Chapter 4: road to ComiCon.

6:AM.

As the bus was driving into the city at dawn, Thomas Ackerman was having a casual conversation with Sephiroth about a discovery he made about his ability.

"interesting." said Sephiroth as he stared out the bus windows. He wasn't really paying attention and forgot what had prompted Thomas to go on and on about his "Velociraptor" ability and almost bore him to death. Was it something he said? Sephiroth did recall the day before when Thomas mentioned a "Velociraptor" or something along those lines. a bump on the road helped Sephiroth to wake up from his train of thought.

The endless amounts of skyscrapers and office buildings passing by reminded Sephiroth of the Shinra Tower, towering high over the citizens of Midgar. He also was reminded of the J.E.N.O.V.A Project by the passing buildings.
(Hojo… I wonder what he's up to if he's still alive...)

Sephiroth looked back at Thomas and saw he was eating a sandwich from his backpack. Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato. nothing special.
"so, how long will it take for this bus to reach ComiCon?" he asked, returning to his seat.
"we're near the center of the City, so I would guess about 15 Minutes to Half an Hour."
Thomas returned to eating his sandwich as he finished his sentence.

"Any idea of what the competition consists of?"
"It's not really a competition, and more of a 'Fashion Show' for cosplayers." said Thomas putting his sandwich back in it's container.
"First will be a showcase of the costume itself, and then the costumes will be ranked based on quality. Once in a rank, the judges will have to decide the winner based on 3 criteria: Accuracy of the costume, how well it's put together, and generally how well it looks on the wearer. Once someone wins in a rank, they move up a rank ranging from C to S. obviously S is the highest."

Sephiroth was not expecting of Thomas to be so knowledgeable about this. If he didn't know any better, he would probably say Thomas WAS a judge.
"You seem to know an awful lot about this. Do you happen to have any connections with the competition?"
"As a matter of fact, I AM a former judge for this." said Thomas pleased with himself.

"Former? Did you leave?"

Thomas sank into his seat as his depressed face stared at the bus floor.

"I... don't want to talk about it." said Thomas weakly.
Sephiroth only said "oh..." and didn't add anything. he didn't know WHAT happened, and he had no plans to find out.

The two sat in silence for a while as the bus arrived at it's destination. the event took place at what looked like a shopping mall, evident by the large parking lot surrounding it, and several stores on the outside of a huge building. Tons of cars were parked in little spaces surrounding the mall outlet.
Thomas and Sephiroth could see a huge crowd surrounding the front doors. Hundreds of men and women in costumes were waiting outside for the doors to open.
"Thomas, I thought you said that there wouldn't be a crowd this large so early."
"Looks like they beat us to it, Sid."

The bus pulled over at the front of the large building as the bus driver grabbed a microphone that was dangling from above.
"alright everyone! we're here!" said the driver as he pulled a lever. The doors slowly opened as the passengers stood up from their seats.
Thomas Ackerman quickly shot up from his seat in the bus and said "C'mon Sid, let's go! We gotta register!" as he grabbed his backpack from the floor.
Sephiroth soon followed him, picking up his Masamune blade off the floor as well. Nobody bat an eye to the fact Sephiroth carried a lethal weapon. Probably because they thought it was a cosplay prop.

Stepping onto the concrete in front of the Mall, Sephiroth and Thomas stood in awe at the immense crowd surrounding the buildings and entrance. There were plenty of stalls and tents outside, each with varying amounts of merchandise in them. Food trucks were parked nearby selling their goods, and many outdoor booths were erected here as well. Everyone was wearing strange hats, odd clothing, robes, armor, and carried pretend weapons and items with them. But a few of them just wore branded clothing with mascots and phrases on them. Sephiroth had never seen anything like this before back in Midgar, or at least not of this scale. Sure there were a few popular books, games, movies, and TV shows back in his home of Gaia, but he didn't know anybody that wanted to dress up as their favorite characters. ComiCon was completely alien to him.

Thomas, Sephiroth noted, was also wearing a branded shirt. The words "Pokemon" in bold yellow text hung above depictions of strange monsters and animals. A giant yellow mouse, a blue turtle, and a red lizard with fire on it's tail were in various action poses on Thomas' red shirt.
"HEY! I think the mall's about to open! yeah, I see a guy with keys near the entrance!" exclaimed Thomas. Sephiroth turned his attention to a man in uniform struggling to force his way through the crowd to the front door of the Mall. He held numerous keys in his hand and had a depressed frown that said "I hate my job."

"I thought you said that ComiCon wouldn't start until 8:00."
"Yeah, but the mall opens at 6:00. Let's just hang out until it starts. OOH! Hey Sid, we should sign you up first!"
Sephiroth agreed with the overly enthusiastic Thomas, who desperately wanted him to win.
"where do we sign up?"
"We go inside, find the desk, sign up, go back out, and get on stage when they tell us to. It's easy!"
Sephiroth doubted that signing up would be a piece of cake. There would probably be a lot of lineups involved, waiting, meeting with people, and maybe even
signing some paperwork. It definitely would NOT be as easy as Thomas would make it out to be.

Even so, Sephiroth knew better than to correct his friend he met the other day. Maybe it IS as easy as Thomas says it is. He WAS a former judge after all.
"Thomas, do you know exactly where the sign-up desk is? I doubt it's in the same spot for every event."
"Yeah, it's usually in the food court here. We also have to give them a good look at your outfit so they can qualify us."
(Yeah. Outfit. Thomas, if only you knew the truth about me, you wouldn't be saying that.) Sephiroth thought to himself. The crowd before the two of them dissipated as everyone struggled to pass each other to go inside the mall.

"Let's go Sid."
"Gotcha."

Sephiroth and Thomas stepped inside through the front doors of the mall and tons of bright lights, stores, centers, stands, and other things greeted them as they entered. Thomas could see the amazement in Sephiroth's eyes as the two of them set foot inside, and he couldn't blame him. Escalators lead up to suspended walkways on the second floor. A small fountain was right at the entrance. And despite the unassuming and boring exterior, the interior's architecture was a sight to behold. "I know how you feel. It still amazes me every time I go here. It's just so... Grand. You know?"

Sephiroth struggled to say anything, but he did manage to get a few words out. "T-This is... The best inside to a building I have ever seen!"
"Same for me, probably because I don't travel much. Anyway, let's get to the food court and sign up!" Said Thomas as he ran ahead of "Sidney Dawnstone."

"R-Right. Let's go."

Tons of clothing outlets, electronics stores, and game shops surrounded Sephiroth and his friend as they made their way to find the food court. He had never been here before, and as such did not know where to go. But he suspected that Thomas would know the way to their destination, so he just followed him. Along the way, Thomas would make a few quick stops inside the stores if he spotted something that interested him. Maybe have a look at the Kiosks for good measure. Every time he got distracted by something, Sephiroth would ask him to hurry up because there wasn't a lot of time left. It was 6:27, and they finally reached the food court. It was this giant space with tons of restaurants, and many people lined up here to order food from them. Again, Sephiroth never saw anything like this. The skylight, the hanging fluorescent structures, and the sounds of hundreds of people talking over one another had him in awe.

"HEY! SIDNEY! There it is!" exclaimed Thomas as he pointed somewhere. Sephiroth turned his head every which way in confusion, as he didn't know where his friend was pointing towards. "Over there!" Sephiroth at last drew his attention to where Thomas pointed at.

It was the registration desk. The small stand neatly blended in with the food court's sterile white chairs and tables, obscured by passersby. A loud growling noise came from Sephiroth's stomach. He hadn't eaten in a while, and Thomas noticed this as well. "Let's go and sign up. Here, I'll give you a sandwich if you're hungry that much." said Thomas grabbing out a sandwich container for him.

"Uh... Thanks, Thomas." Sephiroth slowly reached for the plastic box that Thomas held. After grabbing the container, he looked around the food court for a while and asked Thomas "so, we're signing up now, correct?"

"Yeah! Of course we are." said Thomas as he ran off to the desk. Sephiroth grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from running off without him.

"Whoa there cowboy, slow down." Sephitroth turned his friend around. " I know you're excited and all, but please wait for me!"

"Oh. Right. Sorry." he said, scratching the back of his head. Thomas motioned both of his arms to the direction of the sign-up desk as if he was presenting something, and took a slight formal bow. "This way, my lord." Sephiroth and Thomas both chuckled. The two of them finally made their way to the other side of the food court where the desk was, and Thomas slammed his fist down in front of the guy running it.

"Hello sir! I have a friend I would like to enter into the contest." he pointed his hands to Sephiroth, who was just giving a nervous smile and a wave.
"Hi." Sephiroth said.

The man at the desk stroked his beard while studying Sephiroth for a while. Something about him felt... well, off, to say the least. His clothing looked a bit too genuine, if that makes sense; Sephiroth's outfit looked like it was made of real leather and metal, and his Masamune "prop" also looked a bit too real.

The man adjusted his glasses and asked "And, his name is... what exactly?"
"Sidney Dawnstone." replied Thomas.
"I see..."

Sephiroth approached the desk and asked the man "So, how exactly do I sign up for this... pageant?"
"Well mister Dawnstone, what you first gotta do is sign here, and get outside to see whoever's running this crapshow." he replied with monotone. The guy really didn't seem all that excited for this competition. His eyes struggled to stay open, and they had this constant glare on them. He wouldn't even look at Sephiroth in the eyes.
"Okay, thanks." Sephiroth said, eyeing the registration papers beside the man. "By the way..." he added. "I didn't catch your name. Would you mind introducing yourself?"

(Christ, now he wants my name? Yeah, let me just tell my whole life story.) "It's Wally Smithers. Now if you're gonna register, then do it already." Wally said with a dead stare. Thomas thought back to when the mall first opened. There was an employee who unlocked the doors, and he also looked like he was grumpy with something. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to-"
"Yes, I'm the ol' Stick-In-The-Mud that opens the doors first thing in the morning! Sue me!" Interrupted Wally as he slammed his fist on the paper. Thomas drew his hands up swiftly. "Yeesh, didn't mean to upset you buddy."
"*sigh* Yeah, I haven't taken my meds this morning." Wally slowly took his hands off the registration papers and reached for a pen in his shirt pocket. "Anyway, if you wanna sign up, I'll need you to fill in this form."

Sephiroth whispered into Thomas' ears and asked "Is this all I have to do?"
"Pretty much, yeah."

Taking the registration papers, Sephiroth signed his adopted name on numerous dotted lines and answered many questions on the paper. "All right. I'm done." he said as he laid the papers down in front of Wally, who then stamped "Approved" on them after quickly looking over them. "Alright mister Dawnstone. Now take it to the guy by the stage outside. He'll tell ya what to do." Wally held the paper out for Sephiroth, as well as a red ticket saying "Participant" on it.
"Thanks." Sephiroth said.

"Alright Sid! C'MON! Let's get to the judges!" Thomas ecstatically leaped into the air and grabbed Sephiroth by his arm, dragging him out of the food court with him. "H-Hey! You can't just... Are you even listening to me?!"
"Heh heh heh. NOPE!" Thomas said as he dragged Sephiroth kicking and screaming in agony.