Feeling the pulse of the city

The broken sections of New York were still pretty broken since the last attack on the city. Ethan remembered that, mostly because traumatic events had a bad way of sticking and it was a special time for him too. Really gets under my skin why some people just insist on attacking me, The currently feminine voice complained in the back of his mind. Outrage and sorrow mixing together in the whiniest way possible.  Ethan shrugged, lip curling downward into usual unpleasant sneer.

”Prolly cause the cities a special kinda shithole,” He offered to seemingly no one, shaking the spray can in his hand. Rattling sound of the pea like music almost to the young man. Storm grey eyes scanning over his half-finished masterpiece on the wall. The air smelled of aerosol and fumes. Common sensations he experienced through his entire life.

and…you continue to spray my city with what you generously call art, The voice continued, sounding more judgemental than anything else. Well, that was how she sounded to him.

”Sounds like a personal problem,” He said, pressing the release and letting jets of black paint spread across brickwork. Forming a picture slowly from the steady and practiced hands of an illegal street artist. Not that he was worried about things like the cops. Pigs tended to be easy to escape from with his new powers. ”not gonna waste my time brushing up some fancy museum piece. Fuckers wouldn’t like it any more than this,”

No, not much love for art or culture anymore. I remember when…. She set off on a ramble about the past while he  shook another can and began forming the arcing shape of a sun. Brilliant yellow and even some oranges from the cans strapped to a large leather belt with many pouches around his waist. Honestly he could’ve called it a utility belt at this point.

Are you even listening to me?

”Yeah yeah, bird dancers and prostitution,” He muttered in placating agreement, though that only made the presence in his head even more annoyed.

You’re making me regret my decision more every second,

Despite that he continued, finishing the piece with a flourish of the arm. Something suggested by one of many street artists he didn’t hate across the city. A tribute to their hero, who he personally thought wasn’t that great on second viewing. Just looking in the distance he could see the half-demolished proof of his incompetence. Not that skyscrapers meant anything to people who weren’t already corporate fat cats.  

”At least you don’t have the voice in you’re head,” Putting the paint cans away he admired his work and all that came with it.  Set on the side of a store that banned him for perceived stealing. Sure, he did steal from them but not like they had to pull a dick move like that.

The fact no one was stopping him felt even better honestly. Like people knew this guy was a dick and that was all that mattered. Ethan was dressed for the night weather, a thick pullover with a pair of blue jeans worn through use rather than an artful intent. Splatter colored hat set on his head, which just his bangs peeking out from under.

”So what do we say about pizza? Know a good place a few streets down,”

Because I told you about it,

”Still counts. Do ya wanna go or not?”

Well yes I want to go. Just hate it when punks take credit for my knowledge,

”Well since we’re all fused and stuff, it’s our knowledge now,” With that he hopped down from the top of the heavily dented dumpster and worked through where he was supposed to be getting that pizza.

A small shudder shot through Takuma’s hands as he was bolstered with a sense of shock, eyes snapping open and a shot of adrenaline like a cup of caffeine being drawn through his body and making him aware of his surroundings.

Brown thick work coat with dusty cotton tanned pants, he adjusted his drawn in legs and shuffled a bit, feeling the ground from his sock-covered left ankle as he was wearing stained white sneakers, the right ankle meeting bare ground. He peeked over to his foot to find it uncovered, the sock nowhere to be seen with a lazy look around.

Takuma’s hands drew in, uncovered and dirty from digging around in various spots for something worth eating to no avail. Well, there were definitely many things sitting in the trash he decided to rest and hope he got lucky later, most of what he found was on the verge of welcoming a new stage of life and well capable of harboring it if it wasn’t already. So sitting down and resting against a wall, hand touching a round metallic bin, he wanted to use the vibrations to tell him if someone was coming close. Now despite this being felt, nobody was nearby.

Takuma’s legs drew in as with a bit of force he got himself standing upright in a single mechanical motion, turning and walking towards where he projected the vibrations came from.

Two corners were all it took, sharp eyes peering upwards and noticing first, an artistic depiction of a sun, and very close by, a young man with a bunch of spray paint on his person, digging through a trash bin. Takuma’s hand wrung once as he looked up before they limply dropped to his sides, still looking up he started walking towards the figure ahead. With slow steps he would make his way behind, expecting the figure ahead to acknowledge his existence, either he did or not, Takuma would silently walk up and then tap his elbow before pointing up at the painted sun.

“What does that mean?”

Ethan felt pleased with his work.

The spirit within him grumbled about it and he was sure the cops would have a few words if they caught him. Mostly freeze and the flash of pistols raised, both of which were not so fun. He didn’t like the idea of getting shot. Not enough to stay around if that threat came up.  Paint cans jingled around as he moved from his higher position, listening around for the sounds of the city around him.

Footsteps were what caught his ear, followed by a question. Enough pressure to suggest someone had moved close enough to even touch him.He whipped around, leaping back a few feet and feeling the power flow through him for a moment before quelling it. No, he couldn’t go around blasting anyone that just walked up to him. He felt that voice in the back of his head almost mocking him for the leap to violence.

Eyes narrowed in suspicious slits, keeping his attention on anything strange the guy might do. Looked around his age, though he was always a bad judge of age anyhow. ”That?” he turned to the bright yellows, oranges and blacks painted across the brickwork.

So someone was enjoying his work or it seemed like he was doing that. Hard not to feel a little pride, though these were the kind of streets where he couldn’t afford to take a person lightly. ”It means… a lotta things I guess. Walk around the city and you’ll see these anywhere. Before they get fucked up by the cops anyhow,” He huffed, though the spirit seemed fine with that.

With hands now buried into his jacket pockets he then bore his glare down towards the man before him. ”So who the fuck are you? Actually, ya know you shouldn’t just walk up to someone like that right?”

“A lot of things… Alright, like what? If I told you I was thinking a lot of things, that tells nothing really, a whole lot of nothing. Is it some kind of gang symbol or something? Maybe a cult logo?”

Takuma’s hands found their way into his pockets on his jacket as he overlooked the artwork a second time, staring at it long and hard. In his own mind he was thinking up what it meant, if it was an artistic expression, maybe it had something to be interpreted from it. Takuma was sure to voice his idea of what it means.

“Well, it means the power, of course, I don’t know what kind of power but lots of it. Orange is a color that represents power I think, like energy stuff. It would be a great color for my costume maybe.”

Takuma’s arms found themselves crossed in front of him as he nodded his head, agreeing with himself at least in body language. The strange young gentleman did jab at Takuma’s own social ineptness, Takuma and his spiderweb mind already spun another little story to build off the criticism. Hands coming undone from their self-inflicted bind they seemed to dance about with sharp notes, akin to playing the piano in a violent manner with how he itterated things.

“See now you probably shouldn’t do that, but I had this idea that I should probably talk to another artist. Artist brains tend to be like explosives that just come back together given time.”

Takuma raised a hand with the palm facing upwards, dropping a knuckle with his opposite hand down he made a kind of motion connotating to an explosive being dropped.

“So to figure what they are like during that ‘explosion’ is pretty good stuff I suppose. Who knows maybe that's my subconscious trying to get me killed but the possible reward from it is incredible.”

Takuma would then turn back and tap the side of his head, giving a slowly growing grin as he chuckled before exclaiming his discovery thanks to Qualm, the sharp rise in power from this individual was bizarre, an incredibly unique signature was unfelt by Takuma before.

“You could have blown me to bits there, so your like some kind of superhuman too! But please, for the sake of curiosity, tell me more about what that was! It tasted amazing!”

Ethan had answered the question but he didn’t think far enough ahead to consider what questions could come from that. Maybe he just wasn’t thinking in general, which the spirit had been telling him was a bad habit of his. Not that he listened to her either. His mouth hung open in confusion for a few seconds, mind trying to catch up with the scenario he found himself in. Not that it was too difficult for him to just walk away, but he for some reason didn’t. ”Kind of a weirdo ain’tcha?” he finally said, trying to parse over what was said. All thoughts of attacking the guy lost to the pursuit of understanding, as small as that might be. Sighing softly he looked back to the symbol, then to Takuma. ”Really never seen one of these around before? Alright, it’s some kinda symbol for that big hero Atlas. Some of the gangs, and some people he’s helped been spraying them around the city,”

It didn’t make sense to him but he liked the design. Something about it just clicked with his hooligan demeanor, and let him practice the whole spray painting arts. A two in one deal if you asked him. The guy still kept talkin though, in ways he wasn’t used to really and it put him on edge more and more. Not enough to consider him a threat really, but he didn’t really know how to respond. Maybe that was just how it was with some of the people in the world.  ”No idea what you’re talking about. I don’t blow people up, can’t do it either,” he deflected that maybe a little too defensively, a dismissive wave of the hand and turning around to avoid letting him see how his face changed.

This ones more perceptive than you might be giving him credit for, The spirit cooed, obviously more interested in the stranger than he was.

Well why don’t you go talk to him?

I have no coporeal form, only you can talk to him Ethan,

He ignored her there, turning back to Takuma for a moment before noticing it. The dark shadows moving within the faint glint of a lamp. Something he wasn’t sure the guy could see, though the shadow was moving towards the unknown male. ”Shit,” He took a hard step forward to grab Takuma’s wrist and hopefully wrench him out of the way of a strangely solid scythe of shadows that could have pierced his back. ”I wasn’t expecting that but you asshole have a bad habit of following me around,”

The mentioning of weirdo didn't exactly make Takuma change in any way, words were seemingly ignored as they didn't really register in his head working like a broken wiring issue brought into a fleshy form. Although he did pay a lot of attention to details on the sun symbol and what it actually meant, which he could say he was somewhat right with it regarding a lot of power, due to being rather horrible with symbolism in some of the most obvious sense the reference to the incredibly strong and well-renowned hero did supply a short and slow nod from Takuma as he scanned it once again, enjoying the simplicity of it all with the very neat key reference.

"Well that is interesting. Atlas? He is quite a big deal, yeah."

Ethan's reaction to Takuma pointing out the energy increase was quite stunning, according to him he couldn't blast people, so Takuma went to the next thing that came to mind.

"Oh, so you can like, project something but not explosive things. So like can you make physical things from that or something."

Takuma felt a sudden strong chill, a sharp prickling of needles running down his back as he recoiled a bit from the sensation, starting to turn around he was feeling the movement of this thing go, preparing to take a swipe out of him. However, he also felt the motion of Ethan reaching to grab and pull him out of the way, Takuma actually moved out of his own perceivable view, placing his wrist in Ethan's hand to be pulled, but well being pulled he jumped with the motion to make himself less of a weight, going over to the side quite a bit, bouncing on his toes as he went to a slow stop. Looking back at whatever it was, it forms hard to pick out with how it stood where it was, barely a shadow. Takuma could sense it was maybe at least tangible, otherwise, its attempt would have been likely impossible, at least in his realm of understanding.
Takuma placed his right foot forward and performed a solid leap, twisting his left foot into a strong mid-air roundhouse, the right foot followed quickly as a quick jab at it, landing with his left foot before recoiling back with another quick leap, landing with his right foot after performing the full 360-degree spin.

Ethan felt like he was being ignored. It might have been aside from Atlas, the guy didn’t seem to react to anything else that had been said about him. Maybe he was just used to being called weird, because that was the only explanation and honestly he didn’t really care about that. ”He was a big deal yeah. Just like those other big strong guys who used to stomp around New York,” Atlas wasn’t the first strong hot guy who went around the city, and something told Ethan he would not be the last, if what the older people around was saying anything true.

Having the weirdo also point out his ‘energy’ or whatever was also pretty unsettling, though he felt as if he brushed that off well enough too. ”What are you going on about?” He questioned, eyes narrowing at him. Well, his focus wasn’t deep enough to not notice the shadow, which led to him reacting the way he did. Reaching out in the hopes he could  avoid having any dead bodies on his hand. Corpses were a pain and being accused of killing someone sounded like an even bigger pain.

As soon as the shadow formed, the guy seemed to slow his questions down a little.  So it seems my new enemy is trying to finish the job,

What did that even mean? His mind was running a mile a minute and all that left him with was anxiety. He barely even had time to recognize this stranger had pulled some manner of ninja flip and was kicking the shadow, which gave in from the force of the kick and just reformed once the solid matter passed through. Leaving blotches of black ichor clinging to the cloth and flesh, likely to sting where it touched skin.

He can’t touch that thing! The voice was like a cry in his head, enough to cause an ache for a brief second.

”F..fuck, alright. Don’t touch that thing if you can help it,” With a glance to the strange, he willed the street to pull him away, likely looking as if the very concrete beneath his feet had become liquid and shifted to pull Takuma away from the shadow. This was followed by the adjacent walls ripping jagged segments from themselves and with a clench of Ethan’s hand sandwiching the shadow between them.  ”No idea what that thing is but I think we should be trying to run,” Despite crushing it, he could see the shadow oozing between the crack and shattered bricking.

Immediate locking of joints and a reeling back of form, forcing his muscles to obey his brain Takuma was almost instant in response to Ethans words. Well stuck in awkward spacing his foot slid from beneath him as he became unbalanced, following with planting his feet on the ground and crouching he swerved a bit as he was shuffled away.

Fingers slid over the rough rocky surface as his eyes flicked and locked towards the shadowy source of something very potent to Takuma’s senses, the source searing his sensory ability.
Takuma finding an answer would get his mind to almost steer away from the minor catastrophic show of Ethan's abilities, standing and turning away he would take a few steps away before turning back to Ethan, waiting to follow him to upkeep talking to him.

“I was talking about that there, so you're a terrakinetic!” Takuma would say excitedly, already seemingly forgetting the shadowy figure, which much further from the truth he could still detect something moving within, although that attack did hinder it greatly physically whatever it was still hadn’t been smothered and source ripped free from it’s fluid form.

Terrakinetic?

He mulled the word over in his mind, unable to grasp for what it might have meant. This guy just made himself sound weirder and weirder by the moment. Earth magic I believe. I think a children's show portrayed something like that once,

How do you know about kids cartoons? He mentally responded, watching the shadowy sludge seep through the bricks that pounded it together.  Didn’t look like blunt force trauma was going to do anything to it.

Coulda told you that one. They’re made from sheer malice and negative energy given physical form. Cheap brickwork isn’t gonna do them in,

Don’t wanna hear it, There was a small little conversation with the two of them going on, though he knew if he didn’t act accordingly he would have a dead guy on his hands, even if the guy didn’t seem all there.  There had to be a door nearby.

”Could you follow me? If you don’t want to die anyway,” He said to the guy, hoping he would follow before darting down the alleyway. Eyes darting around until he found what looked to be some kind of door. That was when he noticed more of the shadows, liquid and dangerous emerging from the corners of building. Taking on dangerous and unknown forms.

”Shit, this is just not going good,” he drew a deep breath, calling upon the neon red which flashed bright in his mind. Creating the red streaks on his cheeks, neck and forehead that glowed like any neon sign. With a flourish he unleashed splashes of brilliant red, hissing as they hit building walls and even the masses of blight.  This time they let out an audible screech, rising to join the chorus of city sounds.

Well that went better.

Slow seep, firm fluid finding focus through loosely dropped rubble.
With the seep came a new form of concern, it would appear this definitely wasn’t something supernatural he was capable of bothering, dangerous and strange.
Beckoned to follow along if he wished to live, he didn’t have a great reason to argue about this and it didn’t appear this guy would try and trick him.
Feet fleet and sure solid steps taking place with rapid pace, close behind Takuma would seem to carry on in an intentional and mechanical run carefully locked two meters behind his leader. All manner of objects beneath his feet were deftly avoided with simple slides and presses, careful placement performed like a dance as he didn’t bother acknowledging it, his sensing ability gathering location from vibration with his hard steps.

Once they started to get closer to a door that was a potential escape route, more of the slimy stuff started to emerge from more corners. A simple kick down with his right foot and Takuma was capable of halting on the spot, waiting to see what his leader wanted to do next.
An energy burst, which seemed to work excellently as Takuma started to watch wide-eyed with amazement, although a slow nod and he would let slip what was on his mind.

“Ah, photokinetic and terrakinetic, omnikinetic?”

What were these things? He didn’t know and they weren’t exactly giving any details about it.  When he struck all they did were form around the attack or do something along the lines of screaming despite not dying.  Ethan couldn’t help the look of irritation on his face, though resting bitch face was a natural look for him. The scent of burnt rubber worked through the air, stinging his nostrils and making his eyes tear up slightly .

”No?” He noted with an even more confused voice as he wrenched open the door and beyond was not the inside of a building but another street entirely.  He grasped the guys wrist and pulled him through, closing the door behind him before the thing could come through as well.  He ground his teeth together,  jaw hard set for a second before turning back to the stranger who had approached him. His pain cans were lightly banging against each other under his large jacket.

There’s something strange about this one. I can’t quite place a finger on it, The spirit noted, and he could tell she was speaking about the man whose wrist his fingers were around, and they quickly removed themselves from them.  Perhaps you should avoid irritating him, not that he seems like the kind of person who would act like that. Might even be a good friend,

Yeah no, I don’t make friends with random people, he thought back, considering him but huffing.

With the danger seemingly behind them for now, he looked up to Takuma. ”Follow me. That thing will probably follow us pretty quickly if we don’t keep moving, ” He noted with a terse note, motioning with his head for him to follow. ”I was thinkin of grabbing a slice, we can talk over that,” He explained,  looking around until his eyes focused on one of those multitude of corner pizza joints that dotted all across New York.

Burnt rubber as recalled in prior postings also seemed to gather around the oddball as well, where he seeked the source and presuming that it was the thing that was struck with neon lights he stared in a longing manner. It seemed like he was already spacing out when his hand rose and fingers pricked out as he began softly biting them.
The product of his insatiable obsession to consume the odd and sometimes the very corrupt meant he needed some way to stave off the compulsion, his opposite hand rising to the back of his shirt he would deftly pluck the weak tag on the worn shirt, turning around to spot if his defender was distracted.
His own words seemed to confuse the other man, although this couldn’t have gained a really strong reaction, just more curious stares with subtle waves of his hand as he snuck that same tag from the back of his shirt into his mouth, starting to chew on the fibers and hopefully able to disassemble this enough to appease this force that filled him.

He watched as the other guy planned to grip his wrist, and Takuma complied by not reacting in any manner to this, still this dull husk that would follow right behind with precise steps benefitting his temporary taker. Walking through the door he would inhale deeply through his nose when he made it past, just in a surprised-sounding huff as he started to intake everything that was building up around that portal.
Takuma’s eye’s spun to look to his side as he exited the door, the concentration of energy within was really starting to give him a taste of what was going on, but something felt off with every amount that he gathered as it just seemed to blend with everything around him equally, confounding him as he still stared at the door the two of them made it through.

Takuma was beckoned and so his eye’s trailed lazily back to his current hero, who suggested they stay away from that thing and talk over ‘a slice’.
Without a moment to think already the younger of the two would be quite open to the proposition, already finding this guy to be fascinating.
“I’m unsure, but nevermind, yes that sounds good. Although a name is nice, mines Takuma, I bet you got something cool like Jagger or Robin.”
He followed close behind, looking over to his leader as still, he tried to calculate in his very faint manner how the hell someone grabs a slice.
Takuma presumed they were going to grab knives to fight this thing.

The guy didn’t seem to resist being dragged along and around the sidewalks of the city. Moving around people who seemed to look at the two of them only for a second before going about their own days.  Why was he dragging this guy along? Ethan didn’t stop long enough to think about that, instead walking until they stopped infront of what looked to be a hole in the wall as far as pizza places were concerned. Not to the point of likely needing a health inspector but no one with any “class” would darken the door. That was where the best pizza could be found Ethan learned.

He approached the counter, someone who looked maybe a year or two younger than him standing behind, one elbow rested on the counter and a tired look on his face.  ”I’ll take the usual, extra cheese,” Ethan said casually, and they nodded,  saying an order to a  beleaguered looking employee behind the counter who went about doing the work.  It only took around a few minutes for the pizza to finish, by that time Ethan picked out a one of those elevator circular tables. He hopped up, letting his legs dangle from the chair.

Times like this made him realize how short he was.

”So, got any questions?” He asked,  resting an elbow on the table. ”If you even got anything going on up there,” He snapped a good few inches infront of Takuma’s face.