Electra
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Chelone was working outside as well, partly because her bright shell was a nice visual image for the worried citizens of the town, and partly because said bright shell kept bumping into things in the narrow confines of the elephant's insides. Besides, the "intestinal pink" of the walls, as the enthusiastic caretaker had described them, were sort of grossing her out. Wielding a scrub brush was easy work that didn't require speed or agility. In fact, going slow and paying attention to details was an asset when it came to scrubbing the nasty graffiti off each brightly colored elephant toenail in turn. Down on all fours to work on toes, she was almost completely obscured by her own shell and looked substantially more like a real tortoise than usual.
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"Oh my god!" Danica literally squealed with delight when she saw the little robot, even before Eira began reeling off the specs. "It's so cute!" she exclaimed, hugging the thing to her chest and beaming. "Oh Eira, I love it!" She laughed when it played its song, along with her mom who clearly caught the reference even if Danica herself did not. "Thank you so much!" Ducking into her shell for a moment, she emerged with a USB stick, presenting it to Eira. "Here," she said, "this is about ten thousand hours of zoo camera footage, from all over our home zoo and also Freedom City Zoo. I thought it might be, you know, relaxing or interesting to you when you don't have a lot of other stuff to process. I sometimes just like watching the live cams, even though I can only watch one at a time." Danica broke off as the furry interloper and its pursuer plunged through the little knot of students. She grabbed the handlebar of her Segway tightly, then relaxed when the girl made it through with nobody getting knocked around. "Is that a real fox?" she asked with great interest. "Do foxes eat bagels?"
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"Oh good," Danica said to Veronica. "I mean I like you, Prudence," she hastened to add, "but it might be a little hard to get used to having a three person, even if I sleep in my shell. But I'm sure it'll be nice to have you visit!" She turned to Natalia and positively beamed. "It's natural," she assured the new girl, craning around a bit to give the shell a pat. "It's very similar to the pattern on an Indian Star Tortoise, if you put that pattern on a shell ten times the size. When I was little I went through a few different shell variations, but this is the one that seemed to stick. And I know the Segway's kind of last-decade, but it's a mobility aid that helps me get around." Indeed, there was a little blue and white handicapped placard mounted to the front bar. "I'm Danica," she added. "I'm a junior this year, finally!" "Thank you," Danica's mom said to Eira with friendly formality, "he's doing very well. We don't get too much opportunity to watch the early development of rare tortoises, so it's been a real treat." Danica's parents looked surprisingly young compared to most parents of high schoolers, and shockingly young to anybody who knew how old Danica actually was, but they both carried themselves with a certain gravitas that spoke of more years than their bodies showed. "And you must be Eira?" she guessed. "Danica says you're a good teammate to have in an investigation." "Thank you," Danica's dad told Lulu with a smile. "Danica loves it here at Claremont, it's so nice that she's made so many friends here." "Yep!" Danica told Lulu, "This is my mom and dad, they live in parent housing so they're not very far away, but they don't come on campus a lot so I can learn to be independent. But of course they're helping me move in! Has anything big and weird happened yet?"
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As if summoned, the elevator doors at the end of the hall dinged and slid open to reveal a tortoise on a Segway. Or rather, a tortoise girl on a Segway, a rather improbable combination of petite human with skin tanned a dusky green and a massive black and gold tortoise shell covered in bold geometric designs. She was accompanied by two adults, similar in features but without the tortoise overtones, and no luggage at all for any of them. "I love back to school!" Danica crowed as she pushed her handlebars forward and sped down the hall. "Lulu, Eira! Hi!" She stopped a couple of feet short of actually plowing into anyone, her moves speaking of long practice. "Hey Veronica," she said, just a shade more diffident. "I hear we're roommates this year. I wanted to ask... does your assistant sleep in the room too? I mean, like, do we need an extra bed?"
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"Yeah," Danica agreed, "it seems like if there's anything in better shape, it's probably going to be underground. I don't know a whole lot about Atlanteans," she admitted, "but if this were like a Greek or Roman structure, I'd say it was a lot more temple-y than 'none shall pass'-y. If they're containing something, it would have to be down in the earth. The question's gonna be, do we want to poke our noses in? It could be a lot more dangerous than just waiting for a ride home, and there's no guarantee that anything down there might help us." The words were sensible, but the tone of her voice suggested she was mostly offering the cautions for form's sake.
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"What is it, anyway?" Raina asked, not bothering to dance around the topic. "I mean, what do your powers do that makes you feel that way? Are you like a fencer but also a necromancer or something?" Up close the sensation was even odder, strange enough that she deliberately blunted her magical senses rather than feel it grating against her psyche. She could afford to, knowing that Erik wouldn't stop paying attention despite the discomfort. Pulling out her phone, she sent Merlin a quick text to let him know that everything seemed okay for the moment. He'd still keep an eye out, too.
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Raina moved to flank the newcomer, careful as she picked up the forms to avoid setting them on fire. She still had no idea what the kid's deal was... right up until he mentioned his school. "Oh, you're from Claremont?" she asked, visibly relaxing and waving her hand to let the flame in her palm go out. "Well, that explains why your energy feels like some kind of magic nightmare disaster, I guess." Dropping the forms back on the desk, she gave the kid an assessing look. "Definitely don't join anything you don't have to there, they're pretty much a bunch of losers and the clubs are boring."
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Raina rolled her eyes at Erik's protests and pulled out the dry mop to sweep soot off the mats. It was a pain in the ass to clean up once it got set in. She stopped abruptly the instant Erik's cheerful greeting cut off. Something was wrong. She took a deep breath and opened her senses. Strange magic, dead magic, the smell of coffin dirt and a strange red haze creeping in from the doorway. It didn't seem actively malevolent, at least not yet, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Magic like that could cause a lot of harm with no ill intent at all. She looked over at Merlin, who'd stopped to listen as well, and flicked him the finger signs that meant security system. He nodded and leapt into the nearest air vent, scampering for the upstairs. "Keep your pants on, anciano, I'm coming!" she called, making herself sound put upon instead of unnerved. Snapping a flame to life, she cradled it like a palmed die as she hurried into the lobby. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't a kid, even a sturdy-looking kid who seemed like he might know what he was doing around a dojo. She looked at Erik for a cue.
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Danica sighed a little at the amount of ground they'd have to cover, but took his hand gamely enough to make her way over the uneven terrain. It was slow going, of course, but she didn't actually have any trouble walking or climbing, it just took an extra long time. "We should probably try to remember exactly where we landed," she suggested as they went, "in case we have to leave from the exact same place. It shouldn't be too hard, there's a foot-deep divot in the shape of my shell there now," she added with a chuckle. "But maybe marking our path wouldn't hurt." She pulled a piece of white chalk from her shell and on a convenient rock wrote "Chelone & Artificer 03/07/2020" and then drew an arrow in the direction of the ruins. "They'll come after us if they can, I'm sure."
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After a few quiet moments, the shell expanded to its original size and Danica popped back into it, carefully checking to make sure the creature was gone before pushing herself back to her feet. "I was sort of hoping for friendly dinosaurs," she admitted with a sigh. "Did you ever see Land of the Lost?" she asked Heroditus. "It was about a family who fell into an alternate world full of dinosaurs. They built an awesome treehouse and made friends with dinosaurs. It was radical." She looked around. "This seems... different. What do you think we should do?"
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"Come on, I don't want to break your brittle old man hip when we're not even sparring," Raina protested, picking up her water bottle and taking a long drink. "You could have a sword cane now," she pointed out, "if you just got one of those stupid little straw hats too and learned to tap dance." She did a quick shuffle ball change combination that was all she remembered of the dance lessons her mother had insisted upon. Merlin looked up from his tablet long enough to applaud politely. This hilarious byplay was interrupted by the sound of the bell from the outer lobby. Raina looked up, raising her eyebrows. "Not it," she said immediately.
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"Yeah, next time I'll make sure it drops you on your ass instead of holding you up," Raina agreed. She gave the reddened patch of skin a spritz of first aid spray just to be on the safe side. "But you've sparred with Talia for like a bazillion years, so you already know everything she's taught me. And I can't just undo a couple buttons to make you stop thinking like she does, because gross." Raina tilted her head thoughtfully. "What I need is like... oh yeah, that'd probably work." She grinned as a new strategy popped into her brain, but didn't elaborate. "You okay to walk?" The broom floated up helpfully next to Erik, offering a handy grab bar if required.
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"It is MADE OF FIRE!" Raina yelled, leaping up and waving her own arms around some as Erik went reeling off. The sword and Erik's pant leg both extinguished themselves instantly, leaving behind a smell of scorched cotton. "If you step on a fire, it is going to make you be on fire! Merlin!" She turned toward the spectator area in time for Merlin to toss her a spray can of Dermoplast. She pulled off the lid and shook it up, advancing on Erik. "Come on, did it get you? Let me see." Years of sparring had her burn care down to a science, except when the victim was hopping around the room and out of reach.
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"Okay, boomer." A quick fingerwave from Raina had her broom, which had been hovering unobtrusively near the ceiling, dive-bombing straw end first onto the rapier master. With the blindfold on, he wasn't in danger from as much as a poke in the eye with a wheat straw, but the sudden paft in the face was certain to be distracting. She dove low with her sword, risking exposure of her own back and arm to try for a shot at his ankles while his body was slightly off-balance.
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"I got tired of you punning about seeing me a mile away even blindfolded," she told him, closing in with her fiery blade. She was much more cautious now, fighting defensively against a stronger opponent as she looked for any possible opportunities for dirty tricks. If she'd learned anything from her teachers at the dojo, it was that fighting by the rules was strictly for competitions, never for the real world. "But the broom's not that good in an enclosed space, so I'm just gonna have to rely on the fact that you're old and slow."
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"Just don't want you losing your edge, old man!" Raina cackled at the other end of the room, extending an arm without looking to swing herself up onto her broom. His sixth sense could still find her in the air, but at least he couldn't feel her feet on the mats this way. "There's lot of bad guys out there!" She tossed another handful of carefully modulated fireballs in his direction even as she used the broom to soar across the room and tumble down behind him. As her feet hit the mat, she raised a hand and manifested a fiery sword of her own, not as precisely drawn as Erik's, but bright and dangerous-looking.
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Name: Danica Holmes Codename: Chelone Year: Junior! (it's only taken four years, she's very excited to finally be an upperclassman!) Current Intramural Team: New transfer to Blue Squad Current Roommate: Not sure Reflection: Danica has made a lot of friends and learned a lot at Claremont, but she's also become more aware of her limitations than ever before. She is hoping to figure out in the coming years how to use her gifts to benefit the world, even if those ways may not involve a lot of action-adventure. Community Cause: Danica helped save the zoo that one time, she'd like to volunteer there more when there are no disasters happening! And hey, now that she's a lofty junior of 34, maybe she's ready to start showing some younger students the ropes.
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"Come on, boss," Erin muttered, even as she texted rapidly with her security team. "If somebody asks if you're a god, say yes!" She looked up at the screen. "Jacob says we're go on the air-gap; this system is totally stand-alone now and has no access to the rest of the building or the network. I've also got security on alert and have everybody in this section of the building moving to the east wing in case we need to lock down. What do you think it is?"
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"Some demons are actually very- never mind," the security chief put in, her pale cheeks coloring slightly. She reached out to intercept Eira's hand before she could connect with the screen. "Hang on, Eira, this is probably something to let the professionals handle. First rule of superscience, if you don't know what it is, don't hook your brain up to it." From the look on Ms. Hunter-White's face, this was a voice of experience talking. She raised her phone and pressed an intercom button. "Hey boss, Charlie's under control and doing fine, but he borked a computer in a weird way. You wanna come take a look?"
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The security chief sighed and relaxed into what was obviously a deliberately nonthreatening posture, shoulders rounded and arms relaxed, the smile on her face wry but present. "We know you didn't, Charlie," she assured him. "Nobody got hurt, and nothing got broken that we can't fix. But I still need you to remember the rule about going through walls, okay? It's very, very important." She looked over at the computer, then at the teens. "Huh. Don't suppose either of you know why it's doing that?"
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The door opened again as the two teens sorted themselves out. Erin Hunter-White, in the flesh this time, entered with Mia in tow and the ball rolling behind them. "Are you two all right?" she asked, her face entirely sober in the way of someone who is firmly tucking away laughter. "Don't worry about the boxes. The maintenance team will be down in a few minutes anyway, they can clean that up. Did you see which way Charlie went?"
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"I still think she made the crocodile and snuck it in as a ringer," Danica put in. "It's just too different from any of the other creatures. It doesn't _fit._ But yeah, seeing the crocodile would probably get her attention. I can call her and tell her we're hot on the trail, just let me know where and when. It's not even a lie," she reasoned with a wry grin, "so long as I don't mention exactly what we're hot on the trail of. But if you're determined that we should tell her what we know, we may want a backup plan in case she gets all murderstabby about it."
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Danica was glad to see Heroditus make it to whatever safety the ruins could offer; it let her concentrate on her more immediate problem! "I'm not good to eat!" she called to the dinosaur, who did not seem impressed by that argument. It also had a fairly hard strike with that beak! Scooting to the back of her shell, Danica opened the little door and retreated to the safety of her pocket dimension, letting the shell shrink to the size of a beach ball and the weight of a semi-truck behind her. "Wait until it goes away" definitely appeared to be the safest option.
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"It's rude to ask people about things that don't make sense in their backstories," Danica agreed complacently. "I feel like that might be setting us up for trouble in our professional lives later, but it does prevent some backbiting and bullying in the metahuman school system. I kind of feel like we should at least get a weekend seminar in senior year about what to do if your boyfriend or new teammate or world leader has a backstory that doesn't make any sense but calling them on it feels awkward. Cause I would definitely not know what to do."
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"I have no idea," Danica admitted immediately. "This is way outside my area of expertise. I thought she was just stringing us along and had maybe made some or all of those robots herself, but I never would've twigged her as actually _being_ a robot. That's serious coo-coo bananas stuff right there. But I guess it doesn't really seem like she's being controlled? I mean, she seems to want something that's normal for a person in her apparent situation to want, lots of attention and social media views and stuff. If she happens to be a robot, then maybe making robots is the best way to get those hits and likes? Eira says she's blinking the same in all her videos, so I don't think we need to worry about the real Katie being kidnapped by a robot doppelganger or something."