Akiko Bong's Story

Akiko couldn't breathe.

She reached up to find what was pressed against her face only to find a soft, warm ball of fur that had gotten too comfy again. She grabbed Snowcat by the nape of her neck and set her gently down as Akiko inhaled and exhaled with gusto. Snowcat's fluffy brown tail twitched at the end as she watched the butler, Akiko, brush fur off her face. The small cat meowed as if to remind Akiko her butler duty in the morning.

With a small chuckle, Akiko nodded and went off to get the cats their breakfast.

"Ah."

The case with the dry and wet food was missing the dry. She was out of it and the cats had already started gathering at her feet. She sighed and started setting wet food in their plates before setting off to get their dry food.

On the way to the pet store, Akiko saw the Atomic diner up ahead. Not having had her own breakfast yet, she considered getting her own. After all, the cats had eaten half of their usual breakfast. They wouldn't mind waiting a bit, right?

She walked up the door, opened it, and immediately saw everyone inside. She then promptly shut the door and kept going on her way.

Richard smiled and took Ichiro's hand, shaking it politely. "Mackenzie. Richard Mackenzie. Pleasure to make your acquaintances, Ichiro and Yue." He gave a slight nod in the direction of the waitress. "You two must be regulars here I take it? I'm new to town myself, been here about three days. I have to say though, this place seems to attract some pretty interesting clientele." His eyes flitted over to the shorter girl a moment, as if to indicate to the two next to him just one example. Of course, he also included Ichiro and Yue in that, something about them, and their relationship, seemed odd. Brother and sister duo, with one being the other's therapist?

The waitress now made her way over to Sheri, with a pleasant smile on her face, but a little off put by the strange behavior of the girl so far. "Ready to order yet hun?"



The girl at the front desk did a quick up and down of the tall individual who stood there, a little damp looking from sweat, smelling of freshly smoked weed, and swearing quite profusely about the radio in their room. The girl flushed a little in shock and embarrassment. "The ah... The wake up call ma'am? Is the ah, is the button not working? On the sound system on the bedside table? The umm, hotel switched from using voice commands a few years ago. There were issues with ah, feedback loops from the loudness of the system. Were you... Were you not told about this last night ma'am? When you requested a wake up call?"

Shuffling around some papers, the girl's face continued to redden. She needed to move the papers around to seem like she was doing something so she could avoid any confrontation or other awkwardness.

All in all not a bad day, but did it really have to start this way and this early? Nothing like getting called out of bed at 4 am for a fluttering valve. Then batch quality verification had to be done by 5 am, color, vol%, smell, flavor, chemical profile, mouth feel, the whole works, all so everything would be bottled and ready to ship by 8 am when the truck would come, today they had 40 minutes to spare. Why did they even need to pick up the beer this early, aren't trucks allowed near the resort after 10 or something? In any case that'd be 1000 bottles of premium product going to the kind of resort where asking the price of something proves you're at the wrong address. Funny how branding works, never ran any ads or promotions, no flashy labels, just a title, quality product and a low quantity, and boom you're considered a brand with high standing.

"If you see John tell him valve 32's actuator is completely fucked, he'll love my emergency measures. I'm going to get myself some breakfast and a cup of wake me up, haven't eaten anything since dinner."

Devon grabbed his trenchcoat off the coat hangers in the office and walked out. Only one place nearby(ish) with decent coffee and food this time of the day, well two but he doubted the guys would appreciate him gorging himself on their lunches.

As the diner came into view he noticed a... woman, girl?... walk through through the entree and immediately decide against entering. Perhaps it was too busy for her liking? Either way it was the only place he knew that served decent coffee within his fuel range. He soon found out as he opened the door and looked inside. Yeah, packed at least for this time of day. Devon sighed and walked further into the diner passing a fashionably dressed man sitting in the booth nearest to the door, a man who gave him more than just a passing glance as he made his way to a nice empty stool at the counter.

He looked through the diner for a moment to get a better idea of the company around, a couple of nervous types it seemed hopefully they weren't planning to bring any trouble and everyone on their own, aside from that group of three... Not quite, a group of two the third just joined the conversation just a couple of seats away. In his casual fascination with the company around he was almost startled as the waitress asked to take his order.

"A black coffee, a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and a blueberry muffin, please." As the waitress scribbled down his order she sniffed for a moment and gave a puzzled look. Devon returned a look of confusion for a moment before coming to his conclusion. "Malted barley and maybe a hint of spill from bottling." He said with a bit of a grin on his face. At least she didn't immediately draw the conclusion he had been drinking at 7 in the morning.

After being presented with a mug of dark brown and steaming hot wake me up and taking a couple royal swigs of it almost too big for how hot the beverage was Devon turned his attention to his phone. Lot's of viewgrabbing of the major media outlets as always, with only a few worthwhile articles... And a business e-mail, a rather large reservation for one of the higher end brews currently sat aging in the basement from a familiar name. Seems his brand was really catching on at the resort.

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces past, and I'm homebound..."

Akiko sang under her breath as she left the pet store, two big bags of dry food in her arms. The song blared from her wireless headphones and she walked at a pretty slow pace, careful to not bump into any other pedestrians.

A large growl came from her stomach and a woman walking past gave Akiko a look. Akiko, absorbed in her music, didn't pay attention. Someone else did though.

You should eat.

Frowning, Akiko gripped the bags of cat food tighter and kept walking. She was coming up on a park and was about to stop to take a small break when she noticed a small group of people... One who was absolutely tall as all hell.

Akiko promptly kept on walking. She just wanted to feed her cats.

A man in a vintage brown suit frowned as Akiko barrelled her way through the packed commercial street. Her wireless headphones were indeed tucked within her head cavities, but they had zero charge. The music she was listening to was in fact just blaring from her phone.

The brown suited man let out a huff and grabbed Akiko by the shoulder, spinning her around. “You better turn that shit off and get out my country! Back to god dam Vietnam!” He barked, pointing to his feet. “I’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” He began to sing.

It actually wasn't Akiko's phone blaring since that too, had no charge. It was the multitude of ghosts in her head, singing their hearts out to some cool tunes. Some cool tunes the boot-licker had just interrupted.

Eat him.

Akiko frowned but didn't say anything in response to the raving lunatic. She pointed to her ears and tilted her head so he could see the ear buds. She signed "Excuse me", the heavy bags rustling, and tried to side step to continue on her way.

"Ima talkin' to you, lady!" The suited man yelled, spittle flying out of his gapping maw as he tried to grab Akiko again. "We kicked your ass in Ho-Chi-Minh and we'll kick it here!"

Akiko, let me-

"No."

The bully of a man grabbed Akiko's shoulder and she cried out. People around the two had already began to slow down, attracted by the man's yelling. Now they stopped as the bags fell to the ground and Akiko yelled, "Get off me! I don't know you!"

Phones began to be pulled out and a couple of people stepped forward. Akiko felt her heart begin to race and she gritted her teeth. She kept her face down as a writhing feeling was starting to arise in her chest. One of the bystanders, a woman, grabbed the man's hand and tried to pry him off of her, screaming, "Get your hands off this woman! The cops will be here soon!"

Sasha's concentration was interrupted by the chaos erupting before him. Frowning, Sasha stood and stretched, walking idly over to the growing group of bystanders. A man had stopped a young woman, complaining about her music or some such. Another woman was attempting to stop the man, but was not having much luck.

Sasha stepped forward and grabbed the man's shoulder, squeezing down in a quick but decisive manner. The stranger's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed, unconscious. Sasha caught the man before he could fall, and eased him down to the pavement.

"Th-thank you," the older woman who had been attempting to help said. "What did you do?"

"Just something I picked up at my self defense course," Sasha assured the woman. "He's just unconscious, but make sure the police know what happened." Sasha turned to the young woman, who seemed extremely uncomfortable. "My apologies, young miss. I'll be happy to escort you home, if you'd like, or perhaps you'd rather be on your way?"

"Ah," Sasha said as Yue was thrown threw the window of the diner he had oh so recently been a patron of. "Never mind, lass, looks like I have some other business to attend to."

Turning from the cat-besot woman, Sasha began walking forward toward the group of angry men he recognized as Witchfinders. As he did so, he slipped off his jacket and dropped it on the ground, a smile coming to his lips. It had been too long since he had used his powers in any real way.

"Fire and salt, eh," Sasha said, his skin beginning to change color to nearly black, starting from his hands and moving up his arms quickly. His smile turned into a grin as the color wrapped itself around his face, transforming it into what could only be described as the face of a devil - pupil-less red eyes, lips peeled back to reveal sharpened fangs. His hands spread, his fingers lengthening into sharpened claws.

"Witchfinders," Sasha growled, his normal tenor voice now having dropped into a gravelly snarl. "Why don't you step away from the girl and... play with me a little?"

There had been no response at first. A couple of people had come forward once the racist had been dealt with by Sasha. they checked to see if Akiko was okay and handed the bags of cat food to her. She thanked them, hair covering her eyes, as she had eventually turned towards her savior. However, something had already caught his attention and he was gone.

Screaming and loud sounds of fighting were beginning to emerge and the people around Akiko took off quickly. Some stuck around for video but the scene seemed to be growing with activity, with supers. Calmly, Akiko found a nearby alley and deposited the bags of food. She closed her glowing eyes and disappeared.

Or rather, just turned invisible.

She took off from the alley towards the fighting and took a spot near the edge of the newly formed battleground. Cannonade had just arrived and the fighting seemed to be escalating even more. What struck her most at the moment was how familiar some of the supers looked. Akiko's eyes widened and she realized she had seen some of these before. At the park and at the diner, Akiko had nearly run into a good portion of them.

Now, though, now she could see them more clearly. Akiko adjusted herself and kept a close lookout on the way the fighting was panning out. The writhing feeling in her chest returned and she could see a shadow in the corner of her eye.

Help!

Akiko's eyes glowed a light blue but no one would see. She knew though. She knew her eyes had changed but made no move to step forward.

Not yet.

Before Cannonade's fist could connect they were hit. The black haired man giving a scream was the only warning they got before a sudden smash of energy consumed them. Caught off guard and with no time to brace Cannonade's body flew sideways over the heads of those present, smashing violently into the window of a nearby shop like a ragdoll.

As Sasha peered into the broken window a queue of frightened civilians burst out the door beside him. Cannonade lay sideways in what was once a display of produce, bananas mashed against their form. The bodega shopkeeper coward behind the counter. Cannonade let out a long sigh before giving a thumbs up to the unknown voice of Sasha. "Ya. Ya I'm good."

WIth a grunt they pushed themselves to their feet, brushing some of the mush off their body. WIth their forearm they wiped their helmet clean and gave a huff. They were bruised up from toe to back. "Oh god, this sucks," They exclaimed as they began to walk to the exit, their helmet swiveling to face Sasha as they moved.

The bodega's shop bell rang as the the door swung open. Cannonade exited miserably, looking out onto the scene with the strange oil-slick demon of super. "Whoever did that was a literal dickhead," Cannon commented.

"'Oi, Cannonade! They have a bruiser, 'Windbreaker' needs your help so get off your ass!" An authoritative voice called. Their eyes narrowed onto a woman circling the creature Cannon had tried to take out when they had been suckerpunched from behind, though it's form was shifting into something silvery. Gross. The woman taking this thing on had the voice of someone who'd done this before. NAHLA or a lesser government agency, maybe even a private company.

Cannonade's gaze shifted to the front of the diner. The massive leader of the witchfinders blasted out fire and salt at the surrounding supers. He screamed as his attacks were interrupted and he was caught within a chaotic looking whirlwind. They saw their opportunity.

Cannonade cracked their neck before leaping into the air. They hovered high, sailing across the battle-field until they reached an apex. And then they plummeted, down into the eye of the Vortex. Bits of banana flew outward and sprinkled onto the surrounding supers as they descended within. Boots first they collided with Balthazar, making contact with the witchfinder's back, smashing him into the earth then leaping off the man and landing beside Violence Vic. Cannonade breathed heavily, their knees feeling like they were ready to collapse.

The situation had seemed relatively under control, however the leader of the witchfinders just had to open his damn mouth, unleashing the giant from before who decided to take about 7 times the recommended dose of that drug they carried along with them. The monster roared and threw attacking in the direction of the most recent addition to the battle, all while suppressing a few other with burning molten salt that he launched in similar ways to what the other Witchfinders had done.

It all had been a flurry of heroes trying to contain, first Mackenzie stepped up to the plate trying to use good old gunfire, and a bladelike ice shard when those failed to kill. A secondary attack with modern ballistics proved more successful, except Devon just couldn't feel quite comfortable about that brown liquid that was 'bleeding' out of the monster, he had no clue what that stuff was and no intention of finding out. Meaning explosives and anything else that would cause that liquid to splatter all over the place was out of the question. A few more shots from an unknown source were fired from an attacker he couldn't quite see, though their projectiles did reveal they were using something rather extraordinary.

The second attacker was the skater girl, though upon closer observation of her powers and the few red hairs that escaped her disguise in all likelihood he was faced with either miss V herself, or a copycat who had been ever so 'fortunate' to receive similar powers though would such a person actively try to hide their identity, he doubted it. She had thrown the truck door into the air, no doubt with no particular destination in mind, so while she was busy keeping our drugged up Frankenstein's monster from killing anyone Devon made sure that the door wouldn't squash someone like an overripe watermelon. Of course the best solution to this problem was a 'moderate' course correction caused by a hail of high kinetic bullets allowing the door so 'gently' land against an already damaged nearby vehicle. The vehicle in question may or may not have been reduced to scrap value in the process.

Yue then agitated the loose cannon into action, who almost as if it were it's instinct to disregard anything other than the adrenaline rush, jumped into vortex of scorching hot salt performing a move straight out of super mario... And causing a spray of banana mush to fly everywhere, as if they couldn't make a single move without causing a mess. They subsequently jumped out of harms way, quite visibly fatigued.

With miss human cannonball out of the way and the vortex keeping any other potential melee attackers at bay there was finally a window to unload on the ironically named berserker. Devon did not waste a moment and lay siege to the brute with a hail of bullets. First there was lightning arching wild after each and every impact ravaging the nerves and ceasing up muscle to the point where muscle fiber started to tear itself apart.

The beast roared in agony unable to move more than it's face without tearing up it's own muscle, but even that thunderous roar was cut short when the second wave hit... Frost, the first of which was aimed at the homunculi's windpipe which he had conveniently exposed with it's roar, because Devon was quite honestly getting a headache from hearing the only words it's peanut brain could form and a nice chunk of ice forming inside there should help keep it quiet. As the other cryo ordnance impacted the patches of frozen flesh and cracking metal started to form, forming new inhibitions of movement.

Finally the third wave a nice and friendly mixture of high kinetic rounds aimed at the frozen spots hoping to shatter them like an ice cube under a sledgehammer, Armor piercing rounds aimed where one normally would expect vitals to be and more electrical bullets just because he liked how it made the slab of rotten meat twitch the first time. However it seemed the creature had both spotted his position and hadn't been fully restrained as a wave of that burning salt was sent his way. Devon ducked away as best he could using his trenchcoat as a shield, but it could not prevent a few of the grains gazing him on his left cheek. God damnit, that hurt! Throwing salt in the wound and trying to cauterize you at the same time, yeah... This thing wasn't going to leave this place without being destroyed to the point to where you'd need to mop up the remains.

Cursing under his breath Devon ran away from the ledge that had been his vantage point, back down the fire escape. If he had been in his whole suit instead of just the trenchcoat he would have happily stood there taking the brunt of the damage and laughing it off while dishing out a torrent of destruction, but this is the real world there are no what if scenario's, you just have to roll with the punches and that meant pulling GTFO and finding a new firing position.

As the goliath Witchfinder turned its attention to Devon, Sasha reviewed the situation, activating his power once again as he waded into the hailstorm of superheated salt. Balthazar had taken a lot of damage, and his head had begun to take on more of the shape of a potato than a human skull. Despite this, the savagery and insanity in the Witchfinder's eyes was no less intense.

"You're certainly big," Sasha growled, impervious to Balthazar's salt and seemingly unbothered by the heat. "But drugs were the wrong way to make yourself stronger."

Balthazar turned at Sasha's voice, and threw a punch the size of Sasha's entire body at the calm Russian. Sasha sidestepped the blow almost faster than the eye could see, his own fist lashing out to connect with the giant's knee, creating a loud crack that was followed by an even louder bellow from the Witchfinder.

As the knee buckled, Sasha twisted, his foot lashing out with a blur, slamming five times down the midsection of the giant, each blow striking a vital point. Grasping the collapsing Witchfinder's coat with a roar, Sasha flipped what remained of Balthazar over his shoulder and into the concrete, cracking the pavement.

"Surrender," Sasha said to the downed cultist. "Don't make things worse on yourself or your... friends."

The battle was over and an opportunity was created as Sasha walked towards the others. The main Witchhunter was dead and Akiko could see a small glowing orb where it had stood in its final moments. None of the others seemed interested. They didn't see it after all.

Akiko's breath grew slightly colder and she began to walk cautiously but quickly. She had a couple of minutes before the orb would disappear and she knew the others wouldn't be still for much longer. The strange monster was now the one carrying the attention but it wasn't for a good reason. There was tension in the air and Akiko wanted to be out of the area if things went sour. Not that it would affect her much but it was better to be careful.

Her steps were light and Akiko navigated the debris with ease. Her movements were deliberate and practiced because ghosts can't make sound. Akiko could however.

Cannonade watched as the witchhunter's beast of burden blasted away, faster than any human could, and disappeared through the traffic of the street. The woman who had been attempting some sort of negotiation with the beast seemed dumbfounded for a moment before retreating through the ruined street, back toward the diner.

Cannon stood, their weight on one leg and their arms folded. "What the fuck was that?" They asked in disbelief as Yue entered the diner. The witchfinders who survived lay bleeding or unconscious, and the ones who perished had... hella perished. Doors to vehicles cautiously unlocked, civilians beginning to emerge as the battle had finished. At the edge of the park police sirens grew louder, the ACPD having to travel through the green space on account of the street blockage.

Cannonade turned back to the assemblage of heroes on the street. "Right, cards out," They called, flicking what looked like a business card out from their pocket and raising it into the air.

Sasha picked up his jacket from where he had tossed it, brushing the dirt off and zipping it shut, grimacing at the holes the fire and salt had left in his clothes. He looked around what remained of the street, noting the incoming police with a small sigh. As Cannonade began yelling about cards, Sasha's frown deepened.

Although he figured he would probably be released from custody, he wasn't too fond of the idea of spending the weekend (or longer) in a jail cell. Sasha technically had an American citizenship, but he wasn't too sure how far that would fly now that he had used his powers. Being an ex-Russian asset certainly made things complicated.

With the big guy and the shapeshifter having rushed off, most of the remaining superhumans had gathered in the diner. Sasha walked up to the diner's broken windows in time to overhear the last bit of conversations between Henry, Yue, Devon and Klaus.

"If you're looking to get out of here," Sasha said, leaning through one of the diner's window frames and smiling in a friendly manner, "now would be the time. Police are just arriving."

Sasha glanced about the diner. "That being said, it'd be a shame to part ways so soon now that fate's pulled us together. My place isn't far from here..." Sasha grinned. "I promise to treat you all to a more peaceful meal, what do you all say?"

It had quieted down a lot sooner than Akiko had expected. The flashy one, Cannonade, was talking about cards but some of the group had already walked off. Police sirens were in the distance but fast approaching. All of this faded into the background as Akiko reached out tentatively. It was beginning to fade. The other souls were already gone. She had to get this one at least. Her fingers began to close around it...

...And Akiko collapsed to her knees.

A light thump accompanied her sudden fall but the sirens and distance lent some aid in hiding the small slip-up. She gritted her teeth as a memories of the battle played before her eyes which had changed colors to a deep purple. She had to be quiet. No noise. Please let it be loud around her. No noise. You have to be silent. Noise.

Akiko looked up as the memories subsided and saw another orb ahead of her, in what used to be the diner. A pulsing light. She shakily and slowly got to her feet. That light was beginning to fade too as the beating of her own heart stopped thundering in her ears. She took a small deep breath and exhaled but her breath was still warm. The light faded and as Akiko stealthily got closer, close enough to hear the conversation, she caught the last words Henry spoke. They very same Henry whose pulsing soul had brought her dangerously close to the other supers.

"You know Miss, you're being rather irksome." Maxwell chuckled from the darkness. As Sheri continued to move about the darkness, she couldn't detect it letting up in any spots, though the reason for this was partly that it moved with Maxwell, and he now moved with her. There was a slight clicking sound in the distance, something being picked up from the darkness. More noises, sounds that unmistakably originated from a gun.

A moment later, something clattered to the ground and slid towards Sheri. It was her gun, stripped down to nothing more than the grip, guard, and lower half of the slide. Everything else seemed to be missing.

Before she could even think to reach down and get it, a hand pressed against her neck, pushed her against a wall, and kept her at enough distance that she would need to struggle to remove the grip. A small knife was now pointed to her face, steadily held only an inch or two from her left eye.

Maxwell was toying with her.

Sirens blared from the distance, and the silver haired man gave her a soft smile as he let go and took a few steps back, before she could try to counter him. He hadn't hurt her in any physical way, but he certainly wanted her to think he could have. "Seems we're going to have to part now Miss. Such a shame, but I suspect we'll be seeing each other again soon. Perhaps my offer of a job will even still be open to you. If you can learn to be a little more grateful." He chuckled again as he continued to step back into the darkness, his dress shoes lightly clicking against the ground.

"Till next time."

After a few moments of standing in darkness, light finally began to return, and Sheri could see the park, chaotic street, diner, and all the rest of the world around her. She could even spot the remaining pieces of her gun scattered on the ground, in tact and ready to be reassembled. All that was missing now was the silver haired man.



"Right, cards out." The voice came from the rather unfully dressed, helmeted super identified as Cannonade.

Richard eyed them up and down a few moments, a little confused by the whole gesture. He was familiar with Cannonade, enough to hear rumors and gossip about less than savory recreational activities. And yet they seemed rather intent on everyone showing off their 'super ID' like this was a police traffic stop? He smirked slightly at the irony.

Several other supers had already begun making their way to the diner, and he decided that was probably best for him too. "Sorry," he called out with a shrug. "Left it on the nightstand next to my cape. I'll ah... Send it as a facsimile." He said with a somewhat irreverent tone. "Thanks for the help though, we did a uhh..." He looked around at the chaos, death, and the hulking corpse of Balthazar. "We did an alright job. Appreciate the help Cannonade and ahh... Miss Hurricane? Maybe we ought to team up again some time." Richard said this to both Cannonade and the masked girl with the skateboard, whom he kinda thought he recognized, and was going to ask, but thought maybe it would be rude to, so he left it alone for now.

"Oh, dig the shorts by the way, but you might wanna take a seat and get checked up on once folks start arriving here." He indicated with his body where cuts and scratches on Cannonade's body would be.

He gave a little playful salute with his right hand's index and middle fingers, and made his way back over to the diner, grabbing his jacket from the ground and pulling it back on. Richard noticed quite quickly he had something extra in one pocket. He took a quick peek, noticing the card and number on it, and cocked a slight smile. These two seemed to be rather sweet, despite the fact they probably worked for the law.

Richard had overheard some of the conversation between the other supers in their as he made his way over to the counter, giving a slight rap on it directed at the man in the Sci Fi getup. "One glass of orange juice barkeep." He took a glance at Devon, then Yue, and finally Henry.

"I'm more worried about SINS than anything else. They don't particularly care about what North Carolina's laws are, particularly when it comes to unregistered heroes. Not that I'd know anything about that." He smirked slightly before looking back to the window where the man who'd previously been a demon stood.

"And I won't say no to a friendly meal, just so long as the Devil won't be joining us. Bad blood there." As he got ready to look back to the others, he swore he saw something near the doorway... Like the air wasn't still, or something weird like that. Now he was the one feeling a little on edge.



March 11th, 2045, 7:00am: Atlas City, North Carolina, USA

The smell of freshly roasted coffee wafted through the air of the diner, the waitress hurriedly getting one ready to go for the first customer of the day. She placed the cup down on the counter, '7:00am' and 'Peter' were written on the side. A man dressed in a grey three piece suit smiled as he picked up the cup, and replaced it with a $10 bill. "Keep the change." He said with a soft, yet somehow incredibly cold, smile.

He left the building shortly after, and continued walking South for a few minutes before crossing the street where the Southern portion of buildings that surrounded the park was located. As he continued on his way, he passed a young man with short, dark hair, and wearing a black leather jacket. Seemed a little old fashioned perhaps for someone his age, but then he also bore the look of someone who perhaps had already had a small taste of what life could dish out.

It was a beautiful morning so far though, sun coming up over the ocean, and storm clouds slowly getting pushed back across the land.

Peter was going to have a great day today.

"Food? For free? Well, I'm definitely not gonna say no to that," Henry laughed, nodding at the super hanging out by the window. "But yeah, we've got no time to just sit and wait. Go ahead and lead the way...'

It seemed that the way things were going, the bespectacled man having coffee would be coming along as well as the....burglar? He had raised a good point about SINS, though they were the least of his worries at the moment.

"Whenever we get to that guy's place, you're gonna have to clarify why you're disguised as a burglar," he informed Richard. "Even unregistered heroes have some sort of costumes, man."

And then there was the blue super. "You're right. Sorry for not being so trusting, I just have to be...careful. But you seem to be in the up and up."

He looked to Sasha once more. "Ready to get going?" He asked.

Through the window of the diner the supers could see the dude in the brown suit roaming with a baseball bat, searching hatefully for Akiko.

Akiko heard footsteps and looked over to see the dude in the brown suit roaming with a baseball bat, searching hatefully for Akiko. She sighed inwardly and considered banging her against the diner but decided that wasn't ideal right now. He didn't know where she was. Not unless he noticed the slight disturbance in the air but a FOOL wouldn't notice that.

She moved away from the doorway and walked behind him, carefully considering her options. As much as she wanted to sLAM him into the ground and rIP his SOUL out of his chest, the others supers hadn't noticed her. To give up her cover now would be foolish with such little information.

So she tripped him.

Akiko's eyes glowed again, a bright blue, and she walked through the bastard who had pursued her. He would feel a chill run through him before tripping on her outstretched foot. She considered slamming her fooT on his back but a strange feeling came over her. She felt torn over the consideration of further abusing the man but Akiko could also feel a familiar pang in her chest.

It was time to go.

So Akiko left quickly. Away from the man, away from the supers, and on to home and her cats.

"Shinigami."

The word was written down onto a tiny piece of paper, locked away in a glass orb that hung from a long gold chain around her neck. Akiko noticed the way her cats stared at it as she took it off to store it in her jewelry box. The cats didn't come closer however. In fact, as she took a step towards them, a couple ran off. Another one or two hissed and growled at her.

An uneasy feeling rose in her chest and doubt began to seep into her thoughts. She didn't feel anger or hatred. There wasn't any unwelcome thoughts or unexplainable needs. Akiko felt... Well, like Akiko.

Which concerned her even more.

Something hovered at the edge of her vision and Akiko spun around to see her bed and the covers balled up on the left side. There was nothing there. She sighed and stepped forward which caused the remaining cats to scatter. Regardless, there was something she needed to find. Well, someone.

She grabbed her keys and headed out.

~*~

The streets had people and sounds and lights and Akiko didn't mind any of it. It was easier to blend in as music played on her headphones. No jerk in a suit in sight. Even as she approached the scene that had happened earlier that day, Akiko walked in peace and invisibility.

None of what happened around her caught her attention though and as she stood out of the way of pedestrians, her eyes began to glow again. This time they flared blue before becoming neon purple. Her face flushed and she felt very out of sorts.

The clattering of a rock echoed from behind her but when Akiko turned around, the closed shop doors greeted her. An inward sigh and Akiko focused on the scene before her.

There were pulsing blue specks of light leading from the diner into the city. The lights were weak and Akiko knew it would be a limited time. Her breath didn't get colder though but Akiko walked in the same path the others had taken to Sasha's apartment earlier.

~*~

Akiko approached the apartment but was hesitant on following further. She didnt wanna be a creeper but if a creeper she had to be... She sighed and threw her head up only for a stronger glow to catch her eye. The same color glow she was following actually.

Akiko's eyes became gray and her body began to float into the sky. She reached the top of the building and slowly and quietly let her feet touch the rooftop. Behind Henry. About ten feet behind him.

"You a stargazer, buddy?" Akiko called out as she materialized once more.

"WHOA, WHAT?!" Henry nearly stumbled forward, startled. He turned around, the sight of a woman who hadn't been there before (?) minutes earlier. Possibly. He had to admit he was a bit too absorbed in his own thoughts. A good reminder to be more aware of his surroundings. But this woman didn't seem to mean him any harm. Didn't look like an agent and she had asked a reasonable enough question.

"Stargazer...? Yeah, sorta. From time to time," he nodded. "Do you live in the complex? I hope I'm not trespassing or anything. It's just a nice spot, y'know?"