2015-06-03 - Do You Even Lift Bruh?

Kara Zor-El lies down on the beach in her swimsuit, reading her college pamphlet idly, looking over at the guys and girls - mostly guys - who seem to come here to lift heavy things up then put them down. She guesses it's supposed to be to impress other people there. Some of them probably are impressive. Kara's just chilling though, happy that she finally got into Juilliard to get into being an artist in her secret identity as Kara Starr. First real time she started using it for anything significant, and there were so many problems on what she should do about her future. She wasn't sure what type she wanted to be though.

Sculptor?

Painter?

Definitely not a cartoonist or comic book writer - those things have no future in them at all. Besides, who reads them?

Maybe theater? Might be a problem with the whole secret identity thing though. I mean, what if she got famous. As an actress, that was. She was already pretty famous as Supergirl. That would be a problem.

Choices, choices. She looks at other ideas. Cuilinary Arts? Design? Photography? Really - photography is an art? Not to mention what superhero would ever have a career just taking pictures?

Spider-man was doing his normal patrolling of the city when he passes near the beach, because Pete likes to suffer. Hot spring day that feels like summer, and here he is swimming through the highly reflective sky line of New York in the beating sun, covered head to toe in hot clothing.

Peter's eyes are drawn to the tanned blond visage of a very attractive girl that he can't help but think is familiar to him.

"Who's that??? Wow.... Do i know her or is my heat stroked brain just making up excuses for me to keep staring at ... oh my crap it's Supergirl" Spider-man hides because he notices that she could have heard that.

A light bulb goes off. "If Supergirl is going to just relax and work on her tan, why am I the sucker in the costume swinging around in the heat? I'm gonna get my spidery swim trunks on and cool off in the water!"

Peter finds a discreet place to change from his costume to shorts and hide the backpack. Peter then makes his way to the beach and very nonchalantly makes his way to Kara. "Hey there it's a hot one today isn't it?" He has a bottle of water in each hand and offers one to her.

Kara Zor-El looks up when someone starts talking to her. "Hmm? Oh. Yeah, I guess it is." It's sorta a lie. When you can fly through a sun without getting a sunburn or lazy about in Antarctica in a short skirt and half-shirt, 'hot' and 'cold' are relative concepts. She wasn't using her 'disguise' - the glasses or hair in a ponytail. It wasn't too amazing for SOMEONE to notice who she was, though most people tended to not think twice about an attractive blonde teenager in a bikini on the beach being anything more than ... an attractive blonde teenager in a bikini on the beach.

Kara sits up a bit and smiles, accepting the bottle of water. "Thanks." She does check it though with microscopic vision. She'd gotten too many times where she got dosed with red kryptonite or green kryptonite because of being too trusting of beverages, and did not need Kal lecturing her.

The water was sealed - nothing in it that wasn't in your standard bottled water from the store.

Pete sits down next to her taking care to sit outside of her direct sunlight. The lady wants to tan so he's not gonna interrupt her. "Sorry about bothering you but you're very attractive and you seem somewhat familiar so I thought 'what the hey, get you an ice cold water and come chat you up.' Unless you don't want to be bothered? Or you're here with one of them?" Pete points the weight lifting bros down the beach a little.

Kara Zor-El, seeing nothing wrong with the water, opens it and takes a sip. She smiles at Peter. "Nah it's fine. I'm just looking over college brochures - you're not bothering me." She looks at the bodybuilders. "Definitely not with any of them." she responds. She doesn't actually mention that she recognizes him. She didn't want the uncomfortable 'you invaded my privacy' stuff that people sometimes told her when she would check under someone's mask. She actually stopped doing that a couple of months ago. Spider-Man had it happen to him though back when he was stalking her after being worried about her. Because of that pirate thing. Plus... it would be awkward if she knew who he was, and he doesn't recognize who she is.

Kryptonians have many, many powers. Mind reading wasn't one of them.

Peter smirks "Well that's good information to have"

Pete then tries to make conversation. "So what have you been up to lately?" He was gonna try to play this off like he's meeting her for the first time but he has to take the joke that's staring him in the face. "Plunder any ships lately?"

Kara Zor-El looks back at him, and when he makes the joke, she makes a face and stops drinking the water. "You were able to tell who I was, huh?" She pauses and whispers, "Hey wait... you're not still trying to keep tabs on me or something right? Because I told you - that was just red kryptonite. I'm not like that."

Did she know all along?

Peter looks away for a bit. "Well, yeah. I mean you kinda leave an impression on a guy if you know what I mean, so it's not hard to pick you out." He then clears his throat and takes a sip of his water. "No, not keeping tabs on you. I was doing my friendly neighborhood hero thing when I noticed you were out here having a personal day. I figured if you are having a beach day, I could probably take off too since you'd know if something was happening before I would. So here I am looking to cool off after spending the morning in that hot suit swinging in the hot city."

"The view is nice here, and the company isn't shabby." Both comments were about her though she might not catch it.

Kara Zor-El looks around. "Yeah I guess it is pretty nice. And yeah... trying to take a day off. I tried yesterday during a school interview and I kept having to rush out. First there was a plane over New York that lost 3 engines. Then there was that bank robbery with that guy who wears the grey suit with the horn. Rhino?" She pauses. "I think he's one of your rogue gallery maybe?" She shrugs a little and looks back at the weights. "They do that a lot huh? Noticed they even had some that one guy said was for superhumans. I guess sometimes Avengers come here? Or does Spider-Man work out here?" she asks, in a teasing way, nudging Peter.

"Busy morning" Pete says, "It probably was because my rogues are laaaame"

Pete looks over at the meatheads and then scoffs. "Nah I don't think any superhero would come here to work out. Maybe Tony," He looks back to her. "Do you work out? How does a young alien babe on the go keep that super figure that is 'catch falling planes' strong but 'cheer outfit' fit?" Pete says, pretending to be some lame interviewer for a moment.

Kara Zor-El looks back at Peter. Okay, he was talking oddly to her. "Well... I used to work out all the time on Krypton. My parents actually insisted on it. But on Earth? Um... well... they have a gym in Titans Tower that they upgraded for me, but it still doesn't really do much to tax me, and that's... sort of the point of working out." She shrugs a little. "Once you can push moons out of orbit, lift islands and supertankers and stuff... I'm guessing benching 50 tons wouldn't really have that much effect. It's sorta a shame. I used to really like exercising and stuff when it actually helped. You?"

"I didn't work out before my powers I don't see a reason to work out afterwards. you know" Peter says. "I wasn't really the type. I was more meek - the type those guys would pick on"

Kara Zor-El looks at those guys. "What? Nah... c'mon. You're cute. Sort of a geek chic thing? I mean... you know what I mean. I'm not saying you're a geek." She pauses. "I mean I'm a nerd based on what Superboy says. But I hear nerds are in right now." She looks back at the bodybuilders. "But I'm sure they don't pick on you now, right?"

Peter chuckles and gets a little red. "Hehehe well thanks SG, but I don't think they cared that I'm cute and geek chic, just that I'm scrawny and small." He then smiles and says "You definitely don't look the nerd type but glasses on you would be cute."

"Whether I get picked on now or not doesn't matter to me I just avoid the situation. if i can. they might say somethings to me like 'Do you even lift bruh? Do you even lift?' but I don't pay them any mind" Peter says, sounding like he's ascended past the bullied nerd he was.

Kara Zor-El smiles. "Seriously, just call me Kara. Everyone does." She looks back at Peter. "Well... in my defense I did come from a planet about 800 years ahead of this one, but even on Krypton, I was pretty much a nerdy sort. I mean... we took quantum physics and advanced rocketry when I was eight. We didn't really do the whole 'jocks and nerds' thing though. Something sort of similar though. Guilds. My mom was Science Guild. Dad was Art Guild but he changed to Science Guild. I think for my mom. Then there was Military Guild, Religious Guild, Guild of Kryptonian Magic, Workers Guild, and a couple of other minor ones." She shrugs. "There wasn't a lot of picking on each other with that though. I mean.... we didnt choose our guilds until we turned 17, and usually by then we were getting married." She then looks back at the bodybuilders. "I think you're selling them short. I'm sure they wouldnt be that immature, right?"

Peter nods at hearing of Kara's home planet and just sort of takes it in and tries to wrap his mind around it.

"Perhaps we all mature as we get older. I'm sure not everyone who bodybuilds is a jerk." Peter says with a shrug. "Want to go get wet a little?" Pete says getting up and offering her a hand up.

The bodybuilders notice Kara and Peter chatting and seemingly being close and they start pointing and making comments. "Look at the little guy with that dime piece. Man she just with him because she ain't taste all this grade a beef" The men start saying that... among other things. The general consensus is that a guy like Peter has no business around a girl of Kara's caliber as long as there were big strong alpha males around. "Maaan I bet she ain't even let him leave the nuts hang out! I bet she be like giving him pecks on the cheek and tongue kisses if he's good and buys her shit then she get home and texts up a real man to come tear up them sugar walls, mmmm yeah!" When it looks like Pete and Kara are getting up they start posing and picking up bigger weights than they were lifting before. "Put 550 on the bar! I'm gonna show blondie what's really good." One guy seems to be attempting to bench an inordinant amount of weight to show off.

Kara Zor-El looks at the bodybuilder then at Peter, then rubs the bridge of her nose. "Okay, I take it back. They -can- be that immature." She looks at them as she stands up along with Peter despite him asking to 'get wet.' At least she didn't catch the double entendre. She leans over and whispers, "I have no idea what sugar walls means... but it sounds insulting. They really need to be taken down a peg."

Peter grins wide. "Sounds petty yes, but really fun we can do it together. and I think the less you know about terms guys and especially dude bros use, the better. If you can hear so much, the less that you can understand that would piss you off, the better" Pete then offers his hand as they go to walk over to the body builders. He's giddy to see and participate in this.

They get over there and immediately the men are strutting and getting in Kara's face flexing and gyrating. Grunting and making noises as they talk. "Yeah yeah look at you girl you are kind of golden tan and delicious looking. mmmhmm. you come here to show your boy how to make all kinds of gainz?" "all kinds" The one who is benching the 550 lbs weights unassisted is shouting and straining as he pumps the bar up and down a few times in a herky jerky motion that show's he's struggling with it. "fuck I need a spot"

Kara Zor-El looks over at Peter and whispers, "Are you sure? Don't you need to worry about having a secret identity?" she asks as she follows him over to the men who are still propositioning her. When the one struggling says he needs a spot, though, she walks over to him, saying, "I really have no idea what either of you guys are talking about. Gainz? Golden tan? I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be insulting but still..." She puts her hand on the bar, and lifts it off him rather - rather embarrassingly easily considering she used one hand - before putting it back up on the rack for him. "You really shouldnt be trying to show off with more than you can lift, bruh."

Kara pauses and asks Peter, "Did I use that right? Bruh?" She says 'bruh' with air quotes with her fingers.

"Lifting some weights shouldn't be a big deal right? i mean it's not like me lifting what they can is gonna give me away as spider-man." Peter whispers back.

Peter watches as Kara puts the guys in their place "Yeah you got it right." He says with a smirk.

The guys start shoving Peter around and getting in his face now "whats funny boy you think that's cute gonna come here have your chick show us up? With your scrawny looking pale ass looking like a some sort of vegan hippy that don't get out in the sun."

Kara Zor-El frowns when they start picking on Peter. Despite the fact that Peter could take them both out in five seconds if he wasnt doing the secret identity thing. Good thing she isn't - she really dislikes bullies. "Okay.. first off, I'm not 'his chick.'" she says, getting in the way of one of the guys who was shoving Peter. "We're just friends. Second off, you both need to stop before something happens that embarrasses both of you a whole lot." She smiles a bit. "Oh and third, I wasn't 'showing you up.' Your friend needed help since couldn't lift some weights. If I wanted to show you up, I could -sooooooooo- do better than that. I mean... I could outlift you, or tug of war, or.... that." She points over to the armwrestling table.

Peter smiles he was going put up a fight but Kara is on a roll and he feels restraint is sometimes best. But then Kara suggests some tests of strength. "Yeah ok I'll beat any of you in an arm wrestling contest!" Perfect because this is not purely strength. Technique plays a factor so it wouldn't be completely impossible for him to beat them with out seeming super human. Peter sets up at the table. "Any and all comers and when I win you leave me alone and you apologize for the things you said to the lady"

Kara wonders why Peter suddenly volunteered to armwrestle them. Kara Zor-El murmurs to Peter, "Um... are you sure you want to do that? I was sorta just going to embarrass them, since... you know... I'm not dealing with a secret identity here?" She pauses then shrugs. "But if you want."

"Nah don't worry it's not like embarrassing these chumps will out me completely and it's armwrestling - it's all about leverage. I'm a science nerd too remember." Peter whispers back and pats her mid-back. "But if you got a plan that sounds funnier than me shaming the guys that just pushed me around? I'm all ears"

Kara Zor-El raises an eyebrow and peers, "I'm .... pretty sure they're gonna know something's up, but okay. We can just ignore them and leave. Or... I was actually just going to challenge them myself, but if there's like... some male pride thing... you can do it. It's fine with me." She gestures Peter towards the table with her hands.

"Not male pride - just a lot of pent up resentment. Maybe a little trying to show off." Peter says with a smirk.

Peter sits down at the table he points at the guy with the biggest arms and says "you, you're my huckleberry. Let's get to it, buddy." The guys sits down the clasp hands and the big guy grunts and jerks had looking to quickly break peter and show dominance. Peter's arm doesn't move. "what the fuck? I'll show you." The large man then starts to exert himself and try to leverage his body weight. Peter, doesn't sweat it and allows his hand to be be pushed back. The whole time Peter is calm as the guy exerts himself he even start humming and under his breath saying "push it to the limit"

When Peter feels the big guy get tired and start to fade peter throws his weight into and sends the guy tumbling off his seat.

"Hey what the fuck you cheating?" the others start to yell and, as Pete looks around self satisfied, one of the meat heads throws a punch to the back of his head.

What's unusual, at least from Peter's perspective, is his spidey sense didn't go off to warn him about the punch. It's probably because the bodybuilder's fist had gotten only halfway into the punch before it hit against the palm of the teenage Kryptonian girl's hand, who catches his fist and puts it in a viselike grip it with her fingers - stopping it cold. With her free hand she rubs the bridge of her nose. "See? If you're going to cheat or tell them you won by cheating, they're just going to try to hit you." she says, putting her other hand on her hip.

She then looks at the bodybuilder. "And you really need to calm down. Someone cheats at something as dumb as armwrestling, you don't try to punch him."

She pauses. "Besides, I could beat both of you together without cheating."

Peter turns around and is surprised someone took a swing at him. "What he what, Hey no Kara. I didn't cheat. They just couldn't handle losing. I won fair and square. He couldn't put my arm down and he got tired then I beat him. Nothing unfair about it - he's all size no strength" as the bodybuilder says "I'll put you in your place blondie with armwrestling then belt you with the back of my hand!"

Kara Zor-El releases the guy's fist after the yelp of pain. Peter already had found out how strong Kara was during the pirate incident. Though when he threatens to hit her, she just looks at him unimpressed. Fortunately for him, he decided to 'put her in her place' with armwrestling, rather than hitting her - the latter of which (little did he know) probably would have resulted in him hurting his hand even more.

Kara sits down at the chair across from him, then looks at them as she puts on arm up for each of them, waiting idly.

They take firm hold of Kara's hands and smirk and preen before starting. "Hey pretty thang be honest this ain't the first time you had 2 strong hard men team up on you is it?" one says causing the other to laugh. Then they both start exerting as much strength as they can on Kara's arms. trying to make it hurt for her.

Kara Zor-El waits while they start pushing. And neither of her arms seem to be budging, even an inch. She also doesn't seem to be tensing her arms, or even trying. The teenager's arms just refuse to move. Kara responds, without a hint of strain in her voice. "Actually guys team up on me a lot more often than you'd think. Though they're usually a lot stronger than you guys."

She pauses as they continue to push. "And I think you sort of misunderstood my challenge. I mean.... this isnt really fair. To you, I mean. When I said I can beat both of you at the same time, I meant both of you, using both of your arms, against my one arm." She smiles a bit as her arms still refuse to move. "You can both try against one arm if you want - any time?" she asks, still not even seeming like she's putting the slightest bit of effort into this competition.

Both guys look awestruck and slack jawed for a moment bfor they both get up and throw their entire bodies against Kara's left arm "we gonna beat you! super girl!"

Peter just stands back chuckling at the situation "man they don't give up i'll give them that"

Kara Zor-El removes her right arm from the table when both guys start trying to use both of their arms - four arms against her one - to try to budge Kara's. "Yeah um... I actually hear guys say that a LOT. Those exact words, actually." Even when they're actually putting both of their entire bodies into the effort - including trying to stand and trying to get as much leverage as possible - not to mention DEFINITE, obvious cheating, Kara's arm still remains as immobile as ever, still not even bothering to be so much as tensed.

Kara actually stops looking at the two bodybuilders as they're both straining, and looks over to Peter. "Um... could you get me that bottle of water I left down there?" she asks, pointing at the half-empty bottle of water that Peter had given her earlier.

Peter snaps to attention and then quickly get her the bottle of water "here you go, sooo how long are you gonna let them do that? I mean that can't be sanitary could it the two of them all on your arm like that?"

"Shut up we bathe and shit we ain't all dirty and junk" They say in response. "I don't know I'm looking at 2 sweaty animals that might be releasing all sorts of fluids from the strain." Pete retorts.

Kara Zor-El takes the bottle of water from Peter. "Thanks..." she says as she unscrews it then takes a sip. "Want some guys?" she asks after hearing what Peter says, offering the bottle towards them, then answers herself. "Probably not... you guys seem pretty focused." Again - it's like she's not bothering to try.

It's sort of humiliating to the guys at this point.

She looks back at Peter. "Yeah they probably had enough time huh?"

Then, without bothering to look back at the guys, she quickly and easily puts her arm down on the table, sending both bodybuilders entire bodies along with the arc of her arm, as if there had been absolutely no resistance at all - she might as well have been arm wrestling against air.

The result? Two large, sweaty, out-of-breath bodybuilders sprawled on the ground with aching arms. She leans over to look at them on the ground. "Best two out of three?" Then smiles. "No?" She stands up. "Maybe in the future you should be more respectful to other people." before walking off, finishing off her water with a smile.