Streetwise (Now closed)

Micky strolled through the familiar streets of Los Angeles, his hooded jacket covering his head. He didn't get enough sleep, the voice in his head was saying the same thing. It did that everyday, It said the same thing, never changing in tone or pitch. Over and over again, the redundancy was driving him mad. It was it's plan, to weaken his defenses, make him more vulnerable so it can completely take him over. He hung his head down, attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone he passed, doing so would only encourage them to interact with him, whether out of pity or something else. It would only get them hurt, he couldn't take the risk. He finally reached the subway station and went inside, pushing past the people who were rushing to get out during their daily routine.

Micky sat in his usual spot, a small isolated area which nobody paid much attention to. He had been in this city for a few weeks, looking for someone who knew something about his kind of condition. He spent a year traveling around the country for a sign, but to no avail. To be perfectly honest, he was starting to lose hope

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Icarus never thought that he would be invited to a Police Conference in LA.  It was just one of those unforeseeable things that came with doing your job well.  Being an IT department person in the Tampa Bay area, even if it was for the Police Station, just never would have occurred to Icarus as something that could lead you to higher echelons of society.

Yet it had. Here he was in beautiful Los Angeles, paid for free by the Police Department, at a conference with some of the best and brightest in computer security.  They had representatives from every major virus protection company - yet it was frightfully boring.  There was nothing that he hadn't already seen, or hadn't already broken into wirelessly.  

Ok, ok, there were some new ways of looking at alpha-data protection, and redundancy malware protection, but Icarus had stuff far past that in his head.  He left the conference's first day feeling pretty low, and he hated being low.  Icarus was an upbeat, the - stars - are - out - lets - go - grab - life - by - the - horns type of person, and LA was supposed to have a nightlife.  He might as well go out and enjoy it, even if he didn't drink.  Icarus was also a "by the rules" person.  He would not drink 'till he was 21.  That was final.

LA's subway was actually pretty nice, at least, compared to Philadelphia's AMTrack, the only other subway he had been on.  Here in Los Angeles the subway was called a metro, and it was crowded, even at this time of the day.  People crammed a little to get a ticket, and Icarus decided that it was better just to wait a moment.  Finally his turn came, and he got a ticket to Downtown.  Hollywood he could see tomorrow.  Right now he wanted to dance, and dance hard.  All he had to do was download some moves, and viola he would be a hit.  

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But he noticed a man in the corner, hood up, hunched over.  The sight made Icarus feel ashamed.  Here he was, going to go dancing, and this guy didn't have a place to sleep tonight.  Sometimes he couldn't believe how selfish he was.  He got right back in line, and returned the ticket.  The money he took to the man in the corner.  Up close he was bigger, and seemed darker, but Icarus had seen his type before.  Like many homeless people, he was probably a drug addict, down in his luck and life, tired, cold, and hungry.  Icarus put on his best "I am an innocent young man"  look (It was very convincing.  It was an ongoing joke in the office that he could put that look on whenever he wanted) and said
"Excuse me, sir?"  

And he held out the money, which totaled only about $10.50, in all.  Still, it was all Icarus had on him.  There was a bible verse about that, somewhere, about the rich man who gave 200 pennies, and the poor woman who gave 2, which was all she had.  She was giving more, technically, because it was worth more to her.  Icarus hoped he was doing the same thing.  It was a goodness thing - and Icarus felt better doing it, better then dancing in front of people he didn't know for an applause that was fake.  If you could even get an applause as a dancing white guy.

Sarah was walking down the subway and she was confused by the odd amount of people. As she walked down the steps she wondered what was going to happen. 'Soon they might be able to all swarm together like bees and become one mind.' As she reached the bottom of the steps, people began to swarm all around her. There was so many people moving through the area she was surprised and as she reached forward. The coutnless amounts of people had now rushed forward and she seemed to look forward. Soon she saw a single person sitting alone as the people rushed in and out of this hub. She saw another man walk up and bring up what seemed like money. She looked down at herself and her worn and torn clothes made her appear as a hobo herself. In which she was unhappied about it. She quickly ran forward and attempted to snatch the money. She wasn't using any super speed, that'd be dangerous for her to do. She'd simply try to run up and grab the money.

As Micky sat by himself in the lonely corner, some kid with white hair walked over to him. Oh shit. This was bad. What was up with good samaritans? Unless the kid was planning on beating the shit out of him, which was even worse. Micky looked up at the kid, who looked even younger than he initially thought. It may have been the face he had on his face though. It was almost as if a damn cherub had walked up to him. The kid reached out, with something in his hands. It was money. He couldn't take it, Micky didn't know why, but he just couldn't take it. "I'm sorry, but...". At that some other lady snatched the money out from the kid's hand. "Hey! give that back to him!"

Micky jumped up and ran after her. It was wrong just to take money from someone. "Get back here you bitch!"

"Yeah, what he said!" Chimed in Icarus.  He couldn't believe it.  She just stole.  From charity.  It was unthinkable.  He couldn't imagine that anyone could ever do that.  He just couldn't.  It was like stealing from the poor box, at church.  If only this girl had ever seen that Disney movie, the old, cartoon, "Robin Hood".  She would have known that the absolute worst things happened to those who stole from Charity.  

Icarus' brain supplied several dozen examples from the internet of all the horrible things that happened to people who stole from charity.  One example stood out.  Once there was a young couple who sold some land to give money to Peter, of Apostle fame, you know, Jesus and his disciples and all.  They were named Ananias and Sapphira, and they misled Peter about how much money they were giving to the Church's charity.  Basically they died right there at Peter's feet.    

Icarus almost gave a low whistle of respect.  This girl who stole his charity money was just asking to be botch-slapped by Karma and all her friends.  

Icarus' mind called for his armor, and from over the horizon, seconds later, it came roaring down the subway (excuse me, Metro) stairway, people screaming and pointing at the flying, golden and red man.  Mentally, while he was still running after the utterly impudent girl, the armor came down from behind him and enveloped him, so no one could by chance see him.  He was Mercury now, armored avenger of the Western Skies/Tampa Bay, and he was borderline invincible.  He shot off after the girl, flying low, boosters roaring blue-semi-transparent flames - he twisted, did a tight flip, and executed a perfect, heavy, clanking three-point-landing.  Sparks flew diagonally from his fist and metallic boots, minipistons and minigears within the armor's internal frame whining and wheeling with the sound of a muted, broken remote controlled toy car as he stood up, hand raised in the stop position, palm RT glowing and charging up.  

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Damn he loved being a superhero.  It was just so the epitome of cool.  He was the coolest thing on this half of Coolville, and this little girl was so going to give up the money.

So this was California? Impressive...or that's what he would have thought.

Black Steel walked through the Los Angeles streets, attention-hogging signs glaring, making the need for street lights obsolete. Of all the places he could've gone to for his vacation...ah, well. Maybe some actual excitement would come to him, other than the drunk women trying to hang onto him as he walked past. Today Steel was dressed casually, getting a few tips on what to wear from the women at O.C.E.A.N. Over a red t-shirt, he wore a subtle trench coat, which allowed him to walk through crowds without bringing much attention to himself. Other than that, he wore comfortable fitting black jeans, with his usual combat boots. There was no way he was being separated from those babies.

He decided to take a sharp left into a seemingly empty alleyway, hoping for something to entertain him. Well, ask, and you shall receive. A grubby-looking girl passed right by him, clutching a small wad of money that was most likely stolen. Before he had a chance to do anything, two men began yelling at the girl to give them their money back, "Well, looks like my hunch was right." But to his surprise, the smaller boy, probably the one donating the money to the scraggly man, was enveloped in a suit of hi-tech armor. Steel's curiosity was peaked at this point, but he quickly scowled when the suited kid landed in front of the girl, pointing his palm at her.

Black Steel decided to go for the calm approach, he cracked his neck and looked around for a good spot. When he found one, it was a ledge that was just above the scene, perfect for staying out of the way while being within easy reach of the fight. He sprinted towards the ladder, grabbing on silently and swinging himself up, landing on the metal ledge without a sound, "Heh, I'm getting good at this." Looking down at the scuffle below, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, "Hey you, girl! Looks like you're in a bit of a mess, here." It wasn't his nature to help a thief, but then again, it wasn't right to completely overpower someone like this over a little bit of pocket change.

As she was running away from the two with the money in catch, a smile lifted across her face. She wasn't sure how much money it was. But this would allow her to stop stealing at least for a bit. However apparently lately she had been hitting the jackpot of superheros. She could hear a roaring noise that wouldn't be associated with the normal metro. It roared and soon she heard the large roar of blast flying over head and a man stood, while a shiny metal man. Stood before her with a energy charging from his hand. The energy it emitted was sub-par and nothing to be worried. Maybe it really was the charge of a RC charge. Her raggedy clothes looked quite odd on her and she didn't look the type for combat. 'Maybe I should just go to jail, not like I can't break out.' she thought. Before she could come to a decision and decide her action.

Another man approached from somewhere. She was feeling a little pressure from the two. The third who she had stolen from was most likely stopped behind her in wait. She was now in a sticky situation...the new man seemed to easy the situation and tried to help with his words. She was in shock and very unsure of what to do. She didn't want to turn to violence nor did she wanna fight anyone. She looked to find the man she had stolen from and tossed him the money. She was now wondering what would they do. She stood frozen in her position and waited for there next move.

Micky wondered why he was even bothering with this. What he needed to do was look for someone that could take care of his condition. But the good samaritan inside of him couldn't resist helping this guy out. It was just wrong for her to take the money like that, snatching it from a well meaning guy. He would catch up to her, take the money, give it back and everything would be hunky-dory. His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when pieces of metal flew past him, colliding with the kid. Soon after the pieces formed into a suit of armor. Wait, what? Did that really just happen? Whatever, best get to the task at hand.

After a short while, the kid in the armor managed to intercept the girl and pointed a glowing palm at her. Micky managed to get a close look at the girl now, and he realized how out of shape she looked. Maybe she really needed the money. Then he felt it. His vision started to turn red. Micky nearly collapsed, leaning on a nearby building to support himself. He coughed violently a few times, before his vision eventually went back to normal.

As he came back to his senses, some guy in a trenchcoat appeared out of nowhere. Must have been drawn to robot boy over there. "We ain't looking for any trouble man"

((Anyone gonna post here?))

Since no one is posting here, I'm gonna withdraw from this thread.