runningstart | MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

WALLY WEST
"You've reached the personal voice mail of the Wall-man. The honor is yours! Leave your deets, I'll holla back atcha."
[ BEEP. ]

KID FLASH
"This is the contact for Kid Flash. If it's an emergency, call Robin; he'll know where I am. Otherwise, leave your info and I'll get you back ASAP."
[ BEEP. ]

[ voice | text | email | action ]

( Please specify in tag subject line if the contact is for Wally West or Kid Flash! )

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[The soft tone is probably a good idea. KF hadn't mentioned the idea to anyone else yet. Kate seemed like she might have a good, unbiased opinion on his reasoning.]

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to look for a woman who supposedly got kidnapped in one of the imPort towns. I could check one, but getting to the others woulda taken hours.

Turns out it was a false alarm, but... [Kid rests his hands on his hips and sighs, looking out over the city.] I kept thinking, what if it hadn't been? What if that lady got killed because I thought I was making a statement?

[He glances over at Kate.] Not saying I'm wrong, or you're wrong. I guess...I dunno. If I can make it to someone in trouble in ten seconds so long as they're in the same city, kinda feel like it's my duty to make myself available in as many cities as possible.

Well, here's a counter point. [Kate has clearly listened up to this point. She doesn't disagree with his point. It's a very logical one, and for a while, trying to maneuver things so she could get teleported around by her friends or use the porter "for work related incidents" had been frustrating. Coming back with teleportation as a power, albeit a sometimes annoying version of it, had been a saving grace for her.]

Why were you doing the searching all on your own? I understand the speedster thing, but one speedster shouldn't be given that job. Did you think you could handle it all? Did you think to ask for someone who could teleport you around? [If he had her network of friends, this would be a non-question. But she's posing it to show that it wasn't the registration that had been the problem.

In truth, it goes back to the fact that all the people wanting to play heroics have to band together. It goes back to their other goals together.]

Edited 2015-04-24 04:42 (UTC)

Well, my cousin was helping- Impulse? He's a speedster too. Faster, but also unregistered. [KF sniffs and rubs at his nose.] Didn't think about the teleporting thing. I guess I coulda called you.

But like- That's not the point. [what's the point then kf] I shouldn't give up an advantage if it could help save lives, that's the point.

... In the end, it's up to you. [Kate glances out over the street.] But they set up those disadvantages for a reason. They're the ones who want it to be harder for us to save lives. [She'd prefer a network of people to help. In the end, it's going to catch up with them. With the recent push with the ambassadors, she feels it's only a matter of time.]

Geez Hawk, I know that. [KF jerks his thumb over his shoulder at the skyline.] But Joe Smith who gets his car jacked shouldn't have to suffer because his government's run by dicks.

[Still, there's a reason why he's putting it off instead of just doing it. He doesn't want to Register either, on the off chance that they might have a way to make him do something he doesn't want to do.] I dunno. I'll think about it. I just wanted to hear what you'd say about it. [Because your opinion is important to him and stuff.]

... I don't like being backed into a corner, and they do a pretty good job of it. [Though the world is rather lenient for those who are registered, Kate has been well aware of the fact that one wrong move at the wrong time could be the end of things. She'd be on the same level as any number of criminals, especially since she's been at this for a while.]

But I had some practice before I got here. The hiding out, avoiding scrutiny, knowing when to be loud and when not to be. [Kate is well aware that she mostly does the "loud" thing, but her last couple months taught her the lesson of pulling back.]

Because of it, I'm going to take it to the end. But I've never asked anyone to come with me, even on that giant roll of questions I hand out. I mean, I probably could've fit something in there. [And she hadn't.

Kate, especially now, doesn't want to endanger someone. The fear that she'd done that in early February had been a shock to her system. While all signs seem to indicate that no one hacked anything and that it had all been people asking the right questions conveniently at the wrong times (or right, as it turned out), it all had been a bit much. She may be back out there ready to shoot arrows and act like she hadn't ended up with a broken arm, but some things will probably stick with her for the rest of her time here.

Her complete and utter belief that she had come so close to screwing over a woman she had been looking into to help along with the rest of the imPorts was going to be one of them.]

Yeah, I know. Personal ideals and all that, we're all unique and beautiful snowflakes with our own thoughts and feelings. [He might be flippant about it, but he really does believe that. And sometimes it's necessary to hold onto your ideals, especially for people in the position they're in.] You must really have problems with the registering thing back home.

Pretty bad ones, yeah. We originally made it about secret identities, you know? But eventually, it became more than that. I just don't think the government should be involved in what we're doing. All those hands on things always spells out for bad news. [It's why she has issues with playing things from a political angle. Oh, she can make things sound good or even be neutral on them, but actually being a politician?

Kate Bishop just thinks it is another way of saying "lie and be dishonest." It isn't in her wheelhouse.]

Well yeah, I don't think that's right either. I mean, the whole reason I unregistered is because I didn't want them to be able to tell me I had to do something I didn't think was right, just because I signed on a dotted line somewhere. Makes me feel too much like a point-and-shoot.

Honestly, it's weird that they don't let native heroes exist, but we're still allowed to do our things. [She pauses.] You think that's weird, right? Because it's weird to me.

I think it mega ultra sucks and isn't fair, but I don't think it's weird. I mean- all the imPorts, we come here the same way. [KF holds up the wrist with the tattoo on it, though it's covered by his glove.] Easier to tag your cattle when they're already lined up.

Oh, we're tagged all right, but that doesn't mean we have the same reason to be loyal. None of us really care about this world the same way a native hero might. I know it's a matter of powers, but why don't they ask us to develop means to create powered people here? [All of it lies on loyalties. At the end of the day, registering doesn't mean someone is loyal, even if they can spout off the oath.]

Okay, so...basically, they don't think their own citizens would be loyal to them. I mean, that's the only reason, right? I dunno, in my experience the only people who're scared of someone being disloyal are the kinds of people already lying to them.

No, that's not actually what I was getting at. I think they think it's better if their own citizens aren't being sacrificed for a cause. It's tidier that way.

You mean they think we're expendable? [Of course that...makes sense. Since there's that 'revival technology' thing and the whole thing with those heroes going overseas for that mission and then dying horribly...

Doesn't mean it doesn't piss him off though.] Because of the revive stuff? Why don't they just put nanites in their own heroes and revive them if that's what they're worried about?

See, that's the thing. The revival stuff only works because of the fact that the nanites only work for us because of what the Porter does. I'd be willing to bet money, and a lot of it, that it comes from a different dimension or one of those lovely mythological references. [Though there may be less of those given that it turned out the Hornets were knee-deep in creepy experiments.

But she doesn't actually explain it.]

Then again, it's really tidy that it doesn't work. Not that the tech's been around forever. It was good for about a year before the Russians nullified it, which ... makes us expendable if we do go up against them, right?

Okay okay okay. [KF holds up his hands.] We keep going back and forth on this. I propose we go find some criminals to apprehend and then maybe talk about this later with spreadsheets for all the pros and cons.

[After he gives up on the back and forth, she actually visibly droops.]

Would you believe that after a year of this crap, I'm really sick of it? Helping and explaining and all of it. [There's a point to what Kate's saying.]

So ... let's kick some ass. That's never been complicated. [That's why she's here.

She really wants uncomplicated right now.]

[He almost offers. It's almost there. He's never been one for that sort of thing; collecting data, figuring out the whys and what ifs of a politically charged situation. If he was honest with himself, it's because he doesn't have a knack for it. He doesn't have a knack for understanding how other people think.

But she looks so tired.

A siren screams below them and he starts, snapping on his night vision to peer over the edge at a car careening down the streets, taking sidewalks and running red lights to avoid the two cruisers on its tail.]

...duty calls. I'll tag 'em, you bag 'em? [And he takes a few steps back before running right over and down the side of the building.

Later. He'll talk to her about it later.]

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