Calling Out OPEN

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

He awoke with a start, and sat up still, his knees curled up tightly to his chest. He didn’t want to let anyone see him like this, anyone to see that his hair was snarled and tangled again, that he was sitting vulnerably in something most people frowned in disgust at. Even if it was his only pair of clothes, he sometimes felt that he should be ashamed walking down the street in it.
The boy had been asleep in that alley for quite some time, upset of course. For quite a few days he’d been going to the library, and for quite a few days he’d been scrambling signals and messing them up. Michael wondered if he should risk it today. He had the power to, but controlling the signals so individually gave him such a headache, and he felt like it would become too noticeable. But he knew that really, that was what he wanted.
The nine year old shifted his legs, letting them straighten in front of him, now off of the moldy, barely padded blankets he’d manage to knick from the garbage. The blankets were quite a lot better than the ground at least. He didn’t want to think of what had happened here. It wasn’t safe, like it would be if he could be home with his adoptive parents. They would have never let him sleep outside like this.
As much as he tried to control what his hands did, the slight movement of his arm to his sweatshirt pocket was something he always let happen. So he could feel the shape of the teddy bear against him, and know it was still there. His comfort item.
He shifted again, trying to get comfortable in his impossible, crumpled position. His ashen complexion, dirt-covered and grimy, hidden still by the brown tangles that normally preferred to hide his stormy grey eyes. They were a peculiar color, a grey perhaps, something a little different about them. But he looked rather human. He looked normal…though his power was off the charts.
But of course, he wasn’t all amazing and the like, in fact, the boy experienced one of his clumsy moments as his leg moved a bit too much and a tin trash can hit the ground with a clang.
“D…dangit…”
This was something that Michael mumbled, and he stood, setting the item right again. He was just a clumsy child, and he knew that, so hopefully the noise would be muffled by his strategic location of being rather deep into the alleys.
It’s not as thought Michael knew that the alleys were a common place to find the abnormals, he didn’t think that. Logic wasn’t something that he normally was able to deal with. He did things that he thought were safe, because he knew nothing else. Self-preservation was more important to him now, having to steal hot dogs from vendors and the like. The pang of his stomach as he sat down on his blankets once again felt like he was depriving himself. The boy curled his knees to his chest again and closed his eyes, trying to keep himself calm. There were power-lines here. Always had to keep calm, every second.
In his head, he was trying to figure out where he could get food…but deep down, in a place he’d never admit existed, his heart was calling out, as though waiting for someone to find him.

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

He’d fallen asleep again, and when he awoke, the little boy’s head was hurting a little bit. This happened to him at times. There was a light pressure to let out the energy that he could normally use in his power. But the boy hadn’t gone to the library in a bit. He told himself that he wouldn’t. He let out a small bit of the energy, just trying to get it out of his head.
Though it’s normally necessary for his eyes to be closed…it’s only due to the images that cross across his eye. It wasn’t merely a small bit of his eye that turned black…with green numbers scrolling up and down it, shifting and changing every second.
His knees pulled in tightly once again, his knuckles whitening merely at that. It felt good…to release this power. It was nice…but scary. Right now, lights were flickering. Fluorescent lights, while producing waves that should have been fluorescent, seemed to be a different color. Some weren’t on at all. To be safe, he was assured that the phones and communication waves were blocked as well.
This was just a sign of his fear, that he was scared someone might send something. A communication or something to another friend, or post something bad on the internet. He only wanted to help people.
Once again, his leg moved to push into the trash can. He would have paused to pick up the top on his leg now, but he was focused on releasing an appropriate amount of energy. To get the pounding to go away.
The noise and the crash sounds echoed through the alleyway, and his brown, ratty hair hid the sad expression he had. The normally pale, malnourished skin that covered him gross with matted on dirt and grime.

[Deleted]

The majestic brass knocker was green with rust and dust that rose off it in a cloud as he rapped on the door to the Old City Sanctuary. As he waited for Big Guy to get the door, he noticed that Henri's black SUV was gone, probably on a mission somewhere, like his own men. The door creaked, and Big Guys neanderthal-like face appeared in the doorway. "Hello..." "Hello. Is Magnus here?" With a grunt, Bigfoot opened the door wider and stepped back. He walked inside the cool, well-lit interior of the greeting hall. He always admired the timeless feel of the hall, despite the amount of times he had been there before. The same went for the rest of the building, a stunning mix of Victorian-era upholstery and modern-age state of the art equipment. He walked through the tastefully decorated hallways, past the elevator and the first floor living quarters. This place was turning into a second home for him, what with all the times he had been here, from the attack by the Cabal super-Abnormals to the Big Bertha crisis to the incident with Walter. He smiled to himself, remembering the homemade superhero. Walter had beaten the crap out of him and Will when they first met, believing them to be the bad guys, but as time wore on, Walter quickly became a good friend. Before that realization though, he had broken a hole in the wall to escape the "bad guys." That memory always made him smile. Finally he reached Helen Magnus's office. Her desk was, as always, impeccably arranged with files neatly stacked and organized to one side, pictures, souvenirs and her computer dominating the other. There was a picture of Ashley, from one of her and her mother's many missions together, sitting front slightly off to the side where it was still easily noticeable. Declan frowned a little as he remembered the few times he had met Ashley. He thought then that she was too headstrong to head a Sanctuary, much less the network, but as he heard more about her he realized that beneath the tough exterior, Ashley Magnus was no different then her mother.
He wrenched himself back into the present and looked around the room. Suddenly, he heard a beep form her computer. He ignored it, assuming that it was simply a reminder for Magnus about something. Beep. Again he ignored it. The computer continued to beep and as it went on, he noticed there was a pattern emerging. Beep beep beep beeeeeep beeeeeeep beeeeeep beep beep beep. "What the?" The noise sounded like Morse code, an SOS signal. He got up from the couch he had been sitting on and went over to the computer. There was a map ope on the screen, with a bright red dot flashing over a building marked "City Library." It was flashing in time with the SOS. "Bloody hell." He quickly left the room and strode back towards the main hall and the front door. He past Bigfoot, the paused. "Hey mate, could you tell Magnus that I have to go somewhere? She'll know where when she checks her computer." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and walked out the door.
Several minutes later, he arrived at the library, only to find that it was closed. Confused, he started to walk back to his vehicle. Crash! He spun around, looking for the source of the noise, which seemed to have some from an alleyway a few streets down. He walked cautiously towards the noise, wondering what he was going to find. As he turned the corner, he saw a young child, no older that ten, curled up on the ground. The child was so dirty, it was impossible to tell if it was a boy or girl, but they clearly were in pain. He slowly paced up to the child, and when they didn't notice him reached out and gently touched their shoulder. "Are you alright?"

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

The little boy only heard the noise of a person approaching as though he was a distance away and thought he had time to close his eyes. Most likely, they could be seen however. Green glowing ones and zero’s rolling up and down the orbs. The numbers were probably hard to make out individually, but the glow was damned near unmistakable.
The contact was what pulled the little boy back to reality. He flinched away, and all at once, lights went out, signals from pretty much every electronic thing within one mile’s radius. He was scared, and he pulled out too quickly. Now, instead of the glowing eyes, they were a light grey of sorts. He breathed quickly, his arms moving to cross his chest. The bear…the bear had to be safe. There was something protective about the way the stick-thin arms crossed. He was obviously malnourished, and it seemed he’d been underfed for a week…maybe more.
The blankets beneath him wrinkled a bit more as he tried to push himself farther from the male, completely silent. His head hurt. A lot. And his eyes were watering. So, the boy was trying to figure out how he could get a shape of the male, what he could do…t-to know how to get away.
His back was up against the wall, and his eyes closed tightly for a moment. He curled up. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. No one at all. If he ignored the person, he’d go away, and then Michael could go back to his job. Y…yeah. No one would ever know.

[Deleted]

"Woah, mate! It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." His touch startled the boy, who promptly flinched away from him and pressed his back against the wall. The instant the boy jerked away, every light in the city went dark and he suspected all electronic signals were down as well. Declan held out his hands in supplication as he tried to calm the boy. This must be the Abnormal the tribe told Smithson about. "Did you do that? The blackout?"

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

"g...go away"
He didn't say anything else, he didn't want to. This person wasn't important, right? It was just another person..a-and he couldn't know it was Michael that quick. Michael was smart, he could do things no one else could, and no one would ever even find him. There was just no way.
His voice didn't make anything better. It was cracked, dry, and gave another key into his rather desperate situation. A fever was building as well, not a very good thing for a boy his age to be dealing with, but he was using too much energy for the amount of food he was consuming.
It wasn't as though he tried hard to conceal what he did next, he did in fact just want to leave, and he didn't care if it was known. The boy stood up and attempted to push through the male, satisfied his bear was there. He was of course weak as all hell, and shaky with fever and lack of energy, for him it was worth a shot at least.

[Deleted]

He watched as the boy tried to push himself off the wall and past Declan. It took him several attempts, each time getting progressively weaker, but he didn't want to frighten the boy anymore than he already had, so he held back. The boy seemed to draw strength from the bear that he was holding, and Declan suspected it was all he had left of his original home. finally he managed to stand up without the support of the all and start walking forward, but when the boy's arm came into contact with Declan's hand, he immediately noticed that the boy had a raging fever. "Wait a minute...I'm not going to hurt you. You're the one responsible for the signal interference, aren't you? The SOS call?"

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

He had been as strong as he could. He had to be, if he wasn't strong, then what was he? He wasn't anything. He was a small child, who had to rely on others again. The boy had to be big, and that's all that mattered. Even if he was sick. But it hurt. It hurt a lot. And his head was pounding..rather hard in his head.
"d..din..din't do..."
He was muttering. Perhaps saying "didn't" though he forgot the second D. Fear was pounding through him, searching to see if any part of him was ready to fight, and destroying it. He was just trying to stand still, but this wasn't working well, in the whole "feeling better" scheme of things, so he sat down once again, not able to support his wieght, and he did pull his hand from the male's grasp, not wanting to be treated bad. Even if he said that michael wouldn't get hurt, he could be lying after all.
The smoky gray eyes were a bit bloodshot still under that matted dark brown hair on his face, which now seemed to be a bit sparkly. Or rather, it was glistening with sweat.

[Deleted]

It was obvious that the boy didn't trust him at all, not by the look in his eyes. He was so young, too young to have such an old, fearful cast to his face. Declan realized that it was getting dark, and cold. Slowly, he took off his jacket, and with one hand carefully extended it out to the boy. "It's getting cold, mate. Take it...go on." He held the jacket out, waiting patiently for the boy to make the next move. As he waited, he looked the boy over carefully. The boy was near collapse, shaking from malnutrition and fatigue. From the set of his brow, he seemed to have one hell of a headache too.
He was amazed at the boy's resilience, but he also knew how quickly the boy would deteriorate if he didn't let someone help him, and soon. Declan had seen this once before during his days in special operations. One of the men under his command lost his best friend, refusing to eat, sleep or drink until he finally wasted away and Declan was damned if he was going to let that happen to this child, not when he was in a position to help.

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

The jacket was blurry to him, and he didn't know if he wanted it. But...his body did. Before his mind could catch up to his body, he moved to the warmth of the jacket, a bit closer to this person. He took it quickly, shivering in the warmth. It was better than his thin, ashen clothes.
The arms that pulled it around him were still shaking, but a small bit of color seemed to be returning, which meant it was easier to tell that the fever was there, with the flush that soon came about. It was good, it meant his body could safely focus more on whatever sickness he'd gotten, not on maintaining body temperature.
He'd taken care of communication things, right? And so the person wouldn't even be able to call anyone like..the bad people. The people who hurt his parents. So it would be okay, right?
Silence was the only thing to grace the boy's lips as his hands grasped the edges of the jacket he was given. He hadn't thought about it much, and only after some time did he realize he'd accepted help, when he said he wouldn't. But now he didn't want to let go of it...this was troublesome.

[Deleted]

A step in the right direction. Now, how to gain the boy's trust? Slowly, he moved closer to the boy, not close enough to scare him, but enough to see that the boy needed immediate medical attention. "What's your name?" Hopefully he would be able to get the child talking soon, because he looked like he wouldn't last another night on the streets.

[MICHAEL MATTHIAS WINSTON]

He barely noticed the male move closer, his eyes wanting to close. He wanted to stay awake. Something could happen at any second...but he was so tired. The boy felt a wave of dizziness flash over him, and his grip on the jacket loosened as it seemed he passed out.
He'd been holding on for quite a long time, in fact. Avoiding the fact that his body needed this rest, and needed food. His eyes closed, his chest seemed to rise and fall in an uneven pattern, panting perhaps. He hadn't managed to answer the male's question...but his head was now in Declans lap, just due to the way he fell.

[Deleted]

Declan managed to catch the boy just in time as he collapsed. As soon as the boy passed out, lights started coming back on, and when he pulled his phone out of his pocket, sure enough, there was a signal. Quickly he dialed the sanctuary and was relieved when he got an answer. It was Will. "Zimmerman! I found the source of the blackout. Prep the infirmary and let Magnus know that I have a patient for her." Quickly he hung up, carried the boy to his vehicle and wrapped him in as many blankets as he could find. Jumping into the driver's seat, he drove as quickly as he could back to the sanctuary. Behind him, he could here the boy muttering in his sleep, though the words were to indistinct for him to make out. "Hang on, kid. Almost there."