The announcer informs through the speaker, "Train four is approaching the station in a few minutes. Train four is approaching the station in a few minutes," in a large long room that was composed of two long platforms on the long sides, with a bridge that connects both platforms by the escalators in the back.
The platforms were separated by a pair of what seems to be the subway tracks, which were single strips of thick silver that run from one side of the room to another, with an opening to a tunnel for each track's entrances and exits.
Both tracks are also separated by a slim railing made of the similar gray metal to that of the walls of the station.
On each platform were large groups of people, waiting to be picked up, as the day was busy as always. Most of them seem to be workers of sorts, wearing formal attire for an office; many of the workers also seem busy on their Connects, as if working on the fly.
A few of them look at the holographic signs that project from the ceiling, showing a board of different times and titles, seeming to be indicating when what was supposed to happen.
More people enter the room via the escalator system composed of the constant elevation pads, and among the influx of new passengers is Rohan, who keeps his hands in his pockets, unfamiliar with the setting.
He lands on the platform and gets off, walking forward and towards the edge of the platform. His eyes gaze at the different people also waiting, noticing the majority and their professional demeanor.
They were people that Rohan had once very recently aspired to be, wearing perfectly tailored and maintained suits that gave them a high class aura, composed in every moment to stand as more than just simple men.
Now however, when Rohan looks at the suits, he can't feel the same excitement as he once did. Sure, they seemed cool, but he didn't feel eager to wear one for himself. It was just another attire, one that was worn by people of similar occupation.
As Rohan stands by the edge of the platform, looking around, he notices the man in the black and white tracksuit, his head covered by the hood, seeming to keep his head down.
The man seems to be a young adult, his face clean of facial hair, with a relatively sharp jaw. He seems to be observing the people on the platform, however with his head lowered, as if to not attract much attention.
Rohan's eyebrow raises curiosity in the man, as he feels something peculiar about his demeanor.
However, Rohan is interrupted by the voice of the announcer, who alerts, "Train four is arriving now."
From the left side of the tunnel closest to Rohan, a long vehicle designed similarly to a subway train, with a flat yet smooth face and sleek body, colored in chrome, races into the pickup zone, carrying a loud roar as its long body continues coming from the tunnel, seeming to be never ending.
As the train begins slowing down, Rohan watches it seem to go all the way towards the end, far ahead of where he was since he was closer to the end of the platform. It seems the train reaches the far side of the whole zone before finally coming to a stop, and its end is finally exposed from the tunnel, also being sharp yet smooth.
Rohan turns to look at the chrome train, which seems to have no windows or doors, but instead it was one complete shell.
That was until openings started appearing, as doors seem to open where they didn't appear to be before, allowing entry into the interior.
The first sight Rohan got of the interior were hordes of people by the door, all pushing one another to try escaping from the train, flooding out onto the platform.
Rohan steps back and to the side to protect himself from the mob, which gets off of the train in a disorganized manner. He sighs to himself, as it was quite clear how eager the passengers were to get on with their day.
Finally, the entrance was clear, and Rohan was free to enter.
He smiles softly, but is then interrupted as a flood from the platform begins entering the train, pushing him to try getting inside first. Rohan's eyes widen in the chaos, as there is no time to wait, as though there isn't a single patient person on the platform.
Rohan feels pushed towards the entrance, trying to stop himself, however he is no match for the power of the flood that drowns him.
Rohan gets pushed into the train, and tries to look around to observe the interior, however all he can see are the people around him.
He tries to find the seating, however he can hardly see anything in front of himself, and is surrounded thus trapped.
The flood finally settles, allowing Rohan to finally observe the interior. He looks around to see that the walls were also an addicting chrome, and has a long strip of window on each side, displaying the platform outside.
Rohan looks at the seating, however he finds that all of the floating benches were taken, as every seat was being used by a passenger.
Rohan looks at the different benches farther down the cart, however there is nowhere to sit. His eyes dilate, as he has no idea what to think. At first it seemed that the train was too long, and now it seemed there wasn't enough space to contain everyone.
The man in the tracksuit boards the cart, and walks with his hands in his pocket. He notices that all of the seats were taken, and he lets out a soft sigh.
He then walks to the back wall of the train, which has the door to the back of the cart, and seemingly to the back of the whole train.
The man stands with his back against the door, seeming to not care about the lack of seats he has, and seemed fine with just standing in the train.
Rohan watches the man in confusion, wondering if it was indeed fine to stand in the train. He walks towards the right wall and leans his back into it, hoping that it was legitimately safe to take from the man's actions.
There isn't enough time to find any other option, as the doors of the train close off, indicating that the train was about to start moving.
Rohan turns to look at the door and window with surprise, as he was now locked in the train, and thus couldn't get out of the train to wait for another.
He watches as the train seems to start moving, evident by the position relative to the platform changing, as it seems the train begins forward.
However, Rohan doesn't feel the push from standing in the train, as instead it felt as though he wasn't moving at all.
Rohan blinks in confusion, and then realizes that the train most likely had its own artificial field to negate the shove. He then turns to the man, guessing that the man had done this before or simply knew about the field, as the man didn't seem to be phased by the odd peace.
Instead, the man seems to be calm, just staring at all of the passengers in the cart, observing them. He then looks ahead at the door into the next cart, seeming to be gazing around at his surroundings.
Rohan continues to observe the man, intrigued by him, as he still has an odd feeling about him. There was just something unique about the intensity of his observing, as most other passengers just busy themselves with their Connects, yet he was doing no such thing.
His eyes seem serious and determined, contracted and moving.
Rohan sighs softly, knowing that while the train was incredibly fast, he still had a long way to go, especially because his stop was not among the first.
He decides to spend his time checking on his new ally, and he softly whispers the command: "Orial, talk to me."
While no holographic face projects from Rohan's Connect, the voice of Orial speaks into his ear, responding with "Rohan."
Rohan looks at the man, hoping his conversation wasn't awkward. However, he could very well play it off like a call with another person, so he hopes there wouldn't be anything unusual about his actions.
Rohan says, "So, are you recording what you see and hear?"
Orial responds, "I access host computer's microphone systems and host computer's camera systems."
Rohan nods his head, and he says, "Alright, good. Keep doing that, I want you to get an idea of how the whole day goes."
Orial says, "Yes."
Rohan sighs, knowing that once he'd get home, he'd need to spend time working on Orial's speech. He continues, "Stay observant, and make sure to keep that memory. Especially when we fight, I want you to analyze the action first hand. If you could give some advice as well, that would be nice, but I'm guessing that you won't have much tactical ability right now."
Orial responds, "Yes."
Rohan places his head against the train's wall, and says, "Okay, good. How are you feeling anyways?"
Orial responds, "No."
Rohan blinks twice, and he asks, "Huh? What do you mean?"
Orial responds, "Your question doesn't."
Rohan's eyebrow raises, and he replies, "Oh...well okay...never mind then. I guess you're not much of a talker, huh?"
Orial answers with his own question: "Where?"
Rohan sighs, and he says, "Keep recording, I'll talk later."
Orial responds, "Yes."
Rohan rolls his eyes, knowing that literally anyone else would've made for better conversation. He wasn't surprised exactly, as at the end of the day, it was a programmed bot, not a person.
However, after what Rohan had seen from the building that he picked his bot's name from, he knew that there was still human potential.
It would just take work and time.
A voice speaks from the train, announcing, "We are approaching station seventy five C now. We are approaching station seventy five C now."
Rohan turns to watch the window, and sees that the train enters another station, and seems to have slowed down greatly. He makes sure to stand a good distance from the door, hoping to not be caught up in the flood.
Many of the passengers seated in the cart stand up and approach the door, waiting for it to open. Rohan steps to the side again, brushing into the corner, as he loses space to the waiting passengers.
The train door opens, and the passengers begin to walk out of the train, pushing each other to get out first. As they walk out, Rohan notices that there are now seats open and available. His eyes widen in excitement, as he hopes to get one for his own, as he would prefer to be seated rather than stand for the whole ride.
Rohan begins to approach the seats as the last of the passengers get off, however as he does, he becomes hit by the flood of new passengers from the platform, who push him off to the side in their rampage.
Rohan's eyes widen as he tries to yell out in pain, but the shoving silences him as he continues to be shoved constantly, unable to free himself of the onslaught.
Eventually, the shoving comes to a stop, and Rohan finally is permitted to stand on his own. He stands up straight and shakes his head, feeling pain all around his body.
He then looks at the seats, and his eyes widen in disbelief, his body frozen.
Once again, all the seats were taken, and there were no more available seats for Rohan.
Rohan turns around, and he retreats to the back corner of the train. He sighs softly, deciding to give up trying to find a seat, and admitting defeat.
The train doors shut, readying to leave again. The train starts to move, indicated by the window and the suppressed yet audible roar from outside.
The train speeds up gradually as it drives back into the tunnel, heading off to its next destination. The window stops showing the platform, and eventually the outside goes dark as the train returns to the tight tunnel.
Rohan stands silently, waiting as the train speeds through the tunnel. He listens to the soft roar outside, and closes his eyes, hoping that he would have enough time to pick and win a fight against an Exhuman criminal today.
From just being a minute late, Rohan had lost a severe amount of time having to take the train to his original destination, something Rohan still felt ashamed of.
He had never been late for anything, but when it actually mattered, then he lost hours.
If he couldn't make it to a bus in the morning, how was he supposed to save the largest city in the Superverse to an army of superpowered terrorists?
He couldn't help but feel pathetic.
Rohan opens his eyes, knowing that this only meant he had to put more effort into today. He had to work harder and make up for the lost time, he had to find a target faster, and work harder to defeat them.
Rohan takes a deep breath, planning his actions for when he'd reach his station. He'd be the first out of the train, run to the exit, find the Zprints Enterprise building, reach the rooftop, suit up, and begin the search for a crime in progress.
He wouldn't give himself a full ten minutes to get to the rooftop, and he was only going to go back if the bus was supposed to be returning. He was going to utilize every moment of the day to protect what he could, and he was determined to do so.
Rohan turns towards where the man in the tracksuit was, as he is intriguing to observe. However, Rohan's eyes widen as he looks at where the man is.
In front of the back door, where the man was standing, stood nobody. The man was completely gone, vanished, as if he was never there at all.
Rohan blinks in confusion, as he was sure that the man hadn't gotten off of the last stop, but now he was gone. He tilts his head, and looks down the cart, wondering if he had moved to either an open seat or another part of the wall.
However, the man was nowhere to be seen in the cart, not any seats, not against any walls.
However, what Rohan did notice was that the door on the opposite side of the cart was open, revealing the cart in front of it, which was full of other passengers.
The door wasn't open before, and Rohan had guessed that they weren't supposed to be open, however it was wide open.
Rohan's eyes contract as he looks deeper into the next room, and notices that the far door of it was also open.
Rohan's eyes widen in confusion, as he is beginning to feel nervous, as he feels uneasy about the situation.
His eyes stay on the carts ahead of him, and he stands in front of the back door to get a straight view. His eyes contract to better his range, as he tries to see what was happening.
He hears the announcer say, "We are approaching station seventy five D now. We are approaching station seventy five D now," however he was no longer paying attention to it.
However, as Rohan stares down the train, he sees an object speed towards him, like a bullet flying straight for him.
He then feels a sudden powerful gust of wind, and his body flies to the side and into the wall of the train. His eyes widen, and just for a split moment, he finds himself staring at the man in a white and black suit, who's elbow is raised, as if to push him.
The back door flies open, and the wind from the train's speed begins to roar and mixes with the unchained roar of the train itself. The man in the tracksuit was no longer there, leaving Rohan standing against the wall, confused.
The passengers in the cart begin to put their hands around them, seeming confused, and one of them says, "Wait, where's my Connect?"
Another passenger exclaims, "My Connect! It's gone!"
Rohan turns to the passengers, who all seem to have gotten up, putting their hands on their ears and wrist as if trying to find their Connects, which were no longer on him.
As the train continues to race towards the station, Rohan realizes what has happened. The man in the tracksuit was an Exhuman, who was waiting patiently for the train to reach one of the stops, and then went ahead and robbed every passenger of their expensive Connects.
Rohan's eyes widens, for he doesn't expect to run into an Exhuman on the train, as he isn't even ready for combat. However, it seems that the man has some form of enhanced speed, as he was able to get through the train before anyone could see, and thus he could've already left the station, and was taking his leave with possible millions of credits worth of Connects.
He couldn't let this happen without trying to do anything.
He had to fight.
Knowing that the passengers were caught up in the chaos of their revelation, Rohan turns to the open backdoor. He knows that the train is still moving, but he can't afford to wait for the train to stop to get out. He had to suit up now, and find the enemy.
Rohan takes a deep breath, and remembers the design he had for the newest iteration of his suit. He closes his eyes, imagining the large suit of armor he thought about, the beast that would take the hardest hits while dealing its own.
Rohan's chest begins to start glowing blue, as his body starts to give off a mist. Streaks run to his limbs, and streaks run from his closed eyes to his forehead, with soft mist coming off.
Rohan's body emanates with more blue mist, and he takes a deep breath, with blue electricity beginning to spark off of his body. He then opens his eyes, ready to go into the field.
He sprints out of the train from the back door, feeling the powerful wind from the train, being deafened by the roar of the train. For a moment, it seems the whole tunnel glows blue, as Rohan's mist spreads more than it ever had before.
The electricity reaches farther out as well, and as the train continues towards the nearby station, the passengers notice the blue glow coming from behind the open door.
Rohan's body lets out an explosion of mist and lightning, which gives out its own roar.
Out on the surface, pods drive down the road, with buildings lined up at the edge. There were also a handful of pedestrians, just living their life as always, with some heading to their offices for work.
There was a quiet peacefulness, as while there was sound from the pods and people, it was still relatively quiet in the bustling city. Citizens walk out of a nearby apartment, leaving their pods to drive off for errands.
A train station tent stands nearby, with people both in and out of it, with some groups talking to one another.
However, one of the groups of people approaching the station suddenly splits down the middle, as the people suddenly fly off to the sides.
The gust of wind that had knocked them off to the side comes to a stop right in front of them, as the man in the tracksuit suddenly appears, breathing heavily. The man looks around to find that he is on the surface, where there is a vast network of roads for him to make his escape.
He takes off his backpack, opens it, and looks inside. Inside the backpack was a pile of Connects, full of variety as there were watches, earpods, rings, and more. The backpack was almost completely full, as he had put everything he could in it.
He then closes his bag and puts it back on him. He looks down the road, and lowers his body, getting into a running stance.
The man starts to run, making his escape, running far faster than any pod around.
However, as he runs down the road, the road under him suddenly explodes, collapsing under his feet. The man's eyes widens in confusion, and he runs to safety before stopping and turning back, wondering what had happened.
Behind him, where the explosion took place, was the top half of a massive robot, which has massive armor plates all around its body, covering the white body with blue armor.
The giant stands tall, with more of the road collapsing around him. His head has a similar mask to Meditat's first suit, however the eyes were far more sharp, glowing blue.
The man in the tracksuit watches in horror, completely consumed in fear.
The road next to the giant begins to collapse, and its arms appear from under the ground, its massive arms armored with black gauntlets holding debris from the tunnel.
Pods approaching the giant all come to a stop, trying to avoid the destruction. Some of the pods even begin driving back, the drivers scared for their life.
The giant finds the man in the tracksuit in the middle of the road, and it glares, locking the target in its sight.
The giant then reaches for the man in an attempt to grab it, its hand the size of him.
The man evades the grab by running to the side, however he couldn't leave, as he was entranced by what he witnessed.
The giant puts his hands on the ground, and it begins to elevate from under the ground, pushing itself to the surface. The suit's large legs appear, and as it gets in the air, more of the ground collapses.
The giant lands on the street, staring down at the man from above. Its body was humanoid, with blue armor plates over a suit body, a black mask with blue eyes, and black gauntlets and boots. While it had a few similarities to the first suit, it was still completely different, as he had gone from a modified air hockey suit to a giant mechanical beast.
The giant raises its feet above the man, and it then brings it down in an attempt to crush him.
However, the man runs out of the way, and the foot stomps on the ground, causing a wide crack to be made.
The man runs in front of the apartment, panting heavily, as he wasn't sure if he should just escape while he could, or stay.
The giant turns to the man, and watches as the man runs up the apartment's wall, using his speed to run vertically. He runs up to the giant's head level, and tries to get looks of it to analyze what he was going against.
The giant sees the man run on the apartment, staying right in his sight. He pulls his arm back, and in an attempt to defeat the speedster, he throws his arm for a wide grab.
The man sees the attack, and he runs down the apartment to escape. As he runs down, the giant's hand breaks into the apartment's wall, and its wide grab causes more of the wall to be decimated by its hand.
The giant's grab finishes, having failed, but now a massive hole opens in the apartment, and inside the hole are different apartment rooms full of people, adults and children, who all scream in terror from the attack.
The giant turns to the people, confused, and watches as they all run away from their rooms, as if trying to escape from their deaths.
Inside the giant robot's chest, where the heart would be, was a small compartment that Rohan stands in. His arms and legs were encased in metal tubes, which seem to act as his controllers. Around him were different lights, as he sits in the center of the machine, his most complex creation.
On his face was a visor that allows him to view a live feed of the cameras in the robot's eyes, and he watches what the giant was watching, the terrified citizens.
Rohan's mouth opens, as he begins to feel worried, realizing that he was bringing huge collateral damage to the city.
Rohan asks, "Orial...I'm not...killing anyone...right?"
Orial responds, "I cannot determine. Did you cover the camera?"
Rohan responds confused, "Huh? What do you mean? Your camera should be working fine."
Orial says, "Yes, but it is unable see anything. It appears my cameras cannot view what happen."
Rohan's jaw drops, as he realizes that Orial only could see what was in front of Rohan directly, which was nothing but the compartment he was in.
Orial had no way to see what was happening outside, and so he couldn't make any statements of anything going on.
Orial couldn't record any events taking place, which means that Orial couldn't gather anything from this fight.
There was no benefit of Orial being rushed, as he wasn't gaining any experiences.
Rohan sighs, and he says, "Never mind, it's okay. I need to stop this guy, and quickly, every time I try to get him I destroy part of the city. Why did I do this...what was I thinking...this was the dumbest idea I could've gone with."
The giant pulls its arm back, and it looks down at the ground, where the man stands.
The man then begins to run down the city, trying to make for an escape, his backpack still full of Connects.
The giant begins chasing the man, however the giant was far slower by comparison due to the sheer size. The man runs up different buildings he could find, almost teasing the giant for its lack of speed.
The giant tries to run faster, and it sees the man run up to the roof of a building right next to it. The giant goes for a grab, trying to get the man before the fight could continue, however the man escapes the grasp, causing the giant to only demolish the top of the building.
Rubble flies off of the giant's hand and onto the street, and the giant continues chasing the man, unable to get him.
The man runs down the road, and he looks behind himself to see the giant. He smiles as an idea comes to mind, and he suddenly halts himself. He then turns around, and runs for the giant, a new plan in mind.
The man jumps onto the massive boot of the giant, and then begins running up the body, crawling up the suit.
Rohan looks down to see the man running around his suit, and he begins breathing heavily, scared.
The giant starts trying to grab the man off his leg, however the man evades the grab, causing the giant to hit its own leg.
The giant stumbles forward, and the man runs up the giant's chest.
Rohan groans, with sweat beginning to drip down his forehead, as he seems to begin growing tired.
The giant sees the man on his chest, and uses both hands to try grabbing it, however the man evades the strike, causing the giant to hit its own chest with both hands.
Rohan groans again, breathing heavily as though he could hardly stand. He quietly complains, "I feel...so...tired...come on!"
The man runs on the giant's left shoulder, and begins circling around its arm as it makes its way to its hand.
The giant sees the man, and it goes for a grab with its right hand, however its movements were noticeably slower, as if getting more and more tired.
The man runs back up the arm right before the hand could get him, causing the giant to slap its own wrist, causing both of its arms to lower in pain.
As the man continues running around the giant to try to get it to attack back, light blue mist begins to leak off the giant's body, mostly in its arms.
Inside the suit, Rohan's whole face drips in sweat, with some even dripping off, and his jacket appears wet.
The giant sees the man run over its eye, and it tries to make a grab, but instead it hits its own eyes, causing it to stumble backwards and into another skyscraper. While it doesn't destroy the building, it crashes into it, breaking the wall.
At the same time, the giant's arms begin to change color, and it becomes the solid blue that was similar to the mist.
The man runs down to the giant's stomach, and once again the giant tries to grab it, still leaning against the building. However, once again the man runs away from the stomach just in time for the giant to punch itself, causing its body to slam harder into the building.
The blue arms begin to start leaking mist as well, and the shape starts to deform and become more simple arms, losing its armor.
The man runs down the giant's right arm, and in a rather risky move, it jumps off its hand, flying right in front of the giant's field of view.
Rohan coughs, his whole body soaked, as he could hardly stand up. He weakly yells, "Stop!"
The giant attempts to grab the man with both of its hands, hoping to catch it in front of him. Now that the man was in the air, he had slowed down significantly, making him an easier target; one he could feasibly grab.
The giant finally manages to clap its hands on the man, finally having gotten its target.
Rohan yells with a victorious cheer, "Yes, finally!"
However, right as the giant grabs the man, both of its arms suddenly burst, evaporating into clouds of blue mist.
The man falls down, having been temporarily grabbed, but is now free. He looks down at the ground before extending his arms down, and rotating them like helicopter blades.
With the super speed, the man manages to create a push of wind that slows his fall to a gentle landing. He then looks up to see that the giant no longer had arms, and was thus no longer able to fight.
Rohan stares with wide eyes, confused, as he had thought he finally won, but now he couldn't feel his arms.
The giant looks down at the man, and as it does, more blue mist leaks out of its body. Suddenly, different parts of its body such as its shoulders and feet begin to turn blue, giving off more mist.
Rohan's eyes widen as he feels the giant slowly disintegrating. He wasn't able to continue holding it up, and he couldn't continue the fight. While he still had his legs, which he wouldn't for long, they were clearly not going to beat the man who could run far faster than him.
He couldn't keep fighting, he had to end it, even though he was unable to defeat the man.
The man looks at the giant's head, and it waves, mocking it. He knew that he had won, and that his opponent, albeit tall and scary, was weaker than him.
The giant looks down at its feet, and sees that the legs were blue, and the feet were turning blue as well. He didn't have much time to maneuver, but he had to before he could be caught.
If he was caught now, it was certain that he would be executed, there was no question about it.
Rohan sighs, and he quietly says, "I'm sorry...everyone. I failed again…."
The giant lowers its body, and once more begins sprinting at the man.
The man sees the giant run for him, and the man begins running away, far faster than anything the giant could achieve. He looks back with a smile, knowing he couldn't be caught.
However, that wasn't the goal, as the giant leaps off of the ground, and into the air.
The man looks up at the giant, wondering if it was trying to leap on him, trying to crush him with its huge body. The man runs faster, trying to avoid the slam.
Instead of trying to go for a slam however, the giant's feet boost powerfully, and the giant flies up into the air.
For better or worse, Rohan had still implemented the movement mechanics of his old suit into the giant, even though it was heavily taxing to output enough energy to move such a massive and heavy body.
Inside the suit, Rohan feels the heavy tax, as he breathes even more heavily, as though he was on the brink of passing out.
The giant constantly kicks its feet, causing it to boost up again, as it is too big to pull itself anywhere.
The man stops running, as he sees the giant flying away. He smiles, seeing that such a titanic beast was retreating from battle, leaving him to take home all the Connects he stole.
He runs off again, heading back home, leaving the city in cracks and fires.
The giant kicks its feet more and more, flying up to the skyscrapers. However, as it does, the whole body becomes blue, and more mist leaks from it. Electricity even starts to spark as its power input is put to its limits.
The head of the giant bursts into mist, and the legs begin eroding.
Inside the suit, the compartment around Rohan begins to turn blue, as Rohan's body seems to fall limp, as though slipping out of consciousness.
Orial asks, "What is happening? Are you okay?"
However, Rohan couldn't answer, as he was far too tired.
The giant gives one more powerful kick, and it boosts once more before the feet and legs finally burst into mist, leaving just the blue torso in the air.
The torso flies over office buildings as it erodes further, breaking down as it loses any shape and figure it once had.
The torso finally bursts into blue mist, leaving Rohan's body flying in the air, completely vulnerable.
The thickness of the mist as well as the height that the suit reached keeps Rohan invisible to anyone witnessing the event, as it seems the whole giant had died, a living organism.
Rohan's body flies towards an office building before slamming into the balcony, and rolling into the building's wall.
Rohan's eyes slowly open as his whole body is drenched from head to toe in sweat, his body unable to move.
He stares weakly, feeling nothing but pain, wondering if he'd even be able to return to the bus in time before it leaves.
As Rohan lays on the balcony, the door opens, and a man in formal business attire walks out, sipping from a cup of royx. He steps into the balcony and takes the cup off of his mouth, sighing.
The man looks out into the city, clearly exhausted from all his work, and just wanting to get a nice view of the city before working again back inside.
He then turns to see Rohan laying on the ground, completely drenched, and he blinks his eyes in confusion.
He asks, "Wait, have I seen you before?"
Rohan stares at the man with wide eyes, and then takes a deep breath. He throws himself off of the ground and to his feet with all the energy he could muster, and attempts to run to the door, hoping to find the elevator and escape.
However, he collapses immediately, unable to stand. He lets out a groan as he hits the ground, seeming completely miserable.
The man blinks again, and he says, "I really feel like I've seen you before."
Rohan coughs, and he weakly says, "It's...a long story...don't...worry about me…."
The man tilts his head, and he takes another sip from his cup. He then says, "Well, it's not like I'm paid enough to care. This city is one burning pile, that's for sure. Were you playing on the roof or something? Where're your parents anyways, why do you keep coming here?"
Rohan sighs, and he softly says, "My parents...don't work here...honestly...this is a coincidence...trust me."
The man shrugs his shoulders, and says, "Well, sure okay. I don't know what you kids are doing these days, back in my day we stayed home and played video games. Now you're all out and about running."
Rohan turns his head to the balcony, staring at the view of the city.
The man turns to Rohan, seeing where his attention was. He then turns back to face the city, and says, "Beautiful, isn't it? I honestly contemplate leaving this city, no, this Earth, but something about it keeps bringing me back. I mean, I guess Carla wouldn't be happy if I had everyone leave, especially since we just finished paying that mortgage. And poor Johnny, he just started making friends, I don't want him to have to suffer through that again. Even if it was just up to me though, I don't know if I'd actually get on one of those Express Stations and fly out of here. Anyways, kid, what's your name?"
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he says, "Roh-...an...Rohan...."
The man nods his head, and he says, "Well, I'm Mark. I work here, which is why I'm here. I don't know why you're here, you can say it if you want, but don't feel pressured."
Rohan stares in silence for a few moments, and Mark continues, "Well, I guess that's my answer."
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he pushes himself off of the ground, trying to stand once again. He stumbles forward, but manages to regain his standing just a little bit. He slowly walks towards the edge of the balcony, and stares down at the city, watching it from above.
His eyes survey the city, however they stop when he notices smoke coming from a couple blocks. He looks hard to see a building with a massive hole on its side, and debris all over the ground, with wide cracks on the road.
He sighs, putting his hand on his face, hating himself for the destruction he caused.
The man he was chasing stole all those people's Connects, but it was hard to tell who's rampage would cost more. At least Rohan already knew who's rampage was more deadly.
He lowers his head, wondering why in the world he thought going for such a large suit would work. He was only thinking about trying to protect himself and trying to be strong enough, however he went so far that he destroyed everything in his path.
He was just acting as another terrorist.
Rohan didn't save the day, he made it worse.
Rohan weakly says, "I should...get going...probably."
Mark shakes his head, and he says, "Don't worry, take all the time you need. You probably aren't authorized to be here but, I'm not going to kick you out."
Rohan's eyes widens, and his body begins shaking, as he starts having trouble continuing to stand. He asks, "Why...are you being so nice to me…? You don't even know me...and I showed up in your building…."
Mark smiles softly, and he answers, "Well, it's what I would always tell Johnny: There's no point doing anything if it's not helping anyone. I do this job to give my family food and shelter, I mean sure this job probably does something good but that's corporate talk that I don't know nor care enough to get. It's the little things that matter, I'm not going to cure poverty or something, nor could I ever stop whatever in the world is going on with this city. But if I can do small things, like make my family happy, or even let some random kid sit on this balcony for a couple more minutes or however long you need, then I think I did good."
Rohan lets out a soft sigh, and he says, "I...yeah…. I don't know...I'm probably never going to be able to do what I want to do for the world."
Mark sips from his cup again, and then says, "Well, you can't just magically make whatever you want and do everything. Ultimately, you have to sacrifice some things in your life, like your dreams. You have to be realistic, because in the end, life isn't stable enough to wish big and think later. Start small, and work up from there, and always have a plan to fall back on. Or else you'll end up like my dad, my mom dropped him after he gambled everything he had away in hopes to make it big, and now whenever I meet him he's an alcoholic mess. I honestly don't even know how he's still alive anymore."
Rohan nods his head slowly, and he quietly says, "Thank you...I didn't expect you to be so profound. But that's helpful...I'll probably be able to leave in a few minutes...don't worry."
Mark shakes his head, and he says, "No rush, it's okay. And don't give me too much credit, I have to know some things to be a good dad, you know? If I don't know anything myself, what am I supposed to pass down? I don't know how much of what I said are things I actually believe in, but as long as I know it and can recite it, that's fine by me. Now, I've felt countless pings from my Connect notifying me that Alex wants me to check what he screwed up on, so I'm going to be going. See you around, kid."
Rohan turns his head to Mark, and he nods, before saying "Thank you."
Mark nods, and he walks back into the building, closing the door behind him.
Rohan sighs, and he looks back out into the city. He puts his hands together as he contemplates everything that had happened. He wasn't sure how much time he had before someone else would find him and kick him out, but he needed a second to process.
Unfortunately, he couldn't expect Orial to do that for him, as he completely missed the whole battle, but that was due to Rohan's own mistake.
He had far more problems than he ever thought he'd have, which seemed to have become the running theme of his tests in the city.
He learned that while his old suit was not strong enough to win, he also had to worry about going over the top, as he still had to think about the civilians he was aiming to protect.
He also realized that he had to work on Orial far more than he did, and more than he planned to do, as Orial was horribly integrated. He knew just housing Orial on his Connect wasn't good enough, and he needed to let Orial connect to his actual suit.
He also came to realize he had to work more on his stamina, as he was still barely able to hold up, and while he didn't plan on ever going for such a massive suit, he could still definitely improve on his ability to keep going.
It was clear that he couldn't upgrade in such simple ways as increasing the size of his suit, but rather he had to be more intricate with his design changes, and try to find ways to strengthen himself in ways that would let him still stay relatively low profile and not destroy everything whenever he tried to talk.
Lastly, he realizes that he wasn't doing enough to achieve his goals. He was only going to the city once a week, limiting how much time he could put into working on his gear, something he realized would take many minor tweaks rather than the hope of making one major patch to resolve all his problems.
He already knew that the road wouldn't be easy and he'd need to spend time on his new work, however he realized now that he needed to spend a great deal of that time on the field rather than preparations for a week.
He needed to make a change and get himself back on his feet, as he had failed to defeat every Exhuman he encountered, and couldn't keep failing forever.
He had to make up for the damages he had done to the city, and repay by making up for the damages everyone else had made.
To do that, he had to figure out how to sacrifice some of Rohan to give more to Meditat.