New York Nights - Rosénali

03 | Back to Work

The week following her nightmare, Denali didn't go out much. Jackie made sure of that. Hell, it took 3 days for her to let Denali go to the rink. Thankfully, Jan pulled through and distracted Jackie so Denali could teach her skating lessons. "Denali...I'm just worried." Jackie had told her, "You were really shaken up after your nightmare, are you sure you can't just cancel the lesson?" After much back and forth, Jackie obliged and Denali headed to work. Her day went really well, and she had started to feel more at ease after the nightmare. However, that didn't mean Jackie was eager to let her go patrolling again.

"Oh come on Jackie! I'm fine! See?" Denali whines, producing a snow cloud from her hand. "No snow in the house, 'Nali!" Jackie swatted the snow away, "But what happens if something happens to you? What if you feel okay at first but then you freak out? You're my best friend, I can't stand to see you get injured." Jackie placed a hand on her friends, the worry showing on her face. Denali laughed, "I'll just call Tina to save me. Well, she'd probably just drop me. I'm getting more popular than her." Jackie tried to hide her laughter, but she failed and burst out in laughter. "See? I'm okay, really Jackie! I'll even come home earlier tonight if you want me to!" Jackie sighed, "No, it's no use. If you say you're ready, then you are. But be careful!" Denali eagerly nodded, bounding off to go get her costume. "Denali! It's only 6 pm! You can't go out yet!" Jackie called after her.

-

After 3 more painstaking hours of waiting, 9 finally hit, and Denali couldn't be out the door faster. Jackie had to run to keep up with her! "Just remember..." Jackie huffed out, trying to catch her breath. "Yes, yes 'Be safe, Denali!' 'Don't die, Denali!' I get it, mom!" Denali shoved her jacket into Jackie's hands and put her mask on. Eagerly, she ran towards the ledge and waved goodbye to Jackie as she leaped off the ledge, into the sky. She flew around the buildings, laughing and cheering as she glided past windows and clouds. She felt energetic and free- like she could do anything! Maybe she'd even kick Rosé's ass if she was lucky.

After several minutes of flying, Denali ran into a familiar woman dressed in red, orange, and yellow. "Hi, Tina!" She chirped. "Ice Queen," Tina smirked, "you look chipper today. It's nice to see you out again!" Tina Burner, a superhero who couldn't have hidden her identity if she wanted to. Her vibrant red hair and love of the colors red, orange, and yellow made her well known wherever she went. Her powers stemmed from on, big shocker, fire manipulation- meaning she was Denali's worst enemy in theory. In actuality, Denali really enjoyed working with Tina. "Hey, I was on my way to city hall to help a newbie register- wanna help me out? I'll need someone with me so I don't go insane." Normally, Denali would have refused. She remembered what registering was like, and was not a huge fan of the process. However, this was not a normal day, and thus she and Tina Burner were headed to city hall.

The two soon arrived, exchanging small greetings with the secretary as she opened the door behind her desk for them. "She's in there," she addressed Tina, "She's filled out everything we need from her, now it's just your turn." Tina gave the woman thanks as they headed through the door and into one of the side rooms. "Hi there," Tina greeted, "I'm Tina Burner, and this is Ice Queen! We're here to help you out with your hero stuff." The girl turned around. Denali looked her over, she had a curly, light orange afro and doe-like blue eyes. She was dressed in a pastel blue leotard, with matching gloves that nearly went up to her shoulders and thigh-high boots of the same color. She wore a simple mask that covered her eyes. She looked like she was younger than Denali, maybe even a college freshman.

"Oh, hi!" she chirped. "Okay, so you've already filled out all the information the government needs, right? Do you have any questions about that?" Tina asked the girl. "Oh, well uh...about all that, how does that really work? I mean, I wanna keep my identity a secret, but I also want to be officially recognized as a hero...uhm," she stuttered. "Ah, you're asking whether or not they're gonna out your information, right?" the shorter girl nodded, "Well, it works in two different ways. For me, my hero identity is public- my hero name is my real name, and it's not a secret that I'm a hero. So, they just have my information on record in the system." She nodded along, hanging onto Tina's every word. "For someone like you or Ice Queen," she gestured to Denali, "your personal information goes under lockdown, which means only certain trusted individuals can even access the information, and most of the time they don't need it. Unless you need your costume made or changed...do you?" She shook her head no. "Perfect!" Tina smiled at her.