2015-05-21 - It's The Costume

"Got to love Metropolis traffic," Leah says with her head resting on the steering wheel. Backed up for a block, she doesn't see any light in the tunnel and having left her kid with the babysitter, she was supposed to be having some FUN today. Adjusting her outfit, she hunches a little lower so the guy in the car next to her can't stare at her chest in the homemade Supergirl cosplay any more.

A gap opens up as the line moves forward, and Leah jumps at the chance. "Thank god," she murmurs. The convention started an hour ago, and she was totally missing all the fun. "Might have to shower if I can get into a hotel room," she murmurs as she moves forward and another goon runs the light in front of her.

Slamming her brakes, she narrowly misses being clipped, and she stops too far into the light. AND there's no place to back up. Of course. And a taxi slips into her space up ahead, so she starts looking around for some way to get out of the freaking intersection.

Kara Zor-El already had a pretty busy day - around the world at least 7 times with all the 'hero' stuff... then she stopped at a coffee shop nearher apartment to get some hot cocoa and a scone.... wound up scaring the heck out of a SHIELD operative accidentally, and got a nap at her apartment. She may not need to sleep much, but that didnt mean she didnt like to. Waking up with Streaky on her head, a quick shake and she dislodged her feline master to check the clock. Whew... she still had over an hour until the cancer research charity event... thing. She got out of bed, got changed back into her supergirl outfit, and knelt down to a mrr'ing Streaky. "I'll be back later, Streaks...." adding, "Please don't pee on my pillow..." she says before heading out. She stops to murmur, "Again." Then she leaves via the balcony to go up, up and away. She looks down at the city below. "Glad I don't have a car with this type of traffic...." she says to herself.

Far below, traffic is causing untold havoc to people's nerves. It'd be audible to a normal person, let alone a kryptonian's hearing. An almost impact when some guy with a shopping cart stumbles onto the street, too tired to see straight. A dozen other minor problems, all caused by overwork and tension.

Leah is in the middle of one, actually. The light's changed already and she's a bit worried about things, what with the temper of everyone around. And of course, everyone is losing their shi* on her, trying to get around her and horns are going berserk.

Lining her car up with the lane ahead, she gives the cars going through enough room to get by, and traffic starts, letting a swarm of hot hatchbacks go through, followed by the sound of a big delivery truck getting up to speed as the driver starts on the downhill.

Inching forward to get as far out of the way as possible, she taps the bumper of the taxi and puts the car in neutral so she can calm her nerves. Then Mr Taxi backs up just a bit, and her car moves into the path of the semi truck again, absolutely trapped as her face slams into her steering wheel from being rammed from the front.

Kara Zor-El looks around as she's flying overhead, when she sees the potential carnage about to happen. Just picking up the car wouldnt be an option - the truck would still wind up barrelling into one of hte other several hatchbacks and cars in the way, or possibly the tired guy with the shopping card. Or the taxi. Only one real solution seems available.

"Hope he's wearing his seatbelt..." she says to herself as she flies down, speeding up to land decisively between the delivery truck and the rest of the traffic at the intersection.

Leah lifts her head, looking up at the window. She heard the truck coming, and for a moment she has an actual Supergirl moment. In her normal, human way, she forgives the taxi driver for getting her killed and holds out her hand as if to stop the truck. A nice pose to die in.

Then, suddenly, a blue streak out of the sky lands with a solid, powerful impact right in between her car and the oncoming semi truck, planting herself in the way. There's actually a half-second wait while time seems to slow down, and the hundred-ton truck slams into Supergirl, who is standing in the way like an avenging goddess.

The truck bumper folds in half, and the grille seems to melt around her body as her cape plasters itself to her. The engine and front of the truck crumples, sending the front tires and bits of shattered glass flying into people's windshields, as Supergirl doesn't move at ALL. The truck comes to a screeching, terrifying halt instantly as it impacts with something that simply can not be moved and the air bag goes off in the cab, the driver's face slamming into it as his doors fold up like pretzels and his trailer derails and turns sideways in the intersection.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? It's unclear - at least here, because that truck definitely is not an 'unstoppable force' when it slams into the immovable object which is a 17 year old teenage Kryptonian girl. AKA Supergirl. After the truck's sudden stop-and-mangling, Supergirl looks up at the driver, noticing there was a seatbelt and airbag to prevent the same carnage happening to the driver as happened to the truck.

Kara then walks away from the wrecked and crushed truck, not having been budged an inch... hell, not having so much as blinked ... from the force of the impact. She'd be annoyed with the truck driver but the poor guy's probably had the fright of his life during those few moments already. An involuntary grin when she notices the girl in the car is dressed like her. Also because.... hey... showing off is sometimes nice, you know? She definitely didnt seem hurt at all - not even a scratch or a split end on her blonde hair. She looks in the car after walking away from the wreckage of the truck. "Nice outfit." she says with a little smile.

Kara Zor-El puts up a finger. "One second okay?" She goes back to the truck to tear off the mangled remains of the truck's door, then pushing the steel frame apart so that she can get the truck driver out of the cab. "Sorry... but you should be looking where you were speeding into." she says rather firmly. Then asks, "You're lucky you belted up and had an airbag, mister. Now... are you hurt at all?" as she pulls him out of the truck carefully.

Lowering her hand, Leah watches Kara walk over to her car. She shakes a bit as some pieces of semi truck land on each side of her, some of them really quite large. Her heart is understandably racing as her knees shake. She waves to Supergirl, saying, "I'm..." and looks at her outfit. Luckily Supergirl gets busy with the driver instead of lingering on the to-her glaring inadequacies of her cosplay.

Leah walks around, then jogs up to the truck beside the kryptonian and pulls some bits of shrapnel out of the way so there's a good place to lower the trucker into. "That was amazing," she says, looking at Kara with awe.

The truck driver seems dazed, but he nods as he's lowered to the ground. "'m fine, miss," he mumbles, though he probably isn't. His nose is bleeding and his eyes aren't focused. Leah looks at Supergirl and says, "He's not fine, I'm an RN. Did you really just not get hurt at ALL by all that?" She waves at the mangled truck.

Kara Zor-El looks over at the destroyed truck after setting the driver down where Leah cleared some shrapnel away, not really saying anything about the 'amazing' statement except maybe a slightly embarrassed smile. Then when Leah asks the question, Kara responds rather simply with "Nope." Then she shrugs a little "I mean... sorta tickled a little I guess, maybe?" She looks at the driver again with X-Ray vision. "He doesnt have any broken bones but I don't know if he might have a concussion..." she says to Leah. "Could you check him out while I get what's left of the truck out of the way and upright?"

The cosplayer gives Kara a thumbs-up since her words are kind of failing her. "Wait, ...right. Pick up the truck, sure." She gets her first aid kit from her car in a dash, then returns and starts checking Mr. Tried-to-kill-her over as the taxi that -actually- tried to kill her by pushing her into traffic drives away. The sound of sirens in the background suggest that help isn't far away, but Leah focuses on her patient as well as she can, with Supergirl planning to pick up a truck over there. It's distracting.

Kara Zor-El first quickly uses her freeze breath to put out the little flickers of frame where the engine block got crushed. Right before she lifts the whole friggin' truck up like it was an oversized beach ball, moving it over to the side of the road so that the ambulance and police would be able to get in close - not to mention probably shaving several hours and a lot of money on expensive equipment to move the approximately 50 tons of decimated 18-wheeler, plus however much the rear plus cargo weighed.

After setting ot down to the side of the road, she goes back over to Leah and her 'patient.' "The ambulance is only a few blocks away." She looks over at the taxi briefly, frowning.

Leah is shining a light into the trucker's eyes, checking his pupil response, and monitoring his heartbeat. "He'll live, can't really tell brain damage unless there's eyeball distention and that only shows frontal swelling." She sounds a little mechanical, her eyes flickering repeatedly to the truck left on the side of the road that Kara just picked up with ease.

She looks at Kara, sliding her first aid kit under the guy's head for a pillow, and says, "I'm torn between being terrified that you can do that and hugging you for saving my life, miss. I'm Leah. And...sorry about the costume. I totally didn't mean to be disrespectful."

Kara Zor-El looks at the truck driver again with x-ray vision. "Well ... I don't actually see any damage but I havent really studied anything about the brain... just had some basic anatomy and first aid knowledge I picked up from books." She smiles a little. "I'd much prefer the hug to you being terrified if that's okay... Leah?" She then grins more. "And honestly, I think the costume's really good. I'm totally not offended or anything."

She takes a moment while the ambulance gets there. "So I saw what happened with that taxi cab. Want to come with me to talk to the taxi driver, or if you want I can probably help you get to the... I don't know... costume party?" She pauses. "I didn't know there was more than one holiday when people dressed up though. I thought that Halloween holiday wasnt until the end of October."

Leah blushes a bit, though why isn't immediately clear. "I need to stay with him til he's taken by a higher level medic actually. I took an oath." She pauses, then motions to her outfit. "Comic book convention actually. You're very popular in the super-hero geek scene. Made it myself, I'm a big fan." She glances at the trucker, making sure he isn't falling asleep, and takes a chance that he'll be okay for a moment, then holds out her arms. "My boyfriend keeps telling me to take chances when they happen, never gonna have THIS chance again."

Kara Zor-El pats Leah's shoulder. "Okay, well... I'm going to have a quick talk with that guy and I'll be right back. Sort of have to go to this charity event thing soon. Be back..." she says before walks over to the taxi cab, then walking around to the driver's side. She crosses her arms, tapping her foot and looking at the cabbie behind the wheel, then politely knocks on the window, waiting.

The taxi is not hard for Kara to catch up to at all. He rolls down his window, looking out at her, and puts out his cigarette in the ashtray. Since most everyone's stopped to watch Supergirl pick up trucks, things are even worse than they were before traffic-wise. He looks up at Supergirl, his perpetual grin fading.

Kara Zor-El is not smiling at the cabbie. "You do know I saw what you did, right? You almost got that woman killed. So I think you should get out of your car, go over to her, and apologize." she says, putting one hand on her hip before pointing over at Leah in the distance.

The cabbie begins to say 'didn' do nothin'' but the look on Kara's face makes him rethink the whole thing. It's the oddest thing, to see a Metropolis cabbie open his door and be marched back to a supergirl cosplayer who's nursing a trucker, as an ambulance starts to pull up through traffic. He takes off his hat, having the grace to look embarrased, and with Supergirl standing over him, he says, "Sorry miss. Won' happen again."

Leah sits with her legs folded modestly underneath her so not to show off under the short skirt, and gives the guy a glare! One of those glares. You know the type. "See it doesn't. This is Metropolis, we have to be better here. And I'm totally late for my event at the civic center." The ambulance pulls up, freeing her from her responsibilities, so she can actually go now.

Kara Zor-El stands there, arms crossed, while the cabbie apologizes, hat in hand. "Okay, you can go now. Please remember to be more patient on the road." He leaves in what is probably a rather embarrassing day for him - having been urged to apologize for poor driving skills by a 17 year old girl (admittedly a 17 year old girl who could crush his cab into a small ball of concentrated metal, but still a 17 year old girl).

Kara looks over at Leah. "Okay well.. I need to go to the Javitz Center for the ... what did they call it. The MetComCon. For this charity event thing. They wanted me to do some competition things then questions for the audience." Kal had done this sort of thing before as well, with that boxing match with that Muhammed Ali guy. They just wanted her to do some armwrestling and something called tug-of-war. She was assured that it wasnt actual war, because she was not going to do something like THAT, she stated. "And apparently it'll make money for cancer research so... yeah. I mean, pretty sure it'll do more good to help research a cure than punching all sorts of bad guys out. But if you want I can first give you a quick flight to your party? I mean I can take your car too. If you want?"

As the cabbie slinks away to his car, he receives no less than thirty texts from people seeing him on the news. He will officially never live this down.

Leah blinks as Kara relates her plans. She gets out of the way of the ambulance attendants, giving them the data on the patient until she's told to go, which doesn't take long. As a fire truck starts to show up to take control, she says to Kara, "The Javitz Center? I call it the civic center, that's where I'm going."

Leah pauses, then shyly she asks, "Do...you think maybe you might want to have a bit of a grand entrance, carrying my Toyota Camry? With me inside?" She blushes, giving Kara a bright white grin. "Supergirl carrying one of the con's Supergirls...nevermind, sorry."

Kara Zor-El nods a little. "Yeah well... you're a fan and you had a near death experience so sure - why not." She smiles. "Get on in." Then says, "Really small world that I'm going to this charity event at the same place you are meeting your friends for your party."

Yeah - she still doesnt understand that the charity event is taking place AT the comicon. Then again, she also doesnt know what a ComiCon is. Nevertheless, once Leah gets into her car, she feels it suddenly get lifted off the ground, then a feeling of slightly increased weight as the inertia of Kara flying up while carrying it pushes her down a bit and starts making her way to the center - a bit slower than she normally flies, but still a lot faster than Leah would be able to drive with or without traffic.

Leah grins, then says, "Oh, it's not a party. You'll see, I'll show you around a bit if there's time. But I'd probably kill myself driving, so this is really the safest way to get there." She nods sagely, and yes, it is true that she's a bit nervous to be driving. Near death experience and all. But the whoop of pleasure at being able to FLY with Supergirl outweighs all of that. She's still going to need a coffee, so very badly, but seeing her friends faces when they arrive is worth everything.

And the sight of that truck hitting Supergirl will stick with her forever.