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  1. Shofet

    Late Arrival

    Claremont, Freedom City September 2, 2019 11:00 AM Mia sighed to herself as they ascended the stairs up to her new dorm. Most kids got something like a game console for their birthdays, instead she got the gift of boarding school. Which, in her opinion (which she respected very much), was rather stupid when both parents were still living in the city but somehow both her mom and dad had agreed that it would be “good for her” to live away from home. How, exactly, it would be good for her escaped her at the moment, but she was sure her parents could come up with some post-hoc justification. Her grandfather, Ahmed Mustafic, huffed and puffed behind her, carrying several boxes as he climbed the stairs. He was shorter than average, only standing 5’07”, with black hair and a thick broom like mustache. Considering how much darker he was than her, the only real sign that they were related, in her opinion, was their shared grey eyes. She turned to him, frowning. “You know, babo, you didn’t have to do this. I could have just teleported,” she said. “I have like… a dimensional storage thing, too.” Ahmed waved his free hand. “Nonsense!” he said, the faint traces of a Bosniak accent still clinging on despite decades in the USA. “I wanted to be here for you for your first day, sweetbean. At least to see you off, yes?” Mia sighed, and smiled. “I love you, babo.” “Good!” Ahmed responded. “That’s all I need.” They continued their climb until they made it to the third floor. They passed through the halls until they finally made it to room 302. Mia set down her guitar case and the box she was carrying, and knocked on the door. “Anyone home? I’m… This is the room I was assigned to. I’m here with my granddad, he’s helping me move in.”
  2. Stomping through the airlock Fa'Rua slammed a fist against the close and cycle button and strode purposefully toward the cockpit. Her face was a stormy mask of seething outrage as she made her way through the ship. Jolan looked up from his console questioningly and sighed, "I take it then the interview did not go as planned?" He didn't need a diplomats training to see the truth in his words, nor a twins bond. He'd felt the oncoming storm since she left the colonial scout corps offices of course. So he wasn't surprised at her demeanor and had practiced carefully a response, "Fa'Rua such things always happen for a .." ""Don't you say reason." she coldly cut him off as she slung into the pilot seat, "Buckle up, I'll show them who can't perform under pressure." and slammed the emergency docking release. "I hardly think exiting the base without tower consent is going to improv...." Her brother didn't get a chance to finish before the ship dropped occ eht docking ring and she punched the engines to max quickly overriding the inertial dampeners to press them both into their seats. Over traffic controls complaints she wove effortlessly through the heavy traffic and shot free of the station making for the system rim as the computer started the jump calculations needed. As soon as they broke the heliosphere there was teh lurching twisting sensation of the space fold and they were flung thousands do parsecs to a distant lifeless system, "I don't want to talk about it Jolan." she growled as she stood and stopped toward the rear of hte ship, "I'll be in my bunk start the long distance scans." Flinging herself onto her bunk she glared death at the bulkhead for a long minute before flipping open her com pad and sliding into private mode. She flipped through the recent photos and conversations and let out sigh and thumbed open the chat window again. Hey you. You around. She hadn't bothered to check the terran time before sending the message. Nor did she wait for a response before continuing. What in the void is wrong with men. Why do they expect us to be twice as good as some square jawed jock still trying to figure out how to hold his flight stick to even consider us competent. Temperament under pressure my sweet ass. I'm under more pressure getting up in the morning then these old men have seen on their worst day. Sorry if you're busy I just needed to vent to someone who might get it and not spout platitudes. The messages came in fast and would leave whatever device Ashley had set to receive them buzzing enough to likely draw more than just the owners attention if she wasn't alone.
  3. Fall 2019 The message came in from an alien on a distant planet in the depths of space - but then most of them did when you were in the Scout Service. Can i ask you something personal?
  4. Evening 09/14/2019 Earth Time Inner orbital rings Psi2 Piscium and Claremont Academy Fa'Rua looked down at the scanner bank again them to the ships chronometer with a heavy sigh. Hours yet until she could wake Jolan for his shift. Hours longer before the ships scanner array confirmed this was another lifeless system with minimal resources and no viable colonial options. She thumbed open the Extranet Connection and drifted through the articles about the rebuilding efforts and rising crime on CoVic before closing the browser in disgust at the discourse around the Lor Senate elections. After another long minute of staring at the crawling progress of the scanner she popped the 'nt open again and dove into the more esoteric reaches and eventually a side loop to the terran internet. She smirks nd filled out the form on the lonely hearts site and started scrolling through the entries looking for someone who would be tolerant of a, long distance, relationship at best. She stopped and reread one before nodding to herself, "Well then. That'll fit the bill." She opened hte chat client and fired off a quick message: No judgement but what've you got against Andorians? She hit send then winced as she quickly ran the calculations for earth time in the temporal region noted in the profile. Who knows maybe they too were a night owl.
  5. September 2019 Kord Dormitory Fourth Floor Common Room 3 AM Anyone coming along on the fourth floor common room would have found it a quiet place this evening. The fierce Watchdog, guardian and protector of her sister Daystar, was sound asleep in a dark room, her head pillowed on the arm of the couch, while Judy sat on the other side of her feet. The room was dark, the TV and lights off, but Judy could see fine. She didn't like talking about that - about how she could see in the dark almost as easily during the day, about how her eyes glowed with a silvery-white phosphorescent fire when she did so. Normal people didn't do that. What she did like doing was knitting, a hobby she'd taken to with some enthusiasm on these evenings when Ashley was asleep and she was alone. Well, not entirely alone. The world buzzed with radio chatter here, as everywhere, but she'd learned to tune it out - almost. As her needle worked, she sang a soft acapella in the darkness, "Gonna take my horse to the Old Town Road, gonna ride till I can't no more..."
  6. April 2019 Outside the Common Room Leaning against the wall, the corridor mostly empty at this time of day, Watchdog's eyes were firmly hidden behind her sunglasses by the time Monica approached, a few minutes after the 'incident' out in the greenhouse. Normally she'd have let the other girl pass, but she picked up on the indications in Lady Liberty's manner that she actually wanted to talk. "Got a problem, Liberty?" she sneered.
  7. April 20th, 10.25AM, 2019 The paths around Lake Mackenzie The sun streamed down through the trees, its light glinted across the silver-blue surface of the lake. The air was fragrant with flowers, the rich scent of warm earth, and the far-off food carts. Birds sang in the trees, boats plying the lake roared or burbled or splashed, depending how they were being pushed, and the park was thick with barking dogs, yelling children and dancing cherry blossoms. On the far side of the lake and muffled by ancient trees, a fairground had sprung up like a pale echo of Port Regal's Ocean Heights Amusement Park. "Amazing," Leroy stared wide-eyed from his and Judy's vantage point up the hill, hugging her a little closer as he looked down at the scene, "playing on the surface like this...nobody without a dragon would risk it back home." He smiled at Judy "You are a brave people, Dee!" For the hike Leroy had worn the plainest clothes he had, a short olive-green tunic with black piping and the minutest little golden embroidered foxgloves at the neck, and short grey trousers with generous pockets. The thicker sandals laced up his calves looked like they had never once been used. For Pulse the air tingled with the shuddering waves of electromagnetic energy. Phones, satellite dishes, radio antennae, a raging sea of information and raw power blistered the air. ------------------------------------------------------------------- They had started the hike an hour or two ago, Leroy largely drawn by a performance his father's high-school orchestra was putting on that afternoon. "He will be absent and his pupils are magnificent," he had explained gleefully, reading from the pamphlet in the mail, "and walking to the lake would be lovely this time of year." He had turned over the pamphlet, regarding the elegant signature on the back. "Lavernius never sends me these. I wonder why he did this time. In any case, why not make a day of it? A little change of pace for us devoted scholars of heroism." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Leroy scanned the lake as they went further down. "Boats, the park, I believe that is a Carnivalé...so much to do! Where first?"
  8. April 2019 Common Room "Ah can't believe you did that!" Judy was steaming mad, heat coming off her in waves, as she jammed her hands down at her sides and yelled at her sister. "Ah can't believe you just stuck your nose into mah private life like that!" "...maybe I shouldn't have," admitted an unhappy-looking Ashley, who'd forsaken her sunglasses and looked sick to her stomach. "But I saw what he was doing to you, and I knew I had to say something." Maybe she hadn't had to say something, actually, but dammit she'd seen too many people push Judy around in the last year without anybody saying a word in her defense. Well why don't you say that out loud, a voice suggested, so you can get the hell out of this assignment and maybe this town forever! "Let's talk about this in our room," she suggested, a conversation changer that usually worked. "Oh, Ah think I know what you're going to say in there," said a red-faced Judy. "But it's not...it's not your place to tell me how to live mah life, anymore than it's my place to tell you how to live yours." She jabbed a finger at her sister and suddenly her voice broke. "And...and Ah want to be crying right now, Ashley, because Ah am so mad, but Ah can't even do that! Ah don't get to do anything Ah want!" Under normal circumstances, Ashley supposed she'd probably be at a pretty high risk of being fired right now, but haha, normal circumstances had been shot in the head and buried on the South Lawn for the last year and they weren't getting resurrected anytime soon. "I'm sorry," she apologized, hands in front of her and considerably softer than her usual tones. "But you know this isn't the place to talk about this." she added in a firm whisper. "Ah want you to go away," said Judy, raising her head and looking Ashley in the eye. "Ah want you to go outside this room, so Ah don't have to see you for a while. You told me Ah'd have as much privacy as you could give me, right? You are gonna keep your word to me, right?" "All right, Judy," said Ashley quietly. "I'll be out in the hall." Because she knew what was about to happen, she didn't tense when she heard Judy's shriek of alarm from inside the common room, just as she was stepping out the door. - Her face bright red, Judy looked down at the sole other occupant of the common room. "Omigod Danica! You were here the whole time! Ah'm so sorry!"
  9. OOC for this thread. A bright new day marred by an old shadow. @Avenger Assembled
  10. December 20 2018 Claremont Academy It was December 20 and Watchdog was distracted. Ashley was thinking of the game schedule for the coming week and which ones she'd be able to check out from her favorite DC bars, and of seeing her mom and her actual sisters again (not that she didn't care for her charge, poor kid, but she wasn't actually her sister) - and also the common room was overrun with preteens with superpowers. It was the sort of situation to put any bodyguard on edge. It didn't help that Judy turned out to be great with little kids, having admitted privately to her sister that she'd always wished that she'd had more younger siblings. The youngest group of Nicholson students, a half-dozen or so kindergarten age kids, had been following her around all day, in the company of their teacher, a thick-glassed and big-haired young woman named Jessie Lupine who practically smelled of granola. Ms. Lupine had been content to let Judy stay close to her charges, though she was patiently watching as Judy led the kids in another round of Itsy-Bitsy-Spider. All around the common room, Nicholson kids were hanging out with Claremont students, the oldest of the latter on the anxious edge of teen, the youngest rambunctious gradeschool kids running around and giggling with the energy of small children when it was late at night. There were adults here too, Nicholson teachers watching their students, Claremont teachers watching both, but for the most part it was "Christmas Big Sibling Camp!" all the way. She caught sight of the Blue Team; a girl in a Disney dress chatting with Pan, a boy with electricity sparking in his eyes sitting next to Adam on the couch, a scaly child of indeterminate gender in Leroy's company, and a girl in forest brown discoursing with Arctos in Russian by the sleeping bags. That was the other great thing about tonight - the last night before Watchdog and Pulse went off for "special training". It was a sleepover. So freaking great.
  11. Early Spring 2019 Claremont Cafeteria A few weeks after the incident where the duplicates of superheroes showed up at Freedom City, Veronica was just starting lunch when she was interrupted by Judy Smith. Judy and her sister generally gave the Dangers a wide berth, but today Judy looked burdened with purpose and Ashley looked vaguely mortified through the usual air of disdain she tried to project. "Veronica? Can Ah talk to you for a minute?" asked Judy, who of course had no food. Judy usually didn't come into the cafeteria either, come to think of it.
  12. February 2019 Freedom City All your lies exposed - two worlds in collision! Deceiver - what will you do then? The best I can! Inside Copycat's faux-porcelain mask, Ashley George opened her eyes to where she crouched alone on the roof of one of Freedom City's more anonymous skyscrapers - a Brutalist tower that had survived the 1970s, two Terminus invasions, and various other crises with no more than now-repaired cosmetic damage. The flat rooftop (minus the usual equipment one found on the roof of tall buildings) was the sort no one would look too closely at in a city full of weird gargoyles, public art, and superheroes. It was actually the perfect place for a quiet conversation, especially if you were dressed like - well, dressed in a costume that had seemed appropriate when she was sixteen, an unholy merger of the Raven's cape and cowl and the white mask of someone cosplaying as a Chesire cat. She hadn't dressed as Copycat in more than a decade. But then this wasn't exactly a meeting Watchdog could attend; nor could Secret Service Agent Ashley George. She sat - and waited for Geckoman and the third Raven. She'd called, telling them there was a problem with her mission - but would they answer?
  13. Okay, @RocketLord, Pan is good with little kids and their thoughts - give me rolls of skills you think are relevant here before Ashley does something she'll get detention for. ?
  14. @Ecalsneerg @KnightDisciple Let's see die rolls!
  15. October 2018 Outside Claremont Academy Her long dark hair safely tucked away beneath a Freedom City Heroes hoodie, her face hidden by a dark pair of aviator sunglasses, Judy Smith waited by her sister's side for the arrival of their friends. "This is gonna be so fun," she told Ashley with a smile. "Ah can't believe we're gonna go shopping in a mall! It's gonna be the best day ever!" It had been a long, long time since she'd been able to go shopping by herself - and this didn't remotely count as by herself, but it was still a lot closer than she'd have been able to come under normal circumstances. Ah'm gonna find some jewelry for the dance, and maybe get a present for Leroy while I'm there - it's gonna be great! Secure in leather jacket and jeans, eyes hidden by her own dark glasses, Ashley thought about the vetting that the Secret Service had done before selecting the Patriot Shopping Center as the best 'mall' choice for Judy and her friends from Claremont to visit, the quiet checking she'd done herself into Danica and Micah's backgrounds, the advance scouting her team had done of the site, the advance driving she'd done to plot out the drive to Lantern Hill, the hope and the prayer that Lantern Jack wouldn't show up - and Watchdog grunted. "Hrm." It was going to be an interesting day, at any rate. Now where were Danica and Micah, the two friends Judy had invited along for a "crazy, secret trip to the mall!"
  16. Christmas 2018 "Ah'm so glad you're home." Rachel Cahill had had to look up to her eldest two daughters for the last few years now, one of the many challenges that the Lord sent her way in these trying times. She and Judith Claudia were sitting on Judith's bed, the one she'd given up after the Incident, and for a little while anyway it was like there weren't any Secret Service agents just outside their door and they weren't in the middle of the White House. "Ah missed you so much." She hugged Judith, and Judith hugged her back. She heard her own voice in her daughters' as she spoke; the pure West Virginia accents of the couple that had adopted and raised her after the violence of her childhood had taken her parents from her ringing clear as a bell. "Ah'm glad to be home, Mama," said Judy, tears in her eyes. "Ah was...Ah was worried Ah was gonna have to stay in that place, and not see everyone for Christmas!" There were other worries too, unspoken, worries about the power that had nearly taken her mother and her youngest sister from her, and worries about how the friends she'd made at Claremont would understand the life she lived here. "Now you know Ah would never let my baby girl go, and neither would your daddy." She smiled, then decided to address the elephant in the room.. "Ah know Ah told you this before, Judith Claudia, but Ah don't blame you for what happened." She squeezed her daughter tight. "You know that God tests us. He put that...that thing inside you," she missed Judy's hard swallow, "as a way of testing you, and me, and your daddy. And if we all work together, all doing our part to make His plan happen, that thing inside you is just going to be...something that's part of you, like the way your sister cuts her hair." She looked levelly at Judy, who felt her spine stiffen just a little. "What matters is that we stay strong, all of us. You've been staying strong at Claremont, haven't you?" - "Breakin' rocks in the hot sun I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the law won I needed money 'cause I had none I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the law won" It was Ashley's favorite kind of bar - the beer was cold, the music was loud, and most of her fellow patrons were involved in various sorts of law enforcement. She had her stupid pink-tipped hair tucked away under a US Government ballcap and her equipment belt on, and she'd had just enough beer that she was feeling ready for anything. "Okay, fine, here I go!" She threw her dart and it hit not in the bullseye but pretty damn close to it, enough that the section of the bar that was mostly Treasury Department people whooped and the section that was mostly Capitol Police booed. The champion of the latter, a slender guy with a swimmer's build named Craig, was decent enough to nod before he stepped up to throw his own dart - dammit! This time the Capitol Police guys cheered, and Ashley said something that wasn't very ladylike, but who the hell cared? - "...Ah already know the boy's name," said Rachel, hands on her hips as she studied her daughter, having risen to her feet to address her directly. "Your bodyguard works for me and your daddy, remember?" Judy blinked at her mother's words, and suddenly realized that wasn't true. Rachel Cahill might have been reading her Secret Service files because she was her mother but Ashley worked for the US government, not for the First Lady and her husband. "Ah just want to know what you think you were doing." "Letting myself be courted by a sweet boy," said Judy firmly, "he's the one that asked me out, not the other way around! He's sweet, he's kind, he's - a Christian!" This too was a lie, even if she was reasonably sure Leroy would get there one of these days. "One date and a few dances does not mean Ah want to marry him!" "Why would you let yourself be courted by someone you didn't want to marry?" demanded Rachel. "Ah'm not some prude, honey, Ah don't object to you having friends who are boys, but why would you go out with someone you don't think you want to be with?" - Craig and Ashley had lost the attention of most of the bar when the game had come back on, so they'd retreated to the pool table for some private competition. "I've been on assignment most of the year," admitted Ashley, which was all she was going to say in a bar to some guy she'd just met, even if he did have nice eyes and good hands. He'd won their dart game fair and square, even if he wasn't doing quite as well at pool. "and I'm only back in DC till the day after Christmas." After that she was going to deadhead a flight out to New Orleans, but really that wasn't Craig's business either. "And you?" "DC all the way," said Craig with a grin. "Thinking about switching over to DC PD next year, though. I get a little tired of watching the backs of fatcats and calling it policework." He took his shot and watched with satisfaction as he made the nine ball, then stepped back to let Ashley take her shot. "You have no idea," said Ashley drily. She considered Craig a moment, then without any preamble took off her jacket and set it on the chair near the pool table. The next time she took her shot, she leaned over the table to do it. She didn't mind throwing Craig off his game - in fact, to her delight, she did. - Alone in her room, Judy closed her eyes and tried to shut down the din of radio and television that permeated the White House. She could hear her mother telling her father that Judith wasn't going to stay strong at Claremont if they weren't careful, she could hear her sister writing in her diary that she hoped Jaycee wouldn't vaporize them this year, she could hear everything, on and on, through the vast house. Some people were judging her, some people were afraid of her, some people were worried about her, but most people weren't talking about her at all. Rising to her feet. she walked out into the center of her bedroom, body stiff with repressed emotion from her mother's talk about how it was her duty to keep herself pure, to keep herself strong, as a Cahill girl, as a Comanche, as a Christian. As if one date and a few kisses meant she was in danger of falling. As if her mother hadn't lied to her face to get her to tell the truth. "Ah am strong," she murmured to herself. "Ah am." She spread her hands wide and listened to other things besides the radio - the hum of power in the building's walls, the electricity that permeated the old structure, and suddenly opened her eyes to see something beautiful. A bright, arcing column of light had come from the power outlets in front of her and enveloped her hands like warm cotton, dueling rivers of light that made her room glow with an impossible blue-white beauty. "Ah'm fine!" she called out loud even as one of Ashley's backup agents hammered on her door to ask about the sparking light and noise from inside her room. "Ah'm - strong!" - Craig made breakfast the next morning - the thoughtful end to what had been all in all an evening full of thoughtful gestures. If he was a little disappointed when Ashley reminded him that she was going to be on assignment and not in a position to call him after the holidays, well, that was just life in DC. Feeling quite pleased with herself, Ashley packed quickly for her flight to New Orleans and didn't so much as look backwards at the city below when the plane took off. For a little while, anyway - she was on vacation! When Judy called her the next day, she answered it anyway. That was part of the job.
  17. October 2018 Claremont Academy Library Down in the third floor basement stacks, Judy Smith shone her flashlight around. "Wow, they really do have a lot of issues of American Heritage here," she said, not sounding terribly enthused upon finding row after row of the old magazines on their metal shelves. "But Ah guess Ah found the December 1957 issue, so that's one more!" She looked to her team and checked off another on their list of 'Scavenger Hunt in the Lights-Out Library!' "At least turning off the lights made it interesting," she commented to her team. "Oh yeah it's real interesting," hissed Ashley Smith, who seemed far less enthusiastic than her sister about the whole thing. She had on her gear for the night-time op; head obscured and voice partially muffled by her Watchdog helmet, her guns concealed beneath her leather jacket and body armor. "Night time in an empty building, where anything could be lurking behind anything!" She was only half in-character here. She'd spent a lot of hours in the Claremont library and had learned that it was full of all sorts of awful stuff. At least they probably weren't going to see that damned ghost this time. "What's next?" Judy asked the others.
  18. October 2018 It had all gone wrong during chili night at the cafeteria. Ashley had warned Jaycee not to try anything, but walking past the doors, memories of home had drawn the girl in. And despite Ashley's best efforts, she wasn't actually the boss of Jaycee Cahill. So the girl had eaten, bites of chili verde, chili con carne, Cincinnati chili (even if the latter had made Judy make a disgusted face) and a few more bites of things Ashley hadn't immediately recognized. Judy had had a good time socializing with her friends, even if she'd rolled her eyes a bit at the cliched country-western music playing on the cafeteria sound system, and so maybe that was worth what had happened when her body had started digesting the food - and belatedly remembered that it was powered by radio waves, not by carbohydrates. They were in the first floor hall bathroom - they hadn't quite made it all the way upstairs - and Ashley was standing outside the stall when she heard Jaycee say, a little weakly, "Ashley, Ah'm...ah'm gonna be here a little while. Can you go back to the library and get mah book? Ah think I left it in the study room..." Normally Ashley didn't go fetch things for Judy - but after the vomiting, and the crying, she wanted to do something to put a little smile on the girl's face. "Be right back. Stay in the bathroom, and hit the button if you need me. Five minutes." She laid her hand against the cool metal of the stall door, then turned and headed quickly outside. Of course, the one problem with public bathrooms was that they didn't have locks on the outside...
  19. October 2018 Boy's Common Room Kord Dormitorium First Floor In the corridor, Ashley ventured again what she'd said a couple of days earlier. "I don't know about this, Judy." "Ah know it may not work," said Judy with a faint smile, her arms wrapped around a small bundle of books and pamphlets. "This is not the first time Ah've tried to mission to someone. But Leroy is a nice boy and we're gonna have a nice talk, and talking about Jesus is a good way to do that." She grinned. "Do you know how hard it is to get people to ask most of the time? Anyway, maybe he'll take me to the fall dance if things go well!" She locked eyes with Ashley, stunning her bodyguard enough to let her slip into the boy's common room without another word. Damn! Ashley thought, unable to keep grudging admiration out of her thoughts as she adopted a scowl and stepped into the room after her sister, giving a few hard glares at the boys who were looking their way. Well she knows how to shut me up, anyway.
  20. September 15th, 3ish PM, the pool. Corinne Conrad was focusing. Visualizing what would come next, running it through her mind as she swung her arms at her sides, slowly working herself up to the next step. Which was going to be tricky, she had to use her powers. But then, they wanted people to demonstrate that, so... here she was. Trying, away from others. Or at least the classes. In her swimsuit, with her back to the pool at the side, water running off of her already from the previous efforts, and time in the pool. Then came the easy part, the physical part. The standing leap into the air, before the balls of her feet struck it like it was solid, a surface to find purchase, and she then pushed off that shimming step, and away, as she carried through a perfect arch to find herself in a handstand in midair, halting her momentum, before she worked herself into position on her hands, before allowing herself to fall forward, and into a frontflip to complete the movement and dive into the chlorinated water. This was not the first. Her arms screamed in protest, but this wasn't something she listened to before, so why would she start doing it now? Regaining her bearings she moved through the water, back to the side of the pool, and surfaced, gasping and blinking the water out of her eyes.
  21. September 4, 2018 Claremont Academy (Fourth Floor, Rita Kord Dorm) Jaycee had suggested they meet people before the assembly. "The first time you meet somebody, you set the tone for the whole rest of your relationship. If I meet them now, when Ah want to and on mah terms, that'll make it easier to stay in control. And Ah gotta stay in control, right?" It was actually one of the most perspicacious things Ashley had ever heard her charge say - and certainly the longest string of words she'd put together since a recently-drained Jaycee had parted company with the bulk of her Secret Service detail at an undisclosed location and headed onto Claremont's campus that weekend. They'd come in early, before any of the other students arrived, and Jaycee had spent most of her time in her room studying and texting to her sisters. And so it was that the "sisters" headed out into the fourth floor hallway, Ashley taking the lead as she would for the next two years. Jesus Christ, she took a moment to think before she took in the scenery. 410 was down at the end of one hall on the fourth floor, with 409 and 411 on either side a little further towards the main staircase. There were backstairs too, of course, and escape hatches that the sophomore students probably weren't going to find out about yet. Ashley was dressed for her part in a leather jacket, denim shirt, and scuffed jeans. She'd told her handlers that the pink dye in her hair cut down on the "look" she was trying to present, but they'd told her it would soften her image. By which they mean not make me look like a lesbian. She contemplatively chewed a toothpick as she scanned the hall, then took a look back at Jaycee as she closed the door behind her. "Judy" Smith didn't look much at all like her First Daughter self - with her long hair loose and hanging down her back, in baggy brown shirt and slacks that had made her make a single small noise at the sight of them, she looked like one of the refugees they were pretending to be. She was smiling the smile of someone who'd had media training, though, as she ran her fingers against the gold cross she wore around her neck. That was new too; a gift from the First Lady that nobody had seen in public yet. "Well?" It was true - Ashley had to lead the way on this one. She headed down the corridor, looking for open doors - or the sounds of activity inside them.
  22. Fall 2018 "A psychic - and a psychic that powerful, here with all these students?" Ashley was demanding. Judy was off-campus with the rest of her detail for now, which left Ashley free for a meeting with the headmistress. Well, for what was technically the discussion of a rules violation. "With the Dangers, the Dakanan royals, and Judy?! Why would you do that?" Callie stared flatly across the desk at her former pupil. "Because she is a child in need of an education - a child whose powers make her a danger to herself and everyone around her. Would you have preferred I left her on the street, Agent George?" "...no," said Ashley, a little abashed. "But for God's sakes, you could have warned me. A psychic adopted by the Freedom League is not what I'd call a revealing personal profile!" "No, it was not," agreed Callie, "nor was it intended to be. As we discussed earlier this year I am not in the business of trading my students' personal information to the United States government for your personal satisfaction." "It's not my personal satisfaction!" shot back Ashley, her voice rising louder than she'd intended - just as Callie was perhaps speaking in a sharper tone than she'd have typically used in this situation. "It's about national security, and protecting a member of the First Family!" It was a good thing the walls were cunningly baffled - at least when Summers desired them to be. "I am aware of both of those concerns, Agent George, and I am doing my best to alleviate them," said Callie frostily. "But my primary concern is, and always shall be, the welfare of this students and of this school." She held up her hand to stave off a protest. "I am aware that you are in a difficult situation during your undercover work, Agent George, but it is a situation that you created. You chose to recommend this school as a place for metahumans - you chose to suggest that a Secret Service agent be planted with Judith Cahill. You placed yourself on this course and it is your responsibility to navigate it. For Judith's welfare, for yours, and for the welfare of our students." Ashley was quiet for a moment, holding back the adolescent urge to shout again, before she asked softly, "What if it goes wrong? What if the President shows up at the front door with the 82nd Airborne?" "Then I pity the President who comes to this school planning for trouble. And you and I will have failed. Do you intend to let that happen?" "...no."
  23. Fall 2018 "Ashley, what is Monica?" The question made Ashley George look up from the algebra homework that she had disgustedly realized she had to do earlier that week, turning across the room to face her ward, her protectee, her 'sister.' She caught the frown on Jaycee's face that meant this was a serious question; one that she'd no doubt been thinking of for some time. "What do you mean?" she asked, even though she knew perfectly well what she meant. "You know..." Jaycee tangled her fingers nervously in her hair and said, "A...boy or a girl? Like with Janus too, Ah don't really know what they're supposed to be." Ashley had considered how to answer this question carefully. "Do you need to know?" she tried. "You know the Spirit of Liberty picked Monica, and you know the school put Janus and Monica where they are. It's not really our business what they are." "Ah guess not...not like Ah'm gonna catch 'em in the showers or anything." It was actually Ashley and Judy who used separate facilities from the rest of the girls, most of the time. "But why are they like that?" Aghhh "Jaycee...gender is, uh, based on culture. You know, like language, food, music - so people from different cultures are going to express their gender in different ways." She thought of the new Lady Liberty and went on, gesturing with her pencil, "And with some people, it's more like their bodies and souls don't match. And since there's no operation to change the soul, better to change the body, right?" "Ah guess," said Jaycee, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Ah guess Ah just...Ah mean, Ah'm not stupid, Ah've heard of transgender people and stuff, Ah just never thought Ah'd actually meet one, not after-well, you probably heard about that." She clicked her pen, on and off, nervously. "Ah never found out what happened to that boy, and Momma said it wasn't our place to go asking, not with Daddy's campaign." "The student from your old school," said Ashley diplomatically. She'd heard about that too - there'd been enough of a security kerfluffle at the private school in Oklahoma City that the Secret Service had been briefed right at the start of the Presidential campaign. Just in case - after all, the Cahills had carefully not been involved. "I can...probably find that out, if you'd like," she offered quietly. "...Ah'd like that," said Jaycee, equally quietly. "Thanks, Ashley."
  24. Early Summer 2018 Jordan International Airport The busload of tourists who had recently been getting ready for their tour of Freedom City were certainly getting an eyeful, thought Watchdog. As the driver recovered from the punch she'd landed on the side of his head, she had to wonder if the touring company was going to give them their money back. "You think you can smuggle poison dope in my city? Those kids _died!_" The truth was that Rodrigo here was a pretty low-level dealer, but a sound beating from a vigilante was just the thing to get him to lay off and move out of town. Or so the Raven had suggested, anyway, and so Ashley had passed on to her superiors. He hadn't actually killed anyone with the watered-down crap he was selling to the nightshift package handlers, but if he thought he had, he'd probably run off and do something stupid that would lead the Raven or the cops to his boss. "I didn't kill anybody I swear to God!" Rodrigo wept, putting his hands up as he braced himself against the side of the bus. "SWEAR TO ME!" responded Watchdog as she kicked him again, knocking him to the ground and drawing her pistols. She really did hate dealers, and that made it easy to put real menace in her voice as she advanced on him."SWEAR YOU DIDN'T POISON THAT LITTLE GIRL! GO AHEAD!"
  25. Initiative! Watchdog: http://orokos.com/roll/609465 6 @KnightDisciple
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