The tavern was just as dark, brown, and gray on the inside as everything else was outside. The lobby was dimmed with soft lights on the sides of the ceiling that ran along the walls, and in the middle of the dining hall was a platform with a small jazz band playing their music for the audience. Soon after Joel and Ryan entered they were greeted by a waitress and taken to a seat. Ryan looked around as Joel sat down and looked at his menu, noticing they were set a bit far back in the room while there were enough tables near the front where the music was being played.

    "You’re sure you don’t want to seat us near the entertainment?" Ryan asked.

    Joel looked up between Ryan and the waitress and noted, "This is fine with me. I kind of like this quiet spot."

    "I’m sorry sir. Its getting late, and those seats up there are reserved at these times." The waitress informed Ryan, "Please, I’m sure a nice gay couple like yourself would find it more pleasant back here."

    Ryan’s expression changed a a frustrated one and said, "Err, wha... oh alright..." he grumbled a moment and said, "Three hundred years, this is a first for me... hmph."

    "I didn’t know people were allowed to make assumptions like that out loud working in places like these." Joel said, still going through his menu. He looked up at the waitress and said, "Could I just get a cola, please? And one of these club sandwiches?"

    "A Red Yeacht for me, and a raw chicken." Ryan ordered through the lady, "Dead, but raw."

    "You’re sure you don’t want it well done?" The lady asked.

    "Nope, dead and uncooked." Ryan told her, "You don’t need to know what for."

    The waitress shrugged and shuddered as she walked away with the order. Joel peered at Ryan for a moment and raised an eyebrow. Ryan could only lower his head resting on his hand, which was over on the top of the table. He put his head back up with the sound of a group of people entering the tavern. In through the entrance came ten men of different proportions wearing similar white tuxedo suits. They pushed by the front desk and greeter waiters and waitresses and began filling in the tables at the front. Six of them sat at three tables in pairs, while another pair approached a couple at an occupied table and pushed them off their seats and onto the floor. The ninth and tenth of the group of men looked at Joel and Ryan and walked up to their table.

    Joel turned from the two men to Ryan and asked, "Do you think they’re gay? Maybe the lady was mistaken."

    Ryan glanced quickly from the men to Joel to listen, and back to the men and said, "This isn’t the table you’re looking for, guys."

    Joel shrugged at the men, as he chewed on a crunchy bread stick from the basket on the table. By this time the musicians had stopped playing for a moment to switch out their music pieces. The men looked at each other for a moment, nodded, and reached into their suit pockets. From the back the room the waiters let out a brief gasp of shock as the two suited men each pulled out a bag of strange powdery substance and tossed one onto Joel’s and Ryan’s plate on the table.

    "Welcome to Choajoi, kids." Said the man on the left.

    The two bags popped open and the powder spread all over Joel and Ryan’s clothes. The white substance glittered red and green, and began to sink into their clothes like a stain.

    "We’s hope you likes it here." The man on the right said, ‘Tha Suits don’t like dos who break our laws."

    Joel put up his shirt and poked at the substance with a finger and looked at it for a moment, as Ryan did.

    "Ey, he ‘as gloves on! Dat t’ain right." The left said to the right.

    "Looks like barf, eww." Joel said, cringing. He squinted for a moment with his head back and said, "Woah, I’m feeling dizzy all of the sudden... wait, no I’m not. Whew."

    Ryan inspected the powder for a moment, then looked up at the men and said, "Sickness powder, I presume?" He flicked it off his glove, and patted off his leather armor, "My, my, when will humans learn."

    He stood up, rising tall over the two men in suits. The crowd around them grew silent and watched, occasional whispers in the background.

    Ryan grinned at them widely and said, "Dig the suit, man. And the hair." He pointed up at his own head, then at Joel’s hair, "Didn’t your mothers teach you not to pick fights with guardians? These tricks don’t work on us."

    "Well you’re lucky you go around with gloves on, Ryan." Joel said.

    The left man scratched his head and asked, "Whut’s a guardian?"

    He looked at his companion, but he shrugged as well. Ryan sighed and shook his head, then sat back down, but collapsed on the floor as someone had pulled the chair from behind him while he was standing. Everyone around them began laughing almost hysterically at Ryan. Joel stood up in shock and looked down at Ryan on the floor, and another man grabbed his chair from behind him as well.

    "Oww... that didn’t feel good." Ryan said, gritting his teeth.

    "That’s not very nice." Joel said, as he watched someone drag away his chair.

    Ryan stood up again and patted himself off, and then pointed at the two men in suits.

    "Dimwits." Ryan said, "I’ll show you childish games."

    As he spoke, the men’s eyes began to gleam enchantingly, as if hypnotized under Ryan’s command.

    "Go home." Ryan said, waving them away, "And take your friends with you."

    They nodded, walked away to their friends, and began tugging at their arms.

    "He’s wants us to leave." Said the left man.

    "We’s should go home, its late." Said the right.

    "Master Ryan says so." They both said together.

    Joel looked at Ryan and asked, "Did you have to make them say THAT?"

    "Heheh, but isn’t it true?" Ryan cackled.

    Some men stood up and slapped their two dimwitted colleagues’ back, and sneered at Joel and Ryan. When the men came to their sensed, shaking their head briefly, they stepped back a moment while being starred down by Ryan and ran for the exit screaming for help. The remainder of the bunch started muttering things left and right between them, and one by one they each drew small clubs from their jackets.

    Joel stepped up and drew the Masamune from his back sheath and laughed, "Hahah, its my turn now!"

    Ryan stepped back out of Joel’s way and leaned back against the nearest wall as he watched Joel leap into action against the approaching mob.

    One of the waiters inched up to Ryan and asked, "You don’t suppose he’s going to kill them all with that weapon, do you?"

    "What? Nah." Ryan told him, "But if you’d like a new entree for your menu we could make arrangements."

    The waiter began to pale for a moment as he watched next to Ryan. One by one the men in suits running around swinging their clubs around fell as Joel joyfully clobbered each of them with punches, kicks, jabs, and throws, while he broke the clubs with his sword swinging action. He jumped around the room, on and off tables, making quick work of them. As the men were finishing up and crawling away from Joel and Ryan, another waiter walked out with a live chicken in a cage, flapping its wings, shedding its feathers, clucking out loud. Ryan looked at the chicken, and then at the waiters, and sighed deeply.

    "Thank you!" Ryan yelled out to the room, arms raised up high, "This place sucks!"

    He pushed the waiters aside and left, and Joel soon to follow after paying the clerk some money for the service. Ryan kicked some dirt up as he left and watched it fly onto the other side of the street. He shook his head and looked up again with a chuckle and grin. It was late night now in the city, and time to find a hotel for the night. Though the feel of the area seemed dark, gloomy, and dangerous, there were still a scattered number of people running from place to place.

    "Err, hey!" Joel called out to one of them.

    The man Joel called out to started to run away, ducking under his coat.

    "Aww man." Joel grumbled.

    He looked to the other said and saw another person coming along and called out once again.

    "Ah, no! Its a demon!" cried the man, also running away.

    Joel scratched his head momentarily, and spotted another person.

    "Hey, can I ask for directions?" he asked.

    "Shit, the Coats hired one of you? We’re all screwed!" the man said, making his own get away.

    "Hey idiot, that’s the Suits!" another character yelled at the one before.

    Joel looked his way with curious eyes, and he, too, ran for his life. At this time Ryan had gone into a deep series of thoughts, arms crossed and eyes gazing into each soul that passed. Soon he pointed at a passing couple across the street who were walking a dog around.

    "Hey Joel, try asking those two." He told Joel.

    "Okay." Joel nodded. He ran across the street and greeted the man and the woman, and asked, "Hey, excuse me, but could I ask you two for the location of the hotel here?"

    The two stopped where they were and looked over Joel and gave him a welcoming smile.

    "Oh, hello there!" the lady greeted.

    "You’re a guardian, aren’t you?" the man asked. He pointed down the street and answered, "A block down that way, and two to the left and you should find it."

    Joel looked down the street in the direction given and said, "Great, thanks a lot!"

    "But wait!" the lady said, putting her hand out, "What’s your name? We can never go without knowing since one of your kind helped us."

    "One of my kind?" Joel asked. He looked at Ryan a moment, then back and said, "My name is Joel, and my friend over there is Ryan."

    "Oh, ho ho, we should have known!" the man said.

    "Well would you mind accompanying us to our house for a meal or two? Maybe stay the night?" the lady offered Joel.

    Joel thought for a moment, then looked over to where Ryan was standing, but Ryan wasn’t there anymore. He turned back to find Ryan in front of the couple and gave a slight jump back in surprise.

    "Wouldn’t mind at all, lady." Ryan told them, "Anything that could save us some money around here would be great!"

    "Well then, right this way!" the lady told Joel and Ryan.

    "Right this way, please do!" the man said.

    Ryan nodded and gave a grin, and the two followed the couple down the street and around some corners. They stopped as their dog stopped momentarily at one of the many dimly lit streetlights along the sidewalk. Joel and Ryan noticed how poor the neighborhood was by how much more the apartment buildings around them were dry and cracked than the ones they passed before.

    Joel stared off into space with his arms up and behind his head and thought as they waited. He thought about the look in the other people’s eyes as he was asking around for directions. Then he looked back down and over at Ryan.

    "Hey Ryan, I’ve been thinking for a while." Joel said.

    "Hmm? What’s up?" Ryan asked.

    "Thinking we should restrain ourselves from using our powers around the public." Joel told Ryan.

    Ryan stood about and looked blankly at Joel for a moment as if his brain had shut off.

    "You want me to not use my powers?" Ryan asked suddenly.

    "Well, yeah!" Joel said, nodding, "Did you see how afraid the people were when we walked up to them back there?"

    "Wait a minute." Ryan said, "Do you know what it would be like to not use my powers?"

    "No...?" Joel said, trailing off.

    "Have you ever smoked in your life, and then tried to stop?" Ryan asked.

    Joel shook his head again.

    "Well let me tell you, it would be damn annoying to not use my powers any time I wanted!" Ryan said, raising his hands up and turning away.

    "The other people of this town just don’t know the miracles you can accomplish for us, that’s why they’re so afraid." The man said, "Its a shock for all of us who don’t have special powers to actually see the real thing in person!"

    "It’d feel great to feel welcome around where ever we go. If we don’t use our powers we won’t have people coming after us with torches." Joel said.

    "What does he think I should do, turn my brain off completely and follow him around hand in hand like a brain dead monkey?" Ryan muttered. He looked back with his hands down at his sides and said, "Alright, you’re on!"

    Ryan sighed for a moment. He looked up to the sky and began to fly upward to have a good view for the whole town from above.

    "Oh hey Ryan!" Joel called out to him, "That means no flying either, by the way!"

    Ryan looked back, stupefied in the face, and suddenly fell down to the ground and crashed into the cement road. His eyes turned blank and phased out in spirals.

    "I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of seeing that." The lady told her husband.

    "You know what? I don’t think I will either." Joel said with a long smile on his face.

    Joel walked up to Ryan and pulled him to his feet again. Ryan shook his head, gathering his senses together again, and dusted his suit off.

    "No flying? This is going to be a long year!" Ryan said.

    As the dog finished his business, the couple waved at Joel and Ryan to come along again. They passed through a dim alley path and came up to a door on the side of one of the old tall apartment buildings. Into the apartment hall, up a flight of stairs, and down three rooms, the man unlocked and opened the door into their home. The atmosphere around the place the two humans called home was sweet, and it looked as if an exact opposite of the outside. There were colorful vases of flowers set up on well-crafted tables along the walls, as well as assorted gems and jewelry posted in long strips along the wall and around the windows and doors.

    The dog was unleashed and walked away into the apartment. Joel walked in and unbuckled his sheath, then he put his bag and sword down next to the sofa. At that time Ryan was sitting down at the table in the back of the room while the lady was preparing food and drink for the two guardians to eat.

    "Great place you got here, you two." Ryan told the couple, "Now, we can’t go around thinking of you two as just a nameless couple for this. Hows about some names?"

    "Oh, I’m sorry! We didn’t think of it before." The man apologized.

    "Don’t worry about it." Ryan said with a grin.

    "My name is Doma, and my wife’s name is Judy." The man informed Ryan and Joel.

    "Well its good to know you, Doma and Judy." Ryan told them.

    "Yeah, thanks for inviting us here." Joel added, "It’s a very nice place compared to the outside."

    A silence grew over the room marking the end of the discussion. Judy walked back into the room with a few drinks to spread around the four of them, and Joel and Ryan thanked her as she walked back to continue preparing the food. A sudden scream of a lady was heard from out the window, and the two snapped their heads in the general direction. The silence returned over them again as they walked to the window to gaze out to check on the situation. They saw nothing but the darkness of night over the streets.

    "Man, that was fast. What’s going on down there?" Joel asked.

    "I wouldn’t pay the sounds any mind. You’ll hear those many times a night around this town." Doma told them, "The Suits may have control over this city, but at night there is only anarchy and violence on the streets which adds to their chaos. It is dangerous for the ordinary person passed the curfew."

    "Curfew, huh." Ryan said. He walked back to the table and sat down crossing his arms over the surface as Joel continued to gaze outside, "So tell me. I’m not going to use my powers to find out, but what about these Suits? Isn’t there a police or governing force to put them in their place?"

    Joel looked up towards the sky as Ryan talked with Doma, and put his hand out of the window and into the air. The sky began to light up as the stars flickered about high above them in space. He then thought for a moment and put his other hand up into the sky as well.

    "There is, but they won’t step up to do anything about it these days." Doma said, "They are nothing but a big group of no good crooks that you would find in any other place, but four years ago they managed to find a way to take a lot of our city’s important resources hostage. They found out where the underground water came from and severely limit us yearly to how much we get now. That is what keeps the land here very unhealthy, preventing us from harvesting good crops to trade with other cities."

    "Is that so." Ryan said.

    Joel continued to watch the sky and the dancing stars outside in relaxation and enjoyment. His hands began emitting a slight glow, and thunderous sounds began crackling outside. A strike of lightning hit a dead tree outside across the road, and Joel jolted slightly back in surprise. He put his hands down and looked around the tree and at the people gathering around to put the fire out.

    "Yes. No one knows where the underground water comes from but them. We have no real choice but to let them do what they want." Doma said, "In fact we’ve had a few guardians like yourself come by and look, but they said they couldn’t find anything or force information out of the Suits to help us. They just took a beating and walked away from them if things came down to it."

    "Well it looks like Joel and I are going to have a shot at beating a few of them ourselves!" Ryan said with another grin, patting his fists together.

    Judy walked out from the kitchen again holding two plates of food, and she held one of the plates to Joel near the window.

    "Here you go, Mr. Joel. Hope you enjoy it!" she said, offering Joel the food.

    Joel only stood there and did not reply. He only continued to look out the window at the gleaming stars.

    "Joel? Would you like some?" Judy asked.

    When he gave no response in any form again, Judy rolled her eyes and brought the plates to Ryan and Doma instead. Ryan looked up at Judy and thanked her, and he caught glimpse of Joel with his hands out the window.

    "Hey man, what are you doing over there?" Ryan called out to him.

    Ryan looked a bit closer at Joel and noticed his glowing hands in the air, and he began to remember Zareon and his special techniques. His eyes lit up in shock as he thought about what he saw from Zareon that Joel was performing in front of them. Ryan kicked his chair back onto the ground and made a quick move towards Joel, clobbering him down to the ground with his hands. Joel hit the ground and felt like his eyes were going to pop out the front end.

    "Hey... oww..." Joel groaned, "What did you do that for?"

    Ryan looked back at Doma and Judy, who were staring at him in confusion, then kneeled down and whispered to Joel, "Do you know what the hell you were just doing?"

    "Making the stars glitter. I like watching the sky like that. Why?" Joel whispered back.

    "You idiot!" Ryan yelled at him, clobbering his head down again. He then whispered, "That’s one of Zareon’s    ultimate techniques. It summons a giant flare from the stars at high speeds to strike down the area. Everyone would have died if you kept that going."

    Joel rubbed the back of his head, stood up, and said, "Sorry! I don’t know what came over me." He walked over to the table and took a seat and said, "Thanks for the food, Miss Judy."

    Ryan looked outside and inspected the area for a moment, then he walked back to the table, saying, "Such dramatic moments at inappropriate times." He took off his mantle and put it aside, and he sat down in front of his plate of food, "Time to eat, and get some decent sleep!"

    Joel looked around with a bit of confusion to his face before his plate was handed to him. Judy had served them a bit of their left over meal from some time before the two Guardians arrived in the city, which consisted of strips of chicken with a slight layer of glazed on honey. It was heated up in a microwave to a warm feel so it did not have the same qualities as it would have been if it were fresh. Joel noticed this as he took a bite out of his serving, but regardless he continued to chew without giving out any hints and swallowed. He kept his shameful face up and finished his meal.

    "That really hurt!" Joel thought, "I’m surprised I could even chew that food with a straight face after that. Wait, what if I can’t digest it after two slams on the head?" He beat on his chest with his left hand a few times and received another round of strange looks, and said, "Good stuff! I think I might have eaten too fast. Err... May I use your bathroom?"

    "Certainly." Judy said, pointing out the bathroom.

    Joel stood up and made his way towards the bathroom, closing the door behind him and began doing his business inside. The three turned back to the table and finished their food as they waited on him to finish.

    "Does he always act like that?" Judy asked.

    "Don’t ask me, I just met him the other day." Ryan told her. He put his fork and knife down on his plate and asked, "By the way, there wouldn’t happen to be any tailors around this city, would there? I have a request."

    "There’s several around town, what would you like?" Doma answered.

    Ryan waved a hand slightly at Joel’s bag, then raised it up. The bag opened and Joel’s red shirt and pants with white stripes floated up and out towards them. They were beaten, torn, cut, and shredded from Joel’s previous ventures and almost looked like rags.

    "I’d like to have these fixed up and duplicated a few times for my friend." Ryan said, "A late friend of his bought them for him as his first set of clothes. To loose something so dear would be tragic for him. He’s been through a lot of action in his short time that has roughened these up, and he will only go through more in the future."

    Doma took the destroyed shirt and pants from levitation and said, "Yes, I can find one who can help tomorrow."

    "Great." Ryan said, "I’ll pay you for your help, and like Joel said, let’s not go around saying that they’re for a Guardian."

    Doma stood up and walked away to put the items away in another room and came back shortly after. A flush was heard from the bathroom, and Joel exited back into the living room. He had a smug look and a slight smile on his face, and he wiped his forehead clean.

    "Whew, at least I can still use the bathroom. Maybe things won’t be so bad after all." Joel thought. He patted his belly with both hands and asked, "Well, what’s next?"

    Ryan stood up and said, "Bed. For me at least." He lifted his mantle up and asked, "Did you two have a spare room you were going to let us stay in? If not, that’s alright."

    "We do have a guest room with a bunk bed that our children used to use before they moved out." Judy said, "It’s the room to the right of the kitchen. Our room is on the opposite from there."

    "Alright, thanks." Ryan said, looking in the direction given, "Good night you two!"

    As Ryan entered the bedroom, Joel picked up his bag of belongings and ran for the room as well. Ryan put down his mantle next to the left wall from the door, and he tossed off his upper body armor. He stretched a moment, then made his way to the top bunk of the bed and nestled his way into the blankets. Joel put his bags down and stepped towards the bed and poked at the mattress a few times. He had almost forgotten how a real bed felt after sleeping on hard surfaces and couches for so long.

    "See you in the morning, Ryan." Joel said as he made his way into his bed on the lower bunk.

    "Ah, yes." Ryan responded, "You know, I feel as if I were a human child here in this bed. I mean, of course all of us Guardians currently take the form of human youths despite our actual ages. Perhaps the only way to share these feelings with the human race is to take what was once a part of their own?"

    Joel did not respond, but Ryan could hear the many crackles coming from Joel’s body as he lay down on the soft bed below. He shrugged and drifted off to sleep himself. Throughout the night the two were dreaded by the sound of helpless cries from the streets, but still they stood there waiting for dawn to arrive.

    As Joel woke up, he shuddered briefly as the sounds from the night that had gathered in his mind quickly replayed almost all together at once. He spent a few minutes laying there still wondering who the voices might have been from. When he finally did get up, he sat upward and looked to his side out of the bed. Ryan stood there wearing normal clothes next to the closet hanging his armor up.

    "Hey, what gives? Aren’t we leaving today?" Joel asked Ryan.

    "Not right away, I’m afraid." Ryan told him, "Thought you heard last night while you were at the window, but we’re going to push our plans back a day or so. We’re going to solve the problem that everyone’s having with these Suit guys."

    A cloud of smoke appeared over his right hand and over his head for a moment and disappeared in a slight puff. Ryan was then holding a magnifying glass and a detective’s cap.

    "I’ll figure this out even if I don’t use my special powers of the mind!" he grinned widely.

    "But..." Joel pointed at Ryan saying, "Didn’t you just use them?"

    Ryan fell down to the ground head first feeling picked on by Joel, and his magnifying glass cracked. He stood up again quickly and brushed himself off, then he shrugged and turned for the door.

    "No powers, no problem." Ryan said, tossing the magnifying glass away, "I’m going to find breakfast. A place that actually serves food right this time, that is."

    Ryan exited the room as well as the apartment building, and he wandered off into the city in search for a place to eat. Joel left the room, leaving his items inside, and greeted the couple at the table again. They were eating their breakfast and reading the newspaper.

    "Good morning you two!" Joel greeted them.

    "Good morning to you, young Guardian!" Judy responded with, "Would you like some breakfast while you’re here?"

    Joel glanced outside a moment, then turned and looked at Doma and Judy again.

    "No thanks. I have a lot of searching to do today." Joel told her. He crossed his arms and said, "Now if only I knew where to start with."

    "The Suits keep quite in secret as to where their hide out is around the general public." Doma told Joel, "You may have to gather up small bits of information from random people in the city who might know something before you get the whole picture."

    Joel nodded and returned his arms to his sides.

    "Alright, I understand." Joel said, "By the way, I hope you don’t mind me leaving my bag in that room so nothing gets stolen while I’m out there. People might get startled by me walking around with a sword on my back, too."

    "No problem at all. As long as you guys get rid of them we’re okay with you staying here." Doma replied.

    Joel began to back out slowly to the door saying, "Eheh, well, thanks you two. Hate to feel like a big leach, but I’m off to figure out what to do today!"

    He made his way outside and onto the streets feeling a bit guilty for using their space so much even though he was openly invited by the two. The morning’s sun shined deep into his eyes, and he covered them up to see the people around him only as mere shadows. Everyone was minding their own business as they walked down the streets. Along every wall there were figures made out to be homeless bums and thieves sitting around waiting for someone to pass near them to make an attack. The helpless cries from the night had stopped sounding off, but now Joel would have to discover where they came from exactly.

    Joel searched through various streets and closed alley paths as he made his way around. During that time he checked the ground for traces of trap doors and hidden tunnels that might lead to an underground hide out, but when he thought he was coming on to something he only met with a natural dead end. He did manage to find some people willing to talk to him, though, and he gathered a few pieces of information. One man told him that the Suits’ hide out entrance was well guarded and ever changed from what he spotted. Another man said he noticed a strange marking that looked like a door outline in one of the shops in the city. A lady mentioned to him that she was almost a victim of some of the Suits during a night, but she made it away. She told him that a lot of people are dragged away rather than killed on the streets. He thanked informers as he came by them, and Joel moved on to seek more information on top of that.

    Meanwhile, Ryan had found his luck at breakfast in a restaurant on the near other end of the city. It was another near-fancy sit down restaurant like the night before, but this place was much more populated with much friendlier and louder people. He was directed to a table and sat down, and he tried acting as cool and normal as he could to mix with his surroundings. All around him he kept hearing things about someone by the name of Lynn, but all he could make out about he was that she was a popular young female worker around the place. He over heard that she was talented in on-stage acts with hoops and juggling acts, and about how pretty she was.

    "Man, what gives. I can’t use my powers... I mean, come on, you can’t even notice when I use them. They’re powers of the mind for god’s sake!" Ryan thought to himself. He caught a waiter passing by and said, "Hey man, could I order some of your pancakes and sausage, with a glass of milk?"

    The teenage waiter looked at him weird for a moment and replied with, "Uh, sorry sir, but I don’t work these tables."

    "Well damn." Ryan said, "Go ahead then." He put his head down and thought, "If I could use my powers I would have known that. But blending in is all that matters, sure! Let’s not scare people away here!"

    The youth left Ryan, and he continued to wait. He began keeping an open ear out towards each table and listened for a while. Suddenly he came across a conversation that involved the words "secret", "base", "Lynn", and "kill", but then Ryan could not make out any other words and stopped listening. He sat back and continued his wait to order his food.

    After a while of waiting, the crowd silenced a bit and began chanting "Lynn!" over and over as a young lady entered the room. She appeared as if she was about 18 years old, and she had red hair up in a red bandana much like Ryan’s. She walked down the isle with a happy smile as she passed people, and she wore a white shirt with a black tank top over it tucked into blue pants as well as an apron over it all. She placed down a platter for a table as she walked by it, and she continued on towards Ryan’s table.

    "Good morning mister! You look like you’re new to the area. What can I get for you today?" she asked him.

    "I guess from the sound of things, you must be Lynn." Ryan said.

    "I am, is there something you’d like to request?" she asked.

    "Besides an order of pancakes and sausage, with a glass of milk, just be careful." Ryan told Lynn, "I overheard some plot to kill you from one of the tables here."

    "Bah, no one wants to kill me! Why would anyone want to do that?" Lynn laughed, "Is that bandana of yours making you delusional, sir? Maybe you should take it off and pour some water on it."

    Lynn advanced towards him and touched Ryan’s bandana in an attempt to take it off, but Ryan quickly slapped her hands away.

    "Never. Touch. The bandana." Ryan told her. He looked up a moment and thought, "Popular flicks like these always think they can do what ever they want."

    The girl backed off slightly and bowed her head, and the cheering only got louder.

    "Sorry!" she apologized, "Pancakes and sausage it is!"

    Lynn hurried off to hand the order in, and the cheering grew more quiet and eventually faded away to the old chatter that there was before. Ten minutes later as Ryan was still waiting on his order to arrive, the lights grew dim and a spotlight hit the stage up front. Lynn walked up to the center with a microphone headset on her head and holding a group of metallic hoops in her hands.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, and now I present to you our 9:30 act!" Lynn announced through the microphone, "I hope you enjoy my juggling act!"

    She began tossing and flipping each of the five hoops into the air one after another, catching them and tossing them back up again. This had not quite grabbed everyone’s attention yet, but within a few moments of her act she caught all of the hoops and paused a moment. Lynn pressed a button inside each hoop and made blades extend from most of the outer ends, leaving a slight grasping handle on each of them to carry them with. She began to flip each of the bladed hoops up into the air as she did before her conversion, which caught the whole room’s attention. Eventually each hoop burst into flames, and she continued to juggle them in the same fashion as before.

    All around the room Ryan could hear people whispering between one another, talking about how dangerous that act must be or how they never grow tired of watching it. He looked around some more and noticed one of the people at the table he was hearing odd things from was holding what looked like a pistol slightly under the table cloth. Time suddenly felt like it was slowing down, even for Ryan at that time without casting any spells. He quickly extended his right hand out into the direction of the pistol’s line of sight. When he heard the sound of a gunshot he pulled his hand back, creating a repelling barrier between Lynn and the gunman. The bullet hit the barrier, bounced back, and returned into the person firing it. Ryan shrunk back slightly and gasped along with the rest of the crowd as the man attempting to shoot Lynn fell over with a bullet wound.

    "Man, that was close. Glad I’m in a booth." Ryan thought, "I see, though. They were hoping to make the kill look like she messed up on accident and killed herself."

    Lynn indeed stopped her juggling act and dropped a few of her hoops on the ground. Upon impact of the ground the hoops returned to normal before they could create any physical damage to the store. She backed up slowly and gasped in fear while security ran out to grab the wounded character and his company. It was announced later that he was watching Lynn’s performance as final entertainment before putting himself out of his miserable hateful life, but Ryan knew better.

    Ryan stood up and wandered for the bathroom to get out of the commotion, and along the way he noticed a trap door in the floor covered by heavy boxes. He looked around for other people and then pushed the boxes out of the way. He opened the door but found nothing but gravel beneath it, so he closed the door and returned the boxes to their place. Ryan had no luck in finding the base or any information about it yet in his own situation. He returned to his table and ate his meal and paid for it with satisfactory, glad that it wasn’t another restaurant like the night before. Before he left he locked a glance with Lynn for a moment as she was sitting back with her bandana off drinking water trying to cool off. He did not know what the gang had a problem with this girl about, but it was time to seek out and regroup with Joel to see what they could come up with together.

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