Red and Yellow

Individual acts and groups with hidden agendas, huh? Well, Alva was quite aware of one group in particular that was acting in the shadows. She couldn't speak for the other aliens that flew in just to blow stuff up on Earth, though. "Guess Earth just needs more stronger people with good consciences, then," Alva replied after a moment with a shrug. "Cause, even though you might ant it, there's no way to just wish away all the weird power so many people seem to get their hands on."

Alva took another tender sip from her coffee, which Jackie then asked for the quality of. "Oh, it's delicious, of course!" Alva replied with a warm smile. "Much better than the mass produced stuff they make over in Central. You're hard pressed to find any coffee shops that aren't part of some big international chain, like Starzeni or Donkin' Dough Nuts." Those were okay, but didn't quite match the flavors of independently brewed coffee like the kinds offered at smaller shops like this one. 

Hmm, what were they talking about again? 

"But anyway, I do hope you keep on training more people to be like you, even if you're feeling a bit disillusioned with your role," she added after taking another sip. "I'm sure it's tiring, but, like you said, there's a lot to keep safe and not a lot of people who can keep it safe. I'm obviously not one of the people who can, so I have to depend on you guys." Alva took another sip, and a brown mustache began to form on her upper lip, though she didn't notice it.

"So, I hope you keep doing your thing regardless, unless you want to see me get atomized!"

"Well, I sure hope that doesn't happen anytime soon," Alva replied before taking another sip of her drink as Jackie stated the only way she'd be having a 'bad day' was if someone put her in the ground. Jackie seemed pretty strong, though it was hard for Alva to gauge just how strong she really was without her scouter. Maybe it'd be a good idea for her to tinker with it and see if she could, like, come up with some kind of contact lens version of the scouter that she could wear even outside her suit. Might come in handy.

"And, uh, I hope none of that happens to me, ever," she further replied with furrowed brows as Jackie elaborated on all the horrible ways in which Alva could quite easily die if some other crazily powerful alien decided to show up and wreak havoc. She'd have Ted around to keep her safe for the most part, but if something suddenly happened and she wasn't able to get in her suit in time... Well, that'd be pretty bad, to say the least.

And her dad didn't even have a suit to wear, so she certainly couldn't let anything happen to him, no matter what went down.

"Or my old man," she added, after a moment. "He tries real hard to keep me safe, but he's a regular human, just like me. Dunno what I'd do if some alien ended up blowing him up and left me all by myself..." Alva's mind wandered for a moment as her speech trailed off, but she was only gone for a few moments before she snapped back to reality. "Um, but anyway, I guess I shouldn't worry too much if you're gonna keep an eye out for all of us."

Alva reached down into her pocket and pulled her phone out, which she held up and tapped on a few times. "What's your phone number?" she asked Jackie, "Lemme have it so I can call you if I need saving or something. Or, you know, if you want to hang out sometime."

"I'll hold you to that, then!" Alva rather chipperly replied to Jackie as she stated she'd be keeping Alva and her father safe. Alva would, to the best of her ability, keep her old man safe as well, but while her suit used to have been able to keep up in strength with most of the ki powered wackos who tried and cause chaos around Earth, over the last year or so, those loonies had really skyrocketed in power, while Teddy was still about the same. Alva really needed to start working on some power output improvements if she wanted to be able to pitch in on that sort of thing.

In good news, though, Jackie was more than receptive to exchanging phone numbers, which was great, because Alva's phone had way fewer contacts in it than it should for a girl her age. It took Jackie a second to fish hers out - a pretty unique looking model that Alva couldn't immediately place - and then rattled off her number before asking for Alva's in turn.

"Here, I'll just shoot you a text," Alva stated as she punched Jackie's number into her phone and sent a quick little message, and then a second, quicker message after that. 

"You get it?" Alva expectantly asked. "Think you can just add me from there, if you did." She set her phone down on the table to take another sip of her drink, which was just now starting to run a bit low. Wasn't quite empty yet, though. "What kinda phone is that, by the way?" she felt the need to ask. "Mine's just the new Capsule phone, but yours looks a bit... Off-brand."

Cheating and modifying it? For some reason, Alva had never really thought to do that with her phone - rather, she'd always just made separate gadgets entirely for different functions. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea, though! She could make a phone app for summoning Teddy to her current location, maybe make one that could scan power levels with her camera, maybe even one she could use to steer her wheelchair around for her! Having to wheel herself around by hand everywhere when no one was around to push her was kind of annoying. Alva couldn't even begin to count how many blisters she'd developed on her palms and fingers over the years!

"Whoa, that is cool!" Alva commented as Jackie showed her how the lens of the phone could flip out from the back and be used like a traditional scouter. Alva had never thought to do that, either. Having any sort of way to check someone's power level outside of Teddy would be pretty helpful, Alva thought. For the moment, she could tell Jackie must have been pretty strong, but how strong? She hadn't any real idea.

Jackie mentioned not needing it anymore, since she could just sense people herself without the need of any scanning tools now. "Yeah, I've heard of that," Alva commented as she continued to closely examine Jackie's scouter tool. "How does that work, exactly? Scouters display like, a number, but I can't imagine you get any sort off number if your head when you're just using your natural senses. Do you just like, feel how powerful they are like feeling the temperature of running water without knowing exactly how many degrees hot it is? Something like that?"

Alva didn't usually care too much for hearing about ki stuff - it always seemed like some kind of exclusive club that she wasn't allowed entry into - although Jackie explained it in a way that felt like it made more sense. Not that Alva really fully understood it, but she felt like she was getting, at the very least, a somewhat decent grasp of the concept. In Jackie's defense, she was essentially attempting to describe what a color looked like to somebody that was blind.

"Well... I think I get it a little bit more now, at least," Alva replied, eventually. "Though, I think I'll just buy a scouter if I really need to know how strong someone is. Seeing a flat number's a lot easier to understand for folks like me." Alva didn't know too many regular humans who could sense ki, anyway. Besides, Jackie made it sound like one typically had to dedicate themselves to the study and practice of ki for their entire life if they really wanted to make any progress in that field. And, well, Alva had already started dedicating her life to a separate field.

Speaking of which, Jackie inquired about Alva's own exploits of engineering, and Alva was quite tempted to mentioned Teddy, which she was pretty sure would've blown Jackie's socks off... But there was the issue that she had used Teddy to commit multiple crimes of robbery and larceny, any of which Jackie may have seen or heard about. So that was kind of not an option.

Actually, now that Alva thought about it, Jackie was exactly the type of person who'd be trying to stop her in those acts, wasn't she? "Oh, um, nothing too special yet," Alva eventually replied after a moment of deliberation. "I don't live here anyway, so all the stuff I have made is back home in Central City. If you're ever around Central, though, hit me up! I'd love to show you around me and my dad's workshop."

"Guess it's probably like, when you've cooked the same recipe a hundred times and you know how to follow your intuition better than what the cook book tells you to do for each step, huh?" Alva wasn't sure that was an exactly correct comparison, but it was the best she could think of on the spot. Of course, the only food she could really make herself easily was in the microwave or air fryer - she couldn't exactly stand up to stir food in a pot or reach for ingredients without wearing Teddy, but suiting up just to cook a meal around the house didn't usually seem all too worth it. Especially when she could just ask her dad to cook for her.

"Eh? You live in Central too?" Alva asked, surprised. "You know, I didn't really peg you as a city girl." Most martial artist types seemed to prefer the quiet, so they could practice their moves and meditate without interruption. Jackie did seem like she got around quite a bit, though. And being from Central certainly helped to explain her prowess with mechanical engineering. Although, when Jackie offered to lend a hand on any projects Alva was working on, the blonde Earthling got a little nervous.

"Oh, uh, no need for that," she assured Jackie with a downward flick of her wrist. "I mean, maybe something small if you've got the time for it, I suppose. I've been thinking of maybe upgrading my wheelchair to have a little remote control on it so I can just roll it around with like, a joystick, but then I figured wheeling myself around is about the only exercise I do get, so my arms might just end up as weak as my legs if I do that." Ah, the annoyances of balancing things between becoming easier to use and too easy to use. 

Alva took another sip of her drink, which was nearly empty, and then a curious question popped up in her head, which she felt she could probably ask without arousing too much suspicion. "Say, do you think any sort of mechanical constructs could ever hope to compete with like, the top level ki users in a fight? Or do you think only those naturally attuned to ki really stand any chance at joining the fight?"

Not impossible, huh? Well, that sounded promising! While Jackie claimed she had yet to have seen any sort of mechanical construct that could keep up with the strongest of ki fighters, the fact that she didn't believe it to be a downright impossibility was enough for Alva. Who knows, maybe with a few more months or years of tinkering and refining Teddy, even it could be as strong as the aliens that had attempted to raze Earth cities to the ground! Of course, Alva had no plans of her own to be doing any city razing herself, but having that sort of power to defend herself wouldn't be such a bad thing. 

"Oh, just curious, I suppose," Alva replied casually as Jackie wondered why she'd even ask such a thing. "I'm sure something like that is well beyond my ability. For now, anyway! But wouldn't it be cool if us regular humans could have some sort of chance at keeping up with you guys that way?" Well... Maybe not as cool to someone already blessed with that power. Maybe people like Jackie would get worried about the sort of competition that could bring. Or perhaps she'd just worry about humans with less than gracious intentions easily getting ahold of that power?

Alva suddenly realized she'd finished her drink. She wiped her mouth clean with her hand, then wiped her hand clean with a napkin. "Anyway, that was real tasty! Thanks a bunch," she exclaimed. Admittedly, Alva was slightly worried Jackie might get somewhat suspicious of her if she kept pushing on these kinds of questions, so Alva felt it was best to leave it there for now.

"I guess I uh, better start getting back. I did tell my dad I'd be back home before it was too late, and the trains can take a while to get back there, so..." Of course, Alva wasn't taking the train - she'd be flying back. It was much faster. Not that Jackie could know about all that, of course. "Will you be sticking around East City for a while?"