xp_logs | Julian & Doreen: Super Lunch

Doreen discovers the truth about her teachers and the double-super-secret basement lair.

It was cooling off again, something that Julian could do without, but he found himself outside searching for Doreen Green- an old friend from LA who had recently arrived at the mansion. He knew that her obsession with comic books and her desire to be a super-hero would make her freak out over the fact that her teachers were actually the genuine article. To his knowledge, no one had told her yet- so, it fell to him to ensure that she was informed.

Keller made his way down the crushed rock walkway through the woods that would eventually lead him, in a round about way, to the quarry, where he'd be practicing shifting rocks again this week. Powers training was moving slower than he'd have liked, but it was moving and that was more than he could say for the time he'd spent "training" back home. Now that the play was over, he was hoping Nathan and he could meet up more than once a week. He knew he had power in him to move metaphorical mountains if he wanted, but not yet and the slow training pace was frustrating.

For now though, Julian scanned the trees for Dori and Monkey Joe- an open Snickers bar in hand ensured that the task wouldn't be too tough. He'd heard they were out here and it didn't surprise him a bit, the yard would be too tempting to pass up if he were in her place. The rumors he'd heard about Callie's reaction to her roommate were more concerning, but that could wait.

Dori and Monkey Joe were chasing eachother through the trees when she caught another scent. They had been snacking all day during classes and during lunch Doreen couldn’t resist coming out here. This was… awesome. She went in the way of her friend’s scent. Something that was good to smell again after months. Monkey Joe made it up her shoulder and she leapt.

When she jumped from the trees it was like taking flight, there was the rush of air and that dropping feeling on a roller coaster that she had fallen in love with just before she had started High School and then she hit the ground in a crouching position, a happy smile on her face right behind her friend.

“Julian!”

Startled by her quiet approach, Julian spun around and suppressed his first reaction to put up a telekinetic-shield or to push her back. He took a moment to calm himself before smiling and approaching Dori. "You scared me, Green. Enjoying your new backyard?" He held out the candy to her and Monkey Joe.

The squirrel hopped on to Julian in an effort to get it first. Doreen gave him a few sharp clicks and he came back over with the candy – to share. “Thank you,” she said to her pet and then to Julian, “Thanks. And yeah. This place is awesome! I can run around here and it’s great!” It occurred to her that Julian had likely never really seen her do anything. At school she never really had. For lots of different reasons. “You should watch me!”

His arm arched forward, gesturing an invitation, "Show me what you've got then." Julian smiled, it was nice to see Doreen genuinely happy. He'd known her long enough to know that she put up a tough front, but things did get to her...how could they not have back at Friends-of-Humanity-High.

“Awesome!” she said, before stuffing her cheeks, almost literally, with the candy and giving Monkey Joe his own. She took a few steps back, looking up. There. There was a tree branch strong and high enough off the ground. Doree crouched down, her tail even getting into the act. And then shot up, landing perfect on the branch that didn’t creek at all. But it wasn’t high enough or strong enough for what was next. This, she reasoned, would’ve been easier with her toe claws, but she found enough foot holds and started climbing up by digging her claws into the wood.

“It’s gonna take me a minute to get high enough,” she called down. “Do you want to come up too? Oh gosh, can you climb trees?”

He smiled and shook his head, "Not like that." Her climbing was impressive, "I'm still working on the flying thing, so I'll just watch from down here. Julian opened up another candy bar and took a bite- he enjoyed Snickers well enough, but he knew it was Doreen's favorite, so he'd been sure to place an order for a couple crates of them when he found out she'd arrived. "How high do you have to get?"

“Just high enough so the branches are thicker,” Doreen said, walking out on one and jumping slightly. “This one should do,” Doreen said. And then she was running and jumping. She was faster than a normal person, but not so much as to be super human. It was the jumping that made her look like she was flying. “This… this is so great!” she called down. Jumping down and catching a lower branch with her claws and dangling above her friend, “See what I mean?”

"Very cool," he smiled and leaned against the tree trunk. "You up for some lunch?" Julian nodded in the general direction of the mansion. "I have something I want to talk to you about, but maybe someone already told you...in any event, you up for it?"

“Sure,” Doreen said dropping to the ground, just letting go of the branch and dropping down. Monkey Joe rand down the tree and over to her. She picked up the squirrel before he could start climbing up. “At least it will be warmer inside. It’s kind of cold out here, but this is so cool that I don’t mind the cold.”

"That's one of the only things I don't like about being around here," Julian said as they started down the path back to the kitchen. "I got here in December, and I am not kidding when I say Winter. Sucks. They actually have snow up here...can you believe that? It stays on the ground and everything." He fondly recalled the snowball fight, "Though it does have it's up sides I guess."

“Snow would be awesome! Sometimes we used to go skiing in Colorado, so I have seen snow,” she said laughing. “But let’s go get some food! I’m still trying to figure out where everything is.”

"I hope you already found the kitchen," the pressed on. "Oh, by the way, I figured out if she is my girlfriend or not...turns out that she is. Only took a little jump off the roof to figure that out." He smiled, "You'll like her, Doreen. Her name is Angel and she's a pyrokinetic- you know what that is, I betting."

“Oh, I found the kitchen the first night I was here,” Doreen said, following him, “It was hard to miss it. It smelled great. And I had some snacks and saved some for Monkey Joe and the other squirrels. And I’m glad! Pyro…whatsit… it’s something with fire, right?”

"She controls fire, even turns into it sometimes- which can be a bit awkward at times." Julian pushed her playfully, "Come on, I thought you were supposed to be the Comic Book Kid! There's gotta be someone in those stories that can do that." He chuckled and they walked on.

“I am the comic book kid! They just call them pyros. And there’s only a few I know of, I mean, it’s not a common power set and it can pretty much take out Superman if they get hot enough,” Doreen argued. “There’s one on the live action series and a couple that come close in the comics… um, like Captain Atom is close, but he’s radiation. But I know what it is. It’s not common in metahumans in DC Comics. I think because it makes people uncomfortable, you know, with the news stories they have ‘bout pyros from time to time. The one they put on the Superman animated series was named Volcana. She showed up a couple of times later on.”

Julian had forgotten how fast she could talk and how long she could go when things turned to an area of her expertise. "Okay, okay- I get it. Anyway, she was Moth in the play- one of the fairies. Did you enjoy the play?"

“Yeah, it was good! I think we were supposed to read that one in my English class back home,” Doreen said, taking in the smell of the mansion. “You guys did a great job! I bet it was a lot of fun.”

"It was, and the people we met in town were pretty nice...well, with one invisible exception." Julian chuckled at his cleverness, "Long story- actually, pretty much everything that's happened here since I arrived is a long story." He started to rummage through cupboards, not really sure what to tell Doreen or how he would even start to explain about the Murderworld incident. "So...what do you think about this place, Dori? I mean, has anyone explained things to you yet? With the whole New Mutants and X-Men stuff I mean."

“The kinda did when I got here, but I was so out of it. I mean, I had to spend three days on a bus,” she scrunched up her nose, “I was just glad to be off of it. I listened to the parts where we had to make up my class schedules and the rules and stuff. Kind of. It was a lot of stuff all at once. The New Mutants is a program for kids here, right?”

"Yeah, it's sort of like that. We're all in it and we do powers training and stuff, but then there's the X-Men." Julian beamed at her, hoping he'd get the reaction that he was hoping for when he finally told her. "They're super-heroes, like in your comics."

Doreen stopped in her tracks and her brown eyes opened wide, “They are?” she asked. Even Monkey Joe seemed shocked.

Julian nodded, "Most of our teachers, they're in on it, but yeah, they're super-heroes. They fight super-villains and everything. Actually, we even did that ourselves...once...a while back. The New Mutants that is. It was this whole big thing." He found the things he was looking for and started to prepare his food.

Doreen’s eyes were wide, like she had just found the candy jar. “Super…heroes…? Like with code names? And bad guys!?” Doreen squeaked standing right next to him. She then grabbed him and proceeded to shake him. She was quite a bit stronger than she looked, so it was a bit brain rattling, “What’s your hero name?! Are there uniforms?! Where’s the secret lair stuff?!”

This was a bit more than what he'd been expecting- he had to act fast or she might just die from excitement. "Whoa! Whoa! Hey, slow down...calm," he got her to stop shaking him, "down!" Julian smoothed out his hair and took a subtle step back. "Yes, with code names, I'm not one yet, so I don't have one, and you can't be until you're eighteen." He leaned forward with a grin and whispered, "I am planning on joining when I can."

“Ohmigosh, that is so totally cool! I can’t believe that. Let’s see, I’ll be sixteen in about a month so that’s what, two years before we – because Monkey Joe gets to join to – before we can join them. Ohmigosh, how could I have missed this right when I got here, this is totally awesome!” Doreen stopped to take a breath.

"It's not exactly the highlight of the tour and it's something of a secret so," he put a finger to his lips and winked. "But yeah, if you ever hear the klaxons go off, it means their plane is coming up out of the basketball court." He could see a hint of doubt rising in her, "And no, I'm not kidding, I thought they were trying to play a joke on me when I first got here, but it's true."

“AWESOME,” Doreen said, still twitching excitedly. Her tail all the way up. “I can’t wait to see that. That has to be AMAZING!”

"I thought you might like that," Julian put a hand on her shoulder, his smile evened out. "So, tell me, do you like hot chocolate?"