The Stars Went Out (IC)

[Electra]

"That's good to hear," Stesha replied, looking relieved if not entirely happy. It was hard to feel too much happiness in a wasteland like this, one that spoke of so much destruction and death. "From what I've heard, all I've seen, and simply what I know of people, I suspect that they probably did this to themselves, perhaps with some help. Humans are so good at fighting each other for the most specious of reasons, if they'd gotten hold of advanced weaponry a hundred years ago, with no real understanding of what it meant to cause mass destruction, they could easily have wiped each other off the map. It's a tragedy however it happened."

[Avenger Assembled]

"No," Harrier insisted as his body avulsed back into flesh. "No, this is no tragedy." He looked out over the ruin before them, then back at her green garden behind them. "This world survived its own destruction, even as a ruin, and the people lived even though they'd lost so much of what they'd once had. And now flowers are blooming again, and birds beginning to sing, and that's no tragedy at all. You should not feel sadness when you look at this world." Cocking his head against a distant drone, he added, "Do you have industrial machinery here?"

[Electra]

Stesha cocked her head to listen as well, then chuckled, the expression lightening her face. "No, those are the giant bees," she explained. "Their hive is a few miles south of here, around what used to be the Lower Fens in Freedom City. Some of them must have come over for a visit, otherwise we wouldn't hear them. Come on, we'll see what they want. Teleporting," she thought to add before she touched his hand and teleported them both through the green.

Sure enough, when they returned to the clearing it was to see a massive bee the size of a semi-truck with trailer landing in the center of the path, taking care not to clip the trees. Around the big bee were a number of smaller bees, though smaller was extremely relative, in that each of the half-dozen or so were the size of ponies. The little ones were doing most of the buzzing, which was obviously communication, but the din fell silent for a moment when they caught sight of the humans.

"Hello, Beeatrizz!" Stesha called, obviously pleased. "It's so good to see you. And look how big all the children are getting!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Taken aback by the giant insects, Harrier watched with fascination as Beeatrizz sang out in her gigantic voice "ITZ GOOD TO ZEE YOU TOO FLEUR DE JOIE! LOOK AT YOU, READY TO HATCH!" She laughed, amused by the joke, in a voice to make your teeth vibrate. The bees were pleased to know Fleur de Joie was having young of her own, especially with promises of frequent visits with the baby. "I WAZ TAKING THE BABIEZ OUT FOR A FLIGHT AND THEY WANTED TO ZZE YOU! WHO IZ YOUR FRIEND?" Even as she spoke, the giant baby bees bounced over to say hello, flapping up and down on their little wings as they called out to Fleur.

"HELLO! HELLO! FLEUR FLEUR!" They seemed quite pleased to see her, and interested in rubbing their giant feelers all over her and Harrier as well. For his part, Harrier actually laughed.

"I...I am afraid I have no pollen for you!" he called.

[Electra]

"THAT IZZ ALL RIGHT," the giant bee informed him genially, "FLEUR GIVEZZZ UZZ ALL WE NEED OF FLOWERZZ." At that magic word, all the beelings began squealing "Flowerzz, flowerzz!" and darting manically through the air. Collisions seemed inevitable, yet somehow the fat oval creatures managed to avoid each other by inches every time.

Fleur laughed. "Oh, so that's why you all wanted to come visit me, is it? I see how things are." She raised an arm and spread her fingers wide, and a moment later a giant stalk unfurled itself from the ground and rose into the air. Moments later, huge hollyhock blossoms began unfurling, cheerful in purple and yellow. There were, probably not coincidentally, more than enough blossoms to go around. The little bees cheered and made themselves scarce while they gorged.

When things were a bit quieter, Fleur made introductions. "Beeatrizz, this is my friend Harrier. He lives on Prime as well, and he's helping me make sure that this place is safe for all of us to live. He's a friend to all of us here. Harrier, this is my friend Beeatrizz, who is the queen's right-wing worker at the hive. Beeatriz was one of the first bees to come live here on Sanctuary."

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier made his introductions to the giant bee and her family, marveling at the wonders of this place and how easily humanoid coexisted with giant insect. While he'd known destruction, he'd also known the vicious conflict on the streets of Nihilor, and to see such spectacularly different creatures living together was really quite lovely. "And they co-exist with the humans? Magnificent! I recall seeing them during the incident at Freedom Hall, but not...not like this." One of the little bees had abandoned the flower and was sniffing his hand; he offered his palm to its antenna without fear.

"ZTINKY!" The little bee commented, and Harrier actually guffawed.

[Electra]

Stesha laughed as well. "These little ones have never been to Prime, so aside from one or two visitors, I'm the only human they know. And since I smell more like flowers than most..." She shrugged one shoulder in amused apology. "Harrier, this is Bay-bee, Bay-bee, Harrier. Bay-bee is especially fond of spending time with people, mostly because she likes all the attention." She patted the pony-sized beeling on her fuzzy black head, setting the antenna quivering again. "Many of the older bees have had unfortunate dealings with humans, especially the Beekeeper, but they know that anyone who comes to Sanctuary is my friend and won't hurt them."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I understand," said Harrier. And when he thought about it, maybe he did, as much as he could understand anything about this cheerful, colorful world. "When you have been...burned by dealings with people, it can be very difficult to see them as anything other than a threat. Particularly when your differences are so obvious. It is a very good thing that you have been able to give them this place, with the peace and isolation to make their own choices. And with few enough people that both have space, even if one side needs..." he eyed the giant bees. "A great deal more space than the others."

[Electra]

Stesha laughed, catching the glance. "If there's one thing we have plenty of here, it's space. The human refugees are a little bit leery of the bees yet, and a little bit suspicious of their own good fortune. So far they've been sticking pretty close to the sod huts that Gaian Knight and I made for them. I've told the bees not to bother them, but I'm hoping that a little time and familiarity will make good neighbors of them. If not, well, I keep increasing the size of the rehabilitated area, eventually one or the other may move on to other green pastures."

Tired of being ignored in favor of boring human conversation, Bay-bee insinuated her fuzzy round body in between Stesha and Murdock, getting right up into the latter's face with her giant, multifaceted eyes and tiny mouth. "You hazz cazzle?"she inquired, antennae wriggling. "Flowerzz?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I do not have any flowers for you," admitted Harrier, "but..." He concentrated, and for a moment Fleur was worried he was about to carry out his graphic transformation right in front of poor fragile Bay-Bee! But instead, he turned into something else: in a showy flash of light, Murdock the man became a shining, gleaming knight! Fleur recognized Caradoc from stories she'd seen about the small population of heroes active outside Freedom City. "I can be a knight! And I can fly!" he added, the dragonshead on his back roaring to life. "Can you fly fast?"

[Electra]

Bay-bee was startled for a moment by the light and noise, fanning her disproportionately little wings and fluttering backwards, but at this age she had little fear. She flew closer, bobbing up and down as she stared at his shiny breastplate. "Bay-bee!" she crowed delightedly, catching sight of the somewhat distorted beeling face reflected in his armor. "Me me me! Pretty!" Within a few moments, Bay-bee's siblings had left their snack for a better look at the new distraction, jostling and jockeying for position in order to admire both themselves and the strange flaming dragonshead.

[Avenger Assembled]

Behind his armor, Caradoc laughed, and he really meant it when confronted by these adorable little thing. "Yes, you are all very beautiful bees! Never have I seen creatures like you before!" And in a lifetime of horror and pain, encountering creatures with whom he had no unpleasant associations was a very pleasant thing. "Are they all like this?" he asked Fleur. "So full of joy at new things? Or is it only the children? Either way..." To the giant bee, he said, "Your children have been raised very well. You must be very proud of your hive!" Insect culture, at least, was one thing he knew well, though it sounded like these bees had adopted the human custom of their leader.

[Electra]

"OUR HIVEZZ IZZ THE BEZZT," Beeatrizz agreed with complacent pride. "IT IZZ ZHE ONBEE ONE HERE, BUT IT WOULD ZZTILL BEE BEZZT IF ZZHERE WERE OZHERZ. ZHE GREAT ZQUIZHY BIPED FRIEND GAIANIGHT BUILT IT FOR UZZ, AND IT IZZ VERY FINE." The little bees chimed in with agreements of "Bezzt hivezz!" and "Mama'zzz hivezz!"

"The little ones are especially enthusiastic," Stesha told Murdock, "they learn and grow at just a phenomenal rate. They spend the first few weeks in the hive after pupating, and they've just started to be allowed to fly around and explore. But all the worker bees have plenty of curiosity and desire to learn. Which is good, because I was afraid they wouldn't be flexible enough to adapt to a totally new way of life in a new place, but they've done wonderfully." Rubbing her hands absently over her tummy, Stesha watched the little bees play, the fascination with Caradoc's armor quickly turning into a pushy-shovey game, and then a flying tag-race around the clearing. "The fact that they have a diet of almost pure sugar with a little high quality protein for muscle probably helps with all that energy," she added with a laugh.

[Avenger Assembled]

"To see children at play, free of worry and fear, is always a fine thing. To see such unusual children, whose coming must have been so difficult, is even finer. This is the beginning of something remarkable, especially if others are resettling here." Caradoc nodded. "You will have a fine place for your child to grow up," said Caradoc, looking over at Fleur. She could just make out eyes through the slits in his helmet, but from what she'd seen of his Omegadrone armor, they were probably not his. "Will you raise your children here?" he asked her, "or remain in Freedom City?"

[Electra]

"Both," she told him with the certainty that said she'd already planned this out thoroughly. "I love our home here, but it lacks certain amenities that you can only get in the middle of civilization. I have a nursery here, and we'll spend plenty of time here, but I do still keep my apartment in Freedom City. After all, Dark Star and I both have to be available for hero work, and it's much harder to get messages to Sanctuary. When I'm here, I open a portal every few hours to check my phone messages. It's certainly possible to be a citizen of two worlds, and this is such a beautiful place for children to grow up."

[Avenger Assembled]

"It is a good place for growing," agreed Murdock. "Human, insect, or otherwise." He felt more confident on this world than he had on his own, or rather, his adopted planet, and his voice came with more authority. "I am sorry I could not help you more with your dilemma," he added, "but I am glad I could tell you what did not happen. This place has seen enough that it deserves to be free of the taint of the Terminus." Though he supposed the question made him a hypocrite, he asked, "How long may I stay?"

[Electra]

Stesha gave him a friendly smile. "Mi casa su casa," she assured him with a laugh, "you can stay as long as you like. I'm not sure the beelings would forgive me if you went home without taking a flight with them. The refugee village is a few miles to the southwest, and you can probably see Gaian Knight's castle and the beehive from the air. I'm going to go inside and put my feet up for a few minutes, but feel free to go wherever you like and just drop in when you're ready to go or need a drink or anything. I really appreciate your help today."

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc spent hours in Sanctuary, and was amazed at just how happy he felt. Flying around without fear of people below, joined in the air by baby bees as far as the edge of the clearing, it was all so wonderful inside his shiny suit of armor made by Miss Americana. At first his nerve failed him when he flew over the little village of survivors, but at the sight of a flying man in a knight's armor, all of the people below came out to stare and cheer! It was more than he could resist. There was only so much he could do to help, but between taking a few children too young to be working for rides and cutting down one very large tree, his visit there went well also. And then another flight with eagerly laughing beelings, until finally the sun was setting and they were headed for bed. He took that as his cue to fly back to Stesha's house.