Electra
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The last class of the day was the absolute longest, and made even longer by the fact that it was so boring. Raina could appreciate that there was some use for math out in the real world, but she was absolutely certain that calculus was a tool invented by the gods to punish the hubris of high school students. She'd spent most of the class passing notes with Merlin through silent text messages, figuring she could probably tease him into doing her homework later anyway. She was still engrossed in her phone as she walked out of the classroom, enough so that hearing her name suddenly made her jump a little. Expertly covering the moment of startlement, she gave Matt a lazy smile. "If it's something you're going to owe me two for, sounds like it's not that small a thing," she pointed out. "What is it you're looking for?" She passed her phone to Merlin, who obligingly stuffed it into her backpack while regarding the Hound with Matt rather dubiously.
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Miss Americana smiled ruefully, just a touch of Gina visible in the way her lips turned. "Words cannot even describe the headache I'm going to have when I put this thing to bed for the night," she admitted. "Trying to do so much from far away is taxing. I just can't think of any good way to get down there without, you know... you know." She shrugged. Gina's therapist had her on a steady diet of exposure therapy but it was slow, slow work. She could make herself travel if it were a matter of life and death, but they weren't quite at that point yet. "I wish you were here. But if there's nothing else we can do tonight, I should probably get some rest."
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"I prefer to improvise in the moment," Raina murmured back, scanning the room with eyes that were just a little bit worried. A minor psychic compulsion to dance wasn't so bad in her book, nothing she hadn't seen done at parties when she was younger. Once Fred mentioned the exits, though, she noticed the increased staff activity too. "We maybe don't know everything there is to know about these concerts. You're not feeling like something bad is going to happen with, you know, right?" she asked Fred. "Because we should probably see what's going to happen before we start making a scene and blow our cover." She rose, smiling widely and fakely at all three of her companions. "So we should probably get dancing." Hips swaying, she melted into the crowd, heading towards Phae and Cathy.
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Swooping in to roll some dice! Will Save: 29 No enhanced hearing for Raina! Sense Motive: Failed first check, gonna spend that new HP to make another one. Reroll is 30 Notice: Big fail with an 8!
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"Not yet, not to start with," Raina advised Fred. She'd acquired some amber-colored concoction in a martini glass but was barely sipping it as she took in the scene. Her concern seemed to be more with the audience than the band, trying to spot anybody famous she might recognize or anybody who looked especially important. "Let them get through a few songs first, warm up the crowd a little more. The cover band was pretty lame so they'll have to work for it, but word of mouth says they can deliver. Just sit back and enjoy." She suited actions to words, leaning back a little in her chair and turning to watch the band.
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Miss Americana drew back from the link for a moment and took a deep breath. "All right, well. We know they didn't come on purpose now, at least - and they got here using magic. If they were accidentally thrown across space and time, it's a little less likely that anyone will be trying it again. We know they couldn't get any of their machines to take them back up and running, though that may have been an infrastructure problem as much as anything else. I can't imagine they had an easy time securing tech resources. That's the good news. The bad news is, Mandragora is out there somewhere, likely buried under a few tons of ice. Hopefully dead, but I wouldn't bet the farm. Good thing the planet isn't getting steadily warmer or anything."
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Raina had no trouble surrendering her phone, though Merlin had been upset enough about that restriction to boycott the show entirely. She also suspected that he'd planted a tracking device somewhere on her in case she wound up lost and phoneless, but hadn't been able to prove it. He was a lot more paranoid than she was about the exclusive invitations. Sure, she wondered if it might all be some kind of scam or setup, but every scrap of research they'd done suggested the invitations were legit and the concert was just a concert, albeit an incredibly exclusive one. The short notice had barely given her time to assemble an appropriate outfit, though at least her makeup was extremely on point thanks to Fred's gifts and her own talents. "All right everybody," she murmured to her posse, "act cool, act like you absolutely belong here and nobody in the entire room is better than you. And absolutely do not embarrass me." Smiling broadly, she stepped forward into the venue.
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"Possibly," Miss A agreed, sounding just a bit abstracted as she directed the probe by means of electrodes connected to her fingertips. "But I suspect that any magic left undetonated, as it were, would be as affected by the passage of time as anything else, and probably not preserved by the cold the way the bodies were. We'll have to be careful, but I don't foresee a lot of danger there." A flick of her finger had the robot trundling onward, its cameras swivelling to take in the entire room. "Once we've canvassed the place once, we'll want to come back and see if we can do some ballistics, see if we can account for every weapon and weapon user. If a few of them did make it out of this place and started a new prehistoric life elsewhere, that would be good to know."
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Sounds exciting! Raina can be Raina in the first thread, she's always up for shenanigans.
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Miss A rested her forehead against his cheek, her skin noticeably cooler and less human-feeling in the bitter weather. "I don't sleep well when you're not with me," she murmured. "I never thought this was going to take so long, or be so nerve-wracking. Now that Dragonfly and Jill are here, maybe you can come home, just for awhile. I'll still be able to supervise down here, and you can get a break from having to be around all this... this evil." Gina didn't like using the loaded term, but couldn't think of anything else that was appropriate. "Plus I don't think the cold is all that good for your cybernetic implants." She rubbed his back, placed a kiss on his shoulder through his thick coat. "I know it must hurt you, and I hate that."
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Miss A nodded, resting one perfect fingernail thoughtfully against her lips. "I see your point. We're somewhat limited in our equipment here, for obvious reasons, but I think we should be able to spare the necessary equipment to make a fully disposable computer setup for the mission. Usually in an exploration of new technology I'd be interfacing directly without the keyboard and monitor in the way, but that seemed like just a terrible idea this one time." A wry smile touched the corners of her lips. "It's still winter down here so the sun's never going to rise, but this late in the season we'll have a few hours of civil and nautical twilight to work with, starting around 9am. We'll get into the storage dome then and find some extra equipment, plus do another check on the security systems before we do anything interesting with the tomb. In the meantime, you two must be exhausted. We've got hot food available and a private room for you to share whenever you want it."
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"That's the spirit," Raina encouraged with a grin. "Remember that you're the one with the negotiating power. All she's got is money, and money's the same no matter where it comes from. You're the one with the product nobody else has, and if she wants to get in on the opportunity, she's got to play ball." Wiping her fingers with a cleansing cloth, Raina stepped aside to let Fred put away the makeup how she wanted it. "She's probably got a huge office at the top of that huge office tower, but don't even think about that. It's just a bunch of empty space in the sky, really, and four years ago she was living in these dorms just like we are. Don't let anybody make you feel small over there."
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"I'm not making you look like a hooker, if that's what you're worried about," Raina assured her, a smile tipping one corner of her mouth. "But it's not exactly an office-wear look either. Smokey eye, liner on the brows, a little shimmer, brighter color on the lips than you normally use. It's more like what you might wear on a date, or if you were going to be wearing makeup out superheroing. I'm not putting any of the FX stuff on you, that's for your grand finale. Hold still." She took hold of Fred's chin to apply the lipcolor with a small brush, painting it quickly into place. "The outfit you've got on is conservative enough that you can do extra with the makeup and not look weird. Anyway, that ought to do it. What do you think?"
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"Just as easy to do it in your room, and I won't have to defrost the mirror first," Raina pointed out. "I'd use my stuff on you, but those are way the wrong colors." A moment's travel had them back in Fred's room, with Raina surveying the damage from Fred's lengthy battle with her wardrobe. "It's probably just as well you don't have that many clothes to choose from. Sit down." Once Fred was positioned to Raina's satisfaction in the desk chair, Raina opened the kit and went to work. As a veteran of countless slumber party makeover's, her hands were careful and expert as she cleaned and moisturized Fred's face, then started to apply the actual cosmetics. "You should pitch to this girl the way you did to Cathy and me. Start with the natural ingredient stuff, hypoallergenic, sustainable, whatever, all the good buzzwords. Then expain the superhero pitch. Save the magic-looking stuff for your grand finale, and have her put it on herself. You'll do great."
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"Sure," Stesha agreed easily, stepping back a few paces. "This is not exactly the outfit I'd wear for an official portrait, but that just makes a more unique picture, I suppose." She self-consciously reached up to refresh the crown of blossoms braided into her green hair, it was one bit of personal grooming she could manage here, anyway. "Normally I have a uniform, but we were really surprised when you all showed up. This area of the universe seems pretty quiet in terms of space travel. Did you call ahead and just weren't able to get in touch with us before you reached the atmosphere?" She reminded herself that she needed to call the Mayberry shelter and tell the people it was all right to come back to town, but that could wait a few more minutes. Everyone was very safe where they were.
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"You shouldn't be," Raina advised breezily. taking a seat on the bed to watch Fred fiddle with her hair. "Or at least you should try and pretend like you're not. You aren't going hat in hand here, remember. You've got the goods, and there are always people with money willing to pay up if you've got the goods. Even if this first one's a bust, you've got six or seven other possible investors right here in town, right?" She swung her legs idly. "Speaking of the goods, want me to do your makeup for you? You're going to want to go a little more dramatic than usual, show off the product on a live model."
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"Shhh," Raina commanded, rising from her chair. She was always good for an interruption when one was needed. She walked over to Fred, looking her over critically, then motioned for Fred to turn in a circle and show off the back. "It's simple," she decided, "but it's not masculine. More classic, sort of vintage-look with your hair, but not in a bad way." She cocked her head, considering. "Lemme just try something. Come on." She waved Fred towards the door, then turned to Merlin. "No huffing while I'm gone, you know that kills brain cells." Raina led Fred all the way back to the dormitory floor and stopped off at her room, empty at this hour though with a thin rime of frost from Cathy's slumber. Whatever Raina wanted was apparently buried deep in the closet, to the point where Raina wound up doing a quick spell to find it at all. "Gotcha," she exclaimed at length, emerging with a deep red silk scarf. "Okay, here's how we do it. I'm gonna tie this around your neck like so." She suited actions to words, tying the scarf in a very loose knot that draped to nearly the middle of Fred's chest. "Now you undo the top two buttons and see what you think of that look. And use one of these in your hair." She handed Fred a sparkly rhinestone comb. "Extra-girly sparkle."
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Raina wasn't in her room this morning, but a few inquiries directed Fred to the computer lab, usually closed at this hour of the morning. Raina and Merlin were ensconced at separate workstations, the monkey involved in some complex project that had the computer partway disassembled as he carefully sprayed the inside with some kind of compressed air canister. Raina was playing a colorful browser game that involved falling fruit. She looked up as the door opened and gave Fred a casual wave. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be doing your thing with the money people this morning?"
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"We have considered destroying it, of course," Miss Americana told Dragonfly, seemingly unfazed by the scolding. "In fact we have an enormous porfolio of contingency plans detailing different ways to do so under various circumstances, and a few techniques to do so that are considerably nastier than the railguns outside. But we can't do it yet." She walked over to the ancient armor, studying it without touching. "If Mandragora and his people were able to make their way into our distant past, long before they should've been able to have any contact with our universe, it is imperative we know how and why. Had they not come when they did, had they not been destroyed by some unknown force, our entire history could've been unwritten. If Mandragora discovered the technology to travel that way, it must be within the last few years, and the knowledge may not be confined to him and his people. We need to know what happened before we can seal this place up and melt it down." She pursed her lips and looked over at Dragonfly. "And if there was a force or entity powerful enough to destroy Mandragora, his forces, and his entire stronghold, we need to know that too."
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"Good," Raina replied, as though Fred hadn't equivocated at all in her answer. "Phones, friends, and an impervium-lined quiet room for those bad days, who needs anything more than that?" She smoothed down her bathrobe and snuck a glance at the time. "All right, I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand before I earn myself any more detention. See you later, okay? And be sure to ask Merlin if you have any questions about the phone, he'll probably get a kick out of teaching you how to use it." Drawing a little mirror from her pocket, Raina breathed on it to fog it over and disappeared from view. "Just remember deep down you're not really any crazier than the rest of us!" With that, the door opened seemingly of its own volition and closed again, and she was gone.
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Raina unfolded her legs and placed them back on the ground, the better to brace herself for any spontaneous hugging. "If you have to, you have to," she told Fred philosophically. "I probably shouldn't hang around too much longer, the hall monitors are patrolling tonight and I have before-school detention at six." She made a disgusted face. "Thank the gods for disguise spells that let you sleep through class with nobody noticing." She gave Fred one more intent look. "You going to be okay? Back in classes tomorrow?"
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"Hard to say," Raina replied, taking a good look at the building. "They've been covering their tracks pretty well on what exactly it is they're trying to take. Merlin's got a theory that they're trying to build a teleportation gate, but there's nothing in the manifest that would let them aim it. Of course, we're still guessing that this is what they're doing at all. Anyway, in spite of all their covering, we've been getting enough clues to follow them from place to place, so I'd say fifty-fifty odds that this place is a trap." With that, she stepped toward the patrol car, staying in the path of a streetlight so her uniform was visible. She walked up to the driver's side door and deployed her friendliest, most ingratiating smile. "Hi, we're helping Raven out on this investigation. Maybe you were told we were coming already? We'd like to take a look around inside."
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The airlock hissed open again, this time admitting Miss Americana herself, along with two security officers in ArcheTech uniforms. The guards' faces were red from cold in the few spots that had been exposed to the air, but aside from a slight tousling of her hair, Miss A herself was pristine. She did, however, lack her usual blithe smile and cheerful mien, instead looking grave and even somewhat weary. "Dragonfly, Jill O'Cure, thank you for coming," she told the newcomers. "I see you've gotten a first look at our little problem here. And while I completely appreciate the sentiment, Dragonfly, we're keeping the railguns pointed into the dig site. That's where most of it still is."
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"Yeah, you might want to take it easy on the whole "beasts" thing too," Raina advised with a wry grin. "He's not a huge fan of that either. But I'll take the princess bit. We've got to look after each other, right?" She shoved her phone back in her pocket and spread her hands. "Not too many other people we can trust to do it. And I know that sometimes a person just needs to get the hell away from everybody else and sort of just, you know, feel their feelings without anybody seeing." She shrugged a bit, dropping her hands back in her lap. "At least this way you don't have to be totally isolated and bored while you're doing it. That case is military-grade too, I cadged it off Ellie's nerd girlfriend. It's not gonna be like, totally everything-proof, but it's got a good chance of surviving some rough treatment." She looked rather proud of herself for her foresight.
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"It's not from me," Raina assured her, "at least not the paying for it part. Merlin got himself some kind of side gig that I don't ask too many questions about. It's not impossible that he may be working for the CIA at this point, but he's making pretty good money off it." She folded her legs up underneath herself, the way she did when she was feeling relaxed and didn't care that people would see her floating in the air. "Anyway, we were talking about it today and we both figured that a phone's an important thing for you to have just in general. If you start getting into trouble you can call somebody, and if I ever need somebody to call a lawyer for me, you've got a phone number I can use." She grinned. "Like half the games on there are Zen puzzlers and stuff, good for making you feel calm and relaxed and stuff. I think there's some music too. You have to take it, he worked all day on it and his feelings are really sensitive." Raina rolled her eyes at that. "I don't know if it's a monkey thing or just his own personality, but he needs a lot of positive reinforcement. So just take it and say thanks next time you see him and it'll make my life way easier."