Train-surfing, or Bored Teen Hero at Play [Open]

[kid_flash_found]

WHO: Kid Flash (Bart Allen) and YOU!!!
WHERE: Anywhere there's a railroad
WHEN: First Week of October
WHAT: Riding the open rails the wrong way!
WARNINGS: Teenage stupidity, possibly reckless endangerment, will edit if needed

[ooc: Catch Bart anywhere high-speed or light rail is found, because he gets around]


One of the nice things Bart had found out about the way the nanites interacted with the 'net on this Earth was that when he didn't feel like running between places or trusting his luck to the Porters, he could pull up bus and train schedules at a thought, and read as quickly as he wants. Which is what leads to Kid Flash going train-surfing.

Sure, he could have gotten a ticket and rode inside, but on top of the train, he could feel the wind in his face in a way that tended to fade when he ran as his frictionless aura shielded him from pesky things like air resistance and heat. Besides, balancing on trains was fun, and getting on and off took a little timing and precision. Not to mention any fans that caught him on video will enjoy the thrill of it, without actually endangering anyone or spending every free moment catching purse-snatchers and other petty criminals. He does that, too, but this is just about the joy of the moment.

Kid Flash can't help the tight-lipped smile that keeps threatening to turn into a full-fledged grin as he shifts his weight in reaction to the movement of the car beneath him, a map of the rails with current track schedules and timings kept current on an internalized heads-up-display. And when he notices that he isn't alone anymore, that grin is realized, amber eyes lighting up behind the mask.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

Comments

[usaf]

Carol had flown in enough of those Air Force shows to know exactly what Bart was talking about.

"I guess it's just not something I'm used to. When I was living on Hala, everyone knew who Starforce was. We were respected, but we weren't idolized. We weren't celebrities. It's different, here."

Different enough that it'll take some getting used to.

[kid_flash_found]

"It's not always a good thing, when you're individually a celebrity. Because if opinion turns, you've got to answer for it. Personally. Cops and soldiers and such at least have the organization to stand with them," Bart admits. He worries about that.

"There was this thing back home with a guy who had gotten total control over our greatest hero, and the only way to free him meant killing that guy. And the footage of Wonder Woman killing Maxwell Lord got leaked. And it hit me any my friends because Wonder Girl, her protege, was one of us."

[usaf]

Carol frowns, not liking what she's hearing.

"Seeing it out of context like that... How did your friend take it?"

She can't imagine if footage of her killing someone made it back to Maria-- to Monica. She's sure they would believe her if she explained the death was justified, but she wouldn't want to put them through that uncertainty to begin with.

[kid_flash_found]

"Well, we'd mostly heard about things happening. So there was plenty of talk about how Big Blue had nearly been compromised, but seeing it? It wasn't comfortable. That's the one line we don't cross," Bart said, but there's something to how he looks away that says it isn't the only time someone has been killed for the greater good. That maybe he'd had to make a similar decision.

"Sometimes there's only one way to go about things. And it always sucks."

cw: talk of death

[usaf]

Carol infers from context that 'Big Blue' must be this 'greatest hero' he mentioned. Weird name for a superhero, but then, Carol thinks all superhero names are a little cheesy. Even her own.

"Sometimes you don't have a choice. I get that." Granted, she's played kind of fast and loose with the whole trying-not-to-kill people. She's definitely destroyed entire (manned) ships singlehandedly. But they were manned by Kree soldiers, so she tries to tell herself they deserved dying in the harsh vacuum of space.

"What was the fallout of Wonder Woman killing him?" Another cheesy superhero name, but Carol's face is serious as she asks.

cw: talk of death

[kid_flash_found]

"She faced a murder trial, but was ultimately acquitted. But the damage? That's still there. Max Lord was one of those people who everyone knows about, like the President or Bill Gates or Elvis," Bart said, looking off. "So if one of the most prominent heroes in our world would turn on someone like that, and not only do that but get off on account of nobody really being able to prove it wasn't an extension of self-defense? It shook the belief in us as icons, people you could always look up to."

He'd felt some of that, himself. "I know we're not the epitome of ideals people think we are, but that illusion, that easy way to look up in the sky and know those heroes would be there? It's never going to be what it was."

It had brought more people down, and some heroes had been severely injured in the backlash against them. Because even when they were calling you names and trying to hurt you, they were still civilians, still people who deserved to be kept safe. Even when what they felt they needed protection from were him and those like him.

"I wasn't involved, thank all the gods, but it was hard on the League, the people who'd been standing by her for years. Anyone who was associated with her. Grife, the study of Ancient Greece suffered because of the implications, since Wonder Woman hails from a place where Zeus and Hera and the rest still tend to show up to interfere with things."

[usaf]

Carol nods, listening carefully. Obviously the whole bit about some League and the Greek gods goes way over her head, but she can understand the public's faith in an institution being shaken. She relates, with how her own faith in the Kree leadership was shaken when she learned the truth about Mar-Vell and the Skrull refugees.

"So that's what you're trying to do? Establish yourself as something the people here can believe in?"

[kid_flash_found]

"Kinda. At least to be someone you can trust to be part of the solution, not the problem," Bart said. "I'm not one of the folks with the kinds of huge powers that can save entire worlds, but I can at least do something. But it's hard to protect people who are afraid of you, or hate you, no matter how justified their feelings might be."

[usaf]

Carol gives the sort of half cocked smile of someone who knows (or thinks) they are one of the folks with world-saving powers. But she nods, understanding.

"It's an honorable thing to do. Trust isn't built easily, but it breaks like that." She snaps her fingers to illustrate.

[kid_flash_found]

"Yeah, well, not everyone gets to be a flying brick," he half-grumbles, half teases. "But yeah, it's just about trying to establish that this is as much a uniform as a cop or an EMT. I'm just trying to serve and protect in my own way."

And the part where he gets overlooked due to age is just a mild annoyance most of the time.