Electra

Erin did a few light stretches while Evander caught his breath. "You should enjoy it while you can," she suggested evenly. "Someone who treats you like a child is worried about you, so that means they care. It's not really any picnic being treated like an adult, once you get there. Claremont will give you plenty of opportunities to be responsible with your powers, too, and they'll bust you down hard enough if you don't meet expectations. Maybe your dad is thinking too slow, or maybe you're just in too much of a hurry." She seemed a little bit sad as she spoke, as though she were speaking from experience.

Erin was jogging to keep up, not at all winded but looking as though she was still enjoying the exercise. "Claremont's a good place to learn control," she told him, "I had to have limiters when I was new here, too. If you work hard, you'll get them taken off eventually." The track was going by almost dizzyingly quickly, at this speed they rounded the four hundred meter oval in less than thirty seconds per lap. "Mister Archer will work you just about to death on anything you need to learn better control of. It sucks, but it works," she admitted ruefully.

Erin chuckled, understanding the thrill of competition. Her own competitive edge had become dulled over the past year, as she refined her skills to near-perfection and let other things begin to atrophy, but she understood the urge. "Let's see what you've got," she told him, with a wave to the oval-shaped outdoor track. "You can always throttle back if I can't keep up." They gray weather and the hour meant they had the track to themselves for the moment. It was a high-quality surface, springy and even, perfect for running.

Erin looked down at Mercury's shoes consideringly. She hadn't really thought about the whole "messenger of the gods" schtick before, but it made sense that he'd have something going on when it came to speed. "All right then," she decided, adjusting on the fly, "we'll go outside then. That's better for fast running, the outside track is longer and not bordered by walls. Unless you're really fast," she added, "then we can just do a city-run." She led the way towards the outside door, and waited for him to follow.

"Well yeah, that's how they hook normal people,but if you're a superhero, it's not like it's that hard to be on TV. I mean, I get on TV sometimes. If somebody actually looks good on TV and wants to be on TV, they can be on all day if they want." Erin straightened up, looked him over. "You're probably ready for some cardio," she decided, noting that the muscle-building routine seemed to be wearing. "How do you feel about running?"

"Maybe so, but that's not what reality shows do," Erin pointed out. "I had a chance to watch a whole lot of TV a couple years ago, and those shows are more about finding people who are really messed-up, and then making them look even more messed up because that's more entertaining. I definitely wouldn't want anybody shoving a camera in my face when I was pissed off or upset or just trying to work. Even if they did do a show like that, who in their right mind would go on it?" Moving to the next machine, she started adjusting it for him. "How you doing, getting tired yet?"

"The Freedom League would probably stop them," Erin decided with a short laugh. "They're sort of responsible for keeping up the good PR for heroes and all. The producers edit those shows to make everybody look as bad as possible, which is sort of the opposite of what the League would want. I can't imagine what they'd do with a show set someplace like here. There's always so much weird stuff happening anyway, before you start getting cameras involved. You want to be a TV star?" The drama club and reality show thing seemed to indicate so, anyway.

"I understand wanting time to yourself," Erin agreed, standing and watching while Evander used the new machine. "There's not really a drama club here, I don't think, but there are school plays every so often. My friend Mike likes to do stuff with them. And superheroing's not really that glamorous," she added with a chuckle."It mostly means lots of late nights and missed dates, and never having enough time to finish your homework. But it's cool, being able to help people in ways nobody else can. And, you know, having powers and all that is cool too."

"Jesus, as if one of those wasn't bad enough, now we're dealing with both?" Miss Americana paled, an effect that had taken many hours of experimentation and that was totally lost in audio communication. "Affirmative, Protectron, continue looking through the satellite and tell us anything you find. If you can secure more samples safely, do so. Dragonfly, my suggestion right now is that we get back to the Lab right away with that sample. The Goodman Building isn't going to avail us anything right now, since any vaccine they have on hand won't be for this new strain. I can get into their databases remotely, so we'll have all the information available, and it's the most secure location... hold on one moment." She switched her communications to the cell phone buzzing in her ear, and listened to Sharl's report. "Okay, calm down," she encouraged the boy. "You're going to be okay. What you've got hold of is my cordless phone, not a cell phone. You should be able to use the same technique you used to get from here to the house to send yourself back inside to the phone base. Once you're inside, press the red button next to the front door, and everything will be locked down. All right?"

Erin drifted along half-awake for awhile and then followed Trevor into sleep, soothed by his breathing and the sound of his heartbeat. It had been a long couple of days, and his bed really was very nice, especially compared to a twin bunk bed mattress. Maybe it was the company, maybe it was simply exhaustion, but the bad dreams left her alone for once, just the way she had hoped.

"I'm glad," Erin told him, stifling a yawn of her own. Now that the nerves of the last couple days were past, she felt relaxed and drowsy, and entirely happy to fall asleep right where she was. "Sucks that we've got school tomorrow," she murmured, "but I put a change of clothes in my bag. We can avoid traffic and make it back in time for first hour. Good thing I already fed the cat," she chuckled, closing her eyes as well.

"I could get used to it," Erin agreed, sighing contentedly. "You've got a nice bed, too." She laid a hand over his chest, feeling the steady, comforting beat of his heart under her palm. It was, she decided, very much like she'd hoped it would be. "I really... I'm glad we waited this long. It gave me time to be sure about a lot of things. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer. Cause we would've missed out. Good birthday?" she asked him with a smile.

Wiki Page! Freedom League Standard Notation Wander: Vignette Another Sunrise (27) Certain Flaws (8) Crow Comes Home To Roost (13) Love is All You Need (20) Settling In (23) Sparring Practice (13) Worlds Enough and Time (10) Fleur de Joie: Vignette BeeFFs (29) Hands and Feet (24) Somewhere That's Green (4) The Rainmaker Job (3) The Sun Shines Night and Day (33) Through the Grapevine (4) Welcome to the Jungle (21) Miss Americana: Vignette Checking Out the Territory (6) Double-Edged Blade (6) The Conquering Mind (12) The Animal Fair (3) The Unearthly Girl (12)

"WELL ZZHEN AZZK HER!" Curl-bee said impatiently, zooming over to bring himself up next to Beeatriz, putting the humans in comfortable conversational distance. Stesha leaned towards him. "I'm not sure that would be wise," she told him confidentially, dropping her voice. "The honey he's talking about is fermented, and it can make them very boisterous. I'm sure they wouldn't mean to hurt you or anything of the sort, but they are, well, huge. And I'm not totally sure what the honey would do to you."

Stesha laughed at that. "I'm not sure being a captive audience puts everyone in the right frame of mind for therapy," she pointed out, the corners of her eyes crinkling happily. "And anyway, I don't have enough hours in the day for all the things on my plate already. I think that's just a way of life for superheroes sometimes. But I always have enough time for a talk with a friend. And it's really not so much villains around the holidays as it's often a spike in supernatural and just plain strange activity. It's the most magical time of the year, after all. We're clear for a little while now... knock on wood." She held up the plate of muffins. "Here, you should take some of these home with you. They're fruit and nut, they'll keep your energy up while you're not sleeping. But get some sleep anyway."

Reluctantly, Curl-bee turned around and flew in the proper direction, pouring on the speed to let him easily catch up with Beeatriz and Stesha. The trip out of the hive did not take as long, since they weren't sightseeing, and they came out of an opening much lower in the hive. As predicted, the sun was sinking in the west as they emerged, and the bees were returning to the hive for the evening. "FOOD!" Curl-bee announced with pleasure. "YOU ZZHOULD ZZTAY WIZH UZZ DRONEZZ, JACOFAL BLADEZZ. YOU CAN TAZZTE OUR HONEY AND TELL UZZ ABOUT MAKING THE ROMANZZ!"

"Since last summer," Erin told him, setting the weight stack to what seemed like a reasonable beginner level to see how he handled it. Sometimes she had a hard time judging what normal people could lift anymore. "And I don't care if you ask questions, so long as you don't mind if I don't answer them. I like racing games mostly, and mystery novels." She checked the instructions on the machine, then adjusted the backrest a little bit to sit him up straighter. "How about you, what do you do for fun?" It seemed polite to ask.

"Not a lot," Erin admitted, "it's been a busy couple of years. Between training and catching up on my school stuff, even only sleeping twice a week doesn't leave a lot of hours in the day. Especially when you throw in Young Freedom and doing actual hero work. But I like to read sometimes and play video games, and Trevor and I spend what free time we have fixing cars. It's pretty cool, he's done some amazing stuff with my truck. Take a break now," she instructed, looking at his arms and face. "Don't overdo on the first day. Try some of the leg machines next."

"ZZHANK YOU, JACKOFALL BLADEZZ," the young queen replied. "IT IZZ ZHE WAY OF BEEZZ TO ZZEE THAT THE HIVE CONTINUEZZ WITHOUT PAUZZE BEEZZPITE THE LOZZ OF A BEELOVED QUEEN. WE HOPE TO HAVE MANY GOOD ZZEAZZONZZ OF RELAZZIONZZHIPZZ WITH YOU, FLEUR, AND ALL THE ZZQUIZZHY BIPEDZZ." "That's good to hear, your majesty," Stesha said, inclining her head respectfully. "I hope you'll continue coming to me if you have any problems or needs here. It's very nice to meet you." "COME," said Beeatrizz, gesturing to Curl-bee with her antennae. "IT GROWZZ DARK OUTZZIDE. IT IZZ ALMOZZT TIME FOR ALL TO REZZT." As the queen leaned back to allow her followers to tend her, the giant bees and their human companions headed back towards the tunnels. Curl-bee seemed reluctant to go, even flying backwards a little ways to keep his multifaceted gaze of longing on the queen a bit longer.

"Well then, we should be really phenomenal pretty quickly," Erin replied, grinning at him. She felt just a little sore herself, and a lot punchy, a little bit like when Alex had gotten them all drunk, but without the loss of clarity. "I mean, we both know how important it is to practice and train if you want to get better." She released his hand to have a thorough stretch, then, just a little awkwardly, scooted over to close the distance between them so her body was snug against his. It was something she'd wanted to do, wanted to feel how it felt, but it was still a little strange. Just being naked in bed with him like this was kind of strange, really, but she thought she could probably get used to it.

Stretched out on her stomach and looking extremely relaxed herself, Erin raised her head and gave him a smile that was full of drowsy satisfaction. "So..." she echoed, laying her hand over his and linking their fingers. "That was fun. How do you feel?" There had been some awkward moments, some maneuvering and repositioning, but no cries of pain, and he was looking pretty good now. All in all, she thought it had been a very successful experiment.

Erin kicked off the coveralls and her shoes as well, then deliberately slowed down despite the heat pounding through her veins. He was tougher than he looked, but she still had to be careful... and everyone said that slow was better anyway. She skimmed her fingers over his bare chest, then drew back enough to remove her own shirt. She couldn't afford to lose any buttons. Tossing that into the growing pile of clothes as well, she stepped back into his embrace and drew him in the direction of the bed. It was impossible to quantify everything she was feeling, but for once, for now, there was absolutely no regret.

"Affirmative, Protectron," Miss Americana confirmed. "Any data you can find at this point is valuable. Keep in close contact as you go through the satellite, and let us know if anything looks even the slightest bit dangerous. Dragonfly, if you can extract and secure that sample, do so, just make sure it doesn't stay in the air any longer than necessary. I think we're going to have to evacuate the civilian casualties to your location, and I'd like to minimize their exposure." She looked over at Sharl, thinking quickly, even for her. "In all likelihood, our... mutual friend has already succumbed to the infection. There is a chance, however, that the ventilation system may not have circulated tainted air down to her yet. If you can send yourself back there and turn off the ventilation systems to the basement control room, that could buy her more time. It's on the main HVAC panel in the middle of the west wall of the basement. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Miss Americana opened her eyes and straightened up, listening to Protectron's words. "A good idea in theory, but Freedom City's already been infected and appears totally disabled. We've got a hell of a mess on our hands, and I don't even see any heroes in the sky. The recovery team is surely infected as well by now. If we can track where they've gone, we can see if they have any antidote. If they do, we can test it and make sure it still works. Our best bet may be to get to the Goodman Building in Freedom City and attempt to start synthesizing the immuno-booster again, as quickly as possible. I'm sure they have records on file and the facilities to create it still."

Miss Americana cursed explosively over the link, using several words quite at odds with her family-friendly image. "Goddamned military! Harrison will be lucky if she has enough rank to use a toilet brush after this," she promised darkly. "Legion's an airborne vector, nothing we did could've brought this up. They were so interested in secrecy that they screwed up their own retrieval. Dragonfly, get yourself and the crew that looks uninfected into environmental suits right away. We may be too late, but it's their only chance. I'm not getting any phone signal to the city from here, I'm going to patch into the city governance mainframe and try to see what's happening." She wrapped the baby in a blanket and passed him over to Sharl, then sat down on the bed. "Don't let anyone in," she murmured to the electronic boy, "and keep an eye on the medtech. If he starts acting strange, get him out of the cabin and lock the door." Sitting down on the bed, Miss A assumed a meditative pose and closed her eyes, reaching her consciousness back towards the city, not toward her defenseless body, but towards the web of computers and cameras the city relied on for public safety.