Star Harbor Nights

Only the faintest hum of static came from the otherwise silent speaker phone on Evelyn Everett's desk. The model was top of the line. It could have been made static-free, but then there would have been no way to be sure the line was open when all participants on the conference call fell silent at once, as had just happened.

"Sorry, it's just... it sounded like you said one and a half million bulbs," the vice president from Consolidated Electronics said, breaking the silence.

"Is something odd about that figure?" Evelyn asked.

"We don't have that kind of manufacturing capacity," one of the other companies' heads said. "Nobody does."

"So I guess you'll be fighting to fill the orders, then," Evelyn said.

"That's to say nothing of the consumer demand," the chief from Elfinia said. "It's just not there."

"Demand is my concern, not yours," Evelyn said. "We've switched all the light fixtures inside every Ev-Mart to fluorescent bulbs. We're stacking them up in big displays just inside the doors. We're putting up flyers touting the savings. It's in people's best interests to buy them. Once they realize that, they'll come around."

"But the price!" the man from CE said.

"Will have to come down," Evelyn said. "They're still cheaper in the long run, but people don't think of the long run when they're looking up and down the shelves. We'll take the price down as low as we can, but I'll expect some help from all of you on that score."

Uneasy silence hung on the phone line. Finally, the CE man spoke again.

"You want us to sell bulbs that don't need to be replaced for five to eight years, and you want us to lower our profit margins?" he said. "I'm sorry, Evelyn, but this is just unacceptable."

"Look, in twenty years, nobody's going to be using incandescent bulbs any more. They might even become illegal," Evelyn said with an air of finality. "I'm giving you an excuse to start upgrading your operation for the new bulbs now. I can't imagine why you wouldn't... excuse me one moment," she said, noticing one of her personal security officers had slipped into the room. She hit the mute button on the phone. "What is it... uh, Evans?"

"Surveillance cameras show one of the Wisdom Twins is on the roof," he said.

"Notify Ethan," Evelyn said. "I've warned them about this."

"Ah, Mr. Stone is chaperoning your daughter's field trip," Evans reminded her. He shifted uncomfortably. "There's, um, something else..."

"What?" she asked.

"The Twin has... a hostage."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. She unmuted the phone.

"Gentlemen, as much as I'd love to continue sitting here and listening to your mulish excuses for clinging to an obsolete and irresponsible product, but something interesting has just come up," she said. "This discussion is officially over. You know where EvCo is going. Keep up, or be left behind."

She released the call, cutting off a chorus of angry voices.

"How do you want us to handle this?" Evans asked her.

"I don't," Evelyn said. "I'll be dealing with this myself."

"But..."

"And have operations cut off those cameras," Evelyn said. "This could get... personal."

"But..."

"Get to it, Evans," Evelyn said.

"Are your braids pulled too tight, amazon?" Evelyn demanded as she strode out into the open air. "I've told you a half a dozen times that I don't want you..." She paused when she saw that the interloper was not the more muscular Minerva with her braided hair, but rather the more even-tempered sister Athena... unaccountably holding what looked like a college-age male over the edge of her roof. "I'm sorry, I was expecting the other one."

She recognized the boy... Beau LeChamp. He was a college student, on a scholarship from her family's foundation. He was also the hero known as Thunderhead, though he didn't know that she knew that.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Ev," Athena said without looking. "I'll be done here in a minute."

"This building is my home. Quite aside from that, I am trying to run a business here," Evelyn said. "So, if you could please find some other landmark atop which to go mad with power..."

Athena turned her head towards her. Her eyes were wild, unfocused, and sparking with power.

"He was messing with Claire," she said.

Evelyn stared at her. Her face was impassive, her lips pursed. Then, she turned and walked away.

"Try not to make too big a mess on my doorstep," she said.

"Hey, wait!" Beau yelled after her. "Don't leave me alone with her!"

"Tough luck," Athena said, her eyes glowing with white-hot energy. "If there's one thing Evelyn Everett understands, it's looking after your own."

"Look, I wasn't...

"I know what you were doing. You know what you were doing. Claire is a very special girl," Athena said darkly. "Very special. I'm not going to let anybody ruin that, hero or not."

"Wait... you're right," Beau said, getting angry despite his precarious position. "Claire is special. But she's not just a girl... she's practically a woman, and she's not stupid. You can't keep her safe from the world, and you can't keep us apart."

"I'm pretty sure I could," Athena said. "I could let go. I could dump you in the Marianas trench. I could bury you on the far side of the moon."

"And what are you gonna tell Claire?"

"What do you care?" Athena asked, shaking him violently. "She might be hot, but she's a freak, a spazz, right?"

"That was stupid," Beau said. "I was getting pissed at her... it just slipped out."

"You're about to slip out... of my grip," Athena said. "Unless... unless you swear you'll never see her again."

Beau closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I can't do that," he said.

"Why not?" Athena asked, her electric eyes narrowing.

"Because... I love her," Beau mumbled.

"What?"

"I love her!" he repeated, more loudly. "I'm not going to lie about it. I could probably survive the fall by spinning really fast or catching my hands and feet against the side of the building at superspeed or something, but I'd rather not have to try, and I know if I try to fight you, I'll lose... but I'll be damned if I'm going to back away. I haven't met a girl I really cared about since high school, and even that girl wasn't like Claire. So, you do whatever the hell you think you have to, because I've done what I had to."

"Okay," Athena said calmly. For one horrifying moment, Beau was sure she was going to drop him, but then she turned abruptly and swung him back onto the solid surface of the roof.

"Huh... what?"

"Okay," Athena repeated. Her face and posture had relaxed considerably. "That's all I needed to hear."

"Wait a minute," Beau said. "You mean... you weren't really..."

"I just needed to see how you really felt, deep down inside," Athena said, giving him a rueful a half-smile. "The universal wisdom puts me in tune with people's feelings, but the less sure the other person is of what they feel, the less clear it is. Given the subject is Claire, I had to be sure."

"You couldn't just ask me?" Beau said.

"You couldn't have just told me you were interested in her?" Athena countered.

"Yeah, I had this crazy idea you'd dangle me off the side of a building, or something," Beau said. "Anyway, your concern for her is both touching and scary, but did you happen to notice she was kind of having an episode, or something?"

"I gave her some meds when I grabbed you, and Ford's with her," Athena said. "She should be fine by the time you get back to her. If not, call me, then get her to the hospital."

"You trust me to look after her?" Beau asked.

"For now," Athena said. "You be good to her, though... or we'll do this again, and next time I'm leaving the universal wisdom at home."

"Right," Beau said. Somehow, he believed her.

"If she starts skipping classes or letting her homework slide to hang out with you, it's over."

"Okay."

"And you're going to apologize for what you said to her," Athena said.

"Okay, but she needs to ap... I mean, yes, ma'am" Beau said.

"You keep your hands... and lips... to yourself until she's eighteen," Athena said. "I'm serious. As far as you're concerned, her body's protected by an invisible forcefield... and not the nice, friendly kind that just bounces you off, either. The kind that disintegrates anything that touches it."

"Noted," Beau said.

"And I mean anything."

"I get it, I get it!" Beau said. "Any other instructions or dire warnings?"

"No, but there is one other thing I wanted to talk to you about," Athena said.

"What?"

"During your big California adventure," Athena said. "You met the Hex Kittens... Tigerlily Binder."

"Yeah," Beau said.

"Did she talk about her new girlfriend a lot?"

"A little," Beau said.

"Did she seem... happy?"

"I, uh, didn't talk to her that much," Beau said. "Why?"

"I... no reason," Athena said. "Just wondering."

Lily Binder found she enjoyed being interviewed by herself. She was used to her career as a musician revolving around her sisters... she wasn't much of a songwriter, and of course, people kind of expected the drummer to fade into the background. Lily wasn't good at background. With Dandy and Willow off working on new material, the red-headed Hex Kitten was enjoying finally having some time to herself, but she still found time to give an interview to a reporter for Cry, the Nebula City alternative newspaper.

"...even if I'm not, you know, as musically inclined as my sisters, I still try to find ways to put my own stamp on our sound," Lily told the interviewer. "Like, when we were putting together the new album..."

"That would be After The Boys, your cover album that just came out," he interjected.

"Right," Lily said. "On After The Boys, I picked out about half the tracks... so even though I don't actually write songs and junk, I still find a way to get my musical influences out there."

"What are some of those influences?" the interviewer asked. "I mean, you've obviously got this very punk, very 'riot grrl' vibe going..."

"Okay, first of all, don't even say 'riot grrl', okay?" Lily said. "Everybody but the media stopped saying that after Gwen Stefani got called a riot grrl just 'cause of how she wore her hair. It's a state of mind, not a haircut."

"So, clearly, you've got some firmly established roots in that area," the interviewer said, underlining the last line Lily had said on his notes. "But what are some of the influences your fans might not know about?"

"Well, I listen to a lot of Don Henley and Bruce Springsteen," Lily said. "Richard Marx. Johnny Cash. Even if they're not, you know, in that same loud, really angry sort of headspace, they're still like singers with a story to tell, and I think that's important. Before I got into like Bikinikill and stuff, there was one song that I just loved, because for me, it was the song that first opened my eyes to how important music could be, to the very... the almost, I don't know... spiritual way it could affect you."

"Is this one of the songs on the album?"

"Yeah," Lily said. "'Walking In Memphis'."

"Really."

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't have guessed that was one of your selections."

"Most people wouldn't," Lily said. "I mean, I'm so not an Elvis fan, so Memphis isn't really... I mean, Graceland's not a huge shrine to me or anything, but listening to that song... it's like, about a pilgrimage to Graceland, so it's like about a religious experience... only about music instead of God. I never really felt like getting behind God, but 'Memphis' made me feel like I could get behind music."

"Wow," the interviewer said. "That's wonderful. Really insightful."

"Uh, thanks," Lily said. "Can I... can I ask why you wouldn't have guessed that song was one of my picks?"

"It's just, I so wouldn't have pegged you for a Cher fan."

Detective Lieutenant Stacey Bishop said nothing as she stormed, through the station, Lily following closely at her heels. She kept up the stony silence until they were out of the building, down the steps, and to the sidewalk... well away from any other police officers.

"I can't believe I had to come down here to bail you out... for an assault charge, of all things!"

"What assault?" Lily asked. "I just punched him. Once! Since when is one little hit assault?"

"Since forever. You do not just hit somebody!"

"You didn't hear what that little bitch called me!" Lily protested.

"It doesn't matter!" Stacey shouted, then looked around in embarrassment when she realized she was yelling in public. She hissed, "We'll talk about this in the car."

"But I didn't even..."

"Car," she repeated. She grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her through the parking lot to her brown sedan.

"People aren't allowed to go around hitting people, regardless of provocation," Stacey said once they were inside. "If they were, we wouldn't be a civilization of rules and laws. You should be more conscious of what kind of message you send with your actions, brawling and drinking..."

"If I didn't drink, we wouldn't have met," Lily pointed out.

"Or maybe we would have and you would have made a better impression at our first meeting," Stacey said. "And I wouldn't be razzed by every guy in the department every time somebody with a camera phone gets an embarrassing shot of you... and that's to say nothing of the hell I'm going to catch when word gets back to the Seventh Precinct that I had to come down and bail you out... and word will get out. Cops talk about these things."

"Sorry... I just couldn't think of who else to call. Anyway, I'll pay you back as soon as I can get some money from Dandy," Lily said.

"Pay me when you can," Stacey said. "Don't borrow from your sister just to pay me back."

"Oh, I wasn't going to borrow, per se," Lily said. "It's just... she keeps track of all my money and stuff."

"Really?" Stacey asked. "Whose idea was that little arrangement?"

"Hers, but it's not a bad idea," Lily said. "I'm no good with money."

"Do you really think it's wise to leave your financial affairs so entirely in somebody else's hands?"

"My sister wouldn't rip me off," Lily said.

"That's beside the point," Stacey said. "You're an adult. You need to learn how to handle these things on your own. What are you going to do when Dandy's not there for you any more?"

"Well, she's probably going to outlive me, what with all the drinking and partying, so I don't see it as much of an issue..."

"This is nothing to joke about. People drift apart, Lilypad," Stacey said gently. "You can't count on your sisters to keep propping you up and picking up after you forever."

"It isn't like that," Lily said. "We look after each other."

"If you say so."

"We do," Lily said. "I do stuff for Dandy and Willow all the time."

"I believe you if you say so," Stacey said. "But... what if Dandy got married?"

"Not likely!" Lily scoffed. "She hasn't had a date for years. Even if she could find a guy, when would she even have the time? She spends all her time looking after Willow and... oh."

"See, Lilypad? It's great that the three of you are so close... it really is, but if you're all going to have lives of your own, you need to find a way to get a little more distance."

"I never thought about it that way..."

"First thing tomorrow, we'll go down to Everett National, and open you an account," Stacey said. "Your sister can wire your money, and work out whatever we need to do to get your checks going there from now on."

"Actually, tomorrow I was kind of thinking we could just relax around..."

"When don't you relax?" Stacey said. "It's way past time you started standing on your own, and if I let you, you'll just keep finding excuses to put this off."

"Shouldn't I talk this over with Dandy?"

"You're going to ask her permission to open a bank account for your own money?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'permission', exactly..."

"What would you call it, when you're so afraid to take one step without checking with your big sister..."

"Okay, first of all, she is only like a minute older than me, and second, who said I'm afraid?" Lily said. "We'll go down to the bank first thing tomorrow and open an account."

"That's my Lilypad," Stacey said. "You listen to me, and we'll get your life put in order in no time."