Reunion (Jeise/Annie)

Annie Taylor awoke in a cold sweat. She lied there in the squeaky spring matress that she had used for a bed, taking all of it in. She turned toward the small bedside clock that she had set beside her. It was three in the morning. Annie sighed, knowing that she probably wouldn't get back to sleep for the night. Another night, another nightmare. It was always the same. It was all a blur, but she could still feel the pain, the horror, the darkness...

Annie shuddered. She needed something to keep her mind at ease. She pulled herself out of bed. It was a cold London night. She knew the temperature all too well. Annie walked through her eerilie empty apartment. She had no pets or roommates. She liked living alone. Life had been quiet recently. Her heroeing had slowed down immensely. Her Guardians communicator had been silent, and to top it off she hadn't heard from a certain someone. The only person she really cared about anymore.

She opened the front door and walked out into the cold night air, proceeding to sit on the front steps, looking out to the city skyline, trying to put her mind at ease.

London. How long has it been since Jeisen has seen home. He had lost track of time while he had been away. It didn't seem important to him. Coming back though, he questioned just what he had given up for that time. Nolan floated next to him as Jeisen stood on a rooftop. Jeisen was staring down through the window.

Nolan: "So... we are just going to spend all night here?"

Jeisen: "...."

Nolan: "We could always you know... go in......."

Jeisen: "I.... lets go."

Jeisen turned to go, causing Nolan to sigh. Sometimes, the tiny little robot couldn't understand just what was going through his creators head, It pulled up a map on Jeisien's hud screne. There were four dots on it. 1 green, 2 yellow, and 1 red. Each one signaled some sort of nearby crime, listed by their severity. Red was a meta human causing some damage. Jeisen's fists tightned into a ball.

Jeisen: "We will go after that one" refering to the red.

Nolan brought it up. On screen were a few camera angles of a Meta human group trying to rob a store. Looked like there were three of them. Fast as lightnng, Jeisen took off to the near by store. Nolan, without Jeisen's knowledge, sent the same alert to Annie's communicator.

Annie heard a familiar beeping noise. One that she knew all too well. She pulled the communicator out her her pocket. A red dot. That meant something severe. She hadn't received this level of alert in a long while. It looked like Firefly would be crusading tonight.

She quickly canged into the clothes she used for fighting and headed toward the commotion. A simple robbery, though there seemed to be some resonably powerful metahumans there. Nothing she couldn't handle. She eventually arrived at the store, ready to fight. She noticed three of the punks looking smug and thinking they were cool, as well as another figure that she couldn't make out at first.

"Alright, you twats, playtime is over. Run away now or face the consequences."

Jeisen: "..... Oh you are so dead."

He muttered into his helmet. The arrival of Annie only meant one thing. Nolan had let her know about the robbery. He hung to the ceiling, completly still has he debated his options. The three punks turned to Annie, surprised at the sudden arrival of the Firefly

Punk 1: "oh shit, it's Firefly."

Punk 2: "ah who gives a shit, she's just one girl. There's three of us. Frieddie, lets cream this bitch."

The third punk stepped forward, fire igniting in his hands. The second punk grinned as he stepped forward, ice beginning to coat his body. The fist punk though was to nervous to step forward, instead just hanging back in a near panic. Not everyday someone saw a hero let alone have one come after you.

Well his original plan was shot, time to improvise. There were civilians in the back of the stop and rob, but they seemed to be heading out the back door now that Annie was here. Good, one less distraction. Jeisen let go of his grip on the ceiling, falling downwards as his cloak billowed out. He came down on the first guy, delivering a twisting kick to the side of his head as Jeisen's gear kicked in. The strength f the kick grew exponentially and the kid went flying into the side wall. Jeisen was now on the other side of the punks, the pair now inbetween him and Annie.

She smirked. "So you've heard of me. Nice to know." She looked at the other guy. "Just a girl who could probably leave you paralyzed for the rest of your life."

Annie proceeded to flick her wrist, a trademark poison needle settled into her hand, ready to be thrown with the force of a bullet if deemed necesarry. The civillians were leaving. Good. Not that she was particully worried about very much collateral damage from this fight. Then a man fell from the ceiling, and one of the little jerks was out of comission. She looked up, and instantly smiled.

"And he, my good friend, is just a guy who will probably break every bone in your body, if necessary." She walked forward, aiming the needle at the punk's neck.

"So, how is this night going to end for you, fellows?"

Both punks had their hands up and elements extinguished. Surrounded by firefly and The Guardian? What was suppose to be an way robbery had just turned into one of the worst nights of their short lives. Punk two though, smirked

Punk two: "you guys just need to chi."

He was cut off by Jeisen gripping his arm with iron force. Ice was forming on the palm of his hands but atop led as he met the hard gaze of the blue optics f Jeisen's helm. Through a filtered voice, Jeisen spoke.

Jeisen: "do you know how many times we've heard an ice manipulator use that line?"

A snap, flowed by a scream as the punk dropped to his knees. The third punk stared hard at the poision needle aimed right at his throat.

Punk 3: "No no, I'm good"

"Smart man." Annie smiled as she sheathed the needle.

However, as expected he tried to grab her as soon as she put away the needle. A bad move on his part. Annie caught him and delivered a swift and powerful knee to the groin. The kid slumped over, joiningthe rest of his buddies.

"Pathetic." Annie scoffed. Things were done here. And not even a scratch. Annie was actually proud of herself, but more important was the return of her old friend.

"So, the masked guardian decides to show up again, huh? It was you who sent that alert, wasn't it?"

Nolan: "like hell it was!"

Now that the danger was gone, Nolan floated up in his ball form from underneath Jeisen's cloak. The tiny mechanical terror floated happily in the air as he floated over the three would be robbers.

Nolan: "I sent you that alright! This one over here got back in town then panicks. Decides to take it out on these poor sods. "

Jeisen rubbed his mask with a weary acceptence. He didn't know why he even bothered to do things like this anymore. Nolan need a serious upgrade soon. Maybe something a bit quieter

Jeisen: "something like that."

She smiled. "Of course it was Nolan." She gave Jeisen a playful nudge. "I know you would never call for help."

Nevertheless, the pulled the both of them into a hug, which was special, since Annie didn't give those very often. "You've been missed. Although, I think I've done a good enough job defending the city without you."

The sound of sirens approached very fast.

"We should go. There were witnesses. They'll let the cops know what happened."

And with that, Annie walked down the street towards her apartment, beckoning the man and the robot to follow.

"Come on, we'll go catch up."

Jeisen paused as Annie started walking off. He didn't know wiether he was about to get his ass handed to him for being gone for so long, or what. He half expected her to try to beat him up after the punks had been taken care of. But instead, she had hugged him. Not something that he was exactly used to. In fact, he couldn't really remember the last time someone had hugged him. Touching him was generally a no go. He snapped back to the present though and followed after her.

The police sirens were closing in, but Jeisen wasn't worried. This was his home turf, he knew how to get away if he needed too. He wondered what the headlines tomorrow would be? After all, the guardian was back. Might even make the front page.

Nolan floated forward while Jeisen trailed behind. He hovered next to Annie

Nolan: "Long time no see girly, how come I didn't get a hug? Its because I don't have arms isn't it...."

"No, Nolan." She said, knowing the tiny bot's sensitivity to his lack of arms. She left it at that. "Besides, the hug was just a consolation for when we get to my place. I'm really quite furious, actually. Just...up and leaving without a trace. Leaving me alone in this shit-hole we call a world..." She sighed. "But it's nice to finally hear that metallic, brooding and angsty voice again. I don't want to be angry right now."

The trio arrived at the run-down building that was her apartment. "But it's nice to see you again too, Nolan. Heck, at least you had the balls to call me when you got here. I know Jeisen would never do that. So...thanks." She smiled softly as she patted the little floating orb's head, silently noting Jeisen himself's silence over the course of the walk. Typical.

Annie unlocked the door to the apartment, revealing a rather unimpressive and tiny interior. A small couch sat in the center of the living room."Come on now, inside. It's bloody freezing out here...." she shuddered as she pulled down the hood of her jacket, revealing her long blonde hair.

Ouch. That hurt. Even Nolan felt a pang of guilt about their absence. It had been needed at the time, but now Jeisen doubted his choice. He was really at a loss of words for once. His great big brain gave him nothing, but to walk silently and take it. Nolan floated along rather quietly as well.

Jeisen: "I.... I came back."

That wasn't much, but it's all he had. It sounded lame even to him, but he wasn't sure what to say. He followed her into her apartment.

Nolan: "guess you left our place then. I rather liked it then."

So did Jeisen. It was nice to have someone back home so he didn't walk into an empty house. It had been a new experience for him

"I couldn't handle it. You know me. All that technology....I didn't really know what to do with myself when you left. You just...up and..." Annie took a deep breath. She was mad. Who wouldn't be?

She looked at Jeisen, straight in the glowing gyes.  "And that's all you have to say, huh? You came back. You take in a girl who never experienced the outside world before, you share a bond, you leave a group tasked with defending humanity from evil without a leader, and all you can say is that you came back!? Congratu-fucking-lations, Jeisen!" Here it was. Her temper flared.

Another deep breath. There was a few moments of silence. "I'm sorry. I need to calm down. Please, sit. Would you like some coffee? Tea?"

Jeisen sat down on the couch, still all armored up. Not just physically either. He was staring down into his lap, right at his hands. She was right. He knew she was too. He couldn't meet her angry gaze. He just took it silently, stoic as always. After she paused and caught her breath, he answered back.

Jeisen: "Tea please."

He sat there fiddling with his hands for a moment.

Jeisen: "I'm not very good at this sort of thing. Never have been nor will I ever be. But I didn't run away, not from you. And I came back"

He didn't say it outright, but the way he phrase that it was implied he came back for her

Jeisen: "our job is to defend humanity. That's the only reason why I was gone for so long. I.... I didn't mean to hurt you nor leave you. I just did what heroes do. Stay behind when we have to"

Annie shook her head as she put a pot of water on the stove.

Another few moments of silence passed. "It was a scary feeling. I hardly knew about this outside world, and...I relied on you to help me through it. Then to just...suddenly be on my own..."

She opened the cupboard and pulled down a tin of traditional english tea, as well as two cups.

"I made it on my own, though, if you're worried about that. Got an apartment, even made a name for myself, as you saw. Firefly...London's newest hero. Nice to know I'm making a difference of some sort."

The pot whistled as the water came to a boil. She proceeded to pour the water into the cups, then added the teabags. She took the cups over to the couch, setting them on the small table in front of them.

"I know that...you have responsibilities. Obligations, or whatever. I just...I just want to know, okay? "