2012-12-20: The Truth About B-Rated Movies

New York City. Upper Manhattan.

In a city known for being busy, this is an area where people are known to live. Thus it's a place where people can be, and are targeted.

Case in point, there's a crew that /was/ trying to rob an apartment. Emphasis on was. Somehow they messed up, set an alarm off, set the dog in the apartment off, ended up stealing a car, were then chased by a police car, and ended up hitting one of the 'ultimate' road blocks.

In other words they crashed right into Power Girl who was standing in the street in front of them.

Now the criminals are being taken away by the police, and the other dimensional 'maid of might' is giving her statement to the police, while bystanders are being kept back by police tape.

More often than not, Terra, the Champion of Strata, is on the hunt for varying natural disasters she can help mitigate, villains she can stop, and so on and so forth. Today, she has an unlikely target, that heroine she met some time ago, Power Girl! The woman sorta kinda suggested that maybe she could help Terra learn those things she was missing, there was a name for that something, but Terra doesn't quite remember. It was a complicated couple of words. What matters though, is that she successfully located Power Girl, arriving on her flying rock just as the statement is given to the cops.

"Power Girl!!!" Terra cries out, waving her hand rather frantically, "I'm so glad I finally found you! Do you have a moment?"

Does she have a...?

Well, as Power Girl hears her name being called out, the police are already starting to walk away, thus...

Thus she slowly turns, and meekly waves at Terra.

"I guess I do now?"

Hopping off her rock and landing next to Power Girl, the rock proceeds to crumble into pebbles and fall on the ground, "hi!" Terra immediately extends her hand towards Power Girl, "I'm Terra! Do you remember me? You were supposed to teach me about...those things that make you sound less obviously from not around? So, I thought about it, and I really want to learn! Can you teach me...everything?"

"Everything...?" Power Girl repeats before reaching up and massaging her temples. "Everything is a lot. To be honest, I can try to teach you some things, but everything..."

"Okay! I'm ready to start small, but when we're all done, I'll be a genius!" Terra grins widely, looking quite confident in Power Girl's ability to make her blend in this world seamlessly. "So, Agent Harper said I'm from Canada, that sounds like a good thing to go with! How do I make people think I'm from Canada?"

"Usually Molson and Hockey does the trick." is let out in a slightly sarcastic, but mainly joking tone from Power Girl as she starts to take off. Or at least hovers a foot or so off of the ground. "But you're too young for Molson. So maybe... Hockey?"

"I got it! Molson and Hockey!" Terra squints as she looks as though she's trying to commit those facts to memory. It doesn't look like she realizes Power Girl is joking with her. "Why am I too young for Molson? I'm a superhero! There's nothing I cannot do!" Clearly, she's not familiar with drinking age laws.

And here's where Karen points up, towards the Sky, as she says, "Because Molson is an alcoholic drink, and by law you have to be a certain age the legally buy or consume it." before she takes off.

All though she does try to stay close, if terra follows after her.

"So if you did try to drink a Molson, it'd be illegal."

"Besides, that was a joke when I suggested that."

Terra looks up, expecting someone to fly down towards them, but when nothing happens, she looks back at Power Girl. "Oh...so, if I buy alcoholic drink I will be evil? I don't want to be evil, I'm a hero! Okay...so I'll not mention Molson, I'll go with Hockey! Is it enough if I say Hockey? Or do I need to say something more?"

When Power Girl starts to takeoff, Terra follows after her like a puppy, leaping in the air as the pebbles form back into a rock and lift her right after Power Girl. "A joke?" Terra pouts, "so I shouldn't really say Hockey? That's not helping at all!"

"It isn't just /saying/ things. It's..." Once again, Power Girl tries to find the right words, and once again she's at a loss. Especially as she comes to a stop a 'safe' distance up in the air, and just hovers there.

"Being Canadian, or at least being able to pass yourself off as one is not something that can be learned quick. It's the same thing when it comes to being from just about any part of The Earth. Most people grow up learning things, not just big things like Hockey that can be taught, but also little things that one can only learn via experience over years..."

There's a slight pause.

"There's just no easy way to make it so someone instantly knows everything they should. Trust me. I know."

When Power Girl comes to a stop to hover in the air, Terra's rock also stops moving, hovering in place while Terra settles herself cross-legged on it. "It isn't? Awww, well, what's the best thing I can pass myself off as? I need a good cover, that Agent Harper was really nosey!"

When Power Girl continues her explanation, Terra sighs in exasperation, "this isn't easy! How can I talk to people if they keep asking questions I can't answer, and I don't have a good enough way to trick them!? It's not fair. Oh! I know! Maybe I can say I lost my memory!" Terra beams proudly, thinking she stumbled on her solution.

"That might work." Power Girl admits. "But not for long. It might be easier if you just claimed you were from somewhere else, like another reality or another planet, or even some subteranean society like you see in those bad, B rate science fiction movies..."

"Uh ha!" Terra cries out, raising her hand in the air in triumph, she's about to brag about her cunning solution, when Power Girl soon suggests it won't work for long, and that triumphant hand sinks back dwon to rest in Terr'a lap. "Oh...I thought I had it figured out. Damn." Hearing the options, Terra at first giggles, and then nearly chokes as her eyes grow large and she turns pale.

It takes Terra a few moments to recover, before she turns an accusatory finger on Power Girl, "tell me who are those B rate movies! Where do I find them? I can't have them share our secret, they must be destroyed!"

Power Girl says, "..."

Pause.

Stare.

"..."

Yeah, as Terra goes off like that, the other dimensional Maid of Might just stares, before finally, she shakes her head.

"Please tell me that's a joke...?"

"Joke!?" Terra looks aghast, not sure who Power Girl can think that something so tragic as her utter failure can be a joke. "That's not a joke!" Terra says, wearing an angry face, "I'm supposed to keep it a secret and that B-rate Movies someone is telling the secret to everyone! I must stop him, or it, ot her! Who is B-rate Movies?"

Facepalm.

"A B rate movie is /not/ a person. It's a term for a type of movie. Usually one that is so bad, where the special effects are so cheesy, that no one in their right mind believes that they could be real. With movies like that, the pure absurdity, between the poor writting and the bad special effects, tends to leave people thinking that the whole movie is a /bad joke/."

With all of that said, Power Girl glances around.

"While not a 'subetanean' flick, maybe we should start with a classic, like Plan 9 from Outer Space, or Attack of The Killer Tomatoes, or even Bimbos In Time..."

Terra calms down a bit, mostly because Power Girl catches her by surprise with the revelation about her newest villain, the wouldbe threat to Strata's existence. "It's not? So how did it find our secret? Why is it telling everyone?" Terra looks awfully suspicious, if a bit confused. "I don't know about movies...but I want them not talk about the place that nobody on the surface world is supposed to know about, which I am also protecting by the way! That's why my codename's Terra!"

"First off Terra... Please calm down." is said as Power Girl massages her temples.

"Second, stories of people living in the Earth are old legends. In some cases they're almost real, such as cities that native americans have carved into mountain sides, or in asia where monks built temples into sliff sides. But there have been stories of 'mole people', fairies that 'live under the hill', not to mention giant monsters and the like that live under ground."

Then there's a pause.

"And that's without even going into some of the origins that some old 'heroes' had back in the last World War where people that lived under the ground gave them their powers."

"To be honest, almost everyone just brushes them off as stories. but if you go around doing rash things, shouting what you are right now, they're more likely to believe that they're real than they would if you just left things like these alone for now."

Terra nods at Power Girl, though she still looks more like a distraught little girl than a superhero well in control of everything. This realization that something was telling Strata's secret to those who care to listen scared the living daylights out of her. "We're not fairies, and we're not mole people either!" Terra is sure doing a splendid job of not giving that secret herself.

"Oh," Terra blushes and reaches with both her hands to block her mouth, whispering against her fingers, "sorry," which really doesn't help her words be very audible. "You're smart...I could use your help to be better at not giving up secrets. Would you mind being my teacher?"

There's a slight smile, and a nod at that, as Karen takes a deep breath.

"I can try." is let out. "but it's not going to be quick, or easy to do..."

Terra leaps at Power Girl and gives her a tight embrace, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!" Of course having jumped off her rock onto Power Girl, her legs flail before she shifts her rock a bit closer so she can stand on it, and avoid having to cling to Power Girl for dear life, "ooops, sorry about that! I'm just really happy you will help me! I'm sure with your help I can be a super awesome hero!" She then offers with a smile, "since you're going to be my teacher, I guess I can tell you my real name, I'm Atlee."

Power Girl lets out a slight 'Ack!' as she's suddenly hugged.

"Altee?" is repeated. "For now... Call me Power Girl And I'll help. but I also think we might need to find others to help you with this..."

"Just don't ask me who yet, because I'm not sure who."

"Power Girl it is, teacher!" Terra grins brightly at Power Girl, "please call me Terra too, if there are people nearby, but you can call me Atlee if it's just the two of us! You can be my first surface friend!" Terra absolutely beams at the prospect. "I am doing so well right now! I didn't expect to make friends," good thing she checked with Power Girl that they are indeed friends. "I trust in your opinion!"