The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[camerindrake]

Dinah

Dinah smiles, "No, not at all. She gives me a lot of room to work once she saw that I know my flowers.'

She asks, "So I heard there is going to be a winter formal at the school. That is gonna keep you busy I bet."

She gets a mischievous smirk as she continues, "I am betting that has that daughter of yours all excited too, doesn't it."

The canary slips her arm into the door and pulls the open signs chain lighting up the red neon bulbs.

The sonic crier then says, "Well time to get to work. If you catch a break drop by. I am sure I can whip up somethin' for lunch. Unless you got plans with a certain green shoe wearing school teacher."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri. "All that I'm after is a life full of laughter."

Dinah smiles, "No, not at all. She gives me a lot of room to work once she saw that I know my flowers.'

Ceri nodded at this, glad to hear it. Always does a soul good to know that their expertise is appreciated.

Not that Nell had ever been a bad person, per se, but she had been... burdened, lately. Nell's sister Lily had mysteriously gone missing from her home outside Metropolis three months ago, and no-one had seen her since.

Poor Nell, she lamented silently.

She asks, "So I heard there is going to be a winter formal at the school. That is gonna keep you busy I bet."

"Maybe yes, maybe no," Ceri chuckled. "Today I'm busy with consults for hairstyles, going to go through the bobby pins something fierce. If they don't like what I do, well, they'll probably go to one of the fancier corporate places in Granville. If they do like what I do... then, yes, Friday's going to be pretty busy. I'm a bit jittery about it, to be honest, a good paycheque is hard to come by these days. Nervous, but excited."

She gets a mischievous smirk as she continues, "I am betting that has that daughter of yours all excited too, doesn't it."

"Mm," Ceri grinned softly. "She is a bit, yeah. She ordered the dress weeks ago, went to a proper shoe shop in Metropolis, but she's a wee bit nervous that her boyfriend, bless 'is heart, hasn't 'officially' invited her yet. Oh, to have such concerns."

The canary slips her arm into the door and pulls the open signs chain lighting up the red neon bulbs.

The sonic crier then says, "Well time to get to work. If you catch a break drop by. I am sure I can whip up somethin' for lunch. Unless you got plans with a certain green shoe wearing school teacher."

Ceri nodded, and chuckled, and began to stroll past the alley to her own front door. "No plans. Not with him, anyway. If I get a break, I would love to spend lunch with yeh. Otherwise, I'll have to trust me breakfast to see me through 'till dinner. And that's about when I'll be seeing a certain emerald-slippered gent."

Her eyes went half-lidded. Talking of things that aren't quite official.

"And yeh're right, of course," she waved to Dinah, and then with a quick flash of keys and a deft turn bid the salon open once more. "'Time to get to work.'"

In she went.

 

[AmenRa]

History (Earth, Sol System)

He then scoffs at himself when the thought passes his mind, 'Why don't I just have the Manhunter from Mars just give me a download of proper etiquette.'

He then sighs to himself as he looks out of the window, 'No that would just be like cheating on an exam. This is an exam I need to pass on my own. The lesson is learning how to truly live. If i cant pass that one I am not going to be any good when I get to old or beaten up to badly to go on. Then where will I be.'

A voice. Silent, yet strong. Passing as if the sand blown by the wind. Alien, yet soothing and familiar.

There will be no cheating in my class.

Have faith in yourself.

I do.

 

[AmenRa]

History (a whole world of it)

"Well, then," Doctor Jones began, "this is World History, and here we are in the middle of it."

He propped up on the desk, tossing the remains of the apple core into the waste basket beside him.

"I'm John Jones. You can call me Doctor Jones, I suppose. I have a PhD. in archaeology and anthropology. I minored in history. Earth history, to be exact. That's the planet we live on. Or, so I'm told."

The joke was designed to let the class know that Jones didn't take anything too seriously, except history, which he took very seriously, and he hoped they would as well.

He reached behind him, to the desk, and picked up the class text book. He looked at it curiously for a moment, as if expecting it to bite him, and then he tossed it back onto the desk where it landed with a thud.

"Board of Education says we have to have a certain percentage of our classwork coming from the assigned text book. Thus, once a week I will give you a ten-question test that will cover a chapter in the book. That will be on Friday. It's an open-book test, so you can read it while you're taking the test.

"You see," Jones said, standing up straight, "I want you to learn history, not from a book, but from the collection of experiences that I've got in thousands of pages of lecture notes that I've prepared over the years. See, these notes come from other authors of history, not from authors who researched the writings of others, but from the authors who were there."

"I'll bring in, from time to time, artifacts uncovered from dig sites all over the world, relevant to whatever time period in history we are discussing. I've got slides, Power Points, and movies of all sorts of neat, historical stuff. We'll talk about these things, and you'll take notes on the lecture accompanying. Which, coincidentally, will match the logical progession from your assigned history book, and that satisfies the whole Board of Education agenda."

J'onn was quiet for a moment.

"And, finally, we come to the semester assignment. Groan, groan, aww do we have to? Yeah, you have to. It'll be fun. Trust me," he said with a wink. "I want you to pick a time in history. Any period of time of a significant event and write a story about it from a participant's point of view. Maybe you're a soldier in Leonidas's army during the invasion of the Persians in ancient Sparta? Or, perhaps you are a scribe in Pharoah Amenhotep III's palace? Maybe one of the many who packed their families onto a wagon for a long trip to the West during Manifest Destiny. Or, you could be a member of a Native American tribe that encountered those settling the West during that time. The choice is yours as to when you pick to write about.

"The purpose here is not so much to weave an elaborate tale. I want a good read, but what I am looking for is detail, detail, and detail about the event that was happening and how people conducted themselves. What did they wear? What did they eat? What was the social and economic situation? What were the views, the morals, the attitudes? What technology did they use? Things like that.

"This will all be written down on a hand out I will give you in a few days. And we will have days during the weeks to come for you to research your topic. This is where you will learn about human history: from the research you will do for your story. We will have field trips to libraries, including our own here at school, and to far and exotic places as well. The Metropolis Museum of Natural History comes to mind as one such destination."

Kara Zor-El, you will stay away from the meteorite display at the museum.

"So," he finished, "be thinking about what you might like to research. And, if you are stuck, I will assign you something. Always here to help."

"Questions?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie and Earl. "I'd like to make myself believe that Planet Earth turns slowly."

...in between classes, the giant of a man that was Earl Jenkins was gazing up at the hole in the ceiling through which Merick Tennylson had fallen.

"So he was just waitin' up there?" he frowned. "To surprise everybody? Make believe he was runnin' late again, and then... divebomb?"

"What it looks like," Jamie reflected, leaning against his desk and eating from a packet of cheese-flavoured Ritz Bits. "Whatever entered his head, I've not the foggiest idea. They say there's no such thing as attention-seeking behaviour, but I've half a mind to prove otherwise."

"Hnh," Earl grunted. "Any idea how he got up there?"

Jamie arched an eyebrow. "How d'you mean? I just assumed, John McClane, the, uh... 'TV Dinner' approach?"

Earl shook his head. "Never happen . See, I got the conduits and the wiring and the ductwork just about memorised, and there's no way there'd be a gap wide enough for him to sneak in here all the way from a human-sized access point. Not unless he was the size of a rodent. (Y'ever see that movie, 'Sky High?' Young lady turns into a purple-haired talking guinea pig, saves the day going through the pipes?)"

Jamie didn't bat an eye. Oh, Ceri would have been proud, the way he didn't even flinch not even at all. "I can honestly say, good sir, that I have never once encountered a talking guinea pig with purple hair."

Earl gave Jamie a half-lidded sidelong glance. "Yeah."

Earl gave the ceiling another long look. "He must've had an accomplice. Someone got a ladder, helped him up into the ceiling, took away the ladder again. Otherwise I can't figure it. (Weird-ass little town.)"

Jamie popped another cracker into his mouth and chewed this thoughtfully, his expression one of complete innocence, and observed with his mouth full: "The world is very strange."

"You're not whistlin', Doc," Earl harrumphed. "You said he'd help me with this?"

Jamie nodded easily. "I'll see to it."

Earl nodded and headed for the door. "Tell your daughter I'll be a little late coming around for her lesson, cleanin' this up. She shown you what she's workin' on yet?"

Hands in his pockets, Jamie followed, intrigued. "Not yet. Why d'you ask?"

Earl smiled softly, shook his head, headed off down the hall. "She's working on a Ludo song, I dunno, seems like it'd be right up your alley."

Jamie pondered that for a moment, and headed the opposite way down the hall towards the teachers lounge...

He needed coffee. (He always needed coffee.)

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Rose. "I was just guessing at numbers and figures."

Chloe downed the last of her coffee with a bit of regret.

She dropped the cup into a trash can as she moved past this.

She glanced at Rose, who was walking beside her, with a pencil clenched in her teeth, muttering to herself, jotting down hasty pen-scrawled notes in a spiral-bound notebook.

Strings of equations flowed down the lines of her page, and she shook her head, clenched her teeth harder against the pencil, and scrawled harder.

"So," Chloe smirked faintly. "Somebody likes our new Chemistry teacher."

A ruby-red eyebrow arched above a sapphire-blue eye. "Mmmrr?"

Chloe tapped a pen of her own on the spiral binding of the notebook. "You're recreating Quinn Mallory's basement chalkboard on your Mead college-ruled, there, you're telling me that's not significant?"

Rose plucked the pencil from her teeth and glowered playfully at Chloe. "I just never thought about the whole... jigsaw-puzzle aspect, elements and compounds, I mean, I've kinda pondered, Fourths of July gone by, what goes into fireworks, the different colours... but the interplay of chemicals in our own biology, and-and-and--"

Chloe grinned knowingly, and kept walking.

Rose paused, and mumbled: "He is cute, isn't he?"

"I'm no FBI profiler," Chloe admitted, with some tiny bit of false modesty, "but he does strike me as sort of being your 'type,' tall cute blonds with lean physiques and mysterious eyes..."

Rose blushed, and glowered again, and tried yet again to hide behind her notebook. "Mine looks better in sunglasses."

Clucking her tongue, her eyes twinkling and half-lidded, Chloe shook her head ever-so-slightly. "Indubitably."

"You can't tell on me, though," Rose informed her friend, "for two reasons. First of all, nerdgirls always crush on cute science teachers, it's harmless. Second of all, if you tell on me to Kyle about Doctor Allen, I'll have to tell on you to Mer' about Doctor Jones."

Chloe nearly missed a step, and managed to not drop her books in the process. "Wait... what?"

"I can't claim it's your 'type,' the older scholarly type," Rose kept talking, "you never looked at Professor Smith like that, but whatevs. Also, you can memorise stuff at a glance, but all of a sudden the class schedule posted inside your locker door has seventh-period History circled in red ink, you're telling me that's not significant?"

Chloe was staring at Rose with a face as pale as the whipped cream she liked added to her coffee. "Well played, M. Well played. (Probably it's the hat. Launchpad and Doctor Jones have similar taste in hats.)"

Rose shrugged. "Ain't no thang, right? Didn't you tell me that you an Mer' have that list thingy?"

Chloe harrumphed. "I've got one, if Mer' ever made that list, he's never described its contents to me."

"Probably for the best," Rose mused sagely.

Chloe chuckled. "So, tell me. Lil' Miss Chemistry. With being 'Hot For Teacher,' is that an exothermic reaction or endothermic?"

"Exothermic," Rose decided without missing a beat, going back to scribbling in her notebook.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Ceri, and Jamie. "Vox Populi." (Terrible, deep apologies to William Gibson.)

Then.​

Kara hugged each of her friends, and she knew that everything would be alright. Last of all she hugged Rose McCrimmon, and her arms wrapped tightly around her the Valkyrie Missile, holding her close so that not even Zod himself could pull them apart.

Rose had just about burst out crying. Again.

Her friendship with Kara over the years had been tenuous, neighbourly, geographic.

Until they'd sat together on Kara's roof, heedless of gravity, and had not needed to whisper. Kara was... warm. Not just to the touch, but body and soul she was warm, she was kind, she inspired Hope.

And it had been around this warmth that The Outsiders and their families and friends had rallied. Even though, eventually, it turned out that she hadn't needed them after all.

This was who Kara Kent of The House of El really really was.

She could take on the world and come out on top. She was Unstoppable, a Girl of Steel. She could walk through Death and Destruction and be grazed but unfazed.

And yet? At the slightest hint that she might not be okay, them that had met her, them that had encountered her, them that had loved her...

...they would throw caution to the wind to save her, though all Hell should bar the way.

She'd risen above it. But they would be there. Over and over again, they would be there, if ever should she need them.

Rose had touched her forehead to Kara's, and had clenched her eyes shut, and despite all her waterbending gifts the tears had escaped their ducts and had escaped her locked-tight lids and had spilled down her face.

Arms that would one day peel open mountains and carry airliners to safety had enclosed The Valkyrie Missile and her own small strength had held tightly back.

"Lord," had whispered the girl who had spent her life being frightened of shadows, especially her own, "don't scare me like that."

She'd laughed softly, and sniffled, and loved her friend very much. "You're so warm."

Eventually Kara peeled herself away...

She looked at her friends and smiled bravely.

It was time to go home.

********​

Night had fallen upon them, and they'd gone separate ways to separate homes.

They'd finally boarded up all the windows at the back of the house. Fortunately, the rubble from the garage had provided plenty of lumber...

...they'd worked together to sweep up the glass and to pick the bitty shards from the corners of the rooms at the back of the house. Including Rose's room.

And that having been done, Rose was getting something she hadn't gotten, really, really really, in over ten years. Both her parents were tucking her into bed.

Ceri sat beside Rose on the bed as Rose herself huddled up under the covers, hugging to her chest a plush G1 Bumblebee thankfully undamaged.

Jamie sat at Rose's desk chair, by her computer, leaning forward a little, hands folded between his knees, watching Ceri watching Rose.

Ceri reached out and touched Rose's hair as they all sat there quietly. "Sweetheart," Ceri murmured, "how long has it been since we've touched up yehr roots?"

Rose shook her head, frowning softly with confusion, this question seemed fairly out of the blue. "Not since, like, the beginning of June. Not since school got out for the summer, a couple of weeks before-- why, are they showing?"

Ceri arched an eyebrow, and kept her thoughts to herself. "No, no, it's fine, they're not showing. Just curious."

Rose shook her head a little bit at that. "That's funny. 'Coz I'm curious. About a lot of things."

Ceri glanced over her shoulder at Jamie, and Jamie twisted the desk chair from side to side, rubbing his palms together as he looked back. He nodded slightly. There were parts of this story he himself had never bothered to learn, self-absorbed as he could be, but the time for ignorance and keeping secrets had long since passed.

Ceri nodded back, though her eyes seemed to say, reluctant: 'If we must.'

Both parents gazed at their daughter, and Ceri gestured invitingly.

Rose took a deep breath, as though to collect herself. "What, uh... what is your deal, anyway? 'Talk later,' 'talk later,' 'later for this,' but you have like eight black-belts in ass-kick, you talked to Thor in his own language while I had a hard time with Elisabethan-ish... and Dad, what, you're... you're some kind of bloodhound for disturbances in The Force? I always thought it was cool I had a mad scientist for a daddy, but I kind of took solace that my mum was normal, now it's..."

Ceri smiled faintly. "So much for the preamble."

"'Full disclosure,'" Jamie reminded Ceri, a wistful, adoring smile on his face.

Ceri nodded. "You know our family history," she reminded Rose.

Rose arched an eyebrow. "I thought I did."

"Hroðmundr," Ceri explained, "the secret origin of the name 'McCrimmon,' was a Norseman whose skill in battle was only rivaled by his reverence for the gods. Legend has it that his clan raided the coast of Scotland, as they were wont to do, and Hroðmundr was horrified to witness his brethren, carried away with the thrill of battle, reaping like wheat a gathering of Druids that had simply taken to the shore for their morning rituals, a little bit of prayer to greet the rising of the sun. Taken with conscience and with righteous indignation, Hroðmundr fought his brethren back, with fist and axe and hammer and stone and anything he could find.

"The damage was done, however," Ceri continued, "and whilst Hroðmundr drove back his clan, sent them packing to their longboats, cursing his name, only one of the priestesses lived long enough to die in Hroðmundr's arms. But as she died, she smiled upon him, and murmured words in her tongue which he did not understand, and painted a rune upon the back of his sword hand in a mixture of her blood and his.

"Hroðmundr wouldn't find out what this meant for many years, not until he'd become part of a local clan, learned to speak the tongue, wedded one of their women. One day he drew that mark for his wife, whose mother had been a priestess, and she was pleasantly bemused to tell him that this mark was short-hand for 'that which remains strong.'"

Rose bundled up in her blankets, hugged Bumblebee tighter still. Her eyes were riveted.

"It became a mission for him," Ceri murmured. "It had been like a revelation. Part of his name already meant 'protector.' He dedicated himself to protecting that which mattered most by being he who remained strong when no-one else would."

Rose bit the inside of her cheek, thinking this over. "And, uh... what matters most?"

"The MacCrimmons," Ceri admitted, "didn't really figure that out until later, not until a Christian faith layered itself atop our pagan roots. In that which Christians call The Old Testament, a prophet called Isaiah describes a group of truly faithful people set aside, protected and defended from terrible catastrophe that they might survive to carry on the faith when the catastrophe was done. In other places, this last bastion of faith was itself a source of protection, as God promised to spare certain places His Wrath so long as there was a certain percentage of people in those places who still held His Name in awe. This was called The Remnant."

"The Remnant," Rose sounded this out, and puzzled this deeply with furrows in her brow.

"Mm," Ceri nodded. "We took that name for our own. A calling, passed down from one generation to the next. We would become guardians, skilled in battle, and trained in theology and spirituality that we might be morally discerning, capable of dividing good from evil. And we would keep alive the bastions of goodness and light, all of those whom promised to make the world a better place, whether through religious practise and tolerance, or through financially-endowed charity work, or through advancements in knowledge and awareness, or simply through their own helping to defend Humanity's humanity.

"And if we," Ceri hesitated, "if we failed to protect them in whom we saw this goodness, that spiritual training took on a whole different aspect. We would be prepared to administer them last rites, in whatever faith they called their own, and usher their spirit properly into that which lay beyond, that they might receive the highest blessing, and hear the words 'well done.' If we could not preserve the life on Earth, we would preserve it in their Heaven. (The good might die young, but we hope that when they are needed most, the good will rise again.)"

Rose held her head in her hands, struggling to process. "So. You're. You're a warrior priestess? And-and-and a psychopomp? An... angel of death?"

Ceri smiled faintly. "Yeah, something like that."

"Fuck," Rose breathed, after a moment. "Thor was right. You're a Valkyrie. And... and I guess, now, so am I."

Ceri grinned. "Maybe we are, at that."

Rose digested, though this digestion was causing a knot in her stomach. And to escape that knot, she glanced up at her father. "And you're... you're..."

"I was her assignment," Jamie replied softly. "Once, oh, so very long ago. I did some work for Downing Street, and for The Crown, and, you're right, oh, you're so very right, I had such a nose for trouble. Kept finding scary things, and getting all caught up, couldn't keep me nose out. And thus, The Crown, finding me useful, finding me... not quite expendable, they spoke to this family that had helped them before. And convinced them that I was... worth preserving. For the, erm, greater good. I was a Defender of The Earth, they said, with me brain and me nose, and I, in turn, needed defending. Even when I was on the lecture circuit, she was my shadow, we were inseparable... (there was that time at Oxford, quantum chromodynamics, they even got our names wrong, called me 'Doctor James McCrimmon' and her 'Ceri Hamilton', kind of funny.)

"Saved m' life, she did," Jamie explained, back on topic. "Oh, in so many ways. Even our very first gig, we ran into an oul' boyfriend of hers, John, Whitechapel was getting invaded by these creatures, blue and black, we thought they might be a kind of urisk? Anyway, intel was that the blue ones were pacifists--"

Jamie waved this off. "Really, it's a boring story, they were all the same bunch of shapeshifty alien spies and to be honest, the blue ones were just as bad, but we weren't to know that. We saved The World that day. And a lot of times after. But I'd've never lived through it if it weren't for your mum."

Rose squinted at him. "And your nose for trouble? This is a literal thing? You've got... powers? Like me?"

"Not like you," Jamie chuckled, "oh, no, not like you. I'm just-- I'm small potatoes compared to you and your friends. My brain's pretty good, and with a little bit of training I can sometimes do telepathicky things, and I can-- I've got senses, like yours, sharp as tacks my senses are, but they've sort of, well, evolved. Now if someone's mucking about with magnetism, or with gravity, or any of that stuff, it sets off alarm bells in me head, 'diverse alarums' like nobody's business. That's all I've got, really, you and Kara and your boyfriend The Wirry-Carl and Chuck Taylor and The Sullivan Girl, you lot take the cake, I'm just-- I'm just the Early Warning System."

Jamie smiled faintly. "I was just a boy. At boarding school, with me brother. Except my brother was a bit of a bully, in those days, and he had this friend. 'Bodach,' they called him. And he could--"

"Your friend Chloe can give life," Jamie murmured, as though lost in a dream. "'Bodach,' he could take it away, like an energy vampire. They did it to me as a prank, once, and I... I died. Just for a little while. And when I came back, everything was louder, brighter, it just -- I had a metagene, and the trauma of my death and rebirth was such that it brought that metagene to life. (Set Emil onto the path to find the thing in the first place, the git.) And, well, it seems I've passed mine on to you."

Rose nodded quietly. Suddenly she felt very tired, even though her brain was racing at several light-years per minute. "Seems like you've passed a lot of things on to me. Mum's been reading me myths and scriptures all these years..."

"We're not through yet," Jamie pointed out. "Passing things on."

Rose blinked. She hadn't thought of that.

"Protecting that which matters most," Ceri agreed, "has taken on a whole new meaning, now. You and yehr Outsiders, that's so very important, Defenders of The Earth. And Kara. Especially Kara, there's something so very... crucial... about her."

Rose nodded firmly. "You better believe it."

"Dun worry," Ceri promised, crossing her heart and hoping to die. "I believe a lot of things. I believe in you. And I believe in her."

Rose laid back, and thunked her head firmly into her pillow as if attempting to beat the thing into submission with her reinforced cranium. "...this is pretty cool. I mean, every kid grows up thinking their parents must secretly be secret agents or something, like in 'Undercover Blues,' but. Oh, man, I'm totally going to PTSD about this later, but right now..."

She smiled a weary, woozy smile. "Right now my mum is a Welsh Elektra and my dad is The Sentinel except not so Special Forces. This is... this is pretty sweet."

"'Ginchy,'" Jamie volunteered, grinning, "you might say."

"You might say," Rose agreed, grinning back.

And, then, she yawned, deeply.

"Fading fast, aren't we?" Ceri chuckled.

Rose couldn't help but nod. "Yeah, I'm-- golly, yeah. I mean, my brain is-- I think my brain is trying to overclock itself, but my body is just wasted."

"Yeh need something to de-focus?" Ceri offered. "Cup of warm milk?"

Rose shook her head. "I want a story. Gibson."

Jamie quirked an eyebrow. "Idoru?"

Rose nodded. "Chapter 4."

Jamie scrunched his face up. "Yeah, I think I can manage--"

And then his face relaxed, his voice changed, ever-so-slightly, this was the voice that Kyle had heard when Jamie had been "Lawrence Nightingale," this was far closer to Received Pronunciation than Jamie's usual Estuary accent, this was his lecture hall voice.

'Venice Decompressed,' he began.

Rose rolled over onto her side, Bumblebee clung close by, one arm tucked up under her pillow.

Ceri kept quiet, and watched, and listened. Usually they took turns putting her to bed, if they did at all these days, and Ceri would read to her from a book of faith, or Jamie would recite from Chesterton or from Gibson. She rarely, if ever, got to experience Jamie's recitations first-hand...

'"Shut up now," the woman in 23E said,' Jamie intoned, and there was something rhythmic about his voice, like he was born to do radio plays, 'and Chia hadn't said anything at all. "Sister's going to tell you a story."'

'Chia looked up from the seatback screen, where she'd been
working her way through the eleventh level of a lobotomised air-
line version of Skull Wars. The blond was looking straight ahead,
not at Chia. Her screen was down so that she could use the back
of it for a tray, and she'd finished another glass of that iced tomato
juice she kept paying the flight attendant to bring her. They came,
for some reason, with squared-off pieces of celery stuck up in
them, like a straw or stir-stick, but the blond didn't seem to want
these. She'd stacked five of them in a square on the tray, the way
a kid might build the walls of a little house, or a corral for toy
animals.'

'Chia looked down at her thumbs on the disposable Air Ma-
gellan touchpad. Back up at the mascaraed eyes. Looking at her
now.'

'"There's a place where it's always light," the woman said.
"Bright, everywhere. No place dark. Bright like a mist, like some-
thing falling, always, every second. All the colours of it. Towers
you can't see the top of, and the light falling. Down below, they pile
up bars. Bars and strip clubs and discos. Stacked up like shoe boxes,
one on top of the other. And no matter how far you worm your
way in, no matter how many stairs you climb, how many elevators
you ride, no matter how small a room you finally get to, the light
still finds you. It's a light that blows under the door, like powder.
Fine, so fine. Blows in under your eyelids, if you find a way to get
to sleep. But you don't want to sleep there. Not in Shinjuku. Do
you?"'

'Chia was suddenly aware of the sheer physical mass of the
plane, of the terrible unlikeliness of its passage through space, of
its airframe vibrating through frozen night somewhere above the
sea, off the coast of Alaska now--impossible but true. "No," Chia
heard herself say, as Skull Wars, noting her inattention, dumped
her back a level.'

'"No," the woman agreed, "you don't. I know. But they make
you. They make you. At the centre of the world." And then she
put her head back, closed her eyes, and began to snore.'

"James," Ceri murmured, and Jamie's eyes refocused, recentred, and he realised that Rose was breathing softly, her chest rising subtly but profoundly, and that she was asleep.

Jamie smiled gently, and Ceri gave him a congratulatory nod, and, as Ceri gave Rose a wafted little kiss atop her head, they departed the room softly but swiftly.

Jamie grasped the banister and began to head downstairs, and Ceri touched his shoulder, and Jamie stopped, a little bit surprised.

Ceri smiled at him.

Jamie blinked. "I thought you said I shouldn't expect this to be a habit?"

"What can I say?" Ceri whispered, a little bit of pink about her cheeks, as she nudged him towards her bedroom doors. "Yeh're a little bit habit-forming."

Jamie grinned delightedly, lopsidedly. "I am at that, aren't I?"

Ceri grabbed him by his tie and dragged him along. "Yeh should shush. Before yeh spoil it by talking."

Jamie shrugged. "This gob doesn't stop for anyth--"

--and then she hauled him through that door and it clicked shut behind them.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Looking attentive was not working out, and it seemed to Kara that a few of the other girls had their eyes glued on the dashing Dr. Jones as he checked off the names on his attendance sheet. Once attendance had been taken care of, their teacher hoisted himself up onto the edge of his desk, tossed aside his apple and then tried (perhaps too hard) to put the students at ease.

"I'm John Jones. You can call me Doctor Jones, I suppose. I have a PhD. in archaeology and anthropology. I minored in history. Earth history, to be exact. That's the planet we live on. Or, so I'm told."

Some of the students chuckled, but most were too detached from the classroom to really appreciate the humor in his words. Kara smiled warmly, It was tough to decide at first whether he would be a stingy professor or the kind that just didn’t really care all that much about teaching. Everyone, however, perked up a bit when he tossed their assigned text back onto his text where it landed with a loud thud. Quite a few students groaned at the thought of having to take a test every Friday, but they found relief in the fact that they would all be open-book tests.

As the hands on the clock continued to turn around and around… it became quite clear that Dr. Jones’ class would be both fun and challenging.

A class meant to provoke thought… not to just simply hammer the students with information until their heads exploded. There were far too many old, ruler-toting teachers that didn’t give two licks about their students and only went by the “required” standards of education.

J’onn J’onnz, thankfully, did not fall into that category.

Kara was especially interested in his prospect of field trips, particularly the ones to the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. Kara had never been to the museum, but she had heard stories and seen pictures and advertisements.

Kara Zor-El, you will stay away from the meteorite display at the museum

‘Awww… I suppose I can live with that.'

Which was kind of the whole idea.

"Questions?"

"Nope."

~ ~ ~

After her history class Kara made a quick stop at her locker before heading off to chorus. With almost complete of her vocal chords, Kara was a gifted singer, and although she was just a Freshman her teacher decided to have her try out for the All-State chorus group. Practice sessions would run pretty tight, but thankfully there were no softball practices to get in the way.

Work at home would be pretty tight too.

Too much to do… not enough time (even with a girl that could run faster than a speeding bullet).

But this was what her parents had wanted her to do… they’d enrolled her at school and now she was becoming more and more involved.

And Kara was loving it.

Once chorus was over, Kara made another trip to her locker (and a quick visit to her boyfriend) before she headed off to meet her friends for lunch.

“So… want to go off campus for lunch today? I was thinking maybe Florida?”

 

[AmenRa]

Once chorus was over, Kara made another trip to her locker (and a quick visit to her boyfriend) before she headed off to meet her friends for lunch.

“So… want to go off campus for lunch today? I was thinking maybe Florida?”

"Is there something special occurring in Florida that faster-than-light travel should be involved?" J'onn asked as he casually walked by the group, carring a brown paper bag that contained his lunch -- Oreo cookies and a small carton of milk he purchased in the teacher lunch line.

He didn't stop to talk, only making the one remark, and he continued to a vacant picnic table in the outside courtyard.

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Damian goes through his English class in third and walks up to Rose and Chloe still in thought. He almost walks head long into Kara when she comes up. His thoughts deep when he notices a Chinese girl at her locker putting her books away. At that point his thoughts go blank for a moment before his mind reboots.

"Who is that?" The young knight asks in wonder.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Rose. "A Teenager In Love." (Dion and The Belmonts.)

His thoughts deep when he notices a Chinese girl at her locker putting her books away. At that point his thoughts go blank for a moment before his mind reboots.

"Who is that?" The young knight asks in wonder.

Chloe arched an eyebrow at him. Oh-hoh, so the masked killer does have a heart of gold. Or at least an eye for the pretty ladies...

Chloe grinned softly, nodded to the girl. "That, D.C., is Sandra Wu-San. I don't know her astrological sign off-hand, but she's a sophomore taking junior-year classes. Her dad -- her dad runs that dojo on Fifth off of Main Street, just opened it about a year ago when they moved from Detroit? She's also the only girl on the planet who reads more than Rose does."

Rose grunted at Chloe. "You say that like it's a bad thing? She's really big into her heritage, and stuff, I've seen her reading Journey to The West and Romance of The Three Kingdoms... She's not, uh, exceptionally friendly? I asked her if she could give me Mandarin pointers, once, after we got back from, you know, that thing, more than just Firefly stuff, and she looked at me like I had three kingdoms worth of heads."

Chloe harrumphed. "Yeah. In this case, nerdgirls of a feather don't flock together; she's an outsider, lowercase 'o,' and I think she prefers it that way. Only reason I know as much about her as I do is keen reporter's instinct (natch) and because her younger sister Carolyn is in a couple of my classes."

Rose glanced from Damian to Sandra and back again, and squinted her eyes. "You, uh, want us to pass her a note or something? Isn't that how these things are done?"

Chloe fixed Damian with a gaze, I'm not scared of you, you can kill me all you want, and laid down the law. "Just don't break her arm, okay, hotshot?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie. "And I'll run and I'll roam, I'll cover the ground."

...and he continued to a vacant picnic table in the outside courtyard.

As John Jones made his way to that picnic table, Jamie Hamilton strolled through the snow, coffee mug dangling from one hand and one of the teachers' lounge coffeepots steaming in the other. He'd put his coat back on, and he had that scarf wrapped 'round his neck... though the cold didn't seem to bother him overmuch.

Low body temperature. That, a slightly off-kilter metabolism, and his bizarre form of insomnia were the chief side-effects of his metagenetic composition. Hence, coffeepot.

Slithering his tallish skinny frame onto the bench of the picnic table, he set down the pot and took a swig from the mug.

"'Ello, John," he mused, and reflected, somewhere in the background, on another History teacher named John that he'd known, however briefly, and had called friend. Very much like this one. "You don't mind if I hang about, do you? Only I needed a bit of fresh air and the only place they've really cleared out here besides the football field is this, erm, 'smokers' lounge.'"

 

[camerindrake]

Rose glanced from Damian to Sandra and back again, and squinted her eyes. "You, uh, want us to pass her a note or something? Isn't that how these things are done?"

Damian looks over to Rose blinking a few times, "Is that really how the courtships ritual begins. Anissa and I got to know one another when hunting down a certain sniper when he was killing certain prominent executives in Gotham. " He then runs his fingers through his hair.

Chloe fixed Damian with a gaze, I'm not scared of you, you can kill me all you want, and laid down the law. "Just don't break her arm, okay, hotshot?"

He looks at Chloe saying, "I wouldn't dream of it. And so you know Troy did start it. Though I might have taken his wording a little to exacting. Did you know girl can also mean girlfriend."

 

[Varshanka]

Moving in the realm that both was and was not. In the realm that was neither life nor death, Zatanna watched.

She watched the flickering shapes of life and half-life. Those that lived, and those that barely survived. She took note of the size and shape of those that already neared death. Some were young, and in that state of depression that would take them over the edge into the land of never.

Some were no longer young and neared the end of their time in the mortal realm.

And some. Some burned brightly. So very very VERY brightly indeed. Far more than she would have expected. Far more than she had ever encountered outside of a specialized gathering of such beings.

Moving with the ebb and flow of the people she watched. And sometimes she even listened.

Chloe harrumphed. "Yeah. In this case, nerdgirls of a feather don't flock together; she's an outsider, lowercase 'o,' and I think she prefers it that way. Only reason I know as much about her as I do is keen reporter's instinct (natch) and because her younger sister Carolyn is in a couple of my classes."

Rose glanced from Damian to Sandra and back again, and squinted her eyes. "You, uh, want us to pass her a note or something? Isn't that how these things are done?"

Chloe fixed Damian with a gaze, I'm not scared of you, you can kill me all you want, and laid down the law. "Just don't break her arm, okay, hotshot?"[/QUOTE]

Squinting at the small gathering Zatanna watched and listened. Why would the one make a distinctive reference to an Outsider? she wondered.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Rose. "Stranger in A Strange Land."

Damian looks over to Rose blinking a few times, "Is that really how the courtships ritual begins. Anissa and I got to know one another when hunting down a certain sniper when he was killing certain prominent executives in Gotham. " He then runs his fingers through his hair.

He looks at Chloe saying, "I wouldn't dream of it. And so you know Troy did start it. Though I might have taken his wording a little to exacting. Did you know girl can also mean girlfriend."

Chloe bit the inside of her cheek. And took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, I did. I also know the difference between a flux capacitor and an oscillation overthruster. I know that in Robert's Rules of Order, to 'table' an issue can mean at least two different things which are mutually contradictory. Yes, yes, I knew 'girl' can be used euphemistically for 'doxy' and for 'assistant' and for 'daughter' as well as 'she with whom I am romantically entangled.'"

She leaned in closer, her voice a hush, there weren't many people around, but still, he'd just name-dropped the word "sniper" and the last thing she needed was people suspecting the resident loose cannon of being a copycat of Van McNulty. "Look. I realise you've probably never seen 'Con Air.' You really should, it'd be right up your alley--"

Rose mumbled, nodded her head. "(Like that issue of Cable when he discovers Kurt Russell movies.)"

"--but the whole premise," Chloe continued, her voice a low growl-hiss, "is that a highly-trained individual is considered a living weapon and should oughta know better, 'hummin'bird.' So it doesn't matter who started it, if you finish it, you know you know a dozen hundred ways to take down an idiot without seriously injuring him. Okay? So. Next time... Neck Pinch him, or something, okay? Certain other members of our little elite cadre won't be so kind to you as I'm being. Especially if you start hurting teenaged girls, romantically entangled or not. We have a lot of secrets to keep, and too much of the wrong kind of attention on any of us is going to get all of us Perry Whited."

She shook her head, and then turned away, and kept walking. "I'll see you guys at lunch."

Rose winced after Chloe, and then turned that wince back to Damian. "Um, uh, don't mind her, she's-- well, well, she's right, but still. She's very. Crusading."

Hugging her books to her chest, Rose shrugged apologetically. "Actually, I don't really know much about traditional high school 'courtship rituals?' (The, uh, 'sniper detail' thing sounds... uh, sounds fun?) I accidentally knocked a cute guy's sunglasses off and then kissed him in the lunchroom when he looked sad, that was pretty much that for me. But I've seen this thing, the note-passing, it seems to be all the rage? Could be worth a try."

 

[LuckyVic]

Barry Allen, The Flash

Barry was so happy when the last bell finally sounded. This next period was designated as his lunch period, and he was hungry. One of the side effects he's had since getting these powers was that when he used his powers he became hungry. He theorized it was his body needing to replenish it's energy supply, but he also discovered that as time went on and he became more adjusted to them he didn't eat as much.

He went through the line and gathered enough food for three people onto his tray. He had brought along his thermus (a bubba Keg) which was full of Pepsi. He looked around and saw some other teachers at a table he walked over to them. "Hello I'm Barry Allen, it's my first day here."

<tags fellow teachers>

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Damian walks with Rose in thought. He then says, "I was trained to take lives. Every time I fight, Its not only my enemy I confront but my very nature. I really do try, Rose."

He looks back to Sandra sighing, "Do you think I have a chance with her? A person who isn't like me."

He turns back around walking towards the cafeteria.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie. "Voodoo Child."

As Jamie settled in to talk to John, another teacher stuck his head out of the door through which John had exited, carrying a tray sufficient to feed William Tell, Robin Hood, and Paul Bunyan.

"Hello I'm Barry Allen, it's my first day here."

Jamie grinned at him. "'Ello, Barry, pull up a bench. Jamie Hamilton, Doctor, pleased as Punch. This is John Jones, also 'Doctor,' though I'd be impolite to speak for his pleasure."

Running his tongue over his teeth, Jamie glanced at Barry's tray, calculated the cubic volume of each dish, and then glanced absently at John's bag of Oreos, and his own... carafe of coffee.

Erm.

He felt a bit embarrassed, really, though he wasn't sure who for. He felt like he should be eating something, too, so that Barry didn't feel like he was being rude eating in front of him.

Hurriedly, he patted down his pockets, and extracted a little paper bag. He blinked at it for a moment, and then grinned, remembering a trip to the little imports shop in Granville...

Jamie held this out to Barry. "Jelly Baby? Try the purple, blackcurrant, they're brilliant. Although, I'd advise not dunking 'em in hot potassium chlorate unless you're ready to duck."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose. "London Calling."

Damian walks with Rose in thought. He then says, "I was trained to take lives. Every time I fight, Its not only my enemy I confront but my very nature. I really do try, Rose."

"I know, D.C.," Rose murmured, walking with him. "I know, you know? I mean. I've killed, too. And not just in Halo. I killed a chica from an endangered species. But it's like my mum says, becoming who we were born to be is a lifelong journey. And you'll never get there if you don't just... keep going."

He looks back to Sandra sighing, "Do you think I have a chance with her? A person who isn't like me."

"I never quote people the odds," Rose informed Damian firmly. "Not in matters of navigating asteroid belts, and not in matters of the heart. When it comes to that sort of thing, all you can do, just like duking it out with the man in the mirror, is try."

He turns back around walking towards the cafeteria.

And Rose walked with him. And she, too, found herself caught up in thought.

 

[AmenRa]

As Jamie settled in to talk to John, another teacher stuck his head out of the door through which John had exited, carrying a tray sufficient to feed William Tell, Robin Hood, and Paul Bunyan.

"Hello I'm Barry Allen, it's my first day here."

Jamie grinned at him. "'Ello, Barry, pull up a bench. Jamie Hamilton, Doctor, pleased as Punch. This is John Jones, also 'Doctor,' though I'd be impolite to speak for his pleasure."

Running his tongue over his teeth, Jamie glanced at Barry's tray, calculated the cubic volume of each dish, and then glanced absently at John's bag of Oreos, and his own... carafe of coffee.

Erm.

He felt a bit embarrassed, really, though he wasn't sure who for. He felt like he should be eating something, too, so that Barry didn't feel like he was being rude eating in front of him.

Hurriedly, he patted down his pockets, and extracted a little paper bag. He blinked at it for a moment, and then grinned, remembering a trip to the little imports shop in Granville...

Jamie held this out to Barry. "Jelly Baby? Try the purple, blackcurrant, they're brilliant. Although, I'd advise not dunking 'em in hot potassium chlorate unless you're ready to duck."

J'onn had already motioned for Jamie to sit, giving a handshake and nodding welcomely. He had stuffed his mouth with Oreo cookie when Barry Allen approached, so the only thing he could do at the moment was offer another handshake and nod some more.

"Please," he said, "John is fine."

He then eyed the plate of food Barry was carrying. His right eyebrow quirked almost imperceptively, and he turned a quiet eye to Jamie.

J'onn offerred Barry an Oreo. "If you should want some more carbohydrates to accompany those that my esteemed colleague offers, feel free to indulge yourself."

J'onn listened with Martian ears. Barry's entire metabolism moved faster than any other human's he had ever encountered. And not just his heart, but the very firing of his synapses was so fast it would certainly be immeasurable on an EEG machine.

Interesting.....

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Chloe, and Pete. "Outside Looking In."

Rose's tray had mashed potatoes and a strange-looking gravy upon it, and next to these was a bizarre form of meatloaf swaddled in the very same kind of gravy. She glanced down at this, most displeased, as she sat with her friends at the unofficially designated "Outsider" table. True to their nomenclature, people kept their distance from their little gang when it gathered en masse, giving them plenty of room to discuss "extracurricular" activities.

Chloe had a PowerBar and a Red Bull from the school store, an apple for added energy, and her fork was chasing around the plate after an odd-little splodge of hot dogs and beans. She looked exhausted, as though delivering unto Damian a low-level Sullivan diatribe had robbed her of what little energy she had left.

(Glancing across the table at their fearless leader, Chloe envied Kara her depthless supply of energy. Kara looked amazing right now. Kara always looked amazing. Yeah, it was jealousy, but it was good-natured enough.)

Pete, true to form, was brown-bagging it, picking through the paper sack and examining its contents. Harmony had a different lunch period than him, but they made up for it by having a study hall together.

None of them looked especially pleased with their victuals.

But they brightened, collectively, when Kara made an exceptionally fearless-leader-y suggestion: “So… want to go off campus for lunch today? I was thinking maybe Florida?”

And Doctor John Jones went strolling by, seemingly half off in his own world, half still on Earth: "Is there something special occurring in Florida that faster-than-light travel should be involved?"

Rose grinned brightly. "Oh, frell yes. You remember when Merick brought us all Cuban food from Miami? That was the best Columbus Day ever."

But John-J'onn kept right on walking, apparently seeking out some modicum of peace and quiet.

Pete pointed at Rose with a string cheese. "Which, I dunno about your homeboy, Rosy Mac, he brings us Mexican from Texas, Cuban from Florida..."

Rose sniffed back at him, eyes half-lidded. "He respects that our palates are thoroughly Americanised and would find the real thing less appetising."

"Speaking of Mer'," Chloe peered around, "has anyone heard from him since his scrape with The Tardy Police this morning? And I know Kyle technically doesn't need to eat, but he seemed like he wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Probably Doc Hamilton dumped him in The Phantom Zone or some guano," Pete nodded. "I told you it was only a matter of time 'fore he hacked The Cave's console."

Rose smiled faintly. "And, no, I haven't seen Kyle. Not all day. (Dammit.)"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

Mornings were pretty easy. About the only hard class I had was Chemistry and Algebra, both of which were after lunch, and my third period class was right by the cafeteria, so I usually beat everyone into the lunchroom.

"Matthews!"

I cringed and turned around. Coach Arnold was there, once more giving me "The Stare." Ever since he had saw me catch and return that football Roy had winged at my head (and also watched Roy get knocked on his jock ass!)

"Yeah Coach?" I said.

"You forgot to come to the football tryouts yesterday. Whats the matter with you son? Don't want to be on the team?"

I sighed. No I did not want to be on the team. I didn't want to be anywhere near the team. Most of them were jerks!

"No sir. Like I said before, I have to help my grandparents at the farm, and I have enough on my plate with that and my schoolwork. Thanks coach, but no thanks."

He turned more and more red as I kept talking. I swear, smoke was almost pouring out of his ears. "I want you on the team Matthews! I'm not taking no. Not with your arm."

"Sorry sir, but my answer is no." I opened my locker and pulled out my sack lunch, leaving the Coach fuming. I made it through the doors and saw the gang at our usual table, and smiled as I saw Rose. I walked up behind her, looked quickly to see if any teachers were watching, then pecked her on the cheek and sat down beside her.

"Hey gang. Anything new happen while I was dodging the coach again?" I pulled an apple out of my bag and took a bite. While I didn't have a biological need for food, it still tasted good & I enjoyed eating.

 

[Varshanka]

Zatanna

Moving through the halls, and some of the people, Zatanna followed this group that spoke of Outsiders. Why would they speak of such things? Were they dabblers in the arcane? Children that played at things best untouched?

And they gathered at a table in the dining room. One table. One table filled with such light and power. She would need to spend time researching this gathering.

Hopefully they didn’t really dabble. For such power could summon some really bad shit. Outsiders were not a thing to play with.

But something called her back to her physical form. Time.. it was nearly time..

***

Eyes blinked and legs uncrossed as Zatanna stood. Rolling her neck the young spellcaster walked from the back room, sighing. No one had come in otherwise she’d have been called back earlier.

But it was lunch tie at the school, so her tea invite should be coming by soon. Unless she was busy.

Taking a seat at the counter Zatanna pulled out a deck of cards and did a reading on the future.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Pete, and Chloe. "Got you feeling like 'Man, what just happened?'"

I walked up behind her, looked quickly to see if any teachers were watching, then pecked her on the cheek and sat down beside her.

Rose's faint smile instantly became a beaming grin and she grabbed Kyle's hand as he sat down beside her.

"Hey, you," she murmured, eyes dancing.

"Hey gang. Anything new happen while I was dodging the coach again?" I pulled an apple out of my bag and took a bite. While I didn't have a biological need for food, it still tasted good & I enjoyed eating.

Rose frowned immediately. "He's bugging you again? What do you have to do, get Pete's mom to file a restraining order or something?"

Pete's lip quirked. "Yeah, I remember that sorta thing from my bros going to school here, that guy's tantrums were legendary. You watch out for that guy, he knows how to coach a damn team but that sorta respect has its limits. You want me to talk to The Honourable Judge Mama Ross, you just say the word."

"Betcha he's getting desperate," Chloe mused, "with second-stringer Mike 'Iron Arm' Gradlow benched with bad grades, surprise surprise, and All-American Hero Whitney Fordman getting chatted up by every recruiter in the tri-state area short of my own Uncle Sam, and Roy, ugh, Roy, Coach Arnold's running low on q-bees. Too bad he's too chauvinistic to ask a softball player on board, eh, Kara?"

Rose shook her head. "Also, he has weird thermal emissions. Kind of like a convection thingy? It might just be his blood pressure, but I dunno. Weird."

Chloe squinted. "'Weird?'"

Rose nodded. "'Weird.' Not that there's anything wrong with that."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

I squeezed Rose's hand, then took another bite of my apple.

"Nothing wrong with weird hon. I'll deal with him. If I have to I'll have a word with the principal. Or better yet, have Launchpad drop him off on the east coast somewhere. Speaking of Launchpad, did he get another month of detentions again or something? I got something I want to ask him, and it does involve you Chloe. Maybe finish up that interview you wanted with the Metropolis Ghost Vigilante."

I fished out my sandwich and took a bite. Chloe had been wanting to finish that interview for a few weeks now, but my nights just had not been free enough to accommodate her. Tonight looked good for a rooftop interview.