[ AI ] Why did it have to be Jersey?

[embiggest]

Kamala had barely gotten used to the whole 'superhero' thing before the so-called Crisis had happened and left her to try and police up Jersey City without any of the helpful, occasional visits from the big names across the river. IT had been weird. And hard. But it had mostly been the Inventor and his stupid robots and some street stuff. Muggers and people snatching handbags from innocent old ladies. Then, of course, things had to go and get really weird.

Jersey City had been picked as (naturally) the best spot for a new place they called STAR Labs. Kamala wasn't sure what exactly they did in there. What did did know is that it was a real pain in her butt. When before there had been few, if any super-villains making life annoying in Jersey now it seemed like they were popping up every week to try and break into the place and it seemed like things were left to her when it came to dealing with them. Things were already hard enough being a junior in high school and trying to avoid letting her parents in on the whole 'secret identity' thing, so having even more super-villain nonsense to deal with really wasn't what she needed right now.

And yet here she was, swinging giant fists at some annoying jerk calling himself Hydro-Man who was pretty much turning into a puddle every time Kamala took a swing.

"Could you maybe just, I dunno, stop doing that so I can clobber you?" She interjected between swings of giant fists. "I kind of have a history test to be studying for right now, so if we could just wrap this up soon-ish, that'd be great."

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[beetlebutt]

Jaime'd been one of the few currently in the tower when they got the call because he'd been there doing his superhero homework someplace quiet instead of back home. Back home was very much not quiet due to two families being crammed into the same home. Said superhero homework involved having to memorize a whole list of terrorist/supervillain organizations. So boring. Apparently Hydro-Man was attacking STAR labs in Jersey City and some street level hero was handling it but Hydro-Man was potentially powerful, if very, very stupid, so they wanted to make sure whoever it was didn't flounder. (Kind of literally, since the guy could drown people.) Rather than having him go in with another hero (their usual standard practice now) they let him go in solo since it was so close by. "Uh huh. So. Hydrokinesis. Can turn himself into - and control - water. Yeah, I can handle this." A pause, as he listened to his comm. "Yes, it'll be fine." Another pause. "Look, he's basically Typhoon, without the weather control. And hopefully without the pantslessness. I've fought villains like this before." Another pause. "Mr. Pym, you do realize I used to solo it before the Merge, right? Like, all the time. And I still do for stuff that's local to the southwest. I know you guys are trying to help me level up and all, and you're all like, super set in how you want me trained now, and that you've got all these plans and stuff, but you're kind of back-seat superheroing. Yes, okay, thank you. I'll call if I need help." Work work work. When had this turned into so much work? Ugh. Now they were even micromanaging him. Not surprising, though, when Cap had started out wanting the younger heroes just on as reserve to start with. It'd taken a lot of the heroes from Jaime's world to argue him down from that. He saw the superhero down below, a girl with stretchy powers not having much luck punching the guy. Just as Hydro-Man started to reform again, Jaime aimed and fired an ion cannon at him from above, swooping in. Ms Marvel was greeted to the sight of that bugsuit guy that was on the TV all the time swooping down to join the fray. "Hey, look, whatever it is you're doing here - with no pants, why do you water guys never seem to have pants? - can we get this over with super fast? Because I have to study."