The thickly-built girl in the shimmering gunmetal dress turns to the one in a metallic green dress. "Told you it was her."
As you approach, you recognize them as the Ingots -- a team of competitors in the Teen WUCA League* -- who all have metal code names. Copper, Lead, Silver and Platinum, if you remember right.
"Star to you, Leddie," says the one in a shimmering white dress. When you get close, she's full of bubbly enthusiasm. "Hi! So nice to meet you! I'm Tina, this is Silvie, Leddie, and Vera."
All four appear genuinely excited to meet you.
*Women's Unlimited-Class Action League
Huh... they... actually don't appear to have any defenses against someone just flying in from above. I could probably go in that way and not get noticed immediately if I needed to. Too much risk to want to do it that way unless we have time-critical pressures. Would be safer to do a car swap later.
Trip shrugs genuinely, "Are you a villain though? Back on the world I was raised my Matron had a saying.." Trip proceeds to clear her throat again before making a horrible garbled batch of alien noises once she's done she looks at the two and it takes a moment to click.
"Ah right.. Kraza doesn't tend to translate well to lower languages, not like... lower as in worse but there's alot to unpack there. Let's see if I can make a rough translation." She stops and tilts her head several times as if searching the air for something. "Ah, okay so. Sometimes pure souls are forced to do bad things, but that doesn't mean they are impure souls. It's not a perfect translation but, I hope it's less confusing. Besides, there are plenty of species in the verse that subsist on other lifeforms, just don't be purely parasitic about it, give back in some form."
Confusion reigns on Valerie's face until Triplight offers the English translation. She scoffs at first but her expression changes, becoming conflicted. "I'm not... a 'pure soul.' Pure souls get pretty, glamorous powers that everyone loves. I'm... like you said. A parasite. I can't give back when all I can do is take."
She rubs her shoulders and avoids looking at Rory. "I mean... I wouldn't be able to help much unless I drain people. You'd be okay with that?"
"I ain't reporting nothing, but if you guys get caught I'm making sure I ain't associated with any of it."
__________
"Nice!" Silvie beams. Of Hispanic descent, she is wearing a glittery silver dress. "Come on, we've got a table over here."
They head to a round booth table already covered in fruity mocktails. "Do you want anything? They make a good virgin mojito," Tina suggests as she slides into the booth and scoots down to give the others room.
"So, where's your team?" Vera asks, looking past you towards the dance floor.
"Or Tiv Krueger?" Leddie adds with a mrow and a brief fan of her chest.
When Vera asks about the Sentinels, Kayla shrugged and started to reply, but then Leddie asked about Tiv, causing her to smile in order to hide the pang of guilt. ”Dunno, just needed a ‘me night,’ I guess.”
The Ingots all voice their approval of Kayla taking a "me night" out. When her drink arrives, they all clink glasses together in a toast to girls' nights and 'me' nights.
Pretty soon, they start peppering her with questions.
"Don't you have a new person on the Sentinels?"
"Saw you lift the Crab's sub out of the water. Badass. How much can you deadlift?"
"Do you even have privacy with Psyche on your team?"
"We did a press tour with the Behind the Masks cast when we guest starred. Mosaic's a sweetie, huh?"
"Say, with you and Tiv together, is Rory available?"
"You wouldn't be up for an exhibition match with us in the WUCA, would you?"
"Ugh! Forward much, Vera? Sorry about that. Unless you are interested...?"
"Say, with you and Tiv together, is
”Uhm, I honestly don’t know. I haven’t found a limit yet. And I’ve maxed out the pneumatic press at the house.”
Kayla rolls her eyes at the question about Psyche, assuming that’s enough of an answer.
”Yeah, she’s awesome. I just wish she was able to have stuck it out with us and balance the show too,” Kayla says morosely about Mosaic, taking another sip of her drink.
She coughs and blushes at the mention of Rory and Tiv. ”Frostbite, uh, what do you mean? We weren’t really, you know, uh…” she denies, blushing furiously. Were we really that obvious?
Glad for a change of subject, she shrugs to Vera and says ”I dunno, maybe. It’d be a delicate thing to work out, PR wise I’m sure. My guys wouldn’t want to risk me getting in there and getting shown up by you guys, and I’m sure your alls people wouldn’t want to risk me doing the same with you. And I don’t think your alls stuff is staged or anything, is it?”
The girls goggle at Kayla saying she hasn't found her limit yet. After the gossip is over and the talk moves to the WUCA, they all exchange a surprised look.
"Depends," Silvie says. "The fights are pretty much choreographed. We're in the teen division, after all."
"And even the adults don't get to do the no-holds barred stuff like they used to do in the '90s," Leddie jumps in. "My dad was one of the earlier Unlimited wrestlers back then. It's where I got my strength."
Praetoria remembers reading about the Unlimited, Ltd. corporate power-granting that got out of hand and caused the company to eventually get shut down and liquidated.
"There are real competitions, of course. But generally designed to showcase and challenge each person's gifts. There's actually a lot of vetting, to make sure someone's not holding back until competition time," Tina explains.
Vera puts a hand on Praetoria's wrist. "For someone like you, it'd be exhibition only. We don't have anything like your invulnerability, and can't fly. It might be something like a tug-of-war or some other strength test."
"No pressure or anything," Leddie laughs and finishes off her virgin piña colada.
Rory comes up behind Valerie and wraps his arms around her, "you are not a parasite, and your power doesn't have to define what or who you are."
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Trip nodded, "Besides if you drain someone else's power away for a bit and then use it against them. I'm not trained in this superhero thing, but it sounds like a good tactic. So long as you aren't killing people."
She leaned to the side and folded her arms with a bit of a smirk. "Also don't think pure souls are blessed with powers I don't have any and my Matron always called me a pure soul."
The Ingots giggle in delight and excitement over the possibility of showcasing Praetoria in their competitions. The topic quickly shifts to other bits of superhero gossip, such as what Kayla might know about the Heralds -- the group of young twenty-somethings a little closer in age to them. Vera's the oldest of the group at nineteen.
"This was fun!" Tina says as the evening winds down. "Even if you don't compete, you should come to some of our after-show parties. Meet the other teams. They're not as cool as us, obvs, but they'd all love to meet you."
Valerie leans back into Rory when he comes up behind her. Trip can see her eyes close for a brief moment. A glimmer of something hopeful flashes on her face, but then she vigorously shakes her head. "No, no, this isn't going to work. You're not serious are you? I mean, do you really think Praetoria's going to be okay with this?"
She shrugs out of Rory's embrace and puts her hand on the Ferrari's door like she's about to get in. She pauses however, her hair hanging in her face, and starts giggling. "Though, I'd love to see the look on her face."
Valerie looks back to Rory as one hand pulls the curtain of hair away from her face. "Do you really want me on your team? Are you sure it's not going to mess up... this... what we have, whatever that is..." She remembers that Triplight is there and her vulnerability vanishes as she tries to play it off. "I mean, you know. Whatever. Even if it's just, you know, casual fun stuff."
As Valerie slips from his hug he briefly stuck his out his lower lip in a sad face. When she becomes seemingly more receptive to the idea of being on the team he is caught of guard, "Uh yeah that'd be cool, um some hoops to jump through, but it is definitely something we can look into." Rory hopes this is a sign that she might be at least interested in turning away from villainy.
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Trip hummed, "Right you and Kayla had a bit of a scuffle at the party, Hux wasn't sure who it was but you definitely scared him... both of you. But i'm sure if you and Kayla are willing to give one another a chance again and work together. We could even convince people to look the other way about the android stealing and everything can be good. Didn't exactly talk to her about this yet, but I'm sure we can convince her."
Time ticks by outside the estate. Psyche is aware of the occupants going through their nighttime routines and getting ready for bed.
Valerie gets quiet as she looks crestfallen. "Hoops? You're not sure I can join, are you? Is this even a real invitation? Am I going to get my hopes up and then come to find out that I'm not going to be allowed to join because of some bureaucratic BS?"
Kayla had hoped to get a read on exactly why these girls were being so friendly. Were they just gushing fans? Or were they hoping for a rating and credibility bump from her participation? It was hard to tell with all the noise.
Rory adopts a more serious bearing looking at Valerie, "I like working with you, and I really like you on a personal level, like a lot, so I won't blow smoke up your skirt. If you want to join the team we will need to resolve the issue between you and Praetoria, and the fact that some of the adult supers want you brought in, although, you joining the team might soften their desire to take you in if they think you are no longer a threat to society."
His face softens and he steps closer to her, "if this is something you really want I will do whatever I can to make it happen."
Shin watches the house from the distance, glancing over at Psyche. Isaiah, just disable their security for now. They're heading to bed, so it's probably the best idea to get this done while they're sleeping. Maybe reach into their dreams to influence them? He suggests to Psyche.
======================
Valerie studies Rory's face intently. She squeezes his arms and then nods once. "Okay." After a beat of silence where the world doesn't come crashing down, she repeats herself. "Okay."
She laughs, stepping back and running her hands through her hair. "I'll do it. I'll join a team. Of heroes. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm doing this." She says it a few more times, each time sounding more excited about the idea. "I'll do it. Yeah. I'll do it."
Valerie glances back to her car, then looks at Rory and Andressa, then looks back towards Halcyon, her brow furrowed in thought. "You got someplace I can crash? Here," she pulls her phone out of the jacket pocket and activates it. "I've synched up the GPS in the car to my phone. Why don't you drive it back to the Icecave or the Sentinel Den, or whatever your -- I mean our -- base is called. I'll fly home and grab a few things and then meet you there. Okay?" She gestures to the Ferrari with the keys already in the ignition.
Hey. You’ll probably see me on the news. I’ll explain later.
She then lands lightly on the balcony of their penthouse before heading inside. She was very frustrated, but she was getting over the whole idea of Rory and Siphon. At least I won’t have to deal with her day-to-day. Just avoid any crimes with her involved, and stay away from Rory and her during down time.
She changed into her training gear before heading towards the gym. However, she heard her aunt’s voice in the office and paused before deciding to head inside. She waited for her to hang up her phone call before asking ”Hey. So I ran into the Ingots tonight. We hung out a bit, they asked me to be on their show for an exhibition and to hang out with some other teams…”
Isaiah looked out over the compound, in thought. Is there really any rush? We don't know what kind of outside contacts they might have that could notice them suddenly going silent. Good espionage takes time, and even though my hacking skills are good, I need an access point. Hmm, maybe I could slip a creeper in there somewhere. But there's always the risk somebody notices that something is going wrong, and that only heightens with haste. My best asssesment is that we either go fast and loud with an air raid smash-and-grab, or slow and quiet with the big step being pulling a car swap on that fancy ride of theirs to get a carload of espionage equipment inside the perimeter... or just drive off with them to somewhere else if we don't care about the evidence they've likely got on their computers and records.
Just a as a side venture, Isaiah started to scope out the area for good spots to set up a camera net to watch the place.
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Andressa tries to gauge weather Val is genuinely excited about joining or that she might get a chance to really stick it to some other supes. But her time away from Terrans leaves her unsure she joins in on the celebrations with a tiny clapping of her hands. "Oh cool can I pilot your ship to the base? Please please Frost please."
Shin is quiet for a few moments more. Thinking about what they could do. Then thinking about what Whippoorwill would do here.
...I think we should believe that Rory can get through to Siphon still. If that's the case, then we shouldn't do anything to jeopardize his efforts. We should leave for now, Psyche, and see how things are going.
"Yeah we'll meet you back at the base," Rory says as Valerie flies off. Then he turns to "One, you sure this is a good idea and two, can you even drive?"
"...Fine. You're right, Shin. I'm sure that Rory and Siphon's relationship will be enough to give her a good chance. We might as well go back to the base for now."
Both groups arrive, the stake out group getting in a short time ahead of Rory and Andressa. Kayla isn't around the base, but a quick check on the celebrity cape-watching blogs finds her at a downtown youth club hanging out with some older teens who do super-powered exhibition shows.
Trip and Rory know that Valerie will be shortly arriving, if she's true to her word.
What do you do?
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Andressa laughed and hopped into the car excitedly.
"I'm trained to pilot six classes of star faring vessel, two of which are actually legal." She stated proudly with a bit of a matter of fact tone. "Of course I know how to pilot a.... um... where's the fission reactor ignition?" She looks around in abject horror at how primitive the vehicle is. Deciding finally to hop back out and slide over to the passenger seat, not noticing the lovely marks her armor was leaving on the vehicle. "Okay fine you can 'drive but I'm gonna watch and figure this out."
Trip heads in and greets the others quickly, "Hey so, Valerie is coming here to join our team. Still have to convince Kayla, but I think if we all show her the right thing to do we can convince her and the Alliance that she isn't actually a bad person. Oh and Inquiry you can maybe bug the car-thingy and use it as a vector to bug the mansion and gather evidence on her parents." Trip sounded so proud of herself as she spoke not even realizing how much of a challenge it would be to convince Kayla and the Alliance to not immediately drop down and capture Siphon.
Rory gives Andressa a quick run down of how driving works on the way back to Blockbuster. When they get back Rory preps a place for Valerie to sleep and store her stuff.
To clear Insecure, take foolhardy action without talking to your team.
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Inquiry looks for a good place to set up a camera to observe the estate. The problem he finds is that all the "good places" are obvious enough to have security measures put in place. He does determine that the security equipment is through "Coyote Solutions," and that it's very good.
Isaiah/Inquiry sighed, and considered pushing further... before settling on just putting some observation equipment in a relatively poor location. They could still tune it to at least be sensitive to the noise that car had made when it was driving earlier. Luxury cars were somewhat convenient with their loud combustion engines. Though really all the vehicles here were loud compared to the quiet thrum of Mana-motor vehicles.
This evening had been more tense for Shin than he realized, once they left the house alone. Mostly, he realized that once Psyche relented he felt relieved in a way he didn't expect. Maybe because he feared things going wrong with their interference - or maybe because he feared what he might do to protect Psyche.
Back at the base, he took off the visor and rubbed his eyes. "Hey Rory. How did things go?"
After a little while, Tiv sends a text back.
Hey! Good news, or bad news? This about the giant mantis in Westside Park? Can't wait to hear. :) <3
Angel gives Kayla a flat look when she hears about the Ingots. "Okay. If that's the sort of publicity you think is appropriate for a Taylor, I don't think I can stop you. But why would you want to stoop to the lowest common denominator type of entertainment rather do than legitimate hero work, is beyond me."
"Trip offered Siphon a spot on the team, she excepted. So now the girl I am seeing and my ex are on the same team, maybe, with me. Um she is on her way here to the base owned by my mentor that wants Siphon arrested," Rory says shaking his head before softly laughing at the absurdity of it all.
Kayla sighs. ”I wasn’t saying that!” she replies in frustration. ”Just, I dunno,” she adds, suddenly finding her workout sneakers very interesting.
Inquiry/Isaiah spoke up from the walls.
"Well, it's better than it could be. I'm fine with giving things a chance if we can all agree not to try to hurt each other... and if Siphon really needs to be locked down I can do that fine too. But my people are fairly well known for always being willing to offer a second chance to those who are willing to give it an earnest try. It's... only fair considering our own history."
A text comes back from Tiv. Okay. Later, then.
Angel arches an eyebrow severely. "So what were you saying? I can't read your mind like your uncle. If you want some say over your public appearances, I will entertain it. It's actually nice for you to take an interest. But you need to carefully balance your appearances. You've worked the gossip scene for a while. Perhaps you should try some charity efforts soon. I could call the WUCA to see about a fundraising match. Do you have any charitable causes you're interested in?"
Inquiry gets a ping from his equipment, registering a high-pitched whine of an engine leaving the compound.
Blockbuster Base's exterior sensors detect someone outside on a motorcycle. Cameras pick up a confused-looking Valerie astride her bike, staring at her phone and then at the Blockbuster store, then back to her phone.
Maybe I should…
She shakes her head and just mutters ”Nevermind. I’m gonna go hit the gym and think on it.”
She heads over to the gym and hits the elliptical, with a resistance setting custom made just so it could actually do her some good. After about an hour working on the machine that a normal person wouldn’t even be able to budge, Kayla had worked up a nice sweat and calmed down a bit. Maybe I should go say hi to Tiv. Give him a surprise visit.
She hopped into the shower before tossing on a cute crop top and shorts and then slipping out, hopefully without being noticed.
She flew across the blocks to Tiv’s Place, approaching his window quietly, hoping to surprise him.
There's a short pause before a bleary-eyed Tiv opens the window. He blinks in surprise, and then leans out the window to look around the campus grounds. He smiles at Kayla and steps back, letting her climb in through the window. "This is a good dream, if that's what it is," he whispers. Mom's in the next room, so we should be quiet. What are you doing here?"[/b]
Rory gets a call on his phone from Valerie. "Yeah, I'm at an old video rental place. Is this right?"
Tiv shakes his head and stifles a yawn. "No, no. I was only >yawn< a little asleep. Come on, stay." He pats the bed with wrumpled sheets. He's wearing boxer briefs and socks but his chiseled chest is bare. He rubs his eyes once more. "Everything okay?"