[h1]Francis Baker[/h1]
[hr]
[i]Saturday, June 29
Day 2 in Verthaven

I'm afraid I can't say much here that'd be different from what I've said about Black Fall or Stadium City, except the scenery. The weather's not deadly here but I'm no fan of it either. Had to swap out my sweaters and jeans for better options if I didn't want to get a heat stroke. Besides all that, Verthaven seems the liveliest out of the four I’ve been to so far. But at the same time it just seems so similar. Like it follows the same formula, just mixes the names and appearances up. That's how it's been for all the meta-human hotspots so far. It's not a bad thing per say, but I still find it odd. And I don't know how many people besides me notice it. Not about to go around and ask though.

Rented a room in the Stardust Hotel. Doubles as a club but I doubt I'll be attending any parties here. Heard about a summer festival happening later today but, not going anywhere near it. As much as I want to jump the talking-to-meta-humans hurdle, these festivals have been a thing in most of the places I’ve visited, and they have never turned out perfect. There’s always something that happens because of the major concentration of meta-humans in one spot, and it’s just hazardous for everyone involved. So yeah, I’m skipping it.

Jeez, I’m really looking for any excuse I can use here. I’m just going to stay in the hotel and read up on the town. Get myself ready to take the proper tour tomorrow.[/i]

…

 “Yeah. Yeah, no, card’s fine.”

Francis was seated on his bed, watching the television, laptop rested on his legs, phone at his ear. He was having the usual check-up with his mother. Dad wasn’t available to talk this time, nor was Olivia. But it didn’t matter.

“Hotel’s nice. Bit flashy but, that’s all really.”

He was bringing up sites about Verthaven on his laptop. Locales, history, the like. Although as he searched, the word he wasn’t at all a fan of after his experiences in the other cities began to pop up. Gangs. In every city, without fail, there were gangs. And Francis had come to the conclusion that an inevitable side-effect of the meta-human collective was the formation of gangs. Definitely not a revolutionary realization, but oh well. He’d have to stay away from the known districts and establishments that were marked for activity. Lest he end up-

Sound of a news broadcast chiming in broke his train of thought.

[i]“Breaking news from the ongoing Summer Festival – a hostile incursion is currently underway by the gang calling themselves “the Fiends”…”[/i]

Francis looked up from his laptop and watched the television begin displaying an overhead view of the festival grounds. As the reporter listed off details and warnings, he watched the crazed men in gas masks running around shooting the place up. And it just… it [i]clicked[/i]. This [i]had[/i] to happen. To prove his point. Not that he was making that point to anyone, but still. He watched the offensive rage on, and the on-point authorities – the VPD, and of course, NEST – counteracting the situation. And then it just came back to him that he hadn’t responded to his mother’s inquiry about the weather.

“Hey I have to go, I’ll call you back.”

All he said. Then he hung up without another word. He set his phone aside and watched the incident play on, the reporter’s commentary dwindling some.

Maybe it [i]would[/i] have been a better idea to cut the trip short after Mendel.