A little bonding [Lucas]

The compound itself was extensive, even if a bit bland for the most part. Ryan never quite understood his father's choice in interior decoration, but then again sometimes he could just be confusing. Aside from his own room there was one place that he much preferred to hang around and that was perhaps the second most spacious section of the compound itself. The sound of flowing water was something that could be heard throughout the entire room, supplied from an artificial stream that recycled itself through it continuously in way that gave the illusion of natural water flow. This was perhaps one of the most colorful room, full of trees, and various plant life arrayed in an almost masterful way meant likely to relax anyone looking for some manner of peace. Ryan say on one of the many benches, playing with a leaf held within his middle and index finger, examining it closely.

With a thought, the leaf found itself being bisected cleanly in the center downwards, falling neatly in each palm. A lot had been on his mind, and something about this place managed to calm him down when nothing else did. Things that he couldn't quite forget and so much more than just that, just coming back to mind over and over again. Frowning slightly, he let the fragments of plant matter flutter into the nearest flow of water to be drawn away. A few of his siblings had been kind enough to try to help him with the nightmares plaguing him lately. A few ideas had been given to him in regards of how to deal with that, but that mostly revolved around facing the source of the problem. Which was also partially why he was here of all places, aside from a desire to just relax and think.

He had contacted Lucas via his hive mind and would let him come whenever he got the time. Until then however, he found himself looking into one of the ponds which were brimming with a large amount of koi fish. This was more of a pet project of Alpha's than anything else, perhaps partially because he liked fish or maybe just something else, but all he liked to do was watch them swim.

Lucas hadn't been feeling well lately. Lucius told him that would pass though, as his body slowly removed the traces of transmutation from his body. His father had come clean about all of it, and honestly the boy forgave him. Lucas never held grudges or was spiteful towards people, and he could see Lucius truly did love him. He was glad for that. When people cared for you it gave your life meaning, and if no one did you might as well not have a life at all.

He felt himself changing a bit, but in a good way. The anger was gone, the urges to be someone he wasn't as well. For once in his short life he felt free to be whoever he wanted to be. He didn't have to be the son of the devil, he didn't have to be the son of Alpha either. He only needed to be Lucas, and that's what he intended to do.

He sat at a desk, looking through a magnifying glass that was attached to a stand so he didn't have to hold it, and painting a small miniature. Yes, he was into all that table top wargaming stuff. But at least he fed into his hobbies, he had the money to after all. Eventually he would be interrupted by a familiar feeling in his head, one he usually boarded from his mind but he had allowed it to pass just this once as he recognized it as Ryan. It seemed his brother wanted to meet down in the agricultural area or whatever it was. Lucas was glad to hear it honestly, Ryan hadn't trusted him much since the whole trying to kill him thing. Not to mention the fumes in his room were taking their toll, so it was probably best to get out of there.

He walked down the long hallways and steps, ear phones stuck in his ears as he was listening to some music. Music itself had been something Lucas had attached himself to since his creation, he loved it and wanted to find as much as he could. What was blaring into his head now was just the latest of his findings. He wore a simple black hoodie with a dark red shirt underneath, along with black pants and Converse. Quite casual, but it was more unique then what most people wore around here. He did some jumping over guard railings and running on his way down, like many kids his age did. Only difference was he didn't get yelled at to stop.

"Stop running!" Oliver said, just as Lucas had that thought. The two exchanged stares, both totally pokerface until Gamma broke the tension with a smile. After that, the two parted and Lucas eventually made it down to the meeting place. He had his hands in his pockets and his hood up, until he removed them and pulled it down, along with the ear buds which he rolled up and pocketed.

"Hey Ryan. What's up?" Lucas said with a smile, taking a seat next to his 'little' brother. Not too close of course, but enough to have a conversation without raising your voice.

Ryan found himself counting each fish, mentally separating them by color more out of boredom than for any real reason. Testing his growing intelligence was something that Ryan found interesting to do. Reaching out, he dipped an index finger into the pond to feel the fish nip at his finger, the sensation tickling him more than anything else. He chuckled to himself, removing the finger before sitting back down on the nearest bench, resting his hands on his knees. It was probably Lucas or someone else, though the former made the most sense. He was made sure of that fact by hearing Lucas speak up. "Hi." He said in his usual soft spoken manner, responding to the smile given with one of his own. While Lucas was dressed in their own fashion, he was dressed in the usual for people living around here, save for the fact that the interior of his hood was a light blue.

As for what was up, he wasn't sure what to give as a response to that. Nothing felt like felt weak, so all he could do was give a second of thought before actually giving an answer. "I was just...thinking to myself." He said, legs swinging slowly over the edge of the bench. "Thought we could, ya know...hang out or something." Well, no one could claim that Ryan was by any means a social butterfly, some could say he was stunted even if Aaron was to be believed. Absently he found himself playing around with one of the strings that hung around from the front of his hoodie, twirling it around his fingers and then letting it unwind. That was when he thought that this room could do with some birds, would've added to the atmosphere in his personal opinion. "That okay?" He probably shouldn't have sounded so unsure, however that was less fear, and more his social ineptitude.

As uncertain as Ryan was, Lucas understood that his brother just wanted to go have some fun. He was likely bored or lonely and wanted to do something, and Lucas was fine with that. What they would do though was the question, as last time they left the facility Lucas nearly killed Ryan and they ended up in a night club. Lucas was a bit more comfortable leaving now that he had experience with that sort of thing and his powers weren't troubling him, but would Ryan?

Suppose it didn't matter, if he wanted to do something, then he would have to be comfortable with it. That or they would need to do something inside the facility, but that was just boring at this point. A few possibilities passed through Lucas' mind before he settled on one. He was thinking about going by himself, but that just seemed sad. He asked Isalia as well, but she seemed to be busy. Looks like this was a great opportunity.

"Yeah, I'm fine with that. We can go to the music awards in Toronto. Everyone's gonna be there, and there's a whole bunch of fun stuff like games and snacks, not just music." Lucas said, holding up two tickets. They were after all a teleport away from Toronto, so this in Lucas' eyes was perfect. The only question was whether Ryan would want to go.

He was nervous but his trepidation felt almost unfounded, or at least that was how he thought of it anyway. However just thinking back he was reminded of what had happened, and that made his hesitation not so unwarranted. Still this was his trying to get over that, so giving into fear would have made the whole thing pointless actually. They produced two tickets, talking about some kind of music awards that were happening in Toronto, reminding him of something that Aaron had been talking about. It could've been the perfect idea for them to bond, with all of the music and food. If the information given towards him was worth anything at the very least but then again it may have just been the idle talk of a Zeta. Reaching up he took one of the tickets, feeling it over for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." He said with a nod, mentally imagining how the whole event would be. Sure, he knew almost nothing about music but any chance to get to know his brother better seemed like it was worth it. How they would get there was a question, but if he remembered teleportation was not outside the realms of possibility. So maybe that was how they would get there, and if that was the case then he would have been fine with that.

Great! Now Lucas had someone to go with. Though he was sure Lucius and maybe even Alpha would be fine with him going alone, given the time to convince them, he really didn't want to. They would totally be cool with the two of them going, in fact he wasn't even going to tell them.......... They would be back before their parents knew where they had gone, right? Right.

"Ok then, Lucius gave me this teleporter thingy, should just take a second to recalibrate it..........annnnd done. Time to go." Lucas said, a smile on his face as he was clearly excited. In an instant the two would be gone in a flash of red light, appearing across the country just outside the concert. All they had to do now was go up to the line and give there tickets to the guy. Lucas had planned on going later as this was going on all day, but Ryan joining him allowed them to go early.

"Where are your parents? Aren't you two a little young to be going to a music awards festival alone?" The bouncer said once they got up there and handed him their tickets, he examined them close as if to see if they was any tampering going on.

"You're completely right, that would be just......crazy. No, our parents are inside and we said we would catch up to them, i forgot my inhaler in the car." Lucas said. The man raised an eyebrow, but eventually seemed to lose interest and just rip off a bit of the pairs tickets and hand the rest back, letting them in and giving them a wristband.

"Eww, why do the wristbands have to be orange?" Lucas asked, mostly to himself as they walked through the halls and into the place where the actual show was going on. Music could be heard, and people were jumping around doing things. Their orange wristbands would also allow them to partake in any of the food stands handing out everything from pizza to tacos to cotton candy. Lucas.....helped himself to all of that plus a chili dog, eating and laughing and cheering to the music he loved.

"This place is awesome!" Lucas yelled over the crowd to Ryan, trying to get a response to see if he felt the same way. Either way, the black haired boy seemed to be having the time of his life.

While externally showing some manner of happiness, Ryan was internally nervous about the whole thing. they were going to an unknown place, and if he knew anything it would have a lot of people there as well. This lead to him being reminded that he didn't really like being around a lot of people. Something about it made him feel nervous, though he couldn't quite explain why that was the case. However, something about this made Lucas happy so he would go along with it. They mentioned that their shared father, the one he had less of a chance to get to know had given him a teleporter and the idea that it could be used was an obvious. A second would go by as his sibling recalibrated things, and then within an instant they would be teleported a great distance to the concert.

The feeling itself was an odd one but he found himself getting over it soon enough. Where they arrived was somewhere else, and when he finally took the time to adjust to it, interest took the place of apprehension. Next came walking up to the line, waiting to give their tickets, Ryan holding his ticket between his thumb and forefinger. The bouncer was believably skeptical, but Lucas had their way of getting them in there. From there, well he found himself amidst a large amount of people as he had expected. Looking down to his wrist, he considered the orange band, and the fact that Lucas was not too fond of the color orange. Not that Ryan was too fond of it, but that was more due to the fact that he didn't really feel anything towards the color at all. The sound of music could be heard and people were jumping around, ecstatic from the look of things.

There was a large amount of food in the stands, and Lucas took to them better than he did actually. To fit in, he decided to buy himself one of those chili dogs and then he would go about eating it because it tasted really good. Well that explained why Zeta loved to eat these, because these were really awesome. "I'm havin some fun." He said, partially to try and not be a sore thumb of any kind.

So Ryan was having fun. That was a good thing, because if he wasn't Lucas would have felt like this was just him dragging his brother along so he could say he wasn't alone. He did want to bond with his 'younger' brother, especelly after what happened at that club, but he didn't know what the kid liked, so he was trying his hardest. At least the whole scared of him thing was mostly over, maybe an actual relationship could form now.

"Awesome! You know theres a huge jumping castle over there? It's not one of those lame ones either. This thing is so cool." Lucas said, nudging Ryan on the shoulder to tell him to follow before scurrying off into the crowd of taller people. Eventually they would get there, and once inside Ryan would see his brother was right. It looked almost industrial, black and grey rather then the usual jumping castle colors, and it was huge. People were getting some serious air in here, and Lucas wondered how they weren't breaking their necks.

"Woah! Let's go!" Lucas said, laughing and running into the castle, jumping wildly. From outside, a man watched the two, his face hidden under a hoodie. He had a cell phone up to his ear.

"The targets have been located." The man said in a raspy, deep voice. What the dude wanted with the kids, well that was anyone's guess. But i assure you it wasn't for pedo stuff.

Lucas went on, seemingly having more fun than he was here. Which in a sense was something that he liked, that his brother was having fun. It was much easier to try to form a relationship with someone when you aren't deathly afraid of them. Sure, the music playing wasn't exactly his favorite thing but then again not as if music alone could ruin a day. Unless of course it could for some people and he just wasn't one of those people. That was when attention was brought to a bouncy castle, a pretty big one at that. Lucas nudged him before running off, Ryan blinking a couple of times before running off after him. Ducking and weaving, he made his way through the crowd of taller people until he reached what looked to be the jumping castle, though it wasn't as colorful as one would expect.

Maybe they were going for the gritty look, which was fine. Following the lead of his older brother, Ryan ran into the castle which...was pretty bouncy. Very bouncy in fact, but that only ended up with him butting into someone else. It didn't hurt him really, thanks to Ryan being so hard head but that wasn't always the case with people that weren't him. Luckily the person only seemed to have a minor head injury, indicated by them rubbing their forehead. "Ow, watch where ya goin." They said, though they were laughing rather than irritated like he expected. Now that he had a good look, they were different than the people he was used to seeing, granted all of his siblings were more of the fair skinned sort. This kid was around his age, but tan with a head of dark brown hair.  

"I'm sorry." He said rather quickly.

"Nah, it's fine. We're all just havin fun, right?" Their manner of acting reminded him of Aaron, except...well they weren't Aaron but they weren't mean so that at least put him at ease to an extent. Helped to his feet, despite him being the one that knocked the other male over Ryan resumed the whole jumping thing. Lucas wasn't wrong, he was having fun.

Eventually, the man would walk into the jumping castle, trying to look not creepy. There were other adults in here sure, but he just stuck out as 'dude that will rape every kid in here'. Though he wouldn't be here for long, so it didn't matter. He first walked up to Lucas, whacking him up side the head while no one was looking, then made it look like he was trying to help the boy.

"Oh, god! He's out cold! Best to get him to the medics." The man said, picking the downed boy up. He then made it a point to pass by Ryan, sending out a mental message as he did.

"Follow me and act concerned for your brother, if you don't, I'll slit his throat right here." The voice boomed out to any psychic that was nearby, but unfortunately, this was mystical in nature and locked down. Ryan wouldn't be able to send it through the hivemind. In fact, he wouldn't be able to use it when near this man.

As soon as they got away from the party, the man would touch Ryan on the shoulder, and they would disappear to somewhere else entirely. They would be in a medieval dungeon, locked behind bars of energy that buzzed not unlike Lucius' power. Though it clearly wasn't that. This place was fully immune to the effects of Ryan's energy, mostly due to the fact the floor and entire room was shielded with energy in direct contrast to his, though it wouldn't burn the boy's, or anything organic, only keep them out.

"Now sit tight, my master will be pleased to see we finally have our prize." The man said before walking off. At this moment, Lucas would come to, looking at Ryan with slight pain and a bit of confusion.

"R-ryan? What.....what happened?" Lucas said, rubbing his head and looking around. This was not the concert.....

Things were fun for the most part, but creepy pedos always had to ruin things. This time by both knocking Lucas out and then threatening to give them a new opening in their neck. This turned fun into something else entirely, as he turned to the one that had sent him the mental message. His eyes narrowed as they focused upon the person, acting as if they were trying to help his siblings but it was far from the case. That was when he realized that his hivemind had stopped working altogether, meaning that he couldn't all for help, because that was what they needed right now. With no other option, Ryan had to go along with the creep and found himself being teleported into what looked to be some manner of medieval dungeon, waiting for their probably creepy master.

Something about this place made contacting anyone else impossible, meaning that all he could do was sit down. Eventually Lucas would be up, asking what had happened. "Some creep kidnapped us." He said, crossing his arms over his chest and sitting cross legged on the floor. "Dunno if I can break us out." He said, sending a small pulse of telekinesis at the wall, only t find it...rebound back at him directly in the face. Considering the force put behind it, there was enough force to break his nose but that was about it. Resting with back against the floor, Ryan seemed shocked more than anything else. "Ow." He said nose already beginning to repair itself as his eyes themselves began to water up.

"W-why does this stuff.........always happen to us?" Lucas said, holding his head still and looking around. He was slightly whimpering from the blow to his head, without his powers, pain hurt. He looked around and saw that they were totally helpless in getting out. They were right wherever these creeps wanted them.

"Can you call Lucius? Or Alpha?" Lucas asked. He didn't know about the whole block out thing, so, yeah. Either way, they were stuck here.

Sanctuary
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Alpha would get an alert from Lucius telling him to teleport to Sanctuary. Lucius had several topics of concern you see, and needed to talk face to face. He was in his office just outside his lab on the very top of the underground fortress. It was a nice room, with elegant woods and plush red furniture, as well as a huge desk with papers all over it and an out of place, massive, holographic computer. The man would wait in the room, a glass of scotch in his hand. Last time they had a private talk he strangled the kid, he hoped this would go better.

"I dunno actually." Ryan admitted, crossing his arms over his chest, now ignoring the pain within his nose as he tried to ascertain how he could get out of there. Since his powers weren't working to his advantage, well that meant that he would need to use that brain of his. "I already tried, but...something's blockin me. Probably the creepy guys doing that." He answered, then said out loud unconsciously wiping the blood from under his nose. There had to be some way they got out of here if they couldn't rely on their parents to break them out.
--

Alpha's day was busy as usual when he got the notification from Lucius, requesting to see him in his office of all things. The fact they needed to talk face to face  made Alpha more curious than anything else, so he would see what they wanted. I hope it's not to throttle me again. That doesn't really get fun no matter how many times it happens. He thought to himself, stepping into Lucius' office, taking in everything around him before letting his eyes fall on Lucius. Overall the room was well furnished, but that wasn't the important topic. "You needed to talk with me about something?" He asked, taking himself a seat.

An armored man would make his way down the hallways of the dungeon, arriving at the boy's cell with a look of surprise. He didn't think that mook had it in him to get them both so swiftly. As much as he didn't like the guy, he deserved some kind of pay increase for that.

"Well well, i didn't think that sap had it in him. But that's not what matters now. I....apologize for the theatrics however. You're here as guests, not prisoners." The man said. In that instant, the shields went down. That meant this guy was just that confident he could keep them restrained, or he was hoping the two would just not attack him. Considering the fact Ryan was the only one with powers though, either way wouldn't be an issue.

"Let's go upstairs, i have some friends that would like to meet you."

-----------------------

Lucius smiled when Alpha came in, and stood as any gentlemen would. Unfortunately this wasn't to have a friendly chat with his fellow Rise head, sooner or later business had to come and Lucius had a feeling Alpha wasn't going to like it.

"Have a drink. It's the finest scotch on the continent." Lucius said, sipping his own beverage and then gently placing it on the table in front of him.

"Travis Travis Travis, what am i to do with you? I may not be a saintly business partner, but i have a distaste for a lack of communication. It tells me, well, you didn't want me to know." Lucius said after turning around in his rotating chair and then back to face Alpha. He pierced him with his eyes. Travis knew what he did. But then again, maybe he didn't, that or didn't care. In the end he had done plenty of things to warrant him being here.

"I'll start out with the minor stuff. What were you doing hunting down the vigilante Drifter? You know, he has allies i would not want to deal with. Humans as they may be they are a pain in the neck. Besides, i had mercenaries on him already. No need to get your hands dirty. I suppose what's being asked here is......why did you not even bother to check with Hector to see if i had a file on him? So sloppy and amateurish. " Lucius asked. In truth this was the minor thing, but he was just poking around, seeing how the kid would react to this before the worse part came.

One of the mooks would appear before them, a strange man in strange clothing. Ryan glared at them, making himself a sort of mental barrier to protect Lucas more than anything else. He couldn't trust these creeps, especially when they went with the whole throat slitting threat. His eyes darted from the man to Lucas, chewing on his lower lip nervously."I didn't know people kidnapped guests." He noted, more confused by their wording than anything else. "but you're going to make us go with you if we don't agree, aren't you?"  
--

Travis looked down at the drink offered to him. "No thank you." He said politely, not forgetting manners regardless of what this was about. He wasn't quite feeling a drink, and drinking was just something that didn't feel right. It was then they began to talk, as if he were a student that had disappointed them in fashion. That was enough to make him smirk, tinterlacing his fingers as he would listen to what they said. Perhaps this had something to do with what he had done, or maybe it was something minor.It appeared that Lucius wanted to talk about something, though how important he would find out."I don't want you to know or I don't consider it important enough for you to know." He said with a shrug. Not as if his life needed to be micromanaged by Lucius whenever he made a move.

They then mentioned Lukas, or Drifter as they wanted to call themselves. They looked at him with eyes that suggested he was trying to see right through him. "That's an interesting statement coming from you Lucius. Sloppy and amateurish. If I remember correctly, it was you who destroyed a large section of New York in your misguided rage to kill a certain A.P.E.X. A failed attempt might I add." Alpha noted with a slightly amused tone. "The human made this personal when they tried to kill me, once again when they came after my family. Forgive me if I prefer to do personal things personally rather than sending some hitman. However, I have a feeling this is more than just my fiasco with the vigilante." He responded, cutting to the heart of the matter.

"What major issue do you have with me?"