ic Cool Cats

[Thunder King]

Mali noticed her nerves, but said nothing. "Yeah, a couple of the people I hung out with, still keep in touch...within reason. The say that after high school you usually lose contact. Though, we're the electronics generation. Facebook, twitter, all that stuff. Much easier keeping friends then when my parents were my age. As for the hero stuff, I'm sure you had your reasons. It's stressful, school can interfere, hell, life can interfere. There's not a shortage of heroes out there, and if something's stopping you from being at your best, it's better to not do it than risk your life or safety because you're tired, sore, or too distracted to focus." She shrugged and took a drink.

 

"I mean, it's easier to do when your school knows what you're up to and takes that into consideration. College? Whoo, not so much." 

[Curious Key]

"Right?" Kat relaxed back into her seat. "It's so much easier when you can open an article on your phone, show it to teach and say 'that was me, can I get an extension?'" opened her little baggy and pulled a burger out. She took a huge bite and savored the tasted in her mouth. It reminded her . . . Mali had to worry about eating too much. The baseline body seemed like such a trouble to hold in real fighting shape. But, on the other hand . . . "I don't know how I would have survived without Claremont, honestly. When I first started really using my powers, I started getting so thin, you could see my ribs . . ." Kat pulled her jacket back to expose her midsection. ". . . I was just straight up underfed. Almost fainted in class once, and got chewed out. 'Where do you think all that power's coming from? You need to eat!'" Kat grinned at her own foolishness. "They're probably a huge reasons a lot of us made it through high school at all . . . Now we gotta deal without."

[Thunder King]

"I was always really focused on training and stuff. My dad taught me the basics, but I just took it to a different level. Claremont kind of helped me realize it was okay to be me, even if I was different or weird.That, and some of my favorite people in the whole world went there. Helped me get passed my issues, helped me live up to who I want to be. Wouldn't trade having gone there for anything." Mali took a sip of her drink and leaned back. "I mean, honestly, I'm eating lunch in Miami. How cool is that?" Then she leaned forward.

 

"Actually, if you'd like some advice on high calorie, high vitamin foods, I've been on a pretty strict diet since, oh, the onset of puberty or so, so feel free to ask questions or whatnot. That's half of why I'm seriously considering sports medicine. I've got tons of practical experience."

[Curious Key]

"I'll take you up on that," Kat gave Mali a lazy thumbs up as she hefted a big, unhealthy greaseburger in her other hand. "But not today." She took another big, hungry chomp. "S' good." 

 

"It's weird, right?" She pecked at her waffle fries and curled her toes at the taste. "Like stepping into a different world. Hard to believe, sometimes, that this is even Prime." Sigh. "When did you decide to do the superhero thing? I mean, lot of metahumans did it after coming to Claremont, but I think most people there who don't have some kind of powers were . . . ?" She let the question hang in the air, unfinished.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Curious Key

[Thunder King]

"My great grandfather was a well known hero in Thailand, and was not only the first hero there, but pretty much the only one anyone has ever heard of. It's a family legacy thing. My dad taught me how to fight, everyone in our family knows how to fight. Well, the boys, anyway." She shrugged. "Some people back in Thailand don't like that the family secrets were taught to a young punk girl in the States, but, eh..." She made a semi-rude gesture in a vaguely easterly direction. "They had me, a couple of miscarriages, and I was a difficult pregnancy, so, no boys to teach the tricks of the trade to. I like to think my dad would have anyway, though."

 

"I just really latched on to both my great grandfather's whole thing and the martial arts thing in general. I read up on people like the Raven, the old Midnight, my Great Grandfather, and it was just...I wanna do that, I wanna be that." She shrugged. "But the way I see it is this, the reason you step up to help doesn't really matter, what matters is that you do it."

[Curious Key]

To be honest, the baseliners at Claremont had always confused Kat a little bit. The metahumans, she could understand, because she was one. The aliens, she got. The ghosts and robots and everything else, like, where the heck else would they have gone? Claremont had the facilities to take care of them all that no one else had. But why would any baseliners need to come?

 

This explained some part of it, at least. A Mali was a legacy hero. Following in her family's footsteps, chasing grandfather's back. "I can't imagine," Kat said, because she couldn't. It was just so strange . . . "For me, I didn't even really mean to go hero, like, ever. I woke up in a dumpster a state away in Chicago one day, and then people from Claremont were coming along to my parents about a school I could learn to control myself. I thought I'd finish up, and that'd be the end of it."

 

"But I'm kind of easy to influence," she admitted. "And everyone being heroes was just so cool . . ."

 

She flashed a smile. "Not really the most noble reason right? But I kinda hope you're right. That the reason doesn't matter so much as stepping up at all."

[Thunder King]

"That's the way I see it. I mean, I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit of a thrill seeker. I like fighting." Mali shrugged. "I've always been into fitness, training, all that stuff. Better to direct those, urges? Somewhere positive. I mean, even if I mothballed my costume and just went back to an ordinary life, Claremont was fantastic. Cool people, fun stories, cute guys...all sorts of good things." 

 

"But, hey, you don't owe it to anyone to be a hero. I mean it's a good thing, but, there's no point in putting yourself into something if your heart isn't in it. Lots of ways to do good in the world that don't involve punching faces and catching drug pushers."

[Curious Key]

"But I wanna punch faces," Kat whined . . . then snorted. "Yeah, it's a nice relief to just . . . cut loose, sometimes." She opened her left hand and stared at her palm for a moment. Some of that mirth fell from her face a little. As soon as it happened it was gone. "Gotta say though, while I've punch a lot of faces I don't think I've had to stop any drug pushers or anything." She turned to Mali with a wry smile. "I usually just found weapon shipments."

[Thunder King]

Mali all but snorted. "Oh, god, weapons." She shook her head. "Weapons, guns, regular drugs, super drugs, ninjas." she started laughing. "Sorry, sorry, I remember one time. I went after some drug pushers and these two guys attacked me at once. Bam, pow, down. So then the third guy up and decided that he must have been good enough to take me out. He...was not. I have no idea why so many people are convinced that the other four or five guys I just knocked down were flukes."

[Curious Key]

Kat had good memories . . . Her favorites always left the would-be villains looking like idiots. "I remember when I found a bunch of henchmen around a big semi-truck full of weapons. So I jumped on it and put the semi-truck away, like that, in front of their eyes." She snapped her fingers and let loose a flash a red for emphasis. "Oh my god, I wish you could have seen their faces!"

 

Her immediate thought was to jump to some snark about them being born without powers, trying to play the part of a villain, but considering present company it seemed a poor choice of conversation in the first place. "I really don't get it. It seems kind of depressing, really." Kat leaned back. "What's the kind of person who leans back, looks at their life and says; 'my best bet is to throw myself in front of some super villain in a dapper suit and hope he doesn't get bored and kill me?'" Warp shook her head uncomprehendingly.

[Thunder King]

Mali shrugged. "I think it happens for different reasons. Desperation, arrogance, peer pressure. Just, I mean, seriously, Freedom has the largest population of superheroes anywhere. I could probably call ten or fifteen at any moment, and I'm not that well connected compared to some. Honestly, for some of them, if they had any kind of foresight, they wouldn't be doing what they're doing."

[Curious Key]

Ah, Kat couldn't help but crack a smile at that! It seemed like you couldn't walk a meter without someone in tights flying overhead chasing someone cackling villain and then . . . "We're all over the place, aren't we." It didn't sound like a question. "Still feeling kind of lost, to be honest." Kat sat her food down in her lap. On the side that Mali couldn't see she gripped the side of her thigh until it hurt. "I had a plan for what I was hoping I'd do, next. Then I lost it, and I feel like I'm kind of treading water for now. I dunno about foresight, but . . ." 

 

"So, whatever nice health high-calorie foods are, I bet anything this isn't it." She held up the bag of greasy food and grinned. "Tell me your secrets. "