Issue #2

Ollie rubs at her eyes, not even registering the knocking sound until it comes a second time. She frowns; it was never a good sign when someone came to her sanctuary. She could ask P.I.L.O.T. to check who was outside for her, but she didn't want to interrupt him in an important part of analysis, if he was still busy with that.

Rising to her feet, still in a state of being half in casual clothing and half in her superhero outfit, she makes her way to the door. With a quick button press, and a satisfying ksssshhhhh sound, the door slides open.

Rama wakes to his alarm. He pops on his waterproof ear buds and cracks up Black Parade by My Chemical Romance way too loud. Shower, brush stuff, clean stuff, pretend like he needs to shave. Lastly, a delicate line of mascara to giver his eyes that gothy look.

In the kitchen, he dips a banana into hummus, and wraps in in naan. He had timed it to avoid his parents routine. Too many questions, too many expectations.

Sitting in the bus bench, he had switched to Adele, since nobody is nearby. An old lady walking her fat schnauser gets close, so her thumbs the mix over to 50 Cent, and cranks it. She hurries her shuffle.

Mondays in suburbia.

Grabbing her phone to check the time, Procyon sees that she has slept in...again. She also notices the missed calls icon blinking, and when she presses it she sees a long list with a single word repeated: "Rigel". She pulls her hair back in a pony-tail and pulls on some clothes with her typical morning litany, "Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit. Where is my...right, got it...crap I can't find...oh, there it is..." She grabs an oatmeal bar on her way out the door as she dials her mentor. When she hears him answer she begins, "Ok, so don't be mad..."

Konrad smiles and waves at the hovercraft as it leaves. He looks around at the nearly empty waterfront and shrugs. Alone again. "Hmmph," he grunts, and delights in the sound. "Hmmmmmahhhhmmmphhh." He stops suddenly, as he notices the annoyed and confused glare of a nearby fisherman. He smiles awkwardly at the man, turns toward the water, and starts to twiddle his thumbs vigorously.

After a couple moments he pulls out his cell phone and sends a message to Void Fist. "Greetings, friend. How are your feelings today?" He smiles proudly after hitting send.

Originally relieved to see that it was only Luke, Ollie was quickly reminded of how it was never good when someone came to see her at the sanctuary. Her eyes narrow a bit at the mention of trouble. "Yeah, come in." she says with a sigh, stepping to the side and shutting the door behind him. "Who's pissed? I was trying to do you guys a favor." She explains, looking around to see where her floating A.I. was.

Mimic fidgets slightly and pokes at the opposite hole. "I'm not wholly familiar with the structure of my, for lack of a better term, skull. But it would make sense that when I was built they wanted to keep the meaty parts of me from excessive trauma."

Ollie furrows her brow, "Well, it's out of the city while it's here, and it's not like we're obligated to tell Rigel everything." She groans, "Look, let P.I.L.O.T. finish up here, so that his time isn't wasted, and then I'll drop it off on Rigel's doorstep, if he wants." Not being so sure that this would fly with Luke, Ollie concentrates on subtly forming a barrier around the device so that the speedster couldn't pull it out from beneath her notice.

Mondays. Officially the worst day of the week. Weekend was over, and 5 horribly boring days of school ahead. It was an effort dragging herself out of bed, but Emma had mastered the art of 5-minute showers, snagging a waffle from the toaster and eating it without any butter or syrup as she ran out the door with her hair done up in a messy bun.

Now she was half-asleep on the morning school bus as it did its rounds, her bag on her lap. The girl had her phone out and was tapping out a text to Omen.

[Text] Any luck with that thingy?
[Text] Is it a doomsday device? Please say its not a doomsday device

Procyon is silent a moment as she struggles to control her temper. "Omen is not a threat to the planet," she intones flatly. "She's part of my team." She sighs and says, "Hang on a sec," as she switches to her helmet Bluetooth and pulls it on, stowing her phone in her jacket. She takes on a more conciliatory tone as she continues, "I'm sorry I didn't bring it right to you. I know that was breaking protocol. I was just...excited that we were working together for once." The roar of her motorcycle is heard dimly over the connection as she pulls into traffic, headed toward the university.

I'm sitting on the bus on the way to school, reading though my notes from last week and like 20 sticky notes in my Global Studies textbook that I meant to reference last night but completely forgot about when I passed out after 11pm. Stupid, stupid. At least I remembered to program the coffee maker. This cup is gonna get me through 5th period at least. I take a sip from my thermos before a bump in the road causes me to spill a good 1/3 of it onto my lap. ARGH so embarrassing! What are the chances no one will notice?

Void Fist's eyes flash open and he sits upright and looks around. The cool feeling of polished hard wood on his hands and the faint smell of incense fills his nose. A plume of smoke floods his senses as it's blown into his faith.

"Still pitiful as always..." the comment comes from above him with a clucking sound of a tongue before they puff on the pipe in their hand. Void Fist waves the smoke out of his face and coughs, "What do you expect you've been doing this longer than I have... Even your pipe's older than me!!!" he states trying to defend himself.

"That's a load and why you're pitiful! Innovation and enthusiasm of youth matches wisdom and experience of those older equally, you must learn, adapt, still techniques, and evolve or you will die and with it the clan dies!" the man stated tapping out his pipe on Void Fist who seemed to be lacking and complaining.

"Gah, Grandpa!" Void Fist exclaimed swatting the embers off him and rolling away.

Looking at his watch Void Fist's eyes got large rapidly, "It's this late already and you didn't wake me up!"

"But my cute little grandson was talking in his sleep, 'Aaah Grandpa! You're too strong and powerful, have mercy I'm so weak and you're so cool.'" the man teased his voice going high pitched before laughing, "Desperation is the best teacher Grandson. It will possibly motivate you do new levels of awareness." he reminded his grandson who was already stripping and headed to the shower.

A few minutes later Void Fist found himself rushing to latch onto the side of a delivery truck since he was too late to go to a bus stop he opted to latch onto something in traffic going the direction he needed to go before scurrying to the top of the truck. For a few minutes Void Fist stretched his neck upright letting the wind flow through his unkempt mess of hair. At least he was saving time trying his hair. Noticing the truck was moving off his path to school he opted to jump to another vehicle.

Around the corner from the school he pulled out his phone and adjusted his hair using a clip before pulling glasses out of a case and donning them. Eventually he found himself walking up and into the school proper through the gates. He sanctuary where the PE classes were normal, the food wasn't just fish and rice and smoking was only in specific areas. He sighed slightly happy that he didn't have to spend the days training his body and spirit but his mind, and that didn't involve current political discussion or games of Mah Jongg with his grandpa.

Konrad kicks a can down the street, lost in his own thoughts, until the cacophonous sound of a nearby clock tower wakes him from his reverie. "Ah crud! School! I forgot!" Konrad takes off at a brisk pace in the direction of the school, but stops suddenly in an alleyway. "Wait a minute, what am I thinking? I can fly."

He makes a serious, focused face before lifting slowing off of the ground. "Alright, here we go." Konrad bumps his head on a lamp post and recoils in agony before slowly and clumsily making his way through the air toward the school.

She opens her mouth to reply to Luke before she's distracted by her phone vibrating in her pocket. Ollie takes her phone out and can't help but smile. "One second," she mumbles the Luke as she taps away at the keys in a text to Emma:

Dunno yet. Rigel and Luke are trying to take it back now.

She slips her phone back into her pocket and looks back at her visitor, "School?" She quirks a brow, "Yeah, well.. don't tattle on me." After a moment, she huffs, "So what does it do, anyhow? Whose is it?"

Void Fist creeps into his class thankful for a chance for years of training sneaking around he blends into the background easily as not someone exceptional and becomes one with the background noise of the room. He reviews his notes and checks his calendar for any upcoming tests today.

You've been here the whole time, nothing to see here... he thinks to himself.

Konrad wildly swipes bird feathers off of his mismatched clothes, and makes his way through the sterile hallways of the high school. He nods politely at fellow students passing by, most of which do not reciprocate. Finally he makes his way into a classroom and looks for an empty seat. Preferably one next to a non-threatening individual.