ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)

[Gizmo]

"Already crossed a galaxy," Trevor noted with a minute shrug, turning to face Erin with a solemn look. "Least I can do is turn back time a few weeks. Still have your gift in the Manor." The Curator constructed imposter hadn't given him much chance for exchanging presents beyond the half-hearted gift card. He absently ran one hand over his jaw in a weary gesture, realizing belatedly how unkempt he must have been. It was in keeping with the disarray he was feeling internally now that the immediate goal of finding and retrieving Erin had been accomplished, adrenaline had run its course and his bottled stress had a chance to catch up with him. 'Kind of bummed' indeed. "Can't... undo this. Will find some way to make it up to you."

[Electra]

Gina sighed at Steve's question. "The data was protected," she told him, "inasmuch as I have a fresh backup of his files in my database, taken just before he left on his last mission. But of course that data isn't all of him, otherwise every backup I did of him would requite petabyes of memory. I tried to isolate all the things that were unique to him as opposed to the patterns he had in common with all other Tronikians. In theory, it should be a fairly simple matter of recompiling all that data with the stock Tronikian "physiology" coding, then doing the same emulator programming I did when he first arrived in Freedom City to allow him to interact cleanly with our technology. In practice, though..."

She was quiet for a minute, then admitted, "In practice, I've never done it before, and I'm not 100% sure how it will work, or if it will work. If I was wrong, if I missed anything important, part of him could be lost forever. Even if all goes well, he's going to lose memories, maybe more than that. Truly sentient AI is such a tricky thing, and every AI is a little bit different. All I can do right now is hope for the best. I shouldn't have let him go!" she said with sudden anger. "It was stupid to give a bunch of kids access to a lot of high technology then send them haring off by themselves with no supervision. I should've made him stay back where it was safe. Safer," she amended. "But he wanted to be a hero so badly."

[Avenger Assembled]

Steve considered his words carefully. He had an intimate familiarity with brave young men and women who died defending those they loved, and the idea that one had done so and that his death had mattered was not such bad news - especially with the possibility of recovery! But he doubted Gina would appreciate that thought, so instead he said, "He was a brave young man who fought to defend his people. And from what you told me, stubborn enough to go on his own. You made sure he was as prepared and ready as you could, and the day is won. And you will save him." He looked her dead in the eye and said, "You know his code well and you are a genius. Computers sing to you as do the instruments of a musician. He could not be safer than in your care."

[Electra]

Erin sighed, studying Trevor with a hint of frustration. "There's nothing to make up," she told him flatly. "So you got fooled by a robot designed by a superintelligent space alien specifically for the purpose of fooling you. BFD, so did everybody else. If I do go through a weird time when I'm not feeling like myself and I need to be alone, I'd rather you give me the benefit of the doubt than start wondering if I've been replaced by something sinister. When things really started going down, you figured it out quick enough, didn't you? And then you were out here as fast as humanly possible, without even taking time for a meal or a shave or a nap, just so you could get to me, right?"

She put a hand on his cheek, gently but with just enough pressure in her fingers to keep his eyes focused directly on hers. "Just because something bad happened doesn't necessarily mean you screwed up. Sometimes bad things happen and there's nothing you could have done, and all you can do is try to fix it. Now are you going to wallow in it for awhile longer, or are you going to be as happy to see me as I am to see you?"

[Gizmo]

Trevor indicated his deferral to Erin's superb adjudication of situational priorities by closing the half-step between them and kissing her, sureness flowing back into his stance as he tabled his self-reproach for the time being. There would be opportunity to examine what could have been avoided and how later but failing to appreciate how lucky he was would be another mistake. "Don't know how I manage when you're not there," he murmured truthfully with a small smile, holding her close. "Did think to bring spare clothes. In the crew quarters if you want to get out of those."

[Electra]

"Oh, absolutely," Erin said with great feeling, her arms still looped around his waist. "Though I guess I really ought to go check on how the others are doing downstairs..." She bit her lip, then gave in to the temptation to be just a little irresponsible. "But I'm sure Redbird has them all in hand, even Stratos. She'll tell us if anything weird starts happening." Sliding her hand into his, she started towards the hatch leading the the crew quarters. "I could also use a shower, if you've gotten them working," she admitted with a laugh. "Both of us could."

[SpicyWaffle]

Taking Stratos' continued silence as an unspoken agreement, Baxter just sat quietly there for the longest time. Dorothy seemed happy enough that whatever her double had done she wouldn't be held responsible, but Baxter? Baxter wasn't so certain as he stared down the holographic chaperon, a burning question glinting in his eyes. A single, unerring thought that had burned in the young hero's mind ever since it had entered into existence, plucking at his brain like some mad doctor keen on bringing about a desired, conditioned response. And so, with no measure of tact or restraint, the young Bee-Keeper narrowed his eyes towards Redbird. He had to know the truth...

 

"You said that I... I mean, the other me, exploded," the dark-skinned boy began, trepidation in his heart as well as on his tongue as he straightened himself up in his seat. "And that Blue Jay's double was really effective. Before they were stopped, what happened? What did they do back in Freedom?"

[Gizmo]

At Tona's request deep red shapes lit up along one wall of the saucer's mess, thin triangles that led out into the hallway and pointed the way to a nearby section of the round vessel. "Of course. Merely follow this path and you will find accomodations. Rest well, archer." The project blowed slightly from the waist in a sign of respect, watching the teenager leave with a pensive expression and trying to the correct human ettiquite for such situations. Her imprinted partner seemed to favour giving his allies space to process post-battle emotions in private but this did not seem to be a consistently held philosophy among all heroes of Earth.

Baxter's question gave her a more immediate task, the directness of his inquiry seeming to merit a clear response. "The automotons, yes!" she confirmed with a broad nod. "We left before all information could be collated but my understanding is that they spent roughly six weeks or more living their organic counterpart's life, manuevering into positions of trust while manipulating those who had the best chance of discovering their ruse. Then earlier this very day they simultaneously began violently and publically executing criminals and those otherwise deemed guilty, drawing much attention and causing considerable chaos as the citizens of your world naturally assumed their heroes had gone mad!" The autonomic intelligence's emotive body language made her recounting unintentionally unsettling. "Midnight suspects the ultimate goal was to cause a distraction for some more direct attack while also being motivated by spite in some form. A coward's tactic, I think, but effective."

[Raveled]

Jay followed the red lights into the depths of the vessel, until the stopped at one of a number of identical doors. It opened for her and she found herself in a sparse but functional bedroom, not much smaller that the space she had to herself at Claremont. She closed the door behind herself and opened up what she assumed would be a closet, but what turned out to be a shower. She blinked in surprise and her brain tried to grind into action to decide whether or not to take the effort, but in the end she decided against it.

 

She dropped her bag at the end of the bed and tugged off her boots, leaving them where they fell. She crawled into the bed, still wearing her jacket and her grime, and pulled the top sheet over herself. She curled into a ball and closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. All she could see was images of Cerys, of Mali, of Sam, feathered with her arrows and laying bloody and broken on the ground. She began to cry silently, curled up around her own private pain; and some time later, when she was all cried out, she drifted into a deep and unbroken sleep.

[Electra]

"There's nothing I can do for him now," Gina admitted, closing her eyes to feel the headache still pounding behind them. "After today, and... huh, I have no idea what time it is. Maybe today is yesterday already. In any case, I'm spent, got nothing left. Can we just go back to my place and not do anything for awhile? I need to recharge, and you probably do too. It would be a mistake to try and work on Sharl while I'm not on top of my game and before I know exactly what happened. But he'll keep for a couple of days." At this point it seemed like too much effort to even open her eyes or raise her head to look up at him, so she reached out and squeezed his fingers instead, knowing he'd understand. "Let's just go home for now." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Stratos listened to Redbird's words thoughtfully, setting down what was by now a heroic-sized pile of wrappers on the little table before him. "You know," he admitted glumly, "normally that would be a really funny story, but I've been away from Earth for so long...I don't know, it just makes me feel down. Time to show the world the real Dr. Stratos when we get home." He hmmed and started to ask, "Hey, I don't suppose my double got Thu-" before suddenly Dorothy's gasp of horror broke through the conversation. 

 

"They...what?!" Her hands over her mouth, the young girl's face went white. "I...she hurt people? Are my mom and dad okay? Did she hurt anyone at the school? Mr. Archer says I could be a class-1 hero when I finish growing up, and if she had all my powers she could have done some really bad stuff!" 

 

"There there," said Stratos awkwardly, "you didn't actually do anything, right? And at least this way people will know who you..." He caught Redbird's gaze and slunk down his seat, looking long-suffering. 

 

-

"Home," Steve agreed, "is where we are going. Where we were meant to be." Not much for idle talk, Steve held Gina close in the quiet darkness. He still had questions - how long had he been away, what had his double done in his absence, but they could all wait. A cosmic entity had been defeated, and an impossible distance had been closed, and all those who had been lost had come home safe. The dead can be brought back to life. he thought wonderingly. 

[SpicyWaffle]

And thus, at Redbird's plain-as-day response, Baxter Bowles' already miserable day just hit an all time low. Whatever joy being liberated from the Curator's ringworld had brought him had almost instantaneously been destroyed as the whole sordid affair of what had been transpiring on Freedom City, regret immediately taking hold of him as he wished he hadn't asked in retrospect.

 

"Executed..." he repeated, face paling significantly even as Dorothy brought up even more potent feelings of loved ones being injured. Even Statos' blatant disrespect about their predicament flew over Baxter's head as he visibly clenched his fists, knuckles whitening as fervently as the dark-skinned would-be hero fought against his quivering lip. Six weeks... he'd been gone for six weeks, and some robot was living his life for him. There were so many things wrong with that; so many horrid things those machines could have done. A vivid imagination was a terrible thing to have when you knew your doppelganger was out murdering people, ruining your life and the lives of everyone around you. It made Baxter sick, his stomach twisting itself into painful knots, struggling to eject the nonexistent bile in his gut to alleviate the stress as everything began to sink in.

 

"Was it... w-was it just criminals?" Baxter added, seconding Dorothy's concerned notion about their friends and family. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the inevitable answer Redbird would give. "... How bad? How bad was it?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The Western hemisphere was just beginning to lighten as the Nightdragon returned from its interstellar voyage, the ship slowing as it passed through the Solar System to avoid destroying the planets nearby. In the end, the day they'd learned from broadcast intercepts had been dubbed the Day of Wrath had come to an end like any other and a new one was dawning over Freedom City. Watching from the sensor room with Gina, Steve watched as the ship passed silently over a just-awakening Freedom City. The damage was visible from the air, but only if you knew where to look. For the most part, the rampage of the robot doubles had scarred only the city's heart, not its flesh, a dichotomy with which Steve was only too familiar. 

 

A little help from Redbird, who knew a little something about stealth technology, guided the massive ship down to a silent, invisible landing in one of North Bay's remaining parks, one that just happened to be near the home of the Hunter dynasty's ancestral house. When the ship finally came to a stop on Earth, Steve looked down at Gina, a silent question in his lined eyes. 

[Electra]

In spite of herself, Gina had dozed off on the way back, exhausted physically and mentally by the exertions of the last twenty-odd hours. She managed to remember herself before rubbing her blackened eyes this time, and instead blinked hard as she studied the sensor screens. "This is North Bay," she said in a voice scratchy with sleep. "I'll have the car come pick us up. The windows are tinted, nobody will see in." In a pinch, Gina's car was perfectly capable of driving itself, a trick she seldom exploited but that did come in handy. "You can get cleaned up, I've got lots of clothes for you still at my house." She chuckled ruefully. "Guess you never saw the Christmas present I got for you, did you? Well, it'll come in handy now. You'll come with me, won't you?" she thought to ask belately. "Debriefing or whatever can wait a little while." 

[Raveled]

Blue Jay was woken roughly when the ship was passing Jupiter, and had just enough time to grab a quick shower before the Nightdragon was settling down. The bow was stored again, and the mask tucked away, and she looked like just another tired teenager with a backpack. She watched the emotional reunions, and it just made the cold pit in her stomach grow. Redbird's comments about how 'effective' her double had been just made her dread returning to Claremont even more, but she knew that she couldn't put it off.

 

She sighed and tugged at Quickstep's arm. "Come on," she said. "Time to get back to school."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm going to see my mom and dad!" said Dorothy excitedly, looking close to tears. "I missed them so much! They must have been so worried about me when everything bad happened...they must have been," she said with determination. "Sure, uh, Blue Jay, I'll drop you off at school, but then I'm going home! I miss my family!" She looked around and found Redbird. "Thank you so much for rescuing me! You and Midnight and Dragonfly and that lady, you guys are heroes! Just like my friends from the Ringworld...I'll thank them again soon, but I just can't wait to see my family!" She took Blue Jay's hand and made a gesture in the air, a wormhole rippling open in front of them and revealing the smoldering remains of the Claremont administration building. White-faced, Dorothy stood there and looked at the building in shock for a moment, her hand tightening in the older girl's. 

 

"I will go with you," Steve promised Gina. "Where else would I go? But first a promise was made that I must keep." He gently deposited Gina in the seat he'd been sitting in, then opened the door to watch Dorothy and Tona standing before the tesseracted scene of carnage. It made Steve hesitate slightly, but he pressed on - his thoughts for the guilt the girls would feel, and the realization that evil had been done in his own name as well. "Go home to your friends," he said encouragingly to Dorothy and Tona. "Treasure them. Our journey is over, and you are safe." Dorothy shot Steve a brave little smile, then pulled Tona through the wormhole behind her. 

[Raveled]

Tona got her first look at the Claremont campus after the destruction wrought by her duplicate, and was rooted to the ground. The administration building was a gutted core, there were debris strewn about all over the place, and there were blackened patches of earth where fires had no doubt burned the immaculate lawn. She could barely move her feet to take her through the portal, and once she was there all she could do was hug herself and stare open-mouthed. All of this... was she responsible for it? Had this been the job of her duplicate, to behead the Claremont Academy? To take the best place for young people to train to become heroes, and kill its heart and brain? If that was the case, she didn't know how she would be able to stay -- in this city, or in this world.

[Thunder King]

Mali spotted Tona, standing there, staring. Her heart broke a bit, seeing the look of confusion and anguish. "TONA!" She shouted, bolting across the yard. She reached the girl and all but tackled her. "Oh god is it good to see you!" She said, hugging Tona close. "I know it looks bad, but trust me, it's not as bad as it looks. An explosion went off, things look worse than they are. Oh, my goodness it's good to have you home!"

[Gizmo]

As the passengers of the saucer began to disembark, Redbird's projected avatar reappeared long enough to see Quickstep and Blue Jay off with an encouraging word and a promise to meet them again, ideally on the glorious field of battle. Hanging back at the top of the ramp to make sure everyone was safely off, Midnight got the impression that the autonomic machine intelligence was playing up her boisterousness for the benefit of the beleaguered teenagers. After the ordeal they'd been through, a little exuberance couldn't hurt.
 
When Dragonfly and her girlfriend readied to leave, the masked vigilante gave Hallomen a terse nod before reconsidering and offering his hand. "Good work. Thank you," he intoned, genuine for all his voice was flattened by the filters in his mask. The other woman who'd helped rebuild the ship deserved his thanks as well but she seemed intent of getting away from the group as soon as possible and Trevor wasn't one to judge. To the taller young woman he added, "Mutual acquaintance reached your brother. Expecting you at family home." He wasn't sure how Eve had known who to get in touch with regarding Jill O'Cure's family, but it seemed wiser not to underestimate the telepathic heiress' web of contacts.
 
"Gracias a Dios..." Ellie murmured, exhaling in relief as she leaned against Mara. A shower, change or clothes and most importantly a reunion had her looking and feeling considerably more human but there was no missing the weeks worth of weariness layered over her. Part of her was having trouble believing they'd finally made it home but most of her was just too tired to be paranoid. "Think you can get one more flight out of your business suit, belleza?"
 
Meanwhile, Midnight turned his attention to Wander and the last of the ship's passengers. "Someone's en route for Stratos. Not sure about Beekeeper."

[Electra]

With a shower and change of clothes, Erin was looking almost entirely back to normal and none the worse for her offworld adventure. With Charlie tucked in the crook of her arm, she made sure to say a quick goodbye to Dorothy and make sure the girl had her phone number in case she needed any help getting settled back in at home or school. She was confident of Blue Jay's ability to settle herself, so was satisfied to give the archer a nod of farewell to a comrade. It didn't seem like Blue Jay wanted to talk much anyway. 

 

Scratching Charlie between his fuzzy ears, she gave Mara a half-smile. "So boss, you want us back on the clock in the morning? I suspect I've used up all my vacation time for the year by now. Sorry about the lack of notice." She glanced over to Baxter, a little perplexed. "Hey Beekeeper, you got anyone you'd like us to call for you, or would you rather get yourself home? Or one of us could go with you." The idea of delaying more time with Trevor didn't thrill her, but she could see how it might be daunting for the poor kid to go home all by himself and try to explain things. 

[Fox]

Dragonfly was still putting the last of her armor back on as the others disembarked - she'd opted to remove it the old-fashioned way rather than send it back to high-tech limbo, given the circumstances. Her off-white bodysuit was just visible behind one gauntlet before she clicked it closed, powering up with that familiar hum as she ran some quick diagnostics. Midnight's hand was accepted with a quick but distracted shake - no words necessary there. She owed him a debt she probably couldn't repay...but she'd think of something.

"....yes," the heroine said, though with her lower faceplate still open a brief flicker of discomfort at her suit's status could be seen. "Flight, I mean - yes. For you, always. Wing generators are fine." others mostly shot - plan repairs later? - better things to do right now

"Mmh! Work - no," she added, as her brain caught up. "Later. Need to review security system, protocols - theft while you were gone - but closing down for a bit so people can focus on other things. Better things. Will figure out how long, send out proper announcement. Also later. Right now...."

Space near her back twisted in on itself, glowing with neon blue energy to form four long, blade-like wings. "....right now, think you're overdue to be home." That last bit was directed back to Jill, Dragonfly's mouth turned into the tired ghost of a wry smile. "Promised I'd get you home by ten. Couple months late. Don't want to get into trouble?"

[SpicyWaffle]

Baxter hadn't done much else but shower and snack on a lone protein bar before reaching the all too welcoming sight of Earth, the great commodity of sleep unavailable to him in the wake of his 'effectiveness' as a robotic assassin. How could he snooze knowing that somehow, somewhere he'd been replaced, and then used like a living battery to slaughter criminals as if they were livestock? How could he sleep soundly knowing that everything he'd worked for, all that time and energy he'd poured into salvaging the tarnished title of the Bee-Keeper had all been undone just as quickly, his good intentions played against him in the grand scheme of things? Baxter wasn't stupid -- even if the people could forgive him for blundering into that trap in the first place, even if they would exonerate him for the crimes his vicious doppelganger had committed, they would always remember the truth: that even if the Bee-Keeper III was still a hero at heart, he was still capable of performing those atrocities.

 

And so there he stood at the ramp of the Nightdragon, looking quite the mess. Sure, he was clean, but a cold shower can't wash away that look -- that thousand-yard stare of someone who'd seen things he wasn't ready for, whom was just barely able to get through in one piece. He'd seen things he'd never planned to see; things people would never believe. Exhaustion wasn't helping matters, nor meager malnutrition and a heavy conscience. But despite all the harrowing sights, all the life-threatening shenanigans and space battles, Baxter had never been more scared than he'd been before as he stared down at the grassy park beyond.

 

"What?" he finally stammered out as he turned to face Erin and his other remaining rescuees, almost as if he hadn't heard the question at all. "Oh. Yeah, no. It's cool. I've... uh... I'll be alright."

 

It was a blatant lie, but one the young Bee-Keeper seemed convinced to stick with all the same as he stared agape between his saviors. He knew it wouldn't be the same, though. Nothing would ever be the same. Jill might have been able to whip him into shape just in-time to board the Curators' base, but things change. He needed time to sort this out; time to make sense of being gone, of being so far from home, and the damage that had been done.

 

"Thanks. Y'know, for everything. For saving my life -- all of our lives," Baxter added sheepishly. He almost thought about extending a hand towards the eerie masked man and the lady in the fancy battle suit, but he thought better against it in favor of a simple but respectful nod, lips furled inward in thought. Right now he just wanted to get home and see his folks... and then? Then... he didn't know. Tell them the truth about what he'd been up to? Tell them where he'd been? Play ignorant to the whole fiasco? He didn't know. He didn't even want to think about it. He just had to take it one step at a time...

 

One step.

 

With a heave and a sigh, heavy dufflebag bearing its burdensome load of armor in tow, the teenage hero silently slogged his way down the ramp, heavy footfalls the crescendo to his descent to the park ground below. It was going to be a long walk back, but perhaps that was for the best. It would give him time to clear his head as he made that long awaited trip back to where he belonged. Back home, where he was just regular ol' boring Baxter Bowles.