One For the Road

Skylar thought briefly on it, though she didn't really disagree. Maybe she got ahead of herself. The royal family weren't a problem, it was others in the council for their own various reasons.

When they got there, Skylar ordered Udon and Zara decided on something called Tempura; it looked tasty to her but both women thanked him for being a gentleman.

"You're not wrong and I may gotten bit ahead of myself.." Skylar admitted slowly. "I'm not too concerned about the royal family, they aren't perfect but their reasonable people who can adjust when they make a mistake or get new information. Its some of the others that will be a headache. 'Why have people put all that energy and time into something where most can replicated by techology and faster?' That's what they'll say, I know it already." She mumbled.

Skylar knew she was going have to put on the passive aggressive bitchy side persona out of the hat slightly at times for this one. The same one Ness first met her with before knowing the real her.

"Well..." Zara began. "If you're building a case that Noreal should revive some of its traditions and training that has been lost or near extinct in present day, you should gather those involved to get as much information as you can. That way it goes better and why Noreal shouldn't overly rely on their technology. The Children of Strife did have one valid point about modern day Noreal. Even if they and their leader were insane and went about it the wrong way."

"I think I shall do that." Skylar said after a beat. "..Maybe visit the Hunter HQ sometime and ask to talk to someone. I believe they've done better job of balancing the old with the new."

Ness shrugs "I wouldn't use the Hunters as examples of what to do, but rather, I would look to people like the Unknown Heroes and Paragon Corp. They use advanced technology, but also rely on their own natural powers to stay sharp. Jack Winters is a great example of that.." he points out "He had incredible technology that would make his life so much easier, yet he's always relying on his own power to get hard jobs done and in his down time, he's constantly training to keep his edge. If I'm not too mistaken, there's a few people like that still on Noreal." he says.

"You are correct, there are some exceptionally powerful inviduals on Noreal, but emphasis on few. I'll have to look into things, the royal family probably be a good start for information. Most of said people keep to themselves with the only time I hear about them is when Noreal is in a crisis most of the time."

She was going to say more but their food arrived and it was excellent. Not that Skylar had ever been a picky eater with her background, people wasting food irritated her even if she kept it to herself.

After swallowing her food from another bite and downing it down with a drink, Skylar's next thought of what she wanted to ask came in. "Before I forget, I had something else I wanted to ask. As you know my former fiance was in toy company business. When he passed, his family took over. Since we're still close as family I wanted to help. They asked me if I ran into you again if it be all right if they used your likeness for a toy line?"

"You, of course, would have say of how it looked, among other things. Since you're popular and famous on Noreal it would be a hit. I imagine you'd probably want to hash it out more, but I wanted to see if it even be something you'd be ok with before anything further."

Ness doesn't answer right away, but instead he digs through his backpack and pulls out an action figure of himself, still in the box. It was 'Street Fighter Ness' with authentic Kung-Fu kicking action! He holds it out for Skylar to inspect.

"This little beauty came from a dimensions where two twin psychics were telepathically watching my adventures and they had made a television series about them. It's Very popular." he tells the two "This particular action figure is based on the time when I had to enter a street fighting tournament in order to help an Interpol agent stop an evil organization from selling a mind control drug called Doll." he explains "That action figure is just one of Dozens made in my image." he tells them.

"So no. I don't mind them making a few dollars, or whatever you guys use, off my likeness." he says with a shrug.

Skylar took the figure and looked it over critically. It did seem to be of very good quality. While it didn't compare to the real thing it did capture his looks rather well too. It took a moment before the last bit registered. So people watched his adventures? That was rather interesting, he did deserve some reconizition for the things he did.

Wait. If they watched and he was popular did that include the X-rated stuff?! Had she and Zara made some porn without her knowing it?!

Oh no. Oh no.

Zara raised a brow at her friend, feeling the sudden brief bit of emotion and the comical 'fish that hit with a jolt of electricity' look. "Are you all right Skylar? Seems were thinking of something."

As if magic, Skylar recovered, and coughed. "Yes. Sorry I was just thinking of something, but I'm fine." Well, whatever she honestly didn't want to know. It wasn't like she'd be meeting them. Zara remained unconcined entirely but didn't press. "Anyway, from what little I know if you were anyting as strong as you are now you had to hold back massively in a street fighter tournament when you entered. Street Fighters are mostly no different from vanilla humans, minus Ki attacks I believe."

Ness also felt the rush of emotions that Skylar felt and had a good idea what it was about, but since she didn't say anything, he wouldn't embarrass her by saying anything either.

He shrugs "It's not always about who's the strongest. Skill also plays a major part in street fights. However, there were some pretty tough fighters out there. Though, it was never about winning the tournament, it was about helping that Interpol agent in her mission." he explains.

"Fair enough." Skylar knew that much. It was just more because of his power it wouldn't exactly be fair and he'd probably get disqualfied if they somehow knew or had a guess how strong he was.

She looked down at the toy, remembering something as she pulled out a pen. "If its not too much trouble, would you be all right signing this? It's for my niece and she's a fan."

Ness smiles and jots a few things down. Was fixing an old tree really That big a deal? Next time he was in Noreal, he would need to read up on it's history and the history of that tree he saved.

After they all finished, and he paid for their meal, he looks around "Alrighty, Ladies. Where would you like to go now? Some karaoke?" he asks "It wouldn't be an authentic Japanese experience without a little after meal time signing and drinking." he tells them with a grin.

"You know what? That could be fun to try." Skylar had a good singing voice and Zara's wasn't half bad, just not really trained as it were. More then that those type of things were about having fun rather then how good or bad you were.

"Did you already have one in mind?" Zara asked, otherwise she could use her phone to look something up.

Ness nods "Follow me ladies." he says as he leads them to an older, hole-in-the-wall, karaoke place. He wanders in "One booth for an hour please and some drinks. We'll order when we get to our room." he says as he swipes his card and gets a key card in return.

Ness leads them to their room, which was the size for a party of about eight people "We have this room all to ourselves with free refills, totally sound proof wso we can be as loud as we want and best of all, no cameras." he says with a grin.

Skylar looked around, she liked it although she didn't have any other experience to draw on. Sure there were the same thing on her home but they weren't exactly the same as the ones here.

"Most normal drinks from earth don't do much for us, especially with our healing.." Zara looked around, but smiled a bit. "Still, its not like we need to get drunk to have a good time here."

Ness nods as their drinks come in "We don't need to be drunk to sing loudly and act like goofballs, but it'll certainly make the stories much more funnier." he jumps up on the small stage and looks through the songs "The Wheels in the Sky by Journey. A classic choice!" he says with a grin as he begins to sing the song badly.

Ness had over ten years of singing lessons to his name, so he could sing very well. But that wasn't what he was going for at the moment. He was trying to show the ladies with him that it was okay to be goofy every now and then.

It was silly. It was off the cuff but to Skylar after a brief moment of hesitation decided to join in. If she had to deal all the idiots at the council and all the stress that came with being a politician then she could afford to relax and have fun. It helped that Ness, and even Zara didn't have issue in joining in.

You only lived once, so why not enjoy it?

After almost an hour of goofing off, Ness looks over to the two ladies "So, our time is almost up. Are we about finished here or do we want an extension to mess around some?" he asks as he waits by the phone "I'm all for what ever you two want to do."

Skylar had a really good time. It had been a while since she just let herself go a bit like she had earlier, they would definitely have to do something like this again. "I think I'm good for now. Zara?"

"Same. But we had a wonderful time." The other young woman said, hesitatingly slightly before. "Will you be leaving for another adventure soon?"

Ness nods "Yeah. See, I have a condition called 'Wanderlust'. It's one of the reasons I move around a lot. I just can't seem to stand still and stay in one spot, or in this case, one Earth. So I jump from place to place, doing what I can to make someone's life just a little better and I move on." he says with a shrug "And I've been on this Earth for longer than usual and I'm starting to feel that familiar itch to travel." he explains.

Both women didn't want them to go, but like they said they weren't here to change him but rather by there and support him. "As I said, we're here to be there for you so have a place of comfort to come back to. For now we'll enjoy the time we have before you leave."

"If I may make one small request?" Zara asked. "The next time you do leave you can tell us a bit your latest adventure when you return."

Ness nods "Sure thing. If you like, I can even show you my adventures like you were there yourselves." he tells them as he escorts them out. He was hoping to stay for a little longer so they could maybe get a little freaky. Public sex was intoxicating and the rush was second to being in danger. But they didn't seem in the mood and Ness really didn't want to ruin the vibe they had going.

Now That bit of news caught both women's attention, Skylar being the first to ask about it. "So..how would that even work exactly? Like some sort of device that allows us to view you through dimensions or something else?"

Ness shakes his head "No. I'm a stupidly powerful psychic, so I can just protect my thoughts, memories or suggestions into anyone's mind." he says casually "Line of sight works good, but not necessary, physical contact works best." he explains "Have you noticed that you haven't been able to sense anything from me the whole night?" he asks.

"I haven't." Skylar admitted. "But to be honest I try to limit my empath ability both for my sake and those around me to respect their privacy. So I tend to only feel it if a Really strong emotion comes up that goes through the filter. Having said that, its also likely just made sure people could feel things unless you wanted them to."

Zara nodded. "Our kind's psychic abilities tend to be more limited of what we can do with it. Unless someone makes a breakthrough and we were doing something wrong we missed, or a mutant I suppose. Not that sort of thing typically happens like in the movies or stories. It's usually just a extra physical trait or something minor instead of super powers."

Ness shrugs "I've been to worlds where vampires are the dominant species. Able to move so fast the naked eye can't see them. Can manipulate the shadows, and a person's free will just by looking into their eyes. Can shape change into wolves, bats, and even mist." he explains "Now, this may all seem like supernatural powers to you, but for them, it you couldn't do these things, you were the odd one out." he says to them "You two are perfect the way you are." he tells them as he leads them back to their apartment.

"Someone's supernatural is another perosn's normal." Zara agreed, they couldn't take their will away by looking into their eyes, and to be frank she wasn't sure how a soceity would function if Everyone had that ability. They couldn't turn into mist, or animals in the most traditional sense. In theory perhaps if one had advance enough they could shape into different things, but it obviously still be a being of shadow instead of a perfect mimic. Not that she heard of anything like that, maybe it did exist on Noreal at some point but was lost.

"Speaking of, is That why our kind gets called vampires by some earthlings at times?" Skylar asked Ness as they got inside. "Mainly because of our similarities?"

Ness nods "Somewhat. Humans tend to call anyone, or thing, that drinks blood a 'Vampire' and even coming from a different planet, those who know what you are, still call you vampires, or in this case 'Space Vampires'." he says.

He stops infront of their apartment "Well ladies, I must say that I had a blast being with you two." he says with a smile "Before I leave, I have to be sure to swing on by and hang out again." he says to them as he holds the door open, figuring they would want to freshen up for the night.

Both Skylar and Zara were disapointed he was leaving this soon, still they should have expected it. They had things to do and they wouldn't hold him any longer. The former had to stand on her toes(due to being short) to kiss Ness the cheek. "Safe travels then." She said softly, though they be sure to give them another 'going away' present if he was going to swing by one last time before he left.

"May you have good tidings." Zara said, she was going to miss his presence to. But Ness was needed elsewhere, many other people did to. Besides, they would return to them eventually.