Avenger Assembled

"Yeah," said Judy, relaxing before she shot Ashley a distinct "Told-you-so!" grin. "They sounded like they had really cool powers. Ah just wanted to play someone who was such a good person, they got to have good powers..." She swallowed, then changed the subject. Seeming to catch where Adam was looking, she added, "And Ashley promised she'd play the horse." "Beats sitting around doing nothing," replied Ashley evenly. "You are mah trusty warhorse Watchdog!" said Judy with a grin, and despite herself Ashley smiled too. Judy really could get enthusiastic about something when she put her mind to it. It was nice to see her smiling about something.

"Well, um, in the game, Ah wanted to play a paladin, if that's okay, but instead of the pretend churches in the game, Ah was thinking she could be a paladin of the Lion. You know, like Aslan," she added, blushing slightly at the last word. "Ah mean, ah know it's just pretend," she added firmly, "games don't send you to Hell." For a moment, there was the distinct impression she was arguing with someone else. "But ah just really like the paladins, and Ah didn't want to have to pretend to be in a church ah'm not really part of." While she spoke, Ashley was leaning against the wall and seeming to make a great study of her fingernails.

A sharp, peremptory knock caught his attention - and when he opened the door, he found himself staring down into the scowling face of Ashley Smith. With a frown, she raised a hexagonal handscanner and passed it over his body, then stepped inside the room. "Hmph," she grunted as she scanned that space too. "Uh, hi!" said Judy Smith with a nervous wave in Adam's direction, watching as her sister made her way through the room. She was holding a neatly-printed character sheet in her hand, along with a small box of dice. "Sorry about mah sister, she's just very protective." "Clean," commented Ashley, waving a hand to her sister, the gesture bringing Judy inside the room. "And Ah've never been in one of the guys' rooms before. Ah know you said we'll be playing in the common room in case it goes after curfew but Ah wanted to meet you here and ask you some questions about the game."

"We got our own forms of transportation," said Anna with a little wave. "I only learned to drive so I could...well, never mind." She didn't want to explain that she'd learned to drive so she could take her kid places without using her powers; that had been decades earlier anyway. "And I got power aplenty, between me and the other girls." No use letting him know how many of them there were; not yet. "I been on teams before," she added, back at ground level with the boy. "And one thing I found," she said, looking up at him. "Is that there are a lot of powerful people out there who want to do us a world of dirt. But if we stick together, we gotta real chance of owning this whole thing. Glad yer on the team, kid." She smiled. "Lemme give you an address, and you can meet us there tonight..."

"Neither a'those things - but there's parkin' and they probably won't notice you if you put yerself in the right spot." It didn't seem like she was going to share more information than that on the score of where they were talking about, not until she knew Chromium was on her team. "The catch is that we look out for each other. That's all. Life's hard enough without a lot of backstabbin' and workin' against each other." She had moved, during the conversation, up to the top of one of the shipping containers without leaving any trace of exactly how she'd done it. "So whaddaya think, Chromium? You in?"

Judy frowned and gave Astrid a searching look, not sure if the other girl was making fun of her. "What's Asgard, and why do dwarves live there?" "Norse gods," growled Ashley. "Not so tough," she added a moment or two later, covering for herself as they sat down inside the common room. For her part, Judy gave Astrid a bright smile - maybe a little too bright. "Well...that's very interesting!" she said cheerily, "and now, the weather - I mean, uh, let's see what's on TV!" She had reached down to grab Ashley's hand in the middle of her last sentence, and looked tense all over again as the television snapped on - to the local news, just in the middle of its weather report.

Fall 2018 "A psychic - and a psychic that powerful, here with all these students?" Ashley was demanding. Judy was off-campus with the rest of her detail for now, which left Ashley free for a meeting with the headmistress. Well, for what was technically the discussion of a rules violation. "With the Dangers, the Dakanan royals, and Judy?! Why would you do that?" Callie stared flatly across the desk at her former pupil. "Because she is a child in need of an education - a child whose powers make her a danger to herself and everyone around her. Would you have preferred I left her on the street, Agent George?" "...no," said Ashley, a little abashed. "But for God's sakes, you could have warned me. A psychic adopted by the Freedom League is not what I'd call a revealing personal profile!" "No, it was not," agreed Callie, "nor was it intended to be. As we discussed earlier this year I am not in the business of trading my students' personal information to the United States government for your personal satisfaction." "It's not my personal satisfaction!" shot back Ashley, her voice rising louder than she'd intended - just as Callie was perhaps speaking in a sharper tone than she'd have typically used in this situation. "It's about national security, and protecting a member of the First Family!" It was a good thing the walls were cunningly baffled - at least when Summers desired them to be. "I am aware of both of those concerns, Agent George, and I am doing my best to alleviate them," said Callie frostily. "But my primary concern is, and always shall be, the welfare of this students and of this school." She held up her hand to stave off a protest. "I am aware that you are in a difficult situation during your undercover work, Agent George, but it is a situation that you created. You chose to recommend this school as a place for metahumans - you chose to suggest that a Secret Service agent be planted with Judith Cahill. You placed yourself on this course and it is your responsibility to navigate it. For Judith's welfare, for yours, and for the welfare of our students." Ashley was quiet for a moment, holding back the adolescent urge to shout again, before she asked softly, "What if it goes wrong? What if the President shows up at the front door with the 82nd Airborne?" "Then I pity the President who comes to this school planning for trouble. And you and I will have failed. Do you intend to let that happen?" "...no."

"I can get you a place," offered Anna casually. "Just us girls in there, but it's got a lot of space. You'll hardly ever see us if you want yer own turf. There's food and electricity, and you just hafta be a little sneaky to get around the punk kids."

"I can get you a place," offered Anna casually. "Just us girls in there, but it's got a lot of space. You'll hardly ever see us if you want yer own turf. There's food and electricity, and you just hafta be a little sneaky to get around the punk kids."

Sign Judy up as a paladin! And Ashley as her horse.

Sorry, @Supercapeand @SpicyWaffle, the new job is really taking a lot out of me! Bee-Keeper: 18 The Lady: 17 Diamondlight: 17 @SpicyWaffle, you're up first.

"It took me a long time too. Gettin' to know local people helped." She judged that Chromium here wasn't a local; he didn't have the local cheesehead accent that most of the locals did. "The Mara are dangerous, but they ain't the only bad guys in this town. Not by a longshot. What I'm asking you, is, you want a hand? Not gonna take your place or move in on your turf; but even a little dinky burg like this can be a big place if you don't know where to look."

Okay

Fall 2018 "Ashley, what is Monica?" The question made Ashley George look up from the algebra homework that she had disgustedly realized she had to do earlier that week, turning across the room to face her ward, her protectee, her 'sister.' She caught the frown on Jaycee's face that meant this was a serious question; one that she'd no doubt been thinking of for some time. "What do you mean?" she asked, even though she knew perfectly well what she meant. "You know..." Jaycee tangled her fingers nervously in her hair and said, "A...boy or a girl? Like with Janus too, Ah don't really know what they're supposed to be." Ashley had considered how to answer this question carefully. "Do you need to know?" she tried. "You know the Spirit of Liberty picked Monica, and you know the school put Janus and Monica where they are. It's not really our business what they are." "Ah guess not...not like Ah'm gonna catch 'em in the showers or anything." It was actually Ashley and Judy who used separate facilities from the rest of the girls, most of the time. "But why are they like that?" Aghhh "Jaycee...gender is, uh, based on culture. You know, like language, food, music - so people from different cultures are going to express their gender in different ways." She thought of the new Lady Liberty and went on, gesturing with her pencil, "And with some people, it's more like their bodies and souls don't match. And since there's no operation to change the soul, better to change the body, right?" "Ah guess," said Jaycee, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Ah guess Ah just...Ah mean, Ah'm not stupid, Ah've heard of transgender people and stuff, Ah just never thought Ah'd actually meet one, not after-well, you probably heard about that." She clicked her pen, on and off, nervously. "Ah never found out what happened to that boy, and Momma said it wasn't our place to go asking, not with Daddy's campaign." "The student from your old school," said Ashley diplomatically. She'd heard about that too - there'd been enough of a security kerfluffle at the private school in Oklahoma City that the Secret Service had been briefed right at the start of the Presidential campaign. Just in case - after all, the Cahills had carefully not been involved. "I can...probably find that out, if you'd like," she offered quietly. "...Ah'd like that," said Jaycee, equally quietly. "Thanks, Ashley."

Well this is new, thought Ashley, who appreciated any opportunity to feel like she wasn't sixteen again. It had been the headmaster's father in her time, but she'd spent plenty of time with the real Callie that she'd been vividly remembering the past for most of the headmaster's speech. She knew some of what she was about to hear, but the Raven ever played her cards close to the vest, even when dealing with an ally. Behind her glasses, she slumped, the perfect image of an inattentive teen. For her part, Judy was noticeably paying attention; sitting with her back straight and hands folded neatly in her lap, a faint but distant smile on her face, she looked very much the well-brought-up young lady despite her humble clothing - quite the contrast from the casually studied slacking of her sister.

"Well yer a real hardened character, huh?" she said gently. "I spent some time like that when I was yer age. It ain't easy." Not wanting to provoke the boy's pride, she changed topics. "What's yer way? Wadjet said you turned up fightin' car thieves and the Mara; is that your turf?" She smiled thinly. "You and me, we ain't exactly Hardwick Park stock these days."

"Never ask a lady about her unmentionables, sonny, it's not polite," said Anna, not unkindly. "A'course I ain't no lady, but you got no way of knowing that." She hmmed, breath steaming in the cold, then said, "The people yer with. What are they like?" She had a few goddamned ideas from the way the poor kid was talking, but saying it out loud wouldn't do anything to win his trust.

Looks like initiative time, campers!

"THE TIME OF VENGEANCE HAS COME USURPER!" declared the goddess as she stepped off her pedestal, the bees on her skin 'taking off' to circle around her angrily. "YOU CANNOT DISTRACT ME WITH A HANDSOME SACRIFICE! YOU WILL FALL!" As she shouted the last words, a swarm of bees shot out of her suddenly-hinged-wide mouth - right for the two heroes!

"Go ahead and finish eatin' first. I know how it is with teenage boys." She took a few steps away, giving Chromium his space. "You get a lot to eat, where you are?" Anna hazarded, looking back over her shoulder at the boy.

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"You probably know her by her other name - Watchdog," said Judy with great confidence as she gave Nicole a steely-eyed look. "Mah sister fought the Raven and lived to tell about it. She could have taken him down, too, if she'd really wanted it." Suddenly grateful for the distraction provided by their host, but unable by her role to say so, Ashley nodded in White Lioness's direction, making sure to keep herself between Judy and the bat as the girls exited the dorm room. Well Jaycee was certainly getting her money's worth out of the hallway tour, she mused. "A...magic bat?" Judy was asking Astrid, sounding more confused than anything else. "What kind of magic goes in a baseball bat?"

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Judy laughed nervously at Selena's story, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she flushed slightly at the cheeks. "S-say what?" Luckily, the headmistress arrived at that moment; so though she obviously wanted to hear more of whatever was going on, Judy turned and focused on the action happening on the stage. For her part Ashley had done the same for a moment that felt entirely too long - and entirely too familiar. She slipped on her crowd-watching sunglasses and pointed her head at the stage, anyway, her face blank as she got ready for this year's show. "