Start of the New Age

((This thread is open to anyone and everyone))
((This is mainly an introductory thread, just to get things rolling really))

Despite the authorities trying to calm things down, there was a phenomenon running rampant in the streets that even they couldn't control. Air Treks were the gate way for anyone searching for freedom to stretch their wings and fly, or to simply cause mischief. These "storm riders" quickly united together in order to obtain something more important then just some leisure time, and some would do anything to get to the top.

Another meeting of these souls was taking place tonight. The cold midnight air moved carelessly through the trees and brought with them a strong wind. To those who weren't gifted, this was just a chilly breeze, but to others the wind carried voices in it. The voices were quiet and faint but if one were to follow it to its source they'd quickly a bustling, almost secret congregation of those who ride ATs. Many different teams and alliances had come together tonight to share in their same hobby in this old subway station. The cold damp air under the ground here was filled with many cheery voices in one of the only places they were guaranteed to not have to worry about police interference.

One one wall of the old station was filled with the many symbols that many temas prided themselves on. There were numerous emblems plastered on the wall, from the small fries to the hot shots. Teams like the Rose Knights and the Sun's Bright Shadow were even represented here. In the lower corner of the wall, where the shadows obscured one's sight slightly was an emblem displaying a beast with several heads and the title "Hydra". Even farther in the dark corner was a lazy young kid, minding his own business as he sat leisurely in the midst of such an active environment, the music in his head phones the only noise he paid attention to.

Also among the rest of the storm riders was Brink, leader of Edge. Seen leaning up against a wall with his hands crossed, he was close enough to the majority of group to eavesdrop but his rather closed off posture deters most people from engaging in conversation with him. The Edge emblem can be seen by all as he sticks it to the wall. Even though nothing seems to have occurred at the meeting, Brink will not be the first person to speak. He doesn't care how long it will take to start so he puts one ear piece in and waits patiently.

Jericho stopped in his tracks when he reached the old train station. He had never seen so many Storm Riders in his life, let alone the fact that he didn't know that there were nearly this many Riders in the area. Jeez. I should go find Brink. Jericho and Brink had discussed the so-called "meeting" after hearing a few Storm Riders talking about it, and decided it would be a good chance to make their presence known.

Through his aviators, Jericho quickly scanned the crowd before him, looking for Brink. He spotted the boy leaning against a wall covered in team emblems, with the Edge emblem plastered to the wall right next to him. Looks like he got a head start. Jericho nonchalantly walked over to where Brink was standing, greeting him when within speaking distance. "Hey. How's the competition looking?"

Makoto absent mindedly tapped his foot to the rhythm of the music resounding in his ears, the hustle and bustle of the crowd around him fading away as he zoned out and absorbed himself in his own world. The atmosphere of such a large gathering of storm riders was certainly enjoyable, as one rarely gets the chance to be with so many of their kind without a battle occurring. Battles themselves were fun as it was truly a chance to experience that raging wind that so many people sought to ride on, as well as bring out the true potential and teamwork a team really had. But at the end of the day, someone had to win and someone had to lose, such was the law of the Trophaeum.

Makoto was almost completely lost in his own sound until he noticed the only other person in the station keeping to them self. He glanced over out of the corner of his eye at the man leaning against the same wall as himself, giving off a rather unwelcoming aura. Makoto directed his glance to the wall next to the hooded man and saw the bird with outstretched wings that proudly displayed the name of "Edge". So he must be the leader of that new group that some of the others have talked about... Makoto thought to himself as he saw another figure step out of the crowd and greet the anti-social man.

This new character also had his hood up, though he seemed a bit more approachable than the other one. The new one greeted the other pretty casually, asking about the other teams that were present, referring to them as the competition. These two certainly seemed a bit out of place for this particular gathering, but then again, Makoto was the one sitting alone in the dark corner...

Growing tired of trying to eavesdrop on conversations that were unimportant and of no use to him, Brink began to reminisce about riding AT's. The ability to ride so fast and freely was incomprehensible to him, due to the fact that he's used to having to go downhill on snow in order to gain so much speed and that kind of adrenaline rush. Also, remembering how lucky he was to have been able to run into Jericho, who introduced him to AT's in the first place. As he started to space out, he heard a very familiar voice say "Hey. How's the competition looking?". Startled and a little confused, he looked over to where he heard the voice from and ironically, there stood Jericho.

His eyes light up slightly as he saw his friend and his posture loosened. Almost immediately, Brink reached out for a handshake and said "Not sure, this is new." This is all new he thought as he looked around once again. Now that a familiar face was with him, it was apparent that Brink was more comfortable. Brink, now curious "What do you think about these guys? Any people you recognize or heard about?"

Jericho grinned as he eagerly shook hands with his comrade, contemplating Brink's question. The hooded man searched his memory for word of any other teams. "Not really. Some of these guys look pretty good." Jericho furrowed his brow, thinking harder. "I've heard the name 'Hydra' mentioned a few times. Up-and-coming team, apparently. Shouldn't be anything to worry about, though." He looked over the mural of emblems on the wall again, then grunted and leaned against the wall, next to Brink.

"So what's the game plan?" he asked Brink. Jericho himself was currently thinking about the possible situations that count present themselves. His mind quickly went through different scenarios, responses, and consequences. "Don't mind me for asking, but I hope you haven't done anything rash yet," Jericho remarked sarcastically to his friend, taking the liberty of a few laughs afterward.

Brink hears a response to his question "Not really. Some of these guys look pretty good, I've heard the name 'Hydra' mentioned a few times. Up-and-coming team, apparently. Shouldn't be anything to worry about, though." We may have to keep an eye on Hydra he thought as he was asked "So what's the game plan?". Soon followed by another, but more witty remark "Don't mind me for asking, but I hope you haven't done anything rash yet," Brink leaned his head off the wall giving himself just enough room to fill that vacant space with his hands as he said "Hell, lets just relax, there's no rush." ignoring the sarcastic statement.

Although the room was full of storm riders, it felt empty to Brink. Everyone was with their own friends or team, no one was even attempting to talk to the different groups of people, Brink included. This is annoying, although were all from different teams and we will all most likely battle at some point, right now were not. Right now, maybe the only time we can actually get to know these people. It could be good for us to make some friends. It was easy for Brink to ignore such thoughts though because he isn't the outgoing type, nor would he like to be. So instead of acting on his thought, he tipped his up and looked at the ceiling of the subway as he drifted off into thought.

Although Makoto was making sure to do his best to follow the conversation between the two hooded men it was obviously difficult to make out all of the words through the music that was sounding in his ears, shutting out just about any source of outside audible interference. Despite not being able to make out their words very clearly, though, he could tell by the way they were interacting with each other that they were obviously good friends and were pretty casual around each other, at least to some extent.

It may have been too difficult to determine what they were saying trying to listen to them talk, Makoto was very easily able to out certain words, the most alarming of which to him was the word "Hydra". Now he knew whatever they were talking about, it concerned him to a certain degree, and that was something that he couldn't just ignore. He sighed to himself as he stood up and removed the head phones from his ears, not turning the volume down at all, letting the music fill the air around him as he gently put pressure on the front wheels of his ATs, rolling towards the two men he had been eavesdropping on.

"Excuse me, sirs. I couldn't help but notice you two and I wondered to myself 'What could these two secretive people be saying about my team?'"

Jericho turned to look at the young Rider that addressed them. Giving him a quick look-over, Jericho noticed that he was about the same age as Brink. He didn't seem to be aggressive, but one couldn't be too sure. Jericho took the initiative in responding, "Your team? So you must be the leader of Hydra. As for your question, not exactly sure how 'secretive' we could be, let alone the fact that we weren't saying much about your team at all. Just heard it mentioned a couple times." Jericho paused for a moment, then added, "Name's Jericho. Next to me is Brink. We're Edge." He stepped back to let his partner handle diplomacy for a bit, since Brink was a bit more amiable than he was.

Brink heard some noise from a corner of the wall he was leaning against and peaked over.Whats this kid want? He thought as he saw the kid ride over. The young man spoke first "Excuse me, sirs. I couldn't help but notice you two and I wondered to myself 'What could these two secretive people be saying about my team?'" His team? before Brink could think any further, his partner said "Your team? So you must be the leader of Hydra. As for your question, not exactly sure how 'secretive' we could be, let alone the fact that we weren't saying much about your team at all. Just heard it mentioned a couple times." Jericho paused for a moment, then added, "Name's Jericho. Next to me is Brink. We're Edge."

Although Brink's partner set him up perfectly for an 'in' to the conversation, he did nothing. He stood there in the same position virtually ignoring the mans existence. Brink thought of the man as extremely rude. Who does this kid think he is starting a conversation without even introducing himself and having both headphones in blaring music? Obviously he doesn't give a damn about what we have to say. Not even worth my time. He thought as he faced this head upward towards the ceiling and closed his eyes.

The two storm riders reacted much as he had expected, given the limited amount of information he had about them from observing them for a short time. The one who called himself Jericho responded to him pretty openly for a complete stranger, if only to properly explain the situation, whereas the one who was called Brink seemed to completely ignore him and keep to himself, even after Jericho had tried to get him to converse.

"Hmmm, so you two are those newbies from Edge..." Makoto said, almost to himself as he looked both of them up and down. He closed his eyes and rubbed his chin with his hand softly, as if to show that he was deep in thought about something before his eyes snapped back open and he pointed his finger at Jericho and brink, in that order. "So that means that you're 'Blackout' Jericho and 'Lockjaw' Brink." Makoto scoffed and folded his arms triumphantly. "I gotta say, I was expecting a little more after all those rumors I heard about Edge." He didn't actually know much about them or what they were capable of aside from the few rumors he heard about them, which were probably blown out of proportion as rumors often are.

"But I digress, I am the leader of Hydra and if you don't already know what my name is then it means I haven't been doing my job in the AT world..." Makoto directed his attention towards Brink, who had been silent to him so far, "...and what about you? You need your friend to the talking for you?" Makoto leaned towards the wall, using his arm to support himself against the wall, his hand covering up the Edge emblem that had been plastered there. "Y'know, no one falls for that strong silent type crap anyone..."

Jericho was always one to have a “long fuse”. Few things irritated him enough to make him explode. This kid was an exception. Jericho didn’t appreciate him talking smack about his team and appreciated even less him mouthing off to Jericho’s companion. The storm rider glanced at Brink to make sure he wasn’t about to grab the kid by the throat, then looked the kid dead in the eyes, then grabbed him by his white shirt.

“Hey, kid, I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but street scum like you shouldn’t be giving attitude to people you don’t even know,” Jericho barked at the scruffy-looking hooligan in front of him. “Personally, I couldn’t care less who you are or who your team is. Right now, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed; maybe all that loud music damaged your brain, but you’re outnumbered two to one, three if you take into account the size of my young friend here.” With that, he grabbed the kid’s headphones with his other hand and flung them to the ground. Jericho pushed the kid away, folded his arms, and added, “I don’t know how much more you know about us, but I know that Hydra is still F-rank. That puts us on the same level. Maybe you could do your ‘job’ in the AT world better by spending more time focusing on improving your team, as opposed to smarting off to a couple of strangers.” Jericho, surprised with his own sudden outburst, took a moment to collect himself. He stepped back next to Brink and retorted, “We’re Edge. Don’t screw with us, unless you want to wind up eating dirt, out cold, humiliated, and disgraced.”

Although Brink had an earphone in, he could hear Makoto loud and clear. The insults the stranger was spewing didn't even phase Brink. Actually, Brink let out an audible chuckle through his bandana when Makoto finally shut his mouth. He remained in his same relaxed posture, but his eyes wandered over to his comrade. What's he thinking? Brink thought as he saw his partner tense up and eyes flare. Before Brink could think further, Jericho had Makoto by the shirt.

The leader of Hydra, this boy named Makoto, got the tongue lashing of a life time from Jericho. Brink was completely surprised about this sudden outburst that Jericho had just displayed. Never has he seen his partner become so heated over something Brink considered to be minor.

Once Jericho regained his composure, Brink decided it would be best to try to leave the situation. Bringing his hands down from his head, he shot a look of approval at Jericho as well as a downward nod. Putting minimal pressure on the front of his AT's, he went in front of Jericho and gave him a tap on the stomach with the back of his hand with a cockeyed head nod signaling 'follow me'. Riding past Makoto, Brink shot him a look that could have turned a lion belly up and said "It's been a pleasure." and began to ride to the middle of the subway.

After taking a few slow breaths, Jericho snapped to and noticed Brink motion for him to follow. Entirely ready to rid himself of the situation and this thoughtless punk, Jericho slowly followed behind Brink, hands in pockets, giving Makoto a sidelong glance as he glided past. After distancing themselves from Makoto a little bit, Jericho rode up next to Brink. “…What a prick,” he mumbled under his breath, along with some incomprehensible mutterings. He sighed, and then perked his head up a bit. Turning to Brink, he said, “Jeez. Thought we could make some allies here, but joke’s on us. We should go before anything else happens...”

Before Jericho could finish his thought, Makoto was already behind them. "Oh? And what would you expect to happen here?" He followed closely behind them, his head phones already back around his neck and a stupid smile on his face. It appeared that whatever lesson they had tried to teach Makoto it hadn't gotten through to him. "I wouldn't expect anything bad to happen here. Storm Rider meetings are just social 'get togethers' where everyone can have fun. The only time something violent might happen is when you get a couple of trouble makers getting aggressive and trying to start fights and so far the only people I've seen trying to do that are you people."

"Although occasionally you will see parts battles or teams betting their emblems on fights that start at these types of gatherings but I really think that takes the fun out of riding ATs, wouldn't you agree?" He smirked and rested a hand on each of their shoulders, casually accelerating past both of them and turning around to face the two of them. "Also, I don't mean to nose into business that isn't any concern of mine, but it really isn't smart for the new guys to be starting confrontations with teams that you apparently haven't done your research on. If I was one of those more dastardly types I may have reacted more...drastically."

Predicting that after what Jericho had said, the kid would continue to annoy them, Brink decided that Makoto was no more than an immature boy that was quite predictable. As he thought, the boy continued his rant. This time the physical contact the boy exchange with Brink bothered him a bit.

Ignoring that, Brink began to smile when the kid finished yapping. The only way to tell he was smiling was by looking the ripples of the upper part of his cheeks above his bandana. He looked right at the kid and put his hand on Makotos' head. Brink rattled his hand around like he was with a little kid and said "You like to talk a lot. Maybe you'd make some friends here if you toned it down a bit" It was bluntly obvious that Brink was talking down to Makoto as if he were five years old.

Jericho took another deep breath. This night is getting weirder by the minute... After watching his friend playfully rattle Makoto's hair and comment on Makoto's talking habits, Jericho decided maybe taking a different approach would make things easier. He scooted up to within a few feet of Makoto, maintaining the calm, casual attitude he was known for. The Stormrider kept his hands in his pockets, something of a show of good faith. Speaking in a calming tone, he said, "Look. We're new around here, as you may be able to tell. We haven't yet learned the proper 'etiquette' for conversing with other Stormriders. Though I was a bit offended by you calling us 'newbies', I realize I may have overreacted a little bit. Personally, we were just a bit offended and annoyed by your attitude. I do realize that neither of us wants a fight, so let's make a deal: you tone down the attitude a bit, and my friend and I will too. Speak on equal terms. Sound good?" Knowing that the boy's attitude really wouldn't change much, Jericho had attempted to salvage the situation, or at least what remained of it. Maybe if we can get this kid to stop being such an ass, we can learn a little about his team and the others. And maybe some possible recruits...

Makoto didn't very much appreciate being treated like a child but he understood that he pretty much brought it upon himself, though that still didn't change his opinion on it. He felt a little out of place since it seemed that he knock these new comers down a peg, a peg that they rightfully should be on. Despite being the same rank as these two, Makoto at least had more experience and he wasn't stupid enough to refuse advice from a more experienced Storm Riders , despite how he looked and acted. It seemed that these two were using their advantage of two on one to hold their position of holding themselves in higher esteem and trying to belittle the only person who actually viewed them as worth talking to.

"Well, in order for me to stop taking an attitude with you two, which I hardly think I'm doing, that would first require the two 'newbies' to at least treat some one of the same standing as themselves, if not higher, with the same respect. But its not my place to tell people how to behave, same as how other people have no right to tell me to do the same, not that anyone would be able to change me at all, nor should they try to...but I digress..."

Jericho sighed to himself, thinking Thought this would happen... Well, I guess we'll take what we can. He made eye contact with Makoto to show Makoto that he was serious about finding out something. Anything, really. "You know what? You're right. We're guests here," he said somewhat sarcastically. However, he took on a more serious tone that matched the sincerity in his stare. "Though we're the same rank, I guess it takes a while to get to the next rank. I see you're determined, and I respect that." After a short pause, he continued. "As you can probably see, we're not from around here. We don't know the Stormrider 'etiquette'. So, let's start from the beginning. I'm Jericho, this is Brink, and you are...?"

As things cooled down, Brink listened in to the conversation between the two storm riders. He had his hands crossed and made eye contact with whoever was speaking at that moment. His posture was not offensive nor open, it was obvious he was a spectator that wasn't really interested in speaking.

Makoto smiled to himself, although he was almost always smiling, smirking or grinning so it really wasn't any different from normal. It seemed that he had gotten through to these two to make them act more "proper", at least on the surface but that was all that really mattered.

He straightened his shirt and pretended to dust himself off, as if to make himself more presentable. "My friends call me Makoto, but seeing as we're not friends you instead can call me...Makoto." He shoved his hands into his pockets instead of extending them for a handshake or any other resemblance of a proper greeting.

"Charmed, I'm sure..."

Jericho was somewhat relieved, yet still a little miffed by the chain of events that had transpired. At least everyone's on speaking terms now... or as close as we're going to get. He took his hands out of his pockets and clapped them together, grinning. "Entirely. Well, now we all know each other! Usually I would ask everyone to sit in a circle and share things about themselves, but I think we can skip that." Jericho returned his hands to his pockets. "Any advice for a couple of 'newbies?'" He asked in his signature sarcastic tone, somewhat unsure of what else to ask or say.

Makoto thought to himself for a moment, making sure that everyone else knew he was thinking at the same time. He made exaggerated movements to show deep contemplation, like rubbing his chin and staring off blankly into the distance.

"Newbies? Yes, you are newbies, that is true. Aside from that attitude of yours though, I don't really think there is a whole lot of advice I could give you. The world of ATs is a very large world that's hard to sum up in a few words of advice. Don't get yourself killed and Don't get your friend killed are probably the best things I could tell you to do."

Brink, sensing that this conversation was coming to a close, made the first move. He made eye contact with his partner then looked over at Makoto. As Brink bowed his head slightly as he said "Thank you." He leaned forward and began to accelerate quite rapidly away from Jericho and Makoto, then he jumped up the steps and exited the subway.

Jericho had gotten the message. He sensed that Makoto was not going to give them any real information about other teams, let alone his own. On top of that, Jericho was growing tired of the Stormrider's arrogance. After watching his friend leave, Jericho followed his lead, closing the conversation first. Jericho watched Brink leave and said, "...Bedtime already?" He turned to face Makoto and leaned back a bit. "Well, it's been a pleasure. A truly enlightening experience, Makoto." His voice was saturated with sarcasm. Though he knew Makoto would sense the slightest amount, Jericho made sure to exaggerate his thoughts as to make it painfully obvious that they were not ending on a very friendly note. With that, he turned and sped off towards the exit that Brink had taken. Once he was out of earshot to everyone in the station, he muttered under his breath, "...what a prick."