Utopia

"Okay, okay..." Simon sighed like a long suffering mother. He took put on his oven mits before opening the oven door and taking out the trays. A warm and mouthwatering aroma filled the kitchen and Mary took in a bit inhale through her nose to get a wiff, feeling her whole body warm up as well.

"Now you both need to wait for them to cool okay?" He said to Heidi and Mary, knowing that both of them would probably just reach for a cookie and start stuffing their faces.

"Simon, who do you think you're talking to?" Heidi laughed, grabbing a spatula and sliding the cookies off the tray and onto the counter. "Ta-da!" she grinned, picking one up and shoving it in her mouth, obviously trying to hold in the "ouch." She couldn't possibly admit that Simon had been right about the cookies being hot.

Elena poked her head into the kitchen, still not quite sure if she wanted to go in there. Lacy ran ahead of her, dancing around the kitchen. "Cookies, cookies!" she shouted. "Elena, eat the cookies!"

"You've barely eaten anything all day, at least eat the cookies if you're not going to eat anything healthy," Erika's voice came from behind her, causing Elena to frown. She really wished that she wouldn't hear the voices in her head anymore. It made decisions even more confusing than they needed to be. All Lacy seemed to do nowadays was make a lot of racket in her head.

Mary watched what the adult did and moved to follow suit when Simon took her wrist. "Uh-uh."

The girl scowled. "Coooookkkieeeessssss..."

"Wait a little while longer then you can have them with some ice cream after dinner." Simon replied, knowing that if he offered more he could get the little girl to listen to him.

The girl's face lit up at this, switching back and forth, before sighing and her little shoulder slouching forward to stare at the cookies. "Okay."

Heidi rolled her eyes at Simon's actions, debating on whether or not to sneak Mary some cookies. On one hand, it was just a cookie, and Mary would definitely still have an appetite, but then again, she'd never let Simon have dessert before he ate his dinner...usually. Dammit. She'd raised a stick in the mud without even realizing it!

She marched out of the room past Elena, going off to sit at the dining table and mope a bit. Elena watched her go, not exactly sure what had just happened. Hopefully Mary would follow her, so Elena wouldn't have to feel so much indecisiveness about going into the kitchen...

"How about you go play with Heidi while I make some dinner, then we can watch a movie later okay?" Simon ruffled the girl's head. Mary swatted the hand away, still annoyed with Simon's mind games and followed after Heidi before taking one last inhale of the cookie smell.

Simon turned to look over at Percival. "Pasta good with you?"

"Sure." Percival said with a smile. He was fine with anything Simon made, it was good, no matter what it was. Over the years, the young man had gotten very good at cooking. "Oh, and do you mind if we talk later? There's something I'd like to ask you about."

Simon smiled as he began to get out th enecessary utensils to start the meal, as he turned away when Percival asked his question his smile faltered a little in confusion, but didn't pause in his repsonse. "Sure. Sounds good."

What did Percival need to speak to him about? Was it something that had to do with Heidi? Or was it something else? The man let out a small sigh as he continued to think while he started to heat up some water on the stove.

Heidi sighed, looking down at Mary. "I'm sorry, Simon's a big stick in the mud. We'll eat lots of cookies and ice cream after dinner, and make ourselves sick!" she assured the girl, hugging her. "For now, let's play a game or something."

Elena moved into the kitchen once Mary left, picking a cookie off the counter and nibbling on it. Was Simon really going to tell her the same thing he'd told Mary? She was an adult, after all. "Yay, Elena ate the cookie!" Lacy exclaimed, still dancing around the kitchen. All Elena could do was stare at the ceiling in aggravation and try to ignore her. Part of her wanted to see someone, and see if she could get rid of her hallucinations, but on the other hand, it was something she'd clung to for twelve years.

"He's always like that, but I thought I could have one 'cause its a special day." Mary pouted, hugging back. "And okay, what game do you want to play? Your choice."

Since it was a special day for Heidi Mary decided to let the woman make the choice of games.

Simon was busy with making dinner and didn't rebuff Elena's cookie eating, still thinking about what Percival would want to talk about with him. Did I do something wrong? Will we have to move because of his job? What could it be...

"Need any help making dinner?" Percy asked, moving up to volunteer. He might as well help him out, since he wasn't doing anything else. It wouldn't have been the first time he helped with dinner. He smiled a little as he heard Heidi and Mary in the other room. It was nice to have another person around to play with her, at least.

"Yeah, sure." Simon replied to the offer absentmindly, getting ready to start preparing the sauce. Mary disliked mushrooms in her sauce, but Heidi was usually fine with meat he thought he remembered... or did she go vegetarian? Dammit.

"Heidi, are you okay with meat int he sauce?" He called at the dining room.

"Simon, I've been living off prison food. Unless there's cyanide in the meat, go for it," Heidi called back, not quite sure what he was going on about. She turned back to Mary, frowning in thought. "Let's play...tag! No wait, we're inside, and Simon will go crazy if we mess up the house. How about...we play hide and seek." She paused for a moment, sighing, and rubbing the top of her head. "Shame it's too cold for outside games, though when it snows, we're gonna build a huge snowman!"

"Okay! Sorry..." Simon replied, feeling a little foolish that he asked as he prepared the sauce.

"Cool!" Mary replied happily, calpping her hands at the prospects of building a snowman, she'd have to start drawing up her plans for the the sculpture of snow before bedtime. "And then you hide and I'll seek you."

"Alright, close your eyes and no peeking!" Heidi responded, before grinning and running off to hide behind the couch. How hard were you supposed to make your hiding spot when you were playing with seven year olds? She couldn't remember, there hadn't been a lot of time for playing childish games when Simon was little...

Nathan frowned slightly as he listened in to what Luke had to say. He'd heard about witness reports but had put them up to urban legend about Tom. But now hearing it from what he considered a trustful source he was beginning to formulate a plan on nulling. Shima had put Nathan and all his followers through harsh training that involved using existing flow's to put pressure on people and draw their only flow's out to lighten the load. The adults in the tournament had put them under similar conditions during the challenges.

He let out a dull laugh when he heard that the people Luke worked for were trying to take down Asquith. They were next to useless as known terrorists. He'd gone in disguised as a gang boss who he'd killed about three years ago, and none of them seemed to have the power to do anything. That may have changed since, but he sincerely doubted it. "So you're already under employment..." he mused aloud, letting Luke know some of his motives.

"If I can't ask you to join my group because of other... commitments then I might have to wipe your memory of this base." He stated flatly, a serious look on his face. "Unless you could be of use to me. You're an old friend so I'll give you the time to talk this over, I'd really rather not wipe your memory."

He poured himself another drink and finished it in one. "Oh and if it puts your mind at any ease, the guy who knocked Kira up is dead..."

"Look, there's an important meeting going on in a couple of days between some very important people in the Utopian underworld, with the person I work for gathering some of the top crime bosses to organise them to her liking. I'm there on her orders, but I can get you in if you want to, even get you an audience with her. You two can help each other," Luke decided to tell him straight on, figuring it would be best to offer Nathan the chance to see what he was about.

He had to admit, the idea of working with Nathan again was a nice one in his mind, seeing as how they had made a good partnership before. He couldn't help but sigh when he heard the last part, putting his hands to his head.

"Please tell me you weren't the one who killed him," he answered. He didn't know the guy well enough to give a shit about his life, but he would be annoyed if Nathan just murdered him as revenge and deprived Kira's son of ever meeting his father.

Nathan mulled over the information that Luke presented to him as he slowly poured another drink. A meeting with all the top crime bosses... the chance to know who they were and also get a scope of their power. If he could shake hands with a few of them he have some new persona's to masquerade as and when the time came he'd be able to track them down. For now they served a purpose to Nate's goals. They'd help take out the Government... and then he'd take them out one by one.

Criminals would never be able to lead a Utopia, but neither would the current Government. He took a sip and nodded. "That would be appreciated, mate." Was his eventual response. "Is she strong... this boss of yours?"

When it came to Luke's answer about the guy who impregnated Kira, Nathan's eyes hardened, he stared unblinkingly at Luke and finished his drink. With a slightly more violent feel around him he stood up. "I've become a better person over these years, that's true. But I'm not and never will be a good person."

His fist had tightened on the glass and he walked over to the bar to fetch another bottle of alcohol. "I snapped his neck the first time I saw him... he didn't even remember Kira when I quizzed him and read his mind."

"God dammit," Luke replied with a sigh, nursing his drink. Admittedly, he had spent a long while hating the guy who got Kira pregnant, and had told himself multiple times he was going to kill him, but Luke had always calmed down and told himself that it wasn't a good enough reason to kill the guy and that his death wouldn't really help anyone, least of all Kira's kid.

"You know every time you show off, you're making people like us look worse and worse in the eyes of the government, right? Everybody knows you're one of the most powerful people in the city, but shit like that and what you did today is only going to make it more difficult to get rid of Asquith," the blond-haired man told Nathan, finishing off his drink. He didn't want to lecture Nathan, he really didn't, but he didn't want his old friend to come in and fuck everything up either.

"And to answer your question, yes. She is. Well, you won't be able to fight her, and she's pretty smart. Also, although Flows are a-okay when you're at the meeting, I wouldn't go showing off and getting into a fight, especially when you see some of your old friends from your Shima days," Luke warned, resting his hands on the table.

After pouring himself another drink Nathan returned to his seat and set the bottle down on the table, his eyes analysed everyone of Luke's movements. He took in what his former teammate was saying and smirked slightly after listening in on his mind. No one ever credited Nathan's intelligence, as most had only seen him when he was recklessly driven by darkness. He sipped his drink before choosing to respond to the blonde Irishman in front of him.

"Everything that I'm doing right now has a purpose, Luke..." Nathan murmured as he glanced at said man. "You and all your gang members can focus on getting to Asquith, I'm not going to disadvantage you when it comes to that. Right now all of these gangs serve a purpose to me, once they ensure that Asquith is dead either by my hand or one of there's then we'll see whether I... how did you phrase it in your head... fuck everything up?" He kept his gaze on Luke and finished the rest of the drink.

"A few more questions for you now, what do you mean I wouldn't be able to fight her?" Was the next thing Nathan followed with as he poured another drink. "As for my old group, they won't even recognize me. I'll be going as someone else and an exhibition of any abilities will tip them off."

"Fair warnin' is all," Luke replied with a sigh. Sometimes talking to Nathan was like banging his head off a brick wall. He was reasonably intelligent (albeit not as smart as he thought he was), but he was extremely stubborn. Luke himself was just as stubborn usually, perhaps even more hard-headed, but he wouldn't just admit something like that.

"And they're not my gang members, I don't go around selling drugs and robbing old ladies. Not all of the criminals in this city are actually what the government says, you should know that. Some of them are actually trying to make Utopia a bit more utopian," the pyrokinetic man shot back at his team-mate, sliding him his glass for a refill.

"As for my boss...I dunno, she controls the Flow. It's different from Percival, she doesn't just shut off everybody's Flow, but when she wants to she can make it impossible for me to generate more than a spark or a candle-flame. Seen it happen to other people too."

"Oh I know that much Luke, but power is seductive and poisonous. I know that better than anyone." Nathan responded calmly as he poured another drink for his friend and slid it along the table. He raised his own glass and sipped some of the alcoholic liquid before sighing. "Speaking of power, I can't get drunk at all since I absorbed Instant Regeneration. My liver heals itself and I have ever lasting sobriety..."

He took another swig of his drink and set the glass down. Upon hearing about Luke's boss' flow he smirked and lazily pulled a gun from a holster. He took a couple of seconds too eye it with Intuitive Aptitude before replacing it in said holster. He also made an undisguised look at his sword which lay on a table nearby. "Her power would take away my ability to use flow, but not the things that Intuitive Aptitude has allowed me to master. Thanks for the warning though mate."

"I'm not saying these people should be the ones to rule the city after deposing the president. After the last time, a leader definitely shouldn't be picked with seriously careful consideration. Tell me, have you met anyone who you don't think would be corrupted by power to the point of being a bad leader?" Luke asked curiously, taking a deep drink and looking heavily down at the table. "T'be honest, I reckon there should be an extremely long rest period before we elect anyone, so the city can calm down again."

"And I don't even want my friends being elected, I seriously think it'll take some doing to get everything back on track. I'd love to know where the adults went to to get their opinion on all of this, but hey," he continued, thinking back to the adult days. He didn't think it was the adults that made everything better, he wasn't naive enough for that, he just thought that they would be handy to have considering they built the damn city.

"And I'm assuming you're smart enough to realise that they won't just let a stranger in to see their boss carrying whatever he wants, right? I'm hoping you weren't planning to make a scene out of that," he sighed with a wry look at Nathan's weapons. He still had his old sword from the tournament in his apartment, but it was hidden away very carefully and he rarely ever used it.

Kira sighed, sitting down at a park bench and shivering slightly in the cold. Winter had to be her least favorite month of the year. She'd never really adjusted that well to the colder temperatures of Utopia compared to her own home, so the fact that it was winter half the year was not very pleasant for her. Well, it hadn't been so bad when Luke had been around, but she didn't like thinking about that.

She pulled her coat a little closer. The people walking by were wearing the same amount of clothing as she was, if not less, and they seemed perfectly fine. It was enough to make her jealous. She'd become far too bitter of a person in the past few years...

A quick glance at her watch told her that she still had a few hours to kill until she needed to pick up Jason, but she wasn't really sure what to do. When was the last time she hadn't had to work, or watch Jason? A long time ago, that was for sure. Kira let out another sigh, leaning back on the bench and closing her eyes as she sensed the Flows around her. There was a horribly small chance that Luke and Nathan were close enough for her to find, but it couldn't hurt to hope. She sat there for a few minutes, sighing as she kept it up, though feeling no familiar Flows.

Nathan weighed up Luke's question about power and corruption as he sipped at his drink. It was a difficult criteria to match, they'd have to be able to make the right decisions, not be swayed by power and also have the charisma to make people listen. Not to mention they'd have to be able to appeal with both the gangs who were trying to fix things and those who'd gotten comfortable in inner Utopia. He sipped his drink and returned his ice blue eyes to his friend. "Joey, Erika, Delmer and maybe that detective who was after us earlier from what I read from his mind. The former three are dead and I don't know the latter well enough. If it weren't for being easily corrupted by power then I'd say I was a candidate. I highly doubt any former Acer's would make good leaders though."

He grinned at Luke's response about weapons and took another swig from his drink. "Weapons are easily hidden if they're small enough, and a shot to a vital artery with something sharp enough will kill anyone, or if I catch her unaware I can use her own shadow to kill her." He mused with a smirk. "But no, I won't be kicking up a fuss, it'll only be recon for the time being. Anything that I can't personally get recon on I'll leave up to you."

"That is, if you want to renew our partnership and help me out. I won't be asking you to do anything that'll put you at risk, you'd effectively be an undercover agent of mine... once we got Asquith out the way, I'd find a way to get you free from the gangs."

"'Course I'd be interested, provided it's not too ridiculous, so I don't want to make a promise I could be forced to break," Luke replied after a second. He drank heavily where Nathan drank in sips, revealing himself as someone who drank a bit too often for their own good. He wondered how Nathan dealt with his problems without the getting wrecked avenue. Probably violence, he reflected, knowing that his old friend generally had to vent from behind a detached exterior.

"As a matter of interest, though, why don't you consider an old Acer contestant fit to rule? There are many who would disagree, given the state of this place before other people arrived compared to the state of it now," he questioned. He personally didn't believe that he knew anyone capable of leading the city, and that the answer was in a council of equally-powered elected people with no clear leader. He didn't have enough faith to trust another leader any more.

------

Russell returned to his car, in quite a poor mood. He was still a little shell-shocked at how so much power could suddenly arrive out of nowhere, annihilating it while another woman, seemingly and reportedly meek, could make him further question his already minuscule faith in the police service. It was the fact that he was coming off the back of a murder that morning, he knew, but he couldn't help but question: what good did the force actually do?

He opened the door carefully, oddly happy that he had saved it from the golem's earlier rampage that had destroyed many of the vehicles in the car park. He couldn't help but wonder what damage his assailant had inflicted inside the hospital, but that was a job for the newly-arrived emergency services, not for him.

He had a different mission, to seek out a few of his contacts and see if they had felt any odd Flow signatures that might help in his investigation. Despite the police force's vigilance, the lack of crime meant that they were inexperienced, and there were some far better detectors of Flow on the streets than what the UPD had access to. All he needed was a lead to investigate and put his mind back on the job.