Late night meeting (flashback) Floppy, Shade ~ complete

Felix's stomach protested the lack of nothing to digest as he walked down the quiet street. The growling was not an unfamiliar sound really as he would neglect it from time to time when his interests would truly take hold, but now it was less of choice.

One month had gone by since the day his 'exploring' was backtracked and the authorities aware of his activities, giving him just enough time to throw some books, credits, and a pair of pants into a bag and leaving home with just these meager possessions, plus one lap top which was nestled under his arm as he pondered his next course of action. Things were looking....unfavorable.

He had been limiting his web time, pure agony to him, only to follow news and to pilfer a few credits from an unsuspecting account. Otherwise, he conserved its power and made sure he didn't make any waves on the net in case his previous escapades rubbed someone with influence the wrong way. They had a face behind the screen now after all.

Felix rubbed his temple, uncertain of his next move. That was until a patrol car turned onto the street he was walking on. Then he was certain of his next move. Turning into the nearby alley. Quickly. The teen practically jogged, the most active he had been since running away from home. The patrol passed by the entrance of the shadowy crack between the building and kept going. Despite the off-putting stench and increased chance of running into danger, Felix felt it was best to follow the alleyways a little longer. He let out a sigh as he continued on.

Startled back as an anamorphic blob fell out from behind a dumpster, nearly joining it on the alley floor. At least he thought it was a blob. As the car illuminated the face of a person for a brief moment he had to wait for his eyes to adjust to the dim to make out the person staring back at him. After a what could be considered an awkward amount of time for silence Felix tilted his head to the side in an observational fashion.

"Well........?"

He studied her appearance as he waited for an answer, whatever that answer that might be as he didn't bother to clarify is question of what he was asking.

"Well, who are you? Why are you here? What are you doing here? Why do you look like crap? Do you enjoy walking around in rags or are you poor? Why are you on the ground? Why were you hiding behind the dumpster? Why are you're eyes that color? Are you a Harbinger?"

Felix looked up in thought as he rattled off the numerous questions in a nonchalant, almost unenthusiastic you could say, tone. Even the last few questions were said in the deadpan listing. He crouched down, propping an elbow on his knee, and tilted his head to the side again.

"Well...pick one."

He waited, giving her what looked like a half interested look. Or perhaps he was just tired. He hadn't been sleeping well sincere slept home...not that he sleep much there, but the whole ordeal of abruptly running away took a lot out of him. As this was the first person he talked to since running away, Felix decided he was going to milk this encounter.

Felix scratched his head, seriously thinking in earnest for a moment before answering. "Probably to the first and maybe to the last." He tilted his head to the side again. "Haven't answered any of those question yet."

He stayed in his crouched position waiting for the girl, who seemed to recover from whatever had happened put her in her sorry state when she appeared before him, his concern for his future survival forgotten for the moment as his interest was piqued.

The boy's expression actually perked up a little at the admittance of the girl, making a mental note to remember the name Kiera, to being an actual Harbinger. His free hand went to his chin, Felix still in full analytical mode.

"Interesting. I've never met a real one before. Always have to turn over every rock on the net to find decent information on one. And running away? Well...not as interesting as first hand experience is proving for me..."

It was pretty clear he was basically ranting to himself up until now, he seemed to to snap out of it after his next series of musings.

"Ah, but you have those powers, whatever they may be. I surmise it not that bad then?"

The last question was actually about the only thing directed at Kiera during Felix's ranting. Even so to go on like this was rare for him he noticed. The appearance of one of his few fascinations was really effecting his usual laid-back demeanor.

Felix pulled back a little at the sudden outburst. Though he didn't have much forte in social interactions to begin with, even he could tell her running away scenario involved something more than just authority figures. Perhaps even her powers being part of the reason behind it.

Guess being a Harbinger didn't make running away too easy either.

As Felix was about to interrupt to give her his name, a loud noise not too far off did it for him. The sudden clatter sent the runaway stumbling back a few steps before standing upright. He remained silent as he peered towards where the noise came from.

Please don't be a cop.

Felix actually managed a full blanch at the man who can stumbling out and towards them. He couldn't decide what was worse; the man's possibly shady intentions or the smell. But then who knew, maybe, in his drunken state he was voluntarily helping out two lost kids out of the goodness of his heart and actually thought he was smiling pleasantly.

A slight possibility. One even Felix really didn't lean towards even after coming up with the scenario though. Yeah. Assuming bad intentions in an alley was best.

Felix took a tentative step back towards the sidewalk and street while speaking in a lowered tone to Kiera. "I think we should move our conversation...elsewhere. Agreed?"

Felix would of cursed at Kiera's inability to stand again if the giant of a drunk wasn't making his move towards them already. So, there he was; In a dark alley which had more new and questionable smells he had ever whiffed before or wished to since running away. There was a tired, irritable runaway like him near his feet who also happened to be the first Harbinger he had ever met. Finally, there was the large, inebriated man coming at them with intentions probably more questionable than that of the alley's odor. Or the man's, but Felix was pretty sure it was mostly the smell of alcohol. Pretty sure.

This was quite a day of firsts for him. Later on looking back at this he would probably consider this significantly interesting. Right now though he had to focus.

He could try to fight the oaf, but that was probably going to end badly. The alley didn't hold much in the way of viable weapons either. Normally, Felix would just try to talk his way out of such situations, however, trying to reason with a drunk man in a scenario like this might as well lead to accusations of being drunk yourself so that idea was out. The boy could call for help, but whoever came, if they came, would wonder what two kids where doing in such an alley. Judging from the girl's reaction, she didn't want to be found as much as he did. This left the last option; running. Felix had confidence in his speed if not anything else, which he could easily use to get away from Mr. Drunky, and with Kiera unable to move the man would probably go for her anyway. He gritted his teeth and took a step back again.

Felix then pushed off on his back foot and lunged at the oncoming man, swing the only thing on hand at the time. His laptop.

Felix remembered reading an article on the net once about how far lap tops have come since their creation. He would never have imagined some of the first portable computers weighed more than 20 pounds. What would be the point of dragging around something so damn heavy about? The younger Felix was glad he never had to worry his portable tech being that heavy in this day and age of smaller and lighter gadgets.

Boy, what he wouldn't give for one of those 25 pound clunkers right now.

Felix's little gallant effort might as well of been replaced with him waving his arms about shouting 'Me first!' for all the good it did them, the drunk shrugging off the hit like it was nothing. Brief scenarios of what could of happened if he let the cops arrest instead flashed through his mind as the man grabbed hold of him, only to be interrupted by Kiera's shouting and a chunk of brick bouncing of the oaf. The boy was sent stumbling into the nearest group of trashcans with a clatter and thud, opening and knocking out some of the contents. As Felix fumbled to get back up groaning and sore he noticed something mixed in with the bags of garbage. A handle. Hoping fervently he grabbed it and yanked out a bat. Even in the poor light he could see the giant splinters running down the length of the bat, the torn and loose grip on the handle, the utter crappiness of it. It was beautiful.

Felix stumbled back to his feet and turned back to the other two, makeshift club in hand. He aimed as well as he could and swung the bat at Kiera's attacker, wishing a home run.

The bat, now cracked broken beyond further use, slipped out of Felix's hand to clatter onto the alleyway. It rolled towards the edge of the new forming red puddle.

For what felt like hours he didn't move, couldn't move, as a wave of emotions hit him hard enough to show on his almost always calm, tired face. Bombarding him to the point where he could think straight; Fear, anger, relief, curiosity, terror, frustration. Felix was stunned into confusion by the recent turn of events. The whole world felt quiet with only the whimpering of Kiera filling the void.

As an eternity seemed to passed in those brief moments, Felix inhaled sharply, exhaled deeply, then became eerily calm as he pushed all unnecessary thoughts from his mind as he had done so for some many problems he encountered on the net. Like always.

First, he walked over towards the turned of trash cans where he was thrown in a slow but steady pace, avoiding blood on the ground, stopping to root through it to find his discarded laptop. He found it still in one piece somehow despite its rough handling of recent events. Computer under arm he turned his attention to the bat. As he neared it he stooped down and tore at already worn leather grip, holding it down with his foot. It was stripped easily enough and pocketed in his pants. No evidence. Finally, approached the girl, standing over her.

"Kiera...."

The first time he spoke was softer than he expected. He cleared his throat and spoke a little louder.

"Kiera....Its time to go..."

He stood there waiting for her reply.

Felix was a lot of things right now or would be if he hadn't forced himself into a calm focus. If he had learned anything from his foul up that forced him to run is that he shouldn't give into frustration and panic. It caused him to make too many mistakes and slip up, making tracking him down all too easy.
He wasn't about to repeat the same mistake so soon after the first. Not even if it involved a dead guy, the blood of said dead guy splattering his clothes, or someone with supernatural abilities that caused the former two. The boy looked down and the girl with said abilities in question. She had the expression of someone just about to give up.

For a brief time Felix didn't answer her question, just giving her a straight look. Then without changing expression he whacked her up side the head in an almost comical fashion.

"No I'm not afraid of you stupid. Then again I'm not planning on trying to kill you either so I think I'm good. That..." He pointed in the direction of the body without looking. "That, was self defense. You were in trouble, and you reacted with your power...whatever they might actually be..." He tilted his head slightly at his own words, having his view blocked of most of the actual use of her powers. The fascination with coming in contact the a harbinger was fresh in his mind, but he pushed those thoughts away for later. He needed to focus. "You used what you had to survive. If you didn't use them, you'd be the one dead."

He switched laptop to his other hand and offered the free one to the girl. "Now then, we both need to go. I need to find a place to connect to the web, hopefully this thing still works, find ANY surveillance in the area that could have picked us up, erase it and pilfer enough cash from some accounts to find us a place rest properly." His eyes wandered up as he thought out their next course of action waiting for Kiera to take his hand on the borders of rambling. He finally looked back down to her. "Hmm, do you think your powers could...hide us if need be? Would make this a whole lot simpler. Less need to rush too....hmm...at least in theory..." Felix was going off into his own little world of scenarios again, nearly forgetting the series of events that lead to them and the person sitting right next to him.

He frowned at Kiera's dismissal of her powers being any help in keeping them out from under prying eyes, then sighed and shrugged. Or shrugged as well as he could with her leaning up against him.

"Oh well, we should have that much problem as long as we get far enough away from here..."

Felix grunted a little under the added weight of the girl as they came to the mouth of the alley, but decided to stay quiet. It wasn't worth the bother of mentioning. Plus he didn't want additional bruises to his already sore body. What a night it was. Dirty and slightly torn clothing, messy hair...well, messier, nearly killed or worse, and to top it off he had to use his laptop as a weapon. Why did he think that was a good idea in the-

"You know, you still haven't told me your name,"

The question snapped him out of inner complaining thoughts.

"Hmm? I didn't...oh yes, thats right conversation in the beginning was cut short," He turned his head slightly towards her. "It Felix. Felix Page. Nice to meet you Kiera."

After a few more step he added.

"By the way, you owe me new laptop."