Electra
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Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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Jessie didn't spend much time talking to the other inmates of the barracks, and counted what time she was forced to interact as reconnaisance, just to keep herself from running away and hiding. This place was bad news, scary bad news out in space, and the dead tracking bracelet around her ankle just served to remind her of the bad trouble they were in. Yes, partially because they were breaking probation and would have to answer questions about that at home, but the tracker was also Jessie's safety net. The tracker meant that if someone bad found her and tried to do something to her, she would be missed and looked for. Without that, any of the dangerous creatures from the time she didn't remember could come after her, and she would be gone, gone, gone without a trace. Being surrounded by strangers in a place where there was precious little quiet or privacy didn't help that feeling even one little bit. It was just as well that Jessie did not need very much sleep. Still, she wanted to be a good friend to Aquaria, who was always nice to her and doing good things for her, and who deserved to have a better best friend. So she listened to Aquaria's excited stories about all the things her new armor let her do, and all the stories about the training exercises, in the sky and under the water. She smiled and nodded and agreed that it was all really exciting and would definitely be an asset to superhero work back on Earth, when they went back to Earth, which would surely be incredibly soon now.
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"Okay, so what do you think about this?" Erin rested her back against the front passenger door of the Maserati convertible and studied the binder in her lap. She addressed her question to Trevor's legs, since they were the part sticking out from under the car. "We have the wedding in May, on the grounds here, over by that pond Aquaria's been mucking out. We get a trellis and a little platform built, rent a bunch of chairs, and have a florist do up a whole pile of flowers and cattails and stuff so it looks nice out there. Then we clean out the second floor ballroom, get a serious waxing done on the floor and have the bulbs in the chandeliers replaced, and have a reception in there? Easy, and we don't even have to go anywhere."
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Miss A glanced quickly at Dragonfly to make sure she was all right, then knelt next to the unconscious man, ignoring Liz's sarcasm entirely. She gave the technician a quick examination, using one of her fingertips as a flashlight to check pupil response, but he was quite unconscious She summoned two of the other support team members who hurried over, giving the heroes a wide berth with looks of faint unease. "Take him back to HQ, get him to the infirmary and have them keep him restrained until he proves he's rational, then ask him what happened. All of you go, we don't need any more targets." They nodded and fetched a floating stretcher from the van, quickly bundling the stricken, and stricken, technician away. "So something out there doesn't want the barrier down." she mused, rising fluidly back to her feet. "I'm guessing our guys might be in more trouble than we'd hoped. But there's only one way to find out."
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"Perfect!" Raina beamed at Hannah like a proud parent. "At least you guys both have good skin, so we might be able to get away without foundation if we have to. But we've gotta do something with your eyes," she told Robin. Rather than deal with the department store's kiosks, she led the way a few doors down to a dedicated makeup and accessories shop. "You've got pretty eyes, but you should be accentuating them. Some mascara, a really bold shadow, and the taming of the eyebrows and your whole face will pop. It'll be great!" She began pulling eyeshadow samplers off the shelf and holding them up to Robin's face consideringly.
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"Well then, I think it's settled," Erin said with a grin. "Alex and Mike will get themselves some new costumes, and we'll be good to go. Hey Alex," she asked suddenly, "is your grandma's place back in mothballs now, or are you still using it? We got it fixed up pretty nice back in school. It could be useful for something, even if we keep headquartering here. Oh," she added, turning back to Joe, "Trevor and I are getting married. I think that brings everybody totally up to speed now."
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"It's not a bad way to get to know people," Erin pointed out casually, "and gets you out of your room. Even if you're just doing homework there, you might meet some more people someplace besides in class or in the simulator. And maybe it'll let people who are nervous of you get over it. Just let them see that you're a person too, and you're mostly like them in the ways that count. Even if they don't forget what made them nervous, eventually it won't matter so much. Or if nothing else, maybe you'll learn to play video games," she added with a chuckle.
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Jessie looked uncertainly from Aquaria to the Atlanteans, then firmed her chin and shook her head. "Nuh-uh," she told Aquaria. "I don't trust them. They could gang up on you and take you somewhere or hurt you if you're on your own. I can probably hold my breath for a long time." The merest ghost of a smile flickered over her lips. "But maybe next time I get to pick out what thing we go and do when we have free time."
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"The barrier is pure energy," Miss Americana explained absently to Bombshell, not taking her eyes from her work as she deftly soldered a circuit board with her fingertips. "The portal itself is also energy, but of a different kind, and one we don't want to risk destabilizing by draining the first energy. Say you've got a plastic bottle," she continued, "and the mouth of it is plugged with wax. Easiest way to get the wax out is to melt it and drain it away, but you have to be careful, get the temperature just right, or you melt the bottle too, and you've got to control where the molten wax goes so nothing gets burnt or stained. I'm working on the temperature gauge and Dragonfly's controlling the wax flow. It'll work." That was terse and absolute, it would work because she would not allow it to fail. Miss A took the finished circuit board and slid it into a housing, whose screen lit up and began displaying readings. She gave the machine to an Emerson robot standing nearby, letting it roll close to the portal and take further scans. "All right, I think I've just about got the frequency isolated."
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As soon as the trap slammed shut, Merlin and Raina were next to it, Merlin studying the trap itself, while Raina waved her hands in the air like a mime in an imaginary box, trying to suss out what it was doing to Phantom's magic. Merlin informed Raina that the mechanism of the trap was quite advanced and almost certainly hidden belowground, but if he could get to it he could disable it. "Okay good," she told him, keeping an eye on the advancing figures in the distance as she grew a fireball in her hands. "You do that and we'll- what the s***?" Before she could so much as launch a fireball, an arrow impacted, the air was full of acrid, incredibly foul smoke, and Riley was yelling at them to run for the hills. Coughing and spitting, Raina scooped Merlin under her arm and rose into the air, sputtering the notes of her spell as she tried to clear her mouth and nose. A few yards up got them clear of the worst of it, whereupon she pulled the mirror from her pouch and made herself invisible, but only to their enemies. As she waited for the smoke to clear, she took a moment to send a vicious glare Riley's way. They'd have words later.
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Raina and Merlin are going to ascend out of reach of the cloud, and Raina will activate her concealment, using Selective so that her friends can still see her, but the bad guys cannot. Since she is using concealment, she will have to save her hella yellin for later. But it will come.
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"Absolutely, Cathy, get your butt out here!" Raina had taken the opportunity to change as well, slipping into a little dress of black and deep red that was more notable by its absences than by its presence. Scooped at the neck and leaving one arm totally bare, it appeared to be nearly vacuum-sealed to her body, with a daring jewel-shaped cutout along one side stretching facets of white skin nearly to her bellybutton. She wore it with perfect confidence, looking as though she wore this sort of outfit every night and twice on Saturdays. "Okay, everybody dressed?" She took a look at her assembled troops, then broke into a broad smile and clapped her hands. "You guys, look at us!" she all but squealed. "We look so incredibly hot! This is going to be _amazing!_ Now we just need the accessories, and we're so there. Quick quick, we're burning mall business hours!" Without giving anybody much chance to object, she hustled them back into the changing rooms, then to the cash register, where Merlin surreptitiously passed her a credit card to use. Wherever the monkey had come up with the money, the transaction went through fine. "All right, makeup next," Raina ordered. "If we had more time we'd all sit down for a makeover from the stylist, but I don't know if we can do that today. Do any of you actually wear makeup or know what kind of colors you should wear?" she asked them all.
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Jessie could've jumped high and far enough to join in on some of the lower maneuvers if she'd wanted to, but she did not seem at all interested. Instead she found a spot on the weirdly metallic-glassy ground and sat on her heels, solitary as a toad, and watched her friend anxiously. It was cold in the cone, cold enough that she didn't want to sit on the ground, but Aquaria in her new armor didn't seem to mind at all. There were doors around the funnel end of the cone, not written in English but somehow legible nonetheless, labeled "Cafeteria" and "Housing" and "Medical" and "Hangar," with people and monstrous thing going in and out of them. She kept an eye on the moving beings, but most of her attention was elsewhere.
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"Then be careful." With her piece said, Jessie sat down on the ground, sliding away from Aquaria's hand and settling herself crosslegged behind and out of the way of the action. Her face was set, her eyes troubled, but she'd obviously used up her best rhetorical ammunition, and now she was teetering on the edge of the place where her memories used to be, not exactly an ideal mindset for this sort of situation. The ground was hardly dry, but she didn't seem to notice or mind, focusing instead on the trident and the ones negotiating for it.
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"But it's dangerous!" Jessie maintained, drawing Aquaria away for a moment's sidebar conversation. "And it's against the rules!" She gestured to the ankle monitors they both wore, the small LEDs now dark and dead. "Nobody will know where we are. And... and..." She raked a hand through her blond hair, leaving it standing on end in places. "And how do you know this is the right thing to do? Superpowers don't always help! Sometimes they just make things worse." Her voice dropped, barely audible even close up. "I got superpowers and I couldn't save anybody. And somebody else came along and made me do terrible things. I wish I never had them at all."
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"Absolutely show that much leg," Raina assured Cathy breezily, picking out her own choices with the ease and speed of a veteran power-shopper. "If you've got 'em, flaunt 'em. Your legs aren't fat, you've just got muscled thighs. Plenty of guys will dig the ripped look, and with the hair and the accent, you're totally exotic. We'll get you killer boots to go with." She eyeballed Cathy's size, picked two of the blue dress, and shooed her towards the dressing room before moving on to Robin, collaring her before she reached the dressing room to inspect her choices. "Nope, nope, nope... okay, that could be cute," Raina judged, ruthlessly sorting through Robin's armload, "but it's at least a size too big. Get it smaller, and find a strapless bra to go with it. The saleswoman will fit you for it, just don't mind the groping and you'll do fine." She gave Robin a sunny smile, obviously enjoying herself immensely, then went to tackle Hannah's clothes. "Now let's see, we should do something with your hair," Raina decided. "Can't do a whole lot of styling at the mall, but I've got some spray and gel in my bag, we can do a little heat style, give you some waves and get you a hair thingy to match your outfit. I'm thinking high waist but a nice flow, something bright but not neon or pumpkin... hey, look at this one!" She dove into a rack and pulled out a dress with a rather daring neckline that was close to the color of one of Hannah's constructs, though considerably more opaque. "What do you think? You love it, right?"
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"Why did you bring us here if it's so dangerous?" Jessie demanded, straightening up and facing Bie Yie, the only obvious potential threat. "You didn't even ask first if it was okay, or if we wanted to come. It's wrong to do dangerous things with people without their consent." Jessie was very confident in this, it was a lesson thoroughly drilled. "And why did you bring us anyway? Aquaria isn't an outcast, she has friends! I'm her friend!" she added staunchly. "And there are other ones too, people who like Aquaria and think she's great. You should just send us home right now, just the way you brought us, and we'll be okay."
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Raina's got bupkis, she leaves the braining to the monkey. She will, however, roll Arcane Lore to see if she can tell what's going on with Phantom from a magical perspective. She gets an 18. Merlin's going to use Skill Mastery on his Know:Tech for a 28, see what he can see about what just happened. Just to be thorough, he will also roll Know: Phys Sci to see if there's anything extra to see. Terrible roll, he gets a 19. If Computers could apply, he also has a Skill Mastered 28 for that. Raina's Initiative Roll is a 9. Merlin's Initiative Roll is a 10.
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"No," Jessie said into the phone, "if he tries to hurt anyone else, I'll stop him. My sister is a superhero." She hung up the phone despite the operator's querying protest and folded bloody arms over her bloody chest to watch the Coast Guard take charge of the situation. Only now did she become aware of how much blood she was wearing, and how sticky and uncomfortable it was. Not unfamiliar though, certainly not. Trying to recall anything just bumped her into the white empty places, though, so she steered wide of it. She understood nothing about the story the ex-shark-man and the crazy doctor were trying to tell, but it didn't seem particularly important. "Here!" she insisted to the officers. "These people need a doctor right now. Do you want me to carry them out to the ambulance?"
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Jessie dropped into a defensive crouch upon landing, having immediately ascertained that this was not, in fact, any sort of heaven. She stared around with great apprehension, her eyes focusing on the stranger for a moment before darting away again. Only when he began to speak did she manage to pay some kind of attention. "He said another planet," she whispered loudly to Aquaria. "He took us away from Earth! How are we ever going to get home again?" There was more than a trace of panic in her voice, but at least she wasn't retreating into blank-faced lack of emotion yet. That could be disastrous.
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"No, don't touch it!" Jessie begged, even as she mashed the speed-dial buttons on her phone. It was all to no avail, of course. Aquaria's webbed fingers closed around the trident, and Erin's phone went straight to her terse answering machine message. "It's Jessie," she said unnecessarily into the phone, "There's something weird in the apartment. Something-" And then everything was light, and light, and light, and there were stars, and a strange weightlessness, and she wondered if maybe she was dead and floating to heaven, but she still had her phone in her hand and that seemed off. Wherever this was, there was no phone reception at all.
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"Dentist visits are more fun than what we did today," Raina pointed out, but the good humor was creeping back into her voice. "The girls and I have plans for this Friday night, but assuming I'm not in detention forever after that, how about we go out Saturday afternoon? I think the weather's supposed to be not-horrible. We can fly in, skip the traffic and cab fare, maybe give other people something to look at while we're at it." She piled her dishes neatly on her tray, ready to carry over to the cleaning racks, and looked at him expectantly for an answer.
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"We should stay back," Jessie advised, keeping a healthy distance away from the glowing weapon. "Something might be trying to attack us. Maybe it was supposed to stab one of us and missed." Even though it was only seven, Jessie had already changed into her favorite blue and purple sweatsuit, a cozy fleece one that had been a birthday gift from the staff at PF. Wearing it made her feel calm and safe, even though now she was anxiously twisting the hem of the sweatshirt. "I think we should call Erin and tell her something bad is happening. Maybe we should leave and go upstairs too."
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Jessie managed to supress the startled panic at being yelled at and grabbed, a reflex she'd worked very hard to overcome during her two years at Project Freedom. She patted Aquaria gingerly on the back while trying to assess whether the television was going to catch fire or explode from having a cup thrown through it. "We can fix it," she tried to assure her friend. "It's bad, but we can tell the heroes and they can make it better. We can go talk to Eve. Eve won't let anybody starve, right?" Her eyes widened as she caught the glow suddenly coming from the kitchen. She sniffed the air. "Um, you weren't cooking anything on the stove, were you?"
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Raina was silent for a moment, studying Anibal's face as though trying to read the truth in his words. She must've seen whatever it was she wanted to see, because she unbent enough to uncross her arms and give him a faint smile. "Hanging out sounds like a good plan," she told him. "I'd have hated to miss the chance to see Freedom City landmarks with you. And I'd like to get to know you a little better." She ate the very last crumbs of her pie, and palmed the folded napkin as she set down her fork, slipping it subtly into her pocket.
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"You boys just be sure to play nice now," Stesha admonished teasingly as she walked past the grill to the trays of snacks set out on a picnic table. "And the chicken and mushrooms are locally grown and harvested, but we haven't slaughtered cows yet this year. They wanted to wait a few more weeks, till it's cooler and there'll be less flies. I've got a food-for-food arrangement with an organic beef co-op in Pennsylvania, all of these cuts come from there. The rest of those particular beeves are getting cooked up in the villages, so it's a bit of a party all over tonight. Okay, who's ready for juice boxes?" Stesha passed out juice boxes and bags of popcorn to the kids, who were mostly persuaded to pause long enough for a quick snack. "I figured after supper, we could start up the firepit and do marshmallows."