7414/Geek out!

Geek out!
Date of Scene:	17 August 2021
Location:	Manhattan
Synopsis:	Irie, Madison and Billy meet Virgil at the LGS and later the trio head to Philly for some authentic cheesesteaks.
Cast of Characters:	Irie West, Madison Evans, Billy Batson, Virgil Hawkins

---

Irie West has posed:
The Compleat Strategist is one of the largest local game stores in Manhattan who has a wide variety of board games, RPG books, and puzzles, as well as a healthy selection of out of print and vintage geek gear. Old posters, standees, and other geek paraphernalia is on display here, some of which you can even buy. A large space in the back is set up with tables where people can go and play board games from the store's extensive library, or bring their own, and there's always somebody who's playing a CCG of one sort or another. Clearly a geek's paradise.

Irie had discovered this place not too long ago and was excited to bring Madison to it. She wasn't sure if Billy was into geek culture as much as Maddy is but he asked to come along and that was perfectly fine by her. Unfortunately, that means that they had to go the slow method, meaning public transportation.

"You're gonna love this place," Irie says, holding the hands of both Mads and Billy, dragging them along at a quick pace. "It's got /everything/."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "It's better than Melodrama?" Madison asks curiously. "Or Level Up back home?" Yes, California is still 'back home' for her. That might change eventually, but it's only been a few months - give her a break!
    "We should get you some more minis to paint while you're here! What sort of minis do you want? Fantasy? Star Wars? Zombies? You know they even have these My Little Pony minis - I'm not even kidding. I wonder if they'll have those ones here!" she exclaims with a giggle, as she allows herself to be dragged towards the store.
    With a moment's concentration, her own speed picks up - making it easier to keep up with her speedster friend. If Irie really started to try to go fast, though, she'd be in for some trouble...

Billy Batson has posed:
Geek culture? Geekery cost MONEY, which was something Billy only had theoretical knowledge of until Rosa and Victor fostered him. He still had darned little of it now. So he ad almost no knowledge of geek culture. OK he did a podcast on superheroes but that was kind of cool. He got an interview with Spider-Man. And he read Mythology voraciously and could tell you the genealogy of of the Greco Roman pantheon. Oppa! Ave!

This place was, strong in the geek force. The games didn't interest him that much, 'Munchkin'? Whuzzat? He does spend a minute looking around, because Irie was holding his hand and didn't seem in a hurry (hah) to release it. The miniatures did catch his eye... and there were Star Trek related things! He thought Star Wars had killed and eaten Trek. Then Irie is off again. Darn.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
When the group steps into the store they'll find Virgil already there. He's wearing a heavy shirt that drapes comfortably over his frame colored yellow with red sleeves, and baggy red pants that swallow up his shoes. He's pacing up and down the cosplay section of the store for a few moments before he stops and worries his fingers over his chin. His lips are pursed up into a bunch while he thinks over the purchase he's considering: a Static cosplay costume.

He only gives a quick glance at the new kids coming in before he's back to analyzing this apparently important find. He reaches up and plays his fingers against the yellow goggles, checking how easily they bend and how dense they feel without even glancing at the rest of the costume.

Irie West has posed:
"I don't know," Irie says to Madison, having let go of her hand. "I've never been to those places before. I could probably take a look and see sometime if you like."

She gives good thought about what kind of miniatures she would like to paint. "Do they have superhero minis? I'd love to be able to paint my dad or Superman or Hero Guy." Ah yes. Hero Guy. Fighting for Justice since 1938. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise though at the last. "My Little Ponies minis? Do they have a game to go along with that?"

Still holding onto Billy's hand, she drags him along with her. "What kind of things are you into, Billy?" And then distracted again, "Oh hey! Cosplay! I wonder if they have any Flash stuff!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "It's for the My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic Table Top RPG, I think," Madison replies brightly. "...I don't think there are any My Little Pony board games. There's a My Little Pony card game, though?" She giggles as she adds, "There was a game designer online who made a print-and-play version of Scythe called 'My Little Scythe' with simplified rules, and Ponies, but then Hasbro wouldn't sponsor it so when they finally printed the official copy of My Little Scythe it wasn't Pony themed anymore."
    True story. You an look it up.
    Madison starts to move towards the minis, though, as she adds, "I'm not sure if they have any Super Hero minis. They might tho- wait, we're doing cosplay now?"
    She redirects her trajectory to follow her friends, brow furrowing curiously. "What do you think Spidey would say if I showed up one day dressed like him?"

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil spent quite a bit of time getting to know those goggles. It's a tough call for him, it seems, but ultimately they are rejected without so much as a glance over the rest of the garb. There's a few more goggles off to his left, which means he can just sidestep and--crash!

He sidesteps right into Maddie, stumbling back and ending up looking up at her--or following her down--from his butt.

"Sorry!" he says with his melodic tone extending the word. He's quick to scramble back to his feet in a rush that would look chaotic if it wasn't so quick. "I guess I was off in never never land. You okay?" His hand rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment and if she did topple, he'll offer a hand up while glancing awkwardly at her friends.

Irie West has posed:
"Hunh! I didn't know that!" Of course, Irie isn't even familiar with the board game Scythe, but she just goes with it. As for cosplay, "I think Spider-Man would be honored that people thought of him highly enough to cosplay as him, to be honest."

And then oh no! Virgil is down! "Oh!" she says as he gets up. "Are you okay?" She looks at Madison, "Are you okay, too? Is everybody okay?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison is okay. She's completely fine.
    But see, when she got bumped into, she stumbled backwards into a free-standing display of dice and game tokens, many of which fell from the display, and tumbled across the floor in a glorious disaster of a mess.
    "Oh. Oh Gosh. Oh my goodness," Madison breathes quietly once she rediscovers her balance enough to stare in horror at what just happened. "What- what did we- Oh my goodness. I'm //so sorry//!" she says to the hastily approaching store employee. "We didn't mean to- gosh."
    Bad Jedi! Bad!

Billy Batson has posed:
Wow. A Flash, A Jedi. The Champion of Life. And they still went down.

Wow epic fail. He doesn't move to the display. In fact Irie will note Billy's hand clench hers for a moment. This was the point where for most of his life he would get thrown out of the store. Mind you, that was because he usually caused such a disturbance to lift something. So this sort of background explains why he alone is looking not to the merch avalanche but scanning the store. That's when he notices the guy in fatigues slipping something called World of Darkness under his jacket. "Hey, put it back man. Support the writer and all that," he says. He gets shoved in the chest and goes down. The thief jumps over him running to the door. "Too slow," Billy grunts. Usain Bolt would be too slow. No one could beat Irie.

He might be biased.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil puts himself a bit closer to that employee. "Hey, this was all my fault. I was trying to introduce myself to these guys but as you can see," he tells, bouncing down and up from a squat to pick up one of the dice to show it to the store team member, "I rolled a natural one!" He earns a chuckle at least, both of them moving to pick up the dice and tokens, depositing them each into their bins.

"I'm okay," he tells the group before focusing on Maddie. "Really wasn't your fault. I'm pretty sure this isn't what dad meant when he said I'd sweep the ladies off of their feet when I got older." He delivers it with a goofy grin as he dumps a shirtfull of dice into the open-topped container.

When Sergeant Sticky Fingers makes a break for it, Virgil's eyes are on his waist. "Don't you know studded belts are out of style?" He points mockingly at his belt. Was that.. a flash of lightning around his finger? The mans belt undoes itself, and his pants are making a break for his ankles faster than he's rushing the door.

Irie West has posed:
"One second," Irie says, holding up a finger. That's all it takes. One second. She lets go of Billy's hand and there's a flash of yellow and red, and a bit of Speed Force lightning that crackles in the air. To Irie, everything slows down into slow motion. She wanders over to the shoplifter, opens his jacket, pulls out the book he just stole, wanders over back to the bookcase where he stole it from and slides it back in place. She sees the little crackling of lightning that undoes his belt and decides to help things along. She squats down, unties his shoelaces and slips each shoe off his feet, setting them aside neatly against the edge of the door.

Then she meanders over to the display case, which is still in the act of spilling everything all over the place and rights it, giving Madison a little nudge so she'll stand back up by the time she does, and starts to put everything back in its place. By the time she's got everything sorted by color in rainbow order. Taking a step back she nods in satisfaction at her work, goes back to Billy and slips his hand in hers again, and lets everything go back to normal speed.

"There!" she says in satisfaction. "All fixed." She's met with resounding silence as the staff and other customers just /stare/ at her. She blinks at them. "What?" she asks defensively.

Madison Evans has posed:
    And Madison adds to the mayhem as well. She's hardly even aware of the nudge from her friend that helps her find her balance, as she reaches out with that concentration on her gift that she calls 'The Force' the refuses to recognize as anything else. She then latches onto one of his feet, her hand going out towards him - and //tugs//.
    Whether it's the pants, or the tug, or the fact that he's not in socks on a slick floor - it's unclear. But the man goes down with an oof. "Beware the Darkside!" she calls over towards the man. "Stealing isn't cool, you know!"
    Looking towards Virgil she adds, "Lightning is cool, though! Did you do that? ...it wasn't Sith lightning, was it? Because that's bad."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson dusts himself off, gets up stand beside Irie and Madison. His sunglasses fell off, revealing a healing black eye. He replaces them and... he tries to slip his hand back in Irie's. Wait, she already got hers in his. He gives hers a squeeze as if to say, 'I know what you did.' "I need to take judo or something," he mutters. He looks at the shoplifter getting up and staggering out, minus his shoes and seems satisfied.

"Everybody ok? Oh hi man, you're good? I'm Billy, this is Maadison and this is Irie." He holds out his hand to the new boy.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil feels his dreadlocks whip around on his head when Irie gets to work, and he sees the power of the speed force bursting into white and red hot crackles in the air itself. His face takes far longer to recover than Irie took to do her deed. "Whoah." If they'd have known him longer, his speechlessness might have been more impressive than her speed.

"Lightning?!" Virgil sounds too nervous to be as innocent as he sounds. "Oh, you mean you've never heard of that stuff that was in the air? That's called the speed force. I've never seen it in person..." he tells, letting it fade as Billy approaches.

"Hey, yeah I'm fine," he says, finally dropping the last piece of dice he still had in his hand into the pile that Irie already made short work of. "Name's Virgil. Nice to meet you," he says, clasping Billy's hand in his and bouncing it a few times. "I just moved into town. Man, I thought we had cool stores in Dakota City, but New York is something else," he tells as he looks over his shoulder to the man holding his pants up and waddling out of the store in a hurry, his body jiggling the entire way.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, umm, welcome!" Madison says brightly - puzzlement in her expression. Did she-? well. She must have been mistaken, somehow. "Yeah, I'm Maddie. Or Mads. Or Madison, I'm really not picky. Nice to meet you, Virgil. I'm pretty New to New York, too. I've only been here- well. Almost two months now. But I'm starting to make friends!" she says brightly, nodding to Billy and Irie - her puzzlement already replaced by a broad smile.
    "We all go to Happy Harbor together, you see. Where do you go to school?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson says, "Dakota, I'm from all over but mostly Philly. Annnnd... I'm still cheering for the Phillies against the Mets. Sorry. Wow... with Irie, we're all from someplace else. We could form a club and call ourselves the Outsiders! Or the Out of Towners... Outsiders is taken. He looks to Irie for approval. Oh gone again. He catches a glimpse of her in the back.

"You into lightning too , man?" he finally asks.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Nah, I'm into superheroes," he lies, chuckling to try and sell it without much success. As the crowd around starts to filter out away from them he looks to let his guard down more, shoulders relaxing slightly as he peers over Billy and Maddie's shoulder to peek at Irie. "Well it's nice to meet you Mads. You too," he nods to Billy. "You said Happy Harbor? I'm supposed to start there next monday. Weird name for a school, I just hope they import more than they export."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh! You're going to be joining us?" Madison asks. It hadn't seemed possible - but somehow the girl's cheerful smile grows even broader at this news. "Oh man, that's great! You're gonna love it. I mean- the teacher's are real nice. Doctor Pym helped me a //lot// with my science fair projects. I could show you the pictures! And lots of the kids have, umm, special talents - and lots of the teachers, too. It's wild!
    "And I mean - talk about kids from all over. Some aren't even from //Earth//," she confides in what she seems to intend as a conspiratorial whisper - but it's more of a stage whisper.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson listens to the assessment and adds, "And despite all the meta and Mutant and alien and AI students, we pretty much get along. Even the mere mortals like me. And Mads is a Jedi, enough said? Plus you're right by the beach for after school swims."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "One of the beaches is red! With like... ruby dust or something? I don't know! It is soooooo cool, though, so you gotta go see it!" Madison adds enthusiastically - not seeming to bat an eye at the fact that she was just called a Jedi.
    Maybe Billy's refering to the Jedi Academy backpack she's wearing? Who knows. It's hard to tell sometimes, with teenagers.
    "OH! And we have a D&D club!" Because //this// is important information to share, obviously.
    "And I was going to show you my science project! See?" She pulls out her phone, and after unlocking it, shares a photo of her sitting on the back of a pony-sized ant who seems to be chewing up an entire tree. "Pym particles are the best!"

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Pym? You mean Hank Pym? He's at Happy Harbor? No way!" He manages to match Mads energy, his fists coming up to the front of his chest to pump with excitement, his mini dreadlocks all bouncing like an audiance cheering her on--and then Billy, when Virgil's head flicks towards him. "A Jedi?" Mads glossed over it but Virgil isn't missing that reference in a million years. "Is that why you were asking me about sith lightning? I've seen the movies, but I'm more into the Mandalorians."

"So does everyone there have powers?"

"I've never played D&D before, but I'll give it a try!"

"Whoah! That's incredible, you really saw that in person?!"

He geeks out with the best of them until it becomes a jumbled mush of science and pop culture buzzwords. "We never had anything like that in Dakota City. Best we got to claim was Stringer, but even he turned out to be a villian."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson ignores the question about everyone have powers. He's wondering whether he should show his alter ego to his friends. How would that go? A guy in his mid twenties -crushing on Irie. It's the first time he thinks about her that way, His crush.

It really has nothing to do with the Speed Force or superhero fandom. How could it? When they met she was a nervous girl trying to learn how to swim with a definite deer in the headlights gleam in her eyes. She was... Irie and she was enough.

Maybe that was the point of Shazam spending time as Billy. Maybe it was good for a near god to spend time as a human.

"Madison is our Jedi. She knows Star Wars cold. She uses the Force to make the dice roll well for us in a pinch when we game. Seriously from what I hear students dont have to reveal if they have powers. Some people rather act like ordinary folks. Me, I'm the Midnight Avenger, but not on School nights. As you could tell by the way that thief hurt his hand on my ribs."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, well, Doctor Pym's on a bit of a sabbatical," Madison admits quietly - and with obvious disappointment. "But I'm sure he'll be back soon! And of //course// I was there. That was science project, yeah? To record the bite-strength of different size ants." //Obviously.//
    "Though, not everyone at the school is meta. I mean, a lot of people are. I guess most people are? But not everyone - and I don't cheat with dice, Billy!" Madison protests with a laugh. "Who do you think I am, Qui-Gon Jinn betting with chance cubes?" she asks. Because of course she knows they're called 'chance cubes' in Star Wars.

Billy Batson has posed:
Slow Gin ... Who the heck is Qui-Gon Jinn again. Billy shoulder bumps Madison in a friendly way. Who's that Dr. Pym guy anyway and why does Madison adore him so? He hopes Shazam earns a fan like Mads some day. He'll get there.

"Your local hero turned bad? That's rough man. the good thing about New York, we have a lot of heroes. though, Spider-Man is the best. No offense to Dr. Pym, Mads. He just is... I hope you meet him one day."

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"No kidding. So the Midnight Avenger, Flash's Daughter, and a Jedi? Talk about diversity in the university," he says with a goofy grin. "I'm just Virgil. Geek and science addict extraordinair." Then to Madison, "Hey you know what maybe you're the one that can answer my question. So you know how they call their space ships X wings, and Y wings, and all that stuff.. but their alphabet looks totally different than ours! How does that work?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, see, the ship's are named using the High Galactic alphabet," Madison responds without hesitation - and also without looking up, as she flicks through photos on her phoooone- there! Wordlessly, she offers the phone to Billy. On it? Mads, and who sure as shit looks to be Spiderman - eating at White Castle, with Spider Man's mask pulled up to just under his nose.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson listens to the exchange. Anybody want to talk Mythology or the Seven Deadlies? So little mainstream geek in him. He had no idea how he won Imperial Assault, They probably went easy on him.

"I'm not a super hero or anything, man. That's just my podcast title: The Midnight Avenger." He looks at the phone and then not to be undone says, "Sweet. Did he tell you where the best schwarama in Queens was?" He ignores Spidey's betrayal of said food truck. Of course he did ask Spidey such stuff. He was new to Queens and Spider-Man was the local hero.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil leans a bit as though he intends to look at the phone but gives up the ghost when it's not passed his way. "But the alphabet in Star Wars looks nothing like ours! Hey, I'll give you it has a Y, but there's not an X in sight. You can look it up!" Uh oh. This might go on for hours. Virgil will eventually realize he's wrong. "I'm telling you, I did and I checked every letter. It's called the Aura Alphabet or something."

Virgil looks fairly interested in Billy's content. "A podcast? What kind of things do you cover? I actually spend a lot of time listening to different stuff." It helps when you can dial into the local radio waves at any point for some quick tunes or a breakdown on your current research obsession.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh. Shwarma?" Madison repeats - furrowing her brow as she takes her phone back. "No, I don't think he told me - but he didn't ask. He's a seriously nice guy, though. And so are his friends. I mean, not that I've met them all or anything, but the ones I did meet...."
    Her attention shifts back to Virgil as she adds, "Yeah, the Aurebesh alphabet is supposed to be the main alphabet. But the High Galactic alphabet is a retcon to explain why in the original theatrical release of Star Wars a bunch of the panels on the Death Star were labeled in English. Also: the stuff about the starfighters, and of course C-3PO and R2-D2, and BB-8 and C1-10P. So basically... Basic is English. And everything is even spelled the same, except it's supposed to be spelled with the 'aurebesh' alphabet. But when people want to make things look 'fancy' they used the 'ancient' High Galactic alphabet. Which is just the English alphabet. Make sense?" She beams at Virgil brightly - as if all of this is perfectly logical.

Irie West has posed:
Irie's been browsing the board games but trots back with a copy of Mare Nostrum in hand when she hears that somebody mentioned that she's Wally's daughter. She hurries back and shushes loudly, "SHHHH! That's supposed to be a secret! I'm his /cousin/ from /Canada/." It's a lame cover story but it works, otherwise people would wonder how an early 20s Wally could have a 16 year old daughter.

"Hey, Billy!" she says holding out her pick of board games. "This one has all sorts of greek myth stuff in it. Wanna give it a try? I'll buy it, my treat!"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson thinks , but it was in a Galaxy a long time ago... how could they speak English.

Not getting into it. He checks, nope hand is free and clear. Irie's not back from foraging for games.

Then he answers Virgil, "Originally it was about my family moving to Queens, how Philly was great and New York was ehh. But New York grew on us so we started talking about things we found that we liked. Then. I got an interview with Spider-Man, who is a great guy. So it's about superheroes and us noobs."

A whoosh of air and she's back. "Oh uh, I /have/ money, I can buy some too..." Not fair. She outruns a jet, and she's loaded too. And she's really sweet too. And she's Wally's daughter? But... this is one for Solomon later.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil runs his finger over his chin while he listens to Madison. "Wait, so I am right! They did forget and they had to cover it up. I knew it!" He looks so excited that he could click his heels, his smile spreading out from one ear to another. "Man, Richie's gonna hate to hear it!" This seems like better news to him than Billy's success, but that doesn't mean he's not excited for him. "So you're really not kidding about meeting Spiderman? I gotta catch that interview! It's on YouTube? What's your channel?" he says, pulling out his phone and opening the app.

"Wait, are you... there's no way..." he says, his brow furrowing up at Irie when she implies his wild guess might have had some nugget of truth to it. He almost visually works over some quick math in his head, and then the same equation again... "But he looks like he's 25 tops!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "//We// didn't say anything, Irie!" Madison says hastily - and for once, she does try to keep her voice down - with a limited amount of success. She looks to Billy to back her up on this.
    At Virgil's confusion over the age, Madison only stares at him, going, "Uhhhhh..." as she tries to think of an explination other than the truth. "Uhhhh...."
    Yeah. She's got nothing. Shit.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson holds his hand up. "Nononono. Her dad is named Wally too. That's all." Not a lie. Her dad is named Wally after all. He puts his hand on Irie's shoulder hoping he saved the day and she won't contradict him, or have too. He tries not to lie anymore but hey, he can be as protective as the next guy. She's not Power Girl. And sometimes she does seem a little lost.

Irie West has posed:
Irie puts her hands on her hips and huffs. "Man, maintaining a cover story is /hard/. I guess I could tell you if you pinky-swear promise not to tell anybody." She looks left. She looks right. Nobody is listening. Since Maddie already knows, she hooks an arm around Billy and Virgil to bring them in close so she can whisper, "I'm from the future. SHH! SHH! SHH! Don't tell anybody. We can talk about it later. Maybe over lunch."

Madison Evans has posed:
    After a little more browsing of the store, with Madison eyeing and then putting back a gorgeous set of dice carved from amethyst, and dice carved from moonstone, the trio are ready to depart the store, making their way back out onto the street with whatever they did decide to buy. "So where should we eat?" Madison muses in a thoughtful tone. "I mean, I hate to say it - but I'm kinda done on White Castle at the moment..."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson insists on carrying Irie's bags. Madison stuffed an Imperial Assault ally pack into her backpack. The least he could do in his non-powered self. He still manages to loop an arm around Irie's arm and he actually doesn't feel awkward at all right then. "Hey a Wendy's!" That's pretty much high cuisine to a teenager. He starts leading the ladies. "C'mon Wendy's... I mean it isn't as good as a Philly Cheese Steak but..."

Irie West has posed:
"We can always go to Big Belly," Irie says, as she pays for the board game. "If you want burgers. I'll never get tired of Big Belly Burgers, though I think they try to hide from me every time I come in." She lets Billy take her arm and tries not to blush. "I could do Wendy's it's not as good but they've got triple cheeseburgers and I could eat a couple of those." Ah, the legendary appetite of a speedster.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I mean, Wendy's is alright," Madison replies with less than her usual level of full enthusiasm. "I dunno, whatever you guys wanna do."
    She hefts her backpack onto her shoulders as she adds, "Cheese steak is pretty good - though I've never had a //real// Philly cheese steak - we haven't been to Philly yet. I mean - I really haven't been much of anywhere except here and California and Mexico once. We didn't travel a lot."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson relents. You guys want Big Belly, we get Bi Belly and... I'll see about Rosa... my mom, making you authentic cheese steak. And egg creams!" He reverses his course tugging Irie. This largely depends on Irie's willingness to be tugged of course.

"I... was n the foster care system as long as I remember. I kept running away. I lived everywhere from Michigan to Philly to New York. Rosa and Victor were the first parent I met who deserved to be called that. they're my family. They don't have super powers or Velezmobile. I go over Wednesdays for dinner, I can probably bring a few friends."

Irie West has posed:
"I'm sure we can find a good cheesesteak place around here somewhere," Irie muses. "Oooooorrrrr...." She starts sizing up both Madison and Billy. They're not too big. She could probably handle this. "We could go to Philly. Drop off our swag and then you can just piggyback on me and I'll run us there." It's a good thing Irie doesn't have a secret identity since she sure likes showing off a lot.

"Foster care? Boy, that's rough if you keep bouncing around like that," she says. "I'm glad you found a good home, though. Everybody deserves a good home and a family."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...oh. I didn't know that," Madison answers Billy quietly, looking towards him. Gosh. What do you say when someone tells you that?
    Well. What do you say when someone tells you they're trapped in the past, and aging at an unusual rate? Really, one of these things should be easier to respond to than the others.
    "So. Umm... That does sound hard. I mean - it was confusing enough for me having two homes..." And they were homes with her actual parents. Divorce can be a mess. "I'm glad you finally found good parents, though," she offers.
    Her gaze then goes to Irie uncertainly. "You could carry us both?" She pauses - then giggles. "What if we got like - one of those rickshaw things? And you just had to pull us? Is that better or worse?"

Billy Batson has posed:
She wants to carry him piggy back. Is she that strong? Is she that fast?

Heck he flew down to Philly for a cheesesteak last night. But he was always open for cheese steaks.

Still carry him? Seems a little... lame. Then again he did much the same to her to teach her to swim. He turns around to hide the blush. "OK, I'm in. I mean you don't even know the right place in Philly. Take Mads first and drop off the stuff at her place. His purchase fit in his pockets.

Irie West has posed:
Irie snappoints at Madison. "Mads! You're a genius! Bart has one of those and I'm sure he'd let me borrow it! Gimme a second," she says before disappearing in a flash. She's gone for maybe five minutes or so before she appears pushing a rickshaw behind her. "Climb in!"

"Give me an address to your favorite place, Billy, and we'll be there in a couple of minutes."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I'm a genius!" Madison brows brightly. But she finds she's crowing it to empty air. "...we've lost her," she remarks to Billy with a giggle.
    Several minutes of awkward waiting later, and they're finally climbing into the rickshaw, and Madison is practically buzzing with nervous energy. What is it going to be like traveling at such speed? "Is this going to be like getting shot into space by a rocket? Amd I about to experience like... 9Gs of gravity or whatever?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson instead looks up the place on his battered phone and hands that to Irie. It includes the website for the diner and several pictures.

"So I wait here for you? Can you pull us both?" He still seems reluctant. Or thoughtful.

Irie West has posed:
"Naw," answers Irie, who had changed clothes into her low key cosplay outfit. Yellow shorts with red trim, and a white tee with the flash lightning bolt emblazoned on the front. "The Speed Force keeps you from feeling the Gs, otherwise anybody using it would just compress into a pancake. It also makes us kind of frictionless while we're in it so we won't get burned up by the atmosphere, or make a sonic boom or anything.

She takes Billy's phone and studies the address and surrounding map so she can get a clear idea of where she needs to go. "Get in," she says, grinning at Billy. "With this I can pull you both. I won't be able to reach top speed while you're in there but it'll be fast enough."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...oh. I guess that makes sense," Madison answers.
    It really doesn't - but she's going to accept it.
    She settles into place, one hand going to the side of the rickshaw to grip it tightly. Honestly, she feels like this is the sort of thing you should be bolted in for. Like a ride at Disneyland. What if they hit a rock and go flying? How much force will they hit with? How do you calculate force? Speed times mass?
    She shouldn't be thinking all of this she shouldn't be thinking all of this she shouldn't be thinking all of this.
    "Ummm. Okay. Ready!"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson remembers his race with Nitro. Yes he was experiencing the gees and the friction trying to keep up with him, not to mention not go orbital.

Well Mads was up for it. he wasn't going to be shown up. He'd carried an unpowered big sister away from photographers, and carried Fire to save her a change of close. He'd never been carried by a super. And there was the other thing...

He climbs into the rickshaw rubbing his chin.

Irie West has posed:
"Ready?" Irie asks, looking behind her with a big grin. When they look ready, Madison clinging on for dear life, and Billy looking doubtful, Irie takes off. For the pair of them, the world suddenly becomes a blur of red and yellow as the speed force surrounds them and protects them from harm. They still feel a bit of Gs and some wind in their face but nothing like what they would have felt if they were unprotected. Irie herself is a blur of white and yellow, with speed force lightning peeling off of her to touch the terrain and cars that they are speeding by.

Even not going as fast as she could it still takes them only ten minutes to get there, and when she pulls up at the front of the restaurant, she's panting, bent over with her hands on her knees. "Boy *huff*huff* Bart makes that *huff*huff* look easy."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison white-knuckles it the whole way there, though she does try to avoid what little she can see blurring by. ....it isn't much. But the experience is fascinating. When they finally stop, though, and Irie doubles over - she starts crawling out of the rickshaw, concern on her features. "Oh. Hey. Irie? Umm... you're okay, right? That wasn't- it wasn't too much, was it?" Are they going to be able to get home? Shit!
    "....how long a drive would that've been?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson stumbles out of the cart. He puts an arm around Irie's shoulders. The ride... was amazing, the Speed Force beautiful, golden lightning where his was rather blue white.

"That was incredible... do you need to hurl? It's okay if you do. Boys have more upper body strength. Girls have better endurance. You did great." Then he starts patting her back a little, a sort of 'well done.'

Irie West has posed:
"Nono," Irie says, holding up a hand in a warding gesture. She gives Billy a glare when he starts patting her back. "I'm fine. I just... whew! I just got to catch my breath." She straightens and looks up at the signage and grins. "And I gotta fuel up. This place looks awesome!" She shakes her head, seeming to have gotten her wind back. "It would have taken us a couple of hours if we drove, maybe 45 minutes on the Hyperloop."

"C'mon!" she says leading the way in, "Let's get us some cheesesteaks!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Fortyfive minutes on the Hyperloop?" Madison breathes quietly. "Duuuuude." Still, once Irie seems to have gathered her composure, she starts towards the restaurant, hefting her backpack back into place once more. She does glance briefly at Billy, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at him. Dude. Really? //Really//?
    "I'll have to let you guys order for me. Order me the real deal!" she invites brightly.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson follows the women into the diner, flailing his arms a bit. "What? What'd I do? Doesn't patting the back help you breathe? I'm sorry I'm not an expert on Girl Anatomy. I was trying to help." He shoves his hands in his pockets and follows muttering. Know it alls. He bets they don't even know about ordering egg creams.