A New Union

Today was a day like any other on the streets of New York. Well, if you ignored the fact that New York was still victim to lots of criminal activity, both of the mundane and super-powered variety, corruption dwelling in the highest levels of government, the numerous shady activities going on behind closed doors, and the fact there was still garbage strewn about everywhere.

Actually, scratch that, this WAS a typical day in New York.

"I cannot believe you talked me into this....again..." Alan grunted inside his and Aurora's shared mind space as their shared body made its way down the streets. Said form was....well...

Spoiler:

"Oh, would you quite your bellyaching already? Seriously, we look amazing!" Aurora remarked while giggling, "And besides, what's there to be worried about? Any blokes try to treat us like a piece of meat we can just slingshot into the sky if we want...or tie them to the top of a flag pole in their underwear...actually, we could film that and put it on Youtube..."

"Sometimes, partner, I think I'm better off not knowing what goes on in that head of yours..." Alan rolled his eyes but put up no more resistance. He may not admit it out loud but having the ability to become anything they wanted was rather...liberating. It was like a part of him that had been trapped for so long was finally free to embrace and savor all the world had to offer.

With that bit of introspection out of the way, Siren headed deeper into the city and to whatever misadventures lied in wait...

The cool summer air peacefully combed over Lucy’s face as she stepped out of her home. The sun was slowly making its decent below the horizon, which meant now was the perfect time for Lucy to go on her daily run. As of late, Lucy’s life had consisted of a plethora of hospital visits. Her overwhelming sense of justice had been getting the better of her, carelessly dragging her into danger whenever it cropped up. It wasn’t just run ins with super powered thugs that had put Lucy in the ER either, just every day run ins with normal people were proving to be hazardous to her health.

There was nothing quite like the shock of having someone’s entire life crammed into your brain in a matter of seconds. This unsavory feeling had forced Lucy to take a more cautious approach to how she did things. This late night run being one of those things. As Lucy stepped off the landing to her home she slipped on two black gloves to cover her hands. Aside from the new accessories, her attire was her standard work out clothing, a pair of black gym shorts, a sleeveless yellow power ranger shirt with a black sports bra underneath, and of course her trusty smart phone, which was currently blasting techno, safely secure in on of her pockets.

The young woman’s feet hit the pavement and she quickly accelerated into a brisk jogging pace down the somewhat less crowded sidewalk. Most of the people around the neighborhood were happy and also rather surprised to see the girl out for a run so late in the evening. After greeting a few of the people with friendly waves, Lucy rounded the corner where her favorite cafe was. She ducked inside just minutes before they were about to close and picked up a sandwich and a few bagels.

Lucy turned to bid the owner farewell and opened to door simultaneously with her butt. Swinging out onto the sidewalk the steely eyed woman slipped the small back carrying baked goods around her wrist and turned to wave goodbye one last time to the owner. Lucy broke into a jog once again only to collide with another body a few seconds later while she was recklessly looking through her bag at which bagel she was going to dig into while she ran. She fell on her behind with a small thud as she wasn’t to keen on using her hands to hold onto the other person for stability. She rubbed her hip a bit to relieve the pain and then looked up to see who she ran into.

Standing over her was a tall blond who also seemed as oblivious to her surroundings as Lucy was. “Oh sorry! I should have been paying more attention. I figured with the time of day that I wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone, and yet here we are.” she rambled on with a small chuckle as she rose to her feet.

Siren was so caught up in examining her surroundings that she didn't even realize she had bumped into anyone until they heard the thud which brought them back to reality. A look in front of them revealed a dark-haired girl dressed in attire that looked suited to what a runner might wear. Said girl was also frantically apologizing for running into her, "Oh, that's perfectly alright. To be honest, it's just as much my fault for not watching where I was going," She too let out a small chuckle to show there were no hard feelings.

"I mean, New York IS a very big and busy place no matter what hour of the day so I guess I could've afforded to keep my eyes from wandering as much. At the very least, you don't look hurt so there's that," She then noticed the bag the other girl was carrying and proceeded to facepalm, "Ah geez...look, I'm sorry. Can you check to make sure your food isn't squashed? If it is, I promise I'll compensate you for it."

"Oooh...nice move, partner," Alan could hear Aurora in his ear, giggling, "Planning on having a little fling with this one? I gotta say, she IS a cute one..."

Alan did his best not to blush as he mentally replied, "I-It's not like that, Aurora! I'm just trying to be nice, that's all!"

Lucy ran a hand through her wavy brown hair. Her steely blue eyes looked the blonde up and down. A myriad of thoughts began to sprout up no thanks to each of the personality traits she had picked up in recent weeks. On one hand Lucy felt the urge to give the other woman a bunch of shit for not paying attention to where she was going, on the other she couldn’t help but find herself lost in a daze. Then there was the more prevalent feeling, a very strange and somewhat unwelcome attraction to the woman.

Lucy found herself blushing out of embarrassment as she struggled to look away for just a moment. She looked in her bag to check on her sandwich and bagels. Everything seemed to be intact thankfully. “Nope everything looks fine to me.” she said looking up from the bag of baked goods to the blonde. *Maybe you shouldn’t be so rude, and introduce yourself.* she thought, before extending her gloved hand out. “I’m Lucy. Pleasure to meet you!”

After introductions were made Lucy scratched the back of her head and looked around. New York seemed so alien to her at night, it was actually quite surreal in its own way. Her graze returned to the woman before her, a large grin on her face. “I was basically done with my run, and was thinking about munching down on this sandwich, but seeing as how I ran into you, I think it’d only be fare to offer you a cup of coffee or something. I think there’s another cafe down the street that’s still open.” Lucy bit the inside of her lip not sure why she was being so open with a stranger especially when she knew how dangerous any sort of interaction with another person could be, but still she for some reason or another felt compelled to get to know this new acquaintance.

"Pleased to meet you, Lucy," Siren returned the handshake with a smile, "You can call me Siren. Odd name, I know, but it kinda stuck," Alan ignored the mental smack he received as she listened to Lucy's offer, actually raising an eyebrow. After all, it wasn't like a stranger to offer you a cup of coffee out of the blue. Of course, she just chalked it up to Lucy wanting to be nice, "Well, actually-"

However, before she could finish, Aurora cut in, "Oh no! Nope, nope, you are NOT screwing this up, partner! You have a cute girl right in front of you who's offering to take you out and by golly, you are going to take it! If you don't, you're gonna have to put with me singing the opening to the first Pokemon Season for the next 24 hours! GOT THAT?!"

Alan mentally winced at recalling just how difficult it was to get that song out of one's head once it was in there. Admitting defeat, he nodded to Lucy's request, "Sure, I didn't really have plans tonight and some company would be nice. Lead onwards." With that, she followed the other girl's lead.

Lucy shook the woman’s hand and lit up with joy as they accepted her offer to grab a cup of coffee. *Siren huh? Wonder if that’s a legit thing or if they’re a hero or something. Though it would be really odd to just go around calling yourself by a name like that if you were in plain clothes.* Lucy’s mind trailed off on a mini tangent for a moment, completely oblivious to the fact that she had yet to actually start walking anywhere. The young woman shook her head as if snapping herself out of a trance. “My bad, got lost in my thoughts there for a moment. The cafe should be this way….I think.” She said pointing to the block across the street.

Lucy would then proceed to lead the way not sure where the night would lead, but she certainly welcomed the change of pace. Things had been so hectic the past couple of weeks that anything remotely normal was like a godsend. Lucy constantly kept looking over her shoulder or two the side of her to look at the blonde woman. The stroll to the cafe was awfully quite, save for the sounds of cars passing by, and a few couples that they had passed along the way.

Lucy desperately wanted to break the silence, but figured it would be best if she saved all the small talk for when they finally reached the cafe, which they would, and not a moment to soon as Lucy was about to start running her mouth just to break up the monotony of the brief walk. Lucy reached for the door of the cafe and held it open for Siren, only entering the cafe once they did. “Get whatever you want, it’s on me!” Leaving Siren to look over the chalkboard menu, Lucy approached the counter and ordered a hazelnut latte and whatever Siren ordered.

Once the drinks were ready, Lucy would grab both of the cups off the counter and hand Siren their drink before pointing out a lowly table off in the corner. “Let’s sit over there.”

Lucy wasn't the only one lost in thought while they walked. Siren tried several times to open her mouth and initiate some form of conversation, but she ending up zipping her lips each time, not sure what to say. Still, they knew they needed to break the ice sooner or later. "Relax partner. Deep breath and take this one step at a time." Aurora advised in a gentle tone of voice for which Alan was grateful.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before they reached the café. Upon being told to order something, Siren ordered an chocolate milkshake and headed to join Lucy at a table. "Thanks," Siren allowed herself a chance to relax. The chances of anything crazy happening would hopefully hold off for at least one night. Ever since he had met Aurora, Alan's life had turned into something out of a comic book what with meeting all sorts of fellow superheroes and what not.

Of course, as many of the comics he had read implied, the hero's life was not all fun and games. More often than not, you couldn't save every soul and sometimes bad things happened that you couldn't stop and you just had to live with that. It was one of the reasons he and Aurora preferred traveling and seeing the world since it let them balance out the more darker aspects of the job with the beauty and wonders that were out there.

Feeling it was time to start talking, Siren went first, "So, Lucy, if you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?"

As the two women would sit down at the lone table, it would be Siren who would draw first blood when it came to initiating conversation. Lucy took a small sip from her cup of coffee, giving it a few small blows to cool it down before bringing the cup to her lips. While socializing wasn’t anything new or uncomfortable to Lucy, most of her socializing as of late came from chatting with old friends on the internet. It had been quite some time since the young woman had a face to face with someone. She took a moment to take in the sweet aroma of the coffee filling the air of the cafe before answering Siren’s question.

“Well currently I’m a freelance artist. I do commissions and art work for companies and people around the city.” Lucy’s tone wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about her work, and her gaze drifted downward with every word she spoke, until her eyes eventually stopped at the rim of her cup. Work and anything skill related was always a sour subject for Lucy. She had come into contact with so many people that she wasn’t quite sure what skills were hers, and which ones were borrowed. To be quite honest she didn’t even truly feel like herself but rather a weird mesh up of other people.

She let out a small sigh and then immediately went back to smiling and being her normal chipper self. Lucy would take one more sip of her coffee before firing back with the same question directed at Siren. “What about you? What do you do for a living?” she was still on the fence about the woman’s name, but that question could be saved for later.

Siren sat there listening to the other girl explaining herself though she did take notice of how Lucy seemed to grow increasingly downcast as she spoke, which seemed to imply there was something more that she wasn't saying. The alien hero had no intentions of making her feel more uncomfortable so she decided to try comforting her, "I see...I'm sorry if I brought up a touchy topic. If you do commissions all around the city than I'm sure there must be something special about your work,"

Siren sipped their drink as they thought of how to explain what they do. Eventually, they felt they could tell the truth, just...omit a few details and maybe fluff up the story a bit, "I do a fair amount of traveling and I like to write about the things I see during my travels. I'm a singer so I go wherever my voice can do the most good. I've done pretty well if I say so myself, though once in a while I gotta go incognito to get a bit of peace and quiet. I've never been one who liked being the center of attention but...sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and if my voice can help them get through another day...well, that's all the more reason to do what I do,"

The blonde took another slurp from her drink, mentally nodding along to her own story. The best part is it was...mostly true, so there wasn't TOO much guilt to feel on her end, "So, what about you? You ever done any traveling in your life or seen any exotic sights?"

Lucy shook her head as her momentary downcast attitude had made Siren feel as though she had brought up a touchy subject. “Oh no, it’s quite alright. It’s nothing really. Pay no attention to me.” she said with a slight chuckle and wave of the hand be fore leaning back in her chair and listening to the blonde woman describe her work. Lucy liked the idea of traveling a lot, though she had never bothered to venture any further than her own neighborhood or the city on occasion. Siren had also mentioned something about singing and Lucy’s eyes lit up a little bit.

The young woman was a sucker for music, and if Siren was a singer than this was definitely one of Lucy’s better decisions that she’d come up with recently. Lucy somewhat cringed at Siren’s next question, again another touchy subject with a very complicated story, one she couldn’t quite outright tell. Thought’s about the disastrous trip to the ER two weeks ago and the encounter with Dressler was about the only ‘exotic’ thing Lucy had seen as of late. “Um I’ve seen some really interesting animals at the zoo that I thought never existed, but that’s about it.” she said, lying through her teeth.

Lucy choose to put her drink on hold for just a moment as she had more questions to ask the woman. “So I take it Siren is your stage name?” it would certainly make sense if this was the case, but if what Siren was saying was true, then it would be counter productive to be trying to lay low if you were going around using your stage name. Lucy’s more intuitive and investigative qualities began to surface as she tried to decipher the puzzle that was the blonde woman sitting across from her.

Siren stopped himself in the middle of his drink at realizing he had slipped up and revealed some crucial info. Also, judging by the look on the other girl's face, he got the feeling she wouldn't let him worm his way out of this one. As such, it was perhaps better to keep going and pray he didn't say anything that would totally blow their cover, "I suppose you caught me..." She sighed and sat her drink down, "Yeah, you could call it a cover name. A friend of mine suggested it to me. Kinda ironic if you know anything about the mythical version of the Sirens,"

She scratched the back of her neck, "I don't really sing anything too special. Just my own renditions of more classic songs. Sometimes I like to sing the Blues or Jazz, old-time stuff that's made relevant again. People seem to appreciate it so I go with it. You could probably find some of the recordings on YouTube. I don't really have a lot of use for money so I usually turn a blind eye to the ones that weren't from record companies. In fact, I remember a few weeks ago I was up in Canada to sing at a benefit concert in Toronto. Music I think is something that will always be relevant, no matter the era we live in,"

Siren conveniently left out how she and another hero named Titanium had been attacked by an army of mutant gators. She took a slurp of her shake before speaking again, "I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you got an interest in music too?"

Lucy slowly reached out for her cup of coffee and Siren tried to explain herself. There was still a hint of scrutiny in Lucy’s eyes but that was more of a subconscious thing more than anything. She found herself nodding in agreement with Siren’s statement about music always being relevant. Music was one of the many forms of expression someone could use to relay their feelings, much like art and acting. Lucy then made a mental note to check out youtube when she got home so she could check out some of the blonde woman’s performances.

Lucy took a sip of her coffee, which had cooled enough to the point she no longer needed to blow on it. She nodded as she agreed with Siren’s last statement. If it wasn’t obvious by the way she lit up to Siren’s earlier mention of being a singer, or the fact that she had a pair of headphones hanging down the front of her shirt. Lucy returned to sitting upright in her chair *Great now I’m slouching, wonder where I picked that up from* she thought as she straightened herself out.

“Well yeah, I love music. I listen to just about anything when I’m out on my jogs or when I’m working on commissions. Never tried my hand at making any though.” Lucy began to stroke her chin like a villain almost as she made another mental note of how she should totally make it her new mission to come in contact with someone who was musically inclined so she could copy their skills. Despite being depress earlier about note knowing how much of herself was really her or not, the prospect of using her power to acquire skills was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

“So are you originally from New York? Or is this just one of the many stops on your world tour?” she said with a small chuckle before taking another sip of her coffee.

It was nice seeing Lucy being a bit more chipper now as it put Siren's own worries at ease, "Well, you never know what you're capable of until you actually try, so if you feel the need to go for it than do so. Only person holding you back is yourself...I totally didn't steal that line from anyone famous," Siren denied while looking all shifty-eyed and drinking her shake. At hearing the other girl's question, she actually snickered and wagged a finger in her face, "Now, now, Lucy. Do you really expect me to reveal ALL my secrets during a first meeting? Stuff like that is private..." Despite her words, it was evident from her smirk that she was half-joking.

"To be honest, I'm thinking of taking a break from my world tour, maybe settle down and enjoy a slower pace of life...at least for a while. It's great fun getting to travel and see all the sights but after a while you start to miss the more simple things, like having a home you can come back to each night, a place that isn't empty, folks around you who appreciate you for...well, you, instead of just being some sort of icon..." At this, Siren seemed to stare off into space for a bit, thinking about her Mom and all the years he had missed out on with his father.

At recalling his father though, Siren tensed up a little and squeezed her drink container a bit tighter before feeling a mental pat from Aurora that brought him back to reality, "Huh? Oh, sorry about that, sometimes I get a bit lost in my own thoughts."

Lucy leaned back a bit in her chair, somehow embarrassed that she was called out. It wasn’t really the young woman’s fault, but that’s the sort of thing when you had more than just your own thoughts floating around in your head, or maybe it was having your own thoughts influenced by the experiences of others? Lucy shook her head, her power was truly complicated and it was quite frustrating trying to piece together any sort of rational explanation for how they worked. Lucy nodded in agreement, she knew just how important it was to have a place to go home to every day that was yours.

In Lucy’s mind, her room was the most important space to her. It was the one place where she was safe from her powers. The two women seemed to trail off on their thoughts at the same time. Lucy looked down at her cup and smirked at how the night had turned out thus far. She had changed her running time to be at night in a vein attempt to normalize her contact with others, and now here she was in a quaint little cafe, sharing a drink with someone else and actually socializing. Almost all fear of her power had faded from her mind, at least for the moment.

Her gaze shifted up slightly at the first sound of the plastic cup being squeezed in Siren’s hands. There was something about bringing up homes that had gotten to Siren. Lucy’s steely blue eyes trailed up to meet Siren’s as she apologized for getting lost in her thoughts. Lucy waved it off with a large smile. “Don’t worry about it. That happens to me all the time. Especially with….” Lucy cut herself off before she went on to say anything she might regret, but seeing as how she nearly finished that sentence, there was no avoiding the inevitable. Siren would no doubt ask her to finish her sentence or at least elaborate on what Lucy was going to sat.

Lucy immediately brought the cup up to her mouth and began to sip her coffee hoping to throw off suspicion.

The blond sat in silence too as she simply downed more of her drink, now feeling a bit silly at having brought up the topic of home. It seemed like no matter what the topic, it managed to strike a sore spot with one of them. Siren needed to think of something that would liven the mood and quickly. Finally, an idea came to her, "Oh! Do you play any video games or read comics? I actually have a handful back home that I relax with when I got time," It was the first idea that came to her so she rolled with it.

"I remember once being at a yard sale with my Mom and saw a Super NES with Super Mario All Stars for 50 bucks. I practically begged my Mom to buy it for me and when I took it home, I played it whenever I wasn't at school or doing chores. I swear, I only ever beat that darn Special World once..." At realizing she was rambling, she stopped herself, "Oh, uh...sorry about that. When I get hyped about something, I tend to ramble."