New York City

[~Harry Potter~]

Rhyme then blinked and when he opened his eyes he found himself and Stacey next to a trashcan fire thousands of miles away from Hogwarts.  Rhyme didn't even feel himself move.

"Dang that is a cool version of teleportation Stacey" Rhyme said not noticing two hobos standing around that same fire cooking a very old and slightly green hotdog. 

"Hoowa wha!" they yelled as they stumbled backward away from the fire dropping the hotdog into the fire.  "Demons!  The Demons are back!" One yelled as the duo ran down the alley. 

"Well...at least nobody that people would believe saw us land" he said in relief. 

~~~~

Back in the apartment the man walked back to his kitchen with a sigh to dispel the illusion.  He released his power from the spell and instead of having it fade back to its original dismal state all the changes stayed. 

The man's eyes widened than narrowed.  He knew one good reason why that would happen but he didn't want to acknowledge it.  One person he met a couple years ago left him a gift.  The man, well teen's magic was unique, and it happened to change people around him who also had magic.  The man in the apartment could make illusions, but with only a short duration with the other teen, things he made would stay, and even after leaving and never seeing him again, his cloths would stay. 

"Does this mean...No...it couldn't be...could it?" the man spoke to himself as he shakily grabbed a cup of tea off the counter and went to sit on the couch. 

"Let's see if your somewhere in the city, you never could figure out how to make a decent mental barrier." With that the man let his mind drift through the city doing a very low level scan.  He didn't want to pick up many thoughts a stronger scan would do and since he knew the person he was looking for didn't have any mental barriers he figured it would work. 

((If it isn't clear, the man is Haru and he just sent out a scan for Rhyme, could Stacey please block it since it isn't that strong?  Though don't let her tell Rhyme yet ;) ))

[potter_fan122]

Stacey looked around as they landed in another place, one she hadn`t ever been before.

"Yeah, I like this kind of transportation better. Less side effects." Her brown eyes fell on the two homeless people and she tilted her head. As soon as she did so they turned and ran, carrying on about demons. Ha. Like they knew anything of real demons. "And I`m fairly sure no one will believe them when they do tell on us." She added with a sad note.

She looked around some more, letting her mind expand around the new place. Without warning she felt a little ping against her shield. Her forehead wrinkled a little as she concentrated on it. She could tell that it was a medium-strength signal coming from an apartment. Probably just some halfway-there physic trying out their powers.

"Come on, we only have a day." She turned to Rhyme, pushing the mental flare out of her mind. She wanted to have a good time today, and she wasn`t about to worry over a little signal.

[~Harry Potter~]

Rhyme walked out of the alley and looked around, trying to get his barring in the city.  He didn't recognize this part exactly since it wasn't the best area of the town to land in.  He looked up and saw brick buildings with crumbling mortar and rusting fire escapes.  On the concrete stoops random people watched as the two strangely dressed people came out of the alley.  It wasn't that they were dressed strangely for the area just not for that exact area. 

"Let see...even the most run down areas of this city should still have a..." he looked down the street and saw a staircase going downward with a post of what used to be a sign next to it. 

"A Subway!" he said happily as he started to run toward it. 

As he walked down the stairs he talked lazily to Stacey.  "I hope the ATM works down there and that they got around to updating it.  Last time I was at home they said they were starting to integrate their network with technology and my mom gave me a copy of the ATM card.  If not we may need to charm the computer to phase through the gating until we can hit a bank."

The 'they' Rhyme was referring to with bards in general.  Though few in number they still had a large impact on society so they normally made a good bit of money in the process.  Because of a bards love of traveling they set up a magical network where you can withdraw money from a general fund in any city location or any bank.  It was just expected to be paid  back eventually. 

[potter_fan122]

Stacey smiled widely, her eyes changing to a merry blue. She looked around as they walked, taking in everything. The sound of cars and other forms of transportation was loud and close by. The air smelled odd, like fast food and exhaust and sweat. It wasn`t at all fresh like the air back at Hogwarts. She hadn`t expected it to be, and she certainly hadn`t expected for there to be much mind traffic.

Oh, yes. There was a lot of junk hogging up the mental level of New York. After Stacey pushed away all of the normal thoughts it was easy to tell exactly where people with more mental powers were. There was a large flareup a dozen or so miles away, where she guessed the United Nations headquarters was. She was aware that half of the people on that board were wizards trying to help out the unseeing Muggles. Away from that area there were spots stronger than others where she guessed magic bareing people hid out spooking people. Maybe there were some smart Muggles out there after all.

"Are you hungry or something?" She asked, laughing at how he seemed so excited by a restaurant. He started talking about money, but she was still only half listening. "I`ve got plenty of cash, Rhyme. I have my resources." She reached inside her little jacket and pulled out a thick wallet. Popping it open she showed it to her friend. A scroungy looking man nearby seemed to perk up at the site of the green money and Stacey shot him a dangerous look. She wasn`t about to be taken advantage of in a place she had never been on a day where she was supposed to enjoy herself.

[~Harry Potter~]

Rhyme gave her a strange look at first since he didn't say anything about a restaurant or being hungry. 

"No not really...wait...hun...subways are American for the Tube.  Its an underground train used to get around the city since as you can see the top is too crowded to drive and I doubt a taxi would dare come out to this area." Rhyme said understanding part way through the misunderstanding they had.  He was used to hearing different slang terms for thing and could yell out "Move stupid tourist" in at least twelve languages. 

As he finished explaining this they found themselves at the bottom of the stairs in a bleak concrete room.  On the wall closest to the stairs was two machines, one was an ATM another was a token machine. 

"Stacey can you buy us two tokens then.  If you go to that first machine and just follow the prompts given it should guild through the buying process.  I'm going to check on the ATM."

He walked over to the machine and reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a shiny gold card which he put into the machine.  It buzzed and clicked, oddly to a strange beat and then asked him the question:

State your bardic last name.

He raised an eyebrow at it but did what it asked.  "Enturi"

As he spoke his voice patterns where recorded and he guessed it was approved since it took him to the password screen.  He punched in his number, 68742-47-5433 and it then went to the withdraw menu.  It showed him having a very large number, larger than the last time he had to access it before finding out about Hogwarts. 

"Hmm, mom must have released another album" he said more to himself then Stacey before withdrawing three hundred dollars in twenties from the machine. 

((Bonus: The numbers spell out a phrase on the average phone number/letter system.))

[potter_fan122]

((Music is life? And when you said Subway I thought you were talking about the restaurant. =) ))

Stacey shook her head with a smile and followed Rhyme down the stairs. It was darker down here, and it smelled funnyer than even aboveground. It smelled like stale fried food and... piss. She wrinkled her nose and stepped up to the machine.

The thing was grimy from thousands of hands touching it every day. The buttons were worn down from use and everything had a faint sheen of oil on it. Stacey sighed and rubbed her hands together.

"Complicated Americans." She mumbled, punching buttons with one finger. A minute later the machine told her to put in ten dollars to receive two tokens. She did as it asked and two worn down disks slid down into a little tray.

"Are we done here?" She asked, turning to Rhyme. She was uncomfortable down here. The smells and leftover memories were messing with her head. She wasn`t used to being in places like this, and it was sort of disorienting.

[~Harry Potter~]

((I figured but felt that was more fun than asking you to change it since it is an easy mistake for someone from Brittan to make.  Oh and correct!))

"I agree and I am starting to find warping reality easy so that is really something.  So now we will go through that big steel bar thing.  You put the token in and it will let you go through."

He frowned when he saw her flinch a bit, it was the same face he had described to him when a loud noise goes by or at random times for most people but for him it was a high frequency noise that others couldn't hear.  He didn't hear anything so he was guessing it was Stacey's personal powers. 

"We should be getting to the better area in a few minutes, the subways aren't the best place but some places are better than others."

He then walked to the gated area and put his coin into the coin slot, there was a small click and he put his hands to the revolving door made out of steel bars and it rotated slowly until he was on the other side and it clicked again locking. 

[potter_fan122]

(( I just figured that there were Subways in London and Rhyme was hungry.  ;D ))

Stacey watched Rhyme move through the iron bar rotating thingy. Why did everything have to be so complicated? She exhaled loudly and pushed the coin into the slot. She quickly pushed past the bars, slightly surprised when it moved. She moved towards Rhyme, still uncomfortable in this new place. Everything was different here, and she felt like the most clueless witch.

She had been mostly raised as a Muggle, enduring hundreds of extra classes in everything her mother could force her into. Still, she didn`t know how to work this subway system.

"I hope you know where you`re going." Stacey said, looking towards Rhyme. She`s get lost in this place without him.

[~Harry Potter~]

"Not exactly but there should be a map here soon." He walked as he said it and right when he finished he turned the corner and saw a giant wall map of New York City with different color lines snaking their way around the map.  Each line had a letter somewhere along the line with dots at each subway station. 

He put his finger on the star that marked where they were and started to drag it along to try and find a way out as he spoke. 

"It looks like we are in Harlem which is really far North.  We can either go here to Central Park or further south to hit up the sites like Time Square, Statue of Liberty or Empire State Building or the famous Broadway."

He pointed to each district they would be in on the map and the stop they would get off at if they took the train.

((Map of Manhattan 

[potter_fan122]

Stacey hummed, looking over the map carefully.

"Well, I have a feeling that Broadway appeals to you the most, and I`d really like to take a look." She gave Rhyme a smile, her eyes glowing for a moment. She really did like theatre, and Broadway seemed to stand out a bit.

"Looks like if we take this route we`ll end up really close. What do you think." She traced a line of the map as she spoke, watching how the different lines intersected and tangled at different areas. Really, it looked just like the train maps back home.

[~Harry Potter~]

"Then we need to take the Red Train to Avenue D and then take the blue from there to Broadway.  It should take about 20 minutes which isn't bad for how far we need to go." He said as he traced the Red line until he got as close as he would get and then traced the blue line to dot labeled Broadway. 

On the walls there were arrows pointing them to the correct platform.  He followed the arrows that were red until he found himself in a big open area with benches covered with graffiti and tile walls covered with the same graffiti.  There was also a hobo currently in a drunken stupor on the bench. 

"Lovely" Rhyme muttered to himself when he saw the sorry condition of the subway station. 

Rhyme walked gingerly around the puddles of things he didn't want to know what they were until he got to a big yellow strip of paint on the edge of a channel.  Looking down he saw the tracks and he looked down the dark tunnel giving a listen.  He could hear the train clearly though it was a good mile away. 

~~~~

Haru's brows knit together when he didn't get any reading from the psychic scan. 

Hmm, I guess he isn't here.  Oh well, I got work to do.

Haru walked over to the full length mirror hanging on the walls and looked at himself as he tried to figure out what he should wear.  He would be on his feet all day getting the theater ready for the show tonight.  It was opening night for his latest show and he was put in charge of getting everything ready.  Since he would be around thespians all day he could go more elaborate than other jobs but he still didn't want to go too big. 

"I feel like pink today" he said as he waved his hand over his hair and it gained a faint pink tint. 

He then waved his hands again and his comfy closes got turned into a simple pink dress that went down to his knees but then he realized that he would most likely actually be doing work that the dress wouldn't be great for. 

He made another hand movement and this time he was in a tight pair of black jeans and a tight cream hoodie in a girls cut for both.  Around his neck there was a loose black cord that went to a silver dolphin pendant beneath the hoodie.  On his feet pink slip on shoes appeared totally clashing with the jeans but Haru didn't really care. 

He then walked out the door a pink purse in hand. 

[potter_fan122]

Stacey nodded as Rhyme traced the lines on the map, almost understanding everything. What was with the letters and colors, seriously? Again her thoughts were interupted by a slight pulse from that same person as before. She shook her head to clear it away, not wanting to notice it any more. She concentrated on closing of her mind. She definately did not want any mental problems to happen today. The block in her mind had to built up, quite literally. Block by block, by block.

"Lovely."

"Hhmm? Oh." While she had been strengthening her mental shield up she had followed Rhyme onto a platform. Her eyes took in everything at once-- the graffiti, the homeless person, even the puddles of who-knows-what. Then the smell welled up in her again. It was slightly rancid, like mold, and damp. It wasn`t a good kind of damp.

"Is the train coming?" Stacey asked, seeing Rhyme look down the tunnel. With his hearing he probably could, as long as the train was on its way. She didn`t want to stay in this place too much longer. It reeked both physically and mentally.

[~Harry Potter~]

"Yea, it should be here in a few minutes."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out two small handkerchiefs one of which he held to his nose to drive away the smell of the subway the other he handed to Stacey.  If she chose to use it she would find it smelled lightly of lilac

When the sound began to become quite loud to him he crouched and grimaced as he placed his fingertips on the ground and focused on claiming an area as his domain.  When he did the air shimmered lightly and the sound dramatically decreased and also the smell disappeared.  It was only a very slight change so it shouldn't have given of the raw power of his other changes of reality.  He purposefully tried to tone it down so Stacey wouldn't suffer from him using too much of his power. 

"How bad is my power pushing against your barrier?  I am trying to learn how to control it better?" he asked wanting to make sure he didn't give his friend a headache or some other mental pains. 

[potter_fan122]

Stacey took the handkerchief and waved it in front of her face. Ever since she found out she was pregnant she had toned down on her mental powers, but everything just smelled so bad. The flowery smell of the cloth was comforting against the stink. Inhaling deeply, she watched Rhyme croushed and the air around him wavered. It was like someone had turned down the volume on a radio; everything was suddenly quieter.

"You know, you really don`t effect me anymore. I`m only effected by stronger powers now, and they bother me most when I`m not used to those powers. I`ve been around you a bit now, so you don`t have to watch over yourself on my behalf." She smiled, her eyes lightening to a meduim blue. "Truely, you`re not going to hurt me unless you sudden explode with energy without warning."

Her eyes moved to the dark tunnel. She felt a sort of shuddering under her feet, and she assumed it was the train coming.

[~Harry Potter~]

The ground shuddered as the train got closer and the homeless person grunted as he turned over going back to sleep.  A bright light emerged from the dark tunnel as the train pulled to a stop.  The door opened with a ding and Rhyme walked aboard letting the area of effect go as the air returned to normal. 

"That's good to know.  I doubt I will have to do anything big anyway, not like I will have to effect an entire block or something."

The subway train was in much better condition than the station they got on was.  The cart they got on had no others on it though on the next one down a few people of Hispanic decent could be seen.  They were talking though Rhyme couldn't hear it over all the news of the train though they seemed to be gesturing a bit toward Rhyme and Stacey. 

Rhyme let out a soft sigh before giving a small gesture to the door.  He didn't say a word to Stacey about what he did but when the people tried to open the door they found it would not open for them.  He grinned as he sat back against the seat and watched the bleak tunnel wall flashing back with a sudden splash of color now and then from graffiti.