A Mathematician On A Park Bench

Row-Echelon Cuboctehedron Eureka was having a frustrating experience. It wasn’t as much the experience as it was the particular person he was with. Peter, one of his students, who was so stubbornly against the idea of learning, just refused to grasp the concept of logic. The boy couldn’t take the next few lessons without understanding this unit, and so it fell to Row-Echelon to educate him.

“But Mr. Orwell, I don’t CARE if I fail! I’ll just make it big in the NBA instead of going to college!” Row-Echelon gave a sigh. “Peter, your chances of success in the NBA are one in ten thousand. Your chances of graduating from high school are much higher. So much higher in fact, that it would be a waste to throw it away. Now try to answer this question. If negation of p, then negation of q, what’s the truth value of the statement?” The boy grumbled, then muttered something. “What was that?” Peter looked up and said “True?” And that put a smile on Row-Echelon’s face. “You’ve finally got it! Alright, this has gone well enough, but it’s around four, and your mother said she wanted you home by four thirty, so I would recommend setting out now. If the bus schedule is accurate, the number twelve should be stopping in front of the school in about five minutes. Get a move on!” Peter gave a hurried thank you, then rushed out of the building.

Another twenty minutes was spent at the computer filing report cards by Row-Echelon, until even he decided that staying longer would just be antithetic to his goal of doing work. Slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder, the math teacher walked down the stairs, took a right then a left, and opened the doors to the main exit. Making his way through crowded streets, he eventually stopped at a small park bench where he took out his laptop and began typing. He hoped nobody would disturb him, but if someone did, then what could he do about it?

      Niall was still frying his brain over the little black book. He was tired, he was mad and he of course had no idea what in the world that his long departed friend was trying to explain. It would take a genius to figure this out, and Niall wasn’t a genius....of course he wasn’t...he’s blonde. Instead of continuing to fry himself at the computer at home, he decided he could use a little fresh air. He took the little black book, his cellphone, and he grabbed the nearest sweatshirt with a four leaf clover on it and he began to scurry off to God knows where at this point.


     He flipped open his Cellphone and tried to call his favorite Hale, but apparently his phone was dead...okay that’s lie. Aaron picked up and Niall pretended to have accidentally butt-dialed him until Aaron hung up. Not that he didn’t like Aaron, he just didn’t feel like telling Aaron about his delimma...because Aaron would just solve it and then Niall wouldn’t learn anything...which defeated the purpose of having the answer. He stopped by the coffee shop, the usual place, got his Chai and took to the park that wasn’t more than six blocks away. He brushed through them pretty quick, though he pretty much bull rushed there to get to a good seat. Of course they were all taken. It wouldn’t be a day in the life of Niall without him having bad luck.

     Of course...luck of the Irish there for you. he thought as he saw a very...very...nerdy man sitting on the good park bench. Of course, Niall had been so used to the great seat being taken that he had his own little place. In a tree across the small little brick path that the walkers took. Niall looked up at the thirteen foot tall branch. He started to jump, and of course he didn’t make the grade. So what else is there to do than grow wings? What? Growing wings is a perfectly logical solution to subtly get to a branch thirteen feet in the air....


     With a simple thought, Niall managed to empower himself enough to conjure wings on his back, polygons formed as arches on his back then as kite-shaped feathers jutting down from the,. The sea foam green centers bled into a heavenly yellow light, and with a single, gentle flap the wings propelled him up and he stood upon the branch trying to shift his weight to stabilize himself. With himself finally waving his arms he managed to stay still for a second, enough to turn around and sit on the branch. He smiled to himself an sighed.

     ”9.8 is outta date.” Niall snickered, remembering the little phrase Zell used to say when they flew in the exo suits. Niall realized that he was having such a fond memory that he accidentally loosened his grip and his Chai fell out of his hand. whoops.

Michael sighed loudly, checking a chromatic watch strung around his wrist. The hour hand ticked ever so slowly, while the one that counted seconds rushed around with greater speed, showing the passing of time that never truly stopped. It had been a short while since he set himself up within the city of Chicago, working the little criminal element to his heart’s content, granted that money within itself held little value to the Ethereal; he simply found it intriguing to see how humans allowed themselves to be controlled by paper. While most of his little gang members were within themselves disposable, Michael found the Metahumans members to be slightly less disposable, some simply impossible to kill. While that could have proven annoying within circumstances of betrayal, they made useful lieutenants in the long run, and that was all that mattered; especially the healer of theirs.  

Michael pulled the zipper on his jacket all the way up, covering his simple looking white t-shirt, and falling past the waistband of dark colored denim jeans, with a slight amount of freying around the thighs. With that small amount of preparation done, he opened the door of his motel room, and stepped through. The sun was still within the sky, but he could tell that it was coming close to setting. Small amounts of violet were beginning to suffuse the light blue of the endless cloudy sky, white puffs of the condensation floating by lazily. ”Took you long enough.” The mouthy older looking blonde noted, crossing arms over his chest as he looked at the shorter dark haired male.

”No, you just came too early.” Michael noted plainly to the derision of the male, and stepped through the door and making his way down the large metal steps onto the street level, with the other in tow.

”Why do I have to come with you again?”

”Because.” he said without a hint of irony.

”Because? You know that isn’t a proper answer right?”

”I know.” he said with a slight smirk as they walked along the sidewalk, thinking over something of no consequence. Well then something caught his attention, a slight flair of energy that made his own react in a small way, the small flecks of green within his eyes becoming more prominent.

”So you brought me along for….no reason?” Michael took note of the rather incredulous tone within his voice breaking a shot silence that lasted what seemed like a block of walking. Something within Michael was still interested in that source of ethereal energy, something unknown to him, someone that was unknown to him. He hummed interested lightly to himself, which caused the male walking next to him to hang back a little, as if he were plotting a great evil.

Soon enough they found themselves in a park, a nice park at that, and closer to that energy source. He took notice of what looked like a nerdy male typing away in a laptop and someone else in a tree with wings, and the energy that he was looking for; and one that he had been avoiding for a while now. The Dark Ethereal cocked his head to the side, trying to see if he remembered this one, the blonde perched precariously within a tree and nothing came.

He noticed the male drop something, a cup full of something, perhaps a beverage maybe. Not really giving much thought to it, he formed a construct of energy in the shape of a hand, which reached out and grasped the drink in question, before retracting back to the one that created it and fading away. Michael took note of the drink, and perhaps more than rudely took a taste of it; it was good actually. Andrew just kinda stood there, looking at him with a mixture of mild shock and annoyance, not even mentioning how the person who dropped the drink on the first place would feel.

You have got to be kidding me."

Row-Echelon looked up from what he was typing. In the time that it had taken him to hope that nobody would disturb him, two people appeared. Both quite obviously of the metahuman variety, or otherwise supernaturally enhanced. He gave a sigh, then looked up at the blond who was quite obviously capable of flight. The boy looked young, that wasn’t good. Whenever those young metahumans found out they had powers they started dressing up in fancy costumes and trying to save lives. Most of the time they ended up levelling city blocks. It was so illogical, and such a waste of energy. Why waste one’s childhood in such a manner?

He was about to go back to his work when a glowing energy construct shot out and caught the falling drink. It had brushed dangerously close, and his reflexive processors were whirring with intense speed. “Excuse me, but must you two flaunt your powers in such a way? I’ve nearly had a…” What did the humans call it? He couldn’t say ‘reflex processing overload’, no it was a… panic attack! “Panic attack. I nearly had a panic attack. It would be considerate of you to tone it down a little, but if you insist upon the continuation of emitting foreign energies in a manner as to produce a ‘superpowered’ effect, I could always leave.”

Turning his attention back to his laptop, the thaumoarithmetic construct glanced back over the pdf he had pulled up. It was a few things sent from the superintendent, mainly about budgeting. He was apparently a member of the board, but Row-Echelon theorized that they only kept him on due to his skill with numbers. He could do the accounting in a manner of minutes, and he had saved them twenty thousand dollars last quarter. It was quite the accomplishment. He wasn’t only educating children on the topic of math, he was also educating adults on how to properly manage their money. If that wasn’t worth something, then he didn’t know what was. Well actually, humans attached a lot of worth to essentially pointless things. Gold, silver, sapphires, all materials that weren’t good for anything but seemed to be coveted by human females, if the television was an accurate representation of human females.

Looking back up at the pair of metahumans, Row-Echelon gave himself a mental slap. He had forgot the human custom of introducing oneself to strangers. “According to your customs I have to introduce myself. Well hello, I am James Orwell, but you can just call me James. Calling me my full name would whittle down precious seconds of your life, and simply referring to me as Orwell may confuse people, as there is a writer with the same familial name.”

James Orwell...James Orwell. Where had Niall heard that name before? Was it the name of the Scoutmaster? The Swimming coach? The Catholic priest? No Niall was pretty sure this guy wasn't creepy. Niall never did trust any of those guys. The professions tended to have bad associations...ones that Niall had seemed to find slightly amusing, but still sick. He looked down, found himself staring at the dorky professor guy with an arched eyebrow. Niall was too fixated on how he recognized the man, so much so that he felt like Charlie Brown...well...ya'know...without the Chemo or whatever made that kid bald. Regardless he felt like that because as this 'adult' was speaking all he was hearing was.

      "Wah-Woh-waaah-wah-wa-wa-waah. Wah-wahwah-wah." Of course that wasn’t what he was saying but he’s still not sure as to how he knows this guy. It was wearing and grating on him…almost to the brink of insanity. Not really but it was annoying. Niall looked down to see that a kid caught his Chai. The kid had some form of…ethereal energy? Niall shot down a glare…but being as innocent as Niall is it probably looked like a lost puppy with his head cocked to the side. Niall sighed and dropped down from the tree. Luckily for him he was beyond human limits in his durability, though it was slightly uncomfortable when he reached the ground. He let out a small grunt as he noticed that he had dropped his book and its contents all over the ground.

      ”Erm..sorry. I forget that I’m not normal some times. Being transformed into a being of pure energy does that.” Niall said in his thick Irish accent. He smiled at the teacher and began to pick up pages of his book. The estranged information, both a mixture of the Occult and the insanely intelligent, he picked up the pages, the formulas the theories and even the applications. Stupid magic, science and math. They made his head hurt. The second that he say X he shut off and said “derp”. He shifted the papers around and found his little book mark. It was the picture of Niall, back when he was just an AI. He was put into a mobile platform and he was able to take a picture with Zell and Shara. Shara and Zell were latched on to each other, but Niall seemed to be attack Zell with a hug, reaching onto Shara as well. Such simpler times.

       Zell…Zell…Zell…Orwell? Wait a minute. Zell and Shara were both in the same school at one point. Wasn’t Orwell the name of one of Zell’s teachers? No way…Zell was crazy smart but Niall was still inside Zell’s head back then...he would have remembered a crazy teacher with glasses and curly hair like that. Maybe he wouldn’t. Either way he found himself a bit curious. Zell did have a teacher named Orwell that was at least on his unholy intellectual level, if this was him then this was too freaky, if not then Niall was just mixing up the name Orwell…like the guy said it can be confusing. Niall left the picture of Zell and them on the book as he looked up and glanced over Mr.Orwell again. Zell and this Orwell guy spent hours making humanity’s accomplishments and theories look like crayon drawings on the fridge…if this guy was the same one…Niall felt like he was going to have a headache.

        ”Excuse me…Mr.Orwell… do you by chance remember having a student named Zell Atterrius?” Niall asked. Hopefully this didn’t go too badly.

Michael tapped the cups rim, running finger tip along it slowly, methodically as he tried to run the blonde’s face through his mind once again, as if he had simply forgotten him from somewhere. The way that his eyebrows shifted ever so slightly, and how each facial muscle moved, letting slight changes in emotion get themselves across. He found himself ignoring the rather nerdy individual, one eyebrow rising as he thought this over. His sudden display of his powers was not something that was uncommon to Andrew, but then again not everyone was so sued to sudden bursts of the purple energy that Michael seemed to enjoy employing when it suited him. Not really even thinking over the reaction, Michael took another sip of the Chai tea, narrowing his eyes before letting them grow wide once again. The strange change in expression on the blonde one was not lost, but then again he didn’t really go deeper into thinking about it.

That was when he turned his attention to the man sitting on the bench once again, which was in the midst of introducing himself. He was sure that he had said something about leaving a moment ago, peripheral hearing picking that much up but then again that was about all he had on something like that. He considered this individual for a second, but not as long as he had the other one, taking in every feature that he could, and how it seemed that he was not too familiar with proper speech. Something about him was not quite human, but then again Michael did not have the right to really label what was human, and what was not; it was better to go about the bland title of organic. How he spoke showed that he was either one of the intellectual variety, or simply too formal to speak in simpler terms.

Turning back to Niall, Michael noticed that he had dropped what looked like a black book, things scattering across the ground in a rather messy fashion. The dark haired male found his silver orbs scanning over these things, overt curiosity taking over within seconds of it happening, something catching a small amount of interest before it was scooped up within the Irish male’s hand, and shoved back into the thick leather bound book. Something about the way that the blonde spoke…mildly irritated him, something about the thickness of the accent causing Michael’s lips to curl into a slight snarl. Andrew just kind of stood back, arms crossed over his chest and foot tapping against the ground rather annoyed, though as usual he found himself ignored; not that the male could complain too much about that, seeing how things went with people that Michael paid attention to.

One was Orwell and the other he still did not have a name on, which did not really bother Michael, he would assign an appropriate nickname. Irish boy was too obvious and blonde bimbo too rude, but then again what one called a person within their own mind was different than when spoken. So blonde bimbo asked Orwell a question, something about a Zell Atterrius, and that name sent off red lights within Michaels head; yet he could not really figure out why that was so. Taking another sip of the pilfered tea, he tried to think this over but nothing came to mind, but damn was this drink good. It made him wonder how he did not discover it before.

A being of pure energy? Well that was certainly something he had seen before. Technically speaking, he was made out of energy too. But not any energy known to these Earthlings, no, he was made out of mathemagic. But that was information not relevant to the conversation at hand. He had been processing what this person was saying in the back of his mind, mind was an inaccurate human term, but it was easier to understand than what he was really processing information with.

Zell Atterius? Yes, that was the human boy with a name that seemed to be five galaxies distant from human naming traditions. “Why yes, I did teach a Zell Atterius. He was bright, one of the only students who really excelled. I remember him quite fondly, didn’t he become the CEO of some large company and make billions? That was good for him, I understand people attach a lot of significance to how much money someone has. Supposedly he has plenty of mating opportunities due to his engorged societal status. I think that’s a good thing, unless he’s asexual. In which case that may be uncomfortable for him. Either way, if you know him and speak to him, tell him that Mr. Orwell wishes him the best of luck. Also, I still remember question twenty-seven on that test he took in freshman year. It was quite funny, he couldn’t integrate a nested trig function! We were laughing about it for days. Or at least I was.”

Row-Echelon then turned to the person who had just been standing there. “Isn’t it strange to be standing around not saying anything of value, stealing someone’s drink, and flashing your superpowers around? I’m pretty sure that’s considered rude, or at least unusual in every culture known to man, and at least sixteen quadrillion more. But perhaps you’re from a distant planet where the societal paradigm has shifted in such a manner as to allow for rude behavior, it being a sign of respect rather than a lack of it. If you are, could you tell me where this planet is?” Most people saying that would have been making a snarky little jibe. Row-Echelon was honest in his statement. He was old, and he had seen lots of things, and this generally wasn’t acceptable behavior. But who knew, maybe his processors were scrambled at the moment?

       ”Erm… Zell isn’t…Zell anymore. It sounds weird but Long story short some Superhuman Titan crap showed up and changed him into someone else. But if I see the new him I’ll tell him you said Hello…might make him remember a little.” Niall said pleasantly. He listened to Mr.Orwell talk to the strange other male with the strange energy. Niall looked at him and then he smiled as he looked him over for a second. The guy was cute and all but that doesn’t explain why he’s slightly familiar. That energy was the same energy the night that he died at the Hale mansion… It was like Ethereal but so…dark. He would politely wait until Mr.Orwell finished his little rant before he spoke up.



       ”Uh-hehe…he can keep it. I have this thing about drinking after other people.” Niall said with a slight laugh as he scratched the back of his head nervously. He kept looking at Michael and his strange little friend. He simply wrote it off as coincidence, and he cleared his throat before extending a hand out towards Michael. ”Name’s Niall, Nice to meet you.” He said with a smile. This strange energy was foreboding enough for Niall to know to keep himself ready. He already had two of his Ethereal spells ready to go. Though he wanted to keep Mr.Orwell’s advice on mind, just because he can use powers doesn’t mean he should after all.

While he may have appeared to not be paying attention, Michael was doing the exact opposite of that, making sure to take in everything that the nerdy male was letting dribble from his mouth. He said that he knew this mysterious Zell from school, and something about being CEO of a large company, Michael taking another sip from the tea he let this fall into his memory banks, or whatever it was called. That was when of course he began to address the dark haired male, and that was when he seemed to perk up slightly, silver orbs flecked with a slight glowing green darting over to the bespectacled man. ”Well from what I can tell, people go about their daily lives saying things of no value, so I  think me not saying anything of value is about the same; except I’m not wasting your time with pointless words like I’m doing now.” He paused for a moment, sipping once again the drink that he stole. He turned to Andrew for a moment, perhaps gauging his expression before turning back to the other two.

He took note of what Niall said about this Zell person turning into someone else, and something told him that he would have to interrogate the male later. He knew something important, and Michael wanted to know it, so if bones needed to be broken, then he would break them. He was partially surprised when Niall extended his hand towards him, and to perhaps avoid any more annoying commentary from the poindexter, he decided to shake the males hand back. ”The names Michael, pleased to meet you.” Well he could not say that he was pleased, but at the same time he was now curious of this Niall, something seeming to brim from him; mystery is anything else. He made sure that his handshake was as firm as possible, since people around here seemed to enjoy trying to crush your hand, and Michael found it rubbing off.

Row-Echelon gave the man who had finally decided to participate in the conversation a blank stare. “The value of words is completely subjective, if one were to reveal the true meaning of existence to you, or something else you may find of value, you would weep with tears of joy, I would still be indifferent. But if someone came over here and fully explain and solve The Goldbach Conjecture, I would find that of value, but you would be ambivalent, I doubt you even understand or know what that particular Conjecture is.”

Row-Echelon turned to the one labelled as Niall, his top priority being to enquire further with the subject of Zell. That boy had been quite nice really. “Titan? The mythological figures that the ancient Greeks included in their creation story? I highly doubt that, or is there some other type of Titan I am not aware of? Either way, I’m glad he’s alive after whatever ordeal these ‘Titans’ put him through.”

At this point, Row-Echelon clicked save on what he was working on, then closed his laptop. Putting it back in the case, he stood up and stretched his arms out a little. “I’m curious as to the mechanics of existing as a being of pure energy. Would you care to elaborate on it? And what form of energy is this? Nuclear, magical, something else entirely? The possibilities are certainly endless with how big this universe happens to be. But if it makes you uncomfortable Niall, then don’t speak.” He hoped that was gentle enough. Being gentle was supposed to glean information, right? Or was that good cop bad cop? He had no idea at this point, these humans put far too much stock by psychology. It probably only worked because they thought it worked, mass cultural delusion and all that.

      I never said he was alright…I mean, I guess he is if you consider a sociopath man with nearly infinite energy, who‘s sleeping with a form of Death itself, being fused with the spirit of his dead self from another dimension alright then I guess he‘s juuust peachy. Niall thought to himself with a little sigh. No Zell was definitely not alright…but it is what it is. Niall is doing his best to fix this, and while it may not be enough he still intended to make things right.

         ”It’s really noting great. I WAS a human, then Zell’s genius dad turned me into an artificial intelligence with all the zero's and the ones, and then when Zell met that Titan he sort of shot me with a stranger energy while I was in a mobile platform. Long story made short the energy turned me into a living person again. Just...not a person. I’m pure energy…other than my skin.” Niall explained as he pulled out a small pocket knife and he drew it across his palm of his hand. He winced slightly, because it was obviously a high-tech knife, none of that mundane crap will hurt him in the slightest.

       With the slit made it was revealed that he was not bleeding, but in fact light shown from the wound, like it were trying to escape his body. He held up his palm, revealing the light blue greenish energy that had a pale yellow in the outer projections of light. ”Honestly this energy is kinda rare. I don’t know anyone other than teo of us who can use it… Well…Three. I think it‘s some form of lost magic.” Niall said as he looked over to Michael, sort of giving it away that he did in fact sense it and Michael wasn’t going to be surprising him with anything. Poor Niall thought it was clever on his part when in reality it was probably just pointless.

        ”Mechanics? Well I can’t exactly bleed out without blood…and I have no real vital organs…I mean they’re there but…yeah….for all I know my spleen is in my throat.” He sighed, then looking back to his Chai. If there is a God he OBVIOUSLY hates Niall. Chai is like his alcohol…and so far he’s had one with Ze-well Ouro, he ended up giving one to little Miss Miri, and then this kid, who looks so familiar it’s not even funny, takes it. He glanced over the kid again, something told him that there should be something that made his mind go “pop”, but he couldn’t remember it. He was content for now to simply know who he was dealing with he waved at the guy behind Michael and introduced himself to him as well before turning back to Mr.Orwell with a slight smile.

Michael narrowed his eyes, taking in what the male said and then ignoring it completely. Something about this man annoyed the Ethereal, and as such he chose to simply ignore what he said, continuing the drink the Chai tea that was now so kindly given to him. He would instead return to speaking about something else, about that Zell guy and how he met a Titan, which reminded him of the only one that he cared to remember, which was his father to be precise. Something told him that this had to do with the diminutive Titan king, but then again that was just a hunch, one that he would have to follow on with later. Putting that on his mental to do list, Michael followed along with the irish males explanation, which involved self harm causing Andrew to wince slightly as blade cut into flesh.

So that was what he meant by a being of pure energy, ethereal energy pouring from the wound instead of blood. Something about the energy was…pure and it irritated him. He perked a single dark brow, lip curling into a bemused line. So there were three that could use this energy: This Niall, Ouroboros and himself being the three, though he felt as if that were not true as well. He turned to Michael as if he knew something, as if he knew what Michael was, but all he did was smirk rather cryptically back at the male. That was when he turned his attention to the male accompanying him, Andrew who waved back glaring at the young on Niall’s hand. Something was bothering him, and Michael had an idea as to what.

Without any seeming provocation, he walked past Michael and picked up Niall’s hand, placing the fingertips of his right hand against the wound, a small light emanating from it before the flesh closed over it. ”And the names Andrew, I have to take care of this guy.” He said jerking towards Michael with a thumb. The dark haired male smirked lightly, perhaps amused by that statement.

”I never said you had to.”

Wait, he bled energy? If he were made out of energy, why was he even corporeal? How did he have skin? That wasn’t how energy worked, unless this magic ethereal energy just up and broke the laws of physics. In which case Row-Echelon was actually not going to put up with it. Applying mathematics to things that ignored them was more of a hassle than anything, and he would have to invent a whole new system of arithmetic to even grasp how this energy functioned. He loved math, that was true, but if it took him centuries of study to even fully grasp how the basics of it worked, that was too much time wasted.

Shaking his head in a fashion that would suggest irritation, but was merely indicative of confusion in his case, Row-Echelon spoke to the blond man again, ignoring the other one. He didn’t seem to be a personable biological organism, and even the nice ones were hard enough to interact with. “So Niall, do you have any source material for where this ‘ethereal’ energy is from? Between you and me, I’m no stranger to magic, and if you want to, I could help you decipher some of the spellwork. I mean, if you’d let me. But could I get a demonstration of what you can do that doesn’t involve wings made of it? The possibilities for research are endless!”

      ”Erm..sure I guess. Just so you know it changes itself when it’s being studied…it has a mind of it’s own. And it doesn’t like to be looked at.” Niall said, as two tendrils of Ethereal light squirmed out of his back and gracefully danced over towards Mr,Orwell. Niall then heldf out his hands and Ethereal energy seemed to just appear form the atmosphere, rushing to his hands, forming glowing guns in each hand. The guns being bade of pure Ethereal energy hardened and solidified by an alteration in density was probably more what the man was looking for. He went to hand the first gun to Mr.Orwell, but the second Orwell touched it, it dissipated into the air. Niall growled as the tendril went to touch Orwell, it turned to stone and fell off. ”Damnit, told ya. This stuff is stubborn.” He chuckled nervously. It was true, Ethereal energy did not like being toyed with other than those who could handle it...thus is why it takes forever for people to uncover it, or even learn the slightest bit of information about it. He shuttered as he rubbed his left arm, looking at the little trinket that Aaron had given him, the one that limited…or rather attempted to limit the Ethereal energy.



       ”There’s only one other thing I can thing of but….no, I really shouldn’t. It’s dangerous.” Niall said. He had a lot of time to thing about what happened since he had last seen Zell…or rather, Ouroboros. He still had two days to make his decision…the reminder of this was not a good moment for him. He had to think though…dd he show off his arm or not? No-no, no, no, no, NO! What was he thinking!? Showing off his soul-devouring arm to random people, especially ones he knows nothing about. Doy-Niall wake up man. No wonder Zell was the brains of the outfit! ”As far as a source goes…no, there really is only two sources of it. One of them is trying to kill me and the other one is trying to recruit me… but all Ethereal energy stems form one of these two people.” He said as he scratched his head with the one remaining tendril. He looked back to Andrew and smiled.



        He still had no idea who this kid wa-oh, oh no. Those eyes. THOSE eyes. Silver means Titan, the glowing green specks though!? Wait…Ouroboros said he had a family, did he somehow manage to have a kid with Sean!? HOW DOES HE DO THIS CRAP!? He just breaks the laws of nature left and right, it’s insane. Niall chuckled as he looked at Michael, he cracked his neck and placed his hands behind his head as he yawned, trying to keep himself calm as possible.

Niall’s own demonstrations perhaps incited a minor interest, or perhaps only added onto the interest as to who this male was. However, it seemed that Michael found himself to be the proverbial third wheel here, but then again he didn’t really mind that. He had his ill gotten beverage, and the rather useful Metahuman to keep him company, so that was more than enough. Sure Michael could have shown his variant of the energy, but he could tell that Niall was having a much grander time than him within that little showcase. That was when he felt something vibrate in his pocket, which was perhaps that cellphone Andrew had bugged him into getting not so long ago. Reaching into his jeans pockets, Michael looked at it for a moment before pressing lightly on the keys to where the message was something from that nice winged girl about something.

It was probably more under the table work with some of the local filth, but then again he did not have time for something like that; when more juicy secrets were lurking around him. Something about this male was strange, predatory and dangerous almost, and that intrigued him. Depositing the cellular device back within his pocket, Michael looked back up and noted the irish male looking at him for a moment. Something about that made him suddenly self conscious, as perhaps something on his face was worth looking at, or out of place, which prompted him to feel along the left side of his face tentatively. He also spoke of how there were two people that all Ethereal energy stemmed from, one being his father but the other not as obvious as the first. His mind found itself working at full speed, looking over so many things, but finding nothing else.

Something about how that male was looking at him was…unsettling for sure. With a rather lop sided smirk, Michael averted his gaze for a moment.