Max smirked a bit. If Kate actually saw Batman she probably wouldn't be calling him a guardian angel anymore. Some criminals called him the Dark Knight.
"Well, I know the Batman in my time doesn't have powers, but no one was ever sure about the one from the past... or, this time rather," she said carefully. "That's part of what made him so scary. Everyone else though, they had powers s'far as I could tell. Batman's just got a utility belt."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/03/2006 09:59:47
"Powers seem to be the norm." Except for her and Elliot, well he had had those sort of powers for a bit there. "Powers or metal suits …" Had to give Iron Man his due after all. "A utility belt? Cool, me I'd take a bow and arrow over powers any day. If I was you know, going to fight crime or whatever."
Whoops. Oh well, like she had reasoned before, no one knew about the Young Avengers here …
"Wait, wait, Batman … hold up, what does he look like?" Hadn't the fellow from the warehouse had a bat on his suit?
From: i_assist Date: 06/03/2006 10:10:11
"Computers for me. Good technology and some fighting skills're all you need." Okay, well, those two things and brains, but why quibble? It wasn't like she was going to deny that Bruce was pretty much one of the smartest men she knew. "I mean, I know it's not really a career you're supposed to jump at if you're powerless, but... it's not impossible." She shrugged.
"Well the one from your time, he used to wear a huge black suit and he had a yellow bat cutout thing on his chest. Basically the same thing the one from my time wears, 'cept the bat on his chest is red and his suit isn't as bulky, it's like... well, it's just slimmer." Max stopped herself from going into specifics, which she would have happily babbled on about, completely showing that she knew way too much. She liked her technology too much.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/03/2006 16:40:47
"It's not impossible, just some of the people with powers, some of the adults with powers, think that it's not safe. And stuff."
She had to remind herself that she was not talking to Cassie, who completely understood what it was like to be a teenager and wanting to be a hero. She was talking to Max … who actually did seem to sort of understand.
"Oh. Cool." Mental note to file that away, should she meet this Batman again she'd say .. well she'd mention she knew he was from the future. Knowledge equaling power or something like that.
She glanced around at the computer equipment she and Max had lugged in her, and thought about something the other girl had just said. "Just need good technology? Well seems like you have technology to me …"
From: i_assist Date: 06/03/2006 20:16:00
Yeah, Max had technology, but it was nothing compared to what Babs had. She needed more memory, more hard drive space (why was it so expensive in this time?), more than two screens... still, it was something of a start. What she really needed were more jobs, so she could pay for all of these upgrades.
And besides, this little idea of a somewhat 'super' enterprise she'd had while buying all of this stuff had been borne from boredom. Max knew this, and because of the source of its birth, she knew that it probably shouldn't be followed through on.
She hadn't been counting on this though, finding someone else who was like-minded. Unless she was just completely misreading the girl, but Max didn't think that she could be that off.
"I've got technology. Not a lot, but enough to like, start something." Something being vague and out there, of course.
Hah. Right. Max knew exactly what she was talking about and knew Kate did too. "But, I mean, I couldn't just... start something random, just for kicks."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/04/2006 11:01:41
"Well, if this City is like my City, it needs people to start … stuff. I mean, maybe the hero to villain ratio is better here, but where I'm from, it's like the more heroes the better. Because there's not just you know, super villains there's just people, who do bad things."
Kate had first had experience of people who just did bad things. There had been no heroes around that day in the park … and that day in the park was the driving force behind Kate's career as a costumed hero.
Realizing she had started to climb up on her personal soapbox, she managed to look a little sheepish. "But I mean maybe this City is better, and there's more heroes and do good people than people trying to rip others off."
From: i_assist Date: 06/04/2006 11:38:31
"Nah, you were right the first time. And there aren't too many active heroes here, s'far as I know." That was the truth. There was Batman, Nightwing, Huntress, and a Green Lantern, none of whom seemed liked they were opperating as fully as they usually would. "And yeah, there're some crazies here, along with your everyday street dregs. I think it's your average city, really."
Max considered the other girl for a second before leaning back in her chair and steepling her fingers. She'd been hanging around Babs too long.
"I can't supply costumes." She prayed she hadn't misread Kate.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/04/2006 13:23:35
"Average, except for the fact that the streets move around on you and the people who seem 'native' to this place don't think there's anything odd with that." She had to throw that in.
"I can't supply costumes."
"I already have a costume." Well they where laying all their cards out on the table now. "And a bow and arrow set, and I know how to use it, and, " she broke into a wider grin now, "I got the costumes for the last people I … did this type of thing with."
From: i_assist Date: 06/04/2006 13:33:18
"So you were serious about the archery thing, cool." Max was matching the other girl's grin now. She was in to this, very much so. "And you've... done this before. That's good to know." God forbid she work with an ameture after all. This had to be serious, offical, and well thought out.
Max pointed to her computer monitors. "You know how to use the bow and arrow, I know how to find the people you need to use them on. And I'm pretty sure I can get some other, er... gadgets, that we might need," she said, continuing to grin.
"How long've you been doing this?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/04/2006 16:20:39
It was probably a good thing that Max was from the future of a different reality, otherwise she might have some doubts to the non-amateur status of Kate and the other Young Avengers.
"How long have I've been doing this? A few months." She flushed a little, "But I've been taking archery lessons for years." Just to make sure that Max knew that Kate did indeed know what she was doing.
But than to just try and prove that she could be an asset to this venture; "I have a, well this place that we use to hang out at sort of carried over from my time and place, it's a big old warehouse."
From: i_assist Date: 06/04/2006 18:24:08
"I've had some experience," Max offered vaguely. Maybe a little too vaguely, she reconsidered. "Like... a year and change," she said, waving her hands around in the air.
Her eyes lit up a bit at the mention of the warehouse. "Oh man... like Static Shock!" And then it was Max's turn to look a bit sheepish, because she knew Kate had no idea who that was and that she'd sounded more than a little dork-like right there.
"Every good, er, superhero, needs a HQ. And a warehouse is perfect. Is it equipped with stuff?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/04/2006 18:33:53
Static Shock? Nope, Kate had no idea who he was, but she knew superhero fangirl glee when she heard it. "Err, like Static Shock I guess, we called it 'The Lair' because ummm, well, it was the best name we could come up with. The people we where sort of modeling ourselves on had a Mansion."
Kate? Not so good at naming things, the Warehouse, herself …
"It's pretty … empty actually. Well it's got my costume and some bow and arrows, and lots and lots of space."
From: i_assist Date: 06/04/2006 18:41:19
"Totally alright." Max waved her hand casually again and grinned mightly cockily. "I can stock it. Might take some doing, but I can get everything we need." She had her resources after all. Her own odd jobs, and then Babs... and possibly the cave if she played her cards very, very well.
"Every lair's gotta look like home after awhile," she said, thinking of Babs' two lairs. "And it's gotta be wired, but I can take care of that too if we need it. Free cable, internet...everything.
"And you've got the costumes and weapons... I can get us spares, plus some stuff for myself probably."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/05/2006 02:41:04
“I can help with the costume part. Maybe, probably I mean I don’t have the contacts here I had at home, but still.” Kate needed to prove that she could help out. “Every lair ends up looking like home? You do have experience with this.” She grinned, this was great! This was all coming together!
From: i_assist Date: 06/05/2006 04:33:42
"A little, yeah." She was backup girl, but this time she'd be doing a hell of a lot more than lie to Terry's mom and babysit Matty.
Max grinned and eyed the monitors. "Okay, we're missing sixth period right now anyway, so you wanna just screw seventh and eighth and show me this lair? I'll bring some computers, some fabric samples... we could put up curtains," she smirked.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/05/2006 16:38:15
"Curtains, wow …" Kate was grinning through, it was so nice to do this with a girl (even if Max was joking about the curtains) and a girl who like Kate, didn't have fancy powers. "And hell yes, let's get out of here, I'm pretty sure I can get us to the lair, if the streets want to cooperate today."
From: i_assist Date: 06/05/2006 17:40:43
"Ugh, I hate the streets here," Max said with a groan, popping up from her chair and eyeing one of the monitors before grabbing it up in her arms again.
It was a nasty habit she had, peeking out of the computer lab first to make sure the halls were private before they stepped out. Luckily, everyone else was in class. "So, outta curiousity... how many other people know about your sidejob? Y'know, just to know for safey's sake."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/06/2006 02:52:52
"Tell me about it, it took me hours to get back to where I'm staying one day. Always seem to be able to get here on time though. You want me to take the other one?"
Kate had no qualms about walking out of the school with computer equipment … besides this stuff was honestly bought and paid for.
"So, outta curiousity... how many other people know about your sidejob? Y'know, just to know for safey's sake."
"In this place, right here and right now? Just you. Back home … others I work. I haven't seen anyone here I know, and I haven't heard of any of the heroes I know, so I think I'm covered."
No need to get into the whole 'Captain America knows who I am and said he was going to tell my father' thing. Neither of those people where here, so it didn't matter. She tried not to think about that too much.
Who would have ever guessed that she would miss her dad.
From: i_assist Date: 06/06/2006 15:37:13
"Thanks," Max said when Kate offered to take the other screen. She didn't know how far they'd be going, but she'd managed to lug the things all the way back from the city, so obviously she wasn't that weak, and if Kate was in the hero business, then neither was she.
They walked down the halls normally back towards the front door, though when Kate mentioned where she was staying, Max ended up looking a little sheepish again. They could see her home from the front doors up on the hills. Max glanced up... why did it always seem so cloudy up there?
"Where're you staying?" she asked Kate. "Just at the lair, or do you have an apartment?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/07/2006 17:15:13
"An apartment, but it's weird, it's like the one I lived at back in my New York." Weird how it was becoming so easy to say that, her New York, because obviously there where lots of versions of New York. "But it's not, my father's not there, I tried calling my sister when I first got here, and that number was out of service."
She shrugged as she lead the way to The Lair (at least she hopped it was the way, damn streets). "Moving into the Lair might be cool, but not so great for the social life." Not that she had one here. But to be fair she hadn't really had one at home either. "I mean you can't be like; 'Hi, your cute, please come back to my warehouse/secret hideout."
Kate looked over; "Motor mouth that's me, so what about you? Where are you staying at?"
From: i_assist Date: 06/08/2006 09:02:44
"Um," Max shifted the monitor to one hand for a moment. Even though they'd moved, Wayne Manor was still visable from where they stood on the streets. One only had to peek in between buildings. She raised her hand and pointed. "That house, up there on the hill. Bruce Wayne's my gaurdian." Had Kate even heard of him? Probably, Max decided, if she'd been in the city long enough.
She gripped her screen with two hands again as they kept going, blushing just slightly. "But like, that's not actually where I live at home. My home. I was in an apartment with my parents. And a lot of the time here, I stay with Jesse in his." She had to tone down the 'I live in a mansion on the hill' thing, because it even made her cringe sometimes hearing it.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/08/2006 16:44:28
“Whoa.” It really seemed to be the only word that fit. “This Jesse must have a pretty fantastic apartment if you want to spend time there, and not up there.” Yes, Kate was a little in awe. Sure, Cassie had lived in the Avengers mansions on Weekends, but that had been before she meet her. Max was officially the first person that she had known who lived in a mansion.
From: i_assist Date: 06/08/2006 18:16:47
Max blushed a little again. "Yeah, he is and it's not a bad place he's got. Depends on my mood, but I usually feel more at home with Jesse anyway. He's..." she shrugged and grinned a little, pushing the heat down in her cheeks. "Yeah. I like him." That was an understatement, but she wasn't 'express her feelings' girl.
"Besides, it's like, a huge mansion with almost no one in it. Gets kinda lonely during the days when everyone's at work 'cept for the butler, Alfred."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/08/2006 18:23:39
Kate just grinned, boy talk was typical girl stuff and Kate wasn't super good at that. All right Kate wasn't good at that at all really, but she could grin. And than ask a question that occurred to her; "Are you know, you going to tell him about your new exciting extracurricular activity?"
It would be good knowing who else was going to know.
"A butler? Oh, oh, butlers are the best."
She was thinking of Jarvis who had always been nice to her and the other Young Avengers even if he didn't seem to exactly approve.
From: i_assist Date: 06/08/2006 18:28:13
That was one of those awkward questions that she hated to think about. Mostly because it forced her to remember that she'd sort of been lying by omission to Jesse for the past six months and while this hadn't bothered her at all back home, it sort of touched at her conscience here. Actually it poked. A lot.
She didn't say anything because it wasn't her secret to tell and she'd never betray the family like that, but this... Max eyed Kate. "D'know. Would you kill me if I did?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/08/2006 18:35:56
Kate snorted; "Hardly." The other kids parents had know, and Kate had suspected her father might know … or rather that should he ever pick up a paper he'd know. Her costume wasn't exactly the most practical for keeping an identity a secret.
"I mean, a lot of the Avengers - err, a group of heroes, where I'm from? Know, knew, who I was when I wasn't being .. a hero." She was really going to have to work on that codename thing. "Long as he doesn't get all …. You know." She was thinking about Eli and his 'not needing to be saved by a girl' comment. Oh sure he hadn't finished that sentence but she had known what he was going to say.
Some guys could be such … guys.
She shifted the monitor in her hands and glanced around; "I think, unless the streets are messing with me that where almost there."
From: i_assist Date: 06/08/2006 18:46:18
"Um, I don't think he will." Jesse had powers of his own after all, how 'y'know' could he possibly get? He did tend to worry about her safety, she could convince him, couldn't she? Max chewd at her lip while she thought.
She looked ahead at the road, which didn't look too twisty today thankfully. She had no clue what she was looking for though, so she didn't strain herself, just kept following Kate. But the sooner they could put this stuff down, the better.
"When do you think we should try for a trial run? I think I can have this stuff up by the end of the week..."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/08/2006 18:53:14
"Sooner the better, because I think this is like any skill. You use it or you loose it." Or maybe not, but Kate was anxious to get back into the game. "Oh, here we are!" Kate pointed to the rather decrepit looking entrance to Bishop Publishing. Or what had once been Bishop Publishing.
She pushed her way in and looked around, still empty. She carefully placed the monitor on the ground and motioned around; "Lair sweet lair. And you know, if this Jesse guy is cool, and not going to get all 'anything a girl can do I can do better' than you know, tell him for sure."
It should be noted that Kate was thinking of Jesse as a teenage boy.
Than, because it was really a very important thing; "You want to see my costume? And we have to discuss yours." Kate, super hero fashionista.
From: i_assist Date: 06/08/2006 19:08:40
It looked like a lair. A very empty and cavernous lair, but a lair none the less. It didn't need curtains, it was perfect just the way it was. Max was pretty much in love.
"He's like... I don't think he'll be thinking that, more like, 'I don't want you to get hurt'. I got really hurt a few months ago, so he gets kinda worried and stuff," she said absently as she looked around like mad. "And yeah, definitely show me the costume."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/09/2006 03:02:29
"You got hurt? Doing like, this type of thing?" That was the thing about not having powers, the whole 'getting hurt' factor was so much higher.
She moved off to the side and pulled her costume off the rack that it hung on and headed off to a screened area. In theory Billy, and Teddy and Eli would have been here making chaningbehind screens a must.
A few minuites later she emerged, complte with her bow and arrow set. "This is it."
From: i_assist Date: 06/09/2006 08:47:06
"No, just walking home." Lame, but it wasn't like she could fully explain that technically Jack was sort of her family's archenemy. "This guy attacked me, bashed my head against the wall a few times, almost killed me. He's bad news, also shot another friend of mine. There's gonna be a trial soon though." Ugh, that was coming up awfully soon.
The costume was a nice way to take her mind off Jack though. She fully approved, even though she could almost hear Bruce's voice in her head calling it impractical. Max was all for whatever worked. "That's seriously cool. Though, how do you hide your face?"
As far as she'd been taught to understand, the secret identity was paramount (personally, after being privy to Superman's alterego, she'd never understood how no one had figured it out). Max looked over the costume again, a thought occuring to her as she tugged on her hair. "I'm so gonna need a wig."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/10/2006 07:14:26
Kate winced when Max explained what had happened, she could relate. After all she had just been walking home herself when that guy had grabbed her. Still, Max's attracter was going to trail, so that was a good thing. It was nice to see the bastards get their due.
"trail? Awesome, well, unless the court system here is all corrupt and stuff. Hope they have a good prison, people in my reality seem to mange to break out of their prisons all the time." Heck, they even had S.H.I.E.L.D for all the good that that seemed to do.
"That's seriously cool. Though, how do you hide your face?"
Kate shrugged; "Don't really. I mean the glasses seem to work." As did the little tiny masks that Cassie and Eli wore, and the headgear that Billy wore … Teddy had it best, he was green and hulk like when he was being the Hulkling. "We don't get a lot of press, I mean besides that interview we did with Kat for The Pulse …"
And Kate shrugged and grinned; "And no one even knows who I am here." It was a thrill kind off, no one saw her as either Kate Bishop, daughter of Derek Bishop.
"I'm so gonna need a wig."
"Ohh good call." Kate was making mental notes. "Any color in particular? Oh and a codename." Hahah, like Kate was excelling in that category.
From: i_assist Date: 06/10/2006 08:45:28
"Oh yeah, it's not just your reality. The guy going on trial's broken out of prision and come back to life more times than I can count," Max said with a shrug. "I'm thinking of this more like a formality than anything else." Way to sound down and out, but Max knew the truth and she wasn't banking on optimisim like she felt Mr. Murdock and Babs were.
"Any color in particular? Oh and a codename."
"Brown I guess, I don't want to attract too much attention. And codename... huh, I d'know. What's yours?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/10/2006 10:54:46
"Well all the more reasons people in costumes exist." To round up the villains who always seemed to escape. With out the villains there would be no heroes ... but thoughts like that made Kate's head hurt so she decided to let that train of thought go off the tracks.
"Brown, duly noted." Oh Kate was going to have fun getting Max a costume. Costumes where one of the best parts of being a hero.
Costumes and codenames.
"Err mine's, well, I don't ... I ... Hawkeye." Oh god she was ripping off a dead hero. Oh well, one he was dead, two he was from her reality so who would know?
From: i_assist Date: 06/10/2006 11:19:07
It didn't sound amiss to Max at all, just made her think outloud, "Oh, that's cool. We've got a Hawkman, and a Hawkgirl. But they actually have wings and they're from another planet I think. And Hawkgirl can lay eggs." And that was pretty much all she knew about them.
Max grinned a bit. "I'll think of something sooner or later." Even if she couldn't be original, there were plenty of people that she could rip off if necessary.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/10/2006 17:45:30
The news that there was a Hawkgirl who laid eggs made Kate stare for a moment and than give a little shake of her head. "From another planet? Well that's ... cool."
Well now that the codenames where out of the way ...
"Very cool, we should get a padlock for the door, or maybe some fancy computer lock thing? Which would be more secure?" Max seemed like the type of girl who would be able to answer that question.
From: i_assist Date: 06/10/2006 17:55:11
"Padlocks can be cut, codes can be broken, so we get both," Max said with a grin. "And once I'm done with this place it'll be booby-trapped into eternity." She'd helped Babs do her house so she had a little experience there and with her future tehchnology know-how she could whip up a few tricks of her own.
"It'll be secure as anything you can imagine, and... hmm, well you know this place better than I do. Any good secret exits? It'll save me some time looking around."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/11/2006 05:22:17
"No secret exits" This was said with a little sigh. "We only have one, oh there is a fire door, over that-a-way, an alarm goes off if you use it."
Kate gave a sheepish grin, "This place was newly abandoned in my time, they hadn't cut the power off, and well, I don't want to try the door. I mean of the alarm goes off and the cops or firemen come, that wouldn't be cool."
She glanced around again and than back at Max, Max sure seemed like she had experience this sort of thing. That was great.
From: i_assist Date: 06/11/2006 08:15:33
Max nodded absently. "Yeah, good point. I can probably figure out how to disable it though. Maybe, I mean, how hard can cutting a few wires possibly be?" Possibly not hard, if extremely illegal, but that was just a tiny detail.
"I think that's everything important," she said, trying to think of the Batcave as her comparison. Not that they were anywhere near that, but it was nice to have a template. "What d'you think?"
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/11/2006 10:45:14
"Well there is the whole possible electrocution thing … of course getting zapped with electricity could turn you into a superhero, worked for one guy in my reality. Well, actually I think he was a super villain …"
Kate pondered this for a moment and than shook her head, "Sounds likes it's all covered, we get the tech, we get you a costume, we make sure this place is secure … sounds like we would be ready to rock n roll."
From: i_assist Date: 06/11/2006 15:48:20
Well, she didn't have any plans on becoming a super villian, but maybe playing around with live wires wasn't the best idea...
"Okay, sounds good. Excellent even," she said. "This is so great. So great. At home no one ever wanted to let me do this, but seriously, this is going to be awesome."
She'd leave the monitors hear tonight and try to come back tomorrow armed with more. It would just take a little digging.
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/11/2006 19:22:29
"Oh, I can relate. I -- we -- got busted by the Avengers alll the time. Ahh, the Avengers is like a group of heroes. Adult heroes. Who have like a hate on for sidekicks." A pause; "Not that we where sidekicks."
From: i_assist Date: 06/11/2006 19:26:48
"Tell me about it. The guy I worked for --well, actually the guy who the guy I helped worked for-- wasn't really all that down with sidekicks. Which was weird, 'cause he went through like a gazillion of them himself back in his heyday." Max shrugged and let out a sigh that spoke volumes to what she thought about the evils of adults sometimes. "But whatever, that's what's good about this. We're our own bosses, and there's only one set of rules we have to follow. Our own."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/12/2006 02:57:28
"Hmmm, our people got a sidekick hurt and that was the end of the sidekicks." Way to go Bucky ruin it for everyone else.
"Exactly. Our own rules, oh I do like the sound of that. I'd make a Fight Club joke, but ... have you ever seen that movie?"