12643/Reporting Good Deeds

Reporting Good Deeds
Date of Scene:	01 September 2022
Location:	Hall of Justice
Synopsis:	Crush calls on Superman to share the odd feelings of actually wanting to help people, they talk it out. Seems she'll be a hero after all.
Cast of Characters:	Xiomara Rojas, Clark Kent

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Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Bugs in the sewer. No one considers that a real threat, until those bugs are the size of couches. Crush had been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to help deal with the infestation of what had to be alien bugs, and for the first time, it felt right to have helped out.

Because she was always second guessing herself, and the Titans were all off world, she had called Superman to arrange a meeting when he had the time. This time, she'd gone the more correct route. Call, arrange, wait, get a text, show up at the Hall of Justice.

Clark Kent has posed:
    Arriving at the Hall, she's shown to a meeting room. No more than a minute or two later Superman walks in the door (Apparently the Man of Steel doesn't like keeping people waiting). With a smile he offers her a firm handshake and then sits down in one of the chairs around the table, gesturing for her to sit as well.

    "We're starting to get accustomed to seeing your face around here. Before we get down to business, would you like anything to drink? The mini-fridge over there should have about anything non-alcoholic you'd like." Once she decides on her drink situation he asks, "So what can I do for you today?"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Patience wasn't usually one of her strongest suits, so it was good that the man of steel didn't keep her waiting too long. If he had taken too long, she would have already raided the fridge... twice.

Crush doesn't usually need food or drink, the Czarnian metabolism working for her, however she still liked food and drink. Checking the fridge, she found herself a bottle of Coke then found a chair to settle into.

"You hear about the giant bugs in the subway, right," she asks as she gets comfortable. "I was on one a the trains that got rerouted, was gonna take /forever/ to get back to Happy Harbor, so I decides to walk."

Carefully, having to pause to think before acting, she manages to twist the cap off the bottle of soda without twisting the entire top of the bottle. "I ain't used ta what happened, ya know? To seeing all those flashing lights and people in trouble and actually..." she takes a drink of the coke. "... wanting to help. Is that what it's like then? It just... hits the brain that you /can/ help, so you /should/ help?"

Clark Kent has posed:
    A smile lights up Superman's face as she describes what she was feeling during the latest crisis to hit the area. He nods and replies, "That's exactly what it's like. People like us have so many gifts that we could easily use in selfish ways if we didn't want to help others. You, of all people, should have a very good idea of how not to use special abilities. No offense, but your father isn't exactly the helping type."

    He sits back in the chair and continues, "That's the reason we do the things we do. If you have the kind of power we have, there's generally two ways to go with it. Either you take the high ground and help people who don't have the power to protect themselves, or you become the thing they need to be protected from. I really love the feeling I get from helping people. Not only is it the right thing to do, but you also get to feel good from doing it. The knowledge that you really helped someone... there's nothing better."

    "There's a phrase you may have heard, made rather famous by another hero in the area. 'With great power comes great responsibility'. I truly believe in that concept. People like you and I could wreak havoc across the world if we wanted to. Heck, we can cause disasters by accident if we aren't careful enough. So if we're already being careful, why not take the next step and help people while we're at it? It's simply the right thing to do."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Crush continues to sip at the coke while she's listening. Most times people consider her stupid, because she's very good at pretending that's exactly what she is. Truth was, she was dang near a genius in many areas. A passion she'd developed over the years was learning, anything new that she hadn't done before or heard about, or even read about.

"I don't talk about him," she states perhaps a touch too firmly when her father is mentioned, and for the briefest of moment she has to control her grip on the bottle to avoid squeezing it when the desire to make fists arises.

"Sorry... for the tone," she finally adds once she has pushedpast that sudden raise in temper. Taking a deep breath to refocus she gets herself back on track. "There's a third option for people like us that you're forgettin," she continues with a slight smiling smirk. "Use our abilities to make money, like I used to do."

Smooth, she growled at Superman and recovered nicely... she hoped. "I'm not official or anything, so gettin in to help was... well I didn't punch the cop, even though he physically stopped me. In fact I didn't hurt him at all when he blocked me... I wanted to, but I kept it in check cause dayum that was /a lot/ of emergency vehicles." She sighs suddenly, shaking her head. "Don't know how any of them cops were after though, don't get to check up on things like that. SWAT went in, I tried ta protect em by punching bugs, but some got hurt. I don't know why I care, I never used to care."

Clark Kent has posed:

    He nods, replying "Sorry to bring it up, but I think you take my point there. And you are correct, you can also work a job that your powers help you do better and faster than everyone else. But to me at least, that seems like a waste of the abilities you were given. Let the people who need a job to feed their family do the day to day work. We can be the shield between them and the forces who want to use or harm them."

    With a shrug he adds, "Given the number of heroes out the protecting the regular folks, I think we can agree that I'm not the only one who feels this way. We have very different motivations sometimes, but what it all boils down to is that we want to make sure people can live their lives in safety and peace. We have the power to do that, so it's almost selfish to only worry about ourselves and let people get hurt while we just work construction or something."

    Nodding as she explains about the SWAT team, he says "They're all going to be ok. Fortunately they tend to wear their radios on the shoulder of their armor, so most of the wounds were pretty tame. A couple will need reconstructive surgery and physical therapy, but we didn't lose anyone. Or should I say, you didn't. As for why you care? Because you're out in the world with your job, seeing the regular folks as co-workers and friends instead of the people you try and avoid because you're different from them."

    "And yes, you did very well that day. I was in fact keeping an eye on things, but I try not to swoop into things that are being handled already. Superman showing up tends to either make people panic, because 'It must be really bad if HE showed up' or cause more people to get in harm's way because they want to meet me, see what I'm doing, that sort of thing. With you, the Beetle as well as the others there with the SWAT team, I figured things would be handled pretty well."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Staring at the bottle in her hand as he spoke this time, Crush finds herself wondering just how much he knew about her past. About the life she had to live to survive, the underground fighting, the moving around, the having nothing without taking it or earning it through fighting. Did he know that without the construction job, she had nothing, no one? Did he know that without Happy Harbor, she had no where to live? Did any of that really matter in the greater scheme of things?

"I didn't used to care at all, cause... well, after my foster parents were killed, no one cared about me," she says quietly, still staring at the brown liquid.

"Started to care once I got to Happy Harbor, when Ms. MacIntyre gave me a chance, then another chance," she snort-sighs. "And then... another chance. Someone cared, was... really strange to me after being alone so long." Glancing up at him for a moment, she adjusts herself in the chair and changes the topic back to where it was.

"Anyway, I see people different now. Those guys at the construction site, they're just normal people. They work to feed their families, fulfill their dreams, and the negative shit that happens around New York, Gotham, Metroplis, the world... it changes all that. Makes it harder for Pablo to earn the money for his daughter's quinceanera next year. I didn't even know what a quinceanera was, but now I'm all gung-ho about it for her celebration cause... that's /real/ life. That make sense or am I talking out my ass?"

It wasn't until the word left her mouth that Crush realize she just swore twice in front of Mister Goody-TwoShoes... twice. She blinks, smirks slightly and then gets an odd sort of sheepish expression on her face. "Sorry."

Clark Kent has posed:
    With a wave of his hand he dismisses her worries, "Just because I choose not to use that language doesn't mean I'm not used to it. We have a few members who tend to be a bit coarse when things aren't going well. But your own story explains why we do what we do. If you can save the next couple who is in danger, their little girl doesn't have to grow up with nobody caring about her. For a number of heroes, that is their motivation. Something bad happened to them or their family, and they want to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

    "And there you see that I'm right about why you care. You're learning about your co-workers lives outside of work, connecting with them, so suddenly you're not the alien looking at the world from the outside, you've become a part of the world. And it seems that like it or not, you're already starting to be a hero. You didn't need to go into that subway, or worry about the SWAT members who got hurt down there, but you did and you do."

    He rests his arms on the table and looks directly over at her, then smiles and adds "Welcome to the world of heroes. I'd say you've already made a choice, even if you're still a bit confused about why you did it."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Drinking the last of the soda from the bottle, she crushes the plastic into a small cube before looking back over at the Man of Steel.

"Suppose you're right," she admits with a nod. "Didn't expect to care, hit me like a ton of bricks... which doesn't hurt as much as the adage implies by the way... but yeah, I guess I'm trying to be more heroic."

Standing up, Crush crosses the room to toss the cube into the recycling container. "Uh... the SWAT guys... I'm glad they'll be okay," she adds, glancing out the window. "And..." the pause is to consider before she turns back.

"The name my foster parents gave me is Xiomara. Their last name was Rojas." And now there were two people in the world who knew her real name. "I don't use it, cause... it makes me think about them and how they died and what I did, but... now you know."

Shifting uneasily, she decides now it the time to get out. Too many feels, not enough punching. "Sorry to keep draggin you away from your own shi..tuff. Just don't have a lot of people who understand, so yeah... I'll go now, let you get back to... whatever it is you do when you aren't saving things, people, planets, etc."

Clark Kent has posed:
    Superman rises to his feet and offers her another handshake, then nods as she tells him her name "It's a good name, and thank you for telling me. I've already picked up on the fact that you tend to be a very private person, but you're starting to realize how unsatisfying if can be to always be hanging around the edges of life. My friends call me Kal-El, or Kal, and I'd be happy to consider you a part of that group."

    "And if you ever need anything, from help with a major catastrophe to just needing to talk to someone, I'm pretty much available any time of the day or night." He pulls a slip of paper from a small compartment on his belt and hands it to her. "My direct number, so you can contact me a little more easily. Keep doing what you're doing and soon enough the police will be relieved to see you show up instead of trying to keep you out. Who knows, one day you might even be on one of those t-shirts out in the gift shop."

    He politely walks her to the door, saying "Have a good evening. Oh, and I think you'll enjoy the quinceanera, they tend to be rather elaborate affairs. Remember to bring something for the young lady, since this marks her leaving childhood behind and becoming an adult. Just remember to pull that strength for any pinatas, don't want to launch them out of the city."

    He actually walks out with her, then waves and takes to the sky once they're outside. "You're doing a great job coping with new feelings, so try not to stress too much. You'll be fine." That said, he zips off deeper into the city, quickly out of sight among the buildings.