The random person thinks, glances around, and says, "I mean, there's lesbians, but out ones with no girlfriends I don't - Oh! One of the Swans, can't remember her name, the shorter one, over there? Emblem's a swan? Cute enough for you? I think she's a sophomore though."

"...Hi," says Bella. "Caaaan I help you?"

"Are you new?" wonders the taller of the Swans.

"I am! Maybe you can! Homecoming is coming up and I know absolutely no one. Want to come to it with me?" she asks of Bella. "You're pretty cute."

"...it's on the twentieth, right?"

"How is the first thing you learn after transferring in that Bella's gay, how is that a thing?"

"It's on the twentieth!" agrees Savannah. "And, I asked someone nicely for anyone cute, gay, and single. Because it would suck to go to a dance without a date."

"I didn't even think that many people knew, I mean, there's 'out of the closet' and then there's 'on the roof' and Bella is not the second thing?"

"Calm down, Alli, I really don't care. Yeah, my basics will be in by then, I'd like to go."

"Dance-first but maybe the dance'll go really well," shrugs Bella. "Have you got a name?"

"Savannah! Hi. My bonus was super-speed, if you hadn't guessed."

"It was kind of obvious! Our birthday's not till the thirteenth."

"Hope you get something good! I met someone who could only turn things yellow, I felt so sorry for him. I mean, his twin's bonus turned yellow things sunlight-blinding, but still. Poor guy."

"I don't even care unless I get something so good that Bella never leaves me alone," snorts Alli. "She wants big stuff."

"I'll be plenty grateful just to have basics, but yeah, why stop there?"

"See, I was kind of noncommittal and uncaring about it 'til I turned sixteen and got my bonus, and then it was the best thing ever. You want to see someone who was excited about it, talk to my sister. She was up until four waiting for when mom had us and woke me up 'cause I was born first. She wanted to know if it worked."

"Why wouldn't it work? Was there some doubt that you are really twins?"

"Nah, none at all. She also wanted hints towards what I had so she'd know what she'd get." Smirk. "Then she got it, and was cackling for the rest of summer."

"Well, what'd she get, what goes with super speed?"

Savannah cackles. "She makes portals. If you go through, you keep momentum and end up somewhere else. Two at a time, only, but she thinks it's the best thing."

"Ooh, that's a good one!"

"Convenient, too. I even help her out a ton, because she needs line of sight - but she can use mine, too. And I go to places really fast. We won the superpower lottery, we're extremely happy with them."

"Can she actually see through your eyes, or do places that you can see and she knows about count without her having the kind of detail she'd usually get from visual contact?"

"Hi. My name is Bella, not 'cute girl', if there was confusion on that point. I wanted to know how you can substitute Savannah's line of sight for yours when doing portals. Lucky powers, by the way."

"You haven't seen the best part! Ana, Ana can we -"

Adana laughs. "If they want to see it. Do you want to see me fling my sister?"

"...Fling her?"

"Portals let you keep momentum. This includes momentum caused by, say, gravity. We've practiced a lot to use this to our advantage. Savannah will go flying, do you want to see?"

"Sure."

Savannah cackles madly. She dashes off, to work up a momentum, then she runs towards a wall -

"It is," declares Savannah, circling back around and slowing herself down, "the best thing ever."

Bella laughs. "Nice syncing. Good luck not going splat."

"Don't need it, Adana knows what she's doing. Besides, I am built for high speed, I don't think Ana would fling people that aren't me because they wouldn't react as fast as I can. But yeah, I guess a lot of that is mostly her, so no touchie my twin."

Adana snorts. "I am extremely careful, I tested that trick with small objects. I wouldn't have used Savannah at all, but she really, really wanted to. Also she kind of dashed through a portal I was testing and I had to play it trial by fire."

"What, without asking?"

"Yeaaah, it wasn't my best idea ever."

"Y'think?"

"Oh, yeah, that works, too." Bella pulls a notebook out of her backpack and a pen out of her hair.

"Oh, hi! Yeah, we are."

"Bella's the smart one," says Alli in a loud stage whisper.

"So's Adana," replies Savannah, in the same stage whisper. Then she snickers. "Anyway, hi! I guess we can talk about homecoming now!"

"Nevermind the actual Spanish," teases Adana.

"Yeah, never mind that," says Alli brightly. "Bella's never even been to a dance before, it's way more important."

"Specifically, if I try to dance before I get my basics I will break my neck, but anyway, Savannah, Adana gave me your number. We live pretty nearby, are you day students or overnighters?"

"Yup, she told me. Day students, Ada and I don't actually live nearby but we're us, so it doesn't quite matter as much."

"I am the sister-shaped taxi."

Bella laughs. "Right, I should've thought of that. Are you also the sister-shaped homecoming dance limo or should I be thinking about asking our mom for a ride or what? Alli is planning to ask upperclassmen boys until one agrees to be her ticket in."

"Cute upperclass boys. If I run out of cute ones I'll just stay home."

"Sister-shaped homecoming dance limo. Sorry, I won't be serving drinks."

Bella smiles but does not write back to this one.

Savannah nods. "Sure," she agrees in just as constrained Spanish. "It'll be fun!"

"My mom is nice," agrees Bella.

"She like you!" predicts Alli, ungrammatically but understandably.

Savannah grins. "I like nice people that like me!" she says, carefully in Spanish.

"Then you like our mom," says Alli.

"Everyone wins!"

"Alli found a boy. Alli and I will shop for -" Bella can't remember Spanish for 'dresses'. "Clothes, this Saturday."

"Last Saturday with no powers!" whoops Alli, forgetting to use Spanish in her excitement.

Savannah laughs. "Congratulations!" she says, because she doesn't know how to say, 'Hope you get a good set of powers' in Spanish.

There is only so much chat, even Spanish chat, they can get away with while the teacher is lecturing about conjugations, so that is pretty much all they manage to say on this day.

Yeah. Adana doesn't like passing notes very much, so they're not going to talk much through that method.

"Ooh, you got it, didn't you, what'd you get, what'd you get?"

"I - I don't know yet, it's - I've got a new sense of place, but I'm not sure yet what I do with it. Maybe yours'll be a hint."

"Weird how?"

"Just weird, like - I don't know - it feels like being bored only not? Like I should be doing more things to be not-bored? But it's not boring, just, it's telling me youuuuu are not living up to your full potential like it's a magic guidance counselor, it's weird."

"So - live up to your full potential, c'mon."

Renée had been quietly supervising up until this point but now she's kind of alarmed! "Alli, honey?"

"Sooo trippy," say the Allis, still speaking together. "Oh wow, this is cool, this is like actually useful in life!"

"Not if you just stay in sync it's not so much," says Bella, "can you - unsync?"

"Okay, you -" says Bella, pointing at one of them at random, "go upstairs, maybe my new spatial thing will work through you, and you, stay put, see if you can twine with each other or if you have to use me as your communications hub."

"There's no need to shout, you should still be able to do it with me," Bella says in a normal tone.

"Of course, Bella."

"I dunno - maybe not, but I'm scared to try, which of us gets to keep going?" says she who was once Downstairs.

"If that's actually a matter of it being just one of you it's better to figure that out now than after you've - I don't know, been separate for three years and have different boyfriends or whatever."

"Oh, there you go, then, you don't have to - die every time you unsplit, that's good."

"Yeah. I wonder if I can actually keep it up long enough for the separate boyfriends thing, maybe it wears off?" She splits again. They are again stuck in sync until Bella points at one.

So Bella points at one, and there are two Allis around for the next three and a half hours, after which time they merge (the one who is taking a shower continues to exist; the one who was reading a book ceases, her book falling to the floor) without meaning to but with the ability to control the direction.

"I will get so much more stuff done!"

"By which you mean you will do about the same amount of homework and watch twice as much TV?"

"Shut up. Yes."

"We got good stuff. I can teleport and Andi can - fork."

"It's cool! But it's not perfect, I will still need hall passes, if I do it when I have to pee I still both have to pee."

"Eeee!" says Savannah. "Teleportation and forking! That's great, congrats! I mean, no power's perfect, but getting nice ones is fantastic! I am absurdly happy for you both!"

"And I can teleport both of Alli at once, and I can take Renée along too, but I don't know if I can take more than one person who isn't Alli. You wanna call your sister over and be test subjects?"

"Sure, let's be test subjects." She addresses her sister, "Hey, sis, Bella got a cool teleportation power, come test?"

"Like your portals it is also useful for getting to school - different requirements on knowledge about point B, Renée won't let me test whether I can get to the other side of the world without school supervision, I preserve no momentum - I can't hit a moving target, even if it's, like, a skateboard, it has to be stationary relative to the earth."

"Still useful, my portals don't actually move once I put them down. You can do a sort of piggy-back method where you teleport to one spot and then teleport further along, I do that with portals when I want to move quickly. Is it teleporting just yourself, or can you take passengers?"

"I can take one or both Allis, and at least one other person, but possibly not two non-Alli persons. That's why you're here."

"Aha! Well, test subject away, powers are exciting!"

"We were experimenting like all weekend," says Alli. "Bella does not let up, it was exhausting, I wanted to leave one of me home to nap for a few extra hours and then send Bella home between classes to switch us, you know? Just real quick it would barely even count as leaving campus. But nooooo, Mom says we have to register with the school office and say what we can do and they will tell us how we can use our powers and until then we shouldn't do anything weird." She sighs.

"Rampant experimental twin syndrome. I know it well." Savannah gives a pointed look sister-ward. "Isn't that right, miss four-in-the-morning?"

"I regret nothing," says the rampant experimental twin, brightly.

"Ugh, at least we were born at a civilized hour or Bella might've done that too."

"I would not! You have enough trouble getting sleep."

"I was experimenting quietly and trying not to disturb her," says Adana primly. "And then she threw a pillow at me and it became war."

"I would know better than to try to do anything in our room at night however quiet I thought I could be. It's basically miraculous that we can sleep in the same room, because she wakes up if the wind blows too hard or the house creaks, let alone if somebody goes to the bathroom, and I talk in my sleep. So we have to coordinate very carefully."

"You're making it sound like I have a disease. I just have ears."

"Oh, yeah, it's not like that at all with me. But when I was up she started asking me tons of questions."

"How hard was it for you guys to figure out your bonuses?"

"Mine was super easy. Things felt slow and I felt like I could go faster." Grin. "So I did."

"Mine took a while. It was just - spatial awareness and I kept wondering what it did. Eventually I got it, but it took a week. Savannah zipping around the entire time."

"I got spatial awareness but I might not have figured out what I was supposed to use it for if Alli hadn't used a convenient preposition. I think my awareness is different than yours, though, I get a sense of whether someplace is 'in reach' - and in sight is in reach, if it's stationary with respect to the earth, but I can use all kinds of entertainingly abstract information, same constraint."

"My powers came second but I figured them out first," brags Alli.

"Mine's more like... A sense of place to everything I see. I can tell distances and ballpark what speeds things are going at. That sort of thing."

"High-five for figuring out powers quickly?" says Savannah, holding up a hand for a high-five.

"I can't do that at all," says Bella to Adana. "Some things are 'near enough' and some things are 'not near enough' and I don't have any special understanding of them in relation to each other and the only speeds are 'moving' and 'not moving, or rather, only moving insofar as the earth is'. Oh, some time if it's convenient you'd be a good safety net for testing my ability to fake-fly, I think, in case I ever want to follow a moving vehicle that is not obligingly stopping at stoplights? Since you're used to providing portals to fast-moving teenage girls? But if you don't have time I can put a request in to Powers Counseling or something."

"Woot," says Alli, and she high-fives Savannah.

"I can be a safety net. If you want to be properly safe, though, take Savannah up with you when you fake fly. Reaction times, and the spatial awareness thing extends from her, too. I'm not sure how well I can juggle safety-netting and portalling to keep up with someone who's going at that speed."

"Also, fake flying is awesome. I'll do it any chance I get!"

"That, too."

"I don't think my version of fake flying is going to be particularly exhilarating. If I do it right it should involve almost no conventional motion at all. Why would taking Savannah up work better than taking you up? Can you only use her reaction time if you're doing your sensing thing through her?"

"... I suppose I could go up, too. It's not using her reaction time, it's - if something goes wrong she would react faster than I could. But I'd be more equipped to handle it, so - honestly I'll leave it up to you?" Pause. "Plus I was also subtly doing that sister thing where I give you two time alone together."

"We're going to homecoming. We have not exchanged promise rings or anything. I assure you that when I talk about experimenting with my teleportation I actually mean experimenting with my teleportation."

Savannah laughs. She pats Adana on the back. "Awww, sister of the year award for wingma- er, wingwomanhood."

Adana snorts. "Okay, then yeah, I can go instead. Experimenting with teleportation with no ulterior motives, then. Though it's possible to be scientific about things and still get alone time with my sister if you want it."

"I'm aware. We are going to see how homecoming goes."

"All right." Smile. "Have fun."

"Yup! Thanks, sis!"

"Is after school good? They're going to want me to fill out one of those long power registration thingies soon and I'd like to check as few 'don't know' boxes as possible."

Nod. "Works for me. Both of us, or just me?"

"Savannah's welcome to come watch, but I cannot, as we have just seen, haul both of you, and you're my safety net."

"Right. She's going to want to watch."

"It'll be fun!"

"I'm not expecting it to be that visually interesting, but you are free to disagree."

"I mean if it's boring I can just run home, no problem," shrugs Savannah.

"How fast are you?"

"I don't break the speed of sound, but I am extremely fast."

"Do you get tired?"

"Academic curiosity, Alli."

Savannah giggles. "I do, it's just - not going to happen, usually. A trip to home isn't going to tire me out, it's like a short jog."

"She also eats tons," says Adana. "Calories to burn, and - such."

"Oh, lucky. I guess I'm lucky too, I can be one of me for salad and both for dessert?"

"There is an entire frontier of extremely trivial exploits for your bonus," snorts Bella.

Savannah giggles. "That's got to be fun."

"It's weird, when I'm split up we're stuck doing all the same things till somebody picks one of us and unsyncs us so Bella's been doing that. It's kinda spooky but I guess I'll get used to it."

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to be me, I'm not using a power for it, I just point at one at random and tell her to blink twice or something."

"Huh. You might be able to work out a system where the one on the left does a silly dance or something, so you don't need outside help."

"Maybe. I guess that'd work if I started out with my back to a wall. It seems like if I'm just standing around we appear back to back."

"The one who's still in the same place as the one of you was can do the little dance," suggests Bella.

"Oh, that works! I dunno, for some reason it seems like it makes more sense for you to do it though."

Shrug. "Well, it's an option, anyway. In case you - fork? Fork, without anyone else there."

"Yeah. One who stayed put does a little dance or something," nods Alli.

"Twine me and I'll remind you in case you forget which it's supposed to be."

"You could also play rock paper scissors."

"She tried that. They tie. They're really in lockstep till something disturbs them."

Savannah snorts. "Well okay then, there goes that idea."

"It got really, like, layered, trying to be like 'well I wanna do this but the other me is probably thinking the same thing so I could do this other thing' like sixteen of that in a row until we both just threw paper, it was stupid."

"Okay, that's kind of funny and adorable at the same time."

"And then I started doing less of the sixteen-of-that but I both did that at the same time!"

"I'm actually not sure why the fact that they appear in different places and therefore looking at slightly different things doesn't do more than it seems to. Alli says it doesn't feel like they're in any kind of mental contact and they can't even twine each other."

"But they can both twine you, right?"

"Yep, I get to play coordinator."

Adana snickers. "Lucky you."

"Eh, so far it hasn't been intrusive."

"Plus it gives her an excuse to be bossy."

"Pfff. Fun?"

"Well, if she's going to be bossy it might as well be helpful."

"I'm not that bad."

"Eeeh. Fair point."

"Savannah does not like being bossed around," Adana informs.

"I'm not that bad."

"It's mostly just me and anybody who gets assigned to work with her in a group project, and I really don't mind," shrugs Alli, "not when I think about it."

"Wasn't saying you were," she says gently. "I'm just explaining her. Coordinating in that kind of situation is useful."

"Yeah. Eventually maybe I will stop feeling silly when I go 'Bella tell us which of us has to go to the corner store' and she picks one and that one complains and the other one's smug and then I'm both of them later."

Savannah giggles. "I feel like if I had that power I would end up getting into fights with myself all the time."

"That actually hasn't happened yet, which I suppose is good, because they can't just stay split up as long as they want, it wears off after a few hours."

"Also less broken things in the house."

"I don't break things, what?"

"I meant literal fights."

"As in, things would get broken in them," sighs Adana.

"...As far as I know Alli has no plans to risk abusing my newfound ability to heal her."

"Yeah, no, wow, that would be the stupidest way to get grounded ever? 'Moooom, I got in a fight with myself, that's why the vase smashed.'"

"Eh, we'd take it outside."

"That's why the rosebushes are mangled, then. That's why there's blood on the sidewalk, that's why Bella is too exasperated to speak to me."

"Yeah I don't see that happening."

"Well you're not me. So - yeah, understandable."

"Would you seriously get into physical altercations with a fork of yourself?"

"Yes," says Adana, at the same times as her sister.

"That seems like an exceptionally pointless pastime."

"Eh, it would be lots of fun, though."

"Fun? Like how, do you do karate or something?"

"Some! Other things, too, but I think it's a lot of fun."

"Do you plan on being a superhero? I mean, I guess you have the powers for it, but that's nnnnot a safe profession."

Savannah grins. "... Maaaaybe."

"Maybe as in maybe or maybe as in you haven't decided if you're going white hat?"

"First thing," says Adana, frowning. "I would be upset with her if she went supervillain."

"First thing!" agrees Savannah. "Ana would kill me if I started wearing black and red and spouting out about how I'm going to flatten Manhattan." Pause. "Not literally."

"You rhymed."

"Yeah, supervillainy would get you killed all by itself. I haven't sat down and brainstormed about what I want to do yet but I'm thinking I could do good evacuation work."

"No idea what I'm going to do, aside from 'Maybe superheroing.'"

"Being forkable seems like it'd help a little but not more than something more specialized, with, like, anything I could think of. My backup 'if my bonus is terrible' was 'like, maybe, art, or, nepotism'. So I guess there's still that."

"If I do disaster relief I'm not sure how much I'll be able to nepotism you. I guess I could bring you along without impeding my carrying capacity and you could be another couple pairs of hands for things not best addressed by immediately teleporting out? But you'd have to learn something useful. First aid maybe. Don't enroll in anything for future nepotism reasons till I've had a proper sit-and-think after I'm through with my early experiments though."

"Ana's thinking about disaster relief, too," says Savannah. "'Cause she can take passengers."

"Yeah, the portals would be a good fit, can you leave them open as long as you want?"

"There's a time limit of about two hours, but I can put them back right after."

"I guess we have a lot of the same potential career opportunities, do you want a copy of my brainstorm after I've done it?"

"Yes. Do you want mine?" Adana grins.

"Yes please."

"I don't have my notes with me, but I can give you the basic ideas now if you want them."

"Uh, I do, but the bell's going to ring any second. Meet me here after school for testing and tell me then?"

"... It is, isn't it. Sure! Later, I will. Sav - transportation?"

"Mhm," says Savannah, and then - off she zips.

"Hola!" says Alli, pleased with herself for remembering to speak Spanish.

"Probably it would be hard to tell me the thing in Spanish," guesses Bella to Adana.

"Just a bit," she agrees. "Sorry. After school, though."

"I did not even sort of die! I like my powers."

Savannah giggles. "Good! It would suck if you could only turn things yellow."

"The powers in question are actually mostly the basics. I was nearly issued a walker when we were little, I was really clumsy."

"That's got to suck. Glad it's fixed now! No more potential walker for you."

"Yep! This is the only reason you didn't get a 'sorry, I am physically incapable of dancing' when you asked, is because homecoming was after our birthday."

"Lucky me!"

"Lucky you! I still don't know how to dance, but I will figure it out. Okay, are we going to somebody's house or practicing hereabouts or what?"

"Well, three of the four of us are good at transportation, so - it's really based on what kind of scenery we want."

"I vote 'somewhere pretty.'"

"We could just go out over some random desert."

"And how do the two of you feel about random desert?"

"Completely fine with it."

"Awwww. I mean, I guess I could run for ages, but I get shit traction on sand and it's not very pretty."

"I mean, I am pretty sure I could also take us to attractive forested areas near Charlie's house but Mom wants me officially supervised for long-range testing."

"Fiiine, desert."

"Okay. I'll take Savannah and some Allis and Adana will follow via portal?"

Nod. "Works for me. Savannah?"

"Yup! Let's go!" says Savannah, and she zips next to Bella expectantly.

Bella takes both Allis and Savannah to some desert south of Phoenix proper.

"I will go up, and in a largish circle," says Bella, gesturing, "and then down to the ground, minimizing falling between hops and sudden panicked screaming."

Nod. "And I will be clinging to you for dear life praying I don't put down portals incorrectly, send us flying at eighty miles an hour and make us go splat, right?"

"If you feel clinging adds something to the experience. I don't have to be touching you to take you as a passenger, or not-touching you to leave you behind. The latter of which I promise I will not do. If the experiment goes well you will not need to portal us at all."

"In that case, no clinging. Yeah, I know, just nervous. Let's go before Savannah expires of boredom on the spot."

"Our fake flying's better."

"Yeah, I don't expect to use mine much, I should usually be able to get wherever I'm going without the intermediate steps and if I have to search an intervening area or chase a moving object I will typically be able to do it from the ground. I'd want to use it if I were looking for, like, a lost boat. If I ever look for a lost boat. I wanted to make sure this was an option."

"Sure. I also want your career-choice notes."

"Yup! They can be summarized as 'quick transportation with me and Savannah moving from one key point to another separately' - transporting vital organs to places, evacuations, help with construction in, say, third world countries where it's hard to get supplies to the right places to do the most good... That sort of thing. Except if it involves transporting armies, that I am not doing unless someone has a doomsday device and the only other option is 'world explodes.'"

"Ooh, the organs idea hadn't occurred to me. If somebody had a doomsday device and you could get an army to it why wouldn't you just portal the device into space? ...Can you not access space? I'm not sure if I can access space, for obvious reasons I haven't tried."

"Atmosphere blocks my vision to actual space, I can only get a portal so high up before there's just to much air and moisture and stuff in the way. I could access space if I or Savannah went up in a rocket, I think. But if I could right now, I'm really concerned about opening a portal from a vacuum. It's not like I can tell it, 'No, only suck the device into space, nothing else that's nearby, especially not those hostages right there.' Maybe if I got the timing right. But obviously I haven't been able to test that one. Nor have I wanted to."

"Yeah, fair enough. I can drop Savannah off at home if the desert is boring and terrible, by the way, I seem to be able to do intersections."

"Interestingly enough," says Adana, obviously geeking out a little, "I can transport liquids just fine - rather than dumping the device out into space I could flood the room with seawater. Probably more viable than the rocket, though still not very safe. I originally thought of it in the context of transporting drinking water."

"...Does she even know what direction Phoenix is in from here?" wonders Bella. "...Anyway yeah it makes sense liquids would go through, but if there were hostages you might just wind up drowning them and I imagine doomsday devices could be shielded against water damage."

"Yeah. You're probably more efficient than I am at transporting large groups of people."

Nod. "But you're better at getting to far-away places. I can actually move faster than Savannah if I really want to book it, but oceans are kind of a problem. I'm stuck on a continent unless I start flinging myself and then I'm not sure if I can safely stop myself."

"I guess if you want to brake you send yourself straight up and then when you're at the apex you make a portal right under you and the far end very close to the ground, so it's like a short fall?"

"Yup! That's the general idea. Scarier than it sounds, though. And if I mess up at any point over an ocean without being hundreds of feet in the air - hello, sea water. Which, of course, screws up the rest of my portals because water's annoying."

"Screws it up how?"

"Boooored," says Alli.

"Oh. Sorry. Adana, where do you want to be put?"

Adana shrugs. "Well, I'd have to get into a portal to get speed up again, and I can't pull myself up into a portal - I tried, the edges don't work like that - so I have to add water. Which I would be flinging myself and the water, and that would get annoying." Pause. "I'm not picky on where I go, home, I guess. I'm having fun talking, though, no one geeks out with me about portals unless I'm filling out one of the forms, which isn't very fun."

"I'm happy to geek out with you. I just should drop my sister-and-a-half at home first and it seems impolite to abandon you in the desert when your other vantage point is running in a semirandom direction through said desert."

"Sure." Adana names her address. "There's fine, by me, unless you want to drop me off at your house or something?"

"I can't do addresses, I need an intersection."

"I still don't get why you can't, it doesn't make sense."

"Addresses cover a lot of space and if I do something to specify where I want to land, like 'northernmost point' or whatever, then I'm trying to convince my power to believe in property boundaries, which it doesn't want to do. It seems convinced of streets, and consequently intersections, and I can add 'northernmost secondarily easternmost corner curb' to any described intersection and reliably have somewhere to land."

"Oh! Uh -" Pause. Adana wracks her head for something less easily memorized - she's only been here for a few months. "- actually I can't remember the intersection. Your house, if you don't mind? I can just get myself home from there, no problem."

"Thanks! We can geek out over portals or you can shoo me, I won't be offended."

"I'm all for geeking. Do you want to come in? There is air conditioning and popsicles."

Adana snickers. "Sure, inside and geeking. I will not take the last grape."

"There's some of everything else except for blue raspberry," calls Alli from the freezer. "Whaddaya want?"

Bella flickers over to peer past her sister into the freezer and pulls out a yellow popsicle. "Adana, there's one more lemon, there's cherry, there's lime, there's orange."

"Lime," says Adana, smiling. "Thank you. Mind if I grab one for Savannah, too? She is running in a desert."

"Also lime?" asks Bella, taking a lime and flickering to Adana to hand it over.

Bella ports back to the fridge, has to reopen the freezer because Alli has already claimed the last grape, and flickers back to Adana to hand over the cherry.

"Well, if she wants to know, I put us south of Phoenix. So if she is running in a non-north direction she's just making more work for herself."

"She will figure it out eventually, or twine me and I will give her a portal. I am a convenient twin safety net, along with being a taxi."

"Lucky you. I cannot invariably unlose Alli if she gets lost - but she is less likely to get lost since she must travel conventionally or with me to begin with, and has the possibility of getting only fifty percent lost and then unlosing herself without help at all."

Nod. "Savannah's honestly about half of my utility. I would be functional without her, but not nearly as - taxi-safety-world-hunger-solving."

"My power works pretty good standalone - it cooperates more with Alli than with other people but I'd be nearly as useful if she decided not to ever speak to me again for some reason. She stands alone pretty well too but I'm useful to twine coordinator-ish-ly if she sends her forks far apart."

"That's pretty lucky! I'm the one that needs to coordinate, Savannah can just do whatever and be just fine. Though she would obviously miss out on the fantastic taxi service."

"And the flinging. I dunno, maybe she can fling herself across, like, gaps between buildings?"

"Does her speed extend much to jumping? Given that one doesn't typically add extra propulsion mid-jump I'd guess some but not a ton."

"She jumps extremely well when she has worked up speed for it - so, yeah, she can make it across gaps between buildings, but not as easily as I could help her do it. Since it's hard to work up a good speed on a tiny rooftop."

"Huh, I don't think I've observed her gathering speed, just - being fast. Too fast for me to notice subtleties of acceleration."

"There's gathering speed involved, but it's - kind of hard to see. In large spaces it's not an issue, but if it's a tiny spot she has to run in circles to get up to top speed. It's kind of adorable."

"Changing directions doesn't eat up her momentum?"

"It sort of does? But it's better than not having any at all."

"...Now I'm imagining her running in a giant hamster wheel."

Adana giggles. "The ultimate power source."

"Hook her up to the power grid and you're set for life if search-and-rescue or whatever doesn't pan out. You're probably more efficient for electricity generation, though."

"Hydroelectric power, creatively place portals, and gravity. I am really good at generating electricity."

"We are told, in science class, that in theory every bonus should come with a way to get free electricity, if only in a ludicrously stupid and low-yield way."

"Mine isn't low-yield, I'm pretty happy about it. It's just - not a very efficient use of my portals for the long term. Like, if the power went out in a city and there was no electricity to be found, I can hook up something to generate power for a while, but then I'm basically useless except for that because I can't put portals elsewhere."

"Yeah, same teacher said usually it wouldn't be worth it unless your power is literally 'charge batteries' or possibly 'shoot lightning'."

"I mean, maybe if I hated being a twin and wanted to go work in accounting it'd be okay, but - I do not actually want to go work in accounting."

"Would accounting really be your first choice if you didn't want to do portaly things, though? Be fair to the singlet job market here."

"Probably not, maybe something in business, though. Take over the economy with the power of portals."

"You know what, I bet there exists some company that does private rapid or instant transit with twin powers for high prices, if we get uncreative."

"Probably, yeah. And then there's the other obvious choice of, 'backup disaster relief' or something."

"Yeah, I'm going to make sure the Junebugs at least have my phone number in case."

"They already have mine and Savannah's. Because we'd be really good at evacuation."

"Sensible. I still have to be formally evaluated and rated. Before they'll put me in the Junebug system, before Renée will let me visit Charlie by teleporting, etcetera."

Adana nods. "Yeah - that part's a bit annoying, but I can understand why. Since it took me a while to figure out what my bonus was."

"Well, that and if it turns out that I have a range limit they don't want to waste time calling me and find that out while there are people drowning off the coast of Alaska or something."

"That, too."