New York City, New York

The morning sun was rising up like a reborn phoenix, the night began to wane away as the moon began to die away. The stars began to go dim like light bulbs. Soon, the sun began to shine phosphorescent rays at a man with sun-kissed skin. Getting out of bed was no problem for the man as he awoke groggily. The man's body was aching all over and it was sore the moment he awoke. Yawning, he went to the bathroom in his room and brushed his teeth for 3 minutes. After that, the man went down to the dining area and began to make coffee. Brewing the coffee created a robust aroma around the room and it soon spread to the many that were still asleep.

The sun had risen, yet none of its light reached Sandrine's room, as the thick, dark curtains prevented even the brightest rays to creep through or from underneath. And yet a pair of greenish blue eyes opened in the pitch black darkness, having immediately lost all traces of sleep and drowziness. She could hear someone open the bathroom door, and the sound of water running through the pipes. She shuffled out of her bed, walking through the well-memorized path to her window, and gazed out at the view of the park, bathed in fresh, bright, cool rays. Opening the window, she breathed in the sharp, biting air. Not even a trace of yesterday's headache remained. She smiled in pleasure, following the coffee scent's trail to the dining area.

She greeted Akihiro as she walked over to the counter, placing slices of bread into the toaster. "You seem tired from yesterday," she said, although the tone was more like that of a question than a statement.

"Well, yeah, I was busy scribbling numbers in my notebook until 3 in the morning" Akihiro said in a groggy yet somewhat bleak voice. Seeing the future through numbers is one thing but sometimes, it mentally drains you and you lose focus. Anyway, Akihiro was done brewing the coffee, he placed two cups of coffee and said to her acquaintance, Sandrine "So, are you also tired from yesterday?". The question was somewhat like a Socratic debate but it wasn't that intellectual or anything. It was rather more of a friendly yet easygoing conversation. Akihiro was waiting for his acquaintance's response as he sipped his bitter coffee.

Sandrine's eyes flared with interest as soon as she heard that Akihiro had been writing numbers last night. She had also been working last night, trying equations using both visible and secret numbers (such as the exact number of words or letters used somewhere) with random variables in order to feed them to her program that produced fractal art. Unlike most of the runners she had met, she could neither scribble random numbers, nor could she see anything by just looking at numbers.
"I've been using numbers obtained from the Meger Organization website, and yet the generated results apparently had absolutely nothing to do with them, but..." she trailed off, smiling as she took out two plates. "I have seen that a new type of dinosaur will be discovered in China, that a new type of brain scanning technique will be discovered, and a man with binoculars sitting in the park outside this building. I've checked if there was anyone there when I woke up, but it seems that we aren't being watched yet. The leaves were full and green then; judging by those, it will begin in a month or so the earliest, and in five months the latest." She paused for a moment after saying these, and then continued in a higher and lighter tone. "Well, perhaps it has nothing to do with them and what I saw was just a regular stalker. So, what about you? What kinds of things did you see?"

"Well, through the various number sequences that kept popping up in my mind, I had a vision involving the breakthrough of an AIDS vaccine, an unlucky man winning a jackpot to support his struggling family, the development of a supercomputer which will change the face of technology. However, the most shocking and alarming image I saw was an explosion at the Rockefeller center which will happen two days later at night." Akihiro said to Sandrine, as he started off in a happy tone but through the use of cadence, the tone dropped to a more serious and attentive mood since the last part of Aki's thought/sentence was serious and must be stopped due to the fact that the event will kill a substantial amount of people in/near the building.

"But, anyway, that's what I saw, Now where's Alan, he should be waking up by now." Akihiro added.

Sandrine fixed her eyes on the toasted bread she was spreading butter onto, all the traces of her previous smile had faded away, leaving behind a soft and pensive expression. "I'm not sure if Alan is even in the house." she mumbled, although her mind had latched onto the explosion - there were only two days left. It was such a short period of time that at once she had sunk into a feeling of hopelessness. She raised her eyes to Akihiro, her knife still at work, and began to speak in the same misty tone. "Could you go more into detail? Or if you have a record of your vision... Do you think informing everyone there would suffice? Do you have any idea who would do such a thing? Or are you saving the details for a more, um, official meeting?"

"Let's not debate about semantics, what I saw is just an explosion that will happen two days from now, most likely, it will be a terrorist organization such as Al-Qaeda since bombings are usually precise and such. That's all I know about it for now." said Akihiro in an intuitive tone while keeping a calm yet serious demeanor on his face. "However... we cannot inform everyone because that would take too much time, we could just call the police about a bomb scare tomorrow night. I'll officially announce the news at the next official meeting." Akihiro added to his evidence.

"Speaking about Alan, I know, he seems shady at times but he's trustworthy most of the time." Akihiro said as he changed the topic of the conversation. He finished his coffee and popped an Altoid in his mouth to neutralize the "Coffee Breath".

"Well, exploding buildings like that is terrorism in any case." Sandrine replied, shrugging, then took a bite out of her bread and continued speaking with her mouth half-full. "But it must have the purpose of frightening civilians about public safety rather than, you know, threatening places more oriented towards military and administrative function as Al-Qaeda did." After chewing and swallowing another bite, she took another sip from her coffee, and looked at Akihiro. "I don't find Alan suspicious - there are all kinds of people here, and, I mean, he could be trustworthy of course." She paused, and then began to narrow her eyes while still looking at Akihiro's face, and a mischievous grin appeared on her face. "You know, I've never said anything about Alan being suspicious. Is it that you yourself have doubts about him?" she asked in a half-joking voice.

Alan.

"Three one four one. Five-nine, two six five three. Five-eight-nine." He spoke quickly into his cell phone, sliding the bolt home on his rifle. The smell of coffee caught his attention, forcing a pause in his actions. "French roast? Hmm. Six point seven miles, yeah. Make it so." a click, the phone snapped shut. Adjusting his glasses, and setting aside the rifle, a Browning X-Bolt Stalker, he heads for the stairs. The others were down there, the echoes reached him as he slipped on a shirt- "Alan being suspicious..." So, they thought him different. No matter.

Pausing at the door, he grabs a pistol- 9mm, extended mag. with a custom silencer built into the barrel, and slips the gun into a shoulder holster. Odds were he wouldn't need it, the others were simply math-heads...he was the real threat. While unable to use numbers for practical things, they could see things..things Alan didn't understand, or care about. He was simply tasked with keeping the group safe- no matter what. His skills came from calculating out patterns of battle, and finding obscure trajectories. His was a hands-on math.

Clomping down the stairs, one hand on the rail, he runs a few things through his head- passing windows he glances out, taking stock of the world. He kept a detailed accounting of the views from the windows- Liscence plates, pedestrians, shadows ect. The coast looked clear, passing the final window before the foot of the stairs. His eyes shift, tracking across the room, towards the smell of coffee and the sounds of talking. Small quick steps carry him through the room and into the kitchen, one hand moving to snag a mug. "Doubts. How quaint."

"Well... I have some doubts about him but he's sketchy and shady to me. But that's my opinion..." Akihiro said and he stopped right in the middle of his thought seeing Alan moving towards a mug in the kitchen. Akihiro usually seems nervous when Alan is around him because of his presence. "Hello... Alan.... How-how... are... you..." Akihiro said in broken words showing evident fear towards Alan. Akihiro would never be like this in front of anybody but he is afraid of Alan and what he might do to him.

"We were, um..., just talking about what we saw through... the... numbers." Akihiro added saying the words slowly in a fearful disposition. After squaking out the words in a broken manner, he just breathed slowly.

As soon as Sandrine had opened her mouth to answer Akihiro, Alan had entered; she had watched the scene between the two unfold, bursting into a fit of laughter as Akihiro's words ended. She was quite new to the group, so she had only seen the interaction between the two a few times, yet each time had the same effect on her, leaving her with an abdomen almost aching with laughter. She offered Alan a piece of toast, smiling brightly. "Good morning, Alan. It isn't that we're doubting you - you at least don't seem like the type who could be easily bought off with money. Therefore, I do trust you," she said, still beaming, though she mentally added 'as much as I trust anyone I know.' "I mean, if you wanted us removed, you could have just shot us with that," she said, pointing at the 9mm and then continuing, "before we noticed that you were in the room. And if you were to try to get us to join them..." her voice trailed off, shuddering at the horror of the thought.

As soon as she had regained her composure - which lasted mere seconds - she commenced talking. "Akihiro saw the Rockefeller Center getting bombed in two days."

Alan

The sputtering words of the one were ignored- Fear was thick in the air, to Alan it was just the way things went. Sipping his drink, after first blowing away a bit of the heat he takes the toast, and sets it aside. The female was new, but already her laughter was becoming a fixture of the building- it was nice though. So much dread and doom, all the drama..it was nice to hear a real belly-acher of a laugh now and then. Plus he had to agree, the situation WAS funny; Alan was a bad-guy, he hurt people...the hell was he doing playing nurse-maid?

"I wouldn't waste the bullets..." he mutters, setting the mug next to the toast. "A bombing? But why? You two are about as useful as tits on a frog. You can see an event...but not WHY it happens. For all we know I could be blowing the place up..." he shakes his head, moving to the fridge- he wanted jelly. Dry toast was boring. To his frustration they were out of strawberry, and only had some grape left. "Who ate all my jelly?"

Akihiro quickly regained his composure and said to Alan in a "matter of fact" tone "Well, I saw the event but I theorized on who would do it. It isn't like I could just instantly know who did it through seeing the sequences of numbers scribbled in the endless pages in my notebook." Sighing, Akihiro then turned his attention to Sandrine "I'm going out for a bit, Sandrine, I'll see you later" Akihiro added and then he went out of the house as he stepped on the sidewalk and continued walking on the pavement.

Sandrine grinned when Alan asked about the strawberry jam. "I saw the guy staying in the room next to mine take the strawberry jam. He had a girl with him. It's better that the jam isn't back, if you ask me." she said, shrugging, and then took another bite out of her toast. Almost at the same time, Akihiro informed her that he would be heading out. She smiled and waved at him, wishing him a pleasant day. After watching him leave, she turned to Alan once more. "You know, you say that we don't see why events happen, but what we see aren't only results; they're also the causes of future events." she said. "And for some, with a bit of luck, associations between events can be made..." She stuffed the rest of the toast into her mouth, chewing slowly, thoughtfully, unaware that she somewhat resembled a chipmunk with its cheek pouches full. If she were to obtain some numbers from the Rockefeller Center website and to input them as various equations, there was the possibility that she could chance upon a vision regarding the explosion. The problem was that she had only very recently come in contact with fractal art, and therefore did not know much regarding the limits of her power and how she could control it.

Akihiro was walking along the streets. It was rather crowded today during the morning since most people in New York are in a rush to get their breakfast quick and rush to work by frantically calling a taxi or running with a briefcase or a suitcase as they run without noticing their surroundings. Akihiro then hung out at the park where he usualy draws. He did just that by getting out a sketchpad and a pencil. There was a beautiful backdrop of trees and flowers growing around the circular area in where the playground was in the park. Akihiro readied his grip and stenciled the background and surroundings with precise strokes. After what seemed to be half-an-hour, he was finished with the sketch. It came out perfectly but the monochromatic mood of the sketch didn't seem right to match the mood of today's morning. In response, Akihiro sighed in a droll manner without anything to do in the park.