Just Hanging Out (HOT)

Not every day as a superhero is filled with excitement. There are some days when nothing is going on, when no banks are being robbed, and when no villains are trying to destroy the world.

This was one of those days.

Pacific set a stack of pizzas on the table. In the last few weeks since the team had been formed, they hadn't really taken any time to get to know each other. It was time that changed. If they were going to be a team, a real team, then they needed to form some bonds.

The tv had actually already been in the base. Apparently drug dealers liked watching the news. Pacific pulled up a Netflix account under the name Pacific. Maybe he'd get some comments on that, but he wasn't ready to tell everyone his secret identity yet.

"So what do we want to watch?"

Before this, all Alond'r really expected from the team was to go out together, do missions, and be that group that everyone looked up to. They would be the ones that the general public relied on to protect the city, and maybe even the world one day. It was so much more, though -- not only were they a team, but they were a family. Living with them proved to be different than he initially thought it would be, and he was grateful to be having this experience in the first place. Today there was no crime-fighting, there were no super-villains threatening the city, but simply the choice of what to watch on the program Earthlings called "Netflix".

"I have heard of a movie called 'Finding Dory'. Would that be an adequate choice?" Alond'r asked, right after Pacific had spoken. He was dressed in casual wear for once -- a t-shirt and sweatpants -- for once, which was odd since it was foreign to him. Hovering near the stack of pizzas, he waited for a response.

Due to not wanting to stay in a hotel anylonger frequency had decided to stay at the base even if it wasn't fully tricked out yet it was still a place that felt more homely knowing everyone that would be hanging out over here. Sheran over to the couch while wearing her civilian clothes her hair was done up and everything and jumped onto the seat before bouncing up and kicking her feet forward to plop onto the seat.

She then noticed the pizza and grinned ”Sweeeeeeet!” pulling 2 boxes onto her lap she flipped open one and stacked 3 slices on top of each other and took a massive bit out of them and looked to pacific since he had the remote and asked. ”What are we wot chin” she said with a full mouth full of food before continuing to eat.

She knew she likely looked stupid but…. Food. Seeing wild fire and smiled brightly and waved very energetically to him then. ”Hi Wild! Want some?” She offered with one hand while stuffing her face again with the other… what? The pizza was really good.

Finding Dory? Pacific hadn't expected that. It occurred to him that he really knew nothing about his teammates, aside from Ivory, of course.

Frequency entered the room, grabbed two whole pizzas, and began eating three slices at a time. Pacific was horrified. He had picked up on her 'I do what I want' attitude, but was she really going to eat two whole pizzas? Could she?

She asked what they were watching and it brought Pacific back to reality. "Finding Nemo, apparently. And then Finding Dory after that. It will make more sense that way."

Frequency did offer some pizza to Alond'r. That was a relief. Pacific started up Finding Nemo and say on a couch, allowing it to absorb him. This was a very nice couch. It probably had cost a fortune.

"So, Alond'r. Tell me about yourself. What's your deal? How did you get your powers?"

Shortly after he had asked his question, Frequency came bounding into the living area. Eyebrows shooting up in surprise, Alond'r watched as she grabbed two pizza boxes and immediately got to eating. He greeted her with a small smile and a wave, hovering over to her figure. "I appreciate the thought, but I will get my own. Thank you, Frequency." Glancing over at Pacific, he arched an eyebrow, "'Finding Nemo'? Is that another movie of the franchise?" He was slowly beginning to get Earth's customs, and that made him slightly excited, even if he attempted to conceal it at times. Getting himself two slices of pizza, he put it on a plastic plate before moving over towards the couch where everyone was gathered. Their base was beginning to seem like home the more time they spent here, and he'd have it no other way.

Green irises glanced over at Pacific; Alond'r prayed for a moment before taking a bite out of one of the slices. "Oh? Well, I am a Tamaranean, specifically the prince of Tamaran, though I have not been their in such a long time. I landed here on Earth not too long ago, but I appreciate you all assisting me in 'fitting in'. Also, regarding my abilities, all Tamaraneans are usually able to achieve flight, as well as our intense strength, though my..forms of energy are more rare," He began to appear visibly uncomfortable, "I would rather not converse about it. How about yourself? I would like to know more about you, and Frequency."

While he waited for a response, he continued to eat, and sneaked a glance at the movie.

She carefully read his lips and smiled nodding at his reply. She hadn’t watched those movies before, they sounded like fun though. ”Oh that would sound great actually!” She said a bit louder than she needed to but clearly didn’t notice her own raised voice. She waved back then and nodded at his no thank you. ”Okay! More for me then i guess!” She said happily eating the rest of her 3 slices and started to stack 3 more together.

She leaned back seeing the movie start but rose an eyebrow seeing the fish and squinted after a while trying to read their animated lips before looking to Pacific. ”I can’t read their lips could you turn on the subtitles?” She asked casually. She smiled warmly with wildfire sat with them and leaned down in her seat before noticing them talking and quickly sat back up, she’d need to see their lips incase they talked to her. She darted her eyes from them to the movie and back again slowly putting her pizza down she wouldn’t have time to take a bite if she wanted to keep up with them talking and the movie.

Which sucked but she didn’t let it show just yet. Though as she tried to keep up more the less she got from each conversation and chose to not watch the movie to continue to read their lips showing a bit of the botherness that she had with her own disability of not being able to keep up with everything the way the others could. Hearing Him saying that he wanted to learn more about them she stayed silent. She despite knowing so much about others from her own research she didn't want to go really all too much into her own past. She worked through it on her own but she still wasn't really up for telling others that much since it would mean them asking her more about each thing and bringing up old memories.

He was an alien. Of course he was. Pacific seemed to be a magnet for extra-terrestrial activity. He could make his own X files show. It wasn't like he had a disagreement with aliens. He just found it...odd that he kept running into so many of them.

If only he knew where Cue was...

Al seemed to be getting uncomfortable as he continued to talk about himself. Interesting. Maybe something about his powers was embarrassing? Regardless, Al seemed done talking about himself for now.

Frequency made a request. Subtitles? No way. It couldn't be. She was deaf? Pacific had not noticed. But now that he realized it, certain things made sense. She sent text messages instead of calling, and she always seemed to pay close attention to whoever she was talking to.

Huh.

"Yeah, that's no problem." Pacific turned the subtitles on and restarted the film, allowing Frequency to read the first few lines of dialogue.

So there they sat, an alien, a deaf girl, and a vigilante, watching an animated children's film about fish. Life was weird. For a few minutes, Pacific resigned himself to eating greasy, cheesy goodness and drinking orange soda.

Was this helping at all? Was this bringing the team closer together, or was he simply alienating Al and Frequency more? Maybe it was best to let the film keep them entertained for now.

When Nemo saw the boat, Pacific paused the movie. He turned to Frequency, even though he was answering Al's question. "I'm just a normal guy. I grew up here on earth, I have no superpowers, and I can hardly pay my bills. I haven't seen my family in over a year. I'm just a guy with a chip on his shoulder who can't get anything right. I have more regret than pride. That's about all you need to know about me."

Subtitles.. Around the same time Pacific noticed, so did Alond'r. Although Frequency was deaf, he didn't have anything against her, and wouldn't treat her like she was anything inferior. Of course he would make sure she got certain things through the way he pronounced his words, but otherwise, he wouldn't be doing much else different. Though, he hadn't known of her disability and she still seemed to be able to relatively keep up in past situations. Either that, or he simply hadn't been paying much attention to her to notice that she was struggling. If it was the latter, he felt immensely bad, and would have to apologize to her sometime, when it was just them two. He returned from his mind just as the movie restarted.

For a while, they were silent as the movie played. Never in his life would Alond'r have expected to be watching an animated movie about fish. A part of him was curious to if this was how it was in the ocean; maybe animals had their own language that they were unable to understand. He continued munching on pizza while watching the clownfish approach the drop-off, right when the boat made an appearance. The movie paused, to which Alond'r glanced over at Pacific. Bills. From his time here on Earth, everyone seemed to have the same opinion on bills -- they were absolutely awful. Shifting in his seat, he shook his head when his comrade spoke of not getting anything right.

"I know that we are a newly-formed team, but I do not believe for a second that you are incapable of doing things correctly. So far, you have all demonstrated to me that you are immensely capable of the heroics. In such a short amount of time, I have come to trust each of you, and hope we can grow together." Placing his hand on Frequency's shoulder to get her attention, he asked, "How about you?" He was curious to where she came from.

Frequency tried her best to keep up with the movie and the talk and was quickly slipping up a lot but thankfully Pacific was nice enough to pause the movie so she was able to keep up more. She frowned when he started to go into his own story. She spoke up then a bit louder than needed though. ’Have you ever thought of Doing bodyguard work on the side of this? It’s in a way the same thing in certain parts but from what i heard it pays well. "

"I have some contacts if you ever wanted to train for the work or wanted to go into that line of work. I’m sure it feels needed to you by now to just give in but if you give in and give up then you’ll just stay clearly unhappy or get worse in feelings. Heroing can help people feel like they are doing something when everything feels lost but it doesn’t always fix everything emotionally wise.” She said all suuuuper bluntly.

She couldn’t tell that Wild was talking since she couldn't see his face for the moment so she took this time to eat some more of her pizza before pausing feeling Wildfire’s hand on her shoulder which totally didn’t make her mentally jump for a second from the unexpectancy there what would make you think that? She finished the food in her mouth and looked to them then. She took a deep breath though before speaking but soon did so.

”Well i am a race that comes from the same ancestry as humans but we gained the ability to unlock spiritual abilities. All of our people can potentially gain powers but you have to unlock them by performing a trial ceremony. The stronger the power the more painful and hard of the trial. We exist in many planes of this world and pocket dimensions. We I think now likely double or triple the human population. To put this in terms that may be easier for you both. Each family has a power type and a certain hair color and eye color combo."

"Normally the bigger families have 100 to over a 1000 people in it and we sorta rank each family by strength and each family's strongest member is called a family head who basically is the leader of that family. Top 10 heads of the strongest families make up the council and the 1st ranked is the leader of us all. I was in a family that was decently up there… We excited in a pocket dismension.It… It got attacked…When I was 8 and … They all… “

She stopped herself for a moment before deciding to go another route after thinking back to it all… the death… screams… crying… pleading.. The sound of bodies breaking… it was the last things she ever heard. ”On my way out i just barely escaped an explosion but the sound of it made me deaf…. I was then raised by the council who honestly thought I would never be able to properly use my powers since it all was based on sound.” She remembered the heartbreak of learning that she would never hear again…. She looked off from them then and went silent going back to eating.

Both if them gave the good old "You're not that bad" speech. Who were they kidding? They didn't know him. Frequency went so far as to give him advice. She offered to share some contacts with him, so he would owe her a favor for getting into some absurd training program to eventually start up a new disappointing career.

Pacific's annoyance was visible. But he knew he shouldn't take it out on her. Frequency thought she was helping. So all he said was "they don't pay as much as you'd think."

Frequency had a very odd story that raised way more questions than it answered. Good greif, Lewis might as well be a paranormal investigator. Pocket dimensions, elders, magical races. It all went over his head. She seemed sincere, but her story didn't make a lot of sense to Lewis. He sighed. It seemed like he was hitting a wall with learning about his teammates.

He started the movie up again. There were few things Lewis hated more than being patronized. If cash was all he was after, he wouldn't be here right now. He knew Ratzo could get him a job. It just wouldn't be, you know, legal.

What was he doing here? Was he just trying to feel better about himself, like Frequency said? No, he was doing this because evil men needed to be punished. Justice had to be served.

Was watching a movie going to accomplish that? Pacific was starting to doubt.

Everything seemed to be going well, in the sense that they were having real conversations about one another. Teamwork was a lot more difficult if one didn't really know their team, which was why Alond'r cherished this moment so much. If only Alexander was present as well. Regardless, the moment would continue, and strive for them to become an even better team -- maybe even family at some point. It was nice of Frequency to offer her contacts, something he noted. Casting his gaze back over towards Pacific, he nodded a few times, as if reaffirming his comrade's statements. If he'd had anything that could assist Pacific as well, then he would have spoken up, but as of now, he was still re-establishing himself on the world. A Tamaranean couldn't necessarily blend in easily, so it required work and effort for him to do so.

What came next was truly nerve-racking. Alond'r didn't know exactly how he was able to handle the weight of Frequency's background. His heart felt heavy, and there was a sudden exhaustion he could feel creeping up on him. The way her words distanced themselves from one another signaled to him that there had to be pain still behind that memory. The silence that followed was haunting, and he felt uncomfortable to just be sitting there. The mood of the room had drastically changed as Frequency's words settled into the air. Alond'r felt any possible fathom of words become stripped from his mouth, nothing but air exiting. All he could do was return his hand to her shoulder for a moment, giving her a brief squeeze of sympathy, before returning to his seat.

The movie had now resumed.

Alexander walked in moments later humming a Irish folk tune. Once he saw the pizza he walked over setting down a cup he found on the table then putting a few gold coins in it before grabbing three slices.
Closing his eyes he bowed his head and spoke ina hushed voice. “Thank you thy lord for the meal im about to partake in.”

Once he got his food he looked troubled at everyone sharing there history with each other and being so open about it. Gazing around he decided to sit near the back door thinking no one could hear him (people still can) he stat down and sighed heavily “there's no way id be able to have a family like that a monster like me deserves none." Sitting there eating his pizza quietly as he does so.

Once done with said meal he got up and disposed of his trash before sitting back down were he once sat as he tried to make out the TV and the pictures on it. Visibly he was unhappy about being this far away from the TV and the people conversing but as he remembered what the church told him. He was meant to serve no other purpose then to protect those from evil but at the same time that he was a freak or monster if you will and should never think he would be accepted as one of them.

Frequency saw the look he gave and his comment before looking down a bit silent for once… she just wanted to help but it seemed that she had not been sensitive enough about the situation at all… It seemed that he didn’t really register any of what she said… she…. She wish more people did… there wasn't many people to talk to anymore about her people who didn't just look at her like her people and or she was crazy… Which didn’t help the fact she always sorta felt disconnected from everyone. Seeing the movie start sorta felt like it was a this conversation is over to her which only made her feel worse… did he cause the others to feel just as alienated as her by talking so much or asking them to change up a few things to talk to her so she could understand better…?

Seeing how unsettled Wild was by her story made her feel way worse… it was something about him that made her want to be more careful with her words than usual. She jumped feeling his hand but felt slightly better feeling the squeeze but gently grabbed his hand and gave him a thankful look before letting herself look a bit upset and defeated as she had before. She gently pulled his hand off before putting the pizzas she took back on the table before hopping off the table without another word and started to head off into another room heading towards their bedrooms. There was no need for her to talk if she was just going to ruin the fun of others… She though not noticing Alex on the way out.

Pacific heard Alexander say that he didn't deserve to be part of a family. Frequency stood up and started to leave the room. Nemo got taken by the diver and was brought into the boat while Merlin swam desperately towards him.

They were all a bunch of freaks. Alexander was some kind of monster, Frequency was magic, Al was an alien, and Pacific...

Well, he was a lot of things.

All of them were outcasts trying to make the world a better place. They wanted to protect people, whether those people deserved it or not. Because whether things like love, friendship, and protection were deserved, it didn't matter.

"A family loves you whether you deserve it or not."

Pacific stood and followed Frequency. The movie was still playing, but he didn't care. He grabbed Frequency's shoulder and turned her around.

"Look," Pacific said. "This is a lot to swallow. I don't know anything about your people. I don't understand magic or pocket dimensions or any of that. We come from very different worlds, but...I'm very sorry for what happened to your family. I can't imagine how that must feel. My own problems must seem so trivial compared to yours. I've never experienced anything that traumatic, so I'm terribly sorry, but I just don't know how to respond. What can I do for you?"

Shortly after Alond'r thought of their missing comrade, Alexander walked right on in. The Tamaranean blinked a few times in confusion, but dismissed the occurrence off as nothing more than a coincidence. Hearing Alexander speak of himself as a monster made Alond'r furrow his eyebrows, shaking his head to himself.

Nobody deserved to be in that mindset; everyone deserved to be loved, so long as they didn't willfully commit acts that proved the opposite. With the weight of Frequency's background still on his heart, he just kept his sympathetic eyes towards the television. The baby clownfish was stripped from the ocean, while his father swam out for him to no avail. Everything was just..wrong.

When Pacific followed Frequency out, Alond'r waited for a few moments before turning to face Alexander. "I am sorry that you believe that you are a monster. May I ask why?" They were all the same, really -- people trying to make a difference in the world, doomed to never be able to truly fit in with society. They were a group of misfits.