Electra

"Well, make a few more and toss them in," Miss A suggested with an easy smile, taking the cube and tucking it away.. "If they all last a similar amount of time, that'll tell us something, and if they begin to dissipate at different times, that'll say something else. I imagine you already have some constructs lying around in places from other projects, you could keep an eye on them as well to see if the circumstances of their creation affects their longevity. I'll also keep that container you made for the bomb, see what happens with a slightly bigger object. And for something to put the bomb in," she added with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess so. I've met so many versions of myself, it usually doesn't even bother me anymore," Erin replied, tucking away diapers and toys into their proper pockets. She was quiet for a minute, then decided to change the subject. "Are you going to be back for awhile now?" she asked. "I mean, with the holidays coming and all, and JJ's six month checkup, stuff like that coming up." She tried to keep any censure out of her tone, but when Erin had had a mom, her mom had always been around for the important stuff. It was hard to think of moms not being that way.

"If you like," Miss A suggested with a gleam of science in her eye, "I can put one of your constructs into a containment unit and refrain from thinking about it too hard. That would probably be the easiest way to see how long your constructed materials last without any interference from outside forces." She pulled down a clear Plexiglass box from a shelf, opening the sealed lid to show him the diameter. "Something like this, you think? You could create anything that would fit inside it."

"Oh, I understand," Miss A assured him with a smile. "I can work with all sorts of people, Doctor Reynolds doesn't worry me too much. It's remarkably reassuring to know that if a man won't take no for an answer, as a last resort you can pick him up and throw him into the next county." She chuckled to show that she was only joking. "His project looks very interesting, though. I would love to see the specs on it... once I'm properly registered and in the system, of course. Do you keep your hand in on any of these projects? she asked him curiously.

"I think the second one was Rick Lucas," Erin admitted, a little uncomfortable to bring Mark's family into this. But still, Phantom was the dimensional guardian, and it was her job to know this stuff. "Or Evil Rick Lucas, actually. Like a challenge, to see which team was better. It was really weird. I don't even know who won, but eventually the Not-Evil Talos who is over there helped us get back on our own." She ran a hand over her hair and fiddled with the diaper bag, rearranging things to make sure it was neat to give back to Taylor. "Have you ever been there?"

"A personal force field small enough to wear?" Miss A stepped forward to take a look at the prototype while the weapons weren't hot. "That would be a huge innovation in protective wear, not only for police officers, but firefighters, medical personnel in dangerous areas, rescue workers, really anyone whose job involves going into danger." She took one calculated step away from Reynolds when he came in a bit too close, then looked over to Archeville. "Is this what you had in mind when you asked for brainstorming ideas at the Brunch?"

"It's okay," Stesha assured her compassionately. "I'm not so old yet that I don't vividly remember my teenage years. Believe me, you have every right to complain. Just remember, if somebody tries to tell you that those are the best years of your life, you are legally allowed to sock them in the jaw." Grinning broadly, she waved an arm around to encompass the planet. "Is there anything else you'd like to see or work on today? We've still got some time before Supercape gets here for part two of the lesson."

"If they want to give us some novelty, they might as well let us stay home, what with the fall term we've had," Erin pointed out dryly. "But it might be cool to go someplace new, especially someplace like the moon. I missed the trip to space when Dark Star took people up, I always kind of regretted that. But I guess there's plenty of time. Maybe we'll go to Antarctica or something like that, so we come back and don't mind the winter," she joked.

Miss A gave Archeville a single amused look before turning on the charm and stepping forward. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Reynolds. You published a paper last year in the Journal of Fluid Dynamics on the future of ballistic media, didn't you? That was fascinating reading. What is it that you're working on now?" Hopefully a quick redirect would get the engineer talking about his work instead of thinking about his play. Men! Yet she couldn't help feeling slyly flattered at the same time by his obvious interest.

"Not really," Erin told her, taking the wrapping paper off the next lumpy package. Since Oliver wasn't interested, she was careful with the wrapping paper, folding it and setting it aside so she could reuse it when she needed to. The second gift was an ivory-colored turtleneck that could match the sweater or be worn on its own. It was plain, but still pretty, and good quality. Erin took a moment to admire that one too, even as she spoke. "I'm going to try and join the Freedom League, or any superteam that'll have me and pay living expenses. I'm not really picky, but the League would be the best, I think. Otherwise I think I'll start my own one-woman moving company." She looked over at Jill, setting the turtleneck aside. "You're from around here, right? Like for a long time? How do you like it?"

"I have three brothers and two sisters," Stesha confirmed, "and I'm the second youngest. It makes the holidays crazy, but we have a good time. My dad teaches at Northwestern, so we all got big tuition breaks to go there. My parents just rode us like crazy to make sure we'd all have the grades to get in." She laughed again, her good cheer seeming to infect the plants around her as they perked up and got even greener, and the smell of flowers perfumed the air. But then, Stesha always smelled like flowers anyway. "Trust me, if you just hang in there, eventually you'll find out what it's like to go to school with people who like you and who are like you. It's pretty cool."

"Thanks," Erin said, smiling over at Jill as she opened her card and scanned it. It was a cute card with a dog wearing a party hat and holding a noise-blower in its mouth, telling her to have a doggone good birthday. The whole family had signed it, even the double whose signature matched her own. There was a check in there that she carefully folded and put into her pocket to add to her bank account. That would mean new winter clothes, or if she was smart, savings towards not living in her truck come next summer. Setting the card aside, she moved to open the first present. She tossed the wrapping paper to Oliver, but he was busy having his mind expanded by the catnip and didn't seem to notice. "That's cool, working at the hospital, I mean. Is that what you want to do after you graduate?" The first present was a new sweater, soft and warm and a deep reddish brown that was sort of close to the color of her hair. Erin took a minute to admire it, running her fingers over the soft fabric and checking how to wash it. It was her new favorite already.

"At least you only have one more year," Stesha said again, taking another stab at cheering the girl up. "I'm sure you'll find a good college that you enjoy a lot more. I loved college, and that was with living at home and going to school under the eye of my dad and all my older brothers." She chuckled. "You'll probably be able to get away with a lot more than I ever did, unless Jack is keeping an eye on you the whole time. And then you'll just have to be sneaky about it."

"I'll hold onto them for now," Erin admitted, "they're better than no clothes at all. Maybe after that after-Thanksgiving shopping, I'll find someone who likes sparkly stuff more than I do. Hey, have you heard anything about that field trip they're planning for next week? I've heard some of the teachers mention it, but they don't say where or why or how long. It's kind of weird to just be wondering."

"Yeah, the big one, next week," Erin agreed. "We're going to be on some kind of field trip though, so I'm opening my presents early. Here Oliver, they sent you something too." She unwrapped the catnip pouch from its protective plastic and tossed it to the gangly orange cat. He immediately went to investigate, and began purring even louder, rolling on top of the little fabric pouch like a dog with a puddle. "What do you do at the hospital?" she asked Jill as she dug down into the bottom of the box and pulled out a birthday card in a purple envelope.

Erin smiled faintly, tired eyes warming as she looked up at him. "I'm glad you came to find me," she told him, reaching up to slide her fingers through his hair, then behind his neck, drawing him down for a better kiss. Maybe not everything was resolved in her head or her heart, but that would solve itself in time. Things were okay with Trevor again, and that was really good. And it wouldn't be that bad to hang around Freedom City after graduation. There was plenty to do...

"Well, the way it went was we were trying to help Mrs. Harcourt put up the dimensional defense net at the school," Erin explained, "and at the same time, the people in the dimension next door were doing the same thing. When both of them went online at once, we got sucked through into their dimension, Edge and Midnight and myself. The people there were a lot like us, only reverse genders. We just hung around there for a day or so, till Mr and Miss Harcourt figured out how to fix it. So that was okay." Erin hesitated, breaking up the twig in her fingers before she went on. "Then last month we got switched with our doubles from, well, Edge called it Anti-Earth. Me and him and Midnight and Kid Cthulhu and Rift, all at once. They came here, we went there. I don't know if you've been there," she told Phantom, "but it was pretty bad. We eventually managed to get back, and... and our doubles went back to their world. Well, my double was like me, from a different world that wasn't evil, but she got pulled back anyway. Nothing's happened since then, we're hoping whatever was weird with the dimensions has stopped now."

Erin paused just long enough to make sure the monster wasn't getting back up before going to back up the other team. Now that she thought about it, she was a little worried about leaving KC alone with the doctor, no matter how much he'd said the book thing was an accident. If nothing else, she wanted to be there to make sure everything was taken care of. A quick teleport had her on the beach, facing the ocean. She couldn't see a doggone thing, but there was a whole crowd of people staring avidly in one direction, just like the people in the asylum had been. Taking that as a hint. Erin leapt high into the air and out over the sea, scanning as she went for any sign of her cohorts or the monster. She found them half a mile out, with the doctor in the grip on the Squrm and another strange figure there as well, one she couldn't identify. Well, first things first. Turning her body and aiming with her bat, she plowed into the Squrm at full speed, smashing it several times with her bat for good measure. It immediately fell out of the sky, taking her with it!

Wander is going to make a double move action and then surge to attack. First move action, activate beacon and teleport to the beach. Second move action, leap out in a high arc towards the melee over the water, aiming for the Squrm as soon as possible Surge Action: Take 10 to attack, which gives her a 24, which should hit if its defense is 18 like the other. Autofire adds 3, for a DC 31 toughness save. She'll follow it down, since there's not much else she can do.

"Same goes," Erin told Mark with a little smile. "Maybe more so, since I know how much being a hero with a mask and costume means to you. I think it's really brave for you to try something new. And thanks for the birthday presents, too. It'll be nice not to have to wear the pink shoes anymore," she admitted with a chuckle. "Your counterpart had a really weird sense of women's fashion. I just wish Alex and I weren't such different sizes, so I could give that whole outfit to her."

"Uh, it was okay," Erin replied with a half-shrug. Summer seemed like a million years ago by now, with the fall quarter already under her belt. "Been keeping pretty busy with school and Young Freedom and all that, plus babysitting. And I guess you probably heard about the dimension stuff we got sucked into lately. Hey, don't eat that," she told JJ automatically, taking the twig out of his mouth before he could more than dampen it. "He's teething," she told Taylor, "he's chewing on everything."

"I'm good," Erin replied, passing JJ over to Taylor without being asked. "The park thing was sort of spur of the moment, he was restless and it's a nice day out. He really likes getting out on the grass and watching the people and stuff. I didn't realize you were coming back today, or I'd have stayed home with him. How was your mission... thing?" she asked politely. It usually wasn't explained to her what Phantom was doing on the trips that took her away so often, but it had to be pretty important. Nobody would want to miss so much time with their kid, right?

Erin hesitated, tempted to say yes for a minute, then shook her head. "No, that's okay. I think it's great work, but I'm going to stick around Freedom City for awhile. Just to see how things go with all the stuff here." Though the idea of getting a non-hero work job was surprisingly appealing, it had become clear that Freedom City was Trevor's first priority. If Erin wanted to be with him, it would be here. That was more important than joining UNISON. "You'll have to tell me how it is, and then maybe I'll throw in an application in a couple of years, after Alex and Mike are all settled down and stuff."

Stesha couldn't stop the quick snort of laughter, but still had to loyally defend her friend. "Divine is a little affected by her origins, yes, but she's a good person, a good friend. And she doesn't get around as much as some people like to say, she's quite discriminating... most of the time." A fleeting odd expression passed over Stesha's face, but it was gone in a moment. "In any case, having someone to mentor you is a huge asset in the superhero game. But if you really don't like the school, maybe you could transfer back to your old school?" she suggested helpfully.

"His name's Oliver," Erin told Jill. "He's really friendly, as you might have noticed already. He'll pretty much let you pet him forever. If you want you can stretch out on the couch and catch a nap, most people don't come in here till later in the day, so it's quiet." She smiled with satisfaction as the tape came off in one long piece, then opened the box to remove several bright packages wrapped in birthday paper, lining them up neatly on the table in front of her.