Lenny sipped the remainder of his coffee, before tossing it into the plastic blue trash bin he had been leaning on. As usual, the arcade was buzzing with life. To his left, there were two younger boys playing a Jurassic Park game nearly as old as Lenny, rapidly firing at dinosaurs with plastic rifles. Further, there was a couple laughing wildly as they played a game of DDR, missing most of the arrows on the screen. There were youths of all ages at concession stands, air hockey, and plastic motorbikes of driving games. 

Closest to him, two girls were playing Tekken, both fighting with the bear characters. He had offered to take the winner ten minutes ago, but they had played round after round, and didn't plan on sharing their game with some creepy ginger.

There was a new game near the corner that Lenny had been watching. At a steep five-dollars-a-life fee, players would swing a sword attached by a cord at the hilt, and fight waves of ninjas. Like the others, it had a two player option for taking turns.

[i]Why are all of these for two people?[/i] Lenny thought to himself. Truth be told, he had been watching the others play for a half hour, secretly waiting for someone to announce something like "Hey, I need another player for this." Unfortunately for him, he was probably the only person at the arcade who came alone. He didn't have any money, but he had an 'Eezee-Pass', a card that could be exchanged for tokens, which could be swiped at a game instead of money.

Lenny grunted, and made his way out of the arcade, putting his gloves and hat back on. He winced at the cold wind for a moment, before burying most of his face in the neck of his jacket, and advancing through the cold.

Lenny would pull his phone out of his pocket every few minutes, checking to see if the girl from the coffee shop had texted him. He didn't know the first thing about being an electrician, but figured having energy-based powers would be enough. Appliances, on the other hand, he was fairly skilled with. Mostly computers, which Lenny spent most of his time on, but he knew his way around a phone too.

His phone vibrated, and Lenny's hand shot into his pocket.

[i]sup fggt[/i]

God damn it. Creed. Before he could respond, Creed messaged him again.

[i]iron eagles meeting ovr. pick u up were at?[/i]

Lenny texted him back quickly, still unsure if he'd be wandering the city for longer.

[i]I'lll walk home today[/i]

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud crash. It took a second for it all to register to Lenny, as he wasn't exactly used to processing all the information of a car crash in an instant. There were blaring alarms in the distance, but all too soon for it to be an ambulance. The only cars he knew that carried alarms were used by cops, or NEST.

He took off running, following the few others who went to go see the commotion. He turned a corner blindly, with great leaping bounds. His skinny frame might not've helped him attract girls, but he would've made a great track runner. Sprinting down the block, he eventually turned the corner once more to see the scene of the crash.

There was a NEST truck nearly embedded in the railing of a wire fence. A few people had already gotten out of their cars, when he began to hear gunshots. The doors flung open, and a figure leapt out. It was too far for Lenny to see him clearly, but he could make out a few things. Mostly that he was paler than Lenny, wearing a dark grubby hoodie. Was it some crazed junkie? Lenny's thoughts raced as he caught his breath, watching the hooded figure make a beeline for the nearby trees.

Lenny took off after him. It was partially from his superhero-fueled imagination being populated by figures like Flash Gordon and Aragorn, and partially out of a blind curiosity. He wanted to see what this metahuman was running from, or to.

Lenny quickly reached the forest, chasing after the hooded figure. He was fast, but seemed sluggish, and clawed at his neck while he ran. Lenny was quickly running out of breath, but he seemed to have an advantage -- The person he was chasing didn't seem to have a good sense of direction.

He would trip over a root or stone every once in a while, making him stagger a bit before continuing to run. He wasn't exactly making a straight line, either. He looked around wildly, frequently making nearly random turns. But he didn't seem to know Lenny was chasing him. Perhaps he was too far, and perhaps the figure couldn't hear his steps over his own wheezing. Even Lenny could hear it from the distance.

Eventually, the hooded figure stopped, pausing at a clearing in the forest. He dropped to one knee, lowering his hood. If Lenny could've seen his face, he would've stopped. He was a ghostly white, with small pieces of metal jutting awkwardly from all around his head. He clawed at his neck, desperately wrenching at what seemed like a collar. 

[i]Maybe he's a test subject.[/i] Lenny thought to himself. However, by the time that question had been formed in his mind, he had reached the boy. Lenny was panting, out of breath, but not loud enough to be noticed, as the boy seemed fairly distracted already.

"Hey." Lenny said, still gasping for air. "What, who... What happened?" He said to the back of the boy's head, still not having seen the boy turn around.

The figure slowly began to turn his head. Lenny grew an apprehensive scowl on his face as he noticed the lack of ears... or eyes... or a nose. But there were nostrils and cracked lips, both caked in dried blood. Once the figure's 'face' was in full view, he let out a weak yelp and shot his arms up, covering his metal-encrusted head and buckling his knees to the forest floor.

Lenny staggered back for a moment, instinctively raising his hands up to fire a bolt of energy through the monster's chest. Before he could, the "monster" covered his face, collapsing to the ground. Lenny wasn't entirely sure what to do. Here he stood, in the middle of the forest with what looked like a horror story wrapped in skin, nearly sitting coiled in the fetal position. Lenny's hands were glowing with a faint blue light, which he had harnessed from the arcade. He could've killed the monster, and ran away scot-free. Instead, the glowing stopped.

"What happened to you?" He asked, lowering his hands.

The figure slowly raised his head, looking at Lenny's hands. His mouth hung open a little as he gazed at the faint light they were producing. It was at the moment that Lenny noticed the camera-like device clipped to the side of the figure's hoodie, which he used on of his hands to aim up at Lenny. In nary a sudden moment, the figure unclipped the camera, aiming it straight at Lenny. He slowly inched it closer to him, and his mouth began to stutter.

"Ch-... charge."

Lenny stared at him for a moment. Charge? Was he about to charge Lenny? No, he was laying on the ground, practically crying. Or, at least he would've been, if he had eyes.

"What?" Lenny said, looking nearly as dumbfounded as the figure in front of him.

The figure held the body camera closer to Lenny and shook his head a bit, his skin distorting into wisps of fading ripples for a moment. He pushed the device to Lenny's chest [i]insistingly[/i].

"͟C̕H͜A̡R҉GE.͜"

Lenny was startled by his shouting being as loud as it was, coming from such a frail-looking thing. He meant for Lenny to charge the battery. Lenny tilted his head, still perplexed.
"How did you... How did you know that?" He stared at the figure, unsure as to whether or not he was a metahuman or an alien.

The figure's head stopped its quasi-spatial contorting. He slowly retracted the body camera with a look of despair and said, "H-... hands... hands, see, hands... charge... need..."

Lenny raised his eyebrows, nodding. He approached him slowly, as he would've approached a stray dog. He took the camera in his hand, and squeezed. There was a flash of blue light shining through the spaces between his knuckles, and an electric [b]Zzzt[/b].
"There you go. Good as new."

The figure looked down at the body camera like it was his own child. He let out a few gasps of what seemed like relief and comfort. He aimed the body camera at Lenny once again and said, "Need... need, to see... sorry... sorry..."

"You see... Through a camera?" Lenny nodded, trying to fully understand the situation.

"Why'd you run outta that truck?" He said, still not sure if he should step closer to the pale creature in front of him. He could be a violent criminal, for all he knew.

The figure stuttered again, raising one hand to his face. "F-... Frank, Saint... Saint Frank... NEST... bad... bad..." He slowly lowered his hand and continued, "Run... run... only way... safe..."

Lenny crouched down to his level, and pointed at himself. "Lenny." he slowly pointed to the boy in front of him, with a raised eyebrow. "You have a name?" He wasn't sure whether to talk to him like Tarzan or not, but his new friend didn't seem very linguistic.

The figure paused for a moment. He shook his head a little bit before he started sputtering, "H-h-... Har... Hhhhharmon... Rott... Rott... R͞O͝TT̛L̶AǴE͝..." There was a bit of another distortion to his surname that quickly subsided. "Harmon... Rottlage..." He repeated, calm.

"Harmon Rottlage." Lenny repeated. He stood up, pulling Harmon up by the arm. He was almost impossibly light.

"C-collar... off, need... off..." Harmon said, poking at the NEST nullifying collar clamped around his neck.

Lenny nodded. He was only vaguely aware of what was going on, but his knowledge of E.T and Alf made him fairly biased in Harmon's favor. He didn't know much about NEST, but he knew that they kept metahumans in check. It didn't tell him much about Harmon, but it answered his guessing as to Harmon's species. The thing in front of him was... Human.

At the very least, he was definitely a metahuman. Like Lenny. He pieced the information in his head. Harmon's appearance, running, cowering, the collar... Maybe he [i]was[/i] a test subject.

"C'mon Harmon. Let's get you back to my house."

"House... house..."