The Li Family Apartment, Koreatown, Los Angeles, Tuesday Evening

Kathy had been lying to her family for a long time. Lying about the island ("It's perfectly normal!"), lying about her friends ("Of course you'd approve of them!"), and lying about her activities ("Nothing planned for the evening but more studying!") Since she'd come back home to fight zombies, she'd only been lying more. First that she was home because it was Spring Break back at school and she hadn't wanted to go on the trip. Then that the dorms were being fumigated, which was why Raven had come out to stay with them over the weekend (and played up the potential gratitude of Raven's wealthy adopted parents). And finally, more lies to cover up all the times she was out as Banzai: studying at the library or tutoring students for the upcoming SATs, anything that could be a plausible reason to get her out of the house for hours at a time.

But those excuses wouldn't work anymore. Not with a national quarantine and a newly announced martial law. Supposedly the police would be enforcing a curfew, so she wouldn't have a reason to be out even if her parents had been inclined to let her out. From the minute that the zombies--rather, the ex-humans--had been officially confirmed, her parents' grip had been tighter and tighter on her neck. And it was time to put a stop to it.

So after asking Raven to entertain Sarah for a few, she met with her parents in the living room to come clean about everything. Well...okay. Maybe not everything. Stuff about the island, about Anders, and Dante, about Portalocity's terrifying message--those secrets she was still going to keep. But about her secret life as a superhero, about being Banzai, that needed to come out.

Kathy hadn't expected this conversation to be easy. And it wasn't. But she hadn't expected it to be difficult in this way. What was the huge issue? Were they upset their oldest daughter was some kind of mutant? That she’d been risking her life and fighting crime since sophomore year of high school? That she’d lied to them?

No. Of course not. They had...different concerns.

Were her parents for real?

( This had been brewing for a very long time )

[Some lines of dialogue lifted directly from Chapter 13, "Luckiest Girl in the World," from Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. NFB, post: closed, but OOC is always appreciated.]

The Li Family Apartment, Koreatown, Los Angeles, Wednesday Afternoon

Things were still tense in the apartment today, but at least she hadn't been kicked out or disowned or whatever. Kathy'd half-expected to find all of her belongings tossed out on the street after she and Raven had gotten home for the night after a night out as Banzai and Mystique, but no. Her parents weren't actually talking to her, but they hadn't decided to evict her, either.

It just proved what everyone had been telling her: her parents had only had the power over her that she had given to them. She was pretty self-sufficient now; even if they had thrown her out, she and Raven would have been perfectly fine. What could they do to her? Ground her? She'd ignore them. Hit her? They never had before and she couldn't imagine them doing so now. Send her to bed without dinner? Fine, she'd call for delivery. A frisson from the unexpected freedom ghosted up her spine. If she were a slightly different person, this realization could have been dangerous. Good thing that she was the type of girl who defied her parents only to go be a superhero-slash-clinic nurse.

Honestly, the only real punishment she could think of that would actually affect her would be to forbid her from seeing Sarah. Her little sister meant everything to her.

No matter what was going on with the outside world, Kathy was determined to keep her safe.

[NFB, and also for tigerundercover if she so wishes!]