Electra

"What's the best way to get out to Lonely Point without being seen?" Erin asked Lilith. "And what kind of defenses can we expect when we get there? Are there going to be a lot of humans or metas out there, or is it mostly automated? Do you know how many robots there are and what they can do? And what's the weapon that can take out their older equipment?" She bounced lightly on the balls of her feet, mentally readying for the fight, even as she tried to make sure they were all ready for what was coming.

Stesha blushed at the smiles, ducking her head and hoping the extra color was covered up by exertion. She knew how to flirt, but Ace Danger was in a whole 'nother class of flirtatiousness. She wondered what would happen if he and Moira got together. If that ever happened, she'd love to be a fly on the wall and taking notes for later. "I'd love a tour," she told him honestly, "if it's not a bother for you." She could handle feeling a little overwhelmed for a little bit in order to see what other plants he was keeping around. And it wasn't as though being around him was unpleasant at all! Stesha just wished she could tell her friends about all the amazing things she was doing these days. She devoted most of her attention to the plant as they took it out, using the trowel on the exposed root ball to brush away extra dirt. "Look at this, it's practically perforated down the middle already. I've never even seen a hosta so eager to split off," she joked. "We can use some of the soil from this planter to fill the bucket, add a little of the fertilizer you use, and it'll be a less stressful transplant. Unless you have an actual pot you'd like to use," she added with a grin. "I normally just use buckets, but that might not match the ambiance you're looking for."

"I can tell," she said. "I'd love a chance to just wander around your greenhouse. It seems like you've acquired some amazing specimens in your travels. But first things have to come first. Let's dig around the sides, then underneath. Keep to the edges, and watch for the feeder roots. We'll lose some and that's okay, but the fewer, the better." Stesha put the plant between them and put the spade into the ground, safely on the edge of the root ball. It was easier than digging a bush out of a regular garden, but still required a little bit of foot power as well. "Do you garden as a hobby, or do you only keep certain special plants you've come across?"

"All the more reason to make a weekend of it," she pointed out, peeling the wrapper off her cupcake. "We can look around on the trip, then unwind for a few hours while you're getting solid again, then go swimming or hiking or do whatever. Do you need to sleep and eat and breathe when you're in this form," she asked him, "or is it just for fun?"

Solicitously, Stesha passed him her full glass to replace the one he'd suddenly drained. "That sounds great," she told him. "I'll make sure to bring my camera, we can take lots of pictures." Inwardly she was giggling at his extremely obvious thought process, but it was really quite flattering to know that she could get him so distracted. It was time to show some pity though, before he stopped breathing entirely. She wasn't sure he needed to, but better safe than sorry. "Sounds like an easy vacation to pack for, too. I can put together a hamper of food and dig up snorkel gear if you bring what we'll need for the nights. For camping," she added hastily when his eyes glazed over again. "We can talk about specifics later." She leaned forward and took another cupcake, offered him one to go with the wine.

Stesha nodded at that, impressed at the caliber of heroes that her hero friends associated with. "The Scarab, wow. I thought he was a guy, though. But he died, that's right, so this is a new one. Well, if I could come along, that would be great." She flapped a hand at the giant tulip, shrinking it back to its old tulipy size. "My hero name is Fleur de Joie, by the way," she added a little belatedly. "I'm sure she's probably never heard of me, but I have to at least use it sometimes," Stesha said with a self-deprecating grin.

Stesha's smile faltered a bit in uncertainty about what to do with the compliment, but it returned with a laugh when he produced the trowel. "We could do it with that, I suppose, but it would take about forever. This poor guy doesn't look like much above the ground, but he's got a lot going on down there in the roots, and I'm sure they're strong. If you've got a spade in your shed, we could get it faster and cleaner. You also need to decide where you want to put the split. The original can go right back into the ground, but you'll eventually need a second planter about the size of this one for the new baby. It'll be fine in a pot the size of a five-gallon bucket for awhile if you need to think about it, but the fewer times you transplant, then better." She carefully gathered up the pictures and handed them back to him, then headed back over to the plant in question. "Doing the split itself won't be a problem. If you have all the equipment, we can have it done in a couple of hours." Gardening talk was safe and easy ground, and looking at the plant was far preferable to staring at her host and risking having her jaw drop open in a very embarrassing way. Sure he was gorgeous, but she'd just had a really nice first date with Derrick a week ago, and was seeing him again tomorrow. Maybe looking didn't hurt anything, but it made her feel sort of guilty. Compared to all that, caring for a magic plant was easy!

"Mmm, I don't think I could pull off the leotard look," Stesha said, a smile tugging at her lips. "But the cape and mask is very impressive. I'd probably tell you anything you wanted to know. Can I go with you?" she asked suddenly. "I know it's not really any of my business, but if he was spying on me because you and I had a meeting together, I'd kind of like to know."

Stesha spread the pictures out, studying them one by one. Suddenly, she picked up the best picture of the root, just before it went into its new soil. "Look, look at this," she said excitedly. "The documents said that it reproduced by runners, but it's obviously been split at the roots here in this picture. It's not an offspring, it's definitely a split from a bigger plant. I would say that the root on your plant now, from what I can see of it, has got to be about the same size as the total root was in the plant this one came from. And if it splits, that also explains why it feels so ancient in my head, it's sort of cloning itself again and again." She gave Ace a brilliant smile, relieved to have found what had to be the answer. "When the leaves on a plant are smaller and sparser, and the root ball is bigger, it's easier to do a clean splitting. This must be part of its life cycle, like it was talking about. If you split it, it should grow back to its former above ground size in a year or so."

Stesha's eyes were wide as she watched the whole thing, but when Phantom turned to her, she saw Stesha with her head craned sideways, obviously trying to get a look inside the cloak. When she noticed Taylor looking, she straightened up with a sheepish little grin. "I was going to ask you where you got your costume from earlier, but I somehow don't think that's a costume shop standard model. And remind me never to get in an argument with you! Where did he go?"

"A camping trip," Stesha repeated, intrigued. "In space. That sounds very exciting." In a lot of ways, some of which gave her butterflies in her stomach, but she sort of liked it. "I really like warm weather and beaches, but I'm not too keen on salt water. If you know a place with tropical freshwater beaches, that would be pretty amazing. We can bring swimsuits, and maybe I can borrow some snorkel gear. Bring dinner along, stretch out under different stars at night. It could be a lot of fun." She looked up at him with a smile, still nestled comfortably in the crook of his arm. "You busy next weekend?"

Stesha jumped at the abrupt change in her colleague's voice and demeanor, not to mention the special effects going on under the cloak. She was beginning to suspect that it was not a costume that could be purchased, even at a specialty shop. She took a couple of steps back to let Phantom do her work, though she couldn't help but feel the teeniest bit sorry for the pathetic little creature, even if it had tried to attack her earlier. The thought crossed her mind that she was much happier to be watching from this half of the interrogation. If she'd been stuck in that implacable grip, she'd probably have spilled any knowledge in a heartbeat.

Skill mastery in Knowledge: Life Sciences gives her a 19 total. Lay it on me. =)

They popped out of an elm tree on the edge of a very old graveyard that was totally blanketed with flowers. "It seemed so sad," Stesha murmured, after dodging Taylor's near-miss. "The stones are all so old, nobody was decorating them anymore. So I did. Don't worry about where you step, I'll fix it up before we go." She stepped into the mass of flowers, over to where moonlight and streetlight were combining to make one bright patch of ground. Bending over, she touched one of the tulips growing there, which soon ballooned into the same sort of giant flower, complete with the bulge in the stem. "Ready?" she asked, even as she plucked a bit of creeper from the fence and grew it into a rope between her hands. At Phantom's indication, she nodded to the flower, which bent over and seemed to vomit its captive out onto the ground. She immediately tossed the new vine over it, wrapping it again preemptively.

"You want another park?" Stesha asked, a little surprised. "Okay, but not there. That's all open space and trees. He might get away, and you'd have to poof him. Here." She pointed to another spot, a smaller park. "This is actually an old old graveyard that got swallowed by a park. It's got a little fence around it, and some streetlights close by. I put flowers all over it the other night." She waved at the giant tulip, which sank into the ground as though it had been swallowed up in its turn. "You want to steer, or should I?"

"If it is, it's not the only problem, but it doesn't feel that way," Stesha told him. "If I didn't know how old it is, I would say it's immature and putting down tap root in preparation for a growth spurt. But that's something that very rarely happens in mature species. On the other hand, there are a lot of unique things about this species. I've given it some energy and that helped a little, but again, it all wants to go down into the roots." She looked over at the plant, running a finger over one glossy leaf. "The positive news is that while I know that it's tired, I don't think it's dying. We can figure out what's wrong and get it healthy again The other thing that I can do is nudge along its natural growth, so we can see what it's got planned. I'd like to look at the oldest records again though, see if there's anything that's going to tell me more about its behavior in the wild. I know you can't reveal where you got the plant, but if you're still in contact with him or have any more papers, they might help too."

"I don't know if we can get a good look at it here," she admitted. "It's too dark, and the imp is all black and wrapped up in about three yards of ivy. But I can make it go pretty much anywhere. The flower just gets really small and disappears, but I can make the thing inside come out of any other plant big enough. I don't know how it works." She shrugged. "It's magic." That was an answer she'd been accepting for more and more things lately, really. "Do you know a place we can go with it?"

"I think the idea is that we don't bang up the car," Erin pointed out dryly. "But it's not like it's anything you'd want to be driving. It's one of those two brake pedal deals that we probably can't take out without Summers. I have a feeling he's going to suck any possible joy out of driving lessons in that thing. Oh well." She leaned back against the couch, queued up another race. "At least I'll be whipping you on MarioKart."

Stesha jumped about a foot at the sudden appearance of the cape-wrapped figure, staring until it dissolved into the much more familiar form of Taylor. She wondered where everyone was getting these wild costumes from. Maybe she should ask... but later. "I'm okay," she told Taylor, "I surprised it while it was looking at the work I'd been doing. It tried to attack me, but I managed to catch it." She gestured to the sapling-sized, bulge-stemmed tulip. "You're the only person I know who knows about these things. Sorry to call you so late, but I sort of didn't want to leave it go till morning."

Stesha shook her head, frustrated as the resonance seemed to fade. "There's something," she admitted. "I feel like I've got the edge of it, but not the whole thing. The root is growing much faster than I'd expect, given its size and age. It's taking all the energy that would normally go to the leaves, but I'm not sure why. Thank you." She accepted the glass of water and downed it in a few gulps. "It doesn't seem particularly distressed, but plants don't always know any better." Holding the glass in both hands, she looked up at him. "What do you know about the root of the plant? Do you ever dig in and harvest from that?"

Stesha went and picked up the binder, leafing through it for collection patterns and signs of dormancy periods. "Are you just tired?" she asked the plant aloud, studying the harvesting data. "This is a lot of harvesting going on. You must be all cut up in places you don't want to be." Tentatively, she reached out a hand and concentrated a little healing energy into it, the way she would with any sick houseplant. It probably couldn't hurt, and if it didn't seem to work, she could just pull back.

"I'm at Lincoln Street Park, down on the South Side," Stesha replied. Now that the danger was over, she decided it was a really good time to sit down. She slid down the fence to sit on the grass, ignoring the small struggles from the plant beside her. "I think I caught one of those imp things you blew up in the store the other day. But I don't know what to do with it now. I can't take it to the police, and it'll bite me if I let it go... you said they were bad, so I didn't think I should just let it run around."

Stesha and Taylor deal with impish activities. Invisible castle was down for the imp fight, but Stesha was taking 10s and the imp rolled a 16, then a 1.

Just as the imp reached the top of the fence, the lasso of ivy caught it around the middle, wrapping around it like a leafy python. It made a raspy yelping noise and began to struggle, but Stesha was already on the move. She tossed a tulip seed onto the ground at the bottom of the fence. "Grow, grow, grow," she muttered, waving a hand at it. It sprang from the ground and grew, opening a beautiful orange and yellow blossom, and then kept growing. It grew to Stesha's waist, then almost to her head, the petals cup now more than a foot deep. The flower grew up right around the packaged monster, and suddenly closed, like a cloth purse pulled by a drawstring. There was a quick gulping noise, and then the flower opened again, empty. Down in the stem, right near the leaf cup, an imp-sized bulge was just visible. Stesha quickly pulled out her phone, frantically thumbing through her directory. She punched the button for the one person who would know how to deal with this. "Taylor? It's Stesha, from the flower shop. I've got a problem."

The imp looked up in surprise, caught full in the face by the burst of pollen. Stesha sighed with relief, but the thing just coughed and spat, then looked directly at her! It began swarming up the fence, its intent obvious. "Oh crap..." Stesha muttered. That really hadn't worked as well as she'd hoped. Maybe it was pollen that only put her to sleep. She sent a runner of ivy lashing out, trying to catch the creature before it made it to the top of the fence and over. If that didn't work... well, she wasn't sure what she was going to do.