October 03, 2016:
Captain Marvel and Fairchild help young (and adorable) Lieutenant Marvel celebrate her brithday.
Central Park
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: None.
Mentions: Katherine Renner
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
"Happy Birthday, kiddo." Carol Danvers comments, as she holds onto the slight form, arms wrapped firmly around her as she does a slow barrel roll, listening to the excited girlish squeals and giggles of glee and excitement.
Captain Marvel, in full costume, is currently flying about fifty feet above the heart of the Sheep Meadow of Central Park. In her arms is a pre-teen girl in her own, homemade Captain Marvel cosplay. Lieutenant Marvel, aka. Kit or Katherine Renner, is one of Carol's biggest fans, and today is Kit's birthday. Carol, being a good egg about such things, is making the girl's birthday wish come true: a chance to go flying with Captain Marvel.
There's no press around, at least not yet. It's a chilly fall afternoon, and the Park may not be empty, but it's far from crowded at this point.
"Focus… gain… light sensors… okay, there. I got it!" Caitlin calls up to Carol, cupping a hand to her mouth. The Amazon is wearing a scarf and long-sleeved shirt to help ward off the chilly air— she tends to burn hotter than most thanks to her increased metabolic rate and it means that she tends to feel the cold more acutely than others. A purely psychological issue, mind, but she seems to think the best part of fall is bundling up under several layers of clothing. With her thumb tucked into her sleeve's loophole, she at least looks relatively warm, and she uses her arms to give Carol the approach lines.
"I think I'm focused for about twenty-five feet off the ground, so just bring her around, toss her, and I'll get the shots before she crashes into the grass." She winks at Kit, whom she'd of course instantly fallen in love with as a Co-Leader of the Captain Marvel fanclub (and being forced to admit that Kit really was the bigger fan, something Catilin didn't think was possible). She rests her finger on the camera's button, the machine set up to capture Kit in 'flight'.
"Roger, Big Red. The deck is twenty-five feet. Roger roger." Carol calls out, using her comms to communicate with her leggy camerawoman on the ground. "OK, Kiddo. Remember, just like we practiced. You keep those arms out wide for me once we level off. I need all the drag I can get, so I catch you before you eat turf."
Captain Marvel gives the giggling, squealing pre-teen girl a nuzzle and another hug, and then does a high loop, ascending all the way up to over two hundred feet as she comes around for another pass over the meadow … and right through Caitlin's prepared camera angle.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!"
On three, Carol tosses Kit up and ahead of her, and then twists around and inverts, flying down inches off the grass, looking up at Kit, who is sailing through the air on inertia alone, arms spread wide, grinning with excitement and exuberance. Carol says low, waving up at Kit, grinning as she times her position to match, following kit all the way down until gravity drops the girl … right into Carol's arms.
"Do it again! Do it again!" comes the squealing plea.
*click* *click* *click* *click* *click*
The camera shutter rattles in a fast burst, and Caitlin quickly reviews the images. Kit's excitement is infectious— can't be helped. Catilin wants the kiddo to have the best birthday present possible, too!
"Whoop!" Caitlin crows, bouncing on her toes. "We got it! Wow, you two gotta see this, it looks fantastic!" she calls, waiting for Carol and Kit to finish their 'one more time' (probably won't be just one more) and join her on the ground.
She turns the camera around and shows the picture to the girl and the stacked blonde. Even on the small screen, it's a fantastic picture— the light hits Kit's face just right, there's a little city profile in the distance, and she's grinning glorious triumph at the world under her.
"There ya go, Kit, whatcha think?" Caitlin asks her co-president. "Your mom says you've got an empty spot on the wall in your bedroom, and we can blow this up huuuuge and you can see it every day when you wake up!"
Of course, Kit's mother would be positively climbing the walls, which is why Carol - wisely - pleaded to take Kit on her own and leave mom home for a quiet day and party preparations without an underfoot pre-teen ball of hyper energy.
Another of the shots, from one of those 'one more times' has the two Marvels flying, Carol positioned above and just a hint behind Kit so that they're both fully in frame. The catch was a wee bit more challenging that time, but they pulled it off. Carol then brought Kit around for a landing, and joined in the exuberant hugs. Carol doesn't let her inner squealing girl out much for others to see, but it's out with Kit to be sure.
Kit, of course, is excited beyond words. They trip over each other stumbling to get off her tongue, she's so wound up. And there are hugs. Oh yeah, are there hugs!
"Why don't you go ahead and send tem off over the interwebbies, Caitlin? We can pick up the blow-ups on our way back to the house, and have them to show off." Because what would make Kit even more excited, as Lieutenant Marvel, than to be able to show off to her party friends that she FLIES?!
Caitlin is a digital native— the machines speak to her. She hooks the camera up to her phone, fingers tapping fast, and emails them to Carol almost before Kit can finish her story about that ONE kid who was SURE that Kit was making up her friendship with Carol Danvers.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand done! There you go, I pulled the best ones and sent them off," she tells Carol, grinning wide at her mentor. The wind attacks her thick red hair, and she's forced to pause for a moment to face the breeze and pull it into a ponytail, letting her black headband handle the bulk of the rest of wealth of reddish-orange locks.
"We just email those to the PhotoHut and they'll have them waiting for us whenever we want to come get them," she says, looking as excited as Kit is.
"Great!" Carol shouts happily and hugs Caitlin, and then pulls up Kit and hugs her close between them. "Alright, then. Let's get this beautiful birthday girl back home. I've heard rumors that there's going to be a party!"
Kit squeals excitedly and bounces in Carol's armrs, as they start traipsing through the Meadow and the Park. "So. What else are you hoping to get for your birthday/"
Catilin hugs Carol and falls into step alongside the shorter woman, slinging her camera into her backpack and following along with a long stride. "/I/ heard you were asking for one of those new hyperkinetic superballs," Caitlin tells Kit, slyly. "The ones that'll bounce like, a hundred times if you drop them?" She dips her hands into her pockets and buries her chin in her scarf just a little, hair swaying behind her with each swing of her hips.
"And I heard something about a new game for that LexStation you got for Christmas?" Carol teases the girl in her arms, as they stroll along together. The shorter blonde lets her shoulders bounce playfully against the redhead's, back and forth. "Maybe you can get Big Red here to play with you, if you get lucky? She's good at those video game console thingies." Truth is, Carol is pretty good at them, too. But beyond flight simulators, she doesn't really enjoy them, and she prefers real flight to the simulators.
"She can't handle my mad skills," Caitlin says with a sniff and haughty flip of her hair. "She told me what her clan ranking was on Medal of Ultimate War. I've got her by /ten/ Prestige points," she says, smugly waving her superiority in her twelve-year-old competition's face.
Kit sticks her tongue out. Caitlin reciprocates.
"Kara and I finished decorating the apartment," she tells Carol as an aside. "We got the last of the plants, put up a few paintings on the wall, and she helped me get my new bedframe moved in." An all-custom job made of welded steel and reinforced springs— Caitlin's requirements for furniture are a bit more extreme than most people's. "It's funny— as strong as we both are, moving a sofa into an apartment is /still/ a two-woman job. Y'know?"
"It's the awkward of turning all those corners." Carol offers with wisdom. Apparently, she already knows this secret; then again, she's been living with super-strength a lot longer than the other two. "Someone with telekinesis might be able to do it alone." She winks, and nudges the two tongue-stickers as they giggle and traipse along together out of the Park, finding the street that will lead towards the apartment building.
"We should make Carol play with us. We can take turns with her. That would be fun!" Kit offers, as they consider the game, the party, and what fun might be forthcoming.
"Not gonna lie, TK would be high on my list of superpowers if I coulda picked 'em from a hat," Caitlin tells Carol. "Don't get me wrong, I guess on measure I did pretty well," she concedes. "I could have had, like… plant affinity. Buying heels is a real pain in the persqueeter, but at least I can wear shoes." And she is wearing her new boots, which Carol had pointed out in a store a week prior and Caitlin had declared her favorite thing in the world (until meeting Kit).
Caitlin /does/ dress a bit more like a grownup than she used to— fitting jeans, knee-high boots with a wedge heel, and even a lovely pale yellow knit vest over her lilac colored long-sleeved t-shirt. "What about you, Kitaroo? What superpowers are you gonna have when you grow up?" Caitilin asks, *booping* Kit on her nose.
"I have to admit, I got the powers I wanted most in the world." Carol confesses. Then again, she got her powers from the explosion of an alien wish machine, so go figure. As a way to get powers, alien wish machine kabooms are the bestest.
"I know wardrobe and stuff are hard, Caitlin. But I think you still got all kinds of awesome." And hey, those looks aren't bad at all. Redhead glamazon features for the win. Carol winks at her friend.
Kit squeals brightly. "I'm gonna fly! To the moon and stuff, just like Captain Marvel!" But then again, what other answer would Lieutenant Marvel offer, right?
"You know one power I really wouldn't want? No matter what? Telepathy. I'd even take green thumb and salads for life, over peeking into other people's thoughts."
"Ugh. Pass," Caitlin agrees, wrinkling her nose. "I've seen some weird ones. Like that one guy, whatsisname… he can eat anything. He's got a weird name, I can never quite remember it," she frowns. "And that's like… all he does. He eats stuff. Anything. Oh! And that girl, er, what's her name who has a … thing? With squirrels?" she hazards, trying to recollect.
"But y'know, everyone and their mom has FISS," Caitlin tells Kit. "Flying, invulnerable, super sp—"
"-speed, and strength," Kit says, counting on her fingers along with Caitlin. "An' Carol can do the energy boomers, which are *psheww*!"
Kit likes the fireworks.
"Are you the one to blame for that new nickname? Sparklefists?" Carol teases Kit, with a mock-stern and playfully angry face, and the girl gives it up in an unending regale of laughter, squealing and squirming. "It's Princess Sparklefists!" sKit cries out, and Carol shakes her head, using her other hand to tickle the girl's tummy, redoubling the laughter.
Carol stops the tickling after a little bit, and shakes her head. "Pshew pshew indeed. But I can see why Lieutenant Marvel would want that suite of powers." She grins. "I think you were talking about Matter Eater Lad, one of the Legion of Superheroes. And Squirrel Girl. Doreen is a real sweetheart. And her little furry friends can be quite fierce."
"Man. I should know that," Caitlin says, frowning at herself. "That's right, Squirrel-Girl and… Matter… Lad."
She falls a pace behind, then skips to catch up to Carol, smiling at Kit's reaction.
"So, um… Cindy moved away," Caitlin tells Carol, a bit more soberly. "We talked on the phone. She's just moving over to another part of the tri-cities but, uh… y'know." She sighs, trying for a wistful smile. "We decided it wasn't gonna work. So… yay," she says, weakly. "Back on the market, I guess?"
Carol makes a little moue face, and sighs. "Well, at least you parted as friends. That's a lot better than I ever seem to manage." Then again, all of Carol's exes are almost universally psychopaths, villains, or alien invaders. Parting as friends gets a lot harder in that subset. "Kinda too bad Kara doesn't bat for the home team. You two obviously get along really well." Carol opines.
Thankfully, it seems this particular chat is just enough beyond Kit's level of understanding that she doesn't pick up on the context, and lets it pass. Instead, she starts discussing Carol's many names, nicknames, codenames and callsigns, with a rather authoritative tone, like a guest lecturer. #1 fan indeed!
There's an art to talking around Kit— you can discuss whatever you want as long as you prod her along certain trains of thought. Like if Superman can beat Hulk. She has /strong opinions/ about that. Catilin does this, and smiles wistfully at Carol. "Tell me about it," she mutters. "It was /really/ weird hanging out with Power Girl. I keep looking at her and looking at Kara and looking at her and going… I mean…" She makes a fitful gesture near her chest. "Kryptonians must have a heckuva of a growth spurt in their 20s, right?"
She smiles at her own joke and leans against Carol's shoulder for a beat as they walk. "Anyway, Kara's perfect as a friend, and I don't wanna change that. Particularly because I am /very/ sure she digs the boys exclusively."
She thrrbts between her lips. "Just… poop. Things were starting to get kinda, y'know. Interesting."
"Are you kidding? Superman would totally win against the Hulk. Hulk is super strong, even gets stronger when mad. Awesome stuff. But he has to breathe. Superman can scoop him up and drown him, or carry him into space." And Kit continues along merrily, blissfully unaware of the topics being discussed by the grownups.
"Something like that." Carol offers, though admittedly she shrugs off the topic of Power Girl's endowments without much investment. "I never really considered the question. I mean, they're two different women. I don't see Peej as being an older Kara." Carol is a little unique in the way she deals with the super-weird.
The blonde gives the redhead a one-armed hug with the arm not supporting Kit. "It'll get interesting again, hon. I'm sure of it. Just give it time." And stop crushing on Carol, who apparently is completely clueless. That might help.
"Dating is the suck," Catilin complains— but she accepts Carol's hug. "It…. bah. I just wish… I don't know," she exhales. "I feel like maybe I took things too slow, or hesitated, or didn't give her enough feedback."
"I'unno. I'm just feeling mopey and sorry for myself. Kara was talking about trying to hook me up with this guy she knows, but that just sounds like more trouble than it's worth."
"Maybe I'll get, like, six cats," she says, pensively.
"Well, you know where I come from on this stuff. I'm all in favor of you going for it. But I gave up on it a long time ago." So Carol won't be complaining about her own dating don'ts and failures, nor will she be making anymore of her own attempts or forays. It's just not in her cards. But she's a good and supportive friend, and she'll do her best to give good advice in spite of her own gunshy nature.
"Honestly, that was part of the reason I was talking about Kara. You two spend a lot of time together, and you talk a lot. Openly, about anything. Communication is key to any relationship." So Carol's advice is to make sure to find someone with whom Caitlin can be comfortable and chat easily.
"There's no way Kara would allow you to bring in six cats, Caitlin. Hells, I would object, and I don't even live with you." Captain Marvel opines. "But if you want a cat, you could cat-sit Chewie for a while."
"He's not a /cat/. He's a /flerken/!" Kit declares, frowning at Carol. Because she should KNOW better!
"Right, the flerken," Cait grins, following along with her mentor. "You're right, I guess. Even if Kara's not.. y'know, swinging for the same team," she says, pinking on her ears. "She's a friend. Maybe there's another friend like her out there." She smiles at Carol. "Thanks Carol. I really appreciate it." She blows out a big breath of ari and puts her shoulders back.
"Okay! Let's hustle girls, we've got a /party/ to get to!" she reminds Kit and Carol, grinning at the two of them. "And it can't start until the birthday girl gets there!"
"C'mon, that's supposed to be a secret, Kit." Carol teases, tickling the girl and then hugging her close. It's all a big distraction, of course, to make it seem like a game between them. No one is supposed to know Chewie isn't a cat, after all. He'd be an illegal alien, quiet literally. Bad news.
"You're welcome, Cait. I wish you luck. I hope you know that." Carol offers.
Of course, Carol hasn't slowed down one bit since they started, which is why they are only a block or so away from the building even now. "Do we know anyone who is a big birthday girl, hoping to get to her party?" she teases, and grins when Kit squeals and hops in her arms, trying to prod her to move faster. Soon enough, though, they reach the building and climb the stairs.
Party!!!