Avenger Assembled

"That sounds good," said Judy. "You're so nice, Danica," she added, distinctly pronouncing nice like 'nahce.' Cautiously, this time she did get to her feet and out of the stall - looking distinctly paler than her usual shade of tan. She rinsed and spat at the sink, then asked (more to keep her thoughts off her own problems) "Can Ah ask you something personal?" When Danica agreed, Judy said, "Ah know...ah know people don't like talking about their identities, or what they're like on the inside, and stuff, but..." She turned her head slightly and looked at Danica while she brushed. "Did you have, like, tortoise, um, puberty?"

Judy snorted, something that sounded uncomfortable, then said, "Ah started _that_ two years ago, right in the middle of, um, um, running from the Grue." Come to think of it, was that what Danica had been talking about? She _really_ didn't want to ask the tortoise girl questions about her menstruation right now. Not really in the mood for the usual lie (what she'd been talking about had actually been in church in Los Angeles during the last days of her father's campaign, what had previously been the most mortifying moment of her life), she made an effort to stand up, never mind the woozy feeling in her head, then decided to stay down just a little longer. "It's not really an allergy," she went on, resting her head against the cool metal of the door. "My body, uh, absorbs radio waves, and other kinds of radiation - and Ah get sick if Ah can't get them. Right after it first happened, Ah realized I wasn't getting hungry or thirsty anymore, and that was actually pretty neat. Except as time went on, and mah body kept changing, well...now Ah usually can't eat or drink _anything_. The doctors say my stomach and digestive system are, um, changing, and that in another year or so Ah may not even have them at all."

"Oh, um, hi Danica," said Judy, whose accent seemed slightly thicker today. She blew her nose noisily and messily, taking what shelter she could in the privacy of the stall. "No, Ah've been to see her about this before. she'd just give me a nice talk about how mah body's going through a lot of changes, and Ah shouldn't push myself by doing things Ah'm not supposed to." There was rather more sarcasm in Judy's voice than Danica had typically heard, too. Danica hadn't asked where Ashley was - and Judy realized she rather liked that. "Is that your shell?" she asked. "Ah've never actually seen that before. It's very pretty..." She sniffled again, hating herself for it.

"Oh, uh, hey...Ah'm okay," said Judy, though she didn't sound okay at all to Danica's ears, her voice shaky from the effects of crying or puking - or both. She could see the lower portion of the other girl sitting down inside the stall nearest the wall, denim jeans and scuffed boots that looked like ones Danica had seen when she was a kid. "Ah, um, get the pukes sometimes, that's all..." She sniffed loudly, and said, "Could you, um, get me a paper towel? There's no more paper in here and Ah need to blow mah dose..." She wasn't entirely sure who was out there, but she really didn't want to walk out there and puke all over the floor again. Where the Hell did her body keep that stuff?

Frost kept up an easy chatter with the cultists, his mind already working on autopilot. How many times had he been in such a situation? "I have known gods of Egypt, and monsters too. It is an honorable costume." He thought of Heru-Ra and Tan-Aktor, and all that he had seen pass between them, and felt terribly old. It is an old story. They have intentions to change the world, good or bad - but to change the world is a dangerous thing. Crusades attracted the righteous - but in his experience righteousness and virtue were often not the same thing at all. He realized he could have been speaking to either the new Scarab or the cultist, and decided to let both points pass.

October 2018 It had all gone wrong during chili night at the cafeteria. Ashley had warned Jaycee not to try anything, but walking past the doors, memories of home had drawn the girl in. And despite Ashley's best efforts, she wasn't actually the boss of Jaycee Cahill. So the girl had eaten, bites of chili verde, chili con carne, Cincinnati chili (even if the latter had made Judy make a disgusted face) and a few more bites of things Ashley hadn't immediately recognized. Judy had had a good time socializing with her friends, even if she'd rolled her eyes a bit at the cliched country-western music playing on the cafeteria sound system, and so maybe that was worth what had happened when her body had started digesting the food - and belatedly remembered that it was powered by radio waves, not by carbohydrates. They were in the first floor hall bathroom - they hadn't quite made it all the way upstairs - and Ashley was standing outside the stall when she heard Jaycee say, a little weakly, "Ashley, Ah'm...ah'm gonna be here a little while. Can you go back to the library and get mah book? Ah think I left it in the study room..." Normally Ashley didn't go fetch things for Judy - but after the vomiting, and the crying, she wanted to do something to put a little smile on the girl's face. "Be right back. Stay in the bathroom, and hit the button if you need me. Five minutes." She laid her hand against the cool metal of the stall door, then turned and headed quickly outside. Of course, the one problem with public bathrooms was that they didn't have locks on the outside...

"I just liked stealin'," said Anna with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. After some careful consideration, and a glance at Nicola, she poured herself a drink - she'd never had much of a head for alcohol. "And once I started, it was fun. That was back when people just stood there and stared atcha, or hung back and took pictures - like they were watchin' the opera." She swirled the champagne in her glass. "It was like being on stage all the time, and we were the ones who got to play the best parts. 'No gods, no masters'," she quoted.. "A'course both of those things were a lie. But it was nice to say."

Watchdog turned her head and without thinking, drew down on Forever Boy, pistol flying into her hand as she interposed herself between a startled Judy and the book in Pan's hand. "No! Put it down now-" But it was too late - the book glowed with a sudden eldritch energy, light crackling around Pan's fingers where he touched the pages, a glow that suddenly erupted outward across all the heroes in the room - and then, with a sound like an explosion in reverse, all of them vanished. - Ashley opened her eyes to pain - and sunlight streaming in through her helmet's filtered viewports. "Judy?!" she called, sitting up despite the pain she felt in her spine and tailbone from what must have been a hard landing. She hit a few buttons on the side of her helmet and cursed violently when she couldn't get a radio signal out to Jaycee's transponder, or anything else. Her heart pounding in her chest, she looked around the small, forested island where the heroes had landed, the island small enough that she could spot all the others almost immediately. Something was looming over them, a statue she didn't immediately recognize, but for the moment all her attention was on Judy, who'd landed nearby, closest to the water, and was sitting up with a sick look on her face. She ran up to her ward. "Judy, are you all right?" she asked immediately, checking the girl for symptoms of shock. "Ah...ah can't hear anything, Ashley," said Judy loudly, her hands pressed to the side of her head, dirt and leaves in her long hair. "It's a dead zone! A dead zone!"

Judy sighed softly, pain in her pretty dark eyes. "That's an old problem. You'll hear people say a lot of things - that evil happens to make us better people, that it's an important part of free will, or that it doesn't matter because He'll take us into his arms in Heaven and wash every earthly care away." She blinked a few times, then said, "Ah don't have all the answers about the universe or God's plan for us, Leroy. Ah just know that He loves us, and is there for us when we fall, even if we can't see it or feel it at the time. It's not easy, but easy's not the path we have to follow. There are all sorts of people who run around Freedom City saying they're gods or have the power of gods, like creatures from an old fable; but there's only one god you can meet in your heart and in your soul." She looked down at their hands and said, "You have strong hands, Leroy."

"Taunting a helpless Sin was petty, Dreadnought," said Frost seriously. "You either mean nothing to him, in which case you are wasting time and energy and being seen by all, or he will hurt you. You might think that is not possible but it is. It is possible for all men." He swirled the congealing, cold blood in the glass. "It was quite a mission. I have gotten worse from better but it was all quite memorable. What are you going to see happen to fine lady?"

"Speaking for the trees, huh?" said Judy, thinking about the other characters. "That makes sense, trees and plants are some of the God of gods greatest creations. We gotta keep 'em safe from demon's fire," she went on with a nod Lulu's way. "And Lady Quanah knows the Lion's justice is for all the peoples of the world, human and otherwise. Ah think she'd get along fine with everybody else, as long as they didn't start worshipping demons or doing anything else evil where she could see it." Ashley provided the dice for the sisters, a mixed batch of d20s that had obviously come from a gaming store's dice pile. "Cause if that happens, it's smiting time!"

Anna studied the former supercriminal for a while, then took the bottle from her and set it between them. "Drinkin' too much isn't gonna lead you anywhere good, honey, even if you've got thirty livers." She smiled at the younger woman and said, "You have a nice place here. Not anything like I expected." Truthfully she was rather glad there weren't too many prying eyes on her and Nicola tonight "Goin' legit can be hard. That's the real reason a lot of us go back to the life. What made you stop?"

Fall 2018 "Ah don't see what the big deal was anyway," said Judy, sitting at her desk and methodically brushing her hair, her back and shoulders tense. "Selene doesn't like you, um, that way - and Ah know you don't like girls at all! It was just a little joke." "Because I'm 26 years old," said Ashley, keeping her voice calm, level, and frank - and trying not to think about fighting with her actual sisters. "I'm a Secret Service agent pretending to be a teenager to keep you safe. If that ever comes out, there can't even be a _hint_ I was...I don't know, trying to shack up with any high school kids." "But it doesn't matter!" protested Judy, turning her body and looking up at her bodyguard. "It was just a joke! You're not even gay!" "I know it was just a joke," said Ashley, quickly counting to ten inside her head. "That's why we're just talking like this. It's not appropriate for you to make jokes like that while we're here. My social life isn't part of my work, especially not around teenagers." "My social life is part of yours, though..." The First Daughter stared at her mirror, her face set - then Judy looked up at Ashley, frowning, and then relented. "All right. Ah just want you to know, Ah don't think you're gay. You told me how hard it was for you before you joined the Service, and Ah don't want you to think Ah'm judging you like that." Oh honey. The 'jokes' about what an athletic woman with short hair who didn't date much hadn't stopped when she'd become a Secret Service agent - _especially_ since everyone in her part of the agency knew she was the team freak. Being Asian helped a lot too, yeah. "...would it matter to you if I was?" she asked, the words coming out before she could quite stop them. "Ah...well, no," said Judy, blushing in her cheeks. "Ah mean, you're my friend. We're just...roommates for now. It's not like we're...we're jumping in the showers together or anything." Ashley tried not to wrinkle her forehead as she considered what she was hearing. "...Well, all right. We just need to be careful." She pulled her chair up next to Judy's. "If it's a matter of you wanting to make embarrassing jokes about your jerk of a big sister, I suggest you mention the pink hair..."

"Riding and shooting," said Judy immediately. "Ah used to love to do that - but they don't have good horses around here, and they keep all the guns under lock and key. Ah might join the shooting team for intramurals, Ah heard that's gonna be a thing this year." She smiled thinly. "Ah like to sing too, but Ah don't think Ah have the same tastes in music as most of the girls here." She set her hands on her lap and looked out at the water. "Ah know people think Ashley's why I don't socialize with people as much as other girls do, but Ah...there are a lot of things Ah'd have to talk about, with my powers, and everything else...but maybe I should go out and watch movies in the common room, or something. Ah watched a lot of old movies when I was growing up, maybe there's retro night or something."

"It's supposed to be stealth ops training," growled Watchdog, the glowing red eyes on her helmet her only visible feature above her neck. "But it's just bullshit hippie-dippie team-building garbage," she added with venom in her voice. "How are we supposed to be learning anything from-" "Ooh, look at me!" said Judy in sudden response from behind her sister, holding up her flashlight under her chin. "Ah'm the spirit of librarian past and you'd better not cuss in mah library!" She burst out laughing, patting her sister on the shoulder. With all the byplay, it was was Forever Boy who saw the book - which maybe fit because apparently he had some connection to them. It sat on one side of a half-empty shelf, its front cover facing him and seeming to glow slightly. Its color was gold, the text blue, and it seemed to whisper of possibilities, of adventure beyond anything he'd ever seen. On its cover was a strange sailing ship, and it called itself: THE LAST AMERICAN... .

"Well that's very different characters, so how did we all meet?" asked Judy. "Got assigned," suggested Ashley. "Some big dogooder came along and made us all work together." "Hey, Ah'm a do-gooder," said Judy. She stared at the snacks and drinks for a moment, then said, "Ah-Ah, um, Ah think we should meet in battle, like there's been a big fight and we're all recuperating. Ah..." She stared at the Coke, then at Ashley, shifting uncomfortably in her seat for a moment before looking down at her character sheet. "Okay. Big battle," said Ashley, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder reassuringly. "Maybe we all did something, and so our side wants to hire us for something new."

Judy blinked twice and said with great frankness as she made eye contact with Leroy, "Well, if there's something wrong with you, you need to try to fix it. If you can't, you turn to your friends. And if there's something wrong with your friend, you need to try to help them.That's what a hero would do, isn't it?" "What if we're a Grue?" asked Ashley, not seeming to quite get it. "Ugh. That's dark, Leroy." She settled back thoughtfully, counting off points on her fingers. "While going out in a blaze of glory sounds tempting, that's not actually going to solve any problems. I'd turn myself in and see what happens next. If I'm an alien invader I can't be trusted to make decisions for humanity anymore, even if I'm sure I'm one of the good ones."

"We live in a city of the mighty, where people with great power put themselves on the line every day just because saving others is what has to be done. There's a man who can fix streets just by walking by them, a woman who can make a forest just by waving her hand...Ah could go on, but you've probably heard all about them by now." Judy smiled, then went on, "Freedom City is a sure sign of God's working in the world, Leroy. I know it doesn't feel that way when things don't go perfectly; but just this last summer they took down the forces of a cybernetic Hell on nothing but a wing and a prayer." She reached across the table and tentatively put her hand on Leroy's, more to enjoy how strong he felt if she was really honest with herself than anything else. "And this has nothing to do with having superpowers," she said with great frankness. "Because Ah know Ah thought this even before Ah could hear the radio. If you want to see God's hand in the world, you've got be that hand."

"Ah..." Judy stared in alarm at Dio's entrance, but her warning through Ashley - thanks to the latter's warning through Summers, carried the day. Not that any of her friends knew anything about that. "Um, well, Lady Quanah is a noblewoman from a family in the desert kingdom that embraced demon-worship," she said, her eyes lighting up excitedly at the words, "but before she could join the Black Crusade that threatens all of civilization, she was saved by the Lion, the messenger of the God Above Gods. Now she roams the land as the Lion's champion, fighting evil wherever she finds it, and trying to redeem the world just as the Lion taught her. And she's got a horse," she added with a wink to Ashley, "a big black one that she saved from being slaughtered. She's real tough and doesn't trust people at first because there are demon-worshippers everywhere, but her heart is pure and her sword has the blessings of the Lion."

Judy smiled back. "...thanks, Corinne." and they went back to swimming - managing several more laps before Judy had to take a break. She wasn't out of shape as such, but she obviously didn't have much experience with sustained physical exertion. Sitting on the side of the pool, she dangled her feet in the water, looking down at it curiously. Ashley was watching them, and from not too far away where she leaned negligently against the gym wall. "Least Ah don't try to drink the pool water," she murmured to herself, almost inaudibly. Louder, she said, "So what's fun to do at this school? Ah mean really?" "

October 2018 Claremont Academy Library Down in the third floor basement stacks, Judy Smith shone her flashlight around. "Wow, they really do have a lot of issues of American Heritage here," she said, not sounding terribly enthused upon finding row after row of the old magazines on their metal shelves. "But Ah guess Ah found the December 1957 issue, so that's one more!" She looked to her team and checked off another on their list of 'Scavenger Hunt in the Lights-Out Library!' "At least turning off the lights made it interesting," she commented to her team. "Oh yeah it's real interesting," hissed Ashley Smith, who seemed far less enthusiastic than her sister about the whole thing. She had on her gear for the night-time op; head obscured and voice partially muffled by her Watchdog helmet, her guns concealed beneath her leather jacket and body armor. "Night time in an empty building, where anything could be lurking behind anything!" She was only half in-character here. She'd spent a lot of hours in the Claremont library and had learned that it was full of all sorts of awful stuff. At least they probably weren't going to see that damned ghost this time. "What's next?" Judy asked the others.

This was one of the few things Ashley had been prepared for. All of them nice and safe, even if they have destructive powers - wait a minute! She and Jaycee were the only girls on the Blue Team. She shot a look over at her ward, who was herself craning her head to get a look at the other students, and realized something. She's going to want to date them. Damn damn damn! On the other hand, maybe Jaycee's conservative upbringing would mean she wouldn't want to date a boy who didn't share her values. So do I encourage her in that, or do I try and get her to open up a little? She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. And how the hell did I find myself needing to care about the dating life of a sixteen year old? Her glasses off and unable to see behind her, she took a few moments to imagine herself doing something more rewarding. Presidential detail after this; Presidential detail after this...

Group 1 Considering their situation, Ashley felt like the discussion had been a big success. She'd kept Judy open, making sure she didn't shut down despite some questions that had hit a little close to home, and she'd gotten a feel for Judy's fellow students, alternatively overly emotional, overly naive, or good-hearted-but-unsure. Good to know Claremont kids haven't changed too much in 10 years! She actually found herself regretting that she hadn't participated in this honestly; Ashley George's answers were quite different than those Watchdog had been forced to give. Registering metas is just good sense and it's probably gonna happen by the time Jaycee is my age, you have a telepath mindwipe the guy so he doesn't spill the beans, and you interrogate the Grue but let him join if he seems reliable enough and if there's no red in his ledger. "We still have time. What do you want to know, Leroy?"

"Was...was she okay?" asked Judy, in a voice so quiet she was almost inaudible over the sound of the sloshing water in the pool. She looked away, and was actually silent, torn between the truth and a lie, before she said, "Ah think the worst part is that Ah'm not really that powerful. Ah mean there are people here who can fly, or do magic, or go visit their father in Asgard or whatever. All Ah can really do is spy on the radio and hurt people without meaning to."

"It does," said Judy reassuringly. "It..." She fell silent for a moment, then said, "When Ah was a little girl, my sister had a pair of budgies, you know, little parakeets? She called them Merry and Christmas, and I loved those things more than anything. They used to climb on my hair and chirp to each other, and they were real sweet. When they died, she was sad, but I cried so hard I couldn't even talk anymore." She sniffed a little at the memory, then said, "When that happened, my mother told me that the Bible says 'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.' That means God is watching over us, even when we feel small and weak, and is always there when we need him."