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Derrick stretched with a yawn. He didn't really need sleep, either did his wife. And thank goodness for that! Their little bundle of joy was up at all hours demanding to be held or fed or what-have-you. Not that he minded! Far from it! But he had to wonder how a set of normal parents handled such an exhausting task as caring for an infant. It was a bit exhausting even without the need to sleep. Still, he could honestly say (and when wasn't he really?) that this was one of the happier times in his life. He had spent the majority of the last several weeks here on Sanctuary with his wife and newborn child. Taking only a few hours here and there, most of it had been spent in peaceful if somewhat exhausting bliss. But it was time to get back to their routine. The universe needed them almost as much as their daughter did. And now that she was settling, somewhat, it was time to get to it. He looked around idly in the crazy baby gear cacophony that their home had become, looking for the communicator that would let them check in with the League, as well as their friends and others who needed them, back on Prime. Of course...he'd had no luck searching for the darn thing in the last 10 minutes or so. "Honey? Where did we put the communicator?" It might have been a bit surreal to some how 'normal' the pair of powerhouses could sound, but it was just natural to them. Sure, he could have changed and looked for it in a flash...but he was enjoying being husband and daddy a bit too much to just revert to being Dark Star easily.

June 3, 2011 9 AM Secure in his locked-down office, Warden Drummer stared at the broadcast again, his mouth a tight line of pure rage. "When I find out how he managed to build twenty robot bees in solitary in my prison, I will find whoever is responsible and I will murder them. I have been in the corrections business for twenty-five years. I know how to make it look like an accident!" He sighed, looking again around his office. Too bad there was no one around to hear it; that had been one of his more satisfying rants. With a curse, he picked up the secure landline on his desk and dialed the Freedom League...

5/16/2011 Midtown His mother didn't complain, of course she didn't. There was no hiding the extent of her wound, though; the long, deep gouge of burning acid that had cut across her armor and into angelic flesh beneath, inflicting a wound terrible enough that surely any mortal would have died of shock at least. As it was, she simply bit her lip and stared wordlessly at father and son, the harsh reality of the material plane both dulling the agony of her wound and making its treatment all the more urgent. "CALL YOUR FRIEND," said Heyzel's father in that deep, booming voice he used in the material world. "BEFORE WE HAVE TO GO EVEN FURTHER BELOW TO FIND SUCCOR." For his part, the angel of Freedom was worried. He hadn't expected to find the place nearly deserted! Fleur de Joie was on patrol, or at least garden patrol, when her phone rang. Things had been quiet for the League in the last few months, quite a blessing with her baby growing closer and closer to fruition, and calls on her special League line hadn't come in that often. What was really peculiar, though was the caller ID that told her the call was coming from her own apartment. "Hello, Fleur? It's Heyzel." The Angel of Freedom had been out of town for much of the last few months, but she'd caught occasional glimpses of him on the international news. "I'm sorry to call you," he said, urgency in his rich, warm voice, "but I have a wounded soul who needs your help. Please come back to your apartment as soon as you can."

Stesha was sleeping when the portals began appearing, not very heroic, but quite necessary nonetheless. She did a lot of sleeping these days, when the opportunity presented itself. Nevertheless, when the "All Hands" signal began broadcasting on her League radio, she didn't hesitate. A long green cloak over black and green maternity clothes passed for a costume these days, and as soon as she managed to get her shoes on, she was ready! Fleur de Joie teleported through the plant network to Hanover, and was immediately swallowed up by a time portal. She was so shocked for a moment that she didn't understand what had happened. She obviously wasn't in Freedom City anymore. She was standing on a hill overlooking a vast and beautiful wilderness that stretched away as far as the eye could see. In the other direction, an ocean gleamed like a blue jewel under a placid sunny sky. In the distance, thousands of shapes flew around a low mountain range... no, wait. Not any shapes, and not mountains. Those were giant bees, and the mountain range was some kind of giant bee metropolis... so this had to be Sanctuary. Not the Sanctuary she knew, but one she'd dreamed of in her heart, one that had decades or centuries of love and devoted care poured into it. The portal she'd gone through had taken her forward in time, she strongly suspected, but not in her own world, in the time of the world she'd built. For a moment, she was too dazzled to even be afraid, or to worry when and how she would ever make it home. "Look at it," she murmured, running her hands over her round tummy. "Look how beautiful it is. It's more than I ever imagined. I wonder how long it took to make all of this happen..." Cleaning the ocean alone had surely been the work of a lifetime, but how long would her lifetime be? That was an answer she didn't have, but if it wasn't long enough, then someone else had obviously taken up the mantle. She was shaken from her reverie at the sound of a voice behind her. "Stesha? My love, is it you?" She turned around and saw Dark Star, standing just a few yards away, his blank face and body revealing nothing, as usual, but still enormously reassuring. "Derrick, thank god you're here!" she exclaimed, hurrying over to him. "I thought I was all alone here, and I don't know how to get back. Do you know when this is? Did we really come forward in time?" Even as she stepped towards him he was changing, undergoing the familiar transformation from demigod to the man she loved, except now he was different. She stopped short, just before going into his arms. This Derrick was older, with shocks of silver in his hair and lines in his face, a man who looked as though he'd carried burdens that were far too heavy for far too long. But when she looked into his eyes, she knew it wasn't a doppelganger or a deception, it was really him. "Derrick?" she asked, her voice a whisper. "You came forward," he told her, his voice cracking at the edges with unspoken emotion. "You came forward into the future and saw Sanctuary in a thousand years' time, looking from this hilltop. When you went home, you told me about the trip, where you'd landed and what you'd seen. And I.. I remembered, and I came here, so that when you arrived, I would be here waiting for you. It's been so long, but I had to speak with you one more time..." With that, he took her into his arms and kissed her, a kiss full of desperate longing and loneliness and love, gentle despite its passion. It was very unlike the Derrick she knew, and yet so like him at the same time that she couldn't resist putting her arm around him and returning it. Bittersweet as it was, the moment couldn't last forever. Stesha still needed to know what was going on, and finally she pulled away. "Why did you come?" she asked him. "I mean, isn't it risky to tamper with the past, even like this? How did you know exactly when I would be here?" "I didn't," he said, his voice rough as he lay a hand lightly on her stomach. "I've waited here ten years, just for the chance to speak with you, with you as you are now, before anything else. There are hard times coming, my love, and I needed to tell you how immensely sorry I am that any of it has to happen. I know that it will be difficult to understand, and perhaps impossible to forgive, but for so many years I have regretted that I was never able to ask your forgiveness." "Ask forgiveness for what?" Stesha asked, suddenly afraid. Not of this Derrick, or even of the situation she found herself in, but for whatever he had done that so haunted him over the centuries. "What's going to happen? Maybe there's a way to change it, to make things right, if you tell me..." Derrick shook his head. "A thousand years I've asked myself what I could have done differently, if there wasn't something I could've changed, a duty I could've ignored while still remaining true to who I am. This ten years it seems I've thought of nothing but that. There are immutable principles in the universe, though, and one of the first and deepest is that heroes must act to preserve life, wherever it is endangered, and whatever the cost. But if I'd had any choice in the matter, I promise I never would have done anything that hurt you, or hurt our child. And I'm so sorry." Stesha blinked with confusion, trying to sort out the thousand thoughts and feelings rushing through her head. "Derrick, I..." He reached out and took her hands, and only then did she notice that her body was already starting to fade, so that he could barely hold onto her. "I will always love you, Stesha," he promised, looking into her eyes. "A thousand years, a million. Forever." "I love you too," she told him, trying to squeeze his fingers with hands that were barely tangible. "And whatever it is, whatever happened, I forgive you!" One last second of contact, as the world turned to white and gray around her, and then he was gone, and Sanctuary was gone, and Stesha was left standing next to a tree in one of the Hanover business parks, as though nothing had ever happened. She stood there for a moment without moving, long enough that a passing civilian asked her if she was all right. "I'm fine, thank you," she said with a reassuring smile, then disappeared into the plants and back home. The all hands signal had stopped, it seemed like things were starting to come under control. Unable to help herself, she picked up her cell phone and called Derrick. "Honey, could you come home?" she asked, not liking the weakness in herself, but not wanting to sit alone with all these worries and fears. "What is it, sweetheart?" Derrick's worried voice came over the phone. "Is it the baby? I'm out in Hanover with the dimensional cleanup, I can be there right away..." "No, no, it's not the baby" she reassured him, taking a deep breath and getting ahold of herself. "The baby is fine, I'm fine. Go ahead and do the cleanup, and I'll talk to you tonight. I love you." "I love you too," he told her, though already he sounded a bit distracted by his work. "See you tonight."

Time: January 10, 2010 Place: Archetech The room was dark and quiet, mechanical humming and the whoosh of air recirculating the only noises that could be heard. Stesha lay on an uncomfortable bed, half-propped up by the lifting back and a couple of pillows. She looked at the blank screen in front of her, then over to Derrick where he sat on a stool next to the bed, and squeezed his hand. "I feel like we're waiting for a movie to start," she joked softly. He just smiled and brushed his lips across her forehead, even as the door to the hallway opened to let in light and the businesslike clicking of high heels. "Sorry to be a little late," Miss Americana told the couple, a white lab coat thrown on over her uniform. "You know how it goes, but I'm glad we didn't have to reschedule. I've been looking forward to this. Are you both ready?" "Absolutely," Stesha said with a grin. "I want to see who's kicking me all night... besides you, honey," she teased Derrick. He blushed. "You're certain there's no risk, right?" he asked Miss Americana. "Positive," Miss A assured him, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed and lifting up Stesha's maternity smock. "3-D ultrasound is just as safe as regular. We're just going to have a look." Stesha giggled as the gorgeous doctor poured gel lubricant onto her bare tummy. "It's cold!" she announced, shivering more with excited nerves than with the actual temperature. All eyes were riveted to the screen the moment Miss A picked up the wand and began applying it to the taut skin of Stesha's abdomen. "Oh..." Stesha murmured softly as the picture came into focus, her fingers clasping Derrick's. "Look, it's our baby..." At this stage, the newest member of the Lumins family looked a lot like something Dark Star might have encountered out in deep space, with a head half the size of its entire body and eyes that dominated the top entire half of the head. The surprisingly detailed picture showed the baby's tiny hands up in front of its face, its eyes closed. As they watched, one infinitesimal thumb went into the mouth. Stesha cooed, and Derrick wiped his eyes with a tissue. Miss Americana flipped a switch, and the quiet room was suddenly filled with a quick galloping noise. "Heart sounds good," Miss A told them. "You can keep watching while I move the wand around for some measurements. I've got a pretty good guess as to the sex, unless you want it to be a surprise." Stesha looked over at Derrick, her own eyes wet as she smiled at him. "We want to know," she said definitely. "I've been bursting to know for weeks! How can I get started on the serious shopping otherwise?" "Fair enough," Miss A acknowledged. She captured a picture of the screen, moved the wand a little, repeated the process. "The little one's not shy, that's for sure. Unless I'm very much mistaken, and I rarely am, you all are having a little girl." She smiled a little at Stesha's cry of delight and kept taking measurements while the couple took in the news. "A little girl," Stesha sighed dreamily, looking at the screen. "Somehow I was sure she was going to be a girl. Look at her, isn't she beautiful?" "Just like her mother," Derrick agreed, his voice thick with emotion. He leaned in and kissed her again, for once not seeming to care that anyone saw. "She's perfect." "She's mad," Stesha told him with a breathless laugh. "She's kicking the probe. I don't think she likes us messing with her." She rubbed her stomach above the gelled area, lightly and reassuringly. "It's all right, baby," she told their agitated daughter. "We can see how pretty you are now, we'll let you go back to sleep soon. We love you so much! I can't wait till we get to see you face to face." Stesha lay back and looked at Derrick, swamped with euphoria and love. "I guess it's time to start thinking about names now, too!"

"Confidentiality" Stesha had never been to ArcheTech's main lab before. It was a very impressive, almost intimidating place, even more so because today she was here in her civilian clothes. Her green hair, pinned up in braids and rings close to her head, and surrounded by flowers, was the only obvious sign of her metahuman origin. Besides that, she looked like any other woman in a flowing pink blouse and elastic-waist jeans. The nice receptionist put her somewhat at ease, giving her a pass and directing her to the arrows that would lead her to her destination. After a quick bathroom detour, Stesha headed up in the elevator, following the arrows that led her to a small side laboratory that looked somewhat like a normal doctor's examining room, except for a few extra large pieces of equipment around. It was also empty, which she hadn't exactly expected. She stepped inside anyway and found a note sitting on the bed. "Sorry I'm a little delayed, please get into the robe and wait just a moment." Stesha sighed and did as requested, stripping and neatly folding her clothes, then slipping into the robe and tying it closed. She sat down on the end of the paper-covered exam bed and covered herself with the paper towel sheet, then hugged her arms to her abdomen and waited in the quiet humming of the machinery. She hoped Doc was right about this referral. The wait wasn't long, much to Stesha's relief. In just a couple of minutes, there was a light tap on the door, and then a beautiful woman in a white lab coat walked in. A seriously beautiful woman, and if Stesha hadn't been used to dealing with Moira, her jaw might have dropped. The doctor closed the door and took out a fancy-looking iPad with a lot of extra technical baubles attached to it, and gave Stesha a friendly smile. "Hello," the blonde said, "I'm Miss Americana. You must be Fleur de Joie? I understand you asked Doctor Archeville for a female metaphysician?" Miss Americana did some sizing up of her own, looking over her new patient. She certainly looked the part of the earth mother, with her green, flower-bedecked hair, dirt-edged fingernails, and cutely guileless face. That face was a little green as well, but she couldn't tell at a glance if that was normal or if it were an offshoot of Fleur's current situation. Only one way to find out. "That's right," Stesha replied, "but you can call me Stesha. Doctor Archeville says that you're very good, and I thought I would just feel more comfortable with a woman doctor for this, you understand?" "Yes, of course," Miss A reassured her, with a totally believable smile that she didn't entirely feel. She knew more about medicine and certainly more about life science than most doctors, but she'd never actually conducted a proper examination of a living human being before. But a day of practice for her was equivalent to a year of study for the average human, so she felt reasonably prepared. Mostly. "This is a very special time for you, and I want you to be comfortable. Or as comfortable as possible while you're wearing a paper gown, anyway," she added with a wink. "Yes, that's sort of a limiting factor," Stesha grimaced. "Do I really have to wear this? It's sort of... drafty." "Sorry," Miss A told her sympathetically. "I have to do a quick pelvic check in a few minutes, so you need to wear the gown." "Oh God." Stesha's grimace deepened. "Are you serious?" "It's very important," Miss A assured her. "I need to check and make sure your cervix is tightly closed and in the right position, and get a couple of swabs. It won't take long. If it makes you feel any better, the table has already gotten your weight, temperature and blood pressure, so we've skipped the entire first part of the exam right there." "I guess, a little," Stesha allowed. "Just don't tell me how much I weigh. I don't even want to know." "No problem," Miss A told her, "but I will say that you've got nothing to worry about so far. You said you think you're about thirteen weeks, is that correct? When was the first day of your last period?" "The first or second of September," Stesha replied, with the air of someone who had long since worked out the answer to that all-important question. "That's really why I didn't notice for awhile, the beginning of October and November were both so crazy, I didn't even think about it till sometime in the first week of November." Miss A nodded and did a few calculations on her pad. "You're exactly right then, you're at thirteen weeks and four days now, with a due date of June 2. Though that's a ballpark, you have to understand. Those can be off by as much as two weeks in either direction." "Oh, I know," Stesha said with great feeling. "My mom is a midwife, so she's drummed that into me thoroughly. I want her to do most of my care if that's possible, but I want to get a clean bill of health first, before we tell them anything. I'm not quite human anymore, you know?" "That seems sensible," Miss A agreed. "How have you been feeling? Any dizziness, nausea, heartburn, insomnia, food aversion?" "Not as much now," Stesha told her, furrowing her brow in concentration. "Still pretty sleepy and hungry, a lot more so than usual. Generally my power allows me to go without when I want, but not anymore. But the nausea's mostly gone away, and I only had a couple of dizzy spells ever." "That sounds very normal," Miss A said approvingly, making a few notes on her pad. "Are you taking a vitamin and getting plenty of water? You said your appetite has been good, what are you eating?" "Everything I can get my grubby little hands on," Stesha admitted with a laugh. "I'm trying to eat plenty of fruits and veggies, drink a lot of milk, but the other night I sent my fiance out at three in the morning, in costume no less, to buy me another box of Rice Krispie Treats cereal. I think I've eaten a case of it by now. But it's vitamin-fortified!" she added, looking imploringly for Miss A's approval. "There are probably worse things you could be eating right now," Miss A allowed with a chuckle, "but sugary cereal is not going to take the place of a good prenatal vitamin. Why don't you lie back, and I'll let the sensors take a look at you before we do anything else. They'll be able to tell me what your internal chemistry is up to, and anything we might need to watch out for. We'll save the rest of it for last." She wasn't looking forward to that part any more than her patient was. "All right," Stesha agreed with a sigh, laying back against the bed with her head on the flat foam pillow. "I'm a little cold," she admitted. "Is there a thermostat in here?" "No problem," Miss A assured her. "I'll take care of it." Maybe it was out of some kind of nascent guilt for misrepresenting herself, but Miss A made sure to take good care of her patient. She dimmed the overhead lights and bumped up the thermostat, covering Stesha with a permeable sheet that the sensors could look through easily before retreating to the booth to take readings. As an afterthought, she turned on the ambient speakers to the soothing channel the company used in the wellness rooms for scientists in sort need of naps. Relaxing chime music played softly as the scanners went to work, checking over the prone superheroine's unique body chemistry. It was interesting enough work to hold Gina's attention, even as the scans revealed Stesha relaxing into a little nap on the table. The plant controller's body chemistry was very strange, but seemed stable and in balance for what it was. Gina wished sorely for a set of baseline readings, but apparently Doc had never managed to talk her onto one of his lab tables before today. She'd have to work with what she had, but it all looked pretty promising. As she worked, using the robot's senses and hands to access and interpret the data, Gina acknowledged to herself how much she actually enjoyed doing this sort of thing. The engineering was her first love, and what she was best at, but she liked helping real people, live people like this as well. Maybe that's why she'd been drawn to the idea of building medical prostheses in the first place. She didn't want to waste time in medical school or anything like that, but maybe it was time to improve her knowledge of the field even more. Miss A spent long enough looking over the readings for Stesha to get a restful little nap, waking gradually as the lights came up over a period of a minute or two. She yawned, disoriented for a moment, then looked around to see the labcoat-clad heroine coming around the partititon. "Mm, I guess I fell asleep there. How do I look?" she asked, a little nervously. "I don't have a set of baseline readings to go off," Miss A began, "but what I'm seeing now looks good. You both seem to be very healthy and doing just fine. I see a strong heartbeat and good blood flow. You can hear it too, over the microphone." She pressed a button, and suddenly the air was full of a fast, swooshing patter that sounded like a water pump working at full capacity. "Wow," Stesha said with a silly grin. "That's great. That's amazing. Wait till I tell D- Dark Star. He's going to be over the moon. Maybe literally." She laughed, closing her eyes to listen to the sound until Miss A deactivated the speakers. "It's all really good to hear. I feel so much better. Better enough to even be ready to get the pelvic over with." "It's good news," Miss A agreed, "but I think you really should get some continued monitoring here, just to be on the safe side throughout. I'm sure you'll be most comfortable doing most of it with your mom, but we have the equipment here to check up on your unique physiology. I want to make sure everything keeps looking as good as it does today." The talking helped to distract her as she got set up, enough of her mind on her work to let her be competent, but not enough to let her think too much about it. "All right, now scoot to the edge of the bed and put your feet in the stirrups." "I guess that's a good enough compromise," Stesha said, a little reluctantly, even as she moved to comply. The pelvic exam was about the same as she remembered, uncomfortable but fast, and then it was done and she could sit up, as quickly as possible. "Uck." "But now it's done," Miss A reminded her, hiding her own squick behind a perfect professional smile. She was just glad Stesha hadn't looked up to see her face. "The results will be back in a week or so, and I'll let you know if there's anything to worry about. In the meantime, get a good vitamin regimen going, and make sure to keep up with exercise at whatever level you feel comfortable with. And congratulations, you and Dark Star are very lucky." "I know," Stesha said, her reservations melting away into a brilliantly happy smile. "We're the luckiest people in the world. I'm so excited! Thank you so much for your help, Miss Americana. I really felt very comfortable with you as my doctor." "I'm glad," Miss A replied. "Just let me know if you have any questions or if anything comes up. My phone is always available." She left to allow Stesha to get dressed, waiting till she was outside to take a deep breath. In a life full of strange experiences, Gina wasn't sure that hadn't been one of the weirdest.

October 31st. Going Solo Stesha woke up that morning missing Derrick fiercely. That was odd in itself, not the missing Derrick part, but the waking up. Missing Derrick had become a near-constant ache inside her, with him so far away, saving people so strange that her skin would burn if she entered their corrosive atmosphere. He'd been able to come home for the occasional weekend, but even the last of those had been in September. She wasn't only lonely, she was worried sick. What could have happened to him to leave him incommunicado and so far beyond the range of help? She'd had to call off the wedding, of course, telling her parents the truth and letting them come up with excuses on her behalf. Now every time she did an altar blanket or handed a bride the bouquet she'd take down the aisle, some part of her just wanted to cry. It wasn't fair. In any case, it was the waking up part that was weird, since it certainly wasn't her usual habit to sleep at night, especially not to fall asleep on the couch in the middle of her favorite TV show and stay there all night! The unusual rest had not done anything good for her back, or for her stomach which decided to throw last night's taco's back in her face (though only metaphorically, thank God.) This bachelorette lifestyle was not good for her! It didn't help that winter was coming, and the lack of sun from that plus all the work she was doing meant she wasn't getting all the solar energy she was used to. But she could at least change that, she decided. Tonight she would turn all her sunlamps on herself and bask in them till she felt totally recharged, not to mention nicely warmed. She was preoccupied enough with that idea that it took her several minutes to register the fact that things were happening outside. The screaming was what she noticed first, and it had her racing to the window. People were running past, pursued by hordes of... were those zombies? Crap! Something had obviously gone very wrong with her tidy world. Fleur tossed on her costume and zipped out to the street, making her way through the crowds that surged and panicked. As she went, she moved people to safety, one at a time or in big groups, anything to get them out of the way of the undead teeth! Her sanctuary would hold them safe long enough for her to at least figure out exactly where the threat was coming from, and where a safe place on this world might be! As she moved through the crowd, she inevitably came to the trailing edge, where most of the action was happening. Here things got trickier. She ran through the crowd as though she were playing a game of freeze tag where she was it. Tag a civilian, he was teleported off to Sanctuary. Tag a zombie, off to the dimensional pocket purgatory. Stesha rapidly lost count of how many of each she tagged, and she took a few tags herself, though nothing that would take her out of the fight. At least the sun was out, so the cuts and scrapes healed themselves quickly once she put down her hood and exposed her hair. If it had been nighttime, she'd have been in big trouble. When things got especially hairy, she whipped out the rest of her arsenal, wrapping and tripping zombies with long vines, throwing them into buildings, even animating the trees themselves to form a protective perimeter around her all-too-squishy human body. It was a shock to suddenly turn around and find that there was no one left to save or fight. The downtown intersection she was in was empty in all directions, not a zombie nor a civilian to be found! She was sure it was pretty tight quarters in her sanctuary, to say nothing of the small dimensional pocket, but it would be okay for the moment. Exhausted and a little woozy, Stesha leaned against a lamppost and let the weak autumn sun beat down on her head. She'd done it by herself, she realized. The Freedom League hadn't been there, Derrick hadn't been there, Taylor or another hero far more powerful than herself hadn't been there. She'd come a long way since she'd first become a hero, and now she really could take on threats on her own. She really hadn't expected that achievement to make her feel so lonely. No time to dwell on that now, though! With one last look around, Stesha teleported away, looking for another trouble spot that needed a hero of its own.

9:45 pm, March 12, 2010 The pops of pistol fire echoed over police band. "Requesting immediate support on Erin Drive! We are under attack by multiple unknown assailants!" More shots rang out, followed by a high-pitched squeal of pain. "Plants! The damn pl..." The channel went dead. "Rodriguez! Officer down!" Heavy breathing and running footsteps. "Officer down! Need EMS at..." A strange, wet splat echoed in the microphone. Silence. "Units 14 and 15, situation report. Officer Rodriguez, Officer Johns, please respond." All units be advised. Officers down. Shots fired in the vicinity of 315 Erin Drive, Lantern Hill. Units A14 and A15 on scene. Suspected meta-human activity. EMS, Fire and STAR en route. ---- Minutes earlier... A green meteor streaked across the misty skies of Freedom City. Long and needle-like, the falling star cut through the rain and twinkled as it neared the horizon. With a burst of green light, one thin, green line broke into five, showering Wharton Forest and northwestern Freedom City. The winds whipped up in protest. Deep in the heart of Wharton Forest, a small, twisted tree stirred. Leaves sprouted and the trunk bent to look at the sky. Glowing yellow eyes shined from deep within the foliage. A low rumble emanated from the branches themselves. Those of telepathic persuasion felt a dark signal creeping from the forest. My children, the Prophesy is at hand. Bring me the shards of the Green Star. Tonight we shall reclaim the city in the name of the Green!

Several of Freedom City's heroic types received a large invitation slid under their door around the middle of June; the cards appeared to be handmade either by someone in their late teens or perhaps merely addicted to clip art, glitter and caffeinated soft drinks. Some people did not get hard copies at all, due to Lynn's unfamiliarity with their current living arrangements, but she still made sure the word got around.

Date: June 5th, 2010 (a Saturday), 9:00-ish pm (~30 mins after sunset) (Occurs after this thread) Following his run-in with Lady Winter and Wander, Dead Head realized he needed some professional help in restoring the serene calm to the small family plot in North Bay. Sure, he got the skeletons he'd called up to re-bury themselves, but the combination of Lady Winter's chilly presence and the skeletons bursting forth had done a number on the landscaping and local flora. Fortunately, he knew someone who fit the bill perfectly, and she was just a phone call away. Too bad the Revoltin' Revenant didn't have a cell phone. Or anything besides the clothes on his back and the shovel in his hand. Stesha Madison's cell phone rang. Though the number was unfamiliar, something -- boredom? whimsy? concern over someone in need of help? -- made her answer. "Hello. You are receiving a collect call from Dead Head. Will you accept the charges?"

It was a beautiful day outside, much too nice a day to be so ridiculously busy. But April weddings brought April flowers, and April flowers were Stesha's stock-in-trade at the moment. The bride in this case had way more money than sense, wanting to give flowers to every female guest at her huge wedding, but they aimed to please at Flowers by Design. Making up five dozen tussy-mussies wasn't exactly Stesha's idea of a great artistic or creative endeavor, but it had to be done, and quickly. She looked up at the clock. Nine A.M. She'd be done by three, probably, hopefully. Time seemed to be speeding by as she worked. Maybe she was losing her touch, she thought worriedly. She'd never meant to let the hero work be more than a sideline, something to do because it was fun and interesting. Now not only was it far more dangerous than she'd ever thought, but it was eating up tons of time as well. As it turned out, danger didn't always happen at night or on holidays, and it really, really liked to show up right when she was prepping for weddings. Her boss wasn't happy with her, but Stesha's undeniable talent for turning out amazing flowers had kept her job safe so far. But was the hero work eroding her skills, too? Maybe she wasn't as good a florist, now that she was spending so much time making plants attack things instead of making them beautiful... She tied another three tussy-mussies, looked at the clock again. Nine forty-five? Her jaw dropped. How could time be getting away from her like this? She wasn't anywhere near on the schedule she should be on, and damned if she was going to beg for help. Almost as if summoned, her coworker Amy stuck her head in the door. "Hey Stesha, how's the bouquet-a-thon coming? Haven't been hearing much progress from in here," she said cheerfully. "You're not falling behind, are you?" A frown creased Stesha's usually pleasant face. "I'm just fine," she promised, "there's just a lot of work to do. How much noise do you expect, anyway?" Amy laughed. "All right, just checking. Call if you need some help!" A little desperate now, Stesha looked around at the seemingly acres of pink and white roses left to be prepared and tied. Closing her eyes, she unleashed concentrated desperation into the plants, which cooperated by helpfully dropping all their thorns. There, that should help. Relieved, Stesha went back to work, tying as fast as she possibly could, even as thoughts kept crowding her head. Maybe she would end up having to give up one or the other of her vocations, but how could she choose now? Not only did she love being a florist, but it was what paid her bills, not to mention what she put on her tax forms. She loved helping people, and being with her friends, and making a difference, but she knew she couldn't only do hero work, she'd be homeless within months. With another five extremely rapid bouquets done, she made the mistake of looking at the clock again, and nearly fainted. "Eleven o'clock?" she croaked. "No way! No way!" She still had four dozen left to do! Stesha went to work with feverish intensity, pushing all other thoughts from her mind. Amy stuck her head back in the door and watched her silently for a moment, grinning. "You look busy," she commented laconically. Stesha responded with an uncharacteristically rude comment, making Amy laugh. "Guess time flies when you're having fun." "Since when are we having fun?" Stesha muttered, sweat beading on her brow. She was never going to get these done, and that would be the end of her job, and where would she be then? "Oh, I dunno, sometime," Amy drawled. "Speaking of time, if you've got your phone handy, you should check the time. And the date." She sauntered out, laughing, even as Stesha dove in her pocket for her cell phone and flipped it open. _Eight_ forty-five am... on April 1. Her gaze flew up to the clock, which had advanced another ten minutes in the few moments she'd been talking to Amy. "AMY!" she yelled, standing up from her stool. "April fooooooools..." Amy caroled back from the other prep room, still laughing. With a growl, Stesha sat down and began tying tussy-mussies again. She still had to get the damn things finished, but oh, there would be a reckoning. Stesha concentrated on that idea for the three hours it took her to finish the rest of the mini-bouquets, and finally had her answer. Revenge was sweet indeed when she heard Amy shriek from the other room and saw her come racing in. "Green!" Amy shouted. "All my roses are bright green! It looks like a Saint Patrick's Day parade in there, and I've got a baby shower first thing in the morning! You did this, didn't you?" "Me?" Stesha asked, all wide eyed innocence. "I've been in here the whole _time,_ remember?" Grinning, she went back to her work with a happy heart.

Stesha walked into her apartment and dropped her carry-on bag onto the floor with a weary thud. Two of her hyacinth forcings opened up to drop her suitcases as well, and even they sounded tired as they thumped onto the living room carpet. It had been a long, long trip. She'd been very happy to get a chance to go back to Chicago for a week, see her family and spend the holidays, but Christmas at home was always chaotic, to say nothing of the plane trip. Her powers had spoiled her for easy travel, but with her dad accompanying her to the terminal to say goodbye, she hadn't been able to figure out a way to go through security and still miss her plane without losing her luggage or having anyone looking for her. Flying coach was quite a let-down after teleporting or flying with Derrick, and she was sure her elbow was black and blue from her rather aggressive seatmate. She didn't need to sleep anymore, but she was exhausted. When she was honest with herself, though, Stesha knew her weariness didn't come from the long flight from Chicago or a busy holiday week. She was desperately tired of having to lie to her family. Keeping secrets didn't come naturally to her, and after the invasion of the demons this past fall, strangely dreamlike though it seemed now, she'd known she had to tell the truth. She couldn't face the thought of something happening to her and her family never knowing, or knowing why. It wasn't fair. And it wouldn't be fair, either, to take Derrick home to meet everyone while making him participate in her deception. Even if he wouldn't have been utterly incapable of pulling it off. He was a secret she desperately wanted to share and show off, but she couldn't until she came clean about the other. She'd planned to do it at Christmas, she really had. She'd even worked out what to say, more or less, and when, and how to maybe do it without ruining the celebration. Then the thing with Jack had happened, and Taylor's wedding, and she'd just been so tired and afraid in the days following the invasion. Even though everything had seemed to go back to normal, she still remembered how bad it was, how much worse than she could possibly have imagined. For awhile, she'd thought about giving up, going back to being just a florist who was really good at growing things. She didn't have to keep putting herself in danger and watching people she liked or loved endangering themselves. Her powers weren't that great or indispensable, and she didn't have a charge from a god or a commission from the Freedom League to worry about. It wasn't like she'd signed a contract when she'd started visiting parks in the dead of night last summer. If she gave it all up, she could go home, back to Chicago, with no one the wiser, and everything would be the way it was, more or less. Simple and safe, even satisfying to a certain extent. She'd never have to watch anyone she loved die violently, ever again. She couldn't do it though, and some part of her knew that the whole time. Stesha liked who she was when she was Fleur de Joie, and she liked what she could do for people. Maybe it was mostly small potatoes, no pun intended, but it did make peoples' lives better, and every once in awhile, when the stars were aligned, she could do bigger and better things. Giving up on superheroing would mean giving up the whole life she'd found through it, all the friends she'd made, the confidence she'd gained. And it would mean giving up Derrick, who she was sure would never understand such a selfish decision. She couldn't do that, either. Eventually the memories had started to fade a little more, and her resolve had grown a little more, and the immediate fear began to recede. Even so, she'd scrapped her plans for Christmas and had simply gone home instead, talking about her boyfriend without mentioning anything particularly unusual about either of them. It was a copout, and it had colored her time with her family. Leaving her suitcases where they were for the moment, Stesha went to her front window. It was pretty enough outside, with Christmas lights still up even on the day before New Year's Eve, but the second floor didn't offer a lot of perspective. Making resolutions, especially big ones, called for a little of that. Touching one of her bromeliads, she transported herself through a little dwarf maple in the rooftop garden on one of the city's tallest buildings. That was better, though it was bitter cold even through her jacket. Stesha walked to the edge of the roof and looked up at the faint stars, then down at the bright lights of the city spread out beneath her. She would come clean this year, and she would do it soon. No more secrets, no more lies, not to the people who meant the most to her. This was the life she wanted, even the dangerous parts, but to keep it, she had to be good enough to deserve it. And her family was going to love Derrick, just as soon as she plucked up the courage to introduce them. "Soon," she promised aloud, her voice snatched away by the wind. "Very soon now!"

For Fleur de Joie. Midtown October 24 (Takes place during Con GamesÂ) After separating from her friends, Stesha made her way through the crowd of convention-goers towards the women's restroom. She blended in pretty well with the crowd here, which was mostly young, though there were quite a few more men than women, and she was conscious of a few looks her way. Maybe it was the hair. She'd sort of gotten used to getting double-takes for her very long, very green locks. But for the moment, she was just one more attendee, exercising a little bit of reasonably healthy hero worship for the people who kept their hometown and the whole world safe. Despite the pinch of time, she looked over a booth or two, grinning at the comic books, toys and memorabilia on display. Once she'd done her thing and changed back, she'd have to stop by this way again and pick up some stuff for her brothers for Christmas. They were all adults, but they'd love some of this stuff. The idea of Christmas still made her feel a little nervous inside, but she was trying to work through it. She knew she'd go home, she wanted and needed to be there, but could she keep living the lie that was already difficult from a thousand miles away? And what about Derrick? She wanted him to be there too, but it wasn't fair to him to ask him to participate in her deception. Even if she'd thought he'd be able to do it convincingly, which seemed unlikely. She'd have to figure something out before the holidays, but it wasn't even Halloween yet! She still had time. Stepping into the ladies room, she walked up to the sink and patiently played with her hair while two women who were already in there finished up and left. Finally alone, she stepped into a stall, leaving it unlocked, and touched the little chain of daisies she'd put around her wrist that morning. (Braiding flowers into her hair had just seemed unsubtle today, somehow.) A quick breathless trip through living green, and she was back in her own apartment, where her costume was neatly laid out and waiting. It was much easier to do it that way than to try and change in the bathroom, certainly! Stesha quickly stripped to her underthings, then began putting on her costume. The green pants and shirt were easy enough, close-fitting but not the hated spandex, they were easy to move in and very resistant to damage or stains. That was important to a hero whose man activities tended to include a lot of gardening. After the pants came calf-length brown boots with low heels, enough to give her a little height without cutting divots if she had to walk or run on wet ground, and her utility belt, as she jokingly called it. It wasn't a real utility belt like the comic book Freedom Leaguers had, with a hundred useful little gadgets, it was more a toolbelt that was mostly pockets. Most of the pockets were filled with seeds and leaves and roots, the tools of her trade, though there were also spots for her wallet and cell phone. It paid to be prepared! Those outfit pieces were all useful, but that wasn't what really made the costume a disguise. Next, Stesha pulled on the long cowled cape that completed the outfit. Dark brown like freshly turned earth, it had sleeves and buttoned across her chest, stopping just below her breasts in the front and continuing in the back to a cape that hit the back of her knees. The hood came up around her face and hid her hair, probably her most recognizable feature, and rendering her all but anonymous. With her face cast in shadow, the domino mask she used to cover her eyes completed the transition. Fully dressed, she went over to the mirror and looked at herself. She wasn't Stesha Madison, florist, anymore, not even a hint. She was Fleur de Joie, a superhero from Freedom City, and she looked pretty darn good, if she did say so herself. Grinning cheekily at herself in the mirror, Stesha did one more quick turn to check herself over, then touched her flowers again. There was a potted plant waiting in the green room at the Hall, and she didn't want to be late.

Getting reservations at The Starlight Room was easy for Moira. The owner was more than glad to listen to her offer. A night of dinner and dancing for her friends in exchange for a night of dinner and dancing with her was all he needed to hear. Now for the not so easy part: Getting the two together on one night. Stesha asn't that hard to find. and chatting her up about the nice guy who did nice things was a big confidence booster. Getting Dark Star to turn into Derrick was another story. It took some coercing, but she finally managed for him to be solid for one night. Having the two custom fitted for their attire cost a fortune. It was almost showtime. She met with Derrick to give him his rose to be presented to Stesha. She met with Stesha to cover up any last minute doubts. Getting out of their way before they met each other, she let nature take it's course.

It was a very busy day at Flowers By Design. A massive wedding the next day meant all hands were on deck, organizing and arranging flowers in the crowded back room. Stesha was crammed cheek by jowl with two other employees as they all put together identical table centerpieces in pink roses and lilies, tucking sprigs of lily of the valley here and there for extra interest and scent. It was boring work, with fifty tables to cover, but exacting enough that there wasn't a lot of unnecessary conversation. On the other side of the room, two more employees and Will, the owner, were putting together the massive altarpiece. Stesha had no idea how they planned to transport it without use of a hacksaw, but it was going to be magnificent. She wished she had a few hundred thousand dollars to drop on a wedding in Freedom City's biggest church. She wished she had a boyfriend at all, come to think of it. But she was awfully busy lately, and hadn't ever really had much luck in that department. She sighed wistfully, bending again to her work. Suddenly, what sounded like a trumpet fanfare blasted through her mind. Before Stesha knew what she was doing, she was up off her stool, surveying the room as though it were the audience of an opera house. And before she could stop herself, she was... singing... "On laundry day we wash our sheets, Scrub them with detergent, I wash mine just once a month Cause I'm still a virgin! Never in a boyfriend's bed Or in his Ford Excursion, Even though I'm 24, I'm still a virgin!" She ended on a triumphal note and then suddenly regained control of her body, while everyone was staring at her. Her face turned beet red. "Um... isn't that the funniest song you ever heard? I saw it. On TV. Last night. I'll be right back." She ran out of the room with little grace, locking herself in the bathroom. What the hell had just happened?