Ray sat in the back of the large truck. The truck was filled with boxes and crates filled with various objects and supplies. He had hitched a ride to New York from a moving van a day ago and had sat in practically the same position for at least 10 hours. The trucker driving the van would have gladly given Ray a seat in the front, if not for the dog that covered the two spare seats practically all year round. Still, a ride is a ride and Ray couldn't want to get out of his hometown.

Soon enough, the truck stopped and everything momentarily shifted to the back a small bit before returning to position. The back door of the van opened up to reveal the familiar trucker who had given Ray the lift. Ray hopped out of the truck before looking around his environment. He was just outside the centre of New York, apartments surrounded and littered the streets like a disease. Ray couldn't help, but grin at the thought of new life in a new city. He turned back to the driver before shaking his hand gleefully.
"Thanks, man, if there's anything I can do just tell me, I'm not exactly the most occupied person at the moment" He let out a single 'heh' before releasing the old trucker's hand from his grip. The trucker responded to Ray after looking at his new environment in the same way that Ray had done a few seconds before.
"There is one thing, if you could help me unload all this shit into the apartment I'd be really grateful." Ray grinned, he just nodded and began to help the trucker as soon as the family arrived at their new home.

With Ray's help, the unloading took no more than two hours. Ray had gotten to know the family and the trucker throughout the unloading. As it turns out, the family had a life much alike Ray's early life, albeit one thing changed. The family were rather poor a few months before the move, but they had miraculously won the lottery and after a couple of wise investments, were now living the big life. The trucker's story was rather different. He was a convicted felon who had been on the run for a couple of years now. He had changed his name since the felon and he had assumed the police were none the wiser. He had turned his life around and was now just trying to live as quietly as possible. He felt he could tell Ray this after Ray told him of his old life and why he moved. 

With one last wave goodbye to both the trucker and the family, Ray was on his way to the core of the big apple. After 20 minutes or so of walking and getting momentarily lost, Ray was finally in amongst the crowds of Times Square. He looked up at all the screens displaying adverts and whatnot on screens a hundred times larger than Ray had ever seen before. Plays, TV shows, phones, you name it and it was advertised. At least for a little while before the screens began to flicker and something a bit more grisly appeared on the screens. Ray looked around at the crowd, they looked as confused as he did, it didn't take a genius to figure out this wasn't some advertisement and was actually happening. 

Ray ducked into an alley way before changing his centre of gravity to allow him to walk on the nearby wall. He did have the ability to fly, but it was rather complicated and Ray didn't exactly like the feeling of flies batting against his face when he flew. He soon reached the top of the roof, and clambered up a billboard until he was standing with the heels of his shoes on the edge of the billboard. He was crouched, staring at the screen. The events got more and more gruesome as time went on. It was soon apparent that it was conduits causing this as a reaction to the Syndicates recent power taking of a conduit. Ray shook his head before thinking about what this could mean for him. The public opinion of conduits was getting worse and worse, and this wouldn't help. If they were to win the war on the Syndicate they would have to do it peacefully, and not sink down to their level. That was all thrown out the window by some dumb girl who thought she was the next 'Joker' or something. 

He stretched his back before letting himself fall backwards off of the billboard, adjusting his centre of gravity to make his fall on the roof as light as a feather. He stared up at the night sky. The stars mesmerized him, he would always love to camp out in his backyard as a kid and just stare up at the night sky for hours on end. He raised his head before pulling his hood up over his cap and checking if there were any obvious points of access up to the roof that anyone looking to rob or stab Ray might access. There were none, the roof was virtually accessproof to anyone that didn't have some sort of power to get up. He slowly drifted off to sleep, he'd sleep here tonight, and get proper accommodation the next day.

---

It had been a few months since Ray had spent his first night in New York. He now had a dingy little apartment in the Bronx. He had gotten a job in security at some hotshot record firm. It wasn't so bad, he got to listen to practically any music he wanted on the job which consisted of sitting and staring at a TV screen for the mornings of five days. He had recently just got of work and had just changed from his work clothes back into his casual clothes which consisted of a hoodie, cap, jeans and sneakers. He carried his work clothes in a sports bag that hung around his back. 

He headed home after work. While the block he lived in was filled by various people of various paychecks, there seemed to be a great sense of community spirit. Some areas of his block were beautiful, and the people who lived in them had enough money to actually decorate the outside of their homes without sending a complaint to the government to do it for them. The other side was quite different, some people had barely enough to pay for good quality food and the insides of their houses were almost always damp and dreary. Ray's home wasn't anything special. It was in good condition if a little messy, but that was more his fault than anything. He shoved his work clothes in the washing machine before watching TV for an hour or so. He left after that, he felt like he was getting cabin fever or something.

He began to just wander about the city, he'd lived there for a few months, but never really seemed to go anywhere outside of his vicinity. He made his way to some coffee shop near the centre of town. He didn't even really like coffee or tea or anything like that, he just wanted to break from the norm. He saw a familiar face at least, Zeke. He'd been in his bar once or twice before, but had never really talked to the guy. He ordered the exact same thing as the person in front of him and practically just left it in front of him at the table he sat at.

Soon enough, things got interesting. An argument sprouted up and soon after a fight. Before he knew it, someone was thrown through a window and onto the table Ray was sitting at, crushing the drink he wasn't drinking. If this was what life was like in the Big Apple then it sure was interesting. He moved to the table next to him, he preferred not to get involved in shit like that.