“Sorry, different customs. We all kind of expect the government to come in and be... I don’t know, does jerks translate at all?”

  Neary cleared his throat, nervously, but in a very normal, human, seeming fashion.

  “I know the word, but no, it doesn’t really. Everyone is expected to be kind and sensible, in interactions with others, on our world. You saying that it was your doing would hold up in our version of a trial. Which, it’s really more like this, honestly? You do that one differently. Anyone with evidence or an opinion shows up and discusses it. We wouldn’t even send two people most of the time, but I’ve been here before, and have the lay of the land. This is Heline’s first time. I didn’t want to make her come alone.”

  No one else spoke, so Hannah did it, smiling again. Neary did that back, seeming like it wasn’t a familiar expression to him.

  “Okay, so... We’re good? We can show you what I did, and I suppose arrange punishment for me, if you think it’s needed? That, saving lives, isn’t generally considered illegal or immoral here. I understand that Reese and Megan are dual citizens, so your rules apply to them as well.” She didn’t know that at all, but it was clear that Chris had figured him losing his job would mean all of them moving. To a different planet.

  The official woman, who was in a flowing dress, that was clearly meant to be an Earth fashion, and probably was, if she were in Polynesia, made herself relax.

  “It is on Ryhh, as well. This seems in order then. We simply... We’d heard of the deaths. By murder? Then Kyron sent a message informing us that it had been undone. Also that... The killer had been killed? I...” She looked bleak suddenly and actually shuddered. “Did Kyron do that? It’s extreme, but even at home that could happen if such a thing took place. It’s incredibly rare, but he had conditioning that allows him to act violently. We...”

  She stopped, everyone in the room looking at Christopher, as if that were simply the case.

  Hannah closed her eyes.

  Admitting to a crime was foolish, even in that room, with a bunch of heroes. A lot of them already knew, but some might not and telling them could end up with her in prison. She wasn’t going to scuttle her friend’s life by not telling the truth, at the same time.

  “No, that was me, as well. She couldn’t be allowed to go free, after what she did and our system didn’t have a way to stop her from killing again. So I ordered... Kyron, to stand down, and made sure I protected everyone.”

  For the first time since the death, she teared up and shook over it.

  Neary, tentatively, moved in and patted her on the shoulder.

  “That must have been very difficult for you. Is that when you were injured? We have a medical kit with us?” He looked at Heline, who seemed ready to say no, then blinked, very slowly.

  “Yes. That shouldn’t break the rules. It’s close, but if you were injured helping one of our people, we can’t refuse.”

  She forced a smile then.

  “No? It’s... Our system here, needs for me to be seen as very normal. Un-augmented. Which is true. We can do that kind of healing, if with some effort, but we haven’t so that the men who... They tried to...”

  She looked at Chris, who stared back for a moment. Then went slightly wide eyed.

  “Right. You, both of you, would have nightmares, if she told you about it. I have been, even with the conditioning I was given. What are your findings?”

  That, abrupt as it sounded, had Heline smiling. On her it seemed real, so probably was a thing the aliens had at home.

  “We find no need for action. This is a very hard, and troubling place for you to be working. Should I request reassignment for you? At the very least, you need to come home for a year or two, soon. There is a psychological issue that can happen, when people live in a different culture for too long.”

  Debbie spoke, from about ten feet away.

  “Going native. A real enough effect. I had it happen to me, once. For about seventy years. In a different reality.”

  Chris looked at the woman from his own world, and held very still.

  “I’m needed here. These people are hard, in many ways. Violent and warlike. It is difficult, being here, but I’m doing good things. Protecting people. Innocent ones who seek only peace, even. Without me...”

  June moved forward then, but also spoke from a distance.

  “You’re a valued team member, but we can survive without you for a while.”

  Hannah shrugged.

  “Right. Plus, if it’s that big of a deal, you can get here in six hours? Gregory was suggesting we’ve been using force too often or the threat of it, earlier today. We could send a few people with you, as an exchange program? I mean, not these people, but cool ones. You know, who aren’t into violence and all that? Megan is good that way. Not Reese. Not that he shouldn’t visit there, but we have to make sure we don’t contaminate Ryhh with our violent impulses or scare the people there too much.”

  For some reason, for the first time since walking into the room, with what had to be a lot like finding the place filled with sharks, Heline seemed excited. Quietly so, of course.

  “Is that possible? If we have them stay with you and... Megan? There is a risk of cultural contamination, but if we select the right people... Would that be allowed, Hannah?”

  She was actually asking. As if it were up to her, personally.

  Then, as far as anyone in the world knew, that was how alien interactions worked. Going directly through her. So she tapped her lip with her right index finger, and smiled.

  “I bet it is. We have our own anthropologists, who tend to be pretty nice people. We can find some of them to go and visit. Two? We don’t want to push things. We should move slowly and carefully.”

  While that seemed like an agreeable thing with the woman, she did seem to think that they could get in touch with them immediately and have them arrive, packed and dressed as Ryhhians inside a few minutes, however.

  Hannah pretended to put her foot down.

  “No. We can’t hurry that much. We have to make certain we send people that will be a good match there. We should send cultural artifacts, for study, too. Computer systems and a library of written works. Some art? Also, we need to have them all learn the language, first. You have special learning helmets for that?”

  Neary nodded. As if that was a normal thing to say.

  “We do. They aren’t exactly helmets, but the concept is close, I think. The units will have to be reconfigured, to teach our language properly for your people, since there are differences in brain structure... I can do the work on that, I think. I might need to stay here for a while, for research? That... It’s dangerous. I don’t have the right conditioning for it and won’t be able to get the abilities Kron has. Chris, I mean. That’s his nickname, in the family. It’s a type of little fish...”

  No one made a guppy joke. That being the case, she shrugged.

  “Cool. You can stay at my place, when you want? The small guest room is empty.”

  Megan snorted and crossed her arms.

  “Nonsense, Hannah. He’s my brother-in-law. He can stay here. We have the room. Plus, he knows how to find it.”

  That settled, they hashed out how to get in touch with her, for some reason. Which was just calling Christopher, and having him pass messages. As if the most famous superhero in the world was best used as a secretary. It was a cute enough idea, so she allowed it.

  Then the aliens left, seeming satisfied with their findings and arrangements, and the promise of visitors to observe in the near future.

  After that, a lot of people leaving from the roof, some flying away, others climbing down the side of the building, everyone else left. Not all at one time.

  June cornered her daughter, for instance.

  “Marina... I didn’t raise you to be a terrorist. I know you always felt like things weren’t fair, with Larina being born with the family gifts and you not having anything that way, but you fixed that! Isn’t it enough? You have power now. You could be a hero.”

  Instead of fighting, which would have seemed out of bounds, given that she was being begged to be good, not scolded for being bad, at the moment, Marina shook her head.

  “It was never about that, Mom. I got powers so I could help people. Flying around and spanking people for minor crimes isn’t the way to do it. Not the best one. It has its place, but until we fix society, all you’re doing is sticking a finger in the dike, trying to stop a flood. What I’m doing might work. Maybe not, but it isn’t the lesser path. I’m called a villain, but that doesn’t make me one.”

  She sighed.

  “It’s... The U.S. Government aren’t the good guys, Mom. You’re on the wrong side. I know you can’t see that, but...”

  There was a fist made then, by June. It didn’t crackle with energy or anything. So far, other than being too young, she hadn’t seemed to show any powers at all. Not that looking twenty forever was a horrible thing, really.

  After ten seconds, she closed her eyes and opened her hand. It wasn’t really relaxed, but the woman was clearly trying not to start a fight that night.

  “I know you believe that. No government is perfect. People aren’t. That’s why they need us to be examples. To help those in need. To be better than the lowest common denominator, whenever possible. I just wish... Well, we’ve had this conversation before, and I dare say, we’ll eventually do it again. I just want what’s best for you. Even if I can’t see what you do, myself.”

  Marina hugged her then, and moved to do that with Nate, then Hannah. She was careful on that one. More than with the others.

  She also spoke.

  “So, Hannah, Guardian of Earth? That has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Did you actually order Superion X to stand down like that?” She grinned, as if it were a lie. Joke, perhaps.

  Kate nodded, and Christopher did as well. They’d both been there for it.

  He was the one who spoke.

  “She did. I was going to do it. To... Kill, on purpose. She wouldn’t let me. I thought she was going to let Sendra go. Escape. They always escape, in the end, here. Then Wisp and Damsel took her away.”

  Kate moved in then and sighed.

  “I couldn’t do it. Kill her. Hannah didn’t give her a chance to get away. Sendra was drugged, but sobering up. She could also teleport. Hannah saw what was needed and shot her. In the head. Five or six times. Then I teleported her body into space, after we made certain she was really gone. She burned up on reentry. I... Look, I hated Sendra. Some of my earliest memories are of her abusing me. Physically, sexually... using the pain collar just to make me cry and scream, for her own amusement.” She shook her head. “Her face... I hate her face. We’re, we were, clones. When Hannah shot her, I was looking at myself, after a fashion. I still see that, when I close my eyes.”

  Hannah looked down.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I...” She didn’t know what to say.

  She also didn’t have to say anything.

  “She had to die, Hannah. She even told us as much. That we could win, but none of us were hard enough to do what was needed. Only you, and maybe Timekeeper, if it were ten years from now. I’ve thought a lot about that moment. It terrifies me, but I think she might be right. Whoever is out there, coming for us... They know things. It seems like they’re hinting at time travel, but that could be a trick. It all could. The one thing they wouldn’t do is turn us into effective killers, to stop them. No, she was a bitch, but that part was real. We have to be ruthless, if we’re going to win. Only...”

  She stopped then, with everyone else doing the same, until she spoke.

  “I don’t think I can. Sendra was right. I’m not a killer. She was and I’m too afraid of becoming her to ever allow it to happen.”

  June shifted then, to look Kate directly in the eye. They held that for a while, until the older woman, who looked younger, moved in to hold her.

  “There is no shame in being a good person, Wisp. A hero. Sometimes we have to let go of that, to save people. I’ve killed. When the Monkey King took that daycare center ten years ago, and was going to kill the children, until the state gave him a billion dollars, I moved in and ripped his head from his shoulders, before the bomb vest he had on could be triggered. Nothing else would work, at that moment. That wasn’t the only time. We try to leave everyone alive, when we can, true. Sometimes we have to be soldiers, instead of paragons.”

  Marina, clearly about to capitalize on the words, clamped her lips shut and wisely didn’t.

  “On that note, I should get home? If we do this correctly, we won’t have to become the darkness to defeat it.”

  Stepping away from June, Kate nodded. Then reached slightly back, after a step, to take Marina away. It was an amazing trick, even if she’d seen it a thousand times.

  “I need to learn to do that. Teleport? Or, for that matter, anything cool. I can barely even cook.”

  Nate suddenly pointed a finger at her, a beam of light coming from it. She noticed it happening before it did, even having lost her trance state again, so dodged first, about a second before it passed through where she’d just been.

  He grinned. It was cute.

  “Yep. No powers at all. Just that thing where she can dodge lasers and bullets, find people, no matter where they are and fight with a hood over her head. Other than that, nothing.”

  She got that, but at the same time, rolled her eyes.

  “Except that I suck at all of that? I’m slow, finding people and I can only see things on purpose about fifteen seconds out, unless I’m in a trance. Even then, seeing things and knowing when they’re going to happen are two different things. There has to be a way of doing better.”

  There was a pause in speaking then, with June nodding, finally.

  “There is. Are you working on learning that?”

  She was, so got to nod.

  “Daily practice and a special training program. Debbie, who just left, from The Requiem? She has that for me. About once a week.”

  The young-looking woman just smiled then.

  “You’ll get it, then. I’ve known others who could do that. Then... If you can do all that, you should be able to learn to teleport. Maybe not like Wisp does, but it’s a power that people can learn. At least it’s in the archives with people having done that in the past.” She just smiled then, as if saying something sane.

  Which she wasn’t at all.

  When Kate popped back in, she took everyone else away, before Hannah. That meant she had more time to hug everyone and included the guys this time. Reese went last, but didn’t try to dry hump her in front of his own mother. Not that he was a problem that way. Gregory was a bit of a worry, even if she understood the why of it, now. He was so fast that it was hard for him to not act before his mind had a chance to reason things out.

  The older clone did all right though, so it was clearly a thing he could, and would, learn to do.

  That got her to stick out her tongue, and speak to Chris.

  “I should have called and made sure that Gregory got in all right. We had him run back from the Food Bank? Oh, I wasn’t kidding, Reese, you need to be able to do that too, soon. Not speed running, but safely get yourself from there to here. We need to work up an emergency kit that you carry all the time, just in case. You know, some cash, some legal weapons that you can carry, of some sort, and all that? We’ll work on that idea, before we make you take the subway alone.”

  The kid actually made a face at her.

  “I have a metro card.”

  She smiled.

  “On you? At least when you leave the house, from now on. Even to get the mail. I mean, I have to carry a knife and a gun. Even into the shower. You don’t get to do that, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a dorky survival bracelet or something.” She didn’t have hers on, since it normally went on her left arm and that was too big at the moment.

  That wasn’t a great excuse.

  “You too, Megan. Also, phones, all the time. Are you both bugging Alistair each day?”

  Megan shook her head, blushing. Probably thinking about the fact that she’d thought about the boy going down on her while using the features on her detachable shower head. Which was harmless, though it really would be horribly teasing for him. He was sixteen and filled with hormones, after all.

  ~On the good side I really do know which girls at school like me. Oh, hey, so... Am I coming to your place for the summer? My parents hired three new people, and having me work the shop means they don’t get enough hours to live on. We have enough cash coming in, thanks to the food bank project.~

  Hannah thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

  “Alistair is coming for the summer. I need to get with Max, and set up some real survival training for all of us. I think the plan is to do an urban thing, if you have time, Reese? If you aren’t off on Ryhh?”

  She looked at Megan and Chris, asking permission, while phrasing it as the kid being in charge of himself. Interestingly, he sighed.

  “That sounds pretty messed up. Urban survival. Sleeping on the streets and all that? I should do it. Is that... I mean, going to a different planet sounds awesome. Am I allowed to go, though? You mentioned me being too violent and... I mean, I’m not a wild man, but that’s kind of true. They sound like honestly good people. We shouldn’t send in the wrong types. That probably means most of us can’t really be trusted to go there.”

  Megan looked at her husband then. He seemed to think for about half a minute, long enough for Kate to come back.

  “It will take some doing. We’ll need to set up an isolated compound, so that you aren’t too close to the other people there, all the time. No one there will force you into being aggressive, but some things, like talking too loudly or smiling with your mouth open, will be intimidating to a lot of the people there. Poor Neary seemed ready to pass out, just from Hannah standing too close, earlier. Part of that was the bruising and the broken arm. Just thinking about that happening, well, you did the right thing, not telling them all of it. As it is, they’ll both probably need to see a counselor, just having been here. I don’t know if Neary can manage coming back. He’s brave, so maybe?”

 

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