Flesh and Bone

[Electra]

Stesha nodded. "I've met a few of them out fighting villains and patrolling the city. It seems so dangerous, but I imagine it's better to start when you're well-trained and closely supervised than to just blunder around like I did at first." She laughed, remembering herself what seemed a very long time ago now. "The first other superhero I ran into was Divine. She was covered in about five gallons of corn syrup from a fight she'd gotten into at a factory, and in the dark she looked like a monster. I tried to run away, fell off a porch, and wound up with her taking me inside to help me clean up. Now that I think about it, a super school is the best idea I've heard in a long time!"

[Gizmo]

Jill snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, 'cause that's what high school really needed: godmode." Pausing, she glanced over at Stesha and winced slightly. "Sorry. Doing to the bitter thing again, huh? It is actually a pretty good idea, but, well, it's still high school, y'know?" Coughing lightly, she covered with a smirk. "Besides, from what I saw of her, 'covered in corn syrup' is probably just a Friday night for Divine."

[Electra]

Stesha couldn't stop the quick snort of laughter, but still had to loyally defend her friend. "Divine is a little affected by her origins, yes, but she's a good person, a good friend. And she doesn't get around as much as some people like to say, she's quite discriminating... most of the time." A fleeting odd expression passed over Stesha's face, but it was gone in a moment. "In any case, having someone to mentor you is a huge asset in the superhero game. But if you really don't like the school, maybe you could transfer back to your old school?" she suggested helpfully.

[Gizmo]

"Ha, yeah, no," Jill brushed off with a blunt wave, dissolving her force field slowly to set the large first aid kit back down. "I'll take nobody having any idea who I am over three years worth of being the weird moody girl who ruins the bell curve any day of the week." The girl's expression twisted with dismissive contempt, as though annoyed by the triteness of it all, but the older woman could tell it was a sore subject.

[Electra]

"At least you only have one more year," Stesha said again, taking another stab at cheering the girl up. "I'm sure you'll find a good college that you enjoy a lot more. I loved college, and that was with living at home and going to school under the eye of my dad and all my older brothers." She chuckled. "You'll probably be able to get away with a lot more than I ever did, unless Jack is keeping an eye on you the whole time. And then you'll just have to be sneaky about it."

[Gizmo]

Jill let out a few notes of clear, brassy laughter. "Ha, check out Miss Green with the bad girl streak," she grinned, placing one hand on her hip. The teen was definitely looking forward to university, although the cynical part of her wondered if it wouldn't just be more of the same. Suppressing that worry, she turned her attention back to her hostess. "So, you're from a big family?"

[Electra]

"I have three brothers and two sisters," Stesha confirmed, "and I'm the second youngest. It makes the holidays crazy, but we have a good time. My dad teaches at Northwestern, so we all got big tuition breaks to go there. My parents just rode us like crazy to make sure we'd all have the grades to get in." She laughed again, her good cheer seeming to infect the plants around her as they perked up and got even greener, and the smell of flowers perfumed the air. But then, Stesha always smelled like flowers anyway. "Trust me, if you just hang in there, eventually you'll find out what it's like to go to school with people who like you and who are like you. It's pretty cool."

[Gizmo]

"Pfft, well it's not like I'm going to give up at this point," Jill assured Stesha, kicking at a loose rock on the ground with exaggerated nonchalance and putting her hands in the pockets of her crimson jacket. "Anyway. That's probably enough about the teenage condition, right?" She felt more than a little ridiculous whining about how nobody at school wanted to be her friend in front of the superheroine slash planet owner.

[Electra]

"It's okay," Stesha assured her compassionately. "I'm not so old yet that I don't vividly remember my teenage years. Believe me, you have every right to complain. Just remember, if somebody tries to tell you that those are the best years of your life, you are legally allowed to sock them in the jaw." Grinning broadly, she waved an arm around to encompass the planet. "Is there anything else you'd like to see or work on today? We've still got some time before Supercape gets here for part two of the lesson."

[Gizmo]

The teenage girl's cheeks coloured slightly with embarrassment, but she gave the older woman a small grin, touching her dyed hair briefly. "Heh. Thanks." Clearing her throat softly and sniffing slightly, Jill regained any lost composure. "Ah, if you've got any other plants I could practice the healing on, that'd be good. You can ask my brother sometime about how many tries it took for me to get good at sutures."

[Electra]

"Most of the plants around here could take a little healing," Stesha told her, "with the cool weather coming. They'll die eventually, of course, but they're good practice for now. In fact, I'll let you practice for a minute, and go pick up Supercape. If you need any help, just remember your question for a few minutes." With Jill perfectly safe in the Sanctuary, Stesha didn't worry too much about popping back to Prime for just a few minutes and leaving her the only human in the world.

She arrived at the appointed spot right on time, looking around for her colleague. "Hello!" she told Supercape cheerfully. "Ready for a new kind of teaching job?"

[Supercape]

"Greetings and Salutations" exclaimed Supercape, dusting off his cape. He had decided to meet at Wharton forest on a whim, thinking it was so full of green goodness Stesha would somehow approve. His cape didn't however, being full of twigs and leaves.

"New teaching job eh? sounds intriguing, and unexpected" he continued. "What exactly would this entail?"

[Electra]

"Well, I told you already about the lattice I'm looking for," Stesha began, "to cover up the civilian area now that winter's coming, but still let light through. Well, after we set that up, Jack of all Blades' sidekick, Jill O'Cure, asked me if I would help her work on her powers. She's a healer, but she also makes solid object forcefields. I figured we could kill two birds with one stone, if you don't mind letting her watch you build, and sort of explaining what you're doing." Helpfully, she raised a hand to the nearest plants, making them shrink away and stop menacing Quentin's fine cape.

[Supercape]

"Ah yes! so, I guess the coffee cup is still there!" said Supercape, rather pleased with himself.

Limbering up, more for show than anything else, he nodded at Stesha "sounds a splendid day out. I shall aim to please!" he smiled.

Looking around, he gave her a knowing glance "Plant door again, I guess?" he asked.

[Electra]

"It's the only way to travel," Stesha agreed with a laugh. Taking his arm, she took them both into the overwhelming whirl of greenness for a few seconds. When they popped out, they were back in the large field she'd showed him last time he'd visited, for all the leaves in the hedges were starting to turn their autumn colors.

Stesha stepped forward to do introductions. "Supercape, this is Jill O'Cure. Jill O'Cure, Supercape. Supercape is here today to help me out with a very big project," she told Jill. "Hopefully you might pick up some insights watching him that apply to your own powers."

[Supercape]

"Delighted to meet you, madam!" said Supercape, shaking Jills hand and giving a small bow. As always, when meeting new folk, his cape grew slightly bigger and more splendid, and even sparkled slightly in the sunshine.

Turning back to Stesha, he continued "so, big project eh? I guess you will be wanting some of this stuff..." and proceeded to produce a blue white crystal like ball of quantum matter that bobbed in the air like a balloon.

He gave a smile at Jill to one side "I guess you can do something similar?"

[Gizmo]

Jill accepted the proffered hand, and eyebrow rising behind her bandanna mask as she grinned. "Oh, that is not your real name." She paused briefly and blinked. "...seriously? Uh, wow. Sorry. Kinda taking all the fun out of the irreverent nickname thing there, aren't you?" With an awkward cross between a cough and chuckle, she raised a fist glowing with faint blue light. "But, uh, yeah, sort of like that, I guess." A sphere roughly the same size as Supercape's ball appeared in the air in front of her, glowing with the same light.

[Supercape]

"Errr..." replied Supercape, unconsciously making his cape even larger and splendid, "yes, it is. On account of my cape. Which, as you can no doubt see, is rather spiffy!"

"Ahem" he coughed "anyway, to business. Nice little sphere you have there! some kind of energy field, it seems" he continued, peering at the blue globe.

Looking around the sanctuary, he started making mental calculations. "So, for this project, we will need to start with a base. A few pillars, like so..."

As he spoke, some white crystal pillars of quantum matter formed at equidistant points around the sanctuary.

"Now, hows the range on your magnificent blueness?"

[Gizmo]

Jill gave Stesha a sidelong glance, still not convinced the the newcomer wasn't putting her on. "Uh, yeah, it's based on my bioelectric field, I think. Only, y'know, magic. It's a little like what my brother does." With another wave, the globe collapsed in on one side, forming a partial dome, and expanded in size. "I've mostly been making shields. I tired pushing it a couple of times, got maybe thirty yards across each side?"

[Electra]

Stesha sighed a little at Jill's reaction to her new teacher, but the poor girl did have Jack of All Blades as a mentor and brother. It was charitable to cut her a little slack. "Supercape is very graciously going to put a dome over the sanctuary so it'll be protected from the weather. His constructs are crystalline, and very beautiful, so they let in the sunlight. I'm going to have to work up an irrigation system, but I have some plans for that, as well. You should watch carefully, this is going to be very impressive." She turned her own face upwards, like a child waiting for a fireworks show to start.

[Supercape]

Supercape paused to do a few calculations. He was no architect, but then again, a simple dome wouldn't be to hard.

He cracked his knuckles theatrically and gave a wink. Then, with a sweep of his magnificent cape, the quantum matter started to form.

It was largely transparent and looked like an unusual crystal. It was probably white, but glimmered with purple blue colours here and there. Large struts of simple crystal formed connected to the ground to help support the weight... if indeed it could be said to have any weight at all.

The dome now glistened like a magnificent crystal. With a moments concentration and flourish, Supercape formed a small ramp in the centre of the sanctuary leading out to the top of the crystal in a form of makeshift terrace.

"Should be quite a nice view from up there!" he commented.

[Electra]

Stesha clapped her hands, then pressed them to her mouth, looking up at the marvel that Quentin had just created from nowhere. "Oh, it's so beautiful!" she breathed, turning fully around to see it. "It's amazing, more than I dreamed of. Look how it catches the light!" The faceted dome caught and refracted the morning sunlight, breaking it up into rainbows that splashed over the ground everywhere, making the place look like even more of a fantasyland. "I love it!"

[Supercape]

"Spiffing!" agreed Quentin, delighted with both himself and Stesha's reaction.

Hope we don't get any world experts in quantum physics asking to many questions about it, mind he added to himself.

"Errr, by the way, that coffee mug I left here last time" he asked, as innocuously as possible "still got that, I suppose?"

[Electra]

"Oh yes, I actually keep it out on the counter because it's so striking," Stesha nodded. "You should stop by for a cup of tea after we're done here. I actually picked up some loose-leaf for my strainer now, so I can give you the good stuff. In fact," she admitted, "I think going back and sitting down is a great idea, if you're both ready. It's been a busy morning so far." She absently picked up a few weeds that had sprouted around her feet, crumbling them to dust in her fingers.

[Supercape]

"Thank goodness for that. It still... exists. That's right, exists. Which is most definitely what this stuff actually does, exists. It's very important you remember this stuff does actually exist. "

Supercape breathed a sigh of relief. As he suspected, unless someone really observed very hard then the stuff wouldn't realise it didn't exist, and therefore do so.

He could with a cup of tea after that, and said so.