Cool Air [IC]

[angrydurf]

Mike to care as he pulled her off the ground to keep his hands to 'safe' areas, he was all too aware that this wasn't exactly a normal trianing session and didn't want to be too forward. He turned at the hips raised Erin up to shoulder level and gave her a final warning, "Here we go." before he threw her towards the cluster of battling fans.

She felt his muscles tense as he prepared for the throw, then swinging from his hips he launched her into the air. Mike was carefull to make th alaunch smooth and keep it slow enough that she could react in the air to land safely. She flew in a gracefull arc towards the knot of angry spectators.

[Electra]

Flying through the air was a great way to reorient one's priorities, and suddenly Erin was back on task. She executed a neat mid-air tumble and landed right in the thick of the brawl. It was a sea of chaos, but no one here could begin to harm her, so it was easy to keep her cool and focus on breaking things up. Pulling people off each other as she went, she worked her way to the middle of the fight and picked up a yellow supporter and a blue supporter by the scruffs, one in each hand. "That's enough!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, doing her best to project authority and intimidation. "You're a bunch of adults! Do we have to separate all of you?"

[angrydurf]

As Erin took to clearing u pthe mess in the stands Mike surveyed the field. Most of the players were just watching somewhat shocked at the events unfolding before them. However two of the yellow players seemed more intent on stiring up more trouble as the cocky pitcher and thier heavy hitter both made for the stands. In a flash Mike was infront of them warning, "This is under control, no need to get in the way." Trying to be as intimidateing as possible.

The cocky one took a step back seeming to back down but then yelled to his buddy, "Take care of him, I'll deal with the girl."

The big fellow threw a punch at Mike that woudl have staggered most but didn't even seem to phase the invulnerable youth. As the other boy tried to skirt past mike shot out one hand grabbing the sneaky player and quickly pulled him into a bear hug while he waited for things to calm down

[Electra]

As Mike restrained the two yellow-team players, the rest of the yellow team took offense and began piling on as well. They couldn't do a thing to actually hurt him, except maybe for the guy he already had bear-hugged, but it wasn't doing much to restore calm. The blue team, loyal teammates all, came to his defense, with the speedster and the beefy-armed catcher doing their part to help pry apart the warring factions. The umpire wasn't much good, he was still standing behind home plate and looking kind of dazed.

Up in the stands, without the superpowers to deal with, Erin was having slightly better luck at calming the masses. A little shake here and there, a few intimidating looks, and a lot of the spectators were willing to return to their seats. She only had to lift one guy above her head and threaten to throw him out bodily before he and his friends were ready to calm down. She glanced down at the action on the field. "Are you okay?" she called. Erin knew Mike could handle the situation with no harm to himself, but he might be stuck there for awhile, since he was always so careful with his strength.

[angrydurf]

None of the yellow players could hurt him but with his team joining in this was quickly getting out of hand. "One sec." He calle dup to Erin before tossing his prisoner into a crowd of yellow players.

He reared back and brought one foot down on the ground sending a shockwave through the ground knocking the warring factions off their feet. "Enough!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

He looked up to where Erin seemed to have the stands under control and gave her a thumbs up shooting a glare at anyone who looked ready to cause more trouble.

[Electra]

Erin jumped out of the stands and bounced down to the field just as the reverberations were settling. The players were scattered like bowling pins, looking like they didn't have a lot of fight left in them. "Nicely done," she complimented, looking around at the quiet. "That clapping thing really works."

As the players were starting to pick themselves up, suddenly the entire scene came to a halt. A glowing screen appeared in front of them, reading "Continue Simulation, yes/no?"

"That's probably the normal endpoint," Erin guessed, "if someone was doing it for training. We are still up by three."

[angrydurf]

Mike smiled at the complement, "Archers been testing out just what I can do when I apply myself. Most of its pretty useless except against a big mob of folks but I suppose it can come in handy occasionally." he explained.

As the screen popped up he turned to Erin, "What you think? Finish out the game or go for a refreshing beverage somewhere my treat?" He was really just as happy with either option this had been fun but he found he actually enjoyed the chit chat more than the game itself.

[Electra]

After looking around at the paused scene, Erin smiled ruefully. "It might be fun to try and get in a whole game sometime, maybe by averting the fight, but I think the sportsmanlike attitude here is pretty shot. We'll just call it a win for the blue team, since the yellow guys started it." She touched the "No" option, then brushed aside the screen of performance assessments that cropped up. The scene faded to a plain black room once again. "Where do you want to go?"

[angrydurf]

Mike pause consideringly. He didn't go out to eat often actually and hadn't really at all since getting to school. Though with Erin being really just about as new to the scene she probably didn't know of any place either.

Well he knew one place that would certainly work though, "Well I know this All night dinner place up in Hanover thats pretty good. I used to sneak out to grab something every now and then when my mom was on this raw food kick for a few months." He started heading to the door as the simulation disolved around them.

[Electra]

"Sounds good to me," Erin agreed, tugging off her baseball cap as they walked out of the room and into the silent hallway. For once neither of them had worked up much of a sweat during Doom Room training, so they bypassed the locker rooms and headed for the elevator. "I've never really been out that way except at Alex's party," she commented idly. "It seems like a nice neighborhood."

[angrydurf]

"It is." Mike replied with a nod, "Not that I'm biased or anything but its just far enough out to not feel like its right in the city but close enough to still have all the amenities ya know?"

He keyed the elevator gestured for Erin to step in then followed. As they rose quickly to the surface he continued, "It has a good feel I guess, downtown and even down here its all to obviously urban for me."

[Electra]

"Definitely quieter out there," she agreed as the elevator rose silently. "More like what I grew up with, too, except everything's closer together. It takes awhile to get used to all the noise in the middle of the city. What do your folks do?" she asked suddenly. As they talked, she worried at one of the green hat jewels with her fingers, till she realized what she was doing and shoved the hat into her pocket.

[angrydurf]

Mike nodded agreement to her comentary on the noise, "My Dads a copy editor at the Ledger, I got to go into work with him a couple times its a neat place but not as exciteing as the movies make it out to be." He said as he shrugged, few things were really. He sighed lightly as he moved on to his mother, "Mom the general manager of the Food Bin and Herb Room, its a little organic healthfood store near where we live. Dad says she spent so much time there they had to give her a job eventually, she's really into all that stuff."

Mike was feeling like he was monopolizing the conversation again but didn't want to pry into her past, he knew it was hard for her to talk about. As the elevator door slid open he glanced down at Erin, "But I suppose almost any job sounds more exciting than it actually is ... well maybe not accounting."

[Electra]

"It sounds like they have jobs they like, so that's pretty cool," Erin offered. "Not everyone probably wants an exciting job. It might be nice to work in a store you really like and have the same people come in every day. You'd probably get to know their families and make a lot of friends that way." She sounded vaguely wistful about the idea. "The Erin here is going into sports medicine, that might be neat, for the same reasons. Hero work doesn't seem like it lets you get to know a lot of people." She thought for a moment, glancing over at him. "If you were normal, what would you do?"

[angrydurf]

Mike was slightly stumped by the question. Without a doubt it was something he thought about alot but really he had no idea what it was like to be normal.

He shrugged and flashed his shy half smile, "I dunno, I think I'd like to do something like constrction or more like carpentry I guess, you know build things leave somethign lasting." He paused whistfully and chuckled, "When I was a little kid I wanted to be a fireman, get to ride around in the truck and put out fires, help people ..." he trailed off for a moment and shrugged, "But you know they have to pass a physical and stuff." He left unsaid the numerous issues with that give his present condition.

He gently slowly slid a nahd around her waist and with a smile buoyed them aloft, taking it slow, well slow compared to his top speed, so they coudl chat as he flew them over the city. "What about you?" He asked curiously.

[Electra]

"Sports medicine, I guess," Erin said with a shrug, looking down over the city as they flew. It always felt a little weird to be neither rising nor falling, and not in control of her own trajectory. Mike was a good flyer, though, and if she concentrated hard, she could ignore the fact that he was holding onto her again. They'd done this before in training, how was this really any different? "She's what I would be like if I were normal, so apparently that's what I would've done. She doesn't study very hard, but her grades are fine, so she'll probably be able to do it. You could probably be a fireman if you wanted to," she added. "They'd make you for a metahuman, but who wouldn't want one on their team? You could replace a whole rescue truck all by yourself."

[angrydurf]

Mike glanced over for a second, "I don't know about that." He said, "I'm no expert on multi-inter-dimensional whatever, but I don't think the Erin from here is you without what happened."

Mike Sqeezed her slightly in a comforting way, "You are who you are for more than whats happened, theres no saying that this worlds Erin would have made it even if she did get powers like yours. You're not some clone or something." He paused to look and see if he had touched a sore spot as he continued, "What did you want to be before?" he asked.

[Electra]

Erin shrugged, the muscles in her shoulders and back tensing with the motion. "I don't even remember anymore, I was barely fourteen," she told him. "I wasn't thinking that far ahead. But the Erin here is me, or is me the way that I was and would've been. The League looked at my world and couldn't find any real divergence points before 2006. We might as well have been the same universe, until people got sick there and didn't here. Then it all broke off and things started going different from then on. She is me, the way I would've been if everything hadn't gone wrong."

Knowing she'd derailed the conversation, Erin pursed her lips, forced a smile. "You should've asked her out, really. She's a lot better at this sort of thing than I am. Anyway..." She floundered for something else to say. "Do you go to this diner very often?"

[angrydurf]

Mike nodded, "Well who knows if other things might have changed after that but I can see your point." he replied. At her suggestion Mike laughed, "Well I'm no expert either and besides I asked because I wanted to ask you." he said blushing slightly.

He dropped it at that though somewhat embarrased himself. He nodded replying to her question about the diner, "I used to go for like snacks or a drink once or twice a week, my dad and I used to stop in on days my mom was working late to cheat on her latest diet scheme. Haven't been since I came to the school though."

[Electra]

"Do they know about you here?" she asked curiously. "I know you said it got around to some other parents in the neighborhood. It'll be funny when the kid they wouldn't let their kid play with is suddenly the local hero. Or even more than local if you join the League and do well." She surveyed the city as they flew overhead, starting to appreciate the high perch. "I figure maybe if I join up, they might give me a flying machine. That would be cool."

[angrydurf]

Mike shook his head, "They were actually pretty secrative about it overall. I think they just gave warnings without real details, like we'ed been exposed and no one knew if it caused cancer or something." He wasn't upset of the way things had gone but it didn't sit well with him all the lies they had used to cover up what was going on.

He shook his head again focusing on the present, "Anyway this isn't that close to the house so word didn't travel this far or anything as far as I know. They never treated me any different at least."

Mike let out a genuine smile at her commentary on flying, "Yea its deffinately my favorite part of all this." He said as he looked over at her again, "If you want, I can take you on an aerial tour of the city sometime. It's an awesome view on a clear night."

Mike angled down and soon the ground rapidly approached, Mike setting down gently in a clear area behind the dinner. After he settled his feet to the ground he gently lowered Erin the last few inches keeping a stabalizing hand on her hip until he was sure she was stable.

[Electra]

"Seeing the city from the sky would be cool," Erin agreed, "I only see it in little bits when I'm jumping around, and it's not exactly the same. It must be amazing when all the lights are on." She automatically oriented herself to land as they descended, settling to the ground next to him and once again trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. "It smells good," she commented, automatically looking around to check the lay of the land and get a feel for high points and escape routes. Just in case.

[angrydurf]

Mike quickly pulled his hand back when he realized it had drifted from her waits to her hip and was glad for the opportunity to cover for it with conversation.

"Yea its pretty good stuff." He said, "Normal dinner fare but done well, and they do real milkshakes too." He led her around to the front and held the door for her as they entered the restauraunt.

He leaned in and added conspiritorily, "My Mom doesn't do dairy, says its cruel to the cows so we only got soy stuff at home."

[Electra]

"Cruel to the cows?" Erin repeated, sounding a little incredulous. "I thought it was bad for them if they didn't get milked. Like they swelled up and it hurt or something. That's what I always heard, anyway. You'd think it would be better than getting made into hamburgers." She gave the inside of the restaurant the same sort of going-over she'd given the exterior, decided it was nonthreatening, and relaxed a little. "It's been a long time since I had a milkshake. I think I'll get one of those. Is your mom a vegetarian too?"

[angrydurf]

Mike shrugged and laughed a little bit, "I dunno I don't buy into it myself but that was her explanation, I think its about hte conditions rather than the miking itself."

He approached a booth and took his seat after Erin, "She's tried lots of stuff usually some kind of vegitarian or semi-vegitarian thing. We were all Pescatarians for about six months, then she read about fish farms." Mike explained his mothers ecentricities with the accepting air of someone who recognized how crazy it all was but without malice.

When the waitress approached he ordered a sampler platter and shakes for both of them inquireing as to Erins favored flavor as he did so. As the waitress hustled off to fill their order he continued, "Mom always has some new thing or another, but its all from the heart you know."