Hello, hello

[disintegrator]

WHO: The Power kids and Sue Storm
WHERE: uhhhh some place with privacy?
WHEN: Wednesday
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: The kids have questions and Sue just might have the answers.
FORMAT: Quick-ish


[The past few days for Katie had consisted of trying to catch her brother up with her timeline and arguing with said brother about nearly all of it. While, despite the fighting, she was glad to have him here, Katie was just as glad for the break seeing Sue would provide. Katie had been wanting the chance to really talk to her since she arrived and she knew Alex would have questions as well.

Katie ran past and ahead of her brother, looking around for Sue and expression just daring her brother to make any fuss today.]

Comments

[invisibly]

It does happen, yes. But we don't need to be so worried that we're afraid all the time. Just like in your world, there are people here with the power to fight back against danger, and those people are willing to do so to protect everyone else.

[She turns to Alex again, genuinely excited to talk about science, and to meet children who like it as well.]

We've done months of testing in our lab and we've just been approved to begin trial tests with human patients.

[weightoftheworld]

[ Alex nods thoughtfully and smiles at Sue's words. she seems to understand how he feels, about what it means to be a superhero, and having that responsibility.

also, the bit about the synthetic skin is really, really cool. ]

...It sounds like you're doing really well in the City, Mrs.--uhm, Sue. [ darnit, he slipped. subject change time! ] You've really been in the City for months?

[disintegrator]

I noticed that with the vampire-monster nonsense.

[Lightly] She's been here longer than me.

[invisibly]

[She nods.] I was ported in in January. [A pause.] Do you two want a snack or something? I could go for a hotdog right about now.

[weightoftheworld]

A snack? I wasn't really hungry, but... [ he looks over to Katie with a shrug. ]

[disintegrator]

I wouldn't mind one. [She smiles back at Alex, plea in her eyes. She doesn't care either way about the food. She just doesn't want this to be cut short.]

[invisibly]

Then maybe we can find a nice place to sit and visit. [Sue doesn't want to cut this short either.] I don't know much about your world. Maybe you'd share how you two met the other me?

[weightoftheworld]

[ Alex takes one look at Katie and resigns himself to the hot dogs. they don't have a lot of disposable income, but he's done the math, and the money wired into their bank accounts ought to give enough leeway for a bite to eat every once in a while outside the groceries. ]

Sounds good. There's some vendors and restaurants pretty close by--we can talk on the way. It's kind of a long story, but it sounds like we've got time.

[ he has a knee-jerk negative response to the thought of spilling a bunch of personal (family!) information to a woman who's basically a stranger to them in this world, but...it's Sue, and she apparently knows all the important stuff already. they've lied enough for one day, right? ]

[disintegrator]

[Katie jogs ahead again to lead the way, not nearly as wary as her brother about sharing.]

You probably already know how famous you and the rest of the Fantastic Four is in our universe. And that you're married to, um, you know.

[She glances at Sue sheepishly.]

[invisibly]

Yes, to Reed. [She looks a little sad. She misses her Reed so much.] And you two are friends with our son?

[weightoftheworld]

[ that one actually gets a smile. ]

Yeah, we are! He's almost like having another little brother. Frank stays with us a lot while you guys--that is, while the Fantastic Four--are off-world fighting aliens and stuff!

[disintegrator]

He doesn't stay as much now, in my time. We usually come to you guys. I was at with you when I was brought here. It was Franklin's birthday.

We're friends with your daughter too, except she's a lot younger than us.

[invisibly]

Our daughter? [She's heard even less about Valeria than she's heard about Franklin.] Valeria, right? What are they like?

[weightoftheworld]

[ Alex shrugs uncomfortably, glancing at his sister. ] Thing is, I knew Frank when he was just four years old. He's probably changed since then, right, Katie? And I don't know Valeria at all.

[disintegrator]

He did, some. He's more [She gestures out in front of her uselessly, looking to her brother.] confident, then he used to be. He's gets into everything and he's kind of a dork. [She smiles at Sue to show she means it kindly.]

Val's a genius. Like really a genius. Even as young as she is you can tell she's a Richards.

[invisibly]

[Sue smiles at that. She almost allows herself to feel proud of her alternative universe future daughter. But she doesn't know anything about that world's Reed. If he's anything like the Reed from Johnny's world, being a Richards might not be such a good thing.]

How did you all meet and become friends?

[weightoftheworld]

[ Alex shares another look with his sister. how far back does he need to go on this one? even if Sue's been briefed on the Power Pack stuff, it's still a long story. ]

Well...Frank was the one who came and found us, first, in the park one day. He said he had seen us all in a 'special dream' he had. But we didn't know he was your son at first! I mean--that is, Mrs. Richards' son. We thought he was just a weird kid! But it turned out he was right after all about the dreams.

[disintegrator]

[She shrugs at her brother, and goes for the shorter version.]

His dreams ended up helping us with one of our enemies. And after we dealt with that he ended up staying with us a while. The Fantastic Four weren't around at the time. He actually stayed with us a lot when the Four had to go away. Anyway, after he helped us out the first time we all just stuck together.

[invisibly]

[Sue furrows her brows.]

Does Franklin have powers, like precognition?

[weightoftheworld]

Sure does! He has a lot of 'special dreams'. They sort of let him know if and when something bad's gonna happen...but not always the way you'd expect.

[ which is to say, none of them are very good at recognizing foreshadowing when they see it. ]

[disintegrator]

He had other powers too. Like a sort of astral projection.

[invisibly]

Did he... did he get them because of the accident? Because of our exposure to the cosmic rays?

[Suddenly this is a concern. She'd never considered it's possible effects on her future children before.]

[weightoftheworld]

[ Alex frowns, considering the question. ]

He's definitely a mutant. Whether it's because of the cosmic rays, that's...

[ suddenly he cuts off, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. Franklin had always acted so nervous and insecure about his parents' reactions to his powers - maybe the kid wouldn't appreciate Alex telling Sue all this. ]

[disintegrator]

[Katie shrugs slightly.]

It doesn't necessarily mean that was the cause. A lot of people are mutants.

[She's trying to keep her tone causal. It's already out, but she doesn't want this Sue worrying about things like this. Or for Franklin to show up and know things like this were worrying her.]

[invisibly]

Like Namor. Namor was a mutant.

[And so far, one of her closest friends in the City. Or, he was until he ported out.]

And the X-Men, of course. I'm sorry, I keep bombarding you with all these questions.