trans_9 | Mix-and-Mingle

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Mix-and-Mingle

After the most recent pod-pop had been completed, Stacy began encouraging the crew towards the Obs Deck. They would be most effective if they were familiar with each other, and as the Jaime Reyes Incident had proved, leaving them to meet whenever they happened to cross paths was not effective.

Anyone who stepped into the Hub would be transported to the Obs Deck, no matter where they had intended to go. Those who had been exploring the City were verbally herded towards the Hub, although the energy tentacles did not make an appearance.

||Please report to the Obs Deck for Crew Introductions.||

The Obs Deck hadn't changed very much since they'd last been there. The creepy sculpture was still present, as were the fleshy couches. However, the couches were arranged in a more obvious circle this time.

Come and meet the new -- and in some cases, weirder -- members of your crew.

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Oh. Man. His dad. That was...

But the end part. The end part...

Jaime briefly looked at Speedy, then looked back at Terry and sort of just tilted his head at him a bit. There was a funny little look on his face.

"You sound just like Robin. Who's a very cool guy when he's not doing that grind-ey thing with his teeth. Actually, you sound like... you sound like a lot of people." He went on, "I gotta say, it's nice to know there's still gonna be people like us way off in the future. You'd fit right in with everybody."

Take that as a compliment, Terry.

A pause, and a grin. "Well, except for the really weird future slang. Where the heck did they get 'schway' from? I'm really wondering what perfectly innocent English words were going along and minding their own business before somebody came along and victimized them, mashing them together and mutilating them unrecognizably, with that one..."

Edited 2008-08-18 02:09 (UTC)

Mia smiles comfortingly at Terry. "Hey... sorry for your loss, but... good for you filling the tights." She gave him a football-esque swat on the ass. "If you ever get home, go get 'em."

She looked over to Jaime, who ~~sadly for him~~ was not within ass-slapping range. "Same to you with Ted Kord. G.A. told me he was a great man."

Kate eyed them all. There was a sympathetic look to Terry, since she could understand. It's only been a few years since her own mother was killed.

But a lot of what they talked about involved a world that was pretty different from hers, or even different from the others here. So she just listened to the conversation.

Terry was trying to think of something to say about being compared to Robin. On the one hand, what he'd heard about Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, while it wasn't much, was good. On the other hand, he didn't like being thought of as Bruce's little misfit orphan ward. On yet another hand, Tim Drake had been kidnapped and tortured by Joker. And on a final hand, Dick Grayson's old clothes fit him really, really well.

But he really didn't have a chance to say anything before Mia swatted his butt.

And what he did manage to say really was the only thing that could be said;

"Whoa. Whoa. I have a girlfriend."

Mia laughed. "Don't flatter yourself too much. Just being encouraging is all." She grinned playfully. "Don't they still have football in the future?"

Baaah, third Robin wasn't a misfit orphan ward. He'd CHOSEN it. Batman needed a Robin. Gotham needed a Batman.

Therefore Gotham needed a Robin.

While Jaime'd come to choose to be a superhero, he'd pretty much been dragged into it by the spine--out of bed, in the middle of the night and told by Booster Gold he had to go help safe the world.

He had a tremendous amount of respect for people like Robin--or Ted Kord--that had chosen to the do it from the very start, that had decided "I can help make the world better and I'm going to." That instead of doing it because they had to--they wanted to.

"The girlfriend thing doesn't seem to hold her back much," Jaime teased, poking Mia playfully in the leg with his foot.

"Hey, you know, we've been talking a bunch about our world stuff. I feel all rude now," he said to Kate. "What's your world like? Obviously, they have superheroes--and uh, some of the themes they go by are pretty similar--" He looked back and forth between Mia and Kate. "--but I'm wondering what's similar and what's different."

Kate shrugged, "Yeah, kind of hard to jump in since you all seem to be the same side of the universe. It's fine."

She sighed, "It's a lot more complicated for us. I mean first of all, it sounds like you can still do your thing in a costume and not worry about being arrested. And the government even leaves you alone, right? Sounds pretty lucky. Mutants are monitored, and now if you have any powers, and even if you don't, but just really skilled and still like the costume bit? You're supposed to register your identity with the government."

That made Jaime's eyes pop wide.

"Oh, there has got to be a villain behind that. That sounds like a--like a Lex Luthor kinda thing. Do you have any bald masterminds running around looking out for 'the people,' because--"

Wait a second.

"You have that many mutants that they have to be monitored? Like that get exposed to toxic waste or something?"

Kate remarked, her tone very casual, "Actually? We used to have a lot of mutants, and I mean a lot. But something happened a while back and a lot lost their powers for some reason. Not sure why. And the remaining ones are being monitored by government owned robotic devices called the Sentinels. And no, it's just regular people are afraid. They're even afraid of us, and think we have to be controlled."

She thought about his question, "As for bald masterminds, there's Kingpin? But he's just a gangster more than anything else, and the only people he cares about himself. I wouldn't call him any kind of mastermind either. Causes problems in Lower Manhattan sometimes."

"No, I mean... what is a mutant? I mean, you all have to register with this law right? But mutants are monitored by giant robots. So...what kind of mutant is it? Are they toxic waste monsters or dangerous or something? Like something more dangerous than other metas? Did they get their powers from being altered by radiation or chemicals or something, as opposed to just being Homo Magi, born with powers or getting their powers triggered like a lot of metas are?"

"Mutant" tended to be a "that guy got hideously mutated by those chemicals!" kinda thing, and not "someone born with powers" and he hadn't figured out what exactly she was talking about.

He had NO idea what she was talking about.

Edited 2008-08-21 05:25 (UTC)

Kate shook her head vehemently, "No, no way. Mutant's anybody with a certain gene when they're born. It's a mutated gene, that's all. Their powers develop around puberty usually. And no, the whole point is that they're born with their mutant powers, whatever they are. I guess you'd call them, what did you say, metas, in your world?"

Mia curled up her face in thought. "Yeah... we get those. Metahumans. Powers for no reason anyone can tell. Then you've got your mix of cyborgs, aliens, magic stuff, and freak accidents. Wore a sweater with radioactive lint, ate too much of some weird African soft drink, whatever."

She paused, then puffed up her chest a bit. "And then there's guys and gals like me and Green Arrow, who are just that damn awesome all on our own. Plenty of those too."

Jaime tilted his head.

"No... no, you're saying it's just the ones born with it aren't you. Are people who have lab accidents and stuff considered mutants? Or people that wind up turned into cyborgs? Changed by radiation or chemicals?"

"No, just people born with this specific gene are mutants. We got aliens, freak accidents, cyborgs, exposure to radiation or chemicals too. They're just people with powers. Or superhuman I guess."

Kate grinned at Mia, "Same here. I have fighting skills, but no powers at all."

Jaime made a face.

"But I'm a meta. I'm just as dangerous as someone born with powers. We're all metas. Or...not, in the case of people awesome enough to be heroes without powers like all the people standing here besides, uh, me."

He added, "Which I can also do, because Blue Beetles don't need no stinkin' powers, but anyway, why differentiate? What's the difference between someone born with it or someone who got splashed with chemicals? It's all the same genes activating, they're all just as dangerous or not dangerous, depending on WHO they are. Why would people think the ones born with it needed to be watched more? That seems all...prejudiced."

Kate remarked, "Well, they thought mutants were worse. And then Stamford happened. Explosion right next a grade school in session, and that was what really made the country hate us. Just because of a few stupid ones. And it is prejudiced."

"They differentiate because people are evil stupid bastards. Homos and women who had sex before marriage used to get stoned to death, and still do in some of the *ahem* sandy countries of the world." Mia said flatly.

She didn't believe in sugar-coating anything.

She winced at Kate's account. "Damn..."

Terry really was speechless. In Gotham, there really weren't any mutants. Well, there were the Splicers, but that was voluntary, if illegal. And a few of the remaining Bang Babies, but that was due to weird gas, and the few left were old. And... Blight. That was definitely not natural.

"Wait," he said to Kate, something not sitting right with him, "you're superheroes, right? If you're doing good, why would some government dregs try to stop that?"

Kate nodded at Mia, "That's right, and it's not just sandy countries. And it's not just stonings. Believe me, I know."

She sighed, and pushed some hair out of her face, "Yes, but they think we're not that good. Or we're more trouble than it's worse. They go on about collateral damage from fights. As I said, people think we need to be leashed or something."

"But..."

Jaime waved a hand, as if trying to clear the air.

"Okay, lemme see if we've got this straight. On your world, they think metas who are born as metas are more dangerous than any other metas, even though there's no difference at all between them, and they're all just as dangerous, and are prejudiced against them. Furthermore, they've gone all Big Brother on the heroes because of an accident during a superfight where innocent people died, never mind that a villain was probably at least partly responsible, because let's face it, superheroes don't just go and blow stuff up unless they're fighting a bad guy--and also never mind that the superheroes of your world have probably saved everyone's lives a million times over (if your world is anything at all like our world)."

That was all said in one long, ranty breath, which was why afterwards, he had to suck in another breath.

He wen on, "No offence, and obviously your world can crank out some pretty cool people like yourself, so that's one mark in its favor, but otherwise, it sounds like your universe kinda sucks. I mean, we have our fair share of suck, but it's a little more...evenly distributed and less concentrated, and you usually know who to punch to stop it."

Another pause.

"You should go on strike. All the heroes."

Edited 2008-08-22 19:34 (UTC)

Terry whistled. "Wow," he said, "the old man may have had some issues with the cops, and I know I'm not the comish's favorite person in the world, but at least they occasionally thank me. And I don't think anyone's ever had an issue with Static, and he's pretty much a mutant."

He nodded in agreement with Jaime. "Gotham may be pretty bad, but at least people appreciate what I'm doing, and what people like me are doing. You should go on strike. After a week, they'll all be wishing you were back."

"Doesn't work that way. Yeah, you trying going on strike, and doing nothing the next time somebody's in trouble." She shot back at them since they made it seem like it was just a job, and she always saw it as something a lot more.

"With or without the costumes, this is who we are. Nothing changes, not even laws. The original Avengers wanted to shut my teammates and I down because they thought we were too young. We didn't listen to them and not listening to the SHRA now." Also there was the very likely fact that if they had gone on strike, people would have used it as an excuse to keep them from coming back.

She sighed, "Anyway, some heroes have agreed to register. The only way we could have protested would have been before the Act become law. But not now. There was even a civil war between the superheroes because some wanted to register and others didn't. People died, and in the end, we were just fighting for the sake of fighting, and the registered side still won."

Mia shook her head. "Urgh... okay, this is getting too heavy. I can't stand government crap like that. Give me a mugger or chemically altered whackjob to pound on any day."

"I just mean...some kind of unified effort from your world's superheroes could change something like that...but it sounds like your world's heroes can't get themselves all unified."

He looked at the floor, thinking. "Which is sad. Not everyone gets along for us, but at least in a crisis, we all pull together, old heroes or... brand spankin' it's-your-very-first-day new. Hero versus heroes...that usually only happens if someone's mind controlled, or tricked, or there's a misunderstanding."

He looked up at her again. "It's really good that you and your friends haven't given up, though, despite all that."

Edited 2008-08-26 05:00 (UTC)

Kate's words resonated with Terry. Really, how could he have said that? He broke into Wayne manor to become Batman. He faced the Joker when Bruce had told him to never again don the cowl.

He nodded at Mia. "I agree. I'd rather have a go-around with the Jokerz then deal with Gotham politics."

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