Take Me Out to the Ball Game

[quotemyname]

"Actually... That won't be a problem. Just tell me what you want to say. I can audio project anything I am hearing." Breakdown said, sauntering up to Edge.

"I don't mind going public. Dunno about the rest though." He looked around at the other group members, and finally asked the question that had been pulling at his brain for the last ... whole fight.

"So, this super hero team of ours have a name?" He looked expectantly toward Edge. He comes up with the answers to everything else...

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman hopped into the Pitchoo, hammer and blowtorch at the ready. After a brief period of metal clattering and some muffled swearing and hammering, the airship lurched up out of its dent. Ok, I'm not paying to repair the field... He spun it around and left it hovering behind the group, swinging down from it again. "It's working, but the controls are weird. Must've scrambled the circuits. Darian isn't going to like me today..."

"You sure about this, dude," he said to Mark. "Summers gets... weird about this stuff. Man sicced the Raven on me because of it."

[Cyroa]

James shrugged and looked around. "I might not mind hanging for this. But I can see how some wouldn't want to. If you don't want to, I'll 'port you out. Will just take a moment. And yeah, I'm betting the School ain't gonna be happy if you do this Edge." He grinned, his expression clearly saying 'go for it'.

He looked over at Edge. "Team name? This might not be the time to discuss it. Clock's ticking. I'd say leave it vague for now and we'll talk it over back at school."

[alderwitch]

Psyche gave Edge a dubious look, sweeping a glance over their team. She knew Erin would need someone to talk to later about the fight. The boys sure did need medical attention and Mike would have his 'I can't be a super-hero' freak out later on for sure. Someone should find out what exactly Hellion could do and she was pretty sure she saw Breakdown break some boy's nose at the end of the fight there.

Poking a few buttons on the camera bot she nodded after a moment. "Well, we should explain some of the mess we've made but it's probably best if we're not all here for it. Otherwise these two might make US out to be the bad guys. They do need medical attention. Those of us that are uncomfortable with any of the fall-out should get them to the EMTs. I'd say that should be James and Erin at least. Edge wants to make a speach and he's the best of us to sway public opinion. I'll get the camera set up and make sure we have a full record to defend ourselves back at school if we need it."

[Electra]

Erin responded immediately to James' offer. "I don't want to stick around for this," she told him. "If you drop me in the parking lot, I'll try and find Ms. Taylor so she can let the school know we're okay." She rubbed her hands along her arms, looking more nervous about the crowd surrounding them now than she had when the stands had been full of robots.

[quotemyname]

Breakdown's mouth dropped. He stared at Hellion like he had grown a second head. "No way! It would be totally cool if we came up with something on the spot!" He looked back at Edge, "That's what it's all about, right? Kicking ass and looking cool!" He gave Edge a nudge in the ribs.

[alderwitch]

Psyche rolled her eyes, releasing the camera bot, "It's about protecting the people who need it, with as little collateral damage possible. Who cares about being cool? It's entirely subjective and in the grand scheme of things, utterly meaningless."

She brushed her hands off on her jeans and stood up, glacing around at the stirring crowd. "It's about the fact that we rescued tens of thousands of people today and survived it. It's about making a difference."

[Cyroa]

James nodded at Erin. "Just hold still a sec. I'm just going to lift you..." She looked rather nervous and he didn't relish the idea of surprising her. He moved around next to her and put his arms around her. He lifted and the second her feet were off the ground, they vanished from the field, reappearing in the parking lot. "We'll meet you in a bit. You ok?"

As soon as she nodded, he vanish, going back. He quickly grabbed one of the kids and 'ported him to the EMT's then quickly doing the same with the other. Finally he returned to the main group. It wasn't really a good idea to do this. And he was likely to get in trouble. That more than anything was a reason for him to stay! He looked to the others, adjusting his sunglasses with a grin. "Ok, I'm good."

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge looked fairly nonchalant about all the students worried about Mr. Summers' reaction. "It'll be all right, guys." He nodded confidently. "Mr. Summers expects a lot out of me, so I'm going to give him everything I've got." That actually seemed to make sense to Edge, though students with a different relationship with the headmaster might not be so convinced. "Eddie, I'll figure something out as we go. And Psyche..." He turned and winked at her. "Making a difference is cool."

"Geckoman, be ready to scoop me up if things get too dramatic." Edge waited patiently for everyone to leave before he signaled to Eddie to put his voice on the speakers. When he spoke, his voice was clear and powerful, ringing out over the stadium as if he'd been practicing his whole life. And he had been, as it happened, to his toys, to his bathroom mirror, to his computer, ever since the day he'd been old enough to understand the heroic legacy of his family. As his voice rang out over the crowd, Mark Lucas truly considered himself the luckiest boy in the world.

"People of Freedom City! I hope you don't mind our little interruption, but before you could finish the game we had to take out the trash!" His smile was absolutely gigantic, his joy in this moment patently obvious to everyone around them. "But we've taken care of the bad guys now and once we've got them off the field, America's national past-time and the good people of Freedom City will be safe again." He let out a breath. "We are the heroes. You're safe under our watch."

[angrydurf]

Mike said nothing as the others ditherd back and forth on hiding or running or whatnot. the whole damn thing had been televised there really wasn't any escaping the blowback of what they decided to do. Summers might be pissed but frankly Mark had called it when he said these people needed their help.

Nothing had gone catastrophically wrong, some property damage but really they had gotton off easy considering. No hurt hostages, and even the damage was pretty specific rather than the general chaos that might have errupted.

So lost in his own thoughts he was that he forgot to look dour when the camera panned overhim a fact fro whitch he woudl inevitably kick himself when this showed up all over the internet.

[alderwitch]

The cameras panned accross the kids remaining on the field and, while the Freedom-tron was down there were other screens picking up the image in the stadium. If nothing else, this at least would be on the nightly news. The reporters that had been on scene for the baseball game quickly scrambled together with the pluckiest of them projecting enough to ask,

"Who are you?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"We're..." Oh crap! Edge belatedly realized that they should have decided their team name sooner rather than later. Generation Freedom? Lord no, Bolt will think I've stolen his idea. All-Stars? No, can't rip off the baseball team, it'll be too corny. And if I think it's too corny, it's pretty frickin' corny! A legion of names, large and small, tumbled through Edge's head before he came up with a compromise. It sounds kind of lame, but we'll go with it for now. We can always change it later, right? Right. "You can call us Young Freedom." He grinned into the camera and held stock-still for several minutes, letting everyone get a picture. It's what you were supposed to do at this point.

[alderwitch]

It was as if the answer opened the flood gates and the reporters swarmed forward determined to get the scoop. It was clearly time to flee the scene. Fortunately, the kids had a headstart on the reporters and an airship to escape to. After a brief stop to pick up their teammate, it was back to Claremont and whatever retribution was waiting for them at the school.

[angrydurf]

On the brief ride back to the school Mike inquired almost prophetically "So uhhh you think anyone at the school saw that?"

He was hoping most were int he audiance and missed it but really there was little hope in his mind it wouldn't be all over campus by that evening. He just hoped they didn't get in too much trouble over it. He remembered sighning some paperwork on when to use powers or not but couldn't for the life of him remember any of it. He really had never expected it to come up.

[Electra]

Erin spent most of the trip back to school picking morosely at the burnt patches on her clothing and looking ill-at-ease. Now that the fighting was over, reality was seeping back in. She knew she wasn't allowed to be out fighting yet, but she'd done it anyway, and without a second thought. And maybe those guys were evil and would've killed everyone in the stands to get their way, but such fine points didn't always seem to concern the people who decided what was right and wrong for students to be doing.It was much easier to concentrate on the immediate worry of her ruined outfit than on what would happen if she got kicked out of school. As they got closer, she leaned out the window and tried to see the ground. "Everyone probably saw it, or will hear about it from the kids who were there. Is anyone waiting for us?" she asked aloud of anyone who had a better view.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, Erin?" Edge had taken the seat next to her as they headed back, sitting itchy as the first-degree burns he'd gotten from the exploding robot slowly healed up. "Thanks for what you did back there," he said to her, quiet but loud enough for anyone listening to overhear. "I saw you take that hit for me. And for everybody else, when you were fighting that big robot. Even if you get some static from people who weren't there for how hard you hit that guy, you did the right thing today." He shot a cautious smile her way.

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris wanted to get out of his costume, but he couldn't. The autopilot seemed to have broken in the crash, and he wasn't sure how to fix it. "Are we all avoiding the obvious here? I fly around in a bright green airship wearing bright green spandex fighting muggers and stuff, and the school hasn't put me in detention or supervision or anything. Perhaps, just maybe, we might get away with this?" Something sparked on the console and he started hitting it with a hammer until it didn't. "You guy's'll be fine. Trust me on this." Aaaaaaaaaand... cue dramatic irony.

[quotemyname]

On the brief ride back to the school Mike inquired almost prophetically "So uhhh you think anyone at the school saw that?"

Eddie leaned forward from the backseat and put a hand on Mike's shoulder. "Naa, man. They were all at the stadium. Nobody saw anything. Don't you worry. We are gonna be alright."

Man I really hope that's true... He thought as he leaned back in the seat. He had things pretty good right now. He didn't want them to get all screwed up just because he decided to help some people. That would be a real kick in the ass.

"But seriously guys, we should be celebrating, not worrying!" He nodded at Mark. "That was amazing! We did a great job out there! We saved a lot of people today, and everybody is going to thank us for it. So quit worrying about what Summers is gonna say and lets just enjoy this! It feels great!"

"And besides. If anybody gives us any trouble, Chris knows pretty well what he's doing. He'll give 'em story that'll spin their heads!"

[alderwitch]

"Everything will be okay," Alex piped up hopefully from where she'd sat down next to Mike and slipped her hand into his to give him a reassuring squeeze, "Although we'll probably have to answer some questions, I don't think that it'll be too bad."

Alex did have some concerns. Not because of their actions but she wasn't certain that they'd be considered ready to be up to all of this, even with the best of intentions. She didn't think they'd end up kicked out or anything but that didn't mean there wouldn't be some form of repercussions from the school.

Out in the parking lot of the school, the airship was awaited by one, lone figure standing with both hands clasped on top of his cane, and quite visible from any of the windows of the airship.

[Electra]

Erin gave Mark a quick look of gratitude before she caught sight of who was waiting for them. She cursed under her breath. "Mr. Summers is waiting for us already. We're entirely screwed." She rubbed the heel of her hand against her forehead, leaving another trail of broken-robot soot across her face. "I guess it's probably too late to try and sneak in on foot."

[angrydurf]

Mike sighed heavily, "It might not be so bad, I mean plenty of students must've done stuff once and awhile, right?" He asked hopefully "Is there even a rule about it at all?"

Mike hoped it wasn't a big deal but in the end deep down he felt it would be. Oddly it mostly pised him off, he knew about holding back and not endangering people he did it everyday, and he had been nervous about the whole thing but the fact was they had done a good thing today. He settled back a grim cast to his features and waited for Chris to bring them down.

[Ecalsneerg]

Damn, he's good. We only just left! "OK, we'll have to do this eventually, why not now," said Geckoman, trying to keep his tone level. We're screwed! "Remember, he can only beat you with his cane, it won't hurt too bad."

He dropped the ship to ground level and dropped the ramp.

[Cyroa]

James had been sitting in the back for the ride home, mostly quiet but with his customary smile on his face. He had actually had a good time what with the whole fighting and all. He was actually more lost in thought about the events. Not the whole going public thing. That he was concerned about. Nor did he care about mythical 'detention'. Whatever. He was dwelling on the events and how it connected to his own past. He'd kept a low profile as far as his 'dad' was concerned. But those demons were going to pass it along. He gave a mental sigh and focused on the bus ride.

"Who cares if he's mad? Is there seriously a rule about letting people get killed? Doubt it. 'Sides, what's the worst he can do? It's just school. No worries all." James was clearly not concerned with any kind of punishment that may or may not be forthcoming.

[quotemyname]

"See! This is great! There's only one guy waiting for us. This is great!" Eddie gave a fake laugh, "Aha ha ha...ohhh...We're screwed arn't we?"

He dropped the ship to ground level and dropped the ramp.

As soon as the ship landed, however, Eddie was up and out of his seat. "Well, can't be helped I guess. Let's just get this over with." Eddie worked his way out of the airship and trotted down the ramp.

"We are they champions...OF THE WORLD!"

"Hey, hey, Mr. Summers? How's it going?" Eddie gave the man a broad, cheerful, hopeful smile.

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge rose to his feet, straightened his slightly singed costume, and marched down the ramp. Duncan Summers had been a fairly frequent guest at his family home growing up, but that didn't make the older man any less intimidating. His father's old friends had often been like that in one way or another, especially Mr. Summers. But Edge was a confident young man, unafraid to face the consequences of his actions that day. After all, they'd been heroes. Following closely behind Eddie, he addressed the older man seriously and said, "Mr. Summers, today I was lucky enough to go to the baseball game with superheroes. We saved the day together."