American Girl and Magnet Man - Train In Vain

[Banner Laverick]

She was starting to regret egging him on.

Banner Laverick, the super heroine known to the populace at large as American Girl, had just barely managed to dodge the flying car that was aimed at her head, only to get squished by two others. She let out a shriek, unable to dodge them in time, getting pinned tightly between them.

She shoved them apart with a grunt (They were practically GLUED together now), and with a flying tackle, shoved her assailant to the ground. They tumbled over each other, ending up in a heap a few feet from the now mangled cars.

This had all started because of her - he hadn't wanted any part in this, but after much poking, pinching and teasing, Felix Fletcher, aka Magnet Man, had finally gotten the hint. She'd only seen a little bit of what he was capable of doing with his mutant powers; training with her would be good for both of them. She would get a harder work-out, and he could freely use his gift without worry. Banner pinned his arms at his side, grinning down as she sat on top of him.

"Give up, Magnet Man. I've got you right where I want you!"

[Flux]

Felix Fletcher, trying to get used to the idea of actually saying "Magnet Man" when referring to himself, had spent about week and a half enduring Banner Laverick's adorable torment. On the phone, on AIM, in person, never ceasing.

"Come ON! We need the practice!" PINCH. "Please? For me?" POKE. "I promise it'll be fun!" At last, Felix had relented.

"Okay, okay! Jeez. Just find us a spot and let's go."

She had done it more readily than he'd expected, and so late this afternoon he'd found himself in this lot, face hidden in a shirt-ninja mask (just in case) throwing cars for her to dodge and smash. At first he hadn't been much help, but with a few hours of practice he had the cars going at a pretty damn good speed. He'd gotten her a few times, and even though she had endurance up to here, he couldn't stop apologizing. He's quite sure that's why she's pinned him down just now.

"Give up, Magnet Man. I've got you right where I want you!"

"I surrender. I'm exactly where I want me to be, too."

[Banner Laverick]

"You goober."

His shirt-ninja disguise gets pulled down, and she plants a kiss on his smiling lips. Banner had dressed in comfortable clothes - t-shirt, track pants, sneakers. She had worn her old AG mask, at his suggestion; she didn't think that anyone would catch them out here in the middle of the junk-yard.

She plunked her butt down in the dirt beside him, letting him sit up. "What if I was some evil super villianess? Would you be saying that to me then?"

[Flux]

"Probably," he admitted. "You'd be the Black Cat to my Spidey." He leaned in as he sat up and kissed her back. It was getting easier to do; he was getting acquainted with this whole "being attractive" thing. It was doing wonders for him at school; just having Banner be nice to him has made a huge difference in his personality. He resolved to toss it all up on the blog later. "What else do we wanna do?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Hrmmm."

She leaned back, reaching for her backpack. She pulled out two bottles of water, some fruit and a worn looking notebook. Written on the front cover in sharpie marker was "POWAHS!", complete with too many exclamation points and thunder bolts. Taking a pen from the front pocket, she opened it to a page filled with possible things Felix could do with his powers (mostly taking cues from Magneto, but mneh.) She put a huge check next to "Smash cars at Banner" (lol).

"So, maybe we should try flying? Or jumping? What did you want to do?" She grabbed a pear and took a big bite out of it. She hoped he picked flying, so she could do it too.

[Flux]

"Well, I can do jumping pretty good," he said, standing up and re-adjusting his mask. "We can try flying, but I don't think I can do it. I'm not even sure how I would. I don't think I can like...alter my own magnetism or whatever."

[Banner Laverick]

"Yeah, but we all have metal stuff inside us. You should be able to make yourself the opposite polarization, maybe."

She put a question mark beside "levitation/flight" on the list. She took another bite of her pear, thinking and chewing. She set the core down, wiping her hand on her pants.

"Wanna try to liquefy some metal? Or we could go back to throwing things at each other?"

[Flux]

He snatched an apple out of the bag and took a bite. "You can use magnetism to liquify metal?" he asked incredulously. "Since when?" He leaned over her, shading her from the sun as he read the entries under his theoretical power list. Half of it was stuff he hadn't even considered, and more than three-quarters were things he simply didn't have confidence he could do. But...time would tell. After all, during his power spike he'd done some awesome stuff.

[Banner Laverick]

"Well, on Wikipedia, it said Magneto could liquefy and reshape metal. You already know how to move it, so why not this?" She smiled at him as he leaned over her, eating his apple. "I guess we could use you to hang children's art work to the fridge instead."

[Flux]

Felix had zoned out a little as he thought over everything he'd done so far. They'd checked off all the following: Attract Metal, Repel Metal, Huge Jumps, and Erase Magnetic Storage. Felix had wiped this jock guy's laptop at school on purpose after the dude had tried shoving him in a locker. He had told Banner that he'd wiped an old floppy disc of his own at home; he didn't want her to think horribly of him. He now thought further back than these most recent weeks, to when his powers had manifested.

When it had happened, his powers had hit some huge level (he kept calling it a "spike", and was sure Banner'd be tired of it in a few days). The metal frame of a nearby bus stop had been drawn to him and warped horribly out of shape by his powers, but the only metal Felix had been carrying that day were his keys. He didn't think that the bus stop would've been drawn so powerfully to such a tiny object, but he hadn't ruled it out either. It was this conundrum that made him uncertain about flying. Felix took a few more bites of apple.

"Well...we can try to warp some metal, or if you really want, we can try flying. What do you say?"

[Banner Laverick]

She sighed, setting the book down and leaning back on her arms. "I guess we can do warping metal."

Even though she'd really prefer flying, because she'd have to sit warping metal out. Yes, she could "warp" metal, as in, twist the poo-doo out of it with her bare hands. She was in the middle of a drink of water when she remembered something.

"MMm! I have something for you, it's not done yet. Been too busy to really sew anything, but it's started and I need to know what you think."

Another search of the backpack, and Banner pulled out a small scrunched up piece of fabric and plastic that didn't really look like anything untill she held it up. "Ta-da! Magnet Man mask!"

[Flux]

Felix took it and held it out. It was a deep gray, with lenses that indicated the front. He undid his shirt-ninja mask and tried it on; it was a bit loose, but comfortable, and he could see out of the lenses without any trouble. His breathing didn't fog them up, which was all Felix really had concern over.

"This rules," he said eagerly, wishing for something he could see himself in. "Should I wear it the rest of the time, or go back to my nerdmask?"

[Banner Laverick]

"It's up to you. I figured you should have a real hero mask since, well, you know." She sounded a teeny bit flustered, and he could see her cheeks becoming a bit red. "You'll have to come by my house sometime, so I can measure you and finish the rest of it. Sorry if it's a bit too "Spider-man"-y..."

She clamped her mouth shut, biting her tongue to keep from rambling. "..Ow."

[Flux]

"We can do that after we're done here, then," he tells her, kissing her forehead before standing up and stretching. "You're cute when you blush." Felix finishes off the apple and pitches the core, watching it bounce off a broken car door Banner had removed in a show strength. "I'll start with that."

Felix walked over the car door and put his foot on it, then focused his powers on the door. He wanted to bend the metal around his foot, into a V-shape. He polarized each end, trying to force the result with a movement of his arms, but the door instead began to crush in on itself.

"Hrm. I might need something else to magnetize to. I thought I was gonna be able to just bend it." He scratched his head and stepped back from the door. "I had thought of strapping metal to my wrists, to create something I could magnetize stuff to anytime I wanted. What do you think?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Maybe put some kind of metal in some gloves or something? I'll have to look into it."

She put her head on her knees, watching him manipulate the door. By "look into it", she meant "go to the hardware store and see what she could make work".

"Maybe sew washers or something into the finger parts? Would you need something bigger than that? We need to make some friends who actually enjoy shop class...or..." Banner looked pensive for a minute. That mutie school, they could probably whip up a pair of special gloves for Felix in like, half the time she could. "Or I could go talk to these people I met the other day. They might be able to help."

[Flux]

Felix considered both Banner's suggestions and the ruined door.

"Well, I don't know about stuff in the fingers, especially if it's gonna keep me from closing my fist. I had thought of something in the palm, but that would probably hinder movement, too." He kicked the door and wandered back in her direction, past her to a pile of metal pipes. Felix crouched next to it and started to look for the shortest ones he could find. "I don't know about those guys at the Institute or whatever you said it was. They sound like the kind of people whose arrogant switches don't have an off setting."

[Banner Laverick]

"Yeah, but they could probably help with the whole costume thing, goofy."

She watched him over her shoulder as he drug through the pile of pipes. "They're a special school for us freaks, they would have the special stuff to make a really great costume for you, one that would help you with your powers. Just because they're snooty, doesn't mean we can't...well, use them for help."

[Flux]

Felix's back stiffened as he set aside a pipe of suitable length.

"We are not freaks!" he said, a little louder and sterner than he meant to be. He sighed, shut his eyes for a brief moment to help him calm down (it didn't work very well), then went back to rummaging for a pipe that wasn't as long as his arm. "Look, I don't wanna deal with them, okay? I'm not getting talked down to by a bunch of mutant preps and jocks. I get enough of that with the humans at regular school, thanks very much."

[Banner Laverick]

"Fine."

She turned away from him, resting her head on her knees and sighed. Banner could see his point - being picked on by anyone sucked, but somehow she thought being "amongst their own kind" would make a difference. Maybe Felix was right; either way, she didn't like the tone of his voice.

[Flux]

It was a few minutes more before Felix finally settled on a second pipe. He wandered back over to Banner with the two pieces, each roughly a foot and a half long, and crouched beside her to hug her.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I shouldn't have gotten so snappy with you. It's just...I hate the way they acted towards your heroing, and you. It isn't right of them to be that way."He kissed and nuzzled her cheek. "I guess...I guess I just hate being bullied. That's all anyone ever does."