Who's There? (Open)

[SURGE]

”Humans… sure talk slow.”

Was the first thought that crossed through her mind as she sat on a fire escape and observed the human populace. She was used to the humans slow speech patterns so that wasn’t a problem; she could understand them just fine. It was her. Speaking slower and speaking the language itself that was difficult and hard for her. She was used to speaking in the human language but she wasn’t used to having to constantly repeat herself over and over because of how soft her voice was, to her it sounded louder than it was but to humans it sounded more like a mumble or whisper than an actual clear voice and that annoyed her more then being stuck on this unknown planet. Not being able to be heard properly for the first time made her not want to repeat herself, it made her unwilling, as if to say "If you can’t hear me why should I bother to speak?!". In her own language that is; speaking fast, with just the flow, hum, crackle or buzz of electricity and finally speaking with electrical communication was what she was used to. With electrical communication it could either require physical contact or none at all. what really mattered was how to zap another Voltriaian in order to get one’s message across to either one or several others. With just the flow, hum, crackle and/or buzz of electricity in order to get ones message across without having to rely on electrical communication or without having to rely on words at all, it was their way of silent talking.

A frown appeared on her lips as she lifted her gaze from the humans below her to the large blaring sign directly across the street from where she sat high above the humans with her legs dangling through railings of the fire escape. The bright red sign was mocking her. Seriously! It was! Just looking at the electricity flowing sign caused hunger to claw at her empty belly. It wasn’t fair! Humans had no need for electricity; they didn’t survive off of it, not like she did. They just used it as a power source to power things for them. She couldn’t steal the electricity from the sign because then that would draw unwanted attention to herself and that wasn’t something she needed or wanted to deal with. Especially not with the humans and metahumans running around in funny colored costumes saying that they are heroes and heroines. You know the funny looking weirdoes who stop bad guys? Yes those funny looking weirdoes. She knew she couldn’t press her luck in staying around any one city; there was always a chance that she would get caught by those funny looking heroes and they’d stop her from taking the electricity. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. Seriously! Just WHO was she hurting by taking humanity’s precious electricity? No one ever died from a blackout! At least no human has! The Voltriaians on the other hand… a disaster like that could end the lives of hundreds of thousands of millions Voltriaians. A shiver ran down the girl’s spine at the thought. Hopefully that would never happen.

Her home…

How would she ever get home?

That was an answer she didn’t have.

But she desperately wished she had one…

Aislinn looked down at herself; she was wearing clothes that she had stolen from a clothing store somewhere in South Dakota. She was wearing a pale purple t-shirt with a far-too-big-for-her-small-frame peach pink sweater with a large black printed large feline on it; she heard the woman working there called it a tiger? She was practically swimming in the cozy stolen sweater, which covered her hands completely, she also wore grey sweatpants that were rolled up several times so that she didn’t trip on them and finally a pair of white, purple and silver tennis shoes, which were from the children’s section. She crossed her arms over her small chest and huffed angrily to herself and kicked at the air. It wasn’t fair!

She got up and stomped down the fire escape and dropped down instead of using the ladder, landing effortlessly on her feet, she walked out of the alleyway and merged with the crowd. She pulled one of the sweater sleeves up to reveal her clawed three fingered hand; the skin was white with a tint of lavender purple to it. There was no way she was human and she couldn’t make herself look more human because she didn’t look like a complete human in the first place. A long strand of lavender and electric blue tipped hair fell in front of her face and she blew it away in a fruitless gesture to make it go back into place. She was very well aware that she looked out of place among the humans, her hair was odd, she only had three fingers and three toes, pointed ears, she had no teeth, her skin was white with a lavender tint to it, her eyes were indigo with no irises or pupils and she wore goggles instead of eyeglasses.

You couldn’t get any more eye catching then that.

Aislinn adjusted the strap of her electric blue backpack which contained only her sketchbook, box of art supplies, shrunken hoverboard and her box of spare goggles. Suddenly a man walked passed her, holding a cellphone to his ear and talking into it, obviously conversing with someone. She didn’t care who that man was but that man’s cell battery was going to die. Unexpectedly. She easily followed the man, making sure to keep quiet before she moved to walk beside the stranger. She could feel the electricity within the small device and could feel how charged it was. It was low, only a one fourth of the way charged but it was better than going hungry for another few hours or even another day. She twitched her fingers drawing in the electricity, it came out in a small barely noticeable stream of yellow electricity, the electricity would have been larger but she didn’t want to bring attention to what she was doing. Once the electricity stream touched her fingers, she jerked her fingers downwards, pulling the rest of the electricity from the device and into her awaiting hand. With that done she didn’t waste another second and took off down the street, the man’s angry swearing ringing her ears as she took a sharp left and hid in yet another alleyway.

Safe within the alleyway the child-looking teenager leaned against the brick wall slightly out of breath, if only because of how long it had been since she had eaten. She looked down at her hand and grinned as she felt the familiar electricity flowing her through her fingers, heard the soft hum of the electivity and could see the electricity within her grasp as she raised her hand to her face and focused watching as the newly extracted electricity flowed from palm of her hand, the tiny sparks moving along her hand and gathering at the tip her index finger, forming into a small sphere as she put her finger close to her lips and opened her mouth slightly, just enough so that the electricity could travel from her finger into her mouth. The transfer took only nanoseconds but for her it was like heaven. The electricity on this planet tasted sweeter than any electricity she had eaten before.

Her joy was short lived as soon as she had finished with that messily snack a sound reached her ears and she tensed up. She wasn’t alone anymore. "W-w-who's t-there?!" she squeaked in a feeble whisper, her words speeding up due to her fear. Her eyes wide in fear as her body shook slightly in nervousness as nervous energy surged through her body. Slowly she turned her head so that she could look over her shoulder...

[Bumblebee]

[style= text-align: justify; padding: 5px; width: 550px;] The only light that illuminated the alleyway was from the barrel of the guns that rapidly released bullets into the thin air. Finally, it ceased and the ringing that that had filled her ears began to die down. Karen Beecher hovered high over the air, her less than an inch sized form looking down on the crooks that had lowered their weapons. Her heart was pounding and head ached from the loud bangs that erupted from the firearms. In her miniscule form all sounds came to her as a great shock and right now she had only begun recovering from the sound of at least 10 bullets being fired.

Once the shaking had subsided, her thermal vision activated and she stared down at the four men. They were reloading now, one actually putting his firearm away in clear confidence of the fact that they had handled their pursuer.

“We don’t know if we even shot her.”

One man said as he rammed a loaded magazine into his handgun.

“Doesn’t matter, do you see her?”

Another man retorted in a matter of fact tone. Suddenly he hacked and coughed up some mucus, spat it to the ground and grinned as he held up the bag of jewelry they had managed to get their hands on. Jewelry that’s what this entire night was about: a bag of diamonds whose worth was only as much as the companies marketed them to be. This had been her evening, and seriously Karen would have loved to spend it working on her thermal dynamics homework, but duty called and for some reason the tower was a lot more vacant tonight than normal.

Below her, the men had developed a sense of safety and confidence in their efforts to get rid of her. Boy did she feel bad for ruining their good day. They were in for –quite literally – the shock of their lives. The yellow accents along her suit that gave her the impression of a bumblebee began to glow. It started first at the antennas that were positioned on her helmet, and then it traveled down from her neck, to chest and down the arms where her gloved hands began to glow brilliantly. At her size she looked like a tiny firefly and at her size the barely illuminated the alleyway.

Her mild illumination however, was enough to get someone’s attention.

“Great I was looking for a volunteer.”

She chimed as she dived from her position and flew toward the man. Little wings vibrated quickly as they carried her through the air and when a small beep from her suit signaled that she was at full power she let it all go. White, with a hint of yellow electrical energy erupted from the palms of her hands, and Karen listened as the man took it first as a mild shock. She intensified the heat, aiming now for certain points in his body and fired. It took three bursts of energy but the titanic man careened to the floor.

“Really? You’re going to try that again?“

Karen said mockingly, now focusing her sights on the other three men who were raising their firearms and preparing to unleash another hail of bullets. Revving up her energy, Karen charged to near full potency and unleashed a wave of electricity that shot at the men, first latching onto the firearms and using the metal as conductors, traveled to their hands. Two men fell back, one getting so shocked that he actually keeled over.

“Alright, I think I can stop with the fancy light show.”

Karen said with a grin as her body began to reform and shift back to normal size. Right before their eyes the young, dark skinned woman took to their original form and became visible to them once again. Before they could even do anything about it however, Karen launched forward, her fists balled and sending one straight into one man’s nose and landing an axe kick to another man’s shoulder blade. The amplified force that her suit provided allowed her to take out each man with one blow. She probably also broke a few bones, hopefully the crunching she had heard was theirs and not her own.

Clapping her hands together as if she had just finished a long day of cleaning, Karen looked down to admire her job well done. Now I can sleep well tonight. she thought rather sarcastically as she stepped back from the scene, alerted by the sound of police sirens that were rounding about the corner. Karen took that as her cue to leave and taking to the skies in her bee sized form Karen disappeared in the blink of an eye and disappeared into the darkness.

Traversing the alleyways wasn’t her favorite mode of commute, even at this size she was still in danger of whatever these alleyways held. But based on her location, taking the alleyways would be the fastest route to take to her quaint apartment in downtown San Francisco. Her tiny formed maneuvered in the darkness and used a gps tracking system that was installed onto the quartz goggles that she wore over her eyes. She would be home in no time, readily available to look back at the paperwork her mentor, Ray Palmer left for her last Friday.

It was the sound of a trashcan clattering as it was knocked over that stopped her in her tracks. At first she thought it was just an animal, that wasn’t unusual around her, but then she heard the feeble sound of a small voice, barely audible call out an inquiry to whoever had intruded onto its space. Quirking her brow, Karen looked around wondering what she had stumbled upon. Judging by the sound of the voice it was young, maybe female – was it a child? Her eyes widened as she switched on the sensory receptors of her suit and looked around.

Children in San Francisco alleyways? The mayor had taken care of that last year; he had ensured that there would be no more. Had this poor girl been left behind by the program initiated or were the orphan street children going to be at a rise again. Her heart clamored in her chest as she felt a wallowing sadness take over her.

Suddenly, it dissipated and curiosity took over as her suit picked up energy readings, very faint but unlike the anything she would ever expect from a child – much less a human. Her brow quirked and she moved forward, switching to every possible spectrum to try to get a vague visual of the creature before her.

Finally she saw it, small, huddling in the corner and Karen stared in awe, her suit’s computer still trying to make sense of what was sitting before her.

“It’s alright.” She offered her hand out in reassurance, but then realized she was still in her less than normal size. Nodding to herself, she suddenly began to shift in size, reverting back to her 5’5” stature and landed on the ground. When her wings ceased its vibrations she folded onto her back, meshing into the suit and disappearing from sight. She tried again, “It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.” She offered once again, her hazel eyes held steadfastly forward as she waited for the creature to respond. [/style]

[SURGE]

Aislinn saw that no one had responded to her inquiry and figured that it was a trick of her mind and she slowly slid down the wall, her arms wrapping around her bag, as she brought her knees up to her chest. Her eyes darting around toward each and every shadow, she swore some of them even moved! She still wasn’t fully use to the darkness of this planet; it was very different from her own. Voltria was as bright as the sun, all day, everyday, it was never dark nor was there ever night. It was day all the time. It was bright all the time. There was no darkness, no shadows and no fear of blackouts. Her eyes strained to make out every shadow. She shifted slightly and winched as her elbow hit something with enough force to make it fall and clatter nosily to the ground. The noise sounded louder than it was thanks to the stillness of the alleyway causing her to flinch and freeze up in fear. Her eyes darting around, searching everywhere to see if anyone had heard and came to investigate the sudden noise. She saw no one and figured she was safe from discovery but a buzzing sound made that relieved feeling disappear as quickly as it came.

Something caught her eye and she squinted in the darkness only being able to see splash of yellow in the shadows, and that weird buzzing sound was closer. She blinked and opened her eyes only see and suddenly have the buzzing thing in front of her. Although she could see that it wasn’t a thing but a person, a miniature person. A fairy, that’s what this person must have been. At least that was the only logical answer she could think up. “Are you a fairy?” She asked unable to help blurting out her childish question. Her huddled figure uncurling as she leaned closer in her curiosity and for the fact that she wanted to see the fairy better. Her eyes widened when the fairy spoke. It spoke to her. Fairies can talk? she thought in wonder. She watched the fairy hold out her hand only to take it back and Surge could only watch as the ‘fairy’ changed size. Watched as it, no she grew into a dark skinned woman, a black skinned human(to her Karen’s skin looks like a silhouette) in a suit half bathed in shadow, the gold was the only part of the suit she could see clearly. That would explain the splash of gold she saw earlier. Really the gold on the woman’s suit was all she could really see given how dark it was.

Surge was disappointed really, she thought the woman was a fairy but in reality she was just one of those colorful clothed weirdoes she had seen a few times in person and in through the TV’s she had watched on occasion. When the woman spoke again and she rolled her eyes but to the woman look like she hadn’t done anything since her eyes were hidden behind her goggles. Aislinn took her time as she studied the woman, trying to figure out how much of a threat she was, trying to size her up on threat level. When she saw no ill intentions she slowly raised her hand and took the woman’s outstretched hand and let the woman pull her up into a standing position, her three fingered free hand clasping her bag’s strap tightly and she instinctively clutched it close to her chest with her free arm. Once her hand made contact she could feel electricity from the woman, or perhaps it was from the suit the woman wore? She dropped her hand the moment she was pulled fully to her feet. Either way it was electricity and feeling the flow of it made her remember her hunger and her stomach chose that time to betray her by gurgling much to her embarrassment.

She decided to respond to the woman, hoping to keep her from commenting on her rumbling tummy or offering any sort of food, human food wouldn’t suffice for her hunger, no matter how curious she was about the foods humans ate daily. But soon she would try the foods that humans ate, just not right now, especially when she had no idea what human food would do to her sensitive immune system. The questions came rapid fire, as fast as her brain could think, those questions came from her lips. “Who are you?”, “How do I truly know that you won’t hurt me?”, “How do I know you aren't lying? You could be lying to me right now.” She asked her speech speeding up, questions bursting forth, her curiosity getting the best of her. She wanted to and would have asked more but she figured she’d let the human answer those questions first before asking more.

[Bumblebee]

[style= text-align: justify; padding: 5px; width: 550px;]The moment their hands made contact, Karen felt her body freeze slightly as she realized that what she had taken a hold of was from the common anatomy of a human hand. Well at least it felt like it; maybe she was passing judgment too quickly. This could just be a prosthetic or maybe Karen was just imagining things and letting that creative mind of hers get the best of her. She tightened her grip on the creature before her and hoisted it back onto its two feet. Was it feet? She peered down in mild curiosity just to make sure. What she saw were the prong like hands of the creature and it took everything in her power not to pull her hand back in slight bewilderment and fear. She was a hero for goodness sake; she had seen far stranger things.

Her hazel eyes softened as she took in the sight of the young creature before her. Though human in appearance, she was small – very small and her facial features made her look very young. There were goggles rested over her eyes, a sign to Karen that she was hiding some sort of imperfection and had it not been for their recent contact experience she would have thought nothing of the young woman’s oversized sweater. It strategically extended past her hands, allowing her the safety of its heavy, wool properties to protect her. The young woman’s introverted demeanor gave Karen even more signs that she was not used to this region, maybe even this world – regardless she wasn’t going to let these little things change the way she treated her. Whatever was standing before her was in clear need of help – the sound of its rumbling stomach had given that much away.

Before Karen could say anything about the rumbling or offer any further services, body language told her that this conversation was headed in another direction. The timid appearance disappeared in an almost dramatic manner as the young woman composed herself and looked (if Karen could actually see through those thick goggles) Bumblebee right in the eye. Her voice carried uncertainty, caution and suspicion as she approached Karen with a newfound sense of confidence or rather with a sense of self preservation. If she wasn’t from this word then it would make sense that she lacks trust – if any – in Karen. She bit her lip, listening to the young woman go off, her voice low and near inaudible. It took concentration and bit of leaning in to actual hear her speak, but she wasn’t really hearing anything that couldn’t be assumed through the creature’s body language.

Questions were shot at her from all directions and spewed out all at once. Primarily, they focused on one point that was could she be trusted.

Karen liked to think she was an honest person, hell you had to be honest to involve in her line of work. But if the creature didn’t care of who or what Karen was, then that entire reputation that she had built up would do her no good. So then how, how could she approach the situation so that the young woman could find a resolve or measure some good faith in Karen Beecher.

The light bulb in her head went off almost instantaneously. The obvious answer was right in front of her, how else would you win your way into someone’s heart but right into their stomachs! Remembering the woman’s terrible growling of her stomach, Karen considered feeding the young thing to level out all assurances. A bad person wouldn’t offer to feed you – well they would - and they’d give you poison, but that was beside the point.

“Well… how about we talk about things like that over a meal. You sounded hungry, maybe we should grab something to eat?” Karen offered with a friendly gesture as she planted hre hands on her hips and cocked her head in the anticipation of Surge’s response. She blinked and remembered something, trust started with a name, “Also, I’m Bumblebee… but if you’d like you can just call me Bee.” Another soft smile and warm expression, Karen was totally ready to win some hearts over.

[/style]

[SURGE]

Aislinn had been hoping that her questions would divert attention away from her grumbling tummy. Apparently no such thing had happened. The human woman had seen through her and had gone straight to offering her food. The question was what would it be? Human food or the food she really needed, electricity? As soon as that thought entered her head she dismissed the thought. The thought of a human willingly allowing her to eat electricity from a sign or something was completely ridicules, especially with how humans treated their electricity like it was something sacred. It wasn’t sacred! They weren’t even using for anything other then pleasure. And besides there was always the possibility of this human attacking her while she fed or attacking her for consuming the electricity in the first place. Or… Okay! Stop thinking! she demanded in her head as she struggled to stop thinking too much about one insignificant question but it was hard because this offer of food could be a trap, she knew it could be, but she sensed no ill will from the woman before her.

She was still weighing her options of declining the offer of food or not. She listened as the woman said what her name was. Not a real name, her alias, Aislinn could tell an alias from a real name, no human would have the name Bumblebee for a real first or last name, at least not the human names she had heard in passing. She didn’t know what kind of food would be in this offer of Bumblebee’s, so she wasn’t too keen on answering that question just yet. She wanted to know what kind of food but at the same time she didn’t want to make it obvious that she was fishing for answers either, especially if this human did or didn’t know what she was. She shifted on her feet uneasily, trying to make it as inconspicuous as she could as she struggled to keep her nervous energy contained and to not pace or move very much, since humans didn’t move around a lot when they spoke to one another and she had to appear as human as she could when her looks in her human appearance screamed otherwise. ”That depends….” she murmured, forcefully slowing her speech down, her small clawed hands curling into fists as she fought to remain still, it wasn’t working very well as she was practically vibrating in place, completely unaware that her body was reacting on it’s own to get rid of her pent up energy. She blinked when she noticed what she was doing and quickly quelled her body back into stillness. “Sorry.” She apologized for the vibrating in place. “That depends… on what is on the menu…” she said finally answering Bumblebee's very generous offer.

Her mind was drawn back to the heroine’s alias, Bumblebee? What was a bumblebee? Was it an animal or insect? If it was either of these, what did a Bumblebee look like? And why was she called Bumblebee? That question perked her thoughts greatly but deiced to not comment on it yet. ”I think I’ll just call you Bumblebee.” She said simply when the woman said she could call her Bee, but that sounded far too familiar and they were both strangers, so it didn't feel right to her to call the woman something like that, especially when something like a nickname like that would suggest closeness and that was something they were not. They were strangers and it would be weird for her to call the older woman that. She shook off the awkwardness of the offer thinking over what she should do, if she should say her name or not. The internal debate didn't take long before she decided on what she wanted to do. She slipped back into the routine she knew so well back on Voltria. Picking an alias and sticking to it. She hesitated for a second glancing around for a moment just to check and see if they were alone, if only because she didn’t want her alias spread around, she didn’t want to be known yet. She answered with her own alias, the one she used frequently back on Voltria, her home planet. “My name is Surge.” she said simply.

[Bumblebee]

[style= text-align: justify; padding: 5px; width: 550px;]There was massive uncertainty present in the creature before her. Body language and her speech told Karen that much. Sure she wasn’t a psychology major, but being around a bunch of teens and would be heroes (mostly heroes) gave you enough people skills and experience to figure out what most people were thinking. The creature that stood before her, though feminine reacted in such an odd way to her presence. Her body trembled, shivered – or was it vibrating? Karen thought it rude to keep observing the young woman like a science experiment; she deactivated the spectrum readings on her goggles so she was left to stare at the small hooded figure whose body was moving so violently she thought it would explode.

That was another thing, she’d had better stop calling it – “it” before her speech actually reflected her thoughts. Karen was still on the fence of whether this thing was good or bad and most certainly insulting it would not be the best way to find out.

This would have been easier if the small creature before her gave a name or a sign that she wanted to become acquainted in some way. Karen wasn’t out here to make friends; she was just out her to make sure nothing bad happened. And a lone child looking, female creature on the street was crying out for trouble. Karen Beecher shifted uneasily, watching the hood on the young woman seem to split into their own separate molecules, clearly impossible but she was moving at such a speed the fibers seemed to look that way. She had seen this kind of movement before, was this young woman a speedster of some sort?

An apology was issued and Karen could only shake her head in reassurance. She held her hands up to show the creature that it was alright. The latter question however caught her off guard and she lowered her arms slowly, wondering what exactly she had to offer in terms of sustenance. She wasn’t going to bring this thing to the tower, nor did she think it normal to just walk into a diner without exposing her secret identity. Her hands lowered to her hips and she bit her lips thinking the question through and trying to not show her uncertainty.

“Well, we’ve got pizza, westernized Chinese Food, falafels, halal food.” Her nose wrinkled slightly as she named each item on the menu, Karen being a health freak was not entirely fond of any of the greasy and low quality foods listed. She almost felt guilty attempting to subject this creature to such a terrible thing. “None of that sounds good to be honest.” She said with a slight laugh, her tone lowering a bit.

She kicked at the ground, stopping only when the creature finally shared some sort of identification. Turning her head up and staring at what she could now formally call Surge, Karen began to consider that maybe it was time to expose that she was more than aware that Surge was less than human. It would certainly clear a few things and perhaps the familiarity would make Surge more open to Karen’s generosity. Take advantage of it now, right?

“Surge is a… peculiar name.” Karen began, picking her words very carefully, “Usually you don’t pick up a name like that unless you’re part of a group or –“ she paused, activating her goggles once again and staring straight at Surge’s form. “Surge, you’re not exactly human… are you?” the question came out almost involuntarily, but Karen lacked the conscious momentarily to feel bad about it. Curiosity had gotten the best of her. [/style]

[SURGE]

Surge blinked in confusion. How was Bumblebee so calm about the whole vibrating in place thing she had done moments ago? Humans didn’t do that. They were slow creatures if their speech patterns and the way they spoke were anything to go by and she had seen how fast they could run, she could run circles around them if she wanted to. It was like humans were stuck on a slow-mode and they could only break it by riding in or on the backs of vehicles. Speaking of being stuck on slow mode, she hated having to pretend to be something she was not and keeping up her human disguise was hard to do because it zapped her already weakened energy levels, not to mention the sweet-tasting electricity didn’t sustain her well. It was like eating candy and getting a momentary sugar rush for a few minutes and then losing that high and feeling nothing but drained and tired. That was how she felt but it was constant and it something she wasn’t used to. It was like she needed to eat more and more electricity just to keep up her energy levels and her faulty human disguise. She never had to worry about such effects on her homeworld or even in her father’s clutches; maybe it was because the electricity didn’t taste overly sweet like this planet’s did? On her planet electricity was everywhere and you could get it from anywhere and anyone, you could even steal it from others so long as you didn’t take enough to kill someone.

Aislinn struggled to keep her lips in an emotionless line when she learned what was on the menu for eating, for substance, for dinner. Sure the food sounded good and she was curious on what it tasted like but it wasn’t something she wanted right now. She wanted electricity but she wasn’t going to tell Bumblebee that, not unless she wanted to give it away that she wasn’t human. Although it was obvious that she wasn’t human. For all she knew she could dub herself a metahuman and humans would be none the wiser if she openly said she was a metahuman, they’d probably leave her alone if she said so or they could very well get hostel and attack her. Humans were fickle creatures who were quick to judge and even quick to see someone as small as her as a threat to their survival. She shook her head to rid herself of her thoughts and tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear what the adult human had just said. She was surprised when Bumblebee said that she wasn’t too fond of the choices for food she had listed and frankly Aislinn felt the same. A small smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. “I agree, none of those sound very appealing…” she agreed trailing off as she finished the sentence in her head. To me…

Surge narrowed her eyes in annoyance and her smirk vanished replaced by a frown. Tiny purple lightning bolts sparked from her fingertips, the sparks were simply jumping harmlessly off her skin and to the ground were they fizzled out before they even truly touched the ground around Surge’s feet. What was the woman getting at? To her it sounded like she was being insulted. And she really didn’t like that. At all. And what kind of name is ‘Bumblebee’!? she hissed in her thoughts, furious and angry. Her annoyance evaporated if only slightly to the point of where her fingertips stopped sparking when the woman spoke again of her choice of name and how one didn’t pick up a name like that unless they were on a team. She was on no team and what did Bumblebee mean by teams? Were there teams on this planet? And if so what did these ‘teams’ do to her a thief? Were they good or bad? That was something she wanted to find out. “Team? I’m on no team. Is your team laying in wait to ambush me?!” she asked going on the defensive. “Furthermore I’m not just going to give out my name to strangers. Besides you haven’t given me yours! So why should I give you mine?” she demanded, her voice lowering instead of rising like most would expect out of a ‘child’.

At Bumblebee’s accusation of her not being human made her defensiveness disperse, like she had had been punched in the gut. She stared up at the woman wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights, and if she weren’t already white as a sheet the color would have drained from her face. She watched as Bumblebee pressed a button on her goggles, doing something with them, for all she knew she could be sending a signal to her ‘team’ already. Aislinn herself had no true idea of the changes Tesla had made to her goggles and the spares that were in her bag, speaking of the bag… Her arm that clutched her bag to her chest clutched it tighter to her chest and she took a step away from Bumblebee. Then another and another until her back hit the wall, which hadn’t taken that many steps, only three small steps back and she was cornered. If she had teeth they would have sunk into her lower lip and she would have been biting and chewing on it but since she had no teeth, her tongue was the substitute as it nervously ran over her quivering lips. Her eyes glossy but not with unshed tears, tears were another thing she lacked in her human disguise. “H-how d-do you know that?” she asked, her voice small and quieter then it was before, it was lowered in a threatening way but it had lowered in fear. “I-is i-it t-that o-obvious?” she asked again in that same small voice she had used before. Was it really that obvious that she wasn’t human? Well besides the obviousness of her hair, eyes, skin and lips that is. Surely she didn’t draw attention to herself to show that she wasn’t human and that she didn’t come from Earth? She sure hoped she didn't. It'd be bad and she didn't want anything to do with trouble, even though she had been causing trouble, most of it accidental and unitentional,... most of the time.

[Bumblebee]

[style= text-align: justify; padding: 5px; width: 550px;] It was not just observation that brought Karen to the fact of the matter, but the enhanced visionary spectrum that she was viewing through as well. Years in her line of work made her more cautious, more observant and overall more open minded to the differences and strange things or living entities that could exist around her. Surge’s demeanor alone was enough to insinuate that there was something beneath those pair of goggles and the oversized, thick hood that she wore. Bumblebee knew a thing or two about standing out, she was after all the one dressed down, from head to toe in a black and yellow themed uniform. You just didn’t do things like that unless you had something to hide. And usually, these secrets were worth keeping.

Regardless of the uncertainty and discomfort that Karen had befallen upon Surge, she knew it was better to set things straight here and now than to wait for things to blow up in the long run. From the looks of the young creature, she was lost, afraid, looked absolutely exhausted and at this point in time didn’t look hostile. If she was a lost alien then it would be in Bumblebee’s best interests to see that she was put in the path of safety. Experience had taught her that alien monarchs did not take kindly to their own species being treated poorly in foreign land. It was really the least she could do to prevent her planet from being blown to bits and pieces. Again, she was merely observing and making assumptions here – Karen was one to always expect and be prepared for the absolute worst.

It didn’t take a genius after all to look down at Surge and figure out that small being was far from the norm. Shadows and the darkness was this young girl’s best friend and if she was only using the night as her façade then Karen didn’t think she would survive much longer on this plane. Unless of course there were also extraordinary abilities attached to the peculiar appearance she withheld. Karen had yet to even confirm her initial suspicions; she thought it best to stop jumping to more conclusions. At this rate she would just make herself go mad.

The sudden tension that filled the air was all that Karen needed to know that she had crossed over some line. Surge’s body had stiffened and there was a spark of energy, faint, but evident that was emitting from her being. Instinctively, Karen took on a defensive position but in hearing Surge’s words she thought it would be better to let her guard down, just falter – only a little. She wasn’t here to make enemies after all.

Perhaps the sudden assertion had not been the appropriate approach. She could tell in the heightened pitch of the creature’s voice as it spoke, in accusation, expecting the worse from Karen. She could only hold her hands up in reassurance and slight defeat as she realized she had failed the first part of her approach, which was to gain Surge’s trust.

“No… there is no team. Not with me.”

Karen began, slight uncertainty in her voice as she watched Surge’s body quake and quiver with a trepidation of emotion. How could she express herself, especially now as Surge’s voice began to rise and her speech quickened to the point where Karen thought she could no longer understand her.

“I’m sorry, Bumblebee is all I can give you… it’s…” she paused, unsure of how to really explain the depth of the situation, “It’s complicated.”

It seemed the most fitting and if Surge cared to know more, she could ask. Although Karen wanted nothing more than to prove that she was being honest, her sincerity would have to stop at her own personal identity, it was more so for protection, not just from Surge but from anyone or anything that could get a hold of such privy information and use it against her. Surge would understand, if she cared to inquire any further.

There were signs of reproach now and Karen was worried that she was losing her grip and control on the situation. Who knows what the course of her current actions would bring about, certainly she hadn’t anticipated such a response, but then again she hadn’t really calculated the emotional factor that Surge might have. It was that scientist in her – she blamed – for lacking the necessary compassion to recognize that despite Surge’s differences that was still an entity before her that was capable of thought and by default a varying degree of emotion. Karen found herself clenching her fist, allowing her small fingers to curl and tighten against one another; open and close, not as a display of malice or frustration but more so a subconscious action of her nerves getting the best of her.

Surge was scared, apprehensive now of Karen and it was very clear in the way she brought herself together and tightened her belongings closer to her body. She looked ready to jump out of the frame at any moment and Karen knew she couldn’t let that happen. Uncurling her fingers, she flexed her hands out and held them at her sides, a look of moderate serenity on her face as she inhaled, then exhaled sharply to look at Surge and try to share an air of positive energy within the vicinity.

“It’s the goggles.”

Karen began, rather bluntly she would have to admit (regrettably) but she thought it would be best to start out on a light note. But how to recover from them, she could tell in Surge’s body language that she demanded an explanation.

“My goggles!”

It sounded almost as if she had just experienced an epiphany. She held her hands up suddenly and gripped the edges of her quartz goggles as a obnoxiously, obvious indicator.

“It allows me to see the world in various spectrums… right now I’m looking at you with an electromagnetic spectrum filter.” Karen continued, the corner of her lip twitched slightly as she recognized her own statement as a potentially poor and perverse joke, “It wasn’t intentional – what I mean is… it’s not entirely obvious that you’re not from here.. But it doesn’t matter, I just want to help you.”

Perhaps that alone would be good enough to set the off on the right track again.
[/style]

[SURGE]

Surge watched the woman’s movements as best as her limited eyesight in darkness could, which was difficult and even more frustrating for the illegal alien. She wasn’t sure what to expect from Bumblebee and from what she had seen the heroes/heroines had done to villains, evil doers and thieves she wasn’t sure what the heroine before her would do if she found out that she was a thief. Would she get thrown in jail? Then again she hadn’t done anything wrong… okay she did but it was minor, very, very minor, she had simply made some random human’s cellphone die. Really not jail worthy. If she had eaten electricity from a power-plant than she would be able to see that as jail worthy. If the heroine had indeed brought backup than she could always run away if things got ugly but she’d wait and see how things turned out first before she ran away for nothing. As Bumblebee spoke again, saying there was no team. She relaxed if only slightly, the hostility that she was feeling slowly ebbed away. This woman was alone, there was no one around, and she didn’t have to worry about the possibility of an ambush.

As she listened to what Bumblebee said and something clicked in her head. She had heard heroes and heroines being called weird names like Kid Devil, Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Jericho and more, at least from the conversations she had overheard from the children and some adults as well and she was pretty sure she had read an article about some hero called Jericho save some woman from what would have been a very gruesome death had it not been for the blonde hero. That meant if Bumblebee was one of those heroes it would make sense why she couldn’t give out her real name, her real identity wouldn’t be so secret if she gave it away. Well now that she understood she wasn’t about to try and get personal information from the woman now. But Bumblebee would just have to settle for not knowing her real name either. “It’s fine. I think I understand why you can’t give out information like that. You are one of those heroines after all.” she said in understanding as she shook her head. She looked back up at Bumblebee. “However just because I know that and understand why, doesn’t mean I’m going to give you access my real name.” she responded feeling like she had to say it, to get her point across just to be sure that that line wouldn’t attempt to be crossed, even though she had or at least become very close to crossing that line herself.

Her eyes flicked down to the woman’s hands, watching as the curled and uncurled into fists, at first she thought the woman was angry or frustrated at her for something or another but as she watched she didn’t sense or feel any malicious intent from the heroine which was good. At least she wasn’t angry, like she had feared and suspected.

When the heroine spoke again in a blunt tone, Aislinn jumped having not expected the woman to speak so suddenly and bluntly. A confused expression crossed her unusual white face. Her goggles? Did the woman mean her(Surge’s) goggles gave it away that she wasn’t human? What did her goggles have to do with anything about not being human? She would have pondered more on the strange question but never got the chance to as Bumblebee continued correcting herself as she went on. Surge watched as she reached up and gripped the edges of her goggles in a very obnoxious way. Something the young alien found funny and couldn’t stop the giggles from escaping her lips at how funny the heroine looked at the moment. She took a step away from the wall, if only to loosen her hold on her bag so that she could drop her arms without fear of smacking them on the brick wall behind her.

Aislinn’s eyebrow rose. She had followed the woman’s explanation easier than she would have thought possible. “I see.” was the only answer she could come up with for the first half of what the woman had said. “So it’s not completely obvious that I’m not human?” she questioned curiously, she certainly thought that she was eye catching enough for it to be obvious that she wasn’t human. She could only nod when Bumblebee said she wanted to help. ”…Okay, since you want to help.” She said with a slight tone of reluctance in her voice. She looked up at the woman. The woman had promised food if she remembered correctly. “I believe you promised food? Is that deal still on the table?” she asked curiously, wondering if the woman’s offer for food still stood.