ChasNicollette
Allons-y Means Let's Go.
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Posts
- 16,135
"Centuries," by Fall Out Boy. (Rose)
Rose didn't stay sitting on the couch for long.
She was kind of long on thought process, slow on action, but once she got her thoughts processed, she got a move on.
Even if later it just turned out she was running in place, she got moving.
The Galleria Mall was all shiny and new. Well, shiny and new but old.
It was the latest completed project by The Valentine Group, a real estate development consortium that was going around "gentrifying" run-down portions of Keystone City in order to breathe new life into them. This basically meant rebuilding old stuff so that it looked retro-cool, and they'd done a bang-up job with The Galleria.
Lots of glass and fountains, palatial mirrored ceilings, Jetsons-looking cylindrical elevators, da woiks.
On top of that, they had a pretty sweet food court.
Rose sat cross-legged in an armchair next to a table crossing stores off a list. Most of the places she'd tried were either not hiring or just told her "we'll keep your application on file," but having put in the legwork made her feel better regardless. She felt best about the little regional cellphone carrier store not far from where she sat-- that place had a good energy, and she'd learned a lot about cellphones from Robby as he'd investigated The H-Dialer.
She sipped from an Orange Julius and she squinted at her list.
She still needed to try Tech Village, and Shocking Suzi's Comics, and then she'd call it an early afternoon and go back home to browse online classifieds.
Her phone was cradled across her thigh, and it sort of grumbled to itself, there came the sound of someone dropping something and a couple of cursewords in a Welsh accent, and then-- "Sorry about that, dear. Any joy as yet?"
Rose picked up her phone and held it up in front of her-- her mother's face smiled back at her from time zones away. "Not 'joy' as such. Just, uh, chasing pavements. How's by you?"
Ceri Grant flared her nostrils and scowled. "We're trying to be as respectful as we can of the local flavor-- this is the first time archaeologists have gotten to investigate this site since it was lost in 1945. A secret shrine to The Goddess Ixchel, hidden in the heart of The Yucatan-- and all this bluddy Federale can do is swagger on in, promise us he'll keep us safe from cartels, and then fish for bribes. It's excruciating."
Rose frowned. "Sounds like a real winner, that guy. You be careful, okay?"
Ceri clawed her hand through her raven-dark hair and nodded. "Yeah, 'course I will. (Forgot what a pain in the arse fieldwork can be.)"
Rose grinned wistfully. "Mum, if you're trying to make me miss being gainfully employed--"
"Har-har," Ceri snorted, as she tied her hair back out of her face. "But that reminds me-- how can yeh afford such a nice phone and a data plan if yeh're out of work? Yeh never did say?"
Rose turned a bit pink. She'd never been a great liar.
But her mom was in Mexico on a dig for The Fairfax Foundation, the nonprofit that funded the museum Ceri worked at, that was hardly an ideal way for Ceri to find out her daughter was ten superheroes.
This secret identity thing was a tricky business.
"Uh," Rose gestured dismissively, "it was a mail-order sweepstakes thing. Like winning the lottery. Plus this mall has great wi-fi, and Skype is free."
Ceri arched an eyebrow. "Mmhmm."
At that moment, Rose's phone started ringing-- the actual phone part of her phone, not the Skype app.
--aa-armed with powers he's on the case
fiiiiighting off evil from Earth or space--
Ceri snorted. "Oh, that dun't half take me back. What is that from?"
Rose grinned softly. "Old TV show I used to love."
"That's catchy, that theme," Ceri mused. "D'yeh need to get that?"
Rose nodded apologetically. "Yeah, it's Robby--"
"Say no more," Ceri nodded. "Give him my love. Love yeh."
"Love you," Rose replied, and then Ceri was gone, back off to digging a centuries-old shrine out of an eighty-year-old mudslide.
"And love you," Rose appended without missing a beat as she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hey," she could hear him smile down the line, "love you too. Where are you? I figured I'd take an early lunch, come meet up."
"That's awesome, yeah," Rose nodded, glancing around. "I'm in the food court, that little sitting area between KC Jitters and Big Belly Burger."
"Actually," Robby's voice sounded surprised, "I can see you, that's a Hell of a bit of synchronicity."
"The Koan would be proud," Rose grinned, darting her gaze around again, trying to pick Robby out.
"I'm not sure that's a compliment," Robby frowned audibly. "That lady is extremely creepy."
And there he was, hanging up his cell as he jogged out of a knot of people and planted himself in the easy chair next to Rose's.
"Hey, you," she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Mum sends her love."
"Hey yourself," he grinned, turning his head and pressing his lips to hers for another quick kiss, then subconsciously self-consciously ran his hand through his messy brown curls as though trying to make himself presentable for Rose's mom. "How's she holding up?"
"'Bout the same," Rose lamented. "Big exciting discovery but she's got to jump through all these bureaucratic hoops." She gestured to her list. "Filling out all these job applications, I forget that I have it easy."
Robby squinted at that list. "No leads yet?"
"Nothing solid," Rose shook her head. "Though I still have Suzi's to try, and--"
--she glanced up at the odd look on his face. "What?"
"It's a shame," Robby enunciated slowly, hesitantly, knowing he was going to regret it as soon as he said it, "you couldn't get a job-- like-- a paying job-- doing the other thing."
Rose stared at him for a moment, almost disbelieving. He'd put up with the superhero thing because of the massive scientific mystery presented by The H-Dialer-- but she knew he was scared out of his wits every time she dialed out. Scared she'd die fighting some monstrosity-- or just man's inhumanity to man--or that the the time-out wouldn't work properly and that she'd never be her-- his her-- ever again.
"Robby," she started.
And Robby sighed. Yep, he was regretting it. "Look. I-- my heart's in my throat, here-- but I see how happy it makes you-- the way your eyes shine when you've thwarted some crook or whatever. Those guys in The Justice Society, do they pull in a paycheck? Or maybe you could be a corporate superhero, one of those metahumans that works as a company mascot while they're fighting crime? At the very least, you could get some training that way. The stuff they've got me working on at Halo, this satellite network, it could be the next leap forward after STAR's meltdown-- I could work a lot better on that knowing you had some kind of mentor thing happening."
Rose stared at Robby... and then stared to nowhere... stared at her hands-- she didn't know where to look. "Oh my God. I mean. I don't want to be some sellout, some coprophagous corporate stooge-- but that Justice Society thing-- why did that never even occur to me?"
"Because you are a rare creature," Robby pontificated wisely, with a smirk adorning the corner of his mouth. "A genuinely good person, and an idealist. Like an artist who thinks material success is a betrayal of your art. But as a scientist, I gotta be a little more pragmatic. Do good. And get paid well for it. Didn't-- didn't artists have patrons, back in the day? And Patreon, is Patreon still a thing?"
Sitting there staring at the phone in her hands-- she'd figured out where to stare, now, Rose looked obviously conflicted. But.
"You," she allowed, "make a compelling case."
"I wish you'd been on the committee the last time I had to do a thesis presentation," Robby cracked wryly.
Rose reached for Robby's hand, and squeezed it, and grinned at him slowly, softly, brightly. "You--"
But she didn't get to finish that sentence.
Because that's when the screaming started.
And a great THROOOM that reverberated through the pillars and practically rippled through all the glassy surfaces.
People were running from deeper in The Galleria, people were bleeding--
--people were missing limbs, falling down, crying over loved ones, glassy-eyed and in shock--
--alarm bells were ringing--
--people were grabbing cellphones, most of them were taking videos some of them were calling 911--
"--oh," Rose's eyes went wide. "Oh, holy shit."
Robby was frozen stiff beside her, his jaw clenched, his eyes wide, panic stations all go, he grabbed for her arm--
--she didn't look at him, she couldn't look at him--
--she could only look at the massive figure stalking through the chaos and laughing. Big as a juggernaut, brazen as a rhino, hair black as night and clad in a bladed, armored suit that gleamed blue white in a whole different flavor of shiny and new than The Galleria that surrounded him.
"You hear me?" he roared. "I'm Razer! I'm the guy you call when you want a place wiped off the map! So run! Unless you wanna get cut down-- you run!"
"Rose--" Robby managed to stammer.
"You heard the man," Rose replied, trying to sound confident and mostly succeeding despite the alarm bells ringing inside her brain and out, "run."
She shot him a look as her phone lit up green in her hand, The H-Dialer App loaded and ready. "I love you. Just run. Get some of these people out of here if you can."
"I'll handle this."
Her thumb swiped the H-rune with almost vicious ferocity even as her fear boiled in her blood.
She felt the dial spin.
Please.
Please give me something that can knock this psycho's teeth out through the back of his helmet--
--give me Roentgen-Ray Rose, just this once--
--please.
SWOOOSH.
Rose didn't stay sitting on the couch for long.
She was kind of long on thought process, slow on action, but once she got her thoughts processed, she got a move on.
Even if later it just turned out she was running in place, she got moving.
The Galleria Mall was all shiny and new. Well, shiny and new but old.
It was the latest completed project by The Valentine Group, a real estate development consortium that was going around "gentrifying" run-down portions of Keystone City in order to breathe new life into them. This basically meant rebuilding old stuff so that it looked retro-cool, and they'd done a bang-up job with The Galleria.
Lots of glass and fountains, palatial mirrored ceilings, Jetsons-looking cylindrical elevators, da woiks.
On top of that, they had a pretty sweet food court.
Rose sat cross-legged in an armchair next to a table crossing stores off a list. Most of the places she'd tried were either not hiring or just told her "we'll keep your application on file," but having put in the legwork made her feel better regardless. She felt best about the little regional cellphone carrier store not far from where she sat-- that place had a good energy, and she'd learned a lot about cellphones from Robby as he'd investigated The H-Dialer.
She sipped from an Orange Julius and she squinted at her list.
She still needed to try Tech Village, and Shocking Suzi's Comics, and then she'd call it an early afternoon and go back home to browse online classifieds.
Her phone was cradled across her thigh, and it sort of grumbled to itself, there came the sound of someone dropping something and a couple of cursewords in a Welsh accent, and then-- "Sorry about that, dear. Any joy as yet?"
Rose picked up her phone and held it up in front of her-- her mother's face smiled back at her from time zones away. "Not 'joy' as such. Just, uh, chasing pavements. How's by you?"
Ceri Grant flared her nostrils and scowled. "We're trying to be as respectful as we can of the local flavor-- this is the first time archaeologists have gotten to investigate this site since it was lost in 1945. A secret shrine to The Goddess Ixchel, hidden in the heart of The Yucatan-- and all this bluddy Federale can do is swagger on in, promise us he'll keep us safe from cartels, and then fish for bribes. It's excruciating."
Rose frowned. "Sounds like a real winner, that guy. You be careful, okay?"
Ceri clawed her hand through her raven-dark hair and nodded. "Yeah, 'course I will. (Forgot what a pain in the arse fieldwork can be.)"
Rose grinned wistfully. "Mum, if you're trying to make me miss being gainfully employed--"
"Har-har," Ceri snorted, as she tied her hair back out of her face. "But that reminds me-- how can yeh afford such a nice phone and a data plan if yeh're out of work? Yeh never did say?"
Rose turned a bit pink. She'd never been a great liar.
But her mom was in Mexico on a dig for The Fairfax Foundation, the nonprofit that funded the museum Ceri worked at, that was hardly an ideal way for Ceri to find out her daughter was ten superheroes.
This secret identity thing was a tricky business.
"Uh," Rose gestured dismissively, "it was a mail-order sweepstakes thing. Like winning the lottery. Plus this mall has great wi-fi, and Skype is free."
Ceri arched an eyebrow. "Mmhmm."
At that moment, Rose's phone started ringing-- the actual phone part of her phone, not the Skype app.
--aa-armed with powers he's on the case
fiiiiighting off evil from Earth or space--
Ceri snorted. "Oh, that dun't half take me back. What is that from?"
Rose grinned softly. "Old TV show I used to love."
"That's catchy, that theme," Ceri mused. "D'yeh need to get that?"
Rose nodded apologetically. "Yeah, it's Robby--"
"Say no more," Ceri nodded. "Give him my love. Love yeh."
"Love you," Rose replied, and then Ceri was gone, back off to digging a centuries-old shrine out of an eighty-year-old mudslide.
"And love you," Rose appended without missing a beat as she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hey," she could hear him smile down the line, "love you too. Where are you? I figured I'd take an early lunch, come meet up."
"That's awesome, yeah," Rose nodded, glancing around. "I'm in the food court, that little sitting area between KC Jitters and Big Belly Burger."
"Actually," Robby's voice sounded surprised, "I can see you, that's a Hell of a bit of synchronicity."
"The Koan would be proud," Rose grinned, darting her gaze around again, trying to pick Robby out.
"I'm not sure that's a compliment," Robby frowned audibly. "That lady is extremely creepy."
And there he was, hanging up his cell as he jogged out of a knot of people and planted himself in the easy chair next to Rose's.
"Hey, you," she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Mum sends her love."
"Hey yourself," he grinned, turning his head and pressing his lips to hers for another quick kiss, then subconsciously self-consciously ran his hand through his messy brown curls as though trying to make himself presentable for Rose's mom. "How's she holding up?"
"'Bout the same," Rose lamented. "Big exciting discovery but she's got to jump through all these bureaucratic hoops." She gestured to her list. "Filling out all these job applications, I forget that I have it easy."
Robby squinted at that list. "No leads yet?"
"Nothing solid," Rose shook her head. "Though I still have Suzi's to try, and--"
--she glanced up at the odd look on his face. "What?"
"It's a shame," Robby enunciated slowly, hesitantly, knowing he was going to regret it as soon as he said it, "you couldn't get a job-- like-- a paying job-- doing the other thing."
Rose stared at him for a moment, almost disbelieving. He'd put up with the superhero thing because of the massive scientific mystery presented by The H-Dialer-- but she knew he was scared out of his wits every time she dialed out. Scared she'd die fighting some monstrosity-- or just man's inhumanity to man--or that the the time-out wouldn't work properly and that she'd never be her-- his her-- ever again.
"Robby," she started.
And Robby sighed. Yep, he was regretting it. "Look. I-- my heart's in my throat, here-- but I see how happy it makes you-- the way your eyes shine when you've thwarted some crook or whatever. Those guys in The Justice Society, do they pull in a paycheck? Or maybe you could be a corporate superhero, one of those metahumans that works as a company mascot while they're fighting crime? At the very least, you could get some training that way. The stuff they've got me working on at Halo, this satellite network, it could be the next leap forward after STAR's meltdown-- I could work a lot better on that knowing you had some kind of mentor thing happening."
Rose stared at Robby... and then stared to nowhere... stared at her hands-- she didn't know where to look. "Oh my God. I mean. I don't want to be some sellout, some coprophagous corporate stooge-- but that Justice Society thing-- why did that never even occur to me?"
"Because you are a rare creature," Robby pontificated wisely, with a smirk adorning the corner of his mouth. "A genuinely good person, and an idealist. Like an artist who thinks material success is a betrayal of your art. But as a scientist, I gotta be a little more pragmatic. Do good. And get paid well for it. Didn't-- didn't artists have patrons, back in the day? And Patreon, is Patreon still a thing?"
Sitting there staring at the phone in her hands-- she'd figured out where to stare, now, Rose looked obviously conflicted. But.
"You," she allowed, "make a compelling case."
"I wish you'd been on the committee the last time I had to do a thesis presentation," Robby cracked wryly.
Rose reached for Robby's hand, and squeezed it, and grinned at him slowly, softly, brightly. "You--"
But she didn't get to finish that sentence.
Because that's when the screaming started.
And a great THROOOM that reverberated through the pillars and practically rippled through all the glassy surfaces.
People were running from deeper in The Galleria, people were bleeding--
--people were missing limbs, falling down, crying over loved ones, glassy-eyed and in shock--
--alarm bells were ringing--
--people were grabbing cellphones, most of them were taking videos some of them were calling 911--
"--oh," Rose's eyes went wide. "Oh, holy shit."
Robby was frozen stiff beside her, his jaw clenched, his eyes wide, panic stations all go, he grabbed for her arm--
--she didn't look at him, she couldn't look at him--
--she could only look at the massive figure stalking through the chaos and laughing. Big as a juggernaut, brazen as a rhino, hair black as night and clad in a bladed, armored suit that gleamed blue white in a whole different flavor of shiny and new than The Galleria that surrounded him.
"You hear me?" he roared. "I'm Razer! I'm the guy you call when you want a place wiped off the map! So run! Unless you wanna get cut down-- you run!"
"Rose--" Robby managed to stammer.
"You heard the man," Rose replied, trying to sound confident and mostly succeeding despite the alarm bells ringing inside her brain and out, "run."
She shot him a look as her phone lit up green in her hand, The H-Dialer App loaded and ready. "I love you. Just run. Get some of these people out of here if you can."
"I'll handle this."
Her thumb swiped the H-rune with almost vicious ferocity even as her fear boiled in her blood.
She felt the dial spin.
Please.
Please give me something that can knock this psycho's teeth out through the back of his helmet--
--give me Roentgen-Ray Rose, just this once--
--please.
SWOOOSH.
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