Chicago Water Torture 2 (The training / torture continues)   (AquaGirl 3) by mittfh Copyright © Ben Norwood 2010-2011 (Comments competition - devise a suitably witty teaser for this space...) With thanks to Lilith, Lynceus and EnemyOfFun - you know your roles in producing this! Just remembered! Thanks also to the BCTS Google+ users who beta'd this last night :)

Image credits:   Original: DC Comics (found @ ComicVine)   Modified: mittfh

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Preliminary notes:
Yes, it's been a whopping seven months since the last episode. Sorry! The next one should be out sooner - I've already written part of one scene... it was originally intended for this episode but the characters ran out of time, so it's been moved to the next day. I've also created an outline plan to guide me. Fingers crossed...

The voice of the watch is represented in green text purely for the sake of convenience. It is not an AI - merely a limited function computer with advanced audio I/O.

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There was evening, and there was morning: the second day.

Rena slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the light.

"Morning's arrived. I wonder what the time is?"

She was just about to turn over and look at her clock radio, but suddenly remembered the ring upgrade.

She visualised the ring, and thought the command, "Time."

Almost immediately, a soft female voice that seemed to come from within her responded,

Five forty seven am.

"Ooh, thank you! And a quarter of an hour later than yesterday."

...

"Hmm...not very chatty. I guess it is just a watch with an auditory interface. OK, I wonder what else it can do. Stopwatch... Start!"

She heard a soft beep, waited a few seconds, then thought "Lap".

Lap time: twenty three seconds.

She waited a bit longer, then thought "Stop."

Total time elapsed: fifty six  seconds.

"Lap time?"

Lap time: twenty three  seconds.

"Start..." BEEP "...Stop!"

Total time elapsed: sixty three  seconds.

"Clear. Start... Stop!"

Total time elapsed: nought point five  seconds.

"Clear. So the stopwatch works fairly predictably. Did they pack a countdown timer? Let's try... Timer, one  minute."  BEEP.  "So far, so good. Start."

She looked at her left wrist - empty. "That's worth knowing."  She tried to visualise a watch, but only a static one appeared.  "Hmmm. Display."  Immediately, a digital watch shimmered into existence on her wrist, showing 39...38...37 seconds.  "Hide?"  The watch faded away.

Just over thirty seconds later, as she was wondering what form the alarm would take, she heard a soft BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...BEEP.

"Alarms?"

There are currently no alarms specified.

"Set Alarm: Six Fity Five AM, today only."

Confirm? Alarm set for Six Fifty Five AM today, non-repeating.

"Yes!"

Alarm confirmed.

Rena wondered if there was anything else about the watch function she could experiment with, when suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a voice - this time originating from the ring, but outside her head.

"Having fun?"

"Oh, Hi Jade. I'm just about to get up. Anyway, how did you know what I was doing? I haven't said a dicky bird this morning!"

"I have my ways and means. OK, my AI told me you were experimenting with the new functionality of your ring.   Is it to your liking?"

"Not half! It's brilliant, and as it's powered by thought, and 'thinks' back, I can query it without getting any strange glances from the public. Thanks a lot!"

"No prob.... sorry, must dash, can't meet you this morning, earthquake in Sumatra."

Rena heard the feint but tell tale sound of boots on metal during the last part and figured Jade was already setting off. "OK - see you later."

"Time."

Five fifty seven am.

Rena sighed... she'd got about an hour to get ready. By 6:13 am she'd showered, 6:17 am dressed, and by 6:33 am she'd had breakfast and was starting to lose the novelty of interrogating her ring for the time whenever she thought about it. Today's outfit was a swimsuit (she didn't feel confident enough to go entirely naked), covering a slim money belt to hold her new debit card ("You never know when an emergency might pop up..."), the ensemble completed by illusory outerwear consisting of a pair of jeans and a T-shirt featuring a small 'Countdown' logo.

To fill the time until her alarm went off, she grabbed a notepad and started sketching out ideas for the news 'n' views aggregator she was planning to start building in the evening. All too soon though she was interrupted by the soft voice in her head...

BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 - BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 - BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 -

"Stop!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 -

"Stop Alarm!"

...

"Thank you!"

…

"That's going to get annoying very quickly. I wonder..."

"Allow Stop command to stop any other currently running command."

Input operator modified.

"Cool - it's programmable! That's worth knowing. Anyway, better get myself out of the door before that Lieutenant turns up and wonders where I've got to."

She opened the door to the warehouse and saw the Lieutenant's car already parked further down the street. Looking closely, she could make out something large and white between him and the steering wheel, so figured he was probably reading a newspaper.

"That's good - he's not looking in this direction - I can slip out unnoticed."

She quickly exited the warehouse, locking the door behind her, and walked quietly up to his car, before tapping on the window and startling him. With a smirk, she walked around to the passenger door as he quickly folded up his newspaper and let herself in.

"Waiting long?"

"No, I'd only just arrived."

She concentrated on her ring, and courtesy of Jade's AI found out he'd actually been sitting there for ten minutes.  "Good job this is the last day of training - he could be a problem and compromise the secrecy of our pad if I had to rely on him for lifts too often."

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Just over an hour after crawling through rush hour traffic, they arrived back at the naval base, but instead of heading to the administration block or waterfront, the Lieutenant pulled up outside an indoor swimming pool.

"Ma'am, you're scheduled for lifesaving training this morning, then we'll head out on the water this afternoon. Look, I'm sorry about yesterday..."

"Let me guess - Jade found you and gave you an earful?"  She could see by the fact he turned away and blushed she'd guessed correctly. "Look, there's no need to be embarrassed - she's OK when you get to know her, but she's fiercely protective of us. Just restrain your instincts and you'll probably be OK. Now, how does this lifesaving course work?"

"Oh, right, sorry, I haven't given you the details yet. It's a custom session specifically for you. They don't know you're a meta, just that you need some emergency training to cover the basics. If anyone asks why you need the training, just tell them 'it's classified' and they won't question you further."

He reached over to the back seat and retrieved a plain black document folder, then opened it to show a small pad of paper and several printed sheets.

"This is your schedule for today - you'll be having an hour's introductory theory lecture, followed by half an hour on CPR, after which you'll commence practical training in the pool. There'll be a half hour break for lunch at 1pm, then you'll resume pool training until 4. We would have preferred a less intensive course over a longer period of time, but Jade was keen to get you ready for action as soon as possible."

"I can understand that - after all the effort she and Al...Green Lantern Zwei put into rescuing me from the Channel, finding a home and new identity for me, as well as organising all this, it's the least I can do to help out when required. So when do we go out on the lake?"

"I was just getting to that. After a light snack, we'll head out after 4pm; that will give us a good four hours before we need to set back, and we'll miss all the rush hour traffic."

"Remind me - what will you be testing in the lake?"

"Mainly speed and agility. We were going to do endurance, but judging by yesterday we'd be wasting our time."

"OK, thanks for that. See you in a few hours."

"OK, see you then. Oh, and you might like to consider a plain top, since they don't know anything about you."

She looked puzzled for a bit, before seeing the reflection of her T-shirt in the door. "Oh, right. Yeah, I suppose this is a bit UK-centric."She concentrated for a while, and the design faded away to leave a plain white T-shirt. "Is this better?"

"Much,"he replied shaking his head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that... could come in pretty handy. Oh, I nearly forgot,"he added, then reached over to the back seat and thrust a small black backpack at her. "Spare set of clothes. I know you don't need them, but the guys in there would think it very suspicious if you walked in without a backpack. And while the lockers should be secure, if anyone gets nosey while you're in the pool..."

"OK, I get the message. Better to be safe than sorry and leave nothing to chance. You've really redeemed yourself."

"Well..."

"Are you a man or a mouse? Jade may have given you a tongue lashing, but you navy types are supposed to be made of sterner stuff! Take some credit for yourself. Goodbye, and see you later!"

With that she grabbed the backpack and folder, shut the car door, and walked up to the building.

"Well, this is turning out to be a bit of an adventure. Lifesaving lessons, probably with a bunch of blokes who'll be fawning over me. But what was that about classified? I'm supposed to be 17, a bit young to be going on covert missions with the Navy. Upcoming Hollywood starlet? I suppose that's more credible, even though I haven't attempted acting since primary school - and this kind of role was certainly way beyond my comprehension. Oh well, here goes nothing..."

She opened the door and stepped in, wondering where to go. She looked around and saw a sheet of paper on the far wall with an arrow pointing down the left hand corridor, annotated with the text "L. Marquez". It took her a few seconds to remember that was her new adopted name - as the rest of the 'gang' called her by her preferred contraction of Rena, it wasn't often she encountered her new surname; even if it was a variant of her previous first name.

She started walking down the corridor and saw a smartly dressed woman in her mid thirties hovering outside an opened door about half way down. The woman was about average height, had long blonde hair, and seemed to have an air of authority, an undefinable 'presence' that felt as though she'd know if anything in the corridor was out of place. As Rena approached, she gave a polite nod and walked into the room.

Upon entering the room, Rena noticed a tall, lean man standing about half way along one wall in front of a notebook computer. The room looked as though it was normally a meeting room - it was about 10 foot long by 8 foot wide, and contained half a dozen tables pushed together, plus the notebook computer and a small data projector throwing a picture of what appeared to be the course's introductory slide ("Basic Lifesaving - Keith Hudson"). The man introduced himself as the Keith Hudson mentioned on the slide, and he was apparently the local lifesaving instructor. The woman, who didn't name herself, stood in the far corner, still maintaining a vast 'presence' although she was attempting to look inconspicuous. According to Keith, she was apparently there just to ensure Rena's safety, and ensure nothing untoward happened between her and him.

"Not that he could easily do anything to me, even if he wanted to. But at least she's helping keep my 'cover', whatever that may be."

After the introductions were over, Keith handed Rena a set of slide handouts, each page slightly fainter in the middle as though the printer was running out of toner, a small pad of paper, and a pen before immediately launching into his spiel.

He started off with a brief overview of water safety, covering such issues as differences between lake / river / ocean swimming, rip currents, knowing your depth and practices to avoid, e.g. drinking alcohol before a swim or 'tombstoning' - jumping into open water from a height. Rena initially wondered why he was covering this ground, as she thought she was already familiar with water safety, and she'd be rescuing people...

"Oh, of course! If I'm rescuing people who've got into difficulty for not following water safety advice, I'll need to tell them how to avoid getting into danger in future - so I'd better take notes just to ensure I'm giving the correct advice!"

She frantically started scribbling down notes, clarifications and explanations of the content of the early slides, then as she caught up to the point where she'd had her revelation, she discovered to her delight that although she'd only been paying partial attention to Keith, she could recall what he'd said, which enabled her to quickly catch up with where he was at.

The second phase of the lecture immediately grabbed Rena's attention, as it was much more likely to be relevant to her public career - situations that could cause, and problems associated with, people needing rescue in open water. She was surprised to hear that the most vital issue involved in an open water rescue is actually finding the victim - even in the case of 'man overboard' from a big ship, it can be very easy to lose the victim, as even in a glass smooth sea they're pretty much the proverbial needle in a haystack - a tiny speck in amongst a vast ocean. Compounding the difficulty of finding the victim in the first place is that even in relatively mild waters, hypothermia can quickly set in; so after finding them, the next most vital issue is raising their body temperature back to normal (once out of the water).

The final phase of the lecture was rescue principles - how to rescue a person with and without aids. This was the most diagrammatic portion of the lecture and in tracing over the feint images on the handout, she found the tracing a lot easier than she remembered from her previous life - maybe enhanced coordination was part of the 'package' alongside underwater swimming skills, increased visual acuity and strength / speed enhancements.

At last the lecture was over, and she was led down several corridors before being shown into a small gymnasium with a Resusci-Anne dolls already laid out and awaiting a dose of CPR. Rena was pretty sure she could remember the basics of ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation), CPR and putting patients into the recovery position, but welcomed the opportunity for some revision before she had to try it out for real. Even though she was pretending she was learning it for the first time, after having practiced CPR on a doll for about twenty minutes under the watchful eye of Keith, the last five of those without comment or correction, she couldn't resist a joke. She checked its 'pulse' and placed her cheek next to its mouth one last time, before looking at her watch, sighing, and saying "OK team, I think we've done all we can. Time of death: 9:20am"

At the bemused looks of Keith and Mystery Woman, she continued "Well, I've been trying to revive her for the past 20 minutes - I think I can say with some certainty that the poor girl's a gonner!"

As Keith looked on stony faced, and Mystery Woman stifled a giggle (Aha! She does have a personality!), Rena wandered over to the doll's case, brought it back, and, really hamming it up, said "How thoughtful - you've even bought her a coffin. But next time..."as she opened the case and fitted the doll's lower half into the case, "...measure your victim before buying it!"Then, turning to look at the doll's face, "I'm sorry to do this, love, but this is what happens if you put men in charge of your funeral arrangements,"before folding her in half and closing the case.

She then put on a feigned look of innocence and said "What?"while Keith shook his head in exasperation and Mystery Woman finally lost it and burst out laughing. It didn't take Rena long to lose her composure as well and join in while pushing the case towards Keith - she wasn't sure how heavy the case was, nor of the strength a girl of her apparent age and build would normally be expected to have, so thought it best to allow him to carry the case than risk giving away her enhanced strength.

Once Keith returned from putting away the case, he lead Rena and Mystery Woman down a maze of corridors before pointing out the entrance to the changing room. Thankfully, Mystery Woman didn't follow her in, so she could feign changing (in reality, just drop the illusory clothes to reveal her swimsuit) and put her bag in a locker. After securing the rubber bracelet containing the locker key to her left ankle, she walked out of the changing room and into the pool area. As she did so, she noticed Mystery Woman raise an eyebrow at her and realised she'd probably been too quick, so quickly composed what she hoped was a credible excuse. "I didn't know what changing facilities there'd be, so I wore my cozzie under my clothes." Well, it is kinda true...

Mystery Woman seemed to accept the excuse, as she gave Rena a slight smile and head nod. Rena returned the compliment, then looked out towards the pool. It was a standard 10m x 25m size, with an object floating in it resembling a bright orange human head and torso (minus arms, pelvis and legs). She then noticed Keith walking towards her, holding another of these strange contraptions. He explained that they were called Manikins and were used in lieu of humans for basic live saving training, before demonstrating various methods of holding them while still keeping an arm free for swimming.

For the next three hours Rena practiced retrieving the manikin from a variety of positions, both horizontally and, after it had been filled with varying degrees of water, vertically (i.e. from various depths), as well as simulating a short dose of CPR on it after it had been dragged out of the water.

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Finally, it was time for lunch and Rena headed back to the changing room. After having a refreshing shower, she realised she couldn't exactly put the wet cozzie back on and didn't have any 'real' underwear. Ack, I'm going to have to go completely starkers under the illusion - it had better not fail on me! Then again, Doris rarely wears 'real' clothes and gets away with it, and as I've got no other option, I'll have to bite the bullet and join her as another 'sister of nudity'...

Figuring that if she'd been putting on real clothes and towelling her hair dry, she'd probably be taking significantly longer than it did to change for the pool, she spent the next few minutes mentally reviewing the day's training so far before exiting. She wondered if the Lieutenant would collect her for lunch, so she could avoid answering any awkward questions about her history, but she wasn't in luck - apparently he'd been called away elsewhere, so she resigned herself to fielding any questions asked by the instructor and Mystery Woman, and hoping she could hedge and lie her way around them.

She followed Keith and Mystery Woman to a small dining room elsewhere in the building, where someone had conveniently provided a buffet for three. She helped herself to a selection of sandwiches, noting with interest that for some reason, the tuna and cucumber sandwiches didn't appeal to her, although they didn't look any different to any she'd had in her previous life. She grabbed one anyway, just to see if it tasted the same as usual or if there were any noticeable changes.

Once at the table, she braced herself for questioning, and sure enough, after she'd barely had time to sit down before Keith started asking various questions in a roundabout way, but boiling down to who she was, why she needed to learn the skills in a hurry, and why there was so much secrecy surrounding her. She sat there in silence, listening to his spiel and attempting to ignore him, but he wasn't put off. Eventually, she looked at Mystery Woman, sighed and rolled her eyes, before turning to Keith and saying "I don't know what you've been told about me, but details as to who I am and what I'm doing here are confidential and released on a 'need to know' basis. All you need to know is that I'm here for a day's intensive training. The rest you'll have to speculate on yourself, because I'm not giving you any answers. All I will say is that I'm almost certainly not who you think I am."

That earned a slight smile from Mystery Woman, but after Rena had finished her first sandwich, Keith attempted questioning again before shutting up to a withering stare from both his companions. Rena then concentrated on finishing her lunch - the tuna tasted the same as usual, but she still had a sense of 'wrong-ness' about it that she couldn't fathom. As she did so during the morning, Mystery Woman didn't say anything during lunch, and Rena began to suspect she was doing more than merely ensuring Keith didn't do anything untoward. Given her attire and attitude, she was almost certainly a professional, but where she was from or what her real mission was, Rena had no idea.

After lunch, Rena was escorted back to the pool. After taking a measured five minutes to 'change' (momentarily screwing her nose up at the prospect of reapplying the still damp cozzie - but resolved that after having the brainwave idea of rinsing it through in the showers again first), she exited the changing room and noticed two dummies floating in the pool, together with what appeared to be an upturned rowing boat. The activities proved more interesting than the morning, as instead of just retrieving a single 'victim', she was given information on the 'condition' of two or three, and had to prioritise the order in which she 'rescued' them based on their 'condition', as well as explaining her reasoning for why she'd prioritised in the way she had. Towards the end the number of 'victims' increased to half a dozen, which really stretched her memory. One the first few occasions with half a dozen 'victims', she fluffed up and rescued some in the wrong order, but after Keith took her aside for a few minutes and explained a couple of simple mnemonic techniques, she found after a couple of dozen seconds thinking that she could remember the names, conditions and priority for each and her performance increased rapidly. Just before the pool session ended, Keith set one final challenge: he threw a dozen objects of various sizes into the pool, and asked Rena to attempt recovery of them all. To everyone's surprise (including hers), Rena successfully recovered all twelve objects in the correct order. It was only when Keith remarked that she was the first student in over ten years of teaching lifesaving that had managed that test that Rena realised she may have come dangerously close to blowing her cover. "Oh well, what's done is done. I doubt Jade would have chosen him if he couldn't be relied on to keep his mouth shut once AquaGirl makes her début."

Rena walked back to the changing room, deep in thought, still a little worried about the prospect of her leaking her 'secret identity' before she'd even had her public début. For the second time that day, she emerged from the changing rooms without a stitch of 'real' clothing on her, although anyone watching would assume she was wearing a standard pair of jeans and a T shirt. She was directed back to the classroom from the morning, Keith announcing en-route that there was going to be an hour's written theory test, after which she'd be free to go.

"But won't I need to hang around for the test to be marked?"

"There really is no need - if you can answer the questions sensibly, then you'll have passed. The test is more about revision - a chance to recall and fix in your memory all that you've learned today."

"Oh... OK then."

She sat at the same table as before, while Keith and Mystery Woman resumed their prior positions. He handed her several sheets of paper stapled together face down, while Rena fished the pen she'd used earlier from her bag. She then sat still, looking at Keith, waiting for permission to turn the paper over. "Cripes, this feels just like a school exam - apart from the lack of others present."   After a few seconds, Keith nodded at her and she turned the page over.

The first few questions were easy enough, covering the basics of water safety and the conditions in which people may get themselves into difficulty in water.   The questions moved onto basic CPR, methods of rescue, and rescue aids, before moving onto a variety of scenarios. These in turn grew steadily more complex, from a simple child in difficulty in a quarry lake, through a group of people falling off a rubber dinghy near the shore, to a capsized tour boat with several dozen people on board. Rena shuddered when reading that scenario, as it reminded her of the ferry attack which launched her towards what would soon be her new stealth career. The final question really puzzled Rena though - the topic was natural disasters, but the scenario read like something from a comic book. As far as she could remember afterwards, it involved something like a tsunami hitting the city of San Diego and flooding all the low lying areas, including the zoo, which was where she was apparently supposed to be at the time. Rena thought, "Never mind I haven't the foggiest idea where in San Diego the zoo is, or what exhibits it has. Well, I suppose a lot depends on where in the zoo I would be when it happened, and what kind of enclosures they have. I certainly wouldn't like to be anywhere near any open-topped big cat exhibits at the time if I valued my life. So, what would I do if I was elsewhere? As far as this scenario's concerned, an ordinary person would probably look for higher ground then rescue the occasional person or two. In reality, with my new abilities? Probably get a few dozen of the weakest too higher ground until Jade or Alena turned up, then help get everyone into their green boats."

Eventually, she committed the 'public' version of what she'd do in that bizarre situation to paper, signed the bottom (remembering just in time to use her 'new' name rather than the name she'd had for the previous 30+ years of her life), turned the paper over, and stretched her arms out in front of her. Seeing no sign of a clock in the room, she consulted the new watch function on her ring.

"Time."

Four oh seven  pm

"Cripes - the Lieutenant was supposed to be collecting me at four. I never thought I'd be saying this, but I think I prefer his company to this pair."

While she waited for Keith to notice she'd finished, she occupied herself with staring at the ceiling, counting the ceiling tiles, the spacing between the lights, and between the air conditioning vents / intakes. Several minutes later, while she was in the middle of trying to define a mathematical relationship between the three parameters, Keith evidently looked up from whatever had been occupying him, stood up, and walked over to Rena.

"About time, too."

After informing Rena he'd let her know the results in due course, he motioned towards the door, and Rena took up his offer, picked up her bag, and made a swift exit. Mercifully, neither Keith nor Mystery Woman followed her out, and she was glad to breathe the warm but fresh air outside the building. Once outside, she looked around and soon spotted the Lieutenant's SUV. She walked up, tapped on the window, then opened the passenger door and hopped in.

"How did the day go?"

"Don't ask."

"I just did."

"Cheeky. Actually, the swimming and first aid wasn't too bad..."

"But?"

"There was some mysterious government woman there, watching my every move, who played the silent card and wouldn't reveal her name. That really irritated me. Then..."

"How did you know she was government? I take it she wasn't wearing an ID badge?"

"No - but she was dressed in a very smart (and probably very expensive) business suit, and had this overall air of authority. Come to think of it, almost like a lawyer - but since I'm officially 17, haven't done anything illegal, and have been in this country less than a week, it's more likely to be some nosey parker official from government."

"You were also hinting at something else that annoyed you."

"Yes - there was a written test at the end, giving various lifesaving scenarios. So far, so good. But the one at the end really threw me - the sneaky git threw in one about a tsunami hitting San Diego. I know there was one last year that hit Japan, and one a few years ago that hit most of the Indian Ocean, but given he shouldn't know about my abilities, why the heck set me up with something like that?"

"I can't answer either of those for you, and I'm not in a position to research them for you, but it's probably worth asking your Jade - if there's anything untoward going on, she'd probably be the best person to ask."

"That's actually a good point. I'll make a note for later."

She reached around to her bag, fished out her notes from earlier, and scribbled 'Jade: MW + tsunami' before putting them back in her bag and stashing it behind the seat again.

"So, what's on the schedule for today's swim?"

"Speed and agility. I've also, erm, 'borrowed' a couple of the lifesaving dummies in case you want a practice on open water."

"Good idea.The swim'll probably work off some anger from back there."

She then sniggered, and shook her head.

"What?"

"Would you believe that a week ago I couldn't swim and was petrified of water?"

"Given your performance yesterday, under any other circumstances I'd say no, but given what you've already revealed about yourself - yes. So why the heck were you on a ferry that day?"

"I was going on a backpacking tour around France, but the Chunnel was closed due to a bomb scare by Domesday. I'd hoped that by staying in the middle of the ferry, I wouldn't get so nauseous, but it didn't work so I made a beeline for one of the sides to throw up then knocked myself out."

"Ouch. Have you found anything more about Domesday?"

"Not really - they seem to have come from nowhere, have suspiciously large resources, and no clear agenda. The original Domesday Survey was about land ownership, so they may try claiming it's about giving land back to the people, but given their finances I'd say it's more likely they've got high profile criminal backing. And no, this isn't confidential - it's my own opinion - I don't have access to resources that would tell me more.""Unless, of course, they banked with my old bank and my login's still active... but that would be rather unethical and probably illegal as well. Oh well, I'll leave someone else to investigate them. I'll no doubt have other fish to fry soon... ack, me and my bad analogies again."

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Rena's thoughts were interrupted by the SUV braking to a halt at the side of the small harbour. Just before they got out, the Lieutenant asked if she'd got her watch and her GPS unit. In return, she showed him the illusory watch and the small GPS unit Jade had given her the other day.

"Yes, I know it's very small and it has no UI, but apparently once activated it's good for several hundred metres underwater and the data can be downloaded from this micro USB port on the side. I'm no expert on these things and don't recall seeing anything this small, but when Jade can source stuff from any retailer, anywhere in the world, who knows?"

After getting out of the car, the Lieutenant pointed out the boat from the previous day against the dock wall, and Rena helped him carry the lifesaving dummies, three weighted buoys and a long coil of rope.

"What?!"Rena asked as she effortlessly draped the coil over one shoulder and noticed the Lieutenant staring at her open-mouthed.

"How...?!"he replied, just as fluently. Rena followed the direction of his pointing finger, and using her free hand touched the rope.

"This? It's not that heavy!"

"Not that heavy? I can barely lift that!"

Rena sighed. "Metahuman - enhanced strength - remember?!"

"Oh, sorry, forgot. It's just that..."

"Yes, appearances can be deceptive, and don't you forget that, mister. Or should I introduce you to Giganta? You know - one minute indistinguishable from any other teenager, but get her angry and you're facing Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman."

"Err...no thanks."

"Good. Now, what are these buoys and rope for?"

The lieutenant looked relieved to start talking business again. "Sprints. The rope's just over fifty metres long, so with the three buoys we can mark out distances of one hundred metres or more. It's a calm day, so I thought we'd measure your speed both underwater and on the surface - on your front, on your back, and holding one of the dummies. That way, we'll build up a picture of your short distance performance, before we move onto the endurance phase where you swim as far as you can within an hour, then swim back. Finally, we'll do a bit of open water lifesaving practice before heading back."

Once they'd loaded everything into the boat and locked the car, the trip to the middle of the lake was fairly uneventful and they barely conversed. Then again, courtesy of Rena casually asking how fast the boat could go, her opportunities to talk were severely limited by her struggling to maintain breath and hanging onto the side rails for dear life as the lieutenant gave her a practical demonstration. "On the bright side, I'm not feeling nauseous at all, so   think I can definitely say I no longer suffer from seasickness! In fact, if I wasn't struggling to breathe and trying desperately to avoid becoming a man... oops, woman overboard, I could almost enjoy this ride..."  It didn't take long for the boat to reach a point, several miles offshore, where only the top half of Chicago's skyscrapers were visible on the horizon. The lieutenant slowed the boat down and turned it parallel to the shore before bringing it to a gentle halt. He turned to Rena, who had dislodged her hands from the guard rail and was shaking them back into life and smirked before walking towards her at the back of the boat.

"Enjoy yourself?"

"It seems strange to say this, but, erm, yes?! OK, I was hanging onto the guard rails for dear life, but it was so exhilarating feeling the wind rushing past... and I didn't feel in the slightest bit nauseous! Which I suppose is just as well given what I'm letting myself in for with all this testing and training."

"Good - well, playtime's over. Give me a hand with this first buoy."

After throwing the first buoy overboard, then using the rope and other buoys to measure out a distance of a hundred metres, the lieutenant paused to explain to Rena what he wanted her to do, only to be met with a loud 'plop!' and a splash as Rena dive-bombed into the water. She then lay on her back, looked up at the still startled lieutenant (who was still trying to remind himself that the girl who'd been fully clothed only a few seconds beforehand could  replace them with a deep blue  swimsuit which he didn't recall seeing before with a mere thought), and explained.

"Yeah, hardly elegant, but hey, I'm enjoying myself here. And while I may not quite have an eidetic memory, I can remember your overview of this afternoon's activities. So, what's it to be - ten laps on the surface then ten underwater?"

"At least - enough laps for you to reach full speed and maintain it for at least a complete lap."

"OK then - see ya!"

Swimming on the surface of the water was a completely different prospect to the underwater swimming she'd favoured over the past few days, and it took her the best part of the first lap to completely master swimming the front crawl without getting a lungful of lake water in the process. As she passed the buoy nearest the boat for the second time, she thought "Righteo, I suppose I'd better start timing myself.Timer: Start."

She steadily built up speed until by the end of the sixth lap she was averaging a buoy-to-buoy time of forty five seconds. By the tenth lap she'd brought it down to forty two seconds. "It would have to be the ultimate answer. Now, what's that in miles per hour? Let's try..." After several failed attempts, by breaking the conversion down into steps, she finally managed to obtain a median lap speed of two and a half metres per second - about five and a half miles per hour or nearly five knots.

After relaxing for a few minutes, she then dived underwater and started swimming about six feet under the surface. She was then very surprised when her watch indicated that what she'd considered a gentle pace was actually covering the distance in under half a minute - nearly twice as fast as on the surface. She then gently accelerated to what she felt was a fast but comfortable pace, then timed herself again and found she was now traversing the distance in a mere fifteen seconds; equivalent to fifteen miles an hour. "How many more serendipitous numbers am I going to encounter today?!"

Feeling adventurous, she decided to finish off with a final sprint to see how fast she could go flat out. After resting a few minutes, she launched herself through the water, putting maximum effort and concentration into swimming as fast as she could, ignoring ever-growing pains in her muscles until she had passed the second buoy. Exhausted from the effort, she had to be helped into the boat, where the lieutenant thrust a sports drink into her hand.

Between puffs and sips, she managed to ask "Thanks... so, how did I do?"

"Are you sure you're OK? You look worn out."

"I think I'll be fine in a few minutes - it's just that final sprint took a lot out of me."

"If you're sure. Do you still want to do the long distance test?"

"Yes - when I'm not sprinting it's very relaxing - and I love testing out my manoeuvrability. It's so freeing."

"I can imagine - you were almost a blur at times down there. Do you know how fast you were going?"

"I half wondered what I'd appear like to others - I suppose it would look pretty impressive from up there. I seem comfortable with about fifteen miles per hour, or thirteen knots. And you can stop looking all boggle eyed - I know very well the top speed recorded for a human was about four and a half miles per hour; but in case you hadn't gathered, I'm not exactly a 'normal' human any more!"

"Oh... erm.... sorry. I should be immune to the crazy stuff you do but I can't help still being amazed at it all. So how fast did you get to during that sprint?"

"Apparently at the end I was doing about ten metres per second, which equates to about twenty two miles per hour. But I think I'd need to train hard to achieve that kind of pace sustainably."

He looked at her quizzically.

"Just because I've got a new body with super-duper abilities, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be static, or that I'll keep a hundred percent fit if I don't train. Having said that, while I'd like to keep my new bod trim, I don't think I'll be putting in the extremes of professional athletes. A three hour swim a couple of times a week - yes. Twice a day - no thanks."

By now she'd finished the sports drink, and handed the empty bottle back to the lieutenant.

"Now - this long distance swim. First of all, how long have I got, and have you a map of the area so I can plan a route?"

"Let's see - it's 5:23 now. You really need to be back here by 8:30 at the very latest. As for a map, I think I've got on in here somewhere..."

"Hmm... three hours continuous swimming... that could get a little boring. But since he'll be looking for the total distance travelled, maybe I could make a pit-stop. At 15-20mph, I'm probably looking for somewhere within that radius if I'm to do my little self-appointed errand and get back in time to revise lifesaving techniques in 'real' water."

The lieutenant soon returned with a plastic-backed map of the local stretch of coast. After laying it out on the deck of the boat and drawing a spot where the boat was with a marker pen, he stepped back to allow Rena to pore over it.

"There are several places within range. It would probably be best to avoid somewhere big like Waukegan, Kenosha or even the base - too much chance of awkward questions. But first, I'd better confirm exactly where we are. Not that I don't trust the lieutenant, but for peace of mind..."

"Since the GPS was Jade supplied, let's hope this works... Initiate data link with GPS Unit."

Data link established.

"Where am I?"

Unknown command.

"Current location."

Forty two point two eight seven degrees North, eighty seven pount six three five degrees West.

"Gee, that's helpful. Not. No, scrub that - in this case, the geographical coordinates are useful! Now, transfer that to the map... two eight seven North, six three five West... not bad, pretty much spot on."

She then selected an area within range, purely because it looked nice and shared the name of a UK town; and after looking up the coordinates saved them to the memory of the watch / GPS. Carefully folding up the map, she returned it to the lieutenant before sitting on the gunwale.

"I think I've got a route planned out - it should take me about two and a half hours to cover the distance. So if you've brought a good book, now's the time to get it out."

She tipped backwards into the water, and started swimming in a roughly south westerly direction, querying her GPS every now and again to check she was still on the correct course.

Nearly an hour later, she quietly emerged at the far end of a beach just to the north of her intended destination and walked to the path connecting it to the village. Once on the path, she looked all around to ensure no-one was looking, then used the ring to replace her illusory swimsuit with a plain T-shirt, smart jeans and trainers, so she wouldn't stand out as she walked through the village. "It still feels weird to be walking around without any 'real' clothes on, but if Doris can get away with it, so can I!"

As she walked at a brisk pace through the tree-lined streets, she found herself increasingly amazed by the size of the homes. "Well, I suppose this is America and they do have far more space to play with. A far cry from the pokey homes they build back home nowadays."  Eventually, after passing a school and heading under a railway line, she found herself in the village centre. "Now, first things first - let's find a cashpoint then somewhere that sells postcards."

She walked down the main street, soon encountering a Land Rover dealership. "Here I am, nearly four thousand miles from home - well, home in my old life - not expecting to find a single car resembling something in the UK market, and the first car dealership I meet - a Landy. Now what's the betting one of the next buildings house a bank?"

Sure enough, once she'd passed the dealership, the next-but-one building was indeed a bank. However, upon reaching into her pockets, Rena remembered that her card was inside her money belt, which was too high to successfully reach while maintaining the pretence of fishing it out from her pockets. She retraced her steps back to the dealership, and after hiding behind a Freelander on display, temporarily 'disappeared' her jeans and loosened her money belt so it hung across her crotch. After 'reappearing' her jeans, she walked over to the bank, withdrew some money from a cash machine in the foyer, then continued down the street in search of a general store.

A few buildings down, she passed a real estate agent. Out of curiosity, she peered in the window at the display of selected properties for sale, and after glancing at the grid and noting the prices ranged from just under one million to over three million dollars, raised her eyebrows, then, shaking her head, turned back to the street. "No wonder all those homes look so nice - I must have expensive tastes!"

Eventually, she found a general store, purchased a couple of postcards of the area, stored them in her money belt, then strode out for the beach again, pausing only to 'change' clothes and tighten her money belt.

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Nearly an hour later, she was approaching the boat again, but was slightly puzzled by the fact it was, according to her GPS, about two hundred metres south west of where it was when she left it, and the boat appeared to have a slightly larger draft. "OK then, it looks as though he's found some spectators... I wonder who?"

As she neared the boat, she took a deep dive, swum under it, then quietly surfaced on the other side so as not to attract the attention of those on the boat. Looking at those on board, she immediately spotted a tall redheaded girl with one arm wrapped around the waist of a shorter brunette, both standing some distance away from the lieutenant. To her relief, there was no sign of Mystery Woman. "Cool - he's brought Doris and Lena along. Now to have some fun!"

She dove to within six feet of the surface and performed a slow lap of the boat, before gradually speeding up to something approaching her normal cruising speed. After a few more laps, including diversions to the nearest buoy so she could demonstrate her rapid turning speed, she paused momentarily at the buoy before racing at full speed directly to the small huddle of spectators on the boat. Just before reaching the boat, at the last possible minute, she dived downwards then executed a tight 270° vertical turn to emerge directly below her housemates.

"That was scary!"

"Freaky!"

"Amazing!"

"Wonderful!"

"Just like a mermaid!"

Rena cringed at the last comment, then even more so when Doris, tittering, added "Our very own 'little mermaid'!"

Rena countered with "In what respect, exactly, do I resemble that character? I don't exactly look like her, and I don't recall meeting any talking lobsters down there!"

"You're young, you can swim underwater, aren't too bad looking - right, Lieutenant?"

"Errr, errm, err..."

"Come on, out with it!"Doris didn't exactly help matters by growing a couple of inches, which only served to freak out the poor lieutenant even more.

"Don't say I didn't warn you earlier about her.   She's only teasing - aren't you  - but you may as well satisfy her curiosity. "

Sheepishly, he replied diplomatically, "Well, yes - but so are you two."

Rena responded, "OK, I think we all get the point. What next?"

The lieutenant responded, "A spot of lifesaving practice. There's a manikin in distress about thirty metres north east of here. Rescue it."

"No problem!"

By the time Rena arrived back at the boat and hauled the manikin aboard, she noticed Doris and Lena were absent, and a small pile of clothing had appeared in one corner.

"Let me guess - you've found a couple of volunteers for my first 'live' test."

"Yep,"he grinned, "But just wait a few minutes while they get into position."

It was probably technically cheating, but Rena hailed herself up so she could get a better view over the boat, and saw both girls swimming confidently to presumably pre-defined positions. Lena lay on her back and rested, while Doris started splashing the water wildly, putting on a very ham "drowning swimmer"act.

Without waiting to be told (after all, it was gone 9pm and Rena was starting to get both tired and hungry), she darted off after her housemates. After looking at both close-up, she decided to 'rescue' Lena first, then Doris. When they were nearly back at the boat, she heard the characteristic sound of a digital camera powering up, and quietly said, "OK Doris, drop the act now and smile sweetly - the lieutenant's picked up the camera and I'd guess he's aiming it at us."They glided the last few metres towards the boat while the lieutenant hastily snapped away. Just before reaching the boat, Rena tapped the ribs of her housemates and the three righted themselves, before clambering into the boat.

"Got any good pics?"

"A few. Can I ask a question?"

"You just have."

"Very funny. Why did you pick Lena up first, when Doris was 'struggling' the most."

"First, Doris is a meta and could probably get herself out of trouble without my assistance. Second, that was terrible ham acting..."

Doris beamed, "I did my best!"

Rena shook her head, "...and thirdly, although at first glance, Lena looked the more confident of the two, she was very stiff and I sensed she was a little nervous at just floating out in the middle of the lake. Am I right?"

Lena nodded. "I'm not that bad a swimmer, but just floating, alone, in the middle of the lake..."

"I understand. Even for a few minutes, it can be quite boring, and nerves can set in. But the important thing is that even though you weren't in any real danger out there, you're completely safe now. OK?"

Lena nodded. The three girls then huddled together, listening as, after prompting, Rena told them of the day's events and they responded with questions about how she did or how she felt. At some point, the lieutenant asked if he could have some help with retrieving the buoys, but Rena dismissed it with a slightly caustic "You've been sitting on your butt all day - you do it! I'm busy."

Doris and Lena both looked a little shocked by the outburst, but Rena responded, "Look, it's been a long day, I'm hungry and tired. Besides which, I haven't exactly been much company to you two in the last couple of days, what with all my training. It's nice just sitting back here with you two - I'm so glad you were roped into coming out to see me - out of all the people who could have come and spectated before my public debut (whenever that may be), I couldn't have wished for anyone better than you two. You've been so kind to me for the past few days, volunteering space in your home, allowing me to barge in, waking up at ungodly hours, hogging the bathroom, putting a giant computer desk into the lounge..."

Doris put a finger to Rena's lips. "Look, you needed help, and we both offered. You've been very generous, taking a full share in the cooking and cleaning, you certainly haven't hogged the bathroom - if anything, I'm a little jealous about how quick you are in there with your magic self-drying hair - you've been fully accepting of us and our relationship, and from what I gather may even be able to help Lena with her computer studies. You're more than welcome in our household."

They spent the rest of the journey back to the harbour, and subsequently back home, chatting about the day, the weather, and filling Rena in on the other heroes in the Chicago area - only briefly pausing to collect and eat a takeaway en-route.

Eventually, they arrived back at the warehouse apartment and flaked out on the sofa. Rena noticed her notepad from earlier in the day had been left on it, so picked it up to take a look. She smiled as she saw that her initial algorithm had been annotated and extended, so examined it closer, tracing the paths with a finger. She then looked across at Lena, and after replacing her notebook, gently spoke to her.

"I assume those additions to the algorithm that mysteriously appeared during the day were yours. Thanks a lot - at first glance it looks as though they'll be a really useful addition."

"Errr... thanks. I saw what you were trying to do and couldn't resist having a go myself."

"No problem - and given the steps you took to acquire your inheritance, we could probably team up for future computer projects."

She then noticed Doris was looking a little apprehensive, so looked at her and said "Don't worry, I'm not trying to steal her away from you. Yes, I know she's stunningly attractive, but then again, so are you - and,"she sighed, "I guess I am to. Anyway, although I've only been here three days, with all the help and support you've given me, this sounds really odd to say, but I'm kinda starting to regard you two more like sisters than mere housemates, friends or anything more romantic. Besides which, on that front, I'm still getting used to this body, and was a loner beforehand. So you needn't worry about me bringing any potential conquests back here - if you don't mind I think I'll wait until I've completely settled down and my life has approached something regarding 'normality' before I even attempt to look for love - not that I have the foggiest idea how to do so!"

Doris pondered for a few seconds, then replied "Sisters? You really think of us as sisters?"

"Err...yes. Well, the nearest thing to sisters I'm ever likely to have. Besides which, all three of us have different things in common, and I kinda enjoy the company - makes a change from living alone."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Besides which, you and Lena are so cute together - especially after you've had an enjoyable night..."she replied while crouching down slightly and looking up; which earned her a playful thump in response.

"Seriously, I don't mind. Err.. group hug?"

Lena grinned, then without any warning stood up, grabbed Rena with one arm and Doris in the other, bringing them together. Rena quickly cottoned on and hugged Doris and Lena, with Doris following suit a few seconds later.

"OK then, sister..." Lena said while looking at Rena, then turned to face Doris, "...lover. I could get used to this!"

The hug was interrupted when Rena let out a loud yawn. "Sorry folks, really long and tiring day. You don't mind if I disappear to bed?"

She then broke out of the hug and sauntered into her bedroom.

"Well, today's certainly been interesting. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?"