ic Through the Vaulted Door

[Electra]

"Oh," Jessie replied, thinking about that as she turned to look out the window again, heedless of social propriety. It had been a long time since she needed to worry about being rude. She stiffened slightly when the bus came to a stop and the door opened, then watched intently as two older women got on. They saw her staring and gave her odd looks before seating themselves in the very front of the bus. Jessie blinked then, and returned her attention to the conversation she'd abandoned minutes earlier. "How old are you?" she asked Mark abruptly. 

Edited March 19, 2013 by Electra

[Avenger Assembled]

It was an unexpected question, but it wasn't one Mark had any trouble answering. "I'm twenty," said Mark, "almost twenty-one. I'm a little older than Erin or you," he said, thinking about what to say and how to say it so he didn't accidentally frighten the girl, "because I had to start kindergarten late. I had really bad chicken pox, so my mom kept me out until after Christmas. It was lucky, though, because I got to go on a surprise vacation to the Moon that year." He looked at Jessie and asked what seemed like the obvious reply, after shooting a glance Erin's way. "Why, how old are you?" 

[Electra]

"Twenty," she said with great certainty in her voice. It might have been difficult to believe, but she knew for a fact it was true. "I was eighteen when I went to Blackstone, and then I had two birthdays." She didn't remember much of the first one, since her mind had still been very confused then, but she had vague memories of a cupcake and a picture book from Erin. Alex had been there too, she'd come often then, and she'd given her a rainbow-colored shirt for her bear. It had been a long time now since Alex's last visit. Once her mind was put back together, Jessie kind of got the feeling that Alex was glad to not have to come anymore. But Alex had helped her a lot, Alex and Eve both. And Eve had kept on visiting, bringing her books and playing games with her. That was good too, kind of like having a friend. Maybe now that she was out, she could go visit Eve, instead of the other way around. 

 

That idea was worth exploring. "Do you know Eve?" she asked Mark. "The little one, with the mind powers?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"She's a very good friend of mine," said Mark with a nod and a smile. "She's probably one of my best friends in the world. She and Erin and I have been friends for a very long time." He thought for a moment, not wanting to bring up any team associations that would either jeopardize anyone's secret identity or get Jessie's mind going down the wrong path. "She says she likes my mind because there's nothing in there to bother her." He knew that Eve Martel's identity was public, so as long as the subject didn't turn to any superteams, they were probably okay. "Do you know any of the people you'll be living with at Project Freedom?" he asked her. 

[Electra]

Jessie shook her head. "Everyone else there is a criminal," she said with all apparent sincerity, "but not crazy like me. They didn't stay in my hall." 

 

"Jessie," Dr. Franklin said with gentle reproof, "let's try to use positive words and images, remember?" 

 

The look of suppressed annoyance on Jessie's face was all Erin, enough to be nearly startling, but she obediently rephrased. "Everyone is at Project Freedom to be rehabilitated," she told Mark. "But they didn't need the extra help that I needed to get better. I'll meet them all when I get there. Do you know where Eve lives?" she asked, returning to her previous interest. "Maybe I can visit her sometime." 

 

"Not anytime soon," Erin reminded her double. "You can't go anywhere unsupervised, remember? But you'll get computer privileges, maybe you can send her an email." Jessie looked disappointed and returned her attention to the world outside the window. Both bus and city were filling with people now as they crossed the Wading River and drove into the more crowded neighborhoods of the city. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Conversation-free for a while, they rode in the sort of noisy silence that only comes on busy city buses, the sound of people's headphones, conversations, and Bluetooths background chatter to what was otherwise a quiet ride. Mark's mind was starting to wander, all the way to Nina again. He was debating bringing that subject up to Erin when suddenly he realized that their little group was being accosted. "Oh wow, are you guys twins?" With his goatee, granny glasses, and sweater vest, the young man addressing them looked to be trying some sort of look way too hard. "That's so cool! You look so much alike, and you're so pretty..." He reached into his vest. "Can I take your picture?" 

[Electra]

Jessie's head whipped around as soon as she realized she was being addressed, her body stiffening at the proximity of a stranger. For an instant, her brain was full of conflicting impulses, from disarming him of whatever weapon he might be reaching for, to taking his head cleanly from his body with a single hit, to breaking the window and fleeing a possible confrontation. Just as quickly, Erin's hand was on her arm, keeping her firmly in her seat before anxiety could make her do something foolish. "Please don't," Erin said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We want to be left alone." She stared the oddly dressed man down, even as Jessie covered her own face with both hands, the power suppression bracelets flashing red to indicate they were doing their job. 

 

"Man, whatever," the guy scoffed, looking somewhat disturbed as he found a more congenial spot on the bus. That wasn't easy, things were getting pretty crowded as they approached City Center and the main bus terminal. Other people were starting to look at them now as well. 

 

"Hey come on," Erin muttered with a hint of impatience, giving Jessie a nudge. "He's not going to hurt you, put your hands down. People are staring." That didn't really work to get the desired result, so she tried something else. "It's almost lunchtime, isn't it? We should get something to eat." 

 

As Erin had expected, her counterpart's love of schedules overcame nerves for the moment, making Jessie lower her hands to check her watch. "It's past lunchtime," she agreed with a nod. "We're running late." 

[Avenger Assembled]

They waited until they were over the river to get off the bus for lunch, just in time with as edgy as Jessie was feeling thanks to the delay and the brush with the weird guy. They wound up eating at an ambitious corner restaurant that had opened its outdoor section a little early in the season - it wasn't that cold, but most of the locals preferred to eat inside. The view was nice, though; a big statue of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Emancipation Proclamation, erected near the neighborhood that bore his name. It wasn't a wealthy neighborhood, but looked nice enough for all that - Mark ordered the pub food that was his staple when he was in Freedom City; fried pickles and chili potatoes of the sort that would have made a less lucky person with a normal physiology get fat already. 

 

"What would you like, Jessie?" asked Dr. Franklin as Dr. Ellis ordered the black coffee that she always seemed to be drinking. "You can have anything on the menu you want." 

[Electra]

"Um..." Jessie looked over the menu, feeling oddly uneasy. Not even from all the people around on the street and inside the restaurant, though that wasn't exactly helping. She didn't really remember what it was like to pick out what she wanted to eat. There were four full pages of choices, each with a description, some with pictures. There was food she'd never had, and food she hadn't had for a really long time, as well as simpler things she was used to getting on her meal trays. How was she supposed to decide, especially in the little time available? "I don't know if I'm hungry," she told the doctor nervously.

 

"Take your time," Dr. Ellis encouraged, "the waitress can always come back in a few minutes." Doctor Franklin ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and then Erin ordered the bratwurst sandwich with fruit salad and a Coke." 

 

"That!" Jessie interjected, nearly shouting it. "I want that too!" It was such a relief that she sighed as she slumped back into her chair and gave her menu over. The waitress gave her an odd look and Erin frowned a little, but she didn't notice. 

 

"So Mark," Dr.Franklin asked conversationally, "I heard you've been working down in Africa with UNISON recently. What is that like?" 

Edited March 21, 2013 by Electra

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, it's very nice," said Mark as he dug into his food with relish, relieved that Jessie's brief outburst hadn't been the sign of anything worse. "I may not get my name in the papers every day, or sleep in a bed, for that matter, but it's a really good feeling. Last week I was working in northern Ethiopia near the volcano Erta Ale, and I got to walk right up almost to the edge. Well, as far as you can go, anyway. It was really spectacular! That thing is always active, so it's this volcanic pit like nothing...well, like almost nothing I'd ever seen." He shot a glance at Erin before adding, "I half-expected to see an family of Magmin taking their version of a winter holiday around there. We were helping the local people, the Afar, rebuild after a major dust-storm." 

 

"Why do you call yourself Edge?" inquired Dr. Ellis curiously, giving Mark a look. There were disadvantages to a secret ID, and disadvantages to not really having one, too. 

 

"Oh, uh, it was something I thought up when I was fourteen," Mark admitted. "How sometimes a coin lands on its edge, if the odds are really in its favor? Anyway, it sort of stuck once I became famous, and by then I didn't want to change it."

[Electra]

"Huh, I always thought it was because you gave your team an edge in combat," Erin commented. "But at least you didn't call yourself Heads, or Tails," she pointed out with a quick grin. 

 

"I've heard far worse codenames thought up by fourteen year olds," Dr. Franklin agreed good-humoredly. "Now Erin, I seem to remember you came up with yours when you were filling out your application to Claremont?" 

 

"Yeah," Erin agreed, sounding a little embarrassed. "I thought I needed all the blanks filled in right away, so I just put something in there. I've thought about changing it because it's weird and half the time people think it's "Wonder," but  I'm used to it by now."

 

"You can change your codename?" Jessie asked curiously. "How do you do that?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"It's easy enough for most people. You get a new costume, call yourself something else, and there you go! It's not _just_ that easy, of course - you have to reidentify yourself to all your friends and allies, and you probably have to get yourself on the good side of the cops or whoever the local authorities are all over again. It's a little tougher for me because my name is licensed by UNISON, I'd have to go through and sign forms so they would switch it over." He gestured over the table and said, "They make these little toys that they sell to raise money for charity, and stuff that they can put in care packages for needy people. There are some plastic action figures, one talking Edge, and there's this plush squeezy thing for little kids, it...well, I dunno, it's cool, and he's a little cape!" 

[Electra]

Jessie seemed fascinated and baffled by most of that description, so Erin stepped in. "You can't change your codename yet even if you want to," she told her counterpart. "You just changed your real name, it would be even more confusing. It's already on all your paperwork and stuff." 

 

That drew a frown from Jessie. "But what if I don't like it?" she persisted. "It's a bad name and..." She trailed off, lost in thoughts that were none too pleasant, if the look on her face was any indication. 

 

"Even if you can't change it yet," Dr. Ellis pointed out gently, "you can still be thinking about new names. A codename is an important part of a hero's identity, so you'll want to give it some consideration." 

 

"Can I be Wander II?" Jessie asked. "I like that name." 

 

"No," Erin said flatly, without so much as a moment's pause. 

 

"But you said you didn't even like it," Jessie protested. 

 

"I'm used to it," Erin repeated. "And talk about being confusing, nobody would ever figure it out." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"It's a nice name," said Mark diplomatically to Jessie, "but you'll have more fun if you pick your own super-name. That way you won't have to worry about people mixing you up with Erin, which would just be weird, and you'll be able to be your own person. Even if it's something basic like, I don't know, Guardian, or Superbia, you'll be able to have your own identity. Erin and I know people who make costumes and get identities established and stuff, so once you leave Project Freedom you'll be able to have your own gear, your own name...it'll be a pretty sweet deal." He smiled. "You've got plenty of time, and you don't even have to keep whatever they assign you at Project Freedom. It'll be fine." 

[Electra]

"And you won't have to be a costumed hero if you don't want to, once you finish the program," Dr. Franklin reminded Jessie. "You'll be trained in using your powers to help people, but Project Freedom will also help you finish getting your GED and life skills training. Once you're released from the program, you'll be free to do whatever you like, within the limits of your supervised release agreement. You may decide to devote your attention to college, or take on a full time job with hero work in your spare time, or retire from hero work entirely. All of that will be up to you." Jessie was starting to get the dazed look she'd had when reading the menu again, but luckily at that moment the food arrived to provide a distraction.

 

By now even the outside patio was becoming more crowded, so they didn't linger over their food long. Both Erin and her counterpart ate with the same neat precision and in the exact same order, all the hot food first, then the cold food, then finish the soda. Towards the end of the meal, though, Jessie became distracted, looking over at Mark several times. "Did I meet you somewhere?" she finally asked. "You look... familiar." Her voice was uncertain, with just a little bit of unease threaded through it. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, sure," said Mark carefully. "I'm pretty famous. Like I said, I work for the UN, so I do a lot of international appearances and stuff on TV, and my face is on a lot of publications. And I'm sure Erin has talked about me, I mean who wouldn't? I'm pretty awesome." He grinned, trying to distract her. "Did you know, one time, I stopped a whole forest fire right in its tracks? It was down in the jungles of the Congo, see, and it was threatening to reach some villages where we'd been working. There wasn't time to evacuate all the people, so  I just put on my costume, went out there, and I made the fire go away! It was a lot of work turning all the burning stuff into not-burning stuff, but at least I didn't have to dump any chemicals out there or anything..."  

 

He shot a glance at Erin, knowing well enough that this was a potential hazard. "You know, I bet you'd be a good firefighter, Jessie. They have a couple of superpowered people working for the Freedom City department, like Asbestos - she has no other powers, but she's totally fireproof. Pretty handy, huh?"

[Electra]

"No," Jessie said, but it was clear she wasn't referring to Asbestos. "I remember you," she repeated more insistently. "You had a costume on... you had two costumes on," she corrected, her brow furrowing. "And it scared me!" Her eyes were wider now, her hands clenching into worried fists.

 

"He's my friend," Erin broke in, taking Jessie by the shoulder and turning her around. Jessie's power suppressors gave a warning blip, but at least this time she didn't come up swinging at the unexpected touch. "He came with me to save you," Erin went on, her voice low and intent. "When we broke you out, you were terrified, and we were under attack the whole time we were escaping. Alex probably blunted the memory to help you deal with it. After we got back to Earth Prime, I sat on you to keep you from fighting me, and Mark brought you a sandwich. Do you remember that part?" 

 

Jessie looked blank for a moment as she searched through her unreliable folio of memories, then her face brightened. "Yes... yeah, I remember that!" She let out a breath of relief. "I was so hungry, and he gave me a sandwich, and then you and Eve took me to Blackstone for the first time. Eve was there," she repeated as the memory firmed up, "and the tall man in black. He was nice to me too." The unease evaporated as she looked back at Mark. "Thank you," she said with great gravity, "for helping save me. And for the sandwich." 

[Avenger Assembled]

They changed buses in City Center, a crowded, busy place that was somewhat ameliorated by everyone sticking close together and keeping a close eye on Jessie. She actually seemed more relaxed after recognizing Mark for who he was, or at least some shadow of that, and so Mark relaxed too once they were back on a new bus - there'd been a bathroom break where Erin, Jessie, and Dr. Ellis had all gone to the women's room together, but luckily that was one place he didn't have to worry about! As they headed into Bayview, Jessie turned in her seat and stared out the window with wide eyes - not quite fear on her face, but something very much like recognition. 

 

"I remember that place," she said suddenly, pointing to a small row of shops. "There was a big party there....but I can't remember anything else." 

 

"Why do you think that is, Jessie?" asked Dr. Franklin gently. 

"Because something happened there. Something I don't want to remember." Tense, she settled back against the window, her eyes locked on the outside. 

[Electra]

Erin turned and pressed her nose to the window as well, studying the little block of boutiques. Even now, Bayview still felt more like her home turf than anywhere else in the city. The sidewalks around the school were where she'd practiced the fine art of just being around people again after years of solitude, and the rooftops were where she'd made her fledgling attempts at patrolling as a hero. She remembered these stores well enough, both window-shopping because she had no money to spend on clothes and going in with Alex out of morbid curiosity to see what ridiculous outfits her friend could piece together. Nothing really important, good or bad. But if Bayview was where Singularity, too, had been trained in her very particular set of skills, Erin could understand why the sight of the place would bring on anxiety and blocked memories. 

 

"We're just passing through here," she told Jessie, forcing her voice to be completely bland, nearly bored. Sympathy wouldn't help her deranged doppelganger stay in control. "We'll be in Port Regal in another ten blocks. You better make sure you've got all your stuff together." She dumped the duffle bag onto Jessie's lap, momentarily startling her from her reflections. 

 

Jessie nodded and obediently opened the bag to check over her things, hunching her shoulders as though she felt Bayview staring back at her through the windows of the bus. She ran a negligent hand over the clothes, the many bottles of pills, the stack of thin books, verifying that all was as it should be, Her hand paused when she came to the bear, once Erin's prized possession and now her own. It looked even more the worse for wear now than when Erin had brought it to Prime, countless hours of worrying by superstrong hands having rendered it nearly shapeless and all but bald in patches. It was still comforting. Rather than take it out of the duffle bag and potentially expose it to danger, Jessie stared at it intently for the next ten blocks, all the way into the less familiar and thus more comfortable streets of Port Regal. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The rest of the ride was quiet enough, the bus gradually thinning out as the lunch crowd got back to work. By the time they reached the Project Freedom building, they were actually the only ones left in the place. Mark led the way out, shooting a glance behind him to make sure everything was on the up and up, as they made their way out to street-level. The Project Freedom building, as Mark remembered, looked on the outside like one of the many old mansions in Port Regal now given over to apartments. It was only if you saw the sign on the low brick wall with PROJECT FREEDOM in orange and black, or the security cameras along the fences, that things looked anything out of the ordinary. There was no barbed wire or armed guards posted outside; after all, there wasn't really much point to that given the power of the various prisoners. 

 

Once they were on the street, Dr. Franklin asked Jessie, "Well, the surprise long bus ride is over, and you seemed to do very well. But how do you feel?" 

[Electra]

Erin expected to hear another variant on Jessie's usual "I'm okay," but instead her doppelganger didn't say anything for a long few seconds. Jessie was staring around her, first at the building, then at the street around them, then back up at the sky, of all things. "This is not good," she finally said, a quaver in her voice. "Not safe. I think I should go back now." She twisted the strap on her duffel bag again, so tightly that it began to fray and tear. 

 

"Well you can't go back," Erin told her, trying to tamp down her frustration after a very long afternoon on a city bus. She was trying to help Jessie, that was the whole point of all of this. "You've been released, you can't stay in prison forever.  It's really safe here, you've got your suppression cuffs on, so does everybody else that needs them, and there's guards and locked doors at night and stuff. It's not like you're getting thrown onto the street." 

 

"No," Jessie countered, shaking her head violently. "It's not safe for me here. Someone could find me here!" Though many of Jessie's memories had been erased or blunted, the idea of some all-seeing force tracking her down was still a pervasive fear. "At Blackstone, maybe they can't get in. But this, it's just... nothing!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"You know, Jessie," said Mark reassuringly, "I've read about this place, and security is really high. Not only are there hidden power nullifiers and stuff in the walls, and even defense systems on the roof, but there are lots of people with superpowers who live here, not to mention their guards. I know some people from the Freedom League volunteer to help out, too. It may not look it, but this is one of the safest places in Freedom City." 

"The security is kept hidden," offered Franklin, "so that the residents don't feel like they're prisoners. We want to keep you safe, Jessie, not make you feel as though you've been locked up again." 

[Electra]

"It's not so bad," Jessie told Dr. Franklin earnestly, "once you're used to it. Everyone is nice to me, and I always know what's going to happen. And with the walls, and under the ground, nothing can get through. Hardly anything," she corrected, looking uneasy all over again at the very fresh memory of the mad superhero murdering the pleasant, quiet prisoner who'd lived across the hall from her. There'd been a terrible fight, right there in the hallway, and blood everywhere, and it had been very bad.

 

Several days after that, Erin had explained that the superhero was in fact a robot and the prisoner was a clone, and that the circumstances had been very unusual and unlikely to be repeated, but it had still been very unnerving. For a few minutes after the attack, Jessie had been certain the man was going to come after her next while she was trapped in her cell, and she hadn't known whether to try and fight or hide. In the end she'd done neither, and had mostly just cried until an angel (and this memory was not entirely clear) had come along and told her it would be all right. And it had been, eventually, but the fact remained that maybe Blackstone wasn't really that safe either, when it came right down to it. She twisted the strap harder, faintly dismayed when it snapped under her fingers. "If bad people can get into Blackstone, they can get in here," she maintained. 

 

Erin gave an exasperated sigh, unable to help herself. "Don't you get it? You don't have to be worried about imaginary bad guys coming to get you anymore. You are the most dangerous thing that's going to be in that facility, much more so than all the guards and all the security. If some idiot villain did come after you, you'd take him apart and the biggest problem for you would be trying to remember that you're a good guy now and you have to leave him alive. There is nothing to be afraid of anymore!" 

 

Jessie didn't necessarily look like she believed that, but her counterpart's vehemence was at least enough to have her moving forward, one half of the broken bag strap in each hand. The doors of the facility slid open for them: obviously they had not gone unnoticed. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside was a room that looked like the lobby of an upscale bed and breakfast, barring a few small modifications like the bulletproof glass in the windows and the security cameras that looked to be nearly everywhere. A man and a woman were sitting at a table in the lobby playing checkers, though on closer inspection Mark could see the bulging green muscles on the man and see cat's eyes on the woman's face as she briefly glanced up at them. She gave a little wave, but everyone's attention was on the stout African-American woman in the purple business suit who smiled up at everyone at their approach. "Welcome to Project Freedom. My name is Harriet Wainwright, and I'm the director here. It's nice to meet you, Jessie." 

 

Everyone was cautiously eying the girl, albeit subtly, trying to gauge her reactions to the new place. There was a tank of fish along one wall and a row of books, and an old big-screen TV that someone had probably donated given the cracked casing and the make that looked to have been old well before Mark and Erin started at Claremont. It wasn't such a bad place, really, even with the security staff subtly hanging around. 

[Electra]

Despite her misgivings, Jessie managed to pull herself together with an act of will, even summoning up a faint polite smile for Ms. Wainwright. "Nice to meet you too," she said quietly, her eyes never quite ceasing their movement as she took the measure of the place. This part of it, at least,, was much different from Blackstone. There were windows, and even a couple of small skylights to let in all kinds of sun. She wondered if her room would have a window. What would it feel like to just sit quietly and watch the outside and feel the sun on her face? There were books on the shelves here, and magazines, and puzzles. Those would be worth looking at, later. Eve had played checkers with her and tried to teach her chess, but she just wasn't very good at it. Just the distraction of having a visitor had made it impossible to concentrate, not that strategy games were a strength of hers anyway. In the long-time-ago she could remember computers and video games, and wondered if there were any of those here. Those sounded more fun. 

 

First things first, though. "Could I go to my room now?" she asked with all the politeness she could muster. "I'm tired." Not physically, maybe, but certainly mentally exhausted. It felt as though she'd been on that bus for days. 

 

"Yes, of course," Ms. Wainwright told her with equal pleasantness. "While we're on the way, I'll show you a bit more of the facility. You'll have the grand tour later, but I imagine you're feeling a little overwhelmed already." 

 

Dr. Ellis gave Jessie a light touch on the arm. "I've got to be going now, I have an afternoon appointment. You're doing very well!" she told the girl encouragingly. "Just remember all your exercises. Erin, Mark, thank you both for your help." With a nod to Dr. Franklin, she stepped out, leaving the rest of them to go on. 

 

By this time, Erin was feeling a little worn around the edges too, but she obediently fell into line behind Jessie and Dr. Franklin. "You can go too if you want," she murmured to Mark. "This probably wasn't how you wanted to spend your entire day off." For her own part, she was long past the point of asking herself what she was getting herself into, and was just letting herself be dragged along for the ride. No meltdown today, she reminded herself. It was a good sign from someone as messed up as her double. The traitorous thought snuck into her head that this was probably how her other counterpart thought about Erin when she visited, but it was uncomfortable enough that Erin pushed it quickly from her mind.