Where the Past Comes Alive

[Electra]

Stesha shrugged. "I never really thought it mattered how someone got their powers, as long as it wasn't, you know, evil, like selling your soul to a demon or something like that. But magic or super science or just happening one day, it's what they do with the powers that makes the difference." Still arm in arm with Jack, she was close enough to read the plaque as well, but chose to focus on the statue. "Do you ever wonder what it would be like to get powers? What would you do with them?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, I think I'd..." Jack was just reaching up to put his arm around her shoulders in a subtle, careful sort of way when he saw the movement to her left. The two "Omegadrones" outside the Terminus Invasion exhibit had shifted just a tiny bit, just enough that it looked like more than the wind. Stesha had gotten a better view, and she could make out the faint rise and fall of one's chest even from this far away. Whoever was standing there had stood still for quite a while, but their mood seemed to be failing. "Stesha," said Jack calmly, "I think we need to step aside and call security." That was their job, right?

[Electra]

"Did someone climb into those battlesuits?" she asked in disbelief. "Those are valuable relics! How dare they? Probably kids playing a prank." With her arm still looped around Jack's and forgotten, she dragged him over towards where the two "omegadrones" were parked. "Hey, get out of those outfits!" she demanded. "Don't you know this is a museum? You're not supposed to play around with that stuff!"

[Avenger Assembled]

The 'drone' Stesha accosted replied by calling her something extremely unladylike (by his South Side accent he was no Omegadrone!) and leveling his power pike at her! As the glowing tip in her face grew brighter and brighter, suddenly Jack threw himself forward to tackle the drone...just in time to take a full-on energy blast right in the face! He staggered back, clutching at his face; his vision momentarily clouded by not actually injured. As the crowd screamed and started to run, the other drone yelled "Forget the plan! Blast these $)#$s!"

[Electra]

Stesha immediately dove for cover behind a large statue of the Atom Family, trying to stay out of the way of those pikes. She couldn't just leave Jack out there, though! Reaching into her dress pocket, she grabbed a seed and threw it as hard as she could. "Grow, grow, grow, grow!" she muttered, willing it to expand and wrap around the ankles of the man who was still bringing his pike to bear. "Jack, run!" she shouted.

[Avenger Assembled]

Fleur de Joie's entangling vine wrapped itself solidly around the thug in the drone's armor, the man giving an "Awp!" as vines suddenly bound the man solidly against the wall, binding the now-immobile thug so tightly against the solidly-fixed wall and strut behind him that he didn't even fall over!

Over on the other end of things, Jack was fighting mad...but mindful of the real situation too. Oh, jeez, I can't just fall back and leave her here! But she's obviously got meta-powers... In the end, gallantry won out over self-preservation. "Oh, pretty boy wants to fight, huh?" sneered the other thug. "Guess I need to melt your face all the way off!"

"I'M GOING TO RIP OFF YOUR HEAD AND FEED IT TO YOU, YOU-" The look of murderous fury in Jack's eyes wasn't actually enough to rattle the thug, but it was enough to surprise him as Jack threw a punch against his head that made flesh rattle against armor. The thug staggered back, his head ringing from the sheer force of Jack's devastating punch. When he brought his pike around to bear again, Jack easily evaded his counter-thrust.

[Electra]

Jack was doing surprisingly well in his fight with the man in the drone suit, moving with speed and strength that looked decidedly better than normal, for all he'd been popped in the nose a moment earlier. Stesha left him to the fight for another moment and began working with her vine, snaking a little tendril down behind the faceplate of the mask and into the first opening it found, probably an exhaust porthole. When it was in, she opened a cluster of bright red flowers on the end, raining pollen down all over the face of her captive audience.

[Avenger Assembled]

The thug Stesha had hit with the pollen groaned again and began coughing loudly as pollen infiltrated the putatively protected confines of his suit, but didn't actually pass out. Over on the other end of things, Jack had opted to end the fight quickly. What better way was there for him to get the fight done and get the heck out of there before anyone noticed the two of them fighting? He drew back his fist and slammed it directly into his antagonist's face, hitting his jaw so hard that the tough metal bent beneath his knuckles. The overmatched man in the drone suit staggered back, this time managing a shot from the pike that smacked into the ceiling. Plaster and bits of hanging tile fell down, the torso-sized hole overhead exposing the wiring inside the ceiling.

[Electra]

At least somewhat reassured that the man wrapped in the vines wasn't going to get up for a few moments, Stesha willed the vine to stretch again, slithering like a bloated, leafy snake across the floor. She aimed it at the feet of the man Jack was fighting, trying to wrap him up like his comrade, but she simply couldn't get it aimed properly in the face of so much motion. She looked around for security guards approaching, wondering if anyone had noticed her, and how on earth they were going to get out of this!

[Avenger Assembled]

Fleur's tangling vines went flying past the fast-moving thug in the drone suit, her vines wrapping themselves firmly around a statue of Andrea Atom. Jack could see the security guards running up behind him in the thug's armor, and knew that he had to end this fight fast if he didn't want the whole fricking world to know who he was and what he was doing! (Much less Stesha, who obviously had a secret identity of some kind.) Knowing that it was now-or-never, Jack slammed his fist into the last drone's head, finally powering him into the ground with a sudden, definitive thud. With that he turned and took Stesha's hand, an urgent look on his face as he ducked down with her. "Ssh! Don't move!"

[Electra]

She gave him a look that suggested she thought he was crazy, but did what he said, crouching behind the statue and trying to think small thoughts. At the same time, though, she snuck a hand into her pocket and began growing another little seed, ready to get herself out of there if anyone spotted him. She'd try to take Jack along too, she decided, but she had no idea if it would actually work. It was better than letting themselves be caught just sitting there like a couple of lunatics!

[Avenger Assembled]

Despite Stesha's skepticism, the guards ran right past them to subdue the feebly-struggling "Omegadrones" as the frightened crowd recuperated. Amid shocked voices and loud alarms, not to mention the guards yelling at the drones as they ripped off their helmets to find shady-looking men with a day's growth of beards underneath, no one seemed to notice the two hiding heroes at all. Jack leaned close to Stesha, finger over his mouth, and pointed towards a fire exit near the back of the building, miming that they needed to walk very slowly and very carefully that way.

[Electra]

Keeping her little plantlet clutched in her fist, Stesha stayed very close to Jack and kept her head tilted down as they walked towards the door. It seemed like the guards had things pretty well in hand, so she gradually released control of the giant vine, trusting that it would hold onto the bad guy while the guards were cuffing him up. It didn't seem to have any intention of loosening anytime soon! It was very weird, people walked all around them, but no one so much as looked her way. Belatedly, she realized that she and Jack had both been keeping secrets from each other.

[Avenger Assembled]

Outside in the alleyway, Jack seemed to relax a little. "Well...that was something." They'd stepped out into a rear alley behind the museum, the loading dock for exhibits and artifacts. There was privacy here, at least with everyone having either rushed out the other exits (for civilians) or rushing in the front door (the arriving emergency personnel). He looked down at Stesha, a half-smile tugging at his face. "Most of my dates don't go like that. Let's get out of here," he suggested.

[Electra]

She studied his face for a minute, not quite sure how he felt about the whole business, or how she felt, or about much of anything, really. "Yeah, definitely," she agreed. They walked down the alley together, not quite touching now that they were out of the danger zone, with Stesha cupping the little seedling in her hand and wondering what to do with it now. For the moment, she held onto it. She smelled more like flowers than ever now. "That was weird," she finally said.

[Avenger Assembled]

"It was," said Jack, giving her a little half-smile. "Was that your first big fight like that? Watching one, I mean," he added, not wanting to pry where it wasn't his business. Well, maybe it was his business, but he hazarded that it was improper to ask after your date's secret identity. "It looked like you did all the right things. I was glad you were there."

[Electra]

She looked up again, trying to divine what he meant by that cryptic statement. She wasn't very good at reading people, at least any anything that didn't pertain to flowers. "Yeah," she finally said. "It was pretty wild, wasn't it? I didn't expect... I mean, I thought they were just kids fooling with the exhibit! I didn't mean to... ohmigod, I forgot that they shot you!" she blurted artlessly, standing on tiptoe to look for damage to his poor face. "Are you okay? Did it burn you? Are your eyes okay?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack's face was completely uninjured, with hardly a mark left from the blast he'd taken at point-blank range. "I'm all right," he lied smoothly as he looked down at her, "they must not have put a full charge in those things." He smiled down at her, enjoying the post-fight emotional rush and the pretty girl by his side. "How about you, did you get along all right? You did a good job dealing with those guys, surprised or not."

[Electra]

"I don't know... I mean..." she began, then sighed. "You can't tell anyone, okay?" she asked earnestly. "You must know what it's like, right? My parents would never understand, and it would freak out all my friends... I might lose my job, and I really, really love it. So just... let's keep this between us." She paused as they walked by a little patch of dirt next to a lampost, setting the seedling down and letting it take root. Immediately it sent up leaves and a stalk, blooming into a pink tulip as they looked on.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I won't tell a soul." Jack looked down at the blooming flower, an odd smile on his face as he thought about the abilities his cute date had presented that night. "It's beautiful, Stesha, just like you. I envy you your powers." They were lovely abilities, he realized, a beautiful touch of life that he'd never have himself. What wonderful powers those were; how much he'd enjoy them if he had them! Between thinking of Stesha and her flowers and the super-romance of the moment, Jack succumbed to temptation. He bent down and kissed Stesha right on the lips.

[Electra]

He felt her stiffen in surprise for just a second, then she decided to roll with it and melted into the kiss. It all seemed like some story from a TV show anyway, Stesha thought, and having the hero kiss her at the end just added that extra triumphant flourish, like she was a real heroine. And he was a really good kisser, too, not mushmouthed and spitty like way too many of her dates in the past. It was a very easy sort of kiss to get thoroughly lost in, and she was happy to hang on for the ride, resting her hands on his shoulders.

[Avenger Assembled]

They kissed for a while, enjoying the moment and each other in the warm, dark alley. Jack had enjoyed his share of late-night encounters in dark alleys with willing women, but somehow this didn't seem like the right place for that. He could still hear the sirens on the other side of the building, and who knew if the Freedom League might show up for other investigations? He was sure he'd snuck them both out of there, but you could never be sure. "Let's get out of here," he whispered to her again as they broke the kiss, now in each other's arms, but he was smiling in a way he hadn't been before. "Some place warmer."

[Electra]

She actually laughed at that, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she looked up at him. "Between the weather and the kissing, I don't think I'd better get too much hotter," she admitted. "But I don't want to be here if anyone checks the alley. There are tons of good restaurants around here, we could stop somewhere for a drink, or for dinner. It's still early, but I don't think I want to go back into the museum tonight."

[Avenger Assembled]

Darn it. "Restaurant, eh?" He smiled down at her, something darkly suggestive in his eyes. "Shall I feast upon your lips some more, my lovely little flower?" he replied warmly. "We seemed to be doing pretty well, there...and I'm not actually hungry for food. Adrenaline always kills my appetite. For eating, anyway," he added with a small laugh. "Never for the other good things in life. We could drive over to the Hammond, that new artsy movie palace by the mall. We can catch the late show. And it's close to my place."

[Electra]

A little flustered by the look in his eyes, and not hungry herself despite her skipped dinner, Stesha nodded agreement. "That sounds nice," she agreed. "I'm sure there's something good playing. And if we're out late, we won't risk catching ourselves on the eleven o'clock news." She took a half step back, taking his arm again and raising a hand to see how much of her lipstick she was actually still wearing. Not too much, but at least it wasn't a bright color.