2012-07-25 Making Friends

Finally, today, Wonder Girl got the chance to get a real work out in the gym. So far, every time she's tried she's gotten interrupted. And while she hasn't minded, since its meant getting to know her new teammates better, it’s with great satisfaction that she finishes a full workout (as taught to her by Wonder Woman) and exits the gym of Titans Tower, hair wet from a quick hose-off in the showers, and starts wandering around looking for a fridge. Or a vending machine. Anything with juice.

There's a lounge area that the personal rooms are off of that has couches, a television and of course, a kitchen. The actual cookware hasn't seen much use it looks like, but the space has people there! OK, at least one. The white hooded form of Magik is there. Using the *gasp* stove! Well, OK. She's got a kettle on and a mug with a tea bag nearby. She looks up as Wonder Girl comes in and gives her a nod. "If you were fighting with Aqualad, I think he won." She deadpans.

Mend comes wandering into the lounge herself. "So...Wonder Girl...oh, hi there, Magik." The order of greeting because the first thing the young mutant saw was Cassie's hair retreating into the lounge area, and only then noted the tea-making magic user, not because of any preferences as to company. Hrm. Fridge. Microwave. Stove, even. A full kitchen. "Looks like those cooking nights won't be hard to set up."

Wonder Girl stops dead in her tracks, seeing Magik. As Mend enters the kitchen, she's throwing back her head and laughing. She makes her way to the fridge while the laughter dies down, offering a grin over her shoulder to Mend. "Hey, how's it going?" She starts rummaging around in the fridge as she also asks, "It's Magik right? How do you like being a Titan so far?"

"I make tea and cocoa and that's about the limit of my cooking skills." Magik shares with the others. Mend is given a nod by the white-hooded young woman as she comes in behind Wonder Girl. "Waiting for the other shoe to drop. How about you?" The kettle starts to whistle and Magik takes it off the heat, pouring the water into her mug.

Aqualad is taking a trip to the kitchen too, apparently having just come up from underground. It’s fairly easy to tell, with the webbed hands and all. His fingers rap against the side of the door once to announce his presence, nods doled out all around for the other Titans. "Cooking isn't easy," He offers, apparently having caught at least some of the conversation. "I always tried to avoid it."

"I can cook. I'm not fantastic, but I do okay." She finds the fridge and tugs a can of soda out of it, then hesitates. Soda's not good for the keeping in shape thing. "Magik, I was hoping we could talk some time." It feels awkward to ask about 'mutant stuff', but also...well. No, it does feel awkward. It feels like she's emphasizing the very thing she wishes she could forget.

"Hey, speak of the devil." Wonder Girl grins amusedly as Aqualad arrives. She gives a nods to Mend and pulls from the fridge a bottle of cranberry apple juice, "I had to learn to cook pretty early, though I don't tend to stray far from the boxed and microwaveable stuff. Anyone want one?" She holds up the juice, waving it a little at Mend as a suggestion to replace the soda.

"I could probably manage grilling stuff." Magik adds. She learned to cook over an open fire before Belasco recaptured her. After that, she ate what the demons brought her. And then it was Xavier's cafeteria. Blue eyes that seem hard and cold flick over towards Mend as she speaks. A nod is tilted her way. "Sure. I've got time." A smirk touches her lips, as if she just made a joke and she dips the teaball a few times in her mug. Aqualad is given a polite nod as he enters and she doesn't answer Wonder Girl since she obviously has her tea.

Aqualad's brows rise, one hand stretching out toward Wonder Girl at the offer. "Do I want to know?" On the subject of food, "Grills are okay. Microwaves are better. Anything that requires any sort of effort is out." A dry smile follows. "I miss microwaves a lot." Undersea technology has a ways to go. "Is something going on?"

"Nah. I think we all just kind of converged here." Mend offers a smile to the others, then moves to sit down with her soda. "And I can't stay long. I have an early start tomorrow."

Cassie grins. She tosses Aqualad a bottle and grabs another for herself before joining him and Mend, "Cool beans. I was just in the gym and came for rehydration." She lifts a lock of hair, which is still wet from her shower, "Magik was proving she has a sense of humor, she asked if we were fighting."

Magik gives a bit of a smirk as Wonder Girl notes she has a sense of humor, removing the tea ball and then adding some cream and sugar. She glances at Mend, but when the girl doesn't bring up whatever it was she wanted to see the sorceress for, Magik lets it go. Either something private or that will take a while. Gotcha! "Most don't appreciate it, but I like to think I do." She agrees.

Aqualad's brows furrow for a second, and then a lopsided grin settles on his lips. "Oh. Hey. I've gotten in fights that don't end up with everyone drenched. Once." The bottle is caught deftly, the boy finding a place to lean while he takes a gulp from it. A nod toward Mend and he asks, "Have you gotten a chance to speak with the instructors here?"

"I've been talking to them...and I've been arranging for flight training." As she can't fly on her own, learning to pilot the jets strikes Mend as smart. "And Aqualad, you don't need to be in a fight to get everyone drenched." ...point.

Laughing again, Cassie find a stool and scoots it up to the counter. "Seriously. And that's awesome. I need to get started on that myself." She takes a drink, then sets down her bottle to stretch her arms up high over her head.

Magik's already graduated from power training, damnit! She sips at her tea while the others talk, watching with those almost eerie blue eyes. "So Wonder Girl, you're pretty high-profile relatively speaking. Strong, tough..." She trails off, likely an invitation for Cassie to keep filling in blanks.

"Sounds useful," Aqualad agrees. "I might give that a shot." A pause after. "And that was just one time. I didn't get her wet." A gesture at Wonder Girl, "But there was a crab." So maybe worse. He has to consider it, ends up making a helpless shrug. "Alright, yeah, I'll probably do it again later."

"I've seen her in action. She's good. We need to start doing regular training and really...hrm." They have comlinks, which are secure and scrambled. But she's wondering what else the team could need...and what she might be able to talk out of StarkTech...maybe under the guise of 'field testing'. "Oh, that's a point," Mend adds. "Aqualad, at some point, we need to make sure that your comlink won't short out when you're at the bottom of the ocean and see whether we need to shield it better."

Wonder Girl grins, blushing a little this time at the reference to the crab. "Yep," She replies, "And I fly." She glances gratefully at Mend, smiling, as she drops her arms. "It doesn't feel like much, especially next to Supergirl's stuff. But I get by." She nods then, "Good point. We should ask what kind of testing they've been through, too. Might give us some other ideas."

Magik gives a thoughtful nod. "You do have a some similar advantages." She looks over to Aqualad then, dealing with the more known variables. "Atlantian, right?" There's not a lot of solid information on them, but the 'strong, tough' part's pretty consistent.

"Again, a good idea." Aqualad nods at Mend again, and an offer of, "Don't sell yourself too short," To Wonder Girl. When the topic comes to him his eyes turn to Magik again, considering for a second. "No, there wouldn't be. Strong and tough, super-speed underwater, adaptation to those sorts of environments. I can shape water, too. Hydrokinesis."

"He has gills, but they disappear when he doesn't need them. So I'm figuring his dive depth might end up being more than they rated the comlinks for. And if anyone else has anything that might be hard on them, we can work on that too." Mend isn't sure how useful she is in a fight, but it's clear she's the best with gadgets and technology with the possible exception of the elusive Nightwing.

Wonder Girl grins, "It’s pretty awesome. You know, like that old cartoon with the kids who controlled the elements?" She pauses a minute to try to remember the name, then gives up with a shrug, "And Mend's all super-healy. And you, I'm guessing, do magic?" The last is asked with obvious irony.

"You actually don't want me to have to do magic." Magik says, her tone dry. "If I need to do serious spellcasting, things have gone very, very bad. I'm a teleporter." Well. That seems to make no sense, right? A nod is given over to Mend. "You regenerate then? Or or do you heal others." Because 'super healy' is a little vague.

"Regenerate. But it only seems to cut in when I'm really hurt." Mend shrugs. "Still working on understanding it." A pause. "Oh, that's really useful. If we're in a real hurry to get somewhere..." Teleporter is good. Mend stretches. "But I'd better get to bed. I didn't get 'no need to sleep' in the powers lottery. Sadly." She grins at the others, and then heads out of the room.

Aqualad says, "The bottom of the ocean," Aqualad offers, shoulders rolling backward. "Captain Planet? Was there a water guy in that?" He doesn't seem to have much luck recalling either, but the distraction doesn't last long. Magik gets a half-curious look for her remark, but nothing more. "Alright, time for me to go too." Aqualad flicks fingers in farewell to the gathered crowd, turning to head back toward the door he'd come in. "See you all later.""

Wonder Girl waves to the two, "See you around!" She takes another drink of her juice, then pops up again and goes back to the fridge to start more rummaging. "Can you teleport others? Cause that would rock."

Magic gives a nod to the other two, sipping her tea as they make their exit. She looks back over to Wonder Girl and nods. "I open portals. But the trip can be a little... unnerving."

"Yeah?" Cassie comes back out of the fridge with an apple and some kind of cheese, which are set on the counter while she begins poking around in the cupboards. "I read this book once where this guy could go through walls and solid rock and stuff. He took someone else once, and it traumatized her pretty much forever. But, uh, if you're interested we might try practicing it sometime? So people can be ready for it in an emergency?"

Magic gives a small, short nod. "Yeah, I figured sooner or later we're going to need to be somewhere *now* so I should get people used to it." And then she'll find out if they want her off the team.

Cassie nods. She smiles in triumph as she finds some crackers and a plate. "Sounds good. I was talking to Aqualad and Mend about having some weekly training sessions for a while. You know, get to know everyone's abilities and all that." The items are quickly arranged on the plate, which is offered to Magik as she returns to her stool.

Magik pushes her hood back and slides onto a stool near Cassie, giving a nod of thanks. Her gloves are stripped off and she reaches over to take some to nibble on. "Knowing what each other *can* do and what they're *likely* to do are really important." She agrees, though there's a sense of hesitation to her words.

Cassie nods emphatically, "Totally! Plus, the more wee work together the more we can all teach each other. I figure we can all create these epic tactics, you know? And then we'll just kick major a- uh, butt." She smiles a little sheepishly.

Magik has some experience working on a team, but she doesn't offer that up just yet. In trying to keep the X-Men and the school low-profile, she needs to keep a few secrets. Well, OK. She keeps a LOT of secrets. "Trusting each other might be the hard part."

Wonder Girl sighs and nods. "Yeah. I gotta admit I'm having some trouble already. I mean, in general I tend to trust people maybe a little /too/ much. But, like, this whole Nightwing thing?" She frowns, "Having not met him yet is kinda starting to bug."

"I have to admit, not so keen on that." Magik agrees. "But I get being busy. Or he might be quite literally tied up. They also seemed to imply we're kind of left to keep doing what we were doing, so maybe 'leader' is really more 'liaison'." She goes back to nibbling on her cracker for a long moment. "What's your take on good and evil, Wonder Girl?" Now there's some light conversation!

Wonder Girl is nodding in agreement, a slice of apple raised partially to her lips, when the questions stops her. She blinks, slowly beginning to frown in through as she lowers the apple slice again, "Wow, um. I guess, I dunno really. That's kind of abstract, but um... hm. Well, I guess for me the only thing that tends to really cross the line into not ok, or evil if you want to call it that, is hurting someone on purpose. I mean like someone innocent, or well, admittedly, someone important to me."

Magik gives a slow nod, as though she hadn't just asked a hell of a question. "Well, that's good." She sips again at her tea. Those eerie blue eyes, hard and cold even when she's almost smiling slide over to rest on Wonder Girl. "Have you been doing this long?"

Wonder Girl regards Magik questioningly, seeming surprised by the short comment she is given for her answer. But she shrugs and moves on to the next question. "Depends on your definition. Since... a little while before Wonder Woman arrived is probably the most accurate answer. I still feel pretty new at it, especially compared to those like Supergirl and Robin. But I'm learning pretty fast from Diana."

Illyana sets her cup down, her gaze having fallen to it. She turns it a bit, as if it needs a bit of adjustment. "I just ask because it seems like the longer people do this, the harder choices they have to make." She looks back over at Wonder Girl. "Not to imply it's a bad thing but you're very..." A hint of a smile there. One that's not a smirk. "Optimistic? Bright? Like the bad things in the world haven't weighed you down yet."

Cassie tilts her head to get a better look at Magic as she waits for the verdict on herself. When it’s given she just grins, "True, I guess I haven't had to deal with too much of the heavy stuff yet. Though I did lose my powers once." Her grin fades a little as she remembers that, "I guess it’s just... for me, this is like what I've wanted to do since pretty much forever. And living your dream doesn't get old that fast. At least not for me." She shrugs, her eyes looking more closely at Magik, "Does that mean they have weighed you down, then?"

"I don't have dreams." The blonde says, picking up her tea cup again, continuing in a soft murmur. "Only nightmares." She sips again and then cradles her cup against her chest, like it's a tiny fire she can warm herself with. "I open teleportational gateways. That's.. the short form of my mutant power. But I don't open it from say, here to Paris. I open it to another dimension, and then another from that dimension to Paris. I grew up in that other dimension, and it's not a nice place."

Wonder Girl quiets as she listens. She's curious, that's obvious, but she keeps her face mostly sympathetic, and shows only a little surprise. "Sounds rough." She offers inadequately, "But... now forgive me if I'm trampling on your seriousness here, but you did agree to do this, right? And well, I kinda have to figure that you have some kind of hope for something better than nightmares, if you're willing to fight with us?"

Magik actually grins a bit when Wonder Girl apologizes. "Yeah. I figured I'd give it a shot. And I didn't say that I don't hope for better things for others. I just have trouble seeing it myself some days. Basically, I don't think that some of you are going to like what you see and we don't have the history for you to trust me." She finally looks over at the other girl again. "You're like our equivalent of the cool girl that everyone in school likes, I think. So I figured I'd try talking to you, one-on-one. Because if something comes up and freaks someone out, if you'll back me, I think the others will trust in you." There's that hint of a smile again. "You inspire trust."

Cassie is definitely surprised by this. 'Me?" She asks, her voice almost a squeak of surprise, "I, ah, wow. I mean, I kinda figured I wasn't.. " She looks down at the table to collect herself, her blush returning a little, "I mean. Thanks. That means a lot, actually." Smiling, she looks back up, "And sure I'll back you. Though, um. If you don't mind, I think I'd probably at least see what it is I'd be backing you up about?"

That gets a low chuckles from the Blonde. "Win and fail." She teases the other girl. She turns on the stool and a pinpoint of light appears and expands in less than a blink of an eye forming a circular gateway of light edged in fire. Magik stands up and steps forward. She glances at Cassie over her shoulder and then steps through, leaving the disk hanging there. Waiting.

Cassie is grinning sheepishly when Magic brings up the circle. It takes her a second to realize that it is happening RIGHT NOW. Jumping, she scrambles off her stool and hurries around the counter to the disc. "Well, no time like the present... " She reminds herself, before taking a deep breath and stepping onto the disc.

Passing through the disk itself brings just the barest tingle, but what's on the other side... The landscape is a blasted wasteland. The ground is cracked and parched under a blood-red sky without sun or moon or stars. There are large outcroppings of rock and small, twisted plants. In the distance, a dark, twisted castle rises to claw at the sky and out of shadows and around boulders twisted forms crawl. Long maws, scales, deadly looking claws. They take the form of demons from a thousand nightmares. Magik stands a dozen or so feet away. Her hood is down and a dry wind that seems to rasp against the skin like sandpaper pulls her hair into a long blonde banner. She's facing the disk that still stands there at Cassie's back, watching the other girl emerge.

Cassie gives a small shudder at the unfamiliar tingle as she arrives. She glances around, at first impressed but not necessarily freaked out or anything. "I think I read a book about this place... " She murmurs thoughtfully, bravely. She glances at the nearby boulders to get a closer look, and that's when she notices the things. She goes still, swallowing as she goes back and forth between looking at the nightmares and avoiding looking at them. "You, ah, weren't kidding." She offers after a moment.

"They won't hurt you." Magik says, having to raise her voice a bit to be heard over the wind. "Not while I'm here." But that doesn't stop Cassie from hearing the clatter and scrape of their claws against stone. The hisses and growls. Glowing eyes in yellow and sickly green and even bright white are fixed on her with a hunger that seems to go beyond mere food. Magik closes some of the distance between herself and Wonder Girl.

"Hmm." Cassie nods a little. Recovering some at the sound of a familiar voice, she straightens and moves toward Magik, closing the gap even farther. "So this is where you grew up?" She smiles a little, "It’s like... you know, like you grew up in a fairy tale. The original Grimm kind."

Magik gives another low chuckle at that. The demons pace and stalk the shadows, but none of them come closer. "I don't think anyone's ever put it like that." She gives a slight nod. "I think I like it. People have called it Hell before. They're not far off. But no damned souls come here. It's a kind of pocket dimension that was originally a prison, created by things older than demons and Hell. I can move the whole team from New York to London, but I have to move them through here to do it. I don't know if we have anyone with uhm... strict religious ideals."

Cassie thinks about that for a minute as she looks around again, "Hmm, not sure. I don't get that impression from Supergirl, though I admit we don't tend to talk about religion. I'm kinda working on this whole Amazonain thing, and... well, anyway. That might be something worth finding out. And... I dunno. I think my vision of hell is darker. This certainly has the creep-factor, don't get me wrong. But its not as... bleak as I picture hell." She shrugs.

"I'd probably need a river for it to qualify for you." Magik jokes. "You asked about things weighing me down. I've had enough people see this and decide they'll have nothing to do with me to make me a little gunshy. It's not something I care to share a lot of the details of but like you said. We have to trust each other." And Piotr poked her to remind her to warn people. Warning one of them counts, right?

Cassie laughs a little at that. "Sort of." She shakes her head, though, as Magik goes on, "That's just dumb. Not you, I mean." She quickly clarifies, "But that's like... like ditching a friend 'cause you found out they're a mutant, or gay or something. I mean, really. This place wasn't your choice of homeland I'm thinking. And you're right, I always thought the underworld was /way/ scarier."

Magik shakes her head. "It wasn't by choice. But it changed me." She gestures back to the circle of light, still hanging there. "We can go back. It really doesn't get better with a tour." She says with a dark sort of humor. The comments about mutants and gays hits home, but Illyana doesn't let it show beyond a slight tightening of her mouth.

Grinning a little, Casssie nods. She turns to the portal, reaching up to pat Magik on the shoulder as she gets close enough, "I /can/ tell you that I'm pretty sure Supergirl and Aqualad will be able to handle this. But I think they've both had some experiences outside the norm, too. We'll have to wait and see with the others, but I'm sure we'll make it work."

There's that faintest of tingles again, hardly even noticeable as the pair step back into the Tower. The portal winks out behind them and Magik offers Wonder Girl one of those small smiles. Like she doesn't know how to do the real thing. "Thanks. It's... been a long time since I've really had to explain any of it." And put herself out there for another's scorn or derision. "But I really am here to try to make things better for others. That's the important part, right?"

"Definitely." Wonder Girl gives a small shake, still not entirely used to the tingling. She glances around before moving, acclimating herself, then goes back to her seat at the counter. "Really, I wouldn't worry too much about it. So you've got a scary side-effect. I mean, so does Superman. Have you ever seen that red-eye thing he does? Freaktastic." She grins widely, trying hard to lighten the mood.

Magik chuckles at that. "Not up-close-and-personal." She admits. "I'm not going full-disclosure." She says, putting that up-front. "I don't want people to think I'm lying. There's just things I don't care to share unless it becomes an issue." She slides back onto her seat. "So you mentioned dreams before. Is this it, for you? Being a 'hero'?" It's not said with sarcasm, which Cassie might have picked up is kinda rare.

Cassie nods, "Hey, no worries. I have my secrets too." She smiles a little at the question, "I dunno that it's all I ever want to do. I mean, I'll probably get a job and everything someday, and I want to love whatever I do with that. But this... I guess it always did kinda seem like the ultimate thing to me. To help people on this level, when I was a kid it was the kind of thing I thought only mutants got to do. Its still a little surreal, sometimes."

"I don't think I've heard about where your powers are from." Magik says, crossing her arms before her and leaning on the counter a bit. "Mind sharing? At least the press-kit version. I'm used to mutants, but you're not."

"No?" Wonder Girl actually seems surprised by this, "Well, there goes that theory then." She shrugs, "A month ago I would have told you it came from these," She holds up her arms to show the gauntlets, "And my sandals. But after I lost my powers in the battle against the Hulk and those other guys, Wonder Woman helped me train without them a little. And it's looking like I can still do some stuff without them."

"I'm sorry, I guessed you weren't." Magik corrects. "You didn't say you were, and... well if you were a mutant given you being in the news, I think I'd have heard about it." Because Charles probably checked with Cerebro. "I could have someone check for sure though." She knows some great geneticists.