Electra
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Erin shrugged at that and set her cup down again. "You could think of it as a public service to all the other students he's probably terrorizing. You're really just standing up for the defenseless little people." Obviously restless, she began to cruise the room, opening drawers, peeking into cupboards. "There is no food here. No food. How do you live when you never eat?" She found a ketchup packet in a drawer and examined it critically. "I bet this was made before I was born. But I'm not throwing it out, it's the only edible thing here. We should go out for dinner, take your grandpa."
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Erin raised her communicator again, her eyes fixed on that rising dome. "Blue Jay, Beekeeper!" she snapped urgently. "Tell us where you are, we can teleport you to safety before that dome closes. Being paranoid is going to do you no good if it just gets you trapped or killed. Give us a landmark, a cross street, anything that lets us find you." As she spoke, she looked over to Dorothy, who looked a little winded and a little scared, but still game. "I swear to you we're good guys and we don't mean you any harm."
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Erin was momentarily stunned by the incredibly strange panorama of the ringworld on the monitor screen, but the arrival of the ships quickly tore her attention away from the scenery. "Look at that," she said into her open comm line as she leapt into the air high enough for a look around. "That trench they're digging, they're surrounding the city with it. It's gotta be some sort of isolation ploy. Whatever they're planning on doing here, I want no part of it. We've got to get out of here now!" She landed on the ground, turning to Quickstep. "Can you teleport us out of the city? We need to get at least as far as Wharton Forest, it looks like, but closer to Atlantic City would be safer. Otherwise we're going to have to make a run for it."
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Fleur pursed her lips as she looked at the pitable yet dangerous figure of the android captain, held hostage by his own programming. With the air clear, her powers were quickly returning to full potency, putting the color back in her skin and the green back in her hair. "Gabe, help GK," she told her comrade, even as she raised her hands to once again stir the plants. The vines near the captain rose at her silent command, sliding over the android captain where he lay momentarily prone from his fall. In moments they were cinched tight around the metal body, pinning him implacably. "Is there a way we can deactivate you?" Fleur asked the Captain, hurrying over to the nearly-mummified figure. "If we can turn you off, there are people who can help free you from the implanted programming."
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Fleur is going to try another snare, yay! First roll is so bad! Spending an HP! Second roll is a 23. DC 28 reflex save to avoid entangled/bound.
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"That's true," she conceded with a tilt of her head. "It must be frustrating to deal with people like that who think they're so smart, and not even be able to show them your best work." She nodded in the direction of the downstairs and all its treasures. "Though you're not exactly powerless. If any of them are particularly obnoxious, your family could always endow a department chair on the stipulation that the guy hits the road. Money does talk." She sipped her cocoa innocently. "Another valuable lesson to teach."
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Gina froze, her own arms suddenly feeling like iron bands as they constricted her chest and squeezed the oxygen from her lungs. She had no idea what to do or say, what to do with her face, her hands, her body besides standing there like a moron while he stared at her. Love? How could he love her? The very idea was ridiculous, laughable. Just look at her! In her distracted state, thought became deed, and suddenly she was in the house cameras, looking down at her own stupid stunned face, the big eyes, the slack jaw. It was horrifying, and surely Steve was already thinking better of the words! She found her way back into her body before her knees could buckle, snatching in a breath of air in a room that suddenly seemed devoid of oxygen. There were already little spots dancing in front of her eyes, and she was afraid that if she didn't do something, she was just going to make her humiliation complete and pass out on the spot. "I... I have to go." She turned and bolted from the room, all but diving across the hall and into the safety of her own bedroom, with the door shut behind her.
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This evening was not going at all as Gina had thought it would. Why would Steve ditch her for weeks at a time, then come back and start making all this noise about anniversaries and... and togetherness, and sounding as though he was fumbling his way towards asking for a commitment she wasn't ready to make? It didn't make sense, even for Steve's screwed-up version of sense. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at him, her puzzlement plain on her face. "I'm not sure what it is you're driving at," she told him. "What sort of step are you suggesting?"
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She rolled her shoulders in a shrug and picked up her cocoa again, wrapping her fingers around it as though warming them. "Mostly the same old same old. College kids are starting to get off school for the holidays, so there are some new interns running around being dumb. Had to go toe to toe with some jackass physics grad student who didn't think a girl younger than him with no education should be telling him what to do." She burnished her nails on her shirt and examined them, looking grimly satisfied. "He knows better now. A semester doing his work in the tiny little office off the boiler room should teach him a valuable lesson about support staff." Putting the cocoa down again, she swung to her feet and walked over to the kitchen door, leaning on the frame with folded arms. "You should be proud of my restraint, though, I didn't feed him his badge or anything."
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"It's going to be stable enough to be moved," Koshiro pointed out, "The Nazis were the ones who packed it in the first place, and they weren't going to risk wiping themselves out with it. We've got room for all of it on the bus, and we'll tie it down and seal the doors on the room with tape and plastic bags to be on the safe side. Once we're back on Prime, we can hand it over to whoever can deal with it, but the sooner we take that stuff out of the fight, the better." He nodded at Rogue. "You're making the right choice," he told the rebel leader. "We've met some of the people who are fighting for the non-digital resistance, and they seem like good people. We'll tell them about you, that you're all on the same side. If you've got a bunch of bioslaughter weapons around, they wouldn't trust you, no more'n you'd trust people who fought with huge magnets and computer viruses. But if you all can work together, you'll win the war without any of that crap," he predicted. Turning to his own team, he addressed Mali. "Hey Tiger, think we can get the bus actually inside the facility? The less distance we have to hand-carry the stuff, the better."
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Gina took a half-step back, shifting her weight uneasily to her trailing foot as she weighed the question. "Just because I don't go out with you in public doesn't mean this isn't important," she reminded him. "You're really getting the best of both worlds. You wouldn't want to be with me the way that I am when I have to go outside. Interfacing through the robot lets me be my best self instead of some neurotic wreck who can barely drive a car, let alone run a company. If I could be her all the time, I would be, for both my sake and yours, but the technology isn't there yet. Still, I think we've been making do pretty well so far. A whole year, right?" She tried a smile to hide the nerves, but had a feeling it was more like a grimace.
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Back on the ground on the other side of town, Erin tapped her foot and watched the sky. "I don't like this strategy," she muttered to Ellie and Dorothy. "If he gets in trouble out there, how are we supposed to back him up? How do we know that these guys can fly, anyway? Not everybody who has a bird name can fly, look at Arrowhawk and Raven." She bounced on the balls of her feet twice, then leapt a hundred feet into the air to have a look around. "Nothing," she reported with frustration as she landed. "We're wasting time here. We should be looking for Hanover and North Bay, seeing if there's anyone else holed up in the safest places in the city."
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"Penny, no!" Fleur shouted, lurching to her feet to try and stop the little girl. As soon as she let go of Scraps, he too was gone, back into the fight. "Dammit!" she muttered under her breath, letting bandages and poultices spill from her pouch as she sprang to her feet. Holding her breath, she sprinted to the door, watching as the children darted right into the line of fire. In desperation, Fleur pointed to the vines that littered the ground beneath the android, pouring her raw power into them till they spilled forth clusters of giant flowers that momentarily obscured most of the cave with massive purple blossoms and the choking scent of hyacinth. Scraps and Penny were both completely enveloped by the mass of flora, disappearing from view in the space between eyeblinks. Just as rapidly, the flowers wilted and shrank away to nothingness, but not before they'd swept the children to safety along with!
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Erin set her cup aside and quirked one brow. "I hate to foreclose upon my options so early in the day," she told him archly. "But we can start with working on the engine. It seemed like we were really close to getting it up and flying again. Be fun to be able to take it out for a test run and see how it handles. And at least I'm dressed for work this time." She waved a hand to indicate the sturdy HAX uniform she was still wearing from work. That was a little unusual, generally she'd stop home to feed the cat and change before coming for a visit, but this seemed an unusual visit.
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Gina took the snowglobe from the box and studied it, turning it over in her hands. From anyone else she might have taken it as a backhanded commentary on how she chose to live, sealed in a bubble of safety, but Steve didn't have that kind of subtlety in him. From him, well, it was still tacky as all hell, but at least his heart was in the right place. Unless he'd realized at the last minute that he should have a gift and had just grabbed something at random, then made up a story about it... She shook the snowglobe and watched the flakes swirling around the garish little city and listened to his speech. Should not be forgotten? Was there some danger of that? Ignoring the unpleasant churning in her stomach, she nodded. "Yeah, nearly a year now, hard to believe. Hey, why don't you go and check out your present? I set it up in the guest room, go have a look." She'd needed the whole room to spread out the gift she'd arranged for him, an entire wardrobe created by the same designers who created Miss Americana's custom wardrobe. The room was full of everything from silk boxers and merino blend socks to blue jeans and polo shirts, to suits, a pair of black tuxes, and a full white tie and tails ensemble. A dozen pairs of shoes sat on the floor next to the bed, everything from tennis shoes to wingtips to steel-toed and cold weather pairs of boots. Gina followed Steve down the hall so she could see him take it all in. "I figured if I wanted you to go to events with Miss Americana, you should have the clothes you need, and once the designers had your measurements, I just sort of let them go where they wanted... do you like it?"
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Erin frowned thoughtfully into her cup before answering. "I'll be working for most of it, like I said," she finally replied. "Steve Murdock and I are taking shifts, figuring if any attack is going to come down, it'll probably be on Christmas when people are out celebrating. After that who knows? Maybe I'll come by for some eggnog and carols." Her lips quirked. "I'll bring the eggnog." While he made the coffee, she scooted out of the way and dropped into one of the kitchen chairs to watch him work. "Let's go downstairs," she suggested suddenly. "I've got a couple hours, maybe we could do some work on the flying saucer."
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"Oh, it's not so bad," Erin countered, half-smiling as she leaned back against the old formica countertop. "It's not like I suggested you buy instant coffee! And it never hurts to be prepared, right? You never know when something unexpected could come along and upend all your plans. And then, well... you still might be screwed, but at least you'll have milk on hand." She shrugged. "I guess I'm preaching to the choir, you've got contingency plans available for every possible circumstance. I imagine an army could drop into the middle of Freedom City tomorrow and you'd have a strategy all mapped out."
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"You could get canned milk, or powdered milk," she pointed out, opening the packet and pouring the cocoa into an empty cup. "Even soy milk, I think that keeps longer, or at least it tastes the same amount of nasty for longer." If Erin had something more weighty on her mind than preparing the perfect cup of cocoa, she wasn't showing it as she carefully added hot water bit by bit, stirring to avoid any powdery lumps. "You guys doing anything special for the holiday this year?" she asked as she took the first sip.
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It was amazing how fast the old skills came back, Erin mused grimly as she set up their little encampment for maximum efficiency and defensibility. She was better off here than she'd ever been during the bad times on her home Earth, with not only light and heat, but comrades-in-arms to provide help and companionship. Even so, it was close enough to make her uneasy, close enough that she was having to fight the old, jumpy instincts. Keeping busy helped, anything to stave off the crushing silence outside. She concentrated on helping Dorothy settle in, showing her how to cushion her sleeping bag to keep it off the cold floor, making sure she got a double share of the meal, finding an extra set of clothes in her size. Erin didn't think about why all that was especially important, refused to think about that right now, it just was. With the housekeeping taken care of, she turned her attention to communications. Tuning her communicator to the widest possible band, she began to broadcast into the night. Communicating risked bringing bad attention down on them, but it was also the only way to find allies as well. "Attention, anyone still alive in Freedom City. This is Wander of the Liberty League, calling anyone who can hear me. We're looking to make contact with survivors of the disaster here, or with anyone who has been displaced to this world. We need to work together to survive and understand what happened here. Please respond."
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Erin nodded at Vince, then at Steve. "All right. Let's bring down the supplies we gathered and set up camp. We'll get some dinner going, then set up a watch rotation to supplement Vince and his security systems. Just because we haven't seen action so far doesn't mean there's nothing coming. Whoever brought us here must have some sort of plan cooked up. If they brought us here to fight something, I don't think we'll be left waiting too long. Once we're set up, we'll try the communicators again, see if we can make contact with anyone still alive out there. Maybe we can talk Blue Jay and her friend down out of the trees. Tomorrow we can start canvassing the city, see if we can get some kind of map that will let us find places like HAX that we want to check on. Her thoughts turned naturally to North Bay and Trevor, but she forced them back to the matter at hand. There was, in all likelihood, nothing she could do to help him now. She turned to head back to the surface, then paused for a minute to look at the AI. "Don't worry, Vince," she told him solemnly. "Whatever happens, we won't leave you here alone."
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"Until one set of robots polishes off the other side, then goes for the human population." One could always trust Erin to find the cloud in every silver lining. "Nobody ever finished a war just by taking out the front lines and then going home. If robots are going to win a war, it's going to be on the backs of human beings." Apparently indifferent to any discomfort her words might cause, she turned away to watch the massive machine being loaded for its final journey into obsolescence.
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"Oh, keeping busy, you know how it goes." Gina waved a hand, dismissing the many balls she was keeping in the air. Talking about them would just be boring, and most of it would go over his head anyway. "Lots of research, lots of Christmas parties, lots of fundraising. It's really nothing like I imagined it would be when I decided to get into superheroing. But I guess we all serve in our own way." She took the chocolates and set them aside for later, then regarded the present with curious interest. "Wow, this thing weighs a ton. I wonder what it is! I've got your present in the other room, I'll show you in just a minute." Without regard for propriety, she tore the wrapping paper off the present, tugging off the bow and placing it jauntily on Emerson's dome.
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"Projects, huh? That's lucky, I imagine your only difficulty with engineering projects was not making them suspiciously good," Erin guessed as she walked through the house and into the big downstairs kitchen. Moving with the ease of long practice, she dug into the cupboard and pulled out the tin of hot cocoa mix, then peeked into the fridge. "You never have any milk. All the money in the world and you can't go out and buy groceries." She filled a cup of water instead and put it in the microwave. "Where's your grandpa today?"
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The garage door opened as he approached, programmed to detect and allow his particular shape and facial features through the home's security network. He was met at the door by Emerson or one of its robot twins, flashing a message across its dome. I'll be right up. There was Christmas music playing on the stereo, and the air smelled of baking cookies. Obviously Gina had gone some out of her way for this visit. Downstairs in her workroom, Gina was miles away at the fancy reception when she received warning that her perimeter had been breached by a friendly. Despite everything she'd wanted to do at home, she couldn't just not show up at the ArcheTech reception, not if she wanted to keep the investors happy until the business started showing a profit again! Miss Americana quickly excused herself from the gathering, pleading an important breakthrough on a research project, and sealed herself in her private office for the night. The second the gynoid was shut down, Gina was rising from her chair, cracking her back and heading upstairs. "Hey, I wasn't sure what time you'd come by. Sorry I got caught up."
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Erin startled for a moment when Vince spoke, unprepared to see a "live" person in the dark building. She checked herself when she recognized the Interceptors' AI, then let Ellie take the lead in talking to him. He reminded her strongly of Dr. Atom from her world when she'd first met him, grieving and alone in a dead world, impervious himself but unable to take any action to protect the people around him. That thought led only to places she'd rather avoid, so instead she concentrated on assessing the condition of the bunker itself. "There's some electricity in here," she murmured to the others under her breath. "And climate control, keeping the temperature up and the water out. There must be some kind of working generator." She looked again to Jill and Vince, hoping that the AI hadn't become unbalanced during his time alone. "Vince, we need a defensible place to hole up while we're here in Freedom City. Is the Brownstone safe for now?"