Electra

Erin sighed. "Yes, I know. Nobody can destroy entropy, just slow it down. But when I got his armor off him, and Midnight shot him with the control rods, he blew up really thoughly. We took some of his armor too, so maybe between all of that, we'll have given him something to think really hard about for a few generations." She released her hold on the glass, folded her hands again. "In any case, Rick Lucas took my home universe and all the Terminus-infested buildings, all the Omegadrones, and pulled it with him into the Zero Zone. It's all gone, and with it, one of Omega's big strongholds for trying to get through to Prime. It has to mean something."

Erin paused with her water glass halfway to her lips. She set it down carefully on its coaster, then folded her hands. "I wasn't sure whether you'd heard about that one," she admitted. "We wound up keeping things pretty hush-hush, for all kinds of reasons." A humorless smile touched the edges of her lips. "Young Freedom does all its best work that way." She took a deep breath. "I don't know how much you've heard about the whole entire story around the fight. But the way it happened was that Omega set up a bunch of reality-destroying bombs across different universes. When all of the bombs detonated, they created kind of a vortex that sucked the multiverse into it, including Prime. We were able to escape because Edge's father had some advanced warning, just enough for Edge to protect us from the vortex long enough to get to safety." Now she did pick up her glass and take a drink. "We were able to get intel that some, some reality-protecting wizards, I guess, had been gathering, and use it to stop the explosions before they happened. We traveled in time and across realities, different important places where bombs had been set. Each time, we managed to pull the plug. Till the last time, on the world I came from, we got there and found that they were expecting us. We fought a city full of Omegadrones just to get to the bomb in Freedom Hall. I broke my bat in half fighting my way through. When we got to the bomb, we found Physician Friendly waiting for us. He had some speech prepared or something, but I remembered what you told me about his nanite touch, I drove my bat through his skull before he could touch any of us, before he even knew who I was." Erin was quiet for a moment, knowing the ex-drone would wait for her to finish. "We disabled the last bomb, went to leave. One of the Furions was with us, so we went outside to let him take off. And Omega was there, and the sky was gone. All drones. He... he shot something into the core of the earth, so that everything started falling apart. Everything was crazy. The drones were shooting at us, the ground was shaking, buildings were collapsing." She wrapped her fingers around the glass and stared into it. "There was nothing else to do, nowhere else to go, so we attacked him, all at once."

Erin, who had been skimping on her meals lately, went all out for once and ordered a double cheeseburger combo with fried cheese sticks on the side. It wasn't going to break the bank, whatever happened. "Thanks for meeting me here, Murdock," she told her companion once the waitress moved off. "I know it's probably tough to get away. So, um, how've you been doing lately? It's been awhile since we worked together on anything."

Five minutes past the alloted time, just as he was contemplatng one more glass of water, his companion finally arrived. Erin White was in her street clothes today, and looking somewhat winded. "Sorry I'm late," she told him as she sat down. "Car accident at midtown, I stepped in before they had to bring out the jaws of life. Good part of not having much of a secret identity, I guess. Have you ordered yet?" she asked, picking up her own menu. The prices made her wince a little, but she could probably put this down as a business expense, so long as she made the sale.

"All of those are priorities, yes," Stesha agreed, pouring boiling water over the teabags and carrying the mugs to the living area. "We're working on all of those simultaneously in different areas of Sanctuary. But the first priority, the biggest priority, is actually clean air and soil. Most of the land here, most of the air, is in terrible shape. Marginal even for healthy adults to live on, and totally unsuitable for the vulnerable population we'll be importing." She set down a mug within Willow's reach, then sat crosslegged on the floor with her own. Gesturing around them, she continued, "All of this here is clean because I was able to use plants to scrub the earth and filter the air. This giant forest and all the trees does a lot more than just be pretty and provide wood, it's literally keeping everything here alive. As we expand the human-occupied territory, we change the ecological balance I achieved, and so we need to address that right away. We need more forest," she explained, "a lot more forest, with plants that are good at absorbing toxins. I was told you'd probably be able to help with that?"

Stesha put the kettle on with graceful efficiency, digging into a ceramic jar for teabags. She picked chamomile for Willow and fenugreek for herself, dropping the bags into empty mugs to wait for water. "We're hoping to hold ten to fifteen thousand refugees by the time we're at capacity. Right now we have room for about half that, and supplies to match. Other organizations and other countries have different evacuation strategies, so we aren't the only ones, but it's still difficult to think about. How if things go wrong, we could become nothing more than a scattered collection of refugees, at least until and unless someone can reverse the Gorgon's effects." She sighed, watching her teapot as trails of steam began to rise from the spout. "I tell myself it won't come to that, that this is mostly for the peace of mind of all the people who will be fighting the Gorgon, but at the same time, we have to work as though it's all for real."

The giant bee waggled her antennae at Flora in greeting. "ANY FRIEND OF FLEUR DE ZZHOIE IZZ A FRIEND TO BEEZZ," she told Gwen gravely. "How's Bay-bee doing?" Fleur asked Beelizabeth. "I know she was disappointed that all of this trouble delayed her entrance at Claremont." "DIZZAPPOINTED, YEZZ," the bee agreed. "BUT ZZHE IZZ YOUNG AND BEEZZILLIANT. ZZHE WILL HAVE HER CHANZZ TO ZZEE ZHE OLD WORLD IN TIME. ZZHE IZZ AZZIZZTING WIZZ ZHE ZZTRUCTUREZZ." "That's good to hear," Fleur replied. "Why don't you send her down to the river mouth? She can be a runner for Flora if she needs to send any messages, and that'll give her a chance to meet a future classmate, too."

Stesha smiled a little at Gwen's reaction to the giant insect. Everyone behaved a little differently upon making the acquaintance of the bees. "Thank you for the report, Beelizabeth!" she told the bee. "This is Flora, she is going to be helping with the water problem. With her assistance, we should be able to open the waterway again by this evening. Flora, this is Beelizabeth, one of the giant bees who live up in what would have been Wharton Forest. They've been a great help with the terraforming project." "ZZHAT IZZ GOOD NEWZZ," said the giant bee. "ZHEE LITTLE ONEZZ ARE ENJOYING PLAYING IN ZZHE MUD AND BUILDING ZZHE ZZTRUCTUREZZ. IT IZZ GOOD PRACTIZZ FOR HIVE BUILDING. ZZHE QUEEN IZZ MOZZT BEELEEZZED." "I'm glad!" Stesha said with a laugh. "I'm sure they're learning a lot!"

Erin nodded. "And you have my new mailing address for the papers, so that should be no problem. She took a deep breath, let it out, then smiled. "I just want to say, thanks for giving me a job. I know there are people who look better on paper, but you're taking the chance on me. I'll do a good job, I promise." It felt as though the cloud that had settled on her when she'd left ArcheTech, one that had deepened when Oliver left, was finally starting to get a little bit lighter.

Miss A shot Bishop a grown-up look over Melvin's head when he talked about not telling Melvin's mother. If the mom was already suspicious about her son's abilities, starting a relationship by lying to her was not going to help. Superteens with secret identities were one thing, but at eight years old, Melvin was most certainly a package deal. Before Melvin could say yes or no to Bishop's offer, she cut in herself. "What Bishop means, Melvin, is that we wouldn't be telling your mother about any of this... because you will be," she told him gently but firmly. "You want to be treated like you are older and more responsible than other boys your age, and you want to have special privileges, right? If that's the case, you have to prove that you are worthy of that by taking responsibility for your own actions. We can go with you and help you talk to your mother, and explain to her that you need more than what school is giving you, but you owe her the truth." She smiled at him, even as far away her stomach twisted. "Your mom wants you to have a normal, happy life, and that's a very good thing. Some mothers cause their children a great deal of pain by expecting more than that. What we want is to be able to convince her that you will be happier and better-adjusted in an accelerated program. Do you understand?"

"For the most part, yes," Fleur agreed, stepping back into the clearing. "They had a subsistence-level existence, and barely that, living in caves, eating lichens and rodents, drinking polluted water. I had no idea they were here until they found me, actually. One of their scouts traveled far enough to reach the edge of Sanctuary and when they saw the trees and plants, the whole group came up. I'm happy to help them, of course, I just wish we could find more. If one group survived, there must be others. Right now they have a village south of what would be Wharton Forest on Prime. If we have time, I'll take you over there." The conversation was interrupted by a loud buzzing noise from overhead. Fleur looked up, not seeming alarmed even when a massive bee the size of a semi-truck flew over the trees and into the clearing. "ZZZTEZZ... FLEUR DE ZZHOIE," it boomed, seeing her in costume, "ZZHE BIPED-HIVEZZ ARE ON ZZCHEDULE, BUT ZZHE WATER ZZTILL IZZ ABZZENT. ZZOON ZZHERE WILL BEE NO MORE MUD FOR BUILDING."

"There are plenty of ways to prove you're not lame," Miss Americana told Melvin, ignoring her sticky skin and soda-sodden hair for the moment as she sat down on one of the cafeteria benches. "You've already proved you're smart. But you can be smart and still be dumb, too. What did you accomplish with all this?" she asked, waving her hand around the soiled room. "A couple of half-baked robots and all the mystery meat you can eat? Followed by what?" Since she had his attention for the moment, she leaned in, dropped her voice confidentially, though to a level where Bishop and Caradoc could still hear. "There are way better things a kid who builds robots can be doing. You could be working in a real lab, building real robots. You interested?"

Only a slice of sky was visible above the trees, but it seemed blue and pleasant, with no sign of an atmospheric bubble. Fleur led the way into the little house, where a woman was supervising a handful of school-aged children. The kids were sitting on a couch and in comfortable chairs, watching what looked to be a classroom lesson being played on the television. Not wanting to disrupt the lesson, Fleur just smiled and pointed towards the back of the house. As she passed the open kitchenette, she got a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and handed it to Gwen. "Those are some of the indigenous people," Fleur murmured to Gwen as they left the living area. "Their ancestors survived the destruction on this world, and now they live here at Sanctuary. Reading's become almost a lost art with the younger ones, so I've been working with Freedom College extension to get video lessons in." She put a finger over her lips and opened the door into a cute little plant-walled nursery. In an oak crib with yellow trim, Gwen caught a glimpse of a swaddled, sleeping infant with green hair. Assured that all was well, Fleur closed the door softly and led Gwen out the back door.

"Don't worry, I've got it covered." Stesha assured her. She reached out and touched Gwen's shoulder. In a moment, the grass around them shot up till it was taller than fully-grown corn, and they were engulfed in green. A quick sensation of motion, the pervasive smell of freshly-mown grass, and suddenly they were standing in the middle of a forest. A little clearing held a house that seemed to be made entirely of plants, as well as a few outbuildings and a tall windmill on a scaffolding that took it above the treeline. "Welcome to Sanctuary," Stesha told Gwen. "I need to check on the baby for just a moment, then I can show you around. Can I get you something to drink?"

"That's essentially correct, yes," Stesha agreed. She didn't seem to hear the voices of the vines, but neither did she seem too surprised at the idea that Gwen listened to what the plants had to say. "You'll be coming with me to my headquarters on Sanctuary, an alternate Earth that we've been terraforming to be inhabitable once again. We're going to begin moving refugees in the next day or two, but there is a lot that still needs to be done. Are you ready to go?"

As the villains dispersed, Koshiro called the flock of paper cranes back to him. For a moment they swirled around him in a glowing blue halo, till with unerring accuracy he reached into the swarm and plucked out the single lettered crane. A couple of careful gestures had it collapsed, paper head under folded wing. The blue glow died away from the entire flock as Koshiro slid the crane into his pocket. "Who's Stratos?" he asked the others. "We going to have to worry about another fight now?"

Stesha crouched in the grass next to Willow, wide-eyed Amaryllis nestled in the crook of her arm. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize this would be a bad experience for you," she told the guardian with concern. She reached out and touched Willow's hand, and in a moment they had moved again, this time so that they were sitting on the grass carpet of a house made entirely of plants. There was a comfortable living room set and a kitchenette that could've sat in any Freedom City apartment, but they were still far, far from the Freedom City Willow knew. "Let me make the tea, and if you like, I can take you back to Prime." Stesha wasn't quite sure what she would do without the extra hands she'd been counting on, but Willow seemed so shaken, it would be cruel to ignore that. Seeking a distraction, she held the baby out to Willow. "Would you mind holding her while I put the kettle on?" Amaryllis, generally a calm sort of infant, looked at Willow expectantly.

"Are you all right?" Stesha asked, obviously concerned by the strange display. It took her a moment to figure out what Willow was talking about. Despite the blasted landscapes she'd been dealing with lately, somehow Stesha found it easy to forget that this was an Earth where everything had died. Most of the time she saw it as a canvas ready for priming and creativity. "Yes, I'm afraid that this Earth didn't have a good end," she admitted. "But we're trying to give it a new beginning, starting here, with these forests and meadows and wild places. Would you like to sit down for a minute?" she asked solicitously. "I could make you a cup of tea before we get started."

Erin had to nod at that, it was a philosophy she could understand. Life tended to suck, so you just had to deal with it and enjoy the good parts when they happened, for however long they lasted. "Well, if there's anything you need me to do in the meantime besides the hiring stuff, you should let me know. Otherwise, I guess eight am on November first?" She figured there was probably also paperwork that needed to be signed, documents to be looked at, but that wasn't exactly her field. It would all get sorted out eventually.

"You're not the Gorgon's tool," Miss Americana told Willow, cracking her knuckes in a rather odd way as she spoke. "The Gorgon is going to kill every living thing on Earth when it arrives, you know that, don't you? Including your friends, including Jack there," she added with a gesture, making an educated guess. "Are you really going to be a party to murder on a worldwide scale, when you care right now about whether you hurt anyone just on this street? If you are, we're going to interfere. Starting right now." She turned then, spinning in the air and pointing at the trunks of the massive vines. Beams shot from her hands, but not the cheerful red, white and blue she usually wielded. These beam were a deep red, and looked like they meant business as they dug into the plants.

Fleur chuckled at Gwen's breathless reaction, holding out a hand clad in a leather gardening glove. It wasn't uncommon to find brand-new heroes who were a little bit overwhelmed at meeting people they'd read about and watched on television. It seemed like an eternity ago when she herself had been that green... so to speak. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she told the girl. "We've got lots of work to do today. Did Headmaster Summers tell you anything about what you'll be doing? "

Gwen and the vines weren't kept waiting very long. Directly upon the appointed hour, one of the struggling rosebushes in front of the building suddenly began to bloom, one big red flower that grew in a moment and then opened wider, and wider, and wider. It yawned open to emit a small woman in a superhero costume that looked like it had been modeled on a groundskeeper's uniform. Her hair was green and very, very long, but today it was braided into a long, thick plait and twisted up into a bun to keep it out of the way. She looked harried and tired, but still managed a friendly smile when she saw Gwen waiting. "Hello, you must be Gwen. I'm Fleur de Joie. Are you all ready?"

Miss A is going to start disintegrating the giant vines, starting at the root. I suspect it's going to take more than one round to do too much, but if they start actually showing significant damage, she's going to move upward to minimize the chance of a giant undisintegrated piece of vine falling on the West End. Spending an HP to stunt off her Blast array. Disintegrate 10, (Flaw: Full Round Action) Going to Power Attack for two, since it's probably hard to miss giant inanimate objects. Result is 14, yuck. Good thing they are plants. That's a Fort Save of DC 22 for Drain Toughness. And a Toughness Save at DC 27 for the Blast.

Miss A sputtered in disgust as she was splattered by the sticky soda. That was going to take a long time to clean off, even if she didn't need to reskin her face for it. She closed her eyes for a moment, locking her knees to keep herself from falling over, and took control of the robots one by one, disabling the components that allowed them to be more than simple beverage dispensers. When they were all inanimate and silent again, she wiped her face with her hand and gave the little delinquent a look that wasn't quite as friendly as before. "Nice trick," she said. "Bet school isn't terribly interesting for you. That's no reason to take the mini-supervillain route."

Erin's eyes widened a little bit at that. "I don't know a lot about hiring people," she demurred. "But I guess if it's just filling my security team, I can figure it out." The idea was appealing and a little frightening at the same time. All at once the reality that she was going to be supervising actual real people, normal non-super people for the most part, came settling down like a weight on her shoulders. The thought was more intimidating than most of the villains she'd ever faced down. "You've got a tough job," she finally decided after a moment's quiet reflection.