Electra
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Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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"That doesn't sound much better, honestly," Stesha commented as she sat on the edge of the stone platform, carefully belted in with a harness of vines. "But I think you're right. I'm not a volcano expert, but the soil all around the area seems to be disturbed, with no extra disturbance on the mountain. I might get more from a mental link with the plant life down there, but we'd have to land." She sighed, looking a bit uneasy even as the vines around her lengthened and began to coil up around her arms for easier access. "But I suppose that's what we'll have to do, if we want to figure out what's going on? At least we know that we probably aren't risking a dip in lava."
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Fleur offered the young woman a hand to get her on her feet, and a reassuring smile to get her moving. "Yes, let's get you out of the cold. It's been so unseasonable here this year, all I want to do is curl up in a warm room with a cup of cocoa. Just step right through this door with me, not a bit dangerous, and we'll be at the Hall. If anyone here knows where you come from, someone there will. They've got plenty of knowledge, new and old." She stepped partway through the portal, then leaned back in to reassure the woman. "See, just a quick step. What's your name?" she asked kindly, hoping to distract the girl just for another few moments.
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"Oh no, you're essential to the plan," she assured him with a chuckle that was full of promises. Hooking her legs around his, she pulled him close and kissed him again, and that was the end of talking for awhile. As it turned out, the table did not break apart, a credit to sturdy design or some long-ago reinforcement. They did eventually fall off, however, with only the reflexes of combat training letting Erin twist around and cushion the impact with her resilient body. It wasn't enough to spoil the mood. Sometime later, Erin opened her eyes and was momentarily puzzled when she focused on a large slab of dark wood over her head. Looking around, she realized they'd wound up under the table, with chairs knocked every which way and all the leftovers scattered across the floor. She rolled over and pushed herself up on her arms, then looked down at Trevor. "That was fun," she decided, "but I definitely see the pluses to a bed."
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Despite her misgivings, Jessie managed to pull herself together with an act of will, even summoning up a faint polite smile for Ms. Wainwright. "Nice to meet you too," she said quietly, her eyes never quite ceasing their movement as she took the measure of the place. This part of it, at least,, was much different from Blackstone. There were windows, and even a couple of small skylights to let in all kinds of sun. She wondered if her room would have a window. What would it feel like to just sit quietly and watch the outside and feel the sun on her face? There were books on the shelves here, and magazines, and puzzles. Those would be worth looking at, later. Eve had played checkers with her and tried to teach her chess, but she just wasn't very good at it. Just the distraction of having a visitor had made it impossible to concentrate, not that strategy games were a strength of hers anyway. In the long-time-ago she could remember computers and video games, and wondered if there were any of those here. Those sounded more fun. First things first, though. "Could I go to my room now?" she asked with all the politeness she could muster. "I'm tired." Not physically, maybe, but certainly mentally exhausted. It felt as though she'd been on that bus for days. "Yes, of course," Ms. Wainwright told her with equal pleasantness. "While we're on the way, I'll show you a bit more of the facility. You'll have the grand tour later, but I imagine you're feeling a little overwhelmed already." Dr. Ellis gave Jessie a light touch on the arm. "I've got to be going now, I have an afternoon appointment. You're doing very well!" she told the girl encouragingly. "Just remember all your exercises. Erin, Mark, thank you both for your help." With a nod to Dr. Franklin, she stepped out, leaving the rest of them to go on. By this time, Erin was feeling a little worn around the edges too, but she obediently fell into line behind Jessie and Dr. Franklin. "You can go too if you want," she murmured to Mark. "This probably wasn't how you wanted to spend your entire day off." For her own part, she was long past the point of asking herself what she was getting herself into, and was just letting herself be dragged along for the ride. No meltdown today, she reminded herself. It was a good sign from someone as messed up as her double. The traitorous thought snuck into her head that this was probably how her other counterpart thought about Erin when she visited, but it was uncomfortable enough that Erin pushed it quickly from her mind.
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"It's not so bad," Jessie told Dr. Franklin earnestly, "once you're used to it. Everyone is nice to me, and I always know what's going to happen. And with the walls, and under the ground, nothing can get through. Hardly anything," she corrected, looking uneasy all over again at the very fresh memory of the mad superhero murdering the pleasant, quiet prisoner who'd lived across the hall from her. There'd been a terrible fight, right there in the hallway, and blood everywhere, and it had been very bad. Several days after that, Erin had explained that the superhero was in fact a robot and the prisoner was a clone, and that the circumstances had been very unusual and unlikely to be repeated, but it had still been very unnerving. For a few minutes after the attack, Jessie had been certain the man was going to come after her next while she was trapped in her cell, and she hadn't known whether to try and fight or hide. In the end she'd done neither, and had mostly just cried until an angel (and this memory was not entirely clear) had come along and told her it would be all right. And it had been, eventually, but the fact remained that maybe Blackstone wasn't really that safe either, when it came right down to it. She twisted the strap harder, faintly dismayed when it snapped under her fingers. "If bad people can get into Blackstone, they can get in here," she maintained. Erin gave an exasperated sigh, unable to help herself. "Don't you get it? You don't have to be worried about imaginary bad guys coming to get you anymore. You are the most dangerous thing that's going to be in that facility, much more so than all the guards and all the security. If some idiot villain did come after you, you'd take him apart and the biggest problem for you would be trying to remember that you're a good guy now and you have to leave him alive. There is nothing to be afraid of anymore!" Jessie didn't necessarily look like she believed that, but her counterpart's vehemence was at least enough to have her moving forward, one half of the broken bag strap in each hand. The doors of the facility slid open for them: obviously they had not gone unnoticed.
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Erin expected to hear another variant on Jessie's usual "I'm okay," but instead her doppelganger didn't say anything for a long few seconds. Jessie was staring around her, first at the building, then at the street around them, then back up at the sky, of all things. "This is not good," she finally said, a quaver in her voice. "Not safe. I think I should go back now." She twisted the strap on her duffel bag again, so tightly that it began to fray and tear. "Well you can't go back," Erin told her, trying to tamp down her frustration after a very long afternoon on a city bus. She was trying to help Jessie, that was the whole point of all of this. "You've been released, you can't stay in prison forever. It's really safe here, you've got your suppression cuffs on, so does everybody else that needs them, and there's guards and locked doors at night and stuff. It's not like you're getting thrown onto the street." "No," Jessie countered, shaking her head violently. "It's not safe for me here. Someone could find me here!" Though many of Jessie's memories had been erased or blunted, the idea of some all-seeing force tracking her down was still a pervasive fear. "At Blackstone, maybe they can't get in. But this, it's just... nothing!"
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Skill mastering notice for 25, got nooooo earth science to roll. If Life Science will net me anything, I have a skill mastered 20 there.
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"You never do anything coincidentally," she pointed out with a laugh, nipping his bottom lip lightly in punishment for his prevarication. It was rare to catch Erin in a truly playful mood, but less rare than it used to be. "That's part of your charm." A quick wriggle and slide took her out of her sweater, leaving it draped on his arm and her in nothing but a sleeveless cotton undershirt. Stepping back into his arms, she threaded her fingers into his hair, disordering it in a way she always found pleasing before pulling him down for another kiss. "I suppose we should at least go look at it since you did all that work," she continued, her voice a bit muffled. Her hands found their way into his shirt as well, tugging it free of his pants to let her run her fingertips lightly along his pale skin. "But I'm busy right now."
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Erin shivered in a pleasant sort of way at the kisses, suddenly less interested in careful preservation of leftovers. She set aside the fortune cookies and soy sauce to turn in his arms, sliding her hands around to the small of his back. "Well, you know me, I'm absolutely the soul of discretion," she informed him with a half-smile. "But it's probably too late to bother anybody for the moving thing tonight. People get home for the day, they want to eat their dinner, relax for awhile, go to bed..." She let her hands slide lower, even as she arched an eyebrow at him. "We've already finished eating dinner and relaxing."
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Erin turned and pressed her nose to the window as well, studying the little block of boutiques. Even now, Bayview still felt more like her home turf than anywhere else in the city. The sidewalks around the school were where she'd practiced the fine art of just being around people again after years of solitude, and the rooftops were where she'd made her fledgling attempts at patrolling as a hero. She remembered these stores well enough, both window-shopping because she had no money to spend on clothes and going in with Alex out of morbid curiosity to see what ridiculous outfits her friend could piece together. Nothing really important, good or bad. But if Bayview was where Singularity, too, had been trained in her very particular set of skills, Erin could understand why the sight of the place would bring on anxiety and blocked memories. "We're just passing through here," she told Jessie, forcing her voice to be completely bland, nearly bored. Sympathy wouldn't help her deranged doppelganger stay in control. "We'll be in Port Regal in another ten blocks. You better make sure you've got all your stuff together." She dumped the duffle bag onto Jessie's lap, momentarily startling her from her reflections. Jessie nodded and obediently opened the bag to check over her things, hunching her shoulders as though she felt Bayview staring back at her through the windows of the bus. She ran a negligent hand over the clothes, the many bottles of pills, the stack of thin books, verifying that all was as it should be, Her hand paused when she came to the bear, once Erin's prized possession and now her own. It looked even more the worse for wear now than when Erin had brought it to Prime, countless hours of worrying by superstrong hands having rendered it nearly shapeless and all but bald in patches. It was still comforting. Rather than take it out of the duffle bag and potentially expose it to danger, Jessie stared at it intently for the next ten blocks, all the way into the less familiar and thus more comfortable streets of Port Regal.
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"No," Jessie said, but it was clear she wasn't referring to Asbestos. "I remember you," she repeated more insistently. "You had a costume on... you had two costumes on," she corrected, her brow furrowing. "And it scared me!" Her eyes were wider now, her hands clenching into worried fists. "He's my friend," Erin broke in, taking Jessie by the shoulder and turning her around. Jessie's power suppressors gave a warning blip, but at least this time she didn't come up swinging at the unexpected touch. "He came with me to save you," Erin went on, her voice low and intent. "When we broke you out, you were terrified, and we were under attack the whole time we were escaping. Alex probably blunted the memory to help you deal with it. After we got back to Earth Prime, I sat on you to keep you from fighting me, and Mark brought you a sandwich. Do you remember that part?" Jessie looked blank for a moment as she searched through her unreliable folio of memories, then her face brightened. "Yes... yeah, I remember that!" She let out a breath of relief. "I was so hungry, and he gave me a sandwich, and then you and Eve took me to Blackstone for the first time. Eve was there," she repeated as the memory firmed up, "and the tall man in black. He was nice to me too." The unease evaporated as she looked back at Mark. "Thank you," she said with great gravity, "for helping save me. And for the sandwich."
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"Oh yeah," Erin laughed, her blush spreading to cover the rest of her face. "And I think he just stole my cat, too. I guess you talked about this with him ahead of time?" That was a little bit weird and embarrassing, but she figured it was actually less weird this way than having to ask permission at this point. And she wasn't scared of Travis anymore, which helped considerably. "That'll save some time." Automatically she began closing the boxes of their uneaten food, putting it away for later lest anything go to waste. "My apartment's on a month to month lease right now," she said off-handedly. "I need to give thirty days notice before turning it over, but there's no reason I couldn't move some of my stuff here before that."
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"And you won't have to be a costumed hero if you don't want to, once you finish the program," Dr. Franklin reminded Jessie. "You'll be trained in using your powers to help people, but Project Freedom will also help you finish getting your GED and life skills training. Once you're released from the program, you'll be free to do whatever you like, within the limits of your supervised release agreement. You may decide to devote your attention to college, or take on a full time job with hero work in your spare time, or retire from hero work entirely. All of that will be up to you." Jessie was starting to get the dazed look she'd had when reading the menu again, but luckily at that moment the food arrived to provide a distraction. By now even the outside patio was becoming more crowded, so they didn't linger over their food long. Both Erin and her counterpart ate with the same neat precision and in the exact same order, all the hot food first, then the cold food, then finish the soda. Towards the end of the meal, though, Jessie became distracted, looking over at Mark several times. "Did I meet you somewhere?" she finally asked. "You look... familiar." Her voice was uncertain, with just a little bit of unease threaded through it.
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"Right now that's not something I'm particularly interested in," Fleur told the alien captain with chilly indifference, a very unusual attitude for the sociable plant controller. Up close, Tona could see the tiny cracks in the facade that said Stesha was enjoying herself playing cops and pirates. Maybe Sanctuary was just a boring place and she was happy for the excitement! "As you may recall, attempting to negotiate with you as equals failed spectacularly. But if you make it convenient for me, you and your crew will all get to survive, which is more than I'm sure can be said for some of the people you've taken advantage of in the past. Now order your bridge crew to set down the ship, and your men to lay down their weapons."
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Erin blushed at Travis' perceptions, but she was smiling as she walked to the table, smoothing her tousled hair as she went. "Thank you," she told Travis politely. It seemed like there was more she ought to say, but in present company, she suspected she could get away with leaving things unspoken. Instead, she rummaged through the bags and took out a couple of white cartons and another set of chopsticks. "I picked up some dumplings and fried rice for you, I thought I remembered you liking that. Do you want to join us?" Charlie, ever the optimist, purred at Trevor's scratches, then went to wind himself around Travis' legs in search of still more attention.
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Fleur looked over at GK and Tiamat. "Gaian Knight, we'll probably be better off if you drive for this one. I don't know what the plant situation is like near the volcano, and if we fly over, we'll get a better look at what we're dealing with anyway." Gaian Knight's rock platforms weren't as fast as some means of transportation, but one could easily hold the three of them. "If it starts to rain, I can always add a canopy," she suggested with a smile. "Are we going to need any special equipment? I've never tried to piece together a volcanic island before."
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Just as glad to leave the difficult business of words behind, Erin closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him, sliding one hand behind his neck and up into his hair to keep him exactly where she wanted him. The kiss was an excellent reminder of the benefits of moving in, and helped to stifle the small but annoying voice of worry in her head. They loved each other and worked well together and wanted to be together, but what about the times when something random would set her off and bring all the old memories scratching at the door till all she wanted was to get away somewhere safe and private to pull herself together? And was it really a good thing to let him see how many nights, even after four years of careful therapy, she still woke crying out from nightmares of a place that didn't even exist anymore? Ruthlessly, she gathered up the worries and shoved them into a far corner of her mind, even as she eased back from the kiss to just hold onto Trevor for a moment. It was silly, she reminded herself, to think she wouldn't be able to find moments of solitude in a house this size. Once the place was cleaned up and all usable space again, three occupants would rattle around like dice in a cup. And though she might hate displaying the weakness in herself, it helped not to wake alone. They'd figure it out. "Mrrr?" came a trill from near her feet. Looking down, Erin was just in time to see Charlie untie and pounce on one of her shoelaces. He looked up at her, regarding her with an expression that was undoubtedly satisfaction. "You don't get a vote," she told the cat, "but you know you like it here. They have mice and floor-length curtains."
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"I needed to know I could do it, and I did," she told him, relaxing a little more. "I got my own job, my own place, paid my bills, sort-of filed my own taxes." The taxes bit was a stretch, she'd sent her W-2s to Trevor's father when he asked for them, since he was much less likely than she to accidentally commit tax fraud while trying to account for her investment income. In any case, she'd paid taxes, and that counted as a very independent and adult responsibility. "And my apartment was okay, but it was lonely," she admitted, then grinned ruefully. "And small." She hesitated for a moment, struggling with the words. Apparently that was a thing for both of them tonight, when the words were important. "A place of my own was important," she finally said, "but I think now I'm ready to work on a place of our own." She ducked her head, unaccountably nervous for a moment, then made herself look up and meet the strange eyes that were now so familiar and special.
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Fleur's eyes were wide as she looked at the others. "Well, at least it's not the Gorgon," she murmured, but what the woman was describing didn't sound good at all. "So this Great Mother entity," she asked cautiously, "it consumed a major city on the West Coast with plant life, and the Champions were somehow involved as well?" She shrugged her own helplessness. "It doesn't sound like any dimension I've been to, and I've seen a lot of plant dimensions over the past few years. Do you remember anything about how you traveled here?" she asked the disoriented woman.
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Jessie seemed fascinated and baffled by most of that description, so Erin stepped in. "You can't change your codename yet even if you want to," she told her counterpart. "You just changed your real name, it would be even more confusing. It's already on all your paperwork and stuff." That drew a frown from Jessie. "But what if I don't like it?" she persisted. "It's a bad name and..." She trailed off, lost in thoughts that were none too pleasant, if the look on her face was any indication. "Even if you can't change it yet," Dr. Ellis pointed out gently, "you can still be thinking about new names. A codename is an important part of a hero's identity, so you'll want to give it some consideration." "Can I be Wander II?" Jessie asked. "I like that name." "No," Erin said flatly, without so much as a moment's pause. "But you said you didn't even like it," Jessie protested. "I'm used to it," Erin repeated. "And talk about being confusing, nobody would ever figure it out."
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"Huh, I always thought it was because you gave your team an edge in combat," Erin commented. "But at least you didn't call yourself Heads, or Tails," she pointed out with a quick grin. "I've heard far worse codenames thought up by fourteen year olds," Dr. Franklin agreed good-humoredly. "Now Erin, I seem to remember you came up with yours when you were filling out your application to Claremont?" "Yeah," Erin agreed, sounding a little embarrassed. "I thought I needed all the blanks filled in right away, so I just put something in there. I've thought about changing it because it's weird and half the time people think it's "Wonder," but I'm used to it by now." "You can change your codename?" Jessie asked curiously. "How do you do that?"
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"Um..." Jessie looked over the menu, feeling oddly uneasy. Not even from all the people around on the street and inside the restaurant, though that wasn't exactly helping. She didn't really remember what it was like to pick out what she wanted to eat. There were four full pages of choices, each with a description, some with pictures. There was food she'd never had, and food she hadn't had for a really long time, as well as simpler things she was used to getting on her meal trays. How was she supposed to decide, especially in the little time available? "I don't know if I'm hungry," she told the doctor nervously. "Take your time," Dr. Ellis encouraged, "the waitress can always come back in a few minutes." Doctor Franklin ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and then Erin ordered the bratwurst sandwich with fruit salad and a Coke." "That!" Jessie interjected, nearly shouting it. "I want that too!" It was such a relief that she sighed as she slumped back into her chair and gave her menu over. The waitress gave her an odd look and Erin frowned a little, but she didn't notice. "So Mark," Dr.Franklin asked conversationally, "I heard you've been working down in Africa with UNISON recently. What is that like?"
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Jessie's head whipped around as soon as she realized she was being addressed, her body stiffening at the proximity of a stranger. For an instant, her brain was full of conflicting impulses, from disarming him of whatever weapon he might be reaching for, to taking his head cleanly from his body with a single hit, to breaking the window and fleeing a possible confrontation. Just as quickly, Erin's hand was on her arm, keeping her firmly in her seat before anxiety could make her do something foolish. "Please don't," Erin said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We want to be left alone." She stared the oddly dressed man down, even as Jessie covered her own face with both hands, the power suppression bracelets flashing red to indicate they were doing their job. "Man, whatever," the guy scoffed, looking somewhat disturbed as he found a more congenial spot on the bus. That wasn't easy, things were getting pretty crowded as they approached City Center and the main bus terminal. Other people were starting to look at them now as well. "Hey come on," Erin muttered with a hint of impatience, giving Jessie a nudge. "He's not going to hurt you, put your hands down. People are staring." That didn't really work to get the desired result, so she tried something else. "It's almost lunchtime, isn't it? We should get something to eat." As Erin had expected, her counterpart's love of schedules overcame nerves for the moment, making Jessie lower her hands to check her watch. "It's past lunchtime," she agreed with a nod. "We're running late."
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Jessie shook her head. "Everyone else there is a criminal," she said with all apparent sincerity, "but not crazy like me. They didn't stay in my hall." "Jessie," Dr. Franklin said with gentle reproof, "let's try to use positive words and images, remember?" The look of suppressed annoyance on Jessie's face was all Erin, enough to be nearly startling, but she obediently rephrased. "Everyone is at Project Freedom to be rehabilitated," she told Mark. "But they didn't need the extra help that I needed to get better. I'll meet them all when I get there. Do you know where Eve lives?" she asked, returning to her previous interest. "Maybe I can visit her sometime." "Not anytime soon," Erin reminded her double. "You can't go anywhere unsupervised, remember? But you'll get computer privileges, maybe you can send her an email." Jessie looked disappointed and returned her attention to the world outside the window. Both bus and city were filling with people now as they crossed the Wading River and drove into the more crowded neighborhoods of the city.
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That drew a snicker from her. "So you're saying moving in with you is the heroic thing to do, then?" She wrapped her fingers around his, bringing them to her lips and kissing the knuckles as she thought about the... well, it wasn't a proposal, and she wasn't going to call it a proposition. The plan, then, that he'd laid out. "It would be easier to go on missions," she agreed, "and I wouldn't have to worry about Charlie if I ended up away from home for awhile. Plus, you know, all the intangible benefits..." She smiled, but then was quiet for a minute. "I think," she finally said, "that if I were to move in, it would have to be with a few conditions. One is that I help pay for things. Yeah, I know, I know," she went on waving a hand to forestall any objections. "But if I'm not contributing, I'm really just a guest, right? I have money now, and even if it's just like groceries and the water bill, I want to do something. And the other is that you've gotta get that cleaning crew in, at least once. Your house is so pretty, but there's dust in it that's older than I am." She met his eyes levelly, still holding his hand.