Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tess didn't seem surprised, or even that eager to look up when her name was called. She smiled, looking her little cousin up and down before gesturing to a seat.

"Hello, Hummy. Feel free to sit down. I'd recommend a drink that's already cold."

"Slow down, Hummy, you're talking too fast."

The waiter came back with another coffee for Tess. He put it down and spoke begrudgingly, "Is there anything else?"
"My friend here would like a drink," Tess glanced at Henrietta's bumps and bruises and flicked her eyes back to the part-timer, "She will drink milk."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, now leave us."

As the waiter grumbled off, Tess turned her attention back to Henrietta. "Crystals? What makes you think I would know about anything like that?" She smiled. Not exactly warm, but there was a shadow of tenderness in there. "You've been getting in trouble again, haven't you? Come on, out with it. What happened this time?"

Tess listened to Henrietta's story. It seemed far-fetched, but Tess had no reason to doubt her. She'd already acquainted herself with much stranger things in this world, her baby cousin being attacked by psychopaths and bestowed magic crystals was just icing on the cake.

"You mean 'Aura'," Tess's smile turns whimsical. Without Aura, she'd be dead; true for all living things, but especially so for Tessandra. She'd be really dead.

"I had a feeling you might have awakened your abilities," she said. "Do you remember the wave yesterday? The sky turning orange and all that. Since then, this city has been glowing with Aura. I doubt most people will have noticed anything out of the ordinary. But you? Why Hummy, you're a bonfire in a sea of dead matches."

Tess leant forwards, careful not to nudge the glass of milk that the waiter brought during Henrietta's tale. "Do you really want to know more about these crystals? Because right now, you could just go home. Back. Go live a normal life as plain old Humrietta."

The coffee shop buzzed with activity. People talking over drinks, businessmen coming in during their break, kids, old women, even a cop resting his feet. Just your average day. "Or you could stay right here, and life will never be the same."

anyone else in the same town as me? '.' idk wat to do with myself.))

Jump and Kiedis

There was a ringing in Jump's ears, but his hearing was beginning to return. His head was killing him, and now he could see why: his diving attack had taken both him and Bill directly through the cabin, blasting holes in the walls until they had crashed onto the beach behind the house. Both of them lay in the sand, and Bill was face down and unconscious.

WhatJump thought he heard was "Beep, beep, beep," coming from a car backing up. Along with a whooshing noise. Slowly, he rolled his body to the side to see a large turtle shell with cannons protruding out of it and facing a downward angle. Kiedis was slowly cruising Blastoise to make a slow landing next to Jump. They hovered for a moment before settling on the ground. Very smooth driving.

Something clicked in Jump's mind,and he came to a realization: Kiedis was terrible at driving a car, so it was only logical that he'd be a natural at driving a turtle. He sighed at his revelation. It all made sense now.

The "Teddiursa" poked his head over the shell to look down at his trainer. [How's my parking?]

Jump examined the parking job. Perfect. He rolled himself into a sitting position and groaned while giving Kiedis a thumbs up. "You don't have to say 'beep', some cars just do that."
[If I didn't say it, it wouldn't have worked,] Kiedis told him matter-of-factly, jumping down off of Blastoise. Dead serious. He looked over to Bill. [Plasma Grunt?]

Jump took a handful of sand and let it sprinkle out of his hand onto Bill's butt. "Plasma Grunt. How's that robot suit?"
[It's pretty cool.]
"No, I mean, is it down?"
[Oh. Yes.]

He extended a paw to help his trainer up, and pulled Jump to his feet. "Word. Then let's get back to Kero, and let's take this guy with us. I'm sure Zack and Jackie would love to have a new buddy to interrogate."

****

Salieri

Apparently, no one had been listening to Wukong passionately rant on the superiority of monkeys over...whatever Hitmonlee was supposed to be for the past minute and a half. His eyes and fists were still on fire while he boasted. [-think you've evolved past having a prehensile tail, but you're just adapted to failure-]

He was knocked off his feet by Hitmonlee and Wayne, seamlessly integrating into their tumbling and fighting. So he joined in, pulling at and chomping on random limbs. Salieri, meanwhile, rubbed her chin in thought.

The ex is a b***h, huh? Good to know. I wonder what they broke up over. Was it her? Maybe he did something? I can't imagine Wayne being a very doting boyfriend... She paused from her train of thought to glance over at the dustcloud of punches and kicks that were Hitmonlee, Wayne and Wukong. Absentmindedly, she gave them a thumbs up.

"Great job guys, I'm really feeling it," she told them before going back to her musing. Then she did a double take on what she just saw, then facepalmed with a groan.

"Seriously? I turn around for just three seconds..." She put a hand on her hip and shook her head. "You have to have a will of iron, cowboy, remember? And Hitmonlee, get off of him. We all know you can beat up Wayne, there's no point in wasting your time doing it." The Battle Girl's instructions to Hitmonlee were firm, like a nanny at daycare. She had ordered around many a Hitmonlee at the dojo like this before. Then she cocked her head to one side.

"And Wukong, just...just get out of there. You're embarrassing yourself."

"Heeeeeeyyyy!" Jump called out to Kero from Blastoise's back. The Interpol Agent made a subtle move to grab one of the cannons, but Kiedis slapped his hand away.

[No. You're just going to crash,] he told his trainer as he cruised the turtle to a lower altitude. Jump pouted and stuck his tongue out at the back of the bear's head.

When Kiedis parked next to Kero, Jump hopped down with Bill over his shoulder. "You okay, dude?" he asked Kero, feeling he didn't need to gesture to the massive wound on the man.

"Looks like we saved the day and stuff. I'm just happy that robot suit is still okay so I can...never, ever get to ride it ever," Jump stated, the last part of the sentence coming out rather sadly.

Pretending that Kero doing minor surgery on himself was not going to make him puke later, Jump gestured with his head to the Plasma Grunt he had slung over his shoulder. "Oh, look what I found. Can I keep him?"