Electra

This was Stesha's second trip in a month to the exclusive North Side, and she felt every bit as out of place now as she had last time. She drove her little gray sedan along the road between the giant houses, admiring the gardens and the view of the bay. When she passed four, she kept a careful lookout, sure that her stop was coming up. When she reached five, though, she began to get nervous. She flipped a U-turn and went back to four, but found nothing different, and no indication of a second house. For lack of a better idea, she pulled over next to the No Tresspassing sign and got out of her car to walk closer to the dunes. Maybe there was something on the other side? She sighed, hoping she hadn't been made a fool of by some prankster. It had seemed possible that afternoon that Ace Danger would call her for a visit, but now it was starting to seem a little silly.

The name had Stesha goggling a bit, fumbling the pencil as she jotted the address and phone number on a scrap of paper. "That won't be a problem," she told him politely. What else did you tell someone like that, anyway? "If it's urgent, I can stop out there this evening about seven, if that's all right?"

"Taylor gave you my name?" Stesha repeated, surprised. She set down the pencil she'd picked up. Between that clue and the emphasis on "magic," she suspected that this wasn't going to be a consultation that went on the books. "Well, I might be able to help you," she said cautiously. "Could you tell me your name, please?" Picking up the pencil again, almost unconsciously, she started twiddling it in her fingers.

Stesha slid off her sandals as well, curling her toes in the grass as she leaned forward to dig into the basket. "Liberty Park is a great place," she told him. "You like to read, and there's not many better places in the city, when the weather is nice. And you can watch people, or come to the concerts, or just be around the plants for awhile. I love it." She began spreading out the picnic on the blanket, then selected a cupcake for herself to start things off. "Would you like to pour? "

He had to spend a moment on hold, notable prefix or no, but the woman that picked up on the other end was polite and friendly. "Flowers by Design, this is Stesha Madison, how can I help you?" On the other end of the phone, Stesha pulled a memo pad from under the counter with one hand while juggling the phone with another and keeping an eye on the roses she was dyeing. They were at a very tricky stage right now, and could easily go from a lovely pale blue to a bright electric blue if not tended. But Janet had insisted that this was not a caller to take a message from.

Stesha led the way, keeping hold of his hand as she ducked around the boughs of a weeping willow and stepped onto one of the broad paths. "I haven't been able to do as much as I'd like out here," she complained cheerfully. "It's always busy, day and night. But I come through when I can, and do what I can. Eventually I'll get it looking perfect." She detoured off the path near a fragrant bed of daylilies and tuberoses, all of which seemed happy to see her, from the way they turned their petals and straightened when she approached. "I love this spot," she told him. "It's where I always come to relax." She spread the blanket on the ground and sat down crosslegged on one side. In the sun, her hair was already starting to turn a deeper shade of green.

"Excellent," she said with a grin. "Grab the basket, and keep it close." When he complied, she rested the fingers of her free hand on the leaves of the lush stevia plant that graced the kitchen table. A quick brush of energy rustled the leaves, and suddenly they were both engulfed in brilliant green, like a sunny day viewed through the shade of a succulent tree. The air was filled with a smell like newly-mown grass. After just a moment of that, they were just as abruptly standing in a secluded copse on the edge of Liberty Park, and Stesha had her hand on the trunk of an oak tree instead of a potted plant. She looked over at him. "See, no traffic!"

"It's Erde," Wander blurted suddenly, a horrified look on her face. "That's why they wanted Hope, she comes from here. She told me about it. This is the world where the Nazis won World War II and everything went to hell." She shot a glance over at their hosts and grimaced apologetically. "But look, their flag looks funny because there aren't enough stars on it, because we didn't get the last two until after the war." Still keeping an eye on the guard with the gun, she asked Lilith, "What were you trying to do?"

"It's been good," she told him, tucking her offerings into the basket, and adding a few extra napkins, just to be safe. "August is the slowest summer month for weddings, because it's too darn hot. But you do start getting into shower season for all those holiday babies," she added mischeivously. "Twas the season, if you know what I mean. I've been working my way up from the West End, getting schoolyards and a few churches along with the parks. I could wish we'd get a little more rain, just not today." With a chuckle, she closed the basket. "All right, I think we're set. I was thinking, we could go by cab again or take my car, but it would be easier and faster if I just moved us there. I know a spot where no one will see us. Wanna?" She extended a hand to him.

"I never thought school was that hard, till I tried to take it in one big gulp. I could just give up and take sophomore classes, I guess, but I don't want to do that. I'm practically old enough to be a senior." She shook her head. "Anyway, the last thing I want to think about is school right now. And the last thing you probably want to think about is finding Quark. You ready to play?" she asked, slanting him a challenging look.

At this point nothing is going to change the way I post with my PL6 character because I enjoy playing with her, I agree that it's disappointing to know that all accumulated PP is only temporarily worthwhile. The only variable in Stesha's eventual advancement is when Erin will hit gold. I could (and might) have 25 pp invested in her when Erin hits 31, or I could stop playing her today, and the results would be the same. And believe me, I know the argument that the XPing isn't the game, but it is part of the game. Why else would we all talk so much about what we're going to do with our characters, and the best way to do it? =) It doesn't feel quite right that two PL 6 characters might jump to level 10 in one day, where one was level 6 before with 0pp and one was level 8 with 25. I don't think it's necessary to simply rollover all the accumulated XP into a PL10 build, but I would love to see some acknowledgment of the work that went into it before the jump. Perhaps a half XP rollover, so that a maximum of 1 extra PL could be added onto an upgrading character. You could even add stipulations that the rolled-over XP go to non-cap related stats. It would be a way for people to get utility out of the XP they'd earned before, and it would assure that no one got a PL 11 or higher upgrade at Gold. (Note that I'm assuming the maximum rollover would only be 15 points, because 31's where you hit gold.)

"Testing out's an option," she said ruefully, "except I'm not that smart. I only have most of freshman year under my belt, and that was a long time ago. It's started to come back as I do all this studying, but not enough. The only way I'd pass is if Alex fed the answers straight into my head, and I wouldn't even ask, for a lot of reasons." She shrugged again. "Only way to do it right is to do it the hard way. But there's a reason they usually spread all this out over two years instead of three months. Sometimes I can't remember if George Washington or George Washington Carver was the father of our country. You get to talk to Quark yet?" she asked as she started up the first race.

With the urgent questions already being asked, Erin went and tried the single door to the crowded room. If they were locked in here, it was better to know now, before these strangers could distract them with some kind of story on why they were here. She gave it a gentle pull first, willing to pull much harder if it proved recalcitrant.

She shrugged one shoulder. "I think I'm getting used to running behind, so maybe it's not quite so stressful anymore. And at least if I flunk out, I'll get a break." Erin switched the game over to two-player mode, picking the Luigi car as her avatar. "But I've gotten in most of my assignments on time, anyway. How's your training coming?"

Stesha didn't make him wait, opening the door for him within just a few seconds. She was dressed casually as well, in jean shorts and a bright yellow T-shirt with white daisies. Her hair was braided and twisted up around a pair of hairsticks, and dressed with matching white daisies as well. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hello, come on in! I'm just about ready here, but I didn't want to take the cupcakes out of the fridge till we were ready to go." Stesha hurried over to the fridge, where a bottle of decent wine and a half-dozen gourmet cupcakes were waiting to be added to the basket. She'd thought long and hard about opening with a kiss, and felt pretty pleased with herself about it now. After two good dates, that seemed just about right. Not that she hadn't done much more on the first date with Jack, but that was very different, and entirely inferior. "We're really lucky, the weather is supposed to be great today," she told him brightly, coming back with the treats. "How have you been?"

They saw each other for the next few days, in the hallways and in the cafeteria, though they didn't speak. Erin was her normal intense self, generally studying something or hurrying to get to something, so that wasn't unusual. He was a little surprised to see her in the common room two nights after their meeting in the library. She already had the Wii set up, and was doing a solo cart race. She'd gotten a lot better, though she still rarely beat him. Erin herself was a little surprised to find herself in the common room. Part of her wanted to just insulate herself as much as possible, away from well-meaning people who persisted in saying things her equilibrium couldn't afford to hear. Getting through each day was enough of a challenge without having to think about yesterday and tomorrow. But she couldn't just shut herself away, or she'd be in just as bad a position as she'd been before she came here at all. She gave James a little half-wave as he came in, pretending to concentrate on finishing the race. She drove the little cart into a ditch instead, but came in fourth.

Erin stayed on the floor a moment and looked around, eyes wide, face going paler. Pushing herself to a crouch, she scanned the tiny room for traps and exits. They weren't where they'd been, and she didn't know where they were. But she knew what had just happened. "This isn't the dimension we were in," she told the others. "Something shifted us, and this is a different world." It wasn't her world, she knew that much. There were live people, and the air smelled different. But that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous. She braced, ready to attack or defend herself if the need arose.

"Nothing helps," she told him, her voice cracking on the last word. She swallowed. "I have to go." Just like that, she was gone, a few papers rustling as she took off, around the corner and down the hall. He could hear the crash bar catch on the emergency exit, but thankfully it didn't trigger a fire alarm, and she was gone.

Far below, Stesha let herself into her apartment and dropped her purse on the table, then took a moment to bask. That had gone better than she'd hoped it would. Maybe it wasn't movie-caliber love at first sight, but you'd be a fool to trust that when you were dealing with metahumans. There was definitely a nice warm spark there, and she could still feel the tingle on her lips from his. It was a very good start, she decided. As she stripped off her dress and pulled on pajamas, she let out an exuberant burst of energy that had all the plants growing at once. It had been a very good night.

"This is that dimension," she replied softly. "The one where nothing happened, where no one ever got sick. As far as Dr. Atom could tell, my Dr. Atom, this universe was our closest neighbor before everything went to hell. Up until sometime at the end of 2006, we might have even been the same universe." Erin was staring straight at the wall ahead of her, unblinking, obviously hanging onto her composure with both hands and a white-knuckle grip. "I don't know why this universe is fine and mine died. There has to have been something. I know you don't have a vaccine we didn't, or superheroes we don't. After being here for almost a year, sometimes it was like all that was just a bad dream. No dead bodies, no graves, not even anyone who remembers. If I destroy my world, they lose even the graves and the bones. They were real people. They lived lives that ended too soon and they died miserably, and it's not fair that nobody ever knows or remembers. If I go back and make a copy, that's all it is, just another copy."

Stesha couldn't help but laugh this time, it was impossible not to. He just looked so awkward and horrified by himself, by turns. She could empathize with the feeling from her own life. And besides, he was cute doing it. "No sex on the second date, but something fun," she summarized, her eyes sparkling. "Sounds good." She leaned in as well, the kiss a simple, light brush that left a nice tingle on her lips. "Give me a call anytime," she told him, reaching for the door. "I had a lovely evening, Derrick. I'm glad we got set up."

Stesha nibbled on the inside of her lower lip as he stumbled over his words, knowing it would be desperately uncharitable to laugh when he was suddenly so nervous anyway. But it was really sort of adorably cute, knowing everything he'd done, that he was having such a hard time of it. She gave his hand a supportive little squeeze as he finished. "I'd really like that," she told him with a smile. "I had a great time tonight, and I'd like to do it again." She opened her little purse and got into her billfold, fishing out the business card she kept in there. "Here's my number, so you don't have to get it from Moira."

Stesha gave the driver her address, then leaned back in the seat and smoothed her skirt over her knees. They made small talk on the way to her apartment, but it wasn't quite the same with someone else listening in. Part of the enjoyment of talking to him was in not having to keep secrets, or at least not the big secret of who she was and what she did. The trip was only a mile or so and didn't take very long at this hour, even on a Friday night. "Up here on the left," she indicated, "the apartment building with the flowerbeds in front."

Erin, at the moment, was more interested in talking to Alex than in what the boys were doing, and didn't pay them much attention besides tossing the ball back when they whiffed it. "It's probably different when it's your kid doing hero stuff than when it's you," she suggested to Alex, looking over for a moment to where the Albrights had exited. "Especially when you were too little to know what you were getting into. But you're getting trained now. Have you told them about being on the team yet?" She picked up the rubber duck, squeezed it so it made a wheezy squeaking noise, and lobbed it cleanly into the floating basket.

She shook her head and looked away for a minute, fists clenching. "My world isn't going to get any better," she said finally. "I asked Quark if there was a way to go back there and go back in time to stop what happened. He scanned me and was able to open a portal to my world. But it wouldn't have helped. Alex explained it to me, and said that the most I could do was divert the timeline so it happened differently, cause a new one to branch off, and destroy the one I come from. There would be new copies of all of us, like there are here in this world, but it wouldn't actually stop anything. It wouldn't bring anyone back." She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers hard against her eyelids for a few moments, as though she was physically forcing back tears, but when she opened them, her eyes were dry. "I don't think it would do anyone any good." Erin shook her head to clear it, refocusing herself on the problem at hand. "But the point is, Quark has a lab that's outside of this dimension. It seems like it might be really small, just the space for him to work in, but that might mean it's not got a lot of supernatural stuff tacked onto it. If no one lives there, who'd be interested, right? If he hesitates, maybe you could offer to let him scan you. He seems like the curious type."