Electra

Stesha smiled a little at that. "Well, at least we'll know we tried. Thank you, Midnight. Let me just tell the bees." She put two fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle, one that cut through the buzz enough to get the attention of some of the bees. After a short conversation with a bee named Beeatriz, Stesha convinces the patrolling bees to back off a little way, and to clear a space for Midnight to pass through. "The hivelets aren't much," Stesha advised Trevor before he went. "Just empty hills, really. The bees didn't know how to build properly."

"This. Fight. Is. Over." Stesha pointed her finger once again at the largest plant monster, the one that was already half in pieces. It dissolved where it stood, leaving a pile of burnt foliage behind. Wordlessly, she pointed at each remaining monster, performing the same action. The vines retracted into the ground once more, leaving the two heroes alone but for the crackle of dead leaves. Stesha took a deep breath, rubbing her hands together. "Is it freezing out here, or is it just me? Or maybe you? Let's go inside."

Let's throw another Disintegrate on the big 'un over there. He's already at -4 Toughness still, since it's only been two rounds since the last one. DC 23 Fort Save! DC 28 Damage! Doeeeet!

Stesha wrung her hands, frowning at the hivelet, then at Trevor, then back at the hive. Even though they were supposedly allies, the double row of patrolling bees was a rather intimidating sight, to say nothing of the noise. "Do you really think that's the best idea?" she asked, sounding uncertain, but not impossible to convince. "I would rather get him out without anyone being hurt, but I can't see in there, and I'm worried about getting too close to anyone who might be violent these days." Her wry expression revealed how difficult that made superhero work.

Two of the plant monsters were safely contained in a barrier of vines, Stesha saw when the dust cleared, one more had been knocked across the street by Lady Winter. That left one plant monster up, healthy, and absolutely raring to start beating on her again. It hadn't worked last time, but if it slipped even one good hit past her defenses... Stesha stabbed a finger at the monster, letting fear and anger amp up her power even further. "You don't hit me!" she yelled at it. "You never hit me!" The monster stopped in its tracks, shuddered for a moment, and then literally fell apart into withered, dry, dead branches and leaves. Stesha took a deep breath.

"I can help you get in touch with some of the people from the lab," Miss A offered as they walked to the entrance to the zoo. "I'm sure they'd be happy to interact with you more, and it would be nice for you as well. You just have to remember that you do have a lot of secrets to keep, and in those cases I won't be around to help if you get stuck or start forgetting. That's a lot of responsibility on you."

Disintegrate on Mook 1, same deal as before. Fort Save, DC 23, lose as much toughness as he loses by. Follow it up with a toughness save, DC 28.

"You're very welcome," Miss A told him kindly. "I'm glad you've been able to get out and enjoy seeing some of Earth. It has its problems, but it's a good place, overall. I hope you'll take back plenty of good memories with you. Now is there anything else you'd like to see? It's getting late, and they close early in the winter," she reminded him. "I promised Gina we'd be back before dark."

The Queen's voice was even louder than the loudspeaker voices of the other bees, positively resonating off the curved walls of the giant cavern. "THIZZ BIPED MUZZZT BE ZZZTOPPED," she told Fleur firmly. "I HAVE ZZAID THAT NOBEE IZZ TO ATTACK IT UNTIL YOU ARRIVE, BUT TIME IZZZ OF THE EZZZENZZ. THE HIVE IZZ MUCH DIZZTURBED. I WAZZZ UNAWARE THERE WAZZ A ZZTRANGER LOOZZ." "I understand," Fleur said with a nod. "I just learned that there are more humans on the planet besides myself and my guests. I'll have a talk with them and make sure that they understand you're not to be bothered. I'm sure I can count on you to do the same with the bees. There is so much room on this world, there should be no conflict between anyone for space." "WE ARE HAPPY TO HAVE THIZZ GOOD PLAZZ TO LIVE," the Queen intoned. "WE WILL NOT ZZTART FIGHTZZ WIZZ ZHE ZQUIZHY BIPEDZ. BUT ZHAT ONE MUZZT GO!" "We're on it," Stesha promised. She put a hand on Trevor's shoulder, and a moment later they were outside the hive again, a few hundred feet from the bee perimeter surrounding the embattled hivelet. "I suppose the first step is to talk to him somehow?" Stesha said, somewhat doubtfully.

Erin gave a nod to Marcus, and a reasonably cordial smile to Corbin, which was about the extent of her normal pleasantries. She peeled the cat from her shoulder and set him down on the couch. If Oliver wanted to get into the cafeteria, which was of course off-limits to pets, he'd have to make his own way there. Which wouldn't be a problem for him. "Don't worry," she told Morgan, "Lunch just started, the caf won't close for another ninety minutes. Plenty of time for you to stuff yourself." She looked up the stairs to see if any of her friends were coming to lunch, then headed for the door after Corbin. Despite the cold and snow, she didn't bother with a jacket.

Stesha yelped in alarm as the plant monsters descended, doubling over to protect her abdomen from the descending fists. Lucky for her and her peace of mind, the blows merely bounced off, the leaves and branches simply unable to injure her. Vines began boiling up from the ground like thick green snakes, wrapping around the plant monsters.One of them managed to escape, but the others were caught up in the maelstrom, vines growing and entangling them till two could hardly be seen at all.

Stesha spends an HP for a power stunt off her array Snare 14 (Extra: Area (Burst), Feat: Reversible) 43pp DC 24 reflex save for the smaller plant guys.

The two Wanders walked side by side for awhile, one striding confidently ahead, the other hesitating, looking around, checking behind them, bouncing up to look over the sides of rocks. "What exactly are you looking for?" Wander finally asked, looking annoyed. "There's nothing there! This place is empty besides that pyramid." "How do you know?" Wander demanded, glaring at her counterpart. "I'm checking to make sure we're not about to get ambushed, or go off a cliff, or run into some kind of army. This is hostile territory." She stopped for a moment, looking at her counterpart. "Where do you come from, anyway?" "Seattle," Wander said, a bit defensively. "But I've been training in Freedom City since I was fifteen. It's not like I'm green. I just have a little bit more confidence in myself and my team." "Fifteen?" Wander asked, stopping entirely. "Do you... where are your parents?" The tone of her voice indicated that this was a very important question. "...Seattle?" Wander said again, now just sounding confused. "Dad couldn't move away from his job, so I go home for summers and holidays. Why, what about you?" she demanded. "Are you expecting them to be jumping out from behind rocks?" "No," Wander said flatly. "They're dead. Megan too. It was bad, but it taught me a lot about looking out for trouble." She pursed her lips flat and resumed her surveillance. Wander stared at her counterpart for a moment, wondering if this was some kind of sick joke. The other Erin did not look like she was joking, or like she ever joked. They walked on in silence.

"Welcome to the giant beehive!" Stesha yelled over the noise, half-laughing at the inanity of her own statement in the face of the impressive view. "It's normally not so busy!" Beelizabeth flew with them into one of the ground-level tunnels at the foot of the hive, speeding through sudden pitch blackness down corridors that curved and sloped downward into the ground itself. The occasional patch of phosphorescent rock or lichen produced a small amount of light, but it wasn't much. After the noise outside, the tunnel was almost shockingly quiet, except for a low buzzing in the distance. "We're going to see the queen," Stesha explained, speaking normally now. The corridor eventually opened into an extremely large chamber, easily two or three football fields across. The phosphorescence was more concentrated here, so they could see dimly what was going on. At the center of the chamber was an absolutely massive bee, at least twenty feet tall and a hundred feet long, wingless, and with legs that looked like they would barely hold her. A handful of giant bees surrounded her, grooming her and feeding her. "Your majesty," Stesha said politely as she dismounted. "I'm sorry to hear you have a problem with a human intruder. This is a friend of mine, Midnight. He's here to help as well."

Rather than teleporting this time, Fleur walked outside and scrambled up the bee's huge, fuzzy back, a number of vines and one small tree leaning in to give her an assist in the awkward climb. Once she was seated, she offered a hand to Trevor, who was far more nimble and didn't really need the help. Beelizabeth was a surprisingly fast flyer, even with passengers, and soon they were in the air and speeding over the winter landscape towards a dark spot in the distance! As they approached, it became clear that they were heading to a giant earthen beehive, perhaps twenty stories tall and as long as a city block, surrounded by smaller, less sophisticated hives. There were giant bees everywhere. It looked like there were more than fifty massive bees buzzing around, creating a ruckus like that of dozens of planes taking off. Some seemed to just be speeding around randomly, but most of them were gathered around one of the outbuildings near the main hive. Trevor's tactical training let him see that they'd formed a fairly efficient perimeter, hemming in whatever was inside that structure.

Fleur was panting for breath a little by the time she caught up with the action, but it didn't stop her from taking action. Planting her feet on the ground, she extended her arm, fingers pointed at the biggest monster. "No plants move except as I wish them!" she informed the monster sternly. Closing her hand into a fist, she drew her hand back as though physically pulling something away from the plant monster. It howled in agony and doubled over, bits of leaves and branch beginning to wither and fall away under the plant manipulator's quiet wrath!

It looks like the plant monster rolled a 17, not a 19 on that roll, according to IC. If that's the case, it loses 6 toughness, not 2, unless all its toughness is Impervious, in which case it loses 3. Given that, it should only have +1 to make that roll with, which will give it a result of sixteen. That's a miss by 12, which would add Staggered and Stunned to its problems.

"Oh dear," Stesha replied, her voice crackly over the walkie-talkie. "One of them must have looped around when they were exploring, otherwise they'd have walked right in front of my house. I really need to pay better attention!" A moment later, she appeared in the middle of the cottage, stepping right out of one of the walls. "But don't worry about the "squishy" thing, she advised him with a half-smile. "It's what they call all humans who don't have visible superpowers or costumes. They learned it from the Beekeeper, I'm afraid." She walked over to where the giant bee was hovering outside the door, trying to peer in with one huge multi-faceted eye. "Is that you, Beelizabeth?" she asked. "I'm very sorry the stranger is bothering you. Has he hurt anything?" "NO, HE IZZ HIDING," Beelizabeth told Stesha, bobbing in place to emphasize that fact. "HE IZZ YELLING THREATZZZ, HE ZZAYZZ OTHERZZ WILL COME WITH FIRE! WE WILL ZZZTOP THEM!" "Nobody is going to set fire to anything or anyone," Stesha assured the bee hastily. "I'll come now and see what's happening." She looked over to Trevor. "Would you like to come along?"

"WE NEEDZZZ TO ZZZPEAK TO HER!" the bee buzzed with great agitation. "THERE IZZZ A ZZZTRANGER AT ZZHE HIVEZZZ! A ZZQUIZZHY BIPED WHO IZZZ NOT FRIENZZZ! ZZHE ZZHOULD BEE HERE!" The massive bee did an aerial loop, still looking for the missing plant controller. Even at a distance, even with his mask on, Trevor could feel the wind from those massive humming wings.

As soon as Trevor vaulted onto the roof he came face to... face? with the source of the now very loud buzzing. A massive bee, easily the size of a semi-truck, hovered above the cottage, turning this way and that as it looked for something. It seemed surprised to see him, as much as it was possible to read the expression of an enormous insect. "WHO IZZZZ YOU!" it demanded, its voice buzzing and booming like a faulty loudspeaker. "WHERE IZZZ FLEUR, FAZZZELEZZZ BIPED? ZZZHE ZZZHOULD BE HERE!" Now the bee sounded upset, which was probably not a good thing.

"Yeah, sure," Erin said with a shrug, starting down the path. "You can dump your bags in the common room at the dorm and come get them later. No one will mess with them." She moved with the grace of a trained athlete, the heavy bags not even putting a hitch in her stride as she led the way to one of a pair of handsome dormitories. "This is the upperclassman dorm," she told him, "you'll probably wind up bunking here. They'll give you the list of rules and stuff when you get orientated." The first floor of the building had the common room, a large room with comfortable chairs and couches, one wall dominated by a large flatscreen television with all sorts of video game hookups. Shelves held paperback books, puzzles, and board games. Erin dropped the gym bags off in the corner and waited for Morgan to catch up.

Erin reached out and took the largest bags from Morgan, treating them as though they were weightless. "We don't know what he is," she said artlessly, "but he's definitely not an average cat. I think he uses my computer when I'm not looking. Have you checked in at the front and gotten your room assignment yet? You might want to dump off your stuff before hitting the lunchroom."

Trevor ran faster without Stesha slowing him down, but that was balanced out by the substantially increased difficulty in passing through the woods. Evidently the trees which had moved aside so politely for their mistress were far less interested in facilitating his travel. Still, he was used to training on rough terrain, and this was far from the worst he'd seen. No sooner had he gotten back to the generator shed, though, than a low buzzing began to impinge upon his hearing. Soft at first, it grew louder and more ominous by the moment.

Before the boy could get a hand free to open the door, a bell rang, the sort that anyone who'd ever been to high school was familiar with. Moments later, students began walking out the doors, singly or in groups, dispersing across the snowy campus. Most of them looked normal or nearly so, a few were decidedly strange. As he watched, a tall girl with auburn hair came out the door and headed for the cat, picking him up for a cuddle. "Hey, Oliver," she told the cat, before noting that he'd brought a friend. "You been picking up strays again?" Erin took a moment to assess the newcomer, for that's what he obviously was, a strange teenager with his arms full of baggage and a vaguely lost look. "Hi," she said, "I'm Erin. Guess you met Oliver already. You want a hand with those bags?" Oliver climbed onto Erin's shoulder, looking pleased with himself.

The cat, who upon closer inspection wore a blue collar with a copper tag, bumped his head against the boy's hand appreciatively, giving him a little purr. When he straightened, the cat stood as well, his tail waving lazily as he headed down the driveway. He cast a look over his shoulder to make sure he was being followed, then continued at a leisurely pace. The pair wound around the largest building, following a shoveled sidewalk path to a smaller side building. From the sign on the door, this looked like a classroom building, not the cafeteria that had been requested. The cat sat down in front of the building, folding his tail around his feet, and waited, looking expectantly at the doors.