Movin' on up [Open][NR]

He was sitting on top of the world.

More money than he'd ever had before, a job, his own place, and a girl. How awesome was that? He hoped to god that this wasn't just a dream. Stretch was going to be soooo jealous, but he promised to stop by and share some of the earnings with him. Maybe he'd even catch some female flesh to record in his helmet cam and send to the pervert.

He ran and jumped from building to building, sometimes leaping into the air to glide a distance with his cape. There was alot of stuff he had to bring back with him, such as his other suit, his laptops and all of his research and notes about the suits. maybe he could carry it, and leapfrog his way back to Darkman Tower.

Cala was following him, right? He'd like to think she was close by while traversing the urban jungle toward the Suburbs. He asked "So what's your story, how do you figure out in all of this?" This girl was surely like no other. It would be very interesting to see how far things went with the crazy girl that had two different colored eyes. "What's your name?"

Cala followed him while he leapt from roof top to roof top, her doing much the same, and right behind him. It wasn't quite as fun as chasing him through the streets at high speeds, but she was still enjoying herself nonetheless. She glanced around as they went; this being an area she hadn't been in before, and her curiosity was always a constant thing with new areas. But, she kept enough focus not to crash, or run into anything or anyone as they went.

She then heard his question and chuckled softly. "My name's Cala, or Cala Jo, or whatever sort of nickname I end up being given." She thought over his first question, having skipped it for the moment. "As far as your first question goes... I met Alec and his family many years ago, when I worked over in that building you broke into. But, I'm a creature that can get bored easily, and well.. the insanity doesn't help with my boredom issue. Anyway, I disappeared for a while, came back, needed something to do... realized who was running things and it was all 'sign me up!' from there."

She figured if he had more questions for her he'd ask, she had no problem answering them, she was sure she raised a lot between her appearance, behavior, and the fact that she just admitted to being insane. An insane vampire... not something most people encountered well... ever.

Insanity? Oh boy, the was gonna be alot of fun then, right?...

Cala Jo...Cala. He liked that name. She said she used to be a part of Murder Inc. with Kane, back when it was open. Vampires usually lived forever if they didn't get staked through the heart, beheaded or exposed to sunlight. That's how it went in the movies anyway, right? Hundreds of years, yeah, I guess things could get real old real quick if you could live that long. He was just a human though, wouldn't that mean she'd get bored with him soon too? She'd stay all young and hot looking while he got old, grey and wrinkly, eating apple sauce and pooping on himself.

He dive bombed suddenly and sped to the ground. His cape slowed his fall and he landed safely, albeit causing several cracks in the pavement. No one was outside, so while walking across this street toward a large suburban home, his suit began to undergo a strange transformation. Sections began to move and fold up into tiny storage units on his belt. The entire suit moved and was stored away in a systematic process to reveal the actual person under the mask, though he didn't look very super at all without his armor on.

Matt looked like a scrawny loner, purposely. He wore a large purple Gengar Hoodie with a black short sleeved T beneath, dark grey cargo pants and black kicks. His black hair was wild and uncombed beneath his hood. Matt didn't consider himself much to look at really, and got used to terms like "Nerd" and "Loser."

"Maaaattt," was the irritating sound of Gran's voice from inside the house. "Grab the newspaper!"

He stepped up the cub in front of his grandparent's house, picking up the newspaper in the grass. "So. Being an insane Vampire. Must mean you live for a loooooong time, yeah?"

Cala followed him into the dive, though she simply hopped down, causing less speed while she fell, and therefore her impact as she hit the ground was light and silent to all but the most delicate of ears. She watched as his suit seemed to all go into his belt, and her grin grew slightly as she took in his new appearance. "Ah, see, I've just been calling you handsome.. but you're super handsome."

She turned her mismatched gaze towards the house as she heard what sounded like an elderly voice call out for someone named 'Matt" and told them to grab the newspaper. Seeing V pick it up she put two and two together, but didn't comment, since he had asked her another question. "I suppose that depends... Naturally I'll live for forever, I suppose. But, I lack a certain ability to feel fear, including the fear of what we call final death.. So, I suppose my clock could get punched at anytime if I decide to go do something stupid, ya know?"

She raised a brow as she looked at him again with her mismatched gaze. "Why? Thinking of wanting to live forever? Because, I can tell you.. there are other ways to do so than having to become a vampire.. in fact, I can make someone stay young and basically immortal without having to make them like me... it's kinky though, or at least that's what most people call it."

She shrugged, becoming quiet as she kept following him, figuring he might have even more questions now than he had before, while being more than willing to answer any and all of them.

Super handsome... bleh. But if she thought so? That was fine.

This is when they'd be walking up the stairs and across the large porch that had a large flowery couch with comfortable looking pillows. Cala said she was unable to feel fear and would live forever. The concept was just too big for his human mind to grab at.

She looked at him and offered to make it so he wouldn't die, any time soon, and without having to become a creature of the night. He'd have to just believe it when he saw it. A chance like this, to keep young and energetic until the end of time, as long as he wasn't killed, at least...Then she said the way about doing it was kinky. His eyes were like dinner plates beneath the purple hood and the mass of hair.

"You'd do something like that, for me? That's a pretty big thing, giving something like that away and all, right? You'd do that for some kid you just met who dresses up in a funny lookin' armor suit?"

Cala shrugged and just kept on grinning as she followed him onto the porch. "Eh, well like I said, you'd have to be willing to do it... and that would mean having to consume small amounts of my blood over a course of time of how ever long you wanted to live. So, it's not like it's a one time shot or anything."

She figured she might as well explain more, seeing that she didn't know how much he knew about Vampires or not. "People don't tend to think of Vampires as anything but evil, but our blood has healing properties as well. A small bit of my blood could add twenty years onto an average human, plus heal them. So, if I were to give someone, like you, small bits of my blood over the course of however long, you could essentially end up living for forever, all without become old and wrinkly. But, because there'd be no massive exchange of blood you wouldn't become a vampire.. encase that was floating around in your head. For you to become a vampire like myself I'd have to drain you to the point of death, then have you drink all of that back out of me... But yeah, either way, most consider it a taboo of some kind, or a kink, and aren't willing to do it."

She was blunt in her explanation, not willing to sugar coat it or make it sound nicer than it was. Everything had a price, and the price of being semi-immortal by a vampire was having to drink their blood, even if you didn't fully turn into one.

She glanced around, taking in the appearance of the porch, and his grandparents house, all with great curiosity. She had never lived in a house like this before: closest she had come was a castle, and that was cold, dark, and damp compared to the feeling she was getting from where he had been living. It was... cozy to her, and made her grin turn into a nice smile.

The idea of drinking someone else's blood, even if it was a fountain of youth, made him want to puke, to be honest. This was a really pretty girl that he thought sorta had the hots for him, but he just wasn't up for the idea of having anything to do with blood, teeth, or either of them having to go through any unnecessary pain. There was something about blood that just...threw him off. Was having a thing for a Vampire a bad idea, then? He shuddered in disgust at the thought of drinking someone else's blood. His mood died suddenly; he thought she was going to maybe kiss him or something along those lines when she said "kinky."

"...I couldn't do that, just to be honest with you," he answered, turning so he didn't have to see her get mad or disappointed, opening the screen door to his grandparent's porch. "No offense or anything, but drinking someone else's blood...that wasn't exactly one of the things I had on my 'Try it before you die' list. Besides, i'd like to think something like that is special, right? Something you give to someone close to you, huh? Not to me..." The idea to live longer than he should have was a fascinating one, but his life was only just beginning as is. He lived under the presumption that everything happened for a reason since his parents died, and whenever it was his time to check out, it was just going to happen because it was his time, and where ever he ended up when his life was over, he believed he'd get to be with them again.

Matt opened the door to the Black home and stepped inside, holding the doors open for Cala to enter first. The entire home was old school; even the smell in the air was "Old." Everything, the furniture, the decorations, the pictures, they were all from way back in the day, the 50's somewhere. An elderly man and woman sat in the large living room.

"Matt why didn't you show up to school today? Your counselor called!" said Mrs Black.

"I got a humongous job opportunity," was his response, handing her the newspaper. "I work for the Boss of the city now!"

"The Company? Ohhhh."

"Hmm...Alec...Kane?" added Mr Black. "I remember seeing him, a long time ago. He hasn't aged at all, does he still wear that grey coat? And who is this pretty young lady you've brought with you?"

Matt took this free opportunity to slip his right arm about her waist, feeling tingles and giddyness inside from being so close to her, and at the feel of the curve of her hip and side beneath his fingers. "This is Cala. She's a...one of the top officials that work for The Company, she came to speak on Alec's behalf." Quick thinking without giving away too much info. He looked at Cala. "Cala these are my grandparents, Thomas and Martha Black."

A giggle escaped Cala and she nodded; now even more intrigued than she was before. Most people would jump at the idea of being immortal, or even semi-immortal, no matter what they had to do to accomplish it. The fact that he was so opposed to drinking blood, even if it would increase his own life, made her smile. "Don't worry, I don't blame you... in fact, your reaction surprises me, for good reasons more than bad.", she said softly as he began to open the front door, meaning every word that she said. It was nice to come across someone who, for once, didn't jump at the idea of being immortal, and it only increased her interest in him further.

She stepped inside, throwing a quick glance around before turning her mismatched gaze to V's grandparents. She smiled politely, keeping the insane grin off of her face that she normally wore; not wanting to make a bad impression, or freak them out. Last thing she wanted was two scared elderly people, especially V's grandparents, she was pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate that.

Her smile grew slightly as she was introduced by V and because of his arm around her hips, which she didn't mind in the slightest and in fact found herself rather enjoying it, her smile entirely devoid of fangs or any sort of insane look: in fact, it was completely normal despite her two mismatched eyes. "It's nice to meet the both of you, and yes, he does still wear that grey coat.", she said with a soft chuckle. "Mister Kane, as stated, has offered him a job; he's very smart, and knows a great deal about technology, we think he'll be a great addition to the Company." She played carefully with her words, not knowing how much his grandparents actually knew about him running around in that suit and calling himself The Vigilante, so she figured she might as well at least play it safe for now.

"Y'see there, Marta? Did I not tell you that the boy was going to do big things one day? With all of the tragedy that has happened to this family, I knew sooner or later that the good Lord would bless us." Mr Black shook Matt's hand, and Mrs Black gave him a granny kiss on his forehead.

"We're proud of you baby," she said.

Matt said "Listen. The Bossman offered me to move into his big building downtown. He says he's gonna take care of you two too, so you don't have to worry about anything else! Maybe now you can buy that RV and drive around the country like you been talking about since I was in diapers, heh?"

"Is Mr Kane seriously willing to do that for us? I mean, there's the bills, and a lot of things need fixed..."

"It's all gonna be taken care of. You're gonna have enough to do whatever you want. Mr Kane will probably send another one of his people by here today or as early as tomorrow to get you started. I wanted to come by to let you know, and also to grab some of my stuff!"

The Elderly Blacks began to seem very excited, and started making plans. Matt pulled Cala with him toward the kitchen, holding open the door as he escorted her inside. He'd lead her down into the basement next, his room. Besides the bed in the corner, it didn't look like a bedroom at all. To the trained eye with the whole set up, it would resemble a laboratory, with a large strange looking machine specially built to maintenance his suit. There were plans, blueprints and papers with complicated math problems strewn everywhere.

He didn't want to let go of her just yet but he had to grab the necessities. Matt dragged over the large black coffin-sized case that contained his other Exoskeleton. He typed in a long complicated code before the door on top opened. He started cramming in clothes, laptop computers, notes, comic books, strange looking containers and capsules.

"Sorry for the mess...won't take long, i'm leaving most of this here, just want to grab what I need the most..."

Stretch was going to be so jealous that he'd had a girl in his room. He was still anxious to see what his reaction to all of this was going to be.

Cala smiled, rather happy herself to see his grandparents so happy. It made her glad that she didn't give up on that chase as soon as she could have, and had saw it all to the end. It also made her think for a moment back to her sister, who was still probably in their suite in the tower... more than likely flicking the lights on and off again repeatedly.

She let her thoughts drift away as V lead her into the kitchen and then down into his basement bedroom. She glanced around curiously as he let go of her waist to go begin to pack, and surprised herself by wishing he hadn't had to let go so soon; noticing the blue prints and everything thing else. She didn't mind the mess, as he had said, she was just more curious than anything as it gave her a peek into more about V.

"Hmm? Oh, my room's a mess too.. except, my room looks like a tornado hit a library with the books I have everywhere.", she said with a grin. "And take all the time you need. I'm not in any hurry...Worse thing that'll happen is my little sister will go make friends with Alec and ask him a hundred and one questions about the modern world while we're gone.." She amused herself for a moment with imagining this in her minds eye, a whole bunch of 'what's that?' type questions from Devon posed to Alec. Meanwhile she kept watching him pack, noticing the laptops and everything else he was cramming into that strange looking case.

"So...", she said, figuring since she had answered some of his questions it couldn't hurt to ask some of her own. "How long have you been using that suit of yours?"

"Since I was 12," was the answer. It was true that the kid had an intellect far beyond that of a normal 15 year old boy. He took highly after his late father, also a brain...It wasn't something he was very proud of though. "It's kinda lame, I know, hiding down here in this hole all fantasized about this geeky stuff instead of maybe being like the rest of you guys."

He hurriedly shoved several nudie mags into the nearby closet and slammed the door. Matt then went and picked up a large special blue capsule. It was about the size of a soccer ball. The capsule looked like it was filled with a dust-like substance, and one with advanced eyes could see that the dust was actually moving. Matt put it in the capsule last, then closed the door on the top, re-typing in the long complicated code to open it.

He looked at Cala again, having packed everything he'd need. He wasn't going to take very many clothes, since he had more than enough money to go by new stuff.

Matt wondered if she was slowly putting some sort of Vampire spell on him because he found himself becoming more and more attracted to this girl. A girl had never come down here into his room before, even if he was about to move out. Matt didn't want this moment to end quite yet...

After thinking about what to say to her for a moment he finally said "So...how long...have you been a Vamp? Were you born one or were you turned into one?" He put his hands into his hoodie pockets.

She listened to his answer, somewhat astonished as to his answer: he must've been extremely smart if he had been able to pull off something like that suit, and at such a young age at that.

She chuckled softly at his comment and shook her head, her black and purple hair falling in front of her eyes before she lifted her hand and forced it back again. "Eh, I don't think it's lame, actually. Interesting, really. Not many people could honestly pull off what you did.", she said softly as she watched him finish packing, not commenting on anything that he happened to pack. Her vision picked up on the movement of the dust looking stuff inside of the last capsule that he packed and she tilted her head slightly in curiosity.

"I.. wasn't born a vampire, in fact I was turned." She turned her mismatched gaze on him, wondering what his reaction was going to be to her true age. A sigh escaped her before she answered the rest of his question, "I was turned at the age of ten... and I'm currently four-hundred and sixteen years old, give or take a few months, and human years included in that total." She wondered if he'd think her too old, too creepy now. So, she watched him curiously. If he did freak out he wouldn't be the first, it had happened before in the past when she allowed her true self to show through the cracks of the human-mask she wore so well. Though, she hoped like hell he didn't; she really liked him, and didn't want to see that end up being what caused him to run and flee from her.

"Hmm. That's a pretty long time. You must have seen a lot then, right? The first car, the first plane, the first computer..."

It was hard to believe, but with all the offers and money Mr Kane gave him, he was willing to believe anything nowadays.What mattered to him most was that he thought she really liked him and she was hot. He found himself staring long at how her hair turned from black to purple, similar to the color in his jacket.

He'd still think that he would be another person in a long line of people that she got bored with, and once he became an old fart she'd write him off altogether. That's if things even managed to make it that far. Because of his Nanoids, Matt expected to live much longer than an ordinary human would, since the machines were always at work keeping his body at 100%, ridding it of foreign invaders, but he'd wait and see how all of this played out.

Matt picked up his old karate uniform off the dirty floor and lie it across his bed. He kicked the weights he used to train under the bed next. He couldn't think of anything else to say, trying to visualize how her skin looked beneath those clothes all of a sudden, and could only scratch the side of his head with the index finger on his right hand. "Well, I guess we can head back now, if you're ready, if you didn't have anymore questions or nothin'. I got everything I need, the rest can stay here..."

Wow, he really wasn't freaking out? That was a first, definitely a first, especially seeing as the last person she had told had turned and ran screaming into the dark never to be seen again. Especially with how calm he seemed to be taking the information. Her smile spread further across her face and she nodded to his statement. "I suppose so. I got to see a lot of firsts. Including you. First to see someone running around in a suit like yours, first to see the sort of reactions you've been giving me with dealing with all of this... " Her smile turned into a grin. "It's nice to come across someone who doesn't freak out after learning the truth about me."

She found herself thinking about how he might be one of those rare people she didn't get bored with easily. Each new thing she learned about him only made her more curious, only increased her want to get to know him more, to get closer. It was a rare thing indeed, and had only happened several times: each with her friends; Destiny, Demi, Maximillian. Maybe he would be one of those rare few as well. But, she wouldn't mention it yet, not wanting to freak him out, or make him think she might be creepy or something: even though so far she had yet to freak him out with anything she had revealed about herself.

"I'm ready, so long as you're sure you've got everything. Though, you can always come back and get something if you think of it later.", she said with a light shrug, waiting for him to lead the way, especially in the chance he wanted to say something else to his grandparents before they left to head back to the tower. "Lead the way and I shall follow.", she said softly.

The coffin-like container was dragged upstairs. Matt seemed like he was having trouble bringing it up the stairs, breathing hard and wheezing, but it was an act he put on in front of the grandparents since he didn't want them knowing about his Vigilante activities. Mr Black said something about lifting with the knees so he wouldn't blow out his back.

There was a long period of good-byes and come back to visits and eat your vegetables. Matt dragged the coffin outside, getting red in the face while breathing hard, and once he closed the door he was able to push the button on his belt that caused his armor to unfold in the manner that it would resemble paper unraveling after being balled up as it covered his body. He had to push his cape out of his face before easily lifting up the coffin, preparing to take off. A guy with a cape running across the tops of buildings was going to look strange.

"Meet you back at the Tower?" he asked, then he was off and running, even with a coffin over one shoulder...

Cala watched him act like he was struggling to carry the black case, and held back her grin. She figured it was all an act, as there definitely seemed to be more beneath the surface than what there looked to be. But, she also took it as a sign that his grandparents didn't know about his extra activities, which made her glad she had played it safe and had given the very watered down version of things when she had spoken to them.

She remained quiet during their goodbyes and gave a polite wave before walking outside with him. She watched him dawn his suit again and then gave a nod at his words about meeting her back at the tower before he took off. "See you there!", she called after him.

She threw a glance around and then took off herself, at first on foot, but after several minutes she began to bounce off of one building and than another, much like a ping-pong ball. Each time she went higher and higher up along the buildings, avoiding windows, or damaging anything as she went. Eventually she reached the roof tops and began to jump from one to another, heading straight to Darkman Tower.