Electra
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Miss Americana nodded gravely, looking at Delta with eyes that were at once sympathetic and incisive. She was holding her body very deliberately relaxed, hands open and palms turned slightly out at her sides, unarmed, nonthreatening. She didn't seem afraid, it seemed more like she didn't want him to be afraid. "Understandable. Making sure you have full control over your body and mind is going to be our first priority, and we can start with an in-depth examination of your nervous system. I've gotten a lot of baseline data on the cybernetic engineering of Nihilor from Steve and a few other former Omegadrones I've been able to work with. It's not quite the same, but it'll give us a jumping-off point. If you like we can start easy, just a tour of the facility and whatever questions you'd like to ask today, or we can do all that and then start with some scans and noninvasive testing." The elevator door slid open behind her, revealing a clean white and blue interior softly lit by wall panels. She stepped aboard and waited patiently for the others to join her. "We'll be going into the main facility for some of this, but not for a little while yet. There'll be fewer people running around after the end of the workday."
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Danica stopped dead just inside the doors to the store, nearly putting herself into reverse on accident. She had never seen this many adults inside a Claire's store, certainly not this many adult men, and with no kids in sight. It was like being in the wrong store, except everything else looked right. Nobody was buying anything, nobody even had bags from other stores. And those binoculars... something was not right here. She considered turning around and going right out again, but that was logistically difficult with her wheels on, and wasn't she supposed to be a hero? "This is weird," she said instead, leaving herself planted firmly in the doorway. "Is this a robbery?" She looked to the guy behind the counter. "Are you in danger?"
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It wasn't a very long walk to the elevator bay, a nondescript lobby with a few chairs and vending machines arranged around a wall of four stainless steel elevator doors. There was a woman seated in one of the chairs, legs comfortably crossed and an open can of soda sitting on the table next to her. She was uncommonly beautiful for someone from Earth Prime, with perfectly flowing hair and flawless facial symmetry over an exquisitely proportioned body. The woman was reading from a tablet, but looked up with a smile as they came into the room. "Welcome to Archetech," she began, addressing herself to Delta. "I'm Miss Americana, I run this company and I also work hands-on with a lot of our metahuman science initiatives. Steve's told me a little bit about what you're looking to have done. Do you have any questions in particular about your modifications?"
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Danica looked a bit skeptical of Judy's taste in dresses, but the other girl was so obviously pleased that she kept her mouth closed. The dress was, well, modest was one word for it, but the old-fashioned lace and severe cut made Judy look like she was about twelve years old and going to Sunday School instead of a formal dance. It was lucky Judy was so pretty, Danica figured, because it meant she could still pull off a dress like that without looking ridiculous. Danica would never let any of her friends go to a dance looking ridiculous, even if it required a failure of diplomacy. She herself bought an extremely fuzzy pair of slipper socks and hung the bag off the handlebar of her Segway as they left the store. "Oh, hold up! Pretty earrings!" she exclaimed as they passed a teen jewelry boutique. "You guys go ahead, I'll catch up. You know, more or less." She grinned and waved them on.
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The building itself was hardly imposing, especially compared to the terrifying laboratories of Nihilor, just a squat building that looked like it was probably used for storing vehicles and loading trucks. It did have sturdy-looking security; the sliding doors were thick and set deep in their frames, and cameras and lights dotted the covered portico they'd pulled up under. As the two exited the car, a red light next to the door cycled to green and the doors slid silently open. "Welcome, Steve, Delta," a smooth and accentless female voice greeted them. "Miss Americana is waiting for you at Elevator Bay One." A series of LED arrows lit up in the surbase along the wall, pointing the way they were to go.
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"The blue," Danica advised immediately, with great confidence. "Unless you already have a lot of ties, or you only want to wear white dress shirts. Single-color ties are easier to match with a lot of different things. But if you get a nice dark red one, it could be a Christmas tie too," she pointed out, before considering Ashley's question. "I don't know," she began, "I guess it's more a question of what I'm going to do first. I have to go to school for a long time still, but that means when I'm done, I will know lots of things, from lots of classes. I'm not sure I'm cut out for hero work unless I get like a jet-pack or something," she admitted with a laugh, "but I've thought about maybe becoming a doctor and going to places where it's dangerous to be a doctor. I'm pretty hard to hurt!"
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"That's true," Danica mused, examining the blue dress before nodding approval. "My parents have stayed young for a long long time now, but when I'm a grown-up, they will start living the rest of their lives, so someday they'll get old and retire. I'm going to have to get a good job!" This idea seemed to preoccupy her a bit more than the idea of finding a dress, though she did enthusiastically encourage Judy to try on the one she'd found. With Micah off browsing, she found herself standing quietly next to Ashley. "What are you going to do when you're done with Claremont?" she asked curiously. Ashley looked like she was maybe a little bit older than the other students in her class, like maybe in the rush to escape their world she'd missed enough school to need to repeat, but that wasn't really polite to inquire about.
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Danica edged closer to Judy as they shopped, pitching her voice low so as not to be overheard. "It's all right," she murmured, "I mean, if you haven't got enough money for your dress and things. I know your situation's got to be pretty tough, even if Claremont gives you a place to stay. My folks give me an allowance and I hardly ever spend it," she went on, telling just a bit of a white lie. She hardly ever spent it on anything really important, that was closer to the truth,, but not exactly what she wanted to say. "If you need a little extra to get the dress and shoes you want, just let me know." Glancing around, she pinched the sleeve of a plain black dress and pitched her voice back to normal volume. "Oh, this is a pretty one, but I'd probably have to hem it."
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Danica gave the dress a look that was frankly skeptical before schooling her face to something more diplomatic for Judy's benefit. "I do like black and gold," she enthused, "but I usually wear solids of one or the other so I don't get the crazy contrasting patterns look with my shell, you know?" She hadn't been nearly so discriminating when she was little, but back then everybody had liked crazy patterns and it hadn't been weird. It was now, though! "Anyway, I thought we were gonna be looking for a dress for you for the dance?" she reminded Judy, then shot Micah the briefest of commiserating glances. "And then maybe we can visit the bookstore?"
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Danica sort of wanted to visit the leathercraft store too, but it didn't seem nice to leave Judy all by herself when she was the one who'd invited them in the first place. "Sounds like fun," she told the other girl as they drove around the back of what was apparently a mall these days, even though it wasn't enclosed and didn't have a movie theater or anything. Danica wasn't sure why Ashley chose to park in the back of the mall, in place she wasn't 100% certain was legal, but it did get them close to the big stores. With some help, she was able to unstoke her Segway and settle her backpack into place, ready to face the wonders and rigors of the mall. "And after we finish our shopping, we can hang out at the food court and have Orange Julius!" She gave the mall a slightly skeptical look. "Do strip malls have food courts?"
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Danica bounced a little in her seat, then leaned forward to study the TV. "Totally sweet!" she decided, poking at it enough to change the channel once. "It must have been really scary for you guys to have to run away from your world like that." She wasn't sure of a lot of the details, but word got around in such a small school. "It's a good thing you had this car to protect you. Does it have any, you know, powers?" she asked guilelessly. "Is it how you got here?"
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"Wow!" Danica exclaimed, peering out the window as she climbed into the car. "Are these windows bulletproof? Is the whole car bulletproof?" She buckled her seatbelt conscientiously. "I watched a documentary on the presidential limousine once, and they said that those cars are so armored that they weigh as much as three or four cars, but they still have to be able to go as fast as a police car in case of an emergency! And I saw a show one time about a really rich musician who got a limousine with a hot tub inside of it! Hey, have you got wifi in the car?" she asked excitedly. "You can use a laptop in the car if you have wifi in it, and watch TV and everything!"
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Danica brightened a little as a new thought occurred to her. "Oh, I can make it easier," she offered. "I can go into my shell, and then it's like I'm not even there anymore. You'll just have to carry the shell to where I need to go, and then I'll pop back out of it. The shell only weighs about twenty pounds when I'm not in it." Her shell, for anyone who'd been paying attention, was not always the exact same size from day to day, but today it was in one of its medium configurations, around four feet in diameter and three feet deep at its most convex. "And it's okay if you drop me, you won't hurt me," she added almost cheerfully as she started to retreat into the shell.
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"Can I help?" Danica asked curiously. "I mean, I don't know very much about engineering, but I can hold a flashlight or something, maybe?" She had her nose almost level with the table as she studied the partially-assembled project as though proximity would reveal its secrets. She grinned. "Hey, maybe I could get four of these and paint a racing stripe on my shell, then go enter some races." It was much easier to joke about that than recall why Micah probably had gotten the idea to help her. Danica preferred not to think about the frustrating times when her lack of speed and dexterity held her back any more than absolutely necessary.
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A soft whirring of tires announced Danica moments before she rounded the corner and came into view. She was beaming as usual to see her friends, dressed in jeans and a soft green sweater with a blue backpack on her back in place of the tortoise shell. Her Segway had a blue handicap placard affixed prominently to the front today, presumably so nobody would give her a hard time about it at the mall. She waved and drove up to the others. "Hi, am I late? I was trying to get all my homework done before I came, and then I had to wait foreeeeever for that slow elevator in the dorm. Is this everybody?"
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Danica drooped visibly upon seeing the playing field and hearing the assignment. "Sorry, guys," she murmured, literally shrinking a bit with embarrassment as she pulled down partway into her shell. "I was hoping we'd have a flag to guard or something, but it looks like I'm just gonna slow you down." She looked over at the nearest chain, which extended to a flag island. "Maybe if somebody can help me get to one of the flags, I can just pick it up when it's time?"
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"Really?" Danica got up and moved to the other table, a process that took some time, then began looking over the pieces with great interest. "Like heely shoes, but with motors? Cool!" She was careful not to touch, even as she leaned in to get a better look. "I'm not very good at roller skating," she admitted cheerfully. "My center of gravity is, like, behind me most of the time, and it throws me off. But the good thing is I never hurt myself when I fall. And I can turn myself over just fine!" she insisted, looking ready to argue with anybody who wanted to perpetuate a species stereotype. "Could you put a stabilizer in them to help me keep balanced while I use them?"
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"Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions on a sesame seed BUN!" Danica sang as she sped along the sidewalk, her wheels seeming to hum along. "Don't put ice cream on it though, it'll make the bun all soggy. Ice cream goes on a crunchy cone with sprinkles on it, and if you're feeling really adventurous, you can stick your french fries in it. Last year some of my friends and I tried to get everything from the sandwich bar into one sandwich and grill it on the panini press. It was awful!" she told them enthusiastically. "It wouldn't even cook in the middle, so we had to get this one senior girl who could set things on fire to cook the middle for us and she told us we were all dumb but she did it anyway!" Their journey now was taking them around a little vine-covered building, half-lost amidst a little copse of trees. "Oh, and there's the chapel," she said, waving a hand in its direction as they passed. "It's mostly from when this was a private school for regular kids, but sometimes there's weddings or funerals or other special occasions in it."
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Danica looked up as Micah came in and gave him a smile. "Hey Micah! No, you should definitely stay, there's plenty of room. It's not much fun to just spend the whole evening in a dorm room, right? Just don't set anything on fire, the RAs hate that. Are you doing homework?" She returned her attention to the puzzle, biting her lip as she worked on a particularly tricky piece that was either part of Gabriel's coat or the arched ceiling of Freedom Hall. She glanced up again as Zenith came in, but that notable was obviously busy doing her own thing, so Danica left her to it.
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"Sure!" Danica called with a cheerful wave of her hand to invite the new arrival over. She'd changed into soft blue pajama pants and a tank top and was enjoying the unshelled life for the moment as she sorted a handful of puzzle pieces. "We found this thousand piece Freedom League puzzle and are just hoping it's not missing any pieces. If you find any night sky pieces just shove them to the side, we're doing that last." She'd already accumulated a small patch of starry sky pieces, undifferentiated but for shape. It looked like it would be a real pain to figure out their positions. "I don't think I've met you yet. I'm Danica! What team are you assigned to?"
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"Thanks, Micah," Danica said with a smile. "It's with the maintenance guys right now, but if they can't fix it, maybe you could take a look? If I have to wait for a technician from the company, I might be walking for a week." She made a face. "In any case, I'm not going to be very mobile for whatever exercises we're doing, but you all can use me as a human shield. I'm super good at that!" It was the sort of saying that should've been sardonic or self-pitying, but was apparently completely sincere. She started heading for the open door very, very slowly.
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"Sounds like fun! I hope you feel better soon!" Danica's smile was bright and genuine for both girls as they headed out of the bathroom, leaving her to do what she'd come in for in the first place. As Ashley and Judy walked back into the hallway they found the Segway sitting next to the door, waiting for her to come back. That was pretty typical, Danica rarely took her transportation into normal-sized rooms and usually left it outside the door and out of the way.
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"I don't wear much makeup yet," Danica admitted, "but it might be fun! I wouldn't be good to test on though," she added, "because my skin is pretty much impervious to damage, even without my shell. I can't even get shots!" She was obviously cheerful about this fact. "My mom says they tried to do it when I was a newborn, blood tests and stuff, and they broke the syringes on my feet! It''s okay because I don't get human sicknesses, but I also wouldn't be able to tell you if the makeup is good or not. Maybe some of the teachers would know, if she was working on it while she was in school. Will you guys be around later?"
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"It's okay," Danica told her, "I'm not embarrassed about it or anything, it's mostly that I got used to hiding it before my parents sent me to Nicholson. I don't say anything about it a lot of the time. I guess I remember a lot of the nineties, but it's fuzzy because I was pretty little. Things are a lot clearer in the two-thousands and 2010s." She grinned a little, shrugged. "Think about how well you remember being five or so, and that's about how well I remember 1996 and 1997. Lots of cartoons, the music my parents liked, a few important life events." With three people in the little bathroom, there was definitely no room for Danica's shell. She let it dematerialize so she could perch on the edge of the counter. "It's mostly a matter of brain development, emotional maturity, stuff like that more than how much algebra I can learn in one year. I've already gotten most of the classes I'll need to graduate, but I'm not actually ready, you know? Just like how my mom put her foot down and wouldn't let me drive in 2002 when I was four foot nothing and still thought my rock collection would be worth millions someday." She laughed. "But it's better now that it used to be. Mr. Eldritch said that by the time I'm thirty-six or so, the differences from year to year won't be so dramatic and I'll start having friends who don't outgrow me, which is going to be awesome!"
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Danica smiled distractedly at Ashley, but just shrugged at Judy. "Some of my powers manifested basically immediately, and one of them was that I age at half the speed of regular humans. I was born in 1986, after my mom was pregnant for a year and a half." She cracked a more genuine smile. "And if you think I don't hear about that every time we have an argument, you definitely don't know my mom," she quipped. "But it's like... everything about me ages at half speed. I'm not a grownup in a little kid body or something like that. I'm just... my years are longer, you know? Everybody else is just faster at everything."