Electra

Erin's going to use her long experience with studying corpses and scenes of death to make Skill Mastery checks in Notice and Survival. So that's a 25 for Notice and a 20 for Survival.

The moment Wander heard the thud, she was out from under the trailer as though propelled by a spring. "Something's in the trailer," she called to the others, automatically pulling her bat as she went for the door. A breath of newfound caution told her to wait for the others, but it was lost in the deeply-ingrained instinct to go through a door first and protect her teammates. "Something big, might be a person." She knocked the flimsy door open with her hip and went in bat-first, ready to swing if circumstances called for it. It would've been a relief, really; Wander was much more comfortable with a fight than with a mystery.

Erin-Prime seemed happy to switch her attention from her double to her double's handsome friends. She gave Trevor a polite nod and smile, then focused in on Mark. "It's nice to meet you too," she told him, giving him a smile that was warmer and more friendly than most smiles Wander bestowed on anyone ever. "I've never met any of Erin Keeley's friends. Are you a superhero?" she asked unabashedly. Even out of uniform, Mark did tend to look the part. On the other side of the table, Erin Keeley blinked and exchanged an uneasy glance with Trevor. She'd seen this behavior from Mark before, and didn't even want to think about where it usually led. Before she could say anything, Megan was coming over to the table with a rolling chair and a cup of coffee so dilute that it looked like milk with a splash of coffee rather than the other way around. Erin decided to let it go for now. With Roger giving Clarissa a hand, soon coffee was served (quite good coffee, if not quite Midnight Manor grade), and breakfast smells filled the kitchen.

"An engineer and a mechanic?" Clarissa repeated, looking torn between surprise and amusement at Mark's shilling for his friend. It did look a little bit as though Mark had come along for no reason but to advertise Trevor's good qualities. Despite her discomfort, Erin had to hide a smile as she watched the byplay. "You and Roger should hit it off, he used to be a bit of a gearhead, many years ago. He had this old convertible back when we were first married, he was always tinkering with it, but never quite got it working right. And here he comes," she added, looking towards the stairs at the sound of footsteps. Sure enough, a moment later Roger White entered the kitchen. He hadn't shaved yet and his hair was still wet from the shower, but he was put together for the work day in a polo shirt and dark slacks over slightly incongruous tennis shoes. Most days when the weather wasn't too bad, Roger liked to bike to work. He surveyed the group of visitors, then smiled at all of them with the faint uneasiness of someone who wasn't entirely comfortable in groups of strangers. "Happy birthday, Erin Keeley," he told the facsimile of his daughter. "I had no idea you'd be coming to visit today. Who are your friends?" Introductions were repeated, with Clarissa helpfully informing Roger that Trevor was mechanically inclined and built motorcycles. Roger seemed duly impressed, for all he was obviously not quite ready to like anyone who had designs on one of his daughters. As Clarissa began scrambling eggs in a skillet and Roger hunted up the rest of the chairs, Megan came back in, practically dancing with the excitement of strange visitors first thing in the morning. "I got her!" she called. "I get coffee!" Behind Megan, the other Erin was dragging her heels as she yawned her way into the room. Dressed in a sleep t-shirt and leggings, the differences between the two Erins was immediately obvious. Erin Prime was shorter and more compact than her counterpart, with pretty blonde highlights in her hair and curves that the immigrant Erin had traded in for muscle mass. The two girls looked at each other, sizing each other up, before saying almost in unison, "Happy birthday."

"Hmmm, the southside," Fleur repeated, tapping a thoughtful finger against her lips. "So many heroes have gone to citywide patrols this year, but I imagine that you'll still find Gabriel and Cannonade patrolling that area regularly." She smiled. "Gabriel is a good friend of mine, you should meet him if you get a chance. He's hard to miss, very handsome. He's helping me raise funds to bring things like electricity and agricultural tools to the survivors here. Tell him that Fleur de Joie says hello." She rose from the couch and laid the baby back down on the floor, where the grass grew and wove itself into a blanket over the infant. "Can I put some of these cookies in a bag to take with you?" she asked. "Your daughter might appreciate one when you get home too."

"Oh, that's all right," Clarissa told Trevor with a smile, though her eyes were assessing him at the same time. The native Erin had brought home boyfriends many times, which had given her mother experience in judging them, but this Erin never had, and there'd never been a young man brought home who was quite like this one. "I know how it is for superheroes. I've been trying to keep up with the news in Freedom City, and it seems like there's always some new strange thing happening there. I'm just glad you were able to come visit. Come on in and we'll have breakfast." She gestured them down the hallway that led into the kitchen, and for a moment Erin didn't want to go. It was the house she'd grown up in, a kitchen where she'd eaten breakfast a thousand times, but all she could think of was the last time she'd been in there, on a different world entirely. Clarissa noticed the hesitation and looked uncertain herself for a moment, though the smile didn't slip. Before it could get any more awkward, Erin shook herself, made herself smile again. "Breakfast sounds great," she said, starting down the hallway. "I've been telling Trevor stories about Seattle coffee." "We've got that, and plenty of it," Clarissa assured them. "Megan, go get your dad, tell him that Erin Keeley and her friends are here. And see if you can blast Erin out of bed while you're up there." Megan hung over the railing and grinned at her mom. "If I do, can I have some coffee? I want to stunt my growth." "We'll see," Clarissa told her. "Now straighten up before you fall off and break your neck." They both stopped talking then, looking towards their extra-dimensional visitor with identical expression of embarrassed guilt. Erin was already nearly into the kitchen and with her back turned, but her ears were, as always, extremely acute. Clarissa followed the teens into the kichen and began to pull breakfast food from the refrigerator as though to cover the gaffe with activity. "So Trevor, tell me a little more about yourself," she asked. "Erin Keeley's never brought anyone home to meet us before. Were you a student at Claremont as well?"

"We don't know everything," Fleur said, a sorrowful look crossing her face, "but there was a war, bigger than either of the world wars on Prime. There was some Grue interference, weapons the humans shouldn't have had, especially at their stage of technological development. It was mutually assured destruction before anyone understood what the concept meant, or how to avoid it." She shook her head. "I thought all the people were gone, but I did end up finding one small pocket of survivors so far. They have a village a few miles west of here. They're used to a barely subsistence-level existence in caves, but with some help from other heroes we've been educating them, teaching them how to farm and build in a clean world. They're much happier now," she said, the smile returning. "If there are more like them, I'd like to find them and help them too."

"It's perfectly safe," Fleur assured her guest, her manner shifting to the conciliatory as she realized how nervous Whiplash was becoming. "Sanctuary is Earth, just an earth where history unfolded a different way. I had all sorts of tests done on the air and the soil before I made my home here, and it's very healthy here in the green zone. If you were to wander for miles, you might come to the ruins, where there are still some contaminants, but nothing you have to worry about anywhere nearby. And I can take you back to Prime anytime you like. I don't always think to explain my means of transportation," she admitted with a rueful smile. "I didn't mean to worry you."

"Oh no," Fleur corrected, buttoning up her shirt and cuddling the baby to her shoulder. "We're not on Earth-Prime at all anymore. Sanctuary is a few universes away from Prime, but in a reasonably close interdimensional sheaf. In fact, this house we're sitting in overlays the same geograpic area of Midtown in Freedom City on Prime. Only on this world, most of the humans and their artifacts have been gone for many decades. It was a ruined planet when I found it, but I've been fixing it up as I go. Sanctuary was one of the evacuation sites for the Gorgon event last month, in fact. I was very glad to be able to send everyone home!"

Erin straightened her shoulders and prepared to advance, then paused long enough to hand the kitten to Mark. "Could you send him home, please? They've got a puppy here." Whether or not Charlie could understand the words, he consented to being handed off, giving Mark nothing more than an unfriendly look. Skirting the manicured lawn, Erin walked down the driveway and along the cobblestone path that had been completely overgrown on her last visit here. She shoved those memories, all of them, aside, fixing a pleasant and hopefully friendly expression on her face as she stepped onto the porch. Reaching back without looking, she found Trevor's hand and squeezed once before ringing the doorbell. The pleasant chime of the bell was met immediately by a flurry of excited barking from the front hallway. Through the door, the trio could hear the muffled sounds of someone shushing the puppy before the door opened. Clarissa White looked older than in Erin's photos of her, forty-five now according to Trevor's diffident research, but it was a look she wore well. Hair a shade less red and more brown than Erin's was caught back from a pretty face with a few laugh lines that were downplayed by subtle makeup. She was dressed casually in slacks and a blouse not too unlike Erin's, if newer, but looked very put together for not quite eight in the morning. In her arms, a puppy of indeterminate age and breed was squirming and trying to lick everything in reach. Clarissa was obviously startled to see the visitors on her doorstep, but recovered quickly and gave them all a genuine smile. "Erin Keeley, what a nice surprise. Happy birthday! I had no idea you were in town this week, or we would have invited you over for the party." She stepped back to let them in, all gracious hostess, only to be interrupted by pounding feet on the stairs. "Who is it, Mom?" came the impatient query as a young teenager leaned over the banister halfway down the stairs. Erin took a quarter-step back, letting out a soft breath as though someone had just landed her a punch to the chest. It was never easy to see Megan again. The eight year old of her memories was now a confident young woman of thirteen, tall and gangly with a frame she'd yet to grow into and a pixie face framed by dark hair. Megan paused on the steps, sizing up the visitors for a moment before giving them a smile edged with caution. "Hey, Erin Keeley," she said. "Guess people don't sleep in Freedom City. You're still snoozing upstairs." She cocked her head, a gesture very reminiscent of her older sister. "Who're your friends?" Remembering herself, Erin stepped into the entryway to let the others in and so Clarissa could close the door. "These are my friends," she said, a little hesitantly. "This is Mark Lucas, I went to school with him at Claremont. And this is Trevor Hunter, my boyfriend." She couldn't help blushing as she said it, no matter how adolescent that was.

"Well, born is a relative term," Fleur allowed, shifting her weight as she lifted the sleepy baby from under the blanket and began patting her back. "They're hatched from eggs, of course, with each egg about the size of a yoga ball. Then they go through the larval stage and pupate into a juvenile form, which is actually different from the way that traditional bees grow. When Baybee first ventured out of the hive with her sisters, she was just a few months old and about the size of a lawn tractor. They grow very quickly, but not nearly as quickly as the small ones. The average lifespan of a honeybee worker is only a few weeks to a few months, and they grow to adulthood in a matter of days. The giant bees, from what they've told us, live considerably longer than that, though they haven't been around long enough to test their lifespans." Ammarylis let out a loud belch and seemed to collapse in on herself, blinking sleepily. Fleur cuddled her against her shoulder. "They're about as intelligent as humans, at least the females are. The males are a bit more..." She paused a moment, a smile touching her lips. "A bit more limited, but certainly affable. They all speak English, some better than others. You'll have to come visit in the day sometime. I'll take you to the hive and introduce you around."

"She has a good sense of direction," Fleur agreed, "but it's predicated on the sun. Without the sun being out, she loses her main navigational point, and has to rely on landmarks she knows. Since the time change means it gets dark earlier, I'm sure she went out exploring without realizing that she was about to lose the light. She was only born this spring," Fleur went on, "so she doesn't really have a firsthand understanding of things like winter. But she's bright, she'll learn." Fleur ducked her head under the blanket to check the baby for a moment, then picked up a cookie. "Not everyone can look at a giant insect and see a child who needs help. I think you'll fit in very well in the hero community."

Erin looked towards the pretty house and pursed her lips, then mustered a ghost of a smile. "Well, we talked about you meeting them sometime, and we did come all this way." She petted the kitten, who was now hissing in Mark's direction. "Maybe it'd be nice to have had some more time, but I guess it's like jumping into cold water. They get up early, so we probably won't be like dragging them out of bed or anything." She took a deep breath, then shrugged. "Wanna meet what passes for my parents?"

"Oh, no, she goes to the superhero high school," Fleur assured her breezily. "They have kids from all over. Different planets, alternate dimensions, various species. They're very open-minded, and have been great about accommodating her. Baybee is very curious, she wants to learn all she can about the "zzquizzy bipedzz," as they call us. She won't live in Freedom City, the bees don't thrive when they aren't together, but she'll be a valuable resource in dealing with humans. And she's having such a good time. I do worry about her sometimes, and I'm so glad you helped her tonight. Many people, even heroes, might not have."

"No, not very often," Fleur assured her, a twitch of the lips the only thing that indicated the question was at all amusing. "I don't know if you remember last spring when The Beekeeper tried taking over Freedom Hall, but he used a hive of giant bees he'd been breeding as his weapons. We defeated him and tossed him back into jail, but the bees, who are all sentient, needed someplace to go. I brought them here, and with Gaian Knight's help, built them a home. They much prefer it here to Freedom City, which is really no place for them. Baybee is just a youngster, she'll be twice as large when she finishes growing."

"Not yet, we're not that self-sufficient here," Fleur chuckled. "There's a little place called the Coffee Pot in Midtown that roasts their own beans, I stop in and buy from them and bring it here. Once I've expanded into some more temperate climates, maybe I'll try my hand at coffee growing. She settled back against the cushions and picked up her cup. "Freedom City is a magnet for a lot of reasons, to a lot of people," she agreed. And I prefer to think of it as the attempted crime rate being high," she added, a little bit smugly. "Those who try a life of crime usually don't get too far with it." She was quiet for a moment as she studied Whiplash. The new heroine seemed only a few years older than Stesha herself, but her daughter was definitely quite a bit older. Something about the way Whiplash looked and spoke showed experience, and great caution. Stesha could respect that. "Freedom City is a good place to raise children," she said, but left that conversation unless the other wanted to pick it up again. "How did you happen to run across Baybee?"

"It's Doctor Rao's decision, really," Miss Americana told Terra King. "She's the one you hurt with this stunt. And regardless, we expect you to put right everything you damaged on the surface. But I suspect that the lesson you learned this time is going to be a valuable one, and I'm certain you won't be doing anything like it again, correct?" she told the would-be monarch firmly, before looking to Rao for her verdict. The doctor did have a right to press charges if she wanted to, in a pretty clear-cut case of kidnapping. Just because heroes rarely thought that way didn't mean normal people didn't.

Fleur carried the mugs over and passed one to her guest, then set her own half-cup on the table and picked up the baby. "She's hungry, that's why she's trying to eat the floor," Fleur explained easily, expertly using a lap blanket as a coverup while arranging herself. "I moved to Freedom City about three years ago, shortly after I got my powers. It's the best place in the world to learn about becoming a hero, and I had a lot to learn." She grinned at the memories of the inept young heroine she'd been. "Luckily, I had some very good teachers. We moved out here to Sanctuary about a year ago, while I was pregnant with Ammy. I wanted a real house for her instead of an apartment, and I was terraforming the place pretty heavily at the time. It's a work in progress, but I love it here." She waved her free hand to encompass everything around them. "How do you like living in Freedom City?"

Erin automatically caught Charlie before he could bolt under the nearest car or bush, smoothing his spiky fur with an absent hand as she stared at the house. Trevor's comments and any reply Mark made barely registered as she took it in. She'd been back, of course. She'd lived here for several months before coming to Claremont, it wasn't as though she didn't recognize the place. The neat white house sat on a tidy lawn, just sprinkled with a few autumn leaves that had dodged the rakes. A cluster of bright balloons was tied to the mailbox, and there was an extra car in the driveway. Erin recognized from descriptions the blue Camry that had been her counterpart's graduation present. Guess the gang's all here, she thought before turning back to the guys. "What are we supposed to do here?" she asked Mark, curling her toes against the sidewalk. "I haven't even been back here in two years." Aside, of course, from the broken, hellish mirror version that actually belonged to her. This was someone else's home.

"He's Dark Star," Fleur replied, and it did seem as though she expected Whiplash to recognize the name, but when it didn't seem to ring a bell, she continued without missing a beat. "He's a cosmic gravitic energy controller. He's part of the Freedom League Auxiliary like I am, but lately he's been spending much more time out in the Andromeda galaxy, helping with a really complicated interstellar war they've got brewing. His influence has saved more lives than I can possibly count, but it's still hard to have him gone so much. I'm just hoping we get him for the holidays this year. Like I said, though, we're rarely lonely." She poured the coffee into mugs, pausing to keep Ammy from bumping her head on an end table. "Cream, sugar?"

"Oh yes," Fleur said with a sigh that any mother could empathize with. "No actual teeth yet, but plenty of drooling, and crying. I'm luckier than most," she added, adding a few napkins embossed with fall leaves to the cookie arrangement. "As long as I spend a few hours a day in the sunshine, sleep is optional for me. I don't know how most women do it," she admitted with a laugh. "It seems she's up all day and half the night. My husband is away most of the time," she added, looking sad for just a moment, "so it's just Ammy and I nine times out of ten. Well, us and the giant bees, and the human colony, and Gaian Knight, and whoever stops by to visit," she amended, laughing again. "Not really so lonely." She carried the tray of cookies over and set them on the table in front of Whiplash, then went back for the coffee.

"Yes," Fleur answered, "she's our first, and she's a handful all by herself." She smiled indulgently at the baby as she poured water into the coffeepot and set it to brew. "You have a little girl? How old is she?" As she chatted, Fleur reached through a flower growing on the wall and withdrew a baker's box of cookies, arranging some on a plate. "Ammy's just started getting around on her own, and I'm sure she'll be trying to eat everything she can get hold of. It's exciting and exhausting all at once!"

"They sent me a nice card," Erin replied, rolling her shoulders in a way that betrayed her discomfort. "We don't really talk on the phone much, and we've all been busy. The other Erin's just started college, her dad got a promotion at work, stuff like that. I'm glad your mom's started working again," she told Mark, trying to turn the subject back around. "It was kind of weird when she wasn't doing Andie anymore, I mean it's been around basically forever."

Charlie was fascinated by the clock, watching it in action before crouching on the table in a hunting posture, tail curled over his back as he watched the door and waited for the cuckoo to appear again. Erin watched the clock as well, picking through several possible responses. The clock's tick was clearly audible, and the cuckoo itself even more so. She imagined hearing that at three in the morning after dropping into bed, and wondered how long a freshly wound cuckoo clock took to stop working. "It definitely reminds me of you, Mark," she finally said with a half smile. "It's really beautiful. And unique. Look how much Charlie likes it." Charlie lashed his tail, giving the clock another suspicious glare.

"Thank you!" Fleur replied, setting Ammy down to play on the floor while she went to make coffee. The baby, who would've looked uncannily like a cherub if her curls were blond instead of green, kicked the air till she managed to roll to her stomach, then began belly-scooting across the grass floor. "So how long have you been in Freedom City?" Fleur asked her guest, the question obviously much more small talk than interrogation. "There was a time when I thought I knew all the heroes in town, but I've been a little busy lately." She looked indulgently towards Amaryllis, who was trying to get her mouth onto blades of grass that mysteriously moved or shrank away just in time to avoid her. "How do you like it?"