ic The Competition

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, you get some sleep," said Ashley Tran in a friendly sort of way, careful to keep her voice low enough that she didn't alarm the small baby she was holding as she paced the Claremont campus. With her helmet and jacket off (or rather, in her motorcycle's storage), she could have been any adult visitor to Claremont's campus. Well. Most of them weren't wearing sunglasses just in case anyone should happen to pick her out as a former student twice over; and few of them were carrying a baby. 

 

"We'll be fine...this is not more dangerous than the mining planet!" she added seriously. "You have been up with the baby all weekend. Get some rest, babe." She hung and smiled down at Phillip, who was going through a phase where he only stayed quiet when his mother was holding him. So naturally he immediately started bawling his bright blue eyes out, crinkling his little tomato face, and otherwise throwing up a storm. "Sssh, sshh..." She flushed slightly as she sang to the baby, thinking how easy her mother had always made this look. 

 

Well she'd told Carmen what to expect when they met, even if she hadn't actually seen the baby before - babies cried, what could you do? 

[MoonSimply]

The air was beginning to chill as Summer was quickly fading into Fall. Even then, she could sense in the air rain showers that'd be coming later in the evening. It wasn't that there would actually be one potentially, but something about how her feline sense of smell and such made it so Carmen Arrache just kind of felt these sorts of things. Honestly, if she wanted to confirm such was even correct, Carmen could have just as easily checked her phone or watched the news to see what the forecast was. Unfortunately, sometimes that sort of cat like personality could make her a little bit lazy at times.

 

Carmen could see her, Ahsley, otherwise known as the current Patriot, coming up with what appeared to be a small child in her arms. This perked the brow of the young feline appearing woman, laying down on a bench by the front of the women's dorm building. She hadn't expected Ashley to be a mother, unless she wasn't, and it was someone else's kid. It didn't appear like that weirdo demon man's kid, but it could have fooled her as she got up, stretching before she stood once more. Fall weather meant that her varsity jacket could be work without any issue, feeling nice and comfortable for her.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hi Carmen," said Ashley, looking unaccountably nervous as she approached with her crying cargo. "Ssh, ssh, it's okay baby, it's okay..." Carmen might not have had a lot of experience with kids but she was reasonably sure this was a particularly tiny baby, perhaps no more than two or three weeks old. "Sorry, he's still getting used to Earth gravity." Up close, Ashley looked just a little more tired and a little more frazzled than Carmen could remember seeing her outside of a combat situation. 

 

"You remember when I said Fa'Rua and I were going away for a while?" Gradually the baby settled down to fussing, and Ashley stood close enough that Carmen could see him closely. The baby had fluffy dark hair on top of his head, big dark eyes, and distinctly visible pointed ears. "Well...we decided to do something we've been talking about for a while. This is - my son, Phillip Tran. I just call him Phil," she added. "After my father." 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen stretched out like a cat that had just awoken from a nap, standing up from the bench to greet her mentor and the child that she carried. The young heroine recalled hearing something about Fa'Rua the last time they had spoken, or well, had texted each other in this case. Memory wasn't her strong suit when it came to these sorts of things and school had made things a bit more difficult. Study and exams this quick in the year, barely a month into being a Junior there at Claremont, already harassed by a counselor or two about colleges. Her question was how she would even go to college with her financial situation, let alone her appearance.

 

Close enough to the baby now as Patriot came up to her, Carmen looked down at the newborn with a curious face, cattish face, eyes peering down to this strange sort if child, born of two different worlds, "Hi Phillip," she says in a soft voice, almost as if there was a purr, trying to not startle them. Carmen wasn't that experienced dealing babies that much, not wanting to cause them to cry.

Edited October 4, 2023 by MoonSimply

[Avenger Assembled]

If the baby had been unsettled for his mother, he seemed very interested in Carmen, staring up at her with big baby blue eyes. "Oh thank God," Ashley muttered audibly. Should we buy more cat stuff? Getting tired of the spaceman theme in his bedroom. "He's so good for Fa'Rua but he's still a little pistol for maman. Do you want to hold him?" she asked. She wouldn't hand her adopted son off to just anybody, but she knew she could trust Carmen. "He's just with her most of the time," she added, "so they're just bosom buddies." She smiled a little tightly. "He's actually, ah, the clone of her brother, which is where he got the ears. Good thing he's so cute," she added. 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen craned her head to the right, looking at the child, a strange almost alien child that was just barely of this world it seemed at all, seeing the ears as she observed the small child. It was like a small person was there in Patriot's hands, just a little guy, right there, looking up at her in the same way another small child had looked up to her not so long ago. Being told that she could then hold the child was something she wasn't expecting, sheepishly taking the child in her arms in surprise, feeling his small weight and form now that she looked down to in her arms, "A clone?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"The Lor do it all the time," said Ashley easily, watching relieved as her son settled into her sidekick's arms. "Gay and lesbian couples, interspecies couples, couples where nobody wants to get pregnant...they even do it when they have a population crisis." Her eyes shadowed for a moment before she went on, "Fa'Rua doesn't believe in getting pregnant and I can't get pregnant and be the Patriot, so we found a way to have a family of our own." She smiled at that, then admitted, "I don't want to tell people that. You know, that the Patriot just...took the easy way out, when there are so many people on Earth who can't have kids. I only did this because there was no other way." 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen didn't want to ask much beyond the confusion of using a clone. Alien biology and what not was just not something that she was truly knowledgeable about, let alone regular human biology here on Earth. It seemed at the least that Patriot was happy, her very own kid, looking down to the small, strange child and giving them a soft smile, rocking slowly with Fa'Rua in her arms. There was at the least some experience with working with children this age with her time in the orphanage. This smile was slowly fading as thoughts began to form, wondering if her own mother had ever held her like this, in her arms to rock back and forth.

"Won't tell a soul."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Thanks, Carmen." The last time they'd gotten together, Carmen had ridden around on the back of the Patriot's motorcycle - but not even a superhero could ride around with a newborn on a motorcycle. So instead they cheated a little. "Here, take this, and I'll tag the missus - " She handed Carmen a small metal tag about the size of a cellphone, then took another herself. "Okay, honey we're ready - hold on baby, it's coming!" 

Then there was a distinct flash of light, and the three of them were elsewhere, standing in an alleyway in what Ashley quickly explained was a nearby part of Freedom City. It was a slightly jarring transition as they landed a few inches above the ground, one which promptly started Phillip to crying again. "Fa'Rua's trying to get the teleporter on her ship to work better in atmosphere, but it's still a little rough. Ssh, ssh, it's okay, baby, it's okay..." She turned to Carmen and said, "Listen, this is a good place - but I can't put on my costume when I have the baby. Are you gonna be all right?" There was, after all, no way for Carmen to take her costume off. "We can go to my house if you'd rather." 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen had to shake her head after being suddenly transported after taking hold of the tag that Patriot had given her, still holding on to the baby in her arms as she was taken in by this strange light that engulfed them both, taking them away to a new location. This new location was foreign, feeling a light sort of tingle that she shook off quickly yet still was rather jarring. The werecat had been taken at least once to a different world by a portal or two, this she assumed was like that, save it was some sort of teleporter of advance sciences. Carmen too would attempt to quiet the baby, but not being the mother grew harder for her and eventually gave the young child back their mother.

 

Indeed, Carmen could not change whatsoever, stuck in this form that she had so long been a part of her that she seldom recalled her younger self, what she appeared as in the long distant past as a human appearing. In fact, most of the time beside the school uniform, which in this case was the more heroic attire of a unitard in the school's attire, fitting the more agile and dexterous nature of her abilities. Of course, the varsity jacket was still on, thinking it for the best that they go and put it away back at Patriot's home. Carmen had never been to it in the time that she had known Patriot, but that she expected would soon end as she nodded her head in approval of heading back to change.

 

"Ill be fine, though I think going back to your place would be for the best... what are we doing today?" Carmen asked nonchalantly as she looked up and down the alleyway.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, I thought we would-" At this point Phil started crying again; and Ashley squeezed her eyes shut before she swore in Vietnamese. "Okay! Okay, home it is-" 

 

They teleported again, this time to the sheltered backyard of Ashley and Fa'Rua (and Philljp's) new house. Carmen had only been here a few times but it was an impressive place, a suburban mansion on the outside but with a backyard big enough to land a spaceship in - or a child to play in, these days. Fa'Rua's spaceship was parked not far away, the personal craft about the size of a large truck, though curved and sleek like a resting bird. Looking stressed, Ashley handed Phillip off to Carmen 'so she could make a call.' Just as before, the baby immediately calmed down when Carmen held him, this time actually closing his eyes and looking cozy. 

 

There was another flash of light; a rainbow glow like something from a dream; and they weren't alone. The other woman glowed like an impossible rainbow star, radiant like a goddess from her glowing eyes and long black hair - which, as it faded, resolved itself into one of the most famous metahumans on Earth. Judy Cahill, Daystar, walking solar battery, daughter of a former President, now a leading spokesman for Christian superheroes and advocate for the poor. She was dressed in sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt and looked almost normal as Ashley introduced them. 

"Carmen, this is Judy, Judy, Carmen. Judy is...part of the family," Ashley said after a moment. Judy smiled at Carmen and shook her hand; her grip warmer than Carmen's feline body temperature. 
 

"Nice to meet you. Oh mah goodness!" she said, her eyes lighting up. "There's mah baby boy! Hello there!" She grinned at Phillip and added, "Ah went along on the trip to space with her and Fa'Rua when they got this little miracle. You ever go to space?" she asked. 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen cradled the baby in her arms, rocking lightly in them as she hummed a tune to him. Little Philip, as was his name, seemed to calm down once he was with her once more. He definitely did seem cozy, a rather opposite reaction to what she thought she was going to experience as she looked to Patriot and her large home, taking it in once more. A relatively large home, a nice place to raise a kid she assumed. The young heroine had no idea how much money was likely needed to afford it, especially for enough room to house a small spaceship in the backyard without disturbing the local area, "So.... this about baby sitting or something? I don't really have that much experience with kids, especially babies you know?"

It was soon that another flash of light much like their own teleportation occurred before them and out of it a figure of light, one that looked as if they were purely of it was now before them in all their radiancy. Schooling had taught her whom this was, the famous Daystar, and like Patriot, a prominent hero in the superhero community. Of course, that was about as much as she knew about it, still being relatively inexperienced in comparison to the professionals around her. It was still rather intriguing for her and smiled, although awkwardly.

 

"Nice to meet you Daystar, I mean Judy," she says a little nervous, shaking hands with her. They were warm to the touch and yet didn't hurt, offering for her to see the baby that she held better.

[Avenger Assembled]

Judy was full of questions about Claremont, of which she was a recent alum. "Best school Ah ever went to, even if it was the strangest!" she added with a little laugh. Up close, Carmen could smell that there was something decidedly inhuman about the energy being, who radiated a stereotype of Southern Christian girl' while smelling distinctly of ozone and electricity, the stuff of stars and what passed between them. 

 

The plans for the afternoon turned out to be lunch, boxes of hot pizza from a California district. "I'll take care of this little angel," Judy promised the two women, heading straight for the refrigerator to start making Phillip his bottle. "You two just have fun." She made no move to join the two women for their meal, and when her back was turned Ashley gave her a look before saying, "You don't have to do that, honey." 

 

"Ah know Ah don't," said Judy cheerily, "And don't think you won't owe me for it later," she added with a smile. She had Phillip nestled in the crook of her arm as if he'd been born to be there, singing softly as she went about her work. 

 

With a relaxed smile, Ashley turned to her current mentee and said, "I do have something in mind that isn't this, but you need to eat first; I know how crappy high school food is. Here, I had her get triple meat and, uh, margarita pizza," she added, mispronouncing it slightly.  

[MoonSimply]

Carmen wiggled her nose after taking a whiff of ozone, not used to this amount of concentrated ether radiating off a person beside one or two folks from Claremont that could spew fire, and even then, this was different. It was like a celestial embodiment of the cosmos before her, a star made to human form right before her. The stereotype of Southern Christian girl would fly over her head with the more basic American stereotypes, but no one here in Freedom City, especially among the supers, could be said to be anything like a stereotype.

 

Baby Philip was taken gently from the young catwoman's arms into Judy's, moved away to prepare a bottled meal for the little guy. As they made ways into the home, she could smell the pizza before she even stepped inside. The thing that really kicked it off with her super enhanced senses, the one that was likely the biggest draw was the meat pizza, and as soon as Carmen was able to and allowed so, would scarf one down with holding back rather quickly. Besides a lazy breakfast from the school in the morning, that had been the only thing she had eaten, and combined with her own feline nature, would devour a slice of meat pizza quickly.

[Avenger Assembled]

They talked about Carmen and her studies, Ashley asking some careful questions about how exactly the cat-girl was getting along now that her time in high school was almost over. Over in a corner of the room, Judy had shaken up a bottle of milk from the fridge and was settling in to rock Phil. Ashley shot a few looks that way, her expression hard to read, but the younger girl looked happy to be doing what she was doing. 

 

"So once you're done," Ashley offered, "I was thinking we'd take a little field trip." She grinned. "It's funny we've been talking about space so much, because it just so happens that I know people on the Moon."

 

"Aw you'll like it there," said Judy from where she was rocking with the baby. "Do you, ah, mind mind-readers? Lots of them up there."  

[MoonSimply]

Carmen looked up from eating as she heard about potentially going on some sort of field trip. By the time this had come up, she was already four slices in. If it hadn't been for this statement, she would have likely begun to eat some of the margarita pizza if it hadn't been for Ashley talking about some sort of field trip that gripped her fascination and made the young heroine stop for just a few moments, "Wait, the Moon? Isn't that where are those werewolf creeps are?" she responds, remembering where all the ones the two had fought had supposedly come from still remembering that fateful evening the two had saving the day and the many people that had been held hostage by them. It had been a tough fight and she still hadn't really figured things out with them, even the school being limited in what they could teach.

"And mind readers?" she says, not sure what she meant by that at all.

[Avenger Assembled]

Ashley nodded. "That's part of why we're going there. If you only meet people when they're at their worst, you're going to think they're a bunch of assholes. It's the same reason cops, and supers, should live in the neighborhoods where they work. Don't worry, those werewolves are still in the same moon prison where we left them." 

 

"The Moon people, the Farsiders, they can all read your mind," piped up Judy. "It's a mutant thing. But they're real nice. Ah actually started a church group with some of them, they think it's real interesting." 

 

"Hm," said Ashley, not looking like she wanted to comment on that. "Yeah, they're all mind-readers; even the babies. Good thing that's not true for human babies, right Phil?" The baby, sucking on a bottle, had no comment on that. "But if you're worried, they do speak an actual language, they're not just all-telepath freaks or something." 

[MoonSimply]

"Church group?" Carmen spoke in response. She wasn't as open with her religiosity at school, keeping to reading to herself and so on or attending church in town when not living on campus. Christian telepathic mind reading moon people was not on her list of things that would go with that sort of group but she supposed so far in her life that odd things like that would just be par for the course. Of course, she herself was an oddity, a young cat woman with claws and fangs, a desire for meat, and the tendency to sleep or rest in tall places, perching their for safety and to stalk prey. What prey she didn't know, but pizza was an obvious target at this point as she continued to eat and finish off the slice.

 

"So, if we are meeting these people, what for, this some sort of educational thing? Every time we've gone on one something bad happens," she says, then downing a glass of milk as well, an odd combination, "I mean I'll go but that's what always happens."

[Avenger Assembled]

Judy lit up at the tone of Carmen's question, though she never lost her gentle grip on Ashley's baby. "Yes, Ah've been trying to organize bible study groups wherever Ah find people who want to listen. Not everybody wants to hear about Jesus in other dimensions or alien planets, but the Farsiders have been around humans enough that they like what we have to say." 

 

"...if you don't want to go," said Ashley, following on Judy's words almost immediately. "We can stay here. I don't want you to think I'm just dragging you into dangerous situations for, uh" she looked at the baby and said, "crap and giggles." She hesitated, then went on, keeping her attention focused on Carmen. "I had some - difficult mentoring when I was your age. I don't want you to think I'm just training you to be a soldier or some - crap. There's so many wonderful things out there in the world, even if super-fights ruin them half the time, and you deserve a chance to see them before you turn into an old lady like me." 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen would nod her head in agreement. At the least, the young woman or well, cat creature, was fully up for others to talk about faith and all, especially outside of the church in Southside. However, even then it made her feel rather homesick at times not being back in Puerto Rico as she finished off her drink. Carmen was utterly stuffed, having gotten her fill of pizza to eat. Free pizza was after all the best, next to pizza itself.

 

"I'm going. Nothing we haven't been able to handle before. We'll just kick their ass just like last time," Carmen says enthusiastically as she sits back. If it wasn't for the cool weather and more overcast day, the natural inclination to lie in the sun just like a cat was there. Of course, that would be dumb. She wasn't a cat, just a cat like girl. Then again, that line was already tested at times as she stood up with a long stretch, "When do we go?"

[Avenger Assembled]

As it turned out, the time was then! 

 

Ashley explained that she was allowed to borrow her wife's auxiliary spaceship if they stayed inside the orbit of Earth's moon. Judy volunteered to stay at home with Phil, promising to call Fa'Rua at the embassy if anything went wrong, and then Ashley and Carmen were headed out to the garage. The Lor spaceship they were taking was perhaps a little smaller than Carmen might have pictured, closer in size to a large sportscar than anything else, with her seat more of a jump seat behind the pilot. But still it was a real live spaceship, silver-bright like a mercury teardrop; its interior panels like the analog controls of a 1980s fighter-jet but cast in chrome and gold. "You all in?" asked Ashley as she buckled herself into the front seat. "This shouldn't take too long. If you flip that switch you can see out the rear cameras, and that one controls the music..." Most of the jump seat controls didn't actually work. 

 

"If something happens to me while we're flying," said Ashley seriously, "the autonav will kick in and fly you right to the Lighthouse; it won't even try to land on its own." She snorted, breaking the mood. "Don't want that to happen again. Are you comfortable?" She waved out the window to Judy and Phil, who had come out to see them off, Phil clinging to his 'big sister' as she rocked him in her glowing arms. 

[MoonSimply]

Soon enough, the time was for them to go, that time being now as she was loaded up into the craft, a literal flying saucer. Of course, it didn't look anything like the cartoons or movies did, but, one could dream as she reclined back, fastening her seatbelts as she waited for her first space flight. There was a hope that it'd be more spacious, but it seemed to have the feel of a small compact hatchback car if anything else, looking over Ashley's shoulder before looking outside towards Judy and the baby, Phil. Carmen would tap on the interface for music looking through the online repository and local radio signals before turning it off. Carmen wasn't much in a musical mood, more a take a nap while in the back seat of a car mood.

 

" I feel fine, probably take a nap if that's okay," she says, looking back towards Ashley. There was a bit hesitation, frazzled nerves.

[Avenger Assembled]

Ashley thought of the silent stare she'd have gotten from Callie Summers if she'd said that to her - and made sure to actually say something. "There's super-Dramamine in the yellow tube under the console if you need it. Just take one shot, though, or it'll knock you out. Don't worry, it's a short flight." She gave her mentee a supportive smile. 

 

She was mostly hands-off on the ride out to the Moon; trusting in the autopilot and taking the time to appreciate the view. It was a little unreal to her even now; the antigravs on board the ship meaning that they hardly felt the acceleration despite the fact that they were going faster than a Saturn V on takeoff, the engine as quiet as an electric car. "Maybe there is something to all this malarkey after all," she said as the Earth (not just a landscape, the actual curve of the green and blue planet itself) came into view behind them. "That's the place we're defending, right there. Those are our people. Damn." She rapped the viewscreen for good luck, then said, "If you do want to take a nap, now's the time. We're faster than Apollo but it's still a long flight." 

 

On the way out she logged onto her Freedom League account and did some paperwork, posted a few more pictures of the baby to social media, and answered any of Carmen's questions about space and the Lor. She didn't talk too much about her marriage, figuring that was the last thing a teenager wanted to hear about - or that she wanted to talk about, for that matter; instead focusing on Earth's relationship with their somewhat battered interstellar neighbors. 

 

When Farside City finally came into view, it looked a bit like a cliche of a sci-fi city - all straight-edged metal towers under a glass-looking dome, like something out of a science fiction movie of the 1950s or 60s. "They used to be totally invisible," said Ashley. "Well, to anybody on Earth - they had an invisibility field up the second we had rockets. They really opened up for business after the Communion. You ready back there?" she asked as the computer started talking to Farside traffic control. 

 

 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen looked out into space, absorbed in its vastness for a few brief moments before receding back into her seat and sitting in. Dramamine was there for her, and she eventually went straight into it, relenting into letting herself get a bit of sleep while they traveled. The young heroine had never taken this sort of drug and was somewhat worried about the effects it could have upon her. After all, she was some weird cat creature thing by her own partial admission, not that she liked to say such, but it was true. A quick prayer that they would have a safe journey and she'd take the drug as prescribed. 

 

It would knock her completely out, looking like a mess as she eventually slumped in her seat. If it hadn't been for the restraints that she still had on, she'd have fallen out of the seat. In fact, the sleep was rather pleasant, dreaming about defeating some supervillain and being fawned over by the whole city, right before incomprehensible stuff occurred, like turning into a small actual cat or eating nothing but baked beans. Carmen hated backed beans, squirming in her slumber idly. 

 

She'd eventually wake up just as they reached the city, wondering what entirely she was looking at, "This place looks like Señora Gustman's room back home," she spoke response, remembering the dated look of the elderly Sister back at the orphanage that seemed utterly ancient.