Old Friends, New Threats
NYC 3019 had three main shopping districts. One was called the Rift, it is an entire avenue full of several different shops, another one was nicknamed The Netherworld because the entire mall is three stories in height but two of those stories were underground and the lighting make it look like there's fire illuminating the place. The mall Dan was at was called The Willow because of a huge tree that planted in the centre. Each of the malls are located across New York at an equal distance from one another but The Willow was the closest to where Dan and Jake live. As Dan entered the mall he put on a small arc shaped object on the bridge of his nose, close to his eyes. Two light blue rectangles grew from the device and covered his eyes, giving them a green shade instead of blue. Normally he'd wear contacts but during the events of the previous evening they'd been damaged so he went with the cliche of wearing glasses to hide his true features.
Dan went to the second floor and arrived at the foodcourt. A female Leonine and girl with long dark hair waved him over to their table by a fast food place called Dino Shack. The leonine, called Lana, had put her brown hair in a long braid and had painted her nails purple. The girl, called Cassandra, had her hair flowing down her and was wearing blue nail polish to match her eyes. Both girls were wearing blue jeans converses and two different coloured shirts. Cassy wore white with a butterfly on the front while Lana wore just plain pink.
"You're late," said Lana, checking her watch, "by about five minutes."
"She's kidding," said Cassy, "you're right on time. Can't say the same for Jake though, you know he sent me a text ten minutes ago to give me a rain check."
"So what did you tell him," asked Dan, checking Dino Shack's hologram menu.
"I told Cassy to tell him that it was us or her, I mean it has to be a girl right," said Lana, "cuz if it's not I'm got-"
"Claws down kitty," said Dan, selecting a burger and fries off the menu before putting it down, "he probably forgot what day it is so I'd guess it a few minutes until he calls again."
As if on cue Dan's phone buzzed and he left the table to answer. When he did the video feed wasn't available so he place the device to his ear instead.
"Sup bro," he said, "where are you?"
"Um that's a bit difficult to explain," said Jake, sounds of chaos in the background, "long story short I'm not gonna be able to make it."
"Jake," said Dan, now curious, "where are you?"
"I'm on a rescue mission 200 metres underwater in a sub with Osiris and Poseidon," said Jake nonchalantly, "now don't freak out like you always do you when I-"
"Get yourself in ridiculous situations when you're on patrol," finished Dan, rolling his eyes, " first off, I'm not your mother so I don't have any need to freak out and secondly, how the heck did you get yourself down that deep in the first place?"
"Story's not important. Look just cover for me, ok? I don't want Cassy to think that I forgot her birthday."
"For the second year in a row," snickered Dan, "how is she still your girlfriend anyway?"
"Shut up," said Jake, "look the sub isn't going anywhere anytime soon so just hang tight and I'll try and make it but I'll probably be an hour or so."
Dan rolled his eyes and ended the call. When he got back to the table his order had come and Cassy and Lana where eating his fries.
"Hey," he said, hurrying over to stop them, "Those are mine!"
Lana stuck out her tongue and popped another into her mouth while Cassy just giggled a bit. They were both incredibly irritating but Dan just sighed, sat down and began digging into his meal. As he was finishing off the burger Lana leaned in close so she could whisper to him while Cassy took a call from her mom.
"Is Jake off playing hero again or is he actually late this time?"
Dan nearly choked on his food, not because that Lana knew they were heroes because she'd known for months now but more because she was talking about this in a public place close to her best friend, who still was unaware of her boyfriend's nightly activities.
"Real smooth Night Watcher," said Lana, handing him his soda, "real smooth."
"Raider," he coughed, downing the soda in one go, "it's Night Raider. How are you getting the best English average in the grade yet you still can't say that right?"
"Must be cause I don't care," said Lana, "by the way Cassy and I saw you on TV the other night. You saved that man from a building that was bombed right? The school journal wanted me to to a piece on it."
"Why?"
"Because you saved our principal's brother, dork. Remember he hates superheroes, thinks that they fusee more harm than good and since his wife's part of the advisors in the United Planet, she's probably going to vote for the new legislation regarding all unregistered heroes as criminals."
"That sucks," said Dan, pushing away his empty plate, "either we give up one our biggest secrets to the government or be branded as-". Dan's ears picked up a voice behind him so he stopped his sentence midway.
"Just give me a number six," said the voice in a annoyed tone.
"Wow man don't be so serious. One lime smoothie coming up."
Dan turned and saw a lupine at the other side of the food court sitting at one if the smoothie bars. He had on a white t-shirt and blue jeans, his fur was dark brown shade and the tip of his ears and tail were a brownish orange.
"What are you looking at-oh," said Lana when she saw the lupine, "isn't that Ivan? I thought he lived in the other side of the city. What's he doing here?"
"Don't know but I'll ask him," said Dan, standing, "could you-"
"Cover for you? Done, but you owe me one and don't forget the party tonight ok?"
Dan nodded and headed over to Ivan. Ivan used to go to the same school as Jake, Dan, Cassy and Lana, though he was two years below them, but his family moved to the other side of the city nearly a year ago because of their jobs. Years before however he, Dan and Jake were part of a community project where you would act like someone's older sibling, like helping out with schoolwork, playing games with each other, etc. Dan was Ivan's 'Big Brother' and even after the project ended they still kept in touch. Dan sat on the stool next to Ivan as the latter's drink arrived.
"Sup little bro?" said Dan, clapping the lupine on the back, "how are you? You've been so quiet lately that some were wondering if you even exist."
"I've been busy," said Ivan, his ear folding in annoyance, "by the way we're not even brothers so why even call me that?"
"Because you still are my little brother in my book," said Dan, turing on the stool and leaning backwards on the counter, "and I'm still going to look out for you."
"Oh please," said Ivan after slurping down most of his drink through the straw, "you rarely did anything. If I remember correctly you were continuously late and ran off at the most inconvenient times to do some stupid activity."
Dan's gaze fell to the floor as he said, "look Ivan I know that's not why you're acting like this. I may not be your actual brother but that doesn't mean that I don't care about what happens to you. Please let me-"
"F*** off," snarled Ivan then he left the bar and disappeared from the food court. The guy serving wanted to call security because he didn't pay but Dan paid for the drink instead then left. Just as he was leaving that part of the mall he noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. Two people, a young brunette male and a bear, seemed to be watching him and they were very subtle about it. While he pretended to look at a display in store Dan was able to use the reflection off the glass and the software in his glasses to take a better look at his stalkers. The man, probably in his early twenties, wore a collared shirt (with the top button undone) and he wore long black pants with a pair of white shoes. The bear wore a sleeveless dark green shirt and light brown cargo pants with matching trainers. Dan only noticed them because as the bear looked like he was about to make his way to them but the man had sat back down.
Keeping up with his charade, Dan calmly walked over to the escalators while pretending to read something on his phone. In fact he was tapping into the security cameras to see if he was being followed and, not to his surprise, he was. The pair were trying to be discreet but now that Dan had them in his sights they weren't that hard to track. Still pretending to be ignorant, he continued to make his way across the mall all the while trying to listen in on his stalkers.
Because he was so focused on the potential threat behind him, Dan didn't notice the other stalker that had him in their sights.
89 had positioned itself on a bench during Dan's interaction with his friends and it was about to report a false alarm until it noticed Dan's stalkers. By staying in the shadows, which was no problem for someone with his 'talents', 89 had been able to follow the three with ease and then it used a small computer on it's wrist to begin to hack into their devices. Knowing the danger that would be caused if it was caught, 89 made for the entrance ahead of them, the hack needed at least five minutes to fully install itself into their devices and the time would increase if one of them had a strong enough firewall on their tech. Standing to the side of the glass doors that were the entrance/exit to the mall, 89 use his computer to signal his backup to stand by just in case. Being the agents that it was 89 wasn't going to take any chances, epically if this boy could lead them to the acquisition of Night Raid and Storm Rider then nothing would be taken to chance.