Electra

Erin shrugged, adjusting the straps of her silver two-piece. She was glad the suit still fit since she'd bought it last summer, after much agonizing over style and fit. It showed off a lot of well-toned muscle, and a lot more skin than she'd ever shown Trevor before, that was for sure. "I guess," she told Alex. "Alcohol doesn't have any effect on me. One time I drank like two full bottles of chocolate liqueur, and then a whole bottle of Everclear when that didn't work. I almost got sick from having too much liquid in my stomach, but I didn't even get tipsy. It was sort of an experiment." She headed out the door along with Alex, padding barefoot towards the hot tub and looking for Trevor as she went. He looked good in the black trunks, he always looked good, and she was glad he'd taken off the sunglasses for the occasion. Now that she'd had a chance to get used to it, seeing him wear the sunglasses inside was actually weirder than seeing his eyes.

Stesha clapped her hands, then pressed them to her mouth, looking up at the marvel that Quentin had just created from nowhere. "Oh, it's so beautiful!" she breathed, turning fully around to see it. "It's amazing, more than I dreamed of. Look how it catches the light!" The faceted dome caught and refracted the morning sunlight, breaking it up into rainbows that splashed over the ground everywhere, making the place look like even more of a fantasyland. "I love it!"

Stesha glanced around to see if there was some kind of camera filming her reaction to this ridiculous scenario. "Your sister is having an outdoor wedding on the water in the middle of December in New Jersey, and you have no flowers or supplies six weeks out." She gave Carrie a level look. "Do you think you could convince her of the romance and fun of eloping?" she asked.

"So you're invoking Clarke's Law," Miss A said thoughtfully. "It looks like magic because we haven't got the tools to understand the science yet. I think you're almost certainly correct about that. So for the moment, the thing to do is to concentrate on developing the tools that will allow us to measure the effects that we want to study scientifically." She pursed her lips thoughtfully, looking at the screen. "Have you been able to find any "magical" metahumans who will allow you to run tests on them yet?"

"Okay," Erin agreed, shooting Trevor a quick glance as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "I'll be right back. You should get your swimsuit too." She followed Alex to the back of the plane, stopping by her suitcase to fish her swimsuit out of her suitcase. The rear cabin wasn't very big, but it was a lot bigger than a typical airport head, certainly big enough for two girls to change in, especially two who were used to living together and changing in proximity. "So are you going to drink?" Erin asked Alex as she tugged her suit on.

"Honestly, another month wouldn't have made much difference for Christmas week," Stesha confided. "People who want Christmas Eve weddings book nine months to a year ahead of time. I'm amazed you were able to get a church, actually. Our supplier is a wholesaler, but you might be able to work something out, since you're making so many pieces." Stesha jotted down a number in addition to the handful of florists she's written. "Here, when you call, ask for Michael, and tell him Stesha Madison sent you. He might be able to hook you up." She passed the sheet over to the frazzled girl.

"It's okay, it's true," Erin said with a wry shrug. "'S why I'm not taking calc this year even though I'm a senior. Alex practically had to drag me through trigonometry last year, even though I spent hours studying. Math and science aren't really my thing, I like, you know, English and history and stuff like that. I help out backstage for the school plays." She cracked a smile. "I'm pretty good at physics, mostly because there's lots of real-life practical applications for me. Don't worry about them," she added in an undertone once they were out of the building and away from people. "It doesn't matter."

"Yeah, we didn't get much of that in regular biology, and that's probably good," Erin commented. "I had enough trouble following along without any of the extra hearts stuff. But it'll be good if you ever have to do first aid on an alien or someone with really weird body parts or something." She secured the door and they headed off towards the elevators. Erin nodded to a few people along the way, but it was pretty obvious that most people did believe the rumors, and tended to give her a wider berth than necessary. She didn't seem to notice, or it had ceased to bother her. "Advanced algebra first hour is bad enough."

Stesha shook her head. "I'm afraid we're not going to be able to help you," she said, with some amount of genuine regret. She never liked to turn people down, even people with totally impossible requests. "We already have two Christmas Eve weddings scheduled, both of which were booked almost a year ago, as well as another wedding the day before. Flowers By Design prides itself on giving our utmost attention to every client on their special day, and by trying to squeeze in another large wedding, we'd shortchange both your sister and the clients we already have contracts with." She paused, trying to think of any advice she could give that would help. "There are a number of more traditional florists in Freedom City, some of whom are very good. They'll be well-stocked on Christmas flowers, and I'm sure some of them would be able to make up some of the bouquets and centerpieces for you. Not all of them will be the same if you go that route, but you'll get a charming diversity. Would you like me to give you some phone numbers?" she asked kindly.

Erin wasn't in much of a mood to talk about holiday plans, especially holiday plans she'd just made up to get Mrs. Faretti to stop being mad at her, but she figured she was stuck for it now. "Um, I haven't exactly lined things up yet," she said. "The school does a sort of Thanksgiving and holiday meal for students who don't go home, but no winter formal or thing like that. They pretty much just leave that up to prom in the spring. I think I'm just going to take a few days off and do stuff, catch up on things and watch TV. I can probably babysit if you need me to," she admitted.

Stesha just stared at the girl as she recited her list of requests, not even bothering to get out her pad and take notes the way she usually would. After she finished, there was a long moment's pause as Stesha very carefully suppressed the incredulous laugh that was trying to find it's way out. "I see..." she finally said, looking down at her calender. "I want to make sure I have this absolutely clear, with no misunderstanding. You're looking to get flowers for a wedding that is this Christmas Eve, fifty-one shopping days away?"

Stesha blinked and blew out a quiet breath at that request. An event florist, busy the week of Christmas? Perish the thought. "Well," she said carefully, professional as always, "that's Christmas week. We have a lot of parties already booked that week, and several weddings. It depends on what sort of event you're planning. What is it that you're looking to get scheduled?" she asked the young woman. This new customer looked very little like the typical customer at the shop, who tended to be upscale and either elegantly or professionally dressed. It was enough to make her curious, anyway.

As the bell on the door chimed, Stesha set aside the bouquet she was tying in the back and took a moment to take off her work smock and smooth down her clothes before she went into the front. Her gold pantsuit was very cute for the fall, and matched by bright, brassy gold poppies braided into her hair. It was important to project an image of professionalism, and with her bright green hair, she had to work a little harder at that. Stepping through the door, she emerged behind the counter with a warm smile for her new customer. "Hello, welcome to Flowers by Design. I'm Stesha, how can I help you?"

Erin gave Trevor a crooked smile, settling into her seat beside him and securing her seatbelt. "Well, I'm on a private jet, flying first class halfway around the world to spend a week as the guest of a king with all my best friends. I'd say I've definitely had worse birthdays. It's on Thursday," she told Mike, "but you guys don't have to do anything for it. We'll probably be really busy with other stuff, anyway." She slid her hand into Trevor's as the plane began to taxi, looking forward to the lift from takeoff.

"I'm not very good at ideas," Erin admitted glumly. "I asked Edge, because he always has these crazy ideas that tend to work, but he couldn't think of anything either. He just changed the subject like he usually does when he doesn't want to think about depressing things." She tugged on the edges of her hair, looking upset in a repressed sort of way. "You really think there's nothing I can do for her except hope that somehow she can fix her own brain, or somebody there takes care of her?"

"Alex and I have been roommates since we got here," Erin explained, "we've sort of got a system set up now. It's nice not to have to move around a lot and get used to new roommates." She opened the closet closest to the door, to reveal the same sparse neatness as her half of the room. There were a couple of uniforms, a jacket, a few pairs of pants and a few blouses and sweaters, along with an incongruous formal dress set aside by itself on one side of the bar and sheathed in protective plastic. She took a bag of premium cat food down off the shelf and poured some into a ceramic dish on the floor, nearly dumping some on Oliver's head when he dove onto the food like a starving wild animal. "All right, let's go. We've still got time before first hour. What's your first class?"

Stesha sighed a little at Jill's reaction to her new teacher, but the poor girl did have Jack of All Blades as a mentor and brother. It was charitable to cut her a little slack. "Supercape is very graciously going to put a dome over the sanctuary so it'll be protected from the weather. His constructs are crystalline, and very beautiful, so they let in the sunlight. I'm going to have to work up an irrigation system, but I have some plans for that, as well. You should watch carefully, this is going to be very impressive." She turned her own face upwards, like a child waiting for a fireworks show to start.

"Mark... I mean Edge told me that at places like Blackstone, they can rehabilitate villains, give them treatment and get them better," Erin said, hope warring with uncertainty. "And they treat people humanely, feed them and give them medical care and treat them like human beings. Maybe rehabilitation's a longshot chance, but it's some kind of chance, anyway. She's not going to be anybody's savior. They use her to kill people, I think they... you know Psyche, on my team? I think her double gets into my double's head and makes her see all the people, the rebels who are trying to fight back, as zombies. And so she kills them, because she's terrified, all the time. She's so out of it that when she saw me, she didn't even recognize me. She called me Mom, like she was a little kid or something." Erin hitched up her legs, wrapping her arms around her knees. "I don't think she's going to last very much longer," she admitted. "I wouldn't want to live that way, and I don't think she does either. I watched her fight. She fights like I used to, when I didn't care. She's hoping that something takes her out. And I guess that's the only other answer for her. Nobody would want to live that way," she said again.

"I'm ready," Erin assured him, opening out her bat with a practiced spin. Once again, she was not in costume for a fight, but there was no time to think about that now. She'd put the clothes down as an expense, if this was part of the babysitting gig like Avenger said. Right now it was pretty much the least of her worries. "How are we going to get there? Do we need a dimensional portal or something, or can he take us?" she asked, looking toward Ouroboros.

"They're pretty nice," Erin said, "big enough, with room for storage and stuff, and the beds are okay. Alex and I bunked our beds because it makes the room seem bigger. I guess a lot of stuff does happen after class and on weekends, when the teachers aren't supervising us," she allowed with a half smile as she opened the door into her room. The dorm room was kind of a funny dichotomy, with one half a riot of well-organized stuff, full of colors and sparkles. Jill recognized some of Alex's clothes and accessories easily enough, the petite senior had a style that could not be duplicated. A computer took up a lot of the room on the desk, along with a pile of notebooks and stacks of paper that spoke to a unique sort of filing system. The other side of the room looked empty by comparison, with Erin's books and papers stacked up on one corner of the otherwise empty desk, and only a few odd items sitting on the dresser. The battered pink jewelry box, the picture in the broken frame, and the very dirty teddy bear were obviously mementos of some sort, though they had no obvious connection. The room itself was reasonably spacious for a dorm, and the big window let in enough sunlight to make it cheerful . "Alex must've gotten up and taken off," Erin observed. "I guess I'll catch up to her later." She set the box on her desk and turned to Jill. "You know, there's no reason you can't come over on a weekend or stay after school some time," she suggested. "Anybody who goes to school here is allowed on campus pretty much anytime as long as they obey the rules."

It was Erin's turn to wince this time, but she covered it by tucking her presents back into the box and picking it up. "Well, everybody has good days and bad days," she offered cryptically. "Today's a good day, so let's go have some waffles and celebrate. Just let me take this stuff to my room." She picked up the box and headed down the hall to the girls' dorms, Oliver following behind with the catnip pouch hanging from his mouth like a patchwork trophy.

"I've actually read a great deal of the metahuman research that comes out of ArcheTech," Miss A told him as they walked in and the doors closed. "It was one of my most valuable resources while I was designing and building my current project, in fact. Nobody else is doing anything on the same level in terms of hard scientific research into metaphysical development. I was getting pretty tired of researchers passing it off as "superpowers" or "magic," that's for certain. Of course there are powers that are difficult to quantify and almost impossible to find the origin of, but just giving up and saying it's magic seems like such a cop-out." She laughed. "And it was also frustrating for someone trying to reproduce metahuman powers mechanically."

"It's still... it's just an idea," Erin said uncomfortably, tugging on the ends of her hair. "And it's nothing to do with Omega or the Terminus or anything like that. I haven't really worked out all the details yet, or most of the details, even. I just don't even know if it would work, because I don't know the rules about dimensions. I can't... If I tried and then you had to come along and send her back, it would be even worse than if I'd never done anything at all." She blew out a breath and spilled the beans. "When we went to anti-Earth, I saw the double of me that they have there. She's not from there, she didn't start out evil like they do there. She was a split from me, from my world. I guess maybe it had to happen that way, for symmetry or something. But they found her, and they tortured her, and they made her crazy. And they're still torturing her. She lives in a little box half the size of JJ's nursery, and they play images from our world for her to make her upset, to make her cower or fight. And she's never going to get away. I know she has to be locked up, she's very dangerous, but even being in prison here would be a million times better than being there." She looked over at Taylor to see what kind of reaction that would get.

"Not at all, your assistant was very efficient," Miss A assured the doctor. "And has a very thorough knowledge of important pop culture as well." She chuckled. "I wasn't expecting a psychiatric evaluation, but I suppose the insurance company does need its pound of flesh in the hiring process as well. I assume the next step involves some more confidential questions, since you're handling that? Which I appreciate, by the way," she added. "I know how busy you must be."

Miss A is only moderately fabulously wealthy, and she's not well-known, but who would turn her away if she showed up at the door in a cocktail dress? :D