Author's Note: Alright well, lack of reviews on the last chapter made me sad. But ah well! At least people are reading it.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Chapter 4: Control: Portman

I wish I had been there when that guy attacked Julie. I would have taken his head off. I mean, sure, she drives me nuts sometimes, but that doesn't mean I think she deserves to have some creep hold a knife to her neck and grope her. But what if Charlie's right and this guy's like him? We all know that Charlie will do anything to figure out how exactly his powers work. I wouldn't put it past him to seek this guy out and try to figure out how the whole thing works.

I have to remember to not let my temper get away from me, at the thought of some guy watching us. I hate the idea of it, even more than I hate having Gaffney in my head all the time. But I gotta keep my cool. That's my problem, if I lose my temper, I lose control over it. Once, this summer, I got pissed and went on a rampage, I ended up tearing out a parking meter. So I have to find my center. I started meditating, which sounds lame, but it helps a lot. That's what I mostly do in those sessions with Coach. He shouts things that he'll know will piss me off, and I have to try to center myself and use the strength to lash out in a fighting style. We've all been doing a lot of martial arts since we found out. Obviously Fulton and I only spar with each other. We could really hurt one of the others if we lost control.

"Hey," Julie walks out, and sees me sitting on the couch.

"Hey," I smile at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," she shrugs. "I sensed the room, saw you here,"

"You reading my mind Cat?" I raise an eyebrow.

"No," she shakes her head, "Tried to, but it was pretty blank," then it dawns on her. "You were meditating! I'm sorry."

"It's OK," I laugh, "You've had a tough night. Did we show you the new sketches?" Fulton and I both have substantial comic book knowledge and therefore are designing our super hero costumes. Julie shakes her head and I grab the notebook that we've been working in. She takes it and starts flipping.

"Is this me?" She stops at one. I look over and laugh. It's a pretty early sketch, but its Julie in a black catsuit, with Duck green and gold highlighting it. "Why doesn't Connie have to wear a catsuit?"

"Because Connie," I flip to the sketch of Connie, hers is a leotard and skirt, also black with the green and gold, with a cape, and knee high boots, "needs a cape."

"She can fly without a cape," She rolls her eyes. "I want a cute little outfit like hers."

"But your super hero name is The Catlady, this requires a catsuit!" I tease her. "Don't you like being the sexy one?" She glares at me. That's a no. "Talk to Fulton if you don't believe me, you can't promise people a Cat persona, and then deny them a catsuit. I mean you have your Catwoman, your Black Cat,"

"Alright I get it," she laughs, "I will reconsider the catsuit. Let's see yours." We keep flipping. "Captain Duck," she stops.

"Yeah," I nod, "We figured Charlie'd look good in your classic super hero look." Charlie's is pretty close to some early Batman looks, though slightly less tight, and well, its black, green and gold instead of purple and yellow. And it's a straight mask, instead of a cowl.

"I like that everything's green and gold," She smiles, "Which one of you came up with that one?"

"That would be Fulton," I laugh, "I'm more about channeling the personas into a style than the actual practicality of it." She smiles. "Why'd you stop at Conway?"

"Just wanted to make sure you weren't putting my boyfriend in tights with his underwear on the outside," She shrugs. I stare at her.

"Did you just say boyfriend?" I gape. She nods. "Since when?"

"Since I saw in his mind that he had a crush on me," she said, "And I woke up from a two week coma, and decided that there are certain things in life worth going for."

"And you guys didn't tell anyone because?" I try. She smiles.

"We figured everyone had enough on their minds," she says. She's probably right. When she came out of the coma the last thing anyone wanted to think about was possible romantic entanglements. "So, where's yours?"

"Right here," I flip a few more pages.

"The Enforcer," she laughs, "Are you and Fulton gonna match?"

"Shut up," I says, "No, see," I point to mine, green tank top with a gold "E" in the center, "Fulton's has sleeves, and see how my mask just covers the eyes," she nods, "His is more like a cowl."

"I see," she nods, "Like your bandanas." She looks down. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

"Are you sure you're OK?" I ask she nods. "Really?"

"Tell the truth?" She looks at me, I nod. "That's why I can't sleep, I'm scared. And when I sensed the room, I was really glad it was you out here."

"Me?" I look at her. "Really?"

"I knew if he," she looks at me, "If he were to come here, you could protect me."

"You don't need protecting Catlady," I smile at her, "You could just send the chair flying at his head."

"Not if he knows that's what I'm doing," She laughs.

"I'm glad you feel safe with me," I look down and smile at her. "If I had been there tonight, I would have killed that guy." I really hope she's not reading my mind right now, because then she'd see that the only thing I can seem to think about, is that I've never realized how much I want to kiss her before.

"I know," she whispers, "Ok, so what do you have for Ice Man and Pyro?" I laugh.

"We need to come up with real names for Goldberg and Averman," I shake my head, "And if you want to get technical, Averman's"

"More like the human torch than Pyro," she nods, "Because he can create the fire, not just manipulate it. I know."

"Yeah," I say surprised. "You know comics?"

"No," she rolls her eyes, "But I've seen X-Men, all three of them, and both Fantastic 4 movies. Remember when we were first figuring out how to handle everything?"

"Who's your favorite Batman?" I ask.

"Duh," she rolls her eyes, "Christian Bale. Who's yours?"

"Bale's highly overrated," I shake my head, "I prefer the highly underrated Val Kilmer."

"For a minute I thought you were going to say Clooney," she shudders. I smile. Now that's my kind of woman.

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