Electra

Stesha watched the motion carefully. "Okay... let's see." With her lower lip between her teeth, Stesha put her hands on Taylor's arm, leaned in and forward, and managed a half-credible throw. It didn't go far, but it did put Taylor down on the mat. "I did it!" Stesha exclaimed, pleased. "I think she let me do it, but I did it anyway. What do I do if they're ready for that? It seems like if she just shifted her weight the right way, that would't work."

Erin cocked her head and studied him for a minute, unsmiling. He might have thought she was sizing him up for a fight, but it was obvious by now that Erin didn't waste time on that sort of thing in an actual fight. In her head, she was busy sorting through options. She was still far from sure this was a good idea, on a lot of levels. No matter what she'd said to Alex about Mark, the idea of putting herself forward as anyone's practice date wasn't exactly appealing. Especially if her qualifications for that were low stakes and an exceptionally sturdy anatomy, something she wasn't even going to think about right now. On the other hand, at least he hadn't done anything embarrassing or asked her in front of everybody else, which had been very real possibilities, given who he was taking his advice from. "Where do you want to go?" she asked finally.

Stesha turned her head to look up at Ace. "I'm not sure this is a good position," she admitted, "at least not for training. I at least have a pretty good shot at knocking you out with one of the flowers in my hair without anyone noticing, because your head is right there. You'd go to sleep and I could pretend I'd hit you in a pressure point or something. But I might not have my powers sometime," she immediately allowed, "so maybe we should try it this way. What do I need to do?"

He wasn't waiting long before the elevator at the end of the long hallway chimed and opened to let Erin out. Her practice uniform was already on, bat clipped to her belt, but she also had a Spanish phrasebook in her hand and was mouthing phrases as she walked. She approached with her usual speed and purpose, the sort that suggested she might run you over and not mean anything by it, because she was busy. Absorbed in her homework, Erin was halfway down the hall before she even noticed Mike standing there and slowed her pace to give herself a few seconds before they met up. She'd sort of been wondering about this since the conversation she'd had with Alex about him, and sort of wondering if he'd decided to give up. Now that he was standing right there, and apparently waiting, she wasn't quite sure what to do about it. "Hey Mike," she finally said as she drew closer.

"Pumpkin?" Erin repeated, incredulous. "You want us to have a bright orange pickup truck? People would be stopping us on the street to tell us about their potholes. Let's just get one of whatever they've got available, then we don't have to wait for it. Maybe blue or brown or black. Something inconspicuous. And just one color. You could get an orange Mini," she pointed out to Alex, "and it would look like you were driving a pumpkin."

Stesha thought about that for a minute, then shook her head. "No, I don't think so. It feels like when I go back to my apartment, the vacation will be over, even if it's just a couple of steps away. Maybe it's kind of silly, but I'll do without the camera. I want to make the most of the time we have left here." She put her head against his shoulder as they walked, bringing her body close to his. Maybe it was a little weird, but she was starting to get used to how oblivious he seemed sometimes. Maybe he'd just been out of his body too long. She hoped his students wouldn't run roughshod over him because of it. For her part, it just meant doing a little extra work sometimes, and she supposed that was okay. Better than a guy who was hypersensitive all the time. "We have the better part of the day left to us before we have to go. What would you like to do?"

Stesha stepped close to Dark Star, checking him over as though there would be any damage possible to make out in that shape of blackness. "I'd better stay," she said, "I have about half a dozen goons who need to be spat out into a cell. I'm just glad that guy showed up to tell us that Jack was gone, or we might not have found you for hours more. Are you all right now?" she asked Dark Star. She would've asked Jack as well, but she was a little too annoyed about the disaster he'd almost caused to be overly concerned. With a wave of her hand, she opened up a gigantic tulip cup next to Jack. "Put the guy in there, we'll give him to the police." She still looked a little pale after the whole experience, but was feeling quite a bit better now that it had all ended so well.

"Carrot cake," she said immediately, laughing, "but I might settle for a bagel and cream cheese. And I'm pretty sure the sandal is in the water, so it's long gone. I just got them at Target though, it's not a big deal. I sort of like the idea of being a mystery for the ages. And I did get all of those beautiful little rocks and shells yesterday to take home with me. Not to mention a lot of really wonderful memories." She gave him a warm look that suggested she was thinking about creating a few more memories to take with her before they left. "Next time I should bring my camera, though. No one might believe the pictures, but I'd love a shot of the fuzzballs and the big cliffs at sunrise."

"Back to the camp," she decided, reclaiming her flashlight and turning it back on. She leaned up into the kiss with great enthusiasm, then nearly overbalanced herself when she stepped back. "Hey... I lost one of my flip-flops. That'll be an interesting archaeological relic in a few hundred thousand years." She slipped off her other sandal and held it by the straps, walking comfortably barefoot along the edge of the wet sand. Taking his hand with her free hand, they headed back towards camp, fingers of dawn just starting to creep over the horizon. "I'm ready for breakfast, and to wash the sand out of my shorts. At least we rinsed the fuzzball slobber off," she joked.

"I think it's a little dark for that," she said, a bit regretfully. "Maybe on our next trip we can try that. Besides, I like it when I can touch you and you can touch me." She hung onto his shoulders until they were back into her depth, then took his hand and walked with him out of the water. "And I think any science class would be way more interesting if you got an actual trip to space along with it. I think any kid would probably give their eyeteeth for an opportunity like that." Their clothes were sopping wet, the flashlights nearly in the water where they'd been left on shore, but at least the dustmops of doom had given up their pursuit.

"Sounds exciting," she said with a smile. "It must be tough to get your powers when you've already got all of adolescence to deal with, though I guess I never really thought about it before. It's nice that there are adults to help them with that. You'd be good at it, you're so calm and thoughtful. Plus, you're actually out there doing the job, being a hero. They've got to respect that. You'll have to tell me stories, when you can. I bet a lot of exciting things go on there." Stesha looked at the water, then at the receding shore. "You know, I'm getting a little concerned that you're going to have to carry me in if we don't go soon," she remarked, not sounding terribly worried. "I won't be able to touch bottom."

Erin loosened her grip on the guard, checked to make sure he was unarmed, then gave him a quick pat on the back. "Better try and keep up," she advised, then fell in behind Edge and Geckoman as they headed back to the ship. "So much for the idea of salvaging the place," she muttered, casting a quick look back over her shoulder. "Doubt anybody will get much from it now."

Stesha picked up the gun for safekeeping and levered herself up off the floor, looking with alarm at the smoking machinery. She hurried over to Dark Star and pressed a kiss against her own fingertips, then touched them to the edge of the blankness where his cheek was not. "Be careful," she told him worriedly. Not wasting another moment, she pulled a vine out of her pocket and used it to transmit away, well out of the building but close enough that she could keep an eye on it. Now was not the time to get in the way with foolish heroics.

That sort of lifestyle sounded pretty sad to Stesha, but she didn't actually want to say that out loud. At least he was taking a vacation now, and having a good time like regular people did, and that was nice. She wrapped her arms around his neck as the current started getting stronger, tugging her in towards the shore. "A special school?" she asked curiously, focusing in on that instead. "What's it like?"

"I get plenty of crazy in my life now," she assured him with a chuckle. "But really, my apartment complex doesn't allow pets, and I wouldn't have time for one anyway. I work all day and lots of weekends, and I've been out heroing at night all summer. I would feel bad leaving an animal all cooped up alone with no one to play with. I have all my plants, and I can go down to the dog park and say hello if I start feeling lonely for pets. Maybe someday when I've got a place of my own and a yard of my own, and maybe a little more time at home. I'd like to get a dog someday, one of those bigger ones, like a lab or a golden retriever. They need a lot of room to move." While they floated in the ever-deeper water, the fuzzballs on the shore apparently decided that it wasn't worth hanging around any longer to see if a meal would be forthcoming. Eventually they wheeled around and bounced back into the trees, sending up little plumes of white sand as they went. "You said you don't use your apartment very much. Where do you go when you're not working?"

"Escape is good," Stesha said immediately. "If we can get away, we can do something from hiding if we have to, or change clothes, or call the police, or whatever. I'm not really interested in standing there and punching it out with anyone. Even if I do occasionally get a lucky hit," she added with a slightly rueful smile, rubbing her knuckles. "I'm not exactly fast though, in the running away department. I'd need to buy a little time to get out of the way."

"Jack!" Stesha yelped, horrified. "Why did you do that? We can't run away, it's a black hole machine! Who knows how big it will blow up! Now he can't shut it down! We have to do something!" She reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of dried leaves, sniffed them, then gave some to both Taylor and Derrick. "Eat that," she told them both urgently, "it'll make you feel better." Probably, anyway.

Erin nodded. "Sounds good," she agreed. "I don't know how to work any of that stuff, but I can keep a lookout or something. Couldn't hurt to have backup." She picked up her water bottle, opened it, smelled it to make sure it wasn't nasty, then tossed it in her bag. "I'm going to hit the library after this, so I won't be back till morning. Sleep well." Shoving her books into her knapsack, she tossed it over her shoulder and headed out at a brisk clip.

Stesha scrambled over as well, bringing the gun along with her but largely ignoring it. She set it down to pat Derrick's face with both hands. "Are you all right?" she asked worriedly, touching his forehead, then the pulse in his neck. "Can you change forms, or do you need some help?" She spared Jack a glance. "Shouldn't you be watching the bad guy to make sure he doesn't do something horrible when he wakes up?" she asked pointedly.

"You already knocked the guy who knows how to work it unconscious," Stesha said impatiently, "wake him up and make him turn it off!" She ran over to where Derrick was imprisoned behind the forcefield. She put her hand on it, shuddering at the unpleasant but painful sensation. "We're going to get you out, really soon," she promised Derrick. "Just hold on." She took a seed out of her pocket and tried to push it through the field, but it wouldn't go through, any more than her hand would. Thinking for a minute, she sat cross-legged on the floor and fiddled through the settings on the gun, then set the seed on the ground and pointed the gun at it. This villain seemed like the sort of guy who might like to be able to shoot at people he'd already locked up, so maybe the gun would go where other things wouldn't. Taking careful aim, she shot the growing seedling with the beam of energy, then carefully, carefully manipulated it towards the forcefield, then right up against it.

"Of course," she said with a laugh, "just to complete the chaos. We always had a mutt dog or two running around, and some stray cats that my dad fed so they kept coming around. Eventually we caught them and fixed them and vaccinated them, so they were sort of like ours. When Chloe started college, my mom got a brand new puppy because she said she misses having babies around the house. She has a knack for picking big puppies, though, so it's about the size of a horse now. But with a big house and a big yard, that's okay, just so long as he keeps those big shovel paws out of the garden." She was thoughtful for a minute. "It seems like things were pretty quiet in your house, growing up. That's sort of hard to imagine."

"What do you need with the Doom Room?" Erin asked with a negligent shrug. "Your powers are in your head, and you know how to use them perfectly well. I think it's the same sort of exercises, you just use your abilities again and again and again until either you break or it becomes second nature, or maybe kind of both. Trust me, you're better off without dealing with what Mr. Archer would throw at you in there. He's a sadist."

"Stop it!" Stesha yelled over Jack's rambling, stepping forward with the gun still leveled, though it was unclear whether she remembered she had it. "Jack! Stop it right now! We need him to get Derrick out of that field. It's hurting him! Pay attention!" She waved the gun at him, increasingly agitated, and remembered she was holding it. She leveled it again, this time purposely on Jack. "Put him down. We have work to do!"

"No," Stesha said absently, "he's an astronomer. I think this will be fine," she decided, giving the little globe a turn with one finger. "It's pretty, even if it's mostly a dustcatcher. He can put it on his dresser and think of Earth." She brought it back over to the counter and set it with the calligraphy materials, then reached for her purse. "And Chloe will love her presents."

"Solo tonight," Erin replied, zipping up her costume and snugging her hair back behind the blue and gold cloth band that finished her uniform. "Archer likes to give me a few days between sessions in the wringer. Lull me back into complacency and all that." She stopped for a moment with her hands in her hair, thinking. "Well, there's an idea. I forgot to tell Mike that I looked into finding a baseball simulation in the Doom Room. There is one, if you just program it not to run the brawl in the fourth inning. Maybe that's something we could do that would be fun and not horrible." She nodded satisfied, then finished dressing and secured her bat to her belt. "You heading to bed?"