When a Problem Comes Along (IC)

[Derin]

Whiplash nibbled a biscuit, pondering how anybody could say the phrase "us and the giant bees" in an offhand manner. She probably shouldn't ask about the human colony or Gaian Knight for fear of looking extremely naive, but she was googling the local superhero presence as soon as she got home. If she wanted to do this, she needed to know who the other heroes were. She hadn't expected to actually interact with other heroes in the execution of her duty, she'd only wanted to protect her neighbourhood, but it looked like she'd have to be prepared for that sort of thing. She suspected she was already supposed to know who Fleur was, and probably her baby too. Asking questions about Ammy probably made her look like an idiot. Well, if she already looked like an idiot... "What does your husband do?" Fight crime, probably, moron. He's married to a superhero and has a plant baby, doesn't he? Use your brain before speaking.

[Electra]

"He's Dark Star," Fleur replied, and it did seem as though she expected Whiplash to recognize the name, but when it didn't seem to ring a bell, she continued without missing a beat. "He's a cosmic gravitic energy controller. He's part of the Freedom League Auxiliary like I am, but lately he's been spending much more time out in the Andromeda galaxy, helping with a really complicated interstellar war they've got brewing. His influence has saved more lives than I can possibly count, but it's still hard to have him gone so much. I'm just hoping we get him for the holidays this year. Like I said, though, we're rarely lonely." She poured the coffee into mugs, pausing to keep Ammy from bumping her head on an end table. "Cream, sugar?"

[Derin]

"Black with one sugar, please," Whiplash said. Yeah... she really needed to study up. She had not expected heroing to be social. But she hadn't expected giant bees, either. Fleur was, as Whiplash had suspected, so far out of her own league that it was almost silly to attach the label 'hero' to both of them. Freedom league? Interstellar war? Magical family? Whiplash had a whip and a desire to get thieves and druggies out of her neighbourhood. "I know what you mean, it can be hard to be separated from family." Why did I say that? I do not want to bring attention to my family here. "How long have you lived... here?"

[Electra]

Fleur carried the mugs over and passed one to her guest, then set her own half-cup on the table and picked up the baby. "She's hungry, that's why she's trying to eat the floor," Fleur explained easily, expertly using a lap blanket as a coverup while arranging herself. "I moved to Freedom City about three years ago, shortly after I got my powers. It's the best place in the world to learn about becoming a hero, and I had a lot to learn." She grinned at the memories of the inept young heroine she'd been.

"Luckily, I had some very good teachers. We moved out here to Sanctuary about a year ago, while I was pregnant with Ammy. I wanted a real house for her instead of an apartment, and I was terraforming the place pretty heavily at the time. It's a work in progress, but I love it here." She waved her free hand to encompass everything around them. "How do you like living in Freedom City?"

[Derin]

Whiplash thought about that. "For a hive of supernatural activity, it seems pretty safe," she said slowly. "Not once has a building fallen on me or some superstrong idiot thrown a car at me. And my daughter seems to like it and have plenty of friends. The crime rate seems oddly high for a place crawling with heroes, but at least the crazy villains who seem to have some odd attraction to this place are kept in check. I didn't come here to learn to be a hero, I came here to raise my daughter. But the hero thing certainly worked out nicely." She sipped the coffee. It tasted like coffee, which surprised her for some reason. "Do you grow this coffee youself?"

[Electra]

"Not yet, we're not that self-sufficient here," Fleur chuckled. "There's a little place called the Coffee Pot in Midtown that roasts their own beans, I stop in and buy from them and bring it here. Once I've expanded into some more temperate climates, maybe I'll try my hand at coffee growing. She settled back against the cushions and picked up her cup. "Freedom City is a magnet for a lot of reasons, to a lot of people," she agreed. And I prefer to think of it as the attempted crime rate being high," she added, a little bit smugly. "Those who try a life of crime usually don't get too far with it."

She was quiet for a moment as she studied Whiplash. The new heroine seemed only a few years older than Stesha herself, but her daughter was definitely quite a bit older. Something about the way Whiplash looked and spoke showed experience, and great caution. Stesha could respect that. "Freedom City is a good place to raise children," she said, but left that conversation unless the other wanted to pick it up again. "How did you happen to run across Baybee?"

[Derin]

"I was in the area," Whiplash replied. "Civillian, but I was about to go on patrol so I had my costume on me. She came out of the sky, asking for directions, and caused a lot of people to panic. I thought a civillian having a conversation with a giant bee might be a bit weird, so..." No need to mention that she was also trying to be prepared for the possibility that the bee was attacking. "Do truck-sized bees hang about Southside very often? I've never seen one, and I got the impression from the other people that that wasn't the case."

[Electra]

"No, not very often," Fleur assured her, a twitch of the lips the only thing that indicated the question was at all amusing. "I don't know if you remember last spring when The Beekeeper tried taking over Freedom Hall, but he used a hive of giant bees he'd been breeding as his weapons. We defeated him and tossed him back into jail, but the bees, who are all sentient, needed someplace to go. I brought them here, and with Gaian Knight's help, built them a home. They much prefer it here to Freedom City, which is really no place for them. Baybee is just a youngster, she'll be twice as large when she finishes growing."

[Derin]

Whiplash tried to comprehend that sheer mass of bee, and gave up. "And she's taking classes in Freedom City? Why does she want to be a hero?" Or maybe she wanted to get skills to defend her hive, or something. Whiplash mentally added bees to her list of Things To Google. "Does she deal with having classes with humans all the time alright? I don't know much about bees, but knowing children, I'd imagine she'd get teased a lot."

[Electra]

"Oh, no, she goes to the superhero high school," Fleur assured her breezily. "They have kids from all over. Different planets, alternate dimensions, various species. They're very open-minded, and have been great about accommodating her. Baybee is very curious, she wants to learn all she can about the "zzquizzy bipedzz," as they call us. She won't live in Freedom City, the bees don't thrive when they aren't together, but she'll be a valuable resource in dealing with humans. And she's having such a good time. I do worry about her sometimes, and I'm so glad you helped her tonight. Many people, even heroes, might not have."

[Derin]

"She was lost," Whiplash said with a shrug. "I wasn't just going to leave her in the street. What if somebody panicked and hurt her?" Whiplash didn't think there weare that many things that could hurt a giant bee, but she was making an effort not to assume anything. After all, Baybee was clearly just a kid. Whiplash did wonder why she had a superhero name when there was no possible way she could have a secret identity and Whiplash doubted publicity meant much to her, but it was probably tradition or something. "Does she get lost often? I always assumed bees would have a good sense of direction."

[Electra]

"She has a good sense of direction," Fleur agreed, "but it's predicated on the sun. Without the sun being out, she loses her main navigational point, and has to rely on landmarks she knows. Since the time change means it gets dark earlier, I'm sure she went out exploring without realizing that she was about to lose the light. She was only born this spring," Fleur went on, "so she doesn't really have a firsthand understanding of things like winter. But she's bright, she'll learn." Fleur ducked her head under the blanket to check the baby for a moment, then picked up a cookie. "Not everyone can look at a giant insect and see a child who needs help. I think you'll fit in very well in the hero community."

[Derin]

In fact the first thing Whiplash had thought was how do I protect everyone from this monster, but there was no need to mention that. Her mind fixated on something else instead. "She was born this spring? How... how big are they when they're born?" How did the bees not starve at that size? How did they not eat the pollen from every flower in Freedom City? Did they even eat pollen? Wouldn't they have a hard time getting it? She thought a moment more. "Her English is very good in that case," she said. "I can't imagine a human talking at that age. Are the bess generally very intelligent?"

[Electra]

"Well, born is a relative term," Fleur allowed, shifting her weight as she lifted the sleepy baby from under the blanket and began patting her back. "They're hatched from eggs, of course, with each egg about the size of a yoga ball. Then they go through the larval stage and pupate into a juvenile form, which is actually different from the way that traditional bees grow. When Baybee first ventured out of the hive with her sisters, she was just a few months old and about the size of a lawn tractor. They grow very quickly, but not nearly as quickly as the small ones. The average lifespan of a honeybee worker is only a few weeks to a few months, and they grow to adulthood in a matter of days. The giant bees, from what they've told us, live considerably longer than that, though they haven't been around long enough to test their lifespans."

Ammarylis let out a loud belch and seemed to collapse in on herself, blinking sleepily. Fleur cuddled her against her shoulder. "They're about as intelligent as humans, at least the females are. The males are a bit more..." She paused a moment, a smile touching her lips. "A bit more limited, but certainly affable. They all speak English, some better than others. You'll have to come visit in the day sometime. I'll take you to the hive and introduce you around."

[Derin]

Whiplash nodded, not entirely certain how she felt about the suggestion. A giant hive of bees wasn't what she'd call a fun day out, but Baybee had been alright. Friendly, even. And she was definitely curious about them.

She put her empty cup down next to the biscuits. "How do the bees... how does this entire place stay hidden? I mean, we're above the city, aren't we? But you can't see this place from the city, so I assume there's some sort of... invisibility field around it? Doesn't that cause a danger with aricraft?" Unless they were too high for aircraft. But that would mean some sort of giant down or something maintaining air pressure and temperature, which was too dizzying a possibility for Whiplash to think about. She didn't contider anything she couldn't safely cling to the outside of to be 'safe'.

[Electra]

"Oh no," Fleur corrected, buttoning up her shirt and cuddling the baby to her shoulder. "We're not on Earth-Prime at all anymore. Sanctuary is a few universes away from Prime, but in a reasonably close interdimensional sheaf. In fact, this house we're sitting in overlays the same geograpic area of Midtown in Freedom City on Prime. Only on this world, most of the humans and their artifacts have been gone for many decades. It was a ruined planet when I found it, but I've been fixing it up as I go. Sanctuary was one of the evacuation sites for the Gorgon event last month, in fact. I was very glad to be able to send everyone home!"

[Derin]

Whiplash frowned at the floor. The strange, grass-carpeted floor. That wasn't helping. "A few universes away? What does that even... no, don't tell me, I doubt I'd understand. But you're saying we're in a different universe? Is that safe?"

Don't freak out. Don't freak out.

Although the giant bees made more sense in that light. Presumably. Physics and biology weren't part of Whiplash's skill set.

Whiplash sudenly felt trapped. Not 'homeowner's between me and the door' trapped; that she could deal with; more 'I'm locked in a safe and only my accomplice on the outside can get me out' trapped. Which was a bit like prison trapped, except less safe. Partly because it required trusting somebody else and hoping they were well disposed toward her.

In what she thought was a reasonable voice, considering the circumstances, she continued, "A whole different planet, huh?"

[Electra]

"It's perfectly safe," Fleur assured her guest, her manner shifting to the conciliatory as she realized how nervous Whiplash was becoming. "Sanctuary is Earth, just an earth where history unfolded a different way. I had all sorts of tests done on the air and the soil before I made my home here, and it's very healthy here in the green zone. If you were to wander for miles, you might come to the ruins, where there are still some contaminants, but nothing you have to worry about anywhere nearby. And I can take you back to Prime anytime you like. I don't always think to explain my means of transportation," she admitted with a rueful smile. "I didn't mean to worry you."

[Derin]

Whiplash smiled and nodded, trying not to look like she was panicking. "I... I'm just not used to this sort of thing," she admitted. What was the proper social protocol when you'd just discovered you were on an alien planet (did another version of Earth count as an alien planet?) and weren't sure how to handle it? But what was that about history? "What happened here? Are there any people here, I mean, people native to this planet? You mentioned ruins. Did everybody die?"

[Electra]

"We don't know everything," Fleur said, a sorrowful look crossing her face, "but there was a war, bigger than either of the world wars on Prime. There was some Grue interference, weapons the humans shouldn't have had, especially at their stage of technological development. It was mutually assured destruction before anyone understood what the concept meant, or how to avoid it." She shook her head. "I thought all the people were gone, but I did end up finding one small pocket of survivors so far. They have a village a few miles west of here. They're used to a barely subsistence-level existence in caves, but with some help from other heroes we've been educating them, teaching them how to farm and build in a clean world. They're much happier now," she said, the smile returning. "If there are more like them, I'd like to find them and help them too."

[Derin]

Whiplash had to wonder what such people would think of Fleur. They probably took her to be some sort of nature goddess. She glanced around the cabin at the quickly tiring baby and plant walls she didn't think it would ever be possible to get used to. "If I want to make my patrol tonight and get home in time to get my girl to school I'm going to have to leave soon," she said. Not that anything interesting was happening on her route recently, but the 'alternate planet' thing was creeping her out. "Apart from Super Bee, are there any heroes in Southside I should keep an eye out for?"

[Electra]

"Hmmm, the southside," Fleur repeated, tapping a thoughtful finger against her lips. "So many heroes have gone to citywide patrols this year, but I imagine that you'll still find Gabriel and Cannonade patrolling that area regularly." She smiled. "Gabriel is a good friend of mine, you should meet him if you get a chance. He's hard to miss, very handsome. He's helping me raise funds to bring things like electricity and agricultural tools to the survivors here. Tell him that Fleur de Joie says hello." She rose from the couch and laid the baby back down on the floor, where the grass grew and wove itself into a blanket over the infant. "Can I put some of these cookies in a bag to take with you?" she asked. "Your daughter might appreciate one when you get home too."

[Derin]

"I'm sure she would. Thank you." Whiplash had never met a ten-year-old girl who wasn't interested in eating evey sweet thing that she could get her hands on. She glanced down at the baby, sleeping in the... grass-floor-blanket. Yeah, it was definitely time to return to the same planet as her family. Not that the people she had met weren't very nice and friendly. Magic, she decided, or whatever else this whole thing was, was something she was just going to have to get used to. Maybe she could invite Fleur over to her... tiny apartment, where she lived as a civilian with a daughter who didn't know about Whiplash. Yeah. That would work perfectly.

"Thanks for the coffee," she said, standing. "It's nice to meet another hero." A real hero.