Utopia

"Fine," Luke complied shortly, vague irritation surfacing at Shima's appearance. From Luke's point of view Shima had brought about the end of their team, first with his breakout that caused Nathan to gain the darkness Flow and second when he convinced Nathan to leave them and join him, causing the fight that put Luke in a coma for quite a while.

Despite the years that had passed, he still loved the memories of the days with his team before everything went south. Despite what had happened afterwards, he still looked back on those three or so days as the best of his life since the Great Storm.

Nathan knew the effect that Shima's presence would have on Luke and he would of avoided it if he could but the many people that came into his bar too drink and socialize knew the appearance of Shima as the owner of the bar and also one of the main bartenders. He'd changed the name to John Ford but the bar was an important part of his cover up, he'd even had a couple of Police Officers come to drink in the bar before. He'd make sure to explain himself to Luke when he got chance.

Once he had hold of Luke, Nathan let the speed take him and in roughly forty seconds they had arrived at the bar which was appropriately named Ford's Place. He set Luke down and made the suit jacket and tie disappear.

"Stick close to me and we'll go to the back room and have that talk." He suggested. "You going to be wanting a drink?"

"Whiskey, please," Luke replied wearily, feeling a bit strange as usual after he had had the pleasure of being a passenger to someone with super-speed. He followed Nathan in, taking off his coat to leave him in a white shirt and making his way towards the back room. He had to admit, Nathan had a nice place going, and he was impressed, maybe even a little bit jealous of his old team-mate's success.

Nathan walked in and let off a smile to the girl at the bar, she was relatively attractive but only about twenty years old. She wore a grey shirt and had black tendrils of hair that framed her face. She greeted him with a wave. After a few hello's shared with the regulars, Nathan made his way straight to the bar and gave her a brief hug.

"You do know that Nicole isn't going to be happy you opened this place up to your old team mate, right?" The girl asked with an amused smirk as she finished pouring a beer for one of the customers.

"Probably not..." Nathan mused with a playful wink. "But you'll let me know if she's going to turn violent, right Emma?" Emma had been with Shima when Nathan had first arrived and was probably one of the main reasons he had forced himself to learn to control darkness. She'd grown into a confident young woman with his help, even if she was a little too stubborn for his liking.

"I'm going to be in a meeting for awhile, pass me my whiskey bottle and two glasses please, love."

---

After a five minute wait for Luke, Nathan sauntered into the back room and set the glasses and the bottle down on the table. It was a comfortable room with chairs and a sofa, as well as a pool table, poker table (which the two European adults were sat at) and a large table with plans set out. There was also a few large white board and a mini bar. If Luke looked hard enough he would see that one of the white boards had pictures of all the Acer Contestants as well as information written around it all.

Nathan poured two generous glasses of whiskey and settled himself down. "I know we've both got a lot of questions, maybe you more so than me. So ask away one at a time and I'll try and answer."

"I'll do my best to answer anything you may want to ask, though I'm not sure what a mere mortal like myself could know that you don't, but I guess I'll start with the simple one: Where've you been?" Luke asked simply, the most obvious question the one that would tell him the most and pave the way for future explanation. He had to admit that he had tried to find Nathan in the past when he had free time, but had never found anything.

"I'm still mortal, Luke..." Nathan responded to his friends snark. "But thanks for the ego stroke, I'm sure in his coma Tom will be groaning." His eyes had a glint to them that Luke wouldn't have seen since the tournament. It was only there briefly but it probably would have been as much an indicator as any that Nathan was no longer a murdering psychopath.

"Now to where I was: Nowhere near Utopia, I was on the other side of the globe dealing with darkness most of the time. The only times I ever got nearby where when darkness controlled me. Anyway, long story short I essentially mastered it and got turned on by Shima's Illuminati. They kept me imprisoned in flow-nulling handcuffs for eight months whilst they made the trek from their mountain base to Utopia." Nathan took a swing of his drink here, his appearance having returned to his own.

"My loyalists in the group saved me, Nicole, Emma, Adam and Jacob. We got away and I stole some flows in order to help me. We had a nice underground base outside of Utopia where we stayed for a couple of years. We caught up on current events, got the lie of the land and even fought some terrorists." Another paused for him to intake air and another mouthful of whiskey and he continued. "About eighteen months ago we were attacked in our base and it was destroyed, so after dealing with the Police who came to investigate it, we found ourselves with this place."

"I've been here since, trying to learn as much as possible, combating any gangs who pull anything on us, fighting off terrorists and corrupt policemen and trying to locate people who can join us." He watched Luke intently as the Irish man listened, trying to get a lock on his thoughts as he did. "I have multiple identities and still like to keep tabs on the people who I used to know."

Luke nursed his drink throughout Nathan's story, though he was never anything less that interested, just a man who looked like he drank too often for his own good, which fit Luke rather aptly at that stage, he had to admit. Nevertheless he was taken in by how extraordinary Nathan's story had been, compared to his own, rather more mundane if just as emotionally taxing as his old team mate's had been. He took the opportunity to study the room in more detail, trying to read what he could of Nathan's notes.

"I think I've met the ones who split off from your leadership already," Luke replied, his icy-blue eyes snapping back to his old friend, immeasurably glad to see the glint in them earlier, knowing it would put both his and Kira's fears for their old comrade to rest and having almost child-like yearnings for the 'good old days' of their team in the Acer tournament.

"But I'm impressed nonetheless Nathan, sounds like you've had an... interesting time of it, and it does account for everything. Glad to have you back, in any case," he continued, and Nathan could see that he was genuine.

"I'm never going to be completely out of the woods mind..." Nathan mused as he finished his drink. As much as he'd like to be able to say that mastering darkness meant completely getting rid of the psychopathic urges, whenever he was angry or depressed he could still be prone to becoming darker. "It's a bad ability that I'm stuck with for however long it takes for someone to work out how to kill me for good, but I'm a lot less likely to kill and destroy everything."

He poured himself another drink and glanced at his Irish team mate, seeing him looking at the notes he smirked slightly. "We'll get to this notes in awhile, for now how about you tell me what you've been up to and also why I've heard mutterings that you're potentially the weapon of a gang?"

Luke leaned back in his seat, knocking back some of his drink as he thought for a second. He wasn't sure how much of his past Nathan knew, or where to begin on what he'd got up to after he had been forced into going on the run.

"Well I'm sure you know about my years with Kira, when I lived with her recovering from... you know. Well that all changed when Tom fell. I swore he used his Flow, and I swear to you right now that he fucking did, and so did five others. Trouble is, the president got to them and they shut up fast. But he couldn't get to me. Couldn't have everyone knowing that his be-all end-all solution of Nulling wasn't quite so foolproof after all."

"Well he didn't fuckin' get to me. I ran, but by the time I got home they had a fuckin' eye on Kira. So I changed direction, ran as far as I could as fast as I could, ended up in the outer city port. Now I was angry, and you know how I used to be when I was angry, looking for something to lash out at. I found one of those fighting rings-I'm sure you know by now, but if you're looking for anything illegal or fun in this city, it's likely underground, literally. Almost impossible to sense shit down there from up here."

"But yeah, I found a fight club, full of all these gang types using their Flows and trying to show off for whatever big-timers were there. Well I lashed out, like I said, and I... beat all of them. The champions of the ring who were just there to spectate tried to stop me, but they couldn't quite."

Nathan could see the memory burning in Luke's mind of a large round room, ringed by spectators with bars on every side to serve drink to their bosses. But in Luke's mind flames took the place of the spectators, the whole room ablaze with so much fire it looked like hell itself. Burning bodies lay at his feet but he wasn't even hurt, just the red glow of his Flow burning like a sun. He shut off the memory."

"But someone there, this... I guess spy's a good word, spotted me and took me to their boss, relayed their memories like some kinda fuckin' tape, and she decided to offer me a position. I turned it down. I left, lived homeless for a while until, after failing to go back to Kira-pregnant at this stage-I caved. I was on death's door, I had to. And ever since then I've been working with her, working to bring down Asquith."

"It isn't like your average gang, Nate. Only crime bosses know about it, and my boss is their boss too. I work odd jobs for them, I guess, but she also uses me for anything difficult she needs done. That's who funds my apartment, and everything I got. I haven't truly fought since that club, and I guess I'm slipping... But shit, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing."

Mary gave Percival's hand a squeeze as she leaned into the man's body for warmth and comfort. The heavy feeling had faded, but she still felt alert to different things around them. She stuffed her free hand in her pocket, trying to stop her fingers from twitching. She didn't know why they would do that, they just did sometimes.

"Are you ok, Mary?" Percival asked her, as they walked back to their home. She looked nervous, and he suspected that she had somehow sensed what was going on. He had sensed awhile ago that her Flow was developing, but said nothing, as it seemed she didn't want him to know yet. Whatever the case, it wouldn't really matter until she turned 18, but what was important now, was how she was doing now.

My fingers feel itchy. She thought, but didn't want to tell Percy this. Simon said that her glowy hands had to be kept a secret for the time being.

"I'm okay..." The girl replied. "I just hope Aunt Heidi knows who I am."

That was sort of true, she hadn't seen the woman face to face for a couple of years, and her own facial memory of her was dim. "I grew up a lot..."

Percival frowned a little, but decided not to press the issue. If she wanted to keep it a secret, so be it. He'll just talk to Simon about it later. "Of course she will, and she'll be very happy to see you." He said with a smile, reassuring the girl. "And yes, you have grown a lot, but you still have a lot more growing to do, so look forward to that."

Mary looked relieved at her guardian's reassurance, a little more spring in her step showing as the girl mentally squashed down the itching feeling. She'd done it before and she could again when she needed to. If it got worse then she would start to sing to focus on something else.

"Do you think Simon decor-decorated before Heidi gets home?"

Percy nodded, noting that she still looked a bit uncomfortable, but seemed to be doing her best to get it under control. Though he worried about her at times, she was a very strong child, who occasionally showed some wisdom beyond her years.

"Not sure, but I wouldn't put it past him." He said with a smile to the girl, as they approached their residence.

Heidi had long since gotten bored of the floor, instead choosing to hide in the coat closet near the front door. Being rather skinny and short, it wasn't too big of a task to hide herself behind the various coats that the Haddens had collected over the years. She closed the closet door, leaving herself in the dark, well-hidden behind the coats. Her breathing softened, and she continued listening for footsteps at the front door.

Mary squeezed Percival's hand before jumping up the remaining steps to the front door, knocking. "We're back!"

---

Simon had been waiting for the cookies to finish baking before he got started on dinner when he heard the door knocking and Mary's voice. The man smiled as he walked to the door, knocking slightly on the closet as he walked past, before unlocking and opening the door. "Hey guys, come on in. Heidi should be here soon-"

Percival smiled as he entered with Mary, still holding the hand of the excited young girl, before greeting Simon. "Hey Simon, Mary here can't wait to see here." He said with a smile to the young man. "Oh yeah, how's Elena doing? Did you two have fun?" He asked him with a knowing smirk.

Elena poked her head into the hallway, glaring at Percival's statement, before retreating back to her room. She didn't want to be around Mary. Of course, it also meant she couldn't yell at Percival for saying such embarrassing things, but she was sure Simon would do that for her.

Heidi sprang out of the coat closet, quickly locating the shortest person in the hallway and picking her up. "Hey, Red, how's it goin'?" she laughed, spinning the girl around.

With all the commotion having come to an end Paul withdrew to the entrance of an alleyway, pulling down her bandanna from his mouth to take in the fresh air.

"Things just don't change," he muttered to himself, loading a magazine into this gun and slinging it over his shoulder. Nothing left for him in this city, no reason left for him to stick around.

Simon's face turned slightly red, before brushing off Percival's question. "Was fine."

Mary shrieked in surprise before laughing happily as she was twirled. "Heidi!"

The girl wrapped her arms around Heidi's neck and clinged to the woman. She looked up at the woman with her large reddish brown eyes and smile. "It's going great!"

Zackary made it to the hospital, keeping behind a building as he scanned the area. There was no sign of Nathan. Not exactly what he hoped. He threw up his hood, and started to head back into the town.

"Good," Heidi grinned, kissing the girl's forehead. "Lessee, how old are you now...seven? Or are you eight?" she asked, chuckling. Dates and years were horrible for her memory, it was probably a miracle she remembered how old she herself was.

She found herself feeling a little sad when she looked at Mary, seeing how much she looked like Erika. She didn't really blame Elena for trying to avoid the girl, even if that was far from the right solution. Of course, Joey just had to name her Mary, so that one of Heidi's most precious people was a constant reminder of everything she tried to forget.

"I'm seven," The little girl replied, her nose wrinkling a bit in a faux pout that Heidi hadn't remembered her age exactly. "And you're... twenty... five!"

Simon looked on at the reunion happily, the giddiness that Heidi was out of jail (even with strings attached) just made him feel excited and happy. A small beep was heard from the kitchen that made the man turn around. "Oh, the cookies are done."

"Cookies?" Mary turned her head towards the kitchen, looking very alert.

"Am I?" Heidi chuckled, setting Mary down. "When'd I get so old? Well, I guess it doesn't matter...you're never too old for cookies!" She ran towards the kitchen, standing near the oven and pointing to it wildly. "Simon! Cookies!" she exclaimed, quite obviously not wanting to touch the evil machine herself.

Even Elena poked her head out of her room at the sound of the oven going off, feeling rather hungry for cookies. She'd stood by and helped make them, so it wouldn't be fair if she didn't get her share, too...except Mary and Percival were out there. Decisions, decisions...