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Chapter Two: Lunch Conversations

Simultaneously, they all stared at her while she sat alone at an empty lunch table. If she felt eyes on her, she certainly didn’t give way to showing that she cared.

“You know,” a small, dark skinned boy spoke up nearby, “She doesn’t look so big and bad to me. What’s the big deal with everyone talking about her, anyway…?”

Zack, a boy of great height and albino features, rolled his eyes at his friend’s utter stupidity. “Dude, don’t you know…?”

“Know what?”

At the shake of the clueless boy’s head, Zack continued, “Her mom is a legend, man. She’s the daughter of ‘the’ Elektra, the woman who single-handedly took out this ancient villain gang called ‘The Hand’.”

“The Hand…?”

Zack nodded. “Yeah… and from what I’ve heard about them, they were a clan of some fuckin’ bad ass dudes, some of the worst!”

Layla looked over at Ethan exasperatingly. “Don’t you ever read up on your villain or hero history, for that matter?”

Ethan shrugged sheepishly, rolling up his glasses to the bridge of his nose. “I don’t really care for that stuff. I just like science.”

Majenta rolled her eyes and looked up at the girl blankly. “She doesn’t look like much.”

Zack stared objectively across the table at her. “Well, neither did her mom apparently and look at what she did. Dude, she took down THE Hand. They were the worst villains to ever exist.”

“Hero worship much?” Majenta shot back.

A voice broke up the soon-to-be-brewing argument between the two. “Whoa, peace guys,” Will Stronghold spoke up, setting his tray down on the bare portion of the tabletop.

He sat next to Layla quietly, raising a questioning eyebrow. “So, what is it you guys are arguing about this time?”

At the end of the table, opposite next to Zack, Warren Peace followed suit, listening quietly to the conversation with half an ear.

“They,” Layla nodded toward her group of quarrelling friends, “were arguing about the new girl that had just joined the junior class.”

“Hmm. What girl?”

Zack was the first to speak up. “Elektra’s daughter, Kid. THE Elektra! You know, the underground superhero that’s more popular than even your own pops!”

Ethan purposely elbowed him from beneath the table.

At the mention of the name, Will perked up, leaning across the table rather conspiringly, “… really…?”

Zack gestured toward a secluded table across the room with a curt nod of his head. “Check her out for yourself, man…”

There, alone reading a book in silence, sat a young woman. She had very slender features, long light brown hair that cascaded down her back like a waterfall and deep, prominent cheek bones. The resemblance was uncanny. She looked exactly like her mother from the textbook pictures.

“Wow,” Will breathed, “… she even looks like her… well, except for the bangs and everything…”

Zack smiled in agreement, a goofy grin suddenly plastered across his face. “Yeah… It almost makes me want to find out just how good she would look in red leather…”

Layla didn’t even hesitate. She smacked him, hard, right upside the head.

Zack grimaced from the impact, feeling the sting while frowning at Majenta’s withering look. “Damn! What!”

“I wish she had super hearing,” Layla commented sweetly, “I’d just love to see how she would react to that statement.”

Zack shrugged.

“What are her powers anyway?” Ethan asked curiously.

“From what I’ve heard,” Layla answered, “The same as her mom. She even studies under the same teacher as her mom had.”

“You mean… she knows how to use Kimagure?” Will asked in an awed whisper, “It’s actually real!”

Layla rolled her eyes at her boyfriend and snorted skeptically. “Impossible. It’s just a myth. No one has that kind of power.”

“Ah.”

“From what I’ve heard,” Zack spoke, even though his expression showed heavy doubt toward Layla’s skepticism, “She kind of has powers like Mr. Flammable over here.”

Warren glanced up as he felt eyes on him. To this, he merely raised an eyebrow. “…what?”

“I mean, dude,” Zack continued, “I heard she threw this massive fireball into the gym wall and had Coach Boomer shrieking like a little girl!”

“Don’t believe everything you hear, Zack,” Layla chided him quietly, “That story was probably fabricated by freshman.”

“True,” Ethan spoke up, “I mean, I can see Peace making Coach Boomer “shriek like a little girl” before that girl can…”

Warren, reading his book with half a mind paying attention, actually cracked a smile.

“HA! HA! YEAH!” Zack laughed, slapping Warren jovially across the back.

At the man’s glare, he shrunk his hand away fearfully. “Heh. Sorry…”

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“Well…?” Zack asked excitedly.

Layla sat back down in silence. “Well, what?” She asked casually.

“What’d she say, man…? What’d you say…! A man wants to know details!”

“Since when…?” Majenta quipped.

At the intrigued stares of her tablemates, she calmly twirled a fork through her fingers. Shrugging, she answered, “I asked her if she wanted to sit with us and she said no, she wanted to be left alone.”

Zack smiled. “WOW, Dude, I can’t believe you actually talked to her, man. I can’t believe she’s here!”

“Will you shut up and stop acting like a panting Fanboy!” Majenta snapped, her eyes narrowing and flashing purple.

“I’m not acting like that,” Zack replied indignantly, “I just think its cool, ya know…? I mean, her mom was this bad ass, butt kicking chick. She took down the worst of villains and she didn’t even attend Sky High.”

Layla shrugged. “Well, either way, she’s certainly a loner like her mom was… she even acts like somebody else we know…”

Warren looked up at her penetrating stare of teasing accusation. And everyone else's. “What’s that suppose to mean…?”