Part Four

One of the least well attended of the courses Tricorne had arranged for The FX had the entire afternoon of the next day reserved. Perhaps because the talk was given by a member of the local police department. Energia had only met Lieutenant Sandra McCorsky twice before, both times through Blue Impact. However, thanks to the police woman's unusual job Energia clearly remembered both times. While the class she gave was underattended, Energia made sure to be in the audience for the lecture. She also urged the members of The FX to attend, though only Ma, Sircada and Salamander did.

"The supernatural is out there," said the Lieutenant, flatly. Though she normally worked in plain clothes for this she had worn her dress uniform. She looked rather impressive. "My squad gets a dozen minor cases a month, and maybe one or two big ones a year. I try to think of the situation as providing job security with an overall low workload. Don't be fooled by the low number of active cases, though. My work is very dangerous, and my section has a very high turnover rate.

"Most of the time the situation involves someone having a problem with something they inherited or bought from a mysterious shop which no-one can find again. There's also lots of stuff which actually isn't supernatural but follows Clarke's Third Law and appears to be. We usually get those cases, too.

"Regardless of the source, the situations are sometimes embarrassing, sometimes even funny, but always dangerous."

She looked around the room, forearms on the podium and leaning forward for emphasis.

"If you encounter something supernatural and you don't have an expert on your team or on call, you contact my office. Period. Don't put it aside. Don't try to handle it yourselves. Don't try to bring whatever it is to me. Supernatural problems are different, from non-supernatural problems and usually from each other. Almost always, each requires a different approach. Leave them to the experts."

She spent the rest of the hour providing examples - with images and short videos projected on the screen behind her - as well as guidelines for how to recognize when something supernatural was happening. By the time she finished no-one in the room - including Arlen, who for some reason was in this sparsely attended class while he had missed several more popular ones - wanted anything to do with anything remotely connected to the supernatural.

* * *

"I just heard some good news," said Gadgetive, smiling, as the four current occupants of the old bakery got together for supper. "Emil Logsdon woke up. They say the first thing he did was to ask about his family. The second was to ask about the house."

"Well, he seems to have his priorities in order," said Blue Impact, smiling as she raised a large spoonful of beef barley soup to her mouth. "Say, this is pretty good. Who made it?"

"I did," said Vic. "Got the recipe from my Mother. It's one of my favorites, but I don't make it often, because it takes over three hours. Since I didn't have any afternoon lectures today..."

"Say, can I get invited to your house for Thanksgiving?" said Gadgetive, grinning as she also enjoyed the soup.

"That might be difficult," said Vic, grinning but with an edge of sadness. "It took me two years to get them to let Michelle join us. They expect family holidays to be for family only. Fortunately, they include inlaws."

"Isn't she - Michelle, not your mother - coming here later this Summer?" said Energia.

"We're getting together a few days, yeah," said Vic. She grinned. "Or, rather, nights."

"Eeww," said Gadgetive, mildly.

"When are you going to make an honest woman out of her?" said Blue Impact, pointedly. She knew her question would cause some upset for Gadgetive and maybe even Energia, but felt that bringing up the subject might encourage both of them to socialize more.

"That's still up in the air," said Vic, with a sigh. "As sure as anything, if we did get married, the Bureau would tell me to go to work full time. In Alaska."

There were some polite chuckles at that.

* * *

Gadgetive was really looking forward to giving this lecture. While she was a general gadgeteer, she especially liked to work on vehicles. She had even persuaded Vic to let her look at Monstro, though so far all her suggestions had been vetoed.

"Welcome to The Care and Feeding of Team Vehicles," she said, actually rubbing her hands together in eagerness.

She proceeded to give a high-speed accounting of the merits and flaws of various types of ground vehicle. So high-speed that even those with experience in the topic were having trouble keeping up.

"I wish you'd slow down," one of the young men whined.

"If you can't rebuild an engine while it's running," said Gadgetive, smirking, "you haven't had enough coffee."

Later, Energia and Gadgetive were asked to meet with The FX to discuss team vehicles. Knowing Gadgetive, Energia expected this to be a complaint session. However, she instead found that Ma and Sircada and the team's chief technical expert primarily wanted to get the younger super's opinion on those vehicles the team already had.

"It's too bad none of you can fly," said Energia, obviously thinking that was a serious deficit for a hero team. "Even with a license. I understand you already have a good assortment of team ground vehicles, though."

"We're only licensed to operate in the city and this county," said Ma, with just a trace of sternness. "The rides we have are quite suitable for that."

"We have an electrobike for each team member, plus two spares," said Sircada. "They have a hundred-fifty mile range, and can be charged from any standard electric vehicle charging station. We have two hydrogen fuel cell vans, which have five hundred mile ranges and can refilled from any standard hydrogen pump or can make their own from water and an electrical source. They can also recharge the electrobikes. Finally, on the off chance we do have to be somewhere more distant in a hurry, we have a refurbished hopper, donated by the Pioneers, and we have a list of local pilots checked out in that type of aircraft and available for hire. It's an older model, pretty noisy, but can be anywhere on Earth in under an hour and a half from liftoff. Unfortunately, it only seats four plus the pilot. We also have to keep it at an airport out in the county."

"No Kenniman Kinematics Catalytic Fusion units?" said Energia, puzzled.

"Do you have any idea how expensive those are?!" said Ma, scandalized.

"I'm a little concerned about the increasing gap between ground-level teams like us and the more established, wealthier teams," said Sircada. "Not just because of their better transportation, either. I hear there are plans for a joint orbital super headquarters. The first since the Orbital Guild Hall was destroyed, in 2001."

"That plan is still tentative," said Energia, "Though with the incorporation of Shilmek technology and with Lunie help - neither of which the Guild had - it should be safer and more practical."

She grinned.

"Anyway, as you found out with that hopper from the Pioneers, with established teams helping new ones, the whole super hero business is sort'a like getting hand-me-downs. Things may not be an exact fit, but they'll serve reasonably well."

"I can tell you're an only child," said Sircada, in a wry tone.

"Having team vehicles suitable for long distance travel is far more convenient than trying to fly a commercial airline," said Gadgetive, fervently. "Even in costume, they just won't allow some stuff, and if you do wear your costume they're more likely to grill you until you miss your flight, then smile apologetically and send you on your way, expecting you to explain everything to the airline."

"I do believe I hear the voice of experience speaking," said Ma, grinning.

"One time, I missed my flight because I have a public ID and they paid 'special attention' to me, meaning they knew who I was even in regular clothes. Then, while I was at the airline's counter trying to arrange another flight - I was already in the secure area after finally being released - they grabbed me again 'cause I missed the previous flight! I kept telling them I missed that flight because of them, but they didn't seem to understand direct cause and effect. Maybe because they refuse to take any blame for their actions."

"This was the same set of TSA employees?" said Ma, suspiciously. "There are bad apples in every large group, as well as simply incompetent ones. I suspect that in this case you encountered a group of people who just didn't like supers and they were deliberately harassing you. They knew full well why you missed your flight and were just using that as an excuse. If you had asked to see..."

"Those bastards!"

"Have you folks had much interference from city officials who aren't following the lead of the new administration?" said Energia quickly, perhaps to cut off a rant. At least Gadgetive took the hint and sat quietly, if still fuming.

"Not a lot," said Sircada. "Though even after we got approval from the federal, state and city agencies, some offices in all three gave us a hard time."

"You should have been here when the building inspector came through!" said Ma, laughing. "He didn't understand any of the changes we made to bring this old building to super headquarters standards!"

"Well, they are... pretty unusual," said Energia, smirking. "Avoiding inspectors ignorant of our special needs is another reason we in Tricorne keep our lair secret. Like I said, before, teams and associated supers help each other, so we had no shortage of help. Though we still have to supervise pretty closely - there are situations where you just can't let gadgeteers run free..."

"Hey!" said Gadgetive, though she was grinning. Energia gave a silent thanks for her mercurial mood changes.

"...but you get the work done with far less officious hassle."

* * *

One of the most well-attended lectures was another two-hour session. However, this one was entirely on the plate of Blue Impact. Nearly all the attendees were in costume, many of them already being active in the hero business. Several had traveled there from outside the city, a few even from outside the state. Unfortunately, many of them obviously did not like what they were hearing.

"If first responders are already on scene, do not get involved without their specific permission, unless there is an immediate and obvious risk of serious injury," said Blue Impact, firmly. "Such as a building falling towards someone, or someone has jumped from a roof or window.

"Unless you have specific training, do not get involved in a domestic dispute. Back off and make sure the police - whoever the proper authority for that area is - know about the situation. Brief them when they get there, but don't intervene in the dispute unless there is, again, an obvious, immediate threat to someone's safety or you get a specific request from the cops, paramedics or whatever.

"Domestic disputes, especially, require specialized training, but many other situations also are best handled by those whose profession is dealing with them."

"Pffft!" said Arlen, sneering, one of the few of those in the audience in normal clothes. Blue Impact wondered why he was even here if all he was going to do was dismiss her advice as useless. "Training! That's just elitist hype. We don't need training. We're supers! Just do what comes naturally!"

"In which case you'll probably wind up in jail," said Blue Impact, flatly. "Now, concerning civilian arrest..."

"Dunning–Kruger effect," said Ma, later, with a sage nod. "Someone of low ability believes they would be very good at a difficult task. Simply because they have no real idea of how difficult the task actually is."

"I just don't understand him," said Blue Impact, still angry and now not bothering to hide it. "Why is he even attending these lectures if he refuses to learn?"

"That's... not my secret to tell," said Ma, looking uneasy.

"So there is a reason?" said Blue Impact, actually eager to hear it.

"I'm sorry. I can't say any more."

* * *

One of the few other lectures being given by someone who was not Vic or a member of Tricorne was by one of the few supers working openly in the field of medicine. Specifically, one Dr. Jonathan Martel, whose primary superhuman ability was a highly developed and very detailed sense of perception. He was a world renowned geneticist, giving this lecture as a special favor to Blue Impact. Again, many of those in attendance did not like what they were being told.

"The genes associated with powers are found in every population on Earth," said Dr. Martel, "in roughly similar percentages."

"That's not right!" came an outraged cry from the back of the room. "All power genes come from Europe! There was a mutant roaming around the continent about fifty thousand years ago, who spread the power genes there before anyone else ever had them! All the other races got them from that guy and his descendants!"

"No," said Dr. Martel, looking Arlen in the eyes. "That is not true. This mysterious 'superman' was hypothesized back in the late Nineteenth Century to explain superhumans and was later embraced by the Nazis, but no evidence has ever been found that he existed. Furthermore, modern genetic studies have thoroughly debunked the idea. Also, race is a social construct and this is a genetics class, so we'll focus on genetics. There is little variation in the incidence of super genes in any human population, no matter how isolated. The mix of specific genes may and does differ considerably, but the rate of incidence only varies by a few percent. Moreover, some super genes have been found in human remains more than a hundred thousand years old. Interestingly, this is not true for Neanderthals or Denisovans. Only hybrids among those populations who had sapiens ancestors had super genes."

"But... but... How could they get spread so evenly?" said the young man, outraged.

"Humans like to travel and they like to have sex," said Dr. Martel, to the accompaniment of some snickering.

Arlen stared at him for a moment, then jumped up and stormed out of the class.

"Now that we have that out of the way," said Dr. Martel, dryly, "let's try to learn something, shall we?"

* * *

Energia came down to Tricorne's gym the next morning to find a sweaty Vic just... sitting on one of the exercise benches, looking a bit depressed.

"You all right?" said Energia, catching the other woman by surprise.

"Oh, uh, yeah," said Vic, appearing embarrassed. "I was... Well, sometimes it still... catches me by surprise."

She glanced reflexively down at her crotch, blushed and looked back up. Energia realized the martial artist was straddling the bench.

"As someone who had male anatomy for a few hours, I wouldn't want it back," she said, hoping a bit of humor might help. "Those things are always in the way."

"Hey, it's not like girls aren't sensitive down there," said Vic, actually smiling a bit.

"That I well know," said Energia, wincing as she remembered a time on Pine Island during sparring when she moved in at the wrong moment and got kicked between the legs harder than her partner intended. Even through padding that had been a very unpleasant experience. "I like being able to sit the way you are or do proper splits. Something I used to kid Maldren about."

"You still miss him," said Vic, as she saw Energia's expression briefly cloud then go neutral.

"Yeah. Well, I'm going to exercise."

As they both got to work, Vic felt a bit guilty over inadvertently bringing Energia down. She also wondered - in speculation which was definitely not academic - whether a similar moment in their culture between two men would have gone the same way.