Electra
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Miss A thought about this for a moment, which for someone with her processing capability was a long consideration indeed. "Well, I can't say I've enjoyed my own space travel much at all," she finally offered, "but some people take to it much more readily. You, for instance, would probably not be traveling cargo." She studied him, cocking her head slightly to one side. "I suppose the merit of the idea depends somewhat on the intent. Are you excited by the possibilities of traveling in space, or is it that you consider the mysteries of space preferable to the certain unpleasantness of rebuilding your life on Earth?" Her voice was not unkind, but it was blunt.
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"I don't really know," Miss A admitted. "Most of the heroes I work with don't talk about that sort of thing much, at least not with me." She smiled, a little wry. "I have to cultivate my air of friendly aloofness, after all. But it's certainly possible that some people who might have been having problems thought about getting professional help when they realized what the potential consequences could be." She smoothed her hands over the hem of her already pin-straight skirt. "For my part, I didn't start going until my fiance encouraged me. It's been a bit of a long road, but you know how that goes." She studied him for a moment, "Have you been able to source all the nutrients you need, and facilities for healthcare and... repair, if necessary?" She offered the word delicately, not wanting to offend, not sure what else to call it.
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"No whipped cream, but I do have sweet creamer," she offered, pouring coffee into an insulated paper cup. Only one cup, of course, she wouldn't bother to pretend to drink in front of him. When his coffee was fixed up she gave it to him, then sat across from him and folded one leg neatly over the other. "I promised myself I'd do what I had to in order to keep the company alive," she told him, unvarnished truth. "And I was angry at you at the time, very angry and disappointed," she admitted, "but I hope you don't think that anything I did with the company was out of animus. I... we had to separate from you to survive." Miss A sighed, ran perfectly manicured fingers through her perfect hair, disordering the pins slightly. "There's a lot of water under the bridge since then. We've both gotten some much-needed therapy, I think." She smiled thinly. "I like to think I at least understand a little more than I did."
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"I understand the feeling, to a certain extent," she told him wryly, "but I'm afraid I don't have much advice to offer. Would you like coffee, tea, a doughnut?" She gestured to the little kitchenette and its full coffeepot and electric kettle. "People keep telling me to get a Keurig, but the coffee it makes is just so bad." Miss A stepped over to the kitchenette, ready to serve up as requested. "Please, have a seat, make yourself comfortable. I have to admit, I'd noticed you come into town, but I wasn't sure you'd be getting in touch."
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The building looked vacant, as promised, the dual storefronts both slightly dusty and containing furniture that spoke of some old failed business ventures. Around the back there was a single security light burning over a heavy fire door. That door swung open as the doctor approached, silent and smooth and automatic. Inside, there was no trace of office equipment, rather a spotlessly clean and well-equipped electronics lab filled the majority of the space. At a glance, most of this workspace was devoted to robotics of one sort or another, both maintenance and fabrication. Schematics for a detached left leg filled the closest computer screen. Off to the side was a sitting area with a sofa and two comfortable but worn chairs, and the smell of fresh coffee was strong in the air. Miss Americana stepped forward from one of the computer consoles to greet him. She was dressed as impeccably as ever, a smart navy twinset with red accents and a white labcoat thrown on over it. Her long blonde hair was pinned back for lab work. "Doctor Archeville, so nice to see you again," she said with the studied pleasantness of a businesswoman. "How have you been finding the return to town?"
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"How about this evening, maybe nine PM?" she replied. "The parking lot is gated but I'll pass you in when you arrive." She gave him the address and the major cross-streets, a good-sized office park in an area of the city that hadn't quite realized its potential yet. "It's the third building on the left, just look for one with the E.G.E Realty signs in the front windows. I like to keep up a front that keeps away the curious without looking too forbidding. The actual door is around the back."
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"Thank you," she replied smoothly, "but your past apologies are more than sufficient, especially given the external factors in play. I'd be happy to meet with you and catch up on your progress and your plans. Would you mind coming to my personal lab on Diligence Way? There's more privacy there, less logistics." Fewer prying eyes, she didn't bother to add, less chance for a camera to pick up the disgraced man entering his company and starting a news story that Archetech couldn't afford. The main office in Freedom City still had picketers a few times a week even all these years later, to say nothing of the conspiracy theorists online. She wouldn't want to give them any fresh meat to chew over.
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"Thank you, Taylor," Miss Americana said, smoothly breaking into the call from her office desk. "I appreciate your diligence, but I will speak with Dr. Archeville myself." She waited until the slightly rattled assistant had hung up, then let silence hang on the call just a moment longer, a silence filled with unspoken words. Miss Americana had done a lot for Archetech in the years since she had taken it over, had been perhaps the only person who could have saved it in the wake of the incredible public relations disaster that had befallen it when its founder had gone so publicly villainous. The way she'd done it, though, had been to ruthlessly sever all connection with that founder, disavowing his actions and scrubbing him from institutional memory so thoroughly that his name was mentioned only twice on the company's entire website. (The Wikipedia page was quite a different story, despite her best efforts.) It had worked, but it was entirely plausible that the man himself might see it as a slight, if not an outright betrayal from his handpicked successor. "It's been quite a long time, Doctor," Miss Americana finally said, her mellifluous voice carefully neutral. "You wanted to see me?"
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Jessie came out of the kitchen, albeit slightly reluctantly, carrying the tray of cupcakes again. She offered them around the room, sort of half-heartedly, as though hoping somebody would take a cupcake and that would count as social interaction. A few years of school had gotten her slightly better at interacting socially with friends and strangers, but most of the people in the room right now fell in the sticky area right between, not quite strangers, but not quite familiar either. It was a lot easier when she had a job to do. "Do you need something to drink?" she asked Aquaria, who could forget and start to dry out if she got very busy talking.
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"Well, Wonderpark was imaginary," Danica reminded him, "but there are amusement parks around, and they're fun! We'll go to Ocean Point when it gets warmer out, that's a water park so it's like an amusment park but instead of rollercoasters there are huge slides with water sluicing down them and you start at the top and slide down really fast on an inner tube. Plus there's roller coaster parks not too far away, maybe we can get somebody to take us for a weekend!" She put a quick hand on Pan's arm to make sure he stayed grounded, but seemed satisfied that he was remembering the need to remain subtle if they wanted to play hooky successfully. "But if you like this size screen, wait till we show you IMAX! Twice as big, and curved, so it's almost like you're inside. You'll love it!" She craned her neck around Pan to look at the other girls. "How did you guys like it? You okay, Judy?"
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Danica settled happily into her seat and munched her way steadily through the popcorn and candy as the previews ended and the movie began. It wasn't an opening weekend and the film was lightly attended, so she had no compunctions about leaning in and whispering explanations to Pan from time to time about various confusing parts of the movie, and to Aja if it looked like she needed it. Judy seemed to have a pretty good grasp on American pop culture, even if she didn't seem quite as into the movie as her friends. Danica made a mental note to ask Judy what she wanted to do next, and maybe they could find something else fun for a girl who couldn't enjoy movie or mall food at all.
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Jessie slipped in behind Aquaria, nearly unnoticeable behind her boisterous roommate. She held a pan of decorated cupcakes with pale blue and yellow swirls of frosting on them and looked like she was mentally only half-prepared to be attending a party. Still she smiled at Mali, then at Daphne. "Spice is fine," she told Mali, "Hot foods don't bother me. Moderately spicy with lots of peanuts is probably my favorite, though. Here, cupcakes." She set her pan down on the nearest clear surface and stepped away. "Is anyone else coming tonight?"
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"Let's see..." Danica grinned at the clerk, more than pleased by her friends' excitement. Movies were a lot more fun with people who were enjoying themselves! "Let's get an extra-large bucket of popcorn, with butter and salt, an order of churros, a large root beer, all these candies," she pointed at the impressive pile on the counter. "What do you guys want to drink? You'll need something cause the popcorn makes you thirsty. Plus with the extra large bucket, we can get a refill if we want! Just don't pass the bucket to Judy," she reminded them, dropping her voice confidentially. "She can't eat it and I don't want her to feel bad."
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"Thanks, Aja, that's rad!" Danica agreed enthusiastically. She used her phone to pay and tip the driver when they arrived, then climbed onto her Segway so she could keep up with the others as they went into the theater. "We can get your ticket for you and meet you at the ticket-taker guy, if you want." Even if Judy would rather play games, Danica delighted in showing her friends the wide variety of candies and treats available. "...and there's gummy bears, which are sweet, and gummy worms, they're super sour, and Junior Mints are squishy mint with chocolate around them, and Skittles are Skittles, plus they have nachos with the fake cheese like in the cafeteria, and the really, really big soda pop..."
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"Nooooooo!" Danica insisted, sounding scandalized. "I was talking to some of the other girls about that one and it was like if The Fault in Our Stars and Love Story had a sad angst-baby. Let's see something fun, like How to Train Your Dragon or Wonder Park!" She considered the other two passengers in the car. "You guys probably haven't had a chance to see the first two dragon movies, so maybe you'd get lost in the third one, but I hear Wonder Park is good. Do you guys like popcorn? Movie popcorn is the best. It's so buttery it makes your hands slippery. And you can get candy too, and big drinks. Food at the movie theater is expensive, but if you don't have any money we can share," she offered magnanimously.
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"We can take the train some other time," Danica promised, buckling herself into the back seat while the driver stored her Segway in the back. "It's fun, I take it to get home on weekends sometimes, but the trains don't run as often at night. We're better off getting a ride this time, and my parents gave me an Uber gift card for exactly this sort of thing." She bounced cheerfully in her seat and pulled out her phone to look at the movie times. "Man, there's a bunch of stuff showing tonight. I remember when I was little, we had like three movies at a time at the movie theater."
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"Being invisible is a great idea!" Danica assured Pan with blithe good cheer. "Spontaneous hooky using powers is totally acceptable as long as you're not hurting anybody or causing serious property damage." She looked up at the wall, then at her companions. "So in that spirit, if somebody can help me and my machine here over the wall, that would be awesome. I've got an Uber picking us up in ten minutes, but unfortunately this bad boy can't scale walls." She gave her Segway an affectionate pat. "Otherwise, we'll see if we can sneak out the back gate while they've got it unlocked for the garbage trucks."
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Gina rubbed her face. "What if we just... like, had a reception with your team?" she offered, trying to make her voice a little more confident than she actually was. "We don't have to publicize the wedding at all if the people you want to celebrate with already know. And we could come just as ourselves." She smiled a little. "The actual ceremony we can maybe have in private, just in case I completely flake out in the presence of more than one new person at a time. I'll just have to get my therapist ordained or something, kill two birds with one stone."
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Gina shook her head. "No," she told him, "not just the wedding. I don't..." She pursed her lips and looked away, trying to organize her thoughts into something that could be articulated. "She doesn't get to have you. She doesn't get to be married to you, even just for the sake of public relations." She tugged the ends of her own hair, smiling ruefully. "It's already going to be bad enough when I come out, people being sorry for you and how you've traded down. It'd be even worse if I had to compete with your imaginary wife. Maybe we can just, just keep it all private until I get my head on straight?" Even as she spoke, Gina's face said she was arguing against herself. "I know it sucks because you have friends and you want to tell them stuff and that's totally reasonable, but you know me and being reasonable!" she concluded with a laugh that was a bit brittle.
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"This is boring," Danica agreed, flipping her book shut. "I've already done the comparative religion unit twice." She'd celebrated the holiday by braiding a little crown of some early wood sorrel she'd found, the shamrock-like leaves looking very seasonal indeed in her dark hair. The rest of the handful of leaves she'd brought as a snack, popping one occasionally into her mouth with every sign of relish. "We could hop the wall and take the train downtown, go to the mall and see a movie," she suggested. "A real mall-mall, not a strip mall. They're great for hanging out in, I've seen so many movies about it."
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Gina scanned the flowchart, one eyebrow raised as her eidetic memory absorbed the fairly significant amount of data. "Yeah, I'd say it's just as well," she agreed dryly. "As romantic as it sounds to be argued into accepting a proposal, this was probably better all around." She hesitated for a moment then looked up at him, pursing her lips with sudden nerves. "It's going to be complicated," she told him. "I've... I've been working on it, but I'm not ready to go public yet. I don't know when I'm going to be. And I don't want to marry you as Miss Americana. That would just be messed up. I'm not sure how we're going to make it all work out in front of the public."
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Erin stared back at Trevor and didn't complete the sentence, instead moving her shoulders in a way that indicated mild discomfort. "You could try and get a temporary assignment in Europe," she offered instead. "We have a friend working for the UN, he might know some places that need coastal defense, or underwater cleanup,, or, I dunno, fish diplomacy?" She plucked two cocoa packets from the box and began shaking them to distribute their contents to the bottom. "If you're going to be over there for a little while, you can get to know him before you do anything, and maybe if things are good you can make it a recurring thing, or something." Her normally pale cheeks were suffusing with additional blood flow, which might mean that she was about to go and hide in her bedroom.
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"Saving him from aliens and telling him you like the way he looks are good first steps," Erin told Aquaria, and now she was grinning for some reason. She might have just been happy to hear that the courtship was proceeding apace. "Does he do any hero work? If you can team up with him a few more times, that would probably be good. He'll get a chance to see you in action.. It might be worth finding your way across the ocean to visit, even. How fast do you swim?"
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"Oh, is that what that was?" Erin asked Trevor, raising one eyebrow and giving him a look that Aquaria had never seen Jessie make. "I guess if it's effective..." She turned back to Aquaria to listen to the description of Sergeant Shark's courtship behaviors. "You bit... his face? And that was... good, I take it?" Her voice was hesitant, but she was still not poised to flee, so that was a good sign. "If he likes how you smell, that's probably good. Where exactly does he live?"
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"Sergeant... Shark? Like, he's a shark?" Erin asked, then seemed to struggle for words for a moment before becoming aware of her mate's presence. She gave Trevor a look that on Jessie would've meant that whatever fun thing Aquaria was doing was probably going to have to stop. "You could jump in here anytime," she invited him, her voice a slightly more pointed pitch than it had been. "I mean," she added, her lips curving, "I'm assuming not every guy electrocutes himself to show a girl he's serious, but you could add a valuable male perspective on this question."