A spit take was almost necessary as I spewed out what beer was still in my mouth after gulping. It came out through my nose too, it was such a surprise. If you've ever had alcohol come out through your nose, then we'd probably all agree it burns like hell (even worse than most of the explosions I had to sit through with the Reapers; Trish was a nice enough girl that she'd at least treat my wounds to help save the damn place she lived in). I gathered up myself, trying to regain composure and get out my first question.

"Why?" I saw no problem with the prison I was in. I got beer and a TV with a side of loneliness; what more could I want?

"I need to keep moving. If I don't, then I'll get lazy and won't want to do what keeps me in business. Besides, I get the feeling that this prison won't suit me."

"Too lackluster for your tastes?"

"Yeah, I figured I'd at least get my own little wing off to the side with marble flooring and solid gold bars holding me in while I relax in the hot tub with the rats."

"Alright, let's the cut the shit and tell me this: how are you planning on doing this?"

He leaned in closer to me, signaling for me to do the same until his lips almost met my left ear. "I sneak out after dark."

"Genius." I sat back in disbelief. "Christ, you'd think that a master thief would be able to come up with something a bit more elaborate."

"It will be, alright? Do you want in on this or not?"

"I'm not really sure. Hell, I don't even know if you're telling the Goddamn truth or not about your stealing abilities." He better give me more than trying to open a lock with a bobby pin.

"I thought you would ask that." He folded his arms. "Check your right pocket."

My right pocket? That's where I keep the picture of Trish and I-

It's gone. It was gone. I stumbled over my letters, trying to form words. "How in the- What in the-"

He dangled a picture that was about an eight by eleven inch gloss. There we were; together and happy. I held her hands tight as the ring that was on her finger gleamed brilliantly against the sun. I had asked Zeke to take the picture when I finally proposed to her. I didn't really know that just a few days later that Empire City would go to apocalypse level activity with little hope of returning to its normal state. I hadn't realized that she would blame me for the death of her sister after she found out that I was the one at the center of the blast; the one that the government had blamed, therefore by extension the rest of the populace would, for this outbreak of Conduit vermin. I also didn't know that as I looked into her soulless eyes on the ground in front of an old abandoned building in the Historic District that she had taken off that same engagement ring that I proposed to her with just a week or so ago before this all happened. It filled me with a feeling of emptiness and sorrow, and to back it up with my best friend betraying me just was icing on the cake for my acquaintances known as regret and anguish.

I snatched the picture from him. "Alright, I'll give that to ya; you're good at stealing."

"Cute girl, by the way. She got a name?"

"Trish."

"So is this Trish waiting for you on the outside?" He said with such a smug smile.

I noticed I snorted a lot recently with this guy around-and it has only been about twenty minutes. "The only thing of hers that's waiting for me is her tombstone."

"Okay then. I'll leave it at that." Well, at least didn't try to garnish any part of it with a bunch of sorry for my loss bullshit.

I decided just to sit back in silence and flip through some more channels. I took the batteries out of the remote control so that way it wouldn't blow up right in my hand. All I had to do was give it a charge as I was going through the networks. HBO, Comedy Central, BBC America- oh look, Top Gear's on. I enjoyed the British humor spouted from the never-ending mouth of Jeremy Clarkson and his mates James May and Richard Hammond, all of them giving it off as it is whether it be calling Americans the stereotypical fat or bashing on the government and the outrageous rules that they had set for Great Britain's roadways. I'm guessing that Nate enjoys this show too; we just sat back in complete and utter silence for a few hours. To be honest, it got a little mundane after a while as these were all episodes that I had seen before. Yes, I liked watching the new Lamborghini or Ferrari skid around their test track as they go around corners at breakneck speeds and have them smoke up as the tires burn up under them. It was all great and fascinating as I wondered what it would be like to just be able to sit in a car without it exploding on me, but it still bothered me what he had said about breaking out later this very night. I'm not sure if he wants me to be part of it or not and that's just a giant issue with me. It'll be on my head since I didn't fricassee the guy like Bill would've expected me to do (I guess that's why he brought a second beer; figured that if Nate had lasted more than fifteen minutes with me then he ought to get something as a reward).

I massaged my knees just a little. They had been sore for quite a while now with me not getting a whole lot of exercise (seeing me as a liability, the government decided to keep me in this cell at all times instead of letting me out into the yard to play with the other inmates). I had gotten to at least use my electric powers every day. I just shocked the bars to send a little jolt throughout whichever officer was patrolling the area. They didn't like it and I really couldn't understand why not. It livened up an otherwise dull day for them.

"So what do ya say?"

He caught me off-guard. "Say to what?"

"Helping me break out of here."

Well that answered my question at least. He does want me to help him after all. "I'm not sure. Like you said, I've got a good set-up here and I have practically nothing waiting for me on the outside." That, of course, was a lie. I wanted to get the hell out of this place as I was starting to grow a little claustrophobic around these walls they had put me in. Not to mention, Zeke was also waiting for me on the other side. We weren't much of friends as I had not yet forgiven him for his selfish actions of wanting to gain powers of his own over destroying the damn Ray Sphere, but he was the closest thing I had to family as my parents wouldn't even talk to me let alone care that I was in jail.

"You lying son-of-a-bitch." He chuckled a bit while saying those words.

"Caught me red-handed then?"

"You'd come off as a good liar to anyone else, I'll give you that. I've been around the block a few times though. Nepokoušejte seprobíratse mnou, můj příteli. "

That last bit sounded like gibberish to me. "What language was that?"

"Czech. It's a handy language to have, believe or not."

"Great, so not only are you the perfect candidate for The Bachelor, you're-"

He interrupted. "Why thank you." Still a wisecracking motherfucker.

I pushed on anyway. "You're also the guy they would call on to help someone learn their first language for Rosetta Stone?"

Nate pondered the question a little while. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I don't like to brag-"

"Liar."

"Well, I do like to brag that I do know quite a few different dialects of the world."

"What languages do you have in your pocket?"

"Let's see-this is going to be as harder than listing off the list of charges-Latin, Czech, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, German, Greek, Japanese, Chinese-"

I held my hand up. "I get it. You know a shitload of them."

"I can teach you a few if you want. They'll be handy to have around."

I gave it some thought. It was something I had always considered before but just never had the time or the money to go and achieve. "Sure."

"Good. You'll start learning Czech tomorrow."

I got a little confused. "Tomorrow? I thought you were going to break out tonight?"

"Nah. Not tonight, anyway. This is a nice little lean-to to survive my prison days. I've got a maximum of four months, though. I don't want my reputation to be trashed and sullied just because of me lending a helping hand for your fluentness in the different tongues of the world."

I smiled and nodded my head. "Understandable. I'll try to pick things up quickly so that way I won't trouble your time limit any." I gave off a specific whistle, and Bill came by a few minute later with two more bottles of Busch. I went to pick them up. "Who knows," I opened my bottle and threw his in his direction. "I may be sick of this place by the time the four months is up."

Nathan took another long swig of the alcoholic beverage. "You mean you'd be willing to break out of here with me?"

"I've gotten myself out of some tight spots before." No need to mention that I was a little lucky a few of those times.

"So what? This is the beginning of a beautiful partnership then?" He raised his bottle of beer, a sign that I should go and clink it up against his as a tying bond of some sort.

I looked down at my bottle of beer. What would I be leaving behind if I went along with this guy? There'd be no way that he would be willing to stay here in Empire City. Not to mention that we couldn't even be able to stay within one hundred miles of here without seeing a few "WANTED" posters on the walls of some local convenient store. I'd become number one on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list, no doubt. I would be leaving my true love's grave behind; I would be leaving behind my former best friend. Zeke would be pissed about this.

I knocked my bottle against his own.

"To a great partnership." Nate went at his beer, chugging it down.

"To cellmates." I chugged mine with him.