[color=MediumSlateBlue] Chie’s eyes were peeled to the tinted window of the cab that separated her and the city of her dreams. As they traveled down the crowded streets she could hardly keep her excitement contained. Being in New York city was exciting, but knowing she would be staying here was a dream come true. She was like a child in a candy store looking at the fancy clothes stores and delicious looking restaurants. Her only qualm was that her family wouldn’t be here to share it with her. As if on cue her phone buzzed and the giddy teen’s face lost it’s radiant smile to a more concerned look.

1:43 pm 
Mom
Call me when you’re in your dorm

The text message wasn’t the only message on her phone, by far.Seeing her mom clinging to the excuse she had for being here, though, it was enough to make her feel too conflicted to enjoy the scenery. Now she just wanted to get to the stark tower. Looking for a new distraction, she gave Niel a less-than-gentle shove to wake him up.

“Niel, we’re almost here dude!” she practically shouted with joy. The taxi driver grumbled something under his breath as he turned the radio up to blot out the shrill noises of an excited teen girl.[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]Reluctantly waking up. Despite Chie’s shrills. Bad dreams kept him up, most of the night. Then again when wasn’t he kept up by something? The crawling bugs of his own thoughts. Or the sleepy alertness. When your mind is awake, but your body is tired. Sleep is one of those finite resources he seemed to lack a lot of from time to time. He could hear it now, sleepiest psychopathic Justice League member ever. 

“Eveningnoonmorning,” he mumbles all of them together just to be funny. 

Now it has been established that he is, in fact, awake. Sort of. Kind of. Not really. His brain is on one of the dialup speeds, is anyone going to understand the reference? Is he the only young person who does his research into the old and weird? 

New York City, huh. It's very flashy. Though maybe not in the classy way the postcards would have you believe, there’s something about it that’s kind of like the creepy handsome guy on a subway train. From a distance he’s decently attractive, next thing you know he’s sending you pictures and details you don’t want to know. New York sort of has that vibe. On the surface, classy, classic, and old. With historical districts, but it’s just strange enough beneath the surface it’s the equivalent of a dick picture. 
[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]Chie rolled her eyes at the groggy reply she got. At Least now she could see that his eyes were open. He seemed far less dazzled by the skyscrapers and hotels. Then again, he was from Gotham, he had seen Jump City Bay with the Teen Titans. Perhaps he was just a bit more worldly.She had to contain a gasp as she suddenly lurched forward and pointed to the only parking spot in miles for the driver to see.

“Stop there!” she commanded. The older man sighed as he brought them to a stop.
“Can’t work on any empty stomach, you’ve been knocked out for a while dude. Are you good?” Chie said with concern evident in her tone.

Her wallet currently had what a teen might consider ‘fat stacks’. She wasn’t afraid to splurge a little, especially before she started working for Tony Stark himself. She couldn’t imagine food would be a worry when a millionaire signs your paycheck. Pointing out a small, french-style bistro. The wafting smell of roasted duck and bourguignon of all sorts emanate from the restaurant and towards the duo.[/color]

[Color=LimeGreen]No one should be this enthusiastic, or he’s just cranky because he just woke up. Watching Chie, sighing internally rather than out loud. Raven told him she's going to start to look up to him and he’s not sure he’s ready for that kind of responsibility. He can barely look up to himself. He’s a pretty shite role model even to himself. And this whole Justice League bullshit. There’s a whole sort of ring of mockery. He’s not one of those “heroes”. Then again he has no secret identity. No masked identity either. Who actually spends their time wasting on stuff like that?  He’s thinking about all the interviews of the hours they spent making their costume, and coming up with an identity. Like they are looking up online baby names and going with Armageddon because it means destruction or something. 

Still food sounds good. One, it’s procrastinating from going to the Stark Tower just yet. And two, he ate nothing on their way out. 

“As long as there is coffee to go alongside it,” Niel shrugs while attempting to elbow Chie to move out of the cab. [/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]“It’s french. You know they’ll have coffee” She reassured as she moved out of his way. 

Niel wasn’t exactly the kind of company she would take with her on the regular, but being in a strange city and with superheroes in play, Chie was glad to have him by her side. Even if the excitement she had was lost on his more stoic demeanor. Regardless, the two of them found a seat by the window and coffee was served, as well as a spearmint tea for Chie. Food was ordered without any problems, the menu was rather simple.

“Do you know anyone else who might be showing up today?” Chie asked after a long sip of the warm drink. He had mentioned the names of other heroes before. It may not be much, but she was sure that he knew more than she did.
“It must not be anyone too amazing if they’re calling on me” she said with a wince. 
It wasn’t worth denying that she was a dark horse in the hero world. No impressive powers, no tragic backstory. She was just a tough kid with a vigilante streak, at least in her own head. It hadn’t exactly crossed her mind that it wasn’t normal for a woman her age to have taken down men twice her size and survived numerous encounters with inhuman villains. 
“Uh, no offense” She snickered to Niel as she took another sip.[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]She’s the least worrisome person he knows, “It must not be anyone too amazing, if they’re calling on you, huh.” he raises a brow, “You, Chie, are exactly what they are looking for. That’s not an insult, you just have all the qualities of a marketable young hero they can stick on the cover of Times. Not an insult. You’re enthusiastic, eager to aid the community, eager to help. It’s more concerning that Tony Stark dipped into the hero bin, and must have been scraping at the bottom to pick me out of it. Considering who my parents are, and the number of deaths I have accidentally caused. Tony was like, mmyeah, this seems like a good idea. That or he did it for a laugh knowing it piss in Batman’s cereal if he did so.”[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]That was something that hadn’t crossed Chie’s mind. Maybe being a hero wasn’t just about which powerful villain who can topple. Chie only responded with a shrug.
“I guess if they want me on the cover of Time, I’ll need to cover my face a bit more…” She thought aloud as their food arrived. Chie suddenly felt much less of an appetite, Niel’s skepticism was rubbing off on her.
“Maybe Stark learned you have a cool partner to keep you from killing anyone.”  She remarked with an uneasy cynicism. 
“Seriously though, Stark probably knows we’re a team. If we already work well together, it’ll be easier for him to integrate us into the party, right?” She said with less conviction than she wished she could have mustered.[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]Crap. The intent wasn’t to make her dejected. Looking over at Chie picking at her seared halibut, a weird choice for a teenager makes his choice of a grilled cheese feel juvenile in comparison. No fries. Just tomato soup to dip it in, “Don’t get depresso on me. Eat your halibut, that shit is expensive. I am not trying to drag you down in the mud of my dark thoughts. You’re supposed to be the chipper one remember. If I make you as jaded as me I am going to need to replace you. That’s a joke by the way. I am aware there’s such a thing of exuding positive traits in a toxic manner.”[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]Chie chipped away at her meal but it was clear the seed of self doubt had begun to sprout. Still, the overbearing snark her partner exuded never ceased to put a smile on her face. Niel was a lot of things, funny included. 
“I guess it’s just all so new to me. You’ve been dealing with this ‘hero’ stuff all your life” She said with a heavy sigh. Still, she gave him a sad smile, doing her best to keep positive.
“But what’s it matter! We’ll do fine! Especially if we stick together!” She said before taking another chop of her fish.
“Damn, this is good. You should try it!”[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]Dealing with this hero stuff all his life, huh. He’s told her time and time again, he’s not a hero and doesn’t aspire to be one. The very fact Tony Stark is like, that’s what we need, the disillusioned, jaded, morally gray anti-”hero” - means either he’s desperate or started looking into the B tier category for heroes to hire. The A Tier was already taken up by The actual Justice League and there was no one left to higher. So instead of getting your Batmans, he had to hire his ManBats.

“My Pops once said,” Niel tells her, giving her halibut a suspicious look, “that heroes never recognize when they are fallible. He says that they believe themselves to be infallible, often. Just look at the way our society props them up like social figurines to aspire to. In this world, you’re a hero, or you’re getting blown up from an alien invasion in your lifetime, and maybe just maybe Superman’s cape will brush across your house or your window and you’ll never wash that window again. I don’t have the luxury of believing I am infallible, else I’ll become the next Jason Todd, Red Hood. Or the Punisher. But I also don’t have the luxury to constantly fight my mind because that’s too exhausting. I just have to operate in my own category. As I have always done and continue to define. And live with the consequences of that choice.”

He takes another second, staring at the halibut, “And no thank you. Fish is not my thing. Damn you order like a thirty year old. Are you sure you’re in high school?”[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]Listening to Niel speak while she ate gave Chie a lot to think on. Still, he seemed as nervous as she was, even if he didn’t show it as apparently. Still, despite how poorly Niel seemed to value himself in this scheme, she seemed more upset with how he felt about her choice in food.

“Maybe that was just a lie to keep you off my trail?” She said with a wink. No thirty-year-old looked as young as she did. It was always fun to remind him she had a secret identity. She could hardly call it a secret between the two of them at this point, though. He knew her name, her age, even facts she had let slip out here and there. As she took the last few bites of her fish, the girl nearly gagged when she pulled out her phone.

“We’re going to be late!” She exclaimed frantically, practically jumping out of her seat. She slammed a wad of cash on the counter and looked to Niel with a gleam of urgency in her eyes.
“No way in hell am I going to be late for the first meeting!” She protested, grabbing the young man by his sleeve and tugging.
[/color]

[Color=LimeGreen]She’s taking this more seriously than he is. He’s been procrastinating. Sure the two of them are a match set, but Chie and him don’t need to be together. She’d do well. Probably make new friends. Ones less questionable than him. Strange High School Girl makes friends with Mentally Unstable Adult attempting to smoke out a Venom smuggling underground ring, which has a really suspicious ring to it. 

Eitherway he allows her to tug him out of the booth, “I’m coming. Do we even know where the Stark Tower is? Maybe if we’re lucky it will be shaped in a big giant letter and be easily recognizable.” he smirks, taking a quick shot at the T tower. The cab was supposed to take them exactly to the Stark Tower instead they spent that time eating. Which, again, no complaints. Tomato soup, grilled cheese, and coffee is a classic breakfast. Lunch? No, the food you eat first determines whether or not it's breakfast or not. And since he just woke up, breakfast. 
[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]Chie had them out the door by the time his protest even registered. Without even looking back she flipped open her phone and produced a map of the city. A one-handed search was all it took to locate the tower. 
“I’ve got it here, just try to keep up” She said before her brisk walk became a jog. A jog that to most people would be like a sprint. Chie had been running track and cross country since freshman year, making her way on foot may very well be faster than the cars stuck in traffic.

Rounding a few street corners, the large skyscraper with Tony’s Surname was in sight in the distance. It was a towering baston over the manhattan shore, something to marvel at, were they not in a hurry. Noticing him lacking behind a bit, Chie waited for Niel to catch up to her. She stayed by his side now that they could see the tower was in sight.
“You’d think Stark could have sent us a personal driver or something” She remarked as they waited for traffic to pause so they could cross another busy city street. After they had crossed, she looked down at her phone with growing concern.
“Oh… We’re like fifteen minutes late already!” She groaned.[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]Well they had a personal driver. In the cab they took. Then they took a massive detour, not that he’s complaining. He’d prefer if they took another. Despite his ability to be immune to poison, he’s no track runner and catching up to Chie will his gear is poking him in the ribs - well more like awkwardly rubbing across his kevlar vest. He knows a guy willing to make a “fashionable” vest for him. He might be a nerd, who just is really into kevlar. No one is special. But definitely someone who might have stolen, anyway side tangent over. 

“You think everyone is there already,” Niel attempts to calm Chie down, “Come on grandma. We better get inside.”
[/color]

[color=MediumSlateBlue]The two of them made their way towards the tower and within a matter of minutes they had made it to the tower. Seeing it up close, Chie craned her neck to see the top. She was never afraid of heights but being up there: that was scary. 
“You’re calling me a granny? I’d have been here in half the time if I wasn’t waiting on the human tortoise” She snarked back at him. Still, she couldn’t help but hesitate as she reached for the door. 

Inside, the smell of cleaning chemicals made it smell like a hospital inside. The whole place was oddly vacant, save for a few drones busy polishing the marble floor.

"Uh… hello?" She asked nervously, her introduction being met with silence.
"Anyone, uh, home?"[/color]

[color=LimeGreen]Niel laughs, “Guess we weren’t as late as we thought,”[/color]