3283/The New Kid and the First Lady

The New Kid and the First Lady
Date of Scene:	01 December 2017
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Sue breaks Power Boy with maternal instinct as the former slave cannot comprehend why someone wanting to help and protect him makes him miss something he never new existed.
Cast of Characters:	Power Boy, Invisible Woman

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Power Boy has posed:
    The Fantastic Four have got fun Technology. All sorts of monitors and fun things. Radiation detectors. Dimensional doohickeys. They are just light years the world in so many ways.
    This power signature is approaching a little, then backing off. Approaching, backing off. Like it wants to get attention, but not the -wrong sort- of attention. It is as if it is saying 'look at me, I'm friendly'. The kid should learn to use a cellphone. After a few minutes of doing this, as if making sure it is okay to approach, the power signature, the Apokoliptian known as Power Boy attempts to approach, and land on the roof. Once on the roof, it waves at the cameras, then the young man slides his hands first up, then onto the top of his head as if there were police telling him to do so. So he is either surrendering, or showing his is not hostile? he hopes?

Invisible Woman has posed:
    It definitely draws attention. Especially since her children are in this building. Sue Richards isn't one to assume that any approach is hostile, though, and she waits to see what the approaching superpower will do. When he lands politely on the roof and waits, she determines that the best course of action is simply to approach and see what he needs. To that end, she heads up there.
    As she steps off the lift, the classy blonde is dressed in civilian clothing - a pair of navy slacks and matching heels, a creamy peach and ivory sweater, her hair pulled into a simple barette at her nape. But she's clearly in full command of herself and possibly of any defenses the building might have. "Good morning," she greets mildly, approaching Power Boy with understandable caution, though no fear. "What can we do for you this morning?"

Power Boy has posed:
    "Hello." He has a warm baritone. "Umm, you can do a lot for me, actually?" Power Boy makes no movement to lower his hands from on top of his head. "I am from Apokolips. I am known as Power Boy. I defected from my people and I have been fortunate enough to make friends who have helped me build a life here."
    The hands on top of his head, if he is really from Apokolips must just be there to make her feel better.
    "If you don't want me on your roof I will leave, and not come back. I respect your customs. What is it, 'A man's home is his Castle'." His powerful shoulders give a little shrug. "Kinda sexist, but I was born a slave. What do I know?"
    He pauses. "To the point. As I understand it, you are explorers and scientists. I have some standard data I would be willing to trade about the state of the universe, its aliens, its cultures, and the dispositions of its various alliances. In exchange, I just need." he struggles for the words. "Character References." His head bobs. "I need to get some of this data in the hands of SHIELD, but I do not want them to decide that Earth is for Earthlings. I mean, your species is busy preparing to go to war over minor genetic quirks of evolution... I'm from the worst place in the multiverse, and I think that about the worst thing I have ever seen." His eyes get big as he realizes he was just very insulting. "Aww, ******." He mutters. It is some sort of alien word. It sounds foul.

Invisible Woman has posed:
She doesn't seem to feel threatened by him. Maybe that makes her foolishly trusting, maybe it makes her something else. But as he begins to speak, Sue's heart rather aches for him. He seems very young. And by his own words, very alone. "Take your hands down - I definitely get that if you were a threat, you wouldn't be just standing here." She sounds vaguely amused.
    She listens to the rest of his information and ... well, she's rather used to Reed, who sounds about as arrogant as a human can get sometimes. So the young man's word choice just makes her lips quirk slightly. "Language, young man," she says simply. Because one can always tell the swear words, regardless of which language they're in. "How about you come down into the offices, and we can sit and talk about what you'd like to bring to the table." She gestures to the lift. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

Power Boy has posed:
    He is lonely. His smile though is very genuine. "Neither is required, but I appreciate the offer of hospitality for what it is, and I thank you for it." he lowers his hands. "I am sorry about my word choice. I am... nervous." Its like Power Boy had to search his emotions to see how he felt. "I have made your world my home. I have a tiny little place in it that is nothing at all compared to your home... I have a home here." His smile is soft. "It is a small, quiet, maybe pathetic existence." He owns that much. "But its my little slice of quiet." His hands gesture. "Please, lead on. I am going to give you the data regardless, which I should not say, i know. But in the community your... organization? Family?" He is not sure which it is, exactly, "has the highest of reputations. If anyone should be doing first contacts, it should be you." He moves to follow her.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Sue has to laugh at that, leading him into the lift. "What shall I call you?" she asks him. "I'm Sue Richards. And ... welcome to Earth. We do quite like it, and we're grateful you're not here to wreck it. I sincerely doubt your friends would have helped you set up a pathetic existance, though. Not if they're your friends. They would certainly want you to have whatever might be a happy existance for you." She doesn't seem nervous at all, and her tone is gentle.
    When the lift takes them down a few floors and she leads him off the small box, there are a slew of offices and a large conference room. "Please, make yourself comfortable." Glancing toward a young woman who appears to be making her way in this direction, Sue subtly waves her off. And she leads the way into the conference room, where there are computers and screens and anything they might need to have a whole conversation. "I appreciate that you chose us to have this conversation with. How about you tell me a little about this data you wish to offer? And what, perhaps, you're worried might be done with it?" She can guess most of it, but he may have some specific things she hasn't thought of.

Power Boy has posed:
    Unclipping a larger than normal Earth portable hard drive from the back of his belt, Power Boy holds it out to Sue. "25 terrabytes. When you have digested it, I will give you more." He states it simply. "This is Apokolips intelligence. So, it is definitely a critical view of threat, and of opportunity. Its mindset alone will give insight into my native culture. And make no mistake, they will bedevil this world again." His blue eyes seek out hers. "Power Boy is sufficient. Slaves are not given names on Apokolips.I am obviously not a full slave, but my father is essentially unknown to me, and I have no idea who or what my mother was." He tells her this bluntly and with the straight forward manner of a person who has no idea what they missed out on.
    "I selected you because you have power, intellect, and the human, uhm, attitude? Spirit? You represent a lot of what is really great about this planet and your civilization." His head tilts to the side. "That is not meant as flattery. It is my assessment of you."

Invisible Woman has posed:
The blonde automatically reaches out to take the box when it's offered, but when he tells her what's in it, she *stares* at him. Holy Mother of God. Those blue eyes flit down to the object she's holding while he talks, and then she looks back up at him again. "Uhm...." Wow. It's not often that Susan Richards is rendered completely speechless.
    "Okay," she finally says, moving to sit down at the table, the hard drive in front of her. "Well... first, thank you for the compliment. It's nice to know that we have a good reputation." She works hard at that. "And I appreciate your candor in your assessment." Because whether he meant to or not, he did flatter her. It's a little embarrassing, which she mostly hides.
    "Do you... wish for me to keep this intelligence secret?" Sue asks him quietly. "Because you're offering a lot here. And frankly, I'm not sure I *can* keep it a secret. We definitely do our best, along with the others, to protect the Earth, and this information will likely be invaluable to us. But space- and alien-based defenses are not exactly what the Fantastic Four do." She tilts her head. "Or are you asking me more or less just to keep the SOURCE of my intelligence secret and then use my best judgement about who should be given it?" Because she did pick up on his concerns about SHIELD. "You have to know we work pretty closely with many other groups."

Power Boy has posed:
    "You need to keep it secret. I am not a brilliant scientist. I just have perfect retention a, but I can tell you that your society is fractured. I am marked for death by kind. I have made some inroads, but I... lack friends, support, or a team to ply the heroing craft with. I help Supergirl whenever i can, but she is mostly involved in helping her cousin. I'm just trying to get it in responsible hands. This is your eyes only. You can discern it later, but if you cannot keep it to your eyes only, you need to give it back. You sharing it, well it just gives me nothing to trade. I have to protect myself. Because honestly? Right now your species is busy preparing to kill itself over mutation." Power Boy lifts his left hand, as if in apology. "I'm not not claiming to come from better. I'm simply saying that I have to have a way to generate good will. I need to be able to trade data to live unmolested. I am not trying to be difficult, or obstructionist. I have a home here. I never had that before. if I have to start a new home, I will. I will not be happy about it."

Invisible Woman has posed:
Sue considers him quietly for a long moment. Her words, when she speaks, are carefully chosen. "Believe me when I tell you that I understand your predicament. Technically speaking, we are mutants -- our powers were triggered by excessive exposure to radiation. It's the very definition of a mutated set of genes."

Pulling in a long breath, Sue nods slowly. "I will be brutally frank here. I can and will keep it secret *only* so long as the information is not something that is of immediate need. Obviously, if the Apokaliptians come back, that is going to change the situation. And I can't make an educated decision on what might need to be shared without seeing what you've brought me first. That said... if I read through what you've brought and something seems to me to *need* to be shared, I will not do so without speaking with you about it. That way, if you disagree with my argument, we will be able to better figure out what needs to happen. Is that fair?"

Power Boy has posed:
    "There isn't military data, or Apokoliptian data, as in Data on Apokolips, on that hard drive." Power Boy responds. 'That is sociological, economic, and political data on your closest neighbors, potential allies and potential enemies in this galaxy. Apokolips is not even entirely in this dimension. There is no relevant military data on the hard drive. You are not a military agency. I have that reserved for SHIELD." Power Boy makes a slight face. She's making him nervous. "Maybe we should rethink this?" His sigh is soft, but the young man holds out his hand for hard drive. "I, don't think I know enough about you, now. I mean no disrespect. I want to help, but it doesn't seem like anyone really wants to help me, other than a couple of people." Power Boy presents his palm for the hard drive.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Sue tells him, "Actually I want very much to help you. It just was making me quite nervous that you were handing me military information that might be needed to defend us against what's out there and wanted me to keep it secret. What you've described to me just now? Sociological and cultural information? That, generally speaking, I have no trouble keeping my mouth shut about having it unless or until it's relevant for me to need to use it."
    Again she studies him for a long moment. "What exactly are you looking for with this? I mean... what kind of help, Power Boy? You're making an assumption here that you must trade me something to make it worth my while to help you. You don't." She pushes the drive back over to him. "Tell me what you need from me, and if it's within my power to assist you with it, I will." Because honestly, she's just that kind of person. She's not going to make her help contingent on what he shares.

Power Boy has posed:
    "Character references. Contacts. A chance to prove myself without being sneered at because of where I come from. When I arrived I was not able to deny my heritage In order to help, I had to say who and what I was." Power Boy regards her. "Humans are mercantile. I appreciate your candor and your apparent and quite genuine benevolence and sincere, magnanimous altruism. I mean that." Power Boy's voice betrays his admiration for their reputation. "But, you are not the norm. By all accounts you are monitored by a shady, and at times duplicious, manipulative organization." He means SHIELD.
    "If I defend myself, I am the bad guy, like your Magneto. If I do not defend myself, or have people to vouch for me, I vanish in this monolithic organization, likely to be experimented on." There it is. Fear in his eyes. "I was tormented, tortured, and experimented on by Darkseid. I was trained to infiltrate and eliminate high value targets. I know where vanishing leads, and I will not go in for that. I will not." He repeats himself, and it is not a threat, but it is obvious he is very concerned he'll just trade one evil master for another. "I came to you because you have the best reputation there is. You would actually understand where I am coming from. Keep the data." He's agitated and he's scared, but he never makes a threatening gesture, even though as his arms wrap about his middle, as if to keep his insides in. Someone has told him horrible things about what to expect from Earth Authorities.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Susan leans back in her seat and looks far more enlightened. "Power Boy...." She looks sad too. "For what this is worth to you. First, I will never allow what I know of you to be used to capture, torture, or otherwise experiment on you. Second, I will *not* put you in a position where you someday just vanish." She is very sincere in this. And honest. "Yes, there are people out there who would do so. They are *not* us. They are *not* the people I work with or for. And if I ever find *out* the people I work with are pulling such horrible things, you can believe that I'll be the first person in line to publically blow their little backsides right out of the water. And I'll make a LOT of noise about it." For a moment, the core of her is visible. It's not steel... it's fricking vibranium or adamantium. She doesn't Put Up With Crap.
    "I will be happy to vouch for your intentions and act as a character reference for you. If you need to defend yourself, do please try to do it with the minimum required force as opposed to the maximum. But even if you have to use maximum force, I will back any move an ally makes so long as it is a justified action." Does he think she hasn't had to do that? He perhaps hasn't done quite as much research as he thinks. "The lines are occasionally kind of blurry. But I believe that you just want to live your life here and help where you can. As far as proving yourself? It just takes a little time. But I sincerely think you're on the right track." She deliberately doesn't take the drive. He can retrieve it or leave it, as he chooses. It is not the price of admission here, and she won't have him believing that it is.

Power Boy has posed:
    He gently nudges the drive back over towards her. "Okay then." His arm goes back around his middle though. He regards her seriously for a very long, silent moment, then he visibly relaxes. "Okay." e says more softly. "It was different before." he says very quietly. "I didn't know better. I mean, it was awful, but it was how it was. Now, the idea of losing things? I never had anything to lose. I have a little dog. I have friends, two of them." He calls himself rich because he has two friends. He averts his eyes to one side. "I am sorry to overreact I am worried that I had heard wrong."
    He takes another long breath. "I am reading your emotions." His eyes look a little watery. He didn't have parents. "Wh-why do I feel bad?"

Invisible Woman has posed:
Sue looks startled. He's ... okay. That means she needs to rein in that fierce protective nature. "Oh dear," she murmurs. "I'm sorry.... the more you tell me about yourself, the more I want to just... bundle you up and keep you safe from the jerks in this world who are only happy when they're hurting other people." She grimaces a little. "It hurts my heart that you're so alone," she admits. "I'm not an empath or telepath, so I can only do so much to contain that... but I'll try." She just... feels what she feels, and stifling it isn't exactly in her nature.

Power Boy has posed:
    "Most of the time, I like it." Power Boy admits. "I mean it's just. Like." He makes a face. 'Something. I dunno. I.. I gotta go. I am not sure why I am upset by that." He has no idea why that caused a longing. He starts to get up. "I. I have to be careful. I can get lost in emotions. I need to. I need to go. You have done nothing wrong." He wipes at his face, disgusted with himself.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Oh dear. Clearly she HAS done something wrong. She struggles to bury her emotional responses, but WOW this young man causes all kinds of mommy instincts to flare. "Okay," Sue tells him. He clearly needs some space from her. "You know where the elevator is, Power Boy," she tells him gently. "And if you need me -- or us -- all you have to do is call on us. There's a dedicated line to reach us." She reaches for a piece of paper and scribbles it down for him. "Anyone who answers that line can either find me if you need me in particular or will respond to a request for help as immediately as possible." She pushes the paper to him and is carefully trying to bank her emotional reactions. Lord, she wants to HUG this boy.

Power Boy has posed:
    "Beau. Supergirl named me Beau." He says softly. "Thank you. I.. I will be in contact." He pulls in a breath and calms himself after a moment. "Thank you. I.. don't know why someone wanting to protect me makes me sad. You have not done anything wrong. You just.. I don't know." He doesn't know what a mom feels like. He almost bows, and his right hand moves as if to salute her. he stops himself and makes his way towards the door. He thanks her again, completely lost on how to react. He almost walks into the wall he's so flummoxed.