Back To School (IC)

[Heritage]

Lunch was actually awesome, which caught Grim by surprise; back when she was a freshman at Egg Harbor Township High (the ony year of high school she attended), eating lunch in the cafeteria wa typically the lower part of her day. Little Sherry Epstein sat hunkered over her tray, face jammed into a book on Prohibition gangsters or some other unsavory topic, Discman playing angry girl punk turned up to deafening.

But here at Claremont, Lenya was more than welcome, and lunchtime was fun; everyone was cute and funny, and just ate off your tray like you were family. She laughed as Chris and Eddie joked around, and smiled at the way Alex and Mike held hands, true high school sweethearts. The weird thing was Grim actually felt like she belonged.

---

But of course it was all a lie; she had an increasingly-unpleasant mission to fulfill, and the sooner she faced that reality, the sooner she could leave these poor kids alone. Seeing the psychic as being the bigger 'threat', she headed for Alex's dorm when her class schedule said it was supposed to be vacant. Making sure no one was around to observe her, 'Lenya' stood outside her door, melted into a puddle of gray faerie goo, and slid through the crack to the other side.

[Heritage]

Still trying to maintain some sort of plausible deniability (and sadly damage American-Russian relations), Grim reformed as Lenya inside the room.

Okay, time to do Doc's evil bidding :roll:

It was quite clear that two very different students shared the room; one side was fairy Spartan, with only a few items like a music box and stuffed bear on the dresser to even let you know a girl lived there, while the other side was apparently decorated by Oompa-Loompas from the look of it. The riot of colors was almost physically painful.

Lenya turned to look at the beds, and met the steady gaze of a skinny orange tabby curled up on the neatly-made lower bunk, its eyes quietly judging her.

“Hello, nice kitty.†:?

Doc’s file on Alex included the following warning about her roommate, Erin: "Super-Soldier from Parallel World devoured by 'Zombies'. Steer clear if possible; do not confront." Based on this disturbing warning, the interloper was not looking to stay long. The Spartan side logically belonged to Erin, so Lenya focused on the Day-Glo area, starting with her desk; she quickly found a spiral notebook, the kind with gross unicorns on the cover that made her gag.

“Let’s see what we have here…â€

A quick scan of its contents did not yield the usual homework or girly kvetching about boys, but in fact outlined a detailed business plan for a fairly large and prosperous company. Even more shocking, the sweet young girl she’d met during the snowball fight was apparently CEO of said company, and earning a salary of 250K a year!

What the hell? How is that even possible?

Sadly she’d been unable to squeeze her camera phone under the door with her, so Lenya did her best to commit details to memory. The shapeshifter didn’t even bother with the laptop on the desk, lacking the computer skills to unlock even the most basic electronic security, and instead rummaged through the drawers until she found a journal.

“Bingo!â€

[alderwitch]

February 2nd, 2010

Dear Diary,

Tried to talk to Zoe about her home today. That was a giant failure and a half. She's still in must not tell mom about her future mode. Am very worried about the immenent explosion of her relationship with Eddie. Its lasting longer than I anticipated but I still don't think its healthy. Can't figure out a way to approach her without firing up her rebellion instincts. Might try prodding Mike into talking her. She seems like a daddy's girl. I'm still sad about that. I'd like to hope that its because we were close in her world but fear I may be sugar coating it for my own mental health.

Still unable to seduce Mike with my wicked ways (ha-ha). I'm pretty sure I heard his brain explode when he patted my boobs. Still thinks he's going to crush me but won't admit it. Silly. Doesn't he know that he's not capable of hurting me?

Company is doing well. With the capital accruing, I'm out of risky gambles to increase it. Its more of a challenge actually to keep it under the radar than to make piles of money, so that keeps it interesting. Still haven't told Erin about her healthy nest egg but she won't believe me she's earned every cent.

The manor's almost restored but the teleporter's giving me fits still. The 60s super tech is behind the curve but Gramps won't think of switching over the fission cells. I can't blame him, Grams made all of it and its like saying goodbye. His emotions still go blue when we're downstairs. I wish I could make him and Mom talk. Stubborn....

The entries skipped days, sometimes weeks but held little back and each was written in Alex's neat and precise hand. It was a very juevinile activity but the writing was anything but as each pink page was filled with thoughts and feelings of a mind much older than any sixteen year old girl.

[Heritage]

For several moments, 'Lenya' could only stand, holding Alex's journal in her hands as she stared at the words until they lost all meaning. So many emotions swirled in her heart, mind and gut, competing with each other and making her light-headed and nauseous.

All of this...all of this, and yet she's still a girl, with a boyfriend and homework, who eats in the cafeteria and has unicorns on her notebook. All of this...

Would her own life appear just as far-fetched and fantastic if someone read her most intimate thoughts and feelings, as mundane and ridiculous and beyond comprehension? For the first time since her transformation, Grim saw metahumans as others did, the folks who couldn't bend bars with their brains or travel to distant worlds. Without even realizing it, she sat on the lower bunk, still holding the journal in unfeeling hands; she turned to look at the cat, its face noble yet deeply perturbed at the intrusion. Lenya blinked at the cat a few times, then spoke in a flat unaccented voice.

"No wonder they fear us...worship us...we're not- "

In a flash, she suddenly felt very exposed and had to leave; her heart was pounding in her chest as she returned the journal to its drawer and straightened up the desk. Once the faux Russain was sure everything was back in its place, she quickly listened at the door, and hearing no one, oozed back into the hallway and staggered out to the quad to clear her head.

[Heritage]

For several minutes, 'Lenya' just leaned up against the wall, taking deep breaths of cold air; this was by far the most unpleasant mission she'd ever been on.

I have to get outta here- wait, I can't! I still need to do at least a little digging on Mike. Crap!

Making her way back into the dorms, she quickly found Phalanx's room; according to Doc's notes, his roommate was Mark 'Edge' Lucas, who she herself had met briefly last year when she was with the Knights. As she recalled, he was an utter geek whe it came to Ace, he used a grapple gun with confidence and somehow made a lot of neo-Nazi guns blow up, but she was taken out of the fight before she got a good handle on how his powers worked. Doc's file only cryptically stated "Avoid if possible; do not confront.", so it was obviously best to err on the side of caution.

Once again the fake Russian girl slid under the door and found in a sense a gender-flipped version of Alex and Erin's room, although it was not quite as an extreme dichotomy of style. Opposite the bunk beds were two study areas, and it was no mystery as to which side belonged to the hero-worshiping Mark, encrusted as it was with super memorobilia in form of posters, photos and other items; Grimcognito also spotted the signed business card Ace gave to the enthusiastic young man the night they met, stuck to a corkboard by the lower bunk.

Mike's side was a bit neater and more subdued, with a few posters and photos, mostly of him with Alex or one of his other classmates doing happy teenage stuff; with a sigh, the interloper began to look through his things.

[angrydurf]

Mikes desk was lightly cluttered with the efforts of a hard working if not particularly gifted student. His textbooks already well worn and marked in numerous places and finished assignments stacked semi-neatly on one corner of the desk. A quick glance at his two year out of date computer quickly revealed it to be that rarest of finds the teen computer used primarily for school work and perhaps listening to assorted angsty teen music in MP3.

Very little other than the smattering of recent pictures and one rather older framed on on his desk of his parents and himself on some kind of ranch or farm showed any real connection to the resident of the room. The dresser was packed with near identical sets of oversize blue jeans and basic logoless t-shirts but for a set of three shirts set on top, a Freedom City comets shirt that looked a bit worse for wear though fairly new, and two shirts for small local bands, Madman Finale and another she didn't recognize the name of but the front man looked familiar.

In the bottom drawer she finally found something of relevance. Neatly stacked and dated going back nearly 10 years were small composition books he had apparently used as journals for a number of years. Flipping through the early ones revealed what amounted to dream journals of recurring nightmares about some unspecified incident, later they took on a more standard journal format with talk about disagreements with parents interspersed with doodles and clippings of the Freedom leagues exploits, along with some truely awful poetry and evolving sketches of what she now recognized as his current costume for hero work all stretching back almost 6 years. The most current was only half full and ended nearly a month and a half prior.

[Heritage]

These poor kids...

Carefully replacing everything in its original place, 'Lenya' slipped back under the door and out into the hall; she knew she had to leave now, but something within her heart would not allow that.

I need to say good-bye, offer some sort of lame-ass explantation to someone.

Of all the Claremeont kids she felt the most connection to Breakdown; he was the kind of boy she might have dated back in high school if she hadn't ran away, and seemed sweet and nice. After asking a few fellow students about Eddie's schedule, she waited outside his classroom door for him to come out.

[quotemyname]

Lenya spotted Eddie making his way out of the classroom along with a stream of other students. The boy was using one hand to stuff a notebook into his messenger bag, and the other hand to select a song from one of his iPods. Once the notebook was stowed properly, Eddie used his now free hand to pull a large pair of headphones over his ears.

Eddie emerged from the room bobbing his head to the song that was playing over the speakers. He finally spotted Lenya, and gave her a large smile. Fiddling with the volume on his iPod as he approached her, he greeted her with a friendly hug. "Hey, Lenya, what's up?" He gave her a slightly dubious look, "You stalking me?" Eddie asked the girl, a joking smile played across his face.

[Heritage]

"Hey, Lenya, what's up?" He gave her a slightly dubious look, "You stalking me?" Eddie asked the girl, a joking smile played across his face.

Oh man, why'd he have to hug me? Now I'm gonna tear up.

The pretty Russian girl smiled and shook her head, wiping her eyes. "No, is not stalking, Eddie; I am wanting to say good-bye." She looked down at her hands, her face slightly flushed as she tightly gripped the strap of her backpack. "There was phone call to Mr Summers, from my Uncle Vanya in Tambov. There are troubles for my family, and I must go back to home."

She looked up, clearly upset; how much of this was acting and how much was an honest mixture of shame and sadness, Grimalkin could not really say. With her glamour up and running full tilt, her sorrow hit like bag of wet sand to the gut.

"I am so sorry, Eddie; I had hopes of making more new friends here, and learning so much. You and all your friends did much to make me welcome, and I will miss that." She laughed as she wiped her nose. "It was a very special snowfight, and I will think of it many times."

I'm about to lose it. :cry:

Suddenly Lenya leaned forward, kissed Eddie on the cheek, and stumbled away towards the main gate.

[quotemyname]

Eddie stared dumbly at Lenya's back as she walked away, his hand pressed to his cheek where she'd kissed him, But she just got here, he thought.

Eddie was a little lost. He didn't know Lenya very well, but all the same, there had to be something he could do. Suddenly he had an idea. Before he had a chance to second guess himself, he chased after the girl.

Finally catching up to her, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Lenya, wait." Eddie fished a spare pair of earphones out of his messenger bag, along with the iPod he was listening to. He pulled the headphones he was currently using out of the jack and plugged in the earphones. Then handed the tangled mass of wires and technology to the girl. "Here, take this." He told her as he stuffed it into her hand, "It's got some of my favorite songs on it. Hopefully it will keep you company on the plane ride. If you ever listen to it, don't forget you've got friends here if you need them." Eddie smiled, hoping he could cheer Lenya up, so she wouldn't be leaving under such sad circumstances.

[Heritage]

"It's got some of my favorite songs on it. Hopefully it will keep you company on the plane ride. If you ever listen to it, don't forget you've got friends here if you need them."

Oh dear God, what have I done?

Lenya took the MP3 player and held it tightly in her hands, stunned by the boy's offering. "You are most kind, Eddie; I will write you often."

I will what? :shock:

The beautiful young Russian girl dug into her backpack and pulled out her notebook and a pen, while the mind inside was racing like a thoroughbred.

What are you doing, this is crazy, this is bad...

"Here, write me email, or do you have the Facebook? I could set up page for writing to you; I have only Russian page now." She smiled and held out the pen. "It would be nice to have American friend to write to, about so many things."

Don't take the pen, don't take the pen...

[quotemyname]

"Really?" Breakdown beamed, knowing that stopped the creation of what was potentially a second Niagra Falls. "Cool!" Before Lenya realized what was happening, both the pen and the notebook were in Eddie's hands. He quickly scribbled down his address, both email and mailing, as well as the link to his Facebook account. There was also a link to a Youtube profile. "Here, that should be everything." Eddie said, handing Lenya the notebook, "I even put down my Youtube profile so you can see some of the music I've been making." Eddie gazed at her proudly. "I'll send you a copy of my album when it comes out. Then you can show all of your Russian friends. I'm sure they'll love it. Wouldn't it be cool if it made gold in two countries?"

Eddie shook his head, suddenly aware that he was rambling. "I'm gonna miss you." he said simply.

[Heritage]

"Here, that should be everything." Eddie said, handing Lenya the notebook, "I even put down my Youtube profile so you can see some of the music I've been making." Eddie gazed at her proudly. "I'll send you a copy of my album when it comes out. Then you can show all of your Russian friends. I'm sure they'll love it. Wouldn't it be cool if it made gold in two countries?"

God, he's such a nice kid.

"I'm gonna miss you."

Suddenly her arms were around him, crushing him in a surprisingly powerful bear hug that literally lifted Eddie off his feet.

"Mmm, you are the nicest boy, Eddie!" She kissed him on both cheeks, then gently set him down. She laid a mittened hand on his chest, and smiled."Do good things, and always have a giant heart. Dosvedanya, Eduard."

And then she turned and walked away...

[Heritage]

February 9th, 2010. An Undisclosed Location

Grim sat once again in the featureless room, flipping an iPod from hand to hand; on the table in front of her rested a slim, neatly-typed report in a clear flexi binder, looking more like a term paper than a top secret file. She looked sullen and deflated.

[Dr Archeville]

Undisclosed Location

Once more The Boss's voice crackled over what Lyn assumed was some sort of concealed intercom. "Be right down."

A moment later, the door opened, and in walked Doktor Archeville. Which was a pleasant change from the last time they were there, and Archeville was secretly in the room, when she arrived and hid, testing the latest upgrades to his cloaking system. And he'd even brought her one of her favorite drinks, a Mike's hard lemonade.

Tell me what you know!

That is what she is here for! Give her a moment!

He sat across from her, and slid the drink over. "I trust your little research assignment vent vell? No particularly bad problems?"

[Heritage]

The young shapeshifter set aside the MP3 player and mutely accepted the bottle, sliding a thick talon out of her thumb to pop the top; she took a long, long swig, then placed the bottle on the table between them, rolling it back and forth between her palms.

"I trust your little research assignment vent vell? No particularly bad problems?"

"Hmm? No, no problems to speak of; the infiltration actually went a lot more smoother than I expected. The 'Russian exchange student' schtick might've been overkill, though."

She smiled wanly, then picked up the bottle and began gouging at the label with that thumb claw, eyebrows furrowed with concentration.

"But then again, kids are trusting by nature."

Her tone was off; the normally chatty Grimalkin was downright somber.

[Dr Archeville]

"Ja, ja, I'm a horrible person or having you spy on und betray de trust of two high school students," he replied in a tone that only showed a bit of condescension. "You know vhat else is horrible? Dat dey spent almost two-thirds of deir lives in isolated government care, und vould haff eventually been indoctrinated into de military. Und if not for Headmaster Summers, dey vould still be in dose conditions."

That's the real crime here.

What, that the government let them go?

Partly, yes. But mostly the poor job they did in raising and training them. They had them from the age of six, but they're both chaotic messes. You know what I could do if I had ten years to work on someone's mind?

Yes. Yes, I do.

"I dink ve vould both agree dat dey are in a far better environment now." he said in a very calm and reassuring tone. "Und I vould like to make sure dey remain stable und happy. A Metahuman's mental und emotional state is key in regulating deir abilities, und vhen dose abilities stem from de Terminus... vell, dings can get volatile very quickly."

[Heritage]

"Ja, ja, I'm a horrible person or having you spy on und betray de trust of two high school students," he replied in a tone that only showed a bit of condescension. "You know vhat else is horrible? Dat dey spent almost two-thirds of deir lives in isolated government care, und vould haff eventually been indoctrinated into de military. Und if not for Headmaster Summers, dey vould still be in dose conditions."

The shapeshifter's dark brown eyes snapped up to the scientist's blue ones, and they sparked with anger.

"Hey, I never said their lives were bad or they were being mistreated; that school is the best place for the them, hands down." She set down the bottle and sighs. "And it wasn't them I felt bad about lying to, anyway."

Grim vigorously rubbed her face, then half-raised the bottle to her lips. "Look, I'm madder at myself than anybody else; this was not my best work and I shoulda stayed in longer. I didn't get nearly enough intel on Mike, though to be honest I think Alex is the one we should all be worried about; her and their kid from the future."

She took a deep swig, then wiped her mouth with the back of a gloved hand.

"Did you know that girl is the world's youngest CEO, and pulls in $250K a year?"

[Dr Archeville]

"I did, actually. I had even considered de possibility of-"

"vait..."

"... deir kid from de future?!"

What?!

What?!

"Vhat?!"

Archeville appeared to have truly been caught off-guard with that little revelation.

[Heritage]

"Vhat?!"

Grim could not help smiling at the thunderstruck expression on Herr Professor's face; she imagined he didn't wear it often, so she took a few seconds to lean back in her chair and bask in it before replying.

"Yep; kids these days, huh?"

She opened her report and idly flipped through the pages.

"Her name is Zoe, she appears to be the child of Mike and Alex and is possibly even attending Claremont; I don't know how she arrvied in our time, but it looks like she's dating young Eddie Ozan, aka Breakdown, who I'm sure doesn't know about her parentage, because eww."

She found the appropriate page and set the report down in front on Doc, tapping the section in question.

"There ya go, captivatin' readin', that is."

[Dr Archeville]

"Ohhh no.... no, no, no, nein, nein.... dieses ist schlecht, dieses ist extrem sehr nicht gut."

The Doktor was vastly more agitated than Grim had ever seen, and was up and pacing back and forth and up and down (thanks to his gravity-defying belt).

"Child of two Terminus Babies... from de future... did she get a Terminus-derived ability to eat up time itself? Is dat how she is here? But vhy is she here? Vhy?! Ohhh, dis is bad. Dis is extremely very not good...."

How could we have missed this? We have half a dozen scanners that should've picked up the arrival of something, someone, like that!

If the Terminus and time travel are involved, all bets are off.

"I need... I need...," Archeville began, then he suddenly flipped off the wall and landed next to the seat he'd been in. He picked up Grim's file and flipped through it. "Useful, a bit flat in de middle," he critiqued -- yes, he had read the entire report that fast -- "but I need more! If Herr Harris loses it, he goes on a destructive rampage; if Fraulein Albright loses it, she could destroy any mind near here. But if deir daughter is overvhelmed by de Terminus energies mitin her, und it vas her powers dat brought her back to dis time, den... den dings might start retroactively not existing, or portals through time tear open all across de city!"

[Heritage]

"Ohhh no.... no, no, no, nein, nein.... dieses ist schlecht, dieses ist extrem sehr nicht gut."

Grim's smug little smile completely vanished; even if she didn't have the ability to understand any spoken language, Doc's horror at this news would have been abundantly clear. She thought back on every time travel movie she'd ever seen, even that Treehouse of Horror episode when Homer killed all the dinosaurs, and a sick feeling sunk into her stomach.

"You want me to go back, right? You need me to go back." The shapeshifter buried her face in her hands for a few moments. "Okay, 'Lenya' told one of the students that she had to go home due to troubles with her family; we might need to do a little work to sell that, and her coming back so soon afterwards." She sighed and rubbed her face. "I have all Eddie's social networking stuff, so I can use him to plant disinformation, if we have to go down that road..."

Oh Eddie, I'm so sorry. :(

[Dr Archeville]

"Yes.. no... yes!"

The Doktor was still quite agitated, but Grim could tell he was starting to calm.

Good of her to set up a way back in after a break, which will give us time to set certain things up.

She is quite talented, and possesses some good foresight. I knew she was a perfect member for the Interceptors.

Archeville sat back in his char, and took a big draw on Grim's drink. "Okay, yeah, dat is good. Vell, dat," he looked down and glared at the drink, "is not so good, but I haff had vorse."

He looked up again, now straight at her, and took a deep breath before speaking again. "You did an excellent job, Lynn, und you are to be commended. I do regret putting you in such an ethically challenging situation, und dat you vould be going back into it... I never, ever vant you or Jack or Colt to one day say 'but I vas only following orders.' But... you do realize de enormity of dis situation, ja? Ja, ja, of course you do, I see it in your eyes. Alright, den, let us dink just vhat troubles Lenya's family vas in...."

~fin~