Starting up Again

[Zaras]

The purr of the convertible's engine echoed through the dead area as he drove around the rubble. This car's definition of a purr being clinks and putts along with the engine's roar. And it wasn't always a convertible. The cabin of the hover vehicle had been completely crushed, thus the reason he was able to attain the thing... or rather steal it from the junkyard. The way Zaras molded it in his mind was since it was in the junkyard no one would care if it was missing, and no one would technically own it. So it was more of a salvage to fill his current need for transportation than a steal.

He used other tools in the yard to break off the cabin and smooth out sharp ends of the twisted skeleton. Removed all the windows, save for the windshield of which he simply replaced with the best fit he could find. It was a bit big, bending the supports on both sides, but he was already going to be riding in a rusted piece of crap so what is one more imperfection. Plus it excited him to see if his fixed up box heap would even last the travel. If it didn't... well... he wasn't prepared to think of that option until it happened.

Zaras was just on the outskirts of the ruined city when the bottom of his ride started having difficulty staying in the air. With the disturbance, the bird was woken from his daydreaming. With a sigh he slowed and let the vehicle rest. "Oh well, not too far off now anyway," he commented to himself as he unbuckled and hopped out of the car over the door. There was no breeze, no vegetation other than moss and lichen growing in the torn down remains of what once was a grand city. But the thought of how this place was just a shadow of what it once was didn't bother Zaras, after all, he was too young to know what this place was like in its glory days. This train of thought always made him feel younger and more energetic too. What fun was a regular city? At least here you could expect anything.

The bird stretched his arms up in the air, the dismantled weapons on his inside pockets lightly clinking. He then reached over into the vehicle and grabbed a small grey cloth bag and stuffed it into another of his coat pockets. With that he abandoned the temporary ride and continued his way toward the bit of civilization in the area.

Of course, he couldn't take a direct route though. He took a running jump to land on a wide lane of stone that was once part of a wall. The wall now was probably no more than a few feet at its highest point, the other pieces spanning more distance across the ground than what it did in its prime. It was rough, uneven, and not completely stable in some spots. He walked along this for a while, skipping in places to avoid a drop back to the ground as well as jumping over mounds of stone that had yet to fall. When he was bored with it he climbed onto a broken pillar and took to jumping to everything of similar height he could find. It was only when he found himself on an old over pass did he start paying attention to where he was going.

Zaras ceased his humming to the tune only he could hear and finally looked around. He went a bit off course, but a redirection was a simple task. It was getting down without backtracking that would prove a bit more difficult. Not that backtracking would be a time waster, he just didn't feel like doing it. He got himself up here, now there had to be another way down that wasn't where he just came from; a challenge for himself.

After taking into consideration all his possibilities, Zaras had decided. Crossing his arms he re-sized his choice, staring down at the crumbling pillar. It's top was just a few feet below the overpass from where he stood now and probably used to serve as a support beam for some other road that had long since collapsed around the stone pole. But it wasn't as simple as jumping from the overpass, he would need to get a bit of distance, and from what it looked like and how much he guessed he could gain without missing the pillar completely, there was no way he could effectively land on it which meant... "Arm exercises," he spoke to himself as he grinned and stretched his arms for a minute. Zaras then took a few steps back, as far back on the overpass he could get without loosing sight of his target. He took a deep breath, lowered himself into a starting running position, then set off hard.

A perfect take off, or so he would say. The bird was launched with more horizontal speed than vertical, letting his height gained from the jump balance out with gravity as he flew through the air as aerodynamic as he could make himself. Perhaps a bit too good even. He watched as he approached the pillar below instead of on level, or at least that was what the next few future seconds would be like if he didn't act. A fall from this height would prove not quite fatal but very painful, and he didn't really feel like laying helpless in the ruins of a city with no one to discover him. Acting quickly he spread himself as much as possible and re-angled himself so when he hit the top of the pillar it would be as if he was about to hug it.

His left arm collided with the pillar, which he instinctively arced with the shape of the pole which in turn shifted the rest of his body to swing around the pillar, allowing him to slide down the rest of it in a swirl. Parts of the pillar broke and fell with him, some debris hitting his shoulders and head but the object itself stayed standing. He hit the ground and rolled with the remaining momentum, grunting with the pain in his left shoulder. Zaras finished in a sitting position, stopping himself from rolling any more by sticking his right leg out and putting his left underneath in a bent position. He held his shoulder and tried a few quick exercises with his fingers and arm to verify whether it was broken in any places, dislocated, stretched, or just sore from the collision.

A quiet chuckle radiated from him as he relaxed and looked up to the sky, or what he could see of it through the clouds. It never seemed to be truly sunny around here thanks to the wastelands. With another sigh he rose, rubbing his hurting shoulder a little before moving his right hand to touch his pocket to make sure that the bag was still there. Nodding lightly he resumed his hum from earlier and continued making his way to his destination.

[Zaras]

For several minutes nothing eventful happened. He didn't skip along narrow horizontal beams or kick a rock that accidentally flew into an unstable pillar or anything of the like. For once he was walking normally, though one could be sure that his sore shoulder was partly the cause for this. Zaras bobbed his head lightly at random intervals to amuse himself since no one else was around. 'Shouldn't be too much further,' he thought to himself after taking a long sigh. The bird swung his arms a little, getting a painful reminder about his shoulder which caused him to cease.

Zaras perked when he heard echoes of cursing from afar. He continued his walk for a few more steps before speeding up to a jog. His jacket jingled with the weight of the items being carried in it as the bird moved along the earthy path, avoiding any trips from debris and random stones. When he reached the top of a slowly inclining hill which practically dropped off on the other side, Zaras slowed to a stop to look down. Below was the first inhabited building of the area. There were a few people walking between other buildings a little ways down the path, but the adventuring teen was only interested in the first one.

Pacing in front of the worn down building was a large man in a sleeveless grease worn grey shirt and tattered sweat pants. Beside the structure was a vehicle with its hood up. It looked like a cross between a rocket and a normal hover vehicle. Zaras smiled as he started down the steep side of the hill. "You keep cussing like that and someone might clock you one," he half shouted to the pacing man, who turned with his arms crossed to see who was bothering him. The scowling expression lightened when he saw his black feathered friend approach.
"I'll give you one if you didn't bring it. Had enough set backs today," came the response. Zaras came to as quick of a stop as he could near the guy.
"Yeah, about that..." he started with a bit of a tease present in his tone. The guy's eye visibly twitched as he stared hard at Zaras, who was smiling broadly. "Okay yeah I didn't drop it, you called it." With that he reached into his jacket and pulled out the grey bag. "And without breaking anything too," he added as he extended his hand.

The guy chuckled as he accepted the item and opened the bag to pull out a metal part. "That's good 'cause I hate paying you." His expression switched from agitation and frustration to joy as he turned on his heal and moved to the vehicle he had been working on. Zaras shifted his weight onto his left foot as he watched the tinkerer.
"Bah, you are going to be paying me when that's finished."
"No way you're getting a look at this baby," came a gruff reply as he continued working.
"If you say so J'red," Zaras chuckled as he waved a hand at the bigger man.

[Zaras]

The man seemed very content with tinkering with his machine, knowing just how much Zaras would love to see under the hood. It was an ongoing tease, a game of sorts, and the bird was determined to come out victorious. J'red would wake up one cloudy morning to find his precious work gone from the side of his house, humming a distance away instead. The way Zaras pictured in his mind was humorous, causing him to smile and chuckle lightly. The large man momentarily paused to give his friend a quick look of puzzlement before resuming.

"So's anyone else around today?" Zaras asked, taking a few steps closer after finishing his short daydream. The man heard his footsteps and moved out from under the hood. He grabbed a small cloth, which was practically black from all its use, and half-heartedly wiped his hands with it. J'red made sure to meet Zaras' approach and block vision to the vehicle.
"Nah. Jess is gone off to the big Metropolis. Boyd's left us as well," there was a bit of a solemn pause, J'red dropping his hands to his sides. "I think it was Sim I saw headed off toward the wastelands on 'is bike earlier. Was with someone. Either that 'er a big pile of stuff"
"That time of season?"
"You always had an interesting way of putting it," J'red chuckled, half turning to toss the cloth onto the car. "Built himself a new toy from what I heard. Probably after his usual rain drops though, they've been a bit of a pain recently." The teen nodded with a grin.
"Thanks," he simply replied. Zaras then turned and started heading down the half beaten path which would lead him down the middle of what was left of the once great city.
"Waste of time I'd say," J'red called after Zaras.
"Just like your re-building eh?" he shouted back, turning his head to catch the guy in the corner of his eye. "I might stop by again later," he added with a wave of his hand.

The teen bird casually made his way down what one could call a street. It was trodden and distinct from the rest of the area mostly because all the debris was moved out of the way, but it was still made mostly of the sand from drifts between the stone structures. The buildings themselves looked no better than what they had the last time Zaras had visited. A few had collapsed onto themselves and each other. It was a bit disheartening since Zaras knew who used to stay in them, or at least what they had been used for, but unfortunately around here it was something they expected to happen. Someone had been optimistic enough to use one of the slanted buildings to expand their own area. Upon passing by a patched up window, he slowed and tried to peer in but it didn't seem like anyone was there. Though he had a decent guess as to who had modified it.

Continuing down the short line of inhabitable buildings, Zaras turned left at a particular one. It was yet another that had given up its fight against gravity, bits of wood sticking out of some of what used to be a roof. Behind was a mound of hard earth. Broken bits of old structures littered the area among a couple more buildings. But it wasn't the scenery Zaras was interested in, it was the three stakes in the ground just off to his right. Delving both hands into his outside coat pockets, Zaras moved to stand next to the closest one. There were no names or any indication of who was buried next to the stakes, but J'red had already told him.

"Ah Boyd," he spoke quietly, his eyes transfixed on the ground in front of him. But he said nothing more, giving his friend a moment of silence as he remembered a few of the good times.

[kuro]

"Incoming! Incoming!! Everyone get down!!" a cry came from the distance, the caller in question was running form something and incoming could only have meant a very small number of things, but the most obvious was some kind of aerial attack. It was only a few seconds after he'd yelled that a distant rumbling could be hear as what looked like a slow moving comet plummeted toward the ground at a sloping angle. The closer it got the more obvious it was that it wasn't a missile, however the billowing clouds of smoke that jetted out of the back of the damaged craft gave evidence that it was indeed coming down on the ruined city.

The small cruising vessel hammered into the face of a building, plowing through it with a loud thunder clap and continuous heavy crackling as it tore through the building and exploded out the other side, sinking into the side of another building, again bursting out the opposite side, continuing the onslaught of crashes before it bore down on a high street, rumbling along it and sending a stream of sparks out behind it as plates of metal broke off and littered the roadside, the vessel eventually slamming into a pillar of an old hotel and thrusting the ship into the front rotunda, the tail-end crashing through the windows.

As the steel beast groaned and screeched its last smoke continued to rise from the back end, blown engines, large pierced holes littered the hull, probably representing shots fired into the vessel itself, though it appeared to be leaking oxygen, causing large jets of air to be seen filtering out of the vessel, simply pressure, if anyone was alive inside they were still going to be able to breath.

The lone pilot of the small ship was indeed still kicking, so to speak, the impacts, as jarring as they were, hadn't removed him form his seat since he was wearing his buckles but they were no less effective in having made him feel exhausted, the possibility of his journey having ended there had occurred to him but it was all he could do as he stared up at the light filtering from the holes in the ship, piercing the veil of smoke and debris within the cruiser, though there was no concern regarding the smoke as he had a breather helmet on, attached to his flight suit.

Quinn coughed several times, weakly breaking the belts from his chest, taking a deep breath at first before pulling himself from the seat and collapsing on the floor next to it, however he stubbornly pushed himself up again, chuckling a little,
"M-made it... Hope my.. Bike survived.. Heh-heh.. Ow ow.. Hurts to laugh.. Eh-hehe.."

[Zaras]

The warning cries jarred Zaras from his flashbacks, giving him time to get back into the street and witness the graceful landing. Billows of sand rose through the air in the wake of the sliding machine, the wave of the element slapping harshly against the running man and any nearby structure. The groans of metal and crashes of broken stone radiated through the area like a siren. Zaras was forced to shield his eyes and turn while holding the collar of his coat up.

When the craft was robbed of any further motion a few others emerged from the nearby shops to gawk at the hazed outline of the ship before rushing to see whether the man who had warned of its arrival was okay. Being that the individual was being attended to, Zaras decided to go for the much more interesting part: the ship. He broke into a jog toward the machine, glancing at what he could see of the damage to the buildings. But due to the massive amount of dirt in the air still trying to settle it would take a few more minutes if he really cared that much about the run down things.

Inspection of the ship didn't seem like it would go too well at this moment either, which was unfortunate. Zaras rather loved inspecting machinery, especially anything that flew, but the thick smoke was a sign to stay away. Realizing this sad truth the bird slowed his pace only to pick it up once more when he noticed the pilot moving inside. Immediately he directed his path to the side of the ship and began searching for the hatch or better yet a panel that would allow him access to the inside.

Luckily thanks to the crash the door was jarred slightly at a corner. The outer panel was intact but locked, which wasn't too surprising. "Hey!" he shouted as he fingered the break in the seal of the door. To no avail he attempted a quick pull before knocking on the hull. "You make it to the door?" added Zaras, hoping that the pilot would be able to hear him.

[kuro]

Quinn looked up, hearing a banging on the ship, either something was crashing down on his ship steadily, or that was a knock. That meant life of some kind.. Probably people.. Well, cant disappoint with his big entrance now..! .. Yep crawling.. Crawling works.. And that was what Quinn did, making his way toward the airlock door, though hesitated.. What if whatever or whoever was out there was hostile..?
He looked back at his seat where his guns had been hanging off the back but.. They were gone.. Not good.. Damned crash. he looked around the room, finally spotting them again and crawled over a little quicker, feeling his strength returning as he grabbed one, what was the point in two if whatever was out there was more powerful or more skilled or whatever anyway?

He breathed hard as he got up to his feet, still struggling as he made his way to the airlock and stared at the control panel.. It was damaged.. Emergency release it was.. Not like this thing was going anywhere. He aimed his gun up at the protective glass over the handle, firing on it to smash the glass before grabbing the handle and pulling the lever, the motorized first door of the airlock sliding away so he could then repeat the process with the second one, aiming his gun at the second airlock door as it began to slide open, revealing the silhouette of some figure outside, but it could be seen that Quinn was too exhausted, his shoulders heaving, gun hand shaking and faltering before he slid down to the ground, collapsing onto his shoulder, though still raised his head, looking up the glare of light from outside though this only made his eyes water and blur.

The black flight-suit he wore shone oddly, the helmet shading his face enough to hide it but he held no specific marks that showed him to belong to any organization, the only indication of such a thing being an unusual emblem printed on the wall of the airlock, what looks like an assortment of half moons with a single black spike cutting downt he center.

[Zaras]

Zaras stood patiently for a few seconds, waiting for any sort of answer. Not hearing any initially he side-stepped to the panel under debate of whether to invade. "Worst idea," he muttered to himself, taking a back glance at the people helping the sand pelted man up, who brushed himself off promptly before turning his and the other two's attention to the ship Zaras was standing beside.

A few steps into their approach a muffled shattering sound came from inside the craft, pulling the bird's eyes back to the hull. Within moments the outer door began opening, sliding aside with mild effort along the tracks. No rush of air met Zaras as he moved into the threshold thanks to the leaks from the thingypit but the smell of the interior was welcoming. Any other occasion and the teen would be eager to rush to the first seat; instead he reminded himself with every movement to take it slow and be wary for anyone inside.

Checking to the sides of the door before he was too far in, Zaras spotted the fallen pilot; and it seemed he was the only one on the small ship. Repositioning himself to fully face Quinn, Zaras took a quick step forward before noticing the shine of the weapon. Immediately ceasing forward motion, he transferred it to raise his feathered hands in defense. "Friendly," he simply stated, light jangles of the chains on his coat accompanying the sound of his voice.

The other three folk were close enough to the door to peer in, but remained outside and were quickly being accompanied by the rest of the inhabitants of the area.

[kuro]

It wasn't attacking..? He lay there for a few seconds, still rather tired though eventually reached up to his chin with his other hand. pressing a release button that turned off the breather and drew the black visor away. With a change of position of his hand he finally pulled the helmet off, drawing the gun away from what he considered a non-hostile target.

The water blurring his eyes still made seeing them hard butt hey made a defensive gesture, he could tell that much as he grabbed a handle on the side of the door and pulled himself up until he was standing again. He partially limped back into the vessel, grabbing his gun holster and putting his gun away.

Following that; he grasped a part of the suit and zipped it down, clambering out of it and discarding it before buckling the guns to the back of his belt and he stretched for a moment, cracking his spine first, followed by his hands though groaned, still in pain as he limped back toward the airlock, staring at the other figure outside,
"I'm sorry friend, I didn't mean to threaten you.. Can you tell me where I am..?" He asked rather politely, in spite of a rather hoarse voice at the moment.

[Zaras]

A silent sigh of relief escaped Zaras as the man moved the gun, commenting to himself that either Quinn was very laid back at the idea Zaras wasn't human or the guy's head was still a bit fuzzy from the crash. Regardless, the bird was happy to not have a new hole.

With the time Quinn spent shuffling around to gather his stuff, Zaras half-stepped in and took more time to observe the machine. It was simple with nothing really standing out frame or detail wise. Except for a glimpse of paint on the inside of the door. Doubling back the bird stared at the emblem. It wasn't Blocker or DetaB standard making it a curious bit. But the voice of the other inside the ship drew Zaras' attention away from it.

"A piece of almost abandoned wasteland. Lucky you landed on the edge or those punctures would be letting in more than dusty air," he joked, trying to alleviate the situation a bit. "No holes in yourself then?" he added, taking a step back with Quinn's approach while scanning him now that the flight suit was off. The people closest to the ship behind Zaras backed up slightly, staying exceptionally quiet as they awaited answers for this sudden drop in.

[kuro]

"Ugh.. Ow.." Quinn placed his hand on his ribs as he leaned against the side of the airlock, though looked at Zaras again, squinting as he tried to make sense of the figure in front of him, "Nah, I'm good.. Just a bit bruised.." He replied, grunting a little before he coughed, "Damn.. Now I just gotta find them.. Warn them.." Quinn stepped forward weakly, letting the light bath him though he raised his hand to keep the light from his eyes before stopping to stair up. Even with the dust in the air he could see the sunlight filtering through, a strange smile seemed to spread on his face,
"I've never seen it.. From here.."

He shook his head and focused, looking down on Zaras at which point he yelled almost immediately,
"HOLY CRAP!" He called, hitting the ground, but managed to push himself up, rubbing the back of his head and staring at the other being with his eyes wide open, still rather amazed at what he was looking at, though almost immediately shimmying forward and staring at him closer, "Woah.. That mask looks so real, how the heck did you get it to look so cool?" He asked almost dumbly, tilting his head slightly to see if there was some trick to it.

Before he could get an answer he heard the sound of electric sparking behind him before grimacing as several tones could be heard,
[Self Destruct Mode Initiated, stand back please]
"AW CRAP!! Everyone get the hell away! Its gonna blow!" Quinn called grabbing his gun again and aiming up at another glass covered handle in the airlock, with a single round fired he watched it shatter before jumping up and grabbing it, pulling it down with a hard yank, a large compartment behind the airlock breaking open to reveal a storage section.
Quinn swung into it quickly, picking up and wheeling out a solid red bike, the powerful machine was evidently high grade and the means of transportation he'd intended to use on the surface, he managed to get it to some cover as the ship began to break apart in a series of small explosions that initially broke the structure of the ship down before ultimately exploding in a hail of scrap metal and electronics. Anyone who hadn't taken heed to his warning was probably going to regret it very shortly..

[Zaras]

The non-verbal response to Quinn's mask comment was a crossing of Zaras' arms accompanied by a quizzical expression while the guy finished his statement. That was a first, and definitely one of the better. But the automated words from the walls of the ship disrupted any further thought on the matter. Zaras uncrossed his arms but before he started moving away he watched with confusion as to what Quinn was up to.

"What're you doing?" he questioned, panic and surprise in his voice. His answer came when the red bike was revealed. The bird understood saving the machine despite it being a land bike. Not wasting more time, Zaras fled from the ship seeing as how everyone else had done so promptly. The nearest buildings weren't nearly stable enough to want to hide beside, but really they just needed immediate horizontal cover and could keep an eye out for flying shrapnel. Zaras quickly put a dilapidated structure between himself and the explosions then moved himself around the back where the softer sands of the ghost alleys were. He continued around to a spot where he could see Quinn and part of the ship; the ship for a few seconds anyway.

Continuing the destruction of the spacecraft, the remaining bits of the building it was up against finished its painful fall to the ground after so many years. Its neighbor half following, leaving a single tall wall with parts of the corners surviving above the rubble. Short cracks and similar crumbling could be pinpointed on the buildings across as well.

With the explosions finished and the rumblings of falling stone lessening Zaras peaked to see the remains of the ship. A frown dominated his visage as he turned his eyes away from where once sat a ship to Quinn and his bike. Jogging, Zaras closed the distance swiftly. "You know, this place was quiet before you came," he teased as he stopped next to Quinn. "Think you owe everyone a name," Zaras added with a bit less humor while indicating the streets.

[kuro]

Quinn shielding himself past an alley corner, he'd managed to get there pretty damn quickly in spite of the distance so he was rather safe. He leaned against the alley wall as the last explosion went off, raising his head and heaving a hard breath again.. His heartbeat was slowing down finally, but there was still pain and slight exhaustion. He'd feel better shortly, he knew this much. His relaxed state cut out as the other came up to him again, though he stared at Zaras again, still mystified by what he thought was a realistic mask,
"Sorry about that.. Seriously.. I hadn't expected the Blockers to be that pissy about me making a break for earth.."

When the question of his name came up he stopped for a moment, lips lowering slightly before he smiled and lowered his head a little
"Yeah sorry about that.." He replied, eventually looking over at Zaras, "Now that I haven't got everything nearby trying to kill me.. I'm Quinn Argent." He responded, gripping his stomach a moment and breathing a few times before beginning to wheel the bike out from the alleyway to the high street, preparing to gun it though he wondered if that was such a good idea.. He didn't really know where he was going..

"Hey uh.. What was your name?" The young man asked in return, resting his hip against the bike as he looked back at Zaras, "I'm uh.. Looking for some-one.. I was wondering if maybe you'd be able to clue me in.."

[Zaras]

The bird kept in stride with Quinn as they walked to the larger dirt path they called a street. None of the residents had yet decided to brave a venture back into the streets; not until they were sure the rest of the buildings were going to hold. The dead of the streets seemed even more so, which surprised Zaras since there was never really any activity anyway.

"Zaras. No last name, isn't really much need of one down here," he paused momentarily, "Gunna find it a lot different than those fancy places in space," Zaras continued in a mildly joking manner. In his own way this was his agreeing to aid Quinn. Though the staring was getting a bit awkward and Zaras hadn't said anything yet for curiosity in how long this would amuse him. "First hitch is going to be your bruises versus the ride your going to feel getting out of here. Unless that thing has incredible shocks and you're up for--."
"Friend 'o yers?" came the familiar voice of J'red loud enough to drown out Zaras' next word. The larger man came up to the two, seeming a bit agitated with obvious intention of getting some answers as to what had just happened.

Zaras of course ignored the intent just to bother his old friend. "J'red! Perfect timing." The bird twisted around to talk to the grease stained man. "Need--."
"No, you twit, and you know it. Skip yer antics," came the swift and harsh reply. A few of the people that had been close to the ship before it self-destructed emerged from between some buildings to listen in. Quinn received quite a few looks of inquiry and fear as they approached.

With a quick sigh followed by a chuckle he regarded Quinn. "He's a charming fellow. J'red," he paused to glance to his friend and give a motion toward Quinn, "Quinn, who's not a Blocker. Or at least not with them." With this bit of info J'red seemed to relax but tried to hide it by crossing his arms.

"That there landin' looked pretty rough," J'red started, looking at the nice bike Quinn was leaning against. "You good to go riding that around?"

[kuro]

"Its about what I expected, but I would have hoped hostilities would begin after I landed not before I even got here.." Quinn replied with a nervous smile, still walking along and looking at Zaras. The features definitely seemed real enough, it was too perfect, then there was the question of his hands that couldn't be fake, or perhaps he was just very detailed about this elaborate costume.

When the large man approached, Quinn came to a stop, standing in a guarded position turning his head to he sides as he noticed the other people coming out. He Looked at J'red again when he mentioned the rough landing and Quinn grimaced slightly, when he spoke of the bike Quinn grinned a little,
"I've had worse.. Way worse.." Was a determinate reply, and he didn't look like he was bluffing. The very memory alone was still stuck vividly in his mind as he felt the blows to his body again, the sharp stabs of knives to his body, and the gunshot that should have ended the pain, instead leaving him to suffer in hospital..

"And like Zaras here said, I'm not with the Blockers, they're the ones who shot me down in the first place," Again sincerity was on his face as he looked back to it, "I needed the transport, not sure who it belonged to but it did its job.. Doesn't matter, until I find what I'm looking for I'm grounded anyway."

[Zaras]

"Heh, grounded is the place to be," J'red responded first, clearly having satisfied what he had come over to here. "You could learn a thing from 'im," J'red directed to Zaras with a smirk.
"Man with a mission, better badger off if your not here to help," Zaras spoke, having turned back to J'red, and playfully waved a hand at the guy with a return smirk on his face.
"Awgh yer lucky I don't give you one in the beak. Go on with your exciting tales; I'm good enough with the rains," the large man responded, giving his own flick the wrist to the bird before turning around and heading back to tinker with his vehicle. Most of the other residents stayed, the ones that had left being parents attending to their inattentive children.

"Bah," was the sound that escaped Zaras as he turned his full attention back to Quinn. A small breeze had picked up, churning the disturbed sands around the crash site. "So, Quinn, you said you were looking for someone." Again when he turned to face the other he was reminded of the mask comment. With a weird chuckle he headed off the continuation of the explanation for Quinn's appearance. "Okay," he started, momentarily putting his right feathery hand to his forehead. "It's not a mask." He couldn't help but speak his words in an undertone of laughter. "It's my face. Real beak," as he spoke the word he tapped the tip of his beak, "real feathers, real tail." Like the first he indicated physically the features he spoke. When finished he shifted his weight to his right leg and set his left hand on his hip. "I don't fly," he quickly added to cover a question he was commonly asked by those who weren't freaked out by his appearance.

[kuro]

Quinn looked between the two of them, at least he was in luck that the people here in this particular location were friendly enough, he never really had much of an idea of what he was facing here but this was its own ray of sunshine he supposed, it would only be a matter of time before some-one tried to kill him one main reason probably being the bike, it was a new model practically fresh off the factory floor.

He looked at Zaras when he asked about Quinn being here, though then the conversation was directed away from his purpose to the truth about Zaras though Quinn looked a little unsurprised, lips curving into a slight smile,
"I know.. My mother is a Doctor and a renowned biologist, I kinda picked up things, I could pretty much tell once I'd gotten a better look of you, you're too seamless and far too complex to be fake." Quinn replied rather knowledgeably as he stopped still for a moment, looking at him more directly as he sat on the seat of the bike,
"And no I wouldn't expect you to fly, for your physical body to be lifted you'd need a denser bone structure and much larger wings to a greater expanse than your arms have." The young man smiled, though the smile itself faded as he looked at the other people present,
"I dunno if talking about what I'm looking for publicly is such a good idea.."

[Zaras]

"Why thank you," Zaras spoke in-between the seamless and flying statements. For the rest of it the bird repositioned his arms to a crossed position, listening to Quinn with seemingly diverted attention as his head bobbed a couple times.

When the comment of privacy was brought up Zaras took a moment to follow Quinn's motion and take a quick look around at the remaining inhabitants. "They're harmless," Zaras stated after he made a single friendly wave to the small group and was once again facing Quinn. He then made a gesture for Quinn to follow him before half turning and heading toward an old side street of the city.
"You probably couldn't have landed in a safer desolate area," he half-joked, somewhat twisting his head round toward Quinn as he walked.

The street as much less trodden than the main one they had just come off of, but still harder under their feet than the alleyways. Every now and then a large windswept trail of soft sand thinly stretched across the street or a hole from past damages needed to be stepped over, but as for debris it was surprisingly clear.

Zaras continued down the street a fair ways before slowing and indicating a small run down warehouse with a broken fence enclosing the rest of the lot. "This should be private enough, and the guy who tinkers around in it is out in the wasteland."

[kuro]

"Oh come on..! Its pretty hard to steer a ship when it's shot to hell like that, I was lucky I didn't get pierced by their gunfire myself," The young man groaned in return when Zaras made a suggestion where to land, "Hell I half expected the nose end to crumple and crush me like a grape in a tin can when I started hitting those buildings." He added, grimacing at the very thought, but then realizing just how lucky he'd been to survive at all.

When Zaras pointed out a more private location, Quinn followed him towards it until he was out of earshot of the other people, with privacy he felt much safer, especially with some-one who'd been kind and polite to him today, it beat the hell out of being fired on by Blocker gunships. Though he supposed he was still a little apprehensive, Zaras certainly wasn't normal, considering he had only a humanoid body to speak of, the fact that he was a human-sized talking bird was weird in itself. Was this the result of the radiation that befell the planet? Some kind of mutation?

He finally came to a stop, looking at his feathered friend hesitantly, he really wasn't sure who could and who couldn't be trusted, but he felt he could at least trust Zars,
"Okay.. Erm.. Oh man, how to put this.." He sat sideways on the bike again as before, gesturing with his hands as he spoke, an action that people made when speaking honestly,
"I come from a Mars colony, up there with the rich folk, the noble kinds whatever you wanna call it, but I'd been watching vids and news articles about the war between Psychics and Blockers, you know? They'd redub stuff and make edits to vids to make the Psychis seem pretty damn brutal, but it was way too easy to tell where they cut things up to write up a big story. Most people would see it and believe it but I dunno.. I'd watch the things Blockers and Normals would do to Psychics on the vids and it seemed wrong. My last stop was Moon, and I sure as hell could see the way the blockers really were there, they're practically a damned dictatorship. Even normal folks were being treated bad.." He explained this with a half disgusted, half concerned face, he obviously wasn't too pleased speaking about it before he punched a fist into a hand,
"So I wanna find the Psychics, join up with them and take those bastards down, and proceed to wipe the floor with every freakin Blocker I get my hands on.." Quinn seemed to pause as he felt and odd tingle in his head before shaking it and looking at Zaras again, he wasn't aware that he'd been staring at the ground for almost twenty sectons before he started up all of a sudden once again, "I have things they need to know, things they could use to their advantage, the Blockers are gettin' desperate and I've seen just how much. Stuff I have locked up here-" he thumbed to his left temple with his hand, "-could give the Blockers one helluva problem to deal with.."

[Zaras]

Several things were running through Zaras' mind while he listened to the opening of Quinn's explanation, nodding at intervals and occasionally bringing a hand to his 'chin' while he contemplated things that required a bit more focus. It was during one of these times that Quinn had frozen up. It took a couple seconds for Zaras to realize that there was silence. Mildly shaking his head he resumed full attention on Quinn, initially expecting for himself to give input. Instead he found the other staring oddly at the ground.

A puzzled expression crossed his face as he stared at the andriod, unsure of what the cause was. "Uh," the bird started just as Quinn seemed to suddenly continue his speech. Zaras passed it off as something due to the crash so he could pay attention more to what Quinn was currently saying.

Laughing he replied, "You couldn't have picked a better place for a scrap. Unfortunately you'll find yourself on the losing side down here if you walk into the psychic city with that tale." He paused a moment to regain himself. Pointing for a moment at Quinn, "Consider your mind an open door," then pointed to his bike, "And your ride an open invitation. They're going to mind rape you."

"And anyone you actually stop long enough to talk to is either going to turn as soon as they know yer not a psychic, or if you were lucky enough to find the one per hundred congratulations you have your one man army." Zaras spoke the entire thing in a light-hearted tone, making short movements with his hands throughout it. "I don't know exactly what you saw through your media, and I don't doubt your instinct about it, but don't get it in your head the psychics are all 'good and fun'. They can be brutal bastards; especially in their underground haven," the last addition to his sentence was spoken with a bit of bitterness.

The bird crossed his arms and shifted weight during his pause, taking on a more serious demeanor. "Normal folk might be treated badly on Moon, but at least they get to keep their minds. If yer stuck down here you run. Or fight outside of their range."

"But don't let me discourage you," he chuckled, resuming his normal attitude. "Bringing some hell to Blockers, count me in. Just have to be more careful in bringing others around." Zaras determined he had ranted enough, giving Quinn time to put in his comments.

[kuro]

"Never figured it would be easy.." Quinn replied, turning his head to look back at the rising smoke from the wreckage of his ship, but then shook his head and looked at Zaras again, "And I don't think they'll be able to do anything to my mind.." The young man lowered his head slightly, shaking his head, "That's gonna be the harder part to explain.. Look, I'm screwed no matter where I go.." He seemed to be having trouble figuring out what to say then looked down at the concrete ground, "Here, look," the young man raised his right hand, gritting his teeth then knelt down suddenly, thoughtlessly smashing his fist into the ground.

Any normal human would have thought this rather stupid, but Quinn's fist plunged into the old concrete, piercing it like paper and causing long cracks along the solid base flooring, then extracted his hand from the ground, at best it only looked like he'd slightly scuffed the gloves he wore, patting the concrete dust off of it and looking up at Zaras,
"About a year ago, I got gunned down as a rookie for the police force up on Mars Colony.. As far as any sane doc woulda been concerned, I was practically dead. At least until the Blockers saw fit to use my body for some kinda weird experiment, on top of that-" he motioned to the hole in the floor, then thumbed his head again, "They put some kinda tech in my head, anti-psychic barrier, like a neural defense field or something I dunno, I only heard it when I woke up on the operating table, but they were pretty damn confident that it would work, they'd pretty much done patching me up too," He raised his other hand to his head, wincing, "Ugh.. My head was pounding like an overripe melon, ready to pop.. I'm not sure what happened next but I got outta the facility, got home, grabbed my clothes, took off with my bike and got the hell outta dodge before they caught me, getting past Moon was pretty tough, but the Blockers caught onto somehow.. I dunno, but I grabbed a ship and well.. You know the rest.. Way I see it; the only people I can trust are the Psychics. I go back there and I'm dead meat.. So if the Psychics are out to kill me when I meet them and the Blockers want me, I'm shit outta luck either way, just gotta pick my poison and swallow I guess."

The young man stared at Zaras a little more directly,
"If you were in my position, what would you do..? I'm already a part of this war.. It's just a matter of time before the Blockers try to hunt me down.."