Electra

"Jill did as much as anyone could," Miss A murmured, laying a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder. "I don't know what's going to happen now, but I don't believe anything we do now would be productive. In fact," she added, raising her voice, "we all might be well served to take a few steps back, just in case." It seemed very strange that a body would have a self-destruct mechanism, but they didn't call them aliens for nothing. Hefting the bulky computer cores, she drew Sharl back and away.

"You all have fun," Erin told them with half a wave, concentrating on the remainder of her lunch rather than getting up to follow the quick-eating crowd. She didn't seem to mind at all when the flowers and tablecloth disappeared, merely continuing to work her way through her meal of fresh fruits and vegetables. "I'll catch you later. Don't forget we're getting together for training tomorrow, Corbin," she reminded the younger student. "Nice to meet you all."

Things were getting very unstable as Miss A struggled with the drives, enough so that pulling one of them free sent a nasty arc of electricity running through her thankfully shielded) body. It was enough to char her costume a little bit, but she certainly wasn't worried about that now. With the pile of equipment in her arms, she leapt out the hole in the side of the ship and flew out of range of the ship, just in time for Jill's shimmering forcefield to go up around the wreckage. She landed by the others, turning to look at the ship, then the pilot. "We could get her to the Lab," she suggested, not looking terribly hopeful.

"I'm fine, you get back!" Miss A commanded Sharl. She turned away from her work just long enough to toss his projector to him, freeing him of his tether to her. "If anything happens, you know where to go." She worked frantically until the alarm sounded, cursing under her breath when it became obvious that the cause was lost. Such a useless waste! Jumping up from the control panel, she moved to uncouple the salvageable cores and the blocky drive before the whole thing blew to kingdom come.

"Well then." Wander stared at the doors, then blew out a breath. "Last call for anybody coming up with a solution more elegant than "let's blow the doors off." She looked around the group for any volunteers, then looked to her counterpart. Wander shrugged. "Sometimes brute force is the only thing that's going to work anyway. On three?"

Miss A worked quickly, first sequestering the good sectors from the bad, then working as best she could to route functions away from the most damaged areas of the craft. Even with her prodigious skill and knowledge, it was tricky work on a very limited timetable. "Get away from the ship," she suggested to the others without looking up. "This system isn't stable, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to save it. Jack, you want to clear out the civilians?"

Stesha struggled not to laugh at the young man's obvious chagrin. "You still have a few days," she told Trevor encouragingly. "You're only really in trouble if it's February 15 before you remember Valentine's Day." She got up and went to the kitchenette, digging a box of sandwich bags out of a drawer. "You're also very lucky, because Valentines' Day is the perfect holiday for flowers, and I know someone who could hook you right up with that." Coming back to the couch, she began to drop cookies into the bag. "I do owe you a favor, after all!"

"Looks that way, for now," Miss A said dryly in response to Jack's comment. "I downloaded him off the internet." She tensed when Sharl reported his findings, but didn't stop him from pressing the indicated button. If there was someone alive in there who needed help, they all had an obligation. "God..." Miss A murmured, looking at the wreckage of the craft and its occupant. "Jill, I think we need you here!" Using her own flight to skirt the wounded woman and the damage, she lifted herself into the craft to try and save the craft itself. An explosion would make the entire situation worse, and if they could at least save the computer, it could provide data about who this stranger was and why she'd come.

Obviously happy to change the subject, Stesha smiled again. "Valentine's Day is coming up, and I had the pink food coloring right there... it was such a rotten morning, it was nice to do something productive. I'll give you a baggie and you can take some of them home with you. I've been baking things like mad lately, even though I've had hardly any spare time. The more I give away, the better off I am!" Despite the words, she took another cookie. "I haven't had lunch yet," she reasoned, obviously laughing at herself. "How long do you think it will be before I can restart the generator?"

"It was very nice of you to invite us," Erin said politely in response to Eve's greeting. She was three for four now, which was still a passing grade. When the conversation moved to other things, she walked over in Hope's direction. "I hadn't heard you and Mark were going out," she commented casually. Though she didn't spend a lot of social time with Hope, Erin had trained with her, and the two of them understood each other perhaps as well as anybody could. Erin was facing an uncertain future on Prime after graduation, but Hope was going back to a future that was certain to be grim. She supposed she couldn't blame the other refugee for seeking out a little fun in her last months of school, but it did seem a little bit out of character.

"He wasn't exactly here for an interview, but we think so," Stesha agreed. "But a dimensional traveler, not just a universal traveler like the one here. He'd destroyed most of the universe he'd been in most recently, then been imprisoned in a special containment field and launched away. He happened to come down here, and managed to imprison Derrick in the cage he'd been trapped in. Then he went looking for everything Derrick cared about." Stesha looked uneasy at this memory, and quickly shied away. "But the doppleganger was eventually dealt with, and I hope he'll never, ever hurt anyone again."

"Trust me, I understand!" Stesha told him with a chuckle that was a little rueful itself. "I like to think I've come a long way since I got into the hero game, but when you're married to Dark Star, it's not easy to measure up. It doesn't help that last year I was badly hurt by his evil double, who got a sucker punch in on me before I knew what was going on. The problem with energy beings is that they don't grow facial hair, so it's hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones," she joked. "I recovered, and it isn't as though I don't take care, or that I get hurt often, but it's not always easy to convince him that I can hold my own. I think for him, and maybe for your Wander too, they get so used to not having to worry about their own safety, it's twice as bad to suddenly have to worry about the safety of someone they love."

Stesha's face lit with a smile as she figured out his meaning. "Oh, that's right, Wander was on that trip too, wasn't she? I remember that now! Yes, there's something about winning a fight and saving the day that can really be romantic, in an odd sort of way. Special sort of teamwork," she repeated with a chuckle. "It's just as well, though, that you don't need to bake your instruments at three hundred fifty degrees for twenty minutes. I think that modular design is very clever. I always wondered a little bit how you and your grandfather did it."

"Hmm?" Erin asked, looking up from the bowl of cottage cheese with pears she was working on. "There's always some kind of training going on," she said with a shrug. "But to get time in the Doom Room, you have to be officially assigned to a team, or be with someone who is. Or get permission from Mr. Archer," she added, sounding as though that were unlikely. "You really ought to talk to Mark about doing some more training with us," she added to Corbin. "I think he's about ready to put you on the roster if you make a good showing. But there's the gym and all the outdoor equipment that anyone can use for training."

"Derrick told me about that," Stesha replied with a nod, looking quite interested in the explanation. "He was very impressed with your ingenuity, and the work you and your classmates did on that trip. He really felt badly about taking you into such a dangerous situation without realizing it, but he was proud of how well you handled it. When you say modular, do you mean that you actually carry around parts and pieces of devices, and assemble them right there on the scene when you need them?"

Miss Americana saw Jack and Jill already on the scene as she circled in for a landing, which wasn't surprising. Jack's turf was the West End, after all, and it looked like the thing had come down smack in the middle of the neighborhood. She didn't recognize the girl who was with them, but figured she was probably another curious hero of some type. Freedom City certainly had enough of them! She circled the downed craft once, then landed next to Jack. "Let's not cut into it just yet," she cautioned the swordsman, putting one perfectly manicured hand lightly on his arm. "There might be security on it, or it might be unstable enough to explode. We should try and get some data on it first, then see about opening it up."

Stesha breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much!" she told him effusively. "I don't know what I would've done without your help. I really appreciate it. And all of you as well!" she added to the bees, raising her voice and looking upward. "HOW ABOUT ZZOME REWARDZZ?" Beearthur suggested coyly. "WE DID ZZOME GOOD ZZTUFF, RIGHT?" That drew a laugh from Stesha. "Of course!" she agreed. "I think this calls for a flower party in the Bee Meadow tomorrow. Tell the others, won't you?" She turned back to Victory. "And I'll just have to redouble my offer of homemade food for you, since I don't imagine you're interested in tulips the size of silos."

Erin returned Eve's hug, just a little awkwardly, which was pretty good for her. She nodded and smiled to Jill and her friend as they came in, and counted herself to be doing well in the social graces department. She was brought up short when they got into the actual house, just in time for her to hear part of Mark's conversation and see the aftermath. She'd been in the Martel house before as well, actually, in yet another world. Some of the security systems had valuable salvageable parts, but she thought it wouldn't be polite to mention that. "Hope," she said dryly, echoing Trevor's intonation. "I, ah... we're not interrupting anything, are we?"

"Sure, but later. It's polite to at least say hi to Eve before you go looking at everybody else's vehicles," Erin replied with a grin, deliberately misinterpreting. She climbed out of the truck and smoothed down the slate gray skirt she was wearing, then tugged down the sleeves of the matching jacket. She'd had to go out and buy an outfit to have anything at all to wear to this, but she'd had the gift card Mark had given her for Christmas, and that had come in handy. Anyway, she was hopefully going to need at least one outfit to wear to job interviews, once she got some. She took Trevor's arm and headed with him towards the house, using her free hand to make sure the wind didn't catch her skirt.

Not far from the West End, two figures were mere specks in the sky. Gina's frustration with the cabin fever of her teenage boarder had grown to a point where she'd abandoned the field and locked herself in her bedroom for the day, but a short time later, Miss Americana had stopped by to spring the young program from his captivity. A tour of Freedom City from the air was just what the doctor ordered. They'd covered the downtown and were soaring along over the river when Miss A caught sight of the soaring, plummeting pyramid. "What the hell?" Turning in that direction, she increased her speed, arcing down out of the sky after it. "Whatever it is, it's in bad trouble. Stay close to me," she commanded unnecessarily. In flight mode, she had Sharl's projector, so he wasn't going very far.

"I'm sure you do, with all the equipment you use in the field," Stesha nodded, taking a cookie herself and opening a bottle of water as she sat back down on the couch. The portal, which seemed like it might open onto her apartment at home, emitted enough light and heat to make at least this small area of the cottage cozy. "It seems like a very omnidisciplinary exercise. How do you know what types of equipment you'll need for any given job? Do you have a certain set of equipment for different types of problems, or do you make your best guess based on what you know when you go out for a call?"

The wedding ceremony was simple and didn't take very long to complete. Candles were lighted, a soloist sang Till There Was You, and the minister gave a reasonably short message about the gift of love being one that the recipients had to work at if they wanted to keep it strong. With the assistance of Doktor Archeville in providing the two simple gold bands, Stesha and Derrick exchanged their vows, simple and classic ones with just a few changes. Stesha had considered going a more modern route and writing personalized vows, but really, Derrick was nervous enough about public speaking in his civilian identity that it hadn't seemed wise to give him more to remember. Still, when he recited his vows it was with a clear voice and a smile on his face, one hand holding Stesha's as he promised to love and cherish from this day forth until forever. His upstage hand, half-hidden by their bodies, rested lightly on her stomach, making the same promise. As Stesha recited her vows, she covered his hand with her own, and didn't bother to stop the happy tears that fell. She was entitled to at least a couple. Despite Derrick's squeaky clean image and slight embarrassment about public displays of affection, the ceremony was crowned by a quite credible kissing of the bride that got the more enthusiastic members of Stesha's very large family cheering approval. As the couple turned to face the crowd, with Derrick blushing and Stesha beaming, the minister smiled benevolently and announced, "Mister and Mrs. Derrick and Stesha Lumins!"

Stesha made a bit of a strange sight, stretched out on the couch with a giant sunflower hanging down from the ceiling over her head.In the center of the sunflower was a portal, and through the portal light streamed and warm air blew, and Trevor caught a glimpse of a plain-looking white ceiling. She was texting rapidly into a smartphone, but stopped and sat up when Trevor came in. "That's wonderful!" she said enthusiastically. "I owe you big time. Why don't you have a seat and I'll pour? I popped home and made a fresh pot while you were out there. You're lucky, you got the very last of my caffeinated coffee." Stesha sighed a little over that forbidden treat. "So what are you studying at school this term?" she asked, heading over to the kitchenette to pour the coffee and pick up a tray of pink and white sugar cookies.

Erin's got none of the requisite skills, so unless something is common Claremont gossip, she doesn't know it.

Both Wanders reacted instantly to the moment of violence, but Sage's team leader was a little closer, and there a moment earlier. She grabbed the slight and angry telepath by the wrists, pinning them effortlessly behind her back in a painless submission hold. "That's enough, Sage," she snapped. "I know you're upset, and he made a wrong call, but we don't have time for useless fighting among ourselves." <<We're the last hope our world has,>> she pointed out mentally, letting the words sit in her head and knowing Sage would find them. <<These people may have powers we don't. We can't afford to alienate them when they're all the help we've got.>> As soon as it seemed like things were under control, she let go of Sage and stepped back. "We could break through the door, but it would take time and make a lot of noise." When her counterpart intervened, Wander stepped back and watched, nodding fractionally in approval of the other Wander's tactics. At least she was efficient. "Have you got anything?" she asked her own team's Midnight, looking from him to the door.