It was another beautiful day in central park, the kind of day where everyone was outside enjoying the sunshine. Kids were playing, adults were either reading or enjoying a nice lunch outside, and as for Kalith? Well he was once more sitting under a tree tuning his guitar, getting ready to sing for his supper as he normally did on days like this. His band had not been getting any gigs lately and he figured he would do some public advertising of their skills to garner attention, and maybe make a little money from people willing to make donations.

It wasn't easy being a mutant in a band of non-mutants, always having to hide just how special you were. It was especially hard for Kalith because his mutant powers allowed him to be particularly gifted when it came to music. He could alter the tone, pitch, and volume of his voice, as well as any sound that came out of his guitar, so that in the end he sounded truly stupendous. Finally Kalith finished tuning his guitar and stood up, keeping the guitar case open for any donations, and started playing a song. He used his concentrated slightly on the sound coming from his guitar, making it louder but still within pleasant volume so that people wouldn't complain that it was too loud.

He started to get some attention so when he felt it was time he began to sing.

"Imagine this.
I get a phone call from Regis -
he says "Do you want to be a millionaire?"
They put me on a show and I win,
with two lifelines to spare."

He smiled as he played, his fingers dancing over the chords of his guitar, the music coming to him as if it were ingrained in his very soul.

"Picture this.
I act like nothing ever happened,
and bury all the money in a coffee can.
Well, I've been given more than Regis ever gave away.
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave!
I think it's time for makin' some noise!"

He smiled and his voice echoed outwards, a lovely melody that started to attract the attention of everyone around.

"Wake the neighbors!"

"Get the word out!"

"Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout!"

"This is life we've been given, made to be lived out!"

"So, la, la, la, la, live out loud!"

He lowered his voice at the last note, playing his guitar with more enthusiasm, several people stopping what they were doing to get closer to this lovely song player who was playing his heart out in front of them. They wanted to get good seats for this one man concert in the park, unable to figure out why he sounded so lovely when it was just him and his guitar.

"Think about this.
Try to keep a bird from singing,
after it's soared up in the sky.
Give the sun a cloudless day and tell
it not to shine!"

He smiled broadly, loving the attention his singing always garnered. Even some people that were reading before had come over to listen to him sing, several kids sitting with their parents on the grass to enjoy the show.

"Think about this.
If we really have been given,
the gift, of life that will never end.
And if we have been filled with living hope,
we're gonna overflow.
And if God's love is burning in our hearts,
we're gonna glow.
There's just no way to keep it in!"

"Wake the neighbors!"

"Get the word out!"

"Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout!"

"This is life we've been given, made to be lived out!"

"So, la, la, la, la, live out loud!"

His voice grew softer again and he continued singing, tapping his foot and the side of his guitar to the beat.

"So, la, la, la, la, live out loud."

"Live out loud!"

He looked out into the crowd and encouraged them to sing along,

"Everybody!"

Several people in the crowd, mostly the kids, swayed back and forth their voices coming together in what resembled a harmony.

"La, la, la...la, la, la...la, la, la, live out loud"

Kalith smiled encouragingly as he played once again asking everyone to join in.

"I wanna hear everybody sing!"

This time no encouragement was needed as everyone in the audience joined in with the songs next line.

"La, la, la...la, la, la...la, la, la, live out loud."

Kalith played some more, silencing them with a couple of chords and continued to the end of the song,

"Every corner of creation is a living declaration."

"Come join the song we were made to sing!"

Together he and the audience repeated the chorus,

"Wake the neighbors!"

"Get the word out!"

"Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout!"

"This is life we've been given, made to be lived out!"

"So, la, la, la, la, live out loud!"

Kalith used his powers to make the last couple of notes fade out into nothing and took a bow as the people in the audience applauded. It was a more subtle use of his powers than using them to do concentrated sound blasts but it was still fun, though tiring when he was singing at the same time.

Kalith smiled out into the audience as he soaked in their praise...

Allison had started out used to a lot of things, and gotten used to a sizable number more since moving to New York. Spontaneous choruses in the park, however, were not one of those things.

They probably should have been, but they weren’t.

Allison wandered over toward the crowd, weaving between people to get close to the center, and finding someone singing and playing guitar. Singing, or for that matter, even clapping, along was extremely tempting, but both her fingers and ribs were still broken, so both possibilities were quickly eliminated after one try. Allison pouted to herself, and instead settled for listening intently.

Listening intently and pouting lasted for only a moment before it turned into listening intently and frowning in curiosity, then to grinning. That sound was not natural, not for one kid and one guitar in a park. Which meant there was more going on, which meant she’d probably stumbled onto someone very useful, musically at least. She kept grinning as the song ended and the boy smiled, and settled to wait until most of the enthusiastic crowd had drifted away.

If he started playing again, or the crowd took a while to drift away... well, whatever. Allison could wait.

Kalith waited as people made donations, a few coins here and there, the occasional handful of wrinkled dollars, it all helped in the long run. After all his tuition didn't pay for itself, and since his band wasn't getting any gigs he was a bit short on cash. As the crowd thinned out he sat down and collected all the money from his guitar case, counting it out. HE had made a nice chunk of change, over a hundred dollars in spare change and loose dollars. Someone had even been nice enough to give him twenty dollars, which Kalith was not complaining about in the least.

He put his money in a side compartment of his guitar case and packed his guitar in as well. He needed a few minutes to recover from using his powers, and it was a beautiful day to just sit under a tree while enjoying the sights and sounds of central park. Overall he figured that maybe some day he would catch a break, and someone would hire him to entertain at a party or something. It would take a while but he loved music enough to stick with it and see what happened.

As the crowd thinned Kalith looked around, trying to pick out faces of anyone he might know. The only one that stuck out to him was a girl who had bruises and what looked like a couple of broken fingers. HE thought this odd but figured it was just a symptom of living in new york. Bad things happen to good people all the time, and not everyone was like him and could handle themselves with mutant powers.

Allison stayed at the edge of where the crowd had gathered as they drifted away, letting her attention drift between different people and trees that fell into her line of sight. When the crowd had finally just about completely drifted away, she finished considering the male tree across from her--it was quite large, but missing several branches; she suspected it would die within a few years, probably because it lost too many branches and was cut down--before heading over toward the previously-singing kid. “Hello. How’d you do that?”

Kalith finished counting up his donations when someone came up to him and asked a rather blunt question. He smiled and put his money away, "Do what? Sing? Years of practice. Same with the guitar, I grew up around music so it just comes naturally to me." He said and leaned back against the tree he was sitting under. He wasn't aware she was talking about the way he altered the sound without the use of electronic equipment, after all it was not like anyone else noticed that his music was louder and better than it really should have been.

"I take it you liked the show?" Kalith asked the woman who seemed oddly interested in him. Usually when he was done playing people left him alone, off to do things on their own or get back to what they were doing previously. Either she liked him or his music, either way was a positive for him. The more fans he got, the more likely that he would be able to one day have a successful band.

Allison grinned at the boy’s answer. He was either joking, with a remarkably straight face, or being evasive. Either way it amused her. “I know how to sing, I can sing. I want to know how one kid and one guitar in a park sounded that loud.”

Allison nodded, if a bit absently; she was still more interested in what the kid had done. “I did, yeah. Apparently a lot of people did.”

Kalith blinked at her response, no one had ever questioned the volume of his performance before. It was of course due to his mutant powers amplifying the sound of his voice and the guitar, but he was not comfortable telling just anyone about his powers. "I uh... I don't know what you mean..." He said and started packing his guitar away in its case. He suddenly felt quite uncomfortable here, like he was exposed to danger or something.

"I am glad you liked my performance. Getting more fans will help me in the long run, can't be a famous singer without fans." He said as he tried to drive the topic away from the unusualness of his performance. If he could divert her attention away from the subject of his powers he could probably get away without anyone knowing about his abilities. It wasn't the perfect plan but it was all that he had.

Allison tilted her head and smiled as the boy started putting his guitar away. “I think you do, but whatever. How often do you play?”

Allison laughed. “Normally at this point I’d ask if you want to be famous, but I think that’s already fairly well established. How much do you want it?”

"I would love to be a singer in a real band. Hell to do what I love for a living, that's the dream isn't it? I would do just about anything to be a part of a real band, with real gigs, and real fans. To let people enjoy my music, that is what I really want. Of course getting paid would be a nice bonus." Kalith responded as he smiled at the woman.

Then he quickly added and addendum to his previous statement, "Of course when I say anything, I don't mean anything illegal. That would just be crossing a line I don't want to be any where near. No sir, if I am going to be famous I want to do it the right way."

Allison laughed at the boy’s hasty addition. “Well, good luck becoming famous without ever doing anything questionable, but that’s not what I mean. I meant more of... oh, like what risks are you willing to take, how much time would you put into it, what would you be willing to give up to get there.” She shrugged. “I had a band... actually a couple... in Chicago, but they weren’t willing to give up much of anything for it. Wouldn’t skip a party to practice, wouldn’t go play in contests they thought they’d lose. So I moved out here and they can find someone else to help amuse them if they’re ever bored again.”

Kalith stared at the woman for a moment, blinking slowly as he processed what she was saying. Was she seriously asking him to join in on her band? "I can assure you I would be completely professional about it. I would make it to every practice, take any chance for exposure you could give me, and I would be devoted to making the band the best it could be." He said as he tried to keep his voice neutral, little bits of excitement leaking into his voice as he spoke despite himself.

"If you are offering me a place in a band. Then I would love to accept. My name is Kalith, Pleasure to meet you." Kalith said offering his hand to the woman, failing completely to hide the excited look on his face...

Allison laughed again at the boy’s reaction and held out her hand to shake his. “If you want to be, yes, I am. I’m Allison.” That really hadn’t been quite her intention, yet, but it was certainly a possibility... and if the boy was as eager as he was acting, she’d’ve been asking for real soon anyway. Certainly no harm in it. “Though I’d suggest breathing sometime soon. Singing’s a bit harder when you’re dead.”

Kalith laughed slightly and took a few deep breaths. He had been so excited he had completely forgotten to breathe. "Thanks Allison. I promise I won't let you down. Here is the number to my cell phone, you can reach me on it at any time." He said as he took out a business card for his parents shop and quickly scribbled down his cell number on the back of it. This was his chance at something big, and he was not going to let this chance get away from him.

He chuckled slightly under his breath and handed the card over to Allison, smiling as he hefted his guitar case over his shoulder, adjusting the shoulder strap so that it was secure. "I can't wait to hear from you." He said and waited for her to take the card from him before he headed out again.

Allison smiled and nodded as she took the card and slid it into her pocket. “I’ll call later today, probably; if something does kidnap me I’ll call tomorrow morning.” She paused for a second to think, then continued. “Before I call, list of questions to think about. What kind of music do you like, what kind can you play, same for singing, can you play anything besides guitar, would you want to learn, how long can you play or sing without a break... oh, and is there any kind of person that you absolutely can’t get along with. A personality type, not something like ‘I can’t stand murderers.’” She nodded to herself. That’s about all, I think. “Not stuff you have to answer immediately, just general useful stuff to know prior to, say, halfway through a cross country tour.”

"Alright I will give it some thought. I can tell you though that I can sing or play just about anything. I was raised around music and am a bit of a prodigy when it comes to music." He said while rubbing the back of his head. He was actually kind of embarassed when he complimented himself like this. He was quite good with instruments of any kind, had been since he was a little boy, but he certainly wasn't a prodigy. He had gotten as good as he had through skill and hard work.

"I look forward to hearing from you Allison." Kalith says then heads out to get back to campus...