Disclaimer: Wow, still don't own it. How many chapters before I won the things I didn't create? Thinking never, which is fine, but sometimes I feel like we give em more respect….When we don't torture them.
:}
Meredith found her privacy broken when a certain goth walked up to where she was sitting by herself, enjoying her almost free period. "Can I help you?" She asked the taller girl.
"Whats this about the Velvet Phantom working with Constable?" Jade growled.
"Jealous?" The shorter girl asked. "Please, I've been training for this for most of my life. I'm street ready, while you have so much to learn about the rules. Sure, it sucks, first encounter with a real threat, and you screwed the pooch. But you know what? You're gonna do so much more, and I just wanted some street time to get used to the new life I wanted. So, we're not rivals, I'm just more ready for the streets then you are. That is, in a heroing, non-sexual way, cause that sounded so much like I was a hooker." A smirk. "Still, I'm more ready for deployment, and you, you need to learn how to survive those mean streets."
"This sucks." Jade growled, slipping down to the floor.
"Shouldn't you be in class?" Meri wondered.
"I'm good." Jade told the girl. "This period, I have a writing class, and I'm actually ahead. In fact, when I asked the teacher if I could wander the halls, they gave me their blessing, and a hall pass. Why're you out here?"
"I'm TA'ing this period, and they don't need me right now." The other girl admitted. "Now, lets talk about your jealousy." A sly smile crossed the girls face, as she set to show the taller girl that there are more then one way to read another person. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're the one being forced to do this, right?"
"I agreed to be Blue Steel's sidekick in return for the deal my grandfather got." Jade agreed. "I'm keeping both of us out of prison. Course, I'm gonna have to work my ass off to hold up my end of the deal, but I'm putting in the work."
"So, you're being forced to do this." Meredith said. "While I'm the one who's wanted this for most of my life, cause mom, she made it clear that I'm her best hope of fulfilling her dream of being that hero. Hell, after all this time, I want it for me too. I wanna be the hero, be the girl who saves lives and fights evil, cause someone has to. I'll live hella long, and I might as well be that guardian angel that the world needs. So, for now, I'm happy that Constable took me out, cause Steel, he's not gonna break his end of your bargain. So natural, I won't be able to convince him to take me out, cause he doesn't want the city seeing him with anyone except heroes he's been known to work with, and you. Thus, Constable, who's the other police hero, and the guy I had to rely upon to show me the streets."
"Sigh." Jade said, making a point of letting the other girl know how she was feeling. "I shouldn't be so upset. I should be grateful, cause while I have years of community service left, the time I spend in the class kinda counts. Kinda. Thing is, I just, if it's a competition, I wanna win. I gotta win, cause otherwise, who the fudge am I?"
"The Black Dahlia." Meredith said. "The girl who held off both Blue Steel and The Constable, while making sure no one got seriously hurt. You have power, and mad skills with 'em. Once you recover from the burn, and thanks again for doing that for me, but once you recover you'll be a force out there. You just need to learn to think tactically, and we'll be learning to do just that. Plus, all these new heroes we're seeing, mostly part timers. Hell, even us, who'll be more full time, we're gonna be living our lives, and that takes up time too. But us, the semi-pro's, we're the one's who are both allies and rivals. So yea, I got Constable to take me out, cause I needed street time. I don't have a major hero looking to make me their sidekick. But what I do have is access, as well as a useful ability that helped the hero solve a murder. Mind readings not admissible in court, but once you know, you can use that data to get them to spill all kinds of useful things. And that was why I was out, being a hero, while you were busy learning to take orders." She stood up. "We're gonna work together, a lot, and I want us to be on good terms. However, I'm the one who wanted this. I'm the one who will make this a major part of my life. Jade, I wish you luck, but learn the fucking rules, as well as how to read the streets, cause I'm not the one to carry you."
'Great, now I feel even worse.' Jade thought, watching the shorter girl walking off.
Jade found her feet, and made her way back to class, where she'd feel both powerful, due to her writing, and wanted. 'Maybe I can help someone come up with a better story, cause so much of what they write is dreck.'
Meredith found Reggie sitting in the office, occupying the police resource officers space. Semi-private, she used that to renew acquaintances, closing the door secure in the knowledge that everyone inside the room knew about the program. "Funny seeing you here." She smiled at the man.
"Meri, you go to school here?" The police instructor said. "Of course you do. Man, it's been a minute, hasn't it?'
"So good to see you." The girl gushed honey and sweetness with each word. "I wish I knew you'd be here. I'd have brought you a cupcake."
"Yea, I'm helping train a couple of potentials." He said with a shrug.
"Jade?" Meredith asked. "Or would you know her as Dahlia?"
"You know about her?" The police trainer said.
"Yep." The agreeable girl said. "She's the one who altered my abilities, gave me mom's healing factor. The Velvet Phantom is back on the streets, all thanks to her."
"Yea, that's a scary though." Reggie said, suppressing a shudder at this new twist of events..
"Hay, I'm a lot more controlled then I used to be." The petite girl argued. "I'm in more control of my emotions, and I'm driven to be the hero mom wanted me to be. So, no more overuse of force." She smiled at the man. "No unnecessary injuries. I'm just gonna be a hero now, and a role model, and to do that, we need to show restraint."
"I just hope you remember, innocent until proven guilty." Reggie pushed, smiling a hopefully disarming smile at the girl. "So, you're a hero now, huh?"
"In training, but yea." Meri said, breathing in with a feeling of joy. "No longer a danger to be around. I'm gonna be the best me I can be, and that includes not permanently injuring those I apprehend."
"You working with Redemption?" Reggie asked. "Cause I think that maybe, Lane here would be the best person to evaluate if you're safe to be on the streets." He gestured to the semi-concealed third person in the office, the school counselor.
"She is." The councilor contributed. "Girls a lot calmer then she used to be."
"Then welcome to the team." Reg said. "You're gonna be so useful in helping the kids we've yet to recruit learn that it's not all bad to be a part of the system."
"Just, remember, restraint." lane added. "NO longer have a reason to feel inferior, now that you have that healing factor, so restraint."
"And body armor." Meredith added. "But yea, totally get it. So, what're we talking about?"
Tori was grinning ear to ear as she watched her girl getting lunch. 'So glad we get to have you out here, in the sunlight.' She thought, enjoying the way the pale girls skirt moved across her ass.
"So, whats now?" Robbie asked. He was the first of the gang, not counting Tori, to make it to the table.
"Nothing much." She said, eyeing those around them. Noting they were temporarily clear, she went for it. "Um, quickly, FYI, in the program, we use code names as soon as we can. Individual entrances, code names, and we keep secrets."
"This because of Beck joining up?" Rob asked.
"Yea, it's…" The Latina's head flipped round to look through the nerdy boy, "wait, you know about that?"
"Yea, Beck and I still talk." The boy smiled. "He tried to keep it from me, but he was the one to recommend me for the crown. That, plus a whole bunch of other little hints, heck, it's hard to kepe this kind of thing from me. So I told him, or rather, he knew when I was accepted, and I know about his outside activities. Hard to hide when someone like Beck starts pulling back on taking leads in plays and the like. But thats cause he's in the program, looking to be a hero. Powered armor, I'd have thought it was easy, before I met the PoliceTech guys at the program, and they explained just how hard those systems can be. Beck mastered that system fast."
"What system?" Cat asked as she sat down next to the boy.
"He's learning a new program, for editing movies." Jade lied as she arrived next to her oldest friend. "So, Cat, whats new with you?"
"Nothing…." Cat said, eyeing her best friend in the whole world. "I knew she was keeping things from me. However, I was so glad to have her back, after being forced apart by her crimes, and the system, as well as that pesky bit of drama from Arizona, so I was willing to forgive. Jade, I'm giving you time, to come to me. I know, when you're ready, you'll tell me why you seem to be carrying so much on your shoulders, cause dating Tori, somehow it seems easier then dating Beck, and you never looked as burdened as you do now. A good burden, I guess, like a responsibility on your mind, but still a burden. So, when you're ready, I'll be here, to listen."
"Um, Cat, you do realize you said that out loud, right?" Tori pointed out.
"Um, wasn't that a voice-over?" The synthetic redhead asked.
"Kinda, except it was out loud." Jade told her.
"Oh, right." The smaller girl said, blushing. "So, you ready to tell me whats going on?"
"No." Jade snapped.
"Kay kay." Cat said.
"Say, whats new guys?" Beck asked as he made his way to where everyone else was sitting. Andre trailed behind him.
"Guys." Andre greeted. "Girls."
"Dre." Jade nodded.
"Andre!" Cat squealed.
"Yo, Dre." Rob greeted.
"Jade's keeping secrets from me." Cat added.
"Now now, Cat." Beck said, his voice soothing. "Jade's got a lot of secrets. She's on probation, in a special program to help rehabilitate her. Now, given what we know about her..."
"She's a gank?" Cat asked.
"CAT!" Jade warned.
"Sorry, difficult to get along with?" Cat amended. "Jade was annoyed when I used the most accurate word, no doubt still smarting from whatever rebuke she'd received for being a gank."
"What now?" Beck asked.
"Cat's experimenting with a voice-over." Robbie said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Um, Cat, we usually do those in our heads." Tori tried, using as much diplomacy as she could muster.
"But how does anyone know what I'm doing if I don't say it out loud?" Cat asked.
"Voice-overs are for us, or maybe a cheap way of letting us know what the narrator is thinking in a movie." Jade explained. "We don't use them to project what we're thinking."
"You're right." Cat agreed. "That's what social media's for."
"Except we use filters when we post on line." Robbie tried.
"Yea, to change the way we look." Cat agreed.
"I meant..." Rob started.
"But have you seen what people post?" Cat talked over her would be boyfriend. "The rules of the Slap are the only thing that keep people from constantly posting all kinds of dirty words and thoughts. And even still, you should see what some people post. Heck, and I'm sorry for the language, but heck, so many people, supposedly smarter then me, just post whatever. It's more extreme then the lockers, and two years ago, three kids got together and snuck a penis on theirs. They hid it in the combined, ostensibly different designs, and it took Mister Dickers three weeks to notice. And that's after I pointed the thing out."
"Yea, that was uncomfortable." Robbie agreed.
"Wait, they painted a penis..." Tori started.
"Keep up, Vega." Jade said. "Second floor, near the science classrooms."
"I remember those lockers." Tori said, smiling. "I didn't see a…. Yea, I see it now. How'd I miss it?"
"Not that hard." Andre noted. "You only looked at the individual lockers, not the total image. Easy to miss. That's why it lasted so long."
"Plus, it takes time to change the images pained on the lockers." Beck added. "So yea, I get that. We see so many people who have no idea how unfiltered their posts really are, and sometimes, I wish adults would be more aware. But that doesn't change the fact that Cat, people don't speak their voice overs. They let other live in ignorance of their inner dialogues. That way, we keep our friends."
"Kay kay." The redhead nodded. "So, Jadey, what's the secret you've been keeping?"
"I told you, she probably can't tell you." Beck said.
"But my followers wanna know." Cat whined.
"Not gonna work." Jade said coldly. "But if you need it, you can tell em Vega and I are dating."
"They already know." Cat said. "Slept with her yet?"
"CAT?!" Tori scratched.
"Still haven't answered my question." The redhead noted.
"No, we're not sexually active yet." Jade said with a surprising level of patient.
"Why not?" Sinjin asked, trying to whisper to Cat.
"Cause freaks like you would react, and I really don't wanna see that." Jade sneered at the boy.
"We haven't been dating that long yet." Tori added.
"Guys, lets pretend that this is normal, and just leave them be." Rob tried. "Not that being gay isn't normal, just, Jade and Tori, kinda freaky. However, lets just pretend this is normal, and move on, cause I don't want any of my friends in jail for killing Sinjin, or one of his group."
The tall, nerdy boy seemed to get the message. "Moving on." Sinjin said, and headed off to where his friends were waiting for Cat's next post.
Later, at Project Redemption, Jade's studies were interrupted by a conversation she hadn't wanted. Jade wasn't ready for this conversation. Not here, at the project, not now, with her still studying police law. Only, things were getting complicated, and so, she was asked to visit V's office and go over some logistics, and that meant a conversation she wasn't nearly ready for.
"So, you sleeping with her yet?" The project head had chosen to open with that line, and as such, set a tone that wouldn't be erased, even as other, also less then comfortable subjects, were broached.
"Don't have the time." Jade explained. Inside, she was reeling, trying to figure out why this woman blurred the lines she herself had insisted on clearly maintaining.
"Please, Jade…." Holly waved the girl off. "I know that won't be a problem much longer. Hell, we only have one thing this weekend, shouldn't have anything, but the mayor went and scheduled a meeting, and I'm expected to find out how many members of this project, or it's related project, the Metahuman Internship Administration. Yes, it's called MIA, cause that breeds confidence, right? Anyways, we didn't have anything planned this weekend, cause of how you need the rest. But, and I must point this out, I'm pretty sure Tori is planning on doing whatever to prove to you she's in this for the long haul."
"First date?" Jade questioned.
"Already behind you." The project head chuckled. "Jade, I'm not against this. I think it's kinda healthy, just… Be careful. Given her powers, things can move fast, and what she wants isn't always what she needs. No, just... Sigh, Tori may need this, just to prove to herself that she wants you, and this isn't just some convenient romance. So, now that we're aware of what's about to happen, I think we're ready to discuss our big complication, which is this weekends big meeting."
"The mayors requested meeting." Jade echoed.
"The mayor feels we need to introduce the young supers we have in the various projects. That is, introduce you to each other. I had to fight to avoid doing a press junket, cause he wanted the public to at least know your code names, and I'm not gonna do that to those of my charges who may not want to do more then a little street heroing." The mother sighed. "So I'm inviting all four members of the Blue Generation initiative, project Redemption's one member, you, and the two we have in MIA, god that's such a depressing name."
"I already know most of them." Jade sighed. "Wait, two from the Metahuman Internship Administration? Robbie and…"
"Steel Copper." Holy reminded her.
"Beck." Jade nodded.
"You know?" The older woman raised an eyebrow. "Divination, or did Robbie spill."
"Logic." Jade sighed. "Someone told me he was approached with the intent of being my friend, somehow containing me. Given it's a power armor, Beck would be logical, cause he is my Ex. Good idea, given how we'd broken up over my expectation that I might not be able to go back to my normal life after I went and rescued my granddad. So..."
"Yea." Holly sighed. "No one, except you, will be required to show up. Limits of being on probation. Still, we're gonna let them know, and hope for the best. So, go, study law, and don't get distracted by Wildcards growing fascination with the possibility. Did you know Tori got a book?"
"Lesbian sex?" Jade wondered.
"No, the biography of May West." The project head said. "But she has the other one too. Not sure how she found it, in a used book store, for that ridiculously low price…"
"Right." Jade nodded.
"But hay, you'll also get to meet the members of LA Justice, our premiere super hero team." Holly smiled. "Go, study. We have a busy weekend ahead."
Jade just focused on her work, and decided to let things happen. 'Some day, maybe, I might, MIGHT, have a weekend where I'm only on call.'
A short time later, she saw something that made her head spin. Beck, in casual clothing, was moving through the facility. 'What the hell…!' Her impulse was to either hide, or confront the boy. Either would have been better then just sitting there, confused.
"Beck, you made it." Achilles Junior greeted the boy. Beck just looked up at the six foot six figure, with his bulky, muscular frame, and tried to place the deep voice to just about any face he could remember.
"Sorry, have we met?" The normally cool boy asked.
"Oh, right, you haven't seen me in this form." Rob said, taking the moment to will himself to shift back to his human form. "THIS is what the heroes crown does."
"ROB!" Beck called. "Wow, that thing… Are you really as strong as that form hints at?"
"Yes and no." The nerdy boy shrugged. "I'm just over human maximum in that form, and I can take a hit, but it's a second item that makes the form work. I just, V said to keep as much as possible secret, cause…"
"Did you know V was misses Vega?" Beck blurted.
"After I was accepted, yea." Rob shrugged. "We all have to meet with her, like regularly. She's the coordinator of Project Redemption, as well as the Blue Generation Initiative, and our group, the Metahuman Internship Administration. That means she's the one responsible for every under age meta working for the city, even us reservists, or those who are just looking for a second chance. Anyways, I'm also supposed to distract you, cause there are others down here who are training today, and V doesn't need you stumbling in on something you're not ready for. So, instead, lets put that Steel Copper armor to a test, and see how it performs under simulated circumstances. They have a danger room type thingy down here, limited, cause tech is limited, but we're working on that too. Anyways, wait until this Saturday, when we get to meet up with all the other willing youth Meta's working with the city. It'll be at LA Justices base, so… Gonna get to meet the professionals. So, you in?"
"If it's part of the job." Beck shrugged. "So, have you met her yet?" His voice went semi-spooky at the her.
"Lots of hers down here." Rob shrugged. "Look, we're supposed to be in our super ID's down here. So, yea, gonna turn back into Achilles Junior." His body shifted, growing and expanding, becoming his meta form. "Also, down here, we exclusively use our meta identities, so I'm Achilles junior, or just junior. Yea, we use short versions, or nicknames, but we're our alternate identities. Kinda like some of the more out there clubs."
"Okay, have you met the Black Dahlia?" Beck pushed.
"Yep." Rob nodded. "Only, we're not supposed to disturb her right now, cause she's got a big test coming up."
"She's a student?" Beck wondered.
"Not gonna answer that, except to say, she's required to learn the law, at least as well as a police officer. Honestly, we all should take advantage, learn the law, cause it couldn't hurt..." The now mystic meta answered. "So… What can I do for you now?"
"I was supposed to get a tour, but something came up, and misses Vega..."
"Misses V." Rob corrected. "Even she has her code name, and we use it. Everyone has their code name, except the scientists and technitians, who for whatever reason, just don't. You get used to using the alternate names down here. Just, and I know she told you, but this world, it's for this world. Up there, we use our normal ID's, and don't talk about fight club."
"Good reference." Beck complimented. "So…. Dahlia, they said she could use a friend…."
"Things change, man." Robbie shrugged his now massive shoulders. "I'm sure she'd love to have you as a friend, but for now, see, she's seeing someone, on her own time, and it's helped. Plus, I've been trying to be her friend as well. So, yea… Just, when you do meet her, expect her to be kinda…."
"It's ME!" Jade heard herself saying, and realized she'd gone from listening in on the conversation to standing in her doorway, perception filter down, addressing her ex.
:}
So, thoughts?
Thinking Jade is gonna need to learn a bit more self control. Then again, it's Beck… Always gonna hold a special place in her heart, even if the romantic part now belongs to Tori.
So, thoughts on sweet, petite Meredith? Thinking she went through a phase, and maybe wasn't always so easy to deal with. Thinking maybe she had issues to deal with. Then again, doesn't everyone?
Review.