The facilities are great but your 'mentor' is sketchy

"Ahhh, well I appreciate your offer, but..." you say, a little hesitantly. Not only was being carried in like that a bit undignified but you found Green Streak's high-speed maneuvers and sudden accelerations to be pretty uncomfortable. "I have some business I need to take care of, and need a good night's rest, before I can make it there. I've been on patrol all night by this point. I won't keep you waiting long, my new 'mentor', I promise. See you at the training center first thing tomorrow morning." You give him a flirty wave and grapple up onto a nearby rooftop, going back to your headquarters without encountering any particular difficulties. For his part, Green Streak gives you an impressed whistle and then tears off down the road.

Since you keep dozens of spare gas pellets and wire spools on hand, you are able to use your grappling hooks liberally, and sometimes swing from one building to the next even when there's no particular hurry. It certainly is a good thing that registered heroes are specifically exempted from city ordinances on littering, because you leave a dozen or more loose grappling hooks dangling off the edge of rooftops every time you go out. You *definitely* need to sort out getting some kind of car or cycle.

Julia is ecstatic that you've wrapped up another major criminal incident for the second night in a row, but she's a bit apprehensive when you get into details. "Rikki! You can't just let other heroes butt in like that and then turn around and thank them! It is poor protocol for a high-powered individual like that to deal with simple car theft, anyway!"

You start to wave her concerns away, but when you come out changed, she grabs your shoulder and turns you to look at her. "Come on, Rikki, I spend a lot more time researching hero news than you do. It's not just the principle, I mean, you're the heroine here after all... I'm just saying that this Green Streak guy has a sketchy reputation. Gadget Princess, one of my favorite cape-bloggers, called him a 'predator', and the League's been sued on three occasions because of incidents involving him."

Looking over at your lovely assistant you run your finger up under her chin familiarly. "Trying to scare me, Jules? Sure that you aren't just overcompensating for that time that the 'art student' you met on MegsList turned out to be a kidnapper and I had to come swinging to your rescue?"

Julia sighs and rolls her eyes. "Wow, way to throw that one back in my face, Rikki! But for the record, yes, I'm glad you were looking out for me and I'm trying to do the same for you. Can't you find some other way to take down these playing card people without someone like that? Or at least, do you think you could get partnered up with somebody else?"

Smiling sympathetically and feeling guilty about your previous jibe, you lean forward and give her a close hug, and after initial surprise, she puts her hands around your waist tenderly. "You're worrying too much, Julia. I'm not somebody's eighteen-year-old sidekick or mama's girl to be watched over anymore. Remember last night? Remember this afternoon, for you? Anyway. It's going to be in the middle of the largest concentration of heroes in the city, I really don't think he's going to get as fresh as you think."

She nods and smiles. "Well, I've got your back no matter what, Rick. Why don't you at least let me stay in contact with you with one of your little earpieces?" You give her a nod of assent as you strip outside of the shower cubicle, being just a little bit less private in undressing than you usually are...

The League of Propriety's headquarters has the ostentatious look of a government building. The numerous globe motifs - including a large one in the center of a fountain outside the entrance - might make a casual visitor mistake it for a United Nations building instead of a hangout for superheroes whose sole mandate was protecting the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A. Although sometimes hero-bashing shock jocks would complain about how much tax money went into supporting this state-of-the-art installation, the mayor always countered that the League brought in more money in tourism than it received.

Since your 'Nightcycle' was still on the drawing board, you bought a new racing cycle painted grey off the lot the first thing next morning. Donning a leather jacket and helmet over your usual skimpy attire, you approached the broad neo-classical styled building from the rear rather than the tourist-clogged front, and for the first time, got to experience the thrill of having a hidden tunnel pop up from an unassuming section of lawn, just wide enough for a motorbike to drive down it at full speed.

Unlike some of the more informal hero groups out there, the League of Propriety had an actual staff of non-supers numbering into the hundreds. In fact, it was so well guarded that anti-hero conspiracy theorists liked to accuse the League of maintaining its own private army; not only was the security **** large, but exactly how many of the anonymous, uniformed guards were low-level superhumans themselves was a closely guarded secret. Of course, unlike villains, the League never sent uniformed (as opposed to costumed) personnel out on missions, wanting to conserve all of the glamorous risks for its members.

Of course, knowing that caped crusaders tend to be lax on protocol, all of the identity confirmation is done passively, and the only interaction you have with them is a friendly wave. It looks like this is a slow day at the League - there aren't any major incidents or ongoing threats, so a lot of the big-name heroes are catching up on their civilian identities and leaving matters to the B-listers. Unfortunately, that created awkward situations where you didn't know the other hero's title. So when you passed by a magical-looking, teal-haired girl in a rainbow tutu carrying a star-tipped scepter, and a disco-themed blonde heroine on rollerskates, and a musclebound man with a metal bell covering his entire head (leaving no obvious way for him to see where he was going), you just politely nod in the other hero's direction, and they do likewise for you.

The training center, where you're to meet Green Streak, is the most active at this hour. It had plenty of exercise equipment of course, but with a much, much higher level of technology - there were free-weights made of hyper-dense degenerate matter, treadmills that approached the speed of sound, and swimming pools where live sharks, piranhas, and squid could be introduced with the push of a button. Aside from that there were a multitude of sophisticated target-practice and martial arts practice machines simulating live opponents.

You don't see Green Streak until the arrogant speedster blurs in right behind you and give you a a light spank on the exposed side of your bottom. "Glad to, heheh, see you finally found your way in through the window we left open for you, Nightingale. I'm really gonna enjoy getting down to the business of overseeing your progress." he says with a smile that's just a little too toothy. "Come over to the ring here, and let me introduce Master Thanh."

Following Green Streak's pointing finger, you see a short-haired, athletically-built asian woman in a black athletic bra and snug fitting lycra shorts. When you approach curiously, she bows to you, giving Green Streak an apprehensive glance, and puts in a mouth-guard and a pair of padded gloves and foot-pads. The speedster streaked over and gave her an over-familiar back rub, which the un-costumed woman didn't react to. "Master of four separate styles and qualified to teach them all at the age of only 30, she's a dream, and very friendly once you get to know her. I like to get her help with 'warm-ups' on slow days like this."

"Sooo..." you say, cocking your head with interest.

Streak nods and chuckles. "Yep, I figure that you already know your fundamentals, so the best way for me to appreciate what you can do is a little foxy-boxing sparring action. Oh yeah... show me what you can do against a trained, non-powered partner, and if you do your stuff right, then we can get to practicing some tandem maneuvers. Important that we know eachother's capabilities and have experience working closely together when dealing with some costumed baddies with a whole combo-platter of different gadgets, right?"

You nod enthusiastically. "Ahh, alright, sounds like a decent warm up, alright. Nice to meet you, Master." You start strapping on some striking pads yourself. "Any special rules, Greenie?"

"Not for you." he smirks and pulls Master Thanh a little closer. "If Nightingale starts coming up short, make sure to give her the FULL spectrum of encouragement and demonstrate what might happen if a villainess gets the upper hand on her, babe." The short-haired woman nods stoically and gestures for you to step into the ring...