The UnHonorable War

Mallorie was curled in a ball on the bus, sitting unnoticed in the back. It had been a long bus ride from New York, one she hoped was worth it. She held her bag close to her chest, eyes down and hood pulled down. It wouldn't be long now.. She glanced over to the man across the aisle, a wristwatch visible.

She felt the bus slowing down, and she turned her attention to the front. People started to stand as the bus came to a halt, and she waited for them to file out before she got off herself. Mal looked around the station itself, but decided to hang back, as people rushed back onto the bus headed South. She didn't want south though. She wanted East. A quick look at the travel itinerary told her she had a while to wait, so she decided to explore a little. She found a table in the run down gas station, and took a seat, settling down.

Casually strolling out of the old town prison in his incredibly out of place attire Xain stood by the streets edge and looked up to the sun.
"Ah it's been so long my dear friend!" He exclaimed, completely oblivious to the attention he was drawing. He pulls back this hood with a lone arm he basks in the sunlight as his skin rapidly fades from a caramel black into a pale white.  Ruffling his short black hair and glancing around only to see people whispering and turning away it dawns that may not have been the best idea.

But then something catches the corner of his eye, a particularly distinct aura dashing into a fueling station just across the street. "Oh? The wheel of fate yet turns I see." Flipping his hood back over his head he looks both ways and walks calmly over to the gas station to greet this potential comrade.

Agrias was dissecting some local speedster, some process as usual any time an alpha had wandered too close to his fortress. Splitting him open, seeing how his powers had worked in tandem with his  body and how the mad headhunter himself could possibly attempt to recreate such an ability. As he was readying the corpse for disposal, a curious slip of paper had fell from the lad's jacket. "An alpha convention?" he beamed aloud, a wicked, toothy grin sliding across his bloodstained lips.

Within hours he had haphazardly placed his latest catch on a rusted metal spike and left the rest of the body for the wolves. The lanky man carried nothing but a long overcoat, concealing his various tools of trade and his trusty C96. Flying to the american mainland by way of stolen jet, the russian man left the country fast enough to not raise any suspicion. Landing the rather nice craft in a remote region similar to the one he had set up shop in (albeit low on fuel and the inside stripped of any components he could jam into the overcoat's pockets), he decided to not draw any attention to the craft or where it had landed by swiftly leaving and not mentioning it to any of the locals.

Once he had made it to the city proper, he casually strolled to the bus stop with a large grin on his face. IF anyone asked, he was just checking it out, and if anyone got too curious, they'd find themselves short one head and stuffed in a bin for the trashmen. Luckily no one seemed to question the tall man, who was very obviously not a regular visitor as his eyes checked every nook and cranny for exit points and potential ambush locations. Upon arrival at the derelict station, he simply went inside and bought a chocolate bar to wait for the bus, a few other curious figures having arrived before him. "Yesss..." he thought to himself, chewing his treat slowly to calm his nerves and gazing at the people waiting around him in curious reverence.

It felt like Mal had sat for hours without seeing anyone else, though she doubted it was really that long. The first male to walk in cause her to raise her eyes from the journal she had been writing in, focusing on the pale man. He seemed harmless enough, even if he was a little cheery. Satisfied that he didn't seem dangerous, she turned her attention back to her book, relaxing a little again.

By the time the next man entered, she had forgotten where she was, and the sound of the entrance bell shocked her back to reality. Mallorie's gaze found the man, and quickly turned away, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She pushed a dark curl back into place, and shoved the journal into her bag. She stood slowly, flipping her hood into place, and disappearing into the aisle, keeping her movements as natural as possible despite the sensation of fear traveling down her spine.

Once the trench-coat man was out of sight, she relaxed a little, and started to look through the snacks in front of her. They looked good enough, and her eyes drifted to a bag of spicy chips, her mouth watering at the thought. When was the last time she had had something like that? She slipped her hand from the hoodie pocket, and snatched up a bag, stashing it into her bag like it was nothing. She wasn't sure when stealing had become so easy for her, but once she had manifested, working had become impossible. She had tried at first, but no one seemed to notice her when she wanted to be seen, and she had soon given up.

Jeanne and Leena left the nightclub at sunrise; they, as inconspicuously as they could, boarded a bus (the pair was slightly unusual, an amazonian fetish model covered in black, and a sour-looking teenager, also covered in black), which took them to the desired location.

Jeanne in particular was quite anxious for this bus trip; not having slept since being sent out to kill her friend in the church they'd both visited as children, she'd eventually reconciled their differences through the realization that she was also, in many ways, one of the hunted alphas. It was a big of a bummer; it was a stick shoved in the wheels of her dogma bike.

Anyway, Jeanne slept soundly next to Leena for almost the entire ride, and the ride was long, for the trip to Missouri from New York City was quite a long journey, and when she awoke upon arrival, she could not tell if she'd slept for 5, or 12, or 18 hours.

"We're here?" Her voice, soft, groggy, disorientated, resounded through her poor, delicate, mucus-covered throat, as she rubbed her eyes and yawned and spoke, all at the same time.

"What's my costume?" She tut-tutted. "Ahh, I should've kept the Honor Guard uniform. It's so authentic, it might just give these people a scare. It's not very long after Halloween, anyway."

She stretched her legs as she monologued, unused to having literally no possessions other than the change in her pockets and the flyer which remained crumbled in her hand. She slid her numb buttocks on the seat until she was in the main aisle, and made her way out of the bus. The sun struck her retinas in the most unpalatable of fashions, and she squinted as the light revealed her face's pallor. She put a dark sleeve over her eyes, and looked around, quickly spotting the bus stop gas station and grocer, as well as the peculiar amount of flat, foresty scenery around her.

Her deductive skills allowed her to understand that there was civilization somewhere off into the distance, but for the time being, they were not in any position to interact with civil society any time soon. And this made her sad, because she would need to interact with those she disliked fervently enough in the past to openly and proudly proclaim she'd be joining the military illegally to kill them. Oh well. Blunder years.

Jeanne took a moment to register what Leena had told her, and then eventually turned at the hips to face her friend and continue their costume conversation.

"Oh that's right, isn't it? It'd still be missing the most important component." Her eyes flickered lightly as she recalled the riddance of that particular, state-of-the-art piece of equipment. A slight pang in her chest.

Jeanne turned back to facing away from the bus, and immediately spotted the strange get-ups of more than a few people; some individuals, including the person that would be Xain that she did not, at the moment, identify, were really committed to a particular aesthetic. That, or they just mutated that way.

She smoothed out her sweater's hem and promptly ruffled it up once more. She fidgeted, and stretched her legs, still shod with the boots of the Honor Guard. A plain, synthetic black, they did not attract direct attention, and she'd learned to enjoy their feel. They were nice, light and waterproof, and that was good enough for Jeanne.

Mal had made her way out of the convenience store with her bag, intending to eat them out of sight of the clerk. Once she was outside, she glanced around at he other three individuals but paid them no mind. She sat down on the curb, pulled the bag of chips out and opened them, munching contentedly.

Her gaze traveled to the masked... male? She couldn't be sure. Sure, she was heading to a "superhero" convention, but would people really travel to it already dressed and in character. Mal glanced down at her own shabby clothes and made a face. Well, the other patrons would just have to settle for her shabby appearance.

She was about half way through her chips when she heard the words "Honor" and "Guard" in the same sentence. She froze, eyes wide as she slowly looked up to the source of the voice. The masked man was addressing one of the woman who had gotten off the bus. Mal swallowed convulsively, and schooled her features into a neutral mask.

Sensing an odd tension in the air Xain maneuvers himself back to the front of the store with a single red apple in hand. "Ohhhh this is no good." he mutters looking at the two auras just outside the shop being confronted by the uniformed person. slowly moving the apple to his mouth he makes it appear he is taking a slow bite from the apple when he's actually digging his teeth into the skin just below his little finger. making eye contact with the store owner as a stream of clear liquid hits the floor. with a big smile he says "Please sire i would like for everyone to avoid hostility in my presence." his edict taking place with the rule now justified it echos into the mind of all others within its 120ft radius. making them subconsciously wish to follow it.

satisfied with his input and wishing to avoid confrontation himself he walks over to the boy in a trench coat without much of a care and mutters to this individual. "You have some serious eyes child, much hides behind them i can see. Tell me, what brings you and the others like us out to this location? if you do not wish to answer me that is quite fair, i can redirect my question to the others of this area."
taking his first actual bite of the apple and awaiting the boys answer.

Agrias paid no mind to the new arrivals, fiddling with what appeared the be the fuel gauge from the aircraft he had 'borrowed' earlier. That is, until he felt an overwhelming urge to cease thinking of how good each new arrival would look mounted on his wall at home. His thoughts pushed to the back of his mind, the slender man took a keener and keener interest in the little glass contraption as one of the other people came upon him to chat.

Having never actually really talked to another being in nearly years, instead making their insides outsides at the slightest provacation, seeing the strange man come upon him nearly made Agrias leap away. Instead he calmed his nerves, shoving the piece of broken macheineary into his pocket with an audible clunk as it collided with various other parts from the jet. He ruffled his hair and smiled coyly, looking Xain in the eyes with a piercing glare. "Oh! Uh..." he started, searching his pockets for the flier. "Here." he uncrumpled the sheet detailing the location and reason all the strange people were standing around this rather dank location. "It's a convention of somesort. Must be pretty big, I have a hunch this isn't everyone that's going to stop here."

Jeanne looked confused, and then gasped as the memories of exactly what she had told her childhood friend inside of his sunny bedroom on a warm autumn day went through her slow, still-drowsy mind.

"Aaron," she said back. She nervously flipped her hair back, watching the people gather around her location. Her desire for aggression was low as it already were, but it somehow dropped below zero. "Is that really you under that mask? What in the world happened?"

Jeanne realized that she had not properly answered her Honor Guard question, and that a bunch of would-be alphas were maybe-maybe not considering lynching her as a nice morning pastime over a bunch of misconstrued information. "I'm not in the Honor Guard," she said, loud enough so that the others could hear.

"That's my neighbor," she answered Leena almost immediately. "We were friends, but we lost contact with each other following a few recent events."

Despite Aaron's choice of attire, she could see the resemblance in stature and demeanor. The voice she'd heard resonate through the strange mask had also undoubtedly been Aaron's. No more interesting plot twist than to reunite with him in such... awkward... circumstances.

(Cloak Niv, not trench coat)

Some powerful urge suddenly drew Aaron's blade back into his arm he blinked at the sudden end of his defensive rage. He turned around to look at a man. "I wasn't being hostile. Really, just greeting an old friend. His eyes slowly moved back towards Jeanne. He had acted without thinking and now he made a scene, what an idiot. Guess invisible people make the biggest noise.

His next comment made Aaron blink from behind the mask. How could he see his eyes? Every inch of his body was invisible. He turned away from the man and from Jeanne. "I'm here for the same reason you are I hope. I was just catching up with her. She went and joined the Honor Guard even though shes too young. I was worried about her as well as loathing her for joining such an evil organization." He replied to the man.

He turned to Jeanne and nodded his head, the mask moving with him. "Yes it's me... Well what's left of me. Don't know if I still look the same or not." He opened his cloak slightly to reveal no body between his bandaged midriff and the rest of the cloak. Only Jeanne could see...

That is until some muscular woman stood between them. He quickly covered himself. "Yes we're 'friends' up until she joined the Honor Guard much to my displeasure. But because you were a close friend once, I'll trust you Jeanne. If you say you aren't in the Honor Guard anymore then I hope we can be friends again." He lifted a gloved hand to her.

Jeanne's eyes widened slightly as she peered in the inside of his clothing and found nothing. Literally nothing. Without intending to, she bit into her lip in sympathy.

She walked forth to take Aaron's lifted hand and ended up grabbing it with both sets of her dainty fingers. Aaron was just a little bit shorter than her, just as she remembered. She speechlessly released her grip and finally managed a weak smile.

"I will tell you everything," she said, the mischievous tone creeping back into the forefront. "In due time."

Rob had indulged in a rather mundane discovery of his powers when he had noticed he could tell how to make just about everything he ate indelicately and was passively learning things at an alarming rate. Since then he'd looked up a handful of self-defense videos as well as some People are Awesome and parkuor videos in the hopes of being able to run away if he needed to. This didn't really bother him until the invite to the hero convention for Alphas came to his home and he wasn't sure how it was even delivered, but it assured him that people knew and that this meant the honor guard would eventually find out as well. With little recourse he had gathered what he could, left Kyle in charge of the shop, and set out for the convention in his white suit and picking up a deadpool mask on the way so that he'd at least look right for the occasion.

Rob pulled into the gas station needing to fuel up a bit and planning to merely follow the bus as it would provide him with more options if it was a trap and more freedom of movement if it wasn't. He stepped out of his car fueling up and selecting pay inside and glancing at the price of fuel and knowing the location of his fuel gauge somehow just knowing what it'd come out to, as was becoming startlingly mundane for him as of late, before walking in to pay the cashier with some cash for the gas and smiling at the sight of other people clearly headed for the convention, hoping that everything would be okay. "So that'll be fifteen, thirty-two for pump 4." he stated handing the cashier a twenty.

"Oh? Very interesting" hummed the monk. "You have my thanks dear friend" he smiled and extended his hand, before realizing he was still holding an apple. Pulling back he turns and takes another bite. "-munch- I will leave you alone now -munch- best of luck to you -gulp- play nice."
Strolling to the cashier Xain put down a single euro and asked "Is this okay? It's all I have for currency."
Regardless of answer Xain smiles and walks out the front door to greet the small crowd.

"Hello children, Are you going to this meeting as well? I'm not the best with instructions and I was hoping For some company, I've been, how they say, living under a rock for quite some time."

Mallorie visibly relaxed as the situation seemed to diffuse itself, and there seemed to be no issues. She crumpled up the bag she had been eating out of, and tossed it into the nearest trash bin. She stood, her movements slow and languid from being in the light for so long, and cast her eyes about the steadily growing group in front of the station.

She made a face at the thought of having to possibly talk. With her luck, she'd just continue to go unnoticed, even if she were to walk up and poke one of them. She still hadn't quite figured out her powers yet, but she knew at least one of them kept her off the grid pretty easily. It was one of the few reasons she'd managed to disappear so quickly when she first heard of an Honor Guard sweep.

She shouldered her bag again, pushing stray curls out of her eyes and studying the group a bit more, now blatantly staring. There was a slim chance that they'd notice her, but at least if they did she'd have someone to talk to. Unless they thought she was weird. She frowned, studying the armored individual, and the young man in a cape and mask. Some how, she didn't think that would be much of an issue. All kinds went to these super hero conventions, right?