It had been three days since his arrival in the city, work was easy enough to find. Tye had made a few calls, and given him a hell of a reference. Lodging was another story, most places were too expensive and others were uninhabitable. Each day he’d leave his motel checking out various rent posting and each day he’d come up short.

As Atian strolled the busy sidewalks as leisurely as he could without being trampled or washed away in a tide of pedestrians as he struggled with addresses and street names. He was new and his inability to “keep up” or “get outta the way” wasn’t lost on the city folk, and while annoying it was nice to be treated like a regular person. A few glared and avoided him but most brushed by him and continued on like his mutation was nothing. Something Atian was getting quite used to.

With his handy cell phone he continued to navigate the streets of New York, and then tragedy struck. Seven dogs of various sizes interrupted his path, their leashes binding around his knees and ankles as he attempted to step over a shih tzu. Failing to maintain his balance Atian instinctively moved to brace his fall his phone still in hand. He heard the cracking of phone’s screen as he made contact with the sidewalk. “No…” He whispered to himself, turning his phone over as he surveyed the damage. Needless to say it was not good. Besides the touch screen being unresponsive, the wicked fractal pattern alternating between black and white; the power button still worked.

Dusting himself off, he lifted himself off the ground, although he had no real “home” he was still a ways away from his motel. He scanned the area for something familiar, but who was he kidding he’d only been here three days. Looking down at his shattered phone screen he sighed. Maybe he could find a place to buy a prepaid.

“Excuse me; do you know where I can buy a cheap phone?” He asked some random stranger, hopefully a helpful one.

Juliette Lawson hummed along quietly to the song that blasted from her headphones. She knew it was terrible for her ears to listen at such an intense volume, but she had grown so accustomed to it that it felt strange to set it any other way. Besides, it covered the obnoxious buzz of the city she had begun to call her home.

As she walked out of the subway station and back onto the street, she kept mostly to herself. A winter jacket covered her blue scrubs from the waist up, so she didn't tend to receive too many questions about them. As she walked the route she had taken so many times before, however, she felt a sudden tap on her shoulder.

She turned around, bleary eyed from a long shift, and looked at the stranger in front of her. She looked down to try and hide the look of shock that covered her features as her eyes darted over his strange appearance. She took out her earbuds quickly, doing her best to make eye-contact with him without betraying her feelings.

"I'm sorry?" She asked, trying to decipher what he may have said over the noise of her music. "A phone store? I believe there's one at the next intersection."

His passive aggressive approach was proving to be ineffective. Politely he stood asking and hoping to receive some form of assistance only to be ignored or brushed off. Feeling his irritation level rising he did something that most people hated, he reached out and touched a stranger. Not just any stranger no she was short, cute and defiantly not threatening, her scrubs hinted she was in the healthcare field; or at least it seemed a safe assumption. Hopefully that also meant she’d be more inclined to help. Taking a deep breath he made himself seem as unimposing as possible. He lowered his head, angling his red eyes downward, he attempted o soften his voice as he tapped her shoulder. Nothing menacing but enough to pull her attention from whatever might be holding it.

“I’m sorry, but do you know where I can find a phone store?” He asked, showing her his phone and its poor condition.

She looked at him questioningly, pulling the ear buds from her ear, a slight look of shock on her face before she gathered her composure. Not unexpected given his eyes, skin, hair and ears, but he wouldn’t hold it against her. After all she was only human, but willing to help.

"I'm sorry, a phone store? I believe there's one at the next intersection.” She stated, her words seeming a bit unsure in her answer; whether it was his mutation that threw her off or she wasn’t too confident. A grey brow rose as he weighed his options with her answer. “I’m sorry but could you be more specific? I’m new here and there are a lot of intersections.” He stated matter firmly, backing his response with a calming half smile. The last thing he wanted to be was rude.

Juliette's eyes fell on the damaged phone, having gotten over the initial shock of seeing his appearance. She felt as though she shouldn't be one to judge, though. Just because her mutation wasn't an outward one didn't mean that it wasn't just as strange. Her features returned to their regular state that she employed when seeing horrific disfiguration in the hospital.

The brunette looked back up at the stranger as he spoke, registering his question. "I'm sorry but could you be more specific? I'm new here and there are a lot of intersections." He had stated. She concentrated, trying to picture the street over with the store in question. Typically, when she walked by she disregarded her surroundings. They had become so commonplace that they were inconsequential to her.

"I can't seem to remember the street name," Juliette said, clearly trying to remember. She retraced her steps in her mind, doing her best to picture the street sign. Nothing came to mind. "I might be able to lead you there, though. Oh- I'm Juliette, by the way."

Atian tried not to stare or look impatient as the woman struggled to come up with anymore specifics."I can't seem to remember the street name…” He felt his gut sinking slightly, figuring her another dead end in his quest for a new phone.
‘At this rate I’ll never get back.’ He thought to himself, the words "Oh, thanks anyways" resting on his tongue tip already inhaling the necessary breathe of air needed to sound the words.

“I might be able to lead you there, though. Oh- I'm Juliette, by the way." She stated.

Now it was him who wore a look of shock, his calming smile turning into a true expression of happiness. “Wow that would be great.” Stepping aside giving her to room to lead. “Juliette; I’m Atian pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” He’d extend his hand not really considering the fact she might be too thrown off by his appearance to even want to touch his hand; which would make the rest of this trip a little awkward. For a second he thought about pulling his hand back but how rude and weird would that be. So with his hand out there he just smiled and hoped for the best. What the worst that could happen besides her saying
no.

Juliette watched at Atian's face moved swiftly from a look of disappointment to shock, and then finally happiness. As he stepped aside, she stepped slightly closer to get a better view of the street in front of them. She apologised quickly to some pedestrians as she accidentally blocked their path.

“Juliette; I’m Atian pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” The stranger said to her. He then extended his hand, to which Juliette paused for just a second. She wasn't used to strangers being particularly friendly on the streets of New York, and she was at quite the disadvantage due to her stature. However, she knew it would be rude to refuse, and he had been perfectly sociable up until that point.

After what Juliette worried might have been too long, she took his hand in hers. "And yours as well, Atian," she smiled at him. She didn't notice at first as her hand lit up brightly when it came into contact with Atian's.

She made eye-contact with him for a moment, and then her eyes trailed down to the handshake. She gasped and then quickly pulled her hand away, worried that someone might have seen. Her hand went back to her normal tanned colour, but it tingled aggressively. "What just happened?" She asked Atian nervously, having never experienced anything like that.

"And yours as well, Atian." She spoke smiling and seeming to grow more comfortable. He could remember thinking she had pretty eyes. Then something weird happened. Almost simultaneously they both looked down at the glowing light in their mitts. She gasped in shock and immediately she let go. While Atian began to panic, something was wrong. His hand was glowing still, and despite his best efforts it wouldn’t stop.


“What just happened?” Juliette asked, stepping away from him. And answer he would if not for the pain.

It felt like he had hit his funny bone; that weird numb yet painful sensation but only three times worse. It raced through his hand as they broke contact, and there was still that light. And not his usually blinding white-ish-yellow color no, this hand a more gold like quality to it. Weirder still, he couldn’t “feel” this light, like he had no connection to it. Even as he tried to absorb it into his cells nothing, like it didn’t belong to him.


“I don’t know. This has never hap-” The light had started to gather at his fingertips, shooting off towards Juliette as if returning home. He stood puzzled, not sure of what just happened nor how she would react. Was she hurt?

"Look I'm  so sorry. Are you okay?" A crowd had begun to form, some eyed the mutant suspiciously.

"Did he just attack that lady?" Someone  from the crowd asked. This was starting to get out of hand.

Juliette watched in shock as the energy danced around Atian's hands. It seemed to almost be pulled into him, but it resisted. She looked up at him and realized that he was just as confused as she was. He seemed to say something, but she was so concentrated on the light that was pulled back to her that she wasn't listening. It was definitely from her, as it shared her familiar yellow-gold glow.

The energy moved quickly through the air and back into her fingertips. She turned her hand over, thinking. After a moment, she realized that the mysterious tingling had stopped. When she looked back up, she saw the astonished stares of the people around them.

"Look I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Atian asked her. The sounds finally registered in her ears as she was broken from her stupor. 

Juliette looked up at him and glanced around, "I'm fine," she replied slowly. "Come on, follow me," she instructed quickly, shooting a glare at someone who asked where he had attacked her. "We need to get out of here."

She grabbed his arm, careful to only touch the sleeve, and lead him away from the crowds of people. She stopped finally in a little alleyway and looked at him. She was far past formalities and asked stated rather bluntly, "you're a mutant, correct?"

He turned toward the direction of his accuser, ready to plead his case but the stares of the growing mob around them froze his words. He knew the look in their eyes, filled with fear, anger and misunderstanding. The perfect ingredients to make people do stupid things; instinctively he balled his left fist. The index and middle finger of his right hand coming together ready to summon the energy needed for his bow. He could see Juliette’s lips moving but his attention was on the crowd around him, if it was a fight they wanted he’d give it to them. He shifted his weight slowly, not wanting to agitate the masses and ready to draw his bow and make their escape. He started to put his hands together but before he could he felt a tugging o his arm, pulling him away from the hostile stares and into an alley, a dead ended one at that.

“You’re a mutant right?” Juliette asked. He stared at her with that “are you serious face” like now was the time to be asking stupid questions. “No, this is my Drow make-up for my LARP group!” He snapped sarcastically with a splash of irritation. His red eyes flaring slightly as he took a deep breath attempting to calm down. He got them in this mess he had to get them out.

“Listen I don’t know what happened, my powers don’t usually act up like that.” He attempted to reassure her. “We've got to get out of here...” He repeated, completely unaware she had stated the same earlier. “...and you bring us to a dead end.” Thinking out loud as he inspected the alley more thoroughly; yup definitely a dead end.

He could hear the instigators, leading majority of the crowd towards them, there voices still a ways away. He looked to Juliette. "Stay behind me." 

Juliette's face remained impassive as Atian snapped at her. She understood that it had been a rather stupid question, but she didn't feel that she deserved the way he spoke. When she replied, her voice sounded slightly strained, as if she was holding herself back from returning the tone. "I wanted to be sure. There are lots of other reasons that people have strange appearances."

She noticed him looking around the alleyway, and realized that she had led them to a dead end. She hadn't even realized it; she was simply looking for somewhere out of view. However, now they were trapped, and a mob was quickly approaching.

“We've got to get out of here and you bring us to a dead end." Atian had said to her.

"Look, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't know that this would be a dead end." Juliette replied with an annoyed lilt in her voice. She looked around desperately for some way around the approaching group. The only thing that came to mind were a series of fire landings that lined the building walls.

"Stay behind me." Atian then said.

Juliette turned around and shook her head at him, "I can handle myself." Her hands lit up almost immediately, although not very bright. She hadn't absorbed anything recently and she wasn't sure if she had enough to get through a fight. "The fire escapes," she whispered to Atian, hoping that he would understand that she wanted to climb them to the rooftop.

She turned to face him her shaking in defiance. “No I can handle myself.” She replied in a confident and matter of fact tone a quality until now she hadn’t demonstrated until now. He was prepared with a rebuttal but was cut off by her next trick. Her hands started to radiate the same goldish-yellow from before, its’ glow warm on his skin, far from the chaos earlier. Suddenly it started to make sense, she too was a mutant and when they touched earlier…


“The fire escapes.” Her voice cutting through the clutter of his thoughts, as she took charge; it was clear he had underestimated her. He looked up realizing she had found their way out, he eyed the latch that secured the ladder. Again he made a fist with his left hand and a “gun” with his right. Placing them together he imagined the feel of the bow in his hand, the tension of the string and the arrow to strike his target. The blinding glare of his light materializing in the seconds it took to think and do the action. In a streaking flash the lock securing the ladder popped off allowing the rickety thing to fall freely to the ground.


“You first.” He stated calmly.


“I heard something over this way!” A voice cried out from the sidewalk. Turning his head he could see the shadows of the mob at the alley’s entrance. Firing another arrow as the turned the corner, this one erupting in a blinding flash. Hopefully allowing them enough time to scale the ladder and put some distance between the mob and themselves. As they neared the roof Atian just had to know.


“So you’re an ability copier right?”

Juliette watched interestedly as Atian shot a blast at the ladder, releasing the hatch. She let out a breath, relieved that he had understood her meaning. She watched him curiously, wondering if his power was similar to hers. However, time was short and she would have to ask later.

“You first.” Atian had stated calmly. Juliette nodded, knowing that there was no time to argue. She stepped up onto the first rung of the ladder and began to climb. She fell into a steady rhythm as she pulled herself up each time. Every moment or so, she looked back to make sure that he was following.

“I heard something over this way!” Came a voice from down the alleyway. Juliette turned with an annoyed expression and shot an energy blast, raising her eyebrow as she realized that Atian had the same idea.

As they climbed, Juliette was silent. Atian was not. “So you’re an ability copier right?” He asked her.

Juliette turned back and shook her head, glancing at the rooftop. "What gave you that idea?" She asked him as she stepped off the ladder. Looking down, she realized the mob had nearly tripled. They would need to find somewhere to go after the roof.

“You touched me and now you can use my light powers. That’s how your powers work right?” Atian made his way to the edge as well, seeing how the mob had grew sent a slight shiver through his spine. Briefly his mind though back to his time in the desert, hiding and running from mobs just like this one. The wail of incoming sirens breaking his thought.

“The police are coming…” his tone not sounding all too enthusiastic, often they only made things worse. He stepped back from the edge wondering how long they had before the mob made their way up or even if they would. One thing was sure he wouldn’t be getting his phone today. He turned his attention towards Juliette, feeling he should apologize. After all she was dragged into this mess because of him… sort of.

“Hey look I-” His words cut off by a strong rush of air behind him followed by the sound of buckling steel. “Sur-surrender Mutant citizen…” a deep metallic voice ordered from behind him. “…I order you to stan-stand down.” Atian’s eyes widened with fear, as he slowly turned toward the voice. It stood almost ten feet tall, a massive behemoth of steel. It took a step onto the rooftop crumbling the concrete beneath its feet. He had read about the new stalker bots but he hadn’t seen anything like his. The metallic monster opened its hand releasing the remains of a smaller bots head.

“Surrender now, or be destroyed.”

"No, you're just not the only one with light abilities." Juliette shook her head at Atian when he asked her if she was copying his abilities. She found it sort of a strange coincidence that they would have met in such a mundane way and have such similar abilities.

“The police are coming…” Atian's voice cut across her thoughts. She looked up and realized that she could hear sirens in the distance that seemed to be getting louder by the second. Juliette cursed under her breath as she stepped into better sunlight. Atian started to say something that she couldn't quite hear, but he was cut short.

“Sur-surrender Mutant citizen. I order you to stan-stand down.” Came the deep metallic voice of a META bot. Juliette stood, frozen in shock. She had so far managed to stay out of the bots' way, but it seemed that today was her lucky, or rather unlucky, day.

“Surrender now, or be destroyed.” The META bot said as it dropped the head of a smaller bot. After a moment of pure shock and fear, the gears began to turn in her head.

She stepped closer to Atian, noticing that he was just as afraid, possibly even more so than she was. With good reason, though. The bot was downright terrifying. She shot it with an energy blast, causing the bot to be knocked back from the concussive force.

"I need some way to get more energy," Juliette whispered to him, making sure that the bot wouldn't see. "Can you give me any?"

He stood there paralyzed with fear, the metallic giant taking another step onto the rooftop. He wanted to move, attack, throw a shield up or something but his body wouldn’t respond. All he could see was that night with his parents, the unstoppable power of the bots. And now he stood before one. He was on the verge of urination when the bot reached for him, before a yellowish blast of light knocked it off the roof top and onto a lower level of the fire escape. 
“I need some way to get more energy, can you give me any?" Juliette whispered her voice just barely loud enough to register through his panic. His head turned to look at her, his mouth parted but no sounds escaped. He just stared, unsure of how to respond or even if he could. “I- don’t know.” He muttered rather pathetically. How could she be so… everything he wasn’t? Here he stood having trained for this very moment and his fear left him useless. The META could be heard mangling the fire escape as it ascended to the roof top. He had to be better do better.

“I could shoot you?! I mean if you absorb the arrow I can shoot you.” It wasn’t the best sounding idea but it could work. If she could absorb the light from his constructs then maybe. He was about to elaborate on his idea when the roof top shook with the return of the META’s presence. Raising his left hand the machine produced some form of weapon and aiming it in Juliette’s direction.

“Hostile detected.” The META voiced, the barrel of its weapon starting to spin. Atian reached out towards the bot, the strength of over a thousand lumens solidifying into a wall before it. The rounds impacted and bounced off the construct chipping and cracking at the wall. The barrel slowing as it exhausted its ammunition. It wouldn’t hold for another barrage.