A rock unto himself.

[Boulder]

Boulder awoke to find himself alone. Again. It had been like this for a while. Feral had gone out west for something a while back, and without his tenacity acting as a glue for their little group, it fell apart. Feral's woman, aka "crazy chick" wasn't interested in hanging around anyone but Feral and wandered off. Ricky, in his typical moodiness was happy (is he ever happy?) to go another direction. Varun had fallen off the grid as well, leaving Boulder to fend for himself.

Which was fine by him. He had an entire small city to himself. After the earlier siege, some weeks ago, Boulder had found out that the city was called Acra, located in the boonies of New York.

The military had formed a blockade around the city (like that would help) a few days after Feral's crew had taken control of it. The media was "keeping an eye" on what they were dubbing an "isolated incident of criminal mutant aggression".

Boulder idly played around with some pebbles. It was quiet now. Everyone of Feral's original crew had left before the military got the barricade set up, which was boring. It would have been more fun for the crew to still be here when the military showed up.

Boulder had entertained himself for a while by killing random soldiers as they entered "his" city doing a sweep, trying to find him.

However, since they couldn't find him safely, and didn't want to carpet bomb one of their own cities to flush him out, the military was content, for the time being, to just sit and wait.

[Boulder]

Boulder had spent most of his idle time in the city library, going over maps of the area, and of the greater U.S.. He would need that information soon enough.

He got up from his chair in the library (where he had set up his "base camp"), dusted himself off, and took a few last glances at the maps around him.

He smiled to himself, "It's finally time to shake things up again..."

Feral had an ideal of one kind or another, but hey, Feral wasn't here. Now, it was Boulder's time to carry out HIS plan. Push out HIS ideals. And NOBODY was going to stop him. Not this time.

His memory flashed back to his grandmother, dead in her home, tangled in her sheets...

No.... not this time. Not ever again.

[Boulder]

Boulder opened up a hole in the ground in front of him and jumped in. In very much a Buggs Bunny kind of way, he began to tunnel his way north, towards Albany. If REAL change was going to happen to the state, to the COUNTRY, then the first thing to go would have to be the capitals. The centers of law and rule. They would need to be rebuilt, or if not rebuilt, torn down.

Boulder quickly reached the military blockade, but being almost 30 feet underground, they would have no idea that he was even there. And that's how he wanted it. Let the military sweat it out a while more, thinking that Boulder was still holed up in Acra.

Using the rocks with a magnetic charge, Boulder kept his course going North for several miles.

[Boulder]

After a grueling several hours of constant use of his powers to tunnel while simultaneously propel himself along at about 50 miles per hour, Boulder directed his tunnel upwards and broke to the surface.

Sunlight hit him square in the face, temporarily blinding him. Shocked, Boulder staggered causing loose dirt and rock to fall off of his body as he bumped the edges of the tunnel opening.

After taking a moment to compose himself, Boulder sealed up the hole and sent a minor shock which should collapse most, if not all, of his hastily dug tunnel. No telling how far back it would reach, but it would throw off his trail by at least a mile.

He started walking towards a road off to his right side and found a sign saying that Altamont was just 4 miles ahead.

Checking his mental map, Boulder confirmed that Altamont was indeed due north of Acra, and that he had tunneled under Westerio in his trek.

Boulder wiped the sweat off of his face and pulled up the hood on his coat. He beat himself on the chest once, and sent all the dirt, grime, and dust coating him and his cloths flying off in a small cloud.

Boulder smiled to himself in noticing how much better he was getting with his powers. He was tired, yes, but once upon a time he could never have tunneled so hard for so long.

Pulling out, and putting on some gloves, Boulder started walking towards Altamont. Whenever a car came up on him, Boulder would stick out his thumb in the traditional hitch-hiker way.

[Boulder]

The walk to the town gave Boulder time to fight off the headache that always came with extended use of his powers when he began approaching his limit.

The sun was setting behind him as he strode along the side of the road. Nobody had stopped to give him a ride into town, but that was fine with Boulder. Only the strong survive after all.

As he drew closer, Boulder could see that the city of Altamont was a decent sized little city. No skyscrapers, but a few buildings had upwards of 5 stories. He headed towards one of the taller buildings and found it was a Hotel.

Boulder decided a good night's sleep would do him good before things got exciting, and headed inside. He used his abilities to break off little pieces, dust and dirt really, of his stone armor that he always wore under his cloths, and had them slide up onto his face and over his arms as he went in the first door.

He warily opened the second set of doors and trudged up to the counter where a clerk waited.

"Can I help....oh my..." The woman paused and stuttered when Boulder looked up at her, his dirty face showing under his hood, with the bits of stone protruding from his skin. "Are....are you alright sir?", the woman asked.

Boulder leaned heavily on the counter as he pulled out his wallet, now fat from cash he'd "found" in the city of Acra during his alone time. "I just came here from Acra...", he muttered. "OH! You poor sir! Your face....umm... I mean... is that what the mutant.... er... is he really that dangerous...?", she floundered trying not to offend a man she thought was a refugee from a ruined city, with insensitive questions.

"How much for a room?" Boulder started to pull out a wad of cash but stopped when the woman's clean hand was placed over his dirty ones. "You've been through enough. I'll talk to the manager....you can stay tonight on the house. It's the least we can do after such a tragedy."

Without waiting for a response, she spun around and grabbed a card key from the wall. She handed it to him and said, "I can offer the room, and I'd love to offer you a meal as well, but I don't know how far my manager will bend... the economy being what it is and all...", she smiled sheepishly. "Any room service will probably be billed to you, but if I can work something out, I'll call your room and let you know. Now, I'm sure you'd like to go get cleaned up and have a safe, comfortable, rest."

Boulder nodded his appreciation and kept his devious grin to himself until he turned away towards the stairs. Yes... he'd get a good night's sleep tonight...

[Boulder]

Boulder ate a hearty meal, very nice for a change. Best not get used to it tho... And he slept very well that night. It was unusual for him to sleep without any part of him touching the ground. Normally, he'd sleep with his tremor-sense blasting away at him, kind of like sleeping with your eyes open. It was a very refreshing, deep sleep. He slept like a.... baby. A baby made of rocks.

The next morning, he woke and casually went downstairs, thanked the manager and the clerks for their hospitality, paid his room service tab for the food, and headed out, thinking of how he should approach and infiltrate Albany.

[Boulder]

Rather than hit the road, Boulder headed into town to get his bearings and think.

As much fun as it would be to run into the capital with "guns blazing", it would be a lot more problematic, given that the people in charge would be given ample time to run away. No... getting in quietly would be much better.

As he came to his conclusion, Boulder zoned back in to the world around him and saw a car dealership further up the road. He took off at a jog to get there.

Luckily, it looked like the only sales-person on duty today was busy helping someone else, so Boulder took his time and went around looking at cars. He wanted something sturdy, but relatively inconspicuous. He wasn't going too terribly far, and didn't plan on keeping the car for long, so "average" was all he was really looking for.

Seeing an acceptable vehicle, Boulder strode over to a white pickup truck. He molded his stone around his finger and made it protrude like a key. Gently, he held it up to the lock and manipulated the sliver of rock into the hole and made it fill in the gaps in the locking mechanism, creating a key.

Quietly, he turned his new key and opened the door. Sliding into the driver's seat, he used his key to start the vehicle. The truck was sitting at about half a tank of fuel, which should be more than enough to get to the capital.

As he backed the truck out, a man, salesman or manager, Boulder couldn't tell, stepped out of the front doors and screamed at him to stop. Boulder just laughed, threw the truck into drive, and took off down the road, away from Albany.

He went over a few blocks, made a big circle, and got on his way. This way, if the cops WERE called, and they probably would be, they would be looking for a truck going westbound first, before they thought to look eastbound.

[Boulder]

Boulder spent the ride to Albany flipping through the radio stations, mainly the AM stations, listening for news. They were still covering the "standoff" on Acra, but aside from that, it was a typical news day. Weather, traffic, politics, celebrity news, and a whole lot of other nonsense.

He passed a few police cars going westbound, back towards Altamont, but nobody stopped or bothered him.

After a time, he arrived on the outskirts of Albany. Driving a stolen car into the middle of town would probably not be the best, so he parked it on the side of the highway at an exit ramp, and just for fun, Locked the doors after he got out. (let them figgure out the locked doors and no forced entry). Boulder snickered to himself. The snicker turned into a full smile as his blood began to boil at the thought of how fun things were going to be getting pretty soon.

[Varun Petrov]

Varun was back! He had left one day shortly after the taking of the the city. He knew that he needed more work on developing his powers. He was sloppy, but now. . . He smiled to himself as he flew down the highway in a brand new 2010 Camero Coupe. He was headed back to his old stomping ground. hoping someone from the old crew was there.

[Feral]

Feral bristled in full battle array. He was on the hunt. He spent so much time on the West Coast he had nearly forgotten the people he left on the East Coast. Hopefully they had not fallen slack in their mission. Albany New York was as good a place as any to start hunting--humans and his people. The humans would be culled and slaughtered as soon as he could round up his people.

Perhaps the easiest way to find them would be to leave a trail for them to follow. A large charter bus drove past, full of tourists making a stop before continuing their journey--no doubt to New York City. They would do.

Feral ran at the bus and cut it open with the blades in his forearms , headbutting in the glass and grabbing the first human he could get a clawed hand on.

"You will be the beacon that brings my people to me!"

It was the last thing she ever heard. Pandemonium broke forth from him like a panicked ripple on what would have otherwise been perfectly still water.