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Kara doesn't exactly have a lot of friends. Part of that is because she works so much. Either she's at her actual job, trying to prove herself in the research department at the paper. Part of that is because leading a double-life doesn't really leave a lot of time for making friends. So it's possible that the invitation to visit at the avengers mansion is a welcome one not just because being part of a team is good, but because it means there are people she can meet and be friends with without worrying about them.
So once she finished her work at the paper, she did a quick change into her uniform and flew over to the mansion, hoping to meet someone else.
She's got a friend in Steve, that's for sure. As she approaches and enters the Mansion, she'll find Steve in the lounge, maneuvering a round a brand new pool table. There was nothing here before, and it really brings the room together if you ask him. Plus it cures boredom, so there's that. "Heya, Kid."
There hasn't been any big Avengering going on for awhile, but still, if Johnny's going to moonlight he needs to keep an eye on things over there. Streaking through the sky, he lands with a certain elegant ease and the fire vanishes off of him instantly right before the door. He's in his Fantastic Four uniform, complete with the F4 logo over his chest. He saw the door close before him so is only maybe six feet behind Kara, but he heads in after and sort of saunters towards the lounge. "'Sup, Steve?" He eyes for a long, curious moment before he flashes his world-famous grin, "Aaaand this is?"
"Captain Rogers," Kara greets Steve with a swift smile, coming inside and taking a look around. "The place seems to be getting more…homey every day. Although I don't ever seem to catch people here. I mean, I guess everyone's busy. Being heroes. And stuff." Which is when Johnny arrives and she turns, smile bright. "Hi!" she exclaims, stepping forward to offer a hand. "I'm Supergirl. I'm also finding that sounds very odd when I expect a large group of people to call me that. I may have to reconsider."
"It's a good name. It fits. Plus, it's hard to find something else that matches the S," Steve says as he buries a shot with a thick bang. "Johnny, good to see you. Things are well. How about for you?"
Johnny takes the offered hand with a confidently firm grip, and blinks a moment at 'Supergirl', a brow arching slightly, but his grin easy and lacks any mockery. "I'm Johnny Storm. The Human Torch." He says this as if he clearly expects she knows exactly who he is: he says it like he assumes everyone does. And while he has a codename, his tone implies everyone should know both. But he nods casually to Steve, "All's well. Things are a little quiet around Baxter right now, Reed's been inventing something I think. Thought I'd come by and see if we have a plan or schedule for some joint-training."
"It's not an S, actually," Kara says ruefully over her shoulder to Steve. "But it's a lot easier to explain to people that it stands for Supergirl than that it's an alien glyph that's a symbol of a house that also has its own meaning, so. Johnny Storm," she grins as the introduction sinks in. "Of the Fantastic Four. Wow, I've followed Dr. Richards' papers - he's done some really incredible work. One of the finest minds on this planet." She actually sounds like she means that. Like she could possibly understand anything in those papers.
"Well, here it looks like an S," Captain America replies as he buries his next shot, a bank and a cut. He reaches to the end of the bar and grabs his beer as he nods to Johnny, "I think getting together for some training would be a very good idea. How's your schedule looking?"
Johnny tilts his head to the side as he regards Kara, and the 'alien glyph', and 'house', and… He makes a wild guess, "You wouldn't be another Daxamite, would you?" He can't remember what the other race was called. But he nods with a smile as she notices, "Yep, that's us, and don't teel Reed that, it'll go to his head." Pause, "…then again since his patents pay for Baxter and the Foundation, nevermind. Going to his head is good, it'll make him try things. You a scientist?" Then he nods to Steve, tilting his head, "Trying to get drunk there, man?" A wry grin at that, "Schedule is open: I don't have any shows for the next month, and barring emergency, I'm sort of on vacation. By the way, I have someone you should meet, might be useful on the team. Alien refugee who isn't looking to see his new home end up like his old home." Thus, asking Kara about Daxamites.
Kara's brows rise at Johnny's question. "Daxam?" she echoes. "No, of course- Wait, another?" She looks to Steve, grimacing a bit. "I'm beginning to think that the destruction of Krypton was less complete than I was led to believe." Pushing a hand through her hair, she turns back to Johnny, smile crooked. "I'm not a scientist, not really. But my father and my uncle were. What is a Daxamite doing here, though? I'd think they'd get too bored to bother sticking around. Not nearly enough bread and circuses."
"What's a Daxamite?" Steve says, holding the stick out to the side as he looks between both of them. He takes another swig from his beer and shakes his head, "Can't get drunk, Johnny. I just like the taste because it reminds me of the old days." He shrugs his shoulders, "If you think he'd be good, I'm interested in meeting him."
"Oh, Kryptonia." Johnny's expression is sympathetic for Kara, "Yeah he mentioned you guys. Uh, not flatteringly. Anyways, apparently, when Kryptonia blew up, chunks hit Daxam, and so two worlds died for the price of one. He's the only one who got out. What's he doing here, though? Bartending. He's got nowhere else to go." He looks to Steve and explains, "A daxamite is… uhh, an alien, who looks human, goes fast, is very hard to kill, and is very strong. I like him: he's got a good head on his shoulders for a prince. Not really all that stuck up." Which, for Johnny to note, is something. Wait. Important information: "You can't get drunk?!" The horror wars with pity on his face.
"Krypton," Kara corrects, though she sniffs at the description. "He would say that. A Daxamite is a hedonistic monarchist," she offers her own opinion to Steve on the matter. "They kept slaves, oppressed their people, and distracted them with every possible kind of debauchery." Although whatever indignation she has does fade a bit into guilt as the rest of Johnny's explanation sinks in. "Which…doesn't mean they deserved to die. But…" She grimaces, looking back to Johnny. "If he was a prince then I doubt he's that interested in anyone else, honestly."
Steve winces, "I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds pretty terrible." He honestly doesn't know what else to day. And, though he'd be interested to learn this guy's feelings about slavery, he's not ready to tar and feather the daxamites just yet. "Serum," he says to Johnny. "Helps me with toxins of all kinds. Even the fun ones."
"You don't know him, lady. I do. He might have liked to party, but he spoke of things he wanted to change on his planet — but as a prince he couldn't. Not when there's a king around." Johnny shrugs slightly, and heads over to where Steve is, and sees if there's another shot: he can get drunk. "Even if you're right and he's only interested— fundamentally— in himself… this is the only planet he's got. Seems to me that your planet dying might change your priorities a bit. He's got no money, no status, no privileges — he could use his strength to rob a bank if he cared so little for everyone else. Instead when I told him about what we do, he expressed interest." He adds after a moment, "Besides, what's wrong with hedonism or debauchery? Man, he was right about you people being stuck up." He can't help but laugh.
"I also don't get drunk," Kara shrugs. "Because physiology, not because I'm stuck up," she adds, rolling her eyes. "I'm just saying, it's worth being careful, is all. Daxam wasn't exactly known for their strength of character."
At the topics of hedonism and debauchery, Steve raises his eyebrows, but he says nothing. "Well, this guy, what was his name again? I think you should bring him by. He sounds like, whether he's a Daxamite or not, the kind of guy who has his heart int he right place. We could use him."
"You know every word you have said about Daxamites— minus the slavery thing, granted— has been said of me." notes Johnny with a wry grin towards Kara, "Debauched is downright one of the nicer ways people have described me." He shakes his head slowly, "I don't do generalizations, I don't do discrimination. I judge everyone by what they do— not last week, now. I judge them especially by what they do in a crisis: and if they can be relied upon, in a pinch. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt." He nods to Steve, "Mike…something. I'll bring him around, introduce you. See if you can get a read on him: you're maybe a better judge of character then I am." Pause, "So, group-training?"
Kara grimaces at Johnny, but she doesn't seem to be arguing. Much. "I…usually do too," she sighs. "I guess it's easier when you're away from all the things you grew up having any real prejudice against than it is when you're confronted with something you think you know." At Johnny's question to Steve, she looks to the Captain as well, hopeful. "Training sounds like fun. And useful."
"So training," Steve says after a moment of thinking and after each of them have mentioned it. "I got a buddy who owns some land out in New Jersey that we could go parade around on. Field trip and it'd get us out of the city." Pause. "We might need to bring some water if Johnny ends up lighting anything on fire out there."
"That's fair." Johnny allows with a nod to Kara, and a smile. "I think if you're one of the last of one's kind, people deserve a chance to pick a new way to live." he does suggest. But mentioning of water has Johnny grimace, "That's not nessecary." He reaches a finger out and traces 'Johnny' in the air before him, and as his finger traces so it leaves a flaming script in the sky. And then he twists a hand and the heat and the flame rushes to his hand and vanishes as he absorbs the heat energy of said flame. "The rest sounds like a plan, Steve."
"Oh, I can help with putting out fires," Kara says quickly, smile flickering. "It's a…thing. Yeah. That's neat," she adds, nodding to Johnny's trick. "I could go on the weekend. I have to go to work during the week, but they don't usually need me around on the weekends. Though we should probably have someone stay in town just in case something happens, so they can call and we can get back. If there's an emergency."
"Didn't know you could do that," Steve says to Johnny with admiration. He nods to Kara, "That's a pretty good point. Don't want to leave the place undefended. Saturday might work. Might be fun for us to get out of here for a night."
Johnny eyes Kara a long moment, before he glances over to Steve, "Steve, man. The Avengers should consider the Future Foundation's model. The Foundation provides the Four with a stipend to keep us comfortable, so we don't have to have considerations like 'working for a living' getting in the way of the necessary fact of our lives that at any moment we may need to drop everything and go save the world. I know you can't use the Foundation's funding sources— you don't have a genius inventor patenting things every Tuesday— but there's money around here…" He shakes his head, "Its not that I'm lazy and against work. I have my shows, its just… periodic. And if something happens, something happens." But he looks curiously at Kara, "Please tell me Kryptonites can't conjure water. I am not a fan of water." But he grins at Steve, "Fire's my bitch, man."
"No, no water," Kara laughs. "We're not really conjuring sorts. But. Strength, speed, flight, durability. I'm bullet-proof," she adds cheerfully. "And then there's the heat vision, and the x-ray vision. Oh, and the hearing. The hearing took some getting used to. But the dealing with fire is more of a, um." She looks around, then points to Steve's bottle of beer, stepping over to borrow it for a moment. Pursing her lips, she blows at the bottle…and frost forms around it. "Ta da!"
"Well, funding is going to be an issue. I barely just got this roof over our heads—not sure I can give anyone a job. Guess we'd all better vote for Johnson," Steve replies. Was that a political joke? I think so. "Pretty nice, Supergirl."
"Huh." Johnny regards the bottle a moment, then laughs. He lifts a hand and makes a grasping gesture, and there's a breeze and suddenly its cold in the room — not freezing cold, but basically 30'F. "I can't freeze anything: I don't so much lower the temperature as *take* the heat. Or, add it back in." And he makes a lifting gesture, and as he does the temperature rises until its comfortable again. He grins at Steve, "I was more thinking of suggesting the model to Stark, not that *you* pay anyone's salary." He looks curious at Kara, "Mike has some similar powers— powers he said they didn't naturally have on their world, something about our sun— but no flight, notably. Its odd to me that two species from two different planets in one solar system both evolve to look like beautiful humans and yet when they bask under humanity's sun they become superhuman."
"The yellow sun," Kara nods to Johnny. "Krypton and Daxam had a red sun. When my parents sent me here, to escape the destruction of Krypton, they theorized that the radiation from the yellow sun would give us- me - certain abilities. Turns out they were right about that. It's my understanding that it was radiation that granted you and the rest of the Four your powers, wasn't it? Not so different, really."
"Well, I'm sure that Stark has enough money to not miss it," Steve says with a chuckle. He looks down to his wrist and raises his eyebrows. "Oh no, I'm late. Couple of guys down at the VA are setting me up on a blind date. I gotta go." He sets the pool cue down upon the table, "Be sure and bring that Daxamite around."
Johnny nods his head, "Yeah, a solar flare— though its not as simple as being cosmic radiation. We don't fully understand it, yet. Reed is studying the phenomenon. I'm not a scientist— I'm a mechanical engineer by schooling and a mechanic by trade if I needed a job and a racer and trick-rider by love— but … The Four, all of us interacted with this radiation and became very different. My sister can turn invisible— Reed is Mr. Bendy. In all of us the fundamental structure of our cells was permanently changed. My fire has its limits, but they are really high — and it recharges on its own. Originally, I could just… manifest fire around me. Now?" He lifts a hand, and from elbow to tips of his finger it bursts into fire— but more then that. There's no hand there. Oh, there's something hand-shaped. The fingers wiggle. But that's pure, superhot plasma in a shroud of fire. "We have no idea how this works. That's not *flesh* anymore — I'm not bulletproof. Shoot me when I'm plasma, and if the bullet is slow it melts and liquid lead falls to the ground, if its fast enough it goes right through and I don't notice." The fire and plasma vanishes and flesh remains. "Perhaps your scientists could understand what happened to us, but we don't… yet." He nods to Steve with a grin, and lifts his hand as the man departs.
"Good luck!" Kara calls after Steve before looking back to Johnny's explanation. "Slightly different, then," she nods. Although when he goes plasma, she actually reaches out to try to touch it. While she doesn't go all the way into just grabbing pure plasma, she does seem remarkably unconcerned despite the heat. "So far as I've been able to determine, our kind are…as long as we're exposed to sunlight, there's very little that can permanently harm us. I guess it's the perfect excuse for going tanning, right?"
When Kara reaches for the plasma hand, Johnny arches his brow, "Mike was able to withstand my low level fire; I took him flying, which was… interesting. I never thought I could actually carry someone flying before — my kind of flight is not exactly what most people would consider Comfortable Travel Arrangements." But if she wants to poke at his plasma hand, he'll let her— and look curious at her doing it. If she does, it'll go right through the liquid fire with no more resistance then the heat itself — whatever that will doto her. At the last statement of hers, he laughs easily, "I can think of only one better reason: wanting to look damn good. I'm just thankful my otherwise immunity to heat and fire doesn't render me immune to tanning rays… can you imagine the crime to the world if I turned pasty?!"
Kara is able to get close, to brush the surface, but even she pulls back after a quick touch, shaking her hand off. Still, she's not blistered or turned to ash. "That is hot," she nods, impressed. "Regular fire would be fine. I could probably handle that, but…not something to do just for fun. I can see where flying with you is probably not for just anyone, though," she chuckles.
The flame vanishes into flesh again, and Johnny drops his hand with a grin, "Yeah, the primary issue with regular fire was his *clothes*, so I had to loan him a jumpsuit from my collection that Reed made me." He chuckles at that before sobering up, "So, one thing I couldn't ask him— and if this is touchy and a 'shut the fuck up, Johnny' question feel free to tell me to shut the fuck up… What happened to Krypton? Something big enough to not only destroy it but another planet in the same solar system. It was two years ago when this planet was on the brink of global nuclear war— the kind of destruction we could bring could have killed us all. But only us."
"It's…" Kara sighs, looking away. "Complicated. Different factions claimed different things. But my family believed, and tried to tell the Council, that our attempt to harness the energy of the planet's core had destabilized it. It grew worse and worse, and eventually…the planet was destroyed. The sun may also have been dying," she adds. "Which wouldn't really be anyone's fault. But…we denied it for too long. We were unprepared."
Johnny nods with a sort of abstract sympathy on his features: he can recognize this is the most horrible possible thing in the world, and its not that he doesn't believe them, but he has a real hard time making such a thought …real. "Well, from what Mike told me, the whole sun was for sure not the issue. My understanding it was chunks of their sister-planet raining down that devastated the planet. Uhh. Not that 'oh your family was more right' is likely a very interesting consolation prize. My sympathies, Supergirl." He shakes his head slowly, "This is all a little hard to get my head around, I admit. Oh I don't have any problem with admitting aliens— but its that none of you look like giant floating horned octopi that weirds me out. You're all so pretty." He laughs, then sobers almost instantly, "And experienced disasters of unimaginable proportions and are… here. Leading normal lives. No one's tried to conquer the primitive backwater earthlings, yet. That's just unnatural."
"Yet is key," Kara grimaces. "I know there were people…" She trails off, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. You say this Mike is…a good person. And you're right, we should give people a chance. It's just that in my experience, if anyone would be willing to walk all over Earth because they could be at the top of the heap, it would be-" Pursing her lips in a slight frown, she stops herself. "All right, not just Daxam. There would be elements on Krypton who might feel the same. My family disagreed. Earth is backwards compared to what we were, but for us, that meant the right thing to do would be to guide. To help. To protect. Not to conquer."
"I'm not sure I said 'good person' — I don't make value judgements on quite those terms. Do you know where I met Mike?" Of course she doesn't, Johnny is framing a story, "At a bar, a not especially nice bar, where he was serving drinks. To a whole bunch of utterly mundane humans that he could kill with little a thought if I understand the scope of his strength is true— which my understanding is very basic on this regard. He was a prince of a dynasty that, as you say, oppressed and ruled for however long, giving themselves every luxury while profiting off of the basest trade— slavery. And what did he do here? He served. Before he served here, he spent a month or two working at a lumberyard. He chopped wood, Supergirl. My guess is it was the one job he could get where his ship landed and he was just surviving. Do either of these things seem like what a prince of Daxam would do?" But then he grins and shakes his head, "Earth may be primitive by a certain developmental scale, you're right. I would be careful with assumptions, there. Reed is exactly as brilliant as the challenge of the question before him demands. Put alien overlords in front of him and I say this with the utmost sincerity, I will put my money on him. But beyond that, there are true powers on Earth that have nothing to do with that. But I appreciate your family has a more benevolent position: I respect it, also. But…" Johnny looks at Kara for a long moment, "There's a certain… presumption… to those who think they can guide. I say presumption but wish the faint whisper of arrogance to be heard in its shadow. I don't accuse you of this. I simply caution you to consider it." He shrugs then. "Protecting I'm all for." Johnny is showing off something he rarely brandishes: the fact that he's an educated intellectual beneath the playboy exterior.
"Like I said, I've read some of Dr. Richards' work," Kara smiles faintly. "Believe me, I know that people here aren't stupid. Far from it. You have to understand, the things that most scientists here are just beginning to discover are things I learned in school before Krypton was destroyed. I was thirteen when the planet was destroyed. And I'm not all that special," she adds, smile slipping crooked. "Not at all, really. Just…" She looks out the window, shrugging. "A trick of radiation. But that's the point. People - humans - are good. Are capable of so much good. And sometimes they'll get lost, and sometimes it will be hard to do the right thing, but your capacity for hope, for inspiration, means you can be so much more. Like Dr. Richards. Here, without millennia of science, without advanced equipment, yet still, he finds a way. It's incredible."
"Oh, I understand." Johnny nods, "I have a degree in mechanical engineering and can not even fathom the requirements for building a spaceship— I'm leaving the specifics of the engine to Reed— I fully recognize we are comparatively ignorant." On Good, he wrinkles his nose in distaste, "There's that word again. I don't like it. Do you think the Daxamites thought they were evil? I don't know how much of our history you know, but I guarantee the Nazi's didn't. They were improving the world: saving it. And in that name, in the name of the great nation, the more perfect nation, the better world, they murdered millions. Value judgements are too absolute. Two people have power: one cares nothing for those without power, one cares. And all the spectrum between. People aren't good. People aren't bad. They are capable of compassion and they are capable of greed. Sadly, I think most choose greed. I even choose greed sometimes: I am a hedonist and embrace debauchery, Supergirl. Where it harms none, though. Otherwise, I gain satisfaction and pride in helping where I can, so I do so. I do not think I would fall under your people's definition of 'good'."
"You say it like it has to be absolute." Kara leans against the edge of the table, tilting her head. "Like one stumble cancels out an act of heroism. Good is about…About truth, and justice. Hope and potential. It's about what you do when the chips are down, when it really matters. Do you do the good thing all the time? Probably not. Most people don't. But that doesn't mean you're not good. That your heart isn't in the right place."
Johnny is silent a moment, thoughtful. "I don't particularly value truth except if someone has a reason to expect it from me— a bond that means I expect truth back. To my sister, of course. The Four, of course. My friends. Otherwise? I don't think of truth as a virtue. The truth can be one of the most hurtful things you can expose someone to. Justice… what is justice? We have a justice system in this country, yet the more wealthy and white you are or the blacker you are the more likely your interactions with it are wildly different. I honestly have no idea how anyone could imagine 'justice' as a standard." He shrugs, "I do what I think is right. I think the strong should not have advantage of the weak. I think that anyone that needs saving deserves saving. I think that I am so far above most of the pepole on the planet that I am nearly another race, but that doesn't mean I have any right to rule them: that means I have an obligation to protect them." He shrugs, "I don't know what the right place is: I only know what right is. And right and good are not always the same thing. Sometimes you need to kill." Of all the Four beside Ben, Johnny is perhaps the one who has to struggle very hard *not* to kill, in fact. Fire is the element of destruction.
"Killing is never the answer." Kara shakes her head, pushing away from the table. "There's always a better answer. But. Make it as complicated as you want, Johnny Storm," she smiles faintly. "I'm going to keep believing. But I believe I hear a bank robbery in progress, so I'm just gonna…" She points a thumb to the side, smile crooked, then *zoom* disappears!