Eye of the Storms (Video-Girl, Force, Nearo, Xan)

"Start spreadin' the news," Ariana sings to herself as she steps down from her train and walks into the terminal.  The hustle and bustle of the city fills even the station.  "I'm leaving today.  I wanna be a part of it.  New York, New York," she continues.  She stops by a pillar and whistles the rest of the song as Babs and Richard step down from the train behind her, weaving through people.  "C'mon, slowpokes.  Cabs don't hail themselves, you know."

"Hey, the rest of us don't run on batteries, cousin," Babs says.

"Neither does sis," Richard interjects.  "We actually have no idea what does keep her running."

Babs looks around for Ariana.  "Whatever it is, it works," she says, pointing Richard to Ariana, standing in line for a churro.

Moments later, the trio sits in a taxi that smells of the driver's cigarettes and Ariana's cinnamony treat.  Ariana looks down at her Gameboy, occasionally pausing to take a bite of her churro then lick the cinnamon from her fingers.  In the process, she elbows Babs in the arm... repeatedly.  She hums along with the catchy 8-bit music as she plays.  Babs peers through the window.  The taxi passes by shop after shop, boutique after boutique, and her eyes grow wider with every one.  "This is my kind of town."

"Don't get too comfortable.  We're not rich enough for midtown," Ariana says without looking up from her game.

"I can admire," Babs says.

The cab comes to a halt a bit later and the driver has the bunch get out.  Richard pays the man and they walk into the hotel.  Soon they're in their room.  "Well, this is nice," Richard says, looking around at the cream white walls and art deco style of the suite.

Ariana rushes to the window.  "If the hotel search was right... There is!  There's a comic store across the street!" Ariana squeals, looking through the window.  "And a game store!" Ariana squeals again.  Alley cats meow back at her and she looks down at them.  "Uh... sorry!"  Then she pulls her head inside and shuts the window before dropping her bags on a bed and rushing towards the door.

"Uh oh. Geeksplosion Alert," Babs says.  "Everybody hit the deck.

"Tomorrow, Ari," Richard says.  "It's been a long trip and the rest of us are tired."

"Yeah. Rest up. Gonna go check it out. Later!" Ariana says before bolting.

Babs stares at Richard with an arched eyebrow and her hands on her hips, shaking her head.  "Mm mm mm. Poor man can't even control his little sister."

"You show me one man on Earth who could control that."

"Your father."

"Bribes aren't control," Richard sighs.  "I suppose she'll be fine.  Superhero, after all.  I'm more worried that she left us alone in New York than vice versa."

How was it that he was back here so soon after that debacle that was that undercover mission involving illegal weapons distribution and superpowered gangsters and other stuff? John was disappointed, very disappointed. This wasn't fair, and shouldn't be happening. Okay, overdramatic much. It was all that one guy's fault for all that stuff he did. Plus he had been given false information and didn't have enough time to prepare. Granted they messed up some of those operations a bit, but they were still going. New York just didn't feel like the place that he had once lived in, and he didn't want to be here.

Walking through the parts of the city where the streets have no name, John didn't have a destination in mind. No seriously, the streets didn't have names. This part of the city wasn't active yet. Funny since it was located right next to one of the more active areas. There were some events happening a few blocks from here. Maybe he should check those out. Yeah, John decided to do that.

About half an hour later, John was in a game store and playing on one of the old arcade machines with some people. They were playing Turtles in time and he was playing as Donatello. The four of them were all complete strangers to each other, and despite that worked well as a team. They would eventually beat the game and then consider going to eat lunch together just to celebrate. Maybe that would, maybe it wouldn't. It depended on various things. One such thing being what would happen next.

There is always something fun to do in New York. Considering that now I have been improving my skills as a Metahuman, as well as gaining tools and weapons for me to use. Walking down the street, I had a side strap book bag on with a sword that had been sheathed on the back. It was ready to be drawn, and seeing as how others were looking at me with weird looks. A guy carrying around a sword was not really a good sign. Nor was the fact that his eyes looked a little darker than normal. A Dark blue that could only be slowly darkening by the powers that consumed him.

I was becoming stronger. And in the process, was becoming darker. I could feel the energy in my veins. Storing much more energy than before. Stopping, I looked around. Wondering why I felt like someone was watching me. That eerie feeling like someone, or something was right behind you. Watching you. And yet it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

This is not good.

Looking around, I could see people were watching me. Yet none of them felt weird or off. I looked around. Using my eyes alone, or turning my head, even turning around. And looking up to the rooftops to see if anybody was watching me from there. I raised my hand and put the grip firmly in my grasp. Ready should I have to fight anyone. Yet after a second, it was gone. I let it go, and moved on. Wondering what in the world it was. Only to turn to my left, and seeing a video game shop. I smiled and shook my head.

It had been a long time since I have played games. I walked up and down the isles. Looking at old games I used to play, sequels of ones I had when I was a child, and even new ones. One looked rather interesting though. it was about some guy that got powers and had to learn how to control them. And throughout the game, you could make decisions about being good or evil. I smiled and put the game down to look at a few more.

Nɇaroviin’s time in the human world had been a short one but he was already beginning to enjoy it. Sure, the one time he had made a friend, it had been in the middle of a fight, that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy himself during the whole thing. Collecting clothes, now that was the annoying part but he did manage to find somewhere he could ascertain them, granted it was seemingly frowned upon in human society to take something without that green paper humans carried around with them. Still, with the comfortable jeans and a simple striped muscle shirt, he was more than happy with himself now. Still, these large cities always had a foul smell about them that he could not quite place. Just one sniff, and already he could smell the many reasons why he would not want to live in one of these cities, especially when he could enjoy the sanctuary of his colony much better.

The air there was fresher, especially around The Dream. Still, here he was enjoying human society for all it was worth, people walking around him without a single suspicion about what he truly was. It was nice, this walking and for a moment he was just enjoying himself. That being until he saw a rather familiar looking face with some manner of weapon on his back, a sword if he remembered what they were called. They were a friend of his, one he had fought unknown people with, one of them that reeked of blood. His eyes followed the guy as he walked into a strange building full of displays of little boxes and cartridges with designs on them.

”Fancy meeting you here.” He would say with a smirk, wondering what Xander was doing these days. Not like he had better things to do with his days.

Ariana practically flies across the street and through the doors of the video game store after checking out the comic book shop.  She stops in the doorway and looks around in awe. The place is huge and filled with not just games, but all manner of game-related paraphernalia. Her jaw hangs open and her eyes are wide as saucers.  "Oookay. Heaven. This is heaven."  She marches into the aisle directly in front of her and makes her way down the rest of them before stopping at an old Galaga Cabinet and popping in a quarter to play.  

Several minutes later, Ari not only beats the high score, but she's still playing.  But something odd happens in the game and it glitches as the entry bell rings. Ariana steps away from the cabinet, feeling some sort of light buzzing sensation. As if something was pulling at her, atom by atom.

As she walks back through a couple of the aisles, she stops in one, looking over a few older games. The buzzing gets stronger.  She looks around. At the end of her aisle is the guy who'd walked in before. Someone else walks into the store and begins chatting him up. "Weird," she says, returning to her browsing.

The fact that John didn't know who any of these other kids were and that they didn't even know each other either mattered not one bit at the moment. They were just enjoying hanging out after having worked together to beat Turtles in Time, a pretty difficult game. As they were planning on playing through the game again, this time as different characters, when John briefly stopped paying attention to look around the shop.

He didn't remember this place being here from before and it was pretty big for a game shop. Quite a few people in here too. Some were just walking around, others were buying stuff, and a few were playing some of the arcade games that were available just like he had been doing. He also noticed that several people were all keeping an eye on two weird looking guys in the back, probably because one of them was carrying around a sword. He also looked kind of familiar and, oh dammit, it was that guy again. Somebody whom he was hoping to not have to see again was right here in the same store. What was even worse was that John had been undercover as his civilian self during that mission where he ran into that guy and so he might recognize him too. "Well this is just wonderful. Can I leave now?" he thought.

John was trying to remain unnoticed for the most part since he had noticed what else was going on in here. Things like one of the employees here making a phone call all while keeping a close eye on the guy with the sword. Seems like people around here are extremely cautious of those that were carrying around weapons. Makes sense due to what's been happening lately. If he had to guess, they were calling in whatever currently counted as law enforcement in this city nowadays. Isn't that like the military or something right now? This could turn into quite the mess. Come to think about it, he wasn't supposed to be in this city either. John didn't have clearance and would get in trouble if he were caught.

Minutes later, as he was leaving he saw some guys in security outfits entering the store. Yeah, something was about to happen, he just knew it. That something was probably going to be something really bad. That's what John thought, and that's why he would hurry off to somewhere else as stuff happened inside the shop.

Looking at the case. I flipped it around, and smiled just a little before I heard a familiar voice. Turning to look at Chris. I smiled a little as I saw him. His comment of meeting me here seemed more formal than just two friends meeting up. Turning to him instead of the video games. Offering him my hand as a greeting, I wondered if he still wanted to learn about how humans operated on a social, and cultural level. Seeing as how he was a Were-alien, he needed much to learn about before he could be considered even close to a Citizen of the Earth. Though, I couldn't judge. He was doing rather well for someone who would be ridiculed and treated like a monster by others. Looking back, I thought I had taken it rather well. Despite this, My smiled widened as I spoke.

It's been awhile friend. How has life been holding up for you?

But I had to stop myself. I looked behind my friend to see someone get up. At first I didn't think about who it was. Until the man looked at me. I had seen his face before I think. Something familiar. I looked past him and then shook my head. Speaking before the alien could answer.

Excuse me for a moment.

Walking after the man, there were a number of security guards that I shoved past. Making comments about watching where I was walking. Trying to reach for the man before he left into the crowd.

Hey, Stop. Where you going?

Something was up. Why would I see this man again? and here of all places? All while hearing behind me the Security guards telling me to stop as well. Since well, a sword was visible on my back.

One could say that Nɇaroviin was pretty pleased with seeing that friend of his, and he was pretty happy. People were still walking about, not really giving them too much attention beyond a glance. ”Life has been pretty good. I’m still learning but I guess there’s still a lot to learn.” He responded more falling into a small diatribe than paying much attention to anything around him. Xander stated something about needing a moment, before walking off leaving Nɇaroviin who would then just begin to look around at the people that were playing video games.

Approaching one of the old arcade machines, he would begin to play around with the few buttons on the board. Despite what he had seen from the other people getting a response from the machines, it would continue to do what it did. Sadly, he did not quite understand that he needed coins for the game to actually work. He was aware of the security guards walking in, but they weren’t a threat to him, yet anyway.

Ariana watches through the corner of her eye as the weird guy with the sword pursues the other who'd just left.  Security begins following him and she arches an eyebrow.  Once he's farther away, her game begins working again.  So much for my hopes that that weirdo was just a really bad Cloud cosplayer. Ariana looks around for a moment before dipping out.  Once she hits the crowd, she vanishes into thin air, following closely behind.  Let's hope things don't get too exciting. Still. Rather something happen with this one than that other guy, I guess. He gave me the creeps.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." John thought once he saw that he had been noticed. So much for sneaking out undetected. He had gotten up as the security guards were coming in so he could leave. He wasn't even the only one doing so either. Some others seemed generally a bit concerned due to the guy with the sword and security showing up. They clearly wanted no part of what may happen in the altercation. Neither did John really, and that's why he tried to duck out. The problem was that the guy with the sword not only saw him leaving, but also recognized him. Wasn't that just splendid? Yeah, not at all.

John made one brief turn of his head to look behind him and saw that guy attempting to catch up to him, but it was to no avail. He would disappear into the crowd and lose the person following him. Good thing too, because he was aiming to avoid this guy after all. About a minute or so later, John emerged from the crowd having gotten away from his pursuer, and decided to find a place to hold out for a moment where he could watch what was going on outside the game shop. That Xander guy had gotten far too well acquainted with John. He was not too happy about that. It seemed like it was soon going to be time for him to get acquainted with John's other self, depending on what happens next.