What is surely to be the first in a long series of bad decisions. (Open!)

[sofresh]

Who| Superboy (sofresh) and anyone!
What| Testing his powers (or lack thereof).
Where| Observation deck.
When| Afternoon.
Warnings/Notes| N/A!

Looking for Superboy? Probably not. But if someone happened to glance up over on the observation deck, that'd be where they'd find him, floating in the air a few feet above ground (not terribly high—eight to ten feet at most), arms crossed, with a contemplative look on his face. In retrospect, he probably should have done things differently—namely, he probably should have questioned his situation more when he woke up here. He didn't.

Look, even Superman made mistakes sometimes.

But that was in the not-so-distant past, and now, Superboy was trying to figure things out for himself. That'd be the reason why Superboy, casually floating a few feet in the air, slipped off his flight ring, just to see what'd happen. Needless to say, it went about as well as expected.

In other words, he landed, with a thud and a wince, on the ground, in a pretty ungraceful (and totally uncool) position.

"I'm startin' to think I might be defective or somethin'."

There was all this talk of gaining superpowers, except Superboy already had them, so he'd just tuned the rest out. No one ever said anything about losing powers (or, at least, not that he'd heard of), and honestly, he was not happy about it.

Comments

[whyarewehere]

Someone clapped sarcastically from nearby, and that someone was Grif.

"Alright, if people are going to do stuff like that then nobody is allowed to give me any shit for running into walls," he said.

It was entirely possible he could've made some cool, jerky cutting remark without mentioning his own most recent embarrassment, but that would've required him to think about it even a little bit.

Grif didn't do thinking.

[ringslinging]

It wasn't that Hal didn't realize someone was floating up there, but people tended to come up here to get away, so he wasn't always inclined to pay much attention unless he was given a reason to, and ten feet was plenty of clearance. So he was headed for a farther spot on the deck, on a route that took him right beneath -

- and the next thing he knew he was knocked flat on his back, underneath Superboy, and if he had any doubts about how hard that deck was, he'd just answered them by testing it out with his head.

"Ow. Damn. Did I just walk into a bad romcom or something? Don't I at least get Meg Ryan with that?"

[sofresh]

Aww, man. As if embarrassing himself wasn't bad enough already, he'd apparently accidentally validated someone else's embarrassment with his own. That just made it even more embarrassing!

Superboy sat up, rubbing his arm. Man, that hurt. It actually hurt.

"Hey, can it, buddy!" He totally thought this through, okay. Totally. "Doing what I just did doesn't even compare. Why would you try to run into a wall? In what universe is that a good idea?"

[whyarewehere]

"It was for science!" Grif replied, folding his arms in indignation as he realized exactly how badly he'd opened this. Crap.

"What were you doing?"

If he was lucky, he'd be able to deflect this back at the kid and avoid talking more about the wall problem. Play cool, Grif. Play cool.

[sofresh]

Oops. Okay, maybe he... didn't plan this out very well. All he'd been thinking about was his powers, so he honestly hadn't even thought to look below him first.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but if anyone's gonna be the romantic lead, it's definitely me." Even as he attempted to sit up (on... top of Hal, sorry) after doing something so embarrassing, he absolutely had to make it clear that stealing Hal's hypothetical Hollywood girlfriend was of utmost priority. Forget everything else. Only after the fact did he look over at him and mutter a sheepish, "Uh... sorry about this."

For colliding with him, that is, not being prepared to usurp his starring role.

[ringslinging]

"What, with a haircut like that? Get real."

Actually, haircut aside, he was definitely looking at someone familiar. Or he'd just hit his head harder than he thought. Not Clark, though -

"...Superboy?"

[leverageintceo]

"You did just take off the gear keeping you suspended in mid-air while still in mid-air," opined a voice from above. A woman dressed in a Legionnaire uniform of black and dark gray eeled her way out of the ventilation shaft before replacing the cover and looking back down at Superboy, her blond ponytail dangling over one shoulder.

"But I understand that teenagers frequently do dumb things for no reason, so you might grow out of it."

[sofresh]

"...well," he frowned. "I guess it was also for science."

He wasn't too happy about agreeing with this guy, but it was basically the truth. He was experimenting. ...in public. Maybe he should have done this in his room instead.

"I mean, I'm Superman. I'm supposed to be able to fly without the bling, ya know? Thought if I went up high enough, it'd kinda just kick in on its own. Apparently not!"

[sofresh]

"Actually, it's Superm—"

But mid-correction, he paused. The way he said that... Sure, he was a pretty recognizable guy, but that sounded like familiarity, not just recognition. And if it was someone who knew him, then it had to be...

"Green Lantern?" Definitely not Arrow, he thought. He had the right amount of green but not the right amount of beard. He'd have known for sure if he wasn't sitting on him. "Whoa, I didn't know you were around. What up, GL?"

[sofresh]

Still wincing, Superboy glanced up at the sound of the voice, and... woah. Did she just come out of the ventilation shaft? Neat. But even though what she said was none-too-kind, he responded with a pained smirk.

"Why would I wanna do that? Aren't these supposed to be some of the best years of my life?" Not that he'd know, since he kind of already missed half of them. "But it wasn't for no reason. I'm Superman."

...like that was supposed to just explain it?! He sure looked like he expected it to.

[whyarewehere]

Grif would've tried to dig into this "science" (which was definitely in some way not on par with his), but a much bigger fact distracted him.

He snorted. "You're not Superman."

He'd watched way too many saturday morning cartoons as a kid to not know what Superman was supposed to look like.

[ringslinging]

If Hal ever tried to emulate Ollie's amount of goofy beard, someone had better just put him out of his misery.

"Oh, nothing much. Taking a breather, getting crushed by falling teenagers. All the usual." A large green pair of forceps materialized in the air above Superboy, dipping in to pick him up by the collar and deposit him several feet to the left. Hal sat up straight, brushing himself off nonchalantly.

[captainbuzzkill]

The boy that approached Superboy was very short and looked young, especially since right now he was in his civvies. Despite that, he still had a Legion ring on his finger.

"Are you new to the powers thing? I'm new the powers thing. Mine stop working all the time."

It was annoying, to say the least, but it was better than not having any powers at all. Dipper felt a lot more secure now that he had them. Back when he'd been fighting Bill and his henchmaniacs and trying to reverse the apocalypse, the worst part was how powerless he'd felt at times. Now, for once in his life, he had the power to fight back.

Sometimes.

During the times he could actually control them, anyway.

[sofresh]

"Well, good to know I didn't ruin your day too badly," Superboy said, accepting his fate and letting the Lantern do his work without a fuss. Once on his feet, he brushed himself off, too. "But I'll try not to make it a habit. Gotta let the other kids have their turn, too, right?"

Sharing's caring and all! Though, if he were to be honest, he'd have to admit that it was pretty nice to have someone break his fall. It didn't hurt as much as it could've, thanks to him. Accidental or not.

[sofresh]

"Says who? Did ya miss the big 'S' on my chest?"

Superboy gestured proudly (or maybe more like arrogantly) to the symbol in question, as if it were even possible for anyone to have missed it in the first place.

"I'm short a cape, I guess, but they're old news. It's all about the jacket now."

[sofresh]

"Really?" That intrigued Superboy, even as he tried to move to sit in a position that didn't hurt too much. Ow. "I mean, I guess I'm kinda new to it. Like, I had powers before I got here, but I guess I was kinda new to those, too."

There were things that he knew he should have been able to do, but couldn't, and for the life of him (short as it was), he couldn't figure out why. Maybe they were in similar situations? Though, this seemed like it was probably a little more complicated than that. Still, he was definitely interested.

[captainbuzzkill]

"Mine are influenced by emotions," Dipper said flatly. He flopped down to sit on the edge of the observation platform next to Superboy, his legs dangling. "So I have this really cool telekinesis and when it works, sometimes I can blow stuff up with my brain."

He pointed to his temples with his pointer fingers.

"But instead of just having to worry about my concentration, it's super keyed into what I'm feeling, so if I'm angry it throws things around a room uncontrollably like there's a poltergeist, and when I'm really angry, it blows things up even when I don't want it to. And if I'm surprised or sad, sometimes it just...stops."

A pause.

"Not that I get sad. That often. Or anything," he said, slightly defensively.

What, him? Homesick a lot? And missing his sister? Neeeeveeeer.

"But that means I have to try to stay 100% totally and completely calm to use it, and that's on top of concentrating really hard to focus it and make it do what I need it to. It'll mess up even if I'm a tiny bit annoyed at something."

Staying totally internally placid and chill was not exactly an easy thing for a teenage boy. Especially in the middle of a fight. It was a natural thing for fights to make you angry or scared -- or even excited, if things were more cool than scary.

[ringslinging]

"Knowing what your worst day ever can look like in our line of work gives you a sense of perspective."

No nuked cities, no going insane, nobody's dead? Sure, sit on him all you want, he'll put up with that.

He got to his feet. "So, what brings on the practice falling?"

[adifferentangle]

Hiro - wandering about in a new place as he's like to do - manages to catch the tail end of Superboy's little experiment, but at least he doesn't laugh? Instead he puts his hands in his pockets and walks over to him, crouching at least five feet away. "I wouldn't say defective?"

At least to him it doesn't seem so.

Superboy is attempting to do something with his powers, figuring stuff out and what not. Hiro is trying to avoid it all with a three-and-a half foot pole.

"You okay? Need a spotter or a few pillows to land on?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif squinted at him suspiciously.

"Superman's not... you know. Twelve."

Most people would consider that insulting new people who have superpowers and are supposed to be your teammates might be a bad idea.

Most people weren't Grif.

Fortunate for them, really.

[sofresh]

"You know what? You ain't half bad, GL."

Ah, yes, the Superboy stamp of approval. But really, he was way more chill than he thought he'd be, and while Superboy had only met a handful of heroes before now, that was still pretty cool in his book. Most people definitely would not have reacted so well to him doing that to them.

But as for his question...

"Anyway, my powers are like, all outta whack," he explained. "I'm not even sure what I can do anymore. That seemed like one of the quickest ways to find out."

[sofresh]

"A little late, I think," Superboy says through gritted teeth, sitting up and pressing a hand to his side. He winces. Ouch! "But thanks. I appreciate the offer. Might take you up on it next time."

Not that he was planning for there to be a next time, but hey. You never know. Maybe his powers would come and go?

(No, don't let him get that thought into his head.)

"I'll be honest, it hurt a little more than I thought I would, but I'm okay. I think."

[sofresh]

"What, you sayin' you've never been twelve before? Even Superman was twelve once, you know."

That totally wasn't the point and he knew it. Did it stop him from saying it, though? No. No, of course not. Of course, the irony was that he had never really been twelve before, but that was also not the point.

[sofresh]

"That sounds like a whole lotta work," Superboy said, thoughtfully. Having to control your emotions really didn't sound fun, especially for a teenager. Superboy wasn't too sure he could do it—he was all about following his heart, basically. He couldn't imagine living any other way. But at the same time... Well, there was something interesting about it. "But you know what? I think I got something like that, too."

It seemed like Dipper's powers were a whole lot more volatile than his were, but there was definitely something similar about them. He had been able to escape from the Cyborg's weird mechanical restraints just by kind of freaking out about it, after all—there was no way that was just a fluke.

"It's kinda weird, though. I think I could do it before I got here, but I also used to be able to fly, and I sure can't do that anymore. I wonder if they could be related...?"

That sounded a little too strange, though. How could they be related?

(He had no idea.)

[captainbuzzkill]

"Some people had different powers before they got here. So there are people like me that had nothing and got new powers and other people that had theirs change. It seems like a lot of them took a hit so now they're less powerful."

Dipper raised his eyebrows so high they almost disappeared under the brim of his baseball cap.

"Some of us think it means something intelligent and powerful brought us here. Why they'd want some people to have less powers or changed powers is a mystery, but it seems like something purposeful."

He had theories.

"There's something that even happens sometimes where we get pulled away from here and dropped into other random dimensions and there's voice in our heads that tells us to play along. Like it's testing us. The Legionnaires from this universe seem to think some cosmic being is doing it all but they don't know what. One time we had to fight giant monsters in giant robots, and the other time was air pirates, but I didn't get pulled into that one."

All of it suggested something powerful was jerking them around.