Out Tonight

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris reclined in the Pitchoo, slowly guiding it in. Due to a few crashes, he was flying less recklessly now, and due to an... odour, he kept the place clean. He'd donned a black shirt over a white t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: "Hahaha! Mine is an evil laugh!"

With a whoooosh! he landed down beside the group, hovering a couple of feet off the ground. He let the entry ramp lower down, popping a smoke bomb to add to the drama... before appearing out of the smoke. "You needed a ride? You have a ride," grinned Chris, winking at the girls.

[angrydurf]

At the rather over dramatic entrance Mike arched a questioning brow at Mark then realizing this was precisely Marks speed just shook his head with a shrug. He offered a quick wave and looking back and forth at the airship said "Nice ride, you build this?" The larger boy sounded actually interested despite his normal disinterest in all things not mopey.

"I'm Mike by the way, you must be Chris." He added in as friendly a tone as mike generally managed.

[alderwitch]

Alex looked both excited and suitably impressed with the hovering airship. She gave Chris a shy smile, hands tucked bahind her back, "She's a lovely ship. I'm Alex. Thank you for the ride."

[Electra]

Erin gaped up at the airship for a minute, startled at the appearance of their ride. "It's a really cool ship," she acknowledged, looking over it. "But is there going to be a place to park it? I can't imagine there are too many, whaddyacallem, blimp poles down by the college." Despite the potential logistical difficulties, she was already edging closer to the ramp, eager to get a look inside. Even at a hero school, you didn't see a flying airship every day of the week.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ah, I'm sure it's got a stealth mode, right, Chris?" said Mark without a care in the world as he strode up the gangplank to check out Geckoman's sweet ride. His eyes lit up inside, and he clapped the other boy on the back. "Dude! This is awesome! You need to charge for rides in this thing...next time, though," he added with a laugh. "I'm sure there's a way. We can always just set it to hover where no one but fliers and leapers can get."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Hey, what do you think I do with it at weekends. I just dump it in the clouds and use that thing," said Chris, pointing at a blue-green display on the back wall. "It lets me float back to Earth, or I could just parachute down I suppose. But that's not fun."

"By the way, I'd advise strapping yourselves in, this thing isn't too steady. And don't ask what the red stains are."

[angrydurf]

Mike eyed the stains as they were pointed out and made every effort to avoid them. This Kenzie character certainly did have a sweet ride. There deffinately seemed to be an upside to havign Mark as a roomate even if his sunny disposition chaffed the moody teen this was pretty cool.

Mike picked out a seat and settled into it working at the straps to get bucked in, "So how long will it take to get there? this thing fast?"

[alderwitch]

Alex quickly found a seat and settled in, fastening the buckles and straps of the harness. She picked one where she could see as much as possible, her eyes bright and excited to see the airship in action.

"I love flying," she said cheerfully to the group, "No matter how, I never lose the thrill. It's just so neat! It's like spitting in the face of the basic principles of physics!"

[Electra]

Erin sat down and buckled herself in, taking a peek out the window of the ship. As instructed, she didn't think too hard about the red stains on the walls. As everyone got settled in, she asked "Did you build this yourself? Are there tools and material and stuff for students to use on big projects?" Not that she had more than a smattering of skill in that direction, but it was an intriguing idea.

[Avenger Assembled]

Not looking particularly worried by Chris' dire threats, Mark obediently buckled himself in for the ride. "Ah, so you'll be letting us out, then coming down on that yourself?" He scratched his chin. "You know, I suppose we could always come down that way. Mike is strong enough to carry Erin, Alex can fly, you've got that thing, and I've got a little maneuver I've been working on myself. That way we wouldn't get separated in the crowd at FCU."

[alderwitch]

"That sounds like a good plan tho' what if someone sees us flying. I mean, its not so big a deal for me an' Mike. We already have a record with the government," Alex winced slightly, "I mean, we don't have secret identities to protect so much."

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris ignored the questions about where he got the ship and pulled on a pair of orange goggles. "Now, I was asked how fast this could fly. Well, i'd advise you to hold on very, very tight," grinned Chris, pulling the ship up off the ground. "Aaaaannnd... voila! The ship went from 0-500 MPH in the space of about six seconds, hurling everyone back into their seats hard.

"Hope nobody ate much before getting in here!"

[angrydurf]

Mike clenched at the seat under the sudden acceleration. This thing certainly had some pick up that was for sure, and at this rate it wouldn't take long at al to get to FCU.

Mike glanced at Alex to make sure she was doing ok with the acceleration and thought at her 'YOU OK?' then to the others, he'd pushed himself nearly this hard before when flying Solo but not often and had little enough trouble hadling the acceleration. However he had his concerns about those of a less hardy constitution.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm sure no one will be watching," said Mark with careless ease. "It's a college on a concert night, everyone's going to be looking down, not up." At Geckoman's warning, Mark braced himself at just the right moment before acceleration, whooping like he was on the back of the world's most spectacular roller coaster. "Wahoo! I heard this thing was fast, but this is unbelieveable! This is great!" He kept a close eye on the others, though, making sure they were coming through okay.

[quotemyname]

Scoring free tickets to the concert had been easy as pie for Eddie. After all, he did have a direct feed into the radio signal right in his head. All he had to do was name the song? Easy as pie!

He had pawned off the other free tickets that he had one so as to score some extra cash.

Now that he was rolling in the dough, It was time to party. He left his bag at his house, slapped on a pair of black cargo pants (for the extra pocket space) packed his iPods and his sound gear, pulled a Weezer shirt on over his head, and was out the door before his parents could ask him where he was going.

"Oh yea... Tonight is going to be crazy fun." Knowing he had to fly across town to get to the college he had left early in the day. He should be there in plenty of time.

---

A few minutes later, he found himself floating over the line of people at the gate. Part of working at one of the city's more predominant clubs mean certain perks at certain places. He dropped down in front of the line, smiled at the guy collecting tickets, handed him his ticket and a free admission pass to the Millennium.

When the people at the front of the line began to complain about him cutting he turned to them and smiled. "Relax... It's cool, it's cool." He handed one of the guys at the front of the line a stack of free passes and said, "Here, give these to your friends." Then turned around and walked in.

Eddie smiled to himself. He liked this town more and more everyday.

[Avenger Assembled]

Thanks to some surprisingly successful smooth talking, Eddie was able to muscle his way into the show despite what he was giving away. He heard a few mutterings as he went, but there were always haters around to interfere with a player's groove. Once inside the cafe where the show was taking place, he was ushered quickly to the seats set aside near the stage for the various radio contest winners. Madman Finale hadn't had a very good run on their last visit to Freedom City, and it looked like they'd had tickets given away by several other radio stations around Freedom City.

[quotemyname]

"Oh man! These seats are great!" Eddie trotted up to the row of reserved seats. Seeing that no one else was here yet, he found his seat and sat down in it.

After a few moments of no one else showing up Eddie decided to relax a little bit. He stretched out and laid his legs across the seat next to him.

"Oh yea. That's better. You know... It would be great if no one else showed up and took these seats..." he mused out loud.

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman landed with a screech around the corner from the cafe. "Hop out while I park. I won't be long... Well, move it, I don't have all day." As soon as they'd all exited, he pulled up and flew skywards until he disappeared into the clouds.

About thirty seconds later, Chris appeared on a glowing skateboard thing, plummetting from above to land beside the group, a remote in one hand. "Now, see, that's parking."

[angrydurf]

Mike quickly made his way out of the airship offering a hand down to the other passengers while glancign around to get his bearings on where the coffee house was.

As Chris returned he pointed at the line saying "Looks like thats where we're headed." and started towards the back of the line.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark joined Mike in the line for a moment, but shook his head. "No, I think this is just the line for buying tickets. We should be able to get in easily enough with what we've got." Sure enough, as Mark found out on leaving the group to walk ahead, the ticket line wasn't actually the line at the door. It was a simple matter of showing his tickets to get them all inside, and he led the way towards the table set aside for them as the WNTT contest winners. Recognizing Eddie, he waved sociably. "Looks like he made it here after all. Hey man!"

He set up a seat arrangement that seemed best for everyone; putting himself next to Eddie, Alex next to him, Erin next to her, and Mike next to Erin. He was a good host, and even snagged a chair for Chris while he was at it. Not having thought it out at first, he was pleased to see that everyone was close by a friend and that the two guys in their party were next to ladies, the better to promote good fellowship. Lucky thing, he thought admiringly, Lucky thing.

The cafe was quite crowded that evening between the various contest winners and a good press of college kids, the noise of conversation filling the air but not quite so loud that the actual sound of talking itself was closed off. When a waitress swung by their table, Mark ordered a Diet Coke for himself, then let his friends do their thing.

[quotemyname]

"Woah hey guys!" Eddie said, standing. He switched the seats he had been using quickly. He gave the one that he had been sitting on to Mark, and used the one his feet had been on himself. It was only polite after all.

Eddie shook Mark's hand. "What do you mean made it?! I wouldn't miss this show for the world!" A puzzled look crossed his face quickly. "I know these guys..." He gestured to Mike, Erin, and Alex. "But who is your other friend?" He gestured to Chris.

But quickly enough he became distracted by the waitress. "Just a Pepsi, thanks."

[Electra]

Erin settled into her seat between Alex and Mike, looking around a little nervously at the crowd. It was loud, and everyone was moving around in unpredictable ways, but it wasn't as though anything bad was going to happen. It was just a concert, and everyone was there to have a good time and listen to music. She did her best to relax and just take in the crowd, rather than studying it for clustering patterns and viable exit strategies. When the waitress came around, she murmured that she just wanted a glass of water, please.

[alderwitch]

Alex slipped into her seat, eyes wide and curious as she took in the cafe. It was freeing to finally be able to go someplace other than lab to home and back again and she caught Mike's eye and gave him a small grin of pleasure. She reached up and tucked her hair back behind one ear before she ordered a glass of water and sat there swinging her legs. It was awfully crowded in here...

Alex caught Erin's eye. It hadn't escaped the psychic's notice that Erin was not always the most comfortable in crowded places and she sent a quick thought at her roommate, 'You okay? Lemme know if you need to get some air or anything.'

"Mark won the tickets and he was nice enough to give us the extras," Alex enthused, cheerful and uncaring of seeming uncool as she announced, "I've never been to a concert before."

[quotemyname]

Eddie had to lean forward around Mark to see and hear Alex properly. "Well, hey, that's pretty lucky!" He said with a smile. "As for a first concert, you can't go wrong with these guys. You are in for a treat tonight!"

Eddie made an attempt to throw his thoughts Alex's direction: I know you're a psychic, and with the noise in here, it would probably be easier just to talk like this. I don't mind it if you don't.

Eddie leaned back in his seat. He was unsure of whether or not the message got through, but it didn't really matter. He was content just waiting for his drink and the show.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Woah hey guys!"

Eddie shook Mark's hand. "What do you mean made it?! I wouldn't miss this show for the world!" A puzzled look crossed his face quickly. "I know these guys..." He gestured to Mike, Erin, and Alex. "But who is your other friend?" He gestured to Chris.

Chris leaned in to shake the other guy's hand. "I'm Chris. You're Eddie, right?" He grabbed the chair that Mark managed to grab, and whirled it in. "I'm the taxi driver," he said, grinning to make sure they knew it was a joke.

Then came the waitress. "I'll have a Pepsi too, thanks. And do you have those bags of chips, y'know, with the salt packet in it so you can add as much as you like?" After sorting out his chip-related dilemna, he turned back to the group. "Yeah, these guys are good for a first concert, since you're not going to have some wild circle pit going." He looked slightly disappointed at that last part.