"-and if you can't cope with being around her, then… You may wish to reconsider your vocation."
Ian clampers off the construct and drops to the deck. "Oof. Hey-."
And really, Kara is the least quirky superhero around, outside of her exaggerated 50's good-girl behaviour.
Miss Monetti stares, pointing at him with her right forefinger. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS HEAD?!"
Ian turns to face her, arms wide. "Car crash."
Case in point.
"Huh?"
"The first two cars were okay, just a few broken bones. And then another car drove off the edge of the overpass. And then the shotgun shells in the trunk went off." He lowers his arms. "Why's your skin that color?"
Talk about a conga line of pain.
Kara gasps, hands going to her hips and her eyes glaring! "Ian! You can't just ask someone why their skin's that color!"
"What?" / "What?"
Ah, she kind of misunderstood human racial complexities, didn't she?
"Kara, Kara." I wave my right hand to get her attention. "While I see why you said that, your concern really only applies to typically occurring skin tones."
"But silver's really pretty!"
Yes, but OL means amongst
humans. Which generally means
shades of ivory, beige, sepia and browns.
Maybe adding some blue or green in for quirkier Atlantean variants...
"Thank you..?"
"Be that as it may, silver is not a skin colour many humans have. Ian was expressing curiosity about her physical uniqueness, not insulting her entire ethnic group."
Which, to an Un-Man, is more important than simple things like racial origins.
"I still think he could have said it better!"
"Maybe. But she did shout 'what happened to your head' just before that."
Yeah, meeting her energy with like energy.
"That was a medical question!"
"Ah, it's fine..?" Ian shakes his.. torso. "It's not like I don't know I don't have a head. My boss is just a head. Ah. Look, I'm sorry if you're sensitive about your skin-."
It's funny how many head movements translate
oddly to body movements...
"No no no, it's-. It's fine, I-." Miss Monetti shakes her head as she snaps out of it. "I should have realised that metahumans can look stranger than… Me."
Kara beams. "And now everyone's friends!"
Wait until you meet some of the Atlanteans.
Ian glances up at Kara for a moment, perhaps concerned that she's about to pick him up again. Then he returns his attention to Miss Monetti. "Actually, before the accident I used to look pretty normal."
"Oh. So..? What-? Do you-? Ah."
Ian tilts his torso back and spits out a gout of fire. Miss Monetti relaxes slightly.
Not quite the same kind of energy projection, but enough they can probably manage similar tricks outside of constructs.
Ian nods. "I was a metahuman before this… And then Doctor Otto von Schadel saved my life after the crash by… Moving some things around."
"Oh. Ah. How is it?"
I doubt he's going to open up to her like he did OL, given they just met. Still...
"A bit weird to start with. But I got used to it. And the Doc did stuff like this to a lot of people. Back in Aberrance I don't really stand out."
"'Aberr-? You're an Un-Man!"
...Ah, she's familiar with them? That cuts out the need for certain exposition.
"Yeah!" He smiles. "You heard of us?"
"I saw that guy explode because of you guys!"
...Okay, that's new to me.
"Ah. Which guy?"
"The veteran guy! I was on a field trip to D.C. and the guy just..! Grew and burst!"
"Ah…"
Oh, not 'explode' like a bomb. Just... Like a balloon full of meat and blood. Which is probably
worse, if less destructive.
Ah. "Yes, that's why Argonate was refused a licence. He was the first and only person on the trial to have a negative affect like that. I hadn't realised that you saw it first hand."
"Why would you need to refuse a license for something that makes people explode?"
An unfortunate side-effect, I take it, or a sign of tampering?
"Because it's highly effective at inducing regeneration in patients with otherwise irreparably injuries. The man you saw was a one-lunged paraplegic before he volunteered for the human trials. He was originally going to testify as to how successful the trial was."
She takes a moment to absorb that, steadying her breathing. "Okay."
A little
too successful, it seems. From the sound of it, it triggered rampant regrowth of organic tissues until the skin couldn't, well...
"I'm sorry, I hadn't realised you witnessed that personally. Doctor von Schadel is a strange man, but he is genuinely trying to make the world a better place."
"Right." She nods. "I'm.. sorry… Ah, Ian. I shouldn't-"
Hey, it wasn't his fault anyway. But apologising for tarring him and the good Un-Men with the same brush as the people who messed with the... Argonate? That's worth apologising for.
"No, no, I get-"
"-have blown up at you like that."
...No pun intended.
"-it, that-. Yeah. I get it. Seeing something like that would stick in your mind. Um." He swivels towards me. "Can I tell her about-? You know."
"As far as I'm concerned, certainly."
No need for
petty secrets between future teammates and colleagues, after all.
"Right. Ah. Sorry, what are you.. called?"
"I.. was going to say 'Argent', but the only one using superhero names is Orange Lantern."
"Oh, you can use my name if you like. I'm just physically incapable of saying it. Makes it awkward to bring up in conversation."
Nor does it help that he can only really offer his given name, not his full name. So unless they want to call him 'Mister Lantern'...
"I'm Kara Zor-El!" She waves enthusiastically with both hands. "Hi there!"
"Yeah, I-. Fine, it's Toni. Toni Monetti."
Heh, no 'made-up names' confusion here.
Ian nods. "You see, Toni, we actually had a theft from our laboratories a couple of years ago. Kobra got hold of samples of Argonate and handed it out to some of their cultists. The lucky ones just exploded."
"I'm afraid to say that people exploding is one of the many disturbing things you can run into in this line of work."
I'm guessing it was so destructive because they were in excellent health? With no damage to repair, it went into rampant growth mode... And Ka-
splatter.
Ian nods again. "And I'm one of the others."
Toni shakes her head. "You don't look that bad."
Yeah, some of the Un-Men enjoy how they got pummelled with the ugly stick.
The three of us stare at her, and she puts her hands over her mouth.
"Ah, okay, well this is.. fun, but I think we should get started on the actual training now."
Ah, some one-on-one time before they get introduced to the other members of the first class of the program. Gauging their baselines of stuff like power output, versatility and endurance...
"Oh God please."
"Okay, can you stand on your own platforms?"
"Yess, yes I can."
That much we know from the comics. Which means there's some manner of kinetic control aspect to lift stuff.
She holds out her hands, projects two beams of plasma which.. merge in defiance of conventionally understood physics, and expand into a disc in the air. She then steps up onto it, plasma still coming from her hands. It honestly looks like she should be holding herself up, but that's obviously not what's happening.
Certainly, if she was limited to her own physical strength, it wouldn't be nearly so stable. Teenage girl, after all.
"And are they safe for other people?"
"Ah, yeah?"
"Okay then, Ian, climb on. The-."
Quite the weight increase. Seeing if she can handle it now before it becomes critical, of course.
"I'm.. not sure that's a good idea."
I look at him patiently. "You can go with Kara if you-?"
Either way, you're going to have to be in close proximity to a teenage girl, Ian. If that's a problem, best to work on it now.
He hops up without further complaint, Miss Monetti stretching it to give him room. I rise up from the landing pad and accelerate northwards. "Follow me."
Kara puts her hands on her hips. "What's wrong with how I fly?!"
Damn, my google-fu is failing me. I was going to link a picture of various superhero flight passenger-carrying positions. But I can't find any... But the point is, there's only so many ways a girl her size can carry a grown adult without it looking silly or being awkward. Not all of them are comfortable for the passenger, either.
