"I have never been to an underwater city, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I think that in my time, there was this big wig trying to get a bunch of people to invest in his crazy scheme to build one. Bet he was surprised when we discovered the undersea nations and had to start treating the oceans as foreign territories," Shin says, grinning. "Can Inquiry handle those pressures? Because I really, really want to check one out. We can send the boat back with our catch, just enjoy some really cool sights, maybe bring back a pearl necklace for Kayla," He suggested to Rory.
Kylie smiles, but her expression is slightly shaded in doubt. Her lips open to respond when suddenly Kayla's cry shatters the silence.
Immediately Kylie's clothes dissolve into Psyche's uniform and she flashes through the air.
The door to the bungalow slams open violently and she whips through the small gap, prepared to fling whatever the target of Kayla's fury was clean off the island!
She zeroed in on the waves of surprise and anger, wrapping a shield around herself only to discover... Kayla staring at either her iPad or her toast in stunned disbelief.
Oh G$$ d%&nit. We needed to have that conversation.
But even if the threat wasn't real, Kayla's fury clearly was, so Kylie began recorporating her clothes and asked, "What's wrong?"
”This!” Kayla shouts as she holds out her iPad. ”Damnit, hang on lemme start it over...” she says as she tosses her toast down and restarts the video and then turns the volume up to full.
The introduction to the “Halcyon Citizens Report,” the most popular program on HCN (Halcyon Citizens News), begins. It’s a heavily watched station for those who have a distaste for any and all super beings, heroes and villains alike.
”Hello to all the good people of Halcyon! I’m Daniel Matters, here to keep you informed on what matters! And today, we are going to talk about the newest bunch of upstarts who claim to be ‘looking out’ for our best interests. And no, I’m unfortunately not talking about a new batch of recruits for HCPD. I’m talking about the Sentinels, a rag tag band of kids, KIDS, who have taken it upon themselves, under the good graces of the almighty Alliance, to tear up our city at will!”
A scene of smashed factories at Rustside cuts in as he continues, ”This is the scene at Rustside where they recently destroyed thousands and thousands of dollars in buildings and equipment, while fighting another band of super-freaks, and for what? They capture two, I repeat, just TWO of them! And now we taxpayers are going to be feeding and sheltering them for life. Assuming they don’t escape like they usually do.”
The camera cuts back to Daniel, ”And what do our brave hero-kids do afterwards? They try to play nicey-nice to the cameras, while talking down to us normal folk not privileged enough to have their mighty powers!”
The scene cuts to Praetoria holding a hand up, ”One at a time.”
”Praetoria! How did the Sentinels bring down Shard and the Chosen?”
“They are quite capable of bringing him to justice.”
Daniel then cuts in and says, ”Let’s not even talk about Praetoria’s, team leader and newest Taylor to trod on our heads, bedroom habits with her teammates!”
The video cuts to a clip of another reporter asking ”Any word on your relationship with Frostbite?” and then back to Kayla just walking into the headquarters.
Then it cuts to Psyche saying ”Keep the questions focused on the Chosen, all right?”
”Letting her classmates do the fighting for her. It doesn’t stop there!” Daniel quips before the video shifts again, first to Mosaic:
”Mosaic, what About Praetoria and Rory. Can you tell us anything about them?”
“I Can say that the two are close.”
Then to Frostbite:
”Think back to being a teen, you probably had a hard time talking with friends and family members about crushes and relationships.”
Then Scorch:
”You can't stop people getting together if they want.”
Daniel laughs and says ”And the sex-capades don’t stop there! Look what their own little celebrity Mosaic had to confess!”
”How would you characterize your relationship with Horizon?”
”I don't want to Jinx it.”
The feed cuts back to Daniel, holding up a finger scoldingly, ”Putting bad examples to our children aside, let’s talk about this Scorch a second! This girl can burn buildings down at will, but can’t handle being in front of a camera without being polite! She clearly hates us normal folk! Look,” he says pointing at the camera before the feed cuts back to Scorch...
"And can you confirm reports that you were personally instrumental in defeating Shard?"
”No that's stupid.”
Daniel comes back on the screen, shaking his head. ”Now let’s get back to that psychic witch of theirs, the one who founded a cult in her own name. Deflecting questions that have direct relevance on the people of this city!”
“Do you read the other Sentinels minds regularly?”
”The focus today should be on putting a dangerous criminal behind bars.”
Daniel adds ”And when asked directly about her cult...”
””Any comment on some of the extremist comments on social media coming from members of the group known as ‘The Church of Psyche’?” Does the groups existence cause any sympathetic views between yourself and The Chosen?”
”It is more appropriate to focus on the tremendous fundraising and good works that the Church has accomplished.”
Shaking his head again, he growls ”NO denial! Just trying to tell us all how to think!”
He slams his hand on the desk then points to the camera, ”I’m telling you, folks. These Sentinels are bad news! They are bad examples for our kids, teaching them s~+%ty morals, and trying to turn them into their private cult! Mark my words, these kids are going to have a reign of destruction costing us citizens of the city AND the country millions of dollars before they are through!”
He takes a deep breath before adding, ”Coming up next, a report from the Old Springdale Middle School, the one that was about to be renovated into a Rec-Center for underprivileged children, getting busted up by Captain Stalwart and his Alliance thugs.”
"I think I'd rather stay above the waves if it's all the same," Rory says while lounging on the bow, "anyway I think that should be a whole team trip, don't you? So tell us more about that picnic you and Psyche had? But at least I can stop worrying about you and Prae. Man, for a while it seemed as if everytime I turned around you were either snooping around my sister or the girl I like, but we agreed to try being exclusive. Feels good man. he finished with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Hey Isaiah, you made out with any earth girls, or any other girls for that matter?"
"Oh. Well, that's bad, but we shouldn't do any sort of reply to that, not personally.
"Anyone who actually watched the interview knows that this is just a stiched-together hatchet job. It needs a response, but, assuming you're willing, Holly, Ms. Lester is the person for this.
"A strong denouncement of the obviously deceptive footage, an explanation that we're on superpowered training exercises Now we should Really do the Island Games, and a written statement from a friendly, charismatic member of the Alliance."
Kylie wasn't in anyone's head at the moment, so no one but her could feel the thunderstorm building.
Kayla tosses the iPad down in a huff. ”This isn’t his first time! He gets away with this b#%!#!~! time and time again! And his viewers eat it up and call the real footage ‘fake news.’ It’s as bad as political season!”
She looks pleadingly to Mosaic. ”Holly. You have GOT to teach us how to deal with the press. As it is, they only cut up your replies once! Either that, or you will have to be our front-man from here on out. But even then, they WILL manage to interview us all at some point, so even that wouldn’t work forever...”
Kylie smiled, but it was fragile as broken glass, "You didn't really expect everyone to love us, did you?
"Fear, jealousy, let alone anger when we really do slip. There will always be people who want to tear us down."
Scorch's head whips around at the cry from the other building and, in moments, she's airborne, just behind Psyche. Landing immediately next to the psychic in the room, ready to take on whatever threat has presented its self. When Kayla explains, she relaxes, but feels shock, then anger overtake her as they watch the video.
"What the hell? That isn't at all what happened! Who is that guy anyway?"
Kayla rubs at her forehead, ”I dunno if it’s the hangover or this jerk, but I’m getting a headache. Any objections to a day on the beach relaxing, with plenty of water, and no Wi-Fi?” she asks with a chuckle.
"Nah, we can do this just for the guys. I bet the girls have some crazy trip planned for themselves anyways, so we might as well enjoy ourselves now," Shin says with a grin. "And...well, I guess I did have a bit of a crush on Prae when we first met, but that's blown over," He admits. "And I see your sister as my sister too. Hence why it wasn't comfortable last night..."
He'd never admit that last half of the kiss had gotten a reaction out of him.
"And I'm a gentleman and my girl is psychic, so I'm going to tell you details she'll pick up and know about," He pointed out to Rory. "...I will say we made out, but only because she said she didn't mind it if people knew the general idea. Anyways," He says getting out on the fore of the ship. "Let's go! What could possibly go wrong?"
Inquiry rose out of the surf by the private island, dumping out seawater as it hovered close to the shore. Horizon was the first to stumble out, shirtless and wearing kelp like fundoshi to give him some bit of decency. He had a massive black eye, a red welt on his neck and there was a spine that had pierced straight through his earlobe.
He looked back at Rory, in almost as bad of shape as him, and Isaiah, who looked little worse for wear, unlike Inquiry. "...We tell no one, ever, what happened today. I swear on my parents' graves to secrecy," He said to them, clearly traumatized by recent events.
Mattie nods. "Yeah, lets just forget about him for now. I'm feeling waaay too good today to let an a**&!~$ like that spoil it for me. What kind've beach thing are you thinking of? Kylie was saying something about maybe going to a private beach away from, you know, all the people around here, and working on her tan-lines."
Kayla arches a mischievous eyebrow at Mattie. ”Really now? Well, the other side of the mountain, has a nice secluded beach area too. And nothing for staff to be doing in that part...”
Rory acquiesces to Shin's sales pitch, miraculously without a "pearl necklace" comment, "what's the worst that could happen"
"I don't know what you are talking about..." the words come out deadpan and monotone. The nice thing about ice powers, you can control swelling and bleeding a bit, but there was no hiding this.
She wished Mattie hadn't brought that up. Of course, the idea of finding a private beach appealed - a lot. And she'd been planning on finding the time to tan... unencumbered. But this could only dig her in deeper, right?
It wasn't like Kayla really needed to makeout with Mattie any more to decide if she was attracted to girls, and Mattie might want to, but that was obviously going to end in tears! And if she was being honest...
She'd been planning on taking Mattie to a private beach, but she'd wanted to do it by themselves.
"Could be a nice way to spend the day."
She tried to think of a clever way to split off from the group, but all she came up with was subtle mental suggestion, or just being direct.
"Mattie, I'd like a chance to finish our Talk. Would you like to go to that beach, just us?"
"Kayla, I'd like to take Mattie to that beach just the two of us, at least for a while. You mind helping out with that?"
At least direct-ish.
Mattie casts a questioning look over at Kylie, slightly raising an eyebrow and shooting a quick look at Kayla "OK. Just us then, if you want... and only if Kayla's OK with not coming, and Holly too I suppose."
"Sure, wouldn't want things to be awkward." The warmth of her psychic smile is dryer than usual, but there's a tremble to it as well.
"OK, should we take anything with us? You'll need some sunscreen, but should we take something to eat? How long do you think we'll be?"
I still haven't learned how to prepare for these... is this a date?
I can't ask now.
"...I don't know. Let's grab some of those chimichangas left over from last night. Just in case... Just in case we want to take our time."
"Take our time? What do you have in store for me? Mattie begins, doing her best to appear confident, "Should I bring a swimsuit or,..ummm, or not?"
Her final thoughts, however, betray her underlying insecurity. "Kylie,.. Is this umm., is this a date? or,... or just,.. something else?"
"You should bring your suit, but yeah... I think it's a date. Or at least I think it will be."
"Really? Like, a real date? I've never actually gone on a date before." Mattie responds, I might go and get changed before we go then, I'm not sure i want to fly there wearing this. It's a bit,.. breezy and, um, wobbly. If you see what I mean. And I should leave something up to your imagination!"
Mattie leaves and heads for her and Kylie's cabin. A few minutes later she returns wearing shorts and a tank top over her swimsuit. "Ready when you are."
It was somewhere between exciting and frightening that when Mattie heard it was a date she put more clothes on. Kylie hadn't had a lot of good dates that were really dates. When she'd talked about the private beach before this morning it had been more of a talisman, a way to encourage Mattie's growing confidence, and maybe to tease her a little.
But now this was more.
Kylie was quiet as she flew alongside Mattie, but she stayed linked to her, leaning in with more of her presence than was really needed, but should be enough to feel together.
As they landed, she finally told Mattie what was really scaring her. "Hey, I'm kind of nervous about this. I'm really used to people knowing that I'm bi, and flirting with guys and girls, but I haven't gone on a real date with a girl since I was your age. I normally have a rule that means I don't date or do stuff with any girl who's just come out. And in highschool, especially at HPS... I just don't meet enough girls who I even could date.
"That's the part where I really don't know much more than you. So, if you have ideas, please share them." She floated up the Tupperware of leftovers. "Clearly I am not operating from a master plan." At least there's no poison ivy on the beach.
"So what I'd like to do first, is find a nice spot to set up." She reached out to take Mattie's hand. " Care to go for a walk with me? "
::What? Why wou...oh. OH.:: Psyche can feel the embarrassment, jealousy, and awkwardness Kayla is feeling, but outward she just says ”Ok, here’s how you get there Mattie...first, heas directly away from the back side of the main building here...
Once she gives her the directions, she looks to Holly and Gallowglass and says ”You two wanna join me for a day of regular tanning, then?”
That evening, when the boys return on Inquiry in a water form and begin to disembark, Kayla raises her head and lowers studies them with arched eyebrows. They were as bedraggled as she had been after Dr. Dread! But all in all seemed okay otherwise. When they get close, she asks snarkily ”So...uh...catch anything?”
Kayla, on the other hand, had taken her tanning seriously today. She had applied some bronzer that morning, and combined with the Caribbean sun, she had gotten a very thorough tan.
Once the last member of the team has gone to bed, and the coals of the fire burn down, the darkness is suddenly and, very briefly, illuminated by a sudden intense light from Mattie's bungalow. No-one, however, is awake to notice.
"Well... Inqiury could certainly take it, but it might be rude to just drop in without calling ahead first. Still, if you really want to go we could probably at least go look, even if they might not let us in."
"Okay, we definitely should have called ahead first."
"We did get some fish, though."
Kayla gets up and walks over to the guys, snickering. ”Well, did you have fun?”
She eventually makes her way to Isaiah and asks ”So...are Inquiry’s scanners still working fine? I’m feeling much better today, and was wondering how close my...well, you know. Or, can you tell that on your own?”
"Fun is definitely a word that could be used, yes..." Rory nodded still shell shocked from the Undersea Incident. "So what sort of trouble did you gals get into while we were gone, or did y'all just lay around the beach soaking up the sun?"
Kayla has simply laid quietly under the sun for a while, but eventually she clears her throat and says sheepishly ”So...umm...are we cool?”
___________
Kayla looks down at her sun soaked skin in her red bikini and asks, obviously pretending she’s been hurt ”Ah! I guess all this work was for nothing, Holly! Rory and the boys don’t approve of our hard work!”
"Awww don't be hurt,"Rory says teasing her, "I appreciates all your hard work." he steps up to her putting his hands on her hips and smiles.
"Oh no! What happened?
"Wait, why can't I tell what happened?"
If Psyche probes deeper than surface thoughts she finds a large waterlogged wooden crate wrapped with rusty chains and seaweed, in large poorly written red letters *Undersea Incident: Nothing To See Here, Move It Along*
Kayla drapes her arms around Rory’s neck, looking over his bruises. ”So...the fish fought back I take it? You guys didn’t do something we are gonna have to fix later, did you?”
"Of course not, nothing happened, it's all good." he said all shifty-eyed. "So how are we gonna fix the fish, we got some Mahi Mahi, some Tuna, and a beautiful Spanish Mackerel - that was Shin credit where credit is due."
”Oh, I’m sure Miguel can work wonders with them. I’ve never seen him cook something that wasn’t amazing!” she says. She looks past him to the ocean and says ”I’m thinking about cooling off a minute in the water, then going and getting cleaned up for this dinner you boys have caught us ladies. After I have a quick chat with Isaiah. You wanna toss some trunks on and join me?”
"I'm going to go see about prepping the fish. And get some clothes before this kelp falls apart on me," Shin hastily says to Prae. He's equally unwilling to discuss the misadventure that they had, rushing off to his bungalow. He winced as he carefully removes the spine from his ear and takes a quick shower before throwing on some shorts and a t-shirt.
I'm sorry, but I swore on the graves of my parents never to discuss what happened today. Suffice to say it was horrible. How was your day? What did all the girls get up to that left Prae looking so toasty?
Now he was a little jealous that his powers prevented him from tanning. He wondered if anyone else had to deal with the unfortunate side effects of their powers.
"Trunks mandatory?
Kayla blushes, but quickly recovers. ”I suppose you can just go in what you are wearing. They look soggy enough already...” she says as she lunges at him and hooks him under his arm and lifts off with Rory into the air, flying low over the water before diving into the water with him in tow!
After a bit of frolicking and playful rough housing in the ocean, she eventually settled in to just letting him hold her in the water as she floats in the water with her eyes closed, her blonde hair swaying gently in the tide and gently waving her arms back and forth.
”So...FYI, you may wanna avoid the internet today.”
We're good. I was just a little... Okay, Am I the only straight girl, because I was picking up major vibes from Mattie and Kylee last night. She asks, absent-mindedly toying with Shards int he air around her.
How do you do it? Juggle having feelings for that many people. I can't even work out If I have feelings for Isaiah.
She just shrugs to Holly’s question. Not my place...
Kayla rolls her head to look at Holly, making it a point to not let them wander below her neck. ”It’s...not easy. Sometimes it leads you to say something silly to your best friend and almost ruin a friendship,” she says with an anxious smile.
”But, in truth, I don’t have a good answer to that. I think it’s just as hard with one as it is with two or three. Because it’s the same amount of emotion, either put on one person or split between multiple. I guess. I dunno. If it was easy to figure out, maybe the world would be a better place.”
She rolls over onto her stomach and says, ”Why don’t you just ask him. Isaiah is surprisingly easy to talk to I’ve learned. And do you care to get my back?” she says as she holds up her bronzer, ”No strings attached, promise!”
"Hm? What is it you want to talk about Kayla? And yes, I already know about the internet thing. Hardly surprising, honestly, though it is annoying."
"It was good. Did some bonding back on land. But also just a lot of lying splayed out in the sun. There was some bad press we should deal with later, but... A surprisingly good day considering how some people met the sunrise.
"You thinking about keeping the pierced ear, by the way? Hard part's already done."
Kayla, ringing the ocean water out of her hair, asks ”Any chance the Inquiry’s scanners can check my power? I’m feeling much more normal today.”
Mattie smiles back at Kylie. "You're nervous? That must be a first." she replies, "Well, I haven't been on a date with anyone, like, ever. So I'm just going to have to assume that what happens on TV shows and in movies is pretty normal but, I don't know, I guess we just kind've figure it out as we go along? A walk sounds like a good start." she says, taking Kylie's hand. "So, ummm, so what's the story with the poison ivy?"
Nice try, but seriously, I'm not talking about what happened. His ear didn't hurt as much as he thought it would though. He'd have a scar most likely, like the cuts on his fingers. That at least was still normal for a human.
He helped the estate cook (After politely telling him he should have specified tobacco instead of smokes) prepare the fish, grilling up several dishes with fresh tropical fruits and salads on the side, along with some miso soup (mostly because he'd been missing the flavor). He had it served out in the banquet hall for everyone to enjoy and hopefully stop asking about what happened to the boys today.
"So what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" He'd ask, hoping for something planned out. At least Whippoorwill hadn't called him back in an emergency, which was great for him.
Any chance of joining me in 1940 in my dreams tonight? He thought to Kylie, who felt...strange. He couldn't wrap his finger on it.
Kayla, between bites, answers ”I was thinking of some games. Contests where we use our powers, sort of a training exercise, but for fun and prize. Races, wrestling, lifting, whatever else we can think of. I’m still torn between doing two teams of four or four teams of two. What do you guys think?”
When the boys return Mattie looks up from her position on the sand between Kayla and Kylie. As the two girls rush over to Rory and Shin she sits up and watches, smiling a bit sadly to herself.
"Sounds like fun" Mattie says, briefly looking up from her meal. "Two teams of four would probably even things out a bit. Although, obviously whichever team i'm on's going to win." she grins.
Rory floats by himself for a bit after Kayla flies off to talk Isaiah, before heading in. Once back at the beach he plops down in the sand next to Scorch, "I see you ditched the short, good for you, do anything exciting today?"
Holding Mattie's hand felt really nice. Kylie wasn't particularly cavalier about physical contact, so she kept realizing that she was holding hands with a cute girl, and letting out little pulses of warmth.
Oy, I didn't mean to send that about the poison ivy though. That story's a lot cuter when the other person did the planning. "I went out for a romantic picnic with a girl at camp once, and ended up discovering the true meaning of the word Itch. Thank God it was only our first date, or it could've been much worse."
Can't ask her about her dating horror stories 'cause it's all rejection and gaybashing, can't ask her about family 'cause that's it's own trauma...
"So, I'm only guessing that you were planning on coming out to me this week, but, for good or ill, I can't imagine it happened the way you expected.
"How did you hope it would go?"
"Shin, I'm not trying to find out what did that... and stole all of your clothes..." much... A bit of sheepish warmth came along with the sending.
"I do think a little diamond stud would go very nicely in your ear though. I have some I'm not wearing if you'd like to try one."
"What part of 1940? Exploring and seeing the world as it used to be? Or just your old bedroom? We probably shouldn't do the second one again on nights where I'm sharing a bed."
"Maybe we should make it 5 on 3 then, just to keep things fair, she teased, "I'm more curious what Kayla's idea is for the prize."