ic An American Dragon in London IC

[Thevshi]

Freedom City, New Jersey

Saturday November 20, 2020

 

With Claremont being closed the upcoming week of Thanksgiving, Murine had invited Luke to join her for part of the week in England to meet her guardians. In order for Luke to be back to Freedom City in time for Thanksgiving, the plan was for the two to travel to England at the start of the weekend and come back on Tuesday.

 

Murine had not been terribly specific about how they would be traveling to England, so it was not too surprising that the pair caught a Lyft from the Claremont campus early Saturday morning. What was a bit more unexpected was that the Lyft did not take them to Southside, where Jordan International Airport was located, but instead took them downtown to the British consulate in City Center.

 

Murine's ID badge had them quickly through security and into the consulate, where a member of the consulate staff was waiting for them. Despite it being early in the morning on a Saturday, the man was immaculately dressed in a finely tailored suit. The British diplomate was polite and friendly as he led the pair of teens through the consulate, taking them down into the basement of the building.

 

After going down several levels, the diplomate had led them through a corridor where several armed Royal Marine Commandos had been stationed and into a somewhat small concrete room with a high ceiling. In the center of the room was a large steel archway that was clearly some sort of high tech machine.

 

The diplomate moved over to what appeared to be some sort of control panel to one side of the archway and removed a keycard from around his neck which he inserted into the panel. The man spent a few moments operating several of the controls and the archway began to hum as it powered up. As the humming continued to increase in volume and electricity began to arc across the surface of the metal, a hollow "THUMP" echoed within the room as the archway pulsed with energy and what appeared almost to be a silvery pool of energy sprung into existence within the archway.

 

With Murine leading him forward, Luke felt a slight tug as he entered the strange silvery energy and instead of stepping through the archway to the other side of the subbasement room in the Freedom City British consulate, he and Murine were stepping past a similar archway that sat in rather different room.

 

London, England

Undisclosed Location Under the Thames

Saturday November 20, 2020

2:14 PM local time

 

While this new room was generally the same size and shape, it was not made solely of concrete. Instead, along the walls were several columns of arched metal that appeared both structural and decorative. There was a similar control panel as had been back at the consulate sat off to one side of this archway. The only visible exit from this room was on the wall the two teens had been facing as they had come through the portal, an open doorway that seemed to lead into a much larger space beyond.

 

Moments after the two arrived, a mechanical sounding voice filled the air. "Greetings Murine Scaedusangere, aka Shadowborne."

 

"Secondary individual identified, Luke Landers, aka Nightscale. Secondary individual's clearance preapproved. Welcome Luke Landers."

 

"Synapse is waiting in the Central Hub."

[Nerdzul]

“I’m freaking excited about this, you know?” Luke had given his Muirne a wide smile as they waited for their ride, quickly followed by a playful hug. “Thank you by the way…”

 

Now, he would have to admit that, despite deeply loving the idea of a vacation in London with his girlfriend and the fact that he could charge otherworldly monsters and supervillains without a sliver fear in his heart, that the idea of meeting Muirne’s guardians had managed to put him at least a little on edge.

What would they think of him? Would they approve? They were both true superheroes and he was just some kid from a Freedom city trailer park (although, also a dragon admittedly…) and with a criminal record to boot… and… and…

 

Whatever. He was not gonna let some stupid insecurities ruin this. This is gonna be great!

 

Not knowing exactly what to expect from them, Luke had chosen to wear his best shirt (and only one actually in his wardrobe that still had sleeves, wasn’t athletic-wear or too worn to be presentable), the least ruined jeans he had and his trusted pair of sneakers. He was clean-shaven and had spent like half an hour in front of the mirror that morning to get his hair in a somewhat presentable shape. Although they had returned to their natural mess pretty much the moment he left the dorm room he shared with Leon. Not the ruffling the hair on the back of his neck like ten times since then had helped of course.

 

A part from what he was wearing, he didn’t bring much, a small backpack with some change of clothes pretty much, plus of course, Muirne own luggage that he had volunteered to carry.

 

Ironically perhaps, the young man almost felt a sense relief when he realized that they were going to travel through a portal. After all, this wasn’t really a new experience for him and while he had never been anywhere outside of the state, he had already traversed gateways to other realms a few times in his young life. While on the other side, even if he could now fly with his own power (and honestly speaking did so pretty recklessly and deeply enjoyed the feeling), Luke had never been on a plane in his life and the idea of being locked in a metal tube in the sky for hours on end didn’t sound super appealing.

 

“Woah that's cool.” He grinned when they found themselves on the other side of the ocean.

 

“Thank you.” He nodded at the metallic voice that welcomed them to London, the playful smile still on his lips, his posture relaxed, although the green pools of his eyes did betray at least a bit of tension when the voice informed them Synapse was waiting them nearby.

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Nerdzul

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne

 

Muirne was dressed in a knee length burgundy tunic with some charcoal grey leggings and some short leather boots that were good for walking for a long time in. She had thought about dressing more formally, but between a desire to not make Luke feel underdressed (She knew he couldn't afford to buy fancier clothes) and the simple fact that she gave them even odds of making it to the embassies without getting attacked by monsters or villains (It happened every other time they went out) she had elected to go more casual. She still had her gear inside of her Schattenwelt portal to allow her to be in costume at a moment's notice, but didn't want to be stuck in a dress or the like while running for her life.

 

She could tell that Luke was nervous, but decided against bringing it up. She wouldn't want him doing so if she went to visit his family, and trusted that if it got too much he would bring it up himself. Instead she returned his hug tightly, attempting to reassure him through the physical contact alone.

 

She was quietly glad that the ride was uneventful, as she had been worried they she would have to message Dee that they would be delayed because they were stopping a time traveling robot from assassinating someone or some other thing that would probably sound like an excuse. Instead they were quickly whisked through the Consulate's Portal, something she still hadn't gotten used to, and were now (probably safely) on the English side.

 

She smiled as Luke thanked the voice, offering her own thanks in her native tongue before leading her boyfriend off to meet Dee. She wasn't sure why but this just made it feel more official. More real. Luke was HERS and this would help prove it.

 

Hey step stuttered at that thought. It was almost certainly Aoife, but it felt like it had come from her. She quickly regained her momentum, quickly moving past her shock. She'd think about it at a later date. Today was theirs.

[Thevshi]

Synapse

 

It turned out that the Central Hub was not far from the portal, with the two teenagers making their way through the open doorway into the large, towering Central Hub. The large, circular room had a vaulted domed ceiling that was supported along by numerous austere décor arched metal columns that lined the outer walls. Along the outer wall, there were several other open doorways similar to the one Murine and Luke had just emerged from, extending outward likes spokes to other various chambers.

 

At the very center of the room was a massive plated column covered with computers and monitors, all flickering as the monitored a multitude of information sources. Standing on a small platform next to this massive column was an attractive woman in her late 20's or early 30's. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, a Nine Inch Nails T-Shirt with a black leather jacket and a pair of Doc Martins completing her look. She had shoulder length black hair, with several streaks of blonde.

 

There were numerous holographic screens projected in the air around the woman who had been studying some of them when the two teens exited the portal room. Turning to look toward the two, the woman swept her left hand to the side as if pushing something side and all of the holographic screens were swept away.

 

"Good afternoon, you must be Luke." The woman said with a sophisticated English accent as she gave the two a small smile. "Welcome to London."

[Nerdzul]

After their hug, tension drained away a little from Luke's posture, after all, just being close to his girl enough to infuse him with renewed determination. There was no way things could go that wrong, right? Right?

 

"Hey. No supervillain attack on the way... We are off to a good start. " He joked.

 

The place was cool, wasn't it? Luke did his best not too look like a wide-eyed kid, but then again he wasn't as successful as he would have wanted, after all this was not just a 'mere' meet his girlfriend's guardians kind of thing, Synapse and Foreshadow were also well known super-heroes. 

 

"How do I look?" He asked, Muirne (likely not for the first time that day), before they stepped inside the Central Hub to meet Synapse.

When the young man realized that her steps had stuttered a little, he offered her his hand so that they could hold each other. Now of course he had no way of knowing the inner conflict between Muirne and her 'companion', but he still could definitely sympathize with the feeling of being at least a little on edge.

 

His smile widened when they finally met the young woman who must have been Synapse, she was... Well...  Normal? In fact, Luke almost felt like perhaps he would have been more comfortable in his usual attire rather than the current one. Whatever. 

 

He turned to face Muirne for a moment, giving her a pleasantly surprised smile.

By the way is it wrong to consider his girl's surrogate mother kinda hot? The thought was enough to bring back a bit of awkwardness and push the teenage boy to ruffle the hair on the back of his neck.

 

"Yeah. One and only." Luke grinned, although the reply didn't sound as natural as the young man was used to. "Nice to meet you." He threw another glance toward Muirne and then closed the distance between himself and giving Synapse a strong handshake. "Thanks by the way... I mean for inviting us here."

 

"First time in London." He admitted. "And by the way all of this is ... well it's pretty cool." He smiled again.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Nerdzul

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne

 

Muirne gave Luke a pat on his shoulder at his question. "You look fine, Luke." She reassured him (again). Hopefully he wouldn't find time to ask it more given how close they were to meeting up with Dee.

 

She took Luke's hand after he offered it, appreciative of the gesture, even if he didn't know the cause of her discomfort. Thankfully it wasn't long before they reached the middle and saw Dee. Muirne wasn't surprised at the informality of her clothes. She'd thought about letting Luke know about her normal standards of dress, but honestly she wasn't sure if he'd have believed her. It didn't exactly sound like what one would expect. Besides, a little bit of formality never hurt anyone when making a good first impression.

 

She was glad at the easy introductions, happy to let Luke get comfortable but there was one thing that she'd been dying to know. "Hey Dee, how is the little one?"