Another State, Another Search [Ben]

[amy]

24th November, 2008

Amy was still searching for her sons, and it was driving her wild not being able to find them. She was beginning to wonder where they were. Although this was only the second State she had come to, so it wasn't as if she'd tried everywhere possible, yet. She had thought the guy in Nevada might have helped her to find them, but he just turned out to be a user and she hated users.

She might not be an exact angel herself, but she was better than that guy had been, that was for sure. He had just used her, but then she had used him also in a way, she just hadn't got what she wanted from him, and that was his help to find her sons. She needed to find them. She had never forgiven them for having a hand in her husband's death, and they had to pay, or at least that's what Amy had been thinking for the past few years. Whether Amy still had that much hate left in her was a different matter altogether.

So, now here she was driving around Queens in New York, not particularly paying attention to where she was going. She wanted to go for a drink, and then she realised she couldn't, not when she was driving, but she was in such need of a good drink. However she put it to the back of her mind, and began fiddling with the CD player to change the CD over, in doing so, she took her eyes off the road for a fraction of a second, and the next thing she knew a car ran into her, making her swerve as it crashed into a tree.

The impact made Amy sway to the left, and she smacked her head off the glass causing a gash, which was pouring with blood and her arm was smacked against the steering wheel, causing her wrist to snap and it was bruised, the bonnet of the car crushed by the tree.

[solidus]

Ben had been walking home from work, as he hadn't have a car considering his lived in Queens where having a car would be like owning a peace of lamb in a lion's cage. There wasn't at least one of his neighbors that hadn't had their car broken into or stolen. Fearing the same loss, he sold his car in the first month of moving to New York and ever since he's been taking the bus to and from work. Usually he didn't mind this, however as of late, it's been annoying him. It's low standard began to annoy him.

As he walked alongside the road towards his apartment building, he observed the cars that flue past. One car in particular caught his eyes. Inside driving was a decent looking women, however it was clear her mind wasn't on the road, instead it appeared to be fiddling with the radio or CD player. Within the walls of his own mind, Ben made a joke that was the sort of behavior that was just asking for a car crash. Unfortunately for the woman driving, fate was inspired by his joke.

Her car was hit by another as she entered a t-junction. As a result of the collision, her car was sent straight for a tree. In a state of panic, the other driver attempted an escape as all the damage his car suffered was a small dent to the front. However Ben wasn't going to let the man get away just like that. After all, for all Ben knew he collided with her on purpose and was making a getaway. Aiming his hand out towards the car, his power was reaching out for electric within the car that kept it operating. A bolt of electric entered his body and was converted in a dim light.

The car without it's electric was completely stationary and Ben was able to focus on the other car. Without thinking he ran towards it, hoping to be some sort of hero. He stopped outside the woman's car window and dialed 911. Before he allowed the operator to speak, Ben explained the situation. "Hello!? There's a been a car crash at the T-Junction in Baker Street, Queens. There's a woman who looks to be bleeding, I'm not sure how bad she'd been hurt but there's blood."

"What service would you like?" Came the reply from the operating.

You could hear a pin drop in the silence. Ben couldn't believe he was being asked that question. All the clues were in the description and he was so tempted to be sarcastic, however the last thing this poor women needed was the speed boat carrying the coast guard popping up. He asked for the ambulance and repeated his story. Once he was assured that an ambulance was on it's way, he slipped his mobile into his pocket and went to help the women. "Hey, don't worry. I've called 911 and the ambulance is on it's way. How you holding up?"

[amy]

Amy wasn't sure what had happened to her, for a few moments she had completely lost where she was or what she was doing. Then she remembered, she was trying to put music on and had collided with something. Was it because she hadn't been watching where she was going, or was it somebody trying to hunt her down? She couldn't be sure either way. All she was sure of though, was her head was smarting, she put her hand up to where it was sore, and then removed it, seeing her hand covered in blood.

She immediately felt faint with seeing the blood. Then she felt the pain in her wrist and arm of her left arm. It would seem she really gave herself a good one. She began to moan with the pain as she tried to sit up and saw the fact the car was dented into a tree, that was when she realised her ankle of her right foot was throbbing too.

Jeezes she thought to herself, I really ought to be more careful about what I'm doing when I'm driving she thought to herself. Then she heard a voice not too far away from her, she tried to turn to the side, to see where the voice was coming from. There was a man obviously trying to call for help. She was grateful for that at least.

Then the voice became more clear, and as she turned slowly again, she saw the guy was actually physically talking to her this time. Also not completely out of it to notice that he was quite handsome looking too. She laughed into herself at the humour of thinking a guy was good looking when she was in a car which had just smashed into a tree.

"Thank you" she said in a slight hoarse whisper, she needed a drink, she was thanking him for calling the ambulance. "I'm alright, I think" she said and began to laugh a little, yeah she was just fine, smacked into a tree, with quite possibly a broken or fractured wrist, a gash in her head, and maybe even a broken or sprained ankle.

Just at that point however, the bonnet started to smoke and within seconds it combusted into flames. Now Amy went into a panic, naturally she needed to get out of the car, as she struggled with the seat belt, the thing wouldn't come undone properly. She tried instead to try and ease her way out of it, and the flames were beginning to spread further.

She began to scream as she realised she might be trapped, until she remembered the guy who had phoned the ambulance, she looked at him with almost pleading, desperate eyes looking at him to try and help her, maybe he'd have scissors on him or something, anything to free her from the belt which seemed to have jammed. She then fiddled with the handle of the door and managed to get that opened at least as she leaned out, coughing, trying to get some air within her lungs.

[solidus]

"Ahh crap," Was Ben's reply when he saw flames emerge from the crashed bonnet. This was definitely not good. If video games had taught him one thing, and they had only taught him one thing, it was that a flaming car was often followed by an exploding car. And though he wasn't too worried about flames, they were easily removed, an explosion was very bad. A part of him wanted to be a coward and run away, leaving her to face the death in the form of an expanding fire ball, however the rest of him urged him to stay, urged him to him this woman, to be the good guy instead of the miserable electrician.

His first thought was to remove the woman from the car, however the seat belt couldn't be removed. Thinking that he had his penknife on him, he searched his body. However much to his disappointed, he found nothing but paperclips and some chewing gum he planned to have after lunch. Neither were really any use in this situation. He needed to think outside of the box if he wanted to save the women. Then he realized what he needed to do, and all a sudden it seems so simple.

If he couldn't get the women away from the flames, and then why get the flames away from the women. As he raised his hands towards the flames, he thanked god that he listen in science lessons. Cause during those lessons, he learned some very valuable. That was that fire needed three things to burn: heat, fuel and oxygen. The most important of them, for this moment, was heat. Without it, the fire would be extinguished and as his power allowed him to manipulate energy, something that heat fell into the category of.

He pulled in the heat of the fire, absorbing it into his body, and once he'd taken all heat that he could absorb, the fire diminished and the risk of explosion was removed. However within seconds, Ben's body began to burn. It appeared that once absorbed, heat burn's like hell. Natural instincts took over and he began to shake, hoping to shake off the heat, crying the words "Hot hot hot!" several times before he was able to pluck up the intelligence to convert the energy into electric, which he aimed in the sky and shot off, creating a blame like effect as it disappeared into the void above them.

[amy]

Well the words of 'ah crap' didn't sound so positive thought Amy and began to wonder if the man would just run off and leave her to perish, and she couldn't blame him really, after all it was her own fault for not paying attention in the first place. If she'd had her eyes on the road instead of fiddling with the CD player she wouldn't be in the situation she was currently in.

Then she watched in amazement as the guy in question did something she was completely unbelievable, and then had to shake her head, because of course if he was like her and had an ability there wasn't really anything that unbelievable about it. Not when you really thought about it. She watched every move he did feeling very impressed, and very grateful to have someone with such an ability who could do what he did.

He seemed to take in all the heat into himself, and then he started shouting out the words 'hot, hot, hot', well of course it must have been, after all it was hot enough for her when the car was on fire. What he had done was nothing short of a miracle and as she saw the flames finally disappear and then watched electricity come out of the guy and shoot off into the sky above them. He had saved her life.

Now she just had to get herself out of the car. Then an idea struck her and she wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. She could use her own ability to cut through the belt. Looking at the tree the car was smashed into, she saw a piece of bonnet shrapnel sticking into the tree, so using her telekinesis she was able to dislodge it from the tree and move it toward the driver door, which she'd opened earlier to get some air, and then used the power to have the sharp piece of metal cut its way through the seatbelt.

Five minutes later, she was free. She managed to ease her way out of the car and was lucky that her ankle was only sprained, so it was painful, but at least she could semi walk on it, even if that meant hobbling. She gave her saviour a grateful smile, even if she probably did look a mess with a sore wrist, gash, blood running down her face.

"I don't know what you have to make you do what you did, but I can't thank you enough for saving my life" Amy said very grateful to him. She felt she couldn't leave it at that either. She felt she owed it to her saviour to tell him her name. "I'm Amy Adams, and yes I am an Evolved Human as you found out, but I think it's safe for me to say that, because by what you done to save me, I'd say you were one also" she said with a smile as she put her hand up to her head where the gash was and pressed her hand against it, she now had a killer of a headache.

[solidus]

Ben watched in almost disbelief as the shrapnel floated from the car and into the car. Slowly the peace of ripped metal cut away at the belt. He wasn't amazed at what he did, he'd done stuff like that before, though on a much smaller scale, he was stunned to see the woman, the woman who several seconds ago was so helpless trapped by the flames of her car, was now using a power to lift a peace of scrap metal and cutting away her seat belt. It took all his self control not to run over there and check the metal for scrap metal for wires.

Once she'd broken free of her shackles, she rushed over to Ben who at the moment was still slightly stunned by her ability and the fact he'd just absorbed a car fire. To his knowledge and previous experience, he always hoped he'd be the only one who'd be able to use a abnormal power. He'd never met a, as she put it, an evolved human before however after reading a genetics book, he had always guessed there would be others, though he prayed that he wasn't. A little selfish maybe but he couldn't help wanting to be special.

There was a short silence after her introduction which was broken by the sounds of sirens in the background made it clear that an ambulance was making an approach. Sounded like it was right around the corner. "Well Amy, it looks like your ambulance has arrived. You should get yourself checked. That cut on your forehead looks nasty," Ben said before turning around. He had no real desire to stay and answer the questions concerning the lack of fire present in the crash, and why the front bonnet of the car was freezing cold.

(note, just to let you know, if u feel you currently have too many threads on your hands, cause you often mention you have loads, you can drop this one, however if you wanna continue, you can have Amy follow Ben. Just thought i'd make an option to help ease the workload off you)

[amy]

[ooc: I'll have Amy follow him after she gets checked out with the paramedics. I do say am in a lot of threads, but I like to be kept busy, I've just fallen behind the past few days because I've not been concentrating on replies - but thanks]

Well from the look on his face when she used her Telekinesis power to get the shrapnel to cut through the seat belt, he was a little dumb founded that she had an ability just like he had one himself. She hadn't expected him to be as dumb founded as he was since he'd used an ability himself. However, thinking about it some more, she wondered if it was because he liked to be special, some of them did. Liked to think they were the only ones.

She noticed he hadn't introduced himself, instead, telling her she should get checked out when it was pretty obvious the ambulance had arrived. "Sure" she said softly, "Thanks" she added because he had called them in the first place. She watched him walk off, as the paramedics came toward her. Of course they were fussing over like she knew they would. The were also asking her questions about the crash, and why the car looked like it had been on fire and now no longer was.

She stumbled over her words, but managed to explain someone had a portable fire extingusher and they used that, but they left before the ambulance had arrived. They seemed to take that in, which she was grateful for. After what seemed like over an hour, the paramedics had her ankle and wrist strapped up and a few stitches in her head with a wound dressing covering it. Luckily the guy who'd saved her, hadn't got very far, so when the paramedics were finished and she thanked them, she went running, well not running, her ankle might only have been sprained but it was painful, she walked as fast as she could to catch up with him.

"Hey, hey, wait up" she began shouting, "You didn't even give me your name" she added, as after about ten minutes she had caught up to where he had managed to walk to in the time it took the paramedics to fix up her injuries.

"I just wanted to thank you again for what you did, and well, I wondered if you maybe wanted to go for a drink, my way of thanking you for your trouble" she said softly, smiling at him again. She had no idea if he would accept, and it wasn't like she was desperately needing him to accept, but she'd feel a lot better about having him help her if he did accept.

[solidus]

Since he rescued the woman from the burning car, Ben had returned home, changed his jeans and got his wallet. Then he decided he deserved some beers so he went down to the local store and bought himself a couple dozen cans of beer and larger, he planned to get drunk as he could tonight, considering he had no work the next day, he'd just saved a woman's life and there was a basketball game on tonight, he believed tonight was perfect for getting drunk.

On his way back to his apartment, he heard a familiar voice call out to him, asking him to slow down. He stopped and turned to see Amy, the woman he saved roughly an hour ago running towards him. She took her time, but considering her injury on her leg, Ben could hardly blame her for it. Once she reached him, she reminded him he didn't leave his name with her. At the time it was because he didn't want to answer any of the paramedics questions. She also offered to buy him a few drinks.

Ben smiled at her offer. "If only you asked me that ten minutes ago," Ben replied as he opened his shopping back to show all the cans he'd bought. "NBA season has just started and it's the first match of the season. I wouldn't miss it for the world, but I still plan to drink a lot. Fancy joining me for some beer and basketball? I mean my apartment isn't as classy as a bar, but it's got better food and a half decent few of the park. Plus, I have more beers that I can shake a stick at, also I'm bound to have something a bit more exotic lying somewhere in my house. I'll have the basketball on mute by the way, probably put on some music in the background. I ain't too keen on the commentary they have in NBA."

[amy]

When Amy had caught up with the guy who'd saved her and asked if she could buy him a drink, he showed he already had some, and that he had intended on going back to his apartment to watch the NBA.

"Oh, well what can I say, lousy timing as always" she said with a laugh when she saw the bag full of alcohol. However he then went into a full explanation of how he was planning on watching the NBA in silence, with music on and that there would be better food, and a view of the park. It all sounded rather nice, and as she had a pretty horrific day, who was she to refuse such an offer. However he still hadn't given his name to her. So was she just to call him 'you' all night?

"Actually, you know, that sounds pretty alright to me" Amy said with a devilish grin. "I can't think of a better way to recuperate than sitting watching NBA, eating good food, listening to music and spending some quality time with my saviour, who, by the way" she said and nudged him gently, "Still hasn't told me his name" she continued and then winked at him. She might be in a bit of a mess right now, with a swollen ankle and wrist, gash on her head, and a few bruises, but she was healthy enough to know he was a mighty handsome looking man, who might even be a slight touch younger than her, and she didn't give a damn.

Amy was probably about to let all her inhibitions go, and she didn't care. She just wanted some company and after what this guy had done for her, she couldn't think of anybody she'd rather spend company with.

[solidus]

Ben smiled as he opened the door that lead into their apartment building. Fortunately she had decided to catch up with him whilst he was about to turn into the large building that contained his home. Usually he took the stairs as his apartment was only on the fifth floor, but considering the damage done to Amy's foot caused by her carelessly driving, he decided he'd use the elevator his apartment had installed. Guiding her onto the platform, the rusty doors closed and the elevator rose through the levels.

For humour taste, he give a little describtion of the floors as they passed them. "Floor one, the Goth department. Floor two, the Emo department. Floor three, the suspecious department, your one stop shop for drugs, knifes or whatever this country had deemed to be illegal. Floor four, the black women department where each woman has more children than teeth. And floor five the best floor in the world." The door opened and the two stepped up. "The elevator will now go to level 6 the hot milfs with annoying kids departments. I sweat the amount of times those kids pissed me off with their jumping and hopping, but whenever I got to tell them off my eyes always seem to get lost in their mothers breasts. It's not fair. I've had to give up night shift at work because of it.

As the two walked down the corridor towards his apartment, a draw opposite Ben's opened and his neighbor popped his head out. "Hey Ben. I... I... I called my mom.... She... she said to give you her.... her... love"

"Hey Barry. Your mom doing good?" Ben asked as he slid his keys into the keyhole.

"y...yes thanks. I've made a new birdhouse... Y...You wanna see?" Barry asked kindly.

"Maybe later Barry but NBA has just started. The Los Angeles Lakers are going to kick your team's ass again," Ben responded with a cheeky smile as he and Amy slid inside, just in time for hear Barry respond with "F...Fat chance"

Once inside, Ben introduced his apartment to Amy. "That's Barry. He's the most friendliest bloke I know. He's got a lovely daughter whose in college practicing health care. He's hoping to learn how to look after people like her old pap, bless her. Anyways, Amy, welcome to my apartment. Mind the towers of magazines and the cans, I'm not one for recycling or throwing away recyclable rubbish."

[amy]

Amy smiled back at Ben, as she hobbled into the building where his apartment would be. She still couldn't believe she'd been so stupid to have done what she done in the first place and that was of course to crash her car by messing around with music. She couldn't help but laugh as he gave a run down of the floors as the elevator was going past each level. Not wanting to stop him in his flow, she just kept laughing, nodding her head in relevant places, until they reached the floor she had to assume was his own as the elevator stopped.

"You're really funny, I like that" Amy said winking at him slightly, not totally sure why she even did that. Of course she would have added his name to the end of that line had she known it, but he had still not answered her, obviously he liked to be mysterious, and Amy was working out if she liked that or not, however she decided she did like it.

After they both stepped out, he continued to give a description of the floor above and this time Amy really laughed as he spoke of the hot women and their annoying kids and how when he goes to talk to them his eyes always land on their breasts. "I can't begin to imagine how awful that must be for you, really" she said in slight mock, knowing full well a guy staring at a woman's breasts wasn't what they considered a bad thing.

Just as she was beginning to wonder how much longer the mystery would go on referring to the guy's name, his neighbour popped his head out to speak to him and of course he used his name. It was no longer a mystery, a slow smile spread across her face as she listened to Ben, speak to his neighbour, it was kind of sweet really.

"He seems nice, Ben" she said, winking at him again, "Now I finally have your name in my grasp" she added and laughed slightly, and then walked into his apartment behind him. She wasn't too fussed about the magazines and cans, it was still better than her living out of her car the way she had for the past few months as she was on the road trying to track down her sons.

"Thanks for inviting me here Ben" she said with a nice smile, "I'm sure we'll have fun" she added with a grin, almost teasingly, then she shook herself, was she flirting with him? She wasn't sure, but whatever it was, it didn't feel bad anyway.

[ooc: To be continued... but you cannot see where ]