The UnHonorable War

Aaron glared at the woman who stood between him and his friend. Her comment pissed him off slightly. He looked down at his shadow and it twitched its head slightly as if to say no. He listened to his sister and calmed down.

However the moment he did, a man started walking up talking to the three of them talking about the convention. In his cooling state he nodded his masked head and spoke in mock cheerfulness. "Of course! Are you excited Jeanne?" He finished saying as another person showed up in a taxi.

This guy was full of enthusiasm for the convention and gave the boy a good out. "Hey Jeanne it's getting a little crowded here you wanna go somewhere else and catch up? You can come of course," He said gesturing under the cloak at Leena. "Since you two seem to be close I'd like to get to know you too. He said with a mix of happiness and curiosity.

Rob bought a taquito on his way out of the gas station approaching the others outside and holding back a grimace as he swallowed the first bite at the knowledge of how terrible what he was eating actually was, it still tasted good. "Hey, so everyone is headed for the convention too?" a tiny rodent scurrying out of his shirt pocket onto his shoulder. he held the taquito up next to it for the creature to nibble on.

Jeanne simply and sagely acknowledged the excitable new man, feeling self-conscious about her plain street clothing. She wordlessly followed Aaron, a dazed look in her eyes.

As a matter of fact, she was simply not looking forward. Her attention was entirely for the clerk, who, just a minute prior, when handed currency she recognized as European, in America, simply and wordlessly accepted it. It would have been very easy to miss had she been more used to her clairvoyance, but as it stood, the room was lit, and so she eavesdropped inside it like it bore secrets for her and for her alone. As they left the crowd, she took one good look at Xain, with her actual eyes, before pointing her retinas back to Aaron.

Once they were far enough away, and Leena had left, she spoke.

"What's up with this whole act?" she asked her friend, sure that nobody was listening to her conversation with Aaron. "You've never been good at acting, so don't start now, Aaron. Just," she sneered and giggled in anticipation to her next line of advice, "be yourself."

Mal had just been about to walk off, when she was approached by the armored person. Her gaze traveled up and down the metal form, and frowning just a bit. "Well.. You could say that.." She said softly, her voice soft. She adjusted the straps on her bag.

"I haven't been in many myself.. And when I am, I'm not usually noticed.." She gave a slight shrug, looking up at the other. "But you noticed me... Was my nervousness that obvious?" Mal asked, offering a soft smile. She tried not to let it show, but she supposed she was out of practice.

Aaron guided them around a wall and heaved a sigh of relief when he was out of sight of everyone. Aaron smiled at his friend beneath the mask and slowly took it off. "Well some of it was an act some of it wasn't." He slowly removed the cloak to reveal the bandaged legs and boots. He stretched his limbs and legs before responding again.

"Jeanne I've been living on the streets the moment my sister was murdered and a found a shard of bone the size of a telephone poll sticking through her and a burglar." He waited for her reaction before continuing. Since then I've been running around surviving as an invisible boy. Sometimes I don this disguise when I need to socialize, like now." He gestured to the cloak and mask while knowing she can't see him.

"While surviving, I've encountered plenty of Honor Guard. I've seen what they do Jeanne. And that has only fueled how I feel. I will protect any other Alphas even if I die. So some of this, is NOT an act." He grew out a blade the size of his arm and scraped it along the ground bone shards flying everywhere. "I may not be much but I still stand by what I said all those days ago. We deserve a chance to survive. I wanted to out you in front of everyone to see if I would have to do something I hated you understand?" He knew she would understand what he meant.

"Now enough drama tell me what happened you seemed like you wanted to join them so much what happened to change your mind and join the correct side?" He returned the blade back into his body with a grunt. He was genuinely curious as to where shes been.

Jeanne winced. She had many questions, but she'd allowed Aaron to finish speaking. His last sentence nearly made her lose her composure, and in silent retaliation she softly shook her head. In Jeanne's mind, he did not know what she knew, and what he'd seen, while heinous, was not even a part of the bigger picture.

"Correct side?" She laughed in his invisible face. "Oh, Aaron, my sweet friend."

Fully aware that her next statement would provoke Aaron's suspicion, she spoke it anyway. "I never changed my mind. Nature simply denied me the right to entertain those thoughts."

A white bolt materialized above Jeanne and silently struck the ground next to her. This happened like a flash: blink and you would miss it. "Regardless of how I feel about it," she articulated slowly, with her teeth clenched. "I am an alpha."

Aaron blinked at the small bolt of lightning that hit the ground next to his friend. So she became an Alpha. He listened to her say each word carefully. Indeed it did provoke his next response. "So then I wonder. What happens now? If you're given the choice, which side would you help?" He knew the only answer would be Alpha's. Mainly because even if she did help the Alpha Guard they would still kill her.

Alpha's are an abomination to those people. But to Aaron, Alpha's were people who were given a remarkable gift. A gift to protect those that they love and Aaron loved his people. After she had responded to his question he decided it was time to lighten the mood slightly.

"You know growing weapons out of my bones isn't all I can do. Sis wanna come out?" He asked looking down at the ground at his clothes as the shadow shuttered and began to move on its own and rose from the ground in the shape of his sister. "My sister may have died that night but she stuck with me forever." He said as they both hugged each other.

Jeanne's face turned a little towards discomfort as she saw Aaron embrace with what just a few moments earlier seemed to be his shadow. Nevertheless, Jeanne saw the conversational opening and took it.

"I didn't know she was murdered," she spoke softly. "I think I left before that happened. So, Aaron, tell me what happened."

The shadow returned to the shadow state on the ground and return to it's 'home' where his clothes were. He slowly moved a rock on the ground with his boot. "A couple nights after you came over and told me about your plan. A couple people broke into my house they robbed us and when my sister tried to stop one from killing me in my sleep, they tried to kill her and that's when I woke up to a bone sticking out of my arm, through both my sister, and the burglar." His voice cracked slightly as he thought about that night as a tear rolled down his invisible face leaving a blur along his face.

He wiped the tear trail and shook his head. "Ever since that night I've been living alone on the streets. An invisible boy that people mistake for a ghost. Hiding from Honor Guard, and surviving by stealing. So what happened to you? You seem to be avoiding my question." He said crossing his arms.

The embarrassment flowed to Jeanne's cheeks as she tried to recall past events, and concluded that she didn't really want to tell him anything. She squared her shoulders and stuck her tongue to the top of her mouth as she composed herself enough to give a noble enough answer.

"Well, I stole some of my father's money," she started, a soft tone in her throat, "and flew to the Honor Guard base to begin my training. I was outed as an alpha to myself by my own equipment, and then a series of strange events caused me to end up back in New York, where I met up with, uh..." She shrugged. "An old friend."

Rob would turn to Val scratching the chin of his shoulder Gerbil and thinking over his curiosity a bit, "Actually I was wondering something about this con, did anyone else get a special invite?" He figured if the answer was no he could just play it off as having a panel or booth of some sort that would be uninteresting enough that no one would bother to look for it at worst and at best he could confirm that he was in the presence of some people in a similar situation.

Mal forced herself to relax a little more, to be easy, but she found it hard. The closest she could get was to give some slack to her shoulders, her hands firmly in her pockets. Her lower half was still tense, her legs ready to bolt if she needed to. "Yeah, I'm headed to the convention... Not sure why though."
She shook her head, a little exasperated. "Maybe I just wanted to try something new again...? Or maybe I was just lonely. Been awhile since I've had anyone to talk to."

Her eyes traveled along the armored individual again, and she arched a brow. "So... The armor is your costume..? Or are you preparing for the Armageddon?" She smiled warmly, clearly enjoying the conversation. 'At least this is a plus... She seems nice enough..'

Aaron stared at her silently after she finished explaining. He wasn't a dumbass, he knew she was holding back some information. "I see... Well if you want to be so secretive fine by me." He said moving away from her and going back to his clothes.

He slowly donned his cloak and mask. He was getting tired of her beating around the bush. They were so close once. They used to share everything, hopes, dreams, BOYS. He smiled as he thought about that last one. He once had a crush on a boy in school. He wondered how he was doing. He was a tall muscular geek named Jason.

With his cloak on he secured his mask in place and covered his head with the hood. He finished up by securing some internal flaps on the inside he had made from hooks. This way the cloak wouldn't open when he started running. He turned his masked head to look back at Jeanne.

"Listen Jeanne. We're the same people now. I hope you turn your hatred for becoming an Alpha back at the Honor Guard." He stopped for what he said to sink in. "Because I will fight them. Fight them to the last man standing. They are horrible people for the horrible things they have done." He smiled behind his mask.

Snapping his fingers loudly to grab the attention of those around him Xain chuckles softly before speaking.
"You are all such magnificent characters, and while I've caught some of your names we should all introduce ourselves formally, i wish to know more of you before we must depart. My name is Xain de Revli. my age is somewhere past 30 years, i am an acolyte, a messenger, and a mentor to all those i can help." crossing his right foot behind his left and throwing his arm out to the side he dips forward into a rather dramatic bow.
"And it is my pleasure, to meet all of you this day."

The edict he had placed earlier begins to wear. inner voices awaken once more to their fullest, aggression and conflict are no longer forbidden within this realm.
"Of course you have no obligation to tell the truth, or to tell anything at all, my presence is of my own accord, i shall not dawdle i am not welcome."

as he goes to take another bite of his apple he realizes he had dropped it to snap his fingers. "oh...what a waste."

Robert watched the apple fall, bounce, and roll slightly on the ground when dropped with a frown, "That was unfortunate- So what you're a priest or something?" Rob'd take another bite of his taquito. Staring at Xain and swallowing before continuing, "My name's Rob I'm a baker and my business was going well. I was meant to get a second venue in a few months, but it looks like that is going to fall through." He'd sigh hoping that he could return to his bakery some day, "Besides for that I guess I'm a fast learner, so I can probably bounce back."

Jeanne kept her eyebrow raised. She recalled her earlier conversation in the New York nightclub with the so-called Mike, who was apparently sent to rescue three alphas. There was certainly some sort of organized union of alphas, but it seemed like a jump in logic to assume that they were any kind of fighting force, that had any sort of hopes of fighting against the Honor Guard as a conventional army.

She rubbed her head, pieces of dust flying off the top of her black hair.

"Yeah, sure," she said, although she didn't have quite the same enthusiasm.

He knew that was all he was going to get out of his friend. "Our bus should be leaving soon. Lets head back to the others." He said making his way back to the group of people waiting for the convention bus. He rolled his eyes at the guy trying too hard to make friends. He ignored the 'Meet and Greet' and decided it was best to sit on a nearby bench waiting for the bus to leave.

Mal offered a sheepish smile at her own foolishness. "Well.. It was a decent guess. I'm not too familiar on what would be considered super hero chic." Her nose scrunched as she glanced down at her own shabby, patchy clothing with a sigh. "Or anything chic really."

Mal glanced at the larger gathering for a moment, and she seemed to make a decision, turning to look back to her conversation partner. "I'm Mallorie by the way, or Mal, if you'd like." She let one arm hand loosely, her stance finally relaxing to the point that she didn't seem like she was about to bolt. "And you are?" She figured she may as well learn the name of her potential ally. Maybe she'd even gain a friend, though she didn't dare let herself hope for that much. It wasn't safe for her to have friends now.