(Untitled)

[foreverbouncing]

WHO: Misfit and OPEN.
WHERE: Xavier Institute
WHEN: Let's say..late afternoon on Wednesday.
WARNINGS: Charlie is kind of a snoop.
SUMMARY: If Oracle is going to make her go to school, Charlie's going to go check it out first, dang it! And set off lots of silent alarms.
FORMAT: Whatever works.

Comments

[iownkickassguns]

Hearing the warning system go off, Dani made her way to the main offices of the school to get a look at the intruder. The warning system hadn't alerted most of the staff to a major break-in so Dani wondered if a few of the students had decided to sneak out for the night. Looking over the cameras, she noticed a teleporter weaving in and out through the hallways and classrooms. She wasn't a current student...

Dani paused thoughtfully before going over to a desk and pulling out a student file folder. It was new and barely had much in it but it was a start. She went out to see if she'd run into the girl.

[foreverbouncing]

*BOUNCE* How lucky, Charlie totally appeared standing in the middle of the hallway Dani was walking through, her back to the other girl, reaching up to scratch at the top of her head. "Okay, boys who shoot lasers out of their hands suck..." She said with a sigh, brushing off her costume and then frowning when she found a hole in her cape. "Oh crap."

So far, this particular snooping mission could've been going better.

[iownkickassguns]

Dani's eyebrows went up as the girl in question appeared before her. And she bit down on a laugh as she guessed who Charlie had just run into. Lasers. She shook her head. She hoped that she wouldn't drive her away with a greeting.

"Hello Charlotte."

[foreverbouncing]

"It's Charlie," this was said automatically, before Charlie even apparently realized somebody was talking to her. "Nobody calls me-" She stopped, frowned, and whirled around.

"Hey! How do you know my name? Are you psychic?" She started mentally humming Mary Had a Little Lamb, just to be safe!

[iownkickassguns]

Dani nodded. "Okay then. Hi Charlie. My name is Danielle Moonstar."

She stood still, letting Charlie take her measure but tilted her head in curiosity as it seemed like Charlie was trying to distract herself.

"No, I'm not a psychic," Dani continued answering Charlie's question. "I'm a teacher here at the Institute. We received word earlier that you would be a potential student here."

She raised her eyebrow. "Have you taken a good look around here?"

[foreverbouncing]

Charlie didn't say anything for a few seconds as she processed all this. So...they knew who she was? While she was in her costume? "Oracle called you guys, didn't she..." She finally stated what was probably rather obvious. Well...that made snooping around a bit less fun, really.

"Uh. Yeah, I looked around some." She nodded her head a little. Crap. Was she going to get in trouble before she was actually a student? That had to be a record. "I'm guessing I set off some alarms I didn't hear?" That would explain all the attention she was attracting. "I'm usually way better at this sort of thing..."

[iownkickassguns]

"Well we weren't expecting you to come by tonight," Dani emphasized, "she let us know that she was interested in enrolling a student here. I thought I'd guess."

Dani paused. She hoped that Charlie didn't feel like she was being monitored. "No one needs to know who you are if you don't want anyone else to know. But," she continued, nodding at Charlie's question, "you did set off some alarms. It's a pretty high tech system meant to protect us from attacks."

She gestured further down the hall, "But I can take care of those. Do you want a more official tour or did you want to keep losing pieces of your cape?"

[foreverbouncing]

"Well I was kinda figuring nobody would notice me, s'why I came by after I thought stuff would be over but..." She shrugged. Because her brilliant plan totally didn't work at all.

"Well, I mean...like..." Charlie wasn't that good at the 'secret identity' thing, because she hadn't really had a very good one. Her costume and her normal clothes were pretty identical. "I guess I don't care too much? I just wore this cause Oracle is all about wearing my costume if I'm out using my powers." It was a good plan. Charlie remembered most of the time...

"I didn't mean to set off alarms or anything, sometimes I get lucky and they ignore me." She'd been able to sneak into Oracle's tower in Metropolis but not Titan Tower, when she thought about it. "I guess high tech stuff is better at it though. Uh. I guess a tour would be cool?"

She grinned sheepishly. "Except I've kinda been bouncing away from people for a while now, you think they'll be mad at me if they see me?"

[iownkickassguns]

Dani smiled. "Classes might be over but a number of the common areas are still open. And there's a few faculty and staff members who are night owls."

She processed what Charlie mentioned about Oracle's advice for costume before continuing, "I think that's some sound advice from Oracle. But here at the Institute, many people are learning how to better control their own powers. Anonymity is for protection while out in public. Usually outside these walls."

She turned to give Charlie some privacy if she wanted to take off her gear. She took a few steps down the hall towards some training rooms before turning back. "Good, I think you'll have a better idea of what to expect if you take your time to explore the place," she grinned at Charlie's question.

"They'll get over it. Is that what you call your power? Bouncing?"

[foreverbouncing]

"Right," that probably should've occurred to her before she bounced in, but Charlie wasn't big on the thinking-things-through part of life. Which was probably a good thing, because otherwise she never would've decided that being Batgirl was her best idea ever.

When the woman turned away, Charlie 'took off her costume'...which consisted of taking her mask and her cape off and...that was it. "My costume is kinda...uh..." Okay, so, she'd mostly made it out of stuff she'd found in goodwill bins. Barbara had helped her buy replacements, of course, but it was still a t-shirt, jeans skirt, black leggings, and her cape and mask. "You're not gonna like, televise this or anything, right? Oracle would so yell at me..." She suddenly realized maybe she shouldn't have taken it off that fast.

Still...a distraction. "Yeah. Bouncing. I've never really had any trouble controlling it, though. I guess cause it's supposed to be magic? I don't really get why it's magic but..." She shrugged. Charlie's powers were a mystery, even to Charlie.

[iownkickassguns]

Dani stopped by the door to her own office, opening the door to grab a satchel from the coat stand inside and offer it to Charlie. "You can use this for things if you want."

She shook her head and answered casually, "No, I don't see a reason to share it with anyone. No one's been hurt and you don't really want to walk around in costume around here unless you need to. We provide the training gear for students here." She took a closer look at what Charlie was wearing. That belt seemed innocuous but looked very professional.

"And there are people here who know how to work with different types of weapons too. But that's more on the elective side. We're pretty tough on academics here too," Dani added. She looked at Charlie as she described bouncing. "I don't get why it is either," she agreed. "But powers like that seem a little more different than the magic that other people around here can cast. It's like a talent, at least for mutants who live here."

[foreverbouncing]

Charlie had mostly left her utility belt on because it helped to keep her skirt up. Normally she wore a different belt, but...well. Such as it was. She took the satchel, "thanks," and then dropped her mask into it, and then folded her cape up and stuck it in as well.

"Weapons, huh? I can throw a batarang," she was pretty good at it too! It was kind of a weapon, right? "I only know it's magic cause this magic thief girl stole them from me once. I mean, like...before that we just figured it was me, you know? And I was a meta, but..." She shrugged. "I've been able to do it forever, it's not like someone cast a spell on me or somethin'."

[iownkickassguns]

Dani let out a small chuckle at Charlie's enthusiasm before shooting her a look of curiosity. "A batarang huh? I'm not really familiar with those," she paused thoughtfully, "but it does sound effective if you know what to do with it."

Dani sent her an apologetic look. "I think I understood most of what you described. I'm not sure what you mean by magic thief girl who was maybe you. But if you've always been able to bounce then it could be genetically based. Like most mutants."

[foreverbouncing]

"Oh, no, I mean like...like we thought I was a meta, right? I guess that's like a mutant. Genetics and stuff. But when Black Alice swiped my powers it meant they were magic, cause she's a magic thief. She couldn't have swiped them if it was genetics." There, that made sense. She hoped. "And I mean like, bouncing heals me. I've gotten shot before and it fixes it and apparently that's a lot more 'magic' than genetics can usually manage anyway."

Charlie fished around in her belt and tugged out her Batarang, unfolding it with a click and offering it out to the girl. She only had the one, and she rarely ever used it. She'd picked it up ages ago, she thought it was probably Cassandra's, and had kept it even after she'd stopped being Batgirl. "That's a batarang."

[iownkickassguns]

Dani nodded. That made sense. She raised her eyebrows in slight surprise as Charlie talked about healing with her bouncing. She had an interesting power. And it sounded like there was plenty of potential. She could learn a lot here if she wanted to.

"I see what you mean. Although that must have been hard, learning more about your powers only when they were stolen. Being shot to know that you can heal. Guess you're pretty familiar with dangerous things," Dani commented.

She took the batarang and looked it over. It had some weight and could be used for a number of things. "It looks really useful," Dani said, passing it back.

[foreverbouncing]

"Well, some crazy gunrunner lady was shooting at Huntress and so I bounced in front of the bullet. But like, I'd healed little stuff before that, bruises and scrapes, ya know?" She shrugged. "It still hurts pretty bad, too. It just won't...stick around."

"Yeah, especially when it was her doing the stealing..." Charlie sort of muttered this last bit. She and Black Alice didn't really get along at all, even if they were apparently somehow related. At least the magic thief wasn't here in the City.

She took the Batarang back and slipped it back into her belt. "So, like...aside from the fact that everybody apparently has powers and stuff, is this just plain old high school?" Charlie was pretty sure she could not escape taking math, but still...it never hurt to try, right?