Electra
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Erin looped her arms over Trevor's shoulders, clasping her hands behind his neck. "I know we're not guaranteed any decades," she murmured as she closed her eyes, resting her forehead against his. "No matter what we've seen, nobody's ever guaranteed even one more day. It's... I could never plan for the future, you know? The idea that I'd just keep living when everyone else had... it hurt too much. It scared me too much. But now I can sort of see blurry outlines maybe, and it's good. Whatever it is, however long it is, I want my future to be with you." Eyes still closed, she leaned up and kissed him. "So that's fair."
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"I'm not surprised," Erin told him as they walked through the hallway, dim now with the floodlights outside turned off. "You've had a good role model, in spite of your mom and dad being the way they are. And you care really deeply, and you take care of the people you love. You'll be a great dad." She broke off suddenly, coloring a little. "I mean- god, it's still weird to talk about this like this, even with what we've seen of the future." She smiled at him, embarrassed and rueful ."Sojourner asked me when I'm going to make an honest man of you. I think she's worried about getting her timeline started on time." Her voice dropped to just over a whisper. "But I don't know if I'm ready."
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Erin dropped her face into her hands, making a noise that was a cross between a laugh and a sputter. "Oh god." She turned her head enough to look at him from the corner of one eye. "You know, I've lived through some pretty bizarre situations. I mean, we've been friends with a reality warper for five years and we cross dimensional boundaries like state lines. But this definitely topped the list for completely surreal insane whackjob adventure." She dropped her hands, sighed, and leaned into him in turn. "Just the idea of being alive for another few decades is kind of staggering, though not as much as when Zoe first told me about her world." That brightened her up. "Hey, good news is, I didn't get knocked up by Mark in any of those universes! I kinda feel better."
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For the first few seconds, all Erin felt was panic, trapped in the dark freezing cold with no air, as effectively entombed as though she'd been buried alive. Then the crushing pain hit as well, literally crushing, and she started to see sparklies in the darkness from the blood vessels bursting in her eyes. It was the most effective slap in the face she could've asked for. Leaving her boots behind in the sucking mud, she used them as a pushoff point, arrowed her arms above her head and shot for the surface as quickly as she could. The first hundred feet passed by in a blink, and then she began kicking her legs furiously, settling in for what was sure to be a most unpleasant trip. She didn't even entertain the idea that she might not make it at all.
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Erin is going to stunt swimming, but all she has to stunt off is her Movement Array, which will give her Swimming 4. Wah-waahhh! Even so, without help she'd still have a chance of making it to the surface if the dice were with her and she didn't tank any of her fort saves. Seems about right.
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Wander gets a 25
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"I might be able to," Paige replied, "but not while he's asleep, so we'd better be in a more secure environment. Might be we could get him a bed at Providence for evaluation instead of putting him in jail. He does have a pretty unique mental situation, having literally lived in someone else's head for decades. Some therapy, some temporary power suppressants, he might end up on Project Freedom for a little while." She shrugged. "I don't think we can in good conscience just let him go, but we can get him some help."
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Paige stared down her nephew coolly, keeping her emotions locked tightly behind her mental shields. "You don't want to do this, Josh," she told him in a voice so calm she could've been advising him on a poor choice of entree at lunch. "This flight is being heavily monitored. The League and Blackstone aren't just going to let you hijack it and go. Things are going to get ugly very quickly, and people could get hurt. Frances is safe and she's going to get a fair trial. You need to leave now before we have to stop you." Subtly, she probed at the minds of the sleepers around her, wondering if she could rouse them without too much of a distraction. The League might be coming, but it would be nice to have backup now!
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"You're not an idiot," Stesha reassured her warmly. "You love her, and you want her to be okay. Love makes all of us do crazy things sometimes." For a moment there was sadness behind Stesha's smile, then she moved on. "Doctor Franklin is the psychologist on staff for the Freedom League; I've heard he's very good and I know he has experience with interdimensional refugees. There's also Doctor Marquez, from Claremont. Tona might already be familiar with him, and that could help. I think there's also a psychologist on staff at Special Circumstances Housing who probably has some experience. So there are a few options, and I'd be glad to smooth the way for whoever she decides to talk to." She gave Sam's hand another gentle squeeze. "She might be upset now, but I'm sure you two can work things out. And like I said, I would be happy to talk to her about getting help. I have no problem telling her I don't want to see her on the front lines in Sanctuary without at least talking to a doctor, and it might spare you another argument."
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"I understand." Stesha reached out and took Sam's hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "It's hard to have to stand by and watch someone you love in trouble, no matter what kind. And you've been through a traumatic experience as well, and that makes things harder. I imagine she's been hurting for you like you hurt for her. That can make it hard to see clearly." She patted Sam's hand. "Why don't I try and talk with her?" she suggested. "The Freedom League has some excellent therapists who specialize in counseling heroes, and I know there are heroes in the city who've had to deal with Omega and the Terminus. I'd like to think that if she can work through her history, there might be no need for ultimatums or deception. Nobody is going to be able to hold her down and force her to get better. We can help, but she has to do it on her own."
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Stesha listened carefully to Sam's story, her face betraying little except for intense interest. When Sam trailed off, she was quiet for a moment before speaking. "Rot is a funny thing," she said, almost meditatively. "It's nasty stuff, can be dangerous, but without it, nothing old would ever fade away. When it's gotten into a wound on a person, the only way to heal them is by cleaning it out, and that means looking at it, smelling it, and then washing it away." She hiked up one leg under her to sit more comfortably. "I don't know Tona well, but it's pretty obvious the Terminus hurt her badly. She got away, but it didn't make her whole again. To go back to something like that, even for a rescue mission, that's like ripping something open that's only half-healed. Maybe it's not so surprising that she took the opportunity to try and fix things. Doesn't make it right," she added, "but it doesn't necessarily mean she's evil or doomed. What it does mean, I suspect, is that she's walking around now with that wound still open. And you're right that it could fester, but it could start to heal clean now, too."
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Erin swore and raced across the deck at Typhoon's last words, realizing at the last moment what was about to happen. She began to glow very slightly in the darkness as she hit her top speed, then jammed her bat against the deck rail and vaulted into the air! She braced herself as she flew, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she intercepted the giant fist mere yards from the jet Trevor was flying. Briefly, irrelevantly, she wondered if this was what the lawn had felt like, and then everything was noise and tumult and crashing water, till it was hard to think at all.
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Wander gets a nat 20 on her Toughness save! That's a total of 32. She may be on the bottom of the ocean, but she's going there in style! Glub
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That drew a thoughtful frown from Stesha. "Maybe you should tell me a little bit more about what happened that has you so concerned," she suggested. "I understand that you're worried about Tona, but it's a very big thing you're asking. Lies by omission are still breaches of trust, and trust is very important here on Sanctuary. In an isolated dimension, a lot of the time we're all we've got. You're asking me to deliberately prevent her from protecting her home, up to the point of telling her she mustn't if she happens to want my opinion. And you're asking me to turn my back on my only live-in resource for knowledge of how to fight the Terminus, right when we could have the Terminus knocking on our doors." She shifted in her chair, gave Sam a level look. "If you've faced the Terminus, I'm sure you've seen brutality during fights. What exactly is it that makes you worry so much about Tona in this case?"
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Stesha pursed her lips thoughtfully as she listened to what Sam had to say, and guessed at what was left unsaid. "You may be right that the Terminus will eventually turn an eye in our direction," she allowed. "We have some protection set up, and very little that they would want that can't be gotten easier elsewhere, but at some point it could become a matter of pride. But if that happens," she continued, "one thing that's pretty universal about Terminus attacks is that they're very hard to miss. They don't go for subtle attacks. Tona's going to be living here on Sanctuary at least part of the time. Would you have me send her away from her home when she knows what's happening there?"
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Erin gave Hematite a light knock on the shoulder with her fist and a half-smile. "You should've seen me in my prime. Maybe one day you'll be half so good. Take care of yourself, all right? No more time travel. And that goes for all of you!" she added. "But Maaaaa!" Tensile whined, an automatic reflex before he turned back to Daybreak. "If you're gonna get a scar, go for one down the side of your face, it's badass without actually getting in the way. Bisecting the eyebrow is even better, but risky with the whole eye thing. You know, hypothetically." Sojourner checked her equipment in preparation for departure, then sidled over to Erin. "You're going to make an honest man out of him pretty soon, right?" she asked, a curious mixture of amusement and real concern in her voice. "Clock's ticking, you know." Erin looked a little green and didn't say anything. "All right, it's go time!" Knightfall crowed. She turned to Trevor and kissed his cheek. "Bye, Daddy, see you again soon! But I think you do look better with the beard." She checked her equipment as well, then ambled over to Quark. "Okay, Time Guy, beam us up!"
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"Just the basics, I think," Stesha replied, sitting down in the guest chair and looking happy to be off her feet for a moment. "She made the arrangements with me last year to bring her people out of the Terminus and to Sanctuary, and we spoke about the logistics a few times, but that's really about it. It didn't seem like something she was interested in talking about. Given what I know of the Terminus, and how it affects even the people who escape it, I guess that's not really surprising." She frowned, looking concerned. "I wonder if I should talk to Gabe about arranging for some psychologists to visit the refugees. That could be a widespread problem now."
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The response to Sam's query wasn't swift, she had plenty of time to finish up her breakfast and look out the window for awhile in solitude. The infirmary wasn't in a traditional building, it seemed more like a large, long trailer with small cubicles for patient treatment. If the need arose, the entire structure could probably be lifted by a superhero or perhaps even hitched to a truck and taken wherever it needed to go. For now it was parked in what looked to be a small village of log or clapboard houses interspersed with larger prefab metal structures. There were not many people around at this hour, though the weather seemed lovely. She could hear voices outside her cubicle and feel the faint vibrations when someone walked by outside, but the infirmary did not seem very busy this morning despite the influx of refugees. Perhaps two hours after Sam made her request, there was a knock on the door to her cubicle. When answered, the door swung open to admit a figure Sam immediately recognized. Fleur de Joie was not in her full uniform this morning, having left off her hooded cowl and traded in her green leggings for blue jeans, but her flower-crowned green hair and belt of many pouches left little doubt to her identity. She looked tired and a little harried, but she gave Sam a genuine smile. "Hi, Sam, right? I was told you wanted to talk to me? How are you feeling?"
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I really really don't want to do this because I know something terrible is going to happen, but Nina is right there in melee with her dad, and Wander is going to let her have her moment of confrontation with him. Wander holds her action.
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"We're not going to hurt you," Fleur affirmed, keeping her comm open so Gaian Knight and Tiamat could hear as well. "The bees are friends. They killed the bad insects." She spoke slowly and clearly, hoping that he would understand. "We need to know what happened when the portal opened. Everything will be all right." Without waiting for a response, she caught Gabriel's eye, then reached out to touch each man on the shoulder. In an instant they were teleported back to the edge of the portal. "Tell them what you saw," she told the man, gesturing in the direction of Gabriel, Gaian Knight and Tiamat. At the unpleasant shiver up her spine, she turned to look at Frost. "What are you doing over there?" she demanded.
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~I'll be with you,~ Paige promised, moving to stand by the massive simian, ~and Velocity and Edge are coming as well. They are more than a match for Harridan. We aren't going to let anything happen to you.~ She opened the door slowly, looking out at the superheroes and the gorilla leader. "Lord Harridan," she said politely. "You are welcome here as a guest. I trust that we can all behave with appropriate courtesy towards one another." She stepped backwards, keeping out of the way but at the same time standing between Harridan and Gargantua. It was not exactly a comfortable position to be in, but she trusted Edge and Velocity to back her up if anything started to happen. There were benefits to having powerful colleagues!
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"All right, that's quite enough out of you," Paige murmured, giving the head Slamdance a look that said she was entirely done with his nonsense. It was a look she'd perfected over decades, one that was potent in its own right, but when backed by her mental powers, it was insurmountable. Slamdance relaxed in his bonds, his eyes closing and his head lolling as he surrendered to the pull of sleep. Paige stepped forward then, ignoring the clones who were busy fighting with each other for the most part. "Can you pull them back in?" she asked Allen curiously. "Or is this one entirely separate from you now?"
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In her sunny kitchen, Paige Cline gasped and dropped three eggs on the floor, staring at them as they fell to earth and exploded in wet white and yellow shards. Automatically she reached out for Frances' mind, but the plane had flown out of her communications range just after takeoff. The plane couldn't have exploded yet, not with the chatter on the radio still so normal, but there wasn't much time left. "Richard!" she called, her voice edged with fear but no panic. "We have to get to the plane, something's going to attack it. It's going to blow up!"
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If Hologram still has her mental control over Slamdance, she's going to try and make him go to sleep. Not sure if/what I need to roll for that.
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Fleur concentrated as well, stretching out her senses beyond the irritating nails-on-a-chalkboard that was Frost and his powers, into the night-darkened woods beyond. "Hey, I think I've found him," she told the others, her voice airy and a little distant. "He's running away in the dark, heading for the border. Gonna get himself in trouble going that way. Be right back." With a touch of the flowers in her hair she was gone, the usual green-grass smell of her teleport lost under the overwhelming aroma of slightly bruised citronella grass. Elsewhere in the forest, Fleur stepped out of an obliging tree trunk, directly into the path of the running man. "Stop!" she called. "Um... arretes! Ne... ne vont pas! Dangereaux!" She called the trees around her to attention, prepared to snare him if necessary to stop him.