He held that kiss, one arm sliding around her waist as he slid his other hand into her hair, cradling her head as he kissed back.  She could tell, he loved that kiss, and wasn't hesitating to kiss her back as deeply as she liked.

The Van Diemien mansion is lively, preparing for tonight's dinner. Donnie and Diantha play in the yard, staying out of the adults' way.

Maverick has gotten everything squared away at home. His weekend homework is done so he won't need to worry about it even if he winds up allowed to spend more than one night. He has a backpack packed with essentials; clothing (including two changes of day/play clothes, space-themed pajamas that can glow in the dark, and a black hooded cloak), a tray for rock collecting, a few toys, a few videogames (he was sure to bring stuff compatible with whatever system Donnie or his family had), a boy scout knife, a sleeping bag, and a couple notebooks (one of which is his personal journal).

He also has with him a flower for each of the females of the household. For the guys, he brought a bag of chips with whatever dip he knows they all agree on. Yes, this was a time for he and Donnie, but Maverick loves the whole family and likes every chance to brings smiles to their faces. Besides, for Maverick it's just good manners to bring a gift to someone kind enough to host you.

The boy trots up to the front door and rings the door bell.

  Otello, affectionately known as Otto, answered the door, with his grandson, (also dressed in his butlering suit) at his side.  He said "Master Sargas, a pleasure to see you.  Young Master Donnie is eagerly waiting  for you."  Otello's grandson, Otello Richelieu III, was watching and listening attentively, and he looked at his grandfather quickly, receiving a nod as he then offered "Master Sargas, if you will follow me, I will take you to young Master Donnie?"

Maverick smiled. "Nice to see you too, Otto." he then looks to Otto's grandson of the same name and nods to him, following. He wipes his shoes on the matt, takes them off and holds them before continuing to follow the younger Otto. He figures he might need his shoes if it turns out Donnie is in the back yard.

While Otto leads him, Maverick says, "I brought some stuff for the folks. Whenever the grownups have dinner, I guess I can give then?"

He doesn't take his backpack off yet, figuring he'll be instructed to when he needs to. Besides, it has the toys he brought.

Maverick found Donnie in the game room with  Diantha and a blond girl about Diantha's age. Lab would recognize her as Tori Pride, daughter of Rebound and Seer, former members of the New Age Defenders, reserve members of the Global Guardians, and the worlds most preeminent super spies.

Donnie grinned widely and ran up to hug Maverick. "You made it!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Fri 06 Nov 2020.

Maverick smiled brightly at Donnie and hugged him back. "Wouldn't miss it! I was looking forward to it! Good to see ya, Donnie." Some bullies at school really tempted him to get in trouble, but he did the wise thing and avoided a fight. Sure, the bullies would have lost, but thanks to no-tolerance policies, Mav would have gotten in trouble and his parents would have to forbid him from a weekend at his friend's.

Maverick picks Donnie up and spins him around before setting him back down. Sure, the two kids are nearly the same size, but Mav is capable of picking up kids his weight or less.

He pulls out one of the toys he brought; a remote control car. He hands it and its controller over to Donnie. "This thing can climb walls, Donnie."

Maverick then looks to Diantha. "Hey, Di." He pulls out one of the flowers he brought and offers it to the girl before giving Tori a nod.

  Diantha accepted the flower with a squee of delight, and promptly drug Tori, who waved with a grin, to find something to put it in.  Flowers needed vases, after all.

Maverick smiles, happy the flower was well-received.

Maverick looks at Donnie. "Whatchya wanna do while we wait for dinner to happen? Wanna try the remote control car now? Or did you have something else in mind?"

As the girls wandered Donnie looked sheepishly at Maverick. "Well first I need to tell you something." He tapped his right foot as he talked, a nervous tick he'd picked up from his father. "So I found out something, that you probably should have told me yourself.. but I didn't mean to! I just saw the footage, it got uploaded to YouTube, and you know how my powers work..." He stared at the floor. "I saw you move and I just knew, and then Grandpa walked in, and he saw and he knows too cause I got that power from him." He rqmbled, clearly nervous about whatever he was trying to tell you.

Maverick ohs. "It's important you told me, Donnie. I hadn't thought about that use of the power. If there is a villain out there with a similar power, they could identify me too. We'll need to find a way to cover that angle. We can talk about that with Grandpa when he's ready to talk."

He pets Donnie's hair as if to assure him he did a GOOD thing. "For my part, you understand why I hadn't told anyone, right?"

He idly wonders if this means... well of course there are bad guys who can tell if you are an immortal or not. He ponders bringing up that secret also.

"Well my family's got a lot of stuff that's just us, cause only Grandpa and his twin brother survived the experiment. But Grandpa's brother got Brainwashed into thinking he's a Nazi and he's in jail now." Donnie replied as if that was a completely ordinary and mundane thing to say. Donnie nods. "Yeah, secret identity. You're so lucky my dad says we have to wait until we're eighteen which gives Di a whole TWO YEARS before I can."

Maverick nods. "I admit it is fun*. But you and Di are already heroes in my book. Besides; you don't really need a secret identity do you? My parents don't have super powers. If a villain wanted to find them and hurt them, they could. Anyone trying to hurt your family would find themselves hurt instead. Thankfully, I'm pretty sneaky and I have been looking into ways to protect me and my family even if a bad guy found out. Still gonna pick your granddad's brain, though. Just 'cause he has a power nobody has doesn't mean villains can't get it. For example, what if someone has the superpower that specifically clones other people's powers?"

*Maverick can't help but appreciate it feels so cool to be Wraith. And like it's Halloween every time he puts that outfit on. And HE gets to be the thing that goes bump in the night, scaring the monsters.

"I don't think I can have a secret.identity. Everybody already knows who I am. But I can't actually fight crime for eleven more years,and Di only has to wait nine." Donnie nodded his understanding. " Yeah, it actually happened a couple times when Dad was still with the Legacy. Grandpa's secret identity was no.one knowing he existed though."

Maverick nodded. "My dad likes to say; better to have and not need, than to need and not have. Basically, it's like if you have a bottle of water when going to the park, but you don't need it, it is still better that you took it in case you got thirsty. Or to put it the way the boyscouts put it: Be prepared. But enough about that... whatchya wanna do right now?"

Donnie gestured at the bag in Mav's hand. "You got something for my parents in there right? You wanna give it to them before Uncle Lucas, Aunt Nokomi and Uncle Zeke get here? Mom and Dad are getting us pizza so they can have the dinner With just grownups,  so you might want to tell them what toppings you want too."

Maverick nods to Donnie with a smile. "Alright, Donnie. I wasn't sure when to, but now I know."

He heads to the parents, bag in hand and says, "Mr. Derring? I brought some chips for you and the others. Wasn't sure what kind of dip you'd want, so I brought french onion. Figured it was universal enough."

To Mrs. Derring, he offers a flower like he did with Diantha. "Thanks for having me over for the weekend."

Don took the offered bag with a smile. "Thank you Maverick, if you boys want to use the gym to spar or train you're old enough to be supervision."

Nora took the flower, and said "You're a good friend of Donor's, so it's not any trouble.  The political business just keeps us busy enough to make it hard for making time for this kind of fun."

Maverick nods to them. "It makes me happy to know there are politicians like yourself who care... and make time for things like this. Thanks. And I hope you have plenty of fun. Oh right! Donnie mentioned pizza and that I should tell you what topping I want. I like plain cheese, but I'm quite happy with pepperoni."

Maverick waits for the parents' response to the topping request and once he is given the go ahead, he turns to get back to Donnie. "Your dad gave us free reign of the gym. I wanna see what you're capable of, if that's fine with you."

Don smiled. "Thank you Maverick, you two have fun"

Donnie grinned widely. "Yeah!" And he happily headed off towards the gym.

The gym was in the basement and had nearly every type of exercise equipment imaginable, as well as a large sparring mat, and an archery range.

Maverick trots down the stairs with Donnie, typical of a little kid hurrying wherever one goes (even if not typical of Maverick, who normally walks steadily with purpose). "Some day, I hope to be skilled enough to do cartwheels down the stairs." he comments. Realizing Donnie might actually try that, Maverick adds, "But it is probably overall faster to just run down stairs. And if pursuing an enemy, do a flying jump-kick at around the 4th or 5th stair from the bottom..."

He looks around at the gym. Then to Donnie. "I guess first would be the weights?"

Donnie smiled and headed over to the weights, some if them a different color, made if a special dense material for Donny and his super strength. "Free weights or machines"

Maverick looks around at the options. "While I initially thought machines, probably better to go with free weights first."

He checks the weights to see if they are labeled by weight and will try for a 5-lb weight himself.

Donnie grabs a 10 lb wait to start with, though it is smaller than a standard, fitting more easy in His small hands. "So what was it like seeing Uncle Lucas in action? I've seen ALL the old footage of the him and Dad and the others, but to see it. Wow."

Mav pauses at that question as if processing how to answer. "It is hard to describe. When you watch him on a recording, you can enjoy every move because you're not in the middle of fighting for your life. I was kind of busy with mummies at the time, so I missed most of what he did. But as they say, there is no replacement for the real thing. So when I did see him, it was..."

He ponders as he taps his cheek with the 5-lbs weight, making it look effortless when the reality is, he is struggling to do that. As usual, he wants to look cool in front of Donnie. "Inspiring, I guess is the best word for it. That feeling you get when you see a friend win a match. Even though you know in your head that friend would win against *you*, that isn't what you think about. Instead, you only think about how cool it is they won. But watching the friend's match in person is worlds better than seeing a recording of it later. Does that make sense?"

He then starts pumping the 5-lb weights.