Electra

Paige gets an 18 I don't know if that's good or bad!

"Feel free to take a sample, Gaian Knight," Paige agreed, tipping her own head back and looking around to get her bearings. She wasn't a particularly strong telepath compared to other Freedom City heroes, but the sudden lack of millions of minds pressing in was enough to make her feel a bit lightheaded. "I think we have some clean plastic containers in the craft service tent that you can use. It'd be great if you can take one of the camera guys and explain what you're doing and why. It's always nice to add some cool science bits to the show." With the odd sensation of emptiness easing off, Paige began to look around the campsite a bit more. Everything was already in place for comfortable camp living, though things like electricity were necessarily limited and mostly reserved for the filming equipment. "Everything looks great, guys," she complimented the director and crew. "We're ready to get started on the setup filming whenever you are." Glancing over to Thoughtspeed and Crimson Tiger she added, "You kids can go take a look around if you want, get the lay of the land. I'm sure you're capable of handling anything that might come up."

Wander attempts to save, and does poorly! So poorly. Spending that last HP. Gets a 25, feh. Brused and dazed

Paige gave both the youngsters an encouraging thumbs-up as they finished their introductions, resisting the urge to tell Will how grown-up he sounded on camera. That was no way to allow your child to maintain an aura of coolness in front of a young woman, she knew that much from watching television herself. She and Richard sometimes joked that they got all their parenting skills from Hollywood, seeing as how their own role models came up pretty short, but at times she wondered if there wasn't an uncomfortable amount of truth in the joking. In any case, she could save the cheek kisses and pats on the head for when they got home. Stepping in front of the camera herself, she picked up a squishy foam globe and began demonstrating for the camera exactly how the asteroid was going to impact Earth and what the results would be. After that, there was some more pick-up shooting, catching different angles and lighting, people entering and leaving, and plenty of the minutae that made filming television rather less exciting than watching it. There were plenty of bagels and fruit at craft services, at least, and eventually someone delivered pizza. "I think we're about done here," Paige finally said, checking over some of the digital shots that had just been taken. "If we miss anything, we can pick it up in the field."

Wander whirled around once more, dodging around the moving bodies of fighting angels as she looked for her opening. There it was: a single moment when War's attention was diverted by the battle, his face turned away. She leapt over the blades of the fighters surrounding her and brought her own sword down with vicious force on the fallen avatar. But the effort of battle was taking its toll on her as well, and the distractions of being surrounded, and the unfamiliar weapon. Her aim was off by fractions of an inch, just enough that the sword smashed against the armor just to the left of the shoulder joint, ringing like a deep-voiced bell but bouncing away harmlessly. She swallowed against a mouth that was suddenly dry. "Hold the ranks!" she called again to her army. "Stay with your comrades, fight together!"

A particularly brave Red Cross relief team had set up shop in the shelter just a couple blocks back from the fighting, doing their best to care for and organize the refugees while the battle continued to rage. Paige had broken her watch and lost track of time hours ago, but sometime after dark the drones slacked off for a little bit and a Freedom City SWAT team rolled in to destroy any baddies that were still twitching and start erecting some barricades. She could see some of them looking at her as they passed, but with their blank bulletproof face shields, it was impossible to know what they were thinking. Not that she cared much at the moment. Drunk with fatigue and hungover from magic overuse all at once, she left the police to their work and staggered towards the smell of coffee and food. She could feel Richard somewhere nearby, but didn't even have the energy to raise her head and look for him. If she could just sit down for a minute and have some coffee, maybe she could pull herself together one more time. Dazed as she was, it took her a moment to notice the blanket someone put around her shoulders, or the hands leading her over to a folding chair. "Come on now, honey, have a seat over here. You look all done in." Paige raised bloodshot eyes and saw a middle aged woman in a red vest watching her with concerned compassion. "We'll get you something to eat and a hot drink and you'll feel better." "Thank you," Paige managed to rasp as the volunteer stepped away. She closed her eyes and huddled into the blanket, glad that it covered what was left of her ruined uniform. The cute and snugly-fit bad girl costume that had been so perfect this morning seemed like an obscenity under the flickering of the generator-powered emergency lights tonight. Right now she couldn't remember why she'd put it on, or why she had wanted the money in that bank, or to disrupt the lives of the staff and customers. All of that belonged to someone else, and all tonight's Paige wanted was to be holding onto Richard and to not have to fight anymore. Which was too bad, came a faint and irreverent echo from inside her mind, because the bank would probably be very easy pickings about now. She must have dozed off a little, because the next thing Paige knew, the volunteer was back with a hot grilled cheese sandwich, a bowl of tomato soup, and a cup of coffee, along with a handful of wet-naps. "Here you are, honey, and careful of the hot cup! Our doctor is doing triage right now on Clark Street, but I'm going to see if I can get a medic to bandage up those cuts for you." Paige blinked in surprise and raised a hand to her face, only now registering the stinging pains dotting her skin. She dimly remembered flying glass from a drone that had burst through a window nearly on top of her, but she hadn't realized she'd been cut. "Thank you," she murmured again, ducking her head and concentrating on getting the worst of the grime off her hands. "No, thank you," the woman replied, her voice suddenly much softer as she studied Paige. "We know what you're doing out there, what you've been doing all day, helping 1-800-JUSTICE and keeping the robots at bay. It's horrible that it took something like this to get the heroes back, but I'm so glad you came back for us. Thank you." There was a lot that Paige might have said, maybe should've said, but instead she just stared bemusedly as the volunteer gave her a quick squeeze on her less-injured arm and went back to work. Thoughtful, Paige picked up her sandwich and began to eat.

And once more with the bob-and-weave-and-stab, this time for all the marbles! Move Action: Acrobatic Bluff, skill mastery, DC 27 Standard Action: Full Power Attack with sword First roll is bad, so very bad. Spending an HP to reroll Second roll is less bad, but still not great, so here's hoping he fails that SM check! It's a 22

"But don't worry," Paige added with a quick grin, "we'll be gone long before that happens. With double redundancy on the back-up plans, just to make our insurance guys happy." She pulled out a hand mirror and checked her hair and makeup, a reflex before filming began. Since it was a location shoot, makeup was going to be even more minimal than usual, but a little foundation kept her from glowing under the lights. Satisfied that she was camera ready, she held out the mirror to the others, especially Crimson Tiger and Tiamat. "We'll start with just a quick intro for the cameras, just a few words about yourself and where you're from, what you do, anything you'd like to share. If you'd rather not say anything, that's fine, we'll intro you in the first group shot." Her smile was encouraging and friendly. "There's no pressure here, so don't worry about stage fright. It's all about documenting an adventure today!"

~That's probably the best we can hope for,~ Paige agreed, taking out her phone and concentrating on an empty calender page while she built the mental link. ~She's family, and I love her as the daughter of my sister, but it doesn't blind me. There's no way Ember Psion should be out on the street anytime soon. I'm worried enough about what Argent is doing while she's out on bail, and she's far more stable.~ The conversation between Christie and Frances seemed to be coming to an end, with the lawyer passing several folders of paper through the forcefield for her to read over. The two old friends let the conversation lapse for the moment. Paige didn't pick it up again until they were off the island entirely, back in the parking lot where they'd left their cars. "You could try and take guardianship," Christie suggested, reaching into her purse for a pack of cigarettes. She offered one to Paige, who waved her off with a slight pang of regret. Seventeen years since she'd quit smoking, and still that pang. It didn't seem fair. They leaned back against Christie's blue Mercedes and studied the island. "She may be twenty-seven chronological years old, but you know how much that means in real life. There's still a terrified and angry sixteen year old girl in there with no idea of how the world works. You know the psych evals are going to show she's barely fit, even if she cooperates." "I can't." Paige shook her head again. "It might make things easier, but I'd lose her forever. This is her first chance to make her own decisions as an adult. Even if I think it's a wrong call, I can't take that away from her. It'd be worse than prison." "Yeah, I thought you'd probably say that." Christie blew out smoke, looked at the vast gray sky above the squat prison building. "I'll do my best for both of them. We'll see how it all shakes out. What kind of odds are we giving on an escape attempt before trial?" "I never bet on a sure thing," Paige replied dryly. "It's not if, but when. The family is bound to be in a shambles right now with Father gone, but they aren't going to leave anybody behind. Julianna is probably frantic, even though I'm sure Argent and Empath have been in contact. Every precaution's been taken, so that's going to be a matter of seeing how it shakes out as well. God, other people's families must be so boring!" Christie snorted. "Yeah, and now you know why "interesting" is a curse. Keep in touch, all right? Say hi to Richard and the kids for me." Once the attorney departed, Paige stayed for a few more minutes, till she was sure some surveillance camera operator in the prison was probably getting twitchy. She wondered what it would've been like to be caught and sentenced down there, never free, never seeing the sun. Shivering a little, she turned her back and hurried to her cheerful red minivan. If she wasn't careful, she'd be late to pick up Holly from school.

Despite his obvious rage, her attack had set War back on his heels, if only for a moment. Wander capitalized on the moment of hesitation, driving forward with a blinding flurry of blows from her sword. He was prepared for her tricks this time, spinning with her as she ducked under his arm to try and come at him from behind. The crush of battle made it hard to maneuver, but there was little time to regroup. Even if she'd gotten the early advantage, Wander knew she couldn't take many blows like the one she'd been dealt a moment ago. If this fight didn't end soon, she could easily lose through sheer attrition. Bringing her sword up, she finally managed to land a hit against the side of his helmet, making a noise something like a gong as it rattled the fallen angel's skull. The helmet, she noticed, was not quite as sturdy as the rest of the armor. Interesting. She drove in for another hit, but was parried back as the fight swallowed them both again.

Move Action: Acrobatic Bluff, skill mastery, DC 27 to beat Standard Action: Power Attack with sword/bat: Result is an 18 If it misses, spending an HP to reroll: Reroll is a 23 Spending my second Extra Effort for another Standard Action Standard Action 2: Power Attack with sword/bat: Result is a 21

"That's your choice, Frances," Paige told her niece quietly. "And you're right that at the end of the day, you're the one responsible for the crimes you've committed and the people you hurt. But you've been hurt too, starting when you were too young to even understand what was happening to you. By the family that was supposed to be protecting you. Keeping silent about what he did to create us, how he raised us, isn't protecting anyone anymore. And I don't believe it's too late for you." She sighed and took a step back from the barrier. "Let me call Christie over to talk with you about what the legal process will be from here on out. She's smart and very good at her job, and she already understands about the Psion family, so you can tell her as much as you want. And if you want to talk to me about anything, you can call me anytime."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Frances," Paige replied, even as she wondered if she should motion Christie over. Not yet. "You know they can't just release you, you've gone too far for that. But the things that have happened to you, the way you grew up, that's not your fault. You were lied to and manipulated your whole life, just like I was. I know what it was like to grow up in the family, and I will testify about it for your sake and for Carolyn. Other people will testify too, people who watched you grow up and understand. If you will cooperate and go through therapy, you can be rehabilitated and released in just a few years through the Project Freedom program. Flatscans and metas aren't enemies, not in any world except the imaginary one that your grandfather saw. You don't have to make yourself a martyr for his twisted vision."

All of the kids got a good laugh at Trevor's words, with Tensile going so far as to actually slap his knee. "Come on Dad, look at us. Nobody here hasn't seen their share of danger before, and we were all trained by the best. If anything, Soj over there and I ought to be telling you to stay in where it's safe, youngster." He leaned back in his chair, unconcerned. "But even Mystery is as old or older than you and Mom were when you started heroing. No unringing the bell now." "We're here to help," Sojourner added more diffidently. "We wouldn't have come if we didn't have anything to offer, and we can't help you if you ask us to stand on the sidelines." "And that would be a hundred times worse," Knightfall chimed in. "To have to stand aside while something bad happens to you. We had to do that once already." She reached for her brother again, but this time for a comforting half-hug instead of a tackle. "But we're not going to be crazy about it," Sojourner assured Trevor. "There's no reason we can't all come out of this just fine. We've got a damn good team here." "That's true," Erin said from the doorway. She walked into the room, still carrying Charlie in one arm, seeming more like herself than she had since Sojourner had first appeared in the upstairs hall. "With this many Hunter-Whites all in one room, any bad guy should be running desperately in the other direction. Have we got a plan worked up?" "We've got a start," Knightfall offered, then outlined her idea for patrol patterns. "And the house has its own systems too, so the coverage should be pretty thorough." Erin nodded, looked to Trevor for agreement, then started handing out the jobs. "All right then. Tensile, you look like you can handle the cold and dark pretty well, you do the outside patrol. Daybreak, you're on inside patrol, Knightfall, you're in charge of camera watch. Mystery will keep monitoring the psychic wavelengths and give us a heads-up if anything goes weird. Hematite, you stick with Trevor, and Sojourner, you're with me. We're going to start watching the news channels and the internet, monitoring the police bands, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary that might mark the arrival of a time traveler. Everybody good with that?"

Paige let Frances rant, flinching just a little at the accusations. "I haven't told Carolyn yet," she finally replied, keeping the tremor from her voice even as her eyes prickled with tears. Now wasn't the time for that, but she wasn't entirely sure she could help it. "She deserves to know too, but I wanted to tell you first. Of all my nieces and nephews, you're the one I've thought about the most all these years, you're the one who haunted me." She met the girl's eyes through the barrier, willing Ember to see her sincerity. "You look so much like your mother. She loved you so much. I never met you, but I could feel the love she had for you, and the joy you gave her. It surprised me," Paige admitted, "because I didn't believe Paulette was capable of something like joy. She was always so calm and methodical, but then there you were, and she was so happy." She ran a hand over her face, automatically taking care not to smear her makeup. "Paulette would've given her life to protect you and keep you safe. You were only three when the mountain came down, still a baby. If there were any power in her body and mind to shield you from her death, she'd have used it, just to keep you from experiencing that pain. I was an adult, and a psychic myself, and I was right there, so the link between us held. It's as simple as that. "The rest... not quite so simple." Paige sighed. "It took me days to recover from what happened in the mountains. I was completely out of it, and even when I woke up, I was out of my mind with fear. My father would've known he hadn't finished the work he started, and I was afraid he'd be coming after me. Even so, I wanted to rescue all of you and take you away. You shouldn't be raised by your parents' murderer. Richard and I talked about it, we went over plans and options and tried to work it out, but we just couldn't find a way." She spread her hands, as though looking for absolution. "We were fugitives then, on the run from the heroes and the villains alike. We had no home, no base of operations, a little money but not enough to finance any big operation or hire a mercenary group. The Freedom League was disbanded and scattered, and even if we'd found a member or two, who would listen to a crazy story about a breeding compound in Colorado told by a couple of second-rate supervillains?" She let out a breath that was half-sob, remembering the bitter helplessness she'd felt. "There was no one to help us, and we were fleeing the country for our own lives. I knew that while you were in the compound, you would at least be safe. It was more than I could give you. By the time we came back and did our hero turn, it was 1993, and the Terminus Invasion had decimated everything. What heroes were left were all trying to put the world back together. And then you were all growing up Psion, becoming teenagers, villains in your own right. I thought it was too late, that even if we went for you, you wouldn't have come with us."

Wander bent almost double at the impact of War's amorphous weapon, the air whooshing from her lungs with a pained "oof." It only lasted a moment, though. She took one deep breath and straightened up, giving the fallen angel a smile that was more than a little feral. "That all you got?" she asked, sounding no more than a little winded. "My turn." She raised her sword, which seemed entirely content to remain a sword, even as the crimson blade began to gleam with an unearthly radiance. She feinted the ancient being once, then twice, then a dizzying series of stopped-hits that maneuvered them both dangerously close to the heart of the melee. Surrounded by chaos, War didn't even seem to notice when Wander suddenly appeared from behind him, spun him around by one shoulder, and drove her sword between the thick plates of armor, burying it to the hilt in his abdomen. It stuck there like a gory harpoon, anchored by the armor on his back, so she simply hung onto it and began punching him in the face, brutal uppercuts where helmet met bevor, hard enough to deform armor and draw blood, fast enough that each blow could barely be seen. Within seconds, the rain of blows dislodged the sword from its bloody sheath, pushing the combatants apart once again. Wander broke away just far enough to see her closest lieutenants. "Maintain the ranks!" she demanded, "don't let them break up and start brawling! Bring the flanks in closer, let's get this field as small as possible."

Free Action: Wander gives orders to try and rally the troops Move Action: Acrobatic Bluff against BadWar. That's a DC 39 to avoid being flatfooted. Standard Action: Full Inspired Power Attack versus BadWar with her swordbat. Result is a 21 Using a Free Extra Effort for another Standard Action Standard Action: Same As The First First roll is terrible, spending an HP. The second roll is actually worse! But it nets a 24.

"You know goddamned nothing, kiddo," Paige shot back, her voice hardening. "And it would be stupid for you not to believe your grandfather was capable of directing the placement of shaped charges to make something big into falling chunks of debris. He had you do it at that old army base in Colorado a few years ago, didn't he? Didn't you kids ever wonder what the hell all your parents were doing inside that mountain, all at the same time? Karen,Joyce and Frank weren't fighters, they'd never have been called out for an engagement with the Atoms or anyone else. And Parker and Patrick could barely be civil to each other at that point, much less meet up for social time with the plus-ones. There's no reason they should've been there for a mountain to fall on." She took a step closer to the barrier, her eyes darkening as she looked over to where the others waited at the end of the corridor. "You think seeing is believing, believe this. I know what happened because I was there, and because I had a psychic connection with my siblings from the time I was old enough to go out on missions. We didn't get along most of the time, but they were my team. They were my family." She let some of that old grief shine through, but it was quickly replaced with old anger. "You want to know how it went down? Dad sent out an all-call to the whole family, even to me, even though I'd been out for years. He said it was important, said it was family business. I wasn't gonna go, but I was twenty-three and my own supervillain and I just had to show off how badass I finally was." She gave Ember a humorless smile. "The meet was set in one of Dad's old hideouts, deep in the Rocky Mountains. Hadn't been used for years, but it was still in good shape, you know how he is about upkeep." Now Paige was almost in her storytelling mode, the conversational style she used on SuperCrime! that made her an effective narrator. "The older sibs, they were all still with the program, and when Dad said jump, they said how high. They were right on time to the meeting, and they brought their spouses, just as he'd instructed. Hell, even I was on board that far, and I had Richard with me. I was out in the tunnels and I could hear them all talking, arguing. Your mom was playing peacemaker, like she always did, but the boys were wound up tight. They were sure Dad was going to finally pick his successor at this meeting, and they were both sure it would be them. They wanted control so much, these thirty-year-old men who were still being treated like teenage sidekicks. No matter who got picked to lead, the other one would be pissed beyond belief, maybe even enough to strike out on his own. And your mom, well, we didn't talk a lot, but we talked some. She wasn't happy with the creche program, and she felt like she hardly got to spend time with her little girl. She and Frank wanted more kids, but not the way Dad wanted them. If one of the boys left, she might have worked up her nerve and gone too. "So they had plenty to argue about, and since Dad wasn't there yet, nothing but time to do it. And me, I stood out there in the hallway and couldn't make myself go in. I was scared." Paige laughed briefly, the sound was pained. "I thought I was scared they were going to yell at me, but maybe it was a precog. Happens sometimes. But your mom noticed I was out there, trying to make up my mind. She was twice the psychic I was back then, real strong, very well trained. She linked up with me, gave me a little mental pep-talk. We hadn't seen each other in five years, I wanted to see her again, so I was all ready to go in, when suddenly we hear Dad's voice over the loudspeakers." Her voice was suddenly hoarse, her throat dry as she remembered it. "He talked about how disappointed he was in all of us, how we were nothing but flawed prototypes of his vision, and he wasn't going to let us destroy all his work. He had a new generation to mold, and they would be his legacy to the world. And the doors all started slamming shut. I didn't even know what was happening, but Richard has speedster reflexes, and a great set of instincts. Before Dad even finished talking, Richard grabbed me and we were running as fast as he could take us. The adrenaline and the danger, it was like being back on a mission, and suddenly I was linked with the boys too, I could feel all of them in my head." Paige squeezed her eyes shut. "There was nothing I could've done for them, but I could still feel them. Dad set us up and he knocked them down, just like he planned. The fact that I escaped was nothing but an accident."

"He was dying already," Paige told Frances, her face tightening with a dozen conflicting emotions. She'd grieved her father's death in the shock of the moment, but it didn't erase the terrible things he'd done, or a lifetime spent in fear of him. "He'd have lived a few more months, if that. Instead of dying an old, sick man in bed, he died a martyr for his cause and inflammed you to carry on in his memory. It wasn't giving up, it was the same cold-blooded strategy he's always used." Paige turned aside a moment, clenching her hands. She was surprised Ember wasn't jumping right in with a comeback, but despite her temper, they'd both been trained in rhetoric by the same hand. Let your enemy speak, and maybe they'd reveal more than they intended. In this case, it just gave her a chance to lay her cards on the table. "You're right about one thing, though. It didn't matter what your parents wanted. Not to Professor Psion, anyway. Nor what I wanted, nor what you wanted. We were his legacy and his tools, and we were only good so long as we were in his hands. You rebelled, but you never went far afield, never really left the team or flouted his control. If you had, he'd have killed you, the same way he tried to kill me. The same way he killed Parker Jr. and Patrick and your parents."

Oh no, child, screw you. Despite her inner turmoil, Paige managed to keep the words unsaid and safe behind her mental shields as she studied the wrathful creature who'd once been her sister's daughter. She tried to remember how she'd felt when she'd left the compound for the last time. Even though she'd run away, even though she'd broken free, there'd been plenty of beliefs she'd clung to for a long time because she couldn't bear to know how she'd been deceived for so long. Frances was a decade older than Paige had been, a lot more time to cling to the lies. "Give us a moment, could you, Christie?" she asked her friend politely. The lawyer nodded and withdrew, stepping back to join the guards at the end of the corridor. Paige crossed her arms over her chest and gave the spittle on the cell door a cool look of derision. "If you're done with your tantrum, perhaps we could talk like adults for a little while," she suggested. "I know you're scared, and I understand why. You think you know who you are and where you come from. You've been told a story your whole life about the way things are in the flatscan world, and why it's so important that you stay home and stay loyal. But then you went out in that world, and it put cracks in your foundation. You know that some of what you were told isn't true, and it makes you wonder what is." Paige leaned closer, looking into Ember's burning eyes with intensity of her own. "My kids know who I am, and where I came from. When they're old enough, they'll learn all of what I've done. But the important thing, the thing you and I never had, is that they truly know who they are and how they fit in the world. I've worked hard to make sure they have that, and I know it was what Paulette and Frank wanted for you. That was why they died," she told her niece, lowering her mental shields enough to allow her sincerity to show through. "Not because of anything the Atoms did, but because they, all of them, were ready to break away. They weren't true believers anymore, and if they weren't, you children wouldn't have been. Dad couldn't let that happen."

Paige was distracted for a moment upon entering the maximum security psych ward by the heavy impervium door that blocked the first of the cells. From within came a faint, ghostly whistling, something complex that teased at the edge of her memory of classical education. Curious despite knowing better, Paige extended her mental senses past the door, then drew them back immediately and with great haste. "Are you all right?" Christie murmured in her ear. "You've gone even paler." "Fine," Paige murmured, swallowing hard. "Just the ambiance." Gathering herself, she approached the cell where her niece waited, setting her stance to mirror the young woman's, but with the slightly forward-leaning indicators of interest instead of boredom. She could do psychology without psychic powers, really! "Hello Frances, it's nice to meet you," she began with politeness that was just slightly warm. "I heard so much about you from your mother, but it's been a very long time. I wish this could've come under better circumstances."

In a moment Paige and Richard were there as well, looking at a compromise building with way too many people still in it. "Go, go!" Paige told Richard, even as the black tendrils of her power extended over Wail's head to try and help brace the building. Unfortunately there wasn't much strength in the mental projection, but it at least kept the rubble from falling on him. She closed her eyes and concentrated with senses that were painfully sharp in the stench and din of the battle. Second floor east side, she sent to Richard, there are kids there. Third floor south too, I can't tell any higher than that. Too much noise. The cacophony was deafening to the inner and outer ears both. A small part of her wondered, if she lived through this, would she ever not hear the screaming?

Erin frowned a little at her future-son's laughter, but let annoyance fade in the relief that apparently she'd done a decent job with him. Even though it was still weird to think about. Weird for him too, she allowed, especially knowing that the parents he knew were very recently deceased. She decided to spare them both any more talk about emotional business. "I wasn't exactly planning on going for a walk," she told Hematite archly. "This isn't my first day on the superhero job. Just needed a breather for a few minutes. I guess we should get back downstairs and see if anyone's thought up a brilliant plan." As she spoke, Charlie wandered into the room and began butting against her legs till she picked him up. "What, you have something to contribute?" she asked the orange cat facetiously as she scratched his chin, then paused before adding hastily, "Please don't start talking. I don't think I could handle that today." Charlie purred, watching Hematite out of half-closed eyes. Downstairs, not a lot of progress was being made in the planning department as the meeting dissolved in the mild chaos of four different conversations. Tensile grinned at his great-grandfather, shrugging his metal-clad shoulders broadly. "Could be I'm just trying to throw you off for the sake of the timeline, right?" he told Travis. "I hope we have a little time after all this is finished to just shoot the breeze, I'm betting you've got great stories. Plus you can tell us all the embarrassing stuff about Dad that he would never talk about." Sojourner gave Trevor an encouraging smile as she put a slightly awkward arm around her younger "sister." "You're doing fine," she told Mystery. "Like da- um, Midnight says, the bad guy may not even be here yet. We'll get a perimeter set up, make sure we're all on the lookout, and one way or another, he won't set a foot around here without us knowing." On the other side of the room, Knightfall lifted her endangered toes and used them to catch her brother behind the knees, tripping him long enough to wriggle free of his grasp and secure his hands with something that looked like a futuristic zip-tie. "I was twelve," she reminded her brother in a furtive growl, "and if you hadn't begged to ride pillion, there wouldn't have been any trouble! I wasn't the one who couldn't understand leaning into the turns!" Straightening up, she did her best impression of a serious adult person conducting serious adult business as she looked over at Sojourner and Trevor. "The snow should give us a tracking advantage as long as we don't have too many people searching outside. One, physically guarding the perimeter, one on the cams, one patrolling at large in the house, one each on the principals, and Mystery here handling the psychic stuff? Or something like that," she added uncertainly, checking for the reaction from the more experienced heroes.

Wander soaks it! And she definitely owes Gabe one for the boost.

Wander goes on 15