Electra

Erin looked at him for a long moment, wishing she could see more through the mask. She really wanted to leave him down here where it was safe, and she could certainly break his hold and take off, but all that would do was make him mad. He'd find some way back up to the canopy, and she wouldn't be in a position to protect him if that happened. But her history was not good in terms of keeping people she cared about safe when it counted, either. She shook the thought aside, looking up into the canopy and bringing the layout of it to mind. "Okay," she told Trevor, "we're going to angle through the trees, till we're above them and a hundred yards or so to the north. Then we'll drop in from above and hope they're not expecting us to come at them that way. As soon as we reach the apex of the second jump, make with the mist. Otherwise, keep your arms over your head in case of branches. And... don't get killed, okay?" She hoped it didn't sound like the plea it was. Before either of them could say anything else, she tightened her grip around his waist and took off.

"I know," Erin told him, crouching down to try and assess his injuries through the mask. "I'll go back up there in just a second. Right now the bad guys will still be trying to regroup, they'll be safe for another minute. I'll come back and get you when it's safe, okay? Are you going to be all right?" She didn't want to leave at all, but she knew he was right and someone had to fight off the invading force before they found the other teens. If only Alex or Faith had come along on this trip!

"Yeah, some, we've done some weird stuff since I joined Young Freedom," Wander allowed. "A lot of what we do isn't even really in this universe, or it's trying to keep this universe from being overwritten or overrun by others. You're sort of right that it's kind of nice to go out patrolling and not find anything some nights. This one time, we were over on Erde, the Nazi world, and..." Her story was interrupted by the wail of police sirens. "Sounds like your pickup is here," Wander told Drifter, looking over at the bound criminals. "Listen, you work this area all the time, right? I'll stop by sometime again and bring some of my friends, I'll introduce you to them and maybe we can talk more. They tell stories better than I do anyway."

"As long as it keeps me from taking your head off, when you don't deserve it anyway, what do you care?" Erin asked. "You're the one who said nobody ever gives you anything or is nice to you because you're creepy and gross. Well, here you go. I gave you something, and now you're at least fifty percent less creepy, probably more when you put your hand back on. Put the mask on, you're probably hardly creepy at all. That should make things easier for you, right?"

"It does keep you busy," Wander agreed, though she had kind of an odd expression on her face as she did so. "There's really not much time for anything else when you do hero work full time. Still, it's good to at least try to get out and have fun sometimes." She looked over at him, remembering something he'd said earlier. "You've been doing this four years and you've never met a uniformed hero before?"

"Wow, how old are you?" Wander blurted, realizing too late that it probably seemed rude. "I mean, if you started four years ago, that takes a lot of dedication to keep going that long. Especially if they start coming after you for busting up their operations. And working alone is tough business. Have you thought about joining the police or the STAR Squad or anything like that?"

"My work's about finished here," Fleur said with a smile, "so I'll bow out now and let you all talk shop. Dark Star's waiting for me at home. Here..." She reached into yet another pouch and withdrew a card with her code name and a phone number on it and handed it to Nick. "Here's my number, in case you ever need a hand with anything. We all need to help each other out in Freedom City. It was nice meeting both of you."

"Hey, having powers doesn't make someone a 'real' hero," Wander retorted, "that's the first thing they drum into us at... in training. It's about what you decide to do with your life. You spend your time tracking down and taking out bad guys, risking your own neck, and don't ask for any reward. That's enough to make you a hero. Most of the time we're so busy training and traveling and all sorts of stuff, we don't have time to do investigating like you do that brings down whole criminal operations." She grinned at him. "Not that I'd have the first idea how to do that, anyway. How long you been doing this?"

"Freedom Angel keeps a good eye on Lantern Hill," Fleur said affectionately. "If you run into trouble, he's a good guy to call on in a pinch. We're on the League together," she explained, "and he's a good person to have at your back. Nick speaks to ghosts," she told Heyzel, "and helps them move on past the things that are holding them down from their mortal lives. Sort of like what Dead Head does, but not exactly the same. Hes' a good guy." There was no real way Stesha could be sure of this after such a short meeting, but she sounded perfectly confident nonetheless.

Erin watched curiously as Drifter tied up the miscreants. She needed to learn to do that sometime, it would come in really handy to not have to try and knock everyone unconscious without actually hurting them. Taking a seat, she kept one eye on the tied up pushers while she talked to the other hero. "I'm on Young Freedom," she told him, then smiled the same half smile. "I'm easy to miss, though, I usually stand in the back for the pictures. And most of us do patrol like this, but I'm usually lucky if I take down one thief or thug in a night. Getting a half dozen is a good haul."

Stesha laughed at Jill's comment about her brother. "Well, I guess the two of you would know. I'm glad you enjoyed the trip. It's a useful way to get where I'm going, but it's pretty fun, too." She looked around, then sniffed the air. "Looks like everyone's gathering around the grill. I think it may be time to sample whatever smells so good over there, and say hello to more people. It's quite a party!"

Fleur looked up in surprise at the announcement from above, then laughed delightedly when she saw who it was. "Hello, Freedom Angel," she said, setting aside her work for the moment to come over to him. "That was very impressive! If I were a teenage vandal, I'd probably be breaking land-speed records. But you know how Lantern Hill can be. One superhero goes somewhere and everyone else stops to see what he's doing."

"No flying, but I jump well enough to fake it sometimes," Wander told him. "And I'm strong and fast. It looked like you almost had him, but I thought I'd give you a hand. Is this where you usually work? I've been trying to get around to different parts of the city, but I haven't met many other heroes yet while I'm doing it. Freedom City's a lot bigger when you're covering every street of it on foot, y'know?"

"That's pretty lucky," Fleur said, sprucing up the trees around the edge of the cemetery. "Mystic rituals can be very bad news for anyone who doesn't know what they're doing. I have a friend who studies those things, and she's told some pretty horrific stories about what can happen to people who do those rituals unawares. It's great that you're using your new powers to help the city. How long have you been doing hero work?"

Erin watched as the slightly winded hero neatly tied up the thug and picked him up. He seemed to know what he was doing, for all that one had gotten away. "Sure," she said with a shrug, falling in with him as he walked. She'd just been patrolling anyway, and this was the most exciting thing that had happened all evening. "Doesn't usually take the police to show up around here, but weekends are weird sometimes. I'm Wander," she added. "Who are you?"

"What's a psychopomp?" Fleur asked curiously, even as she walked along the rows of graves. Weeds that had sprung up wilted and melted away, while flowers bloomed and spread wherever she walked. "I've never heard that term before. Is it just someone who can talk to ghosts, or is there more to it than that?"

Just as he thought that, a flash of blue and gold seemed to fall out of the sky right in front of Carter. It hit the pusher like a ton of bricks, knocked him to the ground and rolled him over twice, and then resolved into a young woman, probably not even Carter's age, with the thug in a solid submission hold. "D'ja lose something?" she asked Carter with a half smile, looking him up and down assessingly.

Fleur watched the show with great interest as she spread her flowers, but she had seen a lot of strange things in the past year, and a ghost wasn't quite enough to scare her anymore. It was pretty interesting though. Digging into her pouch, she tossed a seed onto the grave where the ghost had appeared, and a moment later a small hydrangea bush sprouted there, its cheerful pompons of flowers blooming in vivid reds and oranges. It seemed to fit the occupant's tastes. "It's nice that there are people in town for them to talk to. I wonder if it gets lonely."

Stesha laughed at that description. "Yeah, I got my powers as an adult as well. I don't think I would've had anywhere near the discipline most of those kids do, so it's probably a good thing, too. It's impressive, they go out patrolling and stopping crime," she nodded to Kid Cthulhu, "and forming superteams, training to be on the Freedom League or whatever when they're adults. Dark Star's told me a little bit about how the school works, and I think it's just great." Despite the conversation, Stesha had work to do, so she got to it while she talked. Taking seeds from her pouch, she began scattering them, causing flowers to immediately begin popping up around the yard. "So do you see ghosts," she asked Nick, or mostly just hear them? Are there any around here now?"

"Oh, you go to Claremont?" Stesha asked the Kid, brightening as she spoke. "My fiance teaches there, maybe you know him. Dark Star, teaches Intergalactic Civics? I've been meeting more Claremont students lately, it must be because of sumer break or something like that. How do you like it?" Turning to Nick, she explained, "A lot of superhero teenagers go to school together, which sounds a little crazy, but it seems to work."

"You'll probably meet him if you keep working in the cemeteries," Fleur told Nick. "He... his looks are a little unusual, but he's really a nice guy. Now I can understand what brings you to the cemetery in the evening," she said to Nick, then turned to the tentancled hero. "But I'm not so sure about you. What are you doing here tonight?"

"Well, if you don't frequent parks and gardens at night, you probably won't see too much of me," Fleur told the tentacled hero with a smile. "I sometimes forget how many heroes there are in this city. Speaking of which," she added, turning to the skull-faced man, "have you met Dead Head yet? It sounds like you and he are in a similar line of work, and he frequents the cemeteries most of the time." Up close, she could see that the skull-head seemed to be some kind of makeup, which, she had to admit, was something of a relief.

Stesha did a double-take at the bizarre-looking new arrival, but he didn't seem to be a threat. "Lantern Hill on a Saturday night, she murmured with a chuckle, "it's like Grand Central Station sometimes." She nodded a greeting at the newcomer. "Fleur de Joie," she introduced herself. "Are you new in town as well?"

"A ghost talker?" Stesha repeated, belatedly remembering that she'd forgotten to pull up the hood on her cowl. Well, it was hot out! "What do you talk to them about?" Since he didn't seem to be immediately hostile, she relaxed a little, but kept a careful eye on him. "I'm Fleur de Joie," she told him. "I help take care of the plants here, and in most of the cemeteries around the city."

It had been a good night so far for Stesha. She'd already hit up the community gardens on the West End, which were suffering from the heat and then the overabundance of rain lately. The gardeners would be happy tomorrow when they saw the first tomatoes of the season ripe and ready to grace tables, along with cucumbers nearly two feet long and lettuces the size of soccer balls! She was always a little careful when she did that, knowing that gardening was its own reward, and hurrying the process cost it some of its magic. But this was the start of harvest time anyway, so she might as well help the work pay off! She was humming a little as she transported into the cemetery, popping out of one of her favorite old maple trees. A little sprucing up here, and she'd call it a night. If Derrick was home, maybe they'd still have a chance to make an evening of it... Her ruminations, and her humming, were cut off when she realized she wasn't alone in the cemetery! Someone was there already, a stranger with a head like a skull! She'd run into Dead Head a time or two as he did his work in the cemetery, but this wasn't him. But was he friend or foe? Cautiously, Stesha reached into her pouch and held a few seeds at the ready as she approached the stranger. "Hello," she said. "Ah, the cemetery closes at dusk. What are you doing here?"