Chicago Water Torture 1 (It would be torture for anyone else!)   (AquaGirl 2) by mittfh Copyright © Ben Norwood 2010 Ever spent an entire morning swimming underwater, the afternoon having an intensive workout, followed by an evening trying to reason with an alien AI with an obnoxious personality? It's all in a day's work for Rena... With thanks to Lilith, Lynceus and EnemyOfFun - you know your roles in producing this!

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

---

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

Rena slowly woke up after a blissful first night's sleep at Doris and Lena's warehouse apartment. She reflected on all that had happened in the past few days. Only four days ago, on Saturday, a thirty four year old former software developer boarded a cross channel ferry in Dover, planning on spending three months backpacking around Europe before returning to look for work. He had no close friends and rarely visited his parents up in Scunthorpe.

At the terrible cost of over forty lives, Lorena Martinez had been born as a proverbial phoenix from the ashes - although in her case, whatever the aquatic equivalent was. She still felt a mixture of anger, guilt and puzzlement over her 're-birth'. Of all the people on board the ferry, surely Mark was the least qualified to be metamorphosed into a potential hero - after all, he had no job, no social life, couldn't swim, and had been violently seasick before the boat sank. Yet by some quirk of fate he'd been reborn as a stunningly beautiful Spanish teenager who also happened to be a mermaid (apart from the lack of fishy tail).

But, she thought, what's done is done and can't be changed. And she could do worse in getting acquainted with her new life than being billeted with the gorgeous redhead known to the world as Giganta but to her as Doris. OK, so Doris was already madly in love with a genuine teenager, but when said teenager turns out to be the wayward, estranged daughter of Lex Luthor, life turns out to be just that little bit more interesting.

Rena paused in her idle musings to check the time on her new clock radio. 5:33am. Back in Blighty it would be mid morning coffee time, so Rena puzzled briefly over whether she'd woken up really late or really early, before deciding to find something more productive to do with her time. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so tossed off her duvet, sat up, and wondered if she'd ever get used to the weight of her newly acquired chest protuberances - just one of the many aspects of day to day life that had changed over the past few days. She ran her fingers through her hair, flinching as she hit a tangle, then padded her way to the bathroom.

On arrival in the bathroom, she pulled down the front of her pyjama bottoms before remembering she was now plumbed differently, so with a sigh pulled them completely down before sitting on the loo. She still wasn't fully accustomed to living without a built-in hosepipe, but figured it would soon become second nature. She got up and admired herself in the mirror - she was sure she looked very similar to Mark's mental image of the girls he'd meet on Spanish beaches on his backpacking tour of Europe. She couldn't remember what Mark was thinking before he passed out when the ship had been struck, but after hearing about the ironies involved with some metahuman transformations, she wouldn't be at all surprised if Spanish girls were on his mind during the metamorphosis.

Her next stop was the shower - the first water-based one she'd had since her transformation. Not quite ready to submit to the strange world of exotically scented shower gels, shampoos and conditioners (that seemed to promise everything from reducing wrinkles and smoothing skin to making hair shine with a "radiant glow" and even reversing the effects of aging), she'd bought herself bottles of unscented, uncoloured, hypoallergenic products. She quickly lathered herself up, and stood for a while relaxing as the lather rinsed off.

As she stood there, she pondered what she knew so far about her powers. Apart from the gills (the thought of which still freaked her slightly), she had great speed and agility underwater, so those were three top contenders for what she could do that ordinary people couldn't. She thought back to first waking up, and realised that although she felt the coldness of the water, she didn't feel cold or start shivering. That gave her the inspiration for a little experiment.

Remembering where the temperature knob was set, she first turned the shower down to full cold. She could feel the water getting colder, but even when it was hitting her with an icy blast, she didn't feel any discomfort. Returning the temperature to normal, she definitely felt more relaxed, so she figured she wouldn't be taking cold showers unless she was in a hurry or the water heater broke down. She then decided to see what would happen if she turned the temperature up, so gradually turned up the heat, one number at a time, pausing in between each adjustment to examine how she felt. Even when the water was on full heat, she could only feel a very mild discomfort. Her skin was starting to redden up though, so she returned the temperature control to normal and watched as the redness disappeared.

"OK, so I can survive extremes of water temperature, and the surface recovers from extreme heat far faster than it should. "

Turning off the shower, she pulled back the curtain and stepped out. After rubbing her body dry (she recalled about half way through she was supposed to pat rather than rub, as female skin was supposedly more sensitive, but her new skin didn't seem to mind, so she shrugged and continued rubbing), she grabbed a hand towel to make a start on her hair, but as soon as she touched it she felt something was wrong. Dropping the towel, she felt her hair, only to discover that it was already completely dry.

"Strange. My hair used to take several minutes to dry even when it was short. Another power?"

Feeling adventurous, she turned on the shower again, leaned over the tray, and thoroughly wet her hair. After replacing the shower head, she threw her head backwards and was suprised it didn't send a spray of water droplets flying everywhere, although it still felt damp. She was about to reach for the hand towel again, but decided to feel her hair - just in case - and was surprised to find it had dried again.

"That's going to come in handy - although I'd better not tell the others yet, it would make them dead jealous!"

Now completely dry, she wrapped a towel around her waist before realising her faux pas and raising it to cover her breasts.

"How do girls remember this? And can't the towel go any lower - I feel awfully exposed down below."

She tried adjusting the towel for several minutes before noticing her ring and formulating a plan.

"If at first you don't succeed, try again. If you still don't succed, cheat!"

She dropped the towel, stared at her ring, and thought "Pyjamas."

Instantly, her body was covered by the same virtual clothes she'd worn to bed aboard Jade's Star Cruiser. She grinned, hung the towels over the towel rail, and returned to her room, nearly bumping into Doris en-route.

"Been enjoying yourself in there?"

"Ooh sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry. The shower was pretty quiet - I'd woken up anyway needing the bathroom, and heard you in there."

"Sorry for keeping you."

"Nah, don't worry. I wasn't that desperate, and you're evidently still getting used to your new body."

"It's the first proper shower I've had since the change, so it was nice to just feel the warm water on my back."

"Your hair looks pretty dry - I take it you found the cap."

"N...Yes."

She looked at Rena slightly suspiciously, but shrugged her shoulders and continued, "So you're not going back to bed then? It's not even six yet(!)"

"I couldn't get back to sleep, besides which it would be nearly lunchtime back in the UK. Anyway, I'm being picked up in an hour's time so there'd really be no point."

"Oh, of course. We might not be up by then..."

"...I'm sure he'll take good care of me, and I'll let you know how I got on when I get back tonight. Now back to bed before Lena misses you!"

"Yessir!"

Both girls then returned to their respective bedrooms, Doris to catch a few more hours sleep while Rena sorted out her outfit for the day. As she was sure she'd be doing a lot of swimming, she pulled on a one-piece swimsuit before using the ring to cover it up with her trademark jeans and T-shirt. She pondered for a moment if she should wear it plain or adorn it with a logo. She eventually decided on a typically ironic Gilbert and Sullivan quote, before adding a little twist of her own, wondering if the navy chap picking her up would 'get' the reference:

I am never known to quail
At the fury of a gale,
And I'm never, never sick when coding C!

She suddenly remembered the tiny GPS unit Jade had given her the previous evening, and wondered where she could conceivably clip it. She temporarily dropped the illusive clothing and decided the most convenient place to clip it would be between her breasts. She initially clipped it facing outwards, but decided it could easily be knocked off from that position. She then tried clipping it facing inwards, and was pleased to discover that even when pressing it against her chest, it wasn't too uncomfortable. After replacing her illusory outer clothing, she walked out to the kitchenette to hunt for a loaf of bread, a pair of eggs, and a glass bowl. After opening almost every cupboard and drawer, she eventually found the ingredients, grabbed bottles of milk and tomato ketchup from the fridge, and prepared two rounds of scrambled egg on toast. After finishing and clearing up, she still had half an hour before her lift was due, so decided to take a peek in the unoccupied section of the warehouse. As she stepped through the door, she nearly did a double take at the contrast. Whereas the apartment was bright, clean and modern; the rest of the warehouse was a 19th century brick structure, two stories high at the walls, but with a large sloping roof covered with skylights, reaching about three stories high at the apex. There were two rows of brick pillars marching down the length of the warehouse, with a large metal shutter at the far end. She was surprised at how clean it seemed, and was delighted to spot that a workbench had been installed along the reverse side of one of her bedroom walls, with two plastic four drawer storage units underneath and a row of electrical sockets above, providing ample space to build, repair and maintain PCs, together with an eight port network switch, which she assumed was plugged into the apartment's broadband modem. Apart from that, the rest of the vast warehouse space was empty, with the only other noticeable feature being what appeared to be an eighty foot long ruler painted down the middle. Wondering what possible purpose that could serve, she turned to re-enter the apartment then grinned as she spotted a very familiar looking pile of boxes.

"Cool," she thought. "Jade managed to bring my computer over... but how will it work on the different voltage over here?"

She wandered over to the pile of boxes, then spotted two extra ones - a very large flat pack, which, judging by the picture, was a commercial style computer desk, big enough for two computers ("Aha... smart girl... I can set mine up to Lena's so we don't have to fight over access") and a smaller one with a post-it note attached explaining that Jade's ring had advised her that it was needed for compatibility. Rena opened it up and discovered a 110V 600W PSU for the base unit and what appeared to be half a dozen computer leads with US plugs on the end. Realising it would take more than twenty minutes to assemble the computer desk, move Lena's PC onto it, and set up hers next to it on the desk, she sighed and decided to wait outside for the navy chap to turn up.

Once outside the warehouse (after adding a pair of ring-provided trainers to her outfit), she decided to walk a few hundred yards down to the road's end and the river embankment. Just as she arrived, she spotted a green glow out of the corner of her eye, which she ignored until Jade's voice piped up,

"Don't do it!"

Rena turned around to look at Jade. "What do you mean?"

"Don't jump!"

Rena looked puzzled for a few seconds before 'getting' the joke. "Yes, very funny. What are you doing here?"

"Lieutenant Caedus doesn't know you by sight, so I thought it would be prudent to introduce the pair of you."

"Oh, right. Any ideas what he's driving?"

"That," Jade said, pointing to a black SUV with heavily tinted windows driving slowly down the street.

"Bit conspicuous, isn't it?"

"Not really - there are hundreds in town and you don't want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself."

"Eh?"

Jade sighed. "We don't want the public connecting you and AquaGirl. If people see a teen girl doing things that should be impossible, then a few days later see AquaGirl saving someone's life on TV, they'll make the connection and you'll be hounded by the media whenever you're in public."

"Oh. I hadn't thought I'd need to hide until after my public debut."

"Unfortunately it's necessary. Over the next few days you're going to be on Navy property, and even if they don't see you in action, the recruits might think there's something suspicious about a teenage girl wandering around on base. Especially one not in uniform or with the regulation haircut."

"Oh."

"Anyway, no time for hanging around - let's get you introduced. By the way, did you have to choose such a corny slogan for your T-shirt?"

"I wondered for a while whether to have a slogan or not, but in the end decided upon this in-joke."

Now it was Jade's turn to be confused.

Rena explained: "Remember the circumstances that got me here in the first place? As Mark, being violently sea sick on a ferry? Now here I am, with a new body, voluntarily going out on a boat and swimming around in the sea . OK, technically it's a big freshwater lake, but you get the picture."

The two walked over to the SUV, which had now pulled up on the side of the road, and a smartly dressed man wearing a US Navy uniform stepped out.

"Miss Jade?"

"Hello Lieutenant, this is your charge for the day," Jade replied, gesturing over to Rena, "Lorena, meet Lieutenant Caedus. Lieutenant Caedus, meet Lorena Marquez."

"Miss," he said, nodding at Rena, "if you would like to step into the car, please." He looked at Jade, "Will you be accompanying us?"

"No - I trust you to take care of her on your own, besides which, I'll draw too much attention."

"Very well, miss."

Jade stood back, and the characteristic green glow surrounded her. "I'll be off now - people to see, planets to save," and took off into the air.

Rena nearly stepped into the driver's side of the car, before remembering just in time that the driver's side was on the left in the US, so stepped around to the right hand side, climbed into the car, and buckled her seat belt.

As they set off into the morning traffic, Rena thought out loud, "This seems so strange."

"What does, miss?"

"Driving on the wrong side of the road."

"But this is the right side?"

"Yes, I know it's the right hand side, but it's the wrong side to me. Remember - I'm from the UK, where the driver sits on the right and drives on the left."

"OK miss."

By now, Rena was starting to get a little irritated at being constantly called 'Miss', but reasoned it was probably an appropriate naval formality and he might object to calling her by name. She decided that he probably didn't want to, or wasn't allowed to, engage in small talk so remained quiet through the rest of the journey, just staring out of the window and taking in the scenery.

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

About an hour later, they pulled off the highway and were soon travelling through the campus of Naval Station Great Lakes. After a few minutes, they pulled up outside an imposing brick building and Rena was told to stay put while the Lieutenant officially announced their arrival. After what seemed like hours but in reality was probably no more than about a quarter of an hour, the Lieutenant reappeared, and drove the pair to the base's marina.

Rena was surprised to see that it looked like an ordinary commercial marina, with no sign of big, grey boats. The Lieutenant explained that although it was on Navy property, it was a recreational marina and as such was open to the public (although offering discounted rates to Navy personnel). They parked the car, then walked over to the quayside, the Lieutenant carrying a small briefcase. After walking along the quayside a bit, they climbed down into a 16' speedboat. As he cast off, the Lieutenant explained that they were going to travel to a relatively quiet portion of the lake, away from recreational and commercial traffic.

After several minutes speeding across the lake, during which time Rena was pleasantly surprised to discover she didn't feel nauseous in the slightest, the slowed to a stop in a place that looked like the middle of nowhere, but was apparently just five miles offshore. Looking in most directions, she could only see more lake, behind, the tops of the masts of yachts, and roughly South West of where they were, the tops of the Chicago skyscapers; but otherwise this stretch of lake was quite empty. The lieutenant dropped anchor, then directed Rena to remove her outer clothing. Rena grinned at his disappointment as she willed her ring-provided outer layer to disappear, to be replaced with an all-black version of Alison's costume design ("Bad luck matey - although I need to get used to the feel of my costume, I sure as hell aren't going to reveal all to you!"). After gaining permission to warm up before starting on his list, she gently lowered herself into the water, noting that it felt considerably warmer than the English Channel did a few days ago, held her breath, then dived beneath the surface, hoping her gills would work in freshwater as they did in the briny Channel. She pulled herself deeper, trying to counteract her inherent buoyancy, until she felt the air in her lungs expire.

"Darn it," she thought, "they don't work in freshwater." She started to turn around to head back to the surface, when suddenly the pain disappeared and she gained neutral buoyancy. "Oops, spoke too soon there - well, thought too soon - I can't exactly speak underwater!" She performed a few underwater somersaults before musing on whether to return to the boat to receive her first instruction or do something first. "Well, he probably doesn't know how deep I can go - let's give him a present!" She dived towards the bottom, and although the water temperature got colder and the light started to fade, she didn't experience any discomfort. Soon, she arrived at the bottom, and scooped up a handful of silt before returning to greet a very confused looking Lieutenant by dropping the silt in the bottom of the boat.

"Missing me already? Aw shame - look, I've even brought you a gift!" She watched him get flustered and scramble to open his briefcase, while she mused over what she'd done. "OK, so that was terribly cliched, but it was fun. Besides which, I know that if a pretty young girl had teased me only a few days ago, I would have been just as flustered as him. Actually, come to think of it, I'd probably have been dead embarrassed. Ack, the wonders of my new body - I'd better not get too used to this - it could become a habit to tease poor unfortunate souls like I was a few days ago. And that would not be a good thing."

After retrieving a clipboard and pen from his briefcase ("Hmmm, that looks like paper. Not exactly the most practical for recording out here... then again, a laptop wouldn't be very practical either - and I don't think rescuing a dropped laptop would do my street cred much good - let alone the Navy if it reached the papers"), he looked at his list and crossed off the first item.

"Well, " he said wryly, "Looks like you've given us a minimum value for the first test - depth - the lake's about 100 ft deep here. Now there are deeper parts of the lake - it goes down to about 500 ft deep opposite Kenoshe, which is about forty miles away from here, and we'll cover that depth tomorrow. There are deeper parts further North, reaching about 800 ft deep near Manistee, but as that part of the lake's over 150 miles away, we won't have time to try it. But today is all about endurance - how long you can comfortably spend down there, and speed. So for the rest of the morning, dive down there and try to stay on the bottom until you feel uncomfortable."

"Err...since I have gills when I'm down there and neutral buoyancy, I don't think I will get uncomfortable. I don't really want to sit down there twiddling my thumbs all day, so can you suggest a time for lunch?"

"OK then, make it 1pm - but you haven't got a watch on, so how will you know?"

"Let me try something..." Rena concentrated, and a moment later a watch appeared on her wrist, but it appeared to be static. "Darn it... seems as though this ring can't do electronics. But since it can do communications, I wonder..."

She pulled herself out of the water, and tapped her ring. "Jade, are you busy?"

"No, why?" she replied fairly breathlessly.

"Are you sure you're not busy - you sound out of breath!"

"I'm fine," she replied. "I was just doing a spot of exercise. Got to keep myself in shape. Anyway, how's it going?"

"I'm fine - sitting in a boat in the middle of the lake, confusing the hell of the poor lieutenant here. I think he was rather disappointed I didn't need to change into my swimming cozzie."

She giggled. "Well, that's the Navy for you. So, is this just a social call or do you need me?"

"I was hoping for a favour from your ring."

"Uh oh."

"Don't worry - it isn't anything major. It's just that as I'm doing endurance testing today, it would be handy to have a watch. But I'd rather not go and buy a bulky chronometer that can handle depths of 1,000 ft. Can your ring either give me an alarm call at 1pm or allow my ring to produce a functional digital watch?"

"I'll definitely be able to arrange the alarm call, but the watch sounds a good idea - I'll negotiate with my ring and see what we can do."

"It might be worthwhile patching through Lena - after all, she's good with technology and has successfully persuaded the ring to perform an, erm, unusual request."

"Good point - if we manage it we'll send a message to let you know."

"Thanks Jade. Now what brought on this sudden interest in exercise?"

"Oh, it's just something I saw Free Spirit doing when she visited. I'll explain later."

"OK then...erm, 'Over and Out?'"

Jade giggled, then a few seconds later, presumably after her ring had filled her in on the terminology, finished with a rather giggly "Roger that - Over and Out."

The lieutenant looked at Rena with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Look, this time last week I was fifteen years older, four inches shorter, slightly plumper, terrified of water and couldn't swim. Now look at me - no, not like that (!) - if you were in the same boat as me - oh, err, I meant metaphorically - you'd probably find it hard not to see the irony and may also look on the bright side of life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with the lake bed."

Without waiting for a response, she dived off the side of the boat, this time not breathing in beforehand. As she expected, the gills sprouted quicker and with less lung discomfort than before, and soon she was sitting on the bottom of the lake, wondering how to occupy the next few hours.

After sitting for a few minutes, she decided to have a go at sculpting the silt, but after finding it was too fine to stay in place, and she could feel the graininess of it on her gills, she decided to give up before it interfered with her respiration. Thinking of nothing better to do, once the silt settled she slowly lay back on the lake floor to have another think about the events of the past few days. She started to think about the ferry incident - a small part of her mind still felt guilty for not doing more to help the survivors of the sinking, but she quickly quashed that by telling herself she was unconscious at the time, so couldn't have done anything - besides which, she almost certainly was still her old self until actually reaching the sea bed, so even if conscious couldn't have done anything to help. As for the gender change; that was still going to take some getting used to, especially as the previous day she was sure some of the wolf whistles and cat calls were directed as much to her as to Doris and Lena. She wasn't quite sure whether that was preferable to being completely ignored; but one thing was certain - whether it was because of her new gender or because of meeting so many people in the same boat (she cringed as she made a mental note to find a non water-related analogy; that one was already starting to feel old), she had talked and chatted to more people, more comfortably, in the past three days than at any time in the past three years. She'd felt a little anxious being in close proximity to the lieutenant, but she reasoned she'd probably feel a lot more anxious if she'd been born a girl. Still, she reasoned that she'd probably still clam up and feel out of place if in the company of strangers; and no doubt at some point in the future Doris and Lena would introduce her to Chicago's social scene. But at least it would be more entertaining than lying down at the bottom of a lake, twiddling her thumbs while she waited for the alarm call to return to the surface.

She then contemplated her potential abilities. Underwater survival at depths of up to 100 ft she already knew about, she knew she could swim fairly fast underwater, and that would be tested in the afternoon. She hadn't a clue how long she could comfortably maintain the underwater equivalent of a sprint, but reasoned that at a steady pace, she could probably keep going until she felt hungry. As for land-based abilities, she didn't have a clue. One thing she was fairly sure of - she wasn't a "flyer". She reasoned Jade and Alena could probably cope underwater with one of their protective bubble things, but the others probably couldn't. So overall the team had a mix of aerobatic and land-based abilities, with her providing water support. But what could she do apart from save people from sinking ships? She thought back to previous disasters - she could almost certainly lend a hand with oil spills, like that well that blew up the previous year; and if she happened to be in the right place at the right time, she could probably help out with tsunamis like the one in the Indian Ocean, or flooding like in Pakistan the previous year and New Orleans a few years beforehand. If she had enhanced strength as part of her package, that would be a significant bonus. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep as she imagined various scenarios that she could probably / probably not be able to assist in.

She was woken up by the strangely distorted sound of Jade's voice calling her name, and started to should back "OK, OK!" before realising that vocal communication was impossible underwater. "Damn, that's something else to think about - how the heck am I going to communicate with the team if I'm underwater?"

She quickly ascended to the surface, and climbed back into the boat before replying to Jade.

"Yes, I'm alive - I just realised I can't talk underwater, and sudden movements on the sea floor aren't very good on the gills."

"Sleeping on the job?"

"How..."

"The rings provide a basic biomedical status - you were still for several hours, your heart rate had slowed down - I think it's fairly obvious you were taking a nap down there!"

"Well, you try thinking of things to do on a lake bed for three hours - you can't exactly read a book, listen to mp3s or watch TV!"

"Got any ideas on the comms issue?"

"Leave it with me, I'm sure I'll come up with something by the end of the day. Oh, how's the clock idea coming on?"

"It took a while, but with Lena's help I've persuaded the AI to provide the functionality. I'll need to visit sometime to give you a new ring with it enabled."

"Can't it do 'over-the-air' upgrades? Surely others are going to need custom modifications, and you can't go giving them a new ring every time."

"'Over the air'?"

"OK, you know some computer programs update themselves over the 'net when a new version is released? See if it can add similar functionality to the rings, so if someone's ring needs a tweak, it can push the update out over the comms channel. I'm sure it'll be able to find precise descriptions of how earth computers do it on the 'net - if it can't, give me a call tonight and I'll do some research once I've set up my computer."

"Righteo. I'll ask Doris and Lena, but would 7 be OK with you?"

"Yeah, that should be fine."

"OK then, see you at 7. Byeee."

"Bye."

The Lieutenant looked at Rena boggle-eyed.

"Oh come on Lieutenant, you've already seen me change outfits using the ring and survive underwater for three hours without any breathing apparatus - surely using it as a communications device isn't unfeasible?"

"No, but you're only 17 - how come you know so much about computers?"

"Would it surprise you to learn I'm actually 34 and hold a Master's degree in Software Engineering?"

He stumbled over attempting a reply.

"Yes, it came as a bit of a shock to suddenly find myself a teenager again..." ("You'd be even more shocked if you found out I was a guy beforehand!") "...let alone looking completely different to beforehand..." ("Understatement of the century") "...and alive at the bottom of the English Channel. Now if you'll stop gawping, I think it's lunchtime. Have you brought any food or do we need to head back?"

He gathered his thoughts before opening his briefcase and pulling out a couple of baguettes. Whoever had put Lieutenant Caedus in charge of Rena's testing/training obviously had a sense of humour, as the filling was tuna and sweetcorn.

After finishing the baguette and rinsing it down with a can of cola (original full sugar version, of course!), the Lieutenant outlined the afternoon's activity.

"I was going to do speed and endurance testing this afternoon, but in the light of your watch problems, we'll postpone that until tomorrow. So we'll head back to base and I'll see if I can book a gym for us to see what you're capable of on land."

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

Twenty minutes later, Rena was sitting in the SUV outside the administration block (again!), mentally preparing herself for whatever torture the Lieutenant was planning on inflicting on her during the afternoon, while he was inside negotiating exclusive use of a gymnasium. As he'd reminded her on the journey back to the harbour, there was (unfortunately) no chance of them not being able to use a gymnasium - as part of the agreement between the Navy, the government and Jade, any facilities required for her testing were to be made available as and when needed - no ifs, no buts.

The Lieutenant had been wise enough to take the car keys with him, so Rena couldn't either drive off or listen to the radio, so instead she contented herself with remembering an incident on the boat trip back to shore. She'd manifested the jeans and T-shirt combination she was wearing beforehand, but as they made small talk, she couldn't help but notice his eyes were rather keen on focusing on her chest rather than her face. She grudgingly admitted she did look attractive, but especially as she was now physically seventeen years old, the way his gaze never left her chest for five minutes seemed rather disturbing. Having been male herself only a few days ago, she realised that there was no way a verbal message would do the trick, and as she didn't know her own strength yet, wasn't willing to risk lifting his chin. Suddenly she had a brainwave. She looked up at his face and stared intently at it, then visualised a picture of his face on her T-shirt, which, unsurprisingly, had the desired effect of persuading him to look up at her face.

"Nice to see you've remembered where my face is. Yes, I do have bosoms. So does half the population of the world. Leching like that won't get you anywhere with this one, and I'd hate to test out my strength on you."

He gulped, muttered apologies, then spent the rest of the trip consciously staring at anything except her.

Back in the car outside the administration block, Rena examined her fingernails as she thought over the incident . "I guess that means I'm definitely all woman now - I'm even attracting attention from lecherous picks like him. That reminds me - I'll have to ask Doris and Lena tonight how they cope with unwanted attention - after all, born women somehow cope without needing to use alien rings or superhuman powers." Just as her thoughts drifted to the additional scary prospects of potentially having to wear skirts, dresses, heeled shoes and make-up in the future, she was interrupted by the Lieutenant unlocking the car (as if she'd run away!), climbing in, then driving around the campus until they stopped outside a large two storey building largely devoid of windows.

As they got out of the car, the Lieutenant explained that this was one of the campus' main indoor sports facilities, featuring not only a sports hall but squash courts, a swimming pool and a gym. He led her inside, up a flight of stairs and along several corridors before arriving at the gym itself. Rena looked in and saw a room about the size of a pair of school classrooms, containing half a dozen each of exercise bicycles, treadmills, padded benches and weight machines. She gulped loudly, and nervously exclaimed "Cripes. Err...I've got a confession to make - I've never been to a gym or health club before."

The lieutenant raised an eyebrow, but said "Don't worry, it's all very easy to use. You might like to change into something more appropriate first."

Rena sighed and changed her jeans to a pair of jogging bottoms, before sauntering over to an electric scale the Lieutenant had produced.

"OK then, step on the scales. How much did you weigh beforehand?"

"About twelve and a half stone - oh, you guys measure in pounds, don't you - let's see, twelve and a half times fourteen - one forty plus thirty five - one hundred and seventy five pounds. Yes, I was a bit of a slob!"

She stepped on the scales, then looked down in confusion. It was reading two hundred and ten pounds. The lieutenant also looked at the scales in confusion. They looked at each other, and said in unison "That can't be right!"

The lieutenant then muttered "Never trusted electronic scales." before unlocking a cupboard to one side of the room and pulling out a set of manual scales. "Weightwatchers have meetings here twice a month - their scales are bound to be more accurate than that pile of junk," he said while giving the electronic ones a gentle kick.

After he put the manual scales down, Rena stood on them and was even more puzzled when they showed the same result. The lieutenant muttered something about incorrect calibration, and was just about to head back to the cupboard to fetch another pair of scales when Rena had an idea.

"Where are the weights stored?"

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that if we tested the scales with some known weights, then we can see if it's really the scales that are playing up or if I'm unusually heavy."

"Oh right. Hang on." He walked over to another cupboard and opened it up, revealing the stack of free weights. He pulled out two smaller weights, while Rena opted for two slightly larger weights - and was pleasantly surprised at how light they felt to her. After placing them on the scales in various combinations, they agreed that the scales were calibrated correctly, and Rena did indeed weigh two hundred and ten pounds, although she had the body build and size of someone half that weight.

As they already had a selection of weights out, the lieutenant decided to start off with strength testing. After a gruelling hour with both free weights and the weight machine, the lieutenant concluded she could lift about twice the capacity of a 'baseline' girl of her age. He then guided her over to one of the treadmills and quickly keyed in a programme.

"OK, this first test is to find the maximum speed at which you feel comfortable running. The machine will start up at 5mph, then increase by 1mph every fifteen seconds. If at any point you find the speed uncomfortable, press this button and it will reduce by 1mph. Press it again to continue. If at any point you think you're in danger of falling over, press this second button and the machine will gradually slow to a stop."

Rena hesitantly stepped onto the treadmill, and soon picked up a brisk walking pace, which quickly turned into a jog followed by a flat out run. Eventually she found a speed that she was comfortable running at and kept the machine there for several minutes before she tried the higher speeds, which proved far more exhausting. She was therefore very grateful when she felt the machine slowing down to a stop, and only too readily glugged down the bottle of water handed her by the Lieutenant.

Once she'd got her breath back, Rena asked the Lieutenant,

"So, how did I do?"

"If I hadn't seen it for myself I wouldn't have believed it!"

"Go on, elaborate."

"Your comfortable running speed is an impressive twelve miles per hour. That's a speed only usually achieved by top athletes. It would be interesting seeing how long you can keep that up, but in the meantime, we've got the sprint test."

"What's that?" Rena said, already dreading the likely answer.

"This time, we quickly bring you up to twelve miles an hour, then we quickly accelerate to fifteen for a few seconds, before returning. The cycle's repeated with a higher maximum speed until you feel you can't cope, whereupon pressing the button will slow down to a stop. Admittedly it's not as realistic as doing it in the open, but since I can't let you use the running track and we haven't got any radar guns, it'll have to do."

"Ugh. Just give me a few minutes, then you can torture me again."

The Lieutenant winced, and nearly spoke up in indignation before seeing the slight smile on Rena's face and realising she'd only said it in jest. Several minutes later, she sat down again, glugging another bottle of water. This time, she only needed to look at the Lieutenant with a questioning expression for him to spill the beans.

"Your absolute upper limit seems to be around thirty miles per hour - but I think it's safe to say you'll only be doing that under extreme stress conditions, for a very limited amount of time. I don't think even your body could sustain that speed for any length of time."

"Figures. So what's next, torturer?"

"Endurance. We've seen you maintain a constant speed for half a minute at a time - but how long can you keep it up? We've got one and a half hours left here, so if you're still going after an hour, we'll stop and clear up. After all, unless you're planning to be a pacemaker in a marathon, you're unlikely to need to run for anywhere near an hour in real life."

"Lead on, Macduff."

Rena stood on the treadmill, took a deep breath, then nodded for the Lieutenant to start it. She quickly settled into a brisk run, and although she didn't dare talk for fear of running out of breath or losing concentration and face planting, she was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't all that tiring for the first half hour. After that, she gradually started acquiring mild aches in her joints and her throat was getting rather dry, but apart from those symptoms she didn't feel very exhausted and was starting to enjoy herself. All too soon, the hour was up, the treadmill slowed to a stop, and Rena warily left it, feeling slightly odd now her legs weren't moving ninety to the dozen beneath her.

After being assisted off the treadmill and downing another bottle of water, Rena felt slightly better, so was able to assist the Lieutenant in clearing up - otherwise known as he opened the cupboard doors and told her where everything was stored, while she packed away - his excuse being she was a lot stronger than him. Grrrr.

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

The journey back involved another crawl through rush hour traffic, but Rena didn't notice as she took advantage of the expected hour's drive back to have a nap and mentally prepare herself to do battle with a certain AI in the evening. In fact, she had to be woken when they arrived in the street and it took her a while to get her bearings - initially wondering what she was doing in the driver's seat of a strange car without any controls in front of her, before realising she was in the passenger seat of a US-spec car, in Chicago, in the same street as her new home. After shaking the Lieutenant's hand and wishing him a safe journey back, she remembered to wait until he'd left before approaching the warehouse and letting herself in. Understandably, Doris and Lena were initially eager for her to spill the beans about what she'd been doing, but when they noticed she was still looking a little tired held off to allow Rena to explain in her own words.

"The morning was pleasant enough, if a little boring. You could say the Lieutenant allowed me to lie down on the job."

"Eh?"

"I spent a relaxing three hours lying down... on the bottom of the lake(!)"

"!"

"Apparently he wanted to test how long I could remain underwater. I think someone forgot to tell him about my gills, so I spent three hours counting rocks on the bottom of the lake bed, while he did goodness knows what above me. Oh, that reminds me - since it's likely I'm going to be spending a lot of time underwater, I've asked if Jade's AI can give me a ring-provided watch - I figured if it could do that, it would be less expensive, far less bulky, and far less noticeable when I'm out and about incognito than a proper chronometer. Apparently to do that I'll need a replacement ring - so I've also asked if it can make the rings upgradable 'over-the-air' - it doesn't make sense if every time one of us needs an enhancement, we have to wait for Jade to physically visit us and create a new ring. Since the rings already provide clothing and communications, I'm guessing they have some form of futuristic or intergalactic computer on them; so it makes sense that they should be able to be programmable to be updateable remotely."

As she spoke, Lena started nodding and smiling. "So that's why Jade called earlier to ask for clarification on what 'over the air' and 'firmware upgrades' meant."

"Oh, sorry about that - I just assumed she'd get her AI to do a 'net search. I guess that after so many years when all potential threats have come from extraterrestrial sources, it hasn't really needed to do much interfacing with what it would probably regard as primitive earth computers and networks. Oh, and I've been thinking..."

Doris piped up "Don't overdo it!"

"Yes, very funny. Since it feels the need to ask permission before touching any earth-based computer systems, and we haven't got easy access to the information it has on potential threats and all the intergalactic warfare stuff, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if we can access it somehow without Jade needing to be present."

"Err...I don't think that would work. It's pretty much duty bound to her."

"I know that - so I was thinking that rather than interfacing directly with it, it helped us build an interface between our computers and Jade's ship's computer. After all, it's copied details of all the extraterrestrial threats there, so if we could access that..."

"We'd be able to access the relevant information without needing to annoy Jade or her AI. Brilliant!"

"And even better, I've been toying with the idea of building a web spider that will collate information from news articles, social networks and blogs about possible metahuman activity, so ''we'' (well, any of 'Jade's Gang') can quickly find and support new metas. If that information was shared with the ship's computer, it would be easily accessible to all of us."

"That's great!"

"There's just one potential problem - persuading the AI to build such an interface. It wouldn't be violating any of its precious protocols, or (as far as I'm aware) any human laws, but I have a feeling selling the idea to an AI built with the intention of only being used by one person could be difficult."

Doris then piped up, "Give Mia a call - she'll probably be able to help you two out."

"Mia?"

"Yes, you know - California girl, incredible computer knowledge, hangs out with Olivia."

"You've lost me. Remember, I've only been here a couple of days. Who's Mia? Who's Olivia?"

"Oh, sorry - I forgot you're not up to speed yet. Who have you encountered so far?"

"Well, apart from you two and Jade; there's Alena, who brought me over here; her sister Alison, who designed my costume; I chatted with Stephani, Alyssa, Terra and Courtney when we did the video conference thingy; but I don't know anyone else. Unless you count that 'Gold' girl that apparently stopped Obama from being assassinated."

"Yeah, she did - unfortunately she seems to have let fame go to her head, and seems to be doing the celebrity circuit. Last I heard she'd jetted off to California for some promo work."

"So where's she from originally?"

"Around here, believe it or not. Apparently beforehand, Myka was was a football player and all-round jerk."

"I wonder how she'll cope when the media get bored and start digging for dirt?"

"I doubt there's much dirt left to dig. It's rumoured that as Mike, he'd bedded half the cheerleading squad. But now she's saved the President's life, the media are treating her with kid gloves. She'll probably keep going until the media are bored with her, then they'll just quietly drop her."

"Anyway, apart from her, who else should I know about?"

"Well, Olvia's about the most prominent. Although, more than anyone else, I'll need you to treat what I next say as highly confidential, and never reveal to anyone outside our community."

"Sounds intriguing. I used to work in the banking sector, so I know all about confidentiality. Besides which, as I'd very much like to keep myself separate from 'Aquagirl', I understand the need to keep silent about alter egos. So what's the deal with Olivia?"

"Have you heard of Queen Industries?"

"Multinational company, most famous for their cruise liners, although I suspect they probably invest in other industries as well. Why?"

"Who's their CEO?"

"Err...no, it can't be... you've got to be kidding, right?"

"Yup - Olivia Queen is one of us. So now you know the need for utmost secrecy."

"Yeah - but what's her alter ego? And skills?"

"She calls herself the 'Green Arrow' when out and about. Archery tends to be her main speciality, although Mia helps out behind the scenes."

"So what exactly does this Mia do?"

"She's a born girl, with phenomenal skills in computers and computer systems. She's pretty much Olivia's eyes and ears when out heroing - and it helps that as she's great friends with Olivia, she's got access to all the Queen Industries computer kit - plus their satellites and internet servers."

"Cripes! Anyone else?"

"Just one, really - Josie. She's styled herself the 'Blue Beetle' and can manifest some funky form-fitting blue armour which also grants her flight abilities. Apparently it's all controlled by some alien AI she's managed to bond with. Apparently, it was originally sent here about 6,000 years ago to act as a spy for an invasion force that never arrived, so understandably in that time it's learnt to live with us and help us, although apparently Josie's in charge of their relationship, as she claims she's held back from the AI's 'kill' instinct on several occasions. Oh, and she's also Spanish by descent, so if you ever meet her she'd probably be able to help you with the language."

"That would be a big help if I ever have to deal with the media as 'Aquagirl' - somehow a Latino girl speaking with an estuary accent might seem slightly odd to them. Anyway, it certainly seems as though this metahuman lark really does attract all sorts - teenagers going to a costume party, relatives of a multi-billionaire, geneticists, army types (I still can't believe Courtney volunteered!), and even aquaphobic computer geeks! But enough talking, I really need to write some notes on Olivia, Mia and Josie before I forget."

She then walked over to her bedroom, grabbed the notepad she'd made notes on the other members of the J-Team a few days previously, and scribbled down what she could remember on the three 'new' members, before walking back into the lounge with a ponderous expression on her face.

"How long until dinner?"

"It's about three quarters of an hour now. Why are you asking?"

"Ooh good - I was wondering if I'd have enough time to assemble the new computer desk that's still sitting out in the warehouse."

"The flat pack?"

"Yes - from the description on the box, it looks big enough to hold both Lena's computer and mine. Fancy lending a hand?"

Doris laughed. "No thanks - I'll concentrate on the dinner. The instructions in those flat packs make genetic engineering look child's play by comparison!"

Lena, however, looked confused. "I don't get it. What's so difficult about assembling a piece of furniture?"

Rena replied with a grin, "I guess you haven't encountered the delights of Ikea yet. Help me out and I'll indoctrinate you. Ve have vays of making you confused!"

"You're confusing me already!"

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸<º(((><,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸><(((º>,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

Half an hour later, after holding various alphabetically named chipboard panels, counting twelve widgets, eight thingumijigs and four whatjacallits that served as the connectors, the desk was constructed and Lena was convinced that if she needed to buy any furniture in future, she'd buy it ready assembled. Doris was slightly sceptical that it would hold... at least until Rena sat on the back end.

"It's more conventional to sit on the front of a desk and wave your legs underneath it."

"Yes, but ordinary people don't weigh 210 lb."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope - verified by several different weighings and comparison to gym weights. I guess that beneath my relatively slender frame, I must be incredibly dense."

After shaking her head while the others tittered, "No, not like that. I do have an MSc in Computer Science you know! I'm guessing that the density of my body is significantly greater than 'baselines' - probably an adaptation to help me survive underwater. Not that sitting at the bottom of Lake Michigan for three hours is my idea of fun."

"?!?!"

"I'll tell you about my adventures today when Jade gets here - no point repeating the tale any more than is strictly necessary. Suffice it to say for the moment that I definitely do grow gills when underwater, and on land I'm quite speedy and strong. But thankfully not ridiculous - you won't find me haring down a motorway at 70mph, or lifting a fuel tanker with my pinky."

By the time dinner was ready to be served, Rena had also set up her computer on the left side of the desk, and transferred Lena's over to the right side. It was a convenient arrangement, as with Rena being left handed and Lena being right handed, they wouldn't get in each others way when manipulating the mice. Doris couldn't help but notice and joke; "Rena and Lena; Left and Right; how appropriate..."

"Don't worry - I'm not going to steal her away from you! I've seen you two together - you were made for each other - while we'll collaborate on projects I wouldn't dare come between you two."

Doris was momentarily taken aback by this sudden stream of conciousness, before replying "I was only joking you know. Although I've only known you a couple of days, I've a hunch you wouldn't go after either of us."

"Thanks for that. I'm still trying to get used to the new 'me' and the whole girl thing. I was a bit of a loner beforehand, so just having so many new friends and supporters within such a short space of time is a little overwhelming. Not to mention the whole metahuman business. Believe me, romance is the last thing on my mind!"

"We'll be here to support and guide you. Heck, if the concept wasn't so ridiculous, you could almost be a little sister."

Rena rolled her eyes. "Hmm...we are a mixed up bunch, aren't we? Lena's the youngest here, but has a lifetime's experience of girlhood. I'm officially and chronologically the oldest here, but I've been a girl for a couple of days. So, yeah, thinking of you as 'big sis' would seem a little strange, even if you occasionally become 'very big sis'."

Further discussions were interrupted by the sound of Jade's voice in stereo saying "Knock, knock!"

Doris smiled and said "Ooh good, she's arrived just in time."

"Were you expecting her?"

"Not before you arrived back, but when you said she'd be popping in at dinner time, I prepared an extra portion. After all, while replicator food may taste OK, it's bound to be no substitute for the real thing, or for eating in company."

"I guess that figures. Oh, hi Jade."

At that moment, Jade walked in, having been let in by Lena while Rena and Doris were still chatting.

"Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I? I can come back later if you're about to eat."

Doris replied, "No, you're staying - and eating with us!"

"Why do I get the impression there's an ulterior motive here?"

Rena mockingly raised her hands and said "I confess - we've got a tech proposal to put before your ring. But it's likely to take a while to convince it of the merits, so I hope you haven't anything planned for the rest of the evening."

Jade sighed, and concentrated on her ring for a few seconds. "OK, we'll hear you out - it's apparently shaping up to be a very quiet night. But you realise I'm going to be bored stiff if you're talking tech all evening with it."

Rena thought for a moment, then darted off to her bedroom and returned with her mp3 player. "Admittedly my taste in music is a little eccentric, but I've got about 16 hours worth of tracks on there, so you're bound to find something worth listening to for a couple of hours while we engage in negotiations."

"We?"

"Lena will be helping out, and we're hoping to get Mia involved as well via video conference."

"Sounds a pretty big deal, if you're getting Mia involved!"

"You're free to listen to the opening arguments - then you can put on the music when the arguments get too technical for you."

"Sounds reasonable enough."

Dinner was held in relative silence, although Doris and Lena seemed to edge closer to each other as the meal went on, and at one point looked on the verge of feeding each other before backing out - presumably aware of the company in the room. Rena offered to clear up, while Lena contacted Mia and outlined the proposal they were planning to put before the AI. She soon agreed to help out, so within a few minutes everyone was sitting down in the lounge, with Mia full-screen on Lena's computer while the two webcams provided a panoramic image of the group back to Mia.

Before the discussions started, Rena took the opportunity to take a good look at Mia. She looked rather cute, this was no doubt helped by her bright pink hair. But behind that cuteness, she was apparently a computer genius whose abilities apparently dwarfed those of hers and Lena's combined, not to mention Messieurs Gates and Jobs. She was definitely worth getting to know - and might even be able to help with some aspects of girlhood she felt uncomfortable asking her housemates. She realised she'd been staring at the pink-haired girl a little too long when Jade gave a polite cough and asked if everyone was ready to start.

Rena reluctantly tore her eyes away from the screen - "No girl, she's way out of your league, lives half way across the country, and almost certainly prefers boys. Besides which, you told yourself only a few minutes ago you weren't ready for romance. Just wait until your damn hormones have settled down before trying to find a soulmate." - and shook her head to refocus her thoughts before making the opening statement.

Ten minutes later, Jade started looking bored, so while Mia was putting forward the latest strand in their argument, Rena looked over at Jade and tapped her ears. Jade nodded and mouthed a "thanks" before putting in the earbuds, closing her eyes, and reclining slightly.

Nearly an hour later, the combined actions of Rena, Lena and Mia had finally convinced the AI that building an interface between their computers and the ship's computer wouldn't be violating any human, galactic or Lantern laws, would be potentially useful to both the J-Team (as Rena had started referring slightly tongue-in-cheek to Jade's team of heroes - a term that was starting to catch on, albeit informally and unofficially - no-one wanted the media to hear of the term, for fairly obvious reasons), Jade herself and the AI.

The next hour was spent discussing the finer details of the design of the interface and the security, before discussions turned in the third hour to exactly what information would be shared on each end. Rena's proposal to monitor news sites, blogs and forums for possible cases of metahuman activity was widely received - at least partially because it was reasoned that Lena's dad and others interested in recruiting metas for nefarious purposes would probably be doing likewise.

Finally, at just after ten pm, negotiations were concluded, with the AI promising to build the interface within the next week, with distribution by either Jade or Alena; depending on how busy they were. The security on the interface was enough to make any security expert jealous - gigabit encryption and multi-factor authentication, which included needing at least one ring in the vicinity of the interface to upload, download or view data. It also agreed that very limited extracts of its data could be provided to the relevant public authorities if they encountered an antagonist in its database.

Just as Jade was about to leave, her ring reminded her of the original purpose of her visit. For the sake of modesty, it agreed to maintain Doris and Rena's illusory clothes while they handed their rings back to Jade and she supplied them with the new, upgradable rings. Apart from a tiny transmitter symbol etched on the outer bottom of the rings, they looked identical to the previous ones. Jade explained that Rena's had been equipped with a variety of illusory watches - both feminine analogue watches for when she was incognito, and a variety of digital watches for use underwater. Both types could have all functions activated either manually or by willpower, and they could also provide verbal readouts of the time, stopwatch or countdown timer - both out loud or internally. Rena thanked Jade and made a mental note to test it out before she was collected the following day for that day's torture session.

Evidently, Jade's AI picked up on the thoughts, because although everyone was tired, when Jade asked how Rena's day had gone, everyone was eager for her description of the day's events. Mia also graciously hung on , perhaps out of idle curiosity about Rena's rather unusual power set. She was certainly amazed by Rena's description of acquiring gills, Lena was curious about the speed aspect, while Doris grew a few inches in response to Rena's comments about the Lieutenant's lechery. However, when Rena described her rather unusual counter-measure, Doris quickly returned to her default height while Lena and Mia giggled and Jade shook her head in disbelief. Jade offered to have a word with the Navy and possibly get the Lieutenant replaced, but Rena dismissed that idea, stating that he'd behaved like a perfect gentleman afterwards. When she got to describing her super density in more detail than earlier, Doris' ears picked up, and wondered out loud how invulnerable Rena was.

"Err...feel free to poke and prod me, but I don't fancy finding out if I'm bulletproof!"

"Don't worry - I don't think any of us would be stupid enough to try shooting you to see if you were!"

"I know, I'm just saying, that's all. I've been given a new lease of life and I don't plan on prematurely ending it through stupid experiments. I certainly don't want to be the first meta to win a Darwin Award!"

Jade sighed, then looked at her ring and said "Go research it yourself!"

Rena asked her, "Is it still confused about pop culture references? I thought it would have learned to spot potential ones and research them itself by now!"

"It's perfectly capable of researching stuff by itself, but whoever programmed it forgot to give it any kind of initiative. Perhaps they thought that if it actually did take the initiative and research things for itself, it could become a potential threat. After all, there could be a potential slippery slope from researching items to taking combat decisions for itself. Remember, it was only Josie's willpower that stopped Khaji from taking over her completely and killing assailants."

"Khaji?"

"Oh sorry, that's the name her AI calls itself. And before you ask, mine doesn't go in for personification. It prefers to remain nameless."

"Perhaps you could persuade it to ask permission before researching a concept or term - that way it's still being subservient, but it it's showing a little more awareness of human culture. Heck, why don't you ask it to archive Wikipedia?"

"It wouldn't be sure which were terms in current use or not in a particular part of the world without researching further, which it would feel the need to ask me about."

"Perhaps that's something else we can collate and upload to the ship's computer - it'll save you a bit of time and resentment."

"That's a good idea - but please, don't spend too long on it. I'd rather you concentrated on your original database idea."

"Don't worry - between the three of us," she said pointing to Lena and Mia, "it shouldn't take long to set up the basic algorithms. And unlike our primary database, we wouldn't need to monitor it."

"OK, but you don't need to..."

"No, we don't need to, but after all you're doing for us, it's the least we can do to give something back. No arguing!"

Finally, all discussions were concluded, Jade left, and Mia ended the video conference link from her end. Just before getting ready for bed, Rena pulled Doris and Lena into a group hug. "In case I haven't said it before, thanks for taking me in, looking after me, and putting up with all my eccentricities. Oh, and I'm sorry for taking up so much of your precious Lena's time tonight," she said while tousling Lena's hair. She broke off the hug and walked towards the bathroom, finishing off with "So now it's time for you two to get reacquainted. I fully expect to be the tallest in the household when I wake up in the morning."

"Wha?!"

"Yes, I know - and no, I won't tell anyone else. You two go off and have some fun."

Lena grinned, looked up at Doris, said "You heard her. Come on!" and practically dragged her towards their bedroom. Rena headed to the bathroom, shaking her head. "We're one weird household - but weird's good! Now for a good night's sleep... and to psyche myself up for tomorrow's torture session."