Sera looked around briefly before she snuck away from her house, her hair bound back with a strip of leather. She'd never much liked those elastic things, so she was a little more old-fashioned with her hair ties. Not that she cared. Besides, she thought it looked cooler.

With a grin, she made her way to the treeline, which wasn't far from her house. She lived on the outskirts of town, since her parents didn't work in town. Her father worked in a big city, and was only home on the weekends, and her mom worked from home.

Not that any of that mattered now. She snuck away and slipped into the trees, letting her fingers trail along the tree trunks and along leaves. When she stopped, a vine grew, slithering down to wind across her shoulders, and her grin brightened. She loved playing with her plants. It was the highlight of her entire nineteen years of life.

Kairn leaned his elbows against the counter, watching the bakery shop his parents owned with some boredom. He had been planning to move out long before this, but he hadn't gotten the chance. Yes, he still worked for his parents, even though he was twenty two. It really wasn't his fault. He'd had to stick around for his baby sister, who was still only ten.

None of the rest of his family was around, but he knew better than to play with his abilities while he was in the shop. He'd burned things before, and he really didn't want that to happen again.

But he was bored. There was no one in the shop, and probably no one going to be there anytime soon. So he cleaned the shop a little, sweeping and making sure all the pastries and breads were arranged well enough to be seen. Then he brushed himself off and slumped against the counter again, his eyes half-lidding as he lost himself in thought waiting for a customer, or his shift to be over.

There was something deeper in the woods, further out from the noise of the streets and the city, flashes of light, a constant chirping like the sound of birds as streaks of electricity danced from an origin unknown, until some one was close enough to see what was there. A young man, dressed in formal attire, that of a military candidate in the space program. It had been humanities dream to go to space and there was finally a program capable of reaching beyond the solar system.
But this young man had other things on his mind. And in his hand. Lightning sprung from it sporadically, burning small paths on the ground. This was the only place he could go to practice, to control it. The thing about superheroes, as he remembered form comic books, was that they had to keep their secret. He hadn't know all these years that he could channel lightning until during his shuttle repairs training he'd been hit by an accidental surge that should have been considered fatal. Part of him wanted to believe it was what had given him his power but then it felt almost too natural to just be a coincidental result.

He'd set up a number of targets in a sort of range in the small clearing between the bending trees, with a thrust of his hand the energy sparked through the air and engulfed the tall stump before the light-show seemed to fade and he repeated it again. each time he did it he felt like he was putting more force into it. The stump would shift slightly under the initial impact. The bark was scorched from repeated attacks, but it hadn't set alight.. Arc finally stopped, lowering his head and sighing a little, it certainly was draining to do this over-and-over..


Meanwhile a young woman was walking down the street in a cream dress, the flowing silk-like material hugged her comfortably, decorated with soft waving patterns that were coloured sky blue. Her pale skin and even her hair contrasted ever so softly, making her seem almost spectre-like as she walked past curious onlookers before stopping. A strange scent filled her nose, that of baked bread and other confectioneries. She clutched her purse in her hands softly, holding it before her almost protectively while looking in before finally drawing up the courage to open the door and slide in, careful not to catch her dress.
With a long quiet breath she drew in the smell of the bakery. She loved the smell of freshly cooked bread, it made her so hungry. She looked for staff but really only spotted the young man tending tot he store, quickly lowering her eyes in a nervous fashion and making her way to one of the display cases. There were various small cakes and items available. Caramel slices, muffins, pastries and all sorts of goodies, but she pause don one thing in particular. There were cakes with little faces plastered on with icing sugar. One particularly adorable cat-cake caught her eye and she blushed a little, biting her lip.
After a moment she nervously looked over at the attendee and pointed at the display case, mumbling something a little incoherently. She was clearly pointing at the cat-cake though.

Sera looked at Arc for a few moments, hiding well back behind a big tree. She was cautiously curious, watching him with huge eyes. She knew she couldn't be the only one with powers like this, but seeing someone else practicing... Well, it was a little shocking. She watched, her eyes huge, as the tree stump simply grew more blackened and shrunk a little with every hit it took. She could only imagine what that would do to a person.

When he stopped, however, she peeked further around the tree trunk, still curious. She didn't see many military types, not in their little town, and she'd never seen someone else actually practicing. Sure, she came out here pretty frequently, but she didn't practice so much as explore. She tended to test and see what she could do and how much she could do. Not training, like this man.

She froze when she stepped on a twig, looking straight at the man, Arc. Oops.

Kairn looked up when someone entered the shop. She was pretty, at least, with a nice dress. He grinned briefly at her, but she looked kind of nervous. Maybe she didn't get out a lot, or was new in town? Most people were willing to make small talk at least, but still. He found her silence and nervousness a little odd.

When she pointed, however, he looked at her. "Sure," he said, getting one and putting it in a box so she could carry it home more easily. "Is there anything else I can help you with, miss?" He grinned at her again, trying to put her more at ease. If one of his parents came in they'd assume he'd frightened the girl, and he really didn't need to be lectured today.

Arc was prepared to try again, he wanted to see how far he could go. The energy surged throughout him, little volts of energy hopping across his body, the power gathering at his finger tips, arced lines of electricity travelling along his fingers, he prepared to thrust forward again, well until he heard the snap behind him, in his surprise he turned, stumbled and fell flat on his back, the energy from his arm dispersing in a small shock-wave that spread outwards a couple of meters before dying out entirely.

The dazed young man sat up, rubbing the back of his head and mumbling a little to himself before shooting a look towards his intruder, face turning a little pale and a nervous laugh escaped him,
"Eh-hehe.. Er.. Hi there..! Been uhm.. hit by stray lightning.. Or something..? Lately..?" He asked, kicking himself in the head, who the hell would fall for that?! He wasn't sure it even sounded like a valid excuse, especially if she'd been there this whole time. "I was uhm.. Near some pylons! I think there's pylons," He looked around and upwards.. nope.. No pylons.. Crap.. AH!
"Underground ones! Yeah..! Er.." He put his hand to his face with a resounding slap before looking between his fingers at her, face turning red from embarrassment "How much did you see exactly..?"

Ruri rifled through her purse to give him the cash for the cat-cake then grabbed the box, opening it up a moment to look at the cake itself again. It really was a cute looking little thing. She loved novelties like this, they showed at least some imagination, however she then closed it again and looked over at the man who had served her, bowing her head softly as thanks but then shook her head to his question.
The girl carefully held her purse in one hand, cradling the box between that and her other hand, though as she was leaving she seemed to halt, sensing something, or rather some-one. Her attention was drawn back to the young man, face a mixture of confusion and curiosity. She'd always had an innate sense about people, it was one of her small gifts, not one of her larger powers, but the sense that some people were different.. Much like herself.
She couldn't really say it out loud, even if she wanted to. For one people would think she was crazy, for another, she didn't have the courage or ability to just speak up, so instead she looked away again making her way out of the store and crossing the street.
A nice place to go would be the park.. It wasn't very far from that store after-all. She could enjoy her cake then think about what to do next.. But still.. Her mind had begun bothering her about that boy in the bakery..

Sera looked at him and couldn't help but grin. "Enough," she said, leaning against a tree. "Looks like you work with lightning, huh?" She smiled a little, resting her hand against the tree nxt to her. She'd figured it out pretty quickly, and she found his embarrassment kind of hilarious, actually.

But she decided to take pity on him. "Don't worry, though. I won't tell anyone." She reached her hand up as a branch grew down towards her, growing until she could grab onto it easily and hoist herself up onto her new perch. She didn't get a chance to talk to people very often, so she wanted to take her opportunity and make the most of it. Especially since he was special, like her.

Kairn blinked. "Hey, wait a minute," he said feebly, watching her leave the store. She hadn't said a word to him, and she'd forgotten some of her change. So he grabbed the change and jogged after her, catching up to her quickly.

"Miss? You forgot some of your change," he said, looking at her again. He held out his hand, the change in his palm, so she could take it. She was very pretty, he realized again, but he didn't say anything. He got the feeling that she didn't do a lot of talking. And that she was kind of shy. He had to admit he was curious, but he didn't want to bug her too much, or come off as creepy or anything.

"Well I guess it's lightning..." Arc replied, looking at his one hand, "But I'm tempted to call it hyper-advanced bio-electricity, I mean if it's internal generation then it's certainly some form of chemical imbalance or deformity, I would have assumed because of an accident I had recently but it kinda didn't fit the bill." He looked about at the ground, rings of scorch-marks were showing where the shock-wave had travelled and he was sure he'd seen it happen.. He hadn't expected at all to do something like that, however his focus then shifted tot he tree stump, followed by watching Sera with some confusion as she manipulated the tree.
Now he could NOT explain her doing that in some kind of scientific manner, these trees didn't just pick people up on a whim.. Or a limb.. After a moment he just put his hand to his head again, rubbing the back softly,
"Then I wont tell anyone that you just did that, either.." He replied, smiling a little, "How long have you been able to do that?"

Ruri's shoulders jerked slightly when she heard the voice of the boy from the shop, she whirled around relatively quickly to see him there with his hand held out, which made her physically retreat for a minute until she noticed the various small coins in his palm. She seemed a little dumbfounded at first, then looked up at him again, eyes quietly examining that face of his before she reached forward.
As her fingers reached across his palm, an aura of cold could be felt from her flesh as she scoped up the change, brushing the joints of her fingers across his hand before fiddling awkwardly to put the change in her purse before bowing her head politely to him,
"Sorry.." She stated, turning around and keeping her eye contact broken with him. Every instinct in her gut wanted her to look back but a large wall of little doubts and fears threatened to cascade on her. She'd been taught a very long time now to be careful and hide her secret so she couldn't risk too much interaction, Uncle Jasper would have a thing or two to say if she got too involved with people.

Sera shrugged, swinging her legs and looking down at him. "A little over a year, now." She looked down at him with a smile. "Seems kinda weird, huh? I mean, me being able to boss plants around." She couldn't help but giggle. "Might be fun if I could do that to animals, too!"

Sure, she was chatting with a complete stranger, but she wasn't worried. She knew she could protect herself if she had to, but he didn't seem like the type to try anything. Of course, she could be wrong, but she didn't quite think so. If he'd wanted to do something, he probably would have done it already.

Kairn's eyes were wide as he looked at her. "I-it's fine," he said, his voice still a little shocked. Her hand had been cold, colder than he knew was normal. He didn't want to just grab her and test his theory, especially not in the main street of town, but even so...

Could she be like him? Able to do something most people couldn't? He watched her carefully as he reached out, touching the back of her hand lightly, his own hand hot as he carefully controlled his powers. He just had to be sure. He had to be.

"Well.. I'm Arc.." The young man finally introduced himself, realizing he'd taken perhaps a bit too long to do so. His attention returned tot he tree stump he'd been practising on once more, now that he knew what she could do, he felt a little more comfortable, but then.. He looked over his shoulder at her,
"Uh.. you don't mind that I'm doing this right..?" He asked. Sure the tree stump he was practising on was already long dead wood that he'd had to find and haul out here himself, but he couldn't know for sure how she'd feel. Plants equal hippies.. Normally anyway, "You're not gonna, like, freak-out and go all save the forest! on me, right?" He added, but quickly added, "That.. Didn't quite mean how it sounded.. Yeah.. Ahem." He looked away again, slapping a hand to his face again.
Smooth, Arc, super-cool, you moron.

The girl reacted almost immediately, like a reflex, it was a hell-bent point in her life to be careful, especially as she felt the touch of his hand. As she turned back to him and stepped back quickly, the hand he'd touched seemed different, shimmering for a moment and emitting a cold smoke in the warm air of the day. It had frosted over in an instant, like a protective coating, the side of her cake's box had also frozen slightly, the soft frosting of a cold winter day covering it as she stared at him almost accusingly, looked down to her and and forced it to go away before turning on her heel and running as quickly as she could.
That was bad. He'd seen what she could do, but then again his touch had been abnormally hot. Most people who touched her skin just assumed from her paleness that she was cold due to lower-than-normal blood-levels. This really wasn't the case. While she wasn't allergic to warmth she just naturally had an ambient cold, it was hard to get rid of, it made her pale like snow.
But that touch of his.. she knew there was something special about him, she just hadn't been aware it was something like that.. Did he have powers too? Surely that was it..

"I'm Sera," she introduced, waving a little at him. Then she laughed when he asked if she minded.

"No, no. Not at all," she said with a grin. "It's already dead, and besides, everyone has to practice on something. I don't mind at all. I'm not a super hippie or something." She grinned at him. She didn't mind in the least. In fact she found his consideration cute. It wasn't very often that she met guys like that.

In fact, it wasn't very often that she met guys at all, but hey. She liked him so far.

Kairn looked at her. He hadn't had a chance to apologize to her, and he watched her run away. Then he sighed and shook his head, trudging back to the store. Who knew if he'd ever even see her again. He knew that she was like him, now. He knew for sure. But would he ever get a chance to talk to her again? Probably not.

With a sigh, he went back into the shop and went behind the counter again, staring glumly out the front windows, unable to get the thoughts of a girl who used ice and cold out of his mind.

"Okay, good.." Arc smiled nervously, waving back at her before looking at the block of wood. Great. Now he just had to get over being nervous about not only some-one watching him work, but also that feeling that.. Well he wanted to impress this girl, not that it was hard to impress anybody with the whole 'Hey! I can shoot lightning from my hands!' routine, not that he'd had time to practice it on anybody, but still, she'd already seen it so far. Yeah.. Seen what he considered incomplete, a failure, a lack of entirety, real impressive there Arc. He knew there was more to it that a little bolt of lightning, okay not so little, and this new shockwave thing he was going to have to figure out.

"So like, did you recently figure out you could do this stuff too or something..?" He asked, perhaps a little curious. If it was like some mutant thing where they earned it during stressful situations or puberty or something then that'd make a little sense, and then he wouldn't feel like such a complete and utter newbie, but he was already dreading her answer being what he felt it probably was. She seemed comfortable with her ability, the whole plant moving thing.. Not to say it wasn't cool that she was.. Still.. Perhaps it was that tiny little inkling of a males pride..

The girl managed to stop after a while, huffing softly and catching her breath. She'd managed to get to the park, in the heat of the day it wasn't exactly normal to be breathing out steam but it was actually the cold smoke of ice, she quickly controlled her breathing, knowing if anyone with a perceptive eye noticed this they'd be curious.. The smoke of hot breath on a cold day tended to rise, so did smoking in general, this cold air from her was falling.. A great physical advantage to her body was that it was difficult to overheat her, with her unusual power she'd evolved differently to a human, she was sure there were others like her.. Like that young man, he was probably just the same as her..
In all the commotion she hadn't looked at her cake in the box, nor had she noticed in her sudden fear she'd crushed the box, she opened it tentatively, begging that she hadn't inevitably crushed the cake, but to her dismay half of it had indeed been squashed, the poor face of the kitty on it now stretched, crumbled..
A little something welled up inside her, guilt perhaps, sadness, it made her chest tighten a little and small tears forced their way out from her eyelids, freezing on her cheeks and evaporating as suddenly as they'd appeared. But.. there was a solution.. She turned her head back in the direction she'd came.. A determinate feeling barging its way past her slight remorse.. Ruri would go back..
So long as it would carry her, she walked back with that determination once more.. And she'd see him again too.. Her uncle probably wouldn't like it but.. Still.. She felt this was the right thing to do..

"I've known for a little more than a year," Sera said quietly after a few moments, thinking through her reply as she spoke. "But I use it almost every day. I live not far from here, so it's not that hard for me to come out and work with these... powers, or whatever they are."

She lapsed into thoughtful silence, her normal cheerful expression slipping into something a little more serious. She didn't know where this had come from, because she knew neither of her parents could do anything like this, but she was glad she could do this. Whatever it actually happened to be.

Then she shook her head a little and smiled at him again. "I don't train like you do, though. I just kinda practice and try out whatever comes to mind."

Kairn looked at what they had left in the shop, writing everything down so he could give his parents the inventory report at the end of the night. He usually took the later shift, keeping the shop open until nine PM. That way he didn't have to get up at o-dark-hundred so that he could help bake the bread and frost the cakes and...

Yeah, no. He didn't do cooking, or baking, or any of that stuff. Thus why he just did some of the accounting and business side of it. He preferred that, anyway. Numbers were easier than flour and sugar and blargh.

Another customer came in, and he helped the woman get two loaves of bread and a cake, smiling and polite. He could be very polite when he wanted to be.

"A year huh?" He asked. Okay so it wasn't so bad, she hadn't been going at it many years more, just an entire bloody year. Still, he couldn't complain, call it a late bloomer thing.. She had the whole natural practice thing, living near this forest gave her an advantage he didn't have. He couldn't practice this just anywhere. He needed to find seclusion and practice, but it seemed even out in the woods it was hard to go unnoticed. While he didn't blame this girl in particular, in fact he was glad she was like him, he knew he needed to find somewhere less public. Not really an easy thing.. Still he couldn't hesitate now as he concentrated the energy once again, pulling it from the center. it was a feeling he'd been emulating every time since it first happened.
When he awoke in the hospital the shock of what had happened made him panic, there hadn't been anyone around and he felt the surge pumping from his heart, the energy leapt from his arm and fried the lights and electric in the room. It had been explained off as some kind of energy surge, the cameras hadn't caught anything, static had burnt the system out.
But now it was more direct as he brought that feeling forward, like a fight or flight response, forcing it into his arm again he thrust it toward the wooden block, the bolt of lightning leapt across from him tot he target, this time boring into it quite dramatically, twisting it open and causing shrapnel to scatter from it, burnt wooden chips and ash piling on the floor before the rod of energy finally cut out. Arc stared at the massive wound he'd made in the dead block of wood before gasping out a mixture of joy and astonishment,
"Oh this is totally awesome..! I feel like some kinda Superhero or something!" He yelled, posing and flexing his arms, which frankly looked silly because he was just tall and not all that muscular, but hey he was enjoying himself, "Next stop, Champion of the People! Am I right?" He asked Sera, placing his hands on his hips in some kind of justice hero pose and looking up at her but he then looked down at himself and chuckled, "Okay.. Maybe I'm not so Superhero looking.."

It was just as the woman left that she seemed to step out of some-ones way to walk around them, staring at them in some dumbfounded manner and opening the door in a fumbling manner, stepping out as Ruri stepped forward, the half crumpled box sitll in her hands. she stared at Karin quietly, her face a picture of slight hurt as she looked down at the damaged thing then back up at him,
"I.. Wasn't being careful.." She stated half-mournfully, but looked at him again, lip twitching softly, "S-sorry.. Can I buy another..?"

Sera watched him, her eyebrows shooting up when she saw the damage he'd done to the stump. Well, well. Apparently she'd underestimated him. Although, from his enthusiasm, maybe that hadn't happened before.

"Well, you may not look like a superhero," she conceded. "But that was pretty freakin' awesome." She grinned at him. "I am officially impressed." And she was. She hadn't seen anyone do anything like that. Ever. She knew what she could do, but she found herself surprised at the extent of his powers. She'd seen him blacken the stump, and then literally rip into it with his powers.

Although, that did make her curious. "Hold on for a second," she murmured, slipping down to land lightly on her feet. She moved over to the stub slowly, putting a hand on it. Tendrils of power flowed from her to the stump and back, giving her information before she started working.

Ever so slowly, the rent in the wood started to repair itself, knitting closed with increasing speed, the wood turning brown again instead of black. Sera hadn't even known she could do that.

Kairn looked at the box and grimaced. Okay, that had probably been partially his fault, and he decided something right then and there.

"Sorry. I guess I startled you, huh?" He smiled at her, taking another cat cake and boxing it up for her. "Here. You don't owe me anything. I'll cover that one for you, since I'm the one who made you start running in the first place." He smiled at her, genuinely. He did feel bad about the cake, too.

Arc nervously placed his hand on the back of his head again, blushing a little. Recieving the compliment from Sera made him a litle prouder inside. though he was curious abut what she was up to, watching as she seemed ot push her own power. It was only fair to see what she could do too and frankly he was impressed by how much she'd managed to do, she'd practically brought it back to life and refilled the hole he'd made, the ashes being scattered away in front of the stump, but then he came to a slightly distorted realization and groaned,
"Now I have to start all over again, I've been working on that stump all day!" he argued in a less-than-serious whine, he clearly wasn't offended, but it was a point he could still make, "You did a nice job though.." He nodded toward it respectively, standing in a more relaxed manner, though then turned to Sera,
"Wanna come back to my place so I can show you my favourite thing in the whole wide world..?" He asked, froze, then groaned, "Totally not what it sounded like..!" He placed his hands in a begging position in front of him, "Sorry-sorry.. I mean like.. I collect superhero comics and cartoons on disk, I have a few good series, if you like that sort of thing anyway..?"


Ruri exchanged the ruined box for the new one with him, looking at it with a light smile on her face before staring back at Kairn. It took a kind of goodness that couldn't be measured for that kind of genuine niceness, generosity.. She shifted a little bit on her heels, tilting her head softly to the side,
"You have something special about you.." She stated softly, staring at him in a way that could easily have been seen as admiring, "And not just your power.." The young woman added that after a moment, smiling again, "I'm.. When you're done.. I'm going to be in the park.. Then I'm going home.. Would you like to come?" She asked this tentatively, it really wasn't something she was used to doing, the nervousness quite plain to see, fingers fiddling with the box fervently, head lowering as she did so.

Sera blinked a few times before she laughed, shaking her head. At both comments. "Well, now you don't have to find another one," she said cheerfully, patting the stump before she moved away.

She didn't have any set time she had to be home, so going with him wouldn't be a problem. Plus she had her cell phone with her, and she was sure she could find plants close to his house if she ended up having to defend herself. She didn't think she would have to, but she'd been wrong about people before.

"Alright," she agreed with another kind smile. "Sounds like fun. I always like looking at new things, and you probably have some comic books I haven't seen yet. I don't have a very big collection."

Kairn turned faintly red at the compliment. "Thanks," he muttered. "I'm sorry, about earlier. I didn't mean to startle you so much. I just had to be sure, you know? That you're like me."

He blinked at her offer to join her later. That was... unexpected. Definitely not unpleasant, but unexpected. Then he smiled, a hint flirtatiously. "I can be off in a couple more hours," he said, smiling at her. "As long as you'll still be there, I'd love to meet you."

"Well, cool. I have a decent collection I think. I'm not a seriously crazy collector with an attic full of stuff but I take a little pride in what I've got." He put a fist to his chest with a proud look on his face, though looked at the stump. he supposed he could leave it here for now. he walked over to it, patting the top of it gently, "Guess I'll see you around some other time." He remarked, turned around and looking through the trees a moment before he recognised the path he'd used to get here, rolling the stump out here had been part of his exercise for the day, training on it had been the rest thus far,
"My car's this way." he motioned to Sera with a smile, "So! If you had a super hero lady name what would you be?" he asked with a grin, putting his hands in his pockets as he made his way through the trees, "I mean, hypothetically of course, its not like we're gonna be running around catching bad guy's.. Stuff like that's reserved for comics."
It was ironic that he said this but really he wondered, if he and Sera had gifts, what other people had them? What would they do with those gifts.. He never really intended on the idea of becoming a superhero, joking about it of course, but the appeal of being a superhero was weighed against the very real idea of super-humans being a threat to the modern normal human. Every kid grew up wanting to be a superhero at one point in their life, but he'd grown up to see the political issues too.. Vigilante's, Masked Hero's, performing above the law..
In today's society, the mixed attitude to such a thing could easily lead to something worse..

"Sorry.." Ruri replied when Kairn tried to explain himself, biting her lip a little, "People aren't my.. Strong suit." She shifted once again, taking on that somewhat nervous expression, she looked up again, greyish eyes locking on to his, "I'm trying to learn.." The young lady added, this socializing was part of that attempt. who would be better to speak with than some-one who understood what it was like to be totally different to some normal humans. the doctor would say that normal humans wouldn't be able to understand this strange evolution of man, this new phase of reality as it broke out of the shadows. He said to her; soon there would be many and then things would really get crazy.
It was a bit of a pessimistic view, but the majority of humans were, in fact, quite cynical beings. Or worse, un-accepting of differences in others. Finding others who were like you was a rare thing. A commodity that shouldn't be wasted or missed out on until it was too late.
But still there was more.. Ruri know that she couldn't just meet with Kairn, she needed to take him home, not because she felt like it or because socialising was a god idea.. But because it was necessary..
"I'll be waiting in the park." The girl smiled softly, wrapping her fingers carefully around the box, "And thank you.. I'm Ruri."

Sera watched him, waiting patiently for him to lead the way. She blinked at the question, though, starting to walk with him through the woods and back towards where he said he'd parked his car. She was quiet for a few moments, thinking it over.

She didn't fancy herself a super hero, or even better than any ordinary human. So she didn't really know what she would call herself. "I dunno," she finally said with a cheerful smile. "I could always fall back on something simple like "Plant Girl" I guess, but somehow that just seems so boring, you know? But, I don't really know what I would call myself."

Then she looked over at him shrewdly, quirking one eyebrow up. "What about you? What would your superhero name be?"

Kairn blinked. "That's okay. Really. It's not your fault." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, hoping he wasn't just muddling things up even more for her. He was so used to normal people, since the rest of his family was normal and since he interacted with people on a daily basis, that it never really occured to him that others wouldn't be as comfortable around him. He'd seen shy people, sure, and nervous people, but not people who actually ran from him, or who seemed quite like this girl. He had the feeling she was more unique than she was letting on.

"Kairn. My name is Kairn." He smiled at her. "I look forward to seeing you later, then, Ruri." All he had to do was call his mom and tell her he was leaving early and she'd cover for him. He didn't mind missing a few hours' work to meet with this girl, this Ruri.

"Well, I dont know, when I try to think of a name I keep encountering super hero names in my head, ones that already exist, you know?" Arc shrugged to himself, but then raised a hand to his head, "Perhaps some thing like.. The Azure Volt..?" He wondered out loud, "I mean my friends at the repair shop call me the Blue Blaze because I fix computers so quick, but for one they'd recognize it and for another it sounds more fiery than lightning." He chuckled, weaving between a couple of trees with light steps, "The blue comes from my hair, I guess, well, that and I like blue." Arc added, grinning to himself,
"But Plant Girl..? I dunno.. How about Floralia? It's a festival, in honor of the goddess, Flora. Or Demeteria, like Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, mother of Persephone." He looked back to her for an opinion, but felt like maybe he was being a little geeky about the whole thing, "You just dont strike me as just a girl.." He added sheepishly, finding he had to bite his tongue immediately afterwards.

He stopped as the parked car finally came into view, it was a simple vehicle, four door saloon, not expensive but it still had a little style to it. It had a little bodywork done and the hood appeared to be carbon,
"A couple buddies of mine have been helping me fix it up a little, it used to look, and sound, like a junker." Arc chuckled, "My pops thinks I'm spoiled and my mom thinks it's a death-trap on wheels, but what can you do, right?"

Ruri smiled again when Kairn reassured her, he really was very nice. She made her way tot he exit, but this time looked back to Kairn, not on her senses but her desire, that small smile still in place,
"I will see you there, Kairn." She added as her farewell. She had examined goodbyes language and always found herself disliking it. A goodbye bore with it the chance of never seeing some-one again, but saying that one would meet another again came with the hope that parting would not be permanent. And in this case she could not dare say it. she was right about this. She would meet Kairn again.
She made her way out, heading towards the park again, to find a bench in the open, and wait.

Sera shook her head at those ideas. She didn't really want to be named after a god or goddess, as that almost insinuated that she owed her powers to them, or something. Besides, she just didn't like the names, either.

She looked at his car, tilting her head to the side a little before she shrugged. "I think it has character," she said after a moment. "Lots more than a brand new car. They're a dime a dozen, but you don't see cars like this every day, right? Has more character that way." She smiled cheerily at him. Her father had a car, a shiny new one, and her mother had a slightly older convertible they only used when they had to. She'd never owned a car, nor had she driven one. Which was just fine by her. She preferred to walk.

Kairn wasted no time at all in calling his mother to let her know he had to leave the shop early. He just said he had to go help a friend, though. He didn't like lying to his mother, but sometimes he didn't have a choice. For instance, he couldn't just tell her, "oh, by the way Mom, I can control fire. Kay, going to the store, bye". Yeah, that would go over so well with the family.

So he waited until she got there, stooping briefly to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before he hurried out of the shop, starting to walk towards the park. He didn't want to make Ruri wait any longer than she already had, and he found he was eager to see her again and figure out more about their abilities. So his steps hurried into a light jog until he got to the park, and then he slowed, looking around for her.

[Decided to change my colors around lol]

"I'm thinking of converting it to an electric engine.." Arc chuckled a little bit, patting the hood softly, "I mean who needs a power source when I can charge it myself, right? Though, I'd have to construct a conversion module, make sure I don't overcharge it." He was mostly thinking out loud, being an engineer for a space corps did require being rather intelligent. The young man finally got to the door, unlocking and opening it smoothly, it had been well oiled when it got fixed up, so no horrid creaking could be heard, this car was his favourite, after all, it deserved a little care and attention.

He unlocked the passenger side, preparing to pull his side closed, but for a moment found himself watching as an unusual truck drove by. It was a very large thing and it looked like it was armoured, a door in the side of it looked rather strange and what seemed like a staircase in the under carriage for whatever was inside.. He'd never really seen a make or model like it.. Very odd.. And he'd caught a glimpse of the driver, a rather old man, whom had looked out of the window for a moment to stare back at him.
What an odd feeling that gave him, he wasn't sure why..
"Well, Sera, hop on in. And don't forget your seatbelt." He instructed relatively casually, his smile coming back to his face as he closed his door and gunned the engine, it sputtered to life before bellowing out the low rumbling of a car idling, Arc made sure to buckle himself in as well.

Ruri had found herself a nice bench in the park, a nice open place, though she hadn't touched the cake yet, it sat in her lap, fingers drumming softly on the top of it as she stared out across the park. There were many other people enjoying their time out here, some boys playing an open-field game of soccer, kids playing in a little obstacle course, parents chattering among themselves, a dog walker here, a skateboarder there. Everyone was busy but there was the odd occasion when there were people who would look her way.
Perhaps the most worrying were groups of boys, probably betting one another on who would go for her first, or trying to egg their buddies on, she suspected this was what one particular group was about to do when her head shifted away. She could sense him.. It was Kairn. She stood up, waving over to him. The boys came to a standstill as they tried to figure who she was signalling to, if there was already some-one with her it would spoil any plans they had, they ended up turning away.

Sera watched the car as it drove past, keeping her suspicion to herself. But only just. She watched the car go before sliding easily into Arc's car, buckling herself in.

"Yes, sir," she said with a brief, teasing grin. But she did make sure she was buckled in securely. It was not on her list of things to do to go flying through a windshield. Ever. After that, though, she relaxed into her seat, letting him drive. She was a hard person to scare, so even if he'd been driving at crazy speeds she probably wouldn't have cared.

Kairn grinned at her and jogged over to her easily, plopping himself on the park bench next to her. He'd seen the group of boys moving away, and he just shrugged. Hey, they were moving away. No harm, no foul. Fine by him. If they'd done something, though, he might have retaliated. But since they hadn't...

"There," he said, very pleased. "That didn't take too long!" He grinned at her again. "Sorry I kept you waiting. You didn't have any problems I hope?"

"Now, all I need to do is find that chloroform or perhaps a needle with some sedative in it.." Arc added as he pulled away from the place he'd parked, grinning at Sera, "Guess I forgot it all at home." The young man chuckled, he was actually driving at a relatively normal speed,
"I kind of like it out here. We used to live in the city but it got a bit crowded, so we moved out here, it gave me better access to the training programme." He explained, pointing in the direction of the Space Center as the trees rushed on by, obscuring what he was actually trying to point out, but he knew the general direction, "I'm a cadet for the space program. Its this whole big project, I'm sure you've seen it on the news, they need young people to work with the old pros, learn what they do, keep it going. They got the Tech to Terraform Mars but the process will take decades." Arc shrugged a little to himself, "If I get accepted I could be helping man step out to a whole new world, it's a nice big dream." he looked aside to Sera for just a moment before returning his gaze to the road,
"How about you? What do you want to do with your life?"


Ruri shook her head when Kairn asked if she'd had problems. So far she certainly hadn't even when her instincts had triggered and told her bad things were about to happen, she was pleased Kairn had gotten here. She also instinctively opened the box with the cake in it, the cute cat face remained undamaged. Here attention shifted, however, across the park, face becoming an odd solemn mask as she slowly closed the box again.
Her instincts were acting up again. The girl tried to make sense of it until she realized it was similar to Kairn, but then again, it was different,
"Some-one is here." She half-whispered, eyes flitting between the people in the park. There was some-one out there, and the more she concentrate dont he feeling, the more she felt an odd sort of spite, resentment. It was projecting hateful feelings,
"Some-one very bad."

Ruri gently set aside the box, resting her purse on top of it before she stood, feeling able to concentrate a little more with the slight elevation. If her senses were correct, there was a special person just like them about to hurt nice people here in the park.. But where..?

Sera rolled her eyes at him. "I'm sure you did," she said, her voice dry. Because, yes, she did have wit too. She just preferred to surprise people with it. It was so much fun to be the cute cheery person who suddenly starts snarking and mouthing off like a pro.

"That sounds interesting," she said, after listening to him talk about the program. "It's a good goal, and it sounds like you're eager to get there." She smiled. "Which is always a good thing."
At his question, however, she had to paused. "I'm not sure yet," she admitted after a few moments. "I guess I could always become a gardener, huh?" She grinned.

Kairn's eyes narrowed. "Any idea where?" he asked quietly as he looked around. He couldn't feel anything like that, but then again, he never could tell about people like himself unless he had a clue. So he was going to trust her judgment on this one.

He didn't see anyone suspicious looking in the park. Of course, that was probably half the point of bad guys. They could blend in and no one suspected them until something had already happened. So he just had to be ready for anything. At least, that was his current working theory.

"I'm sure you could do better than a gardener," Arc chuckled, "Besides that'd be way too easy for you, why not try to study in Herbolalism? If you can grow rare plants needed for certain special treatments you could probably make quite the enterprise." Arc shrugged a little to himself, "Sorry I get kind of carried away." He smiled, looking at the sky ahead for a while. something seemed a little unusual though, he couldn't put his finger on it, he carefully curved the car around a corner and headed down the road past the old Moresby field, at least that's what he'd heard it called, it wouldn't be long before they were on the high street itself.

It was just as they were passing the park that he noticed the armoured truck again. It was sitting across from a bakery and a few other shops, the side entrance facing the park itself. He even noticed the old man, he was a half-ragged individual in what looked like a lab coat, circular glasses and a large section of his head had turned bald. He seemed to be carrying something from the bakery, a bag full of whatever he'd probably bought. What bothered him most was that as he passed, the old man managed to stare in return, almost unsurprised that he was being watched.
There was that odd feeling again. Arc pulled over after a moment and looked over the back of his seat, face a little puzzled as the old man made his way back to the truck and climbed in rather casually. Was he just imagining things?


Ruri looked around at the people gathered until she finally managed to home in on the individual she was sensing. It was a punk mixed in with a few other bad kids, and by the looks of things he was the ring leader of this little group,
"That boy with the red hair." She stated, watching as the young man walked up to a memorial, it was a large statue to commemorate the deaths of soldiers. But honestly such sentimental value didn't mean much as the punk reached back and ploughed his fist into the stone pedestal, his buddies whooping with joy as he used inhumane strength to break the base apart and force the statue to crash tot he ground, catching the attention of many people in the park, some running away and the more dutiful citizens getting too close only to be wailed upon by the strong-man's gang.
Ruri didn't even pause for a breath as she dashed in the direction of the growing chaos, she jumped for a moment before landing on the grass and sliding, but it wasn't grass any more, the ground beneath her was freezing rapidly, a liquid coating of water allowing her to travel swiftly along the ground. The gang didn't even have time to see what was going on, neither did the ringleader, until a white blur seemed to cut through them quickly, heading for the red-head. Her body had become encased in an armour of ice, an over layer. It wasn't her full power but she knew she'd need protection, plus it gave her attack a little extra force as she slid to a halt, fist cracking up against the strong punks sternum and sending him reeling from the sudden shock of the attack,
"Leave these people alone." She demanded simply, the ice crystal armour gleaming softly, a wave of cold spreading from her. This was the first time she'd had to actually fight in a real combat situation, frankly she was nervous, but she wasn't going to let these street thugs see, in face she could easily intimidate them, drawing moisture form the ground and shooting it into the air before snap freezing it, thick ice spikes protruding from the ground in a threatening manner that did indeed send a few of the gang members running scared. The distraction had been just enough to let the remaining civilians run as well.
"Who the hell are you..?!" The leader finally sputtered, rubbing his chest. None of the guys could hit that hard, he thought he was invincible, being so strong, but clearly he was wrong.

Sera frowned, shifting in her seat as they made their way into town. She didn't respond to the comments about a potential job, instead looking at the people in the park. Since she wasn't driving, she was able to keep track of what was going on in the park. She saw the girl with the ice armor, and the punk topple the monument and then get attacked.

"Pull over!" she said, her eyes wide as she looked at the scene in the park. "There's something going on there!" It didn't even occur to her as odd that someone was wearing armor made of ice.

Kairn jumped to his feet as soon as Ruri got involved. He'd gotten into a few tussles when he was younger, so he had some experience. Punks like this were usually all bark and no bite, so he ran after Ruri, making sure none of the others tried to gang up on her or attack her while she was busy with the ringleader. This would be the first chance he'd had in a while to use his powers, really.

His core temperature rose as he extended his hands. A brief moment later, the oxygen just above his hands ignited, and he grinned. He still wasn't entire sure how he did it, but damn was it cool to see the looks on their faces. Sometimes he loved being him.

((I think I'm gonna introduce my bad guy character a little later, like maybe going to the punk's rescue or in a separate time))