Electra

Erin looked over at the closed computer, pursing her lips. "I got it from Archer," she told him after a few moments of silence. "I told him that I wanted to see what she was capable of, what I was capable of, in case I ever had to face her again. He wasn't very hard to convince, he likes to rub my nose in how dangerous my powers are every so often, like I might forget or something. She spent most of her time in the public spaces at the school, so there's a pretty comprehensive record, and we saw what we saw at the office building."

Miss Americana crouched down under the barrage of shuriken, concentrating on her single target. "Is that you, Jack?" she called. "I can't see much, but a bunch of Central Casting ninja wannabes are trying to gank the katana. We should probably show them why ninja tricks don't work well outside the movies." She pointed one finger at the closest ninja, hitting him in the chest with a red, white and blue laser barrage that sent him sprawling. "And as for you..." She told the shuriken-throwers, shaking her head. "That was such a dreadfully foolish move." She held out both hands this time, fingers outspread, as a laser light show streamed from her fingers, bathing the whole group in patriotic and painful light!

"I'd send him straight to hell," Miss Americana said sweetly, giving Supercape a thin-lipped smile. "If he wants to work with the preeminent scientific minds in the field, he'd do well to not treat us as though we're research assistants desperate for a break. I'd say he's a bit thin-skinned and thick-headed to be handling outreach for his firm. But who knows, maybe he'll hit it off with Ironclad. She's not much for prosthetics, but she's got a sharp mind for cybernetics. I need to get back to work."

"There's thirty-two of them total, twenty-four adults and teens, and eight children under 12," Stesha told him, pausing in front of the green curtain and tucking Gabriel's coat into a flower. "The oldest of them claims sixty-three, but he looks closer to eighty. Most of them aren't in great condition health-wise, but we're working on that. I've been stopping by as often as I can and doing what healing I can, mostly illnesses from lung damage and prolonged malnutrition, as far as I can tell." She spread her arms. "I'm not a real doctor. I just hope that I can make things better for them, because they've had a very hard time of it." Pushing the curtain of vines aside, she led the way into the camp. The "room" they walked into had plant walls and was open to the crystal roof, creating a feeling something like a very sheltered forest clearing. An indoor orchard and garden took up one side of the area, with fruit-laden trees and bushes along the wall, and ground covered with vegetables. This was a very popular area, with half a dozen kids and teenagers picking produce. Some of the kids were eating what they picked, but most of it was obviously going into the large communal pots along the opposite wall, which stood over fires that vented out the top of the wall. Even so, the whole place smelled strongly of wood smoke. Adults were tending the fires and mending clothes, while others rested or stacked wood in piles. "Fleur de Joie!" called one of the younger children, abandoning the orange he was peeling to run over and hug Stesha's legs. The arrival of their benefactor drew the attention of all the refugees, and soon a crowd was assembling. Stesha laughed and hugged her small friend, then turned to address the crowd. "Hello, everyone! I'd like to introduce you all to my good friend Gabriel. He comes from far away, like I do. He wants to meet you and learn more about how you live and what you need. If anyone is sick today, please let me know. Otherwise, just go ahead and do what you've been doing, and answer Gabriel's questions," she asked them all politely. Gabriel was suddenly the focus of lots of attention.

All right, blasting the Katanarchist, and hopefully putting a little fear of God into the others while I'm at it. First roll is an absolute dud, spending HP. Second roll: 1d20+12=31, thanks to the reroll boost. For her actual turn, she's going to target the Katanarchists who were laying down covering fire for the one she just toasted. Extra Effort to get the AP: Strike 12 (Extra:Area (cone) PF: Precise x2) (26pp), using it as a targeted attack. Attack roll is a 24.

For a moment, Miss A wished deeply that she'd come in uniform to this event. It was a supervillain attack waiting to happen, really, and she was surely going to ruin this lovely and expensive suit. Not to mention the fact that she'd have to be careful about the skirt. But that was of secondary importance for the moment! As civilians flooded toward the exits, she rose into the air and headed for the glass centerpiece case, alighting on it with her hands spread, ready to blast anyone who menaced the priceless artifact.

Miss A will use her move action to fly to the top of the glass case holding the katana. She will hold her standard action and Blast the first villain who attempts to remove the sword from the case.

"You've said it, but I think maybe you have unusual taste or something," Erin replied with a crooked smile. "I have something for you too, but, um, it's not as nice." She went to her desk and rummaged under her notebooks, jostling her computer in the process. The screen came back to life, revealing a paused video image from the school's surveillance cameras, an image that on first blush looked to be Erin, but with boyishly close-cropped hair and inexplicably wearing purple pajamas in the corridors. Singularity, of course, from the dimensional switch a few months ago. Erin noticed the computer's activation and folded the little netbook closed, even as she found what she was looking for. "Here," she told him, presenting him with a folded piece of red construction paper. A white lace heart was glued on the front, with smaller pink and red paper hearts on top of that. She'd carefully lettered "Be My Valentine" around the borders of the card, and applied a calculated amount of glitter (borrowed from Alex) to the edges. Inside, the card simply read "Happy Valentine's Day, 2011, with love, Erin." "I'm getting you something better for your birthday," Erin told him as soon as she handed over the card. "But I figured I'd get you one nice thing instead of two things that weren't as nice. But I wanted to, you know, do something for Valentine's Day anyway."

"It's beautiful," she told him again, turning the vase from side to side to capture the very best angle. For a moment, Erin looked less like a hypercompetent fighting machine and more like a young woman enjoying a frivolous, pretty gift. "And if Fleur de Joie made them, I guess they'll probably last a long time too." She tugged one of the black lilies free of the bouquet, turning the stem in her fingers as she sniffed it, then looked up at him. "So the flowers are you and me, huh? That's kind of cool." Crossing the small distance between them, she gave Trevor a soft kiss on the mouth. "Thank you."

Erin took the vase and gave in to the temptation to bury her nose in the fragrant bouquet. The abundant clusters of lilac were already starting to spread their perfume through the entire room, making it smell likes spring. "Smells great, too," she added with a quick smile as set the arrangement down on her dresser, nudging her other treasures over to make room. "It's... it's not what I expected, but I really like it," she told him. "How did you find all these flowers?" The bouquet looked professionally done, but she couldn't exactly see Trevor trying to explain things like costume colors to some florist.

"Come in," Erin called, still lost in her work for a moment before her brain caught up. Pausing the playback, she pushed away from her desk and took a long breath, then dug up a smile as the door opened. "Hey, happy... oh,wow." She stood up and looked at Trevor, then at the flowers he was holding, then back at him. "Those are gorgeous," she told him. "Are they for me?" Okay, that was a dumb question, given the day and the circumstances, but she wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders just yet.

Miss A goes on 21

With the Tiger reeling but still arrogant and mad as ever, Wander bared her teeth in an angry grin. "I've waited a long time for a chance at this," she told him. "This is for 9/11, and for my country, and for all the innocents you slaughtered!" In a blindingly quick motion, she jumped up and grabbed him by the scarf and the hair, using his head as a springboard for a flip that brought her down behind the villain. She hooked him by the back of the neck with her bat and spun him around, then smashed a fist into his jaw and another straight into his kidneys. "Your world is going to be a cinderblock cell for the rest of your miserable life," she promised, and only then looked up to ascertain the status of her team.

Miss A's brow creased as the young couple again began drawing attention to themselves, this time in a more obnoxious way. She couldn't begin to understand why people came to these exhibitions just to get themselves thrown out, but it looked like there was already a security guard dealing with the situation. She herself was beginning to think she'd gotten all the data she was going to get on the katana from a mere visual inspection, and it would be polite to allow others the chance to get a close look. She began to back her way through the crowd, murmured "excuse me"s and polite smiles more than enough to open a way for her.

Wander P is going to beat the Tiger to within an inch of his miserable, murderous life, and make him very, very sorry for all the bad things he's done. Acrobatic Bluff, DC 33, for the move action, then an all-out power attack, inspired, with her bat. 1d20+20=34 DC 35 toughness check, plus autofire.

February 14 Valentine's Day was a well-represented holiday at Claremont Academy, from the heart-shaped strawberry pancakes featured at breakfast to the marathon of sappy love songs playing all day on the school radio station. There'd been a dance arranged by the faculty for the weekend before, but because it was school-sponsored, only the underclassmen went. Many of the students at Claremont were far from home, many for the first time, and that just made romance and relationships seem all the more important, as if they needed to be given any greater weight in the minds of the high school crowd. Erin watched the Valentine's Day activities and enjoyed the pancakes at breakfast, but she found it hard not to be preoccupied with other things. As soon as classes were over, she headed back to her dorm room and got on her computer, booting up the netbook's video player and beginning to run footage she'd already watched a dozen times over. It wasn't fun, but it was important. She'd find Trevor later, maybe for supper, and do the romance thing then, she figured vaguely.

Erin's eyes narrowed as she watched her friend, or the close counterpart of a friend, at least, be captured by the malicious shadows. Bad enough that Overshadow had shot at her herself, but he wasn't going to get any closer to any of her friends! Using the same rail her counterpart had vaulted off of, she leapt up and ran along the metal bar, leaping off it to soar high into the air! She caught hold of a clockwork arm dangling from the ceiling and flipped around, reversing all of her momentum to come slamming down on Overshadow from behind! The hapless mastermind never saw her coming.

Up at the front of the crowd, because where else would she be, Miss Americana was observing the katana through its thick glass case, jotting a few notes on her modified iPad as she studied its design. Her chic blue designer suit with its red and white accents bore only the faintest similarity to her uniform, but it was plain who she was, and the people near her were at least as interested in studying her as the artifact. It would've been more useful to her if she'd been able to get readings of it in action, but the wheels of bureaucratic diplomacy were turning slowly. Grant Conglomerates were happy to let people look at their new toy, but not play with it. She looked up at a commotion in the crowd, but it was just a boisterous young man trying to get a better look at the katana. Nothing surprising or dangerous there, probably some otaku who hoped to make a replica in his basement. She returned her attention to the artifact, pausing only to give a pleasantly vague smile to her admirers.

Wander-E will take a page from her counterpart's book and do an acrobatic bluff, DC 33, followed by a charging power attack, against Overshadow. I am also invoking her Protective complication to keep her from taking out the Tiger, in favor of attacking the guy who captured Sage. The charge plus the inspire makes that power attack 1d20+17. First roll is horrible, so I'm going to spend that Complication HP for a reroll. Result is a 33. DC 35 Toughness Check, plus Autofire.

Fleur de Joie Character Score Theme Song: Let Joy and Innocence Prevail Grace Jones I'll tell you of a girl, her husband was a soldier, Gone to war in some strange country far away. No word had come to her, but the rumors of great battles fought, Men dying in their thousands, and the world full of fear. As day would turn to evening, she would light a pure white candle And place in the window bright from where it could be seen. As she placed it in the window, softly without thinking She said "Let this burning candle be a beacon, Let joy and innocence prevail Let joy and innocence prevail, Believe that love will never fail, Let joy and innocence prevail." Fight Song: The Happy Worker Tori Amos Hey-ho, away-oh, we're off to work again! Bells are ringing, we are singing, joyous in our industry! I love my job, he loves his job! Pull the lever, start the engine, pump the water, build the pressure Push the piston, press that button, it's the perfect job! Romance Song: Pot Belly Freshlyground I can't escape the thought that maybe we were Destined to be together The easy way we love confirms the fact It's just getting better Dance with me, flirt with me, Have a little fun, I'm glad to see you're here with me, Let's have a little fun! Tragedy Song: 10,000 Miles Mary Chapin Carpenter Fare thee well, my own true love. Farewell for awhile, I'm going away, But I'll be back, though I go ten thousand miles. Oh don’t you see that lonesome dove Sitting on an ivy tree? She’s weeping for her own true love As I shall weep for mine... Storyline Song: Not For The Life of Me Sutton Foster From the thread: Learning Curve Burn the bridge, bet the store, Baby's coming home no more, Not for the life of me! Break the lock, post my bail Done my time, I'm out of jail, Not for the life of me! A life that's gotta be more than a one-light town Where the light is always red! Gotta be more than an old ghost town Where the ghost ain't even dead!

"Right this way," Miss A told the newcomer, gesturing in the direction of the elevators. Well-trained acting ability kept more than the traces of a pained expression off her face. "We'll get you set up with the lab technicians for the scans, and then someone can get you set up with the clothes and toiletries you'll need to get all cleaned up and have a rest. You must be exhausted after all you've been through, but the sooner the tests are completed, the sooner you'll have some answers."

Beeatriz and Stesha settled into a hover, with Beeatriz heaving an enormous sigh over her hivemate's antics. Stesha watched with her fingers over her mouth, hoping her swordsman colleague hadn't bitten off more than he could chew. Despite their size and bulk, the bees were amazingly nimble creatures. For his part, Curl-bee laughed, an extraordinarily odd sound coming from a massive insect, then dropped like a stone, easily twenty or thirty feet, then went zooming out away from the hive at well over a hundred miles per hour. He banked on a dime, then headed back, doing an actual barrel roll as he sped back in the direction of the hive!

Miss A took the card and glanced at it, then set it on the lab table next to her. "Yes, I've heard of your company, and the work they've been doing. Reasonably impressive, but like you say, sorely lacking in the control department." Miss Americana smiled laconically. "And, of course, you're also my direct competition. I'm sure you can appreciate why that limits the amount of research I can share with you at this point. I'm not particularly interested in a commercial collaboration at this point, Mr. Katastrof. This is a bit of a pet project of mine, and though I'm sure I'll eventually lease the patents, my work here is not designed to make anyone rich. It's going to make paraplegics walk and run, and quite possibly fly, before I'm done." She headed back in the direction of her interrupted work.

The bees rose upwards and swooped around the outside of the hive first, spiraling upwards to follow the generally conical construction. Stesha waved and called greetings to other bees as they passed, but she was nowhere near brave enough nor balanced enough to try standing up like Jack was. "Gaian Knight built this whole hive for them!" Stesha called out to Jack. "It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, it looked as though he pulled it out of the ground fully-formed. He said it was fun!" She laughed as they climbed high above the distant tree-line, into what would've been rooftop level anywhere in Freedom City outside the very heart of Midtown. Beeatriz continued climbing smoothly, but Curl-bee, perhaps nettled by the antics of the rider on his back, began banking his turns a little more sharply. "BEETER HOLD ON, ZZQUIZZHY BIPED!" he challenged the swordsman. "IZZ A BUMBEE RIDE!"

"Thank you generally works just fine," Stesha assured her, rising from her seat. "Let me just get you a bag for those." She went over to the kitchen and rummaged around inside a flower, coming back soon with a large ziploc bag for the cookies. She neatly upended the tray into the bag and sealed it. "Now what's the best way to get in touch, if I manage to find something out?" she asked. "You can get in touch with me anytime." Reaching once more into the table drawer, she pulled out a card that smelled faintly of flowers, as indeed the plant controller herself did, and that gave Fleur de Joie's name, phone number, and website.