The Quality of Mercy (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Early November, 2010

Though Mark was fairly sure none of his friends had 'sold him out' as such, he found himself asked a lot of pointed questions after his return from Anti-Earth with the other Young Freedom kids. When had he learned to heal people's injuries? Why had he used that ability there, and not elsewhere? Evidently his answers weren't good enough. He'd talked about a hero's duty to protect life, even the life of the guilty, but that hadn't seemed to satisfy Dr. Marquez in debriefings that he slowly, slowly started to realize were just extensions of his ongoing therapy. Had it been arrogant to save a version of himself when so many other people needed saving, people who deserved it a lot more than that other, evil Mark had? Had it really been just an extension of his own self-crisis that he'd sought out the good in any version of himself just so he could believe the values he'd been raised with were true after all?

He hadn't thought so at first, but the unceremonious shutdown he'd gotten from his friends, especially Erin, when he brought the subject up made him wonder. He'd learned only too intimately recently that he could be a flawed, fallible person, and the idea that he'd made a mistake on Anti-Earth still rankled. Saving life was the right choice, he still believed that, but maybe he'd put himself in a position where even the right choice was the wrong one. It was a complicated moral dilemma, just the sort of thing he hated to have to try and wrap his mind around.

Even as the visit to Anti-Earth joined his father's disappearance on the list of annoying things he had to talk to Dr. Marquez about, even after reassuring the Doctor that everything was fine, Mark decided where his priorities had to lie. Wherever his own motivations were, whatever problems he had, he had to get back together with his friends post-haste. Having friends was what was really important. And since Erin was one of his oldest friends at Claremont, that meant getting back together with her first. Thinking about what she'd lost and what he could do for her, Mark talked to his mom about good places to shop in town, made a few off-campus visits, and then finally with a couple of boxes under one arm headed for Erin and Alex's room one Friday night. Alex would probably be out with Mike, which meant Erin would probably be there alone.

[Electra]

Mark's guess was right, as they usually were. He managed to dodge the RA for the girls' floor and found Erin at her desk with the door half open. She had her chemistry book open and a notebook in front of her, as she often did in the evenings, but she didn't seem to have done much homework, since the page was blank. She looked tired, but she was certainly alert enough, since her head came up the moment he paused outside the door. "Oh, hey Mark," she said, unable to inject any enthusiasm into her tone. "What's up?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Shooting another glance around to make sure he wasn't going to be spotted, Mark stepped in and said, "Hey, Erin, I, uh, got you something." He handed her a big box marked June Taylor, the nice chain of women's clothing stores his mom had steered him too. "Well, a couple of things. I realized I owed you new shoes, too, along with the pajamas." The shoes, white women's sneakers, were in a box underneath the box of clothes, which turned out to be a pair of dark purple pajamas with a big E stitched over the chest. "Did I get the sizes right? I had to guess some, and sort of peek at your shoes when we were in the Doom Room last." He shrugged a little. "There's a receipt and a card in the box if you want to buy more stuff."

[Electra]

The pajamas had a definite "Alvin and the Chipmunks" vibe, what with the giant initial sewn on it, but the fabric was soft, and they were the right size. And the shoes were a decent brand and not pink, so they were entirely perfect. "Thanks," she told him sincerely. "I really appreciate it. Did your mom make the decorations?" she asked. Mark could've done it himself, but it looked like it was actually stitched, something he generally didn't have the patience to detail. "Oliver still loves that pillow thing from last year."

[Avenger Assembled]

"We did it together. Which mostly consisted of me going and getting the thread, but hey." He shrugged a little. "I wanted to make something for you without actually, you know, making it. That seemed like cheating." He saw the kitty licking himself and waved, getting a distinct lack of response from the cat. "Hey, Oliver. Yeah, I've been meaning to pick up more crafting stuff while I have the chance. It's a good feeling to do things like that for people. My mom says that if you go the week after Thanksgiving, they've got a good sale at June Taylor, so you can buy more stuff, if you want." He knew clothes were a problem for Erin, just like she didn't like that being pointed out.

[Electra]

"Yeah, it's the biggest shopping week in the year, I think," Erin agreed. "I'll probably get on Alex's computer and go shopping online, now that I have a bank account and stuff." The bank account had been a nightmare to get, but it was nice to have. "After next week, I'll be able to get a debit card and everything, so I can shop without it being a problem." She hesitated for a second. "So how's your mom doing?" she asked, somewhat awkwardly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"She's in therapy," Mark confessed suddenly. "She, uh, decided it was best after what happened over Halloween. I sort of helped push her that way. It's not on campus, of course, she goes to a guy Dr. Marquez recommended for her." He coughed. "She's working, though, she's up and drawing in her studio most nights, and she insists on making breakfast every morning. Did I tell you about the body in our backyard?" That got him a look and he added, "Well, uh, apparently a zombie had gotten into our backyard about twenty minutes before we teleported in. So she chopped him to death with an ax and buried the pieces in our yard. I...I think that's why she was a little messed up when we talked to her, and why she finally agreed to talk to people." He blinked, then said, "Sorry, that was a little too much information."

[Electra]

"That was quick thinking on her part," Erin said. "If she'd just run away from it, it might have attracted others, and she'd have been in big trouble. But the therapy is a good idea." She couldn't really think of anything else she wanted to say right then, not that was polite and conversational anyway. Instead she took the shoes out of the box and looked them over, then started lacing them up. "These are really nice," she told him.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm glad you like them," said Mark, smiling faintly. "I tried to get shoes exactly like you had them before. I just..." He looked away for a moment, then looked at her. "It seems stupid now after all the awful things that happened lately, but...I'm sorry about what happened on Anti-Earth. I thought I was doing the right thing, but you had a right to be angry. I know I don't always do the right thing, or the smart thing, but..." He reached up and tugged at the back of his head. "I'm sorry. You can trust me to do the right thing next time."

[Electra]

Erin stared down at the shoes, turning the one she was holding over and over in her hands. "It wasn't really that," she finally said. "I mean, I was mad that you healed the bad guy, after we'd seen all the terrible things he'd done and was going to do. But I guess it was easier to be mad than to think too hard about how things turned out for me on that world." She paused for a second and blew out a breath. "I mean, she was me. Not some alternate universe opposite, she and I had the same lives, and if the divergence had gone the other way, I would be her. And I couldn't do anything... I didn't do anything for her but send her back into hell. Knowing that Hex was right there to hurt her again made it worse, it wasn't the root of it, you know?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark nodded at that, as always not sure what to say when faced with a seemingly hopeless situation. What could he say, when things really were that bad and there wasn't much he could do to make them better? "That was such an awful place." He rubbed his eyes, and added, "I'm really glad they sent the other Daisy up to New York for her therapy. It's probably best she wasn't in town, and won't be again in the near future." He sighed softly, glancing around Erin's half of the room for a moment. "I do know the doorway wasn't closed, Talos just took apart that teleporter afterwards." He gave Erin a serious look as he said, "If you ever go back to help...I'll help too, however I can."

[Electra]

"I've been wracking my brain," Erin admitted. "I don't know what I could do to help her. She's just... she's so broken. Just from seeing where she had to live, and hearing about her, and seeing her for those few minutes, I don't know what anyone could do with her. The Freedom League made a huge investment of money and time and resources in me when they brought me here, and I wasn't nearly so bad. Nobody is equipped to take her on, and I couldn't ask them to. And I couldn't just let her run free, she would still be terrified and miserable, and she'd kill anyone in her way. The only thing I could think of to do, you wouldn't want to help me with," she told him flatly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I can't promise that," agreed Mark, catching her implication very quickly. "But I can promise that you're my friend, and I want to help if you need it. Whatever happens," he added seriously. "You've been there for me when things were at their worst, right? That's what friends are for, even to the end." He hesitated a moment, not sure how far to press this, then added, "Hey, did I tell you I got a letter back from UNISON? They say they want to talk to me after I graduate, now that I'm 18. They sent me some more information about hiring and deployment so I can get the paperwork started now."

[Electra]

"That's great," Erin said, struggling to pull herself back from the negativity that Dr. Marquez was always warning her against. She had enough problems in this universe, didn't she, without worrying about one more person she couldn't save? "I knew they'd be interested in you. Is there a lot of paperwork, or do you think it's going to be mostly for form? I can't really imagine them turning you down for any reason, since you want to work with them. You could do a lot of good."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Being a government-sponsored superhero is different than working for the Freedom League," said Mark with a little shrug. "There's a lot more bureaucracy, a lot more constraints on what you can and can't do, and UNISON's no different. I think they were glad to hear I wanted to work for their humanitarian wing. Apparently most of their super-applicants want to be part of UNIQUE, the UNISON team, going in and doing all the high-profile super-missions. Those are cool and all, and I'll be on the reserve list for them too, but I liked the idea of working alone. You go in with a regular support team, maybe a half-dozen people, and when you're done a whole set of villages has had things cleaned up and made better. I guess I liked that idea, you know, just...building a better world for real, without having to be reactive like a regular superhero."

[Electra]

Erin nodded. "It sounds really nice," she told him sincerely, almost wistfully. "I'm sure you'll be really good at it, too. You're good at giving people hope, and when you give them hope and houses and clean water, that's pretty much a winning combination. You think you're going to start right after you graduate, or wait a little while, what with the paperwork and your mom and all? I mean, hopefully she'll be a lot better by then, I know."

[Avenger Assembled]

"It depends on how she is. I mean, I'm sure she'll be better by then, but I don't want to make any big commitments without planning first. That'd be silly." He smiled faintly. "But yeah, if it all works out, I'll spend the summer in training, then start somewhere in the wintertime. Probably in Africa, they said, since they're making a big push in the region. It'll be some place I've never been before, doing the things I want to do, so that's nice. It'll be quite a change from high school!"

[Electra]

"Yeah, I'm sure it will be," Erin agreed, nodding again. "It really sounds like a cool thing to do. Do they pay for all that stuff, the training, and then your room and board while you're down there, or is it all sort of you have to make your own way? And did they do background checks on you and stuff like that?" Not that UNISON would need a punch-in-the-face type superhero on any of its teams or anything like that, she was just interested on a curiosity level.

[Avenger Assembled]

"They pay for the training, and there's a stipend while you're working. It's not as attractive to most people as regular hero work, and it's certainly a lot less prestigious, so they have to attract people by paying them regular salaries. As for background checks, I dunno. They test to make sure you don't have a criminal record or anything, and that you've never been locked up. But I know they have hired a couple of ex-supervillains, so even that's not a big enough bar. You just have to show them you want it. If...if you want me to send you some of the paperwork, I can send it your way," he suggested politely.

[Electra]

Erin hesitated, tempted to say yes for a minute, then shook her head. "No, that's okay. I think it's great work, but I'm going to stick around Freedom City for awhile. Just to see how things go with all the stuff here." Though the idea of getting a non-hero work job was surprisingly appealing, it had become clear that Freedom City was Trevor's first priority. If Erin wanted to be with him, it would be here. That was more important than joining UNISON. "You'll have to tell me how it is, and then maybe I'll throw in an application in a couple of years, after Alex and Mike are all settled down and stuff."

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark hmmed at that, getting a feeling Erin was thinking of people besides Mike and Alex. "Well, it's not for everyone. I would never have even thought about doing it myself if all the bad stuff hadn't happened this year. You know how I got raised, with all the lessons about being a hero and doing hero work here in Freedom City. UNISON's not regular hero work, but it is hero work all the same." He gave Erin a little smile, glad his friend didn't seem mad at him, before adding, "I think you're a hero, Erin, whether you stay here or do whatever. And that's whether or not you wear a mask and have a code name."

[Electra]

"Same goes," Erin told Mark with a little smile. "Maybe more so, since I know how much being a hero with a mask and costume means to you. I think it's really brave for you to try something new. And thanks for the birthday presents, too. It'll be nice not to have to wear the pink shoes anymore," she admitted with a chuckle. "Your counterpart had a really weird sense of women's fashion. I just wish Alex and I weren't such different sizes, so I could give that whole outfit to her."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yeah, Marcie really went in for that girly stuff. Her whole room was pink and sparkly." Mark coughed a little, remembering just how pink and sparkly it had been, and then said, "I'm lucky I don't run around in a football uniform or something, I guess. I'd hate to be one of those overcompensating guys." He laughed, then said, "Hey, maybe you can donate what's left of the outfit to the school, or one of their charities. I bet there are girls like Marcie in this dimension who like bargains." He shrugged. "Can't hurt. Alex had me make some clothes for Goodwill, but I was never as creative as Marcie."

[Electra]

"I'll hold onto them for now," Erin admitted, "they're better than no clothes at all. Maybe after that after-Thanksgiving shopping, I'll find someone who likes sparkly stuff more than I do. Hey, have you heard anything about that field trip they're planning for next week? I've heard some of the teachers mention it, but they don't say where or why or how long. It's kind of weird to just be wondering."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Not a thing," said Mark, "I just hope it's not over the holiday. I don't want to miss any of those this year." He hmmed, then added, "I know seniors get extra trips and responsibilities, so maybe this is part of that. The school has a lot of contacts all over the world, and even off it. I heard four years ago, the seniors got to go to the Moon!" He grinned. "That'd be pretty awesome. We'll probably find out sometime in the next couple of days if our names are on the list: with all the Young Freedom stuff we've been doing lately, we've got to be on someone's agenda."