multiplez | Fandom High Lawn, Tuesday Morning

After SPD Officer Blake dropped Z off at the gates, she shouldered her backpack, picked up the SPD issue duffel bag she'd been given, and headed off to find someone who could help her find her new dorm room. She was wearing an SPD cadet's black and grey uniform because, well, it was clean, and hopefully it would help her to ID this other cadet. If it didn't, the giant 'SPD' emblazoned across her bag probably would. Space Patrol Delta, it seemed, really liked labeling things.

As she was crossing the lawn, she almost ran into a petite girl hauling a duffel bag of her own. The girl had messy blue hair and clothes with a lot of safety pins, and seemed kind of cranky. Z guessed, somehow, that she was going to meet the woman in black in the convertible down at the gates, the one Officer Blake had tried to flirt with until he realized she was pregnant. There was definitely a family resemblance.

"Watch it!" the blue-haired girl snapped.

"Sorry! Hey, I'm new here. Do you know where I need to go?"

"Uh, yeah, they're settin' up some kind of welcome thing over there."

"Thanks! I'm Z."

"And I'll have forgotten long before I see you again, so...later."

The blue-haired girl headed off, and Z shrugged. Whatever, she was used to unfriendly people by now. She headed for the front lawn, since the blue-haired girl didn't seem to be wrong about that. Time to make a good first impression.

"Okay, Z," she said to herself under her breath. "Whatever you do, don't replicate."

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"You look like the type of person who can handle herself," Jamie said with winning grin. "Never heard of Newtech before, but I'm a New Yorker really. Well... New Yorker by way of Kansas."

"New York must be fun. I've always wanted to go there. You've seriously never heard of Newtech? I know it's kind of new, but it's the base of SPD Earth, for crying out loud."

"SPD Earth?" Jamie asked with a confused look on his face. "What the heck is that?"

"Space Patrol Delta? You know, they keep the alien lawbreakers in line?" And the street kids trying to eke out a living, too, but Z wasn't bitter. Really.

"Alien lawbreakers?" Jamie asked even more confused. "Are we talking about the ones from outerspace or those who enter the country illegally? Because usually the Avengers or the Fantastic Four handle the alien invasions. As for the ones on our planet their usually handled by the immigration bureau."

Jamie would have mentioned the X-men, but with mutant backlash being what it is he didn't want to start any mutant rights conversations his first day at camp.

"The ones from outer space. Most of them are here for peaceful trade, of course," Z said, quoting the SPD promotional literature she'd read on the transport. "But for the ones that choose to break our laws there's SPD. 'Avengers?' What are those?"

"The 'Avengers'," Jamie said making the finger quotes with his hands. "You know... Captain America? Iron Man? And I hate to tell you but I've never heard of anything called Space Patrol Delta. Do they have anything to do with the Sh'iar?"

"'Never heard of them,'" Z said, making finger quotes right back at him. "Or the Shi'ar, but I'm not up on my alien species yet. Guess I'd better fix that if I'm gonna work for SPD. Which was founded by a Sirian, by the way."

"You've never heard of the Avengers?" Jamie asked with his eyebrows practically shooting off his head. "You're kidding me right? And who's Sirian? I've never heard of him."

"No. I mean, should I have? The Sirians are a race. Or they were. I think there's only one now; they got kind of wiped out. Very sad."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jamie said apologetically, "But seriously... the Avengers. They're only like the biggest superhero team ever. I mean they have *Thor*. You've heard of Thor, right?"

At some point in her spotty schooling, yes, Z has stumbled across Norse mythology. Also, the library was warm and didn't kick her out. "Of course I've heard of Thor."

"Well there you go... Thor is part of the Avengers," Jamie said still slightly confused. "And they have a new line-up now with that Wolverine guy too." he said testing the mutant-tolerancy waters.

"That's--Thor's not real! Is he? And wolverines? You're just messing with me, aren't you?"

"C'mon! What planet are you from? Of course he's real. And not 'wolverines'... 'Wolverine'. Short guy? Bad temper? Wears tights?"

"I'm from Earth. Born and raised...If he wears tights, no wonder he has a bad temper."

"Try telling him that..."

"That's a possibility... I'm also thinking you and I may not be from the same... place. Exactly"

"That would certainly explain some things. Do you have Power Rangers where you're from?"

"Nope. Do they have mutants where you're from?" Jamie asked cautiously.

"Um. Define 'mutant.'" Z tenses up, ready for fight-or-flight if necessary.

"Next evolutionary step on the ladder for humanity?" Jamie said tensely. "Perhaps with special... talents?"

Z's expression is now bordering on panic. Oh, this is not how she wanted to start her day. "Why do you ask?"

"Um. No reason," Jamie said with a trace of worry in his voice. "Just that my world has them. That's all. Does yours?"

"Okay, fine, I'm a freak! Who told you?"

"What?! No. Not you! Me! Wait... You're a mutant too?"

Re: Meet Z!

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