Electra

Erin shrugged. "It's not a matter of paying back, at least not here and now. If you're going to be a hero, we're going to be working together out there someday. Maybe the stuff I teach you lets you help me in a fight out there sometime, or save someone I can't. Maybe you teach magic to someone who ends up saving my ass. You never know what's going to happen, but having heroes on the streets who are at the top of their game is good for everyone." She watched him for a few moments, studying how he was bearing up under the current weight. "You'll learn defensive stuff," she told him, "and offensive stuff too. Just getting yourself into a fighting stance where your arms are actually protecting your head is a pretty good start. But the truth is, it's not like in the movies. You can't learn a few tricks and expect to hold your own against experienced fighters even though you've never trained. When you fight hand to hand, your body is your weapon, and without a good weapon, you're screwed." She cracked a smile, added five pounds of weight to the machine. "And you may not think it's hard now, but wait till you see how your arms feel tomorrow."

"Like I said, I'm not really the go-to person for magic stuff," Erin said with a hint of apology. "If it doesn't involve general education or hitting things, it hasn't really been part of my curriculum. But I think the master mage is really old, and still in pretty good shape. Just because he's training Seven to be his replacement doesn't mean she'll be ready anytime soon. It seems like there's a lot of stuff you'd have to learn. But she hangs around in the dorms sometimes with the Next Gen members who haven't graduated. You can probably catch her there sometime if you pay attention."

"Acknowledged," Miss A said in response to Dragonfly's radio call. "You have to make the call on whether to abort the mission, Dragonfly, I'm not there on the ground. My intuition would be to suspend the operation until we know what's going on with the commander. The incident could be related to what we're doing somehow." Laying the baby down on the bed, she held the bottle in its mouth with one hand and began rather awkwardly trying to remove the soaked sleeper it was wearing with the other, while calling on her handsfree set. "Dial 911," she commanded the phone.

"I don't know that much about magic, but Seven's got a lot of power and a lot of training," Erin told Evander with a shrug. "She comes from this whole magic family, and gossip says that she might be tapped to be the Master Mage's replacement whenever he decides to retire. If she can't help you herself, she's the sort of person who would probably know who you ought to be talking to." Erin slid off the bench, offered the machine to Evander. "You want a try? I'll show you how to adjust the weight down."

"I imagine that if she's the right one for you, you'll be able to disclose your second identity to her before you head for the altar," Stesha assured Carson with a smile. "Women like men with a little bit of mystery to them, too. And you're hardly difficult to look at or talk to." She chuckled and finished her juice. "In any case, I think you're absolutely right about needing a little more time for yourself. And with any luck ,with the bad weather waning and the major holidays over, we'll hopefully get a bit of a lull in villain activity anyway. People like you and I are often at our best when we're not fighting bad guys at all."

"YOU ARE WELCOME IN OUR HIVEZZ AND IN OUR COMBZZ," the Queen told Jack graciously. "PLEAZZ ENJOY YOUR ZZTAY HERE." She eased back into her recumbent pose and seemed ready to end the audience with that invitation. Stesha spoke up before the Queen could get too comfortable. "Madame," she asked, "I don't want to be presumptuous, but you seem... different than the last time we spoke, and when you came to this world. Is there a reason for that?" "IT IZZ NOT I YOU ZZPOKE TO BACK THEN, FLEUR DE JOIE," the Queen said, turning her regard on Stesha. "HER REIGN WAZZ AT AN END, HER BODY OLD AND HER WINGZZ WIZZTHERED. BUT ZHE DIED FREE, AND WAZZ JOYOUZZ OF THAT. I AM HER DAUGHTER, BEELIZZIMA AGAIN." "Beelizzima Two?" Stesha guessed, looking very startled indeed. "I'm so sorry... I hadn't realized. I suppose I just assumed that I didn't see her because she was busy." She appeared somewhat at a loss for words, rare for the sociable superheroine.

Erin dropped her knapsack and looked around for a moment, then back at him, feeling the same quick rush of nerves. "Well, here we are again," she joked weakly. "I, um... we're probably thinking about this too hard." Closing the distance between them with a step, she kissed him again, this time not slow and romantic, but deep, almost rough in the way she closed her fingers on his shoulder and in his hair.

At the cabin, Miss A surveyed the situation in an instant, suppressing horror and pity in favor of doing whatever she could to help. Dropping to one knee next to the young woman, she put her fingers to the victim's neck, counting the heartbeats and checking their strength. Not great, weak and a bit slower than was ideal, but she was more or less stable for the moment. It looked as though she'd been wounded on the other side of the room, judging from the coagulated pool of blood on the opposite end of the floor, and then at some much more recent point had dragged herself over, trying to reach the child. "It's all right," Miss A murmured, "everything's going to be all right now." She activated her radio, even as she searched around the cabin for supplies. It didn't take long to spot the suitcase open on the bed, full of exactly what she needed. "Miss Americana calling Lab Base Camp One, do you read? I have a medical emergency at the motor court, a young woman and an infant need immediate medical help. I'm calling in an ambulance, but I could use the medic here as well, over." As she spoke, she dug out a can of formula and scanned the instructions, then found a serviceable-looking bottle and nipple as well. It had been a long time since she'd done any baby care, but these were exigent circumstances. Filling the bottle at the tap, she shook up the bottle of formula and gathered the soaked and stinky infant from its prison. "There, there," she cooed, her impressive charisma soothing even to the very small. "You'll be all right." She popped the nipple into the baby's mouth, hoping that would stop the crying while she waited for a reply.

Miss A is going to try and assess the situation. Medicine roll=24

Beeatriz took the lead on the introductions, flying a bit ahead with Stesha still on her back. Apparently by now the plant controller needed no introduction. "QUEEN , THIZZ IZZ JACK OF ALL BLADEZZ, A ZZUPERHERO FROM THE ZZQUIZZHY BIPED WORLD," she intoned formally. "HE IZZ THE ONE WHO BROUGHT FLEUR DE JOIE TO UZZ, WHEN WE WERE EXZZILED BY ZHE BEEKEEPER. HE WIZZHEZZ TO ZZEE HOW WE LIVE HERE." The Queen turned slowly to face the newcomers, her enormous multifaceted eyes seeming to glow in the dimness as they picked up and refracted every bit of available light. "JACK OF ALL BLADEZZ?" she repeated. Her voice was surprisingly light for something her size, and there was some odd quality to it that suggested not childishness, but definitely youth. Who knew how long giant bees even lived? "YOU COME TO UZZ FROM THE WORLD THAT WAZZ? WE ARE PLEAZZED TO GREET A HERO OF BEEDOM VALLEY HIZZTORY." Stesha looked a bit surprised about something, but it was hard to say what.

With a laugh that was half amusement and half pure nervous excitement, Erin paused just long enough to grab her knapsack, then followed Trevor into the manor. Switching to a one-handed grasp to make quiet travel easier, she followed him into the dark corridor, both their footsteps utterly silent against the hardwood floors. It seemed strange, almost silly, to be using all their hard-earned skills to sneak through Trevor's own house, but at the same time, the stakes were at least as high as life or death.

For all that most of her attention was focused on the extraction of the satellite, Miss Americana's finely honed senses could not help picking up another strange stimulus, this one coming from further away. It sounded... well, surely it was impossible that anyone had been left behind, but it sounded like a crying baby. Probably a doll, she figured, but a niggling uncertainty remained. Even a doll would be triggered by something, and it hadn't been going when they arrived. "I'm going to check on that sound," she told Dragonfly, "I'll only be a moment, and you and the crew seem to have a good rapport going." She zipped away into the trees, towards the motor court.

The pulse in her throat beat faster under his lips, even as a more mundane pink flush rose in her pale cheeks. Erin chuckled softly, reaching out to feather her fingers along his cheek. "I learned from the best," she pointed out. Shifting to sit on her knees facing him, she reached out and traced the lines and planes of his face with both hands as though trying to learn them by touch. "The big question now," she murmured, "is can we get past your grandpa without risking horrible embarrassment."

"I've been thinking about it a lot," Erin told him, her own voice breathy and a little ragged. "Ever since we got, um, interrupted that other time. I had some stuff to work out in my head. I don't want to do anything I would feel bad about later." She kissed him again, partially because it gave her a moment to regroup. "And I'm pretty sure we'll be okay there. I went to the doctor," she blurted, then added in a rush, "because I was sure of what I wanted. She gave me a three month birth control shot. It really hurt!" she added with a crooked smile, apropos of nothing. "So yeah... if you're sure too."

Miss A, who had put in a long night without a lot of sleep to show for it, was ready to get the show on the road without worrying too much about the niceties of wind and nature sounds. "All right, let's get started. Protectron, Sharl, I'd like you to take the skiff to the middle of the lake, where we've triangulated the skyhook's location, and drop down next to it. You'll make a visual inspection and report back as much as you can about it's location, orientation, and condition. Dragonfly and I will monitor you from up top. Everybody understood?"

"One to remember," Erin agreed quietly. She hesitated for a moment. "It changed a lot of things for me. I think it might have changed my whole life. These past months, you've made me feel things I never thought I would feel, or ever feel again. You make me feel like a whole person, instead of some... some remnant of something that doesn't exist anymore. And I want to be with you." Deliberately, her eyes on his, she reached into her pocket and drew out her communicator. She deactivated it with a flick of her thumb and set it aside, then leaned in to kiss him.

"Each one trains a different part of your body," Erin said, leading him over for a closer look at the equipment. "Concentrating on your core is good because that strengthens your whole body, but you're going to want a balanced workout that targets your upper arms and thighs as well, since you'll be relying on them for punching, kicking and running. Once you learn how to do the machines, you'll probably want to do three or five sets of reps on each one, then move on." She quickly showed him how to work the curl and butterfly press machines, just to give him the idea. Even at full weight, she had to be careful not to push very hard on the machines lest she damage them, but it wasn't as though she was looking for a workout herself. "Have you talked to Seven, maybe?" she suggested. "About the magic, I mean. She's been hanging out as a sort of TA and adviser this year while she takes college classes, but she's big on that magic stuff."

A smile tipped the corners of Erin's mouth. "Well, that's effective, but it's not exactly what I was thinking. Being able to move stuff with your mind is great, but it's not going to help you out much when you need to hit something with your hands. Doing some real weight training will. You'll learn how to use all the machines in PE class, there's a whole unit on it, and you can ask for extra instruction if you want. Do some weightlifting and some cardio every day, and you'll start seeing a difference quickly. Who are you going to train with for your magic stuff?" she asked curiously.

"Exactly," Erin agreed. "That's why if you want to join a team, you'll get hours and hours and hours of training first, till you're sick of it and you hate it. It's got to be instinctive, because the first time you get in a fight, all you're probably going to be thinking of is how to get out of it with your skin intact. I'm showing you just the basic stuff right now. It's the practicing that's the important part, and that's mostly stuff you'll do on your own." He was quick enough, Erin decided, and willing to learn. He'd probably do okay, with a whole lot of seasoning. And of course he was backing it all up with his magic, which totally wasn't her department, but which she had definite respect for after seeing magic-using heroes in action. "Do you lift weights?" she asked Evander next, gesturing towards the circular arrangement of Nautilus machines and other workout equipment on the other side of the room.

"I have to pull, or I'd knock the damn thing's head off," Erin told him with a wry smile. "I broke three of them last year while I was learning. These days though, I'm better at it." She aimed another punch at the metal dummy, put the entire force of her body into it... and then stopped entirely, one quivering millimeter from actually connecting. "Part of having power, whatever kind you've got, is learning to control it." She watched as Evander tried out the technique, nodding. "That's a good start," she told him. "You have to be careful not to lean in, though. Your spine should always be straight, even though your instinct's going to be to lean in and give it that last tiny bit of momentum. But if you do that, you leave yourself open." She put a hand on his back and one on his arm, leaning him forward into the position he'd ended his strike in. "Look in the mirror, and see what's going on with your head and your upper body. You're totally off-balance and wide open. You'd never get your off-arm up in time to block a punch, you see? That's the kind of hit you only make if you've got no other choice, and you're sure that your hit is going to connect, and hard."

Move action, Miss A will tumble backwards off the display case in a Bluff maneuver to make anyone watching think she was hit and tumbled off the side. With the -5 for dropping the action to move, Skill Mastery gives her a 31. Standard Action: Total Defense.

Miss Americana watched the fight intently as it unfolded, paying at least as much attention to the actions of her allies as to her opponents. Though no one was watching, when Spellbound made her crack about cowardly hackers and Jack began taunting nerds, for a moment Miss A's eyes went distant and cool as blue glass marbles. She realized the EMP burst was coming an instant before it hit and dodged out of the way, only to come face to face with the Freebooter's incoming attack. She studied the swashbuckling robot as he came towards her, felt the cutlass hit her reinforced skeleton and bounce off the supertough synthetic mesh skin that covered it. Freebooter's strength, like her own, wasn't really in the puppets they'd made to interact with this shrill, slow world. Taking a step back on the display case, her foot found the edge of the reinforced glass box, analyzed it by touch. With instantaneous deliberation, she pushed down with her heel, catapulting herself off the side of the display case in a graceless tumble, letting out a little cry of surprise for effect as she fell and landed in a crouch on the floor.

Stesha put a hand to her face for a moment, perhaps rubbing her forehead, perhaps covering her eyes while Jack performed his daredevil stunt. Either way, the swordsman was on his feet as they emerged at the bottom of the tunnel into one of the eeriest rooms Jack had ever seen. It was immense, larger than a football field in each direction, and with a ceiling so high and arched, it almost didn't seem possible they were underground. There were luminescent rock outcroppings here and there, but in a room so large, the light they projected was dim and diffuse, casting world into purplish shadows. The buzzing noise was everywhere, echoing off the walls and booming from the invisible rafters. In the center of the open space, a bee who could only be the Queen lay in repose. She was massive, even compared to her giant subjects, the size of a decent one-story house for all she didn't even have a stinger. A dozen of the worker bees raced around her, grooming her, feeding her, cleaning up the enormous space, all just as busy as could be. A couple of the drones were in attendance too, sitting indolently on the far side of the cavern, their huge wings beating the air at an idle hundred beats per minute.

"Don't get too excited, Sharl," Miss A told him, tempering the quelling tone with a tolerant smile. "The first part is all the prepwork we need to do before we even go out to the site. I suggest we spend the rest of the day assembling the equipment we're going to need and getting support staff lined up. Sharl, you can help me by sending out emails to the staff I want to contact. It'll be a stretch, but if we make a long evening of it, we should be ready to go onsite first thing in the morning. The forecast is good, so I think we'll be all set."

"The balance must be tough to manage too," she commented softly, her cheek brushing lightly against his as he turned his head. "I've never noticed a pull one way or the other, though. And the way you took it up the cable on the Pramas Bridge..." She smiled at that memory, remembering the heady roller-coaster mix of nerves and adrenaline that ride had been. She was feeling a little of that again now, actually. "Balance doesn't seem to be a problem. But that might be the skill of the rider."