Welcome to Gaia! ::

For all that Ian's parents gently teased him about not being able to do anything without a cell phone, there really was some truth to it. He could only remember so many phone numbers, and how many times had he saved himself a lengthy commute home by checking bus schedules on his little cellular? He had had friends with no phones, and, while calling home phones worked well enough, it still seemed really inconvenient in comparison to calling a cell.

So, now that he had someone he wanted to talk to who almost definitely didn't have a cell, Ian was not sure how to get in touch with him. He did not even have a house number or anything of the sort by which to reach Zinkenite.

His first thought was to try the length of block where he had walked with the boy in the dark coat a few weeks prior. At least that way, he could pass it off as exercise if he failed to run into the Negaverse agent. It still felt awkward, though, to him - was he supposed to have brought anything? Ian had left his wallet at home, worrying about getting his ID or something stolen just in case things did not go as planned, but was there anything else he might have needed?

The red-haired boy was nervous on one hand, but on the other, if he did enlist himself in this war, if he signed up or whatever he needed to do, he could use whatever power he had to protect himself finally. It would do him far more good than the tai chi did in terms of actual combat usage.

He paced slowly up and down the street, looking for signs of the blue-haired boy in the black coat and mask, wondering idly if he could pick a power or if it was chosen for him. How difficult would it be to learn to use it? Was it something he would have to learn, or would it be one of those things that would come to him naturally? ... Would it hurt?

The Knight of Destiny had a duty to protect everyone in the city. Everyone. He had given it to himself, and he would do everything in his power to stay as true to the impossible goal as he could. He would help anyone in need, and risked himself each night to do it.

But whenever he found someone he knew, things got a little more complicated.

He was out a little too soon following his stay in the hospital. He had found Ian's gift, and had been reading the book since then, and was true to the note's order not to finish it while in the hospital. Of course, that was probably because he had snuck out.

It still counted.

Looking down at the streets below, he felt a strong, chaotic energy nearby and moved toward it. When he saw Ian down on the street, speaking with the Negaverse General, he felt his heart skip a beat. He knew Zinkenite fleetingly, from the conversation they had. It had been civil enough, but he was not sure Ian had any business speaking with anyone from the Negaverse. What good would come from it?

They used humans for energy or starseeds, or to add to their numbers.

Climbing down from the building he had gotten on to, not well enough yet to jump, he moved over to the duo while hiding his limp along the way. "Be careful," he called to Ian as he moved into view, "what's going on here?" Rude, maybe, but he had to jump in.

“I’m not –hurting- him Knight, we’re talking,” He scowled slightly over the dark of his mask that much at least was clear though so much of his expression was lost to that strip of fabric. He slipped carefully trying to stand between the knight and Ian, the one he rather wanted. “You knight’s at least are of this earth, we can settle other disagreements LATER if you don’t start one know, go back to haunting your library and let me speak in peace.”

It gave him no real time to answer the young man’s questions, but there was an disgusting ability that the senshi and their ‘friends’ possessed for painting themselves in the ‘best light’ until he explained just what they were capable of.

“I’ve no mind to force him to a path he doesn’t –want. Does that assuage your worries?”

((ignore this I posted out of order))

“Oh no… Our friend here calls himself an agent of ‘order’” replied the blue haired young man with a low growl. “And he, I’m quite sure like the others buckets all our actions into one lovely ‘tub’, but then elects to segregate his own actions as separate from OTHER agents of ‘Order’.”

He cast a glance back over his shoulder. “That’s the kind of ‘fair minded’ you get out of war when their utterly sure they are right and not simply taking a side.”

He turned back to Camelot and arched an eyebrow. “What’s the matter, think I’ll be the only one telling half the story Camelot? I’m not forcing anything upon him, only making an offer I don’t think you can.”

"Try to keep us safe?" Ian replied to Camelot. The boy's shy, polite nature pressed him that this was massively rude - he had no idea what it meant to really be one of these superheroes, maybe he should not judge, should not attack those who said they were trying to save him. But realistically, were they trying to save him in particular? Was he worth saving? Was he worth saving if this Knight, this stranger, had learned his name, and yet not been there when he had been attacked?

"I want to be able to look for myself," he insisted. "I've been attacked twice when no senshi was there to help. I was attacked once when a senshi acted like I was wasting his time for not being impressed. I get that maybe I'm just not worth saving, but if I can get some sort of power so I can take care of myself without having to... to trouble you all-" Ian waved an arm. "Then whatever, fight your war, but I don't want to be collateral damage."

He was scared. That was what it boiled down to. Ian hated feeling powerless in all this. He could roll with metaphorical punches from life reasonably well, he thought, though he knew he had not exactly suffered during his short life thus far. But a big part of that was that he knew he was human and so was everyone else in the world. Ian knew he was intelligent, and that was his edge - he could deal with being skinny because he focused on his studies. In the last several months, however, things that were very obviously not human had come up; some of them disguised as humans.

And that liked to rub this fact in his face.

It scared him, and he wanted a way to feel like he was back on a level playing field again.

He turned to Zink again, still tense. "Joining with you means the monsters will leave me alone, right?"

Camelot frowned, hearing that Ian had been attacked. It must have happened while he was in the hospital. That upset him, knowing his friend had been in trouble and he couldn't help: it just confirmed what he had been fretting about the whole time he was cooped up. That there was always danger out there, and he could not afford to be stuck in a place like a hospital.

So he would just have to get better at not being injured.

"You're not collateral damage. You won't be. Trust me, Ian," if he only knew that he was speaking to Tony right now, the guy who had been there with him in Camelot, the place, the shadow in Tartaros. The guy who had been just as helpless as him, but had gotten the chance to be a knight. There was something inside him that had awakened. But Camelot knew there was strength in everyone, civilians and those with powers alike.

He just wished he could explain all that to him. At the moment, he couldn't.

"I am not a senshi," Camelot said again, this time more stern. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked angry, but not insulted. "In my eyes, you're to young to be in this war, let alone those young children on the senshi's side. Don't question my morals and lump me, or any knight, in with your enemies just to justify fighting against us. We don't have to be enemies."

He looked at Ian helplessly when he asked about joining the Negaverse, then at Zinkenite when he said he would return. That made him tense. But maybe if he had time to talk to Ian alone, he could dissuade him from this path. And keep a eye on him so no Negaverse agent came back and corrupted him anyway. Ian was trying to make his life safer, but all he was doing was putting himself in ridiculous danger.

A kind Camelot wasn't sure he could protect him from.

“You choose to join us, and I will be the channel for the power you need, the power you want, you would earn more strength and be trained in many skills in a strong community.” He held out a hand to take, an offer if a quiet one. “It would hurt, but easy is where the dangers lie. Nothing that involves power should be easy.”

He let his eyes drift to Camelot, quiet, free from judgment for the time being but studious at the same time. Whatever thoughts passed behind those bright eyes was well guarded. “It’s interesting isn’t it… you say we don’t have to be enemies, but you don’t want us to be stronger, is it easier to be friends, to be kind if we remain outnumbered? Or is that the influence of Order pressing down on you to make sure that conversation such as this amounts to nothing?”