Electra

This was certainly a good way to lose track of a lot more than time, Erin thought distantly, with most of her attention thoroughly caught up. She ran her fingers through Trevor's hair, nearly dislodging his hat, as her whole body seemed to shiver with the feel of the kiss. And after a long few moments, she was the one who finally pulled away, brown eyes wide in her flushed face. "That was, yeah... wow again," she managed. Right now she was so revved up, she was pretty sure if she tried a leap, she'd brush the upper atmosphere before she started to come down. What she probably really needed was some time to cool off, unattractive as the prospect sounded. "But I probably really ought to go do my homework now."

"Yeah," she agreed, not looking towards the exit either. Life was short, and sometimes you didn't have all the opportunities you thought you were going to. Instead of moving away, she turned to face him fully, then slid her hands up onto his shoulders and brought him in for a kiss. It was a little bit awkward at first, with a little bit of nose bumping from inexperience, but she got the hang of it pretty fast. It was certainly a lot more fun than doing homework, for all it was almost as scary as it was thrilling.

Erin slid along the side of the tunnel to retake the front position in line, letting Mark carry the torch behind her. "It could be a trap," she theorized. "We don't know that just being bad in our universe makes someone good here. It could be that everybody is bad, just in different ways. I bet the Foundry wouldn't like it if some other evil group took over instead of them, right? They might form a rebellion with no interest in helping anyone." She automatically reached for her bat once again, only to encounter, once again, empty air. Whatever they were facing, she would face it with her bare fists.

"We can talk about that later," Miss Americana said breezily, giving the drone an innocently friendly look that had just a touch of suspicion. "Right now I'd love to learn more about you. How did you come to be on Earth? What are you doing to get by now? I think you said you had a job in that bar, is that right? Did you have to come up with some kind of legal identity?"

Thoroughly baffled, though hardly displeased at the reaction, Erin handed him the wrenches and picked up a chamois to buff a few bits of dirt off the truck. "Maybe you're just really attracted to mechanics," she joked, tending to her task with quick precision so that in moments the truck was sparkling again. "In which case I'd better brush up on my car skills. Good thing I have a good teacher." Tucking away the cloth, she walked to the center aisle of the garage to wait for him to finish putting things away. The dorms were just a short walk or a single jump away, but she was dawdling, not wanting the evening to be over.

"A magnetic charge severed the link?" Miss Americana repeated, sounding intrigued. "And yet it didn't completely destroy your operating memory, obviously, or fry the circuitry for your embedded armor... I would love to get a look at you in the lab," she murmured. "In the interests of promoting Earth's defense, of course." With a delighted laugh, she looped once through the air and followed the dynamic duo into the residential neighborhoods of Freedom City.

Miss Americana slowed down in her flight to allow the swordsman and his sidekick to catch up and take the lead, since they were the ones who knew where to go. The Omegadrone was heavy, but not too heavy for the beautiful paragon to handle. "So what makes you different from the other Omegadrones?" she asked as they flew. "You're obviously not at all like the normal drones. What happened?"

"I'm not sure," Erin admitted. "He hasn't been hanging around with us anymore, and I haven't been keeping up. Last I heard, he was going to be expelled if he didn't finish all the assignments the headmaster gave him to do." Erin shrugged. "He accelerated a car to high subsonic speeds and teleported it into junior prom, and nearly wiped out half the team. It didn't really reflect well on him to make good judgments in the field, you know?" Most of the synopsis was directed at Jill, who at least had a good reason to need to be caught up on the gossip. Erin looked around with interest as the jungle formed up. It wasn't quite as sophisticated as the Doom Room; she could still feel metal cable under the illusion when she grabbed a vine, but it was pretty effective nonetheless. "Nice," she complimented the group at large.

"Oh, right... yeah." Erin withdrew her hand and slid out of the truck, coloring a little in the dim light of the garage. She'd been so concentrated on the feel of his hand that she'd lost track of time entirely, which she was pretty sure was lame. Looking for a quick recovery, she started picking up the few things left on the ground after the tinkering earlier. "Um, you want these tools back over by the Night Cycle?" she asked, holding up Trevor's socket wrenches.

Miss Americana gave the swordsman a wink. "I pride myself on my ingenuity," she replied, a hint of teasing in her throaty voice. "I don't think I've met either of you before, though," she added, taking in Jill as well. "I'm Miss Americana. And I'd be happy to give you a lift," she told the Omegadrone. "I think that's the easiest way, we don't want to run into any more snags after all the trouble we've already had. I'm so interested to learn more about you." She gave Murdock a full-power smile as well, her face practically beaming.

Erin hesitated for a moment, wondering for a second if he wanted her to give him five, but suspected that something else was called for. She reached out and pressed her hand against his, fingers to fingers, palm to palm. Her hand was a little cool, as usual, her super-efficient metabolism concentrating body heat in her core for minimal energy expenditure. After a moment, she curled her fingers, closing her hand around his. "I'm glad," she told him. "That you told me, and that it helped some. Sometimes talking really makes you feel better. And it wasn't your bad decision, it was her being stupid," she added loyally. "If she was your friend, she should've understood and stood by you."

"Um, hello," Erin said to Vince. After her dealings with Persephone, she was a little bit shy of virtual reality people, but this one certainly seemed cheerful. And he didn't tell her she had dirty clothes or a messy face, so maybe that was a step in the right direction. "Yeah, whatever you want to show us is fine, I don't think I'm supposed to be doing any training today." She stepped back closer to Fulcrum. "He had some emotional issues," she told the other hero, "and did some pretty bad stuff. Nobody got really hurt, but we had to kick him off the team. I think the headmaster is making him get some counseling, so if he follows through with that he'll probably be okay. But he wasn't going to be able to be on the team anymore, so he had to leave. Rift's really good though, he's sort of taken that spot on the team and worked out pretty well."

Miss Americana took a moment to turn the full force of her attention onto Farouk. "We believe that your friend may have been temporarily replaced by a shapeshifter, who had unknown motives. I hope that we will find your friend Murdock safe and well, that he may return to his normal life. He may need your help to do so after an ordeal like this." She rested a hand on his shoulder, looking deep into his eyes. "I'm sure a compassionate man like you will be able to help him. Good luck." With that, she took to the sky, climbing out of sight before doubling back and scanning for the rest of the group, then landing in among them. "I did what I could for you," she told the Omegadrone. "They think a shapeshifter took your place for a little while. You should come up with some kind of story about how you were tied up in your apartment for a day and then some superheroes came and helped you."

Stesha laughed. "That's great," she cheered him on, "I love the bathing suit. You must have a really easy time of packing for trips. I would love to be able to master a trick like that. My costume has some morphic molecules, but I can't do a thing with them." She sat down cross-legged in the sand and began gathering up a few nearby shells while she watched him wade around. "See any forms of complex life in there?" she asked. "Anything biting your toes?"

"I could just cut off a tattoo if I didn't want it anymore," Erin pointed out. "I'm not sure I could get a tattoo if I wanted to, anyway. I know I can't get new piercings in my ears, they just heal right back up. I would be an enigma to them." She unbuckled and stretched as Trevor pulled the car back into its parking stall, then shut off the radio and looked over at him. "That was fun," she told him. "Thanks for the help with the truck."

"Me too, sometimes," Stesha admitted with a smile. "I love my powers, but sometimes I'd just love to be able to fly for a day, just to see what it's like to do it on my own. Flying in space would just be that much more of a rush. But then, what we can do is pretty spectacular, too. I wouldn't give up my own powers for anything." Though she stayed carefully on the shore, she came closer to the water to chuckle at Quentin abusing his poor tweed pants in the surf. "You know, you're going to shrink those if you aren't careful."

"Just my homework, but that's more a "have to,"' Erin admitted, grinning as they skidded silently around one more breathtaking curve. "I've had a lot more fun goofing off with you. And hey, all I need to do is graduate, nobody on earth is going to care about my GPA after I get out of here. I sure doubt the supervillains are going to be impressed." It was a little disappointing to see the lights of the Pramas bridge coming up and to realize the drive was nearly over. "What about you?"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Miss Americana said suddenly. "I'll be back in just a moment. Rising up out of the alley, she flew over the building to address the crowd. "People of Freedom City, the danger is passed! The creature you saw was not an Omegadrone at all, merely a shapeshifter who took form of a drone in order to cause panic and fear. The building is currently stabilized and the fire is out. If anyone has any information about the man who the shapeshifter impersonated, please step forward and tell me now, so that we can make sure he is not in danger, wherever he is." It wasn't the most inspired story, perhaps, but it was believable enough to be true, and really, the magic was all in the delivery.

Unconsciously, Erin leaned forward in her seat, watching the road as the truck sped up. It didn't lurch the way it had with Erin driving, just a smooth acceleration to a truly improbable speed. "I guess it sort of is a night truck," she allowed, "there's no possible way I could take it up to these speeds in the daytime. But hey, at least a cop couldn't even read my plates, let alone catch us..." She turned the radio on, letting rock music fill the cabin as they flew through the night.

Precisely at the appointed hour, Miss Americana stepped into the library, following the discreet signs that pointed the way to the appropriate conference room. This morning she was wearing an exquisitely tailored dress in a demure foggy gray that just highlighted the gold of her hair and the blue of her eyes, not to mention the curves of her figure. She paused just inside the door to the conference room, giving the doctor and the young man who'd already arrived a warm smile. "Is this the summit?" she asked, her voice a pleasing smoky alto. "Looks like I'm right on time."

Woo-hoo, Gina's in!

Even though the cold didn't bother Erin much, she happily leaned against Trevor as they walked out to the truck, tugging the keyfob out of her pocket and handing it to him as they went. Erin's keyring didn't actually have any keys on it, just the fob and a fanciful silver cat charm she'd gotten at the pet store. Giving his hand one more squeeze, she let go and went around to the passenger side, climbing in and buckling up. That was something of a quirk of hers, despite the fact that she could fall out of a plane and walk away, Erin always buckled her seatbelt in the car. "All right, let's see what you can do with, hmm, the Wandermobile," she challenged good-humoredly.

"Just one more second..." Miss Americana told Jill, floating up near the ceiling as she used her powers to spot weld a metal chair leg through the table pieces she'd married to the broken joist. "All right, go ahead and let go." She watched critically as the repair took on the weight of the floor above it, then nodded approvingly and dusted off her hands. She hadn't even chipped her manicure. "That should hold long enough for them to get a proper carpenter in, at least." She alighted gently back on the ground and took in the suddenly pitiable figure of the Omegadrone. "We'd better get you out of here before the civilians realize the danger is passed. There are a lot of people out there who aren't going to ask about your motives, I'm afraid. But we could learn so much from you!" She looked up to the swordsman and his sidekick. "Do either of you know a safe place to take him for the moment?"

After a quick beat of surprise, Erin smiled and then chuckled as well, pleased that Trevor was happier, relieved that she'd successfully navigated a difficult social situation. Not that she was going to tell Dr. Marquez about any of this, it was none of his damn business, but he'd probably have been pleased about it as well. They drank their coffee and finished off the pie together, and it was the nicest meal she remembered having in... well, it had been a long time. "You know," she said as she finished off the sugary dregs of her coffee, "if you drive back, you can show me how the truck actually drives at top speed now."

"He did?" Miss Americana asked with surprise, listening to the young woman's story. "Fascinating," she said again. "Thank you for telling me that." With that, she darted back into the building. "The civilians are clear," she reported, "and one of the ones outside had something very interesting to tell me." She glanced at the Omegadrone. "Is it true that you were trying to save someone from getting beaten up, before the fighting started?" Even as she asked, the lovely superheroine was scanning the ceiling, looking for its weak points. She frowned as she saw the large broken ceiling joist, obvious through a large hole in the drop tiles. Pointing at an overturned table nearby, she cut it into two neat pieces with her multicolored power beams, drilled holes in the ends, and proceeded to begin repairing the ceiling.