Electra

Wander is readying an action to get the hell out of the way as soon as it tries to attack her.

"We need to distract him before he punches a hole in the magma chamber of that volcano," Erin muttered. She wasn't actually sure that was possible, but it seemed like a plausible threat. "If he's really invulnerable, that's all we can do until they get back with the crystals." So saying, she skidded her way down the slope of the cone and onto the crust of the dormant volcano. It was hot under her feet, but she could handle it, and kept walking towards Adamant. "Hey!" she yelled to the giant. "Knock it off! Don't you know that's a volcano you're punching? That's just dumb!"

"A valuable memory then, Miss A said simply, bringing over the scanning devices. "It's been remarked upon that from culture to culture, world to world, certain themes are repeated over and over again, including the armored champion of justice, the knight in shining armor. In that sense, there are many children who know stories that are like yours, and who perhaps draw the same lessons from them. But your stories are yours alone. You should consider recording them," she suggested. "Activate your armor now, please."

Stesha's smile dimmed a little at the reprimand over the use of "metahuman," but it came back as he talked about all the places he'd lived and worked and studied. "So I've been told," she agreed with him, "though I know some who choose to doubt. It's certainly magic that lets me make the plants grow, and if I can have it, anyone can have it. What brings you to Freedom City, after living in all those wonderful artistic places?" she asked curiously.

While Midnight and Gabriel attacked Doc Otaku directly, Fleur's concern was caught up in the civilians he'd imprisoned and tied up. Luck was smiling on her today, because there was a potted palm in the corner of the office, not far at all from the girls. Stesha set down the violet and stepped through it, coming out of the palm tree next to the closest hostage. "All of you hold hands, quickly!" she commanded. At this point, they seemed unwilling to resist an order from anyone who might get them out of here, and with a bit of struggling, they complied. In that instant, Fleur teleported the whole group right out of the building, right off Earth Prime and to somewhere much safer! It took her out of the fight, but it also removed all the hostages from the equation.

She laughed again, her eyes warming with humor. "I assure you, many have tried... mostly me in the morning. It's hard to capture, and even harder to hold in place. When it's loose, it stretches halfway down my thighs these days. I decided to put it up because I didn't want it to look like I was wearing a green veil for my wedding." She shifted a little, rested one foot on the bar of the chair and tried not to think about the bathroom. "I was wondering, how long have you been living in Freedom City? I thought I knew most of the metahumans here, or at least knew of them, but I only heard of you a short time ago."

"I have the utmost faith in you," Stesha agreed with a laugh. "But I might actually need a little help getting the zipper up. It's something of a two-person operation these days." She was able to get herself into the dress well enough, and the shoes, and used the little mirror to arrange her hair the way she wanted, but she did need some assistance from Rene to get the zipper all the way up. She was glad her mom was going to put a new zipper on this before the wedding, because she'd need it! For now, the dress itself did a lot to hide what she only wanted to hint at, its a-line shape and beautiful embroidery drawing attention elsewhere quite nicely.

Stesha was a little confused about sitting to pose without even putting the dress on first, but Rene was the expert, and he seemed very sure about how things would go. It was sort of fun, getting moved around and arranged in the right pose, and it wasn't hard for her to smile when he asked her to, still cupping the rose in her hand. For completeness' sake, she made roses bloom in her hair as well, tiny white tea roses in a halo, the way she planned to have them on the big day. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't really expressed all her feelings about the wedding and the baby to anyone before now, not even Derrick in so many words. They hadn't made the baby announcement yet, after all. But she was pleased with the self-analysis, and confident that if anybody could make her look the way she felt, it was Rene de Saens.

"I am," Stesha said with confidence. "I went through a dark place while Dark Star, my fiance, was lost. I didn't know what to do with myself, I didn't know what I would do when I realized I was pregnant and he was gone. But I came through it." She clenched her hand, then opened it to reveal a rose that had bloomed in her palm out of nowhere. "I found myself, and then I found him again, and now everything is so much better than I thought it could be." She smiled again, brilliantly this time, revealing the hidden beauty in her just-above-average face. "And I do like the idea of the turned profile, with just a hint. My dress has a beautiful train that I'd like to get in the picture anyway."

Stesha blushed a little bit, but didn't lose her smile. "Um, you can call me Stesha, that's totally fine. And yes, I'm four months pregnant, which is why my dress doesn't quite fit like it used to! We'd been planning on waiting at least till after the wedding, but well, things happen..." She chuckled and blushed a little deeper. "I would like to perhaps minimize the tummy and all that in this picture, focus on the wedding, one event at a time. Maybe later on I can get something else done for the baby, when I'm really popping."

Stesha took off her hat, scarf, mittens, and coat, watching Rene with fascination. The hat had been loose enough to mostly preserve her hairstyle, which had much of her yards of green hair braided and pinned close to her head, so as not to completely overwhelm the dress. Right now she was just wearing a loose pink blouse and khaki pants, the outfit she'd worn at work all morning. "What do I want it to show?" she echoed. "I suppose the most important thing is how happy I am right now. Happy and excited, and proud and... and powerful," she added decisively. "I'd like to be able to look back and remember how I felt at this time in my life, when everything is changing."

It took Stesha longer than Rene to catch her breath after the trip up the stairs, which was a bit lowering. She needed to up the quality of her light exercising, apparently. "Yes, I'm getting married on January second, exactly three weeks from now. I was afraid the wedding wasn't going to happen because my fiance was captured by evil aliens and held prisoner aboard their ship, but he escaped! That's why we're in such a rush now," she explained, "because we had to reschedule everything. But it's going to be wonderful." Her face went momentarily dreamy thinking about it. "I wanted to talk to you about the right pose. My, um, my gown is a little tight in parts, and I was hoping you could help me find the most flattering pose."

Right around the time his antique watch said two pm, there was a buzz at his doorbell. The young woman who stood there looked about twenty five, and was neither as tall nor as slender as women today tended to be. She was, however, definitely his client. The green hair was something of a giveaway. She carried a large white garment bag and was dressed as though preparing for an Arctic Expedition. Stesha was proud of herself for being on time, especially after the hectic morning she'd had. It was nuts, trying to prepare other peoples' weddings and Christmas parties and baby showers, all while trying to coordinate the million details of her own wedding in her spare moments. This expenditure of time was probably not the wisest thing she could've done, but as soon as she'd heard there was a superhuman portrait painter in the city, she hadn't been able to get the idea out of her head. She'd hoped to get one with Derrick too, but his schedule was even tighter than her own, and it hadn't worked out. Still, getting her own portrait painted by Rene de Saens would be an honor, and she had to do it now before she got a single iota fatter! She smiled warmly at the man who opened the door. "Hello, it's so nice to meet you," she said. "I'm Stesha Madison, I believe we talked on the phone? That is, if you're Monsieur de Saens, of course," she added with a chuckle for her own presumption.

As the road leveled out, Erin started feeling braver, and pushed the motorcycle a little faster. She wasn't quite brave enough to go into the city proper yet, and instead veered off to drive on the road that led around the city. Dakanans drove on the right side of the road, thank god, and traffic was not too bad at this late hour. The wind stole the rest of the pins from her hair as she wove between cars, sending her hair tumbling free, and probably straight into Trevor's face. "Sorry," she laughed, the wind stealing her words as quickly as it had her hairpins. "Next time I'll put it up!"

Erin reacted instantly, instinct guiding her motion much faster than her rational mind ever could. She leapt between the slavering Nereid and the king of Atlantis, shoving the two apart, then pushing the king behind her and drawing her bat. That was probably some terrible violation of international etiquette, but she could always apologize later. "Somebody grab her!" she called to the others, hoping that she wasn't going to have to beat up the crown princess in the middle of the throne room.

Fleur touched his hand and suddenly they were teleporting again, with the same green-grass effect as before. They came out on the edge of a meadow that was still surprisingly green under a dusting of snow, and populated with giant flowers the size of houses. Turning, Lance could see that they were also next to a massive mud sculpture, the size of a city block and as tall in places as downtown Freedom City. Tunnels that trucks could drive into were dotted here and there up and down the sides. They stood by the largest entrance, which was large enough that two semi-trucks could drive abreast, carrying two more semis on top. "Welcome to Beedom City," Fleur said with a chuckle. "Anyone home?" she called into that vast dark cavern.

Stesha returned to the table with a large and bubbling pan of lasagna, which she set down on a colorful trivet in the center of the square table. Another trip brought out a large and equally colorful salad, and a tray of warm garlic bread. The goblets were already filled with ice water, and there were no wine glasses on the table. "Sit down," she invited the guys, "and dig in. No use bothering with too much formality, right? I know I'm too hungry for much of that." She took a seat and began to serve, giving Quentin a large and cheesy piece, as requested. "Derrick's spent a lot of time out in space recently. He has all sorts of amazing stories."

"Mmm... all right," Erin decided after a moment's consideration. She didn't have to go very fast in the city either, and though the slow ride wasn't as thrilling as the speeds they got when Trevor was steering, the fact that she was the one at the controls had her heart pounding hard enough already. Carefully, she angled towards the gates, which slid open silently even as they approached. They passed through the gates of the palace and on down the hill towards the city, Erin biting her lip and paying all her attention to the road ahead.

"Oh, just set them on the counter there and I'll get to them later," Fleur told him, gesturing to the kitchenette as she finished her soup. It was obvious that she hadn't made the soup here, other than the single pot on the electric warmer, there were no cooking implements to be seen. She joined him after a moment, opening a big tulip from the pot on the counter before shoving all the dirty dishes into it. "There we go, all cleaned up," she told him breezily. "Let's go see the bees. We might need lights." Without bothering to explain her statement, she picked up a battery-operated lantern from the corner and set it on the table as she put all her winter gear back on, a layer at a time. She had to struggle a bit with the cowl, doing buttons that seemed just a bit too tight. When all her warm gear was back on, she looked to see if he was ready to go.

"Oh no, they're perfectly friendly these days. Now that they've realized that no one here is a threat to them, and in fact most of the people I've brought to see them have been actively helpful, they're no danger to people," Fleur assured him breezily. "Well, unless you get in the way of where one is trying to set down, I suppose. They're less active now that the weather is cold. I had Gaian Knight help me set up a hive for them that would be big enough so that all of them could be inside at once, and thick-walled enough to keep out the winter. Let me see if any are even out today." She closed her eyes and touched the tips of her fingers to the potted hydragea bushlet sitting on the table. For a moment she was still, seeming to concentrate on something Lance couldn't see. "A few of them are out," she told him. "I guess it must be sunny enough. We can go see them after lunch, if you'd like."

"We all wear the camouflage that suits us best," Miss A agreed with a strange little smile. "I can make a knight out of you, no problem." She looked at the results of the pike scan as it finished, nodding a little, then handed the weapon back to him. "The easiest way is going to be with a holographic generator that is activated by the start of your transformation," she decided. "I could try and disguise the pieces themselves, but they fold out of your body in a way that's both distinctive and disturbing to the less-educated masses. With a holographic generator, all anyone would see is a suit of armor shimmering into being. We'll put a separate generator on your pike, just to make sure it doesn't lose visual cohesiveness if you're disarmed or anything like that." She grabbed her pad and started making notes, her fingers flying across the screen. "It'll need to be shielded against your energy, of course, and be several layers deep to discourage any deeper scrutiny. I've been working on a few concepts like that, I'm really making some progress. Stretch out on the table, would you? I'm going to get some measurements to work with as I build. You thinking standard knight in shining armor, faceplate and feather hat, gauntlets, boots, the whole classic deal?"

After another check, and tugging her skirt securely into place, Erin gave the bike some gas, chuckling as it rolled forward barely fast enough to keep it upright, even with her superlative balance. She gave it another nudge and took it up to about twenty miles per hour, fast enough that the gyroscopic action kicked in and the bike stabilized. "All right, I think I've got it now..." Soon they were cruising at thirty, and though Erin didn't seem to have much trouble with the controls, she was apparently content to take the bike in a wide circle around one of the outbuildings over and over, making absolutely sure that she wasn't going to tip the thing over at speed. "It's working!" she told Trevor, sounding very pleased.

Erin grinned as she fielded the keys, pinning her hair back again with what pins she hadn't lost in the fall as she approached the bike. "My lucky day," she said with great anticipation. "You're going to have to show me how it's done." She'd done enough homework and watched Trevor enough to sit the bike properly and get her hands and legs arranged, at least. She was reasonably sure that she could drive unassisted if she'd needed to, but getting the personal lesson would make sure... and it was more fun.

Erin gave him a moment's uncomprehending look before figuring out what he wanted to do. "Guess we're taking the quick way down... nobody better look up my dress." She was wearing bicycle shorts under the dress, she did that as a matter of course these days, but it was more the principle of the thing. Holding onto Trevor securely with one strong arm, she used the other to gather up her skirt and hold it in place. With all those machinations, actually jumping off the balcony was almost an afterthought. Because she wanted to, she gave Trevor a quick kiss on the way down, with the wind whipping crazily around them and the lights of the building smearing into lines with their speed. Two stories up, she let go of her skirt, bent her legs, and absorbed the force of landing with her body and nothing more than a slight grimace. Brushing the wrinkles from her dress, she took a look around. "Think we'll have any trouble getting off the grounds?"

Stesha laughed, thinking about that for a moment. "Well, I suppose I could tell you about my giant firebreathing bees," she suggested. "I don't know if you've heard of the Beekeeper, but he's a legacy villain who's been hanging around Freedom City for the past couple of years. Right after I started working, he decided that a plant controller was just the right match for a man who likes bees, and he decided he wanted me to be his queen. I'm not really in to insane psychopathic types, so I politely declined, and then less politely declined, until eventually he got thrown into Blackstone for his less-than-gracious responses to disappointment." Her voice was dry, but a smile still played around the corners of her mouth. "In any case one of the Beekeeper's pet project was breeding giant bees. And not giant in the way you might be thinking, six inches or a foot long," she added. "The average length of these bees is about fifty, fifty-five feet long. And some of them can breathe fire, for reasons that are still not entirely clear." Fleur shrugged. "When the Beekeeper went to prison, the bees were left out in the cold, some of them literally. They didn't have anywhere to go, so I brought them here. Some other heroes have been helping me fix things up for them, and now they have a nice place to live where they're not bothered or bothering anyone. It's a happy ending to a sad, strange story."