Mad World (Wic-Kid)

Understandably so Lucas had been watched rather carefully since the whole getting captured by a cult thing. Every time he went out he seemed to get involved in some crazy comic book plot, so he did see why everyone wanted him to stay put, but that didn't mean he liked it. The Canadian facility was so boring and all  weird and white. At least Sanctuary didn't make his eyes sore. Why did Alpha have to make everything so damn bland? Even him, Mister Introvert, who could pick up a book and zone out for hours, eventually wanted the hell out of there. Now was one of those times. Luckily it wasn't so hard to do while everyone was doing some supposedly important business in the area. Something about somebody called Phoenix or whatever. Lucas had never heard of him, but it sounded serious. Regardless, it was an out.

Now all he needed to do was get past the password protected lock, and of course Hector. That was even more difficult then it sounded, but Lucas was resourceful. It was at the point where he was putting his grand escape plan into motion that he realized he should probably figure out something to do once he got out, otherwise it was just as boring as inside. He texted Wic, or so he had taken to calling him since they met.

Lucas: Where are you? Wanna hang out?

After that he slipped the phone in his pocket and continued to walk to the teleportation hub Lucius had set up here awhile back. When he got here he was met with a massive door, and one of the best encrypted locks most would ever see. Along with that a screen with a blinking eye-like sphere of blue light looked down at Lucas as he came into view.

"Hey Hector. Mind opening the door?" Lucas asked, already expecting to get a no so he removed the phone from his pocket, and then literally tore the paniel off to reveal a bunch of wires that he connected to a specal port on said mobile device. The AI looked irritated, even as a glowing eye.

"Lucas....... Sir, you know i can't, even if i wanted to. That lock is not under my control, and the code is known only to Lucius and Alpha." The AI said over the speakers in the hallway. It was true enough, but that wasn't what Lucas was getting at.

"Well, when i say 'mind opening the door' i mean 'could you not stop me', so." Lucas said, numbers running over the screen of the phone. He could never actually break the encryption, but a loophole allowed an infinite number of failed imputs to be put in without repercussions. So all he had to do was run a very fast brute force tool over it to put in as much as possible. Wouldn't take long, he just needed to know all the work wouldn't go to the dogs because Hector.

"I'm afraid i can't do that. I was ordered to keep you here until further notice." The AI stated, interested in the way Lucas was doing his thing but nonetheless not going to disobey orders.

"Well, i didn't want to be mean, but, you leave me no choice. This is Alpha's facility. You aren't uploaded everywhere, just the mainframes and hubs Lucius built, like this one." Lucas said, the door unlocking but the AI putting a new one on manually. He had no clearance in the password Lucas just broke, but he could keep the door closed.

"Lucas...... Lucas no. This equipment is very expensive and, hey! STOP! stop sttooppp stoooltt....." The AI said as he watched the boy pull out a handheld EMP device. Must have snatched it from Lucius' armory. This wouldn't usually do much to Hector in the Scantuary, as he was in everything technology, but here, here he had to have a single vessal he was uploaded into nearby this equipment to be able to run it. When the EMP was discharged the screen went black, and the door opened.

"Hope that doesn't give him like, a cyber headache....." Lucas said to himself as he walked through the door and down the rest of the hall to the teleportation pad. He would step on and await to see where Wic was, then teleport nearby, in a secluded area, before walking to meet up with his friend. They were friends right?

"Hey Wic. What are you up to?" Lucas asked once he saw the young witch. His clothes were simple, dark jeans, converse, a black t-shirt, and a red hoodie over that. Wic-Kid though was probably wearing their usual attire, which stood out like a sore thumb. Regardless, this place was a lot closer to home then Lucas realized. What was Wic-Kid doing im Excalibur City?

The sound of water dripping from the pipes. This place was an incredible waste of space. But this was the only place they'd ever known as home. The tapping of their boots on the flooring as they walked the hallways of the lower levels. Long abandoned after the inmates broke free. The promises of a king to be, one rising above the rest and turning this place to a great defense. The sounds of people moving surrounded them as their heel-boots clicked, they watched from the shadows. Curiosity and fear mixed in the air, other feelings and some hostilities as well. Fortunately in this place, even the least intelligent knew that Wic-Kid's word spelled out their doom. Wic-Kid heard a buzzing noise from within their jacket pocket. The sudden vibration causing several of the onlookers to jerk, jump or try and put more distance between them and the Wicked Witch's beloved child.

Reaching into their leather motorcycle jacket with the green phaux-gems and the words "Mommy's Girl" on the back, Wic-kid pulled out their cellphone, tapping buttons to try and remember their password. Cellular phones were still so foreign to them, they'd never handled one before meeting with the Eldritch and Orpheus.

Hello? Do I do the talking now? Or is this not the talking part? I will just meet you at the city near you father's shenanigans of retribution unfold. The place where the take the four-legged furry things that lick my face? they punched the buttons in, still unsure if every phone call had to start with a text message. These things were so confusing. It made Wic-kid wonder how their mother ever made it in the world before Asylum. Kinda scary isn't it? When the world outside was so damn dark and dreary that you'd rather live in an asylum full of mentally deranged metahumans of their chains.

"Mom...I'm heading out." Wic turned around, a light voice raspy as if they weren't really trying to alert their mother at all. Pivoting on the heel portion of their boot they spun around and they eyes lit up as they stumbled back, the infamous Wicked Witch was standing right in front of him.

"You called darling?" her soothing voice asked. Wic-kid almost jumped out of their skin as their mother's words cut through the silence. There were timed when Wic-Kid forgot their mother was in fact a powerful metahuman. Many called it magic, even Wic-kid believed it to be, but the truth was still lost to the sands of time. How she ended up here, before her precious child, was an enigma.

"O-oh! Hi mommy!" Wic-kid stammered out as they smiled, turning their innocence switch on (as all teenagers did when they were caught). Wic-kid opened up their arms and stepped forward, embracing their mother in a hug. The Wicked Witch chuckled and rolled her eyes, hugging her only child.

"I was a young girl too. Bound by walls much like these. Do you know what my mother said? She said...'Helena. Shut up or I'll skin you alive.' Bless her heart." Wic-kid stifled a chuckle as they let go of the hug, looking to their mother whom held out a little circular plastic container of sorts. "Now. I'm not the saint my mother was, so if you're going out...make sure to hide yourself."

Wic-Kid quickly took the compact and opened it, the top flying open. quickly applying their magic eye shadow to keep the area just above their nose shrouded in an enigmatic darkness. The fact Wic-Kid forgot this was something they were embarrassed about to be honest, but not as embarrassed as they would have been otherwise. Their mother having to remind them is like a mother having to remind you to wear pants in public. Quite a fitting comparison as well.

"O-oh. Thanks....sorry. Was a little excited." they laughed it off lightly. With a sigh the teenaged witch removed their oh-so exaggerated wind-sock tubed witch hat with the bladed brim and twirled it as their long, mid back length brown hair saw it's first air in hours. Holding the hat up and twirling it a little between their index fingers, they held it like a sun and then with a quick movement, began to spin it before quickly jumping back.

The hat spun, and spun and it eventually began to spin so fact that there seemed to be the optical illusion that the hat began to grow. Now come to find out it's not an optical illusion. The interior circle of the hat, which fitted to Wic-kid's head began to widen and tear open, revealing a busy sidewalk. Without any hesitation, the witch charged through, heir boots clicking on the sidewalk before they reached back and took hold of some fabric. With a swift tug the hat seemed to turn inside out as it very quickly returned to it's regular size and fit within it's owner's hands. The smile played on their face as they made a quick whipping motion, the hat and it's overly long wind-sock like funnel returned to their proper place as they set it on their head.

Looking about, Wic-Kid ignored the several eyes focused on them, and ignoring some of the odd comments as they searched for their little friend. Apparently they had arrived at a similar time, Lucas walking up and asking "Hey Wic. What are you up to?"

"Hey Cool. Not much. Have a few things to catch up with here later. How about you? Get that relocating spell-machine thing to send ya?"

Did he just call Lucas cool? Like, not in the 'you're cool' type of way, he literally used it like a name. Apparently that was his response to Wic, but Lucas had no idea what it meant really. He knew his friend was rather quirky though, so he wouldn't make a big deal out of it. That didn't mean he wouldn't ask however.

"Cool.....?" Lucas asked, a slightly confused look on his face as he scratched his head. Whether Wic-Kid answered or not though, he would drop it and move on. Wic asked a question anyway, so it would serve to easily change the subject.

"Yeah, i did. Pretty convenient. Makes ya kinda dizzy though." Lucas said, slightly laughing at what Wic called it. This is why Lucas liked him. His naivety was worse then his, but that wasn't even a bad thing. It was kinda funny in fact. Once again, Lucas had a smile on his face. When he was alone, he generally looked a little depressed and brooding, even though he wasn't, he was just a thinker. But around his type of people, he looked like the happiest kid around.

"You want to do something fun? I've never been here, but anything is better then that boring facility i live in." Lucas said, now remembering he hadn't told Wic much about that. But it didn't matter. He just wanted to hang out and have fun with a friend.

"Y-yeah. You just called me Wic so...so I thought that just dropping the "kid" in the sentence was a thing that we were just suddenly doing now? It's not is it? Nope. Oh...alright. Just uh...never mind me." They softly said before their head turned and they began to looked around, a light awkward hum sliding through as their voice elevated even more in embarrassment. But with the subject dropped Wic took the opportunity to jump on their only avenue out as they brought up Lucas' dizzy problem.

"Uh, I just dropped out of a small cyclone. I know how ya feel." Wic-kid said as they agreed with the fast-paced teleportation had been a bit dizzy. Of course the prospect of fun times just waiting to be had was enough to make the witch contemplate their next course of actions. Considering their current partner in crime was a boy they'd need to accommodate their tastes.

"Uhm...well we could probably look around for a while and maybe see if anything looks interesting?" They asked, not so sure of themselves. Of course there wasn't much Wic-Kid knew about the area, or it's forms of entertainment. "Oh, can you use your cellphone and ask the disembodied voice inside it if there's any places of interest? Mine doesn't have a voice so...they must have forgotten to bind the soul to it before they sent it." This was all said oh so matter of factly and without any hint of sarcasm. The poor witch truly believed that most peoples modern cellphones had souls trapped inside it, enslaved to do nothing but answer idiotic questions all day.

If it had been researched, they would see that Excalibur City actually had a place called "Excalibur" where they had a chronological history of the city, as well as the more famous people to have come from it. It was a form of museum of sorts, though it was right across the street from a movie theater. Not too far from them was an Arcade, and then there was the air-park or "lazer tag". None of these things meant anything to Wic-kid so they would likely agree to absolutely anything thrown out there. Actually, Wic-Kid confused Arcade with Arcadia...so hopefully if Lucas suggested there he was ready to hear an ear full...

Lucas was actually holding back laughter now. Not that he thought Wic-Kid was stupid, he just really thought the words he was saying were humorous. It was probably the most hilarious way anyone had ever described Siri ever. Regardless though, Lucas just kinda smiled at his friends quirky traits and ignored it. It was better then trying to explain to him. Plus Lucas was pretty naive himself.

The suggestion to just look it up was pretty helpful. Lucas didn't even think to do that, yet the witch did. He took out his phone and flipped it open. He never uses Siri, that was outdated and clunky technology. Besides, when you have an AI who needs super expensive yet lame phones? He pulled his out. It was custom or whatever.

"Yeah, i could ask." Lucas said, seemingly playing along. This is why he liked Wic-Kid. Everything seemed so much more magical and mysterious when they were around.

"Hector, what's cool around here?" Lucas asked, not really caring he just kinda messed Hector up earlier.

"Lucas, you should return to the facility." Hector said through the phone. Lucas smiled.

"Why would i do that? I just got away....... And sorry i EMPed you........ Can you please, please tell me what's cool here?" Lucas asked, doing the puppy dog eyes thing with just his voice.

"......Very well. There is a laser tag park, a movie theater, and an arcade near you. Though i would suggest the Excalibur museum. The locations are on your map now." Hector said. Of course his top pick was the museum, always had to be educational and such.

"A museum is no fun. We should go to the arcade. Wic needs to become familiar with video games anyway. Thanks Hector! Bai!" Lucas said. Hector was about to say something but was hung up on. Looks like they were going to play video games.

"So you ever been to an arcade?" Lucas asked after putting his phone away.

Wic-kid looked rather distraught when she heard the word "arcade", though that could be because they heard it wrong. In fact what they heard wasn't Arcade but "Arcadia" which as any self-respecting sorceress would be able to tell you was that it was no bueno. Not to mention that it's probably not a good idea to bring a his young compatriot to meet Nymphs. Wic remembered them quite clearly,, actually the fact they hated females in general was bad enough, their mom actually had to fight the majority of them off. Bringing their little buddy there would likely result in a more permanent adoption to the lands of Pan.

       "Uuuhh...yeah. I've been. I'm not really...comfortable going back. See, mom sorta put quite a few Nymphs in their place and I'm pretty sure Pan hasn't forgotten the fact I tried to ride him like a bull..." Wic-kid said, confessing their hesitation to return to the mythical lands....as well as admitting they had no idea what it was that Lucas had been talking about. It would just take a quick clarification and a bit of a redrective thought to get Wic-kid interested.

  "Video games? Oh...those are okay I think." Wic offered up, conceding that they had the whole thing wrong and being left rather embarrassed. She was a few years older. obviously should of had a better grasps on things than Lucas. Without much need for prompt, Wic followed Lucas to see where exactly they were off to. Hopefully this really wasn't a strange version of Arcadia...

Lucas was understandably confused about the whole thing. He wasn't really catching on to what Wic-Kid was saying. Pan? Was he talking like, Peter Pan? A cast iron skillet type pan? Who knew? Lucas did a semi face palm and started laughing. Again, it wasn't really at Wic. He really thought Wic-Kid was just pulling an act most of the time, like a stand up comedian. Regardless, the boy was a good sport. He would play along.

"What? ......I'm not sure what you mean. An arcade is just a place with a bunch of video games." Lucas explained. It seemed Wic-Kid understood to a degree after that, or at least dropped the act. Now they could run along to the arcade. He wondered if there were actually good games there. The cool ones seemed to kinda leave in the 80s, now all you found usually was some diving game that was horribly unrealistic. But he supposed they would just have to wait and see.

They would walk, making a little small talk likely, and eventually get to this arcade. It turned out to be a lot better then he expected. Classic games and all new ones he had never seen before. As soon as he saw it he bolted in and searched for the change machine. There seemed to be an entire row of them actually, so he got twenty dollars worth of tokens and would walk up to Wic-Kid and give him a handful.

"Look! They have the old Mario games. Wanna play two player? I don't like playing that game alone because then i have to play as Mario and not Luigi." Lucas said. He didn't know if Wic-Kid really knew what he was saying, but he would likely be grabbed by the hand and pulled toward the Mario machine anyway. Lucas tossed a couple tokens in and backed away.

"You first. Just move with that and jump with that. And don't touch the bad guys." Lucas said, giving the worlds shortest crash course in Mario.

"Luigi? Uh...I dunno what that is, but it sounds like it's something I'd find in the haunted manse." Wic-kid said, though what was said was in irony, they themselves had no clue that such a thing existed. Wic-kid ended up standing at the arcade game and playing a little bit.

   Lucas got to be Luigi, which seemed to make him happy enough. Wic was their cheery old self as they played a shorter, and fatter Italian plumber with a hell-bent desire to murder the turtles. He wasn't entirely sure what happened in this game that made this "Mario" guy so genocidal. Seriously, in the beginning of the game the text outright tells you that the mushroom people were turned into blocks....now Mario just comes up and hit blocks to make money. He's literally robbing the helpless citizens of the toad kingdom in order to pay for his George W. Bush level of War on Turtle. Then Wic found their hands tapping their chin as they began to contemplate the existence of these small moving little things that looked like the poop emoji. They looked like the poop emoji with a face on it that made it look like it ate poop. What were these guy's deal? Were they actually the denizens of the kingdom? The world overall just confused the poor witch.

  "Okay. Treat everyone like the Psychs." They chimed in as they began to make their attempt at playing Mario. Of course it wasn't long before they had started into what would be a very strange adventure in the mario world, with Luigi actually doing things and Mario just jumping over things and failing to contribute in any way; a display of Wic's loyalty to doing as they were simply told. But hopefully Lucas could help himself there...

Wic wasn't very good at Mario. That fact was displayed as they looked at the screen in confusion, seemingly wondering just what the hell it all meant. Mario didn't exactly die, but he wasn't helping either. Whatever, the game was meant to be played by one person anyway. Lucas was happy enough playing as the younger, yet somehow taller brother.

Eventually they would fail to save Princess Peach, because let's be honest, who ever finished a game of Mario? No one, that's who. Lucas would step away from the machine, content with the game it seemed.

"I've never gotten that far before......... That was fun. Let's get pizza." Lucas said, quickly just sort of walking off and expecting Wic to follow. He was a little jumpy or perhaps impulsive with his actions—maybe it was the amount of caffeine he drank. Regardless though, he was at the food counter in moments.

"One large cheese with black olives." He said, then started swiping the card he pulled from his velcro wallet. He did it about ten times before the cashier actually reacted and took the payment.

"Ok.... ok, you can stop that now....... It'll be out in ten." The cashier said, nice enough. Lucas then made his way to one of the food court tables and sat down, hoping Wic would do so as well.

"Do you like olives on your pizza? Because i got olives on the pizza." Lucas said. Asking probably made no difference, because he had already got the topping in question, but he wanted to know for whatever reason.

"Uh, I dunno. What're olives? Anything like Olivers? Because we got an Oliver in the Aaaaah...ah home. I don't think he wants eaten." Wic said as they began to scan over the area. They were rather relaxed and at ease it would seem as they began to look about in attempts to try and find something. Though they didn't manage to find anything of use to them at that moment. Wic streatched a little as they lounged back, their head moving left to right a little as they let the tip of their long salked hat barely slide across the surface of the floor.

"Soooo, how do you feel with the stuff and the things about your power?" The concern in their voice was real, but their attention was divided amongst their question and their invisible drawing they had been making with their hat's pointed end. As soon as Lucas began talking, however, they immediately stopped tracing and looked at him, though their eyes were concealed by the eerie shadows that always lingered. They tilted their head a moment before letting out a small hum, listening as Lucas spoke, interested on what he had felt....because that sort of depended on where Wic wanted to take the conversartion next.

Lucas inhaled a slice of his cheesy treat after sitting down at one of the tables, and he already had another in his hand before Wic started talking.

His friend was rambling about somebody named Oliver, presumably because they had been asked about olives. Lucas didn't take them seriously though. Wic was just a funny person to him—not somebody who actually confused olives with Uncle Oliver. They were similar sounding though, he had to admit.

Then the elephant in the room was addressed, and Lucas choked. He was hoping that wouldn't be brought up, but after the situation in the pocket dimension who could really ignore it? He put down his pizza as a saddened expression formed on his face.

"I don't....... I don't really wanna talk about that Wic. I'm fine now—it's better. It's only there when i think about it....... So i don't want to think about it." Lucas said. He then picked his pizza back up and continued eating. He seemed to not have a care in the world even though just a moment ago he looked upset. It was like the flip of a switch.

"How do you feel about your powers and stuff? Is it really magic? Did your dad give it to you?" Lucas said with a full mouth and a half smile. He was being completely serious about the last part. He tended to think most superhumans got their powers from parents doing some mojo on their kids.

Wic could respect the fact that their little comrade didn't want to talk about their powers. That being said it's mostly because of the pain it caused them. it inherently made Wic regret even saying something about it. "Oh, sorry! I didn't realize. Sorry." They said quietly as they sheepishly sunk back into their chair a little, almost as if trying to hide themelves within it. They began to nibble at the pizza some as Lucas proceeded to ask them about their own powers and if they had somehow inherited them from their father. Wic immediately grew solmn, but thankfully their little friend wouldn't notice their melencholy due to the eyeshadow. The taste of the pizza was great and there were very little complaints on that front. The olives were totally out of the question though. Wic would have begun to pick them off, but they were certain that it would ppear rude. Would it? They didn't know...

They didn't know anything...

"I...don't have any powers..." Wic-kid admitted with a little sneeze, quickly pulling up the napkin and covering their mouth a little. After they finish with their sneeze the napkin is placed on their lap and they cleared their throat awkwardly before taking a sip of their drink. "I don't think my dad was a metahuman at all.... my mom is a witch though. Never got to...ya know... meet him."