Mutants & Masterminds: Heroes United - [Fic] A Little Matter of a Promise

[z-Jael]

He’d let her off the hook for that evening, saying they’d talk tomorrow. In a way, it was a shame they didn’t hash it out right there, because she was in a fairly good mood. She had gotten to kill something of her own free will after centuries of killing for the Keeblers. Sure, she’d gotten into the fight mostly on Andery’s behalf, but he hadn’t told her to kill anything. If he didn’t chew her out for that today, then she’d be truly free.

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She might serve Andery but that was her choice.

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Jael opted to dress casually this morning. Casually was cut-off jean shorts and a fitted t-shirt so soft if felt like a second skin. It fit like a second skin, too. She’d put her hair in twin braids, a look that Cosmo said that “would soften up the grumpiest man”. She wasn’t sure her boss would be grumpy but Jael only took chances if it seemed like fun. Dealing with a pissy Andery wasn’t her idea of fun.

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Her bare feet padded along the floor as she made her way to his office. The breakfast tray in her arms was loaded with food, another way to “win your man” according to the sages at Cosmo. Other advice was available to her in the articles but reading English was hard for her. She kept trying to make runes out of the Latin letters and then Norse words out of those runes. She still had to sound the letters out in her head.

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Ahead of her was Andery’s office; Jael balanced the tray and bustled into the office, smiling widely. “Breakfast! I would have brought it to you in bed but we had that little talk.”

[Justin OOC]

Andery sat behind his desk, going over the figures on what rehabilitation would cost. He pushed that away though, focusing his attentions solely upon the present. "Good morning to you too, Jael. Thank you for bring it to me, I've been doing these caclulations since last night. Even with what they did yesterday, it will take much to remake it as it was."

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He motioned for her to set the tray down on the desk, and then be seated, expecting her to join him.

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"How are you feeling today?" Even though it wasn't what he wanted to address, he did care for her well-being, he did want her to be happy. "Yesterday was quite a day, for everyone."

[z-Jael]

“I feel fine, though I would feel better if I could have gotten to know Scout a little better.” She smirked slightly before leaning forward and snatching a piece of bacon. Jael tended to eat like she on the hunt, attacking the food on her plate. A quick chomp of her jaws made the bacon disappear.

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“How are you?” It was one of the few times that Andery had seen Jael express any kind of concern for anyone other than herself. “Besides the obvious answer that you didn’t sleep nearly long enough.” She glanced at the work again. “Or even no sleep. Why are you doing that? Shouldn’t someone in the city be responsible for that?”

[Justin OOC]

"I am alright, tired, yes but alright."

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He quirked an eyebrow as she took some bacon, it was his favorite, but he'd shared much with her, such a thing was nothing at all between friends. "As to your question of why me, because the team is my responsibility. I will make good on the damage, and help the city."

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He shrugged. "It is only money, something I will never lack. I can't bring back those who died." His eyes seemed saddened by this.

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"They're gong to want you to join them, or at least know who you really are."

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He looked at her and she could see the tiredness, but there as there had been since the first time their eyes met was a softness, something reserved for her. "It is your choice, now that your secret is out. I will not force you to do so." He began to eat to let her think on that.

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"You made all this? It's quite good." He smiled as he thought that if he'd let her, she'd have likely even slaughtered a wild boar to make the bacon.

[z-Jael]

Jael snorted as she grabbed a piece of toast. “Andery, I was raised in a time when you cooked for yourself or you didn’t eat. Since I like to enjoy my food, I learned how to cook. It’s a little different now,” she added with a smile. “Your staff had to show me the basics. I didn’t have a clue what a waffle was.”

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She sat silently for a moment. “I guess I wouldn’t mind joining them,” she said finally. “I mean, I know they’re going to crimp my style horribly. But running around with them sounds more fun than always being here or shopping.”

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“Are you bored here?” Andery asked, partially out of concern for his building and partially for her well-being.

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Jael took so long to answer that they both knew her words weren’t completely true, or at least they weren’t spoken the way she normally spoke them. “It’s very safe. It’s very simple. I don’t have a lot to do here. At least by helping them I could have something active.” She grinned wolfishly at him as she added, “I have to do something to keep my wolfy figure, right?”

[Justin OOC]

He smiled. "You'd find something to do I'm sure."

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he looked at her, catching her gaze with his. "I'm not too happy about you revealing your true form, but you did save lives."

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His tone was abit sad, and he sighed. "Use it when you must, Jael, but sparingly please. If they'd not been so shocked, they would have been terrified of you, and Even the team, it looked like they were about to attack you."

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"I'm concerned because I don't want that. I cannot keep you safe, and wouldn't presume you'd need me to do so on the battlefield, but I won't have allies fighting each other." he reached out to stroke her hand gently. He'd definitely killed the mood, but she could see her getting hurt did worry him, and he confirmed the rest after. "And thank you for not reacting to their fear, They were just Ignorant of you, they aren't anymore."

[z-Jael]

With a roll of her eyes, Jael said, “Andery, you worry too much.” She turned her hand so that she could grip his for a moment, trying to assure him of her sincerity. “I know that you haven’t seen it, but I’m not joking when I say that I can’t be killed. I mean that literally. Well, I can die but it’s just a fortnight’s vacation with my father’s father’s sister.” She grew a little serious as she remembered the words that Hel had told her so many centuries ago. The frightening goddess had predicted she’d be bound until Ragnarok: first against her will and then by her own will. Her gray eyes shifted to considering as she pondered Andery for a moment. He tilted his head, letting her work through her thoughts but ready if she needed to discuss them.

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The problem was that she served Andery now but she’d assumed that he had a mortal lifespan. Hel’s words implied that either Andery was more than he appeared or that Ragnarok would come soon.

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Or that she’d find another master after Andery.

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Jael shoved those thoughts away for later consideration. “I mean,” she said, grabbing the biscuit and jam, “had the heroes killed me I would have understood. I may have even forgiven their insolence, provided they didn’t do something rude to my corpse.” Her expression shifted to wry amusement. “It might have almost been fun to see the looks on their faces when I returned.”

[Justin OOC]

Andery sighed, and continued eating the meal she prepared. Her stoic acceptance of death bothered him, and seemed so alien to him, as he'd always thought of death as something to avoid. "It's still difficult for me to reconcile your Divine nature. It brings to mind so many questions, so many misconceptions about fundamental views of humanity."

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"Perhaps even more, I cannot see far with regards to you, even with effort. Of All the people I know, or have met, I can only see a day or two with you. It's unique and exciting, because sometimes, I cannot even see that."

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his gaze turned abit more serious. "So tell me, what are your impressions of them?"

[z-Jael]

[OOC Note: These are Jael's opinions alone, right or wrong.]

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Jael grew more serious as well, taking a bite of jam-slathered biscuit while silently organizing her thoughts. “I think that they need work,” she said thoughtfully when she’d swallowed. “They’re good – really good – at working alone. I can see their obvious skills but they do need to be molded into a pack. I don’t think they’re going to fall into it.”

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“A pack?” Andery asked with a small smile.

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Jael made an exasperated face and waved her hand in the air, as if waving his question away. “A warband, then, what the ever.” Before he could correct her on either count, she kept going. “They need to function together or else we’re going to see more of the same flooding and misappropriation of resources issues.”

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Andery frowned. “The first I get, but the latter?”

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Jael nodded. “I only saw it with Scout, but after reviewing the security tapes, I can tell you’re going to have some issues with unit cohesion.” Andery winced a little at the reminder that he’d shown her how to review the tapes. It had been after he’d come to trust her but before she’d calmed down; she’d expressed anxiety that she couldn’t watch her new ‘territory’ easily. Andery had shown her the building’s security and finally told her she could review the stored footage if that helped her. She’d taken to the idea immediately and he’d found her watching the tapes with intensity more than once, her eyes full of feral and incomprehensible thoughts.

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Jael abandoned her biscuit to grab a tablet of paper lying nearby. While Andery and Luther used technology, she preferred to use paper and pen for the rare times she took notes. In her blocky handwriting that looked like the Futhark alphabet, she started to write down what she was saying. It would be in old Norse; Andery knew she’d translate it over later. Right now, writing in English while talking in the same was too hard for her. “Fulcrum is going to clash with just about everyone else, as she’s done already. She’s proven herself as a warrior and she fights like an einherjar.” That was high praise from the wolf-woman. “Her abilities are versatile and powerful; she should be the backbone of the fighters, able to offer a variety of support.

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“Slither is harder to read. She’s very specialized, and I didn’t see her for much of the fight. She’s Ms. Bond, right?” Jael added with a little smile. Andery nodded a confirmation, amused by the 007 reference. He’d only given her a broad description of their abilities; no names or anything else. He was pleased to see her putting the pieces together. “Classic spy and information woman. Given that her touch can poison, she’s the obvious person to serve as a flanker and to go for attacks to the tendons, so to speak.

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“Gatekeeper… he’s young.” Jael smirked as she remembered the hilarious toilet bowl he’d created in New York City. “He needs some basic tactics and to not get so excited that he makes mistakes. I think his powers are incredible, and will be an asset, if he thinks about them before using them. He should be standing back from the group, moving us around as needed or coming in close for a rapid surprise attack.”

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Jael turned over a new sheet, still scribbling. “Paladin – one phrase: trust issues. He needs to unmask and come clean about himself to the others.” Andery knew she hated secrets – at least ones she wasn’t keeping – so that statement was not surprising. “Beyond that, like Gatekeeper, his powers are on par with some jotan. He should be used to create impediments to the enemy on the fly. For example, had he been creating large stones and dropping them on the monster as it came out of the hole, we might have been able to bury and then drown it with what Gatekeeper did.”

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“I’m not sure what the upper limits on his ability to create is, Jael,” Andery replied mildly.

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“Fair. Dropping rocks on chunks of the stone men would have helped winnow down their numbers. Meanwhile, Magnum Opus is honest and a good match to me. Shoulder to shoulder with me, I believe we could stand against any force, and create an anchor for the team to fight around.” Jael paused a moment, about to say something else but then she dropped it.

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“Scout needs untraining. He’s used to fighting like the United States warriors. We’re not that kind of team and I’m not sure he understands how a warband works. There are no all-powerful leaders,” Jael said somberly. “It is a group of peers with a chieftain who is expected to be wise and generous to his clan, and vicious and unforgiving to his enemies. The warband would fight around Magnum Opus and I, but we would merely be the anchor. Scout could be our heart. He could cast his spear over our enemies and watch them fall before us.” Her eyes had gone far away and distant; she was seeing another war, another battle, under another chieftain. After a moment, she caught herself and continued, “But he’s overly moral. He sees the world as it is but won’t meet it where it is. He would fight above it, in the clouds of his fine notions. He seeks to lead when he doesn’t understand us, and that will never work.

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“Dr. Northlight is interesting. Her mind is powerful but she needs a backbone.” Jael shifted slightly on her seat, still writing. “She needs adversity. She needs to lose, to realize that losing isn’t as bad as not getting up after and returning to the field of battle. Her life has been so easy for her, even with her accident. But her genius and medical skills are excellent, without question. She just needs to overcome her fear of failing and realize that the only way you truly fail is to quit.”

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Jael lifted her gray eyes to his and sighed. “They’re so… naïve, Andery. They’re going to be great and powerful, heroes born again, but they’re not used to fighting on this level.”

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“What about Gabriel?” he asked.

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“What about him?” Jael asked and there was a hint of a smile in her mild challenge. “I didn’t know he existed before yesterday. I’ve had little chance to assess him.”

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“Still. What do you think?”

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Jael made a few notes before answering. “I said that Magnum Opus and I could stand against anyone if we were war-brothers, standing as one. With the three of us, her Gabriel and I, anchoring the battle and the rest of the pack striking according to their own abilities, nothing could defeat us.”