(2014-06-12) Everything to See Here
Everything to See Here
Summary: Karen stops by Xavier's Academy to pick up her cousin and her girlfriend for some time in the city. That idyllic time is interrupted, first by unreasoning conflict, and then by the appearance of someone - a very dangerous someone - from Linda's forgotten past.
Date: 2014-06-12
Related: Various
NPCs: Buzz
Scene Runner: Linda Danvers
Social/Plot: Plot
Players:
power-woman..supergirl..miss-marvel..

It all started with a text message. "Hey, Cuz. Know U R prob bored silly. Wanna get out 4 a while? I can come up. Maybe Gugenheim, ice cream?"

Yep. Linda's bored. Bored with her tongue inside Mary's mouth. She sighs and draws back from her girlfriend, checks her phone. She examines it and then says. "My cousin wants to take me out to ice cream."

There's back and forth there and, in the end, Linda is convinced to go out for ice cream with Karen. But she insists Mary come, too. And that she change first.

Which is why, when Karen comes to pick them up, Linda's dressed in a plaid mini-skirt, a too tight tank top declaring her love for a death metal band and a pair of three inch, gothically black pumps with pink "kiss marks" painted onto the toes. Her make-ups done to match, black lipstick and rather dark eye makeup. At least she's Linda and not Supergirl, though.

When Karen arrives - in a rented helicopter, no less, and with a pilot - she lands on the pad reserved for such things at the school, and then makes her way inside. After dealing with the Staff, she makes her way to her cousin's room, and knocks on the door.

"Hey. Boredom rescue patrol, party of one, looking for a party of … Wow." Yeah, Karen stops for a few long moments, taking in Linda's outfit. No shaking of the head. No mouthing off. But she's at least taken aback. "OK. Don't you make fun of me that I'm searching on that band name right now. You still wanna go? Like I texted, glad to take a friend, too, if you want."

Mary Bromfield scratches her head, a bit embarassed. Mary's idea was to be on her best behavior when Karen arrives, to try to impress the only family Linda has nearby. She has no idea that Karen is Power Woman and therefore doesn't think of the fact that they're on the same team. Mary had just completed monitor duty before coming to meet Linda in the first place. Mary's not gothed out, She'ss wearing a pair of low-rise jeans with an open dress shirt, tank top and cami underneath. The only skin showing may be a bit of belly button. She blushes as Karen walks in. "I..I tried to warn her.."

"They're a local band in Virginia. Dad hates them. Their concerts get rowdy. Mom thinks they worship Satan. They don't." Linda shrugs her shoulders, which reveals a bra strap. Black. At least she's wearing one. "This is Mary. She's my girl." She grabs Mary's hand and brings her forward. "This is Karen. She's my cousin. Everyone good? Let's go get fat."

Karen extends a hand to Mary, smiling. "Hi, Mary. Nice to meet you." Yeah, Karen has no idea that Mary Bromfield here - teenager - is Miss Marvel, magical adult with mighty powers. "OK, sure. Do you want to hit the museum first, or after? I mean, you're up from Leesburg, I figured if you love art, you might enjoy seeing one of the places they say is the best for art in the world." OK, OK. It's not the Louvre. But Linda, being all gothy punked out, might not appreciate the Louvre right now. And Karen is /trying/ to do something that she thinks might be appreciated by Linda. Not for ulterior motives, but just because Linda might have fun - a lot more fun than Karen thought she was having holed up at school. (Little does Karen know, but then again, she hasn't had a date since Seattle.)

After introductions and such, Karen leads the way to the helipad, and then it's a 10-minute flight to a pad in New York City. Karen then walks with her cousin and her cousin's girlfriend through the streets of New York City, just trying to get to know Linda for all she's worth.

"You know those smart glasses things everyone hates?" Linda explains to Mary. "My cousin invented those. She's super smart." She doesn't seem impressed with the helicopter but that's probably the attitude of teenage 'whatever'. Once they're in New York City, she loosens up maybe a little. She can't help looking in the window of galleries as they pass.

Mary Bromfield smiles pleasantly as she shakes the hand. "It's a pleasure, karen." The girl says politely. When the destination is mentioned, Mary becomes slightly giddy. "It should be even better than the MET, what with none of the ditching, and.. well.. other stuff…" She blushes and hushes quietly and wacthes the view out of the helicopter. She's seen the view herself, as Marvel, but remembers that she should be in awe. Once they land and Linda speaks, it nearly breaks Mary.. "Wait.." She looks, head titlted. "You're Karen Starr?!? *THE* Karen Starr? I thought you were a Karen who worked for StarrWare.." She stops muttering and blushes.. "You're way younger than I expected." She stops gushing and acting all fangirl. She takes a subordinate position, towards the back of the group, giving Linda and Karen time and space to talk. That was the intent of the trip, not for Mary to intrude and ruin things. She throws in a fact. "We met at the Met.." She blushes, realizing how that sounds…

Karen Starr is actually /wearing/ a part of those smart glasses. StarrGaze glasses, specifically, although admittedly hers are an advanced prototype, with abilities not in the current iteration of the consumer model. She's also wearing what looks like an interesting watch. If Mary pays attention to such things, she might also know that Karen won an X-Prize for her company's work in developing non-governmental space flight systems. And, of course, there's the WorldWatching app and social media network on every platform in the world. She chuckles and shrugs her shoulders when Mary gushes.

"Yep, that's me. Don't worry about it, honest. Today, I'm just Karen, Linda's cousin. She and I haven't gotten to spend much time together the last few years, and I'm looking to change that." Karen grins. "I didn't even know she was dating girls. Dumb, I guess." She doesn't seem to mind the idea, though. "I think she might prefer if you came up here and held her hand, though." Hey, Karen could be wrong. But she's making a point about making this about what Linda wants. Not what Karen wants. So she asks Linda questions about what they see in gallery windows, and asks if Linda would like to go inside. But she mostly follows along.

That is, in fact, what Linda would prefer. With Mary between her and Karen. "Karen's also wearing custom bras and has been since she was thirteen." She announces loudly, as if she's super proud of the fact. "A fact to which every male I've ever met except my father and her's… thank God… has happily swooned about." She rolls her eyes. "I'd make a joke about back pain but she'll probably find a cure for that by the time she's old enough to drive."

Mary Bromfield blushes a bit and nods, moving up. "It's not your tech that's so impressive. I mean, it IS, but… The fact that you own your own empire, a Fortune 500 company, and you're young, and female, and.. well.. It's an inspiration to all young women everywhere." She smiles and takes Linda's hand, giving it a squeeze when she talks about Karen's bras. "I don't rightly care what kind of undergarments your cousin wears, size or not. It's the size of the organ underneath that matters more than the size of the ones contained." She tries to be witty, gets tongue-tied a bit in between there. "That's even more barrier-breaking, because she's a female who's expected to act dumb because of the way she looks, and she shows the mysognists exactly what for." She looks to Linda. "We're here for you… Not Karen. Stop deflecting." She winks and squezzes the hand again.

Karen sighs. Here come the quips and snipes. "C'mon, Linda. I didn't ask for these genetics, I was born with them." She doesn't bother correcting her cousin about her age; Linda is well aware that Karen is old enough to drive, given Linda /herself/ is the younger of the two, and /she's/ already legal to drive. "Thank you, Mary. I appreciate the vote of confidence. And I hope to always be worthy of the praise for the size of my heart. I care. Even about my snarky cousin." She doesn't say 'especially about my snarky cousin,' but it's implied pretty clearly. "So. Tell me a little about yourself? How did you two meet? Do you go to Linda's school?"

"Oh my GOD WILL YOU STOP BEING PERFECT!" Linda screams at Karen. She drops her hands. "Stop turning the other cheek! I liked you better when you were freaking willing to hit me! At least then you were honest! Its like you went back to Seattle and came back more a Jesus freak than my damn mom!" She roars in frustration.

Mary Bromfield swallows nervously and sighs. Her initial reaction is to run, but she stops and turns to Linda. "Baby, stop.. Please. She's trying to help. What's wrong?" She tries to take Linda's hands. "Why are you so angry?" All conversation with Karen now being derailed. "Look at me… Angel…" She tries to use her petname to get her attention. "Please, stop."

Karen stops, eyeing Linda curiously. "It's a good question, Linda. Why are you so angry with me? You say we don't know each other anymore, so I agree, and I try to make it better. It won't all fix at once, and I know that. But I'm here, and I'm trying. And you want to snark about my bra size, which has nothing to do with anything. I didn't bring up StarrWare, you did. So what's going on?" Are they making a scene? Probably. Oh well. Karen is going to try this anyway.

Linda opens her mouth to say something else but then there's Mary in her face, calling her pet names. Trying to get her to calm down. "She doesn't get it." She says, at last. "She just doesn't GET it. No one gets it." She closes her eyes and steps back, the runs her fingers through her brown hair. "She's gorgeous and smart and always so damn nice all the time and never says anything bad and I'm sick of it and of course if I say something she'll point out how not perfect she is and the humility is even worse. Stop it stop it STOP IT!"

Mary Bromfield looks to Linda, to karen, back to Linda. "I *do* get it. This isn't about Karen at all." She looks into those mahogany eyes. "Isn't it? It's about you… trying to live up to being Karen… and in your eyes you'll never match up." She runs her hands up Linda's arms and places them on her shoulders. "You're not competing. You'll never be the best Karen. You need to be the best Linda." Her eyes fill up. "You *ARE* the best Linda. Please stop pushing us away."

Karen sighs, and shakes her head. "Damnit, Linda. I don't want you to be me. Never have. I happen to /like/ the things about you that are different than me. /That's/ the you I want to know. Death metal bands from Virginia, goth style, art, all of it. I'm sorry anyone ever made you think you had to live up to me. But you don't. Ever. All you ever need to do is live up to being /you/." Then Karen cracks a smile. "And anyone who doesn't like it? I'll punch 'em for you. 'Cause that's what big cousins are good for."

"… you really aren't human, are you?" Linda asks Karen. She's about to say more when she catches sight of something from the corner of her eye. She moves rapidly. Not with superspeed but quickly and in seconds she has a guy by the collar, pushed up against the wall. "YOU!" She shouts. "Who the hell are you?!?"

The man's in his mid-twenties or early thirties. He's dressed nicely enough in a red polo shirt and a pair of khaki slacks and a set of nice, polished leather shoes. His hair is short and brown, styled simply. His isn't handsome, really. His face is too long, his chin too pointy and his mouth too wide with buck teeth but there's something compelling about those dark, dark eyes.

"Linda, love." He croons. "So good to see you again."

Mary Bromfield raises a brow. "Liinda.." She says, stringing out her name so she understands she's not in hero garb. "You might want to get your hands off of that Target employee. He might not get that this was all a misunderstanding." She looks to Karen for some form of explanation or help.

Stung, Karen backs up a half-step when Linda lashes out at her /again/. She would honestly just about give up, except that then Linda acts so rudely - and violently - to a man who does not seem to have been doing anything at all.

A man, nonetheless, who is apparently not a stranger. He knows Linda's name. And he does not seem shocked by her violent action, or her physicality.

Karen steps up, placing a hand on her cousin's elbow, tugging down very gently - for a Kryptonian. "Linda. I don't know who he is. Or what he has done. But what you're doing is assault, cousin. Let him go. Please." Besides. If this cretin hurt Linda? Karen will protect her cousin quite furiously. The taller woman is tense, confused, and looking for answers. But something is not right here.

"THIS is the cousin?" The man says with a leer at Karen. "I can see why you were jealous." He winks at Karen. "Nice tits." His eyes flick to Mary. "And the new toy? Don't need Solomon to tell me the truth here." He winks at Mary. "Had her first I did, gorgeous. Had her best. Whenever you touch her? She's remembering me. Don't be surprised when she moans my name."

He pauses. "If you can even get her off, that is. I doubt you've got the skills. Too light and sunshine. Our Linda, she needs darkness. Just like her soul."

Linda stares at the man, confused, as he says those words. She doesn't let go of him, though. She's got him lifted off his feet. He doesn't seem to be resisting until he raises his voice and shouts.

"Help! HELP! I'm being assaulted by a girl from a gang! HELP!"

Two cops are already crossing the street, hands on their strapped weapons.

Mary Bromfield is dumbfounded at what the man says. Her eyes go wide and she jus stands there, nearly catatonic. "Linda… W..we need to let him go and leave… right now!" Mary does her best to stay calm, but she's in panic mode.. This is worse than when Jean found her out. She looks to Karen and shakes her head disapprovingly. "Why do they always go to those first?" She sighs, starting to back away as the police start to move in. "Linda… seriously. We don't have time to discuss things.. plus.. well.. My folks?"

Not considering the crass moron worth her time, Karen frankly tunes him out right now, her focus being on Linda. Watching her face, her eyes, her body language. But when the cops approach, she has to do something.

Karen will not allow the police to arrest her cousin. She turns to eye them, and says quite clearly, "She's not part of any gang, officers." She tugs - more forcefully now - on Linda's elbow, making sure she will be letting this jackass down and letting go. "Time. To. Leave. NOW." she admonishes. "I don't care who he is, what he has done. Not today."

Linda takes a deep breath and then lets go. "Whatever." She mutters, trying to put up a wall of teenage bravado. She lets Mary and Karen draw her away. The cops wait, hesitating, but the man says.

"No harm done, officers. Clearer heads prevailed. Thank you for your service."

With that, the man begins walking off. The cops eye Linda but move along as well.

As the man in the polo shirt walks away her whistles. It sounds tuneless but superhuman ears will hear code hidden in the sharp sounds. A set of GPS coordinates.

Mary Bromfield doesn't have exceptional hearing at this point, so just does her best to walk off with Linda. She says nothing to the girl, not quite sure where to even begin. This time she lets Karen do the talking.

Karen, meanwhile, is walking Linda away as best she can without outwardly man- or woman-handling her cousin. But she does catch the code, and decode it. She also then plugs in those coordinates via her StarrTel watches, to check out - displayed in her StarrGaze glasses - what location was just passed to them.

As they frog-march out of there, Karen whispers very softly to Linda - trusting the other's hearing to pick it up, "I don't know who that was or what's going on. But he seemed to know about your abilities." She doesn't realize his hints also alluded to Mary's identity, but she's wondering if he was implying anything about her own.

Aloud, Karen then inquires once they are away, "Linda, are you OK?" She releases her cousin, not wanting to force her into anything. But she's worried and concerned. "What set you off on him? He clearly knows you, somehow. Do you have any memories of how?"

Linda allows herself to be marched out. She hears the message but doesn't process it. Not at the moment. Only where there's a place for her to sit down - a bench - does she exhale. She literally held her breath the entire time. She leans her head backwards until it touches the bench and opens her eyes. Stares up at the sky.

"I don't know who he is." Linda says this firmly. "I just… I think I knew him. Maybe. Once." She reaches out and grabs Mary's hand. She holds a little too tight but not so tightly that bone is crushed.

The coordinates are very precise. Satellite imaging indicate a small patch of wood just off of a lake in Leesburg - a common makeout and party point for teens.

When they get to a clear space and stop, Mary lets go of Linda. She stands there as Linda holds her hand, but its as if she's not there right now. "How does he know?" She ask softly, then louder. "How does he know about me? About…. us?" She bites her lip, stifling herself, knowing the cousins have more important things to discuss.

Karen is … a half-step behind. She only lightly touches Linda's shoulder once she's seated, a show of support without too much - hopefully. "OK. So … you don't remember him specifically, but he rings some kind of bell?" She's trying to understannd, without being pushy. THis is worrysome, to say the least.

"I would think, Mary, that he knew about the two of you by your body language. You were holding hands, after all, for most of our trip today." Karen offers. She doesn't realize there's more to it than that, and isn't addressing - to Mary - about this creep apparently knowing about Linda's powers, and possibly her own.

Linda whispers. 'I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to know." She lifts her head and opens her eyes. They're wild and red. She's on the verge of tears. "Mary, let's go home, okay? I think I want to go home." And pretend this never happened. Pretend she doesn't have this abyss in her memory. Because she's afraid if she looks into it? It will look back into her.

Mary Bromfield is right there with Linda, emotionally. Her brain is screaming for her to run away. However, she knows that there's no running. She looks to Karen and shakes her head. "No… It's more than that. He knows… me.." Is all she'll say. She turns to Linda. "Baby, I *really* want to, but this is the kind of monster that will continue to haunt us forever. What do we do with monsters?" She asks, giving away far too much information than she should but not really giving a single care about it.

"If you want to go back to school, I'll take you." Karen offers. She can understand that Linda is terrified, and she doesn't think she's wrong to be afraid. She is beginning to suspect that Linda's change in attitude, her verbal attacks on Karen herself, were the result of this man's presence and influence. She cannot prove that, but that's her theory. Otherwise, Linda would already be pushing her away, and she's not. She cannot help mouthing the words she would respond to Mary's question, though: We face them, we fight them, we beat them. It's instinct for her. "But if you want to face this, I'm here to back your play. One-hundred percent." All in.

Linda closes her eyes and tears slide down her cheeks - streams of black that ruin her thick eye makeup. "I'm sorry." She says. "I'm not strong enough. I can't. You're both stronger than me. I'm sorry." She slumps down, a limp noodle on the bench. "I'm just going to go back to the school."

Mary Bromfield nods and sits down next to Linda, embracing her in a tight hug. "Ok, Babe. We'll take you back to the school." She looks to Karen for some sort of guidance. She still doesn't know the connection between Karen and Kara, so doesn't understand the whistle, the coordinates, or who heard what. "You've been through a lot today."

"Alright, Linda. Back to school it is." Karen answers, without hesitation. "Just know this: Whenever you're read, if you're ever ready, I'm there for you." Or away, if that's what she wants. For the moment, Karen raises a hand and summons a cab, ready to take them all back to the chopper and return to Xavier's Academy. She'll be making a flight to Leesburg later. But that will be later.

When Linda stands up to leave, there's a burn mark on the bench in the form of her body.

Postscript
[OOC] Linda Danvers says, "Karen, flying to the GPS coordinates?"

[OOC] Mary Bromfield nods

[OOC] Karen Starr says, "Yes. Not going to land. But going to examine from sub-orbital height. And probably run legal record searches on the site for mention in police reports, accidents, ownership, etc."

[OOC] Linda Danvers says, "Public land. There's a cave opening in the woods at those exact coordinates. Two bodies inside. Several months dead at least. Male and female. Male's wearing a pastor's collar. Female's wearing clothing indicating she's either a teenager or dresses young. Both clearly murdered. Six knives/daggers sticking out of the man's back. Linda's finger prints are all over one of them."

[OOC] Linda Danvers says, "The local pastor and a local high school student both vanished not long before Supergirl first appeared in Leesburg."

[OOC] Linda Danvers says, "And you both may notice, when Linda stands up, there's a burn mark on the bench in the form of her body."

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