Electra

"Beyond the science?" Miss A asked, quirking a perfect eyebrow at the question. "Everything we do here at the lab is science and engineering, applied for the good of the entire human race. You're a journalist, I'm sure you believe, just as I do, that knowledge is power and learning is its own reward." She turned a beatific smile upon the entire group, all of whom besides Joan seemed to be in utter agreement. "Our applied projects here range from artificial limbs and organs to improved impact resistant armor for peace officers, to new understandings of the way energy is generated and can be used to power cities. We all have our pet projects here, so The Lab is full of diverse types of science. I have several assistants," she added, looking to Lois, "who work solely in the computer design lab, modeling and programming our equipment to cut the molds for my prosthetic devices. It takes a high degree of design proficiency and a great deal of training, but it's worth the hours put in to see someone try on a new arm for the first time."

This evening, Miss A agreed by text, even as she answered breezily, "I'm a bit tied up to be going to lunch today, I'm afraid, but why don't you shoot me the schematics and I'll have a look?" She wondered what exactly he was playing at, and what might need such secrecy in his own company, but she supposed she'd find out soon enough. "Send it to my personal email and I'll look at it right away." That should, she figured, keep whatever it was entirely secure until she had a chance to memorize and delete it, if appropriate.

Singularity and Wander both climbed to their feet to go with the group, both of their bruises from the fight entirely healed already. Wander's black stealth uniform was looking somewhat the worse for wear, though, with blue and gold peeking through holes in several places. She fell back to cover the rear of the group, being careful to stay within the glowing boundary, while Singularity followed Midnight like a very dangerous shadow, the bear snugly tucked in one arm. With Caryatid leading the way, they moved quickly through the rock tunnels, heading towards the cavern that would take them home. "We're not home free yet," Wander reminded everyone, "stay ready."

Wander remained still for a moment, staring at the place where the thing had been with her bat cocked as though she'd forgotten she still held it. Finally she blinked and took a breath, standing down with some effort. "Destroying it sounds like a plan," she muttered, "but we better make sure we actually got everything that's in here. There might be another nasty waiting for us somewhere else. Any of you guys getting, I dunno, psychic traces or whatever?" she asked the others. She looked a little bit strained, but was still definitely in control of herself.

"That sounds promising," Fleur agreed. "We can cruise around a bit if you want, find just the right spot to work in. I've been expanding my sphere of effect here, though not quite as fast as I'd intended to before so many other things started happening! It seems like it might be nice if you wanted to settle in a little bit west of here, make something of a little square between me, you, the bees, and the refugees, but anyplace you want is fine. If it's outside of what is healthy now, I'm sure you and I can rehab it in no time." While Fleur spoke, Bay-Bee continued studying GK thoughtfully, waggling her antennae at him. The bee didn't seem to have a lot of concept of personal space , and parked herself next to his shoulder, so close he could almost feel her fuzzy face on his cheek. "Flowerzz?" she asked clearly, sounding hopeful.

Fleur looked around for a moment, then pointed to one of the plant buildings. "That one will do," she told him, "it's empty and sturdy enough. I'll be right back." She turned and headed up a little flattened-grass path to the biggest plant cottage, one that had glass windows and looked the most like an actual house. The building she'd pointed out to him was more like a shed built of live plants, with no windows and nothing inside but a couple of plastic storage boxes with lids. It didn't take her long to get the water, in just a couple of minutes she was back with two reusable thermos bottles, puffing slightly from the short, brisk walk. "Here you are," she told Wail brightly, setting her own down on a crate along with what looked like a purple tacklebox. "I brought some stuff along in case our guy here doesn't wake up soon."

Down in her lab, Miss Americana was hard at work, as usual. She'd long-since repaired the damage to her arm and gotten it back into tip-top shape, but the fact that it had frozen up at all did not please her. To be a superhero, one had to be able to sustain extreme damage at times without breaking. Especially without breaking in a way that looked mechanical and strange! Today she had an entire arm assembly up on her lab table, shoulder to fingertips, and was putting it through its paces. She paused the test when the call came in. "Yes, Doctor, I'm in my lab. Is there something that you need?" she asked cordially.

Miss A looked Jack of all Blades over thoughtfully, then crooked an eyebrow and smiled at him. "It sounds like you should try looking her up again," she suggested. "Being the best at something isn't nearly as much fun if you don't have someone challenging you for the position. And she was rather pretty, from what I could see of her through the costume." She idly brushed a few bits of glass from her now-rumpled business suit and walked over to examine one of the fallen security robots.

It is not I who asks, the cat responded, purring louder when Eve petted his chin and throat. Fate gives few second chances, and it never does so without a price. In any case, even if the universe did not demand, she would ask it of herself. I merely guide and assist. Oliver rolled onto his stomach, extending his head to show her exactly where on his chin she should be scratching. But if you mean what you say about being there, then you have no worries about being abandoned. Being there is a reciprocal matter among friends. And what matter is time and distance in a world filled with magic?

"Hi!" Baybee chirped, her voice tinged with the characteristic buzzing of her older relatives, but not nearly as loud and booming. "Hihihi!" She flew closer to GK and examined him, close enough that he could see his own reflection in her multifaceted eyes. "Hi!" "She doesn't know much English yet," Stesha explained with a laugh. "But she's enthusiastic. Most of the little ones are shy and stay inside the hive, learning how to clean the cells and watch over the larvae and such. This one's an explorer, though. I can respect that." She gave a little sigh to the second question, patting her round tummy. "Four and a half weeks to go, and don't think I'm not counting. I feel pretty good, aside from the backaches and swollen feet and the nagging feeling that I'm never, ever, ever going to get the nursery done on time. It's coming along, though! The house grows much more easily now that the weather's getting nice. Have you got your plans set?" she asked.

Fleur laughed. "I'm not sure I ought to understand that, but I really do. Half the time anymore I forget that plants aren't supposed to be able to do half the things I do with them as a matter of course now. But really, why shouldn't it feel natural? It's natural to us, we can do it with a thought, and I suppose it's better than it feeling horrible. Now that the portal's working, you should be able to come here whenever you like! The bees will be ecstatic." As though her words were a summons, a spot of yellow and black appeared over the nearest hill, heading in their direction. It seemed to be very far away, but as it approached, GK realized that it was instead much smaller than other members of the species he'd seen. This one was about the size of a Shetland pony, with eyes that dominated a head that was nearly the same size as its body segment. The small bee had short antennae and a small stinger, and bumbled even more than usual as it flew. Stesha noticed it too, smiling and waving. "Gaian Knight," she said cheerfully, "this is Bay-bee, one of the new generation growing up at the hive. She just came out of the larval stage last week, and she's taken quite a shine to me. And I like her, too."She patted the giant baby on her fuzzy head, Bay-bee responded by nuzzling Fleur's shoulder.

"You're welcome," Erin told her, continuing to eat her salad in a leisurely fashion. People were staring at them, but it didn't bother her quite as much now. "I've crushed spoons and stuff before, but usually I eat less now than I did before I got my powers. I mean, I like to eat and I have normal meals whenever I can, but if I'm busy or on a mission or whatever, I can go a couple of days without eating before it starts to bother me. Good metabolism, I guess." She shrugged, gave a half-smile. "Guess it'll save on my grocery bills, at least. My cat's pretty picky though, he wants the best, and twice a day like clockwork."

"It is hard sometimes," Miss A acknowledged with perfect gravity, giving Lois her attention even as she dialed up a program in the simulation room. "You can't always schedule things the way you might like, and things can get interrupted. That's why it's great to have the Lab in Freedom City like this. If I'm called out to do hero work in the middle of an experiment, I trust my colleagues and my research team to take care of things while I'm away. And if it's absolutely vital that I don't leave the experiment, I can almost always ask another hero to step in and help out. My job would be impossible without all the people I work with, superpowered and otherwise."

Miss Americana gave him a dry smile. "Trust me, you'll be paying plenty just for the supplies, the research team, the transportation, the hospital stay... As for my own fee, I'll hang onto the marker, for now. Never know when I'll need a favor from a rich, moderately obnoxious guy who still cares enough about his family to swallow his pride and do whatever's necessary. I'm going to need a couple of days to assemble a team for this, I'll call you when I've got a timetable worked out. Let me know if anything changes, especially if her condition changes."

Annoyed out of her impartial observer mode for the moment, Wander lifted the tiny car with one hand, glaring at its impetuous occupant. "That's a terrible representation of a classic car, but it's still a classic. Show some respect, for god's sake." She set it down next to the others for CT to put his cage over, then took a look around the scene. "Good job," she told her two trainees, giving them a half-smile. "That was fast and clean, good use of powers and tactics. We'll let the police take care of getting these folks back to Blackstone where they belong."

There was a moment of quiet before a giant bluebell cup opened up a few yards from GK and trailed its petals on the ground to allow Fleur de Joie to step out. "Ah, there you are!" she exclaimed, sounding very pleased. "Your transit made the plants around here feel very weird for a few seconds, but I assumed it was probably you. I'm so glad you got the portal working!" Today Fleur had eschewed her uniform and its colors entirely, trading them in for a pink maternity smock, black leggings, and comfortable tennis shoes. She was all tummy these days, so that the outfit made her look a little bit like a bubble gum lollipop on a stick, but it would've been unwise to say that to her. "How did it feel?"

"Sorry," Fleur said with a little laugh, sounding honestly apologetic. "It's such second-nature to me by now that I sometimes forget other people aren't used to it. This is my home, my backyard, anyway. I don't want this guy getting loose in my actual home, but all of these buildings were really just for practice anyway. If he escapes the bonds, he won't get too far." She gave the wrestler an assessing glance. "He'll be sleeping for a bit longer anyway, I think. Would you like something to drink, coffee, tea, soda?"

Miss Americana neatly dispatched the final ninja with a blast of laser light, then went to pick up the blade that was the cause of all the trouble. "I don't know," she admitted. "I recognized the Freebooter, but I haven't seen the other one before. Fast, wasn't she?" She looked over to make sure the unpleasant young heroes were doing all right for themselves before replacing the sword, somewhat wistfully, in the remains of its glass case. "Looks like they'll have to upgrade their security in here again. Perhaps I'll offer my services in trade to clean the virus out of their computer system. I'd love a few hours in the lab with that blade."

Wander was very startled when the knight in shining armor dissolved next to her, and in an instant her bat was in her hand. Another instant later, though, and she recognized her colleague Harrier, the ex-drone who'd showed her the ins and outs of the Terminus. She could understand why he'd be wearing a disguise these days. Whatever he was seeing, it was affecting him greatly, perhaps because he didn't have so much experience with evil psychics trying to torture him. She stood aside while he shot a glowing bolt into "Megan" and took a swing at her, forcing herself to remember that this was a monster callously using her memories against her. Holding onto that thought gave her the anger and the resolve to step up on Harrier's heels, while the thing was still reeling, and smash it across its little Megan-face. "Stay out of my head," she commanded it, her voice tight and grating.

Wander will forgo her typical acrobatic bluff here since the thing is already flat-footed, and merely power attack instead. 18+20=28 total on the attack. Improved critical! Given the ghost's low defense DC, that should max out her Autofire, so base DC 30 + 5+5+5 = DC 45 Toughness Save.

Wander goes on 23

A trick, it was all another trick somehow and Pathos had found her and now the punishment would be the very worst, the bad memories that flooded her mind were only the beginning it got worse from here- Singularity opened her eyes, stunned, as the voices and pictures in her head suddenly stopped as though someone had shut off a tap. She looked up cautiously, afraid to believe it, and saw the glowing light reaching out to cover them all. Suddenly it was so quiet! She squeezed the bear in her hands and dared to take one deep breath, then another. Nothing happened, all was quiet and stillness and peace. As she watched, the man in black, the one who held the light, knelt down in front of her. He had monster eyes behind the lenses, but the rest of his face was nice. When he told her that Pathos wasn't going to her her anymore, her face reflected an emotion she hadn't felt in a very, very long time: hope. _______ Wander watched the interchange between Trevor and her counterpart in silence, breathing her own sigh of relief that Trevor's machine had worked. It wasn't as though she'd ever believed it wouldn't, but it was really, really good to see it performing in the clinch. And it was also really good that they weren't going to have to hear any more about Mark's sex life. She smiled a little bit to see Singularity respond to Trevor. That was a good sign, it hopefully meant she could be saved and this wasn't all for nothing. But first they still had to escape. "We can't stay in here," she told the others, looking to Caryatid. "We have to get to the pickup spot, now."

Wander's eyes widened as she looked towards the figure in the front row, but she didn't seem to be seeing what Caradoc saw. She simply stared for a moment, white-faced, till Jack's voice from above seemed to break the reverie. "Poison," she murmured. "You're not real. You died. It's not real!" she said again, louder, and looked to Caradoc. "Whatever you're seeing, it's just a trick." Her voice was tight, as though it cost her something to say the words, but she sounded very sure. "Move away from it, don't let it touch you."

"I'm going to ask Sharl about that, actually," Miss A assured Dragonfly, sealing up the chassis once more and tucking her undershirt back into place. "With such a large society, even one crowded into a small place, there are going to be plenty of strangers. And I'm sure there are people who don't quite fit into society there. He can help us come up with some kind of convincing backstory, and I'll do most of the talking." She slid into her uniform top again, actually wincing as she raised her damaged arm. "I'm afraid you're probably right about Sharl's future there, but that's something he'll need to find out for himself."

Wander looked over to Midnight, giving his fingers a quick and grateful squeeze. Knowing he understood helped ease the momentary ache of giving away something important. "As soon as Caryatid's family gets here, I'll contact Supercape and he can come out and-" She stopped talking as a strange chill ran up her spine, a feeling like being touched by invisible hands. Wander shuddered and looked around, but they were the only ones in the room. Suddenly, there was a voice inside her mind, a voice she'd heard there dozens of times, only now twisted and wrong and mean. Mmm, you look awfully familiar. I remember when mine looked like you, all new and shiny and determined. It would be so much fun to take you apart, but you're not what I'm looking for right now. A second later, Mark heard a voice as well, Psyche's distinctive mental voice, but more malicious and seductive at the same time than anything he'd ever heard from his friend. Look at you, all clean-cut and well-intentioned. I heard how you adopted Hex's little slave girl, he was really not pleased about that. You could do so much better, you know. With the sort of power you have, and the sort of connections I have, we could make some changes around this place. Sage was certainly no stranger to mental communication, but this was certainly nothing she'd initiated. Did they bring you along to dance with me? That's wonderful. Why don't you give it a try? The sound of mental laughter was almost deafening for a moment. Next to Wander, Singularity stiffened, her fingers clenching around the stuffed bear as her face crumpled. She began scrubbing her closed eyes with her knuckles and rocking back and forth. "No, Mom, no, no, stop!" Wander caught just a quick glimpse of the images her counterpart was being fed, but she already knew what they were. Next to her on the other side, Midnight was entirely unaffected and unmolested.