When the van started to move Chris realized that it was good that Locke had been polite and had taken the place in the back of the van - even though Chris was buckled up he still held on to the seat as hard as he could, almost as if he was afraid of getting tossed off.
Chris wasn't used to fast vehicles like this - in NY he usually walked or went by bus, he'd only hailed a cab twice. And his grandfather had owned a car, but he'd almost never taken Chris with him when he went out for a drive since he claimed that the fishy smell was hard to get out of the seats.
The train had been fast, but that had been a constant speed that hadn't been so bad once you got used to it. This, one the other hand - Eean swerved around curves and drove up and down steep streets - Chris remembering seeing how steep the streets of San Francisco had looked in movies, but he hadn't realized that it was so bad.

And the confusing answer he got didn't make him more at ease.
"Ducks... what?"
”Is Alcatraz even open this time of year? So you’re taking us to a jail that might not be safe to walk around in during the winter and you don’t even know if it’s open?”
So they were going to Alcatraz? That explained the convict part, but... ducks and cows that looked weird?

“Look on the bright side Rock Man. One way or another we’re going to be visiting a jail today.”
"Thats... not very reassuring," Chris muttered, keeping his eyes locked on the way in front of them. He was getting pale, which could be kinda hard to tell since his skin was grey to begin with. And what Locke had said about the jail that might not be safe during winter wasn't very reassuring either.
"Can we... would you mind slowing down a bit? I can count the times I've traveled this fast by car on my fingers."
Chris looked down.
"And I only have four on each hand."

"I'm going the speed limit," Eaan grumbled, but for the sake of those traveling with him, slowed down. Locke heaved a sigh of relief. He doubted that Eaan was going to do anything drastic or dangerous with the van. Eaan wasn't that dumb. It wasn't that Locke was afraid to ride in a car. For a time after the crash Locke could hardly force himself into any vehicle. The ride home from the hospital had been slow and full of stops so that he could calm down from panic attacks.

There were still times though when Locke felt his chest tightening in a car. Riding backwards was one of those times that unsettled Locke. He turned himself about, frowning as the sore muscles in his legs were stretched and he was bumped. Locke hooked his elbows over the van's seat and rested his chin there. Now at least he could see where they were headed. "Don't get me wrong E, I'm all for Alcatraz, but couldn't you have done some research before hand? And what is that orange thing?"

"Ever seen Escape from Alcatraz Chris?" Eaan asked, "Oh that's where Locke and I went to school. Once the start of the school year got delayed a couple days when the pipes started spitting up brown water." One hand was taken off the wheel to point. "Both hands on the wheel," Locke reminded, and Eaan complied.

Chris started to relax a bit when Eean slowed down, and after a while he could even start to enjoy the favorite tourist activity - taking in the sights. This town was so different from New York - it was foggier and more hilly, to begin with. But the buildings were also build in a different style, and they passed parks with vegetation that he'd never seen before. He had seen movies and stuff that took place here, but it was a new experience to actually be here.

He was taken back from his touristing by Locke, who questioned the decision to go to Alcatraz without knowing if the place was even open this time of the year, and also asked about the orange object. Chris had caught a glimpse of it before and was also curious, but Eean didn't answer. Instead he asked if Chris had seen Escape from Alcatraz.
"Yeah, but it was a while ago. One of my grandfather's favorite movies, actually. He was a real Eastwood nerd."
Chris caught a glimpse of the school Eean mentioned.
"Really?" he said politely. "That must have been gross."
Then he waited while Eean was instructed to keep both his hands on the wheel, and then he realized that this was the first time he'd been making conversation with a non-mutant for a long while. He was actually starting to relax a bit around Eean, something he hadn't thought possible just ten minutes ago.
"So, uh, Eean... what do you do?"

"It was just a little earthquake, barely could feel it, but the pipes were old, and a couple got jarred loose," Locke explained. It almost felt like he had to defend his old school. For the moment Eaan had distracted him by getting Chris on another subject. "They just wanted to make sure that everything was safe."

"What do I do?" Eaan repeated the question, looking quite confused over it. "Me? I don't do anything as awesome as you or Rock Man, but someday, I'm going to be a major rockstar." He sounded so convinced of the fact, and even rational, logical Locke found it hard to argue.

"You already have the inflated ego like one," he joked before turning back around to sit once again. There had been a moment when he was worried that his two friends wouldn't get along at all, and the hug freak out seemed to confirm that. But the two were talking easily enough and there wasn't any expression of sheer terror on Chris's face. The driving wall talking was a little discomforting but overall the introduction wasn't half bad.

Eaan continued to drive them to the ferry that would usher them across to Alcatrez, pointing out bits of the shared history of the two Californian teens. Locke would add to them, not being able to spot the locations as they drove by simply because he wasn't facing the windshield. He noticed that Eaan grabbed the orange thing as they got out of the van and he had a sense of doom. "Please tell me that isn't a life boat."

Eaan made it a point not to look at Locke.

A rockstar? When Eean said it like that it was really hard to doubt him. Although Chris wasn't sure working in a pet fish shop really qualified as amazing.

While they drove around Chris listened to Locke and Eean talking about places they've been to when they were younger and pointing out different landmarks. For a moment he actually felt a bit jealous - he wished that he had had a childhood friend who he could have reminisced with in the same way. The way they spoke to each other and even made fun of each other seemed so carefree.
But he hadn't and that's that. It was no use thinking about it.

When they got out of the car and Eean got the orange thing - which, not that Locke mentioned it, looked suspiciously much like a lifeboat - Chris hesitated.
"Are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, we don't have to get out there... we can see it from here."
He looked out at the prison-island and said:
"Wow, that looks cool. Even from here. No need to do anything risky just to get a closer look."

"Don't be ridiculous," Eaan said, giving Chris a pat on the back, "We're taking the ferry over." Alcatraz was indeed open, though at this time of year it wasn't the most popular tourist attraction. Who wanted to approach a new year with images of an old unused prison floating about in your mind? The ferry that would shuttle them across to the historic site was coming into port, letting out a low blast of it's horn.

Locke was green already. Every school field trip to Alcatraz started and ended the same.
He was, unfortunately, one of those people who couldn't go on a boat, even one that was moving slowly, without his stomach turning itself inside out. The ferry ride was going to be bad enough, so he was really, really hoping that his old friend wasn't serious about using that life boat. It was only a slight relief when Eaan said that they were going out the traditional way. "You can't be serious Chris," Locke said, excited even though he knew he was going to be ralphing soon, "I mean, yeah it looks great from the outside, but that's just one part of it. You can't see the history from here. I mean this isn't like Eastern State where it was designed to be a source of intimidation on the looks alone. This was about no escape."

Chris did only flinch slightly when Eean patted him on the back - it was a major improvement from the hug-attack freak-out. But the fact that they were taking the ferry lifted his spirits. Not only did that mean that they didn't have to go to Alcatraz by lifeboat - it also meant that the prison was open and that they wouldn't be trespassing.
He still wondered what the purpose of the lifeboat had, though. It was not as if they were going to need it if they went by ferry.

People started to leave the ferry by the gangplank. There were just a handful of tourists - this time of the year most people probably figured it was too cold to take a ferry out to a rocky island.
"That sounds... cheery," Chris answered a bit glumly. Now that he thought about it he wasn't entirely sure he really wanted to experience that 'no hope' feeling Locke spoke of - he had looked forward to visiting the place earlier, but now that he could see it out there like a grim chunk of rock some giant had just dropped there he felt no real urge anymore. But they were there for his sake - Locke and Eean probably had visited it on numerous occasions.
"Alright, let's get aboard the ferry then. Do they show the cell where Eastwood got hosed?"

((Should we timeskip?))

Locke had fallen silent, though there wasn't a huge difference, once they first stepped foot on the boat. His jaw became tightly clenched, as it had when the sensitive subject of his eye and the car crash had been brought up, and his knuckles turned white with the force he gripped the railing with. There was a very vivid shade of green to his skin, and a bit of perspiration built up. Being an earth manipulator probably didn't help much when it came to the seasickness department. Not long after the ferry left dock Locke had sucumbed to the choppy water with a joyous cry from Eaan about the tradition continuing. All that Locke could do was give a rather pathetic glare in the direction of his insane friend.


The orange, most likely, lifeboat did not get left behind once they reached the prison island. If anything Eaan seemed to hold tighter to it. Locke was recovering from his problems with the ferry ride and fumbling about with his pockets, trying to find a stick of gum. He just needed something to get the taste out of his mouth. "I don't get it. I've ridden that thing a hundred times, and each time I pull a Bush. How can you stand that sort of stuff Chris?"

Chris actually enjoyed the ride - the ferry was crossing the water in an amicable speed, and the wind that whipped their faces felt fresh and a bit salty. Chris closed his eyes and inhaled. He liked the sea and this wasn't the first time he'd wished that he'd been able to swim in it - there was something about how the steel-gray water just continued and continued until it disappeared into the mist that held a promise of some sort. It was a lot different from the murky and heavily polluted Hudson, that's for sure.
It was to salt for him, though... but that didn't stop him from enjoying the ferry ride.

But apparently Locke didn't enjoy it at all - Chris tactfully looked away, not really sure what to do. Eean seemed to have fun and his comment about this "tradition" made it clear that this wasn't the first time, but it showed that it wasn't a tradition Locke enjoyed. Chris only had a vague idea about what to do in situations like these; something about holding the seasick persons hair out of his face and pat him on the back. But it seemed as if Locke had the situation under control, so that wouldn't be necessary.

When they walked ashore Chris bent his neck and looked up. These walls were even higher than they had seemed...
"I don't get it. I've ridden that thing a hundred times, and each time I pull a Bush. How can you stand that sort of stuff Chris?"
Chris turned away from the walls, back at Locke and Eean.
"Sea legs? My grandfather had a rowboat, I used to borrow it sometimes. Do you think your mutation has something to do with it?"

Chris looked at the rest of the tourists - most of them were also staring in awe at the walls, just as he had done. They also had started to walk towards the entrance of the prison museum. Chris gestured towards them with a webbed thumb.
"It seems as if the main group is moving on... maybe we should catch up to them so we doesn't fall behind?"[/silver]

"Let them get a bit ahead. The tour guide uses the same speech every single time. Besides," pride snuck into Locke's voice and he stood a little straighter. "History is my thing." Eaan rolled his eyes. He could care less about history. "Most people don't know it, but Alcatraz wasn't meant to be a prison at first. In fact that's only the most recent thing it's been. You are standing in the west coast's oldest lighthouse Chris. Alcatraz was first noted by a Spaniard in 1775, named Juan Manuel de Ayala. He gave it the name because of pelican's that lived here. Weird I know, but alcatraces means sea bird, or pelican in Spanish."

From ahead the tour guide was encouraging the main group to imagine what it must have looked like waaay back when, to think of what it must have been like to be sent a mile and a half off the mainland to serve jail time here. They were trying too hard to make the history interesting. Eaan slid a disposable camera from his back pocket. He snapped a quick picture of Chris before handing him the camera. "Quick! Distract him!" he said.

Chris listened to Locke with a raised eyebrow when he explained a bit about the history about this place - he was a bit astonished by the sheer amount of facts his friend was able to remember.
"Locke, either you have a way better memory than I have given you credit for... or you have been here at least one time to much."

Even though he was adapted for an aquatic lifestyle Chris wasn't very well-read when it came to the marine terminology. He knew what a lighthouse was, of course, but couldn't remember ever seeing one.
While glancing up and down the islands coastline after some ruins of an old lighthouse he heard a loud click. He looked around while trying to localize the sound, and then got the camera from Eean.
"Quick! Distract him!"
"Who?" Chris asked tentatively, but he guessed Eean meant the tour guide. So after giving Locke and his friend an unsure look Chris turned his back towards them and walked up to the rest of the group.

The tour guide, a frail-looking elderly man with a surprisingly strong voice and almost completely white hair, was in the middle of explaining exactly how thick the walls were.
"...and these outer walls are almost two feet at their thickest...
"Excuse me? Sir?"
The tour guide turned toward the one who had interupted him. His eyes widened and his jaws dropped slightly in shock when he noticed Chris' unusual appearance, but he didn't comment it.
The other tourists were looking at him, their expressions differing between curiosity and annoyance, and one middle-aged couple wasn't even trying to hide their contempt.
Chris wished that he had come up with a question before raising his voice.

"I was just.. wondering if there ever were any mutant prisoners here?"
The tour guide shook his head, not taking his eyes away from Chris.
"No, his was before your kind made it's entrance," he said as if mutantkind had been a late, rude guest at a dinner party. Chris felt an urge to excuse himself and go back to Locke and Eean, or at least turn around his head to see what they were doing - but then he would direct everybody's attention to them. What were they doing? Chris wished he had asked before he had agreed to go distract the tour guide. He hoped it wasn't anything impulsive.
"Well, lets say some mutants existed back when this prison was still in use. Would they have been able to make it out? Was Alcatraz mutant-proof?"
He deliberately choose a question that was as open to interpretation as possible. Mutations could offer a wide range of abilities, something he and Locke were living proof of. The tour guide seemed to ponder over it and then said:
"Well... I suppose... If it was a flying mutant he could get away alright, unless the guards knew of his abilities, of course. And I suppose a superstrong mutant could beat a hole through the walls, but then he'd have to swim all the way to main land...
The elderly man continued with his guesstimations, and it seemed as if all the tourists had their attention on the guide now. Chris glancd over his shoulder to see what Locke and Eean were up to, and if he could stop the distraction now.

"Wait what?" Locke asked. He had been on a roll about the history of Alcatraz, one that didn't have a prepared script, and now Eaan was tossing a camera about. Chris caught it, and Locke wondered if the two had been conspiring something during his history lesson. Eaan never was interested in history, just as Locke held no interest in math, but why would he want to interrupt the little lesson for Chris? After all Eaan had been to Alcatraz before, he knew what had happened. Chris was the guest, he wasn't familiar with the city.

Which was a good cause for concern as Eaan went scampering off in one way and Chris the other. One of these days Locke really was going to have to invest in one of those child leashes for Eaan. At least his siblings and Chris had enough sense to keep in sight. Locke stood between the two, trying to decide which friend to follow. Eaan shouldn't be left on his own, for fear that he might get bored. There was the question of what he was planning on doing with that raft of his.

But Chris shouldn't be ditched either. Having a friend in New York was great. It meant that Locke didn't have to spend all his time tucked away in his room. While sticking with the tour guide, which it seemed to be was the agenda for Chris, would keep him from getting lost, how would he know where to go afterwards?

As Locke edged his way up to the front to catch up to Chris, he couldn't help but to overhear the theoretical debate about mutants in Alcatraz. The idea was almost laughable. It was hard enough to keep track of the mutants on the planet as a whole. Containing them in a prison, especially when the technology was sub par for today's standards, was an impossibility. There was no way to predict what an active X-Gene could do. "You're forgetting about mutants that don't have something visible. I mean wings you're going to notice, and there might be some suspicion for a guy that has more muscles then the governor busting through the wall, but how would you even know if you were dealing with a mutant back then? It's a new term. The word itself doesn't even have the same meaning. If a mutant kept their powers hush hush and was sent here because of some other crime, they could have lead a revolt or easily figured out an escape. For all we know Morris and the Anglins could have been mutants."

Aw crud. Locke got a sinking feeling about what exactly his insane friend was planning and why Chris had been sent ahead. "Where's Eaan?" he whispered to Chris.

Chris stood weighing from foot to foot, wondering how he could leave the group without being noticed, when Locke arrived and corrected the tour guide. The guide's eyebrows kept getting closer and closer to each other as his frown deepened.
A woman in the group, the one in the middle-aged couple who had kept staring at Chris in an almost disgusted way, leaned towards her husband and said:
"Do you think that's another one?"
"Yeah, probably," the man muttered. "Unless he just likes hanging out with freaks."
Chris pretended that he hadn't heard them.

"For all we know Morris and the Anglins could have been mutants."
The tour guide's frown was now so deep that if you had put a crayon to his forehead it would have stayed there, lodged between his eyebrows. It was pretty clear that he didn't agree with Locke's logic.
"With all due respect, young man, but - Morris and the Anglins were not mutants. I find it hard to believe that they would have been in possession of certain... abilities... without someone finding out about it. Besides, this was before mutants even existed, as I've already explained to... to... to the other young man. They didn't appear until much later."

When Locke asked Chris where Eean was Chris also frowned, although not as deep as the tour guide.
"Isn't he with you?" he whispered back. "He just said 'distract him', and I thought he meant the tour guide..."
Whispering it out aloud made him realize what a mistake he had made. Even though he only had met Eean an hour or so earlier he already had a pretty good idea of some of Eean's qualities - recklessness and impulsiveness being two obvious traits.
"...which, now that I think about it, probably was a very stupid thing to do."

"Oh come on!" Locke protested, "It makes more sense for them to have been mutants. How else could they have managed to escape. Unless you think that some of San Francisco's finest happened to be deaf. That would explain why they didn't hear the sounds of rubber coats being hammered where the sound would echo, or the vacuum motor powered drill. And where did all the dirt and rocks that they dug out go? Couldn't have flushed it. Would have backed up the sewage system." Locke knew that he and Chris should be chasing down Eaan like they were bounty hunters. The guy obviously had some sort of mischief planned. With Chris visiting there would be three people, just the right number to attempt an escape following the conditions of that fateful night. But this guy was saying that there was no place in history for mutants, and Locke just couldn't let that fly. "So were the guards idiots or was there a chance that they could have been mutants? I mean to be a mutant just means you have an active X gene. I might be flunking algebra, but I know X means an unknown. Like you can't tell who's gonna have the gene, or what it's going to do."

He turned to face the people whispering about him. "Yeah, I am a mutant. And I have been using my powers the whole time," His hands were clenched. So what if he and Chris were mutants? Chris was a tourist, and he was visiting one of San Francisco's most popular tourist attractions. Locke had grown up here. He knew the history of Alcatraz just as well as the tour guide did. Maybe even better. "Surprised I look normal? Or that you didn't notice me using my powers? Excuse us, our friend's lost the group."

Remembering the hug fiasco Locke simply jerked his head to let Chris know where they were going. Eaan was to blame in a way for Locke's need to rant. Settling into something between a very fast walk and a jog Locke asked, "Eaan was just joking about ending up in jail today right?" he asked Chris. Not because he expected Chris to know what the insane teen would do. Locke just wanted confirmation that their first day in San Francisco wouldn't end up getting them a criminal record.