Valerie Newmann | Ana Kestner | Meghan O'Neill | Amiee Reed | Vanessa O'Toole
April 3, 2018 | noon | NYC—the Met
collab with
@Huntress,
@Michale CS, and
@Gands
Spectre (@Astroblaze), Martin (@Astroblaze)
Ana watched Vanessa as she spoke. Her jaw remained flexed as she let out a small puff of air through her nose.
"The park isn't far. If you were to drive it would probably take you longer considering all the traffic you'd come across." The brunette spoke simply as she looked between everyone.
"To walk or run would take no longer than five minutes. Flying would probably take two." She looked towards Amiee. Ana's assumption based on Vanessa's words was that Amiee could fly.
Meghan watched Anastasia speak, choosing to remain silent throughout most if the situation. Most of her agreed with Ana's words, the tiniest sliver of her subconscious wanting to prove to her friend that she could stand her ground, but in a situation like this, it seemed that perhaps it would indeed be best for Meg not to be involved in something that requires the capabilities of metas.
Amiee shrugged, that cascade of red hair splaying in response.
"Flying's fine, if someone takes my purse for me." She chuckled.
"Superman had his phone booth, I literally change in my heat-resistant purse." Amiee indicated the rather large purse on her shoulder.
She looked to Vanessa questioningly, assuming she'd take on the job. Amiee just had to find some kind of costume that would take both her heat and size-changing abilities. She'd found them individually but not together in the same material.
At Ana's warning, Valerie lifted her hands with a reassuring smile.
"Not to worry, I'm staying put. I know my abilities and I know that if I were to join you, I'd only be one more thing you guys'd have to worry about." She straightened with a brisk nod to Vanessa.
"I'd drive, but unfortunately—" she grimaced—
"I left my car back at the courthouse. Not sure what to do about that, unless you're okay with me driving your vehicle? You should go with Ana and Amiee." She turned her attention to Ana, adding,
"If that's alright with you, of course." The implication was, of course, that Ana would carry Vanessa as she did Valerie.
"I can hold your purse," she added in reassurance to Amiee.
"Alright Val, here are the keys. It's corporate registered and you are on the list, all the paperwork in the glove box. Before we go, I think I'll find a restroom as I don't fit in a purse at the moment."
She handed Valerie the keys to her car and headed to a restroom, disabling the camera nearest to the restroom for an added measure of privacy.
"She's gonna carry two of you?" Meghan asked Ana with a raised brow after glancing at Amiee as she watched Vanessa walk off.
Clenching her jaw, Anastasia exhaled sharply as she looked away from the blonde.
"I dunno who's carrying who and who else may be capable of flying. If I have to carry two people, that's fine. We're not going too far." She stated simply as she could feel Meghan's eyes on her.
"Just stay safe and stay with Valerie." Finally mustering up enough courage, she glanced towards her friend.
Meghan remained silent as she listened to Ana explain. A small nod came from Meg as she muttered an
'okay' before looking away from her and towards Valerie.
'She lied to me,' Meghan internally spoke. Was she upset? Of course she was, they almost had an argument about this just last night.
'Why would she do that?' she wondered. Was Ana trying to hide something? What could she have to hide? Halting her mind from carrying on, Meg sighed.
"Maybe we should get going then, there's no reason to stick around if there's a plan in place. It's gonna take us a bit longer to get there anyway." She spoke simply. Emerald eyes not returning to the brunette at all.
Ana couldn't help but feel the coldness coming from the her friend, it was sudden and abrupt. She would have a lot of explaining to do later, about the car, perhaps about who she was, what she was capable of. Ana worried slightly about where the conversation may lead, but she hoped for the best possible outcome. It's all she
could do.
"Perfect. Be right back." Amiee followed Vanessa into the restroom, ducked into a stall and stripped off her clothes. After packing them into her purse and getting her Barbie doll-sized costume out of it, she slid it over to Vanessa.
She then reduced to her smallest size and tugged the heat-proof unitard on.
"We really need to work on those carbon nanotubes for a costume that changes size with me," she commented to Vanessa.
"Don't worry, Ana, I'll keep her safe to the best of my ability," Valerie reassured the woman as she accepted the keys from Vanessa, lifting a hand to Meg in invitation.
When Vanessa and Amiee returned, each in their own hero uniforms, the young woman couldn't help a slight smile upon sight of the familiar shamrock-green armor.
"It would be wise for us to stay far away from the park right now, I'd think. Where should we meet you? Also..." She looked between her hero friends, dark brow furrowing slightly in budding worry.
"Be careful."
Meghan looked towards Valerie and clenched her jaw before shooting a glare towards Ana.
"I'm not a goddamn child. I can take care of myself," she stated rather abruptly before stepping away from the two.
"I'll just go home on my own, I don't need a babysitter for that." The blonde turned around and started walking away.
"Meg, wait, please," Ana called out as she followed. The blonde showed no signs of stopping. Halting where she stood Anastasia watched her friend.
"Meg!" Clenching her jaw and flaring her nostrils as she watched her keep going, Ana eventually dropped her gaze to the floor as she sighed and chewed the inside of her bottom lip.
"Fuck..." she muttered before bringing her gaze back up to Meghan's fading figure.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Emerald Dream spoke up.
"I am in no position to give advice, so I'll keep silent on the matter. I believe we'll need to meet up at the park, perhaps that bridge, or maybe the zoo?"
"...Huh. I'd give her a day or two and then go to her and admit you blew it on that one," Firefly's curiously loud voice for her size chimed in.
"Maybe bring a peace offering?"
When Vanessa suggested the meeting place, she shrugged and said,
"I'm easy. The bridge or the park?"
Valerie blinked, startled by Meghan's snappy retort. Realizing that there were underlying issues between the blonde and her metahuman friend, she tactfully kept silent as Meghan stalked off. As Amiee apparently did not notice the same, she cast a quick look to the tiny figure, shaking her head in a silent warning to not get involved.
Returning to the subject at hand, she commented,
"Ana mentioned overhearing that the zoo will be involved in this 'scavenger hunt' going on, so probably not there. I'll meet you at the bridge, then. I guess that means I don't need your car anymore if I'm not driving anyone anywhere," she added to Vanessa, tossing her keys back to her.
Swallowing back as she clenched and unclenched her jaw, Ana looked towards the doors where Meg had been just a second ago before they clicked shut. Folding her arms tightly across her chest, she listened to the words of everyone else, her back towards them as she flared her nostrils with a subtle growl. She had hoped that she herself would be the one to sit down and ease into things, but truthfully, the brunette wasn't surprised that Meg had found something out from someone else. Not that anyone had outright said anything, but the assumption and insinuation had obviously been enough. She tapped her fingers against her arm with one more deep exhale. She couldn't get angry at anyone else in this room, nobody but herself was at fault for this. She shouldn't have lied or kept secrets. It was that simple. Yet she had still done it and now she would have to deal with it when that time came.
Turning around, she dropped her arms and approached the others.
"Just tell me what I'm doing so we can get this over with." She looked off to the side with another sigh.
"Alright, it appears we need to head to the park, pronto. I don't fly so I will meet you at the bridge as we discussed." She looked for a moment at Ana, her expression neutral.
"Everyone still in the game? Valerie, take that car, get where you need to go."
"Fine by me. I don't know how fast the rest of you can travel but I can get to the Brooklyn Bridge from Central Park in just under a minute, flying casually." Firefly responded.
Vanessa pulled out her phone and accessed a picture of the
bridge in question.
"Got it! See ya there!" Firefly circled the rest of them once and flew off in an orange streak.
"I'm still gonna help deal with this situation. I want it over with so I can deal with my personal shit sooner than later. I don't let other aspects of my life bleed in where it's unnecessary." Ana clenched her jaw once more and chose to remain silent as she looked between them and then to the picture of the bridge. She had no costume—casually flying around wasn't the smartest thing for her while her face was exposed.
Sighing heavily, she stepped back from Valerie and Vanessa. Looking towards some of the windows, she approached one. Thankfully they could unlatch and open, it was one of the few positive things about older buildings that were open to the public. Looking out the window she watched people go about their business, oblivious and unaware of what was happening in that park.
Reaching down to the bottom of her shirt, Anastastia tore off a thick piece of fabric, going around the whole shirt. Hiding the bottom half of her face with it, she opened the window and turned around to glance towards the other two.
"Suit's being upgraded," she spoke simply before placing her foot on the windowsill and jumping out of the window. Pushing through the air as quietly as she could, the brunette chose not to pay any attention to the onlookers below and slowly made her way to the rendezvous point.
"The only place I need to go is that bridge, and like Ana mentioned, I'll get there faster by walking." All the same, Valerie held onto the keys that Dream returned to her, just in case. She turned to watch Firefly and then Ana disembark, then turned back to the remaining heroine.
"You go on ahead, you can move more quickly than I can. I'll meet all three of you at the bridge after the event. Try and rendezvous with Spectre—he'll probably need the help."
Vanessa looked around watching the others leave. She thought to herself how close things were to disaster. A group of strangers had to come together in the heat of this disaster. She hopped gracefully out the window, running down the wall and tumbling into a run to the park.
As Dream left, Valerie lingered for a moment to retrieve her phone from her bag and pull up a familiar contact. Starting a call with him, she finally headed out of the exhibit, taking the stairs at a brisk pace as she listened to the dial tone.