Fly!

Who: Aleksei, Timo
Date: September 10th, 2010
Summary: A discussion of FTL vs actual flight, and a short trip to Mexico

Aleksei is sitting at one end of one of the sofas, reading and sipping at a tall steaming cup of hot chocolate. It's early for being up on a Saturday for him, much less fully dressed and out in the city. So far, he's content to read and occassionally look up at the street scene outside the window.

Derek wanders in, looking more exhausted than usual, and makes his way to the bar, where he orders a double-shot mocha-cappa-frappa-latte-something-or-other-ccino with extra foam, chocolate shavings, and extra syrup. And a low-fat muffin, because he has to watch his weight. Once these items are paif for, he shuffles to Aleksei's sofa and flops beside him. "Yo," he says, then promptly yawns.

There's a certain delight in finding friends entirely at random when one goes out for coffee (Leigh really doesn't need coffee to wake her up during the daytime — the sun does that just fine for itself; she just likes the taste). There's an even greater delight when one of those friends is somebody whose reactions she just loves to watch. She's quiet as she watches Derek go over to sit by Aleksei. She orders her own drink (which is cold and frothy and covered in whipped cream) and quiet as she sneaks over to the couch where they're sitting, moves behind them and leans over so that her face appears between them. "Good morning!"

Timo comes wandering in the front door of the cafe, steps full of energy despite the early hour. He's reading something on his iPod Touch, but it doesn't seem to hinder his navigation as he steps around a couple people to get to the counter. He looks up to order himself a chocolate milkshake, waiting a moment for it to be delivered. Taking it, he steps over to where the others are, "Hey."

Aleksei looks up, smiles as Derek flops down next to him. "You look like you are still half-asleep, Derek," he says, setting down his drink. Which is a good thing, becuase Leigh's appearance between them causes the boy to yip and start. "Leigh!" he manages to say, face cyckling through a few different reactions before settling on stunned surprise, then a smile. "It is good to see you," he says. Then he waves Timo over. "It seems everyone has decided to come here at once," he says, looking up and out the window in case every other person he knows in the city are all strangely drawn here at this one time. It wouldn't exactly be the first time something that weird has happened to him. Then he settles back into the couch. "How is everyone?"

Derek has partially disconnected.

Derek lets out a yelp, somehow managing not to spill foamy coffee all over himself, as he jumps on the seat. "Dammit!" he grumbles under his breath, giving Leigh a bug-eyed look. "You almost made me spill my IV. Ack!" It's only then that he realizes just who he's speaking to, his cheeks flushing as he shrinks away from her. "Uh, yo, Leigh," he manages, then stuffs half the muffin into his mouth before he can say anything more.

Leigh giggles brightly, and reaches out to pat Derek on the shoulder affectionately. She likes these boys — they're fun, and it's particularly fun when Derek's reactions shift so suddenly, just because of her presence. "How're you guys doing today?" she asks, brows rising as she smiles at Timo. "Morning, Timo. How're you?" All inclusive, that's Leigh.

Timo shrugs to Leigh and says, "I'm ok. Though, nothing really newsworthy going on in this city at all this weekend. Planned, anyway, maybe there'll be some powered fight breaking out somewhere." He sips his drink and then asks, "What's up for you?"

Aleksei's eyes widen. "You have the inside scoop on this, Timo? There will be?" he says, momentarily wondering. He beams at Leigh, and has to chuckle at Derek's reaction.

Chew-chew-swallow-chew-gulp-swallow. Derek keeps himself busy with his muffin and coffee, peeking at the others from behind his hair. Once his mouth is empty, he mumbles a quick hello to Timo. "Nah, nothin's planned," he adds. "And power fights don't get scheduled in advance…usually."

Leigh winks at Aleksei, quite pleased with herself as she moves around the couch and takes up a seat on an armchair opposite, back against one arm and legs crossed over the other. "More's the pity," she remarks. "I mean, if villains had to schedule appointments it'd make things much easier for the heroes, wouldn't it?" And easier for her to know when and where to show her other face.
Timo shakes his head to Alek and says, "I said maybe there will be. Dunno." He sips his milkshake again and grins, nodding quickly in agreement with Leigh, "Yeah, it would. But probably reporters wouldn't be allowed anywhere near then."

Aleksei blushes a bit at his presumption and takes several drinks from his chocolate, the wink from Leigh drawing a smile from him. He's in a bit of a quandry, here. He knows about Derek and Timo's powers, and he knows about Leigh's, but as far as he knows they know nothing about each other. So now, it's a fishing expedition, though likely to end up that time Sergei took him ice fishing.

Derek's pants begin playing the theme song from Spectacular Spider-man, and he squirms around trying to fish a cellphone from his pocket. It's one of those fancy-schmancy phones with a tiny keyboard that plays music, sends texts, takes photos, plays video games, and, oh yeah, works as a telephone. Groaning when he sees the display, he hits a key and grumbles, "Yeah, Ma? What?…No, I just went out for a cup…'Course I didn't forget….Yeah, okay, on my way." He ends the call, shaking his head. "I gotta go. My cousin Vinnie's birthday, so there's a party and stuff. Not till noon, but since it takes Ma six hours to get ready, she naturally assumes it should take everyone else that long, too." He downs more of his drink, leaving a foamy moustache, then leaves the mug on the coffee table. "See you guys later, okay? Don't have too much fun without me." This is, of course, directed at the males. Leigh barely gets a peek and a mumbled good-bye, though once he's halfway to the door, he sneaks another glance back at
her.

Leigh utters a sigh as Derek gets up to leave. "See you later, Derek," she says, and waits until he's out of earshot to add, "He's so much fun to tease. I love that guy." It's said in a very platonic and matter-of-fact tone, but it's said all the same. She slurps from her cup of frothy coffee stuff, then sets it aside, a mustache of beige left upon her upper lip.

Timo blinks, looking after Derek, "He actually has a cousin Vinnie?" Then he shrugs to himself, moving to take Derek's vacated spot, and says to Leigh with a smile, "You've got some coffee on you."

Aleksei waves to Derek, and smiles as he watches the boy turn back. He looks to Leigh once Derek is gone. "I think he likes you very much, as well," the boy says to Leigh, innocently. "He always colors like that when you are mentioned."

"I know," Leigh tells Aleksei as she takes a napkin to clean off her lip. "He wouldn't be nearly so much fun if he didn't… though I worry I'm going to go too far in teasing one of these days." Her head tilts back and she stares at the ceiling for a few moments. "I should get going too, actually," she adds with a sigh. "I've gotta pick up my brother at swim practice."

Timo grins and says, "Yeah, well, you're pretty. I think he's afraid of saying or doing something wrong so he ends up not really saying or doing anything." He nods then as Leigh says she has to go, "See you later then."

Aleksei aws as Leigh announces this. "Sorry to see you go so soon," he says. "We will see you later." He finishes up his drink and deposits the cup in a nearby trash can.

Leigh picks up her cup and rises from her armchair, smiling at both of the boys. "Tell him he doesn't have to worry so much about doing something wrong, okay Timo? See you guys around!" And with this said she starts toward the door, and her junky old car, sipping her drink along the way.

Timo watches as Leigh leaves, and then looks back to Aleksei, "So… what's up?" He takes another sip of his milkshake.

Aleksei relaxes back against the couch, pushing his glasses up into his hair and rubbing his eyes. "Ah, this morning it was an apartment fire in Denver," he says quietly. "My eyes are still stinging from the smoke, which I don't understand since these eyes were nowhere near it.." he says. "At least everyone was out safely."

Timo blinks, "Wow, really? Next time, give me a call. I can go the speed of light, I can get pretty much anywhere fast. I can't keep it going very long, but I can get pretty much anywhere on Earth in the time it takes."

Aleksei whistles. "Wow, I didn't know. We should totally start getting together to practice. I could have used the help getting there; I can fly really fast, but not that fast," he says.

Timo grins a bit sheepishly and says, "I can't really take much with me. You, now, I might be able to, how much do you weigh? But, your other self, no, way, way too big. Back at the big fire at the train, I mostly just carried kids out, most adults I had to just escort out."

Aleksei oohs, and ponders. "OK, good to know," he says. "About 110, think. If you could.. Hey.. I've, um, never flown like this, you know? As Aleksei? I'd like that."

Timo considers, and says, "I might be able to. I don't know. We can try it. And… it's probably not like flying the way you do it. I turn all the way into light, then sort of flow along to where I'm going."

Aleksei's eyes blink, and he considers. "So.. I'd turn into light as well?" he says quietly, looking around in what he hopes is a casual manner just to see if anyone is paying them undue attention.

Timo adds, "Don't worry, nobody's listening to us. I'm watching for anybody looking this way." He grins and says, "And yeah, if it works."

Aleksei looks up, suddenly curious. "Let's go try it?" he says.

Timo grins again at that and nods, "Alright." He hops to his feet, taking a long sip to finish his milkshake and then says, "Let's go." He steps to set the cup on the counter, and then turns to walk out.

Aleksei gets up and follows, quickly. "Where's the best place to do this?" he says, the lanky boy stuffing hands in his pockets.

Timo shrugs to that, looking around. Then he pops into an alley where there doesn't appear to be anybody at present. "Let's try here. Where do you want to go?"

Aleksei ohs, ums, scratches his chin. "Um.. Mexico. I've never been to Mexico. That sounds good?"

Timo nods with a grin, "Sure!" Taking hold of Alek's arm, everything then changes. It's like time suddenly stops, and they no longer have bodies. Just a mind floating in space. Then, they're speeding over the seemingly frozen land. Across the desert, and through small towns, still frozen. It actually seems to take quite a while, but obviously not much time is passing. Then, on a road somewhat near Mexico City but far enough out in the middle of nowhere nobody's around to see, they materialize again.

Aleksei's feet skid and he whoas, grabbing onto Timo's arm well after they'd stopped. He whips his head back the way they 'came', then to Timo, then to the area they're in. "Wow!" he says, getting his bearings and making sure he's not going to be dizzy. "That was amazing!"

It's a good thing Alek's grabbed his arm, as Timo almost collapses when they arrive. Swearing in Spanish, he then goes on in English, "That was hard." He takes a moment to catch his breath, looking around, indicating in one direction, "My abuelo's estate is just down the road that way."

Aleksei switches to quickly to making sure his friend doesn't just fall over, holding him up if needed. He looks down the road, then ohs. "Oh, your.. oh. Isn't it.. a little dangerous for you to be here?" he says. "I know your grandfather would not hurt you, but.. he must have enemies, yes?"

Timo gets his feet under him again in a moment, though he still looks exhausted. He shakes his head, "Not really. If they even knew to recognize me, they wouldn't be looking for me out here anyway."

Aleksei nods to the boy, still looking around curiously. "You need me to fly you back? I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would throw you for a loop like that," he says, concerned.

Timo nods quickly and gives a bit of a sheepish grin, "If you don't mind? I didn't know either. Turning things other than myself into light's something I have to practice, I think."

Aleksei looks around carefully, then grasps the amber stone on his necklace. There's a flash of light and the whirling atomic dsiplay that shows him transforming, growing, until it fades and leaves him there as Proton. The caped man reaches and picks up Timo, then wraps him in his cape. "I go pretty fast, but my costume is almost as indestructable as I am, so you should be safe," he says, voice deeper and with almost no trace of his normally thick accent. The ascent is smooth and quick, like being in a fast elevator, then… there's a soft boom as Proton outraces his own sound and goes hypersonic. He pushes himself, and fifteen minutes later he's slowing down back to subsonic speeds. He pauses and undoes the cape, giving Timo a look at the city from a couple of miles up.

Timo holds on as he's flown along, and grins, "This is so awesome!" He grins even more when the cape's finally opened, though doesn't move much to look around. "I wish I could fly like this!"

Aleksei carefully holds onto Timo, lets his cape stream back over his shoulders again, and banks right, then left as he descends. He speeds up, almost to roller-coaster speeds, then backs it off once more as they drift downwards towards the city. "Where should I drop you?" the young man says.

Timo shrugs to that and says, "Right back where we left, I guess?"

Proton nods and orients himself, turns on the speed briefly, then looks to Timo. "Close your eyes," he says, as he shifts into hyperspeed once TImo does this to drop them into the alley, landing lightly at the last minute. "There, no-one saw us.." he says, willing himself back down to his teenaged form.

Timo grins, and says, "Cool. Why'd you get me to close my eyes? The wind?" He steps back once they're landed, letting Proton transform.

Aleksei nods to Timo. "Yeah; if you're not wrapped up, it can get pretty fierce," he says, pushing his glasses back into place. "I did want anything to get into your eyes. Also, people sometimes.. kinda scream when they see the ground come up that fast."

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