Log:Superkids!, Scene 12

Superkids! 2007/06/08 	 Amber and Azure|Jessica Miles Fuchs Roger Creighton Auntie Rotter Dancing Voice 12

Scene: The Security Area at Starguard

Agents Fuchs is escorted, with Jessica, to the security area. Reactions to Jessica are mixed - some glad to see her, some awkward - and Roger scowls from a distance.

Jessica gives Roger a cheerful smile, especially when she sees the slightly puffy eyes in his face.

In another cell, the 'Autograph-seeker' snores softly, smiling it seems even in sleep.

Auntie, though, sits erect on her bed, watching Agent Fuchs and Jessica enter. She looks stone-faced. Hardly happy, but not showing anything, and regards the two with cold eyes.

Jessica nods politely to Auntie, but allows Agent Fuchs to speak first.

Starguard have taken the precaution, as with Spitball, of reinforcing the cell with force fields, which shimmer slighly before her.

Agent Fuchs starts of simply, after greeting Auntie: "What's your name?" Auntie doesn't answer.

"Are you the one they call Auntie? ... Are you Dr Margaret Simmonds?"

Auntie doesn't seem to pay Agent Fuchs any attention at all, but for the slightest flick of recognition at the name of Dr Simmonds. Abruptly she turns to Jessica. "What's your interest in this, Wolf in sheep's clothing?"

"She's here at my invitation -"

"I wasn't asking *you*!" snaps Auntie.

Jessica says, "The children. I thought you were merely using them, preparing them to be your agents. I wanted them to have a chance to be more than that."

Auntie replies, "I was saving them. Saving them from foolish shortsighted normals, who would have them hide their gifts, or worse."

Jessica nods, "Why the killing? That wasn't needed."

Auntie studies Jessica's face. "How do you know what was needed?"

Jessica looks back, "I know a lot about killing. I know about Pekka, some of the others. There was no need. Desire maybe but not need."

"Mikko Virtanen deserved worse! Do you know what he did?" There is anger in her voice, but cold anger.

"Did you -" begins Agent Fuchs, but Auntie cuts him off right away. "I do not answer to your laws, and I will not answer your questions. You are beneath my contempt, Agent Fuchs."

Jessica says, "Deserve is not need. Mikko may will have deserved what happened to him. You didn't have to do it. That was your choice."

"It *was* necessary. Had I not, the Virtanens would have search the world for Spitball. With him dead, and her in despair, he was safe. At least till you interfered."

"Even if I hid him till the end of time they would have made another child to torture. And it is not for such as we to suffer at the hand of such as them."

Jessica says, "Expose them and they would have no chance to commit such a crime again. What you did was wrong. Worse, it was foolish. It set you against the very people who would otherwise have been helping you."

Auntie is silent for a moment. "It was not my best decision. I have made mistakes. But already people were against me. "His kind -" she points at Agent Fuchs - "and those who follow their rules."

Jessica sighs, "Agent Fuchs only became your enemy after you made him one. See him standing beside me? You know what I am. So does Agent Fuchs. There are good people and bad people. We don't have a monopoly on the good. They don't have a monopoly on the bad."

"Agent Fuchs is his own enemy. Always trying to see patterns in the dots till he can't sleep at night. I never asked him to look at the dots. Yet even now he stands there, wondering, 'Why did the Zero Killer change her modus operandi?' Oh yes, I know you, Agent Fuchs."

Agent Fuchs looks just a little taken aback. He opens his mouth to speak, but Auntie is ahead of him. "It was for the children, fool of a man. Doll's family vanishing - yes, that was another mistake. I was angry beyond words. But I recognised my mistake, as soon as I saw my new path in life. The Zero Killer had to vanish too."

Jessica says, "I didn't come here to discuss the Zero Killer or compare morality. I came here to talk about the children. You are going to be in a cell for a long time. Someone needs to take your place and make sure they are safe and well. I helped put you here. So it's my responsibility to look after them."

Auntie's demeanour changes rapidly, from an air of cold superiority to one of concern. "Where are they? Are they well?"

Agent Fuchs decides to keep quiet, for now. Jessica at least has her talking, which is better than he was doing.

Jessica says, "Spitball is in Lord Markham's School. You've been in England. You'll know about that. Barbie, Doggie and Hoverboard are with him. Spitball likes all the new metas he's meeting at the school but misses his friends. The toys have having a terrific time. A whole school full of kids wanting to play with them. The others I haven't heard from. Spitball has indirect contact with Toymaster through the toys. I gave Spitball a PDA so he can talk directly to them, and hope they will contact me soon."

Auntie sits for a long moment, thinking. Then she says steadily, "If they can't be with me, I can't think of a better place for them to be than Lord Markham's School. At least there they will be free to be themselves - their whole selves - though I may not agree with their principles entirely. With one condition."

Jessica looks straight into Auntie's eyes, "I'm listening. Won't say yes or no until after I've heard the condition."

"Their parents can't know they're there. Elina Virtanen especially. I swear to you, if she takes Spitball away I'll break out of Stronghold and kill her myself."

Jessica half nods. "I told Spitball that he won't have to go back there. She doesn't know he is alive. I'll not let him be forced to go back. You have my word on that. But what about Rainbow? She seems to miss her parents."

Auntie considers. "They're fools, but they might be persuaded by the promise of a good school. I wouldn't take the chance myself, though."

"But...."

"I said I have made mistakes. I have a big one to tell you. But just you. No one else." She looks pointedly at Agent Fuchs, and the other prisoners.

Jessica smiles. "Let's hope they can be persuaded to open the door again." She looks to the closest guard. "Cycle me in. No matter what happens inside do not open the door to let out anyone else but me exit and do not attempt to enter yourself. Not even if I'm being threatened. Do you understand?"

The guard says he'll have to check. But a couple of minutes later he gets the go-ahead. Maybe Roger wants Jessica dead. :)

"Are you sure about this?" asks Agent Fuchs.

Jessica smiles, "No. But trust has to start somewhere. I'm asking her to trust me with the future of the children that she cares for. If I ask for trust I have to give it too." She nods to the guard and enters the airlock type entrance passing through into the cell. A hanky gets wrapped around the microphone. "Here I am."

Auntie leans in close to speak, but keeps her hands back. "I think I made a big mistake with Porthole. My biggest."

Jessica looks surprised, "I viewed him as one of the more settled and integrated members of your little family. I'm surprised."

"He is, and I love him like a son, and I couldn't bear to lose him - But I don't think I was right to keep him. I just couldn't..... Listen. His parents were as bad as Doll's - worse - in what they were saying about his powers, how they wouldn't let him use them. Bad enough that I decided they had to have a car accident, to make sure they'd never come after him. But - I think I was wrong. Not the way you think."

Jessica listens wondering where this story is going.

"She didn't die in the crash. I thought she'd just been lucky. But then, someone was after us, looking everywhere - we had to hide well for a while. I think she's Porthole's mother - a meta. And I almost killed her. All that talk - I think it was just to keep her cover...."

"If she is - if it was my mistake - she should know. Porthole should know." For the first time, she sounds truly regretful about her violent actions.

Jessica shakes her head, "That's messed up. I mean seriously messed up. There's a whole lot of unanswered questions. Didn't you try to contact her?"

"I should have. But - I didn't want to lose Portal. I - and anyway, what if I'm wrong? I couldn't take the chance of going to her. You see - she's a 'superhero'."

Jessica facepalms for the first time in her entire life. "Well there's not much question about whether she's a meta then is there." She chuckles dryly, "So little old Wolfguard here goes to say Hi instead. That's going to go down about as well as you approaching her. But as you say, Porthole deserves to know and so does his mother. What's her name?"

"The question is whether she is the mother, and I don't know. I haven't been close enough to find out. In English she goes by 'Elsewhere'." She gives her secret ID name too, assuming it is the same woman.

Jessica nods, memorising the names. "I'll find out. Did you ever talk to Porthole to see if his parents were actually following through with any anti-meta power talk they were doing?"

"Certainly they were making sure he didn't use his abilities in public. Or trying to - obviously he did and that's how I found him. It never occurred to me it might not be what it seemed, till Elsewhere started following us."

Jessica says, "You know, for someone as obviously smart as you are, you've made a lot of mistakes. What I've heard when you've been talking about them is how angry you were at the time. Give that some thought. You won't be in Stronghold for ever. Use the time to think and get that problem under control. There are more kids out there like the ones you gathered. You can do more for them working *with* the rest of us instead of having to hide from us."

Auntie nods. "It's too easy, once you've set on a course to stay on it. I should have realised it couldn't last forever - not when I wanted to give them their freedom. I couldn't do that *and* shelter them. But I wanted to help - and then, I grew so attached to them....."

"Maybe I should never have dreamed of being a mother to them. I rescued them from their parents - I should have been content at that. It's where my talent lies, perhaps."

Jessica says, "They do love you. And they miss you. They're scared of your temper though. Get that under control. For their sake. If they get in contact with me I'll tell them what you said about the school. It's their choice. I'm not going to force them into anything. And when I can arrange it I'll make sure they have a chance to come and see you."

Auntie looks surprised and even dismayed at that. "They're afraid of me? I've never given them reason.... But thank you. Thank you, that's so much more than I'd hoped for."

Jessica says, "I utterly deplore your methods. I respect what you were trying to do. I wish we had met under different circumstances before you set foot on the path you took. But we didn't. You have opened my eyes though. I've seen children who have had a worse childhood than I did. I can't ignore that. I can't ignore that there must be others in the same boat. My methods will be very different to yours but I'll work to the same aims that you did."

"You're a strange one, young wolf. I thought you, of all people, might understand."

Jessica nods, "Can you shake my hand without turning me into a slime-jelly?" she asks extending her hand.

Auntie says, "I can. It took some learning - another reason I know children should be encouraged to practice with their abilities."

Auntie shakes Jessica's hand.

Jessica shakes. "Thank you for being honest with me. I'll let you know what's happening with the children if they get in contact with me."

"Thank you again. You've give me a lot to think about, as well."

Jessica exits the cell looking thoughtful.

Agent Fuchs asks Jessica, "Are you all right?"

Jessica nods, "Yes. I feel sorry for her. I think I understand a little better now. If I'm right she didn't have control of her powers for a long time. And I suspect she was a child when she developed them. Imagine being a child and not being able to touch anyone without harming or killing them."

Agent Fuchs nods. "Well, we'll see what we can find out - after a break I think."