Star Harbor Nights

The second was that the instant she opened her eyes, she'd be back in the white room, talking to the madman in the top hat again, or worse. Then she recognized a familiar scent... a natural, subtly salty perfume which she smelled every day, and opened her eyes to find herself in a brightly-lit hospital room in the medical facilities of Olympus Isle. Amy sat in a chair by her bed, humming a complicated melody to herself.

"Hey, Greeny," Allison said. She expected her voice to be weak for some reason, so she put more force into speaking than she normally would. Amy practically jumped out of her skin. "How long have I been out?"

"Almost two days... Thoth had everyone brought back here for treatment, rather than letting 4B cart everybody away," Amy said. "Luckily, they got back from the phony tsunami just in time."

"Phony?" Allison repeated. "So it was just a ploy to make sure the Pantheon was tied up when we got the message about Sam."

"Yes, the whole thing was an elaborate ruse, which involved compromising several key systems and a large number of men in important positions. ISIS figures it was the Webmistress pulling the strings on that one."

"I hope for her sake she made Geppetto pay in advance," Allison said. "Speaking of... any sign of him?"

"No, he apparently has gone deep underground," Amy said. "Everybody else is in custody... except for Molly Dolly. Apparently, they had her taken out when things started going against them. Ford found her... it shook him up pretty badly."

"Everybody... even Cheat Code and the army guy?" Allison asked.

"General Bedford... or Bedlam, as he calls himself... has Dandy to thank for saving his life, though he probably won't thank her much when he's spending the rest of forever in jail," Amy said. "And the gamer boy's comatose, but surprisingly stable... 4B has him. Thoth was going to get the results of his Calder test. The silver ninja lady's apparently a highly paid assassin named Stiletto... she surrendered peacefully to the police when they arrived."

"How about the mysterious samurai?"

"No sign of him," Amy said. "Oh, but... speaking of mystery guests... you'll never guess who came to see you while you were out!"

"Garrote came here?" Allison asked, surprised... both at the idea, and that he was the only person who came to mind.

"What, him? No way," Amy said. "Valentine... he said to tell you not to die on him, you're not getting out of your date that easily."

"Oh, right," Allison said. "You sound strangely excited about the idea. Didn't you try to warn me about him?"

"I warn you about any man," Amy said with a shrug. "I don't actually know if he's better or worse than any other... but I want you to be happy, and I don't think you will be, just hanging around with me forever. I may not need a man, but you do."

"I don't need a man..."

"But, you wouldn't mind one."

"No, I really wouldn't," Allison admitted.

"Anyway, everybody else has been up and around... except for poor Holly," Amy said. "He's awake, but still laid up. Echo was able to grapple with him while using his power, but she didn't have any clever way to disable him so she pretty much just beat on him until he couldn't move. She feels really bad about it... she's had Bast show her a couple of ways of incapacitating a foe with less violence."

"How're the Thunders?"

"Recovered... and gone back to school. A speedster's body tends to resist heat well and heal quickly, anyway," Amy said. "Dandelion helped... her healing magic didn't do anything for Holly, though. Thoth thinks it is because his body is still photonic, even when it's solid, and she's used to working with ordinary matter. That's nearly it for injuries on our side. Well, Cynthia--Flex--had some rather severe bruises from being thrown around... her bones are shatter-resistant, I guess, but she's not invulnerable. Bertha came down miles away, no worse for wear except for injured pride... she insisted on making her own way home as soon as Thoth gave her a clean bill of health and certified her chip-free. He wanted her to stay for observation like everybody else, but she insisted and he had no grounds to make her stay. Some of the others stuck around, if only to wait for you to wake up."

"Sounds like we got off light, considering."

"All except Tira," Amy said. "She is now so grounded that they had to invent whole new privileges to take away from her, though that hasn't stopped her from chopping off all her hair and dying it orange."

"I bet her dad hit the roof," Allison said, trying to picture baby-faced Nefertiri with Tigerlily's hair.

"Not really, no, but her mother went right through it."

"Wow," Allison said.

"I think maybe they are too alike, you know? My mother and me, we're nothing like each other, and we get along fine," Amy said. "Anyway, I think most everybody's hanging out in the atrium, if you want to go find them."

"Am I really good to walk around?" Allison asked.

"Thoth said that's up to you... you were simply exhausted, mentally more than physically," Amy said. She shrugged. "If you stand up and the room stands up with you, you're fine... but if it lies down, so should you."

Allison sat up, experimentally. The world around her made no extraordinary moves. She threw off the bed sheet, swung her legs around, and stood.

"Good to go," she said.

"Well, you may want to change out of that gown," Amy said. "I'm not sure anybody except Slam would appreciate the view."

"Good point," Allison said. Her costume and a few outfits taken from her home were hanging on hooks on the wall. She considered for a moment before taking the leather-like jacket and pants down.

"I'll leave you alone so you can change," Amy said, heading for the door. "I can spread the good word, and then I promised our other patient I'd visit him, anyway... I think you'd like Holly in real life. He's even funnier than on TV."

"Ah, a tale as old as time," Allison said, clasping her hands up by her cheek. "Gay boy meets sexless single girl."

"And speaking of funny... that is something that you, my very good friend, are not," Amy said, pretending to slam the door behind her.

"A silicon sex doll!" Echo was screaming as Allison entered the atrium. On the list of surreal things to walk in on somebody screaming, it was fairly high up. As Allison approached, she saw that Echo was talking to Slam. "You seriously mean to tell me that you were fooled by an animated sex doll of your favorite porn star?"

"Well, uh, yeah," Slam said. "They are ultra realistic."

"No they are not!" Echo yelled. "Neither the dolls... nor the porn stars which they represent... look anything like real women."

"Hey, real or not, they get the job done," Slam said. "And if I had to choose between a so-called 'real woman' and a porn star... uh, not that I don't have chicks lined up waiting for me... ah, hell, what was I even talking about? Anyway, the point is that even if it wasn't real, even if it didn't last... I nailed a girl who looks like a porn star, and it was the best sex I ever had."

Echo made a noise that sounded like she was screaming with her mouth shut, and looked as though she were going to kick Slam or break him in half. She ended up storming away without doing either, leaving him standing there, slightly more confused than normal.

Allison chuckled inwardly at the sight. She sympathized with Echo, even if she couldn't empathize with her choice in men... if such things were a choice. Allison had often wondered what made women attracted to men who were so obviously wrong for them. Being a telepath didn't actually help much with that kind of insight into human behavior, it turned out.

Echo went over to talk with Dandy... from the way they were moving as they spoke, it looked like they were discussing takedowns. Lily and Willow Binder were just hanging around... Willow in a chair, Lily leaning against a wall. From the looks on their faces, they were probably exchanging snide remarks. Allison wondered how anybody could be so happy being mean... then she realized that was just how they related to each other.

"Look at you, all walkin' around!" said a familiar voice behind Allison. She turned around to see the last person she'd ever expected to see inside the headquarters of the Pantheon of Heroes: her friend and coworker Sam, known to the art world as "Samantha D." "And girl, those threads are sharp, up close."

"Uh, yeah... hi," Allison said awkwardly. She'd done her best to keep her super life and her regular life separate, for all the traditional reasons, such as not endangering friends and loved ones... but Sam had still ended up a hostage. She blamed herself for that; she and the other heroes had focused so much on keeping themselves safe and sticking together that she'd never stopped to take stock of who else might be a target, after learning that the bad guys had access to her government file. "I guess I've got a few things to explain, huh?"

"What, the superhero thing? Oh puh-leaze, girl," Sam said. "I knew you were Mindfyre even before you let slip that you were 'special', ever since the first time I caught a glimpse of 'her' on a 'new faces in town' segment on the news. You think my keen artist's eye would fail to notice that same freaky-ass shade of red in your hair? Or the fact that you try to hide your icy blues around the office? If you were just a mutant, it wouldn't matter who knew what... you had to have another reason to hide."

"I'm glad you think so," Allison said. "But there would be other reasons not to advertise my mutation, aside from a secret identity."

"Are you kidding? If you wanna be an artist... not just a commercial hack like everybody else at SGI... you need to learn a little about branding," Sam said. "You could make the mutant chic thing work for you. Hell, if people found out--or just believed--you made a painting with your mind, it'd triple the value, at least."

"I want to be a famous artist, not a famous mutant," Allison said. "And anyway, Sam, for all you talk about getting by on your image, the plain truth is you've got a lot of talent, and that'd see you through even if every once in a while you let people know that you're not actually crazy."

"She's right, you know," Willow said. "I've seen your stuff, and it sucks ever so slightly less than anything done by anybody other than me. If you ever come up east, I wouldn't hate to do a show with some of your work in my gallery."

"What gallery?" Lily asked. She turned in Dandy's direction, though she didn't actually raise her voice. "Does Willow own an art gallery now, or something?"

"She does not own an art gallery," Dandy called out clearly across the room, heading towards them as she spoke. Echo followed. "Trust me, I've handled her money since we were kids."

"Don't listen to those two," Willow insisted to Sam, who merely looked amused by the whole conversation. "How could I not have a gallery? I'm far too awesome to not have one."

"You know, you keep saying that, but as far as I can tell all you do is eat and sleep," Echo said. "How the hell can you be awesome when you never actually do anything?"

Willow blinked her heavily-lidded eyes slowly, staring at Echo in shock and confusion, as if the other woman had raised an utterly alien concept.

"I lead a rich inner life," she said.

"You have to understand, my sister doesn't really move for anything except food and sex," Lily said.

"Ha, you clearly haven't had sex with her," Slam said, moving in to join the conversation.

Echo turned purple and sputtered, then turned and stomped out of the room.

"Must be on her period," Slam said. "Chicks, huh?"

He addressed those comments towards Lily, apparently judging her more likely to sympathize with those concerns than the other women in the group would be.

"Good rule of thumb?" Lily said, in a helpful tone. "Almost anything you feel like blaming on the menses can probably actually be chalked up to the boysies."

"Idaho?" Slam asked blankly.

"I think I know why I like talking to you," Lily said. "You remind me of every big, dumb dyke I've ever known."

"Uh, thanks... anyway, on the subject of you and your sisters having sex..."

"Finish that sentence and I will cut you."

"Why don't you go find Echo and talk to her?" Allison suggested to Slam.

"Or better still, listen to her," Athena said, coming up beside Allison. She extended a hand, which Allison took. "We haven't officially met, I guess... from what Minnie's told me, you handled things pretty well."

"Thanks," Allison said. It took her an extra moment of processing to realize that "Minnie" meant Minerva. "I had a lot of help, though."

"You pulled together a disparate group into a workable team," Athena said. "That's an accomplishment."

"Hi, Athena," Lily said, more to the floor than in Athena's direction.

"Tigerlily," Athena replied, a thin, sad smile on her face. "You know, when I heard your family was part of this, I almost thought it was on my behalf. Is that strange?"

"Yeah. No. I don't know. I'm sort of dating someone now, by the way," Lily said, sounding as far from off-hand and casual as she possibly could while obviously trying to. "A police detective. Others in her position might worry that it could affect her career, for people to find out, but you know, she doesn't really seem to care who knows that she likes girls."

"How nice for you," Athena said icily. She turned back to Allison. "I should get back to Nebula... I only came out here because I heard you were awake."

"Wait, you went back to Kansas... and flew all the way back here just to thank me?" Allison asked, once again feeling overwhelmed... she kept thinking she'd get used to be treated as an equal by those she had once thought of as "real superheroes," as opposed to herself... but it hadn't happened yet.

"Well, yes," Athena said. "I would have liked to stick around, but I do have a city to watch, a book store to run, a teenage girl to supervise... responsibilities." She looked at Lily as she said the last word, and as she continued. "Responsibilities that some people might not understand."

"You know, there are all kinds of responsibilities, A.," Lily said indignantly. "Some might say you've got a responsibility to yourself, to be true to who you are... and some might say you have a responsibility to the world, to be a good example for scared little girls looking for a role model."

"You know all about scared little girls, don't you, Lily?" Athena hissed. All eyes were on the two women, who were now standing with barely inches of empty air between their faces.

"How the hell did I not know about this?" Minerva asked from behind the group.

"Minnie," Athena said softly. "I thought you were staying with Claire."

"Claire'll be fine for half an hour," Minerva said. "I just... I knew you were going out here to thank Allison, and I never really did that myself. That, and there's a few things I wanted to talk about," she said, to Allison. "In private, if that's okay."

"Well, I should be getting back," Athena said, rising up off the ground and flying out of the room with a single glance in Lily's direction.

"You only said that you knew her," Minerva said to Lily.

"Which I did," Lily said. "I don't consider the rest of it to be your business, and apparently, neither does she."

"Sorry, it's just a little shocking," Minerva said. "I didn't... I never realized she actually had real relationships with women."

"Well, as far as I can tell, she really doesn't," Lily said. She turned to Dandy and said, "Can we please go home now? I think I'd really like to spend some time with my girlfriend."

"Sure, Lil," Dandy mumbled. "Good to see you're feeling better, Allison... c'mon, Will."

"I'll, uh, scoot along, too," Sam said, "but I'll wait to ride back to the mainland with you, okay? 'cause I know we do have some talking to do, now that you know I know."

"Well, we're alone," Allison said after the Hex Kittens and Sam had left, and Minerva simply stood there.

"I, uh... I'm not sure what I want to say."

"I am a telepath," Allison reminded her. "If you want to just open up, I can let whatever you're trying to put into words just sort of flow into me."

"I think that's probably the last thing I want to do at the moment," Minerva said, laughing a bit.

"Okay, then you're going to have to talk."

"Well, let's just say I'm glad that Athena took the universal wisdom back," Minerva said. "Because I think I'd probably end up doing this anyway, and it's going to be hard enough without knowing exactly how stupid it is."

"What do..." Allison began, but Minerva leaned in and kissed her on the lips.

It was a strong, rough kiss... which by itself might have been enough to trigger uncomfortable associations in Allison's mind, except that it was also warm and soft, and... she had to admit even as a feeling of surreality filled her, Minerva knew what she was doing.

"Okay... two things," Allison said, when she recovered her voice. "One... wow, and two... no."

"It's just been so great to talk to you," Minerva said. "And I just thought you might, maybe, be open to... experimenting?"

"It isn't an experiment if you already know the outcome," Allison said, smiling gently. "I like talking to you, too, and I think you're a better person than you give yourself credit for... but I'm not into other women... and you don't really need me or some big cosmic power to tell you that."

"I know," Minerva said. "I just had to try."

"I meant what I said, on the Chariot," Allison said.

"I know," Minerva said. Her big brown eyes glistened brightly.

"I'd like to be your friend."

"I know."

"I..."

"I should go," Minerva said.

"Don't..." Allison said, but Minerva had already vanished.

"Love is a many-splintered thing, isn't it?" Echo said from the atrium doorway. "I heard Lily saying that on her way out... but I think it's actually kind of apt."

"Did Slam find you?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, he did," she said. "We talked. Or rather, I tried to talk... he talked... I practiced a judo throw on him and stomped on his groin. It didn't actually do anything to me, but it made me feel slightly better."

"You got it pretty bad, huh?"

"I don't love him," Echo said, way too quickly.

"I wouldn't presume to say otherwise," Allison said. "I guess... everybody's kind of going their separate ways now?"

"Looks like," Echo said. "But we did pretty good, considering."

"Considering, yeah."

"I mean, we really did do some things kind of sloppily," Echo said. "I mean, we knew the heroes they'd grabbed going in... we could have come up with strategies for dealing with them in advance. We should have worked out a plan of action, instead of just reacting." 

"I don't know," Allison said. "I think we reacted pretty well on the fly... and considering how often you run into something completely unexpected in our line of work, maybe it's more important to be able to handle things as they come up then it is to plan out every last detail."

"Maybe," Echo said, shrugging. "I just can't help going back over and analyzing, though... there's always room for improvement."

"So what're you doing next?"

"Well, I got a call from the Hero producers... they say they've come up with a whole new concept for the next season and they think I could very easily be positioned as a frontrunner," Echo said. "My first thought was, 'rigged'... but then they explained that it's just a new format that they think will show my power to better advantage. They wouldn't give me the details, of course, but I figure what the hell... it's not like I could be any more humiliated, right?"

"Sounds like famous last words," Allison said.

"I know, right?" Echo said, laughing. "What's that saying? The working definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result."

"It's funny," Allison said. "I said that to Minerva... on the plane ride out to Nebula City. It seems like forever ago. I'm not so sure that it's true, though."

"No?"

"I think it's a pretty damn good definition of hope," Allison said. "No matter how bad we get hurt... get burned... in love, in life... we keep trying, don't we? That's hope."

"I hope we learn better, then," Echo said with a wry grin.

"I hope I see you again," Allison said.

"Maybe when I'm a big time superhero, you can be my sidekick," Echo teased.

"Echo, you are a big time superhero."

"Not yet, I'm not," she said. "But thanks for saying so… and Allison?”

“Yeah?”

“I know I don’t know you that well, but… if anybody’s insane for expecting to find love, I don’t think it’s you.”

“Here’s hoping,” Allison said, with a genuine smile.

“Here’s hoping,” Echo agreed.