The City of the Future (IC)

[Electra]

"You'll do fine," Miss A told Sharl, patting his back with an awkwardness unusual for the socially adept superheroine. "Spend some time with your family, get back into things at school. Send me a text message to let me know how things are going for you. And stay away from strange glowing doors," she chided him teasingly, then stepped back. If her own throat was a little tight, it was probably just echo from a body that hadn't been fed or watered all day. "Let us know if you start having more problems," she told Leroj, "or let Sharl know and he'll tell me. I'll be starting work on your island right away, I'll let you know when it's finished." She looked over to Dragonfly. "Ready to go?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly nodded, and did a little wave with her hand. "Good luck, Sharl, Leroj. Stay safe. Phrase....'don't do anything I wouldn't do'." She tilted her head, frowning, and corrected, "Actually. Probably shouldn't do several things I'd do. Would violate 'stay safe'." She looked like she wasn't sure what to say after that, and apparently decided to just say nothing. Her avatar flickered, twitched, and disappeared like someone had shut off a television...and then she was gone.

Dragonfly - the meat-and-bones (though not much of either) Dragonfly - opened her eyes and sat up, immediately regretting doing so as her brain informed her that she needed far more practice projecting into computers, and her body informed her that she'd been motionless for a little longer than it appreciated. Wincing and shifting her visor a bit to pinch her temples, she pulled her knees up a bit so she had something to lean on and waited for Miss Americana to finish her goodbyes.

[Avenger Assembled]

With Dragonfly gone and Leroj giving them some privacy to play with his new friends, Sharl stepped close and gave Miss Americana a quick hug. He wouldn't have done that if Gina had been here in the flesh, he knew how she felt about that, but this was different for her...even if it was all-too-real for him. "I'll stay in touch," he promised her. "Even if it's just texts. This isn't the end of a story," he said a little shakily. "It's the start of a new one. I'll see you soon, Miss Americana," he promised her. "Either in here, or out there."

[Electra]

"I'm counting on you to take care of things here," Miss A told him, patting him on the shoulder, then stepping back and giving his hair a quick ruffle."You've already shown you can be a hero, just remember you don't have to do it all alone. Leroj can help you if you feel out of your depth, and you can always call. We'll... I'll miss you. Take care." Without another word, she smiled at him and disappeared, leaving Sharl with only his phone as a connection to the world outside the metal box he'd contemplated only hours earlier.

Back at the Sanctum, Miss Americana opened her sparkling blue eyes and looked around, then stood to stretch. "Well, that was a very long day," she said to her colleagues, then looked to Daedalus. "But very productive. I say we bunk down here again tonight and debrief in the morning. I don't know about you, Dragonfly, but I could use some rest."

[Avenger Assembled]

Hours later, after yet another chat with his family, Citizen hovered over the island-city of Tronik, listening to the sounds of the city echoing up from below. He'd caught himself, or rather the many confused images of him, on the 'Net that night; fantastic stories of the flying man who'd caught the bus and cured the mutant (Leroj and his sylphs had had a busy night) were making the rounds of all the networks despite the Council's attempt to hush the whole matter up. Tronik had its own superhero now, even if they didn't yet have a word in their language for it. Gina was right, with what she told Leroj. Those aren't mindless programs down there, those are people who live in a machine. He smiled, and dived downward, still testing the way his powers worked at home. Time to show them all we can be.

[Fox]

Dragonfly nodded and wandered wordlessly toward 'her' room, her gauntlets flaring briefly to life as she pulled a familiar-looking cloth sack out of her dimensional pocket. She was tired, fairly hungry, and annoyingly depressed from the goodbyes...but even her brief time in Tronik had given her some very interesting ideas. She hadn't thought of the sylph design in ages, but as an AI it had some promise, and with the proper application of technology, maybe she could....

It was a pretty long time before she got any real rest.

[Electra]

Miss A walked into her guest room and secured the door, put on a very nice pair of pajamas and laid down on the bed. The instant her sparkling blue eyes closed, thousands of miles away, a muddy brown pair opened. Gina groaned and rubbed her face as all the distant aches and discomforts suddenly asserted themselves all at once. She picked up the bottle of water she'd left next to her hand that morning, downed the whole thing, and then got up shakily. "Emerson, go make me a sandwich," she commanded, heading for the stairs. Shower, food, sleep, all in that order, and she'd be all right.

The shower woke her up a little bit, and dinner with a caffeine hit eased the headache and stomachache. For once Gina sat at her dining room table to eat, letting Emerson clean the basement. She'd sort of had enough of computers for one day, honestly, and that was a rare feeling. As she ate, she kept half-expecting the holoprojectors to light up and Sharl to come in, or to hear his voice from somewhere in the house. But he was gone now, back with the family who missed him so much, back in the world where he belonged. And that was good. She hated noise and hated anyone seeing her. She loved the privacy and quiet of her house. No one ever bothered her, because no one even knew she was there. Gina finished off her sandwich and went up to bed, telling herself it was weariness that made her feel so leaden inside.