The Seeds of a Team [Clara Kennedy]

Clara gives Caroline a beaming grin.
"Oh, so we're going to be a team?! Awesome! We're gonna kick so much ass together! Let's get to know each other. What's your name? What are you interested in? What're your powers? Where's that accent from? Is it somewhere exotic?" She asks in a long flurry of words.

She pauses and takes a deep breath.
"Sorry, I'm getting way too ahead of myself. You probably think I'm weird now... I'm just excited, I need to have some time away from my brother. He's such a downer. I don't think I've ever seen him smile... Oh, I'm rambling again." She babbles excitedly.

"Ok, let's start from the beginning again. Yes, I'm Clara. I can heal and turn invisible. Hopefully that'll compliment your powers well!" She says, her huge grin not wavering in the slightest.

While waves and waves of word were submerging Caroline, the only thing she could do in response was bliking. Her grey eyes were looking at the little woman like she was talking in another language. Not that she didn't understand what Clara was saying, but it was difficult to follow and she couldn't even interrupt her to say anything. The good thing was, the girl was very enthusiastic, apparently, which was probably a good thing to create a team, right ? The french girl smiled softly when finally the younger woman stopped talking.

“Nice to meet you Clara, I'm Caroline.” she started, with a calm smile. “I'm from France, so that would explain my accent. Tell me if there's something you can't understand when I talk. I guess it'll happen.”

She was surprised by her powers, though she shouldn't have. Caroline had expected something along the lines of healing since Clara was supposed to be the healer, but invisibility ? That was really cool. Even if she had discover that she was a meta for quite some time now, the french girl was still a bit surprised by how different their powers could be. She'll probably get used to it more quickly now that she was in a faculty like this one.

“That so cool ! I don't know if mine can really complement yours effectively. I can... uh... Shrink myself. Also grow, but not that much, my shrinking is much more impressive.” She shrugged.

It was almost embarassing, as she realised that maybe her power wasn't interesting at all for the young girl. Caroline was supposed to be an infiltrator but someone who could turn invisible would probably be able to take that role too. Was she really going to be useful in that ?

“And so yeah, I guess we're supposed to form a team. I've been told I could be a good infiltrator so I'm guessing you could be a healer ?”

"Ooh, France! Is it as nice as everyone says it is?" Clara asks.

"That's what I hope, but I guess that with my invisibility I can infiltrate too, so I can be right there with you if anything happens and you need healing without even having to compromise the mission! We'll be the best infiltration team ever!" She giggled.

She should have probably expected to have questions about her home country, she would have done the same if the role were reversed. Yet, for some reason, she didn't want to talk too much about France for now, maybe she was already missing it, or maybe it was completely different. She didn't know really, all she knew was that she didn't want to talk about it too much.

"Well. It's okay, I guess ? I don't know, I didn't visit a lot of other countries so I can't compare but I can't complain either so I guess it's nice yeah."

Clara couldn't know that, of course, but what she said did nothing to help the french girl to feel useful. This team has only two members yet and it already sounded like it was a bad idea. For now, her power didn't complement each other at all, it was the opposite. They could both be very good infiltrators, what was the point of putting them both in the same team. Luckily, Caroline controlled herself enough to not let any of those thoughts leak on her face and she kept a polite smile.

"Probably. Maybe they are trying to put together a team specialized in infiltration ? They didn't tell me a lot about all of that. I guess we'll see."

Clara's enthusiasm didn't waver.
"We'll be the only infiltration team this school needs! You can get into almost any space, which I obviously can't do, and then we'll be like a team in one of those platforming puzzle games, you unlock doors for me, I hit switches to give you access to more places over and over until we get where we need to be, and nobody will know! And if anything goes wrong, you can come to me and I'll heal you up. The perfect spies!" She laughed.

That, Caroline could understand. Puzzle games, of course. That made perfect sense. Now that the younger girl was putting it like this, it made sense for their team to be centered around infiltration. Maybe it was how they had decided to create the team, or maybe it was simply because they didn't have that much students for now and they only tried to create cohesion among them, even if it meant not creating perfect teams. The french girl couldn't have known for sure and she was certainly not the kind to share her doubt like this, with someone she barely knew. Clara seemed very eager to form the team and start working on it, which made the whole thing easier.

"Yeah, that's probably the point. Perfect spies. I wonder what kind of power will be assigned to use for the rest of the team, what could spies need to ?"

Distraclty, she arranged a strand of black hair behind her ear and smiled.

"Well, I don't really know how we're going to organize it. I'm new here. So, if you want to find me during free time, my room number is 314. I guess we should hit the SimDeck together once in a while. I don't know about you but I probably lack of training when it comes to fighting." she shrugged.

A disembodied voice sounded within the minds of the two girls talking in the classroom. The voice is very obviously female, with a very British middle class accent, with a slight French flair on the occasional vowel.

I can help you with that.

Right on cue, Tegan walked through the door with a smile, wearing a black skirt that stopped just above the knee and a white shirt, along with her black Converse shoes. She gave a small wave, before approaching the closest of the pair, Caroline, and saying, "Tegan Hawke. Ms Hatsuhara assigned me to your team." She extended a hand towards the girl, offering a handshake.

Finding the two had been relatively easy, given the current emptiness of the school. Tegan had arrived at the school barely more than a few hours ago, and was immediately escorted to her dorm room. She'd scattered her meager possessions around the room, mostly pictures of her home and family along with her clothes and laptop. After a quick phonecall with her dad, to let him know she'd arrived safely and settled in, she'd taken a walk out into the gardens and almost immediately run into the head of the Academy, Kuriko Hatsuhara. After a short conversation, the woman had suggested that Tegan introduce herself to the other Sentinels in her squad. Tegan was already familiar with the class system, content in her position as a Sentinel, and was surprised to hear from Kuriko that there were barely any students present in any class. She'd assumed that most metas would jump at the chance of joining a superhero team, but according to her new mentor many metas worldwide were hiding their abilities, and tracking them down was proving to be a tricky task. As such, Ms Hatsuhara explained that her team right now was just "making do" with what they had, and that for now it would be pretty recon-heavy.

Tegan was aware of the basic abilities of the pair, one could shrink and the other could heal and turn invisible, but she wasn't sure who was who. She didn't want to go prying inside their heads without permission just yet, so she figured she'd wait until they gave up the information voluntarily.

"O-oh! Lovely to meet you Tegan, I'm Clara!" Clara replied with a sweet smile. Then something she'd been wondering for a while cemented itself as a legitimate question in her mind.

"Hey, how come everyone knew about this squad except for me?!" Clara asked with a frown.

Ada, after calling Shawn to make sure he was OK, entered the Academy thinking it was more because of blackmailing rather than a new opportunity. Once she got in, she headed to her dorm room to install the main computer that supported all her actions, and then headed to the main building, wondering where is she supposed to go

That Hatsuhara woman said I was a what? A serenade... No, a salmon! No, I don't think so... Oh! A Sentinel

Realization came to her mind as she entered the area with a sign that said "Sentinel Classrooms", however, it seemed that there were barely any people there, with only some few voices from one of the classrooms, some introductions would be OK

And a spectacular entrance would be better

Taking out her phone, she caused a mini-blackout that reached the occupied classroom, leaving it completely in the dark since it had no windows and was lit entirely by now off roof lights. Taking care of not stumbling on anything or anyone, she postioned herself standing straight behind the desk and waited for the power to return.

Hearing a voice in your head wasn't exactly something common, and maybe Caroline should have expected something like that to happen in this kind of school. Though the fact is she didn't. She didn't expect either someone entering the room at this exact moment, but the surprise of hearing a voice directly inside her head was enough to make her turn immediately toward it. Caroline was somehow kinda proud of that reflex, since it was apparently the girl who just appeared at the door who was responsible for the voices. Good thing : she wasn't becoming crazy, it was just another power.

She hesitated for a second before catching the hand that the girl extending, shaking it softlty.

“Nice to meet you. I'm Caroline.”

The french girl took a few second to detail the new girl from head to toe. She was so small ! And Caroline was sure she had not grow because of the voice, she was still at her usual size, so it meant that the girl was a hobbit. Though, she shouldn't be surprise by that : she had always been way taller than most of the other girl. She was also kinda cute, in her own way, with the clothes she was wearing and made Caroline though about a japanese school uniform.

Maybe I shouldn't think about that in front of someone who can enter my head ? Oh fuck, Tegan please tell me you can't hear this.

She was pulled out of her thought by a question from Clara and immediately smiled to her.

“I have no idea, but I think Ms Hast... Hatsu... She was looking for you. I just happened to found you earlier because I'm that good.”

She didn't laughed for long, as the whole place suddenly became dark, surprising her once again. This time, her instincts kicked in, as she moved slightly her feet to a more balancing position. She didn't raise her arms yet, but she was ready to fight if anything happened. One sound would have been enough. She also felt her shirt suddenly tightening against her, the button suffering to countain her entirely. Her jean also started to tighten around her waist and she felt a slight breeze on her heels and then only she understood.

“Oh fuck. Not again...”

She wondered how tall she had grow this time, not so much of course, but still a little.

After receiving the handshake from Caroline, she turned to Clara, smiling and extending her hand once again. "Nice to meet you Clara. It's as Caroline said, I think I was just lucky enough to run into Ms Hat-"

The lights went dark and Tegan immediately froze, unsure if the lightbulbs had simply run out or she and her new acquaintances were simply in danger. She didn't want to call out in case they were under attack, and panic began to settle in. Surely they wouldn't already be in danger?! If they were, there were some incredibly organised supervillains about. She continued to panic, which only got worse once she heard the sound of ripping close to her. Unable to maintain her silence anymore, she called out, "Hello?!"

Wait, what the hell am I doing?

It seemed she was already missing the entire point of becoming a superhero: using her powers to gain an advantage. Rather than call out, she simply started searching for minds around her to connect to. First, she came across Caroline. It would seem she was the one who could grow, and her power had activated itself in a panic. Tegan then directed her consciousness to the outskirts of the room, looking for anyone hiding where she might not have encountered them upon entering. It took her less than a couple of seconds, but she found the intruder.

Ah. Another student trying to surprise us. We'll see about that...

Tegan severed the secret connection between herself and the intruder, then sent out a message to Clara and Caroline.

It's just another student trying to mess with us. Clara, turn invisible and sneak behind the desk. We'll get payback.

As the lights went out Clara was legitimately shocked for a moment, before Tegan's voice instructed her. The explanation calmed her down quickly. Obviously Tegan had some similar psychic powers to her brother, although Josh had never been able to project his own thoughts.

Clara nodded and grinned at the prospect of the revenge prank before realising that this gesture was completely pointless in the almost total darkness of the room. She tried to think her response back to Tegan, unsure of how her new acquaintance's power worked.

"Ok, got it!"

Fortunately, although she was wearing casual clothes, she'd layered them over the invisibility suit the school had provided her, thinking it best to wear it as a school uniform of sorts, because it certainly beat stripping in front of all her colleagues to display her powers. She shuffled the skirt off and removed her top, leaving only the pale blue invisibility suit, and disappeared. The lights still hadn't come back on yet. She gradually made her way around the desk, feeling around her to avoid any collisions.

"I'm in position." She thought.

Well, it was enough, lights will be back soon so Ada lied on the desk one sided as she talked in the dark

"Hey! I'm Ada, nice to meet you" she said in a friendly voice

Just then, the lights return and she used the best smile possible, though it was impossible to see because of her mask

"Ohh, we're the women team! that's awesome! What do you girls do? Tell me"

For a while, the entire room turned completely silent and Caroline thought it was some kind of joke pullet out by the two other girls. Not that she would mind that much : she had been able to concentrate quickly enough to make sure her clothes wouldn't be ripped off completely right now. She didn't know exactly how much she had grow, but it was still manageable, except for her shoes, they were hurting her.

She waited for the joke to continu, wondering what it would be, until the voice came back in her head. She shivered and shake her hair by reflex : she really didn't like that. Not that Tegan voice was horrible or something, it was just the feeling of suddenly having someone else in your own head. Caroline had trouble getting around that, but she tried not to think about it, since maybe the girl would know. So, it was a joke, but not from then. Instinctively, she turned toward the front desk, even if she had nothing to do right now, she was curious to know how it'll turn out when the invisible girl would reach it.

Unfortunately, a new voice appeared in the room, as the light returned, before anything really fun could happen. A... girl ? Was lying on the desk, in a strange suit, wearing some kind of gas mask, and apparently talking to them.

Caroline relaxed slowly, loosing her slight posture and standing correctly, she took this time to see how much she had grown and took off her shoes. She had gain a solid ten centimers, which made her 192 cm tall (6'4”), she sighed.

“Well. As you can maybe see, I can grow, a bit. I can also shrink myself, in much impressive proportion.” she shrugged.

Her grey eyes fell on the new girl, examining her suit and the mask, why was she even wearing that ? Maybe she couldn't breath the air normally.

“I'm guessing that either you can push switch buttons with your minds or you power is somewhat linked with electricity ?”

"Nope"

To have your power confused would be something insulting, but Ada's power by itself was very bad, so it didn't affected her

"My power is kinda shitty, but with these babies together..." She stood up from the desk and took out her phone and signals her mask

"I can do things like these, and much more"

Another tap, and another blackout

"Cool, ain't it?"

Tegan smiled to herself, eagerly anticipating the big reveal of the newcomer. Once Clara confirmed that she was in position, Tegan mentally instructed her to stay put until she gave the signal. The intention was to distract the intruder and to have Clara scare her from behind. Simple, but effective. Having powers was starting to become a lot more fun. As Tegan waited for the lights to return, she realised that she was already fulfilling the rols she had been assigned in this particular team. Ms Hatsuhara had asked her to take the role of the team's leader, on account of her ability to communicate, as well as her head for tactics and maneuvers. Until now she'd been a little apprehensive, it was one thing to simply study ancient medieval war tactics, but organising a group of people with abilities that had never been seen before? Tegan would have been lying if she'd said she wasn't nervous. This didn't seem so bad though - the tactic had been relatively simply. A good start is always a good sign.

As the lights turned back on, Tegan blinked her eyes rapidly in the bright light and studied the fourth... girl? The gas mask hid her identity, but the form seemed pretty feminine. Tegan smiled when the girl revealed her name to be Ada, and let out a small wave. She continued to stay silent while Caroline introduced herself and her power. When Ada demonstrated her power once more, Tegans face broke into a grin. Ms Hatsuhara wan't wrong when she said that the Sentinels were going to be very recon heavy. Already, Tegan was imagining the group working their way through a high-security building with ease, hacking and sneaking their way in.

"I'm Tegan." She said calmly to Ada, then established a mental connection and added,

I can do this.

As Tegan broke off the connection, she continued smiling, excitement building inside of her as she waited patiently to pay Ada back for scaring the three of them.

[Think it's Clara next? Or Caroline. Posting order got kind of messed up.]

[OOC: Wasn't sure whose cue that was supposed to be, but I'll assume it's Clara's. My bad, everyone!]

Clara grinned in anticipation, although nobody could see it, as she waited for the lights to come on from the second blackout. The lights slowly flickered back to life, and Clara seized her opportunity. She became visible and grabbed Ada's shoulder.
"And I can do this!" She announced with a giggle.

[I think it's Caroline now...]

[Sorry not a lot of time right now, so I'll just write really quick but next time, if Caroline hasn't something important to do, just skip my turn, I don't have anything to add here]

This time, Caroline didn't jump out at the blackout and she even managed to keep her size under control. She was thinking about going back to her normal self when she saw the girl sneaking behind Ada. She was curious to see how she was going to react to that surprise.

Luckily for everyone, the french girl managed to avoid smiling all the way until Clara became visible again.

Ada would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. Actually the scare was so unexpected that she rushed forward not caring who might get crashed. After giving the first step, she stumbled and fell to the ground, the fall being heard all around the classroom.

"Ouch... stupid karma"

[Anyone still interested in continuing this thread?]

[Sure, the POWERS world could do with some life being breathed into it.]

[Well, yeah. I was always interested in bringing a hero of my creation to life. Any interesting ideas?]