Stinging Beebuke (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Early November 2010

"ZINGZ ARE NOT ZO GOOD," confessed Bee-atrizz, humming along behind Stesha like a parade float as they walked through the beautiful fields of the world she'd found. "WE ARE EATING VERRY GOOD, VERRY GOOD INBEED, BUT THERE ARE ZO MANY PROBLEMZ. THE BOYZ WANT A QUEEN, BUT WE DO NOT HAVE ONE." The gargantuan bee got a look on her face, something Stesha was learning to interpret, of almost apology. "WE HAD TO LEAVE HER, AND ALL THE OTHERZ BEEHIND, WHEN THE MAZTER ABANDONED UZ. IT WAZ VERY ZAD, BUT WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO ZTAY. IF WE DO NOT HAVE ONE, THE COLONY WILL DIE WHEN WE DO."

[Electra]

"I understand," Stesha said, jogging a little to keep up with the giant bee as they looked over the giant-flower fields. It was good exercise, but she was getting awfully winded by now, and could've used a little rest. "I want to help you find your queen, but I don't know where to find her and the others. I tried to go to the location you all were telling me about, but there was nothing there. The Beekeeper must have moved everything sometime after you all left the hive. I don't know where they could be now, though, and the Beekeeper is in jail. Do you have any idea where else the colony might have gone from there?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"NO!" exclaimed Bee-atrizz mournfully, stopping to set her weight set in the ground with a thump. On legs as thick as Stesha's body, she padded over to a huge cluster of smaller flowers and rolled in them, looking down at Stesha like a sad dog the size of a Mac truck who was also a bee. "WE ZAW NOZING OF THE WORLD BEEFORE HE CAST US OFF LIKE ZO MUCH GARBAGE! EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW HE WAZ BAD, IT IZ ZTILL ZAD TO BE GONE AWAY FROM THE OTHERZ! WHAT IF ZOMETHING HAPPENED AND WE WERE NOT THERE TO HELP?"

[Electra]

Puffing slightly, Stesha sat down in the grass to catch her breath. "Tell you what," she told Beatriz. "I'm going to try one more time to find the rest of your colony before winter sets in. If I can find them, you'll still have time to make nests before it freezes. I'll help you get the resin again and it will be okay. But if I can't," she warned, "you'll have to wait until spring, and try to hold it together until then with the boys. I know it's hard, but you're definitely the smartest bee I know. Okay?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"OK," agreed the giant bee. "YOU ARE OUR BEZT FRIEND, ZTEZA. IT IZ TOO BAD YOU CANNOT BEE THE QUEEN!" She laughed her odd booming, buzzing laugh at that absurdity, then rolled over onto her huge legs. "I WILL BEE WATCHING FOR YOU. IT WILL BEE GOOD TO HAVE THEZE ZKIEZ BUZZING WITH BEEZ, THEN A WHOLE WORLD JUZT FOR UZ! AND YOU," she added, "AND YOUR ZQUIZY FRIENDZ TOO. SPAZE FOR EVERYONE!"

[Electra]

"Yes," Stesha agreed with a laugh, "there's plenty of room for everyone here. Next spring, oh, it's going to be marvelous," she promised. "You think the flowers are big and beautiful now? Wait for springtime, when I'm not working against the weather. I'm going to double the size of the livable space here, and it's going to be covered in flowers!" Even now, little flowers were growing in a circle around where she sat, as though summoned by her enthusiasm. "It would be nice if the whole colony could be together for that. I can't tell you to cross your fingers, so just think good-luck thoughts for me!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Eventually, Stesha pulled herself away from the pastoralism of her world and headed back to the urban greyness of Freedom City. Well, sort of grey: fall was here, and that meant leaves and trees in a million different colors. There were precious few trees on Blackstone Island, however; the maximum-security prison being very mindful of plant controllers seeking to break in, or out. There were only a few arboreal-manipulating bad guys, but the prison had been around for a long time, and had a very good record. The Bee-Keeper had gotten himself sent to Blackstone after his most recent caper rather than just going back to Providence: bee-ifying the Freedom League and attacking the entire city with giant bee swarms and bee monsters will do that for a guy's reputation. Even after what had happened last time with Red Bolt, Fleur de Joie was heroine enough to get a meeting room (through glass) with a supervillain easy as pie.

When he entered, B. Barry Bonds looked a little battered, but otherwise unruffled by his prison orange. Instead he winked through the glass as he sat down, ignoring the guards as much as possible, and opted to let Stesha do the talking as they got their privacy.

[Electra]

"Hello, Barry," Stesha said calmly, folding her hands in her lap. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it? I see they gave you new accommodations after last time when you escaped. What have you been doing with yourself lately?" The whole atmosphere of the prison made her nervous, not to mention facing off with the man who'd tried to kidnap her on multiple occasions, but she slicked a layer of false confidence on over that in an attempt to start with the upper hand.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I have been taking acting lessons," he told her distinctly, his deep voice a low rumble. "The drama coach here says I am a natural actor. We will be putting on a Christmas Carol for the holiday season, and I have the distinct honor of playing Mr. Bob Crachit." He smiled. "You should come to our showing, Fleur de Joie. The Blackstone Players are well-known as the finest in the land, and no one could appreciate me the way you can, my arboreal angel."

[Electra]

"I'll think about it," Stesha lied, pursing her lips into a thin smile. "My fiance and I have plans for this holiday season already, of course. You know how it gets. But that's not the real reason I'm here." She leaned forward slightly, indicating it was time for business. "I'm here about your bees. Specifically the giant, intelligent ones. How exactly did you expect them to get by when you went to prison?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"As you recall, my flower of the night, I never expected to go to prison. I _expected_ to rule on high as King Bee of the city!" He shot a glance in the direction of the door on his side of the room, then coughed. "And you should see the way they look at me in here," he said proudly. "The men who fight the Freedom League to a standstill, they get respect in the penitentiary. Not to mention the famous Dark Star," he added just a little bitterly. "In any event, I had no plans save to achieve my masterstroke! World domination, with my queen at my side. That can still happen, you know," he added smoothly.

[Electra]

"I'm not interested in being anywhere near your side," she told him flatly. "If you really wanted that, you could've asked me on a date instead of being so totally socially maladjusted about it. My concern here is your giant bees. They're starving, you know," she told him, watching his eyes. "I have about half of them in my care now. They're in a safe place where they'll be taken care of for the rest of their lives. But they aren't happy, because they don't have their queen or their hivemates."

[Avenger Assembled]

Barry looked away, but Stesha could see the flash of pain in his eyes. "Most of them betrayed me at the end," he said, but it didn't sound like he really believed it. "Thanks to your stubborn blindness, and their own love of pollen, even if it warped their minds! They...they betrayed me and picked your team! Let your people find their queen, if you...if you love them so much!" He sniffed, and Stesha realized he was wiping tears out of his eyes.

[Electra]

"You don't really mean that, Barry," Stesha said, deliberately injecting empathy into her voice. It was truthfully a little hard not to feel sorry for the pathetic wretch crying in front of her, but Stesha managed when she remembered all the things he'd done and tried to do. "You know winter is coming. It's cold out today, barely forty-five degrees. They'll be cold, Barry, and hungry. I can take them to where they'll be safe and warm and well-fed. You created them, Barry," she pressed. "You have a responsibility."

[Avenger Assembled]

Barry was silent for a while, simply struggling to regain his composure, before steepling his hands in front of him and taking several deep breaths. "The bees you have not captured remain secure in a heated facility of my own design. They have plenty of food, enough to sustain them until I can escape from this incarceration." For a moment she thought it hadn't worked, that he was still the old Bee-Keeper, before he said, "They are beneath the very walls of Providence Asylum itself!"

[Electra]

"Where is the entrance?" Stesha pressed. "How can I get in there to find them?" The idea that he'd managed to tunnel under the walls of the Asylum was rather disturbing, and might explain why so many of the patients incarcerated there managed to escape, but that was a secondary concern at the moment. "You're not going to escape from Blackstone," she pointed out. "It's the most secure prison on the face of the earth, and they're on to your tricks. You're going to have to serve your time. Do you really want them locked up, alone, untended, and to simply have to hope that the food holds out for them?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"The tunnel can be found by passing through the old cemetery at the heart of the Asylum, straight through the tomb of Jedidiah Providence himself! And below, a wondrous maze of honeycombs where once catacombs lay!" He banged on the table. "And you are right, Fleur, I shouldn't risk the lives of my bees against my own diabolical cunning. You can find them, liberate them, and then perhaps they and I will be reacquainted when I make my daring escape from this terrible confinement. Yes, that will be more than acceptable. The password, of course, is LIBERBEE!"

[Electra]

"Thank you," Stesha said, letting out a breath. It could be a trap, she was keenly aware. The Beekeeper was never all there mentally, and he could be banking on capturing himself a human queen bee for whenever he got out of jail. She wouldn't go in alone, but she had to hope that he was sincere in his concern for his giant creations. "I'll make sure they're well taken care of," she told him, rising from her seat. "And Beeatriz sends her regards, though her feelings about you are understandably mixed."