Electra

"Oh, it's not really 'ailing,'" Stesha began, going to the kitchenette and rummaging around. "I did want to explain to you why I haven't invited you over like I promised. Wine or coffee?" she asked, pulling down a box of coffee filters from a leafy cupboard. She wasn't in much of a wine mood herself at the moment. "I've been trying to set things up, but things have been so busy lately. Derrick has been gone a lot, and when he's been home, there hasn't really been much time to do anything." Her shoulders slumped a little as she measured coffee into the machine. "I didn't want you to think I was shunning you or anything."

Erin was startled for a moment when the wall finally gave way, but she lost no time in escaping the white box full of torment. Where had they gotten those images? How did they know so much about her, and what were they trying to do? This was some sort of test, a test against evil... As she emerged, she saw a room full of black smoke, totally disorienting in its own way, and one clear patch that contained... was it Mark? A second look had Erin unsure. He looked like the Mark she knew, but Erin of all people knew about universal doubles. And he wasn't wearing the right uniform. His uniform was slashes of black and red, and made her uneasy just to look at. First things first, she reminded herself, overriding the part of herself that wanted to scream and fight, forcing herself to think rationally and tactically. She didn't know what was going on, who was friend or who was foe. She needed a picture of the situation before she could act at all. In one jump, she was on top of the cage in a defensive crouch, hiding in the mists and ready to make anyone who attacked her there very, very sorry. It wasn't a very defensible position, but it was the best she had.

"Yeah, I think so," Erin agreed. "I've missed some homeroom lately, doing some catchup work. Third hour, right?" She looked from Jill to Jack, then blinked. "I didn't realize you were on the Interceptors," she admitted to Jill. To Jack, she nodded a greeting and didn't bother to protest the nickname. "I was going to ask next time I saw you, what ended up happening to the giant bees? Did that get taken care of?"

Erin gets a 32 for initiative. And she got a 22 on her will save to avoid being totally unhinged by the confinement and imagery and strange happenings. She's doing all right, under the circumstances.

"I remember that," Erin nodded, thinking back to the awful time during the Grue invasion. "You made some really impressive shots. I'm Wander," she added a little belatedly. "Fulcrum is mentoring me in, you know, heroing stuff." She shrugged one shoulder; it was hard to explain the intricacies of that relationship, given that she'd been fighting monsters at least as long as her teacher had. "Thanks for inviting me over to your house." There, she decided, that was good social interaction with no weirdness. Good progress!

Erin was a little nervous about this visit, but when Mona had invited her over, it had seemed rude to say no. She was on at least reasonable terms with the Interceptors she'd met so far, after some rocky starts, and it wasn't as though they weren't superheroes. They had to be at least reasonably good people. She wore her uniform and carefully cleaned the scuffs off her tennis shoes, which were showing their age more than ever these days. It was time to get replacements, especially with winter coming, but that was expensive. Maybe if Roger and Clarissa sent her some money for her birthday again. In any case, she looked clean and heroic enough for a casual visit. She stepped into the house and automatically sized up its visible defenses. It seemed safe enough, though the many doors and windows did detract a little from security. Having a house with no windows in a neighborhood like this would've been worse, though, she figured. They'd have stuck out like a sore thumb. She looked into the living room, wondering who would be around.

"Yes, of course," Fleur said, sounding distracted, but game. "Anything that would shed some light on what's going on. Everyone gather in, I'll teleport us right outside the gate." She took a moment to look through the plants around the prison and find an inconspicuous place near the doors, then had everyone join hands and touched the flowers in her hair with one hand. In a moment, they all saw a flash of green light and smelled fresh-mown grass for an instant, and then they were standing outside the prison. "Maybe I shouldn't be along for this," she offered. "I mean, you never know if we might be giving someone an idea they wouldn't have had otherwise."

Fleur startled when Grimalkin appeared, even though this was obviously the Grim she knew, rather than the dark and gritty futuristic version. "We're not sure," she said, her voice a little faint. "A bunch of "heroes" from the future just showed up and tried to kill me because they say I'm going to destroy the future in two days time. So we're working on deciding what to do about that, if anything. But one of them was you, so I'm assuming that's why you got the head's up from somewhere?"

"I can't offer you a wine tasting," she said with a half-smile, "but I do think I have at least one decent bottle of something in my hideaway, and maybe some cheese. I know I have some pretty good coffee. And it's nothing to do with school, actually." Unobserved from outside, it was a simple matter for her to take his hand and touch the flowers in her hair, teleporting them to another world in the blink of an eye. They stood for a moment in a meadow full of massive flowers, stretching for acres at least, each flower the size of a house or bigger. In the warm light of sunset, bees the size of semi trucks wafted through the air, buzzing contentedly as they visited the flowers. "Project of mine," Stesha explained with a grin, "rehoming and rehabilitating some former villains. Here we go." Another quick blink took them inside Stesha's plant house. Some of the leaves in the walls were turning russet and gold with autumn, but the whole thing still looked quite sturdy. A few lamps provided light to the room, which was now further decorated with battered but comfy living room furniture and a few new appliances for the kitchen.

Stesha waited around until the end of class to talk to Professor Quill one Friday evening. It had been weeks since they'd last gotten together, and she knew she owed him an explanation for why her promised invitation to dinner hadn't been forthcoming. It would've helped if she'd really known the reasons herself, but she couldn't just keep putting it off. When the rest of the students had left, she stopped fiddling with her knapsack and went up to the podium. "Hi, Quentin," she said, indicating that this was a conversation between friends, rather than a school conversation. "Are you busy this evening? We haven't gotten a chance to talk for awhile."

Erin stood transfixed for a moment, eyes locked at the images on screen. They were like memories, she thought, like she was having the thoughts themselves right at this moment. Megan disappeared from the screen, replaced by Clarissa, being ripped apart in vivid, bloody technicolor. The screams came from hidden speakers, but they seemed to resonate inside Erin's head. Those visions repeated, interspersed with others, zombies bearing down on her, Megan's broken but not dead yet body, flashing quickly enough that she could barely focus on each one, even if she'd wanted to. "Goddamn you!" she yelled at the cameras, her already pale face going white. "Damn you, damn you to hell!" Unable to stand seeing the visions a second longer, Erin pressed herself against the back of the cage, got a running start, and launched a flying kick at the screen. The whole cube resounded like a gong and the images jittered, but kept playing. She did it again, then again, till the whole enclosure was rocking and the wall was beginning to distend.

Erin took in the unappetizing meal, then ignored it for the moment as she stared directly at the cameras. It didn't seem wise to tip her hand more than she had to, but she needed to get some kind of communication going. "Let me out," she told the voice, looking towards the door. She wondered if the styrofoam cup would provide any sort of insulation against the shock, and if so, whether that would help. Maybe she'd have to try a wall further from the door, one that wasn't electrified. "Where is everybody else?"

Erin woke to a harsh white light shining down on her face, the voice of Rick Lucas in her dream still ringing in her ears. She put an arm up over her eyes, wondering what the hell Alex was doing now. Some kind of super-halogen desk lamp? She sat up, keeping her head low to avoid hitting it on the upper bunk, only to realize that the upper bunk wasn't there. Her eyes snapped open, regardless of the light, and she slid off the bed into a defensive crouch as she sussed out the situation. There wasn't a lot to suss out, but all of it was confusing. She appeared to be in a white box of a room, smaller than her dorm room, and almost bare, save for a single twin bed, a dresser, and a small bathroom area so devoid of privacy that even the shower curtain was totally clear. Not that privacy seemed to be an issue, since the room hadn't a single window or even a door, except... She went entirely still as she spotted the cameras, nearly invisible set in next to the brilliant lights. She was not alone as it seemed in here, and there was no way to tell who was on the other side of the cameras. Now that her eyes were better attuned, she could also see variances in the white of the wall, especially the wall opposite the bed. It wasn't even the way the others were, it was covered in irregularly-shaped dents, four or five feet off the ground, and laced over with thin wires. Behind the wires, she thought she could make out the thin seam of some sort of door. She got up and walked over to the door-wall, carefully reaching out a hand to try and push on the seamed area. As soon as her hand brushed the wires, an arc of current shot into her hand and through her body, tossing her backwards with a yelp of surprise and pain. Whoever had put her in here was not playing around. That jolt would've killed three normal humans, and even she could feel it all through her body still. Was this what Rick had meant? What kind of test was this, and where were the others? She looked up into the cameras, then decided to go for broke. Maybe these cells weren't soundproof, and someone was right next door. "Trevor?" she called, walking to the bathroom wall. If cells were going to be joined anywhere, it would be somewhere that would make plumbing simpler. "Warren? Blake? Mark? Is anybody out there?"

Stesha stumbled backwards as the Fusion-lookalike jumped at her, nearly teleporting before her tormentor disappeared into thin air. She hugged herself as the others vanished as well, looking around as though hoping one of her companions would have some answers. "I've never killed anyone!" she said plaintively. "Should we even believe them? Maybe they want to kill that prime minister and we're the only ones who can stop them! It's not like we haven't seen enough shapeshifting troublemakers lately!" It sounded like she was desperately trying to believe what she was saying, but couldn't be totally sure.

Erin angled herself to get a better view of the proceedings, figuring that if she had to watch, she'd better keep an eye on things. She wasn't sure how much she trusted either of these guys to take proper care of the baby. For his part, Jack Jr. seemed happy to see his father, but a lot less happy when his father jammed a finger into his mouth. He enthusiastically gummed down on the intruding finger, hissing angrily and squirming. "He makes a lot of noises besides crying," she said, somewhat unnecessarily. "Mostly big round vowel sounds.

Earth XX The kiss was enough to take Aaron totally by surprise, so much so that Tricia was leaving the room before he even managed to react. He blinked and looked after her with an expression of near-comical consternation, then looked over at Marcie. "Um, did I miss something?" he asked, then realized he absolutely didn't want to hear any answer coming from that notable. Turning on his heel he jogged out of the room after his teammate. Earth Prime Erin blinked, then gave Trevor a sour look. "I better, I only have these and three other pairs of pants. I need to look up how to unbeadazzle clothes before I can wear this stuff out in public. But now I'm going to go get changed before we get debriefed." She shrugged out of Trevor's coat and handed it to him. "Thanks for the loan, by the way. Comfy." She brushed a quick kiss onto his lips, then headed for the door, breaking the tape as she headed out.

"Guess it could've been worse, then," Aaron said, thinking about the possibilities. "If we got two worlds intersecting and one more reaching in, could just have easily gotten any number of universes trying the same thing at the same time. There could've been a dozen of each of us, and two is weird enough. No offense," he added belatedly to his double and her friends. "It's okay," Erin told him. "It is weird. Thanks for looking out for us. Take care." She gave him half a wave, to which he responded with a nod. They stepped back in opposite directions, Erin to stand next to Trevor, Aaron to get out of the way of Hypatia's equipment. Both of them waited, standing hipshot with Aaron's thumbs in his pockets and Erin's hands in Trevor's jacket pockets as they waited to go. "First thing I'm doing," she murmured to Trevor, "is changing my clothes."

Stesha was briefly distracted by the fact that Dark Star came back in that story about her, which was mildly reassuring, but couldn't make her feel too good under the circumstances. "It doesn't make any sense," she maintained. "I don't know any shepherd, and I have no idea what any of that even means!" She looked at Fusion, belatedly catching her drift. "It must be an impostor!" she agreed eagerly. "We've been up to our armpits in Grue all summer, this sounds like just the sort of thing they'd want to have happen. They must find some way to replace me!" She shuddered, knowing what often happened to those the Grue replaced. She might be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Stesha is making a diplomacy check to convince these freakazoids to let her go on vacation instead of just killing her. Her cuteness counts for her here, so the bonus applies. Her result is a 28. She is also readying an action, she will teleport to the nearest wooded area if anyone makes a move to attack her.

"That's crazy!" Stesha exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "I've never killed anybody! I don't even know who the prime minster of Sahrawi is! I don't think I could find it on a map!" She looked to her allies for confirmation. "I have no reason to want him or anybody else dead. Look, I know some super-history, maybe this is all some kind of accident you're trying to avert. Would it make you happy if I went off world for a couple of days, just so nothing has a chance to go wrong? I'm sorry bad things happened to you, if what you're saying is even true and this isn't some kind of crazy plot, but killing me isn't the way to solve anything!" Even as she spoke, she fingered the small vine growing in her hands, ready to move fast if she couldn't convince them.

"What?" Fleur cried, looking around as though trying to find someone who would make this make sense. "I didn't do anything to anybody! I don't know what you're talking about?" As the Fusion lookalike attacked her double, Stesha ignored the shattered ficus and reached into her belt pouch, grabbing a fistful of seeds and sending them flying around the room. Everywhere they landed, little shoots sprang up, many of them immediately growing to twine around the civilian watchers and bank employees. In moments, all the civilians were gone, safely out of the building and out of harm's way. "You've made a mistake!" she told the newcomers. "We should talk about this!"

Fleur is spending an HP to power stunt a mass teleport of the civilians, moving them out of the building and out of harm's reach.

Poor lonely Stesha goes on 12.

Fleur commanded her plants to swallow up the luckless robbers, tucking them away for their transport to the police station. "Hope springs eternal, I guess," she chuckled. "It's nice to meet you, Fusion. And good to see you again, Gabriel," she added with a smile for her impromptu allies. "I'm glad the two of you were around, it's always great to have some backup, or be some backup, however you want to look at it." She glanced around, making sure that the situation was secure before she went to transport her prisoners.

Stesha was bored and lost in thought enough that it took her a few minutes to notice that anything was wrong. Being at Lonely Point was oddly painful, with Derrick gone for so long now. He sent messages occasionally, and she knew the work he was doing was important, but she had thought this summer would be so different. Instead of planning her wedding with the man she loved, she was sleeping, working, waiting, all alone. Moira had made herself scarce lately, doing god knew what, and Taylor was busy with her own things, and her own mission. At least her work for the Freedom League was usually enough to be a distraction, but not today. At least, not until the shooting started! "Be right back!" she said, jumping up from her seat. Sliding a hand under her hood, she touched the flowers in her hair and teleported to the scene of the crime in process.