2014.06.12 - Bearly There

It's a pretty common thing for alien monsters to attack Metropolis. And just as common is a superhero stopping them. Like the one that happened about 5 minutes ago when some slimy alien monstrosities attacked not too far from Jimmy Olsen's apartment. The whole thing was wrapped up relatively quickly since the aliens weren't all that good at fighting. It was Superboy that saved the day but he left the scene relatively quickly. Why? Well...

There's some quick knocking at Jimmy's door this afternoon. Superboy doesn't know the photographer all that well but Kal vouches for him so he's stopping by. Why? Well...when Jimmy opens the door he'll find Superboy in very little. Tattered costume remains and his leather jacket tied around his waist to keep him decent. The slimy weapons the aliens used had a...negative effect on Kon's costume. And since he heard the loom was busted and Jimmy was likely to have something they needed to fix it, Kon's taking care of it rather than waiting for Kal. And hopefully he can borrow some pants...

Jimmy Olsen has for his part been leaned all the way out his fire escape, using a telephoto lens to capture the action on film and video. He's just getting up from his laptop, having sent off the various files to the Planet for approval and incorporation into the paper and the website, when he hears the door.

"'Just a sec!" he calls as he makes sure that last set of uploads completed correctly, then he opens the door, blinks... "Um, hey, I... Oh! Superboy!" he says as he suddenly recognizes the young man.

- An old woman in the corridor harumphs and shakes her head. "No, Mrs Clomsky, this is... ah never mind..."

"Um, hey, what... man..." he says as he looks around and then points to his hallway. "Ah, bathroom is in there..." he says. "Um, you're a bit bigger than me I think, um.." he says, opening another closet.

Kon has been trying to avoid being seen for the most part and he looks faintly annoyed when harumphed at. Slipping into the apartment, frowns a bit. "Hey. Yeah, I need to borrow some pants. Those goo-balls kinda ate my costume," he explains even if Jimmy's figured it out. "Don't need the bathroom, dude," he added, shifting a little awkwardly.

Jimmy Olsen hunts through a closet, pushing aside various costumes and a rather large variety of clothing. "Didn't know how shy you might be, man, I... wait, I thought your super-suits were about as invulnerable as you are...?" he says, stopping and looking over to the youth.

"Maybe the ones Big Blue and Supergirl have but mine have always been plain old costume I just make awesome," Superboy replies. "The thing we got at Supes' place is busted though or I would have flown there. He said you might have somethin' to help fix it too. A capacitor or something," the teen of steel shrugs. "And I'm mostly just tryin' to avoid gettin' slapped with an indecent exposure charge and havin' Supes give me trouble over the super-bits ending up all over the evening news, dude," he chuckles.

Jimmy Olsen hesitates as he mentally reviews the files he /just sent/ for publication. Truthfully he was more concerned with getting some good shots of the aliens to pay attention to the potential for super-bits. Oh, well, Editing will airbrush that out, he's sure. Sure.

He reaches back into the closet and hands out a pair of black pants, and a new-looking t-shirt for the 1954 World's Fair. "Try those; I'm pretty sure they'll fit you," he says. "As for this capacitor... um, let me look." He crosses over to the area where most of his news gear is stowed. "I think... I was using that in this.." he mutters. To Superboy: "I would have thought your costume came from the same place. There's a dude over in Central City that does costumes - I guess I thought all heroes went to him."

Thankfully for Kon, he got to cover before anything inappropriate was seen by the general public. Plenty of shots of the super chest though. When Jimmy hands him the clothes, Kon sighs in relief. Proving he's not shy, he pulls off what's left of his costume and the thankfully spared leather jacket right there. Nope, he doesn't care of Jimmy sees. He gets dressed relatively quickly even if he doesn't go into super speed though. They're tight on him but they fit. "Thanks, man," he says. "And they don't. I wasn't exactly always on Superman's good side, y'know," he shrugs. "And that dude in Central City only does villains. There's a guy here in New York but he's expensive."

Jimmy Olsen notes as he makes mental notes. "Huh, I guess... he's never said a bad word about you to me, at least," the young man notes. "You want anything to drink or such, feel free to raid the fridge." He pokes at a couple of devices, frowns. "I swear I've seen that thing.. it can make wiring, too.. " he mutters as he reaches into a couple of boxes of parts and batteries and such to rummage.

"He didn't? Huh..." Kon wasn't expecting to hear that. He shakes it off though, heading for the fridge. "Wait, this thing makes wires? I thought it was some kinda power component or whatever," he says, arching a brow. "Want me to get ya anything while I'm in here?"

"Dark beer," Jimmy says. "Well, it sometimes makes things, or it powers things, or... well, it is alien, from a civilization probably a couple thousand years more advanced than us. It adapts.." He rummages a bit more, then pulls a grey block from a camera bag. "Oh, hey, here we go.." he says, and turns and brings the thing in line with Superboy's body -- at which point little glowing colored lines start to flash across the block's surface, and make weird little squiggly symbols. "Um...."

Grabbing himself a soda, Kon picks up a beer for Jimmy. Walking back over, he lets out a little impressed noise at the information. "Well, either way I just gotta plug it into the thing and it'll fix Superman's costume machine. Then maybe I can get one that doesn't get melted by slime balls or eaten by evil teddy bears," he sighs. And when the box starts getting glowy, Kon frowns. "Not supposed to do that?"

Jimmy Olsen shakes his head as he picks up the beer; the squiggly lines race excitedly up and down the featureless little block as it gets nearer to Kon. "I guess.. it's just reacting to a Kryptonian?" he says, testing it by shifting it away and closer to Superboy - it certainly seems to react to him, at least. "Wait. Evil teddy bears?"

Now, as it happens it's impossible NOT to think of teddy bears when someone says something like that and the device reacts primarily to thought, and so it happens that the device flashes - the denim and cotton and materials Superboy is currently in suddenly balloons and fluffs out into a hugely plush teddy bear costume, complete with furry little round ears.

"That's usually not a good sign," Kon points out in relation to the reaction. He watches the box as Jimmy moves it, brow arching. "Yeah, they came in through some freakish portal and me and Speedball..." he's cut off by the flash. When he feels things get a little more drafty than the tight denim, Kon blinks. Eyes closed, he's resisting the urge to look down. "Jimmy...what just happened?" he asks, even if he has a good idea already.

Jimmy Olsen closes his eyes for a second, then he smiles, then he can't help but laugh. "I'.. I think it...heh..." He shakes his head, hand held out to the fluffy Teen of Steel. "Wait, wait, let me get my breath," he says as he tries to stifle laughter. "It.. you must have.. heh, OK, I think.. I know how this works..." he says, leaning on the kitchenette bar. He shakes his head and takes a long drink from his beer, calming down.

Superboy finally looks at what he's ended up in and has to take a moment to resist the urge to just rip it off. He pokes the fuzzy ears a few times before pushing the hood back and giving Jimmy a look. "Dude...so not cool."

Jimmy Olsen can't resist and laughs a little more before getting control of himself. "OK, let's try this again. Think um, heroic, costume, Superboy..." he says as he aims the device at the boy again...

"Whoa!" Conner holds up both hands. "Are you sure trying that again is a good idea?" he asks, worried what else he might end up in. He closes his eyes when Jimmy aims the device at him and when the light flashes again, he waits. After a moment, he cracks open an eye and looks down at the costume he's ended up in. He pokes at the fabric a little and then smirks. "Okay, this one's lookin' good."

Jimmy Olsen quickly drops the device into the camera bag once he sees Kon is in a costume again. "OK, not bad. Kinda surprised you didn't come out with a cape." He zips the bag closed and hands it over. "OK, hopefully that will stay stable until you can get the loom to make you a costume." He smiles at the youth, glad to have been of some help.

"Dude, I may rock the cape but I look better without one," Superboy replies. He turns around a moment and glances over his shoulder. "It'd be a crime to cover up this perfect ass," he says with a grin. "I do the jacket thing, not the cape one," he adds, turning back around. Accepting the bag, he hangs it on his shoulder. "Thanks, Jimmy."

Jimmy Olsen grins at Superboy. "You're welcome, Superboy! Any time, now!"

Superboy drains the rest of his soda and crushes the can with his TTK. "I'll hit the road then," he offers. "Any time ya need a hand, lemme know. I'll do what I can."

"Same here, Teen of Steel," the young reporter says.