Electra
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"I guess, the school's been hooking up some people with adult heroes who have similar powers, especially if there's no one really with the same powers teaching," Erin told him, concentrating half her attention on the game. "Like I did a few training sessions with this super-strong ex-wrestler type who taught me some stuff about pulling punches. You remember, she had me batting around that stupid steel ball all summer? And Alex got paired up with some psychic to do extracurricular study. I don't know if anyone else is doing that sort of thing. Maybe if you keep on working with Phantom, you can get a class credit for it or something. Has she helped you?"
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"That's handy," Erin acknowledged with a nod. "Who did you say you were working with on the dimensional travel stuff? I didn't know anyone at the school did that sort of thing except Darien, and he only does it with his machines. Is it one of those mentoring program things?" Her own mentorship had fallen apart in the summer when her mentor had left town, but it had been very useful while it lasted, and Alex was still doing hers. They seemed like a good idea.
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"Got it," Erin said with a nod. "That helmet should cut off his vision pretty thoroughly for anything not in front of him. We'll go in from above so he doesn't see us coming and start throwing things. Be ready to try and grab hold of anything he does throw. I'm sure there'll be civilians around, the simulator always makes them too dumb to run away." She leapt up fifty feet to balance on the ledge of a fire escape, then completed the jump to the rooftops, trusting Alex to follow, then began leaping from roof to roof at high speed. She figured that if she could engage with the villain right away, that would keep his attention on her and away from Alex who, despite her forcefield, did not take a punch nearly as well. Alex was her teammate as well as her friend, but that didn't negate the impulse to protect her in a hands-on fight.
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"Fair enough," Erin agreed. As soon as the simulator started warming up, her attention sharpened even beyond her usual alertness, focusing in for any small movement or noise that might be an enemy. She unclipped the bat from her belt and spun it to its full length, even as she looked around for the instructions that would tell them what to do. Usually there was some little screen of instructions at least, unless Archer was going to be playful and throw them in the deep end. "Do you feel anything?" she asked Alex tersely.
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"Thanks." She leaned back on the couch, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Give it another year, maybe, we'll see how much any of that sinks in. Right now I just keep reminding myself I'm lucky to be here in the world and here at Claremont, weird or not. People might annoy me sometimes, but I'm still glad they're around." Erin fiddled with the controls for a minute, then changed the subject. "So if you can teleport to hell, does that mean you can go anywhere on earth now, too?"
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"I dunno," Erin shrugged, "All I'm good at is fighting, and nine times out of ten they've got me practicing that when I come down here. There's something to be said for practicing at what you're best at. But hide and seek works too. You find 'em, I pound 'em, it should work just fine." She let the metal elevator scan her, then stepped inside and held the door for Alex. "Maybe you can stay up in the sky and keep an eye out for them."
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Erin didn't bother to deny her concern as they headed out, knowing that Alex probably didn't need so much as a peek at her mind to tell anyway. "But that time we weren't even looking for trouble, just like we weren't at the amusement park, or at the concert... God knows what Archer's going to throw at us when we do go looking for a fight. Maybe it'll be one of those things like the training I did with Mark," she reasoned, brightening. "Where the aliens weren't actually hostile and we had to reason with them. You'd be a lot better at that than either of us were." She shortened her stride so Alex could keep up without trotting as they left the dorm and crossed the windy expanse of the quad.
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"You ready?" Erin stood in the doorway of the dorm room she shared with Alex, doing a few light stretching exercises while she waited for her roommate. She was already dressed in her workout uniform, hair held back by the blue and gold headband, and wearing her rapidly-wearing-down tennis shoes. Training in the Doom Room was certainly no new thing for her, but today was a little different. She had trouble thinking of Alex as a combatant at all, despite her impressive mental powers. Things in the combat simulator could get very rough. Erin couldn't help feeling just a little bit worried.
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She shrugged again and was quiet for a few moments, concentrating on the game. When it seemed like she wasn't going to answer the question at all, she finally said, "I don't know, really. The whole world is still strange to me. I figured eventually I'd get used to it, and I sort of have, but at the same time, it's always just a little out of place. It's something I took for granted, I guess, the feeling like you belong in the world you live in. I haven't even seen the other me in more than five months, but she's still always going to be around, and be the one who belongs here." She snorted. "At least I'm not locked up as a danger to myself and others anymore, well, except for tomorrow. That's progress."
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"You're sweet," she told him with a laugh. "If you're lucky, Fleur might even give you her phone number. I've got an in with her, you know. I'll give you a call later when I've got the rest of the details worked out, all right? I'll talk to you soon, be careful out there." After exchanging goodbyes, she hung up and composed a quick reply to the email, asking for more information about what she'd actually have to do, and when, and how. It would be very different from sprucing up the park, but she wasn't afraid of public speaking like some people, and she figured it would be a good time.
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"Puzzles are good for you. They'll keep you from getting Alzheimer's," Erin told him. "And it never hurts to try and look up. Things could always be worse, you know? But there's no point in thinking about that. At least thinking about better gives you some kind of hope." She nudged her shoes off her feet, biting her lip for a moment as she concentrated on the game. "Things are okay, I guess. I've been here a year now. It seems weird. I guess maybe I'm just starting to get used to it."
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Erin was quiet for the first few minutes after their return, trying to get her bearings after once again shifting between worlds. At least this point of return was familiar. She was just tuning back into the conversation when she caught Eddie's rambling to Hope. Grimacing, she stepped forward, also interposing herself between Eddie and Hope, but on Hope's side. "God, Eddie, you're such a jackass. Can we do this debriefing later?" she asked the adults in the room. "It's been a long couple of days." Without waiting for a reply, she gave Hope a nudge towards the door, hoping that the sometimes volatile heroine would take a graceful exit instead of a fight.
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"Okay," Erin said again, raising one hand to rub the back of her neck uncomfortably. "That's good, talking is good. I, uh... I better get going before I'm late for physics. You need anything else, or something?" she asked. Now that the moment of crisis had passed and the vital information passed along, Erin had no idea what to do or how to help. Beating a retreat seemed like the best course of action.
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"Okay," Erin replied, sitting down on a vent cover and folding her arms loosely over her knees. "She didn't mean anything by it, Alex, I mean," she said after a minute. "With the hugging and stuff. It's not like they have some kind of relationship going behind your back. She eventually figured she'd probably end up with Mike, but not for a long time, you know, and plans can always change. But she wasn't really stringing you along or anything."
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"That's a little creepy, that the barrier is so thin," Erin mused, absently setting the console to a cooperative puzzle game. She wasn't terribly good at it, but neither was he, and they could play on Easy mode. "But maybe it's a good sign for you. Maybe it means you'll be able to control it eventually. If you can do, like, lucid dreaming or something like that, maybe you could will yourself to teleport back, even when you're sleeping. Eventually they won't be able to hold onto you anymore, and you won't have to worry about it."
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"Most of mine are just memories," she said with a shrug, "they just play out and I get to watch them again. Sometimes with whatever's been bothering me that day thrown in for flavor. They aren't as bad as yours, at least when I wake up, they're over." She turned on her controller, flicking it up towards the screen to make the cursor move. "Maybe if your powers are changing, that means your dad won't be able to get ahold of you anymore, and you'll stop having nightmares."
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"Yeah, I can't say I like the idea of you getting into my head, but powers are weird that way sometimes," Erin said with a resigned shrug. "Alex already dropped into a really fun nightmare I had this summer, that was weird. But she didn't mean to. Want to play video games?" she suggested again, this time without the rancor. "It's easier to talk without looking at each other if we're both looking at something else."
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"Oh. Wow." Erin sat back on the couch, folding one leg under her as she thought about that. "That's gotta be a weird power to have crop up one day. Especially if you've been going on dates." She scratched one ear, a little uncomfortably. "Is that going to be a thing now, where you can't look at people or you might see inside them, or is it something you can learn not to do unless you want to? I know Alex had to do years of training for that sort of thing, but she started real young."
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"I guess you're right," she said reluctantly. "I've got work to do myself, after taking the whole weekend off. But there's always tomorrow." She patted his cheek, then leaned in to kiss him, resting her hands on his shoulders. "I'll see you later, be careful while you're at work. Don't let the supervillains bite," she joked.
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"Then why are you acting so weird?" she demanded. "If it's not because of zombies or anything like that. You haven't even looked over this way since I came in, and it makes you look really guilty of... I don't know, something. Sorry if I jumped to conclusions," she muttered, somewhat belatedly.
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"I don't know yet," Stesha admitted cheerfully. "I just got the invite, and I wanted to make sure I'd have some moral support before I said yes. They'd probably be thrilled to itty bitty pieces if you wanted to come as Dark Star, but it might make our plans for having fun out of costume a little tougher to manage. People would probably be after you for autographs and pictures all day. I know Taylor is coming in her civvies, but you know how she is about her costume."
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Erin thought about making a sardonic response to that, but refrained. Maybe it had been obvious to just about everyone that Mike and Alex were meant to be together, but if Mark hadn't seen it, there was no need to hurt his feelings about it. She didn't think being someone's practice boyfriend would bother him, necessarily, but he'd probably had his ego smacked around enough for one day. "I don't think Mike even admitted it to himself," she said instead. She hesitated for a minute. "You okay?"
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Erin thought about trying to brush him off, but he was kind of like Alex that way, it was pretty useless to try and lie to him. "Did you hear something about me?" she asked, looking straight at him for all he wouldn't meet her gaze. "Something about where I come from? I heard you cut yourself off there, and you won't even look at me now. I don't know what stories might be going around, but I think I deserve to hear them."
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"Just bring yourself," she told him, "I'll take care of the rest." She thought about inviting him to stay the night tonight, but maybe that was too much, too soon. Honestly, spending every night with him didn't sound so bad at all, but it seemed like it might be moving things too soon. "And if you think of it, maybe you can give the rest of the granola bars to the fuzzballs. You'd make their furry little day." She smiled, but didn't let go, not quite willing to bring herself to say goodbye just yet.
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"Maybe afterwards," Stesha teased back. "I've got it right here in my drawer, for emergencies. But for this one, I'll be in costume. You don't have to be, though. It's kind of cool, there's this hero booster convention in Freedom City, just a little one, put on by the college. They asked me to come as one of their speakers or attractions or whatever. Taylor's coming with, and I thought it would be even more fun if you were there too. It sounds like fun, and it's for a good cause."