Figuring it out alone (open)

[sara]

Central Park after midnight. No better place to be if you are an earth bender. That's how Sara saw herself, well without the martial arts moves. But either way the girl was intent on figuring out what it was she could really do, one way or another. So, there the former cadet (that was hard for her to adjust to) was, in the middle of the night, trying to figure out how her powers worked. She'd figured out that it was a thought process and she'd have to be able to think quickly.

The girl rubbed her forehead. Right now all she really knew was she could cause tremors. Sara was convinced she could do more, she just didn't know what or how. With a sigh of frustration she hit the ground with her fist and a crack started to form. "Oh shit."

[waters]

He was smiling after, his dinner with the pair he was in a pretty good mood. He found one thing his powers were easier to control when his body was in pretty good condition. So he was speeding by when his toe caught a crack in the ground. A black hooded figure hit the dirt and skidded a few feet away. Shaking his head slowly he was finally getting used to running, and the sudden stopping wasn't something that he was interested in all that much. Yet, here he was face first in the dirt; looking up he shook his head and realized he might have just run over a girl standing there. "Yo, you okay toots?" He looked at her a bit worried as he was sitting there. He couldn't believe he got tripped up by a crack of all things, he was really bad on getting caught using his powers all the time.

[sara]

The girl, dressed like a military wannabe, was studying the crack when the blur got tripped up. He just barely missed her and she had been too focused on the task at hand to react. She needed to fix this. When the kid fell her head lifted just a bit so she could get a look at him. She frowned when he called her 'toots'. "I'm fine. Names Bender, not toots. You alright?" Her attention turned once more to the task at hand. "Now how do I close it?" The words were muttered under her breath and she closed her eyes. Slowly, the crack started to reform. When it finally closed she let out the breath she was holding and rested her arm across her one bent knee. Then she looked back at the kid again.

[waters]

"Sorry Bender, names Lucas, and I've taken worse spills before." He watched her as she closed up the ground. "So you another mutie too?" He wasn't sure if he should be using that term or not, but he really didn't care right now. Rubbing the blond hair out from his face he gets up and flexes his feet first and starts moving up his leg. He smiles when everything responds correctly. "Yeah I'm pretty good, how about you? Did I hit you? If I did I really didn't mean it and I'm sorry." He was worried cause moving at the speed he was it might have hurt her pretty badly.

Of course right about now his stomach started growling, he found that when he ran he had to eat something or he couldn't really kick in the jets again. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out that old sandwich and tore it in half. "You don't look like you are part of either of the places I have found out about yet. Like something to eat?" He was offering the only food that has lasted him this long, by now it wasn't in the best condition, but it was still edible as long as you didn't turn your nose up at it.

[sara]

"Hello, Lucas. I think mutie is the derogatory term. I'm a... bender. But yes, I suppose you could say that I'm a mutant." It was still a bit hard for her to grasp that concept. The girl kept staring at the ground and wondered if she was always going to have to focus so hard to do it intentionally. "You missed me. Barely, but you missed me." Finally, she tipped her head back enough to look at him from under cap.

"I'm not part of anything anymore." That came out a bit more bitter than she had intended. Or at least that was what she tried to convince herself. Brown eyes eyed the sandwich warily and she stood up dusting off her hand. The girl grabbed her bag and looked over at him. "If we are going to eat, I'd suggest getting something a bit fresher. There's an all night diner close by." She hadn't been travelling for over long but the solitude wasn't something she craved for more than a day or two at a time. She'd take the company if he was willing to go for it.

[waters]

"There's one problem with going to the diner, we need money to buy food." He looked at her and pulled out his empty pockets. "For some reason I forgot to raid the piggy bank when I ran away from home." Shaking his head he knew he had a couple of hundred in that bank back in his old room, but by now his parents were probably sleeping in there waiting for him to come and get it. "So the sandwich is still good, I mean its a couple of days old, but nothing else is growing on it yet." He shrugged as he took a bite out of it and made a face. Spitting it out he shook his head and looked at her. "Okie, I might habe veen wrung there." Smacking his tongue against the top of his mouth trying to get it to stop tingling he shook his head slowly. "That's better." Dropping the sandwich into the trash he sighed softly. "I knew I should have eaten that before I went with those two." Sighing he shook his head slowly as he walked up to her. "Nice meeting you Bender. I guess I better start finding us something to eat."

[sara]

Bender just shook her head. "I got that covered." The duffle bag went over her shoulder and her free arm rested at her side. A brow went up, but it was covered by the cap as he took a bite of the sandwich. The girl just shook her head and started walking. "I got money, so we won't starve. I'll even invest in some energy bars for you. You'll need them with as much as you burn with how fast you run." She hadn't even turned around to see if he was following her.

Finally, she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. "Sara, is my birth name, call me whichever you feel more comfortable with. Or McLeod." The words came out stilted as if she was stopping herself from saying something entirely different. But then she really couldn't tell him to call her Cadet McLeod anymore now could she. "You coming?"

[waters]

Oh crap here he was living off someone else again, well he had to do what he had to. "Yeah I'm coming, I know a place were we could crash without getting charged an arm and a leg." He looked over at her and smiled as he caught up to her. "I thought of using my old nickname for some super secret codename, my old team used to call me Jet." He caught up to her and looked at her. "Just asking, but you want me to carry that duffel bag?" He kinda doubted she would let him, but he was going to offer. "So Sara it is unless I piss ya off then I'll call you Bender."

Unzipping his jacket wasn't the best idea, so he kept the jacket on against the chill in the night wind. "I'd offer you my jacket, but I doubt you would want the smell." He shook his head cause right now he felt really weird compared to this girl who had it all put together.

[sara]

Bender looked over at him. "Bed? Hot, running water? If it has those two things I'm good for it." She watched him catch up to her. "Would be a good codename for you. Took mine from Avatar the Last Airbender." She shrugged a bit, it was one of the few shows she actually watched as religiously as she could. When he asked to carry her duffle she just shook her head. "I got it." She tipped her head back to look at him from under her cap. "Unless you piss me off or unless I piss you off? Either way, piss me off and it's Jet. Work for you?"

When he offere his jacket she looked down at her clothes. Combat boots, black cargo pants, black sweater, and a black leather bomber jacket. Not including her black cadet cap. She turned and looked at him. "First things first, we get you some better to wear, you can pay me back later. Then we get you cleaned up, then we go eat. I'll keep a running tab if it makes you feel better." There was no need for him to look like that and smell like that when she can cover it. Normally, she'd have blown him off, but she was used to being part of something and this whole isolation thing was starting to get to her.

[waters]

"Na, the place is just a dry spot under an old bridge near by. Blocks the wind and rain from coming into the place. But a bed and hot running water sounds better. You sure you wanna do all this? I mean the meal is one thing, but new cloths and stuff isn't that going a bit over board. Also if two teenagers show up looking for a room don't you think most hotel dudes are gonna get curious. So if you wanna do that line, I'll hide out back and you get the room." He nodded his head as thought that one out a bit and decided it was the best that he could come up with. He hoped this girl knew what she was doing with her money and not letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry get her to buy them things. He really did, but right now he needed something warmer if he was going to survive much longer.

[sara]

Sara was already shaking her head as soon as he said 'nah'. There was no way, when she had the means, that she was going to sleep under a bridge. No way in hell, if she had a choice she'd always pick a room. She had the means and by God she was going to use those means. "Look, I'm used to having a squad around me. Solitary confinement was the worst punishment they could ever do to me. If cleaning you up, getting you a room, and feeding you means I'll have company for at least a little bit? I'll spend the money." The words weren't said as harshly as they could have been, but there was a minor edge to them. Right now she is still adapting to her situation but without some sort of discipline and structure she was having difficulty. Had she been in combat she would have been fine.

She looks over at him. "If they question, we are brother and sister on our first road trip. We'd worked all year to prove to our parents we were responsible enough for this and finally got to do it. I'll even spring for two rooms." Her head turned as she looked over at him. "Will that work for you?"

[waters]

Taking a step back he nodded his head slowly. "Wow, you are a real take the bull by the balls, screw the horns kinda girl aren't you?" He followed with her and chuckled as he made his way with her. Realizing he missed his chance to flirt a bit, but had to admit the shock of how she spoke really did catch him off guard. "I'll make you a deal Sara, I'll hang around for a while and see how things go, and if it works I'll stick with you for a while. But sooner or later I'm going to blow okay." He looked at her and wanted her to understand he wasn't the guy to stick around for nothing kinda thing.

He looked around as he followed her and pointed out a couple low end hotels. "Not the greatest, but the hookers say all the beds are clean." He wasn't sure if she was looking for the Ritz or not, but he was going to keep pointing out all the ones that wouldn't ask too many questions about a pair of teens.

[sara]

Sara scrubbed a hand over her face and sighed. She wasn't used to this type of situation. She was used to people who understood who she was and where she was going. This civilian thing was killing her. Her head tipped back at his comment. "Pretty much." The girl rolled her neck and went back to looking at the ground as they walked. "Affirmative." She understood that he wouldn't stick around forever and that was cool with her. But she needed something to help her get acclimated to her new position of whatever it is she was.

When he pointed out hotels and mentioned hookers she shook her head. "Somewhere moderately decent, like a Motel 6 or something. Not really to keen on sleeping where a hooker works." Brown eyes spied a Wal-Mart style store and she started making her way there. "We can get you some clothes there and then find a motel or something. Then definitely get some chow."

[waters]

He nodded as followed her towards the store. What he was really looking for was something more like a new pair of shoes, nothing overly huge anyways. So he tucked his head and followed her towards the store. She really needed to get that rod out her butt, since she seemed to be so uptight about everything he figured one thing. "How about I help ya relax a little and chill. Good lord you going to die of an ulcer by 18 at the rate you're going." He shook his head slowly and looked around before believing that this girl was actually serious. So he shrugged and looked through the clothes, he never touched nothing or took anything off the rack cause he knew what he looked like.

"Yo these T-Shirts will work fine, so I will be pretty good with just these." He looked at her feeling a bit uncomfortable in the store with the people watching his every move. Didn't really bother him all much if he was on his own, cause if he was he would be in here trying to steal something, but this girl didn't deserve it so he wanted out quickly. "You need anything else Sis?"

[sara]

Sara stopped and looked at him. "I'm overcoming, I'm improvising, and I'm just trying to adapt. I don't think I will ever truly relax, it's not in my nature. I am trying really hard to adapt to my new life right now, but the ETA on that is much longer than originally anticipated." The girl was frustrated and she wasn't meaning to take it out on him, she hoped her explanation let him know that. She got into the store and looked around, ignoring the stares. "You pick out a couple of pants, shirts, under things, socks, shoes and a dufflebag. I'll go grab the soap, deodorant and things to the effect." She couldn't seem to stop herself from giving orders.

The girl came back with the things she needed to get and looked up at him. "Oh, we need to get you a new jacket too. After that I think we've got everything." After making sure he got what she said, and picking up the few things he might not have, Sara headed to the checkouts, still ignoring the stares. "Oh, did you want a hat?"