The Great Escape (IC)

[Gizmo]

Stepping briskly back over to Stesha when she was summoned, Jill took one look at the floor beneath the pregnant woman and let out a long breath, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Right, saving my 'I told you so's for a little later, we need to get Fleur back outside," she instructed taciturnly, turning to the assembled menfolk. "Help her up onto one of the robot bees; I'd rather have her walking to let gravity do its thing, but this place is filthy and all those stairs are just not happening." On one hand, the medic was a little concerned with what kind of complications the progeny of two powerful metahumans might have being born, but she quickly decided she'd rather have a sanitary location and a full range of healing powers than the power dampeners of the prison. "Okay, you've been practicing some breathing exercises, right?" she asked the green haired heroine more quietly. "I'm going to try timing your contractions, get a better idea what kind of time frame we've got. Everything's going to be fine."

[Electra]

"Okay," Stesha agreed with a nod, raising her hands to be assisted to her feet. "I was at five minutes apart by the time we hit the bottom of the stairs," she admitted, "but I was hoping we'd get everything wrapped up quickly. First labors are supposed to take ages, right? But this is starting to feel pretty damn serious." She looked up at the bee, running her hands over her stomach uneasily. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to get up there and hold on without some help. And somebody... somebody has to go and find Derrick." For the first time, she sounded really worried.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight was partway through putting his sword back on his belt, but as the conversation between Jill and Stesha sunk into his brain he slowed, then stopped, then turned to look at her with incredulity and concern that even his goggles and cloth couldn't hide. She came down here in labor? What in the world- no. Come on, Tarrant; now's not the time to be the sitcom guy. Thank goodness I've been stowing anchor stones where they seem like they'd be useful....

He stepped forward to offer Stesha a hand onto the bee, incredulity replaced with a business-like determination. "If we can get ourselves away from the prison's safeguards, I can get us all back into the city proper right away. Then it's hopefully just a short hop to your hospital of choice - do you have a hospital of choice? - but I'm afraid I don't know where to look for Derrick."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel paled enough he nearly matched his costume. He'd never really had to deal with the ordeal of a pregnant woman before, so he was likely started to mentally work himself into a panic. Almost on autopilot, he moved over to help Stesha onto one of the bees. He glanced at the others, frowning a bit.

"I guess I could ride with Stesha? Jill could ride solo, and keep an eye on both her and Freedom Angel. And maybe GK could keep a grip on Freedom Angel? Or something like that? It might slow us down a bit, but it keeps us all moving."

He bounced on his heels a bit, making it clear he was rather nervous and concerned.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I can stay here if necessary," said the angel, nodding approvingly at Jill's quick thinking with the robot bees. "I do not think our adversary will be a threat any longer," he said, glancing at the corner where the supervillain who'd stabbed him was now not only back in restraints but actually had his lawyer sitting on his chest to pin him down, "and Barry Bowles will be surrendering to the lawful authorities now that he knows he has a champion there." Getting stabbed had actually hurt quite a lot, particularly since the missile had been so painfully undignified in its own right, but he had no doubts that Stesha was the greater priority. "For my own part, the greatest danger to me is all the feathers soaked in honey." He took in the group and made some fast decisions. "No, Gabriel, since there are bees enough for all, I would prefer if you rode with me, and if Jill rode with Stesha. My injuries are not as important as her baby," he said without a moment's doubt.

As they were all getting onto the bees, the Bee-Keeper spoke first to his bees, saying simply, "My friends, carry Fleur de Joie and her friends to safety. I know you know the path to freedom well enough. Let nothing stand in your way. And from there...go from this place," he said simply. "When you have given Fleur and the others to the forces of safety waiting for them, your duty to me is done."

"But, but sir..."

"No no!" He put a honey-covered hand over his heart, then touched each giant robot bee on the face. "I will hold you as slaves to my will no longer! This is a day for freedom, for liberation. If not for me today, then for you, today and for all time. Go, and live as you were made to be." To Fleur, he said simply, "Fleur de Joie, you have been my worthy opponent for years now. I wish you, your child, and your...and your...yes, and your husband nothing but good fortune and happiness. Consider our war..." He took out a deep breath, then let it out. "Consider our war over."

[Electra]

"That," Fleur told The Beekeeper, taking a few deep breaths as she tried to balance on the metal bee, "is a most excellent baby gift. Good luck with your legal issues, and maybe try joining the good guys for once? You've got so much talent."

She closed her eyes for a few moments and took long, slow breaths, then addressed Gaian Knight. "I'm not delivering in the hospital if I can help it," she told him with a faint smile. "Though this wasn't what I had in mind. My mom is a midwife, I need to pick her up, or Derrick will, and bring her to Sanctuary. Everything is all prepared there. And Derrick will make it home, I know he will."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel shakily nods at Heyzel's logic.

"That works too. I just figured Jill could concentrate on something other than "don't let her fall off the bee", but that works too. I'm just trying to be helpful, instead of panicking. So. Yeah. Time to ride a bee..."

He gave the robot bees a slightly nervous look; he didn't begrudge their existence, so much as he wished he didn't have to cross paths with bees, or bee-like creatures. Still, desperate times. He moved to hop onto one and help Freedom Angel up onto it.

"Alright pal, let's get you up there. No need having you fall off and add a bump to the head to everything."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight hadn't even considered Sanctuary, to be honest, but he had to admit he should have suspected she'd want to give birth there. He decided to blame that oversight on the part of his mind that was busy being frantic. "Alright," he agreed (not that it was terribly necessary), climbing - with slightly less dignity than he'd have liked, if the situation hadn't made dignity significantly less important - up onto the nearest unoccupied bee. He wasn't entirely sure he liked the idea of Stesha teleporting around while in labor, but surely she knew her powers and limits better than he ever could.

He turned to look at Bowles, and offered the man a casual but respectful salute before the bees could carry them too far away. "She's right you know. Heh, she always is. But anyone who could fill a maximum-security prison with honey and giant bee robots could do a heck of a lot of good out there."

[Gizmo]

"Yeah, spontaneous honey skills are always in demand," Jill grumbled under her breath, taking less care to censor herself now that her attention was focused elsewhere. Swinging acrobatically onto the back of the same robotic bees as the expecting mother, she did what she could to steady both of their perches while monitoring Stesha's condition. "Alright chumly," she instructed their ride, "take it nice and smooth, but we're not exactly stopping to smell the giant robot flowers, okay?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The bees knew the prison's layout far better than any giant robot bee really should have, and within seconds everyone was up in the air and heading for the exit! Lacking the tendency to chatter that their organic cousins had, they were silent save for the thrumming of their mighty engines. They cut through the psychiatric wing to save time, thanks to Jill's firm instruction to the bees, and Freedom Angel glanced over at a familiar-looking girl in a cell, eying them suspiciously. "Hey, isn't that-" But they were moving too fast to hold up for any such faces: and anyway the angel was busy on the radio making sure the guards knew that the Bee-Keeper had surrendered and they were making a medical emergency exit. Within another few minutes they were out of the prison entirely, soaring high above the island below. Freedom Angel sat up, concentrating as he felt his connection to Heaven return, and the hole in his chest healed up as Gabriel watched! "There is no time for me to worry for myself," he said with a smile before sliding off the bee and letting his wings take him into the air after the others.

[Electra]

Fleur was quiet on the trip out of the prison, except for the occasional noise deep in her throat and long, measured breaths. The contractions were coming at about four minutes apart, but since they were each a minute long, it didn't leave a lot of time in between. She looked up and smiled as they broke the surface, the healthy green returning to her hair and skin as she suddenly felt considerably better despite the pain.

She immediately reached into her pouch and pulled out her cell phone to cal Derrick. "Derrick, sweetheart, it's time," she said without preamble as soon as he answered. "I'm okay, Gaian Knight and some other friends are helping me, but you have to go get my mom for me."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star was, almost perpetually really, busy helping out somewhere or someone. At the moment, he was pulling a regular old fishing ship out of trouble. Giving the giant squid beastie that had attempted to consume the ship a reproaching energy slap had sent it swimming away. He was just about to give the fishermen a leisurely ride home when a call from the woman he'd drop anything for reached him. This was the call he'd been obsessing over for quite some time... Dark Star was not someone who feared anything mind you. But for this he was a bit...jumpy.

Without thinking he ripped a hole through space and zipped through, hovering about 100 feet over Stesha's family home...with the fishing troller in tow floating beside him. "Oops," he muttered as there was quite a bit of water splashing down. "I apologize sirs," he said quickly, opening up another portal and dropping it rather quickly into their home at Singapore harbor. He closed the portal even before the splash of water made it a few inches. Without giving them a backwards glance, he powerdove into the home below him without pause. Blathering out a rushed few words and quick explanation, he scooped up his mother-in-law and ripped open another portal.

Flashing through to appear on the other side of the portal a mere 50' ahead of his very pregnant wife, he zoomed in with mother-in-law in tow. "Love? Are you alright?! LUGGAGE! I forgot the luggage! Oh fudge! Water? Do we need hot water? Are you cold? How soon? I'm not late am I?" He was sort of spewing out random concerns in his apprehension...completely forgetting the logic, planning and preparation he and his wife had been doing over the past few months now that the moment was upon them.

[Electra]

Despite her considerable discomfort, Stesha chuckled at her husband's arrival, a trio of strong vines rising up from the ground to pluck her neatly from the robot and bear her to the ground. "It's all right!" she called reassuringly, "you're not late. Though we shouldn't waste any time." They made an incongruous picture, the matte-black being of pure energy holdng a tolerantly amused middle age woman, facing a crew of heroes riding robot bees in front of the world's most secure super-prison. At least for the moment, the prison staff and guards were staying out of the way of this one.

"It's definitely time to go," Stesha said with a firm nod, then turned to her friends. "Ah, any of you who want to come along to Sanctuary are welcome to be our guests. I owe all of you my thanks for your help in there."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight took a moment to just close his eyes and feel again; he'd have thought it'd be disorienting to have a couple senses open back up like that, but it just felt...comfortable, like things were just going back to how they should be. As the angel and the plant controller dismounted he followed suit, catching himself on a small platform of rock and descending to solid ground as quickly as he safely could. He had a terrible urge to take his shoes off and just sink his feet into the dirt, but that would clearly have to wait for later.

Dark Star had shown up while he was distracted, and he thought he vaguely recognized the woman he was towing along with her - and even if he hadn't, the family resemblance was striking. "A lady should never have to get her own door," he joked, to try to relieve tension more than anything else. He held out a hand and concentrated, nearby rocks and debris weaving together into a large stone archway; not a second after it was complete it filled with an earthy golden energy that showed a rather nice piece of grass near a cottage that looked more grown than built. "Much less a lady who's in labor. Once everybody who's going is gone, I'll be along in a bit; someone should probably go talk to the warden and let him know things are messy but okay."

[Avenger Assembled]

"There would be no finer time to see your home," agreed Freedom Angel. He was happy to be back in his armor, happy to be healed, and happy that Fleur de Joie was safe and on her way to have her baby with her husband. "And it's a pleasure to see you again, Dark Star," he added amiably. Though some of his friends thought him naive about the ways of the body, angels were intimately aware of where babies came from and he had no horror of it. "If you would have us in your world today, then lead the way!"

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel smiled as Dark Star landed with a woman he guess might be Fleur's mother. Having her husband there would hopefully ease the stress of the day for the plant-controlling heroine. Alternatively, she'd focus all her frustrations on him, leaving the rest of them under much less risk. He hoped. He gestured for the others to go through first.

"I'll help Gaian Knight smooth things over. Between the two of us, it'll be fine. Shouldn't take long."

He was saying a silent prayer in his mind as he watched the other go through the rocky portal.

'God go with them, and let this be a healthy, joyous occasion. Let the birth be as easy as possible. Let mother and child be healthy at the end of it.'

[Gizmo]

As they finally left the nullifying field of the prison, Jill lifted one gloved fist experimentally. With a flicker at first, a warm blue glow like dappled sunlight streaming through a leafy canopy surrounded her hand, bringing a triumphant laugh to the harried young woman. "Ha! Back in business!" While the others dismounted their robo-insect mounts, the young woman remained perched where she was. "C'mon, buzz-borg, you know you wanna see this, too. I've never gotten to be around for a birth outside a hospital." A little more quietly she added, "And it's not like it'd hurt to have the ol' magic touch around in case the baby's all black holes and vine tentacles..."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yeah we could do that. Yeah we could totally do that. You have good ideaz Jill! We like you. Ahahahah!" rang from bee to bee at Jill's offer, and the unoccupied ones flew close to her as if expecting to all be picked up as a body. "Hey can we come too Mizter Dark Ztar and Mizz Fleur? We'll bee good and we'll help out with ridez for the people who can't fly and ztuff, and we'll make having the babee eazier!" Robotic or not, they certainly knew how to look ingenous...for bees as big as cars, anyway. "We can help the giant beez! We bet they're not zo bad!"

[Cyroa]

Dark Star barely nodded in acknowledgement to the others with Stesha; the 'rudeness' (for him anyway) was a staggering sign of his distraction. Not that he had anything particular to worry about. He had absolute faith that everything was going to be quite alright. Things always worked out. Of course knowing that and believing it really did nothing for his personal level of agitation.

He would have opened a gateway if one hadn't already been made. He quickly ushered everyone though, giving a little telekinetic help here and there. He simply nodded to the sentient robots; such things were not unusual to him. "Of course, of course," he said, still rather distracted. As soon as he could, he wasted no time in scooping up his wife, anyone nearby...well everyone really (he was a bit nervous about all this) and whisked them to the cottage in a blink, moving Stesha to the bed.

Dark Star floated there a moment, almost wringing his hands and fidgeting. He might not display such things. "Um...ok....yes, we are all home. Do you need something? Anything? Ah...What do I need to do again?" Despite discussing this numerous times as well as being an intelligent and intellectual fellow, he was having quite a bit of difficulty trying to cobble his thoughts together for this.

[Electra]

Stesha stayed in the bed precisely as long as it took for Derrick to put her in there, then she was up again, leaning on the windowsill and looking out at her green paradise as she rocked and breathed her way through another contraction. Anne Madison, Stesha's mom, was right there with her, rubbing her back and murmuring encouragement. "Human form," Stesha reminded Derrick on the end of a long exhale, "I need you really here with me now. Um, if you could make sure that everybody has something to drink or eat, that'd be good. Jill can come in, but I think we'll need some privacy for awhile, right Mom?"

Anne nodded, then gave the worried superfather a comforting smile. "It's all right, Derrick. Everything is going to be all right. Take a few deep breaths, make some tea, and do some breathing exercises of your own. I'm going to help Stesha change clothes and see how far along she is."

Outside the cozy bedroom, the visitors had been left on Stesha and Derrick's front lawn, which was not a bad place to be dropped off, all things considered. At least it was a nice day! The front door was open after Derrick's quick passage, and the living room looked as it usually did, a cozy plant cottage full of comfortable furniture and a small kitchenette. Those who'd visited before would probably notice that the cottage as a whole had gotten a lot bigger over the past few months, doubling in size towards the rear bedroom areas from its original dimensions.

[Fox]

It only took a short while before the gateway came to life again - on Sanctuary's side the head-sized anchor stone lifted back off the lawn, gathering dirt and small rocks together in a thin half-circle above the ground. The nearly-invisible symbol carved into both sides of it flared like it was burning (if stone burned a brownish gold, anyway) and the portal filled; Gaian Knight apparently wasted no time in stepping through, holding the doorway open only long enough to let Gabriel through before it literally collapsed away behind them, light dying out and the larger stones making soft thumps as they hit the grass.

"We filled the warden in...ah, briefly, anyway. I didn't have the heart to tell him about all the honey, myself. Did we miss anything?"

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel calmly followed Gaian Knight through the portal, rolling his neck a bit. His mood seemed much better than what it had been in the prison pit.

"Not like they won't scrub the place down anyways. We took care of the important part of the business."

He twitched his head towards the bedroom.

"Any idea how it's going yet?"

He was clearly concerned for his friend, but the fact that Jill O'Cure was here meant it was fairly mild concern. After all, if someone could heal with but a touch, most birthing concerns were rather moot.

[Cyroa]

Dark Star blinked his white orbs at her. "Right, yes. Human, of course," he said quickly. He concentrated a moment and a moment later Derrick was there. He stepped up to his wife and gives her a very gentle hug and kiss, like he's afraid she might break or something. "I love you very much," he says softly and honestly before stepping back. "And, uh, yes...I'll go make sure everyone is ok. Yes. Right." He nods to his mother in law. "Tea. I can do tea," he says half to himself. He walks into the kitchen area...and a moment later is boiling hot water on every available surface. Maybe someone needs a lot of tea? Or just hot water? Either way, there would be plenty of it shortly.

He headed back out to the law a few minutes later. "I have tea brewing. Anyone want any? I am certain everything is going perfectly well," he says without looking over his shoulder. He isn't exactly standing still...or not wringing his hands...or isn't a little pale...or nervous looking. Nope, not at all....

[Gizmo]

Jill took a moment to marvel once more at the organic construction of the cottage, noting how much bigger it had gotten since the last time she'd visited Sanctuary. Giving her robotic ride a pat on its massive head, she tumbled off dexterously and made her way to the bedroom, her confident stride helping to dissuade anyone who might have suggested she remain elsewhere. Closing the door softly behind her, she offered Stesha's mother a brief wave and a look with considerably less bravado. "Ah, hello! Hi. Yes. I'm Jill, Jill O'Cure. I'm a medic," she hastened to explain before lapsing into a long, awkward pause. "Is there... something I can be doing?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"All will be well," the angel promised expectant father and worried friends alike. He knew that with the assurance of one keyed the fantastic justice of the universe, as well as a man determined to make sure his friends stayed calm. He nodded in approval as Jill went in to be with the mother-to-be; perhaps it was all old-fashioned that the men and women were apart, but that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that everyone was where they needed to be. "Dark Star, we'll be fine," he promised the nervous father-to-be. He gave a reassuring smile to the man, glancing at the others as he did so for confirmation of his promise. "Go and be with your family," he told his fellow Leaguer. "We'll take it from here."