Finding Your Place

It had been a month and some days when Alice had left the group, and since then Cadmus had been adjusting since their absence. The only reason he had joined in the first place back then had been because Alice had been a member and wanted to stay behind. Now that that she was gone he had been tempted to leave but ultimately decided against it for now. He did consider the people around friends, and while he didn't fancy himself hero material he'd at least give it one more year on his own before making a decision.

Larry and his wife Martha had invited him to stay in New York with them when this happened. Martha had been steamed(I told you that girl was no good for you! You should have went with that woman in the flower shop.) Larry had shrugged and said to leave the kid be and he'd sort it out on his own.

The two were quirky together and despite their faults they were always there for him. Out of all the people he had met they were the closes to having parents.

He did decide to move out into a apartment and take a note out of his Secret Avenger friend, aka Haruhi of having their super hero and personal life a bit separate. Since Alice was gone he didn't have to live there all the time and had his own privacy to things.

Not having anything else to do for the moment after getting cleaned up, he headed out of his apartment and outside for the day; there be plenty for him to do soon enough.

"Terrible weather we've been having, isn't it?" asks someone. It turns out that it was Jack's son, Jason. He rarely makes an appearance on Earth anymore, from what Jack had said, but when he does, it's because he has business here.

"But don't let dark clouds get you down. After all, it can't rain all the time, right?" he asks as he moves away from the lamp post he had been leaning against "You look like you need someone to talk to." he points out.

Cadmus was minding his own business when a voice called to him, at first he wasn't sure who it was until he put a face to the voice. It was Jason again, he only seen them a few times and they rarely showed so it was a surprise they were here.

"Rain goes away eventually, its just being in the middle that sucks. Just apart of life." He said turning towards them. "As for talking, I don't mind."

Jason nods as he motions for Cadmus to follow him "Walk withme, talk with me." he says "So what's on your mind that you're dragging around a dark cloud everywhere you go?" he asks.

Cadmus sighed a bit. "Just Alice. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people went through break ups or worse. It's just when you're with someone so long its hard to shrug off, but I've gotten better and I'll live. It's just one of those days."

Jason nods slowly "Yeah, I have a good idea of what you mean. My childhood sweetheart ended up becoming my wife, only to die just after giving birth to our daughter." he says in a low tone.

"But don't be too hard on Alice. She did what she felt was the right thing for you." Jason points out "And as for Alice herself, she wanted to try and make right something that had gone bad." he says a bit cryptically.

"Just after getting to Norael, she went searching for an old 'friend' and when she couldn't find her, the stress of the situation caused her relapse into a Stand Still, a bad one. One she probably won't awaken from." he says with a shrug.

Cadmus despite how things went obviously didn't want anything bad to happen to them, so the news troubled him a bit. "She had another episode? Hopefully she's somewhere safe then. ..And this old friend, it wouldn't happen to be someone from the old group would it?" Alice far as he knew mostly kept to herself prior to meeting the other Heartless so it was a logical deduction.

Jason nods "Yes. It's Raine. Alice, despite holding a Massive, and slightly homicidal, grudge against her, wanted to Try and patch things up before she disappeared to parts unknown, but fell victim to her unfortunate condition." he explains "She's in a hospital somewhere on Norael."

Cadmus was silent for a moment, frowning. "...I see. I had thought she might go after Raine, but not to patch things up but for revenge, since she had a thing for them but Raine didn't. So is there anyone who can wake her up? I might be upset about them leaving but its not not like I stopped caring about them or want them to be in a coma forever. So is there any chance she wakes up on her own?"

Jason shakes his head "No. There's no chance she'll pull out of this on her own. Not this time." he says, his tone left no room for argument "There are a few ways to get her out of it. One, of course, is with a wish. Two, is with the aid of a higher being. Three, is with either the aid of a dimension hopper by the name of Ness, who is dealing with his own demons, or Raine herself, who has dropped off the map never to be seen." he explains.

Cadmus knew about the wish part, of course since they were going to use it to revive Sam before Alice did her thing. "So are the dragonballs available to use right now?" If Alice was going elsewhere with her life, then she should at least be allowed to do that properly.

Jason nods "Yes. But you'll have a much harder time getting them, since Will has disappeared and his student, Bow, is now guarding them and unlike Will, Bow likes to fight and likes strong opponents." he explains "You have to fight him to prove you're worthy to use the Dragonballs."

"So basically I'm out of luck since I'm strong in my own right, but not Z fighter strong." Cadmus sighed rubbing his temples. "This is a pain. Is there anything I can realistically that's in my power to do now?"

Jason thinks for a bit "Yes. You have two options open to you right now. One, try to find Raine and appeal to her good nature. Two, give up on Alice and leave her to her fate." he points out.

He looks over to Cadmus "We're at the market. This is where I take my leave. I'm here to check up on my sister, after all." he says as he starts off towards the jewelry store "If you need me, I'll be at the shop for a couple of days."

"....Later..."

Cadmus had some things to mull over, he honestly wish Jason hadn't told him anything because that was a burden not on his plate. Before he had thought she was just living elsewhere, this was a bit of hitting old wounds when he was moving on.

He pushed the thoughts aside for now and decided to head into base, both to keep him distracted and see what the others were doing; those who were there anyway.

Christine was behind the counter when he came to the jewelry store, Jason was nowhere to be seen and Christine paid him little mind as he headed to the base.

Once down there, it was the same old base as it always was. It was like Alice and Cadmus not being there didn't effect it at all.

"Hey man. Welcome back." Marcen says "Are you here to turn in your weekly reports?" he asks.

That was to no surprise to Cadmus things just went on as they always did, life as they say just kept rolling on whether one wanted them too or not. "Yeah, its one of the things I came in here. The second is just to see how everyone else is doing. How have you been?"

Marcen shrugs "Eh. Everything's been pretty much status quo since Jack left." he says "But it's only for a couple of week that I'm in charge." he says. He didn't mind being the second in command, but he didn't like being the shot caller.

"Jack is out and about for a couple of weeks?" Cadmus was a bit surprised at that, then again he supposed not living at the base anymore meant he missed things at times. "What is he up to that he'll be gone for so long?"

Marcen shrugs "He said he was gonna visit his friends back home, but a part of me doesn't think that's the Only thing he's gonna be doing." he says in a low tone "Well, break time's over and duty calls and such." he says as he nods to Cadmus as he starts off.

Cadmus hoped nothing too crazy happened where they Needed his help, but between those like Ramona, Zyna and such still around they should be fine if shit ended up hitting the fan.

He was somewhat hungry so he decided to enter the mess hall to get something to eat real quick. Natomi and Kobe were sitting down with the former eating a lot for her small form while the later was just reading a book; but Cadmus couldn't see what it was since it was laying down.

Once more, Mondo was hanging around the base. He was the 'filler' member who would always step in when the team was a body down. Mondo was very lazyn often lounging around, eating, and never taking anything too seriously.

Like right now, he was sitting at one of the lounge areas, chomping on a bacon wrapped, grease burger with extra grease, while watching the X-Games.

Hitomi was off training, and Haruhi was at school. Marcen was doing his own thing and Sam was likely out on patrol, since Buddy said he wasn't in the base, if asked.

Ramona and her family seemed to be out, as was Zyna doing whatever it was while she was out. That really just left the three present to interact with since everyone else for the moment was busy with something else.

He did wonder how Mondo handled all that bad food, it seemed like he was destined for a heart attack in some years with all that grease. It wasn't his business though, just like Larry and his smoking, he let him be since he was absorbed watching his games for now.

Cadmus went to sit down by the two ninja, Kobe who nodded to them in greeting. "Hey you two have you been? How has your training been?"

Kobe shrugged a bit. "Fair enough I suppose. There hasn't been much to report otherwise, which I consider a blessing with everything else going on."

"Ditto. Solo training is going all right, its the teacher stuff going a bit slow for me. It's gone better since I stopped trying to teach them to be a ninja and just use their powers, but its still going to take some time." Natomi downed some of her drink. "Which is fine since everyone has their pace. All I care is them putting the effort in."

Hitomi comes walking into the mess hall, wearing bike shorts, a sports bra, calf high socks and sneakers. She also had a towel around her shoulders, as she heads to the fridge for a sports drink "That was a crazy work out routine that Marcen had me go through." she says as she chugs down the sports drink "What kind of training do they do in the Mist village?"

Cadmus noticed Hitomi coming in her outfit, he did notice of course since he was still a man with a living pulse. It didn't mean he stared or anything just he still noticed. "Hey Hitomi, how did your training session go?"

He'd have to ask then a random question that had been on his mind, and that was if Ki and Chakra were the same thing but used in a different way. It was probably her or Marcen that would know if it was or not, if at all.