solarhippie | Griffith Observatory, LA, Laaate Saturday Night (Technically Sunday) (Reply)

This was it. The better part of a year after Karolina had left Los Angeles, she was finally back, and meeting up with the rest of the Pride's kids. She'd sent each of them a message, telling them to meet her in the same place they'd met up in the first time they'd ran away: the James Dean memorial at Griffith Observatory. And she wasn't alone, either. Jim had tagged along. The trek up to the observatory was longer than Karolina remembered. Maybe it was because she'd never been here in the darkness of 1 AM, in the middle of the night. Or maybe it just felt that way because she was unsure whether they'd actually find anyone up there. She had a backpack, and kept fingering the straps a little nervously while she walked.

"I just hope they all got my messages."

That was about all she could hope for, right? That they hadn't come all the way to LA for nothing?

Jim	"If not, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Jim said, wiping his brow and trying to sound reassuring. "Don't get pessimistic when we're so close."
Karolina	"I'm not being pessimistic," Karolina promised. No, she was just... nervous, maybe that was the right word for it. Worrying her lip between her teeth. "Just considering the possibilities."
Jim	"And a little pessimistic," Jim added with a small smile. "C'mon, if they're not there, we'll figure out another way to find them since we're here already."
Karolina	"Maybe," Karolina replied, and managed to even add a little smile of her own to that, before glancing up. They were almost at the top of the hill, now. Almost at the observatory. "And I guess a little uncertainty goes naturally with clandestine operations."
Jim	"Let's get up to the observatory before we start thinking of anything," Jim decided. "No use in thinking of the future when we don't even know what that's gonna be."
Karolina	"Yeah," Karolina said, nodding, with another quick smile. "Guess you're right." And soon enough, they were there, right by the James Dean Memorial, the bronze bust of the man himself gazing down at them from atop a white column not too far away. There seemed to be no one around. "Hello?" Karolina called out. There was no immediate answer.
Jim	"Anyone around?" Jim added, glancing around. "We're friendly out here. No weapons to speak of."
Nico	A figure stepped out from behind the column. A girl. Japanese, a Goth. She looked wary, but hopeful. "Karolina? Is that really you?" Karolina grinned as soon as she'd spotted her. "Nico!" she exclaimed, and would probably have run to her had it not been for the other girl's still guarded manner. Nico was eyeing Jim, yes. Everything pre-orphanage had left her a little wary of strangers. "And who are you?"
Jim	"Jim," he said, keeping any smart comments to himself for the moment. He had some sense, sometimes. "Just a friend of Karolina's. I came with her so she wouldn't be alone. Talking to someone else would make her seem a lot less crazy than if she was talking to herself." Well, not all of his smart comments.
Karolina & Nico	Never all of them. Karolina gave him a look, though it was a friendly one – and it was probably a good thing in Nico's eyes as well. "He's fine," Karolina said. "He's a friend from school." "Okay," Nico said, giving him a nod. "Hi."
Jim	"Hey," Jim returned, glancing around the observatory. "Nice place you got here."
Nico & Karolina	"Thanks," Nico said, a bit dryly, nodding at Karolina. "But it's really hers." She raised her eyebrows at the other girl. "Did you have any trouble sneaking out?" Karolina looked sheepish. "Oh, um. We didn't really sneak out, or anything." Because they were from Fandom, the land of no supervision and no real questions about where they were going.
Nico	"Yeah, we kinda just packed up some stuff and headed out," Jim agreed. "No one really cares where we're coming from. I mean, if we don't come back, some people might get concerned and all but yeah."
Nico	"Definitely sounds better than Father Flanagan's Home for Unwanted Goth Kids," Nico remarked, shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure one of the boys at my shelter is obsessed with me. I wish no one cared."
Jim	"Yeah, guys are dicks," Jim said, shrugging. "I'm just the exception to that rule."
Karolina & Nico	"Uh huh," Nico replied. She was a bit slow to warm up to people, and Karolina felt like apologizing on her behalf. Maybe she even would have, if she hadn't had something else to ask. "So you guys aren't like," she started, awkwardly hooking her thumb in her jean pocket, "going together or whatever?" "After what Alex did to me? To us?" Nico shook her head again. "I've sworn off boys forever." "Oh." Karolina couldn't help a little smile. "Cool." (Not a word, Jim.)
Jim	Jim started to say something but thought better of it. Instead, he just half smiled and crossed his arms. "Are you the only one here?" Jim asked after a moment.
Gert	Nico was about to answer, but someone else did that for her. "Did we recruit another testosterone-addled addition?" Yeah, that was Gert coming over. Along with a younger girl, who was wearing an adorable bunny hat because that was how Molly rolled. Karolina gave them a wave. Molly waved back. Gert didn't, because she was busy repeating Nico's wariness at Jim. Which prompted Karolina to say, "Hey, um... Arsenic, this is my friend Jim."
Jim	"I rec -- " Oh wait, he might not wanna say that. "I mean, I'm Jim, yeah. And I'm not addled, either. My testosterone is evenly spread out which keeps me from going all caveman."
Molly	"Why? I think a caveman could be cool! With a club and everything!" Molly was clearly more accepting of him.
Jim	"Yeah, that part would be pretty cool," Jim agreed with a snicker. "But I'd have to have the club to be a cool caveman. Without that? Just a guy in some fur."
The Girls	Gert cut in before Molly had time to go on a tangent about dinosaurs. (Which happened to actually be a touchy subject here.) "Sorry we were late, by the way," she said. "Had to bust Bruiser here out of one of those X-Corporation embassies that looks after mutant kids. Tough to fool security guards when they're all psychics." "Gert says you get to live in an orphanage," Molly enthused to Nico. "Is it like the one in ~~meta for~~ Annie?" Nico patted her on the hair. "More scrubbing, less singing." Molly pouted. "Lucky…" "Fandom is starting to sound really good," Karolina said. By which she meant she was starting to almost feel guilty.
Jim	"They could always come back with us," Jim said, glancing over at Karolina. "It's not like Fandom checks who comes and goes. There's plenty of space."
Gert & Karolina	Karolina looked over at him. "Maybe?" Although then her eyes darted towards Gert who'd be... kind of a problem. With their being two of her. And two din–– Actually. "Where's Old Lace?" Gert looked down. Just a bit vulnerable. "I don't know," she admitted. "The superdespots said I wasn't allowed to keep a velociraptor as a pet. They... they took her away." Karolina's hand flew to her lips. "Oh my God, I'm so ––" Confused, actually. Sorry, of course, but mostly confused. She glanced over at Jim again. He knew who Old Lace was, right? She hadn't hallucinated seeing him in Fandom.
Jim	"Do you know where they took her?" Jim asked, brow furrowing. "Any chance of getting her back while we're here?"
The Girls	"I don't know," Gert said. She looked like she was about to say something else but then held it back and changed the subject, looking at Nico. "How about Talkback? Have... have any of you guys heard from him?" Nico shook her head. "Not since we all became wards of the great state of California." Karolina refrained from adding 'and Maryland', and frowned. "I thought Chase convinced his case worker to let him live with his aunt in Anaheim?" "He did," Gert confirmed," but he doesn't have an aunt in Anaheim, just a P.O. box he used for his Playboy subscription. I checked." "Well, I'm sure he's fine," Karolina tried. "There's not really anyone left to hurt him, right? The Pride's in pieces." Off Gert's pointed glance at Jim, she felt compelled to add, "Oh. Jim knows, I've told him."
Jim	"Yeah, I know," Jim confirmed with a nod. "And I'm not telling anyone so don't start thinking I'm gonna be a security leak." Gert looked a little suspicious. "I keep secrets." Hey, Karolina didn't know a lot about him so that was a testament to that fact.
The Girls, and Chase!	"It's true," Karolina nodded with a wry little smile. And maybe someone else would have said something else, too, except for how this group had a knack for interruptions. "Man," said the voice of someone who'd basically just snuck up on them, "I haven't seen this many disappointed ladies since I picked my homecoming date." This new arrival was male for a change, a blonde guy with a cap on his head and a backpack slung over his shoulders. "Chase!" Molly squealed, excited, although Chase seemed most interested in smirking at Gert. "How's it going, Gert?" Gert slapped him right across the face. "Son of a... What was that for?" "My name," said Gert, "is Arsenic." "What are you talking about, psycho?" Chase asked, still rubbing his cheek. "We quit using those stupid codenames months ––" "I thought you were dead!" Gert pressed on, jabbing a finger at him. "I thought you got hit by a bus or... or killed by drifters or something. Why didn't you respond to any of my emails?" "I was busy!" "Doing what?" "Looking for your stupid dinosaur, okay?" That seemed to rein Gert's anger in, somewhat. "And I found her." Yes, that definitely helped with the rage. "You... you did?" Gert asked. And then she leaned up to kiss him. Which wasn't at all awkward for everyone else standing like three feet away from them. "Ick," said Molly, disapprovingly, like only a prepubescent person could. "I forgot about how much freakin' snogging you guys do."
Jim	Jim raised his eyebrows but snickered quietly too. Hey, he wasn't uncomfortable. He was just amused. "That's some nice whiplash there," Jim commented.
Karolina	Karolina was side-eyeing them a bit, too. And then wondering if she should have been averting her gaze or something. "Yeah," she said, slowly. "They kind of do that."
Jim	Jim snickered again and shook his head. "At least they're used to it," Jim said with another laugh. "Means the whiplash won't be as bad."
The Gang	Nico rolled her eyes. "Um, Chase, if you come up for air at some point... could you tell us where Old Lace is?" Chase pulled back a bit – but only to raise his eyebrows at Jim. "Wait, who's the extra dude? Did you try replacing me already? 'Cause that's just ––" "He's Lucy in the Sky's friend," Gert cut in, to help things along. "Focus!" "Oh, remember when the Avengers had a West Coast team, back when we were kids? These zoning permits I, uh... found ––" Sure. "–– showed that they still have a storage facility somewhere on Palos Verdes. Exact address is classified but I figure Arsenic's dino-sense will start tingling when we get close."
Jim	"Dino sense?" Jim repeated, glancing over at Karolina. "You can fly and she got dino sense? Short end of the stick, man."
Karolina & Gert	"Uh, it's not really that simple," Karolina hazarded. "We have a mental link," Gert said, rolling her eyes. "Means I can tell her what to do. It's not just to sense her."
Jim	"Uh huh," Jim said, smirking just because he could. "Is that what we're gonna be doing? Going after the dinosaur?"
Nico & Chase	"We can't break into a government facility!" Nico objected, even though the others were nodding. "If we get caught stealing, everyone's gonna accuse us of what most people already think... that we're no different than our parents." "It's not stealing if it belongs to us!" Chase argued. "Besides, we won't get caught. My Fistigon gloves may be deep-sixed, and our ride might be impounded, but Molly and Karolina are still all Powerpuffed out, and –– new guy, can you do anything?" Jim, that meant you.
Jim	"I don't have superpowers or anything but I'm a genius." He really was. "And I can talk my way past anyone."
The Gang	Chase wasn't sure there was going to be much talking involved, but hey, a genius? He could use that. Especially since their last one had kind of turned on them and died. "See, excellent!" he said. "And Nico, you've got that magic stick up your soul, right? All you have to do is cut yourself, and we're ready to rock." Nico looked hesitant, though. "Yeah, but I... I haven't used the Staff of One since ––" Yeah, they all knew since when. Gert still spoke up. "Please, Sister Grimm. My mom and dad kept Old Lace locked away for years. If we let that happen to her again, how are we any better than them?" Nico glanced away, biting thoughtfully on her lip. "Well..." "We should do it, Nico," Karolina offered. "Gert should have Old Lace back. And we'll be fine."
Jim	"Doesn't sound like that daunting of a prospect," Jim chimed in. "Besides, never broken a dinosaur out of anything before. It'll make a good story."
The Gang	"It'll be an adventure!" Molly chimed in. "A rescue mission!" "The team has spoken," said Chase. "What do you say, Nico?" Nico looked them all over. And then she nodded, and with a hint of a smile, she said, "Okay." And so they were back in business.