Electra

While the boy was debating his predicament, he caught a glimpse of movement at the top of the wall. A skinny orange cat picked its way neatly around the decorative ironwork, pausing to look down at the stranded boy It cocked its head, appearing to consider the situation, then leapt down, behind the wall and out of sight. A moment later, the gate swung open on soundless hinges to admit the boy. The cat, now sitting sedately in the middle of the broad paved driveway, looked on while washing one paw.

"That's a good idea," Stesha nodded. "I'm going to stay for a little while and see what I can do for the sick people here. There's a walkie-talkie on the kitchen counter that should still have some battery power, it'll let you get in touch with me here if you need anything." She was obviously rapidly warming up to the idea of helping these battered survivors however she could. Given her powers, she could actually do quite a lot.

If you can access your device with Datalink, then it's both indirect and impossible to lose, right? That seems like it's circumventing a lot of the reasons we pay less for devices in the first place. Maybe if it were a special kind of datalink that's totally distracting, or something like that, just to try and make up for it.

Hey, not my fault you wanted two villain groups in a two-person thread and posted separately for all of them. Fleur will use Disintegrate on the Alpha Plant Monster. First off, it needs to make a DC 23 Fort save. If it loses, however much it loses by, it loses that much toughness, up to a possible 13. After the Fort Save, it must make a Toughness save, DC 28, using the post-drain toughness.

"Can you make it warm again?" one of the women asked after a minute. "There were buttons when we got here, they turned on light and heat. But they stopped working last night." "Do you have any more food?" someone else asked. The corner where Stesha had been stashing food and medical supplies for evacuees had been thoroughly cleaned out. "Or do you know where the caves here are? We ran out of mushrooms." "Would you mind closing the wall back up?" the first man asked, looking rather embarrassed for having run earlier. "It lets in the wind like this. We, um, we made a door." He looked over towards the far wall, where a crude hole had been hacked into the leafy wall. Stesha seemed a little discommoded by the fact that someone had been hacking at her leaf house, but she accepted it with good grace and closed the wall with a wave of her hand. "I don't have much food on hand right now," she admitted. "But I can get some started for you, just fruits and vegetables." A flower grew on the wall, right where it was convenient for her to reach into it and pull out a handful of seeds. She tossed them across the grass, away from where the people were standing, and immediately they began to explode with growth despite the cold. "And Midnight is going to fix the heat, but you'll have to be careful about how you use it. It takes a lot of power, and can break the machine."

Ugh, Fleur is even slower than I thought. She is going on 5.

Fleur cocked her head, sizing up this new companion. "Yes, plants are something of a specialty of mine. I'll bet you're Lady Winter, aren't you?" she asked with a half smile. "I've heard of you. You froze some of my plants and beat up a friend of mine a few months ago. He still said nice things about you. I'm betting that freezing power will work just fine against plant monsters." She continued her jogging, but wasn't going too fast, and seeing as how she looked to be about five months pregnant, it wasn't hard to guess why.

As with most superpowered disasters in Freedom City, it wasn't long before someone called the Freedom League for help! Within minutes, help arrived, in the form of a slightly rotund plant controller. Fleur de Joie popped out of a spruce tree not far from the parking lot and began trotting in the direction of the crashing noises and yelling. Her trademark cowl jacket was undone and flapped behind her as she jogged, looking around for the scene of the crime-in-progress.

"I'm not sure this enclosure is suitable for a permanent dwelling anyway," Stesha pointed out. "If nothing else, the clear roof is going to make things less comfortable for everyone who sleeps under it. It's not meant to be a habitation, just a stopping off point. I thought the clear roof made it seem less like a prison. But it's good enough for right now. In the spring, I imagine I can get Gaian Knight and Lady Winter and Supercape to help build a settlement that's a bit more permanent... but I'm putting the cart before the horse now!" she laughed. "First, we'd better talk to them. Her sudden departure had obviously caused some consternation amongst the crowd of refugees. When they returned, Stesha and Trevor found that the children and elderly were now tucked away at the back of the group, with the able-bodied adults out in front. None of them looked very happy to be there, or very ready for a fight, but it at least bespoke some organization. "My name is Fleur de Joie," Stesha told the group, holding out her hands harmlessly. "I built this place, and I grew the plants all around here. My friends have helped me clean up the soil and the water. I was surprised when I saw you because I thought no one lived here anymore, but you're welcome to stay here as long as you like. I would like to help you, if you'll let me." There was complete silence for a moment. Stesha was confused, till she noticed that everyone was staring at her quiet and ominous companion, apparently wondering if he shared her good feelings.

"We'll be monitoring you the whole time," Miss A told him, giving the dummy a nudge to move it along in the direction of the cold room. "Even if it doesn't work, monitoring your physiological responses to the change in temperature and severe discomfort will be instructive. We want to get you back into your solid corporeal form as quickly as possible, and unfortunately that may call for some bravery and fortitude on your part." That part she almost seemed cheerful about.

"It's hard to say," Miss A told him, looking down at the injured mammal. "It's lucky to be alive at all, and the fact that it seems to be making a recovery speaks well for its prospects. But even in a best case scenario, it's likely to be several weeks before it's even ready to fly again. We'll start by supporting it with fluids and painkillers while we work to repair the cybernetic parts. Anything you find that can help with that could make the recovery time faster."

"Silliness is what gift shops is all about," Miss Americana told him encouragingly, walking with him around the shirts, cups, and displays of stuffed animals. "You buy something you don't really need, and it helps you remember your trip. Go on and pick something out, my treat." She waved a hand at the collections of stuff. "I wouldn't be surprised if Gina could make a digital copy of anything you buy, and you could take it with you, in a way."

"It's easy," Miss A said with a breezy laugh, smiling over at the young gadgeteer. "You just dress up nicely, open your mouth, and say whatever the crowd wants to hear. Making speeches is only really difficult when you have to convince people of something that's totally untrue or that they're very disinclined to believe. Today's crowd was happy to believe the truth, that what we're doing here is something really good. They ate it right up. And you did just fine," she told Dragonfly encouragingly. "You hardly looked nervous."

"I know," Stesha said with a grimace. "Originally I was heating this building with a gas-powered generator, but I hated having to haul the fuel in, and it didn't smell good at all. Since I typically only use the enclosure for a few hours at a time, I thought running it off the main would work just fine. I'm going to have to rethink that. And I doubt these folks will be amenable to living under three feet of earth the way the bees are, so keeping warm that way would also not be an option. I just wish it were April already instead of January. But we'll make do." Resolutely, she led the way back to the enclosure.

The ride itself was not very impressive, at least not nearly as impressive to Sharl as it seemed to be to the people who watched it with them. It was the sort of thing used to entertain small children in Tronik, not grown adults! But despite the supertech on display on parts of Earth, the general level of technology just wasn't very high. He was starting to get used to it. After the show, they walked around some more, looking at more of the native animals of North America, wolves, mountain lions, beavers, all animals who once roamed freely across land where buildings now stood. Miss A explained a little about each species to him, but was mostly content to allow him to read and explore on his own.

"She wouldn't have," Miss A told him simply. "Instead of watching the animals and enjoying the day out, she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about the people, wondering if they were watching her or judging her. People watch heroes." Indeed, the two of them had been drawing plenty of attention all day, despite being out of costume. It didn't seem to bother Miss A. "It's really kinder just to let her stay down in her basement. It's where she wants to be."

That drew a laugh from Stesha, making her relax a little more. "I don't think we need to go writing a new religion for them either," she told Trevor, "but if I change my mind, you're the first one I'll call. Do you think you'll be able to get the generator going again today?" she asked him. "If I wall off some of the interior spaces in the enclosure, it should preserve heat better. We might not get another overload."

Miss A pursed her lips, obviously choosing her words carefully. "Gina suffers from primary agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder," she told Sharl. "When she's using a computer or working on an engineering problem, she's quite brilliant, probably among the brightest minds on the planet. But she can't leave her house without risking panic attacks at worst, and extreme discomfort at best. You are the only sentient being she allows to be in her home on a regular basis, because she can't handle being around people and letting them see her as she really is. It will embarrass her to know that you know, but you deserve the truth, and I think you can handle it in a sensitive way."

"I suppose that'd be problematic if you're still hoping to keep the world beyond Tronik a secret," Miss A said, appreciating his difficulty. Coming by ingredients might be a problem as well. From what I've heard, most of the food is based on textured vegetable protein, right? Even with a little fancy coding to add the possibility of things like curry, you'd have to explain where you got it and how you were getting more. But you might be able to take a little back with you," she suggested. "You should ask Gina."

"You're right," Stesha agreed, "but I'm not sure what to say. That man we saw out by the fire, when I swept aside the wall, he reacted oddly don't you think? I expected he'd probably be impressed by the show, but he acted like he'd never seen a superhero before." She thought for a moment. "That squares with something Victory said when he found that crashed Grue ship, that things would've been different in a world with no heroes. But if they aren't used to metahumans, we're going to throw them for a loop."

"I'm sure if he were hungry enough he would," Miss A told Sharl with a laugh, amused by his amazement. "But those fish aren't on that particular turtle's typical diet. As long as the keepers make sure he's well fed with the fish he likes, dead ones that he doesn't actually have to catch, I imagine he'll leave his tankmates alone. The zoo does its best not to put animals together that are going to endanger one another. "What do you think of the food on Earth so far?" she asked him when no one was listening.

Moments later, as though appearing in response to his request, Miss A walked into the common room. She took a seat and let out a long breath of relief before giving Supercape a smile. "I think that went very well, don't you?" she asked. "We managed to wow most of the people who were there, and even the hostile ones at least listened to what we had to say. I was sure there was going to be at least one heated argument on the exhibit floor, but people were on their best behavior."

"It is," Miss A told him with a nod. "The Atlanteans have a very rich culture and history all their own. They haven't always been on good terms with the surface dwellers, but as we've grown more advanced, things have generally gotten better. I haven't been to Atlantis myself, but I've seen pictures. It's a beautiful place, but very alien to the sensibilities of surface-dwellers. I'm sure that if you look on the internet, you'll be able to see pictures and videos." With that, she led him into the aquarium building, since it seemed like an excellent segue. This building was quite popular today, possibly because it was warm and humid, a nice contrast to the chill outside.

"You're right." Stesha took a meditative breath and let it out slowly, appreciating Trevor's rationality. "Just because they've moved in doesn't mean that I suddenly need to provide everything for them. Obviously heated, lighted shelter is a very good start. Just having a place with clean air and water is probably going to do a lot for them." She started to smile, looking a little bit less worried. "It's better than having them living in caves and eating lichen, or whatever they survived on."

"The computing space was probably more urgently needed elsewhere, in any case," Miss A surmised. "And since there's no actual requirement for conservation of mass, animals would be unnecessary as part of the food chain as well." She was thoughtful for a minute or two as they walked. "That's something we might be able to change as well, if we can get Tronik into a more stable form and expand the memory capacity. We'd need a good story, obviously, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that there was a lost island beyond the mountains with animals on it."