choose your own adventure!!

[skort]

Date & Time: Let's say anytime the first week of July
Location: All around Exsilium.
Characters: Kara Zor-El and YOU
Summary: Kara does stuff!! With people.
Warnings: None for now, will update as needed.
Pee ess: Both prose and action tags are a-okay with me!



Kara doesn't really have any kind of set schedule, though her days are undeniably full. She expends a good deal of energy helping out with rebuilding projects as much as she can. Part of it is, of course, an attempt to garner goodwill with the natives. She's had enough bad press in the past to realize how disastrous it could get if interactions between all three people groups of Exsilium--Transports, natives, and Initiative members--stay strained. Another part of her drive is just the fact that she wants to help. Ever a bleeding heart, Kara's not able to turn away from anyone in need. And boy is there a lot of need.

But she does have other priorities too. She can also be found exploring some of the more ramshackle places in the city, looking for an abandoned building to renovate and turn into her on Fortress of... Something. The name and the plan both need work, but she's determined to get a work space. Other times she can be found in one of the libraries, pouring over books and information on her tablet. She usually takes up a whole table with all her reading materials, notes, and graphs. Whoever said collating data wasn't fun?

If she's not there, she's usually either training or patrolling. Training for her usually isn't a lot of heavy combat. For one, her superstrength makes it hard for her to really get any use out of things like practice dummies or punching bags. But she'll go through the motions of a fight on the mats a few times a week. If she's training with her weapon, she's usually hovering and seated as if she was meditating while her little silver orb darts around her training room and into hallways.

Patrolling is, well. Patrolling Exsilium. Usually she does it from the skies as it gives her the best view as what's going on down below. And, you know, there's also the fact that it gives her an excuse to soar through the air. So if there's more loop-de-loops than is strictly necessary, that would be why.

Comments

[thephix]

Truth be told, this is all rather inconvenient. They've already shoved her down once, her hands scraping on the rough concrete, soaking her skirt and top, because the ground in Exsilium never dries (sometimes she thinks about what would happen if the water could just stop draining away and they could all drown in the constant rain, but she tries not to dwell on thoughts like that). There's six of them, all men - it's always men - and they're angry that a Transport is walking through their territory like she owns it.

Their words, not hers.

Idly, as one of them grabs her hair and hauls her back to her feet, she notices a tear in her stockings. That's even more inconvenient than the bruises; at least those will fade, but that's a good pair of tights ruined, and they aren't exactly easy to come by in this city. She misses malls.

They get angrier in the face of how passive she's being, that she won't fight back, but she refuses to indulge this stupidity, not when it'll just make things worse in the long run, if she were to hurt them. The Exiles will forget their anger, eventually, but they won't forget if she fights back. So she simply steps back to avoid a punch, waiting for a good moment to make her escape, though they way they managed to back her into a dead end alley really isn't helping with that.

She'll figure it out.

[skort]

When forced to choose between helping people or keeping a good reputation, there's really not contest. As hard as Kara's been working to keep up a good image and do what she can to make nice with the natives, she's more than prepared to toss it out the window should there be a situation in which she feels the need to intervene. Like this one.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

Her yell draws the attention of the Exiles attacking... whoever that is. Sadly, Kara doesn't exactly make an intimidating figure in her civilian clothes, one hand holding her tablet and a hardback book, the other clenched in a fist at her side. That's okay, though. She works well when people underestimate her or are distracted by how she looks. That's why she keeps the crop top and miniskirt costume.

She carefully shifts her weight until she's ready to leap into either defense or offense in the blink of an eye. Her own gaze darts around the scene as she tries to figure out the best way to get the group's victim an out so she can run. At this point, she thinks it's probably best to provoke them, let them come to her, and draw them out of the alley. A smirk crosses her face and she tilts her head to the side.

"Or if you really want a fight, why don't you try me on for size?"

[thephix]

Oh, for god's sake. The Exiles laugh, two of them breaking off from the group to start towards Kara, while the others keep an eye on Max. They don't think much of the young blonde, just like they don't think that Max could kill them all in less than a minute, if she wanted.

"Get out of here, girl," There's blood in Max's mouth, and she spits it in the face of the man who pulled her hair. It serves exactly the purpose she wanted it to, because he's calling her a whore and making a grab at her, trying to shove her into the wall. The scuffle draws the attention of all the Exiles, "Go!"

It's not that Max is underestimating her like the Exiles are, but regardless of whether this girl can actually hold herself in a fight, she doesn't need someone getting involved in this.

[skort]

Well. So much for that plan. Kara almost drops her head into her hands when the Exiles turn their attention away from her. Of all the times for people to really seem like they're underestimating her, it had to be now that it backfired magnificently.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, ma'am," she calls out to Max. "Sort of goes against my moral code."

Time for plan B. Kara takes to the air and positions herself near where Max is, albeit about ten feet in the air. She lets her eyes glow red with her heat vision and scowls down at the Exiles. Things are tense, and the Exiles have every right to be angry for what's happening to their homes. But that's no excuse for beating a girl bloody.

"You all have five seconds to scram before I laser your asses," she says, voice hard. She draws on all her memories of the Bats, of the Amazons who stood above her when she fell in training, and draws herself up. Spine straight, chin lifted, every inch of her uncompromising. "Four. Three..."

[thephix]

Did she just get ma'amed? Max can hear Marissa laughing, gently grabbing her chin and tilting her head side to side as if to inspect for wrinkles, and she hates the thought for intruding.

Nevermind that, anyway, because two things happen in quick succession. The first is that Max recognizes the girl as soon as she gets closer, Kara Zor-El, the superhero, and the second is that apparently this superhero has... eye lasers? She's never been fond of energy-based powers, not after Phasar, but it probably isn't fair to hold those experiences against Kara.

Apparently, though, it's enough to convince the Exiles that this isn't a fight they want to have, though one of them informs Max that they're going to find her, later. She's sure they will.

"That was entirely unncessary," Looking up at Kara, while the Exiles make their retreat. She doesn't look impressed.

[skort]

Her feet hit the ground with a wet noise, and Kara turns to Max with a thoroughly unimpressed look.

"Did you actually have a plan for getting out of that other than letting them beat you bloody?" Kara will probably feel at least a brief flash of guilt if she did. "Because from where I'm standing, that looked like a horrible situation in which all they were going to take away from it was that it's okay to beat Transport girls in alleys."

And that is something Kara can't abide by. Let the Exiles be angry. Let them be as furious as they want--they have a good reason to be. But there is nothing about beating a girl or a woman while she just lays there that Kara will ever be able to walk away from.

[thephix]

"It's cute you think it was about me being a Transport," Which it was, really, but she doubts any other Transports would have the gall to walk around this area at night, not if they're smart enough to know the sort of people who own it.

And she was working on getting out of there, if only because Adonis would have looked so distressed if she'd let herself get really roughed up. But she's not going to say anything; she's feeling contrary.

"And clearly it's much better that they're now angry and unsatisfied," She's fussing with her clothes idly, instead of actually looking at Kara, "They're just likely to go searching for someone, now, instead of being happy enough to have caught me in their territory."

[skort]

The exasperated and somewhat annoyed expression on Kara's face leaves abruptly. In it's place is hardness and cold anger. There is very little that bothers Kara more than people that would do that sort of thing to any girl or woman they could get their hands on. It's terrible enough just by itself. But it also reminds her of hospital rooms, of a hand in her hair pulling, of flimsy cuffs covering her hands and wrists. It's not something she ever talks about. Ever. But the anger is always there when she hears about these things.

"They won't touch anyone else tonight," she says, and she knows she's going to spend the rest of the night listening to their heartbeats and their words. She knows it's going to be hard to resist the temptation to do something terrible to them if they try again. "I'm keeping an ear on them."

She knows that probably won't mean much to someone who doesn't know her. But it's all Kara can offer for now.

[thephix]

The anger is good, but it just makes Max sigh, pushing her now thoroughly soaked hair back from her face. The problem is that Kara is right, of course, and Max can't let them hurt anyone else either. It might have been fine, once she'd gotten a gauge on how far they were willing to go, but now they're likely even angrier, licking wounded pride at having had to run from two blonde girls.

"Stop listening after tonight, you probably won't like what you might hear," She can't kill all of them, that would be too suspicious, but she can go after them in different guises, or whisper in the right ears to get someone else to do her dirty work. That's the beauty of moving amongst criminals; there's always some barely simmering tension she can use to her advantage.

And she's curious, about the fact Kara can apparently keep an ear on someone, but she's not inclined to ask.

[skort]

She should say something. The first thought that pops into Kara's head is that she should say something about how she can't do that. It's what Kal and Bruce would do. They could never stand by and just watch criminals be killed if they knew it was going to happen. She should say something.

But... if she does, what other option is there? They're quite literally living in anarchy. There is no justice system, no due process. There are no bars to slam them behind until they've learned their lesson, if they ever do. She could dangle them from thousands of feet in the air until they swear to her never to touch another woman again, but there's no promises that will work. In fact, it would probably make them even more angry and resentful. Then what? As much as Kara would like to think she could, she can't always keep an ear on them. What if she goes on a mission? What if she's in the middle of saving one life when they decide to go after someone? How can she possibly keep people safe while she lets scumbags like that roam the streets?

She's talking herself into it, she realizes. The part of her that's never really understood the no-kill rule, the part of her that was ready to laser off General Lane's face is telling her it's a good idea. And, practically, it is. Here, death is the only reliable way of making sure no one gets hurt when the few people who decide to overstep obvious moral boundaries do so. Knowing that doesn't stop the guilt from gnawing at her insides. It doesn't stop her from thinking that her mentors would be so disappointed in her. It doesn't stop her from thinking that she should be smarter than this, that she should be able to find another way.

Kara sighs heavily, then swears under her breath in Kryptonian. "Alright," she says. She can deal with the fallout of it later. Sometime when she's not standing next to someone she doesn't even know. Sometime when she can think up all the alternatives so she's never in this situation ever again. Maybe she'll even find an alternative before they're dead. "How badly are you hurt? Do you need any medical attention?"

[thephix]

Max doesn't bother to hide the fact she's watching Kara, cataloguing her reaction to see whether this might be something that will come back to bite them both, later, and it's not too hard to see that Kara is struggling with it. She remembers the first time she met Atlas, shooting those men in front of him because it would have messed up too much, for both of them, to let the men live. Maybe that was the point she started ruining him, it's hard to tell, but she knows she isn't eager to do something similar to this girl. She needs to change tactics.

Back home, she could just pull the right strings to make sure the men who attacked her would be sent to prison for a very long time, but it's not an option here.

She hates this fucking city.

"I'm fine," It's dissmissive, really, but Adonis will fuss over her once she gets back to the apartment, and he's learned enough from Marissa to be able to deal with a few minor injuries, "Kara--"

She stops, licking her lips as she decides on how to phrase what she wants to say, not caring about the fact that Kara hasn't told her what her name is in this particular meeting. It's irrelevant; this is more important.

"Thank you for helping me," Even if she didn't want the help, even if it might have made things worse, Kara doesn't need that on her conscience, "What happens next isn't your fault."

[skort]

Kara laughs, more bitter than amused. She's getting platitudes from someone who either is or soon will be a murderer. How is it that what should've been a simple stop to an assault turned into this?

"I could stop you," she says calmly. It's not bragging. There's no confident body language, no boasting tone of voice. If anything, Kara seems a little tired. "It wouldn't be too hard, I don't think. But instead I'm letting you go when I know full well you're going to kill someone. You may be carrying out the deed, but I hold some of the blame for letting you do it."

A sick feeling settles in her stomach as she admits it out loud. Kara has never been one for praying, but just in case they're listening, she sends one up to Rao the Father asking for strength. Asking that those she looks up to never come here to Exsilium.

Her feet leave the ground as she makes to leave. But before she does, she throws a last, "You should get your injuries checked out," over her shoulder as she heads for the rooftops. She needs to hole up in her room an think. Maybe take a hot shower. Process.

[thephix]

"You could try," It's not bragging either, it sounds more like an offer than anything else. She doesn't know what Kara is capable of, but Max would let her rough her up a little if it'd make her feel better. At the end of the day, there's nothing Kara really can do to stop her; death isn't permanent, and she doubts the girl would be willing to go so far as to lock Max up somewhere to stop her from killing some men.

But apparently it doesn't matter, and Max won't try to make Kara stay, not after everything else she's done. The concern would almost be touching, if everything else wasn't such a goddamn mess.

There's no salvaging this night, so she just pushes a hand through her hair before starting back to her apartment, at least she can actually follow Kara's last suggestion, with Donny waiting for her.

This is why she shouldn't get involved with superheroes; they just make everything complicated.