Danny had seen the roped off section of the garage under the Cathedral before. He'd even sneaked a peek under the tarps and seen what they concealed. What lay under them made him feel eight years old again, in that "If I don't get one of these things, I'll fockin die" kind of a way. He'd asked Ophilia who to talk to about the steeds under the tarps, and she'd smiled that little smile of hers from behind her walnut desk, and told him "Stone." 

And so here he found himself, heading towards the man himself himself, who had one of the magical toys dissasembled all around him along with the bulk of what looked to once have been a fairly well-kept classic Harley, a look of concentration furrowing his brow.  He was lying on his back alongside the Harley's wheel-less frame which itself was supported on a frame stand, trying to fit a mechanical component up under the belly of the thing where the engine used to be.  His grease-stained white T-Shirt bore a logo for the Trump Taj Majal casino.

"Wotcha," said Danny as he approached. "The boss-lady says that if I want ta engage in my juvenile-delinquient fantasy of screamin up the High Street on one of yer beasts, It's you i've got ta beg." 

Stone didn't stop working and didn't bother to look Danny's way.  "You must be the new guy," he said as he fiddled.  "Go over to that bench and get me a 5/16ths wrench, will you?" 

Danny did the quick converstion in his head, plucked the appropriate tool from the bench, and squatted down next to Stone, tapping him once on the arm lightly to indicate the tool was ready. "Yup. Danny McClain, new guy." 

Stone took the wrench without looking and put it in his teeth.  He held the apparatus he'd been working on with one hand from underneath and with the other he felt around by his thigh for a steel bolt.  He took the bolt and slid it into adjoining holes in the frame and the unit in his hands and then pulled the wrench from his mouth and started tightening it into place.

Lighten up... Luke's words in his head again.  Lighten up.

"So, Danny McClain the new guy," Stone asked while he worked.  "Ever ride a motorcycle before?"

"Sure and I have. Well, if ya want to be generous and call a Kawasaki 80 a motorcycle" he added. "Me mates and I used to tear up and down the hills outside the village after school and on the weekends. Haven't been on one fer about... emm..." he considered. "Six or seven years now. Nothin like these fine beasts, that's fer sure." 

Stone finished with the first bolt and started in on another, this time on the opposite side.  "Kawasaki 80...that's a dirt bike.  Ever ride a street machine?  In actual traffic?"

Danny shook his head, craning over to see what it was Stone was doing. "Nope. Never." 

Stone shrugged with just his head as he worked a third bolt into place along the component's center line, nearer the front of the frame.  "And now you want to jump on a hoverbike and head out to the highway," he said as he made the last few tightening turns with the wrench.

"Emmm.. no." Danny said, staring at an engine that looked... strange. "Now I want ta talk ta the man who's in charge a makin sure I don't kill anyone on these things. Ta find out what it takes ta get a license, or a key, or whatever." 

The wrench paused for a second and Stone's sunglasses moved sideways a fraction towards Danny.  "You're smarter than you look," he said in his neutral tone as he went back to finishing securing the last bolt.  When that was done, he got to his feet and walked over to stand in front of the Irishman.  He gave the man a once-over as he wiped his hands on a towel he carried and then with a few nods he said only, "Okay."

Danny opened his mouth to say something, seemed to think better of it, then just shrugged and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

The towel and wrench got tossed onto the nearby workbench next to a pack of Marlboros, which Stone grabbed.  He turned back to Danny and fished a smoke out as he asked, "You got a couple of hours?"

Danny nodded. "Sure do." 

As he placed the cigarette into his mouth, the grungy biker meandered over to one of the tarp-covered hypercycles and pulled the cover off.  The garage flourescents made it gleam.

"This one's Heatwave's," he explained, fiddling with an American flag Zippo.  He flicked it alight and lit his smoke, taking a deep, long drag.

"She's... not into bikes," he explained calmly with smoke exhaling around his words, the rest coming out his nose.  "By rights you'd be getting Ardent's bike - he's the guy you replaced best I can tell.  But, well..."  Stone looked back at the disassembled vehicle on the floor.  "It's seen better days."

"Anyway," he continued, returning his attention to the one parked where they stood, "Hotness ain't gonna mind you using this one.  So go on, fire it up."

Danny snatched up the helmet and pulled it on, then hopped on the bike. He pressed the white button labled "Start", the machine purring to life beneath him.

"So what happened to that Ardent guy anyway," he asked , popping his visor and taking note of the various instruments on the motorcycles panel. He definitely didn't remember there being this many back in the day. 

"He quit, don't know why," Stone answered has he watched how Danny the New Guy handled the bike.  Using his smoke as a pointer, he said, "The tranny defaults to fully automatic, so you got two gears, on and off.  Everything else is pretty standard.  She's a lot heavier than a dirt bike.  You got her?"

Danny leaned left, then right, testing the weight. "Yup. Got it," he replied. 

"Okay."  Stone reached up onto a high shelf above the bikes and fished around until he came down with a small gadget that looked like a wireless headset for a mobile phone.

"Your helmet's got a voice-activated talkie thing.  I'll talk to you on this.  Follow me out and take it easy.  If you run into trouble just say so."  He fixed the small wireless thing around his right ear.  "Any questions?"

Danny lowered the visor and made a minute change, spotting the internal mic. He flipped the visor back up again, releasing a tiny puff of black smoke as he did so. "How do ya turn on the talkie thing? Other than that, no. I think I'm good." 

Stone's brow furrowed at the smoke, but he just said, "It's on, I'm hearing you."  Then, his curiosity piqued, "You okay in there?" 

"Yup," came Danny's voice from the now sealed visor. "Doin grand. Now what?" 

Stone sighed and looked down resignedly, then back up at Danny and repeated, "Follow me out and take it easy."  Danny could hear Stone through the helmet speakers.  "If you run into trouble just say so."

A leather jacket was grabbed off a folding chair and he turned and walked to the end of the row of tarp-covered hypercycles to the only one that was uncovered and looked to have seen some regular use.  He swung a leg over and handled the bike with such casual ease it suggested someone who'd spent many years riding to the new team member.

In a quick series, Stone started the bike, booted it into gear, and started rolling towards a large metal roll-up door that started opening on it's own.

Danny followed, far more wobbly than Stone was, but he managed to not gun it, fall over, or kill the engine as he did so. "Seo, rud ella ar fad e sin", came over the headset. 

Stone replied, "English, dude," and continued on out the garage door.  It led to a wide sewer tunnel that had been drained out, which in turn led to a ramp that exited into an alley about a block away. 

"No, Irish," replied Danny. "But it's a common enough mistake." He focused on staying verticle as he gave the machine some more power to make it up the ramp. "Sorry about that. I was sayin that this isn't at all the same as me old dirtbike. I tend ta mutter in my native tongue." 

Stone didn't answer but he did stop once he made the street and waited for Danny to roll alongside.  

"Okay so far?" he asked.

"Yup." 

Stone pointed at Danny's center console.  "Don't push that red button.  Otherwise just stay with me."  He slowly pulled out into midday traffic and soon had them riding north.  After a few blocks, when it seemed that the new guy was handling it fairly well, Stone turned right and started off east towards the water.

"You seem pretty solid on that thing,"Stone finally said when they were stopped at a traffic light.  "Any questions yet?"

"Aside from the obvious 'why can't I push the red button' one?" Danny replied, resting the weight of the bike on his left foot as he stopped at the light. "Nah, doin grand thanks. It's a bit heavier than I'm used ta, and far more powerful. Takin it slow like this is helpful." 

Stone kept them moving east and eventually found himself at a familiar intersection.  He signalled to Danny to pull over and then he did so - right at the same point that he'd stopped with Phi.  With a hand gesture he had Danny roll alongside. Danny did so.

"You up for taking this to the next level?"

"Sure. And what would that be?" 

"See the pier across the street?" Stone asked, turning and pointing it out.  "I'll tell you there.  Come on."

The more experienced biker guided them across the main drag that ran along the waterfront and up to the pier entrance.  Then he explained.

"Keep your speed up.  You need to be going at least sixty when you hit the end of the pier.  Any slower and you'll hit the water before the bike is ready.  Just don't punk out, keep your front wheel up, and don't get caught up in the moment and forget to hit that red button when you make the end of the pier.  Phi did that and then chewed my ass all the way back like it was my fault or something she went swimming."

Danny's laughter echoed in his earpiece. "Oh...oh i'd have paid cash ta have seen that." 

Stone hung his head for a moment and then added, "Don't tell her I told you.  I forgot it was a secret."  As an afterthought, he asked, "You can swim, right?"

"Like a fish," Danny replied. "Speed up. Front wheel up. Red button at the end of the pier." he recited. "And tell Ophilia what? I don't know what yer talkin about." 

"Right," Stone affirmed.  "Let's get it."  He shifted up and took off like a shot, Danny just a few yards behind.  They sped past and around a few angry longshoremen while continually accelerating towards the pier's end.  Both bikes launched into the air and transformed, each rider successfully landing atop the rolling ocean water and continuing out to sea.

Stone coasted to a stop about a hundred feet off shore.  His hypercycle floated a couple of feet over the surface of the water, the hover effects causing virbation ripples in a wide circle around him. 

"Good job," he offered Danny when he coasted over.  "Does Danny the New Guy eat hot dogs?"

Danny lifted the visor of his helmet, his face extremely solemn and serious. He peered down at the water near his left foot. Then leaned over and repeated the excercise with his right. He straightened, and regarded the other man quietly for a moment, the pair very gently bobbing up and down as waves moved beneath them. "Wow," he intoned. A grin slowley crept across his face. "I so want ta go buzz the Coast Guard. Right now." 

Stone snorted.  "No you really don't.  I tried it and they called at a... a 'maritime incident', or something.  Phi got pissed."  He shrugged.  "PR bullshit.  If we stay within sight of shore we're okay.  I just like to use the ocean so you don't have to worry about cars n'shit the first time in hover mode.  Plus, that jump's kinda fun."

"Sure and it was," he said, nodding vigorously, looking back towards the pier. "And will be again, I have no doubt a that," 

"Let's go," Stone said, and he shot off north along the Jersey Shore.  "Next stop, the Windmill."

"Right. Hot dogs. Me mother would kill me cause of the chemicals, but hey - I regenerate. Let them do their worst!" 

A half an hour later, both men sat at a booth in Stone's favorite restaurant, the same booth he'd shared with Ophilia.  Stone had come to start thinking of the booth as his office.  Stone had two dogs his usual way, with kraut, onions, and mustard.  Danny had two as well, with everything.

And chili-cheese fries.

"What did you mean," Stone asked, "'regenerate'?  What's that?"

Danny looked up from his plate of fries, which he was waving a hand over in a vain attempt to cool. He'd wolfed down both hotdogs within minutes of sitting down. "Emm, heal. Cut me arm off, I can put it back on. That sorta thing." He extracted a couple fries from the gooey steaming mass and popped them in his mouth, sighing happily. "And yer the strong one right? Unkillable or some such. Take a tank ta stop ya?" 

Stone shook his head.  "Been hit by a tank, no big deal.  But nobody's unkillable."  He took a bite of his dog and after swallowing asked, "So when we're in the shit, whattaya like, heal people until they pass out?  Or is it the kind of thing like you tear off your arm and beat on 'em and then just stick it back on when you're done?"

Danny laughed. "Oh sure, and wouldn't that be a sight?" He snorted as he dug out another laden fry. "No, as I can heal, I can do... other things. Like, shape blood and bone. Fix it, shape it, tear it, change it. Meself too. Get strong or fast or poisonous or fly... all kinds a things." 

Chomp Chomp Chomp.

"But not all at once, ya know? Have ta wrap my mind around it, focus the power."

Chomp Chomp Chomp

"Oh, and I can turn inta a bird." Chomp. "And a dog." 

"Don't ask." 

Stone opened and closed his mouth, then he shrugged.  "So what's Ireland like?  Any good riding over there?"

"It's colder, wetter, and a bit greener than here. Not as crowded, especially my home town. Ringaskiddy. Near the Irish Naval base, right on the south coast. Plenty of places ta ride just about any damn thing, really. When ya head up north, it gets much less so. Fairly cosmopoliton in tha bigger cities." He looked out the window at the passing crowd as he munched. "People are people, no matter where ya go or where yer from, ya know?" He pushed the plate towards Stone. "Want some? They're right tasty."

Stone answered by taking a chili-slathered fry and eating it.

"And how bout yerself? Wher're you from?"

Stone tapped the table once and replied, "Right here.  Been away for ten years or so, so I'm kind of relearning the place."

"Ten years ya say. That's a fair bit of time." Danny took a swig from a bottle of coke. "And how have ya found it now that yer back?"

"Oh," Stone thought for a moment.  "Very different.  Not so much the place, but me, my situation.  Long story."  Stone shook his head and took a swig from his Bud bottle.  Behind his sunglasses his usual stoic expression came tinged with a hint of sadness.

Shaking himself out of it, Stone said, "I've ridden through every corner of the States, even been to the moon, but I've never been international.  Maybe I'll try Ireland.  Good lookin' women there?"

Danny's mouth hung open. "Did ya just say 'the moon'?"

"Mmm-hmm."  Stone fished into his leather jacket pocket and pulled out his keys.  There was a round, flattish, smooth grey rock about the size of a golf ball with a hole bored into it near one end.  The key ring ran through it.  Stone slid it across the table to Danny.

"It's safe," he said.  "I had it checked out when I brought it back to make sure."

"And how the Hell did ya do that!"

Stone shrugged.  "I just went.  I mean, wouldn't you if you could?  You probably could."

"Oh no. I mean, how in the hell did ya get up there? It's not like ya can just hold yer thumb out hitch a ride!" He stared at the key ring as he was talking, eyeing it like it was the Hope diamond. "I mean, aren't there trajectories and breathing and decompression and... and..." he picked it up and rubbed it between his forefinger and thumb. "Bloody hell." 

He slid it back to the bigger man, shaking his head in amazement.

"I can fly," Stone revealed as he took back his keys.  "Pretty fast, too.  I don't do it much 'cause... it draws attention, and I like to be left alone."

His lunch done, Stone pulled out a pack of Marlboros and offered them to Danny.  "This was, maybe, three years ago.   I think it was Oklahoma, off the four-oh.  We'd pulled off to crash a bit."

He used an old American flag Zippo lighter to light his smoke.  "I don't sleep.  I got bored.  It was night, I'm looking up at the moon from my roll. Next thing I remember I'm flying.  I just kept on for it.  Took a long time, a couple of days, maybe more.  Cold, heat, don't bother me, and I'd been underwater for hours without a hitch, but I kept waiting for something bad to happen.  Never did.  Just an odd sort of sensation all over, like when there's weight on you, but in reverse."

Stone took a long drag, drawing a look of ire from a couple seated nearby.  He gave them "the look" and they went back to their lunch.

"When I got there I guess I must have been going faster than I thought.  All of a sudden I'm plowing into the moon.  I found out later that, in space, it's not like here.  Here I can only get so fast, but out there I just keep going faster and faster unless I stop trying.  Pissed the folks at NASA off pretty steep, I heard.  Had to add a new crater to their maps n'shit.  Anyway, I saw the footprint, and the American flag, and that car they left up there.  It wouldn't start, though."  Stone shrugged.  "It was cool."

"Huh," Danny said, mechanically eating a few more fries, his eyes finally falling on the cigarette. "Ok, why?", he asked, pointing at it with a fry. "Can't be because yer addicted." 

Stone shook his nead no.  "Nope. A pack or two a day for years, and my lungs are as pink as yours.  I started one day to try it, and then..."  He shrugged.  "I'm just used to it.  It's a comfort thing."

Stone leaned back in his bench and looked inscrutible behind his shades.  "So... why're you here, Danny the New Guy?"

Danny smiled. "I'm here, Stoney me lad, because I can all but resurrect the dead, and I can hide a bit in this team and help real  people, instead a bein locked in a government basement doin me part for the IRA." He popped the fry in his mouth. "Can ya understand that? Does it make sense?"

Stone made a semi-dismissive grunt and replied, "You could do that anywhere. I've been doin' it for years."  He took another drag, and then tapped lightly at the table with his smoking hand.  "Why here?  Why us?"

"You tell me how many supergroups you know of that are formin up right now," Danny countered. "Especially ones that are family."  He shrugged. "I've never once taken advantage of blood, my friend, but this one was too good ta pass up. I can fit in here, and try ta... help, in ways that I couldn't do in Ireland. It's different here."

"Waitaminute," Stone interrupted, his brows narrowing menacingly.  "What do you mean, 'family'?"

"Me grandmother." Danny said. "She's Angelo's sister. Ophilia, Sebastian and I're cousins. That's how I found out about there bein a need on the team." He frowned. "Actually, I lie. It was Renaldo, working out all the details and whatnot." He leaned back. "And don't be given me that 'evil eye' boyo. I was raised so far away from the rest of the D's, I don't really know much about em. I'm who I am. It's why gram moved away in the first place - to end that nonsense." 

Stone considered Danny cooly across the booth, part of him wanting to give the kid the benefit of the doubt.  The smoke from his cigarette floated up in a thin grey line between them as he thought back to the family tree chart he'd started on the DiSantiagos back in his suite at the Chapel.  Renaldo was one of those shadier D's of whom very little was written down next to the picture he'd cut out of an old newspaper society page.  He did remember thinking that Renaldo, along with Javier, Angelo, and Raphael, was not to be trusted under the best of circumstances.

"We'll see," was all the biker finally said as he ground his smoke out on his empty cardboard tray. 

"Aye, that we will,' Danny agreed. He stared at the dying remains of the cigarette for a moment, then laid his hand, palm up, on the table. "I'd like ta check on somethin, if yer willin?" 

Stone eyed the hand like it was a rattlesnake.  "Check what?"

"When was the last time ya had a physical?" Danny asked, arching a brow and grinning.

Stone relaxed and his wariness turned to simple reluctance.  "Never have.  Never been sick a day in my life.  Never been inured, not once, not even a scratch.  Never been affected by booze or drugs and believe me, I've tried.  So why would I need a physical?"

Danny snorted, and pulled back. "If I were you," he said, snatching up one of the few remaining fries and wiping the last bits of chili from the container with it, 'I'd think i'd want ta know a wee bit more about what I was." He popped it into his mouth and sighed happily. "But that's just me." 

Stone sat there and thought about how he'd wondered all his life about who he was, where he came from, what he could do.  He'd spent considerable time on the last question, trying to figure it out.  Until his training room session on the MegaFlex he never knew what his weight limit was.  He was still up in the air about what it would take to make him bleed. 

JACE had presented him an oopportunity to find out, but JACE was a dick, and Stone trusted him not at all - not that he really trusted anyone, but.  Now Danny the New Guy was offering something, and it didn't have that clinical feel of JACE's lab.  And Danny wasn't a dick - at least, not yet.  He wondered what answers this kid might actually be able to give him.  He started thinking that maybe he ought to be afraid of those answers, that maybe he'd be better off not knowing, and ultimately it was that which made his decision for him.

Stone leaned across the booth and put his elbow on the table, offering his hand to Danny like he wanted to arm wrestle.  "Let's go."

Danny nodded, and wrapped his smaller, paler hand around Stones paw. "Emmm.. Ok... here's what yer gonna see and feel when I do this. There'll be like, smoke, coming from our hands. It's not cause yer on fire, but how me power manifests, so don't worry about that. Ya might feel some stinging sensations where we touch skin, cause i'll have ta... emmm," he squinted. "Well, I'll be sendin sort'a biological probes in to test yer blood and such. I've no doubt I can get through whatever protections ya got, there's nuthin ever been able ta stop me yet, and that too will tell me sumthin." 

"Ok so far?"  Stone nodded. 

"It will take me a couple'a minutes, sure and it will. Some things I won't be able ta tell ya, cause I'm not a medical doctor. I could say 'there's somethin in yer blood', but probably can't tell ya what. Ya might want ta see JACE on that, should ya need to. He's a bit of a prat, but under it all a good man. He'd help ya figure out anythin I can't." Danny's grip tightened and he settled himself in the booth a bit. "I'll be out of it while i'm pokin around, so please don't ask me anythin or break my concentration. Should ya change yer mind mid-stream, just let go. I've no doubt ya can shake me off a fair treat without even tryin."

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Stone answered.

Smoke poured forth from Danny's hand, writhing and black as tar. It roiled and moved across Stone's hand, then his wrist, and then up his arm to the elbow. There was a subtle sound, a gentle sussation, a whispering barely audible to both men coming from within the smoke. Not voices; more like the writing of serpents, scale against scale. Or the wind moving gently through a field of grass. Danny's eyes lost their focus, his head slowly tilting to the side as he did... whatever it was that he was doing. Stone felt nothing from the contact, the promised sting never arriving. 

Danny remained silent for several minutes. Long enough for those seated around them to become aware that something unusual was going on.  The same couple near them were openly staring.  Stone glared at them and mouthed, "Fuck off."  They got up and left.

Danny straightened, releasing Stone's hand, the smoke fading away to nothing. He blinked a couple of times, refocused on the man sitting in front of him, and pursed his lips while nodding slightly.

"So. I was right, yer a tough bastard, sure and ya are. Near as I can tell, ya don't have ta eat or sleep or breathe. Yer blood kind of, renews itself. Draws what it needs from everythin around you ta keep the system functioning." He thought a moment, then continued. "I don't know bout radiation and the like, ya'd have to be exposed with me watchin ta check and see if yer immune, but if ya made it ta the moon and back, I'm guessing ya have no problems with it. Or poisons either... yer blood is different, they just won't work."

He began to tick off points on his fingers, "Yer strong, though I couldn't tell ya how strong. Yer skin is pretty damn hard. I had ta refine and refine again me probs ta just get in. Once I did though, it was fine. Ya don't regenerate like I do, but ya probably heal much faster than a normal man would. Cause of that brittleness of body and bone, ya might have some problems with things that impact ya super hard?"

"Not so far," Stone replied.  "Can you tell me anything I don't know?"

"Do vibrations bug ya?"

Stone thought about it.  "No...wait, yeah."  He leaned forward.  "There was this one time, some clown with a super-loud guitar he used as a weapon.  It felt like I was rattling inside-out, like my bones were picking up the sound and vibrating so hard... it didn't hurt so much as just kick the shit out of me, knock me off my feet and out of my head, you know?"

Danny nodded.  "Well, there was somethin there - it's like yer too tough, too rigid. I'm not sure though," he said, shaking his head. "JACE could probably tell ya better about that."

Stone snorted.  "Fuck that.  He's a tool."

He raised an eyebrow. "He's... hard ta get to know. He doesn't think like other people do. He just needs people who're willin ta kind of.. guide him, I think." He shrugged. "But this is all about you, boyo. Ready fer tha best part?" 

"Hit me," Stone said, leaning back again as he brought a new smoke to his lips.

"Yer gonna live a right long time Stone me lad. Hundreds of years is my guess. Not ferever, but... fer a long time."

The flame from his lighter paused a couple of inches away from Stone's cigarrette.  He stared at Danny for a moment more and slowly closed the lighter with his finger.  His head tilted sideways, and after a long, pregnant pause he pulled the smoke out of his face and leaned forward once again.

"How long?"
 
"Centuries. Several." Danny said. "Close to a thousand years is my bet." 

And in that moment, Danny McClain the New Guy managed to do something that many have tried, and very few have ever accomplished.  Stone was gobsmacked.  He sat there staring at, through, and past his new teammate.  Slowly his body fell back, sliding against the back of the booth.  His hands, one with a smoke between two fingers, the other clutching his lighter, lay limply at his sides.

A thousand years. 

"Fuck me," he breathed. 

Stone sat there, stunned, for almost half a minute before his head jerked upright and he asked, "Old and crusty on schedule followed by super-crusty, or the usual young-to-old bit just spread out over a thousand years?"

Danny thought about this, looking down at his own hands and spreading them on the table. "I think... I think one day y'll just... stop." He snapped his fingers. "Go out, like a candle." 

"Still," he added. "I'll be there ta see it." 

Stone did another long pause before he brought the cigarette back up to his mouth.  Around it he asked, "So you think I'll look pretty much like this all the way through?"

Danny nodded. "I do. Ya might get the odd gray hair or two, but I think it'll just happen. You'll maybe slow down a bit at the end, but not much. Yer systems are so tightly closed, is why I think that. I could be wrong, but I doubt it." 

Stone nodded slowly, taking it all in.  Finally he flicked his lighter open with his wrist and lit it, followed by the cigarette in his mouth, all one-handed. 

"Good," he said with relief and certainty.  "I'll still be able to get the hot young ones, then."  He exhaled and studied Danny across the table through the grey smoke.  "At least I know who to make executor of my will."

Stone extended his hand, upright as he did before.  "Welcome to the team."

Danny copied the gesture. "Thanks. Oh, and one other thing. Ya don't feel anything, do ya?" He scooped up a fork and plunked it gently against Stone's hand. "Like, ya wouldn't even know I did that, unless ya were watching?"

"No, I feel it," Stone corrected, "it just don't hurt."  He let go of Danny's hand and leaned back again to explain.  "I can feel heat, and cold, and...well, you know, when I'm with someone, but I just don't feel any pain.  I couldn't even explain it.  It's like, you trying to explain what it's like to have tits.  You just don't know.  You can imagine what it might feel like, but you don't really know."

Danny considered this, then nodded. "Yer nerves, like yer blood, are different. It's like, they looked incomplete or undone or somethin. That sort of explains what I saw then." He put the fork down and finished off his coke. "So how did you come inta this merry band of fools?" 

"I got asked."  Stone took a drag and added, "By Nemesis.  Got added last minute as kind of a good faith thing.  He doesn't trust the family.  No offense."

"None taken," Danny said. "I don't know a lot about most of em. Gram was very... clear... about not gettin involved any more than needed. She doesn't trust either of her brothers, and somethin happened when they were younger that she won't talk about." He rolled his coke bottle between his slender fingers. "Did ya know," he said around that near-constant grin, "that there's a curse?" 

Stone snorted again.  "Which?  The money or the power?"

"Yeah, that," Danny said, leaning forward and lowering his voice. "See, the way Gram told it, was that there was this bastard of a Disantiago back during the middle ages, a..." he blinked, then laughed. 'Ok, now that's funny. He was a Conquistador, right pillock. Raided all kinds of places. Murderin bastard. Well, he and his brothers ship went aground, who knows where, durin' some storm. Men dyin all around, ship comin apart and smashed all up on the rocks. So this guy, he calls out ta whoever might be listenin and says that he'll sell his soul and the souls of his entire family, if only he'd be saved from the storm." 

He leaned back. " And, accordin to the legend, a demon showed up and saved em. Not only that, but told em that in exchange fer a few souls, every generation, he could live on and on. But when the souls stopped, he died." Danny raised his coke bottle, signalling the waitress for a refill. "And, on top of all that, his family would all be filthy rich and get whatever they wanted in this life, cause they were ta burn in the next. Cept for a few that this guy could save, if he was willin ta kill others. It's all mad stuff, and doesn't make a whole lotta sense. Gram said they used ta use it ta scare the kiddies when they were bad. Ya know, 'be good me wee one, or the big bad ancestor'll come and take ya down to the hot hot place' kinda stuff." 

"I believe the lot of them sold their souls, or would," Stone replied to Danny's tale.  "I'm pretty sure the lot of 'em will burn, too."

He squinted across at Danny and asked, "So who's the old man?"

Danny spread his hands. "Who knows. It's just a story - he probably never was. Or was some slaver or somethin, which is how the family got a lot of it's wealth back in the day." He made a strange face, then added "and please don't be bringin this up to Ophilia. She's kinda... techy... about the family it seems." 

Stone nodded in agreement, musing over what was stewing with her and Luke and with his own personal thoughts about the team's sponsor.  "Yeah, she's touchy about a lot of things." 

"What time you got?" he asked the Irishman.

Danny looked at his watch. "Ten of three," he replied, taking the coke from the nervous looking waitress with a 'thank ya lass.' and a wink. "I love this stuff."

"Plenty of time," Stone said as he slid out of the booth.  "Take it to go," he told Danny about his soda as he slung his jacket on.  "We're out of here."

Danny held up one finger as he chugged the cola. Bottle empty, he set in on the table, pulled a five from his wallet and slipped it under the empty, then followed his somewhat peculiar teammate out the door. "Where to next?" he asked brightly. 

"Atlantic City," Stone answered as they headed out the doors.  "The Hooters at the Trop is hosting the national hottest Hooters girl contest or some shit like that this weekend.  From here that's like, an hour maybe on these things.  We just cruise down the coast."

Danny came to a stop. "Hooters, ya say? Isn't that the burger joint where all the lasses wear next ta nuthin?" 

"That's the one," Stone affirmed as he swung a leg over and then started his bike.

"Ah, the life of a superhero. It's a wonderful thing, sure and it is."