The After School Blues

Diamante Spada, the gentle giant otherwise known as Phalanx, was partaking in her usual after school activity. No, she certainly wasn't enrolled in any clubs. That was far out of her league. Actually, she found herself seated against the school building just beside the door with a book, 'Life of Pi' settled in her lap, her legs held together and bent at the knee to create a makeshift book stand.

There she sat, casually reading her book and ignoring any passersby who happened to glance in her direction, her hands both resting at either side of her while she kept her eyes studiously upon the pages laid out before her.

Reading out in the open in the middle of nature and people all around her wasn't really her thing, but the immense weight of her bones compared to the minuscule weight of her muscles meant that she moved extremely slowly and had to take frequent breaks in order to not overexert herself. It had been a few years now since her transformation had first begun and yet her body was still adjusting itself to its new state.

If she had a choice in the matter, Dia would run straight out the doors of the school and to her home to be her normal shut-in self, but her sorry state of affairs meant that she had to lumber from her classroom to her locker and from there slowly stomp her way out the doors before beginning to feel winded and needing to take a break to catch her breath and give her muscles a few minutes to relax and prepare for another bout of exercise. And so, there she was, sitting next to the school doors where she'd only just recently sat down long after most everyone not involved in a club had departed for bigger and better things.

Dia took a brief moment to silently curse her abhorrently unwieldy form before returning to her book with a sigh.

On the grass not too far from the lumbering giant a small kerfuffle was beginning to break out as two male upperclassmen in Letterman jackets stopped in front of an unattended elementary girl hugging a teddy bear to her chest. They were quick to question the presence of the obnoxious child who, responded in well taught and polite tone that she didn't talk needlessly with strangers except to talk tell them so. This seemed to incense the two Letterman who raised their voices at the child, telling her off and acting the part of Senior.

Just inside the glass doors of Alabaster High stood Roy Wulf also known, uncommonly, as Mister Mercury, cradling a large red welt on his neck from the Kendo clubs instructor who had given it to Roy for his misconduct and dishonorable actions, and for bringing shame upon the Kendo club. But mostly for his impudence to show up at a practice he'd been dismissed from. Really the welt from the bamboo training sword, a Shinai, was simply a love-tap to remind Roy who the boss was and not to hurt him. It was a very samurai thing to do and the now disbarred member understood that. He didn't like it but he understood it.

Dropping his hand from his neck Roy turned his attention to the Seniors he recognized as previous teammates, Benjamin a safety and Frank a wide receiver. They were scumbags, who thought they were hot shit because they were starters for what was possibly the best high school football team in Ruby city. Really, like most of the popular crowd they were jerks.

On top of Jerks, now, Roy could add to his list that they were bullies, and that made his fists clench down on the push bar of the door of the school and lean into door, until a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Ah, Mister Wulf, just the student I wanted to see, I need to talk to you about your little tussle." It was one of Alabaster High's assistant Dean's, Mister Greensworth a huge man with no real powers except to pump Iron every minute he wasn't in school. "Now boy, you got off lucky that you didn't throw the first punch..."

The door had cracked just enough that when Roy spun back to see the teacher it was barely open enough to hear the "HAY!" of the little girl who squeaked it in surprise and beleaguered excitement, as the two jackasses had pulled the teddy bear from the little girls hands and were holding it above her head, handing it back and forth between themselves.

"Excuse me Mister Greensworth." Roy politely tried to excuse himself but the hand clenched on his shoulder right into the nerve inside the collarbone, causing him to stagger shortly.

"We're not done, besides they're not going to hurt her they're just having a little fun." The assistant Dean said dismissively, pushing Roy's concern and feelings aside almost with contempt. "Now about that little dust up..."

Roy looked over his shoulder to ignore Mister Greensworth and got a painful reminder as the grip on his shoulder once again tightened, bringing his attention home on the massive guy, causing the boy's school clothes to crease and wrinkle with the pressure and contort his face in pain. "You have a lot more explaining to do, I know that you know how to tell faculty exactly what they want to hear..." And the man would drone on as Roy was helpless to put the two Letterman jacket wearers in their place, namely the dirt.

Dia noticed the disturbance rather easily as the noise interrupted her reading time and caused her to look up with a deep frown, her eyes glowing faintly in the sunlight. It was still too soon for her to get up. She didn't quite feel ready yet. For a brief moment she attempted to bury her eyes deeper into her reading before sighing at the realization that if she was ever going to be any sort of hero she couldn't simply allow something like this to go on even if it was only two high school students harassing a little girl and not a life threatening disaster.

"Please stop..." she called over to them, her voice barely heard over their own noise, raising her eyes to cast a cautiously stern glare in their direction. "She was minding her own business... a-and I'm trying to read..."

She already knew that this was going to careen downhill at breakneck speed, but if she didn't at least say something then she'd probably feel like a heel about it for the rest of her life. At the very least she might be able to redirect their abuse on herself and give the kid a chance to grab her bear from them and get out without much more hassle.

Roy was having issues even making it outside let alone confronting the assholes, and he couldn’t even escape the literal clutches of Mister Greensworth who held him place like a one would a toddler you were scolding, Roy was nothing short of incensed as the man groaned on and on about what was expected of members of the student body and what he thought of Roy’s punishment that he compared to a slap on the wrist, how he thought that the boy deserved expulsion for that level of “repulsive conduct” but the only thing repulsive to Roy was the ‘roid raging teacher’s breath.

“What the fuck is that?” Benjamin stepped toward Dia with the teddy bear raised over his head, the little girl’s jumping to reach it and grasping at his arm was so ineffective that she could just as easily be ignored, while the two boys moved onto bigger fish. “Holy shit is that bigfoot?”

Frank stepped up, staying just out of arms reach from Phalanx “With how ugly it is? Bigfoot would feel offended.” Both boys laughed at the pointed insult just hurled thoughtlessly at Dia.

“Give it back! Please!” The little girl begged, jumping and pleading as she did trying to get her favorite stuffed animal back, she was obviously being ignored but that didn’t put a dent in her persistence or passion for returning the special teddy to her loving arms.

“Holy shit… you realize it talked right!?” Ben again poked at Dia making a joke that she was more like an animal than a person, giving her body a wholly degrading look. “What you think that just because you have powers that makes you special? Pfft. Don’t think you can tell me or anyone else what to do.” He gave a scoffing rebuke, to would-be-hero butting in.

And just like that her hastily constructed plan backfired rather spectacularly. The two boys were apparently completely infatuated with keeping the bear away from the girl, so much so that they'd even continue to passively deny her satisfaction while also turning their attention to harrassing herself.

Her expression turned down yet further as everything happened in quick succession, more so being upset at herself for being so powerless rather than any sort of emotional pain from the jocks' biting remarks about her appearance. She briefly considered getting up, but decided against it as it could be taken as the beginning of an offense, which would only lead to further negativity. There was no way she could take the teddy back anyways...

She didn't bother to address either boy's insults aimed at herself, only silently accepting their abuse until they brought up the possibility that she felt some sense of entitlement for having powers that normal people didn't have. That was kind of a laugh considering how her 'powers' hindered her much more than they helped her in every day life.

"I don't need powers to realize that you're an awful excuse for a human being..." she muttered quietly.

"You think you have any right to be judging humans? You don't even qualify as a human. For someone with a horn sticking out of their forehead you sure are opinionated on something you don't even qualify as." Frank practically spat at Dia turning her own statement back onto the girl's appearance. "All you can do from your perch is look down on us! That's a right that something that looks like you doesn't have!"

The little girl jumped at Benjamin's arm and managed to get a good grip on the sleeve of his jacket pulling it down, but to no avail as the bear was passed by way of flick-o-the-wrist to Frank who caught it equally as easily and held it up for the girl to transfer to him, moving his arm a little each time she jumped so the poor girl couldn't get a good grip on his sleeve like she'd done on Benjamin's.

Inside the doors of the school Roy was trying to keep an ear on the conversation, but not look like he was trying to, as Mister Greensworth addressed him in his long winded manner of speaking all of which was going in one ear and right out the other. Until the man took Roy by both shoulders and shaking him almost violently enough to get whiplash.

"MISTER GREENSWORTH!" Called a feminine voice from down the hall causing the man's head to snap around, it was Mrs Black, the head of the teachers association and a former student councilor, marching to make good speed toward the pair at the doors holding up a stack of papers and waving them in the air. "You unhand that young man THIS INSTANT!" She demanded, her features belied a fiery spirit and protective nature.

The massive assistant dean's head spun and grip loosened, and that was all the edge Roy needed ducking under the man's right arm pulling free of his grip by taking advantage of his thumb a move he'd learned to keep a jersey-puller from taking him to the ground in football. "I think I hear my mother calling!" Roy made up the excuse and dove out the door, re-locking his senses onto the confrontation, ignoring Mister Greensworth's call that he wasn't done with Roy yet!

"Just give the bear back already and stop being huge jerks. What you're doing can't be that entertaining anyways..." she continued to mutter half under her breath, yet at a volume where she could be heard. Her gaze was cast to the size, looking at the little girl more than either of the jocks. "Don't you have better things to do... like sneak peeks at one another in the showers?"

She refused to play into their continued attempts at insulting her. She didn't really care what they had to say. She just wanted them to stop pestering the little girl still desperately attempting to get her teddy back.

“And you’re reading a book, like a giant nerd.” Ben scoffed, stepping in and kicking the book from Dia’s hands as best he could sending the book bouncing across the ground, pages flying loose from in between the covers. “Again you’re acting all high and mighty, just because you sit quietly and read books. Ugly, uppity and lame, you’re not even going to get up and tell it to our faces. Some Hero you’re going to be if you’re all conviction and no action.”

Again the little girl got lucky managing to grab Frank’s sleeve, the jock passed the teddy to his other hand and held it there for a second. He looked to Benjamin and then tossed the beloved stuffed animal over to the man. Sticking his foot out at the girl followed sending her face down in the grass facing Dia and looking up at the seated high schooler with tears in her eyes, sad that she was being picked on and questioning why she wasn’t doing anything.

“You think you have some kind of divine right to judge us? Prove it, come on.” Benjamin was getting ballsy taunting the grounded girl. Stepping back and holding the teddy bear just out of her reach, if she would go for it or not he would toss the bear back to Frank who would catch it and hold it low for the little girl who would crawl to grasp it before it was pulled away from her just barely.

“But you can’t can you. Cause all you hero types are all spineless cowards.” Ben dug in, “And in your case hideous spineless cowards.” Frank tossed the bear over to Benjamin but the plushie would never complete the journey to its destination.

Having seen enough Roy closed the distance at a slow walk making sure to get all the facts, before closing the last few yards in an instantaneous sprint, reaching up with his left hand and grasping the teddy bear from the air and pulling it into his ribs like one would a football. With his right arm fully outstretched, Roy would plant the palm into Benjamin’s solarplexis both knocking the footballer down and relieving him of the wind from his lungs sending him into a gasping fit.

“You Fucker!” Frank shouted at Roy eyes darting to his friend rolling around in the dirt trying to catch his breath.

“And Roy Wulf the Eight-Eight EZ, with the intercept going through the defense like they were paper.” Roy gloated looking down at Ben and back over his shoulder tauntingly at Frank before spinning in place holding up the teddy bear, before dropping to his knees in front of the girl, right next to Dia, ignoring her and the standing jock, and returning the stolen stuffed critter to its rightful owner and pulling the little girl up to her feet by the shoulders.

“If you love something, protect it, never let it go.” He warned the little girl standing up and turning to face Benjamin who was on the ground. “If you were any more worthless you’d be JaMarcus Russell.”

Ben finally caught his breath and looked up at Roy from the ground with a sneer, at his former team mate. “Fuck you, you got fucking kicked off the team for getting your ass kicked. You’re the worthless one.”

The young blonde stepped in front of Roy, and he patted her reaffirmingly on the shoulders. “Except I’m worth four times both of you together.” Roy shot back, “I got the Varsity Running Back position when neither of you were even qualifiers. Bench warmers.”

“Fuck you asshole!” Frank shouted producing an ASP and deploying it and swinging all in one motion, extending the baton and going for Roy’s back, he’d heard enough from the outcast, and was going to shut him up.

Roy had expected something like that, and shifted his weight on his feet, but then realized, that if he moved even a little there was a chance that a stroke meant for him would fall upon the little girl. He couldn’t have that, not at all. There was nothing Roy could do if he was worried about the safety of the girl.

He would peak in high-school, there would be no recovering from such a grievous injury to the back or neck if he connected and Roy had given up, there was no time to deploy his Quicksilver. So all the late comer could do was stand in and wait for the attack to connect.

Considering Dia had never actually been holding the book in her hands as that would've been far too much of a strain on her body, what Ben mostly did was just kick her leg and knock the book from her lap, the already pre-broken binding shattering from the tumble as the pages released and scattered in the wind. That was a bit upsetting...

"At least I'm not the villain who gives the hero the need to rise..." As it reached the point where they were actually physically harming the poor girl rather than just teasing her with a game of keep away, Dia shifted with a heavy grunt to slowly rise up from her sitting position to her full height. Unfortunately it would be a largely wasted effort as, by the time she managed to steady herself on her feet events had already played out and the girl and her teddy were reunited by a stranger she'd never met before. Just her luck, though she couldn't exactly say she didn't need the help.

But then, just as she was getting ready to pick up her book and silently slink off without another word said about the matter, things became suddenly much more violent than they had been before. Again, just her luck... but then at least this was going down practically right next to her so she didn't need to rely much on speed so much as simple good timing.

Rather than making contact with Roy's back as expected, the baton would instead land hard, but ineffectively against Diamante's clawed thumb before being quickly wrapped up in her hand as she attempted to pull the weapon away by force.

"A normal person wouldn't bring something like this to school..." she commented off-handedly.

Frank was stunned as the baton was ripped clean from his hands, he had the weapon in case he needed to rough up players from other teams. Or defend himself or other players from other schools enforcers, they were quite violent at times and sometimes a weapon was needed to level the playing field. But before he could tell the woman who looked a LOT taller standing than she did sitting to mind her own business...

"Frankie there, fancies himself a brawler." Roy answered Dia's comment with a statement of his own turning and brandishing a baton of his own, this one made of a dull silvery metal that pointed the bridge of Frank's nose. The white haired young man's other hand pressed on the shoulder of the girl sending her off now that she had her teddy bear. "You're both very lucky," Roy growled staring down frank, "You're both lucky there's an innocent young lady present, You're also lucky that there's a real Hero here or I'd beat the tar out of both of you." Really it was an empty threat.

Roy turned on his heels and created an identical baton, leveling the second at Ben whilst keeping the first leveled on Frank. Dual wielding was bullshit, but both of these particular jocks knew that Roy was both a fencer and a ranked in Kendo in the school. That and wielding two weapons had a certain intimidation factor, one that was quite useful to Roy.

"Now get lost." Roy barked. Frank and Ben jumped at the chance, out maneuvered and overpowered, their position of facing two powered people one of which was an athlete made them decide that cowardice was the better part of valor.

Keeping his eyes on the pair of belligerents Roy scoffed at their as they took off at a run away from the super-powered pair. Raising the two batons Mister Mercury turned them end to end and brought his hands together into a clap breaking down the batons and re-absorbing them all in one motion, before flicking his wrists like he was doing a magic trick.

Now came the hard part. Roy turned to Dia and smiled, something that he only did occasionally. "Thank you," If he knew the tall young woman's name he would have said it, "I'm Roy Wulf, one of the safe teachers has taken to calling me Mister Mercury, you really saved my ass. Thank you."

"It's fine... No need to thank me..." Dia answered quietly, casting her eyes down on the boy in front of her. "I'm Diamante Spada... or Phalanx... I don't really care..." she introduced herself rather awkwardly before turning to scoop up the remains of her book, looking longingly after the pages now fluttering aimlessly across the grass of the school grounds. As much as she'd like to retrieve them all to reconstruct her book, she knew without trying that there was no way possible that she could outrun the wind. She merely sighed as she was still catching her breath just from lifting her arm to block the delinquent boy's attack.

Speaking of that... Diamante looked with confusion at her other hand, uncertain of just what to do with this strange weapon that she'd now taken possession of. She'd honestly forgotten she was even holding it considering she had no actual feeling in her arms or hands. She looked to her new acquaintance in hopeful confusion, praying that perhaps he would know just what to do with such a thing.

"Dia-Diama-Diamante, huh." The boy responded to her introduction. "Well it's nice to meet you, Phalanx." Her name may have been hard to pronounce but her super-hero moniker was easy enough. It only took Roy a moment to realize that Phalanx was having trouble moving before it all made sense in his head as to why she didn't stand up until so late in the confrontation with the jerks. It was because she was having difficulty and now she was having difficulty gathering the pages that were slowly fluttering away.

It took Roy a moment as he reached down to pick up pages before looking up and meeting eyes with his newest acquaintance, and her confused look at the baton in her hands as he had many un-organized pages in his Roy wondered. "Huh..." Roy paused shuffling the papers into one of his hands took the Baton, pressing the button on the bottom and collapsing it "Since Frank shouldn't have had something like this to begin with, I say we confiscate it, and pawn it, and maybe get a burger with the money." There weren't many more pages left of Life of Pi floating around anyways.

Dia raised an uncertain brow as Mr. Wulf had such a hard time pronouncing what was to her such a simple name. Oh well... Phalanx was just fine.

When Mr. Wulf changed his attention from the remaining few sheets windwalking slowly over the grass to the weapon, Dia cast one last longing look at the remains of her book escaping the premises before returning her attention back toward he who was now sharing his ideas with her. Ideas which didn't seem entirely moral, at least to her.

"Shouldn't... Shouldn't we report the incident and turn the weapon in to the school...?" Dia suggested. While this would mean not being able to purchase a technically free burger it seemed like the more moral thing to do in such a situation.

As Dia's attention wandered onto the remains of her books Roy's eyes did too, there were about four pages left floating away, stopping not far from them in the grass only waving slightly as the wind blew over the pages, they weren't going anywhere quickly, however the boy would make an effort to help his conflicted new friend. "When you called them out you became the authority in that situation."

Without another moment's hesitation Roy stepped quickly toward the papers and snatched them one at a time off the ground each not far from the others and not all that far from Phalanx. He was giving her the time to think of what to do.

"I don't dig all that Hero stuff. I'm more about hindering the bad people, and making sure they can't hurt innocent or good people. Besides the coach will pressure whoever you turn it into to hand it over to him, so he can return it to Frankie." Roy responded making a valid case Diamante as best he could, while he walked back to her "Who, as you know, isn't afraid to use it. I doubt he learned anything from its misuse this time. And I really don't want to have to break both his arms to keep him from using it in the future. Or it'll end up in a desk so someone worse can pilfer it and misuse it. Maybe you'll be saving some else's life or health by keeping it out of circulation at the school."

Returning Roy held both the pages all completed and the Baton out for Phalanx. She could take both, or just the pages for which she was looking so longingly.

Dia's expression turned sour as she mulled over Mr. Wulf's explanation for why he was going to do what he planned on doing. As much as it made possible sense that such a thing could happen, Dia simply had to refuse that the world worked as such. She certainly wouldn't feel right pawning someone else's belongings for her own personal gain, even if it was a confiscated weapon. For now, however, she'd have to hold on to it and arrive to school early tomorrow to report the incident. At this point most everyone had left for the day.

With a low sigh, Dia opened the cover of her book, allowing Mr. Wulf the opportunity to place the pages within to be sorted through at a later date. She then held out her free hand not holding the book to take possession of the baton as well.

"I'm going to report this to the principal first thing tomorrow morning. I'm certain that he'll do what's right..." Could an entire school formed around the idea of crafting kind-hearted heroes truly be as corrupt as he was attempting to lead her to believe? Not wanting to think too hard on such a depressing subject, Dia shook her head quickly and began to make her way toward the school's front gate at her standard, extra slow pace, lifting one heavy foot at a time.

Roy nodded, he was disappointed, but he'd also given her, the tried and true hero the decision. He'd come in and made a big hubbub out of what happened. Meaning that he'd be in her report too. He released the Baton to her care, and he had a little smile on her face, she wasn't so easily swayed by his own morals opinions and view of life, it made Roy a little more happy to make her acquaintance.

"Very well." Roy replied with a little smile, as she turned and started walking away. "Hey, we can still get that burger if you want. My treat." He pulled a key from his pocket, but it wasn't a car key, on the key was a keychain of a chibi anime caricature on a motocross bike. "I'll even give you a lift home afterwards."

"Uh..." the extra large woman cast her companion a doubtful look as he displayed their supposed mode of transport. She could only assume that the keychain ornament meant that he rode around on a small bike or scooter. If only she could achieve that sort of speed... "What's the weight limit on that bike?" she inquired with a nervously amused half-smile.

Roy took a few steps and caught up with his companion to walk and talk with her at her pace. "It's an old Triumph Tiger. I should be able to carry, you me and five hundred pounds of adventure gear without a problem." The rider responded to his friend with a little smile, he really didn't know the weight limit on the bike, even though she stood over him by a few feet there was no reason for him to think she was that much heavier than him. He completely dismissed her concerns.

"I'll bring it around, and meet you at the street right here. " It was the closest point to the front gate only a few yards away from the direction they were walking, with how slow and cumbersome she walked he could take a brisk pace and meet her around the time she arrived at the street at her current pace.

Making his way to his bike Roy noticed the a new decoration to his bike as he approached it, as now across the tank taken all the way down to metal was the word ASSHOLE keyed right into the top of the tank. It infuriated Roy as he squinted at the tank. "Bastards." He murmured starting up the bike in neutral and pulling his helmet form the helmet lock and inspecting it, it was an flat gray full face, the only thing new about the bike.

As Roy brought the bike around, for Dia to see, it was a 2001 Triumph Tire 955i in the lime green with the tiger stripes on the side of the tank, she might notice all matters of dings and scrapes and scratches, this was a well used bike, but from the sounds of the motor it was well maintained and in good shape. Roy had fastened his spare helmet to his fuel tank covering the asshole and with Dia's odd anatomy it would be useless to her anyways. Which also meant he needed to come up with a head covering for her.

Stopping the bike's engine but remained on it and pulled some paracord from his pocket and weaved it between his fingers, something he'd done quite a bit as a child on Zanzibar. When he first got his bike as payment for a summer job he'd not had the cash to buy a helmet so he used woven paracord and a little trick to keep himself safe. He motioned for Diamante to come to him, as he wasn't parked on the sidewalk but as close as he could to it.

Diamante was about to tell him the problem with this plan of his, but the next thing she knew when she turned back to speak again he was already racing off to retrieve his vehicle. She bit her bottom lip worriedly as she attempted to figure out how she was going to break this rather depressing news to him.

It wasn't long before he'd pulled around to attempt to pick her up. She'd wait till they were within comfortable speaking distance once again before she attempted to speak to him once again.

"I- ...I can't ride bikes. I'm far too heavy for something so small to support me..." she admitted as quickly as she could, her eyes averted low to the ground in embarrassment. "I'm sorry... You should just go home without me. I'll be too much of a bother to wait for..."

Roy shook his head. "You're giving up to easily." He said dismissively, If the reason she walked slow was because of weight, then he would just have to compensate, the nearly thousand cubic centimeter engine would be enough to propel them thirty miles an hour the two would need for a round town movement, and the old adventure bikes could safely hold nearly a thousand pounds of gear and people. He would put the

"That's the good thing about these older adventure bikes." The rider put his kickstand down and dismounted pulling up the back seat with a little click and pulling out a little spanner wrench. "You can adjust the suspension manually." He squatted down by the rear tire and went to work maxing out the suspension as far as it would go. This would normally create a very stiff ride. But it was more meant for a passenger and a lot of gear.

Having fixed the suspension Roy took the paracord back out of his pocket, slipping the wrench in its place and wove it into a net in his hands again, and stepped up to Dia and ran the makeshift chin strap under her chin and used it to lift her head. "Hold still so I can get this on right." He instructed through his helmet Around Dia's head would form the liquid metal, coming out to the shape of a Spartan's Helmet, forming loosely around her unicorn feature, and with the imprint of DOT on the back, a little lie, but she wouldn't know any better. Removing his hands from the liquid metal it would grip onto the paracord and solidify just before his fingers left contact with it. Giving his passenger the protection she would need, maybe even more, if they got in an accident. "We should at least try before giving up ya' know?"

With that Roy got back onto his motorcycle, feeling the regularly soft suspension not give an inch under his weight slightly impressed Roy, but now he patted the back seat and fired the bike up. "Give it a shot."

"I'm not so sure about this..." Dia responded with fear to his plea to at least give it a shot before doubting. She didn't want to be the reason his bike broke considering no bike was likely ever engineered to support a rider and a clydesdale horse riding pillion.

"Ungh..." she grunted uncertainly as he patted the spot where she was intended to sit and gave her one last command to hop on and test it out. "A-alright... I guess..." At that, she simply walked over the back of the bike, happy that she was tall enough that she wouldn't need to lift one of her legs up and over the vehicle. Wearing the dress that she was she would've preferred to ride sidesaddle, but having both feet on one side would severely overbalance to one side and, if this bike could actually by some miracle of God support her weight, make going anywhere impossible without falling to that one side.

And so Dia was forced to hike her skirt up a bit as she lowered herself into place atop the bike. She did her best to lower her weight slowly despite the incredible strain it put on her own muscles, feeling her bottom eventually make contact with the seat of the bike followed shortly by the suspension giving way with a heavy creak to her immense weight. Would it hold? She expected not.

The bikes frame would creak, but the suspension wouldn't bottom out. It would hold for now, and they even had a half inch of play in the suspension. This was a surprise to Roy as he thought that Dia was exaggerating about her weight because she was a big girl. But apparently she was being less than forthcoming, there was no way that she weighted that much. But Powered people came in all sizes and shapes and weights apparently.

Roy had liked this bike before, but now he really liked it, with how well it hold on even though his riding partner was a little heavier than the rider's the designer had envisioned. Because of the weight distribution he would have to be more gentle on the throttle than ever before.

"Keep your feet on the pegs, hold on tight to me, and lean with me okay." With that the rider slowly released the clutch and gingerly let onto the throttle. The bike slowly lurched forward, but soon it was up to cruising speed, with each corner he could feel bikes frame stretch and creak, but as they exited the maneuver it would flex slowly back to its original shape. He would be sure to keep it off bumps and lumps no need to tax it.

If Dia got a car she would need a flatbed truck to get around. He might think about trying to suggesting that mode of transportation for her. Pulling up to the Burger Hut a little hole in the wall that looked like a repurposed old Pizza Hut building, it seemed a little run down, but Roy knew the food was really good. He clicked over the ignition and stopped the bike putting his feet down and feeling her weight shift the bike a little. It would be hard to keep the bike upright if she didn't put her feet down.

Dia hadn't even realized she'd clenched her eyes shut or held her breath till she was releasing both at once with the realization that the bike didn't cave to her incredible weight.

"It worked?!" she exclaimed in shock, seemingly forgetting that she was supposed to be shy for that brief moment of shock. She said no more for the moment, however, and instead focused on complying with what Mr. Wulf was relaying to her. It was important that she didn't ruin things now that they were seemingly working out so well. How bizarre...

Dia started out attempting to hold her arms around his waist as she had seen done in the movies, but her unusual build and the ridiculous weight of her exoskeletal arms quickly lead her to abandoning that idea. It wasn't till they'd neared their stopping point that Dia discovered it was most comfortable to rest her hands on his thighs from behind. It meant that she didn't have to hold her arms up and also gave her something to grip on the turns. Hopefully it wasn't too uncomfortable for him, but she found it far too embarrassing to ask.

Once they stopped, Dia was quick to bring her feet back to solid ground once again and step up off the bike before anything terrible happened.

"I've... never gone that fast before..." she marveled breathlessly as she took slow steps back and away from the rear of the bike.

Roy was quick to put the kickstand down and step off the bike, looking back at the bike and removing his helmet and placing it on the back of the bike, "Well I'm glad you liked it." He approaching Dia and removing her helmet and placing the paracord in his pocket. He smiled openly at her that introverted girl beamed about the ride. "And there's more to come when I get you home. But first we got a few burgers to eat." With that Roy made it to the door, opening it and walking in, reaching back to hold the door open for his new seven foot friend he'd made sure to park as close to the door as possible.

He'd wait for short time that it would take for Dia to make it into the store, of course from the doorway he would order, "Two burgers, shakes and fries, please." He would open his wallet and pull out his meager gas money, a twenty dollar bill. It was his bi-weekly allowance, and he had quite a bit left over thanks to the economy of his bike. "Does that sound good?" He would ask his tall companion as she passed him.

"Thank you..." Dia whispered politely as she entered the door being held for her. That was awful nice of him to do, especially since it took her some time to reach the door. "That'll be fine, thanks," she answered his question with a smile as she chose quickly to sit by the door. It meant less time getting in and less time getting out for someone who was forced to move as slowly as her.

Rather than attempting to take a seat in the chair, Dia would elect to stand and eat. She'd learned long ago that not many public places were willing to splurge on chairs with a weight capacity large enough for overweight horses to enjoy them.