2013.03.08 - Blank Slate

Evening in Central Park, and the vast majority of the population has retreated from the park as night falls, returning to their homes or other places that they had to be. Not that the place is entirely abandoned...but it's now quite a bit quieter, and there are more than a few places to lose yourself alone for a while.

Which is why there aren't too many people around when there's a momentary bright flash that lights up an area of the otherwise increasingly dark park, accompanied by a sound that can only be described as a horrific tearing...and a second sound, more quiet, that feels rather like the echoes of an explosion.

The edges of the Great Lawn have plenty of places for people to sit semi-hidden among trees and bushes. Which is a great place for a young, fairly talented pickpocket to sit and take stock of the day's take. Thin leather gloves on so as to leave no fingerprints, Gabriel is in the process of taking the cash and credit cards out of wallets and purses before putting them in a plastic grocery bag to be distributed later in separate trash cans and Dumpster around the city. Startled by the bright flash he hurriedly stuffs everything into his backpack before turning to look out from his hiding spot to see if he can spot the source of the light and noise.

The source isn't visible for more than a moment--just a bright, indistinct flash of rippling light. But it's effects...well, one of its presumed effects is visible, at least, when Gabriel looks out. A boy--a young superhero, from the looks of it--can be seen falling towards the earth as though knocked flying wildly from an impact. His body is limp, and from the look of his uniform he's been in the thick of something bad. Fortunately...he isn't coming from very high up, and while he's moving fast, it isn't that fast. He'll probably be okay if he lands hard...probably.

Gabriel's eyes go wide and in a split second he's made a decision. A moment later he's on his feet, running towards where the body will probably be landing as fast as his legs'll take him, backpack trailing behind him as he holds it by one strap. Once he realizes he's not going to be fast enough to actually be there to catch the boy he makes one last ditch effort to soften his fall. Still running he tosses his backpack toward the spot on the lawn that's his best guess for the landing point and keeps following up behind it.

Just in time. The backpack full of soft clothing and not-precisely-soft-but-better-than-hard-ground wallets hits the ground a moment before the boy does, and in just the right place. The boy crashes down, hitting the pack, and there's a dampened thud. Slowly, the boy's limp form slides off the pack, and comes to rest on the ground. He's...clearly seen better days. His uniform is ripped and torn severely, parts torn or even burned away, and several parts are actually smoldering. The boy himself...he's bruised and battered, with several small cuts, though nothing looks too awful at a glance. For the moment, he lies still...though one can, thankfully, see that he is still breathing.

Gabriel arrives a few seconds after his backpack and does a baseball style slide to the side of the boy. Looking him up and down for a moment, his expression a mix between befuddled and anxious he mutters to himself,"How'd it go? How'd it go? Oh, yeah! Side of the neck under the ear." Putting actions to words he places one hand against the side of the boy's neck, checking for a pulls and turning his head to the side to make sure the chest raise he saw while he was running up is actually going to happen again.

There's a pulse...and the breathing continues. The boy's alive, and it seems like he's going to stay that way. And more than that...he's suddenly awake. His eyes snap open, and he takes in a sudden breath, looking quickly up at Gabriel upon feeling the touch on his neck. He lets out a strangled cry, trying to spring to a crouch, but collapses again immediately, falling back to the ground and trying to scoot away from Gabriel as he looks about with wild eyes. "Wh-what...I..."

And that's fine on Gabriel's side of things because the sudden opening of the yes startles him too, making him fall from his crouch flat onto his butt. Unlike the boy, however, he's not trying to scoot away. Instead he stays put and just tries to speak calmly to the boy,"Hey buddy. Name's Gabriel. You, my young friend, just fell out of the sky and I was making sure you were OK. Are you OK?" He slowly curls his legs under himself so that if he does need to move he's in a better position than sitting flat on his butt but that's about all the moving he does to avoid startling the boy.

"I..." The boy looks around again, then back at Gabriel, uncomprehendingly. He looks down at himself, taking in his disheveled, battered state, and then at Gabriel again. His eyes start to water. "I think I'm...I don't know...I..." He takes in a sharp breath, eyes widening. "Oh, God...oh, God...I..." He pushes himself off the ground a bit, finally managing to sit up, and starts trying to get his legs under him again. "I...what happened? Oh, God...oh, God, I screwed up!" And the tears start to fall. "I screwed up and it's...it's over!"

Gabriel holds up both his hands in a calming gesture, "Hey. Hey, relax, kid. Take some deep breaths..." Then he grabs the backpack, which miraculously did not burst open when it was used as a landing pad and starts opening one of the side pockets, "I have a protein bar... Well, its probably more of a bag of protein chunks after you landed on it... Ah here it is! Here kid, chew on this, take a moment and then we'll talk about what happened. Maybe I can help you with something..." As he speaks he pulls out the mentioned meal supplement and offers the battered looking protein bar to the younger boy.

"You don't understand! I...I gotta..." The boy manages to get his legs under him and tries to stand, but his knees buckle and he comes down again. This time, at least, he manages to remain kneeling. "I gotta...what?" Gabriel's words finally get through, and he stares towards the older boy, tears still trickling down his cheeks. Dumbly, he reaches out to take the protein bar, holding it and staring at it for a few moments, and finally unwraps it a little, raising it to his mouth...only then realizing that his mouth is covered by the remains of a mask. He reaches up, feeling at it, and slowly pulls it off, staring at it in a daze as he takes a bite out of the bar. He seems a little...calmer probably isn't the right word. Stunned is probably more like it. Either way, the waterworks have slowed to a trickle.

Gabriel nods in a satisfied way once the kid starts to eat the protein bar. Quickly digging into the other side pocket of the large backpack he pulls up a rolled cylinder color drab olive green. When he lets the cylinder unroll it becomes apparent that its a collapsible water bottle. He stands up and says, "OK. You eat that, I'll run to the closest water fountain and get you a drink. Don't. Move." And with that he trots off, every so often looking back to make sure the kid isn't moving.

The boy's still too out of it to even think about moving at the moment, and keeps taking bites from the protein bar as though in a trance, mumbling to himself. "I...I was gonna...what was I gonna do? I screwed up...I...what happened?" He stares down at the tattered mask, clearly thinking hard and without much success.

Gabriel jogs back from the water fountain with a full water bottle. Kneeling in front of the dazed kid he hands it to him, "Here. Drink some water. Those bars are not bad tasting but they are awfully dry." Surreptitiously looking down at the mask he tries to see if he can recognize it while he keeps talking, "So lets sit here for a bit, eat something, drink something, then we can talk about what happened. OK?"

The mask, unfortunately, doesn't look familiar. Kid's an honest-to-goodness hero, it seems, as the outfit looks like the real deal, but...he must be a pretty new one. Slowly, he nods a little and takes the water bottle, almost dropping it at first before he catches it and holds it more tightly. "I-I'm sorry...sir." He looks away, shame coming to his face. "Thank you..." He takes a sip of the water, and finally looks to Gabriel, nervously, trembling a bit. "...but...I don't know what happened..."

Gabriel sits there quietly, watching the boy eat and drink, neither encouraging him to talk nor stopping him from doing so. Once he sees at least half the bar disappear he says, "OK. Lets not worry about what you can't remember. Tell me what you can remember and maybe that'll bring other things back." As he waits to see what the boy will do he turn around a bit and drags the backpack back to him. Opening the main compartment in such a way that only he can clearly see what's inside he scrounges around a bit and finally comes out with a large brown hoodie. It'll swim on the boy sitting in front of him but at least it will be warmer than his costume and will attract less attention. "Here."

The boy nods, and takes a longer drink of the water, then slowly takes hold of the hoodie, looking at it and then back at his costume. "I guess...I don't wanna make you do this, sir, but...I guess it's kinda cold, isn't it..." He's starting to seem a little more with it, at least, and he carefully pulls the hoodie on. And, as predicted, it's huge on him. "I'll...I'll get it back to you, okay? Once I'm...um...once I'm..." He shakes his head a little. "Home...where's...okay. Okay. What I remember...what I remember..." He puts a sleeve-covered hand to his head, thinking hard, and his eyes start to widen bit by bit. "Oh, God." He stares at Gabriel, that stunned look coming back. "Mister...I-I can't remember! I can't!"

Gabriel tilts his head to the side a bit, "You can't remember anything? Well, lets start with what we know almost for sure. You're dressed like a superhero. Do you know what your powers are? Even better, do you have a hidden pocket somewhere with an ID?" He keeps looking though the bag and comes up with some cargo shorts and a belt. "Here. With the belt you should be able to wear these too. And don't worry too much about getting them back to me. I can get more where those came from."

The boy was swiftly progressing on the path towards panicky tears again, but Gabriel's advice pulls him back from the brink. "Ah! Um...good idea! Uh..." He pulls the sleeves back from his hands and scrabbles around on his uniform, but finally looks dejected. "N...No...um...maybe I did but it's...well, lots of it is missing, so..." Chances are if he did have a pocket for an ID, it got incinerated along with the part of the uniform it was in. "I don't...I don't remember, but..." He takes the shorts and belt, looking gratefully at Gabriel. "Thanks, mister. Um...oh! But...if I'm a superhero, maybe you..." He shakes his head. "No, no...if you recognized me you would've told me, right?" The eyes start to water again, but he forces himself to stop. He pulls on the cargo shorts, and then tightens the belt around himself. It looks horribly awkward, what with it being far too big and worn over the remains of a hero suit besides, but it does at least make him warmer. "I'm sorry...I can't think of anything. I-I guess I must have had powers, but they're...I don't remember those..." He clenches a fist, and then lets his arm drop, the sleeve flopping back over the fist. "Something really bad happened. That's...that's all."

Gabriel scrunches his head down into his shoulders as he thinks, looking quite serious. After a minute or two of consideration he finally says, "OK kid... I can do something that might help. But you have to promise it'll stay between us." As he speaks he's looking around making sure that they're still alone-ish in their fringe of the Great Lawn.

The boy blinks, eyes going wide, and looks about as well. "Um, um, um..." He looks nervous, putting his sleeve-covered hands together and watching Gabriel with clear uncertainty. "Between us...okay. Yeah." A little pause, and he holds up a hand. "Um, um, as long as nobody gets hurt. Okay? 'cause I'd wanna help them, then, and I might have to tell somebody."

Gabriel shakes his head as he peels one of his gloves off, "Nah. No one's going to get hurt. But this might freak you out a bit. Don't freak out, OK?" Holding his bare hand to the kid he says, "Just hold you hand up to mine. When I go... Wobbly its been long enough." He looks worried about this whole idea but only mildly so and mostly the worry seems to be about other seeing the whole thing happening, considering the way he's looking around.

The boy nods, slowly, and raises his hand, putting it up against Gabriel's...then blinks, blushes, and pulls back the sleeve that's covering it. "Sorry, um, okay." He rests his hand against Gabriel's. "I-I'll try not to freak out, mister, but I-I'm kinda close to it already, so...so I'm really sorry if I do."

Gabriel holds his hand up against the boy's and just smiles. About ten seconds after the first touch he goes, well, just like he said he would he goes wobbly. His body looses all form and becomes something like a pinkish amoeba for a second or two. Then almost as fast as it starts he pops back into shape, except now his shape is the boy's. With a little shake of his head he takes a deep breath, "That's always a little weird, even when I know its coming. OK, let's experiment..."

"Whoa!" The boy yelps, and jumps to his feet...clearly, he's feeling a bit better, though he's still a bit wobbly himself (not in a "becoming an amoeba" kind of way, though). "You're...you're me?" Somewhere, he manages to find a bit of amusement at how Gabriel now looks. "Um...do I look that funny?" He looks down his own outfit. "I guess so, huh." A little smile crosses his face, breaking through the worry for a moment. "That's...that's kinda cool, mister. I mean...it scared me at first when you went all melty, but...wow." At least it seems to have distracted him a bit.

Gabriel chuckles once he's sure the startlement isn't going to be followed by a freak out. "Well, I'm not you. I'm me. But other then my personality and my memories everything else is... well, you... And yes, you look that funny." Getting up he tightens his own belt then runs over to a tree, hugs it and strains. When nothing happens he runs back to the boy, "Well, no apparent super speed or super strength." Kneeling down he punches the ground a little tentatively and there's a small shimmer of blue around his fist. "Well, there we go!" Then he punches hard, and then full force then shimmer of blue becoming more solid with each impact, "and I feel kind of... charged? Kinetic absorption maybe? That sound familiar, kid? And I can't keep calling you kid. If you can't remember your name why don't you just pick one. Now's your chance to have the perfect name."

If it's even possible, the boy's eyes go even wider. "You're...but those are...wait, you're saying I can do that?" He moves as quickly as he can over to the tree, stumbling a bit as he goes, but making it there nonetheless. "It...it does kinda sound...right...I think...but..." He forms a fist, and holds up his hand. "Okay. Yeah. I-I can do this." He pulls back his fist...and launches a punch at the tree, full force. There's quite a thud, and only the barest hint of the blue field, and he gives a yelp, hugging his hand to his chest. "Owowowowow! That...huh?" He looks over at Gabriel, and then at his own hand, pulling down the sleeve and seeing the bluish field flickering in and out of existence. His expression goes distant, and he stumbles and leans heavily against the tree...then focuses, as the blue outline grows stronger and more stable. "A little...more focus..." He closes his eyes, thinking hard, and finally nods. "Jeremy. I-I think it's Jeremy." His eyes open, looking a little cheered. "I-I don't remember the rest, but...I-I remember...someone was teaching me how, a-and they called me Jeremy..."

Gabriel grins as he walks over to the tree after picking everything up and stuffing it into the backpack in its proper pockets. With a big grin he says,"Well, see, there's some progress. And a little progress is much better than no progress at all. So let's think a little bit... You seem to absorb kinetic energy and your costume was all burnt up... Maybe you have a limit to how much you can take in?" As he speaks he's making weird little motions with his hands; pointing at stuff, making throwing motions, flicking his fingers. But nothing special is happening.

Jeremy smiles in return, though his is a lot more subdued. "Thank you, mister...it feels good to know something, anyway." He takes a few steps closer, starting to mimic the motions as well...to equally null effect. "A limit...a limit...that sounds...right..." He gets that distant look again, and then suddenly lets out a yell, falling to his knees and putting both hands to his head.

Gabriel falls to his knees too, shifting as he goes so by the time he's on the floor he's himself again. "Whoa there Jeremy! I think we've done enough for today. I can see a few options from this point. I know a homeless shelter nearby we can make before curfew and you can stay there tonight. There's a police precinct we can take a quick bus ride to, they might be able to find out where you belong. Or there's a church nearby too that I know the priest there could help you find out where you belong too. Come to think of it that would be almost the same as going to the police since that's who he'll talk to to get information." Leaning back on his heals he adds, "I think right now you need sleep more than trying to remember anything else. So which route do you want to take?"

"I-I...no...no..." Jeremy's eyes have gone wild again. "Limit...I...was that it? I don't know! I screwed up, I screwed up, I screwed up!" He hits the ground with both arms, several times in a row, and tears start to fall again, with no sign he's going to stop it, this time. "Danger...there's...there's some kind of danger. Something went wrong...there's something bad...really, really bad, and...and..." He looks up at Gabriel. "You've gotta run, mister! I-I forgot what but it's really bad and...a-and I think we're gonna die if we're there or...or here, or...j-just run!" He stumbles to his feet, clearly intending to do just that.

Gabriel steps in Jeremy's way without actually physically stopping him, "Whoa, whoa. Easy Jeremy. Look, stop and think about it. You're weak as a kitten right now and considering how you got here I'd say what happened already happened. Let's just go to the shelter so you can get some sleep and some real food in you. I promise, I'll come by tomorrow morning and we'll figure what happened and how to help together, OK? But you can't help anyone in the condition you're in right now. Look around, everything's nice and calm. Just breath it in..." Everything's saying in a calm, unhurried voice and the older boy staying in Jeremy's way, as long as he can, moving as gentle as possible to do it.

"But...but...I..." Jeremy trembles, shaking on his feet, but finally manages to steady himself, that wild-eyed look fading away. "A...a shelter...but..." He shakes his head, and looks around. "No...no, it's not...that's not now, and...and...I'm so confused." He looks up at Gabriel, miserably. "Okay, um, okay. Yeah...you're right. I-I can't do anything, I gotta...I gotta stop or things are gonna get worse, so...I'll come. I'll come. But..." He looks guilty and ashamed. "N-No police...okay? I-I don't wanna go to the cops."

Gabriel laughs and starts heading towards the bust stop, "I gotcha covered, little buddy. We'll do the shelter tonight and tomorrow morning we'll see what's what. No police until and unless you feel you need them."