Cool Air [IC]

[angrydurf]

"I dunno, I think the costume is for more than that." Mike countered, "Its part of the image and all that." She was right though about the changing part, he'd only gotten his after he figured out the trick Zoe did at the courthouse.

He smiled an ammused half smile, "I think you should get one," He joked, "Patent leather Thigh-boots, Stilletto heels, a little flip skirt ... Very you."

[Electra]

Erin made a face that was half amusement, half disgust. "Cause that would really be efficient to fight in, or walk in, or do basically anything in," she pointed out. "I could see some of the girls at school wearing something like that, but they're not normally jumping around or doing flips or kicking people. I'd probably get arrested." She took another drink of her milkshake. "I guess if everybody was going to start wearing costumes, I'd just wear my workout clothes. They look sort of costumey, and I've already got them. Those could just go under regular clothes, especially in the winter. But I still don't really see the point. People are probably going to realize you're a superhero when they see you go flying past overhead, even if you're wearing street clothes, right?"

[angrydurf]

Mike nodded aggreement, "Yea easy to move in too and they're self repairing I think." They certainly seemed to hold up as well as he did which said something about them. Overall not dissimilar to his own plans for that matter.

"It'd probably be pretty easy to embelish it some if you wanted down the road." He posited off handly and added, "Though I don't think any of us will manage to keep up with Chris and Mark."

[Electra]

She grinned at that. "I don't know why anyone would want to try. Even if you did, it would probably just make them put on something even weirder, to stay ahead of the game. At least they're always easy to spot in traffic and in crowds. I don't really know when that would ever be an issue, but I guess you never know. And anyway," she added suddenly, "if the Freedom League picks us up, they've got their own uniform colors already. You wouldn't want to get too attached to a high school costume. It'd be like wearing your hometown jersey when you've gotten to the major leagues."

[angrydurf]

"Yea, I suppose," Mike replied, "But I'm sure some of them use old costumes too. Probably an individual descision." He muched on a chicken strip as he considered her words though.

"I don't know that I'm banking on making it to the big leagues either, to be honest." He shrugged and continued, "I mean it would be awesome but Nerd Boy and Mystic Farce are no Crime League."

[Electra]

"But we've beaten them twice now," Erin pointed out, "and we've only been in hero school for a few months. Another two years, who knows what we'll be able to do?" She ate a mozzarella stick in two quick bites, thinking about it. "Looking back, I now a lot more now than I did at the baseball stadium. I think we probably all do. If we had it to do again, you and James I would probably work much better as a team, and Mark would help us, and Alex would coordinate, and Eddie and Chris would be distractions to the bad guys. It would be sort of like what we tried to do there, but much smoother and faster. We're getting better."

[angrydurf]

"We are aren't we?" He asked, he wasn't happy with his overall performace especially early on. The extra sessions in the gym seemed to be paying off though and he was seeing marked improvement now.

Mike grew silent a moment somewhat nervous, "I want to thank you for calling me on my attitude in the beggining, I wasn't all there and I should have been." He finally said, it wasn't easy to admit it but he had be holding back fromt eh whole thing before and Erin was one of the first people to really tell him so he respected that honesty regardless of how much it had upset him at the time.

[Electra]

Erin looked away, rubbing the back of her neck, equally uncomfortable. "I shouldn't have said it the way I did," she replied, "but I'm glad if it helped you. You've really stepped up a lot lately, and I think everyone notices. Out of everybody on the team, I know you're the one I'd want at my back in a real fight." There was Mark too, of course, but he wasn't so much a fighter as a changer of circumstances, and he didn't count. "But I figure, if we keep going at this rate, we'll be ready for the Freedom League in two years. I think I'm going to apply right away, at least. I don't know what I'd do in college anymore. But two years or six years, either way."

[angrydurf]

"I dunno if I would have listened to a gentler tone." Mike replied with a shrug, he was glad his efforts had been noted though. He smiled, "Sometimes my head can be thicker than my skin."

Mike tentitively reached out to lay his hand on her own, "You've been doing alot better too, and its not just the bat." He didn't want to say much more without prompting but it was clear from his tone and his face that he meant it and understood at least a little how difficult that progress had been for her.

[Electra]

Erin looked down at his hand over hers, her entire arm stiffening to the shoulder as she wondered what to do about it. She didn't pull her hand away, though, that would've been rude. And it didn't feel bad, just... weird. Most people didn't touch her, except in the context of training, when it was just workouts and didn't mean anything. "The bat helps," she said with a half-smile, trying to just ignore her own conflicted feelings. "And all the training. It's easier now to keep my focus than it was when I came here. Once you learn one way of fighting, it's hard to change it, but in another two years, I'll have been doing hero stuff longer than I was just fighting on my own, so by then it'll be second nature, I guess." Her words sped up a little even as she tried to act entirely normal. "Especially if they keep up this training schedule."

[angrydurf]

Mike pulled his hand away, slow enough as to not be obvious but clearly senseing her discomfort. "Practice makes perfect right?" he asked rhetorically.

He hoped he hadn't made her too uncomfortable, "Sorry, I just wanted to say the work shows on your end too."

The awkward moment was saved by the Waitress arriving to ask if they needed anything more. When Mike indicated they didn't she left the bill and moved off to her other tables. Mike quickly looked at the bill and pulled out his wallet leaving a fair tip, "You wan to head back?" He asked.

[Electra]

Erin finished off the last of her milkshake as Mike paid the waitress, concentrating intently on the task. With her sunproof skin, it was impossible to miss the quick flush of embarrassed color in her face. Maybe someday she'd figure out how to react to things like normal people again, but it didn't look like it was going to be today, she decided ruefully. "Um, yeah, that's a good idea," she told him, pushing aside her empty glass. "I've got some homework and stuff before training tomorrow morning. Thank you for the milkshake," she added as they rose. "I like your diner."

[angrydurf]

Mike stood and led the way outside and around the back once more, holding the door for her as he went. Once they were out of sight he offered her a hand letting her define the boundries not wanting to accidently cross them again.

He shrugged, "Unless you'd rather walk back, woudln't take long without all the slowpokes holding us back." He asked with a smile.

[Electra]

"I'd rather fly," she told him, taking his hand and telling herself not to be a ninny. "I've seen most of Freedom City on foot by now, I know what it looks like. And maybe the lights will be coming out." It was starting to get dark outside now, with streetlights and neon signs just starting to glow against the gathering dusk. "And we won't hit any traffic."

[angrydurf]

Mike took her hand and easily swept her off her feet to craddle her as he quickly ascended, "I'm glad." He said simply as he came to a stop high above the city as the light faded and the lights flicked on across the city.

He began the slow flight back to the southside but took a long arc over the city center as they went.

[Electra]

Erin sucked in a quick breath of surprise when he scooped her up with an arm under her knees and took off, but she quickly relaxed as the scenery captured her attention. Freedom City lit up like a million stars at night, each light the representation of a living person, just going about their daily lives without a second thought. That was an amazing thought, somehow. "It's beautiful," she murmured, craning her head and twisting her body to get a better look. "You must come up here all the time, just to see it."

[angrydurf]

"I do," He said with a nod, "Not all the time but when I need some peace and perspective."

Flight was deffinately the part of his powers Mike was most comfortable with and most apreciative of as well. He couldn't even really imagine a life tied to the whims of gravity. He dropped down a little lower to show her the lights shining off Pyramid towers. "Its a pretty incredible place we have here," He said, "I'm just glad you've gotten to see it im much of its glory."

[Electra]

Erin wrapped a hand around his arm, leaning out further to look down at the panorama spread out below. She wasn't worried about falling, even a fall at this height wouldn't hurt her unless she were very unlucky, but it was good to have an anchor. "It looks so much different when the lights are on," she said, studying the sweep of headlights in the streets far below. "It's so much better. Pyramid Plaza looks horrible in the dark, like giant mausoleums. Now it looks like some kind of beacon, like you could be out in space and still use it to find your way back. It's really neat."

[angrydurf]

Mike wondered just what kind fo world Erin came from that she remembered such things but didn't want to spoil the moment, "Well not quiet from space but from pretty high up deffinately," he said with a half smile creeping onto his face, "I did use it when I flew too high and clouds came in when I was seven or eight. though."

Mike took it slow and made sure to hit the highlights of the night sky as he continued to fly them back to the school.

[Electra]

Even going slowly, the ride from Hanover to Claremont didn't take very long by express air. Erin made the most of it, soaking in the cityscape full of lights that seemed close enough to touch. "That was really neat," she told him as they began the gentle downward arc that would put them down on school property. "Thanks for sharing that with me." Maybe some of the conversation had been kind of awkward, but when they hadn't been trying to just sit and talk, it had been a pretty good evening.

[angrydurf]

There was a hint of a blush as Mike replied, "I'm glad to have been able to. Its sometimes easy to forget how beautiful the city is form up there. Thank you for reminding me"

He set down in front of the girls dormatory and carefully set Erin back on her feet. He hesitated a moment before speaking again, "I had a really good time tonight, thank you."

[Electra]

"I did too," she told him. "It was fun. We should play baseball again, as soon as I can find a program that'll let us actually play through a whole game. Maybe I'll bug Darian about it." Erin hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, looking back at him. "And thanks for listening and not making me feel, weird, I guess, about anything. That was nice too. See you tomorrow at training?"

[angrydurf]

"People are people, Its taken me some getting used to but really no ones wierder than anyone else round her." He said with a small but honest smile, "Well maybe Chris." He added consideringly.

He laughed softly at his joke and nodded, "Yea see you tomarrow."

[Electra]

Erin grinned at that. "Maybe Chris," she agreed. "Night, Mike." Turning, she headed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory floors, wondering already if Alex would be hanging around. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she was ready to talk about any of this or not. She didn't really know what to think about the whole evening herself. But it had been nice, really, a lot better than she'd expected. That in itself was kind of worrisome, now that she thought about it.