"I met that nice white girl today at NYU", Mercedes told Santana and Kurt.
"So?", Santana answered desinterestedly. "Why are you telling me that? Don't tell me you are into women now. If yes, why didn't you tell me sooner?", she started pouting.
At that, Kurt started screaming, covered his ears and ran out of the room, shouting: "Believe me, if I could push the delete button in my head, I would do it!"
The girls just shrugged and went back to training.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"This, fellas, is my headquarters", Santana said, sounding proud when she showed Mercedes and Kurt around.
The both of them gasped for air, impressed. When the Latina had led them to her basement of her small penthouse, Mercedes had expected a dusty, dark room, but it was so much more than that. It was spacious and modern, and a giant flatscreen was hanging over a wide keyboard with blinking buttons.
Right next to it were two big whiteboards with complicated looking sketches and a lot of question marks.
"How can you even afford all of that?", Kurt wanted to know, cocking one of his perfectly shaped eyebrows. "No offence but I also worked at the Spotlight diner for a few months. I know exactly what your salary looks like."
Santana shrugged and waved it off. "Please", she just said sassily "Never ask a woman how she earns her living."
"Don't say you paid all of this with all the jewelry and money you have stolen?", Kurt said sharply.
The Latina glared at him. "I would never go so low, Lady Lips, okay?"
Mercedes cleared her throat loudly before their fight could get more serious (and more dangerous). "Do you already have any traces concerning those people you are after?"
Suddenly looking sad, Santana shook her head. "Nope. I try finding those douchebags since I was eighteen, but to no avail. They erased all of their traces, it's like they never even existed." She slumped down on her office chair and looked at Mercedes, thoughtful. "You are the only other person I know that's like me. It's highly probable that you got scratched by one of their lab rats, or lab cats, in this case."
"And that cat is still out there." Kurt narrowed his eyes. "And that's a problem."
"Yeah, Kurt is right", Mercedes agreed and sat down on one of the couches at Santana's HQ "What if it scratches other innocent uninvolved people here in New York, especially criminals?"
Santana exhaled audibly. "Those irresponsible sons of bitches. We can't allow other people's lives will be turned upside down, just like mine three years ago. We need to find that darned cat before it causes more trouble."
"Easier said than done." Kurt frowned. "New York is way too big, so we are practically looking for needle in a haystack. Finding that wildcat is nearly impossible."
Mercedes smiled at him faintly. "Nearly, that's the keyword, white boy." She looked in the round optimistically. "Hey, we are going to find that cat, okay?"
The other two, however, exchanged doubtful glances.
~ (ꏿ ᆺ ꏿ) ~
With a big cup of coffee next to her, Mercedes sat in one of the cafés at the NYU campus, brainstorming for homework, a two-page essay she needed to hand in in less than two days. Since she had been so busy thinking of strategies to defeat Vortex lately, she had totally forgot about her duties as a student.
That day, the café was crowded, probably because it was already late in the afternoon, all of the tables were occupied, and Mercedes had been lucky she had gotten one of the last free places for herself.
"Excuse me?"
Startled, Mercedes looked up. A pretty blonde with stylish clothes was standing in front of her table, carrying a lot of books in her arms. She pointed at the chair on the opposite of Mercedes. "Is that place still free?"
"Oh, of course." Mercedes quickly put her things aside so that the blonde could sit down.
The other student smiled gratefully before she took a seat and put down the stack of books which all had a lot of post its and colorful bookmarks.
Mercedes whistled impressedly while she watched the blonde put her index cards into the correct order. "You really do have a lot to learn by heart, right?"
She laughed. "No, I'm just exaggerating. I love structures, that's the easiest way for me to study."
"What's your major?", Mercedes asked curiously, taking another sip from her latte.
"Economics", the blonde answered with a smile. "I'm Quinn, by the way."
"Mercedes. Journalism and New Media", she introduced herself, smiling as well. "Are you a freshman?"
Quinn shook her head. "Actually, this is already my junior year."
"So you are almost done studying? That's cool", Mercedes hummed and leaned back on her chair.
The blonde didn't look so convinced. "I consider taking my master's as well as soon as I got my bachelor's degree. NYU is great, and college life is supposed to be the best time of your life as well, why leave after only four years?"
"Good argument", Mercedes agreed. To be honest, she hadn't thought about it that way. Her plan was to graduate as soon as possible. "I guess it's too early to think about my future plans now, this is my second month here at NYU."
Quinn laughed. "I totally get that." She looked at Mercedes in a friendly way. "Hey, if you are new here, how about I show you around in New York afterwards? I mean if you are not that busy."
Mercedes looked up, surprised. "That…that would be great! Thanks, that's so nice of you", she said, surprised. She felt how her cat ears underneath her favorite beanie were twitching joyfully and hoped that Quinn didn't notice.
"You know, I have also been an insecure freshman back then, I know how you must feel now", she winked. "Everything is so new and exciting and you don't know anybody, that can be kind of scary."
That's when Mercedes was sure that moving to New York had definitely been the right decision.
~ (ꏿ ᆺ ꏿ) ~
"I met that nice white girl today", she told Santana and Kurt while they were at her (for now, it's theirs as well, Santana had given them the keys) headquarters, about to train fighting (Santana's idea because she wanted to be prepared in case they needed to kick some asses).
Kurt was sitting on the office chair, reading the latest Vogue while Santana taught her hand to hand combat techniques.
"So?", Santana said disinterestedly while Kurt was just muttering something unintelligible before he turned back to his magazine again. This time, he retrieved a pen and started scribbling things into the magazine for some reason.
At that moment, Santana punched her into her face, and Mercedes fell to the floor with a lot thud. "Ouch! What the hell?", she exclaimed, irritated, and rubbed her aching cheek. "Since when are you so strong?"
Santana shrugged. "That's my special power: Enhanced Strength." She looked at her with a frown when Mercedes threw her a confused glance. "Don't tell me you don't know what your ability is, Aretha?"
Mercedes shook her head. "I honestly have no idea what you are talking about."
Interested, Kurt looked up from his magazine. "You have special powers? That's new information for me."
"For me as well, white boy", Mercedes commented. "I thought turning into a lynx-like wildcat, enhanced agility, stamina and speed was all."
"Well, you were wrong", Santana grumbled. "You also have your very own superpower, as far as I know."
Mercedes exchanged surprised glances with Kurt. "Which is?"
When the two of them were looking at the Latina expectantly, she groaned, annoyed. "Why do you ask me? I have no idea as well. I found out about my powers by accident as well."
"Hey, that's no problem", Mercedes said reassuringly. "I can still keep New York save with the powers I know about. There's no hurry to find out what it is, right?"
Santana shrugged again. "If you say so, Aretha." In the next moment, she lunged at her and pushed her to the floor.
Mercedes groaned and got up again. "I thought you wanted to handle me with child gloves today", she whined while she wiped away traces of blood.
The Latina just laughed loudly. "Believe me, if I didn't do it, you would already be dead by now. Do you really think all the bad guys out there will be gentler?"
"Okay, okay, I got it", Mercedes gave in, grimacing.
"And besides", Santana added while she punched Mercedes in the stomach a couple of times and the latter one hissed in pain "Your healing abilities are sped up now, so in one to two hours, you won't even have a scratch anyway."
…
It was already eight pm when Mercedes was working on her essay when someone knocked on her door.
Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and got up to open the door. Did Kurt forget his keys again? She was so going to call him out now. "White boy, you can't just-" Surprised, she trailed off when she spotted the unexpected visitor.
It wasn't Kurt.
It was Sam who smiled at her goofily. "Hey, Mercedes."
"Oh, hey, Sam", she answered with a shy smile, hoping that she was wearing her beanie. But according to Sam not fainting/screaming at her/pointing a gun at her because of her freaky appearance, she apparently did.
"Erm…come in", she said after a while when she noticed that she had been staring for way too long.
Sam did, and Mercedes led him to their small couch where they both sat down. "Did…did you have a reason to come here? Kurt isn't here", she explained because she knew that he and Kurt were friends.
"Oh, I didn't come here because of Kurt", he answered, sheepishly looking down and rubbing his neck. "To be honest, I…I wanted to see you", he added, somewhat nervous. "Sounds weird, right? I mean, we practically don't know each other."
Mercedes smiled a bit even though she was surprised. "Not yet. And no, doesn't sound weird at all", she said quickly. "That's nice of you, I don't have many friends here in New York, expect for Kurt, and…" She bit her lip. Actually, it was no good idea to tell him about Santana, or else, people could find out about Vortex' and Catgirl's identities more easily. "…someone named Quinn."
"Quinn?", Sam asked, clearly surprised. "As in Quinn Fabray? Blond hair, brown eyes?", he asked her, interested.
"I…I think that's what she looked like", Mercedes said slowly. "Why? Do you know her?"
Sam grimaced. "Yep. She is my ex-girlfriend.", he admitted.
"What?" What a small world… "For real? What a coincidence", she laughed. "But she seemed to be a nice person."
When she said that, Sam's face expression darkened. "I don't think nice people cheat on their boyfriends repeatedly.", he muttered.
Mercedes threw him a compassionate glance. "She…she cheated on you? More than once? I'm so sorry to hear that. I can imagine how you must have felt", she said quietly.
"Thanks", Sam answered, still looking kind of upset about it.
"No, I'm serious", she went on "My ex-boyfriend has cheated on me as well. And the worst thing was that I found out about it when I caught him making out with my best friend." Her now ex best friend as well. "In the end, I found out that he only wanted to be my boyfriend because he wanted to use me to sleep with her."
Sam looked at her with a pained face expression. "That sucks. I'm sorry."
She just waved it off, retrieved two cans of sugar free grape soda from their fridge and handed him the second can who accepted it gratefully.
"So we are bonding because of our unfaithful douchey exes right now?", he asked amusedly.
Mercedes needed to smirk. "I guess that's exactly what's happening", she agreed and took a sip of her soda.
For a while, they were just sitting next to each other, drinking their sodas in silence. But for some reason, this kind of silence was not uncomfortable or something. Did you ever feel at ease around someone without needing to fill the silence with small talk? That's how Mercedes felt around Sam. Yes, they didn't know each other for a long time, but it didn't matter for some reason.
"Did you already settle in here in New York? Do you like living here?", he asked her to change the topic.
"It's not Lima, and I still need to tell myself I'm not in Ohio anymore", Mercedes admitted "but overall, I do like it. There is always something going on here, and that's great."
Sam laughed. "Do you also mean that new superheroine that's protecting NY lately?", he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Mercedes almost dropped the can in her hands. "You…you know about her?"
"Pretty much everyone in New York does", he pointed out with an excited smile. "And for me as a Marvel/DC geek, it's a dream come true. I never would have thought that superpowers exist. I have so many questions: Why did she show up now? How is it physically possible she can turn into a lynx? Does she have other abilities as well?"
Oh my.
Mercedes just shrugged, feigning disinterest. "To be honest, I'm not that interested in her. Yes, it's great she saves people and stops criminals, but so do the cops, and they don't get as much praise as Catgirl."
"Because Catgirl is more awesome than all the cops.", Sam said matter-off-factly. Suddenly, his phone vibrated, and he retrieved it, looking at his new message. Throwing her an apologetic glance, he sighed: "I need to go, my roommate can't find his keys and locked himself out."
"Oh, of course. Just go help him out." Mercedes accompanied him to the door, smiling at him before he left.
"But I enjoyed chatting with you, Mercedes Jones", Sam said with a wink. "How about we go out for dinner together some time?"
Her eyes lit up. "Yes, I would love to."
"Great" He grabbed one of Kurt's post-its (With complicated looking notes and weird formulas. What the hell was going on in that boy's head?) from his desk on the way and scribbled down his phone number. "Just call me whenever you are in the mood."
"I definitely will", she promised, trying not to smile from ear to ear.
He walked out of the door and turned around one last time. "Good night, Mercedes."
"Good night, Sam", she said with a goofy grin before he left.
After she had closed the door behind him, she leaned against it, letting out an excited squeal and pumping her fist in the air.