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It's a bright and sunny summer day, and for once, there don't seem to be any major emergencies in the city. Sure, there are minor emergencies. There are always minor emergencies. Car wrecks, accidents, cats stuck up trees. Those never end, though. The relative quiet means that Kara has time to think. It's not a bad thing when Kara has time to think, but it usually means she does things.
Like deciding that she should find out more about these Avengers.
She doesn't walk up to the door, that would be too simple. Instead, she floats down to the door from the sky, wearing her blue and red with the cape and the boots. Of course, then she knocks. Politely.
Maximus is not an Avenger. He's an occassional consultant. But he just kinda…/ends up/ places. Its like security just has an issue keeping him out and he's pretty harmless once he's in, when he wants to be in, and he invents random, interesting things while he's here, so…that's the general 'tolerating' arrangement happening. He's heard that Tony is back in town now though, so he's lurking around, hoping to catch the techie.
Susie, in her Ultragirl outfit, was flying around the city, trying to help where help might be needed… and found that it is a fairly quiet day, after all. This leads her to fly over towards the Avenger's Mansion, too. This is how she ends up floating down out of the sky, also, just moments after Kara does. "Hiya!", she says, smiling cheerfully. "… Uhm…", she adds, looking at the door of the mansion. "I don't think I've ever seen you around here… can I help you?", she asks of the other flying blonde teen.
"Oh, hi!" Kara turns away from the door, flashing a friendly smile at Susie and stepping forward to offer a hand. "I'm- I'm Supergirl," she introduces herself cheerfully. "I'm sort of- I mean, well. I'm…a hero." Her smile slips crooked, a little awkward, but she gestures toward her uniform with one hand. "And I heard that someone was forming a whole team of heroes here, and I thought well, if we were all going to be working here in New York, then I ought to at least introduce myself, right?"
Maximus opens the door, helpfully, when Kara knocks on it and he looks outside and blinks a couple times at the two brightly colored ladies with their cool flying. "Hero! Yes, this is the right place for that. Honestly…there are too many men in here. Hello, I'm Maximus." He flashes a smile.
"… and I'm Ultragirl", replies Susie, taking Superigirl's offered hand and shaking it solidly before turning to head up the steps, she chirps a happy sounding, "Hiya!", to Maximus as she makes her way into the mansion itself, calling back over her shoulder. "So, Supergirl… what's up?"
"Nice to meet you," Kara nods to Susie, turning when Maximus opens the door to offer a hand to him next. "Nice to meet you, Maximus. I'm Supergirl." There's not an ounce of suspicion in her, just friendly openness. "Nothing in particular is up, honestly," she adds to Susie. "I just…Well, like I said, I thought if there was a team setting up here, then the least I could do was introduce myself, just in case we run into each other. The middle of a fight isn't usually a good time for introductions, after all."
Maximus tilts his head and holds the door if they want to come on in the place. "Super girl." He overtly looks her up and down. "Seems a bit young…how old are you? You look more womanly, to me." Maybe that's his version of a line. Its hard to tell. He smiles amiably, though.
"Aw c'mon, Maxie!", Ultragirl says to the man holding the door. "She looks like she's my age! … 18? … 19? …am I right?", she says, the last bits directed at Kara, and toned like a question. "You want a bottle of Coke?", she then offers to Kara, then turning to look at Maximus, to include him in the offer of soda.
"Something like that," Kara laughs to Susie, shaking her head at Maximus. If it's a line, she seems utterly oblivious to it. "I went back and forth on it, honestly, but Superwoman seemed…I dunno, matronly, and kind of a little bit weird, so I went ahead with Supergirl. I mean, it wasn't entirely my choice, it also sort of fell on me and it stuck? It's okay, though, it's not that bad. A Coke would be great. Wow, this place is huge!" she says as she follows Susie inside, turning in a circle and looking around.
Maximus squints his eyes. "That's true. It /would/ make you sound old." Once the ladies are through, he lets the door shut and walks a few paces. "Susie…what did I say about calling me Maxie. It makes me sound like a small, greek boy." He kinda looks like he could be Greek…dark hair and all. "I'll have a coke too. So, are you planning on joining up, being…part of the team and all that? What do they do, Suzie? Auditions of powers…I suppose? Good intentions? Law abidingness?"
"Uhm… I dunno, honestly", Ultragirl says in reply to Maximus' question about auditions, even as she's turned around and is floating slowly backwards towards the kitchen, her feet a few inches above the floor. She turns fully around and flits through the big, open doorway into the kitchen… where, a few moments later, a fridge can be heard being opened and closed, and bottletops being pulled from the tops of bottles.
"I have all of those things," Kara grins to Maximus, hands clasped in front of herself as she moves through the house. "Although I'm not sure there's a test for the last two. The first two, though, those are easier to share. That's a god question, though. I mean, I'd think that wanting to be a hero would or should be enough, right? That and the ability to help. That's all it really takes. And if someone was going to lie about good intentions or being law-abiding, then at least you'd be right there to stop them, right?"
Maximus shakes his head slowly. "No…think about it for a moment. Some people, no matter what they want, do not actually have what it takes, mentally. Sure, you might be able to fly, but…can you cope with failure, death, loss, having a bad day, losing…those things happen, you know. It takes a certain sort of person to run into a fire knowing they might not get every single person out, no matter how much they want to. These are the sorts of hard decisions that heroes, and incidentally also royals, have to make." He says with a weird air of sageness.
"Maybe. But you'll never know if you don't try." Kara is an endless font of optimism, regardless of the end result. "Being a hero is about being able to get up and keep going, even when you do fail. You have to give people a chance to fall or fail before you can find out how they deal with it." She takes the Coke before Susie is called away, taking a sip.
Maximus nods once in agreement. "Sure, but…if you start letting anyone who wants to be an Avenger, then you'll have a lot of people getting themselves accidentally killed. Soooo…what sort of powers do you have? Flying…obviously. Tough? Strong? Mind powers?"
Kara smiles faintly, crossing one arm over her chest. "Flying," she agrees. "Fast, strong, tough. Heat vision. Cold breath. X-ray vision. Super hearing…" She tilts her head, considering. "I mean, I think there are some other things, but that's most of it, at least. What about you?" she asks. "What do you do?"
Maximus stares at her as she lists off all the awesome, amazing things she can do. His expression grows steadily more dry, though he does somehow manage to contain his seething jealousy. "I am extremely smart. I invent things. It seems that fate was busy giving you..and people like my cousin, Crystal, all the amazing powers and that was simply left over."
"You invent things?" Kara asks, brows rising with a genuine smile. "But that's great, though. My uncle was a scientist. Inventing things is a great power. So is being smart. Not everything can be solved by…punching, or running fast, after all. What was the last thing you invented?"
Maximus pauses to think about that. "Honestly? I invented a small device to burn multiple incense at once to help in summmoning demons and that sort of thing, for a mystic. Timing is everything. I plan to work on something much larger, soon though." He smiles crookedly. "Are you…mutant? Or something else?"
"See? That's important. I think. Probably. I don't know much about magic," Kara admits with a laugh. "But if it's anything like science, then not having the right tools in the right places at the right time can make things go terribly wrong, so." At his question, she does hesitate, the unwavering optimism flickering for just a moment. "I…am an alien," she answers, an awkward twist to her smile.
"Oh…that's great." Maximus actually seems relieved. "I mean…that's what I am too, really. Part alien. Not Kree, are you?" Maximus arches his dark brows. "They are usually blue…"
"Kryptonian, actually," Kara answers, her smile fading to something a little softer, more somber. "It's…I'm one of the last of my kind. Our planet is gone. My parents sent me here as our planet was dying. So this is my home now. It's a good place. So I do what I can to make it better, to keep it safe."
Maximus draws in a deep breath, "Ahhhh, I see, I see. Well, sorry about your planet. Nothing a person can say, is there? But, I just try to keep my people safe…so that something like that doesn't happen to them. Not too many of us, either."
"It's a worthy goal," Kara smiles faintly back at him, taking another sip of her soda. "But be careful. Some of our people made some very bad decisions when they realized the end was near. They did terrible things to themselves, to others. They had the best of intentions, but they went about it in all the wrong ways."
"Oh? It sounds, pardon me, fascinating to learn more about it. To learn from the past. But, for you, it is not the past exactly. It is…tied to you. Close. I would hate to put you through terror just to learn." Maximus quite respectfully says, though his steel eyes burn with curiosity over the woman. Very gently, at the kindest part of his words, he tries to place a little mental seed in her mind. Its nothing harmful…she'd not feel it at all, unless she has mental blocks or mind shielding. It does nothing…besides making it easier to take over her mind if he needed to. He may not even be fully aware he's doing it.
"It's been…some time. More time than it feels like, space travel is fun like that," Kara chuckles, looking away as she pushes a hand through her hair. "And there's nothing that can be done about it now. The best I can do is to live a life that they would be proud of. Represent our house. And be the best that I can be." She looks back, no sign of a reaction to the mental suggestion. Whether it's because she has a strong mind or because she doesn't notice it, though, is less clear.
Maximus dips his chin down, thoughtfully, "When they had the best intentions…was there someone who had the right answer? Were people too busy being stubborn…to listen?" He sips his soda and starts walking to show her the casual lounge with the tv and the chairs and the round-edged fridge.
"For a long time," Kara nods, following him to the lounge. "My uncle and aunt, my mother, they tried to tell the council. They tried to tell people. But no one wanted to believe. Although, to be fair," she sighs, "It was probably too late by the time they really realized what we'd been doing. But they never had a chance to find out for sure, because no one wanted to believe it. It was easier to tell themselves that everything would be fine."
Maximus settles down in a chair, inviting her with his body language to join him. He leans back comfortably, like he has every right to be here. "Your own family. I see. But they saved you. That was good of them. And they raised you to be this…hero, so…perhaps they were the right ones. Its hard to tell, sometimes. Sometimes two people can be right. So…meet anyone that catches your fancy?"
"Catches my- Oh, you mean like a boyfriend?" Kara blushes, chin ducking a bit with a sheepish smile and a wave of her hand as she sits on the arm of the couch. "No, no. No, I don't- I mean, it's sort of complicated, you know? That's not the sort of thing you can just explain to someone. And people don't usually like it when you have to run off in the middle of a date because there's a fire, or an explosion, or who knows what else."
Maximus chuckles. "Yes, but…if you date another hero, its fine. And they are used to alien ladies or…other odd things. I was just curious. Most people answer Captain America." The dark-haired man grins crookedly. "I think its the uniform."
Kara laughs, shaking her head again. "I really just- That's not even something I've thought about. There are so many other things the world needs. And I'm just…" She laughs, waving at herself and shaking her head, hair falling half over her face. "No, that's just really not something I'm worried about."
Maximus wets his lips and sips his soda again. "I guess that means I shouldn't ask you out to dinner. I mean…what if you flew off in the middle of it. I'd be stuck there all alone to…invent reasons why my date flew off." He smiles amiably, teasing her.
"Oh no, you don't fly off in front of people," Kara says quickly, as if that was the important part of that statement. "First you have to slip off, then you have to change, then you fly off so no one really notices it was you, because that would be bad."
Maximus lifts his hand in a mild gesture as he talks, "Oh, of course, because…secret identity…and so on. I do not really have one of those. I am…ever, Maximus. No code names. No…well I guess I do have some special clothing when I'm feeling tactical or like dressing as we do where I'm from. Though, who are you protecting by keeping your identity a secret?" Max asks with an arch of one brow.
"Well, if I told you that, I wouldn't be doing a very good job of protecting them, would I?" Kara smiles faintly, taking another sip from the bottle. "If you don't have a secret identity, how do you pay your rent? Do you work inventing things somewhere? Oh! Is that how Stark Industries stays ahead of the curve, they have someone like you inventing new things?"
That's a very good question and Max is pretty sure that 'well, I hijack rich people's minds to go withdraw money for me whenever i need it' probably ISN'T the answer she wants to hear. "I consult for the Avengers. But…I'm also…ah…" he cocks his head, "well…" he bobs his head, delaying saying it, "Royalty." grin. "What do you do? How does supergirl pay rent?"
"Royalty?" Kara squints a bit, head tilting as she works through the implications there. "Royalty has to get its money from somewhere, though. And you said you were part alien, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any current royal families here with a Maximus in your age range. So either you're royalty from a kingdom that's in space, which still begs the question of how you get money, or else you're royalty of some very secret people, which still makes me wonder where you're getting money, because secret people don't really need international currency exchanges."
She may be a little bit naive and a whole lot optimistic, but clearly the girl's not stupid. "And I'm not telling you what I do, but I have a job," she adds, chin rising proudly. "So. There's that."
Maximus makes a grunting sound. "That all sounds boring. Other people are in charge of figuring out how I get my money into the right currency. I just know its there when I want to spend it." Spoken like a true royal!
Kara's lips twitch, amused. "Well, I guess that would free up your schedule. I like having a job, though. Heroics are great, and the world needs them. But sometimes you need some time just to be you, to get some balance. Work is good for that."
Maximus draws in a deep breath, "Well…I /have/ a job. Protect my people, make important and difficult decisions, study the other powered individuals in the world and see if they are likely to be friends or foes…and so on. And then I make things for the Avengers. I would say that I am rather busy, on the day to day. But, you are right that I rarely have time or…the ability to just be myself. Too bad I only know Supergirl. She's too High Profile for small events." Grin.
"Supergirl probably is," Kara agrees with an easy smile. "But maybe she could bring by some ice cream sometime." She finishes the last of her coke, standing up. "I should probably get going. That whole job thing. But maybe I'll come back later. I'd like to see some of your inventions."