Electra

"I can't take too much credit," Miss A told him easily, sitting down at the desk and crossing her own long legs. "It's the color I was born with. But I'm glad you approve." She picked up what appeared to be a heavily modified iPad and a stylus, then looked over at him. "I'd like to start by taking as much of a medical history as you're comfortable with giving me," she told him. "Everything you tell me will remain totally confidential and will go into our most secure servers, where they're not even accessible by most employees here. What can you tell me about yourself?" Her voice was soothing and competent, inviting openness.

Not just a name, but an attitude as well, Miss A thought, even as she smiled at the praise. "You're going to turn my head," she told him with a soft laugh. "I'll try and make this as painless as possible, I promise. I left all my really pointy probes in my other lab today. Just let me turn off some of my projects here. Go on and have a seat by the desk." With a wink, she turned and began stopping some of the mechanical motion, bringing the noise in the lab to a quiet thrum. As she returned, she asked, "Anything I can get for you before we get started? A drink, a snack? Is the temperature in here comfortable for you?"

He was expected, so his trip through the large, bright lobby area didn't take long. A smiling receptionist checked him in and gave him a name badge, then pointed out the lighted arrows on the wall that would lead him to his destination. A short walk and an elevator ride later, the arrows led him into a well-appointed medical lab and work room, which seemed to combine high-end diagnostic equipment with a curious number of fabrication tools. Here and there were what looked like mechanical body parts in various stages of completion, some of them hooked up to computers and moving in repetitive patterns, wiggling fingers or flexing a knee joint over and over. From amid the muted whirrings and chatter of electronics, a stunningly beautiful woman stepped out into the clear area at the front of the lab. Slick could recognize Miss Americana from his party, where she'd appeared on the arm of Doctor Archeville for a short time. She looked different today, having traded silk and jewels for a blue bodysuit and a labcoat, but the effect was no less intense. "Good afternoon, Slick," she said, with a smile that could've melted butter at twenty paces, "I'm so glad you could make it today. I'm Miss Americana, I look forward to working with you."

Stesha goes on 14

Stesha shuddered as she looked around at the creepy place, hugging herself and looking even more sick to her stomach than when she'd started. "Robots, he's building robots," she murmured. "Just when I thought he couldn't get any worse." She looked over at Taylor. "I say smash it to the ground and salt the earth, but lets wait until we've got the bees first. They're my first priority, even if this stuff makes me want to retch. I think I hear the bees further on."

It was going to be the perfect afternoon for Stesha. Curled up on the couch in her apartment, watching the Snoopy Christmas Marathon on ABC Family, with Derrick close by and a fresh box of Rice Krispie Treats cereal. Sure, maybe she'd been supposed to get married today, but she wasn't going to let that get her down. A New Year's wedding was just as good as a Thanksgiving wedding, even if she was going to be letting out her dress until it cried for mercy. And there was something to be said for a lazy afternoon after two days of huge meals at her folks' house. And she did mean huge. She'd eaten every damn thing in sight, or so it had felt. At this rate, she was going to have to trade in her dress for a white catering tent with flower embroidery. But that was a worry for some other day! She was just getting into the second hour of Peanuts when suddenly, her cozy afternoon was rudely interrupted! "Otaku?" she said aloud, peering at the screen. "Ah, crud, not again. You ruined my convention, you're not going to get away with spoiling my lazy weekend!" Hastily she donned her costume and left a note for Derrick, then teleported herself to the scene of the crime!

"I ate half a box of Rice Krispie Treats cereal an hour ago," she admitted to him with a laugh. "I don't need any more to eat right now. But going to bed would be good." She kissed him again, then stood up, amazingly still entirely competent to perform that act. "And eventually sleeping as well." With a wink that even Derrick couldn't fail to understand, she took his hand and tugged him to his feet, leading him off to the bedroom of her leafy bower.

"If you say it a few million more times, I might get tired of it, but I don't think so," Stesha replied. She swallowed a yawn. "I should probably also mention that the not needing food or sleep thing seems to be out the window for the moment. I guess I can't photosynthesize enough energy for two. Or maybe I'm just storing up sleep against the day. Taylor says it's hard to come by. Come to bed," she invited him. "It's much warmer with two. Two and a half," she corrected with a laugh.

Gina watched with extreme interest as Wesley prepared his materials, taking special interest in how he unwrapped the sterile single-use needle and applied it to his clean tattoo gun. Reassured that conditions were clean and sterile, she climbed up onto the table and turned onto her side, closing her eyes to wait for the tattoo to begin. "I'm ready," she told him, her voice soft, but resolute. Interestingly enough, her skin seemed to be universally pale all over, as though her face, hands, and arms saw no more sun than the skin normally covered by clothes.

That seemed like a good idea to Erin, or at least a way to avoid some awkwardness. She put her hand in Trevor's with a slight smile, following him onto the floor. She'd been practicing, with a considerable amount of help from Trevor, and was much more confident than she'd been the last time she went out onto the dance floor at a party with Trevor. James had showed up by surprise at that party as well, she recalled. Strange kind of symmetry there, she guessed, but she wasn't going to hurt her brain wondering about it. She'd rather just dance.

Stesha got a 27!

"He escaped from prison and got a significantly upgraded suit, not to mention the bees," Stesha said, pursing her lips. "I think this all happened while you were busy elsewhere, but he tried to hold the city hostage until he got me. Which is creepy as hell, and doesn't really work the way he seems to think it does. You should've seen it, though," she allowed, cracking a smile. "Ace disguised himself as me and hit the Beekeeper with some knockout lipstick. You can guess what he did to apply it." Stesha laughed. "Anyway, it knocked him out long enough for us to take him down and get him out of that suit." "You know," Stesha added idly after a moment's pause, "The funny thing is that when he's not in that stupid battlesuit, he's not bad-looking. If he'd just, you know, met me and asked me out to dinner like a normal person, back before I met Derrick, I might have said yes. Weird to think how it could've gone." She laughed and shook her head. "I don't want the bees to scare JJ or vice versa, so maybe we'll meet them on another day. How have things been for you since you've been home?"

Miss A secured the last of the samples in a scanner to monitor their behavior as they decayed or continued to regenerate, whichever happened, then turned to Dead Head. Samples were all well and good, but she suspected that any scientific measurements to be taken would be done visually and on the complete form. "If you make me scratch my head too much more, my hair is going to start falling out," she quipped. "But I'm always interested to see a new trick." She secured the last of the surgical tools in her autoclave, then gave him her full attention.

She looped her arms around his neck and cuddled against him, drinking in his warm, alive presence like a tree after a long drought. "I promise I'll let you wait on me hand and foot later," she told him teasingly. "And you're right about all the things we'll need. We have to make plans, but it's going to be fun. And you probably should think about not giving away all your money anymore," she allowed. "But right now at this minute, I have everything I could possibly need." Just like that, the pain and the anxiety of waiting for him were gone, and there was nothing but the bright warmth of the future.

Stesha chortled and pushed him back against the couch, kissing him to stop the flow of words momentarily. "Relax, relax! I'm not even due until June second. We have time for everything! I've already started thinking about things, and looking for a doctor, but I'm healthy as a horse right now, except for a little morning sickness and afternoon sleepies. Just sit and be happy with me for a few minutes," she asked him, framing his face with her hands. "I'm so happy right now. You're here and you're all right, and we're going to have a baby."

"I'm pregnant," Stesha told him, a trace of worry edging in along with the happiness. He'd seemed excited about the idea of having a baby when it had come up, almost a year ago now. Maybe she should've waited until he'd had a chance to settle in at home a little more. "I've known for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't told anyone. I wanted to tell you first, even if I didn't know when you'd come home. I'm so, so, so glad you're here..."

Stesha laughed at his enthusiasm. "I think we can wait a little longer than that," she told him. "How would you feel about a New Year's wedding? We can call in some favors to make sure the ice is clear, and wherever we get a place, we can make sure my family gets transportation. I think we can do it up properly in that much time." With her hands on his shoulders, she maneuvered him over to the couch, nudging him to sit down, and then perching herself across his knees. "And nobody shrunk my dress, it's sort of the opposite problem." She reached out, laying a hand on his cheek. "You remember that weekend in September, when I was so excited to see you that I tumbled us out here without so much as a bag of toiletries? It was a really exciting weekend, in a lot of ways." She took a deep breath, her eyes sparkling. "We're going to have a baby, Derrick."

Miss A glanced over long enough to see the results of the fight and nod approvingly, but most of her attention was still centered on the cowed villainess she was interrogating. "Tell me exactly where you're supposed to meet this contact, and any code words that you use when you meet with these people. Trust me when I say you really don't want to double-cross us on this." It explained Victory being so coincidentally in the sky, she supposed, if he was guarding a parts shipment for an AEGIS lab. She wasn't entirely sure where the others had come from, but a scrum did tend to attract attention in a city like Freedom.

"Help me plan this next one?" Stesha suggested with a smile. "There'll be more than enough to do, and I want to make it twice as amazing, so people will remember that and not the false start." She reached up and kissed him again, once on each corner of his mouth. "It'll be a lot of work, though. You remember how much of a job Taylor's rush wedding was, right? But I want to marry you soon, as soon as possible. Preferably while I can still wear my wedding dress." The smile she gave him this time was layered with meanings, for all she knew him too well to expect he'd catch it.

Gina nodded and stepped over to the mirror. She frowned a little at the merciless view of her own reflection, then narrowed her focus to concentrate on the tattoo itself. After studying it for a long moment, she nodded. "Yes, that's how I want it to look," she told him. "And as dark black as you can make it. I want a high degree of contrast, so it will be very visible." She was sure the talented artist could do some very subtle shades that might suit her better, but vivid and obvious was the entire point of this tattoo.

Stesha's smile slipped a little bit at that question. "I had to cancel it," she admitted. "I didn't know when you'd be back, and there were no male attendants, no fitting, no premarital counseling appointments... eventually it got to where I knew it wasn't going to happen. My mom helped me, everyone knows it's just postponed." She sighed a little, weeks and months of worry and unanswered questions getting a moment of air. "But no, you didn't miss the date. It was going to be next weekend. You made it in time for Thanksgiving."

"A work room," Gina requested, looking around at the employees and the customers beginning to trickle in. She followed him to one of the private areas in the back, which was a slightly more secure venue in which to remove her pants. Removing her shoes, she tucked them under a folding chair, then pulled off her jeans and folded them on top of the chair. Underneath the jeans, she'd had the foresight to put on boxer-style shorts, so she was still covered with perfect decency. She lay down on the work table on her side and closed her eyes, pointing to the area on the side of her left thigh where she wanted the tattoo placed.

"Oh, Derrick..." Stesha shivered and hugged him tighter. She remembered the cage he'd been kept in last time a villain had tried to tap Dark Star's immense energies for his own nefarious purposes. It had been awful. "I wish I could've been there to help you." She pulled away just to arm's length, to look him up and down. He looked fine, he looked like he always did in his human body, but that didn't always tell the whole story. "Are you all right now?" she asked. "Did they hurt you?"

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"Mm-hmm!" Stesha agreed enthusiastically, though it was hard to be much more articulate than that when her mouth was already on his, trying to make up for months of missed kisses in a few heated minutes. She stood on her tiptoes and threaded her fingers through his hair, taking full advantage of the fact that she didn't have to breathe as often as a normal woman. "Oh, Derrick, I can't even say how much I missed you," she told him on the end of a gasp when they finally took a break. "What happened? I was so worried when I didn't hear from you!"