"...Tom." Liam turned to face the much larger man again. "For what it is worth, you'll always be Tommy to me. When things get to be too much and you just need to be a man...I'm here." He moved towards the most famous man in the word and wrapped his arms loosely around him in a hug.
"It isn't easy when everyone forgets that you have needs too."

Tom hugged back. He really did need to be Tommy sometimes.

Charlotte and Darren, meanwhile had taken a Cab ("A speedster! Taking a Cab!" Charlotte had joked) that was oddly devoid of a driver, and arrived at one of the local burger pits that still had electricity. Charlotte had ordered one of everything on the Dollar menu and Darren had gotten ... a Darren sized version of that, neither one having eaten anything since lunch and both having lost some blood during the time that should have been dinner.

"I'm starvin like Marvin. You think they need my help back there or do you think a food truck is going to come by and steal this line?" She turned to look at the mass of people waiting behind them to order.

"The trucks should be out in force shortly if they arn't already setting up places. Towns pretty used to this sort of stuff by now." He hefted his bags between his arms as they started to move outside away from the busy crowds. "We can probably get truck dessert pretty easily. And it isn't even all that wet here, guess the rain was really localized."

They found a bench to sit down and eat at when the starry sky gave a menacing rumble.

The rumble turned into a deep rumbling whistle as a woman clad in yellow adn white slammed into the ground in a three point landing with yellow flashing light all around her.
Darren winced as she looked up and stared at them sharply

"Oh. MY. GOD. LOTTIE!" She flung her arms open and rushed forward to squeeze Charlotte into a face first hug into her boobs. "I've missed you so much where have you been why didn't you tell me you were in town no one tells me anything anymore!" She said all in one breath.

Charlotte struggled free gasping for breath. Eventually. First was hugs and snuggles. Juuuust a little too long and....

"Wow, Jeez, glad you deployed your airbags before that front-end collision. Can I call you by your Civvie name or should I call you Majora?"

"We should hold off on the civvie thing till we get clear of the crowd and..uh...is this your date?" She gave Darren a look up and down, he was decently cute.

Darren still looked a little startled as he moved to pack up his and Charlotte's food. It sounded like they were going to be on the road again already. He was never going to get to eat....
"Hello Majora."

"Sorry to butt in like this, but well, I figured you could use a little girl-ship after what happened back at the restaurant. No body told me that the new cape was you! I swear I'm going to hurt Prodigal so bad when I finally figure out how. But that whole mess back there was a lot to spring on a newbie like you Lottie, are you ok?"

Charlotte bit her lip, looking back and forht between the two of them, "Yeaah, this is my boyfriend, Darren Gray," She used his last name in hopes of letting her know that he was safe.

She also used the B word.

"But yeah, that was a little heavy at the restaurant. Really crazy stuff. I'm gonna be okay. In the meantime, wow. How have you been? I was kinda surprised that we didn't get in touch earlier, I've been in town for a week or so. Tell you what, I know a great place where we can talk."

The world slowed down and melted away into grayness and after-colors for Darren Charlotte and Valerie.

"Now, Val, Where the heck have you been!? It's been ages!"

The only problem with Charlotte using her speed powers was that once they were active it was a lot harder for her to alter them for the people within her bubble.
And that problem was clear as Majora heard Darren's name and yanked him up his jacket and held him suspended in the air.

"Whoa hey!" Darren said quickly as he was yanked up, hands raising  to show surrender.

"You stupid asshole, what the hell was all that shit before?! And what the hell are you doing just prancing around now?! I should arrest your stupid ass after all that!"

"Hey! We duplicated him and gave him superpowers and the duplicate went superpower crazy and tried to steal me. This one is the goooood Darrrennnnn."

 Charlotte blurry beat uselessly on Majora's arms, trying to get her to let him go.

"Stopppp! We're trying to prevent him from getting arrested by the Meta police!"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Fri 03 July 2015.

"Lottie, that doesn't make any sense." Hey blue eyes remained forward and focused on Darren who was sweating in worry. "Why would you duplicate and empower someone like that?"

"Valerie please, I know it doens't make sense, but it was to cover up the fact that I'm meta. Lottie and I had some kind of...reaction together and we were in hyper time and when ti ended there was like a CK explosion that freaked folks out. Lottie is like under constant watch by BRATs agents and I've of been caught! Please! I have a kid I can't let them take her from me!"

Valerie frowned deeply as Darren flinched when she hoisted him higher. "...either you're a good actor or your not the guy I was fighting before..." Slowly she put him down and looked at him hard as Darren adjusted his glasses as the color tried to return to his face.

"...so duplication is your power?"

"Yes, and before you ask, I have no idea where he is. We are completely separate thing still we rejoin."

Charlotte was over and hugging him in a flash, "Awww, I'm sorry, are you okay? Huggggsss"

"Val, this Darren was the one trapped in the bubble, rolling around in glass and generally getting beat up. This one is fragile, you can't just throw Darrens around like that." She gave Darren a peck on the cheek.

"Well, maybe the other Darren. He was ... wrong."

She zipped over to hug Valerie again, "So , erious how are you, how have you been? You don't wanna know where I've been."

Still keeping her eyes on Darren as he tried to straighten his clothes she she gave her former sister a hug. "I don't understand anything that is going on and getting Tom to tell me anything is like pulling teeth.."

"I'm sorry, I really hadn't planned for tonight to go the way it has. Lottie and I didn't know we'd....react."

Val sighed and finally looked down at the shorter Charlotte. "I've been...ok. I guess. I can't really complain to much, I'm the most famous female hero in the land, second only to Prodigal in power and all the magazines call me fat. But what about you. Where...where did you go? You just vanished one day and stopped sending me letters."

She held Valerie's shoulders and looked into her eyes, "Are you sure? The answers could shake the core of your foundations and loyalties, turning your former good deeds into a husk of their former joy and meaning."

She stared at her friend and raised a hand to her forehead. "You know what, not tonight, not after all...that." She waved a hand in Darren's general direction. "We can save it for later. What I do want to know is what he keeps meaning by the two of you reacting."

"Ah well." Darren looked a little sheepish. "We sorta kissed and our powers exploded."

"And yet you are both still dating after that when you are trying to go unregistered?"

"Oh well...I'm de-powered at the moment so it should be safe? We...haven't really tried kissing since it happened."
This message was last updated by the player at 00:09, Sat 04 July 2015.

"We were going to go to his house and get very scientific," Charlotte explained, "It's the only way to be sure."

"...I'm going to kill Tom." She muttered to herself as she began picking Charlotte up and under her arm like a sack of potatoes. "You two can just cause giant CK explosions and he didn't think to look into this more because he wants to go make goo-goo eyes with a lab rat..."

Charlotte kicked her legs in a helpless blur, saying "Nooooo" in a tiny little -half joking whine.

"My makeouts! Darren hurry," She reached towards him playfully, like the whole thing was a game, "We need to do science right now!"

"Didn't he say he has a kid at home? That kind of behavior isn't kid friendly Miss Quickstep. Least of all when you explode with power."

"Well to be fair Liam said it was because we did it in hyper speed rather then normal speed-" Darren was cut off with a single look from Valerie.

"I'm taking Lottie home with me before you two cause any more trouble. Right now the whole Bureau is freaking out, if you really are trying to do the whole unregistered thing then I can not stress how bad an idea it is to date a Limelight. Normally I'd suggest we just go have a nice adult conversation on the moon but I'm fairly sure right now Tom is up there doing some exploding of his own."

Charlotte blew out her cheeks and gave a long raspberry by way of response, "It might have been longer for him than me, but I've been more miserable in the meantime. Uggggggh. Fine. I can't beat you in a fight, anyway, at least not in any way that I want to fight you. Sorry Darren."

She didn't want to end her date, but when someone stronger than forty gorillas taped together picks you up, you can't really do much about escaping. "I am registering the complaint now, that I don't want to end my date. Darren, Call me?" She reached out in earnest this time, Trying to lace her fingers with his as a parting display of affection.

When their fingers laced Darren didn't let go again. "Put her down Valerie. We both know the risk we are running but we arn't head strong teenagers who need a chaperone. We are adults that can make our own damn choices. We didn't know that before was even possible. We do now and will act accordingly. You can't just rip Charlotte out of her own life. Trust me, with everything that has happened Lottie needs her agency in her life back."

Val could easily flatten Daren and it was apparent the man knew it as he paled again as she stepped closer to him, Charlotte still under one arm.
"You expect me to just leave her with you after half of you pulled everything you  just did? You don't get a pass on his actions because you're still the same damn person; effects of being super charged or not. You are capable of everything he is and you scared Lottie earlier with your little abduction attempt. This has nothing to do with Lottie not being able to make her own choices and everything to do with your choices for her begin questionable."

Her free hand poked Darren in the chest as the man didn't back away from her. "You two do need a chaperon. We don't even know what the hell the other you is doing. What if he shows up again?!"

Dangling from under Valerie's arm, Charlotte was in no position to make any demands or give any orders, buuuuuut she did so anyway, "Okay, fine, how's this. We continue our date and you get to come along with us and chaperon. Sound fair? I promise no super speed shenanigans unless you are included."

"..." The idea wasn't ideal to either Valerie or Darren but the two seemed willing to compromise for Charlotte's sake. "Alright. Be we are stopping off at my house so I can change. I don't feel like going around in mask all night if I don't have to."

Before Darren could protest he was also unceremoniously scooped up as Valerie walked over to their bags of food so both could carry their own things.

"Um, wait, Val are you going to fl-" Darren's voice broke as they lifted off the round at speeds he was beyond comfortable with, his eyes squeezing shut as he clenched everything and hugged on to any part of Majora he could grab.

His eyes opened and they were in an apartment he didn't recognized, both he and Lottie being dumped onto a white leather sofa. Poor Darren's heart was hammering as he just sat there in shock.