Avenger Assembled

Judy considered her response carefully for a while. Did he write this with speech-to-text? Ben, I'm sorry you feel that way - you're always welcome to join us if you see us in prayer. You might even enjoy the experience, or at least get a chance to try something new. High school is a chance to experience things besides what our parents taught us, right? Her mouth twisted in a smile as she wrote that, but she kept it in there. She considered adding something about how she wasn't 100% white herself, but she didn't know Ben well enough to have that conversation. I know I've had a fine time every time I've been in a synagogue, and I'd want to make sure you felt just as welcome with us. Speaking of feeling welcome, you should know that if you're trying to be friends with a girl, you shouldn't tell her how you're going to get into a fight with her sister. Ashley's seen some very bad things and wants to keep them from happening to me, and if that's a problem for you, I don't think we're going to be good friends. She considered that for a moment, chewing on a pencil, then added I don't like talking about powers and fighting very much. I'm here at Claremont so I can turn my curse into a blessing for others, and so I can get a good degree and get into a good college when we graduate. How about you? Judy.

The vast horde of pigeons, which really was much larger than any flock any of the other heroes had ever seen, went mad! The birds suddenly took off, flapping and shrieking, in a blinding rush of wings and talons that didn't do any direct damage but pinned the heroes in place like they were trapped in a blizzard of very angry birds! The radio volume around Vox was almost deafeningly loud, and Benny and Mia had their own problems to deal with. <You were warned, Star-Flock!> The pigeons shouted at Davyd. <The Star-Flock was warned! NOW THERE WILL BE A PENALTY!> The birds seemed to be forming a particularly thick cordon between Davyd and the others, so much so that the shapeshifter was barely visible. As the volume of shrieks went up, Ashley grabbed Judy by the arm and pushed her towards Danica. "Chelone! Shell!" she called even as she reached into her belt to prime a grenade.

Eiros and Charmion: Eiros and Charmion are Stellarians; rather young ones given their interest in Terran civilization. Upon learning (by accessing Lor records for a lark) that their 'little sister' lies trapped within a mortal shell on this planet, they've taken a great interest in looking for Daystar. When they choose to, they resemble pretty, slightly androgynous siblings with fiery gold hair and brilliantly blue eyes - when not, they look like swirling plasma in a vaguely humanoid shape. They love light - and the fire it brings. They address each other as "dear sister" and "dear brother". Gelb Herzog: Wolfgang von Kempelen was a German mad scientist who invented a gun that could turn anything to gold - anything he wanted! Smarter than many of his breed, he used his gold gun to turn things to GOLD and sold them for CASH. But things got a little out of hand and the Raven brought him in about ten years ago, with help from the young heroine Copycat. Technically busted for counterfeiting for trying to make his own gold coins, "The Gold Duke" is due for release on parole soon, and he still knows how to make that gold gun... Monos and Una: Monos and Una like to say they're Thần-Thiên, 'heavenly angels', come from beyond the Veil to bring knowledge about what lies beyond the Veil of Death. But that's not true; at least we hope it isn't. A ritual summoned them to Earth during the last days of the Vietnam War, and they brought knowledge and enlightenment to whole villages then. But then the war ended and the new government sent troops against them - first soldiers they could teach things to, then more soldiers, then specialists against their kind. They fled the country after that, and eventually settled in America. They look a bit like very handsome East Asians who dress in black outfits, albeit with shining white wings when they unfold them. Monos uses magic. Una uses knives. Scheherazade: Scheherazade is a scientist from an alternate history; a world where science and culture came to her native Arabia a century or two after the birth of the Prophet, and soon spread around the world. By the time she was born in what was to her the year 1198; human civilization had uplifted everyone into perfected versions of themselves. She herself is a genetically engineered cyborg with heightened senses, strength, and beauty, with a passion for a slightly anachronistic take on Arabian fashion. She's not quite a villain despite what seems to be substantial energy-manipulating powers and the occasional clash with superheroes for "experimental purposes" - but she doesn't care much about us either. When she makes an appearance, it's because something _big_ is about to happen to our strange, dysfunctional universe. It's going to make a really great story when she gets back home.

The evening of Tech Compliance Ben, Thank you very kindly for your letter today. I appreciate that you are thinking about my sister and I. I'm sorry about what happened at Tech Club today, and I hope you feel better soon. But you should know that it's not a secret that Ashley and I are from another dimension. We are comfortable with who we are. Speaking of which, I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining me at See You At The Pole this Saturday. It won't be as big as the one in September, but we have some big plans. I know it's getting a little chilly for outside times, but there's hot cocoa and good times, and there's some really good fellowship. Yours, Judy Smith Judy looked at the message, nodded, then pressed send.

"Ah...Ah _am_ Jaycee Cahill," said Judy, feeling oddly nettled by Danica's doubt. Well when you tell a lie that big it's hard to get people to believe the truth, isn't it? a voice in her head asked her. "They sent me here undercover, and they made up the story about the other dimension, so nobody would ask a lot of questions. And nobody ever did!" she said with a guilty look. "Everyone was just a very...good friend, and very accepting." She squeezed Lulu's hand, then squeezed her too in another warm embrace. "Ah'm really sorry," she said, "Ah...Ah really thought it was the only way, and then Ah'd promised to keep the secret, so Ah had to..." "It really wasn't her fault," Ashley broke in, her voice drained of its usual spite. She folded her hands on her lap, considered her options, and said, "It seemed like the only way to make everything work." She gave Lulu a professional smile. "My life is fine - this is my job. Judy's the one who's had to do the hard work."

"Um, well, some of them know already," said Judy awkwardly, "and Ms. Summers, of course. We couldn't have done any of this without her." She took a breath, then said, "The first thing Ah want you to know is that Ah'm sorry. Ah do not like lying to people, and it has been very...hard to lie to you, and to my other friends here, and to...everyone else, for so long. It was for a good reason at the time, because we didn't know if we could be safe here, but now we know we can trust you, so..." She flushed again, tucked her hair behind her ears, steeled herself, and spoke: "There was no other world. Ashley and Ah are both from this dimension. And my name isn't Judy Smith. It's Judith Claudia Cahill." Having watched the whole scene, Ashley suddenly imagined the look on Judy's face when her friends burst out laughing at an obvious joke. She'd already anticipated this, and had been fumbling around on one of the room's tablets for a moment before she intervened long enough to hand it to Judy. Judy looked at the picture, and showed it to her friends. It's a recognizable image, as things go - a picture of the 2018 White House Christmas, themed for an "Old West Christmas". There's President Cahill, beaming and paternal, there's Rachel Cahill with that familiar hard, professional woman's smile, and there standing together next to them are"Cahill gals" - Jaybee, Jaycee, and Jaydee. They all resemble each other in their bright floral pattern dresses, a bit more old-fashioned than the previous occupant of the White House's family would have worn. The former is frowning at the camera, her hair shorter than her sisters, the latter is beaming a radiant smile and perfectly coiffed hair. In the middle is the middle daughter with long black hair and her wide-eyed face in profile, in a red floral dress...that looks exactly like the one she wore now. Jaycee Cahill.

"Danica, hi!" Danica got a big hug too, pleasantly warm for the tortoise girl, and Judy smiled. "Oh, thanks for the cookies!" She gave them one single look, then set them down on the table where anybody else could reach them. "Ah didn't even think of snacks, but that's...that's probably a really good idea!" She set her Bible down, then said, "It's okay,. Danica, Ah was just talking about my family Bible." Once Danica was inside, Ashley stepped up and closed the door behind them - and locked it. "Just need to keep it soundproof," she commented quietly, her bubblegum-pink hair an odd contrast to her serious demeanor. "Make sure nobody's listening. Doesn't actually lock on this side." "Now don't be alarmed," said Judy with a nervous smile as Ashley moved back to her corner. "But Ah had a special motivation for inviting the two of you here." She looked at Ashley, blushed slightly, and said, "Um, well, Ashley and Ah have been talking, and we decided between us that we needed to be, um, well, honest with our friends, because that's what good people do, and because that's, um, what God tells us. You both are good people, and we trust you, so..." She shifted in her seat, blushing again, harder. It wasn't that long ago that Ashley would have stepped in and finished the conversation here, but she just watched, tense, as Judy took a moment before she said, "We...we need to tell you the truth about where we really come from. And who Ah really am."

"Oh, well, that's...nice," said Ashley cautiously. "She's actually got hers out already." Lulu had seen Judy with a couple of editions of the Bible; she probably owned more than any other Claremont student. The one on her bed now was also a King James edition, an old, leather-bound, and obviously much-used one. Ashley considered whether or not to open or close the door, then decided to pull it shut - she'd have to open it when Danica arrived, but she didn't want to do anything that would draw attention to the meeting. She took a seat in a corner of the room, letting the focus stay on Judy when she stepped out of the bathroom. "Hi Lulu," said Judy with a smile as she stepped out of the bathroom. There was something indefinably different about the girl as she pulled Lulu into a quick, warm hug; her long black hair behind her head in a ponytail, her deep red floral dress just the right color for her tan skin and dark complexion. "Ah'm real glad you're here - oh, you brought your Bible!" She picked up hers and brought it over to show Lulu. "This is mine, uh, actually this was my grandma's. We, uh, brought it with us when we came here." She paged quickly through the pages of the thick, illustrated text. "That's actually what Ah wanted to talk to you about, but uh, well, we need to wait until Danica gets here first..."

“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.” ― Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World It was in mid-November of 2019, about the time that many Claremont students were about to go away for Thanksgiving break, that Judy Smith sent out a message to some of her best friends inviting them to a special meeting in her dorm room. This was quite unusual; as far as anyone knew, Judy and Ashley had never admitted anyone to their dorm room when they were actually living in it. There had been, to say the least, some discussion about who exactly to invite to the meeting. They'd settled on the most trustworthy of Judy's friends, the ones who were proven, reliable quantities. This meant Chelone, with her wisdom; and this meant Crystal-Gazer, who already knew some things. There'd been others on the table. But they didn't know Mia well enough yet, and Leroy was going to be told on his own. And Micah...well, it wouldn't really do to tell Micah before she told Leroy, now would it? So the woman and the girl sat together in their dorm room and waited, Judy on her bed and Ashley on hers, and Judy prayed. She prayed in her own prayer language that everything would work out okay, that her friends would understand and that telling the truth would save the day, and that taking pains to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord and the eyes of Man would save everything. Ashley had taken this opportunity to say a few words to Our Lady of Vietnam, because why the Hell not at this point, honestly, but was mostly thinking about operational security. She had a few extra gadgets on her belt if things really went south, but hallucinogenic gas and electric stunners were of dubious efficiacy against superheroes. If this went wrong, tricks of the trade weren't going to do it. _So why am I doing this?_ she reflected. She looked at the girl kneeling in prayer across the room, speaking in tongues the way she usually did when she prayed by herself. _Because Judy deserves it._ When there was a knock at the door, it was Ashley who answered it; Judy excusing herself for a moment to get dressed. "Be right there!" Ashley was in a punk rock T-shirt and jeans when she opened the door, a carefully composed look on her face. "Hey. Come in. She's just getting dressed." The Smith room was a bit larger than either Lulu or Danica's room, a private bathroom by what must be Judy's side of the room (with its Christian and Old West art on the walls), with vaguely punk rock decor on Ashley's side. It honestly looked like any other Claremont room, albeit with a few more books on the shelves, some extra electronics here and there, big pile of knitting projects on Judy's desk, and some tools and magnifiers for when Ashley worked on her gear.

Ashley scrubbed her hand over her eyes again, lost in thought. What could she say here, after everything else that had happened that night? Are we a couple now? Am I...gay? Or bisexual? She was pretty sure of the latter, even though it was like a hammerblow to her self-perception anyway. Well that was the consequence of pushing past your limits, wasn't it? Finding out new things about yourself? Then there were the other questions. Am I ever going to see you again once you're back in space? Well she already knew this was no time for an existential crisis. She turned and blew a kiss to Fa'Rua on her way into the hotel bathroom. Whatever else was going to happen - it was worth it.

@Dariusprime - the birds are definitely talking to each other by radio; but you don't speak pigeon, so it sounds like the pigeon cooing is happening both out loud and on the radio. Doktor Archeville - the birds don't like you, or at least you seem to make them agitated. But you get the feeling that they are distinctly cooing at _you_, as if expecting a response....

Ashley was 100% sure that the hotel clerk knew why they were renting a room and 110% sure that she was being judged - but inside the elevator, when they were alone and the doors closed, she kissed Fa'Rua again and she didn't have to worry about what anyone else thought of that. For the first time in a long time, there was only one person she needed to impress tonight. - Between one thing and another, it was a long evening - and the next time her phone chimed, Ashley was asleep in a very compromising but extremely pleasant position in bed with a gorgeous amazon from the depths of space. It was enormously tempting to just let her phone go on chiming; but her eyes were open and the phone was in her hand before the third ding, because that was what duty was. "Okay...okay." She sat up, pushing the hair out of her face. "Full report in...half an hour. If I call it in, I can take a shower first." She scrubbed her eyes with her fingers, and added, "And then it's back to big sister duty. Dammit."

Sign me up for anything I don't have to run! ? We should do the stuff with the local gangs getting more supernatural - especially now that so many heroes are active. Vampires, werewolves, etc.

"I never realized a lot of things," Ashley admitted softly, her breath warm on Fa'Rua's cheek. Ashley almost told Fa'Rua that her underage cover identity should probably _not_ be out after hours kissing a space traveler who was all woman - but she pecked her on the tip of an ear instead, and made a vow she wasn't going to think about Claremont, or her ward, or anything else until her alarm went off. "About me, and about what I wanted..." She laughed breathily. "And about how good you look." There were still parts of even a liberal bastion like Freedom City where a cop like Ashley knew better than to be romantic with another woman in public, but for once luck was with them and none of the drunks hanging around the bar this late made a pass at them. Thinking about the tactical situation was another way to stop thinking about the way the hand on her thigh was sending shockwaves through her body, or how warm the arm around her was making her feel. She put her hand on Fa'Rua's leg under the table too, resting her head on her shoulder. "Fa'Rua," she whispered, "I'm going to say something that I've never said to a first date before. In a couple of hours, my phone's going to ring, and I'm going to have to make a report to my boss, and his boss's boss, and then I'm going to have to go back to my job." She turned her head and looked deep into Fa'Rua's eyes. "Let's go upstairs."

Ashley blushed, again, feeling a warmth that seemed to suffuse her whole body from Fa'Rua's touch. "Ah...thanks. I've been thinking about dying the whole thing." She reached up and took Fa'Rua's hand. "You were pretty badass yourself. That amazing shooting, and that landing, I..." She took a breath, thought about hesitation, and a lifetime of dishonesty, then admitted nervously, "I, uh, I wanted to kiss you when I saw you take your helmet off, but everybody was watching..." Nobody was watching them now, and Ashley gave into temptation - leaning over to kiss Fa'Rua on the lips, hand in her hair. Her heart was pounding in her chest every second of it, but she wouldn't have had it any other way. When she was done, she whispered, "And whatever you've heard about dating Terrans - it's all true."

"I don't exactly have all night to play," admitted Ashley, "but she'll text me if she needs me, and she's in good hands right now." Callie Summers herself was keeping an eye on Judy, something that would surely lead to another discussion among the two of them the next morning. "I'm glad the two of you got along. I told her I had a friend from space coming, but I didn't..." She hesitated a moment, holding onto Fa'Rua's hand, and made a confession. "I've never been on a date with a woman before. I never...that wasn't something I did." She looked up at Fa'Rua and said, "I was going to give you a speech about going slow, and exploring boundaries, but right now I just want to go somewhere with you and...and, uh, see what happens." Feeling a flush in her cheeks, she looked up at Fa'Rua and added, "and by the way, you are cute as _hell_. Especially those ears. As for your outfit, don't worry. It's Halloween, baby." Opsec would have suggested the two of them go far away from Bayview, but Ashley was tired and needed to stay close for Judy's sake, so they wound up taking a cab to a tavern inside a hotel, a themed sports bar at an airport hotel, where two women together wouldn't attract much attention, and where a soccer match across the world was the only thing on television this late. Several of the Terrans were dressed in outfits that didn't quite match what Fa'Rua had heard about local fashion, and her "space marine" costume got a compliment as Ashley ordered them both a Guinness. What the hell, if she was gonna introduce her to Terran beer, it might as well be good. They sat together at one of the tables, close enough that they were touching, where they could see the screens but without paying too much attention to them. This close to someone she was this close to, Ashley felt like she was seventeen all over again - and for once, she liked it.

November 2019 What in retrospect would start out as one of the most significant conversations between Judith Cahill and Ashley Tran during their time at Claremont started out a week or so before they were due to swing back to Washington for the First Family's Thanksgiving. They'd packed their bags and made their excuses about a "classified trip"; Ashley had enjoyed a very interesting conversation with Fa'Rua, and she was just thinking about turning in when she realized that the click-click-click of Judy's knitting needles had fallen silent. Usually a failure with the tools meant that her ward was about to slam them down on the desk and mutter a few words under her breath. But when Ashley glanced that way, she saw Judy instead staring off into space with a tense expression on her face. This caused the Secret Service agent some tension - was it better not to probe into matters that weren't her business? Better to ask and be seen as being there for Judy? Eventually common humanity won out over professional ethics and she said, "Judy, are you all right?" When Judy turned, her face was crumpled up, tan skin reddened with the look around her eyes that meant she would have been crying if she still had normal tear ducts. "N-no." And then she was sobbing, dropping her knitting and clutching her midsection, and Ashley crossed the room in a few steps to embrace her, because she knew what worked and what didn't, and leaving the girl all alone was about the worst thing she could imagine. She held Judy as she sobbed, muttering encouragement for a moment, and then pulled back to look at her. "What's the matter?" Maybe it was the distance of just a few inches, bringing an honesty that usually didn't creep into their professional relationship - maybe it was just the experience of more than a year at Claremont already. "Ashley, Ah need to ask you something. And Ah need you to be honest with me about it. We've always been honest with each other, right?" That was not actually 100% true, but it was close enough, so Ashley nodded and said, "If I can be, I will be." She'd never broken her word, anyway; that was something to cling to in the nights when she wondered how the hell she'd wound up going undercover at a goddamned superhero high school. "If...if Ah was your real sister, or your daughter, or...or somebody you were taking care of because it wasn't really your job..." Judy took a breath, her eyes glowing slightly as she did so, then whispered, "What would you have done with me?" She didn't need to fill in the details - Ashley knew perfectly well what she was asking about. Ashley felt a weight drop into her stomach and settle there, and for a barely perceptible moment she wished Judy had confessed to having sex with Leroy, or having intercepted one of her texts to Fa'Rua, or any other number of questions that would be easier than that one. "I...I don't...why are you asking?" she asked for lack of anything easier to say. "Because Ah want to know," Judy whispered back, her body warm like a fever patient this close up. "Ah want to know what a normal, decent person would have done." "I'm...I'm not your parents, Jaycee," Ashley stuttered, hating herself for the hesitation. "I can't tell you what they should have-" "That's not what Ah asked you," hissed Judy with a spark of anger in her eyes, her body warming and not in a happy way. "Ah asked you what you would have done." Ashley stared at her and said, "Well...I don't have any kids, but if you were one of my sisters, and your powers developed in the same way, I'd have done the same thing - I'd have helped make sure you got to Claremont, so you could learn how to control your abilities and decide what you wanted to do with them." Her knees were beginning to hurt from crouching by Judy's chair, so she went and got her own before she continued their conversation. "Because I think you deserve the choice to decide who you are, and what you want to do with your life." "Would you have kept it a secret?" There it was, barreling down at her like a freight train. "I'd...have done whatever you wanted." There was more she could say there, about how a superhero-turned-Secret-Service agent naturally had expectations of secrets very different from the President of the United States and his family, about how family was something you stood by no matter what, but she didn't think the words actually needed to be said. "Because part of love is respect, and I think I would respect your choices, because I love my sister. If loving...her made my life harder, that's what I'd do." Judy looked away for a moment, considering those words. "Your madeup sister, s-sure, okay...wwhat if...Ah don't want it to be a secret anymore?" "Well." There it was. "That's going to make your life harder, and it's going to make my life harder, and the lives of a lot of other people harder, so I hope you wouldn't make any rash decisions. I'm with you to the end of the line, whatever you decide to do, but...we've had this talk. Anything you do that endangers your life endangers mine and everyone else guarding you." "Ah'm not talking about...going on TV or something," said Judy, shaking her head. "That would be crazy, and it could get people looking at the school. But just...letting people know, who we already know can keep secret identities..." "I can't tell you what to do," said Ashley with a small, sad shrug. "That's...not how it works. You're seventeen. I already know that you're smart, and you're brave, and telling the truth matters to you. Whatever decision you make, I'll be there for you." She looked at Judy and said, her voice tight, "Because I love my sister."

Judy blinked a few times, staring at Mia. "Your mom - just left you here? After she took in a sister she never knew you had?" She blinked a few more times, and found herself fighting back tears. "Oh, Mia, that's awful! Ah am so sorry!" She pulled her friend into another hot hug. "Your momma should love you for who you are," whispered Judy fiercely, "just like we do." "Well, uh, that''s certainly quite a story," said Ashley, herself at a loss for words given this set of events. She stepped up close to the two girls and put her hand on Judy's shoulder, an unusual bit of tactility for the Smith sisters. "Weird crap hangs around super people like stink," she said frankly. "I'm sorry that happened to you, Mia. But, uh, we''re still your friends. And there are lots of good counselors at Claremont; they can help you with normal teenager problems, not just the usual secret identity crap. You really should...you really should talk to somebody."

Ashley's first thought was to check on Judy - who seemed to have come through the ride none the worse for wear. In fact, she was...smiling? Well hell, she'd take that over anything. She gave Judy a confident smile in return, then turned to Fa'Rua, who looked like she'd taken the worst of the trip. "Best ride I've had all night," she told the Lor with some truth. What a woman! She handed her a handkerchief; a clean one, since she'd used her own earlier that evening to wipe down the blood from inside her helmet. What the hell, you had to be practical about this stuff. The next little while was a little hard for Fa'Rua to follow - she'd picked up enough English to understand the conversations, but a lot of technical terms were being used out of context by the several adults and young people who came out to have words with Ashley. But Judy was heading back to the dorm in the company of a "resident adviser", while the "headmistress" came out in the cold to have a quick conversation with Ashley. When the latter promised the former a full report, Watchdog and Infinity were given their walking papers. The Claremont campus was dark this late, with just the security lights to keep students safe, and mostly quiet between the return of trick-or-treaters and the actual staying-out-laters. The walk to the gate gave Ashley time to consider giving up, to screw up her courage, and to finally say, "Hey, this was...this was not how I wanted tonight to go. I'd like to say Freedom's not usually like this, but believe me, it is." When they were standing together under the security lights at the front gate, she smiled and said, "Thanks for saving our ass. Do you--do you want to get a drink?"

Davyd and Nick, give me Notice checks.

A bird landed and looked at Davyd. "It was a real shi*tshow, yeah, Mia..." Ashley was just about to say more when she realized what she could hear - or rather, what she couldn't hear. All around them, the gigantic flock of pigeons had suddenly fallen silent. They weren't dead, they weren't inactive, but they were all staring fixedly at the group with what looked for all the world with suspicious intent. And then suddenly, as if they'd been noticed, the birds went back to their chirping and cooing and singing. "Oookay," said Ashley, getting to her feet, "I don't think that was normal at all, so maybe we should be-" A bird landed and looked at Davyd. "Oh, I think it'll be fine!" said Mr. Jorgensen cheerfully, "anomalous behavior creeps up in flocks like this all the time. We have a rare opportunity here to observe a passenger pigeon flock larger than any we've ever seen here!" He was already taking pictures. "Danica, I think you and I should take up our usual position in the river blind; I'll be fascinated to see how the usual riverfowl interact with the flock while it's settled here." He hmmed. "I wonder if there was a volcano or other natural disturbance that prompted a larger than usual migration. That might explain the night flight too..." A bird landed and looked at Davyd. "I don't know," said Judy, "this is awfully peculiar." She was studying the birds, then she said, "Does anybody here have, like a superpower to understand birds?" She was frowning as she walked back and forth among the flock. "Ah could swear that the...the radio here has gotten _louder_, but birds can't send radio messages, can they?" A bird landed and looked at Davyd.

"Wasn't gonna shoot him, man," said Wadjet, "Just beat him up a little bit, really piss him off so he does the tentacle thing." She mimed it. "You know, like with Grue?"

That sounds...nice. Judy considered asking about how "And your family loved him anyway?" - but she knew she didn't need to ask. Normal families didn't send their children away because they were special, did they? They celebrated them for what they were, even if they were different. She knew that; and really she'd known it for a long time. I always wanted to be normal, but I guess lots of people want things they can't really have. I think space sounds beautiful - and I'm glad there are beautiful people up there. She smiled at Fa'Rua, then offered, You're real nice - just like Ashley said. - Eventually, after Jolan learned quite a few new words for Terran glands (and for that matter feces and orifices), Ashley got what she wanted - and their prisoner was led away in handcuffs to a newly-arrived government groundcar. "We got the transmission codes for who told them where to hit, and how. Didn't say if the New Freedom government knows - but I guess they will soon enough. Judy, honey, you need to go back to school," she added, bending down in front of her sister and giving her a rather unprofessional hug. "I'll take care of things here, but we need to get you somewhere safe." "Okay," said Judy, hugging her back and giving her a serious look. "We'll talk tomorrow morning." It wasn't a question. "I promise. And if you see that guy again, you have my permission to blow his goddamn head off." Ashley considered for a moment, then turned to Infinity. "Infinity, if I give you coordinates, can you drop us there? Rather take a teleport than go back with unknown hostiles out there," she told the other agents.

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Wadjet Wadjet said a foul word in Ancient Egyptian. "Well let's kick his ass," she opined a moment after that. "Shapeshifter'll turn back if you hit him hard enough, then we can make him squeal." She racked the slide on her gun and looked at the others, her masked face implacable. She considered how to answer the question about why she was involved, then grunted. "Like I said. Priest goes bad - hurts everybody."