[img]https://puu.sh/zAMQG/6b461111d1.jpg[/img] [center][@Ekreture] / [@TMS Prime][/center] [center][b]Henry & Co.--First Night & Just Another Night[/b][/center] Henry stood on the fire escape, the second level of many that stretched into darkness above him. Goggles dangled on his finger as he looked over the edge of the thin guardrail, the alley sitting beneath him. Things were oddly quiet considering the conflict that had transpired only minutes prior. He saw some of the sediment settle into corners, and still had yet to hear the telltale croon of police sirens in the surrounding MIssion Hills. Everything was just at a resting quiet.  "I feel like I fucked up," Henry muttered. "I'm alive, but I'm just...bad at this. Really bad." Henry's power was always running, though he had the ability to block out most of the ambient disturbances around him. Gusts of wind, small animals, that kind of thing. Several sets of footsteps, running into his scope, gave him pause. It was quiet no longer, and with the purposeful approach, Henry hurried to readjust his goggles and conceal the elastic band behind his layers of rags.  - - - Three figures appeared in front of Henry, obscured by darkness in the alleyway. One of the three figures, small and feminine, pulled out a flashlight, turning it on and looking around the alley. "I swore I heard a gunshot, guys...I don't know what happened." "You think they got her?" The largest of the three asked, in a deep, gruff voice. Despite his powerful frame, he stood with a strange hunch; his back seemed normal, so what gave him the hunch was something else. - - - Henry froze, and pressed himself back against the brick wall. Dust bit at his awareness, but he kept quiet. '[i]Got her?'[/i] He thought. [i]'These guys are with the van...?'[/i] - - - "Nah, there'd be sign of entry. I don't know what happened, but cops are coming, we better hurry," The final voice spoke, at a higher pitch than the other man but with a bit more intellect.  Finally, the woman turned her flashlight to the building, to the fire escape, and then up to Henry. "Fuck!" She yelled. The two others turned to face what she yelled at, when the smaller man starting laughing. "Dude, what the fuck are you wearing?" He asked, stifling his laughter. The woman punched him lightly in the rib. "Flint!" She yelled at him through gritted teeth. "What babe?" "I think he's shot!" "Oh." The man looked back up to Henry, and shouted, "You shot?" - - - "N-no," Henry replied, nearly choking as one of the poorly-placed rags slid into his mouth as he spoke. In a moment, he undid it slightly, and the band of cloth dangled nearer to his neck. "No! There was a gun, and he shot, but I blinded him. He was off-mark."  - - - Flint just looked at him, confused. It was clear that he too was wearing an outfit, but his was slim, and seemed professionally made, with goggles built into a helmet and a suit of what seemed to be combat armor. "So what, you're just like...hanging out with a muumuu on your head?" The other man started laughing, and Flint looked back at him. "Thanks John." - - - "I'm..." Henry attempted to speak clearly from his vantage point, but sweat beaded underneath the rims of his goggles. He thought about the situation, about these people. Pretty cavalier with their identities, considering he'd already heard two names. "I'm, uh, new at this. Er, new around [i]here[/i]. I'm Henry. And, uh, if you're looking for some bad dudes in a white van, they're gone." - - - "Like, [i]gone[/i] gone?" The girl asked. She wore no helmet, but still had combat armor, a riot shield, and a lone ranger mask around her eyes. - - - "Yeah," Henry replied. "Was uh, there were...five guys. White van, like I er, like I already said. I fought 'em off."  Part of him wanted to summon some sediment into the air and swirl it about him, a display of power. Something to drive home the half-hearted boast. However, the other part of him didn't want to overplay his hand; he didn't know who these three were, and for all he knew, they could easily trump him if they knew what they were up against.  - - - "Ah, shit!" Flint shouted, putting his arms behind his head and pacing back and forth. "We've been tracking these fucks for a week!" The girl stepped forward, unperturbed by her boyfriend's apparent fury. "I'm Sage. What's your power, Henry?" She asked, friendly but in an almost patronizing tone. - - - Henry visibly flinched at Flint's exclamation, and braced himself. When nothing came, no psionic blasts or whirling spikes, he turned his attention to the girl. Something about the way she said that weirded him out--she didn't [i]know[/i] he had powers.  [i]'Does she?[/i] Henry wondered. Henry was still tense. His arms were painfully rigid. "I-I uh, I use dust. How'd you know about that? About me having a power?" - - - "I can sense it," she said, "It's a part of mine." Flint calmed himself down, and grabbed Sage by the shoulder. "Alright babe, we got to move, cops are [i]coming[/i]." She stood still, body still facing Henry. "Wait!" She turned her head back towards him. "Hey, you need help down from there?" Knowing his role in all of this, John stepped forward, and starting bracing himself, squatting slightly. - - - "That'd be...thanks, yeah," Henry looked from his space on the fire escape platform, to the ladder he'd come up, and then to the two yards or so of open air between the final rung and pavement. No van here this time.  He took a few moments to descend the flights of metal stairs, then systematically climbed down the ladder until he was dangling from the final rung. His legs swung as Henry attempted to ease himself down towards the hulking John. - - - As John caught Henry, he didn't so much as flinch, and he carefully began placing him on the floor, accidentally dropping him about halfway through. "Alright, let's head out," said Flint, and they starting quickly walking away from the alley and towards the side road. As they went, John looked behind him at Henry. "You coming...Dust-boy?" - - - "Y-yeah," Henry said with a nod. "Here, I can give us some cover."  He extended awareness to his power. Dust rushed out from the alley, bubbled off of the street like steam in the night air, wisping around and congealing into a thick fog of sediment. Henry gasped slightly, the ease at which he was able to throw up cover was a noticeable change. Maybe it was all the dust that he had collected from the previous encounter, but then again, maybe not. Henry could swear that the radius of particulate that he could pull from had noticeably expanded. The fog became a cloud, and it swirled above them like an impermeable vortex. A breathable bubble of unperturbed air remained around the four of them. "Just lead the way," Henry said. "I'll follow you, but please let me know that you're not with, uh, not [i]like[/i] the guys in the van. Kidnapping. Tell me I'm better off with you than tryin' to explain myself to the cops." - - - Flint stopped and looked at him incredulously, while Sage and John looked in amazement at the cloud of dust. "Kid...I don't care what you do. But the cops are gonna have a fucking field day if they find a powered vigilante." Sage punched him again, this time the arm, and Flint sighed, rolled his eyes, and said, "Look, one thing all the people being kidnapped have in common? They've got powers." He then proceeded to breathe a plume of bright flame into the air, briefly illuminating the alleyway. "Now come on!" - - - Henry nodded. No arguing with that. He let the group of three older masked vigilantes take the way, and tailed them, keeping pace while maintaining the dust cloud cover.  - - - After swerving in and out of the alleyways and onto the side roads, they arrived at their mode of transportation, their getaway vehicle; a Honda Civic. Flint got in the driver's seat, Sage riding shotgun, and John sat in the back. - - - Henry squeezed into the back of the civic. It wouldn't be a leisurely ride, but better here than outside, trying to explain himself to the police.  When everyone was in, and there was a moment of quiet, Henry couldn't help himself as the questions burst forth. "So, uh, ALL the people kidnapped? How many people are missing? I've caught on the news, or my parents have mentioned it, but...I had no idea it was such a big deal." Now that they were inside, he also felt the need to rip the goggles off. These people, whoever they were, probably wouldn't recognize a pair of eyes jumbled in the rags of his costume.  - - - "How many? Like, fifteen this year, but there's more. All powered...we think," Sage said. "People like to hide their powers. Not usually wear muumuu's on their head," John said, laughing. "Hey, don't be a joke thief, nobody likes it," Flint chimed in, pulling onto the main road, away from the crime scene. As they drove, the foggy lamp-lit streets of Mission Hills passed them by, tattooed pedestrians crowding streets that smelled of pizza and cigarettes. "Can you hand me the aux?" Sage asked, which her boyfriend complied to, and she started playing music.  [hider=Music] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtDeAdul6z4dtDeAdul6z4[/youtube] [/hider] - - - "I was going for a sort of Middle-Eastern look," Henry explained. He fumbled at the rags ensconcing his head and neck, wrapped tightly around his arms. "You know...sandstorms and subterfuge and stuff."  - - - Flint looked into the rear view mirror and frowned. "You're Mexican, Henry," he said, disapproving of the boy's subtle racism.  - - - "Man, I mean," Henry backpedaled. "Y-you're right. It wasn't really...thought through all that well. Like I said, I'm new at this. Tomorrow night was gonna be a sombrero." Henry found his head rocking slowly to the music. Not really his type, but it put him at ease nonetheless. Didn't seem like a cutthroat bunch would be playing indie rock. Henry breathed a sigh of relief, and tried to play it cool. Realistically, dealing with a gunman was easier than that.  "Fifteen this year though, damn. Why? You guys said you were hunting down these guys tonight, yeah? You got leads on what the hell's going down?" - - - The rest of the car was silent for a minute, nobody wishing to speak. John looked over at Henry, and asked, "Can we trust you?" A light drizzle started falling onto the windshield, only to quickly be dismissed by Flint's wipers. Sage also turned her head back to see Henry's reaction. She had removed her mask, revealing her dark mascara and pierced nostril, with attractive but pale features which were framed by her black and blonde hair. John wore a dockworker-style beanie and a bandanna covering his face, although the bandana had been taken off, to reveal a thick, bushy beard, which obscured most of his face aside from his kind blue eyes. - - - Henry was taken slightly by surprise. [i]'Trust me? Yeah, but can I trust THEM?'[/i] He still didn't fully understand who these three were, and why they were seeking out the gaggle of thugs that he'd chased off earlier tonight.  "Yeah," Henry sighed, "You guys can trust me."  To further commit, his hand grabbed a dangling rope of cloth around his face. henry tugged, and the whole wrap of rags came spilling around the bottom of his neck. He pushed the goggles further up to his sweaty, tangled black hair, and offered a nervous half-smile. He felt like he was in over his head, in the car with these near-strangers, and on a [i]school night[/i] no less.  - - - Flint stayed focused on the road, while Sage and Henry looked to each other, not knowing if they should begin talking. Finally, to all of their surprise, Flint spoke up first. "The guys in the van...were they Chinese?" - - - "I uh, I dunno," Henry admitted. "The way my power works, didn't get a good look at any of them. And I can't hear anything through the dust. Only heard them when they got close, and I guess one of them sounded like he had kinda an..." He wanted to phrase it delicately, "[i]asian[/i] kinda accent. They were speaking English though, from what I heard." - - - There was a while of silence, Flint looking at Henry in the rear view mirror as they came to a traffic stop. He turned his body to face the boy behind him, his helmet now apparant, leaving his mouth exposed. "Alright, kid, why are you doing this?" He sighed, searching for the right words. "Like...the costume and shit, why are you doing this?" - - - "Uhhh..." Henry stumbled, caught unawares. He shifted in his seat, not uncomfortable, but fidgeting while trying to formulate an answer. After a few more moments, he spoke in a lower, calmer voice. "Happened last year, these guys. broke into my family's house, made off with like [i]everything[/i] we owned. And the cops, they couldn't really do nothing about it, or more like didn't WANT to, you know? So I thought, after I figured out these lame-ass powers of mine, I could kinda turn the tables and do something about it on my own terms."  He took a breath, looked around the car. Sage, sitting up front, with her kind expression and mismatched hair. John, the hulking dude sitting right next to him. Henry trembled with determination.  "Just wanted to do [i]anything[/i]. Track down some crooks, stop 'em from ripping off other innocent people. Saw that van around the comic store, and man, I love comics. I ain't have a plan really, and I know it sounds stupid, but I just needed to get in there and mix it up, drive 'em off. Be a part of something bigger and get shit done."  - - - The light turned green and Flint turned back to the road. Sage smiled at Henry's response, while John patted him on the back a bit too roughly. "Well first lesson of this shit, Henry. Don't just 'go out and patrol'. Fuck, that's in every comic and it's always bullshit. You gotta go out with a plan. And don't do it alone, have a team." He waited a while longer before continuing, hesitating before he unloaded the information. "Look, people with powers...we've got a good price. You can sell us for a lot of money, I mean a [i]lot[/i]. Weapons, circus acts, sex slaves, you name it, there's a fucked up underbelly to society and people with powers know just how to scratch it." "The Triad, the Red Dragons, here in Esperanza always was good as doing this, usually going for streetrats and lowlifes who can walk on water or whatever and selling them to some shiek in Dubai." Sage seemed to wince at these words, but said nothing while Flint continued. "Lately though, shit's changed. We don't know what, but they're going for whoever's got powers, rich, poor, you name it. And they're doing it [i]a lot[/i]. There's something behind it, but what that is we're trying to figure out." - - - "Shit, man..." Henry said. He listened, with rapt horror, and thought of the idea of his encounter with the thugs in the van going the opposite way. If that bullet would have grazed him, and he fell on the street, those Triad members would have been on him, and he'd be tied up on some sicko senator's torture dungeon across the country.  "I didn't even know what those guys were doing, you know? Figured they were thieves, not kidnappers. Wonder who they were after in that neighborhood...?" Henry looked around at his companions, a glow in his eyes, and added, "I'm from Casmalia. Just heard about some weird shit up here, you know? Thought I'd patrol, which...yeah, was a pretty bad call. But I wanna help. You guys know what you're doing, yeah? You need more firepower, or...or a look-out or something? Just a contact. I handled myself okay, but with an actual crew..." - - - Suddenly, Flint veered the car off into an alleyway, quickly parking and shutting off the power, before turning back to Henry. "End of the line," he said in an ominous tone. - - - Henry felt his body weight slide into the side of the car, and he grunted as they ground to a halt a second later. His eyes took a few moments to adjust to the dark, and he suddenly felt very small. Very small and very, very stupid.  - - - "I..." Henry began. He frowned, bit his lip, but then started re-wrapping the threadbare rags around his jaw and mouth. Slightly muffled, he said, "I get it. I fucked up. Thanks for the ride. B-but you guys know what I look like. You know my neighborhood now. And I know what you all look like. Gotta be a way to keep in contact, right? You know, in case things go [i]down[/i], and I might need some back-up?"  He hooked his fingers through the handle of the door and put on a small bit of pressure. It kicked on a light in the interior. Henry wanted to show he was leaving, but he wanted to see their eyes. Get an answer, at the very least. - - - Flint looked at him for a bit longer, before he burst out laughing. "Fuck, you're adorable kid. I'm just messing with you, come inside." John and Sage both got out of the car, John laughing and Sage rolling her eyes. "You're a dick, Flint." - - - Henry choked out a laugh. He fell for it. These guys, whoever they were, he got a good vibe from them.  "Damn, that was savage," he said, and nodded at Flint.  As he watched John and Sage get out of the car, he followed suit and hopped out into the dreary night. Henry tied the rags around his neck in a clump and slung it over the back of his head. He looked around, peering into the strange alleyway. "Man, where are we?" - - - "A slice of heaven, my friend," Flint said as he unlocked the back door to one of the buildings in the alley. The key jammed, and as he was figuring it out, Sage walked up to Henry. "Either that or the low-rent tailor shop Flint owns," she muttered lowly, Flint groaning as he opened the door. "I can hear you, babe." - - - "Cool," Henry said. "So kinda like a hide-out or something!" - - - As the three adults entered the building, John chuckled. "Nah, just a tailor shop." Flint flicked the lights on, some of them flickering over the arrangement of projects, multicolored fabrics, and needles that scattered the mess that was Flint's tailor shop. Sage sat down on a rolling chair, and on the wall was a framed poster, with words a mixture of English and Japanese, showing a dark figure with the moonlit Esperanza skyline behind him, drawn in was looked like a combination of western comic drawing and Japanese manga.  - - - "Awww, sick. Who's the Hogosha fan?" Henry asked the room, smiling.  He was actually at kind of a loss, overstimulated at the idea of this covert lair-slash-pad-slash-workspace. His family was squarely middle-class, and the thought of owning his own place was so far-off, but Henry could imagine a set-up just like this. Well, maybe more space for his gaming rig. - - - Flint smirked at Henry's recognition of the poster. "It's my shop, ain't it?" He quickly put some of his misplaced work things back in place. "Hogosha's why I started doing this shit." Suddenly Sage spoke up. "Hey, if you nerds are done talking about your comics-"  "Graphic novels," Flint interjected. She glared at him, before continuing. "I have a couple of Blair's indica joints left." "Get that shit out, then," Flint demanded as he removed the helmet from his head, revealing his sweaty, dirty blond hair, and his contrastingly plain face compared to his girlfriend. While he was certainly in good shape, he had hawkish features and sunken cheeks. He looked over at Henry. "You smoke?" - - - Henry shook his head. "Nah, never. My par--" He coughed slightly, trying to redirect the reflex of mentioning his folks. "Always kinda wanted to try it out, but it's y'all's stash. I'm good, thanks." [i]'I'm such a fucking dork,'[/i] he thought, severely out of his element. - - - Sage passed Flint a joint, and he blew a small flame at the tip before bringing it back to his lips. After taking a long hit, he coughed a bit and looked back to Henry. "You sure man? Like, we make money, we have jobs and stuff, it's not hard to buy more weed." He sat down next to Sage, John pulling up his own chair next to Henry. - - - "Don't listen to my cousin, kid," he said, "I don't smoke either." Flint started laughing hysterically. "That's because you can't use a fucking lighter, John!" "Shut up, ass."  - - - Henry laughed, at ease. The more he thought about it, the more the idea sat with him, and he liked it. You always heard those stories about getting drawn into situations like this. A school counselor would react one way, tell you to pass and clam up for the rest of the night. One of Henry's friends though, a kid his age--free weed? It was a no brainer.  Henry shrugged, then nodded. "Alright. I'm down. Thanks."  He reached over to take the joint from Flint. Testing the weight in-between his fingers, he looked to the older dude and smiled. Then, imitating Flint's motions, he brought the smoldering blunt to his lips and took a great breath. - - - "Keep it in!" Sage yelled at the boy. - - - "J-jesus," Henry strained, coughing slightly. He felt moisture well in the sides of his eyes, took in another small breath, and held it for a few more seconds before his body forced out a cough.  He passed the joint back, bringing a hand to cover his mouth, and smiled like an idiot. - - - "Damn, kid," Flint said, laughing as he passed the roll back to Sage. "You want some water?" - - - It took Henry a few more seconds, and several coughs later. He felt the tickle at the back of his throat, but it wasn't as bad when he didn't focus about it. "I-I'm good. Heh, thanks."  A few more seconds passed, and Henry, feeling friendlier, ventured, "So how'd [i]you[/i] guys all get into this? The costumes, and the...actual patrols and stuff? How'd you coordinate?" - - - Flint moved some supplies and sat down on a table, saying, "Sit down, kid." He waited a second, chuckling as he looked at Henry's bloodshot eyes. "Me and John are cousins. Grew up together, you know, being family and all. We always knew about our powers, and I wanted to help the world. So, I became a Jesuit, went to work on a mission down in Mexico, si, es verdad." "Anyways, fell in with a bad crowd, went 'off the path' as they say. Came back up here, still wanted to help people. Realized I can breathe fire." "I'm really fucking strong," John chimed in. "Yeah man, you are," Flint responded. "Anyways...I met Sage." "I can make your powers stronger, or weaker, if you're an asshole," Sage said, before picking up Flint's story. "I don't know if you remember, but a few years back there was this white supremecist group targeting minority businesses in Mission Hills. We decided to do something, and I guess we just never stopped!" - - - Henry followed along, nodding when appropriate. His eyes lit up a bit at Flint's spanish, and he smiled that same dumb smile. Was this why people always smoked weed and wanted it legalized everywhere and shit? He didn't even know if it was really affecting him yet; he'd be engrossed in a story like this either way. Now he was just kind of paranoid that the story had ended and he was too caught up in his own thoughts. "That's awesome," Henry commented. He looked to Sage and then ruminated on her power, "So yeah, that's how you knew when I had powers earlier. And when we were headed to the car, I felt like it was...damn, how to explain it? Felt like the dust and sand was working with me more than usual. That was you, huh?"  He looked at Sage, then felt awkward about that and closed his eyes. She was a beautiful, [i]way[/i] out of his league woman. Well, insofar as he understood women, which admittedly wasn't much. Sage was the kind of girl he'd see on his friends' instagram feeds. Flint was different; he had a story, and he was easygoing, but Henry wasn't sure if Flint was on that same level. Not that it mattered, he realized dully. Flint seemed like the kind of guy Henry [i]wanted[/i] to be, that easy swagger and confidence. "It's good synergy," he said after another distracted second. "Spiking peoples' powers. And you'd probably be good at tracking people, yeah? That's what you guys were trying to do tonight? See if the van lead you to a den of superpowered hostages?" - - - Flint chuckled. "Yeah, that's about it. Also, ya know, stop another kidnapping. That'd be cool too." He looked at how Henry looked at Sage, then how he was, very, very high, and bit his lip. "Hey man, you feeling alright?" - - - Henry nodded; putting a stop to the kidnappings was probably one of the most noble things you could do in a city as messed up as Esperanza. It took him a second to register the second half of Flint's comment. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm good. Good as I've been in a while. Just a little out-of-my-element, you know? Not how I thought I'd be passing the night. Don't know what I expected, going on patrol in the first place, but...yeah. I'm good."  In reality, the idea of his current situation buzzed in Henry's head like an angry dust cloud. He certainly had to get [i]home[/i] at some point, then stash his costume, then get to school in the morning. It was a lot to think about, but he just smiled and wanted to spend time soaking up the total [i]cool[/i] that these three were putting out. - - - Sage decided to cut off his dwelling in coolness at that moment. "Hey, Henry, is it a school night?" She asked him, concerned with his education. - - - "It's...yeah," Henry said quietly. It was like Sage had read his mind. [i]'Wait, did she?'[/i] He thought dumbly.  He didn't mean to put a kibosh on the vibe.  - - - "Oh, you want me to give you a ride home? It's getting really late." She said. She pulled the keys out of her pocket, and Flint looked at her. "Could you babe? That'd be awesome." "Yeah, it's no big," She said to Flint, before smiling back at Henry. "My car's parked out front, and I work early tomorrow so I should probably get going anyways." - - - Henry stood up, and did the quick three-point check before remembering that he didn't bother with his phone or wallet tonight. He looked from Flint to John, and then back to Flint.  "Yeah, I'll take the ride. It was...really cool meeting up with you guys tonight," He said earnestly. "Hoping I didn't make too bad a fool of myself, and thanks for letting me chill."  With that, he was ready to follow Sage's lead. - - - "See ya," John said, not one who cares for large goodbyes. Flint walked up to Henry. "Hey, take this," he said, handing him a business card which read, [i]Good Jeans Tailor Co.[/i], with a phone number and address. "Call me if you need anything, it'd be cool to have some more help." He turned, and was about to let him leave, when he added, "Hey, why don't you leave your costume behind, have a professional take a look at it?" - - - He took the card, and committed the name to memory before burying the slip of paper in the empty pocket on his left side. "Uhh, yeah. I'll do that, thanks!"  It only took Henry a few seconds to unwrap his rags and leave them in some semblance of a pile where they'd be out of the way. They were an almost-continuous mass, stitched together haphazardly using his mother's spare sewing supplies. Henry dropped his goggles in the pile; he was now only wearing a form-fitting underarmor shirt, black sweatpants, and his shoes. In another dull moment, he realized that he didn't have an extra set of lenses.  "Oh right, goggles have my prescription glasses glued in there, but I think they're pretty sturdy," he then turned to Sage and nodded. "Anyways, yeah, ready to go when you are." - - - Sage smiled. "Yeah, let's get out of here."