We're Still Here (IC)

[Curious Key]

Warp's approach to bringing down the barrier was a little more nuanced than Heraldo. She singled out the guy with glowing eyes muttering incomprehensible incantations.

The barrier could keep Heraldo out, but going from point A to point B just wasn't Warp's style. She appeared in a burst of inky darkness behind the enchanter. "Can't let you do that," she murmured, her grin manic, and drove her fist into his side, beneath his ribs, right where she knew his kidney would be. He tumbled facedown into the snow. Warp vanished in an eyeblink before he hit the ground, appearing again more or less where she'd started.

[Ari]

GM

The shield collapsed along with the chanting man, falling like a tent when the central pole is suddenly removed and draping itself around the other mages, lending them a crimson sheen and a rippling appearance. Glancing at each other they instantly raised their arms and began to cry out words of power and destruction, one of them suddenly cut short as Heraldo soared up off the ground and into her gut, the pair slamming into the nearby wall with a jarring impact.

The other four at least managed a desultory barrage, most of their shots in the confusion going wild and slashing long gouges in the snow around the heroes, though one blast narrow struck Warp on the shoulder with a howl of eldritch power!

[Curious Key]

Holding up both her arms as Warp saw the burst of magic soaring toward her, it hit head on, coursing over her, trying to burn away at her costume, but when it dissipated she was still standing strong. "Hey," she called out, and was gone.

Only to appear right behind the sorcerer who'd decided aiming at her was a good idea. "That tickled." She said, and slammed her elbow into the back of his head as he turned to face her, savored the feeling of impact as he toppled backwards. A kick behind her took another wizard in the stomach and put him on his back, a palm on another's nose. Her body moved with grace and surity, flowing from one to the other until she brought her foot against the last one, who'd managed to get a to get a shoulder up just in time. He was the only one left. "Lucky bastard," she laughed, and warped back about twenty feet to where she'd come from.

[Ari]

GM

"I'll thank you not to talk Bal'Hemoth like that!" the mage snapped, slamming a booted foot into the snow and thrusting a hand towards Warp, his voice suddenly twisting and shuddering as he spoke new words of power, causing a burst of icy black to blast from his hand! "Be stilled by the Chains of Freezing and Silence!"

It struck Warp in the chest like a hammer-blow, causing all feeling to leave her limbs, the world to turn gray and shadowed before her eyes, and an eerie silence all she could hear. From the outside, Warp was simply immobilized, swaying gently back and forth.

[Ari]

Heraldo saw in a moment that she was in trouble. He had been watching with awe as Kat deftly and effortlessly launched herself back and forth between their enemies, demolishing the mages with an efficiency and grace he could never have matched. He sprang into action 'Shouldn't have stood staring! No worse ally than one that watches you do all the work!' Subito thought furiously.

Soaring forward, he smashed shoulder-first into the mages, feeling the magic shield resist briefly against the power of Puerto Rico...and shatter under it! With a sweep of his arm, he struck through the collapsing barrier and punched the mage in the side of the jaw, sending him flying through the chill evening air, and landing in a heap on the snow.

Breathing a little heavier than usual, Subito ran over to Kat, waving a hand in front of her eyes. Biting his lip at the lack of response, he placed his hand on her shoulder and concentrated. With a faint call to stand at ease, power flowed from him to Warp, dispelling the magic entirely.

Stepping back he glanced around "Great work Warp! Police station is just down the road and to the right, an' the captain there is already looking for the dealer guy. You want any help with carrying the people?" the muscular boy smiled cheerfully, holstering his Bandera.

[Curious Key]

One moment Warp was riding the high of throwing the mages to the ground, the next the mage had thrown a handful of icy power, and Warp had assumed that meant she was up against ice. She was wrong. As she brought up an arm to protect herself the power seeped into her skin. Colors faded from her sight, sound muted in her ears, her body went painfully numb. Her brain was still manning the control panel, but the rest of her wasn't answering back.

Kat thrashed about in a prison of her own mind for a long moment, trying to force her body to answer, when she felt sensation on her shoulder break the void like a crack of light in a dark tunnel. Warp gasped as the last vestiges of the magician's spell flowed out of her, grasping hold of herself and savoring the feeling of feeling. Her eyes darted, looking for something to hurt . . . There was no one. All the mages were scattered across the ground in the snow. She breathed in, trying to regain her composure. "Right."

"What?" She held up her arm in a faux flex. "You don't think I could do it by myself?" Warp snorted through her nose and held up a hand in front of her. "Down the road, huh? Mmm . . ." The air split with a low, soft scream as a fissure of entropy tore the air in front of Warp in half. "That'll take us there." Warp said, turning around and crouching so she could she her arms beneath one of the mage's shoulders and drag him backwards, his heels digging little furrows in the snow.

[Ari]

"I did, but I also thought you'd want it to stop as quickly as possible!" Subito replied, then grew silent as he casually dragged the mages through the portal and followed the last one through, taking a running start and diving through head-first! "Last one there's buying!" he called over his shoulder to Warp, though his grin showed he knew who was going to get there first.

Tumbling and rolling as he hit the floor on the other side, El Heraldo jumped to his feet, flashing a bright grin around at the very confused police officers "Hey there! Some perps for you, officers." He said, hauling them inside.

Once everything was in order, and Heraldo had enthusiastically regaled the police with Warp's takedown of the mages, making very convincing sound-effects with his mouth and truly punishing moves with his arms and legs, the pair were on another roof nearby. Sitting on the edge, Subito watched the setting Sun "So Kat, anywhere you want this evening to go?" he asked cheerfully "I know some awesome places!"

[Curious Key]

Warp considered slamming the door in Heraldo's face before he made it through. Decided to give him a break instead. Once they made it through, Heraldo made a show of bragging on her behalf, while she did her best to look like a hero who could have done those things, until a woman with a badge and a stern expression asked to see where the illegal contraband had gone. So Warp went out back and showed her.

Once all the buerocracy didn't need them anymore Warp got out. A few minutes rest on a rooftop turned into something skirting the edges of romantic, in a four-color kind of way. Sitting together as the cars rumbled past beneath feet left swinging free. "My schedule's empty," Kat said, turning to Subito and brushing a hair out from in front of her eyes. "What didya have in mind?"

[Ari]

"Beck's Books & Brews!" The muscular Puerto Rican teen sang out with a grin, hurling himself backwards and up to his feet. Halting momentarily with eyes shut and lips slightly parted 'O Dame, I return your power It is taken. Go forth Subito' his gaudy costume and gentle aura of power vanished in a psychedelic swirl of red, white and gold around his body. Stretching his powerful limbs a few times, the boy laughed, and turning to Warp went on "See, I've heard from certain reliable sources known as Paula, that the test comin' up in your Supers of the 19th Century class will be frickin' hard. So!" he walked rapidly over to the nearby fire escape, glancing casually over the edge before looking back "I figured it would be a great idea to check out Beck's for anythin' she's got about that, some coffee. and get a head start! We can stick around there 'til you've got everythin', and be back at Claremont before curfew. Then? Studying!" he exclaimed, fist-pumping with a look that argued something a lot more immediately enthusing.

He smiled winningly "Sound good Kat o'nine? If it doesn't, I'm free for whatever you want!" Subito said, shrugging and calmly folding his arms behind his head.

[Curious Key]

Kat leaned her head back and groaned, massaging at her forehead. "You're more straight-laced than an angel." Kat murmured, pushing herself off of the ledge. Midnight-black Entropy crawled over her, exchanging Warp's uniform for Kat's clothes in the space of a breath. "Wasn't what I thought you'd suggest." Warp sighed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat, her breath making a white plume in front of her. "Guess I gotta, though."

For a second she considered just grabbing Subito and teleporting them down, but Warp knew how her special breed of get-there-quick disagreed with him, so she followed him down the fire escape instead. It was pretty cramped. "I haven't been paying as much attention there as I should. Been taking a lot of extra physical ed classes." Down one floor, two floors, and Warp vaulted over the edge of the last one, landing catlike in the snow below.

[Ari]

Kat's admission got a cheerful laugh from Subito "Oh c'mon, I'm not near as bad as some of the guys at school. At least I'm not powered by angels!" The stocky boy laughed good-naturedly, landing next to Kat in the snowy alley with much less grace and much more *THUD*, hands in his pockets and head bowed along with his legs as they absorbed the impact. Standing up straight he galnced over "And you just wait 'til I drag you down to the club sometime Katty, I'll show you how laced I really am!" he added with a faux-saucy wink and cock of his hips.

 

Swinging a companionable arm around her shoulders and leading her down the road, he went on more gently "I know what you mean, Kit-Kat. Lotta people are still pretty shaken up about what happened just a couple days ago. I am too. But...I dunno how to make this sound not like an asshole kinda thing to say. If we just feel down about what happened, let it take over how we look at the world, make a senseless, stupid tragedy like that a defining part of our thoughts and heart, we'll just make things worse. We gotta keep going, we HAVE to do what we were doin' before and do it twice as good."

 

Beck's was just a block down from where the two had taken a breather, a quaint-looking store with an elegant sign over the door. Shoulder their way inside, the door ringing gently as they walked it, Subito waved cheerily to the rotund middle-aged woman behind the forbidding desk, who smiled in answer. "Hey Becky! How you doin'?" "Pretty well 'Bito. Good business this time of year. Come back anytime you want a place to work." the woman answered, her voice surprisngly deep and majestic. THe muscular boy's eyes lit up "Thanks! You got anythin' on..." he glanced over at Kat "M'friend's lookin' for stuff for school, she knows what she needs!"

[Curious Key]

"Please. You're a puppy." Kat rolled her eyes and dusted off her jeans and posed. "You wouldn't know what to do with me in a club."

 

The older boy's arm jostled her—and it was easy for anyone to jostle her, if they didn't know what they were doing—as he brought her in closer and dragged her along for the ride. She tensed up, forced herself to relax and go along with it. She looked up at Subito, putting together all the pieces of a smile and holding them tightly in place, poking at his side with her elbow. "You sound like a self-help book."

 

And then they were at the bookstore, and Kat was wondering why she'd elected to take such a stupid class in the first place. "You really do know everyone," she murmured, shook her head. Kat bit down on her lip and drummed fingers across her side. "Got anything on capes in the Vietnam war?"

[Ari]

Smiles were something Subito knew a lot about, so he knew in a second that Kat's was more than a little forced. He had glanced away, fighting back a brief stab of guilt. 'Why did I do this? She doesn't want or need guys like me bouncing around, acting like doofuses to make her feel better...'

 

 

 

 

"You really do know everyone," she murmured, shook her head. Kat bit down on her lip and drummed fingers across her side. "Got anything on capes in the Vietnam war?"

 

"Just everyone who wants t'know me, Kat!" came the cheery reply, her well-built companion leaning casually against the firm oak desk and returning much more vigorously the quick wave from the grave-eyed and austere young lady running the coffee section of the shop. The two women flanked the entrance and were positioned to be quite impossible to miss.

 

Beck's was a cozy place, all dark wood on the floor, walls and ceiling, with rich deep red carpets and an ornate staircase in the middle leading up to a truly tremendous(albeit cramped) series of bookshelves. Several other shoppers were alreayd there, most of them sitting at the tables around the store and talking over coffee.

 

Becky smiled graciously at Kat's question "Of course young lady. One moment..." taking a pen and scribbling down on a scrap of paper, checking it carefully and then handing it to the young mutant. The title was Paranormal & Parahuman events in the 20th Century, with an added scriggrle underneath it  Secret Soviet Histories Vol. 5 Pt 2: Soviet Supers in the 1960s-1970s "Upstairs in the tenth shelf on the left" the older woman said, adding blandly "Unless Subito misplaced it..."

 

The young Puerto Rican was jolted out of his cheerful calm, swinging around with an expression so hurt that Becky had to visibly suppress a smirk. "...Which I am sure he would not do. They are in alphabetical order, lower racks, so no excuses. Best of luck to you Katherine, I hope those help. Let me know if they are insufficient. And make sure the young man behaves, he can be a little excitable." she favored the Claremonters with a a nod and then went back to the massive leatherbound volume she had been poring over.

 

Blushing irritably and leading the way upstairs, Subito whipped off his hat and marched straight over to the bookshelf in question, a faded '10' on its end. "I'll get that Parawhatever book, keep an eye out for a book with gold letters and a red cover..." he glanced back at Kat and rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's how they did it back then." Scanning along the ranks of surprisngly clean and spotless books in a rainbow of colored bindings, Subito got to the end of the shelves and paused, muttered in frustrated confusion, squinted up at a higher shelf and then launched himself up, bracing against the wall with one powerful leg as he snatched a gray book from a shelf a few feet above their heads, fingers paling as he gripped the edge, and dropped back down with a THUMP.

 

Tossing the book to Kat he asked casually "So...how've your classes been this year?"

[Curious Key]

Kat gave Becky a slanted smile. "Excitable?" She peered sideways at Subito, raised an eyebrow. "I hadn't noticed."

Once they got to the shelves, Kat entertained herself by trying to seek out the book on the bottom shelf, kneeling down on one knee and rifling carefully through the bottom before Subito ferreted out its real position, higher than Kat could've ever hoped to reach without treating the bookshelf like a climbing wall.

She caught the book with both hands, took a reflexive step back and clung it tight to her chest. "You know." She held it open in anarm, leafed through the first few pages. "It's still kind of slow after the lull. No surprise there." There were still a bunch of kids spending the time abroad, or back home with their families. "I'm shocked they'd put a test at a time like this. Kind of an awful thing to do." The book was detailed; there was a chapter about east Berlin, Cuba, Afganistan and China . . . She speared Vietnam in the index and turned to the proper page.

[Ari]

Subito nodded thoughtfully, checking around idly for any sign of the other book. "Yeah, I bet it's to give some of the other guys a kick in the ass so they'll, y'know, study."

 

He grinned "Not that either of us 'd need that kinda thing. Me and you Kat, we're valdeictorian material." Frowning as he methodically traced the line of books, the boy shrugged his broad shoulders and glanced over at the book with interest. "What kinda folks got involved in Vietnam? I never heard much about that one. World War Two? Oh heck yeah, packed with super-celebs, Koirea had a few, never heard about any in this one though. I guess that's 'cause of the whole 'not exactly a popular war' thing."

 

'It must have been put back wrong in the fall' he thought irritably, quickly looking around some of the higher shelves 'I wouldn't have put it up high with the Os if the P section was on fricking fire' Shaking his head wearily he pondered what in the world else to do "You want me to go down 'n get some coffee? Pretty good brews here. S'pecially the Columbian stuff!"

[Curious Key]

"Not a lot of people worth wasting breath on," Kat sorted through the pages and found a surprisingly beefy section on metahuman participation in Vietnam. She reached down to fold the corner . . . Remembered that Subito was watching and pulled a notebook out of the air so she could rip off a piece. "Mostly you find the sort of people that ended up rising to the surface in the Iron Age. Came home, got treated like scum instead of treated for post-traumatic stress . . . Vietnam left a lot of metahumans with trust issues who took their methods in the war back home with them."

She slipped the paper between the pages and closed the book shut. "They've changed the whole second half of the semester, made it one big cautionary tale on heroes that went too far." People'd been reminded of the Iron Age lately, were on the lookout for less-than-perfect behavior in their heroes. Police had always been a little jumpy around her, but it'd gotten worse since the Day of Wrath.

"Thanks for offering," she said, turning her back to Subito, crouching deep so she could get at a lower shelf. "But I'm not really a coffee person."

[Ari]

"S'okay. I'm not either!" Her schoolboy comrade rolled his eyes and leaned against the opposite shelf, searching above Kat's head. Nope, nothing there. "Come on Kato, 'Not a lot of people worth wasting breath on'? That's gonna be folks like me someday! Have some sensitivity." He frowned "Anyway, that seriously sucks. It must've been hard enough for the folks who were in double-double two, when everyone was all 'Yay you're a big hero wooo!' when you got home."

 

 

She slipped the paper between the pages and closed the book shut. "They've changed the whole second half of the semester, made it one big cautionary tale on heroes that went too far."

 

Subito looked utterly confused, and very angry "Wait...why would they do that? It wasn't our fault some space-robot made robot doubles of us!" He glared at the floor ""We did our ******' best. 'Least we weren't tricked into fighting other students or whatever. And I haven't been hearing too many guys at school talking about 'new kinds of justice' and stuff. We didn't do anything..."

 

Rubbing his dark face vigorously, Subito looked back up at Kat, hazel eyes alight with a desperate hope.

[Curious Key]

Kat stopped her search long enough to peer backwards at Subito with the bit between his teeth, her smile small and amused. When he was done she got back to fingering through the books. "You're thinking we're blameless," she said. "We're not. The Iron Age didn't start with torture-happy maniacs, cyborg vampires from the future and illegal vigilantism; it started with heroes not being worth trust. Ah . . . here." Kat tugged a book off the shelf and stood herself back up.

"Some kid Raven wannabe scaring criminals straight downtown might get thought of as a herald of a new Iron Age. It wasn't anyone's fault the old Freedom League got mind-jacked. Didn't matter a whit. One mistake could ruin everything, and we made more than one. Their mistake, for getting taken so quiet no one noticed. Our mistake, for not noticing our closest friends got replaced before people started dying."

She tucked the book in the crook of her arm and looked up at the older boy. "Could you really look someone who lost family in the eye and tell them they can still trust like they did before, after all we missed? They gave us their trust already. Look what happened after that."

[Ari]

"But..." Subito visibly deflated before Kat's grim and cutting words. He shrugged, a flicker of helpless anger across his face "It's...yeah, you're right Kat. As always." He curled some of his hair around his fingers, the full impact of what the skinny girl said manifesting as a deep gloom.

 

Looking back up he said "That wouldn't be all that easy, no. And it wouldn't be right to expect it. Suppose we better start workin' overtime to make ourselves trustworthy again." Glancing out one of the windows he added casually  "By the way Kat, if we're in danger of turning evil 'cause of people no longer trusting their heroes, you wanna come with me and pick out our black leather pants? I just wanna be ready!" He smiled at his classmate guilelessly.

 

"Anyway, other stuff: those books got what you need? If so," he leaned back against the bookshelf, resting his head on his arms "We're pro'lly good to go. They've got hot chocolate at the coffee counter too."

[Curious Key]

"Yeah, all we gotta do to get it back is not screw it all up next time. How hard could that be, really?" Kat said with small smile, resting a hand on Subito's shoulder and giving a light squeeze. Her grin took on a wry edge. "And if it doesn't, I've picked out something black and tight that shows off a ton of midriff."

She moved on with Subito, leaving that grim subject behind them. "You can never go wrong with that!" There was always an allure to the stuff when the weather got cold; it was designed to scare the chill out of cold hands and chase the winter out of cool blood. She marched out of the stacks and into the front, eying the machines on the wall hungrily and picked the prices off the menu overhead. "Hot chocolate?" She said, pulling some bills out of her coat and laying them on the counter.

[Ari]

Patting Kat on the back approvingly "Katcha, we are the same!", Subito all but ran down the wood stairs and echoed his schoolmate's request with a similar money offering. He kept up a cheerful stream of chit-chat with the woman named Amanda behind the counter, earnestly hoping that her sick dog would soon be well, a sentiment the woman shared passionately. Putting the hot cocoa with extra marshmallows, cinnamon and cream inside anothe cardboard cup for insulation, she passed them over to the students with a warm smile "Thank you for visiting Becky's" she winked at the imposing woman behind the desk opposite "Please visit us again soon. And good luck with the studying" she added to Kat.

 

Taking his cup eagerly and taking an experimental sip that burned his mouth with a yelp, Subito told Kat "Gah! Okay, urgh, b'careful I guess. You wanna go back the quick way or the slow way?" he asked innocently, which got a well-suppressed smirk from Amanda, who industriously went back to making sure her thrumming machines were in order.

[Curious Key]

Kat was more careful with her chocolate, picking it up with both hands and blowing gently on its top before she tested a sip, enough to taste the heat without getting burned by it. She grinned at Subito,f braced herself and took a longer drink, enduring a little scalding as the cocoa flowed down her throat and sat snug, a comforting wave of warmth spreading out from her belly. "Feels good."

Maybe Subito wasn't quite aware enough to figure out what Amanda was hearing between the lines, but Kat was, and it made her cheeks red. "No point in hot chocolate if you don't walk a little through the cold, and 'sides . . ." She raised an eyebrow at him and let the corner of her mouth quirk up. "Wouldn't want to give you vertigo." Let Amanda try to invent subext beneath that nonsense.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Freely Seek

[Ari]

Subito saw Amanda briefly pause while cleaning one of the cocoa dispensers and look vaguely uneasy at him for a moment, quickly shaking her head and going industriously back to her work. It was all he could do to hurriedly look away, gratefully sipping at his hot chocolate.

"Yeah, good idea! Would be good t' stretch our legs" he said, leading the way out of Becky's after Kat had payed for the books. Trudging along though the crisp, thin snow, he glanced around at the lengthening shadows as the sun began dipping below the horizon, whistling in surprise "Whoa, I forgot how late it was gettin'!" he shrugged and smiled at his lean schoolmate "Meh, better get going then! There's a bus stop not too far up the road, if you wanna ride in style." he offered cheerily, gesturing at a small blue/gold shelter just up the hill by a stand of trees.

He walked on in silence for a few blocks, taking quick sips of the steaming liquid as the pair marched on the long walk. Outwardly, he was as calm as could be expected given he couldn't really feel the chill winter. Internally he was seething with the very real question of: what was there to say? Just not talking was anathema to the chatty boy, but every subject he could think of was littered with the twin facts that he really hadn't gotten to know Kat very well(a realization that was like a kick from her in the sparring room), and most of them either revolved around school or the recent tumult of a few days ago. 'Dame? I dunno what to do Those words come up worryingly often I know, I'm sorry. Oh! You're "sorry" about that? Well, that changes-! Please. Everything I can think of sounds wrong ...Encouragement, and then ask her what she would like to talk about, your need for chatter runs dangerously close to monopolizing. We should have begun work on that long ago Yeah. Missed opportunities all up in this. Thank you'

At length he said quietly "Hey Katapult, somethin' I want you to know." he looked over at her "I dunno what you've been, but what and who you are now? It is awesome. I'm glad to have a friend like you. I know we don't spend much time together, but I'm always glad when we do." he smiled warmly "So, anything you'd like to discuss?" He rubbed at the back of his head and looked a little embarrassed "Uh, I know I talk a lot, sorry."

Edited March 5, 2013 by Arichamus

[Curious Key]

Kat tucked her hand behind her back and raised an eyebrow at Subito. "You know, usually if someone wants to get somewhere quick with only a little stomach trouble, they suggest me." The last time she could remember taking a bus, it was yellow, with sticky seats and red-faced drivers trying to yell over the sound of children screeching like little banshees. Kat made no move to change her course, though, and kept right up beside Subito.

She smiled into her chest at Subito's compliments, taking small steps in the darkness, the stark light of near-evening casting dark shadows across Kat's body. She looked very small and very young next to her friend. For a while, she said nothing at all. Darren had a point. He had, he truly had. "You know," Kat said at last, her voice soft and low. "Cerys is lucky to have you."

[Ari]

"Awww, I'd put up with that for you, Kat, if you want to get back quick" Her schoolmate smiled at her without even a trace of irony, and his voice didn't have a drop of sarcasm. Shrugging at her view of buses he let out a steaming plume of breath "You'n Darren have more in common than I thought, we need to all go out sometime, do somethin' together. We aren't gonna be here forever after all" he commented aloud, a note of wistfulness obvious in his words. It would all have to end sometime, and-

 

"You know," Kat said at last, her voice soft and low. "Cerys is lucky to have you."

Subito almost missed a step, and looked over at the lean mutant in surprise 'Wait what? Where did that come from? Keep calm, Herald. Chances are she is just making conversation. And pay more attention to people around you during school. That is all' composing himself he blushed a little and replied shyly "Th-thanks Kat. I..it means a lot to hear people say that." he sighed ruefully at looked ahead "I don't often feel like I'm a good boyfriend for her. S'pecially when we talk about folks like Tona" he sighed and scuffed his shoes through the weak patches of snow across.

 

Turning back to her as they drew nearer to the bus stop he said awkwardly "Um, why's Cerys lucky? I mean, sorry, that sounds super-clueless. Have you asked anyone out by the way?"