At least I'm not in Canada anymore. (Humanity and Withdrawl)

So they would be able to come, that was pretty good. Not too often he actually got to entertain guests at his own home, granted these two were basically the only people interested in coming over anyway. Not that he was meaning to complain, but the thoughts leapt to his mind unbidden either way. ”Awesome, see you then.” Pat said with a semi-pleased tone before hanging the phone up, glancing at it for a moment before licking his lips. How long it would take them to get here now was the question, though he had a feeling that Luke knew where he lived well enough. Unless they did not, then he would likely have to explain how they got here and that was not one of his strong suits. Granted, Pat didn't consider himself to have too many strong suits to begin with, due to one thing or another. Unfortunately  his lacking self esteem did not allow for anything like that.

Moving around his living room much like a busy bee, Pat would pick up a few things to make sure the room was clean enough, throwing some trash away and even picking things up that had fallen onto the floor. Empty botles and containers found themselves in the trash rather quickly, with enough time for them to arrive with a knock at the door. With small nod, he would walk over from the small trashcan in the kitchen to the front door and opened it enough to peer through, looking upon Luke with a smirk. ”hey! Come on in.” He said opening the for more and motioning for the male to come in before motioning for Matt to do the same. He had seen the male, and hoped they would be willing to join in on the video game playing. It would have been fun really, and to be able to talk to his friends was always fun.

”So whats been up with you two?” He asked more conversationally than anything else, the game in question already on the character select screen with all of the characters already unlocked due to diligence from a certain Pat. It was nice to have a full roster to pick from anyway. Plopping down on the couch, his legs crossed over each other once and then twice, making them look like long pale pretzels with hair covering them.

Luke noticed Matt didn't leave the car right away, likely due to his choice of words when telling him about Pat wanting them to come over. He knew Matt was particular about words sometimes, but surely he didn't think he would be unwanted by Pat of all people. Luke waved for him to come in just as Pat had, and that they did, moving inside the apartment.

So Lukas was now on the couch, looking over the games title screen and it's characters. It looked fun enough, but his mind was in other places. He ended up starting a game anyway, likely with Pat, so they would begin fighting. Luke chose some character named Index, seemed to be some kind of goth kid with techno powers, weird but kinda cool. He ended up losing focus as his mind wondered, probably allowing himself to get his ass kicked. Not that he already wasn't considering his broken fingers. He wanted to talk, he really did, but how to go about it. Luke sighed, then moved close and shut the system off after the match ended.

"Alright, we need to talk." Luke said before returning to his seat. He would have to fill Pat in a bit more, but he would get to the point.

"I woke up in Canada today, like, seriously. I thought i was dropped in some kind of movie. I don't remember anything....... And yeah, i know, its crazy, but that's not the kicker." Luke said before getting his laptop out and opening it, dim screen flashing to life with a picture of Travis and Chris Masters together on the screen.

"You both are going to think i'm insane, but....well, ever since that talk we had, the one at taco bell, I've been doing it, i went out and i tried to be a vigilante, for real." Luke said, pausing to allow that to sink in. Really, he had no idea what his friends would think of that, and for obvious reasons left out the bit about actually trying to kill someone.

"All i know is i was going after this guy, Travis Masters. Literally, i remember my computer screen then boom, woke up in Canada." Luke said. This was just so many different kinds of fucked up it wasn't even funny, but he was doing the right thing, right? It was better he told someone, his friends especelly.

"Not too much. You?" He asked in return, offering as little explanation as he could while still being polite enough to answer the question. Pat was likely used to the response and probably wrote it off as he simply had a boring life, if he didn't then every time Matt DID answer him fully he would have likely realized that his life was boring. It was a bunch of nothing. It was the dead parent's dead brother syndrome that led to isolation. Of course his father wasn't dead and neither was his little brother...but they weren't there anymore. Alone, just as he had always been. It sucked, but it was the game of life. What else could you want from a free game? It was pay to win baby. Welcome to America...an Aristocracy disguised as Democracy. All too many dark and deep thoughts running through his head as his mind wandered to the things he missed most, ignoring the 2 player video game until it was his turn to take the losers controller. Then he'd probably pick Monarch, Halloween or Gozmer and troll the Hell out of the winner. That ended up not happening though...

Index versus Amzu was a good fight, until it wasn't. He didn't expect Pat to lose, Pat was more focused on the game than the fact his friend had bandaged hands. He wanted to laugh, just because that was the person Pat was. Horribly different than himself, but then again if his friends were more like him...he'd have put a bullet in their heads long ago. As expected he took note of how Pat had a fully unlocked roster, despite the several tedious challenges and multiple play throughs required, he took note of the surroundings and how they were. The scrutiny wasn't for judgment purposes, but was instead to simply read the environment. He wanted to see how things had been. He NEEDED to see how things had been. It was so engrained in his daily life that reading people and reading situations was easier than reading a text message. Like the one he sent earlier, those were the WORST to read...but he had to force himself into that habit, it made things inconspicuous and it made people going over his phone records less suspicious when they saw numbers replacing phonetic similarities. Being a vigilante wasn't an overnight change or decision, and most dumbasses didn't understand that. This was an entire lifestyle change. You had to eliminate you habits, yet resume them when you took off the mask. You needed to slowly adapt yourself in your social media, monitoring everything you post. He even had to go out and forsake his beloved glasses for contacts, ones that compensated for his sight in the few occasions that he needed glasses AND to fix the identifying mark of his freakish eyes. It was maddening sometimes, but to Humanity...no... he wasn't Humanity. To Matt....making a difference mattered. Even if he didn't.

The bombshell was dropped, and his mouth dropped, his left eyebrow jumping up as his eyes widened. A little "eh" slipped through as he looked at his friend as if he were crazy. Well in reality what was going through his head was No way. You don't say. I would never have guessed. This is insane. You're crazy. Stop. Being a vigilante isn't the answer. It was all a joke... except in the "Ben Stein" monotone and emotionless droning in his head with some amusement. He looked to Pat to see if they were joking with him, but it didn't seem to be so.

"Lu-Motherfucker! DUDE!! That's insane! Like -yeah- okay I get it we were all angry and Stephen brought it up but...I said it then and I'll say it again: It's insane!" He tried to plead to his friend's sense of reason more than anything else. Granted Luke was a struggler, and he knew that his pleas would likely fall upon deaf ears. He couldn't help but think that Luke wanted some support...some acceptance or whatever. But that just wasn't how this worked...even if he did support him mentally. "You seriously...you think you went after Travis Masters? What did he ever do to you? Helped cure cancer- that's already cured by others! Why not kill them? He might've fed some homeless people? Besides you're going after TRAVIS MASTERS! You act like you've never seen Batman. That moment when Morgan Freeman says "You think that your client, one of the richest men in the world dresses up as a superhero at night and beats criminals to a pulp with his fist...and you want to blackmail this person?" THAT'SA THIS MOMENT!!!!" He snapped, seemingly paranoid or mentally distressed somehow.

Matt shot up and began to pace, taking his beanie off and running his hands through his hair, taking deep breaths, seeming to try and calm himself down. he continued to mutter about how he was now an accessory an how he had knowledge and how he couldn't report it but he didn't want to go to jail, of course in his mind all he could imagine was this moment on a silver screen for a movie and then suddenly this image scrolling across the screen to represent his true, most inner thoughts. He was obviously the guy on the left, what was his name? Homie Wand? Obi Kahn? Obiconn? Whatever.... the point was still the same...

Pat welcomed both into his home with semi-open arms, letting them get comfortable and pick out the character they planned to use on his new game. A day or two was wasted earning all of the characters, but then again he found it a worthwhile thing to do in the long run if it meant they could just enjoy the day. Negative thoughts  like water trickling through a persons fingers seemed to fade for the moment as his eyes followed Luke who picked one of the characters form the game. Perhaps one of the characters he had the hardest time mastering, though he did finally notice that Luke's hand was bandaged for some reason. He might have asked, but then again that might have been seen as prying, or him being nosy for some reason. Sure he was worried, but then again it might have been just his own stupid hesitance that prevented him from asking.

The first fight was Amzu vs Index, which was a pretty good fight a far as abilities were both concerned but then again he sucked at using them both. He much preferred characters like that one that turned into a dragon, the finishing move was just so damn fun to watch. Also with the whole destructive background, well watching buildings tumble down like matchsticks was just too much fun. Why superhero comics were still popular in a world of superheroes was unknown, but then again they were still fun to read. However the fun times were blown out of the water once something was mentioned by Luke, something about Travis Masters and going after him. This caused his eyes to widen greatly as he looked to his friend, almost horrified. That was that humanitarian guy that was doing all of the good stuff, right? He looked to Matt who seemed to have the same shocked look on his face.

Granted, he too was doing the vigilante thing, but he had a feeling that tell Matt...might have not been the best idea. It was insane, but then again he never claimed to be sane anyway. ”I gotta agree with Matt on this one Luke. That's just….crazy.” He said with a nervous chuckle. ”I mean what the hell were you thinking? That's probably why your fingers are fucked up too, isn't it?” He said with a slight frown, appearing now more than he was unable to sit still, fingers flexing, tapping on things while he anxiously licked his lips.

Annnd there it was. The disapproval and the whole 'that's insane' crap. Luke had expected it, but maybe not to this degree. From the conversation they had before everyone there seemed to at the very least think it wasn't totally insane. Luke did realize how fucked up it was, but he felt someone had to do SOMETHING. Matt began to pace, mumbling about how he was now involved. Luke honestly hadn't seen this side of his friend. Matt didn't seem like a guy worried about jail or anything like that. Did he honestly think Luke was some criminal? Maybe, maybe not. Really he wanted to justify his actions, but he was never good at the whole speaking out thing. Pat asked about his hands, and yeah he was right, at least Luke thought that's how it happened, it wasn't like he recalled.

"Oh come on guys! You can't tell me you didn't consider it. I feel like I'm actually doing something. I know it was stupid, but I'm trying to figure out why the hell i don't remember anything. You think this guy like.....i don't know, wiped my memory? He has the means." Luke said, trying to move the subject a little off the whole vigilante thing. Really the priority was why he had lost memory, not the fact he had been going out and shooting people with explosive paintballs. At this point he felt a bit ashamed, he knew why he did it, but he was upset that his friends didn't see it and even mentioned turning him in.

"Of course we didn't! It was the twins just blowing off steam and making jokes about what would happen! The whole thing is stupid! You gotta-...Oh my God. I- I need to talk to someone. I...uuugh. Okay...Calm down Matthew. Just calm... I'm gonna...I'm gonna go call someone and I'm gonna just...talk. I need away from this stupidity." He said before frantically making his way for the door, slamming it behind him while leaving Luke and Pat to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. He wasn't stupid, but he actually had to wonder if anyone else had started on a vigilante kick. Pat was far too timid, shy and reserved. Passive aggressive rather than full-blown aggressive. If he went out to be a vigilante he wouldn't be a threat to him at all. Luke was believable. No purpose to life, struggling to find a reason to continue on with his life other than just the usual nine to five of every other worthless scumbag on this planet. In that light too though there was Pat who was equally as hopeless and the twins too.

His mind began to race as he sat there and put the phone up to his ear. He let out an exhale as he saw a car pull into the driveway of the house across the street. With a head cocked to the side he couldn't help but notice that the second the door opened there was quite literally nothing but water pouring out, as if the entire car had been filled to the top. "Hey, what's up?" The voice was unheard as his attention was fixated upon the water-filled car. A strange light blue skinned figure stepped out and looked around, spotting Matthew and waving. Matt was so confused and perplexed that he reached up and waved back at the anthropomorphic aqualite as they popped their trunk and took in several bags of groceries.

"YO! You there? Butt-dialed me?" His attention was ripped back to his phone, insomnia was a bitch and seemed to be really taking hold of him by this point. "Hey dude, I just uh...I wanted to make sure you got my text. I feel...really bad that I can't be there." his tone was sincere and sympathetic. "You know I love you brotha. I'll see you as soon as you need me." He added, a single second of silence before there was a long drawn out sigh.

"Yeah. It's cool. I got it." He said. Matt smirked and let out a sigh himself. "Bye brotha." "Later, dickhead." Matt just chuckled. That was his friendships though. Full of secrets and codes. For example, back when Matt had his family prominently in his life, he'd occasionally use some code words with his friends that mean to change the entire meaning of a sentence. In this case "You know I love you" really means "help me out here." Then "as soon as you need me" is a reference to having to fly a great distance, which was something he had to do when his friend needed him. From there it was obvious. Essentially he was saying. "Help me out. Flight." and then he had said about the text message, which contained a series of numbers. The flight number to be exact. A little research went a long way. Now he could properly rejoin his little group.

Pat and Luke had enough time at this point to do whatever they needed to do while Matt pretended to care and seemed like he cooled off. "Look...I can support you through anything but...guys I dunno... This isn't safe, this isn't smart. There's metahumans everywhere and they can do virtually anything. You wonder why you can't remember anything? I'll bet a metahuman is why." He said, trying his damndest to be the logical one of the group and steer his friends away from his lifestyle. "Seriously. I don't wanna have to bury more friends because of crazy ass meta's..." He was more worried than anything else, and the worst part was that it was 100% genuine.

His nervousness to an extent was legitimate, he had found himself worried about Luke and his vigilante kick. The idea of losing a friend to some metahuman was not something that he relished and it was likely he would in this world of metas. So his slight amount of fidgeting, well it would go unnoticed considering it was just the nervous habit he had developed. Still, not like he could risk having Matt know anything about that, unless of course they already knew. There was that whole reading thing, made keeping secrets a lot harder than they had to be. If he didn't know any better, he would have assumed that he was some kind of telepath and the reading thing was just a lie to cover that up. Matt was freaking out and within a few seconds he sort left, leaving them alone within his home. This gave Pat a chance to take a deep breath, running a few fingers through his hair as he turned to Luke.

”Well..that happened.” Pat then noted with an awkward chuckle, sighing as he scratched the side of his head. ”Now, that we have that out of the picture I can talk more...plainly.” His tone suggested that...well he was more than anything going to reveal something. ”You could say I began to do the whole vigilante thing myself, I mean i'm not going after any people like Travis masters but I have gone out a night or two.” he began to explain in his usual roundabout manner, tapping fingers against his thighs while looking to Luke as if expecting some level of understanding. How long it would take Matt to cool off he did not know, but that probably left them a good five minutes at the most. ”Didn't mean to jump on you but...I guess I just don't want to worry a friend, ya know?” He continued while offering a small smile.

”I'd be willing to talk more about it right now but...ya know. We all have our secrets. So i'll call ya later or whatever to talk about it.” Sighing he heard the door open and  shifted back into the seat, sure that he couldn't have been heard from that distance. ”Woah woah woah, whats with this you guys business? It's just him, i'm not involved with this vigilante business.” Pat protested with a roll of the eyes. ”I may be a sad sack but i'm not suicidal.”

Ok, now Luke felt like he was insane. Maybe he was, even so that didn't make him feel any better. The fact his friend was acting like he was so stupid hurt him more then he showed, but maybe it was a wake up call. If Matt of all people reacted in such a way maybe this was crazy. Maybe he was a dumbass for trying to go take on the world, alone and with nothing but a handgun and a bag of shit.

"M-Matt! Hold on...and he's gone." Luke said, upset about the whole thing. He thought these two would be more understanding, after all he had know them for like, three or four years now. To think that they could just up and call him stupid and crazy like this hurt Luke, it really did, but maybe they were right. Luke didn't know how long Matt would take to cool off, or even if he would come back, though he didn't seem like one to just up and rage quit. It seemed really out of his character to be doing this, but maybe Luke just didn't know the guy as well as he thought. It appeared him and Pat were left alone to talk now, which was a little odd considering the situation. Some subjects he just wanted to talk to both Zell and Pat about, but then again maybe this time around Pat would be the more understanding one.

The male would go on to reveal he had been going out as a vigilante as well, though likely for a different reason. This shocked Luke really, Pat seemed too shy and passive for such things. But again, you never really knew a person truly. Maybe he should just start expecting the unexpected with these two. Pat offered to talk to him about it all at a later time, which Luke felt was nice. He liked talking to people, venting all that he bottled up in that big ass head of his.

"Well, thanks for that. This is all so crazy i need someone to talk too." Luke said in return. He would respect the fact Pat wanted to keep it from Matt, but why did he tell him? If it was that big of a secret, why trust look not to say anything? Well, maybe he had proven himself to be trust worthy. Either way, it was nice too see someone understood. Eventually Matt would return, presumably after having a talk with whoever he wanted to talk with. Luke knew that taking to someone outside a situation was healthy, so maybe Matt had considered it all and calmed down. He did seem less frustrated, but he continued on to disagree with Luke. Really, mMatt's concerns were real, but Luke didn't care.

"Exactly. Doesn't it piss you off that we have this ever looming threat over the top of us? Anyone, at anytime, could be attacked by a metahuman and subjected to god knows what. Don't you want to change that? As crazy as it sounds, someone needs to make a difference." Luke said, standing up now as the pain in his hands started up again, whether that was becauseo stress or bloodflow he didn't know.

Thank you Patrick for confirming the suspicion of what Matt believed before hand. After two years of being exposed to him, Matt could arguably say he knew more about Pat than Pat knew about himself. He had a tendency to be defensive, but the very particular way he was defensive was pretty much a flashing sign that said "Don't notice I'm lying." To this Matt only sighed and shook his head, not giving Pat the time of day. They wanted to think they had their secrets and that was fine. But his concerns would still be heard, regardless off what they wanted. For now he needed

 "Of course I want to change it. But you don't need to sacrifice your life doing it. Become a cop or something, don't do...what you're doing. I-I'm not judging you. I'm really not I'm just...for the love of God man...Look, I'll help you however I can but... I can't...and I WON'T run off and do something stupid." He concluded. At least he was willing to keep to character and support his friends. As far as he was concerned they were two of the last five people he actually gave half a damn about. These guys were going be the death of him. Walking over with his arms slightly forward, his movements overly predictable, having no semblance of training or finesse he swiped up the remote and turned the channel over to a different source and clicked the news. Fox news to be exact.

   "Look at that. This channels full of it. Totally fair and unbiased." He said with a slight sarcasm in his voice. Just because he was a pretty solid republican didn't mean he wasn't educated and that he didn't do his research. The truth was stretched by the station, even if it wasn't the intended to do so. Ironically they had a film playing that he didn't recognize, but a suit he very much did.

  "You can see nothing but cruel savagery in the way this guy operates. And the way he dresses it's quite clear that he doesn't see the big picture. There are women and children being exposed to his actions." An older man said, a voice that was attention grabbing with the strain and the frustration present but still calm and collected enough to keep his mind together as the reel played. The image on the television was nothing less than a crumbling building and a metahuman with four white wings sent flying out the side, landing on the ground unconscious as the black suited "villain" appeared with a torn and battered up costume, the left eye of the mask being broken up and fractured all the way down to the jaw. Matt tensed up a little at the sight of the destruction.

  "Now this guy, He's called Archangel and he's helped out people more times than we can count. We've seen him volunteering at Haiti, we've seen him getting kids out of burning buildings." Matt let out a deep sigh as he looked to the face of the fallen "Archangel" and listened to a rather pretty woman voice her opinion, because this is Fox and if half the panel isn't female it's not unbiased. "This video of the strange man was captured by a bystander from their cellphone, we've upped the quality but the most disturbing thing about it is that this is the first time they've been seen. The authorities have no record of this person, no sources no leads. They're still out there, armed and extremely dangerous." Matt clicked the television button. There was a lot of problems going on inside him right now, but they were on the back-burner. What he was going through, what he just felt and witnessed. He was trying to save Luke from that...and officially Pat as well.

  "Wanna go to CNN? The BBC? That really flamboyant peacock channel? Each one just has more reasons." He said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair and looking about from behind his glasses. Closing his similar colored eyes, colored contacts being a practice he held since before meeting these two, he shook his head. He was coming around, but as to be expected he was going through an emotional rollercoaster...or that's how he appeared to be. In his mind he was already moved on, thinking and calculating what to do next with a slight anxiety in his chest.

So he had someone else he could work with, but then again the idea of having someone else with him meant even more strenuous planning. Because, well he wasted enough time doing his own planning, but he was sure he could trust Luke to be intelligent enough to contribute in the planning stages of things, though hopefully not more than him. Becoming redundant would have been quite the terrible thing indeed. They could talk later however, not when Matt was around and still doing the whole worried thing that he was doing. There was something about how there were other ways things could be done, but he didn't quite see a career in law enforcement doing anything. In a sense he saw the worth of it, but in the end they would have been bound by the law, and the law was a rather ineffective thing when dealing with the corrupt.  Typically the smart criminals used the law as a shroud to protect them, that was what made the career path useless, only someone who didn't operate within the law could do anything.

The television would be then changed to Fox News, a network full of so much trash that he did not even know if they told truth. ”Yay Fox news.” Pat said with a dull tone and a roll of his eyes. Honestly, he did not even bother with the news most of the times, but it did help when one did the whole vigilante thing. Still, Fox was not a network he could consider worthy of handing out news, well until tonight anyway when they revealed a rather interesting individual. Someone spoke about someone that did not quite care about children or something like that, a rather sucky individual when he thought about it. There was a video on the screen, someone in a black suit with a shattered mask stepping out over the fallen form of a winged individual.

Honestly, they had that villain look to them, and granted that was what he was being painted as. Gears began to turn in his head as he reclined in his chair, trying and mostly succeeding in keeping a straight face. If anything, it would likely be construed as shock at what he  was seeing, granted things were as they were. Perhaps worry over the thought of Luke having to deal with that. ”Yeah, there a lot of bad guys out there. The guy in black, that one chick with the fake tits. Very dangerous.” Pat said with a nod, not quite remembering or knowing names, because well...that would be breaking the fourth wall dammit. ”But I have a feeling changing your mind is not a possibility, doesn't look like it anyway.” He shrugged, with an almost disappointed sigh.