Electra

"Maybe that's something to talk to her about," Erin suggested. Breaking off her pacing at last, she went to her closet and started changing into her practice uniform. The end of tutoring sessions meant a few hours less study time every day, but her physical training hadn't slacked off any since the start of the school year. "If you're not the person she started the link with, maybe it feels uncomfortable to her, too. Or maybe she'll at least tell you something more about how the link came to be formed in the first place."

"You say that now, but wait until you've got one munching on your hair," she teased back, leaning back against him and drawing her legs up so she was floating in his arms. The tide was gradually coming in, raising the water past her waist and driving the fuzzballs higher up on the sand. "I think we can wait them out. If they're so hungry, they'll go back to foraging soon. I can't imagine getting a swarm of those guys in your garden, it would be worse than rabbits." Stesha chuckled, linking her arms around his. "Did you ever have pets?"

All of that made bizarre sort of sense to Erin, but she couldn't say anything about it, which left her a little short on words. She fished around for something to say for a minute, still pacing laps between the door and the beds. "That must feel weird," she finally said. "Are you okay with it? Maybe you could shut it down if you don't want her in your head like that. You don't even know her."

Stesha rolls an 18

When the villain didn't say anything, Stesha took a few steps forward, holding the gun level on him. "I want you to turn off that forcefield, and whatever is holding Dark Star in that cage," she ordered. "Then I want you to step away from the controls. I don't know how to use this gun, but that's not going to stop me from using it on you. I don't think either of us want that."

Erin came down from her flying leap, her shoes landing with a soft thud against the concrete. As soon as she straightened, she saw the horde of possessed parkgoers shambling towards them. Her face went pure white, and for a moment she had to look back to her friends to make sure they were still there. "Alex," she said urgently, "don't let them get close to me. I might do something bad." People were one thing, people she was getting better at, but these particular people looked and acted much too familiar.

"I could give you a granola bar and send you back to the beach, and then tape what happens..." Stesha suggested with a laugh. "You would have to change forms, but I could see it working. A whole herd of those little things, jumping right through you as you race down the beach, very exciting! Maybe if we wade through the water a little way, they'll get tired of us and just go home," she offered. Teleporting would solve their problems as well, but it seemed like giving up. Besides, she liked being in the warm water with him, even if her soaked clothes were a little uncomfortable.

"Aww, not even one?" she wheedled jokingly, leaning into his embrace and putting her hands over his. "I suppose I do know better than to try and adopt a wild animal, let alone one from an entirely different planet. If they get like this over a granola bar, imagine what would happen if one saw a cupcake. They kind of remind me of the ducks at the pond near my house. You could sit on the bank and watch them, and they'd pay no attention to you, but if you threw them some bread, they'd practically eat your toes trying to get more out of you." Stesha was quiet for a minute, thinking. "But I think you should cultivate the image of being weak to dustmops," she told him mock-seriously. "The villain would come after you with a dustmop, he'd try and smack you with it, and just when he thought he was winning, you knock him around the block. I think it could work."

Stesha's first impulse was to take care of her friend, but that wouldn't help much if he just shot them both as soon as he woke up. Raising a hand, she extended her fingers and then clenched them into a fist, concentrating entirely on the plant she'd created on the other side of the room. New vines sprung up from it, around the wilting flower, and snaked out over the villain's shoulders. They wrapped around the gun and yanked it away with one hard tug, then withdrew, shoving the gun into the maw of the flower. Back on the other side of the room, one of the vines poking out of Stesha's pockets opened a new blossom and spit the gun into her hands. She raised the gun, hands shaking, and pointed it at the bad guy. "Don't move, or I swear to God I'll shoot you with every setting," she told him, her voice quavering just a little.

Stesha is power stunting something that will let her take the gun away from range. Her first roll sucks, per usual, but the second one, with an HP, is a guaranteed hit. Then there's a disarm check It's a 23.

Stesha whimpered as the bolt of energy knocked Taylor backwards and Jack slumped forward in his seat. The vines didn't work, Taylor's magic didn't work, nothing worked! She rummaged in her pocket and grabbed another seed. "Please, please, please, please, please," she murmured, throwing the seed with all her strength. It had never worked before, but maybe this time... As it flew, the seed blossomed into a gigantic yellow flower with about twenty stamens. It was a lot bigger than any of the stunning flowers she'd made before! Stesha watched from behind slitted fingers. The yellow flower soared across the room and clobbered the villain right in his scarred face, releasing pollen everywhere.

Stesha uses THE STUNFLOWER! She rolls poorly. She spends an HP and rolls again. She rolls an 18. She spends an HP for extra effort. There, a 20!

"I don't think it will work that way," Erin said, "for the same reasons you told me about my world. It doesn't work like that..." She clammed up, realizing she was almost saying way too much. "But maybe she can learn to be happy here. She's already joining Eddie's band or something like that, and she seems to not be too worried about living here. The school will take care of room and board, even if not much else." Erin slid off the desk and started pacing the room. "How do you feel about her? Besides like you should help her out?"

Stesha cowered for a moment as the box she was hiding behind simply disappeared, with only a smudge of ash marking that it had ever been there at all. The urge to run away was terrible and strong, just touch one of her flowers and end the nightmare, but she wouldn't leave Derrick, or Taylor, or even Jack in the hands of a madman. She looked over again at the men. Derrick was trapped in a cage behind a forcefield, there was no way to get to him right now. But Jack was just... just sitting there, seemingly in the grip of the bloody dream that was playing across the screens. She could get to him. Steeling herself, she darted across the room to the chair where Jack sat and began working on the straps holding him down. As she worked, she talked into his ear. "Jack, listen, it's me, it's Stesha. Taylor needs you, Jack. You have to wake up and help her. All that stuff in your brain is just a lie. Taylor needs your help. She needs you to wake up." Honestly, she had no idea whether Jack even cared enough for Taylor for that to matter, but it was the only emotional card she had to play. Taking a risk, she pulled the helmet of electrodes off his head. "Wake up!"

"Discretion is the better part of valor," she told him sagely, laughter still coloring her voice. "Besides, you couldn't blast them, it would be too mean. Like... I don't know, like kicking really angry little puppies. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me," she added jokingly. "Anyway, being back in the water is fine with me, even if my clothes are getting all wet. It's a nice night, and the water is warm. And I think you're right about them not being able to swim." She leaned against him comfortably, looking back at the melee on the beach. "I almost feel like I should go get the rest of the granola bars, but I have a feeling that would only cause more problems."

No good. A 10.

"That's not what I meant," Erin said immediately, sitting on the edge of her desk and looking over at Alex. "I know you don't intrude on people's brains if you don't have to. All I meant was that sometimes things develop the way they're supposed to if you just keep your hands off and watch them. There's nothing wrong with keeping an eye on things and wanting to help, but I don't know if you should feel like you've got to be responsible for her. Especially not if we're here partly to be learning to be responsible for ourselves when we're heroes."

"In a pinch, I suppose we could teleport away," she agreed, "but I like your idea better. Back in the water!" They hurried out of the woods and back onto the beach in one madly yapping throng, the occasional bold fuzzball managing to leap as high as Stesha's chest before tumbling back to the ground. About half the group stayed behind on the edge of the woods, but the rest rolled right onto the beach with them. Kicking off her shoes, Stesha ran straight into the water, then hurled the rest of the granola bar back towards the woods. "There it is," she called, "go get it!" Still chortling, she waded out with Derrick into hip-deep water, leaving the last of the fuzzballs barking impotently in the shallows. "Well, that was fun," she laughed, hanging onto his shoulders as the waves rocked them.

"Sometimes people make stupid choices," Erin pointed out. "But that's what makes you learn things." She had the abrupt thought that maybe she and Alex had had this conversation before, except in the future, and that was enough to make her head start to hurt a little. "You hear Mike in your head, but that doesn't mean you're responsible every time he does something dumb. And her entire world just did blow up. You probably haven't seen her at her best. You could leave well enough alone for awhile. Like observing a science experiment."

Stesha yelped and laughed at the same time, stumbling backwards into Derrick and using him as a brace against the attack of fuzzballs. "Oooh, maybe that was a bad idea," she giggled, setting down the one she was holding, which immediately joined the throng. "Maybe we better beat a strategic retreat before we get gummed to death. My legs are already covered in slobber." Taking his hand, she began withdrawing from the horde, pursued by bouncing, hungry, barking fuzzballs.

Stesha's attention was immediately drawn to Derrick, trapped in that strange and awful cage, she was quickly diverted by the villain who'd obviously seen them coming. As he drew his gun and shot at Taylor, Stesha dove behind a stack of crates. It was flimsy cover at best, but she wasn't armored or insubstantial, and getting shot would be very bad. She threw a seed at him, just as she had with the guards, but though the vines started out in the right direction, the villain nipped out of their clutches without a problem. Stesha gulped. This could be a big problem.

Stesha attacks to snare the bad guy. She rolls a 19

Stesha goes on 16.

Stesha power stunts Dimensional Pocket 2 (Extras: Duration 3 [Continuous], Range [Ranged]; Power Feat: Progression 8 [25,000lbs]) off her array, in order to scoop up all the bad guys before they suffocate.

Stesha coughed as the fumes began to fill the room, her eyes and ears still smarting from the rush of stimulation. "We've got to get out of here," she yelled to Taylor, even though her voice seemed distant and small after the roar of the nuclear reaction. She took a handful of seeds and tossed them towards the unconscious men. Wherever they landed, giant flowers sprung up, gulping down the unconscious forms until all that remained were the bloated flowers. "Can you get us to where they are?"