Electra
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Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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Gina waved a hand irritably in his direction as she pushed away from the table and stood up. "I know it's not a competition, I'm not making it a competition," she told him. "That would be asinine. But it's not just you, half the heroes in this city cope with lives that are littered with tragedy and death and horrible things, and they're still okay, they're still going out there and getting it done. And you, you've come out of this horrific background and you've pulled yourself together and gotten a regular job and friends and you just do what has to be done." She gestured at herself derisively, her tone suddenly bitingly snide." And then I look at myself and it's just "boo-hoo, nobody loved me and people were mean," and for that I hole up in my house for three years? That's what I let ruin my life? And I know all that crap, but it still doesn't let me step out the door, and it's just..." She groaned in frustration, grabbing a handful of her own hair and pulling on it. "It's just so stupid."
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Erin considered that, tapping her chopsticks thoughtfully against the side of the carton. "Yeah, I guess that's a good point. I hadn't really thought about how much time she spends in the garage, or I guess I hadn't thought that it might bother her. If she wants to get out more, a robot body would probably be what she needs. Though she'd also need people to hang out with, or a hobby group or something like that." She grinned mischievously. "Or you could get her a hack license and drop her into one of the bigger cars, let her be the Night Taxi. I hear taxi drivers get all the best stories, and woe betide the idiot who tries to mug her." She took another bite of her chicken, then gestured to the bag. "I got shrimp fried rice and dumplings for your grandpa. You think he's ready for dinner? We could invite him down."
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"We must be doing something, to them," Fleur pointed out, "or we'd be much further off the ground by now. And they'd have no reason to even suggest a parley." Fleur thought for a moment. "All right, if the trees bend down a bit, they can fit through the corridors as well and guard our backs as we go. I'll put some vines into the air vents and bring them along with us, so they're clogged up and no one can sneak through them, and so we have a little more ammunition to work with, if it comes to that. If everything starts going bad, you stay close to me and we'll just teleport right back to the surface, okay?" She motioned to the trees, who stopped their smashing work and fell into line like a pack of obedient dogs. With all of them in one cluster, it was a bit awkward to move, but anyone trying to surprise them would indeed have a hard time attacking past all that wood and bark.
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"I didn't say you were conniving," Gina told him, her voice clipped. "I said that you were assuming way too much based on one isolated event. I didn't have fun going to rescue you, and it wasn't a relaxing good time. If I go on your little excursion, it won't be peaceful and contented, it'll be a little slice of hell. And I know that it's stupid, and I know that my problems are all in my head, and I know that they have to seem trivial compared to everything that you and the other ex-drones have been through, but that doesn't mean I can just say sure, let's go out for a nice day in the park." She seemed to deflate in her seat, even as she tossed her fork onto her nearly-untouched plate. "But I'll set it up for you if that's what you want to do with them."
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"Redbird wants a robot body?" Erin blinked at the idea. "I sort of thought she was more a vehicle-minded AI. It seems like if you put her in a robot body, the first thing she'd do is try to take it to eighty on the freeway." Unable to harden her heart to Charlie's mournful creeling, she stripped the breading off a bit of chicken and tossed it to the floor. Charlie pounced the meat as though he hadn't eaten in days, batting it between his paws and going in for the kill. "I mean, it might be useful, but... I dunno." She shook her head and picked up a crab rangoon. "Would she like stay in it when she was at the Manor and walk around in the house and stuff?"
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Fleur spared a single annoyed look at Comrade Frost for his high-handedness, but at least by getting up, he'd removed his aura of cold from the immediate vicinity. She gave the woman a pleasant smile."You've obviously had quite a shock. How are you feeling?" The woman certainly looked much better after Willow's ministrations, but the memory of plants exploding out of the stranger's body was quite a vivid one. "If you've come here from another world, we may be able to help you get home. We don't mean you any harm."
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Erin obediently put her eye up to the retinal scanner, not surprised by the odd chirrup-beep it made to indicate confusion. Blackstone's scanners confirmed that she was who they said she was, but she wasn't the only person in the facility with the same retinal pattern. That error happened every time she visited, and the guard just nodded at her. She stepped aside so Mark could do the same thing, though he was rewarded with a simple chime. "All right, you're both cleared," said the guard. "Follow me." She led them along a path already very familiar to Erin, deep into the prison complex and past the large cellblocks, into an out-of-the-way corridor lined with just a few cells. The first cell in the hallway was covered with a thin impervium shield covered in tiny ripples that obscured the interior from view. The second, on the opposite side of the hall, contained an occupant with his back to the cellblock, apparently reading or meditating. The third, further down the hall, contained Erin White, or at least an Erin White, who got up and came to the front of her cell to try and see who'd come in. "You can go ahead and talk to her," the guard told Erin and Mark. "The doctor will be along in a few minutes."
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"Well... you're part of the last test," Erin admitted. "You remember how she was back when we first picked her up, she was especially freaked out by you, right? Exposure and mental conditioning got her used to dealing with Alex, but I don't think she's seen you at all since then. If she can see you and talk to you without it bothering her, I figure that she's got to be ready to handle the outside world." She smiled a little. "And the fact that you can give us a ride instead of needing to find a boat or teach her to water-walk is an added benefit. I'll take you out to lunch afterwards and we'll call it even?"
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"I don't know," Erin admitted. "I guess probably, unless she's got someplace else to live by then. She's got to do at least six months on Project Freedom, with the tracking anklet and the power inhibitors. I had to promise to be on call in case she ever screws up, and to work with her on learning nonlethal fighting. She's kind of weird now," she added, doodling an abstract pattern in the sand with her finger. "I mean different weird than before. Alex and Eve ended up just taking out whole big chunks of her memory. She's not as scary-crazy, but I don't think you can lose that much of your past without it making you strange, you know?"
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"That's too bad," Erin replied with a thoughtful frown. She'd met Martha Lucas a number of times, under all sorts of circumstances, and the woman's faltering grip on reality was not exactly a subtle decline. "I know she's stubborn, but you should really try and get her to talk to somebody. She's had a lot of bad things happen this last couple of years. I still keep in touch with a couple of the doctors at the Freedom League, they might be able to help more than a regular psychologist..." This was not a new conversation, though, so Erin wasn't too enthused about the prospects of that. Martha wasn't the only one in her family who was reticent to face reality sometimes. "Yeah, everything's set up. Assuming she passes the last screening, she'll be released to the Project Freedom halfway house. I've got all her documents and stuff."
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The soft pafft of boots landing in the sand nearby was enough to break his reverie, just in time to see Erin sit down next to him. She was in street clothes as well, slacks and a well-worn blouse he vaguely recognized from their school days. Erin wasn't the type to waste time sitting around, but for the moment, she didn't seem to be in much of a hurry. "Sorry I'm late," she told him, "I was trying to get all the last bits of paperwork in order. You look like you've got a lot on your mind."
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"Oh, good! Now watch me forget it there again," Erin admitted with a wry chuckle. Part of her wondered if the robot had been programmed to forget her coat because it was something Erin herself would've done. "But it's true, the only thing you have more of around this place than kitchens is closets." Dropping into a seat, she took a pair of chopsticks as well and began digging into a box of palace chicken. Charlie began miaowing piteously from the floor, but she was unmoved. "You get your kibble later," she reminded him. Go catch a mouse or something." As Charlie sulked, Erin dumped another packet of sweet and sour sauce on her chicken. "How was school?" she asked Trevor. "Got any cool projects going?"
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Erin raised both eyebrows at that assumption, tucking tongue in cheek as she replied. "Well, in a way. I guess. A very small resemblance. We used to be on Young Freedom together, back when that team was just starting up. But I was never particularly good with any of the gadgets and technology, and he never did learn how to take a punch. But he graduated a year after I started there." The elevator doors slid open, revealing an empty corridor lined with doors and a number of discreet cameras. Erin led them to the end of the hall, then gave a quick knock on the door before nudging it open.
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Stesha made a face as she listened to the loudspeaker. "What on earth was that supposed to mean?" she demanded aloud, then began to parse through it. "Landlubbering boarders, I'm guessing that's us. Taking the parley... it's been a long time since I watched a pirate movie, but I guess that means he wants to negotiate? And a galley is a kitchen," she finished with slightly more confidence. "So he wants to meet us in the kitchen to negotiate?" She pursed her lips. "It sounds like a trap. What do you think?" she asked Blue Jay.
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"Can do," Erin assured her, then toggled the radio off and stepped back to the visitors. "She says you can come up." A nod from her had the rest of the security detail dispersing, but Erin herself stayed to lead the way, badging the elevator that would take them up to Mara's office. "No offense or anything," she told Chris, "but we've got to be careful. There was an incident here while I was gone, a pretty serious breach in security. It's better to be a little overcautious than to relax and miss something." Erin didn't look like she was in any danger of relaxing and missing anything as they rode up to the floor where Mara's office was located.
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"No way," Gina said flatly, pulling her hand back. "I thought you understood that was a one-time deal. Your life was in danger and I didn't have any other way to help, so I did what had to be done. But you saw how it was afterwards and how wrecked up I was. You want me to go through all that again just so you can drag me out on some stupid picnic? Is that what all this is about?" she demanded, waving a hand to indicate the whole morning's conversation. "I left the house once, so now you think I'm going to be totally normal and it's time to start thinking about vacations and babies and all that BS? Cause it's not going to happen that way. I'm still just as messed up as I ever was, and so are you. That's just who we are." She shoved her plate away, sending it sliding halfway across the table.
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Erin's lips twitched at Liz's comment about not hiring Chris, but she managed to maintain her unamused facade. "Wait here for a minute. And try not to break anything, Chris." She stepped away a few yards and activated her radio. "Hey boss, I've got a couple of people down in the lobby who want to speak with you. They're carrying weapons, but one of them is an old friend of mine. From school," she added, figuring Mara would know what that meant. "And he asked me to pass along the message 'Goggles wants a word.' You want me to bring them up?"
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"You know, there's a remarkable piece of technology called a telephone that most of our contractors use when they're bringing tech in or arranging an interview," Erin pointed out sardonically, but she did relent enough to have her team stand down. They didn't leave, but they didn't look ready to rush into the fray, either. "Ms. Hallomen has a tight schedule," Erin told the pair, "and if what's on the scanner is what you're bringing to show her, she's not going to be interested. HAX isn't a weapons company." That was firm enough policy that Erin had no problem predicting the likely reaction from the boss. "We don't build them, we don't improve them, we don't buy or sell them. But if you really insist, I'll see if she's available."
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Gina shook her head. "I'm afraid that's not feasible," she told him. "Even if I do have the new robot perfected by then, I have lost so much time this past couple months already, I'm going to be drowning in work. This Day of Wrath stuff has gotten people remembering Archeville's bugout, and some people are pretty nervous. It's really not an ideal time for Miss Americana to be out of commission. I need to get her out there and stumping for the company and for heroes in general as soon as possible. Sending her to the lake for a weekend just wouldn't do the trick."
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Moments after the pair walked in, the side door of the lobby opened and a half-dozen men and women in drab blue uniforms stepped out. Moving with the smooth precision of training, they fanned out into a semi-circle that would allow the pair to retreat to the street if they wanted, but advance no further. At the center point of the semi-circle was a familiar face, carrying a familiar bat still collapsed in her hand. It took only a second for Erin to recognize her old teammate, even without his extraordinarily loud costume on. "Chris?" she asked in surprise. "What are you doing here? And are you trying to start a war or something?" After the events of the past several months, familiarity wasn't quite enough to get her to relax, but she did hold up a hand to keep her team back for the moment.
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The chief engineer may have lost his gun and most of his crew, but he certainly wasn't giving up the fight. Fleur opened a flower that released a cloud of opiate pollen at him, but he dodged away before it could touch him. She sighed with frustration. This was taking too much time, and even though alarms were shrilling and sparks were flying everywhere, she couldn't be sure that the ship wasn't still operative. "You three, keep breaking things," she ordered three of her trees. "You two, defend Blue Jay and I!" The trees, at least, seemed impervious to whatever mental weapon their foe kept trying to bring to bear.
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All right, Fleur's going to try the old Stun Flower on Gazer, see if that can put him down. Ha, that was a terrible attack roll. Spending an HP! And it still completely failed. Boooo. This bastard has lucky dice. Move action to order two of the trees to interpose for her and Blue Jay.
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"Yeah, pretty well," she answered, shrugging out of her light windbreaker and handing it over. "I've had a lot of catching up to do, but it could've been worse .Evil Robot me had a lot of faults, but she was hell on wheels when it came to doing the paperwork at the office. Guess she thought making mistakes or falling behind would draw attention. I've been meaning to ask," she added as he headed towards the coat closet, "have you seen my winter coat and hat anywhere? I haven't been able to find them since I came back, and I think the robot must have left them somewhere." Erin wore the coat mostly for show since the cold didn't bother her, but it was important that she keep track of her clothes. "It's not at HAX, and I know she wasn't wearing it when she got blown up, since she ruined my best uniform doing that."
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"Do you want me to talk to someone at the school?" Gina asked, grateful to be changing the subject to something less personal. "I'm not sure how Yolanda's guardians would feel about sending her out with the ex-drone kids at her age, but they should at least be able to spend time with each other." She tapped her fingers lightly against the table. "I don't know who the psychologist is at Nicholson these days, but I'll drop a line to Dr. Franklin at the Freedom League and sound him out. Why don't you look into organizing some kind of spring break excursion? I'm sure we can get all the bureaucracy smoothed out by then. You could maybe take them and their families to the state park, do swimming, boating, things like that. Low stress, not a lot of people around."
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Even with as much satisfaction as Erin got from her job at HAX, it was always nice to come to the end of a work day and have a day off ahead of her. She'd had to do a lot of catch-up play in the weeks since her return from the Curator's ringworld, but it seemed as though things were settling back into place. And sure maybe the weekend would be disrupted by some supervillain attack or crazy happening, but she was used to that, too. Getting thrown into space had made her appreciate the time she had with Trevor more, whether it was just relaxing, or tinkering with machines, or fighting evil. She'd taken the time to stop at home after work, shower and change her clothes, then pick up a few things for the weekend. Unless he had a big project going, Erin figured she could probably wangle an invitation to spend the night. She took the cat too, since the guilt trip over her long absence didn't look likely to stop anytime soon. The sun was just starting to go down when Erin walked into the manor, Charlie on her shoulder and a bag of takeout food in her hand. "Hey," she said, smiling to see Trevor waiting just behind the door. She gave him a quick kiss, then set Charlie on the floor to go play. "I brought supper," she told Trevor with a quick humorous grin. "Wasn't sure what you guys had on hand. It's Chinese."