Aero: The Beginning

Chapter 2: Covered Behind a Mask

"I've never really been in love before. I've dated, but it was hard to because of what I do during the night."

Olivia woke up by the sound of a scream, Alex's scream. She shot up out of her bed and ran out of her bedroom towards the kitchen and saw Casey laughing hard at her girlfriend who had orange juice all over her work clothes. Olivia tried not to laugh, but failed and chuckled a bit. "It's not funny you guys! God, Now I have to put on a new set of clothes…" Alex grumbled and Casey kissed her cheek as she started to walk away to her bedroom. Casey looked at Olivia with a soft smile. "Want me to make you breakfast?"

Olivia nodded and sat down at the table. "Sure, that'd be great."

Casey began to cook more bacon and eggs while she spoke to the other. "You working today?"

"Nope. I'm on emergency call because you know Elliot always has a hard time with certain car fixing."

Casey laughed.

"What? It's true. He can't manage without me there sometimes, it's funny."

"I heard you last night in your sleep, you know." Casey said softly, changing the subject.

Olivia blinked and tilted her head. "What did you hear?"

"You said 'Or we'll kill you' and I chuckled a bit. You had a flashback about when we had Alex join our like group of superhumans, didn't you?"

"Yep."

"You and Alex always argued. You two still do."

"Do not!" Alex said, walking back into the room with a new set of clothes.

"Yes you do."

"No we don't" Olivia shook her head "I think we've gotten better than before, right Lex?"

Alex nodded. "Of course!"

"You two are ganging up on me again. That's not nice. We really need another person so I can have a tag team partner to gang up on you guys."

"So, what you're saying is that Olivia just needs to find a girlfriend."

Olivia glared at Alex who was laughing.

Casey chuckled a bit and sat a plate in front of Olivia before sitting down.

"It's not funny guys."

"It's quite hilarious actually."

"Very hilarious." Alex added, still laughing.

"Aren't you two late for work or something?"

"I don't leave for another hour and Alex needs to get her coffee before she leaves or else she'll leash hell on her co-workers."

"We know how that feels though."

"Yes. Yes we do."

"Hey, I'm right here!" Alex yelled before rolling her eyes and getting up, "Anyway, I'm going to go. If I don't leave now, I'm going to be late because of traffic." She kissed Casey's lips one last time before leaving the house. Casey looked over at Olivia who was making kissy faces at her and she just rolled her eyes.

"You really need to find yourself a girlfriend.. You sit in this place all day, doing nothing whenever you have days off."

"No, what I need are friends who don't work like workaholics all day."

"Hey..." Casey said a bit in a warning tone while raising an eyebrow.

"Hey..." Olivia said in a mocking tone.

"We're workaholics so we can keep this place up and running."

"You guys don't have to work. You choose to."

"Okay, okay Liv. You win. We don't have to, but we choose to so that we have a roof over our heads and we can live with all this damn technology that we have." Olivia rolled her eyes and took a sip of her orange juice that Casey put on the table before she opened up the newspaper like always. Casey grabbed her purse and told Olivia that she was leaving before exiting the place off to work. Olivia kept staring at the newspaper though, reading about a new criminal on the loose, a new 'super villain' as the citizens of New York are calling her: JK. Olivia, Casey, and Alex had heard of her, but they never really encountered her. Maybe the criminals we keep finding every night are her men... Olivia thought and then kept reading. The picture showed JK's spray painted name on a wall behind two dead bodies. She put the newspaper down, her face straight but slightly full of anger and she stood up, taking her orange juice and walking away from the table, forgetting about her food at first and then going back to get it before walking into the sparring room they had just made a few months ago.

"We need a place to actually practice in Casey. You know, one that we won't end up breaking your tech-y stuff and you won't start screaming at us for?" Alex said as the three were going up the elevator to their home.

"No."

"Case" Olivia wrapped an arm around the other's shoulder "think about it: If we use a spare room that we haven't used, a big one, then you'll have us out of your hair and we won't have to break all your computers and stuff."

Case rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat. "If you guys can empty out a big, spare room that we have, I'll buy the equipment for it and YOU TWO will have to set everything up. I'm not doing squat."

Alex kissed Casey's cheek. "Thanks Case."

Olivia smiled at the memory and shook her head as she walked into the dojo, putting her juice and food in a corner somewhere where she wouldn't hit it and she instantly got into a handstand, doing some push ups while in thought. JK was really getting to her. She really wanted to find this woman and give her a piece of her mind, or a face full of fists rather. After doing almost a hundred push ups, she landed gently on the ground and she stretched out a bit, looking up at the ceiling briefly before she sighed. "Yeah, I'm bored... Don't usually work out by myself..." She mumbled to herself before going over to her food and eating it quietly. She knew she had to get out now because the house is empty and that gave her leverage to wanna destroy things, or at least be shadow sparring around the house and end up hitting something.

After finishing her food and everything, she went to the place she last saw the blonde woman. Funny enough, she was actually inside what was a cafe. Olivia shook her head a bit and just walked in, stuffing her hands in her pockets and sitting down in a place that was secluded and by the windows. She looked out of a bit and Amanda noticed her once she was giving someone coffee. "Hey Amanda!"

Amanda looked over at her co-worker, Jessie, and smiled lightly. "Yeah?"

"You mind gettin' her? I have to take a few more people's orders and everything and-"

"Yeah, I got it. Don't worry." Amanda smiled a bit more and walked over to the direction where Olivia was sitting. Olivia wasn't paying attention nor did she really sense her presence. Amanda cleared her throat, causing Olivia to snap her head towards her. She smiled warmly. "What can I get you miss?" She asked, holding her little notepad in her hand.

Olivia blinked for a second in thought and then ran a hand through her hair. "Um... A raspberry tea and a chocolate muffin is fine. Thank you..." She answered softly before looking away again. Amanda wrote it down and watched her look back at the window, curious to why she was doing that. Amanda walked away and gave Jessie the order and looked back at the brunette.

"Why you staring at her like that Amanda?" Jessie asked.

"She just... seems so lonely. Like she needs a friend or somethin'."

"Then go be her friend then."

Amanda looked back at Jessie, an eyebrow raised.

"What? Go be her friend! You're friendly enough to be that and plus, I got her order, I'll bring it over to you guys when the muffin's done. Now, go." Jessie said, shooing Amanda away. Amanda walked away and rolled her eyes a bit before walking back to Olivia's table. She then sat across from her and Olivia looked back at her and blinked. "... Hi." Amanda said with a soft smile.

"... Hey.."

"You looked kinda lonely so I thought about coming to, you know... Make a friend."

Olivia chuckled lightly and smiled. "Well, that's nice of you. I don't think I see people like that everyday."

"Well yeah, people like me are one of a kind."

"I guess that's a nice thing that you're one of a kind." Olivia stuck her hand out for a handshake "I'm Olivia."

Amanda shook her hand gently. "Amanda."

"Nice to meet you Amanda. So, I see you work here."

"Yeah... It's a little side job. I mainly work with martial arts. I teach kids and adults to learn to fight and protect themselves and everything."

"Oh? Huh... I guess they need protecting nowadays, hm?"

"Well yeah.. Especially with that villain JK running around. I think it's nice though, to have heroes like Archangel and Aero around."

"Sounds like you met them before." Olivia said with a playful smirk. Of course, Olivia knew she did but she couldn't talk about her secret identity like that. At least, not yet because she'd love to tell everyone that she was Aero, but it was Casey who said not to tell anyone unless they trust them fully.

Amanda blushed a bit and nodded. "I met... Aero last night actually." She leaned in close to keep quiet and not to talk so loud, "She saved my life from a guy my family knows. He was gonna hurt me and everything and she just... appeared out of nowhere."

Olivia tilted her head and nodded. "Oh wow... That's pretty awesome. I mean, not the part about the guy, but meeting Aero... Was she nice?"

"Very. She made sure I was okay and everything," Amanda sighed lightly, "She looked beautiful too... even with the hood and the mask."

"Huh... Sounds like you gotta little crush on her. I'm kinda jealous."

"Jealous? Why would you be jealous?" Amanda tilted her head.

"Someone's caught your eye before I could catch yours." Olivia said with a wink. Amanda blushed again and by then Jessie brought Olivia her tea and muffin. Olivia thanked her and take a bite of her muffin as silence came in between their conversation. Olivia was taking a sip of her tea before Amanda started to speak.

"Have you met them before?"

Olivia looked over at Amanda. "Who?"

"Archangel and Aero."

Olivia shrugged. "One time. They helped me out of a burning building a few years back."

"Wow... what was Archangel like?"

"She's almost like Aero... but she's blonde and very bright. She drives a motorcycle and I thought that was the coolest thing ever."

Amanda nodded and smiled a bit. "I think they're good partners, you know? From what the press say, despite them saying that they should let the sops do everything... They say that they are the best thing that has happened in New York in a long time. That the police shouldn't be trying to go after them if they're trying to help them and everything."

Olivia nodded, understanding and agree with it because the police was always on her ass whenever they found her apprehending a criminal. Her and Alex almost got shot by the cops because they thought they were the enemy the first few months of them being 'superheroes'. Olivia and Amanda kept talking after a while, mostly about Aero and Archangel, but also getting to know each other. Olivia didn't really speak about her childhood much because it was something she never really spoke about a lot since she was an orphan most of her life. She finally looked at her watch and saw it was almost noon since she had been there. "Well Amanda, I have to go. I have a friend to meet for her lunch hour before she kills me."

"Oh? Well that's fine. Oh here," Amanda wrote her number on a napkin and handed it to Olivia "You can call me there and... Your tea and muffin is on the house."

Olivia put the napkin in her pocket and smiled. "Thank you Amanda. I'll make sure to treat you to something nice the next time we see each other." Amanda nodded and waved at the other before Olivia left the cafe. She walked down the streets for a while and headed towards the direction of Alex's job.