Another Crack in the Sidewalk

A bit of concern turned to wit in the moment the words "my power" came up.

It WAS going to be a special party for special people, and Wally SUPPOSEDLY was inviting almost every super in town. And "Skyler", as she referred to herself, was relatively cute, and seeing as she and Jubilee had the same issue with "baaaaaw, my power hurts me and it sucks to have it and everyone is an asshole because my power makes me kill them".

His head tilted and he began to float towards her. Not that his previous concern or sympathy had faded- his ego did not allow for that. But his good humor returned in force.

"Well, alright, good to see you're okay, then," he replied. He allowed a second or two to pass for effect.

"Say, Skyler, two things, one, can I call you Sky, two, might I interest you in a gathering we're having tomorrow night?"

He handed Skyler a small flyer.

"There's a very special invitation. I didn't have one especially for you, but I can always print out more for the others. You seem to be the type that needs a good opportunity to cool down, to relax in good company, and I herence offer that to you."

He backed away slowly, bowing.

"I must fly, but, please, do humor us tomorrow night. It wouldn't be the same without you, and I do greatly desire to know more about you."

John's mind clicked at invitation. There was going to be some sort of party, and it sounded like it was for everyone with powers. Perhaps John could get in on it?
"A party?" He asked casually, looking at Wally, but then back at Skyler.
"You know...I think I've seen you around before. I'm John." He said, then turned away to look at a few buildings. He kept his ears open to the conversation, after all this was the first time he'd heard of this gathering.

Years of being a downright coward was paying off well for Victor really. His ears can pick up a sound easily from a few feet away and effortlessly tell what it was. Unbeknownst for whoever was just walked up he/she wasn't very sneaky.

"Cuse' me fo' a sec, lass" These words left his mouth as he darted around with his hand glowing a bright green and he said to who ever was trying to listen in and said In a very annoyed tone ((to Lexy)) "Come awn out, ye ain't da sneak ye think you are" He was getting irritated, he just wanted to practice then the black blob scares the piss out of him, then this tom boy comes in basically flashing in his face that she was responsible for scaring him and then this bugger appears out of no where and spies on them, he really hoped that he didn't have to fight any of them right now when he only had enough Kinetic energy to make a tiny needle.



-----------------------------------------

Lash was walking down the street with her hands in her pocket. This is usually the way to her solitary house in the woods, which was nice for her since she wasn't big on 'neighbors'.
Something caught her eye though, she spotted Wally fly off. She was focused on his departure until he was out of sight. Then she directed her attention on where he was leaving from. It was a girl weeping and a boy, she truly didn't know either of them. She was generally avoided and she was kicked out of school so she's not too much of a people person at the moment.
But she thought that they were being given VIP invitations, if they were given invitations then she wondered if the standards to be VIP were low or that she and Victor were given VIP at random.
Either way she wasn't in the mood to approach them and ask. Maybe she'll just ogle them for a few minutes and move on. She leaned up against a tree and crossed her arms and stared at them with a somewhat angry face.

Skyler accepted the flyer and nodded, “Yeah, you can call me Sky, and sure, a party would be… nice.”

Wally seemed amiable and easy to get along with; maybe getting to know more people like him would be good. It might make Rex less antsy if she had some other powered people who could back her up if things ever got rough. A calmer Rex meant less painful control and that would ultimately make this situation easier for her parents to deal with. They’d been telling her to relax a bit; this party would probably satisfy that need.

Luckily her tears had all dried up and her heart had resumed its normal pace, so she didn’t feel sick anymore. Wally appeared to be leaving, so she said, “I’ll see you there then.” She got to her feet and turned towards the other arrival. Brown hair, brown eyes, simple black clothes… seemed pretty casual. Casual was good, casual kept Rex mostly at ease.

“Well, hello John,” she smiled briefly, maybe today wouldn’t be a complete loss after all, “You might have seen me before; I like to go wandering around town or the woods, it helps me unwind.”

Satisfied with his progress, Wally went back up into the air.

He had forgotten which VIP invite he had given Sky, but his pocket had only one or two left. And besides, the who was arbitrary- the invites had no specific names marked. And considering the general fashion in which invites were passed around, anyone he had missed was most likely in possession of a few anyways.

He stopped to land, at this point sweating, in front of a person on the curb. Alex, of course. The fortune-teller. His invite was quite necessary- his presence would bring much entertainment to the party.

His landing was without much pomp and circumstance- Alex was blind, after all, and it was wordplay that counted for the blind. He did have that odd thing where he could sense you, but Wally figured moving too fast would block it, and he wanted Alex to see the pure charity in his heart by giving out these invitations.

He gave Alex a small pat on the shoulder.

"Afternoon, Alex," he said cheerfully. "Tarot cards there? Intriguing."

"Huh, maybe..." John said, looking over at her. She seemed nice, but nice isn't always what it seems. "You seem familiar, but I can't put my finger on it...must just be either coincedence or deja vu. Probably the latter." He said, scratching the back of his head, then looked away. "So what's up?"

Lexy smiled nervously as she walked inside the beat down deli. She looked around, more in curiosity then in anxiety that the two who spotted her might not like intruders. She tilted her head in confusion as she asked, "So, why are you two in this beat up place, anyway? I mean, isn't it a lot better outside where the sun is then in here?"

Lexy then noticed the guy who had noticed her (Victor) had a glowing hand. She smiled brightly. "Cool! You have a power, too? Awesome! Wait- what exactly is you power? Is it the ability to glow? Make some sourt of glowing acid? Wha is it? It looks so cool!" She then noticed the girl ( Tess) that was also in the deli. "if you two ar hanging out, that must mean you also have a power, right?" The way Lexy was acting was probably comparae to that of a hyperactive squirrel.

Alex smiled-he sensed Wally might not be entirely truthful with the Tarot cards being intriguing, but he appreciated the effort. Or maybe he did...his mind was clouded from weariness and trying to make sense of these damned cards. Either way, it was nice.

"Hello, Wally. Little hobby of mine, sometimes I can see a bit of the future. And even when I can't...it presents endless oppurtunites to mess with people." his voice took a lighthearted, mocking tone. "Ohh....ohhh this is not good. Your future..I can't even say it!" he smiled. "I'm a terrible person. What can I help you with, Wally?"

---

What is this place, a country club for metahuman fuck ups? I thought the boy would at least have the sense to leave this place. Is a more direct notice necessary? Writing on the walls tends to terrify the religious, at least, but these godforsaken fools surely can't even read. Three of them, it seems, and speaking of their gifts so blatantly? Fools...ignorant fools. Outside this isolated little hollow...God help you if your ingrown feet tread outside the city limits. And if the boy seeks any more distant sites for practice, he very well will need it. If things worsen, I shall intervene, and things will not be pretty. Run along. Have your meange a trois or movies or whatever heathen pleasures you desire, but keep your bloodstained fingers off your powers.

“Well, you’d probably remember if you’d seen me before… I kinda stick out a bit; black eyes, red lines, all that wonderful stuff,” she sighed softly, stopping there.

Skyler knew was different; she’d realized that right after she woke up one morning when she was six, looked in the mirror, and saw coal-black eyes staring back at her. She remembered that day with eerie clarity. It was a reoccurring dream for her now, a lucid dream, but everything she forced to relive was true to what happened that day. She could still see her mother standing frozen in the doorway, hand over her mouth and eyes wide, holding in a frightened cry for her young daughter’s sake. Then it all became chaos, thankfully she usually woke up right after the part where her dad rushed home from work at her mother’s frantic phone call.

She shook her head once, best to keep that memory under lock and key. Realizing she’d zoned out for a second, she looked at John, smiling ruefully. “Not much, really. I ran home after school, dropped off some stuff, and left. I went walking in the woods until…” she paused, breaking eye contact, “until I decided to come back to town.”

Hopefully he wouldn’t catch that break in her speech; if he did she’d probably be forced to explain her power to him, which always seemed to be a real conversation-stopper. Might as well try and turn the talk back to him, “What’s up with you?”

"Nothing really, just walking home like I've been forced to do since winter..." He said, pausing to give half a thought to the break, luckily he found the shifty behavior normal with the people he usually dealt with. She didn't need to explain herself to him.

"Had a little...uh, accident with the bus service..." John continued, looking down at the ground then back to her, then on behind her. Electricity zapped between the fingers on his right hand, causing his hair to rise slightly. Oops...I need a better way to hold these batteries... He thought as he looked to his hand ever so slightly, hopefully she wouldn't notice that static charge...

More static zipped through his left arm, and so he turned it away. Blasted...I need to find a place to discharge this static build-up! Just where? It'd be too strange to just up and leave...on top of that; rude. John thought wildly as his heart started to beat faster. If I don't get rid of the build-up it'll be that bus all over again...'cept with out the bus! Now that I think about it that was the last time I discharged...oh no...

He started to talk, and his voice hinted at how nervous he was. "To be honest, I uh...never noticed you as...well, different. Y'know...like apart from anyone else..."

The 'spy' turned out to be a girl, a super talkative girl to be precise. She was pretty cute in Victor's mind, cuter than that tomboy Tess, but the girl was probably more interested in him and his powers than Tess was and Tess was likely jealous of the VIP clearance that he told her about.
"Heheh, eh lass. Ye see, I can control N' absorb Kinetic ena-gee and make construct-ins... along with other tings.."

Short and simple, why take the hours on end to explain every detail of your abilities when you can summarize it in a sentence.

Lexy listened carefully to the guy explain his powers.

"Awesome! Why does everyone seem to get the cool powers? I mean, I like my power and stuff, but I need a item to thrw in order to do it. My power is perfect aim, by the way."

She smiled brightly and turned to face the girl (Tess). "So, what's your power?" Lexy loved talking about powers. Actually, she loved talking, period, but she liked talking about powers the most.

Skyler’s eyes narrowed quizzically when John mentioned being forced to walk since the winter. What exactly had happened to cause that? She vaguely remembered hearing about there being some sort of incident involving a powered kid, but the details were all fuzzy now. Then John began avoiding her eyes, glancing at the ground instead, generally seeming nervous. His hair stood up briefly as a brief static kind of crackling noise was heard.

She didn’t initially realize what that sound meant, as she was more concentrated with what he said next. A slow smile appeared on her face, it was a relief to know that someone didn’t see her as strange, that he might even see her as normal. But Rex wasn’t focused on its host’s happiness, it was more focused the sparks it saw arcing over John’s skin and it didn’t like what it saw one bit. Her eyes got wide as Rex sent a warning wave of pain jolting through her body, forcing a shocked breath from her lips. She stumbled sideways, but quickly righted herself.

“Oh no…” she moaned quietly as she clutched her right elbow with her left hand, knuckles white, “Rex… Rex, stop. It’s okay, he’s a friend!”

Rex, seemingly ignoring her pleas, hit her with a white-hot knife of agony straight to her core. She clutched her middle, gasping for air. Finally, what she said sunk into Rex’s mind and, realizing that it wasn’t really in that much danger, it withdrew. Skyler clenched her eyes shut for a few seconds, silently cursing Rex with every ounce of strength she had. Just once could it allow her to relax! Just once could it let her live her life

After a choked breath and a quick shake to clear her head, she said, “Sorry… sorry about that. Rex, my ‘power,’ freaked out when it saw that electricity on your arm. It… it’s a parasite inside me, it doesn’t like electricity.”

John was worried about her, but the responses she gave made him think she had this happen before. At the mention of power he calmed down more, but he could atleast say what he needed to now.

"No no, I'm sorry...I need to discharge this built up static somewhere." John replied, before more electricity lashed down his back and legs. This time there was quite a few bright flashes, and John immediately stiffened.

"I need to go fast..." He said, his voice quaking a bit from the static coursing through him. He waved goodbye to Sky and ran off down the street, turning the corner to continue on when the electricity tore out of him right then and there. It came out in a spherical pulse of electricity about five feet wide, deactivating the nearby stoplight.

"Oh come on!" He yelled as he tripped and hit the ground.

Woah, what the hell?

One minute she was glaring at Victor, and the next this talkative chick pops up and starts parading them with questions. Tess gave the girl an inquisitive yet hard stare, her clouded eyes making her look perpetually disinterested.

"Perfect aim? That's interesting," Tess commented, looking her over briefly before continuing, "I can make illusions. And copies of myself, if I want." To demonstrate this, Tess conjured up the image of a door where the door used to be by where she was standing. It looked entirely real, and would have tempted anyone to turn its knob to get through it. But that would only result in said person falling through the image. Tess let the door shatter a few seconds later.

"Oh." She seemed to remind herself of Victor's offer. In truth, Tess didn't feel motivated enough to go to the party, let alone with some guy she had just met. But she reconsidered and thought that it would be fun to mess with him. "About your offer...why not? I was kind of planning on going, anyway, so this just makes more sense."

Tess smiled, but there was a sinister gleam in her grey eyes.

Lexy smiled, not noticing Tess's hard stare from earlier. She nodded, "That's awesome!" She paused before continuing, "Well, it's nice to meet you guys. I'm Lexy, b the way." She playfully bowed, feeling silly. It wass always so much fun to play around. Espescially if it gave you attention. Yep, attention is always fun. She always loved attention, but even if some people thought it was weird, she didn't care. It was fun.

Success, in truth it was likely not a date at all. But that never impeded Victor.... -but another thought of what attracted the group put a major dent in his libido. Whatever happened in the kitchen in the deli definitively is still there or in the slim to none chance that it isn't... well it's best that the group leaves when he ain't in no fighting condition. While simply leaving without the two girls alone in there could mean he was going to the party alone, so he thought he'd kill two birds with one stone and says to the pair
"Eh, ya' two are fine things. Bu can da lot of us find some 'ere clean'a... like da park"

He extended his hand to Tess and a smile crawls on to his face and he says "Lass, Tess. Can I have ya' hand for tis walk?"

Lexy smiled as she saw Victor offer his hand to Tess. Awww, how cute. She sniffed the damp air in the deli and scruntched up her nose.

"Ya, I wouldn't mind leaving here. It smells funky and just being in here makes me feel less happy."

Howeever, being less happy wasn't much to say for Lexy. She was overflowing with happiness so if she was less happy, she was still super happy. It's confusing, but it works out if you think of it.

"Oh, so I won't be sleeping with a fine young lady tomorrow?"

Wally put on a mock-crestfallen look, keeping his feet on the ground. Air theatrics would only entertain himself at this point.

"What a damned shame. Speaking of ladies, a good amount of them will be present at a little get-together I'm organizing. Celebration of the end of the year sort of thing. I've been giving out flyers for days, but what I've got here is a ViP invite. You don't have to be able to read it to know what that means."

He pressed the invitation into Alex's palm.

"Here. Just remember where you keep that, alright? And I can always send someone over if it's a bit difficult getting there. But I know you're an independent soul, Alex my boy, and that must have been so condescending of me to suggest that you might need help getting to my home... Ah, nevermind. Forgive and forget, eh?"

Wally gave Alex a playful slap on the cheek.

"So you'll be attending, I hope? Certainly, your presence would add something, and the girls will always go to the blind for... consolation."

Alex managed a chuckle-normally, the blind comments got a little irritating, but Wally was so full of himself and jovial it was hard to feel upset. He was even feel a little more upbeat about the ever-confusing readings he'd gotten.

"Girls going to the blind? As in...plural? Well, I don't need regular eyes to see that looks like a very good invitation, Mr. Wally. Count me in. And feel free to say I predicted you'd get some if it helps at all," he said, standing up off the curb and smiling.

Wally. He looked at the boy's bright, yellow aura, and it flickered for a moment. He was an oversized Tarot, ZERO, the jester the trickster, a carefree wanderer that brought bliss and chaos, confusion and possibility, creativity and innovation. Yes, Wally seemed to fit, a bit of a wild card amongst all the others. The invitation was a more blatant example of this creativity, but even his power seemed to imply it. Rule-breaking. Resetting the boundaries.

"....I'll be there. I must warn you, I have a tendency to win at card games."

"Well," Wally said, "I'll keep that on the down-low. See you then, Alex! I must go!"

He chuckled slightly at the unintentional rhyme, and went up into the sky, flying low, breathing heavily as he arrived home.

God, was he tired. He wasn't even sure if he got everyone, but he at the very least got the party started. Now, he just needed to rest... Was he tired... He didn't even take off his tie as he curled up upon his bed and dozed off.

Tess gave Victor a small, sweet-but-mock smile, and instead of taking the offer of his hand she patted him on the head. "No, but thanks for asking. This place is pretty creepy...I'm just as willing to leave as you are," She said, directing the last bit towards Lexy.

-------------

So much, so much, so much, so much...

Lenore didn't remember outside being so...big. Where would she start? And better yet, now that she had escaped, what would she do? Where should she go? It would have been a good idea to plan all of this out before she had dashed out of the door. The dashing had been fueled by fear and nothing else; there was no determination in her limbs. She had just wanted to get the hell out. But now that she was out...

Lenore zipped up her jacket and pulled her pea coat on over it, despite the warm summer weather. It didn't bother her much, and she felt safer wearing layers. Down in the tunnels it had been dark and cold, the only source of light coming from florescent bulbs. Natural sunlight was something that she wasn't used to. Now the sun blazed above her, and Lenore was tempted to find a tree to hide under.

Well...there was no point in hanging around here, anymore. Hugging herself, her bladed-fingers lightly touching the fabric of her coat, Lenore began walking.

((Waits for timeskip.
The Sporum isn't letting me login. >8L))

((Purge everything.... EVERYTHIIIIIIING By that I mean clear your cookies/temporary internet files))

The next evening (THAT MEANS WE FINALLY TIMESKIPPED BITCHES! YAAAAY!)...

Awakening was never usually something Jubilee looked forward too. Generally, when she was asleep, she could forget the fact that she was what she was, and she could forget the damage that it caused herself and everyone around her, and she could just stop being so pissed off at them all. They got normalcy, at least, something like normalcy- they could go outside without worrying about poisoning everyone and everything.

Wally had invited her to this party. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to go at all.

Jubilee turned in bed and gave a weak cough. Well, he was going to be awfully dissapointed if she didn't pop up, and Wally was the one person who had talked to her for longer then five minutes without either defaulting out or gagging on their own liquified internal organs (not that that happened a whoe bunch, but still). She dragged herself up, and made her way to her parent's room.

How awfully nostalgic of her mother to keep her old prom dress. Maybe it was a bit dressy, but Jubilee's family wasn't really religious, so there wasn't anything else fanciful. It was a light blue one of those poofy, princess-esque things that looked rediculious if you weren't going to a prom. But this was Wally. Wally would want class.

It sagged, not because of it's age, but because Jubilee was so miniscule that the sleeves hung from her bony arms. She sighed, gave a small cough, and snuck down the stairs.

((So basically, prepare/make your way to the party thing. Kay.))

Picking the right thing to wear was hard enough to Victor. Wally liked class and Victor didn't have anything fancy or classy. All he had was generic shirts, pants and gloves. Going through his dresser the randomly threw any clothes on his bed behind him. After he emptied his dresser he scratched his head saying to himself "Eh, don' wanna' look like a eejit me-self when I head ova' dere ta dat' party..." He would look absolutely retarded in the outfit he has on now covered in grime and dust. Looking down at his outfit maybe- "Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictoooooor!" a loud female voice screams down the hall way. The yell spooks Victor as he flinches and directs his attention to the door. Then a woman with a giant curly ginger mane barges through the door... with a smile and a large trash bag with a hangar sticking out of it in one hand. Victor tilts his head to the left and says "Ma?"

The woman was none other than Victor's mother if that wasn't already obvious.
"Top of the morning to ya', Victor. I got words on ya' going to Wally's party tonight, so I pulled something out of the attic for ya'" she hands Victor the bag and he looks around and makes a kinetic knife and gently cuts the bag starting from the top to bottom, hoping not to damage the contents. When he made that final incision the bag fell from around the hangar to reveal a fancy white and red suit with a red tie and white gloves. The second he saw this he was ecstatic saying "Ma! Ya' the best... howya get dis'? His mother simply smiles and picks up the bag from the floor and says to him "Well, I had it for ages now. Just for occasions like this. Good ting' you never grow too much" she patted him on the head and turns around to the door and says to him as she leaves "Well, are ya' going to get in it or you gonna look at it?" then she walks out the door to wait for him to get finish getting into the suit.

--- One suit dress up scene later ----

Victor was in the white and red suit and looking dashing. He had on white dress shoes and his Kangol hat, unfortunately his mother snatches the hat from off of his hat and says "Ya' look better without it"
Victor doesn't object with his own mother and simply nods and walks out the door to his room. His mother calls to him saying "Victor, have fun" he stops nods again and runs out the door to the party.