the rest. I, unlike you however, have to see my target as I can't sense these sort of things...not anymore at least.", Steiner said as quiet as he could, but loud enough to be heard in the sandstorm from their distance between each other.

If he had powers, Steiner might have been able to finish the beast now, but without them, Steiner was practically blind, and up a creak without a paddle. He could finish the thing off, but without being able to see it, and without being at a position of advantage that wasn't likely to happen. Right now, Steiner was putting all his faith in this boy to do what needed to be done. It was true that he had just met Saisei, but they weren't so different in many ways, and he hoped that the he and Saisei could get on the same page for a few moments to down this thing, and get the hell out of there. "So...are you down with that or should we keep fighting with one arm tied behind our back?", Steiner said with a grin on his face.

He was told to give the boy fifteen seconds, but Steiner Franz had never expected the boy to clear such distances in a matter of seconds like he had. He chuckled a bit, realizing that those with powers had the upper hand regardless, but Steiner wasn't going to be beaten. The moment that the Hollow had started to dash off, Steiner was moving as quickly as he could, and that wasn't very quick due to the nature of the terrain, yet it was quick enough. He kept jumping over medium sized rocks, mostly using momentum to do so, and though visibility was low, he had semi-mapped his way back out of the storm subconsciously. Such was tactics. After clearing most of the medium sized rocks left over from who knows what, Steiner had made it toward what looked like a huge boulder. The perfect height for what he had planned to do, it was just long enough on top to get a running start after all, and it would be perfect for leaping off to add more momentum to his blow. He watched as the Hollow breached the sandstorm next to him, though Saisei didn't seem to notice that Steiner was already in position, and ready to go.

How had Steiner beaten the Hollow here, he chalked it up to the injury slowing the beast down, but he hadn't realized that one of his eye's irises had faded to purple. He began climbing the boulder, somehow finding it to be much easier than he had originally thought it would be, and as he reached the top he heard the call. Saisei used his power again, creating a massive hole in the ground, and causing the Hollow to fall down with a satisfying splat noise that made Steiner smile for cheek to cheek. He took a deep breath and then walked to the edge of the rock the opposite side of where the Hollow had been located. He paused, hearing the sound of the Hollow groaning, and knowing he only had one shot at this. He clutched the crowbar tightly and took a deep breath. What he was about to do was risky, but it was the only plan that Steiner had to be of any help to the boy, and he wasn't going to back out of his own plan. So Steiner got his running start, dashing across the rock with grace and poise, leaping off of it into the afternoon sky. "Take a good look, Hollow!", Steiner shouted as he descended down upon the Hollow, who began to look up at Steiner, terror filling its' eyes.

"This is your end!", Steiner once again shouted as he impaled the Hollow directly into its open wound, the creature howled in pain as the combined weight of Steiner and the fall impaled it. Steiner kept pressing into it with all his might, more black blood splattering all over Steiner's work uniform making it practically unwearable. Finally with a sickening squelch the body of the hollow went limp as a giant geyser of blood from a now impaled primary artery exploded on Steiner. It covered his face and body, but Steiner didn't care, the only thing Steiner cared about was that there was one less major evil left in the world for him to vanquish. He slid off the Hollow's corpse as it began to disintegrate, as most dead Hollow beasts did upon death, and then turned to look at Saisei. His once purple iris now returned to the aqua color that had once been there.

"Good work, kid. Couldn't have killed it without you.", he said as he patted Saisei on the shoulder leaving behind a black bloody hand print. He staggered forward, feeling impossibly woozy for no apparent reason, and fell to one knee before going into a coughing fit. In truth he shouldn't have been winded from all the running, but as he covered his mouth wheezing as he was, he pulled his hand back, and looked down in shock. Blood, lots of it. For a moment he had thought that he was a normal person, but now the realization had kicked in. He was damaged and his body was giving out on him, more than likely after all that had happened he had agitated his condition in some way. He looked back at Saisei, wiping his face of his own blood with the same hand with blood in it, and then wiping it off on the sand. He stood back up and turned around grinning, putting on a brave face as to hide his condition, and trying his best to not look too concerned over his little episode. "I'm fine...must have been the dust.", he said calmly as he looked toward his destroyed van, and began to remember the predicament he was in.

His boss was going to kill him and more than likely he was going to be fired, but then again maybe not. After all there weren't many couriers in the business who were willing to come out into the wastes and the LSS needed people like him to deal with that sort of thing. Besides, it wasn't like he had caused them any problems before, and maybe if he explained the situation they would give him some lee-way. "Lets get you home?", Steiner said as he turned his eyes back to the boy again, his smile still played out on his face, and hopefully not faltering from his exhaustion and worry.

It didn't take long for Steiner to realize that the boy he had saved realized that his momentary coughing fit wasn't because of some sandstorm in a wasteland. As Saisei had thought he was no idiot, Steiner himself was definitely not one ether, and Steiner put his hands into the pockets of his now covered in hollow blood and muddied sanded pockets. "Alright...it wasn't the sandstorm. I'm not well....don't even know why I'm telling you this because it isn't going to make a lick of difference and I don't want to concern you.", Steiner spoke truthfully as he walked next to the boy for a momentary second. He didn't want anyone to worry about him, but more importantly he didn't want to bring his problems on to any one else, but himself. He was a man that believed that his problems were his own and he was struggling exceptionally hard with his problem as of late. That was because Steiner didn't want to call it quits, he kept jumping into these situations where he had to save someone, or fighting off a monster that none of the other "heroes" were around to do battle with. Steiner just couldn't stop himself.

And as much as it helped the people he was saving, it also made him feel good inside to save them. It almost made up for all the times that he had been abused and broken by the people who were suppose to protect, feed, and love him. Almost. Steiner still felt the pain of those days regardless of how much he tried to drowned them out with good deeds and heroic acts and now he was experiencing a new kind of pain. This pain wasn't one that he could simply wash away with a quick swab of pain pills and a bottle of the finest spirits, this pain was on a much more astronomical level and it was going to kill him. There were no buts about it, his death was certain, and the doctors kept telling him that he if kept on putting himself into fights that expiration date would approach even quicker. Steiner didn't care about that though, he was too hooked on the heroism drug, and too far absorbed in helping other people out to care about his own well being. He was going to die, but at least he was going to die doing something he wanted to do instead of dying in some bed in the middle of a hospital.

"I'm dy...", right as the words began to come out of his mouth the boy began to speak to himself, much to the confusion of the young hero. He watched for a second, only to have the boy lift off the ground a good few inches, and then fall back right on to his rear end. Steiner stifled a laugh, thinking that maybe the boy was trying to cheer him up after what he had said earlier, and completely forgetting about what he had nearly uttered a few seconds ago. The boy yelled out in protest, standing up quickly, and in the process snapping Steiner out of his whimsical state. They were still in the wastelands and loud noises could attract more threats. For a moment, Steiner had been just a young man hanging out in the desert, but now Steiner's mind was sharp, and his senses were on high alert for the sound of crunching feet on sand or the bellow of a Hollow. Clutching his bloodied crowbar, Steiner began to look around for any sign of movement on the horizon.

That was when the boy asked him a weird question and he willingly handed over a weird look in exchange for the weird question. "See who exactly?", Steiner spoke lowly as to maintain his awareness of the surrounding area as the both of them continued their walk toward the complex. For a few short minutes everything seemed to be right in the world, save for the freaky line of questioning from Saisei, and Steiner just couldn't wait to get back and take a shower. He also began to visibly imagine what it would be like to explain to his boss what had happened and talk about how he had killed a Hollow with a crowbar. It probably would be frowned upon and even more so he would probably be paying for a new van and that was something that Steiner just didn't have the cash to afford. That is when something odd struck Steiner as they neared the facility. The facility was vast and was quite possibly going to be the site for a new village outside of the safeties of Karakura or any other well known faction that was looking to defend its best interest. Yet, Steiner spotted not a single worker, nor any foremen walking around, or any security.

In a single moment, Steiner had let his guard down, and felt at ease. In that single moment, he had walked into what he could only assume was a ghost town of a construction site, and now everything that he had thought about going home was shattered in a millisecond. A loud bellow, the bellow of something much too big to be any sort of heavy industrial equipment filled the young heroes ears, and for a moment deafened him. It was then that the beast revealed itself, as if it had been sleeping on the ground, and now was lifting itself up from its slumber. Steiner had only heard of Hollows this big, he had never personally dealt with one of this enormous size, and now as his eyes gazed upon it, he realized how ill prepared he was. He was but a man fighting in a world of gods and that revelation made Steiner pause for one second, just one second before he looked to Saisei, and yelled out: "RUN FOR COVER!"