The overwhelming sounds of chatter, chitchat, mutters, and everyday street noise from the surrounding people were almost overwhelming for the two boys. All they were trying to do was to get to a map, or someone who had a map. "We had to pick the busiest time to try and choose our next action plan, didn't we." Alex said as he tried to push past some guy standing in the middle of the street, neither of them knew where they were going, just that they would pick a random direction and go from there and from the looks of it they ended up choosing what could only be described as a town square mixed with a farmers market."It's not like we chose to do this on purpose it is annoying, though." Orion said while avoiding a lady walking with her kids, both of whom had animal ears on their heads, Alex did his best not to stare as he walked past them.
Finally, the two would end up near a train station, or maybe it was a bullhead landing place. Alex noticed how the thing on the ground was some landing site maybe they just missed the ship or something. "Alex, I found one!" turning around, the boy would see Orion standing next to a board with a giant map of the city and some pamphlets under it, probably some smaller maps for tourists, or interdimensional travelers, eh potato, tomato. "Nice, alright, where are we then?" after searching the map for a few seconds, Alex answered his own question and pointed to a spot on the map that said, "You are here"
"Alright, now we know where we are where is the caravan place at?" Orion pulled the flyer out of his pocket, unfolded it, and then reread the address, "387 Saoirse Street." with that, the two opened up the packet and started trying to find the street they were looking for, it took them a few minutes, it took this long mostly because they started near the center of the city but as it turns out the place was actually pretty close to the edge of the city. "Huh, I guess they plan to leave pretty soon, then?" Turning, Alex noticed Orion grabbing a marker and circling where the address is and the route they were going take to try to get there.
Looking at the route showed that Orion had tried to avoid the bigger areas Alex raised his eyebrows and looked at his cousins, who seemed to notice his look and responded before he asked the question. "I don't want to be in those crowds like last time, and so we can try and practice a bit on the way there, and so we can actually plan on what we're going to say." Alex grimaced his cousin was right, neither of them really planned on what they were going to say or do, for that matter. "I was kinda hoping we could say we're going to help with protection and maybe labor? You're good at cooking maybe you can help with that?"
The two had started making their way to the meeting spot now, both of them doing their best oi try and practice with their powers thankfully, both of them had powers that were pretty easy to conjure back up, Orion was mostly trying to get his basics down, at least from what Alex could tell that's what he was doing, to him he was just sprouting ice and plants all over the place, thankfully the plants actually helped him with his own powers, he could burn them and drain the smoke, turns out the two learned that they could mix there powers a bit, mostly the flaming plant tentacle things, it took a few tries but once Orion was able to summon a planyt tentacle Alex lit the thing on fire via his fiery smoke and then he could both drain the smoke from the burning plants to get even more and Orion now had a flaming plant tentacle with thorns.
The two cousins looked to be about halfway to the meeting spot when they had two people step in front of the alleyway they had been cutting through to get to the spot faster, "Hey, you two, come here real quick." the older of the two motioned with his hand at them, he was wearing what might have been hunter clothes? That or the guy really really liked the color orange, he wore metal grieves and gauntlets. The guy standing next to him seemed a bit younger maybe his mid-thirties? They both looked pretty old and well odd looking they both had short hair and some scars on them, be it their face or arms. The younger guy had a metal flail it looked pretty normal, all things considered. The hilt looked like it might have a few extra buttons on it, but besides that, it looked rather normal.
The two boys looked at each other before they shook their heads. "That's alright, sir, we'll just go the other way," Alex responded, already having a bad feeling about these two, Orion leaned over to whisper to him. "These guys are fuckin weird let's go." the two were about to turn around before they watched the two guys in front of them throw some type of rock at them it sailed over their heads and hit the ground behind them. Which promptly exploded into a well of ice blocking the alley's backway. Orion and Alex would quickly jumped back to get away from the ice and turned back to face the men.
"Here's the thing kiddies we aren't asking get your asses over here, now!" The man with the armored legs and arms yelled at the two now walking towards them. Orion and Alex both looked at each other, whispering in a hurried manner. "We need to be careful. These guys got dust, the ice stuff." "I noticed how strong do you think these guys are?" "No clue, but if they have dust, that means they either have some sort of training or just have money to rob people."
"The hell are you two whispering about!?" The two men were just about on them now, both now holding their weapons in front of them now or, in the armored guy's case, slamming his fist into his palms, slamming them together. The boys were getting nervous; they needed to do something quickly! "We need to do something now!" Alex's eyes frantically looked around for something they could attack them with before he remembered, duh, they had powers. All they needed to do was hit them hard enough and hopefully run away! "We need to bum rush them and use some of your magic, the most you can use at once, that big fire you did earlier should work." Alex turned back at the guys about to be in front of them.
Alex put his arm behind him he began forming smoke along his arm, they needed something big if they wanted to get out of this he focused on pouring as much smoke as he could into his palm and arm it was quickly growing bigger and bigger by the second. Orion started tracing his foot in the ground around himself, doing his best to do it without drawing any attention to himself, the men were now standing right in front of them, "Alright, kiddies, all we need you to do is drop everything you have and nobody gets hurt alri- What the!" the man's eyes quickly lurched downwards seeing the glowing circle, right before it was completed. The man's arm was halfway in the air, about to bring his mace down onto Orion, when Alex threw his arm forward, aiming at the two of them, letting the held-back ash and smoke fly forward, smashing right into the men.
The force of the blast flung the men backwards, their backs hitting the alley wall near the boys, the ash cloud following them the whole time, they both let out pained cries as the fire, ash, and smoke filled their lungs and lit them ablaze even if briefly, right after this Orion's circle was finished bright fire quickly erupted from below his feet and was quickly blasted forward the smoke cloud that surrounded the two would-be robbers was quickly enveloped by the flames and so to would be the muggers. They both let out pained screams until the fire quickly dissipated.
Orion and Alex looked over at each other before looking back over at the two bodies near the wall. "Holy shit, that was bright." "Yeah, no kidding, I- do you think they're okay? Actually, those two tried to rob us screw them." Even if they both pretty much agreed the two got what was coming to them, they still walked over to make sure they didn't kill the two, it was pretty bad they both had burns and burnt clothes some of their skin had started to turn a reddish black color. Alex hoped they weren't as bad as they looked. "Okay, they're alive, I think, come on we need to go, for all we know there could be more guys, and we weren't exactly quiet here," Orion said, looking over at his cousin, who seemed to be messing with the robbers.
"What are you doing we need to leave." Alex nodded before he finally was able to do what he had been trying to do, he was able to pull the man's gauntlets off, "Hold on, also here, put these on we'll need them more than these guys will." Orion looked a bit off-put by putting on a burnt man's armor even if he was alive then again, they did try to rob them and probably did the same to other people, so they were probably helping the people out around here. "Alright, man." it took a few minutes to get the grieves off, but once he did, he handed them to Orion, who quickly put them on they covered his feet and lower legs and reached about an inch or two onto his upper legs.
After giving Orion the armor, Alex grabbed the other man's flail and stood up after having to bend down to get the armor and weapon. "Alright, now we can leave." Looking up, Orion now had armored legs and gauntlets they had a bit of a shine to them, it looked like the fire and smoke had cleaned the metal some kind, giving the light orange-colored armor a shine to it. "If we plan to get anywhere near the people in the main show, we're going to need weapons."
"Then why didn't you give me the weapon." "Because I'm already pretty durable conduits in inFamous can tank bullets pretty easily hell, they can get shot at by machine guns and helicopters, sure those hurt them a lot more compared to the other things, but as long as they can drain their element they can heal, but from what you've shown me from the owl house they're still pretty much normal humans so if you get shot by a bullet you're screwed." "Alright, fair." Alex nodded, "Yeah, which reminds me, we need to get someone to unlock your aura as soon as possible." "Oh also-" Alex was interrupted by a pained groan coming out of the older guys mouth. "Right, we need to go like now!" "Yeah, no shit, sherlock."
With that, the two started running, which quickly turned to sprints when they heard sirens from what they assumed to be cop cars going to the spot where they had just come from. Thankfully all the adrenaline and fear seemed to be a good thing because Alex turned into a cloud of flying smoke briefly before he turned back into a person mid-sprint, causing him to fall, almost faceplanting directly into a busy road, the only thing that stopped him was Orion grabbing onto his shirt, looks like he grabbed him right after he had reformed and before he could fall.
"Holy crap." Alex's breathing picked up as he looked at his own hands, much like when he first unlocked his powers. "You're welcome. Are you okay, man?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Orion," he said it sarcastically, but he did mean it even if he was pretty sure he could tank getting hit by a car, he would still rather not know what that feels like. "Okay, so that.' Alex motioned his arms around his body, smoke trailing off him when he did. "Was awesome! That means I can turn into a smoke cloud! I can go through things this helps so much!" "Alright, cool you can turn into an ash cloud, but we still need to get to the caravan, so come on."
Alex nodded, calming himself down. "Right, right, sorry, I-we" Alex quickly caught himself. "Need to stay focused on that right now." "Come on, the map says we need to go this way, we're almost there anyways." and you could tell they were almost there, too, the area around them seemed to be less inhabited by people and more by a few small shops here and there almost no homes, looks like people don't want to be living close to the edge of their city, Alex doesn't blame them if he knew nightmarish shadow creatures would try to get to them no matter what he wouldn't want to stay here either.
Along the way, Alex would continue to turn into a smoke cloud, and he quickly learned that he could stay as a smoke cloud for just about as long as he wanted to, and he could actually go higher into the air with it too! It seemed that the games only showed them briefly turning into to smoke because of game mechanics, but, in reality, he could do this for he didn't know how long. He also learned when turning back into his regular solid form, was it felt like he was running when turning normal. "Hah, hah, okay, I need to get better stamina if I want to stay a smoke cloud." "No shit, dude, you look like you just ran three miles. Come on, the meeting place should be a few streets over, try not to spaz out before then."
It didn't take long after that for the two to finally arrive at the place where the caravan meet-up area was at. Surprisingly enough, there weren't that many people there sure, a few people were talking with each other, but it looked like those were the people who were already on the caravan if the wagons and horses were anything to go by. There were maybe ten or fifteen people there altogether. Them not included, looking around the two boys tried to figure out just who was in charge and who they were supposed to talk to, they must have stood out like a sore thumb because the next thing the two of them knew, they felt a hand on each of their shoulders.
Turning around, they found themselves looking up into the weathered face of a tall, rugged man. His deep green eyes held a mix of curiosity and authority. He had salt and pepper colored hair put up in a ponytail he was wearing a brown and red coating that was covered in small patches and symbols. "You two seem lost," he said, his voice deep and resonant. "First time with the caravan, I presume?" the two nodded. "Yes sir," Alex managed to reply, his voice carrying a hint of nervousness mixed with respect. The man's expression softened slightly, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He released their shoulders, stepping back to give them some space.
"Well, newcomers are always welcome, provided they pull their weight. What skills do you bring to my caravan?" he asked, folding his arms as he waited for their response. Alex glanced at Orion, a silent understanding passing between them. This was their moment to prove their worth. "We're quick learners, and we can help with anything you'll let us help you with," Alex started, his voice steady. "But more importantly," he continued, a determined glint in his eyes, "we have unique abilities that could be invaluable on the road."
The man raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "Unique abilities, you say? I've seen lots of things on these travels, but I'm always open to surprises. Show me what you've got." Alex looked at Orion and nodded he quickly formed smoke along his arm, gathered it into a balk, and threw it an an unoccupied spot on the lot, where it quickly exploded into a cloud of red and black smoke. "I can control and manipulate smoke, at least to a certain degree I can even turn into smoke, too." he then showed this off, briefly turning into a cloud of ash and moving around before landing in front of the man, his breathing having obviously increased. The man had a raised eyebrow before looking at Orion. "And how about you?"
"Uh the best way I can explain it is I have magic?" "Magic? That's a new one, mind showing me?" "Not at all." after that, Orion gave the man and the group around them a brief show of his powers a small circle for fire, ice, and plants he explained the bigger the circle, the more powerful the outcome. "There's more, but that's the gist of it."
Again the man looks at the two before responding to them. "Alright, you showed me your 'abilities,' but you didn't tell me much of what you can do to help, although I will admit your semblances do look helpful, especially yours." he nodded to Orion. "I don't mind helping out with food or cooking." the man once again nodded. "Alright, and you?" he looked over to Alex. The boy looked a bit anxious, more so than his cousin. "Honestly, sir, I don't mind helping with anything I don't really have any specific I can say I'm good at, but I don't mind learning or being shown how to help with anything."
The man seemed to consider Alex's words for a moment. His gaze shifted back and forth between the two boys as if weighing their sincerity and potential. Finally, he nodded slowly, a hint of approval in his eyes. "Honesty is a good start. We always have room for those willing to learn and adapt. You'll find plenty to do on this caravan." Alex's and Orion's faces brightened up immediately. "Yes! Thank you, sir, you won't regret this!" he nodded before doing his best to calm the boys down "Alright, there's just a few more things, alright. Also, I still haven't gotten your names yet." the boys quickly introduced themselves. "I'm William, and this is my cousin Orion." The man's face now had a small smile on it. "Alright, nice to meet you two my name's Marlowe Thorn, and welcome to my caravan."
After the greetings, the two were introduced to a few others in the caravan. Eventually, they would be given a small bag of supplies as the two had nothing but the clothes on their back and their weapons the small group gave them a few things but were told it was their own responsibility to keep up with them. Not much happened that day besides introductions and small interactions and helping the rest of them get ready to leave, which they learned they had just caught the group before they were going to leave the day after. With that, the boys would make sure they had everything ready for the next day, then would fall into a peaceful slumber.