Electra

I'd blame McAfee, that thing never seems to give anybody anything but trouble. I switched to Avast ages ago to stop it. Also, AA and Fox (I think) and I all downloaded the same game with no problems.

Erin stared at the spectacle of Superior and the weird Centurion dumbly, missing the beginning of the fight entirely while her already overtaxed brain struggled to process what seemed like an impossible scene. Could it be more mind control? No, Trevor told her she was immune to that now, and her team was right there, including Psyche. It had to be real... but what was she supposed to do about it? Edge's words shook her out of the momentary fugue and got her moving. No matter how bizarre the situation was, she knew one way to stop a villain. Vaulting across the room, she swung on the way down, dealing several punishing blows across Superior's back and shoulders. But he was powerful, and seemed barely affected. Now was not the time for nice fighting. Erin held the bat vertically and smashed the villain in the face with one end, and in the gut with the other, then switched to a horizontal hold and clotheslined him, all in one blindingly fast series of movements.

Okay, Erin's going with her standby, all out power attack with the bat versus Superior. All out power attack: 1d20+19=31 Autofire adds +5 to the damage, and so does the power attack, so it's a DC 39 hit. Edit: Spending an HP to surge and hit him again. No teamwork bonus this time, but same attack. Huh, no teamwork bonus, but she rolled better. 31 again. Same modifiers apply, another DC 39 toughness check.

"That's so nice," Stesha said, taking a generous forkful of her cake. "A lot of heroes are teachers in their everyday lives, it seems. I met another one just the other day who is a college professor, and my fiance teaches some high school classes. Maybe it's the heroic impulse to make a difference, the two occupations go hand in hand naturally." She didn't answer Heyzel's question about different pantheons, she knew perfectly well he was already familiar with Moira.

"Oh, I can mix it up when I need to," Stesha assured Gabriel cheerfully. "I've made a few criminals reconsider their life choices while a few animated trees give them a clobbering. But a lot of heroes in this town are good at using necessary force, and not as many are as good at patching things and people up afterwards. I like to try and fill the spaces that have need of me. And I just enjoy it so much more when I spend an evening beautifying parks than when I'm out chasing bad guys. Both jobs are necessary, so I try to go where the need is greatest. Do you do hero work full time, or do you have a day job as well?" she asked Gabriel. "You don't have to give any details." Stesha poured the irish cream into three mugs while she waited for the coffee, and began serving it up as soon as the pot began to brew. "Heyzel, would you mind serving the cake?"

"I'm a plant controller," Stesha told him cheerfully, heading back into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. "And a florist, so I bring my work home with me from both jobs. Heyzel and I work together on the Freedom League. I don't do a lot of fighting when I can help it, but there are plenty of ways a plant controller can help the city, you know? Even if it's just making the community gardens grown." She measured water in the carafe and poured it. into the machine. "You want some coffee too?" she asked Heyzel. "I can leave the irish out of yours, if you prefer. So you two are both in the same line, as it were?"

Stesha laughed, even as she went into the kitchen and began rummaging around in the cabinets. She didn't keep a lot of food or drink on hand these days, but she did have a small bottle of Bailey's she used for coffee in the back of one cupboard. "Gabriel's just fine," she assured the new visitor, "and how do you take your Baileys?" She set the bottle on the counter and brought over a trio of plates and forks for the cake. "How do you like Freedom City so far?"

Stesha's apartment was not large, but it was comfortable, furnished nicely with a comfortable couch and a few armchairs, a kitchen that didn't seem to see a lot of use, and a hallway that led down to the rest of the apartment. The walls were decorated with a mixture of framed landscape prints and photographs of family and friends, including several of her cuddled up comfortably with a tall, somewhat gawky looking man. There were also plants of all shapes and sizes tucked into every nook and cranny, perfuming the air and turning the light faintly green. It wasn't enough to explain their hostess's bright green hair, though. "Call me Stesha," she urged, drawing both men over to the sitting area. "Dark Star's out on a mission a couple of galaxies over," she told Heyzel, "so I don't know if he'll be back tonight. But it's always nice to meet up with new heroes. Would either of you like something to drink?"

"Coming!" The door was answered in just a few moments by a small, woman in a shapeless pink sweatsuit. She looked to be about Gabriel's age, and though she wasn't conventionally beautiful, she had an appealing quality about her, especially when she smiled like she was now. "Heyzel, hi! This is a surprise." She looked curiously at the other hero who'd appeared on her doorstep. "Hi," she said pleasantly, proffering a hand to shake. "Come on in."

"It was a present from a friend," Erin admitted. "He knew I didn't have a way to get around normally, so he sort of maneuvered me into accepting it. It was sneaky of him, but he had the best of intentions, you know? And it's really nice to have transportation so I'm not bouncing around everywhere I need to go. I figure if I take good care of it, it should last a long time." Indeed, the truck looked absolutely pristine, like it had just been washed and polished. It was something of an incongruity to the girl herself, who wore clothes that were rather less than pristine, for all they'd just been washed as well. "Anyway, thanks a lot for having me over. It was really good."

"Perfect!" Stesha said. "Ah, I hope you have a plant in your office..." She'd found plants to be near-ubiquitous office furniture for some reason, but she was glad he wasn't the one odd holdout. Taking his hand again, she sent them on one last quick trip through the green rush, and then they were popping out in his office. "I'm so glad we both happened to be called in today," she told him with a smile. "It would've been too bad if we'd gone all semester and never realized we were right there in class together. I'll give you a call tonight, probably, unless something comes up."

"Thanks, I will," Erin said, relaxing fractionally when Joan didn't push. "But it really is like I told Lois, you did all the work there. Any hero coming along would've done what I did to pull you out and clean up the scene. If anyone did the work, it's Alex. Fixing people up takes a lot out of her, but she'd never say no. And I'm glad things turned out okay, and that your arms are going to be all right again. That was a bad injury."

Erin leaned back in her chair a little bit, nervously setting her coffee aside. Something about the way Joan was looking at her made her think she didn't just want a tour of the campus, but Erin wasn't quite sure what the older heroine was looking for. She didn't think she'd given enough away to make a good story, after all, she was hardly the only dimensionally displaced heroine. And she really hoped Fusion wasn't looking for an empowered and enlightened sidekick for her feminist hero crusade or something like that. Listening to one lecture was okay as payment for a nice meal, but it wasn't something she planned to make a habit of. "I guess that would be okay," she said a little uncertainly.

"Mm, well, if that's what you want," she said a bit uncertainly. "I honestly don't know if my car will start, I haven't used it for a few months now. It's garaged a couple blocks away. I could just pop you back into your office and that might be easier?" she suggested hopefully. "Or if you like, you're welcome to change here and you can fly back, if that suits you better."

"I dunno, their code names are Sage and Proteus, and I think they'd probably be after your time," Erin said with a shrug. "I don't know them very well, they're both new. I don't think Sage ever actually went, anyway, and she's French, so she wouldn't have been on the same team anyhow. Can't you go out to where the League exercises, or out in the country if you want to run?" she asked. "Or even work something out with Claremont, there are indoor and outdoor tracks there. You'd probably have to promise not to do any reporting or anything, but the headmaster might let you use the facilities."

Obligingly, Stesha looked toward the plant he'd been commanding, which grew a bright fuchsia flower that yawned wide open into a portal the size of a doorway. It led into a compact and pretty apartment that was full of plants in every available nook and cranny. "I can give you a ride back to the university too, if you like," she told him, following him through the portal. "My dimensional gateway opens to the corresponding spot on Prime, so we're in Midtown now."

Erin hesitated just a moment, just long enough for a reporter's ear to catch it. "No, it was just me," she said. "But my family, the one from this dimension, really does live in Seattle. That wasn't like lying or anything. Do you still run?" she asked. "Some of my classmates were training for the Olympics before they got powers, in gymnastics, but now they can't compete anymore. They still do gymnastics and stuff though. It's useful in a fight."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Stesha said brightly, "unless you're a lot older than you look, Derrick's older than you anyway. And you'll have lots to talk about." She checked her watch and sighed. "We'd really better be getting back to Prime, I have six bouquets to do for a wedding tomorrow and I promised I'd have them done this evening. It was very nice talking to you, and I'll get in touch soon about dinner, all right?"

Stesha laughed. "Oh no, he's a teacher himself, among all the other things he does. Not at the university though, he teaches teenage superheroes. I'm only back at the university myself to pick up a few credits towards a master's degree that may or may not happen. You know how it is, you start out with one plan for your education, and then sometimes life gets in the way. But my dad is a college professor at Northwestern, and he's happy to hear I'm getting back into the classroom even part-time. And don't worry, we'll keep the whole fellow superheroes thing under our hats," she assured him. "In the classroom, it's just professor and student."

"Sounds perfect," Stesha told him enthusiastically. "I'll check with Derrick and get back to you on a night that's good for all of us. Of course, some disaster somewhere could always come up, but we'll cross our fingers." Smiling, she reached out and knocked against the half-concealed trunk of a young tree that made up part of the walls. "We both work on the Freedom League these days, so when one of us gets called out for something local, we both usually have to go," she explained. "Except for something like today, when they were calling on whoever was close by. It's lucky you and I were both near enough to respond."

She smiled at him. "I'm always happy to have coffee and talk shop," she told him. "And if you'd like, I'll introduce you to some other heroes in town. Colt is part of the Interceptors, I believe. I don't know them as well, but I know a lot of other heroes." She brightened. "What you should really do is come over for dinner and meet my fiance. His powers are really the reason I'm taking your course, to try and understand a little more about someone who can travel between galaxies and manipulate gravity. I'm afraid it's a little beyond my ken so far. Is there any night in the next couple of weeks that's good for you?"

"I do have a normal life," Stesha told him, her face showing her sympathy for his plight. "And you're right, sometimes it's very hard to do both. I work in a florist shop, which is something I love and wouldn't want to give up, even if I didn't need the money. I have a fiance I'm going to marry this fall. He's another hero, and I never would've met him if I hadn't started doing hero work, so that's a big bonus right there." She smiled, absently twisting the distinctive green-centered diamond ring on her finger. "It can take some time to find your balance, but eventually, if you're lucky, it starts to feel like the heroing is part of your life, and not some crazy double life. Do you know any other superheroes?"

"It's been almost two years for me now," she told him, after raising an impressed eyebrow over the flash of light. "I got mine in kind of a fluke occurrence. I was watching one of those hundred-year blooms, the sort that only open once every generation or two, and when it opened, it spat pollen all over me. I passed out, and when I woke up, I had these strange powers over plants. I took a few months to learn how to use them, and then I moved to Freedom City to be a superhero." She grinned. "It seemed like the best place to go. Are you planning to keep teaching, now that you've taken up the heroic mantle?"

"I'm still building it," she told him, "but I love it here. It's a place to relax, and to practice. There's only so much I can do in my apartment in Freedom City without everyone noticing. Here I have a whole world to practice on." She poured the hot water over teabags in a couple of pale blue mugs, then carried them to the table, along with a bottle of powdered creamer. "Here you go." She took a seat herself, unbuttoning her cowl and shrugging it off to hang over the back of her chair. "As for the superhero stuff, all I can say is that it's surprisingly easy to get used to," she told him with a chuckle. "I was terrified during my first couple of months, trying to find my feet and control my powers. But it's sort of a learned skill. You get better at assessing situations, and you make friends with other heroes, and it helps a lot. In another year, you'll probably look back and be surprised at how far you've come. How long have you had powers?"

"Nothing to be sorry for," Erin murmured back, glancing at him once before looking ahead as well. "You don't have to come along if you don't want to, but it might be fun. Might help the headache a little, too." A few seconds passed as they walked out of the dorm and Erin wrestled with her own stupid fears, then she cautiously reached out her hand and took his.