July 18th
San Diego
Once they finished eating the two of them made the short walk to the San Diego Zoo. Seeing as it was late afternoon the zoo was buzzing from activity, however it being a weekday made it so that it was not unbearably crowded. Mars and Kiris headed towards the front gate, both of them remembering the familiar sights from their first mission as a team. Kiris was getting some looks from the people around, some because she was a Hadrian, but more of them were due to her affiliation with the Young Bloods. Mars realized that Kiris was very recognizable, whereas no one would actually realize he was a Young Blood because he was always wearing a combat suit and covering his face.
As they approached the ticket booth, a woman with a clipboard and a headset approached them. She held a big smile on her face that was directed towards Kiris. “Hello I’m Ann, I work in the Zoo’s marketing department. It’s so nice to finally meet you!” She said at first offering her hand to Kiris before realizing that might not be the best idea.
“Oh, hi! Nice to meet you as well Ann! I’m Kirisvala, but just Kiris is fine.” The Hadrian girl replied with her usual enthusiasm, doing a little wave towards the woman instead of taking the handshake, knowing that it wasn’t a great idea to do that with humans. “Why were you lookin’ for us though? Actually, how do you know me?” She asked afterwards, tilting her head. While it was all too obvious to her that people would recognize her easily, something she had pointed out before their first mission (the one in the Zoo, at that!), at the moment she did not consider the media coverage or the impact they might've had on the workers' lives.
“Why you’re a member of the Young Bloods of course! You’ve been all over the news recently.” Ann explained to her. “And of course, we here at the San Diego Zoo hold a special place in our heart for you. Who knows what those criminals would have done if you hadn’t arrived to help.”
The Zoo employee then reached into her pocket. “You and your friend here don’t have to worry about a thing.” She said handing them both a pass with a string around it. “Just wear this around your neck and you won’t need to pay for a thing here at the zoo. And you’ll be able to get backstage access to some of our exhibits. Please enjoy your stay!”
As she walked away Mars turned around in surprise. Wow, I guess being heroes really has perks.
“Thanks for everythin’!” Kirisvala shouted as the woman left, being loud enough to make sure she was heard. And, being a Hadrian, that was quite loud indeed, though not enough to disturb people around them too much. Afterwards, she held up the pass and looked at it, a bright smile on her face.
“I love San Diego! Everyone’s super nice.” She said happily, mostly to herself but also to Mars, as her tail swished from side to side and made circles in the air. Next, she attempted to put on the ticket, frowning a little as the string got stuck on one of her horns but otherwise quite content with Ann’s gift. She watched it dangle from her neck for a moment before turning to her partner in that date. “You must know this place better than me, any idea where to go first?” She asked him with a smile. “I’ll let you lead the way.”
Mars was pleased to see Kiris so happy, noticing that she had a very beautiful smile. “Ya it’s a really nice place to live.” Mars replied to her comment about the city. “I’ve been here all my life. I like the weather, it's pretty calming. I’m glad I can play a part in protecting it now.” He told her as they entered the zoo.
“Well I have been here before, so I can try to get us to the best places.” Mars said at her suggestion that he lead the way. He tried to think of what she might most be interested in. He took into consideration the wildlife of her home planet Adai, Australia, and San Diego before making his decision, and led her a little ways through the zoo before they arrived at a large enclosure. In front of them stood a large rock like structure, but Mars knew that it was likely plastic or some other material. There was a pathway that he led Kiris through and suddenly they were inside, with dimly lit and well air conditioned surroundings. After a minute more of walking they came across the exhibits.
“These are the penguins. They’re fun to watch.” Mars said as they stood before the habitat. Ice covered walls enclosed a circular area that was mostly layered with ice but had an open section of water. A penguin was currently waddling his way towards the edge of the ice before gracefully plopping into the water. “There is open water on the other side that they can swim around in.” Mars explained to Kiris, while the Hadrian girl walked closer, giggling as she observed their behavior.
“They’re funny.” She said, practically gluing her face to the exhibit and watching the penguins intently, in particular one that seemed to have taken an interest in her. Hearing the noises they made, she spoke up again. “I’m goin’ to call them honk-honks!” She decided. The penguin that seemed curious about her walked as close to the alien as it could and made some more noises. Kiris took a moment to clear her throat and honked right back. The routine continued for a few moments, before the penguin turned around waddle back to the rest of its group.
“They’re really polite, too.” The Hadrian girl commented, turning to look at Mars.
Mars chuckled as Kiris became infatuated with the penguins. Her tendency to give earth animals unorthodox names continued with the penguins, and Mars found it to be a very endearing and humorous part of her personality. “Ya they’re pretty fun creatures.” He said as he stood next to her. Then, however, she started imitating their sounds, drawing a few looks from the passing crowd. Mars realized that her ability to immediately recognize and mimic a language might apply to animals too.
“Uh Kiris, did you just talk to that penguin. And if you did, well, what did it say?”
The alien girl nodded. “Yup!” She replied. “It was just introducin’ itself and askin’ if we wanted to take a look at their little show. they don’t come across people who can understand them very often.” She explained, before pointing at the exhibit once more. Most of the penguins present had seemingly organized (with a lot of honking involved, of course), and were currently in the process of starting what appeared to be some sort of complex activity akin to racing, with various penguins sliding across the ice floor, making laps around the exhibit, while several others waddled around or clustered together to act as obstacles.
“Wow, uh Kiris, I think you probably just discovered a new pattern in penguin behavior.” Mars said in a fascinated tone as he watched the display. “I don’t want to ruin our good time here with science talk…. But uh, we should definitely talk about that more later.” He told her. “Anyway, so do you have anything like penguins on your home planet? I realize I don’t know too much about where you grew up. Did you have any pets or animals around where you lived?”
Kirisvala looked up, putting a clawed finger to her chin and thinking for a moment before shaking her head. “Nope! There wasn’t anythin’ like ‘em, that I saw. There might’ve been some animals like ‘em closer to the poles, but I dunno. Adai is a bit hotter than Earth.” She explained. “But! We did have a lot of animals around my family’s estate! Though most of them were wild. I think the only one we really owned was my dad’s flyin’ screech-screech.” She continued. The smile that was on her face as she talked about home suddenly disappeared as she looked down at the ground for a moment, but she quickly shook her head and looked at the penguins’ display, cheering back up fairly quickly.
“But there were lots of big howl-howls, a few of the roar-roars with manes and sting-sting tails, and some others; there were smaller ones too but they didn’t last long. I told you about that time I befriended a big howl-howl patriarch, remember?” She asked, referring to the night Alexis gathered them to play a party game. Waiting for Mars’ answer, she took a moment to honk at the penguins, who were still at it.
Mars was quite interested in learning about her home planet’s environment and climate. However, he noticed the sudden sad look on her face when she discussed her father’s pet. It disappeared very quickly but he was certain he had seen it. He decided to file that away in his mind as something to ask about later.
“Oh ya, I remember that. That was an… interesting night.” He said remembering the semi-fight they'd had. “I only ever had a dog myself, when I was a kid. You probably call those ruff-ruffs right? I named him Spark, he was great.” Mars said, taking out his phone and showing her a picture of him as a child, hugging a yellow lab puppy.
“By the way, they probably have some roar roars with manes here.” He said, smiling at the ridiculous name for a lion that even he was using now. “You want to go see those next? And uh, by the way, what’s a sting sting tail?”
However, rather than answer the questions, Kiris snatched the phone right out of Mars’ hand, though she made sure to be careful not to break or scratch it. “D’awww, you were so cute as a kid!” The girl practically squealed as she observed the picture. “Um, not that you’re not cute anymore...” She added. Then, realizing what she had just said, she blushed and quickly tried to change the subject. “A-anyway, Spark is pretty cute too! I call them bark-barks, though.” She clarified, looking at the image for a few more seconds with a big smile on her face before handing it back.
Mars was surprised when Kiris took his phone, clearly glad she was being careful with it. He was flattered that she was so interested in the picture, and clearly blushed when she called him cute. “Well… thanks.” He said, embarrassed but clearly pleased. “And ya I wish you could have met Spark, you would have really liked him.”
After that, there was moment of awkward silence, which luckily Kiris was able to break.
“Oh, um, sting-stings are those things that crawl around on lots of legs and have big tails with poisonous stingers on them.” She explained, actually answering the latter question now. Before answering the former, though, she turned to the exhibit and watched as the penguins finished their little display before waddling over to her, getting as close as the boundaries of the exhibit would allow. More honking ensued as they appeared to hold a conversation which even caught the attention of all the other visitors of the Zoo currently watching the penguins.
“Oh, we have those on Earth too.” Mars replied to Kiris before watching her engage in another back and forth exchange with the penguins. He was fascinated to see that she was actually holding a conversation with them. Before too long, Kiris turned back to him as the penguins dispersed. “Let’s go see those roar-roars now!” She exclaimed. Once she was done she seemed excited to see the lions, so Mars smiled and nodded.
“Sure thing.” He said as they walked out of the cave like structure and into the open air of the park. They walked for a few minutes until they came across a large pit that stretched across a decent amount of the park. Inside was a large field of grass, where three lions and a few cubs lived. One male was laying around lazily in the shade, while a female busy tending to the cubs. Meanwhile, the other fully grown male lion seemed more active. After a minute or two of watching him, he ran towards the edge of the grass and let out a territorial and proud roar.
“Wow, that one is a bit more fierce than Zoo lions usually are.” Mars commented to Kiris.
Rather than be frightened or even surprised, though, the Hadrian appeared to be more excited than usual, her smile taking on a slight predatory quality as she walked up to the bars that separated the pit from the rest of the Zoo, clasping them with her claws and pressing her face against them. “It’s okay, he’s just tryin’ to tell me who’s boss. But if he wants a roarin’ contest, he’s gettin’ one!” She replied as she tensed up, her tail now suspended in the air motionless.
Then, before Mars could try to dissuade her from responding in kind to the lion, Kirisvala let out a monstrous roar to challenge the beasts of the den, mighty enough to surpass the lion’s own. Needless to say, she also wound up drawing the attention of the crowd this time, some of the Zoo’s visitors frightened and others amused at the Hadrian’s display.
Once she was done asserting her superiority, the alien girl watched as, after a brief period of hesitation, the male lions approached her in a docile manner, while the female stayed back to tend to the cubs. The males allowed Kiris to pet them, which she did in a very careful manner to avoid hurting or upsetting them. “See? You show them who’s in charge here and they start playin’ nice.” She said to Mars.
“Uh Kiris, you’re really not supposed to pet the animals here.” Mars told her gently. He was starting to get worried that they were drawing too much attention to themselves. The Zoo had shown a lot of hospitality but he wasn’t sure how much they would tolerate. He had seen the smile that Kiris got on her face and was bit nervous, having seen that look on her before; usually ended in her grabbing everyone’s attention. Sure enough he had been proven right. A Zoo worker soon rushed over to them, he had a bit of a panicked look on his face.
“Please refrain from touching the animals ma’am. It’s for your own safety and theirs.” He said in a stern tone.
“She didn’t mean any harm from it, sir, I’m sure you can tell she isn’t native to San Diego.” He said in her defense. The worker simply reiterated his warning and then grumbled off. Not wanting there to be too much of a damper on the mood Mars turned back to Kiris. “That was really cool by the way. I’ve never seen someone scare a lion before.”
Needless to say, Kirisvala was a little bit miffed about not being allowed to touch the lions, pouting as she backed away from them, watching them walk back to the rest of their small pride to continue lounging around while Mars talked to the Zoo attendant on her behalf. Hearing the compliment he made her once the employee went away, though, the alien girl smiled.
“I didn’t really scare him, just let him know a Hadrian was around. But thanks!” She replied, before looking around for a little bit. Several people were looking at them, and while some were amused or even excited to see a Young Blood, many others were weirded out and a few even scared, clearly not used to seeing or hearing a Hadrian roar. Feeling rather self-conscious now, Kirisvala looked at Mars, fidgeting with her claws.
“Um, so, is there anythin’ else you’d like to show me here, or should we go now? Maybe it’d be better if we came back another day?” She suggested quietly.
Mars frowned a bit when Kiris suggested that they leave. He knew she was feeling awkward and out of place now. He related to that a lot. Being as intelligent as he was was great but it tended to alienate him from others around him. This was particularly true in school, where he never really fit in with the other kids.
“No Kiris, we shouldn’t leave, there’s still plenty of fun things we can do here.” He told her with a smile as he tried to cheer her up, the Hadrian smiling in response. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go see the dolphins, with our passes they’ll give us a private tour so it’ll just be the two of us. Come on let’s go!” He said as he led her across the park towards the aquatic animals. Soon they started to see huge pools of water and this was a sign they were getting close.
Mars looked around for a bit until he saw the large arena that was likely the dolphin display. He was, in fact, correct, and after approaching a Zoo staff member at the front of the stadium and showing him their passes, Mars and Kiris were led backstage to the large in-ground pools where the dolphins lived.
“Hi. I’m Kim, the head trainer for the Dolphins.” A woman in a wetsuit said as she approached them. She was a bit surprised by Kiris, but was polite enough not to look shocked by her appearance. “Hey you’re that girl from the news right? The one who helped take down the Weatherman? It’s great to meet you. We didn’t have time to evacuate our animals, so who knows what could have happened to them if you didn’t step in.” She told Kiris with a bright smile. “We all owe you a debt for that, these animals are like family after all.”
In response, the alien girl offered the woman a kind smile. “It’s nothin’. We’re happy to help however we can.” She said warmly. It didn’t take a genius to notice that she was far less enthusiastic with her words than when she had talked to Ann, though someone who hadn’t been there wouldn’t be aware of it. Kim nodded and led them over the pool where a group of four dolphins were swimming around aimlessly.
“Here.” She said gesturing to a nearby bucket filled with small fish. “Feed ‘em one or two of those. They’ll be your best friends.” She told them encouragingly.
Mars hesitated at first before moving towards the fish bucket. The fish was a little slimier than he would have liked, but he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of Kiris so he didn’t complain. When the dolphins saw him with the fish they all swam over to him, each jockeying to be the one to receive the fish. Mars decided to be fair and threw it up into the air. One determined dolphin jumped above the rest and snatching up the fish. The rest of them dejected swam away, while the victorious fish swam up to the edge of the pool to greet Mars.
Mars chuckled at this, using his hand to pet the creature playfully. “You’re just a big softy aren’t you.” The dolphin responded by splashing water softly towards Mars with his right flipper.
“Hey!” Mars laughed, stepping back a bit to avoid the water.
Meanwhile, rather than take as much of a hands-on approach as she had back at the lion exhibit, Kirisvala decided that she could content herself with sitting on the floor near the pools and looking at Mars as he took one of the fish from the bucket and approached the dolphins. Watching him play with them, she smiled affectionately. It made her feel warm inside to see him smiling and laughing, and she realized she wouldn’t mind just sitting there for a long time, or doing this again sometime. He looked very cute, playing around like that.
And he’s also really nice and carin’ and comfortin’ to be around… The girl caught herself thinking, a slight flush appearing on her cheeks as her mind wandered back to the moment he held her in his arms a week or so ago, though she felt no embarrassment this time, and simply continued smiling, a chuckle escaping her as she saw him try to avoid getting his dress shirt and slacks from getting wet.
Suddenly standing up, she walked up to Mars as he continued to play with the dolphins, approaching him from behind and hugging him tenderly, making sure not to hurt him with her claws. “Keep goin’.” She told him softly, her tail lightly moving from side to side behind her. “Don’t mind me.”
At the moment, she didn’t even seem to mind the fact that Kim was watching them with an amused smile.
Mars was a bit surprised when he felt a presence behind him. It took no time at all, however, to realize it was Kiris, smiling sheepishly as she pulled him into a gentle and meaningful hug.
“Hey there.” He said with a grin, his cheeks a little red as well. He kept petting his new dolphin friend as Kiris had requested, though it soon became apparent to himself that playing with the dolphin was no longer the most pressing thought in his mind. After a little while, he let the dolphin swim off with the others and turned to Kiris, reluctantly breaking their embrace.
“Hey, do you think Alexis planned anything else for us? Or do you think it’s over?” He asked, having to admit that Alexis had actually set up a pretty good date. Kirisvala thought for a few moments, before smiling and shrugging at the boy.
“No idea, but I think we can probably go now.” She said, hesitating for several moments before finally gathering the courage to reach out and hold the back of his hand on the palm of hers, making sure her claws had as little contact with him as possible. “I feel much better now Mars, thank you. But I think it’s time to go somewhere else.” She told him sincerely. He nodded at her and she began walking away from the pools, gently pulling him along.
“Bye, miss Kim!” She shouted at the dolphin trainer, waving enthusiastically at her with her free hand. The Zoo employee waved back and nodded, the same smile from before still on her face.
“What a cute couple!”
