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The Swan girls have their evaluation appointment. It is largely uneventful. Alli splits and merges under various inoffensive conditions; Bella teleports to various other evaluation stations around the country and to one in a military base on the other side of the world (the evaluators call ahead about this) without incident. They have already - well, Bella has already - determined all the interesting wrinkles of the Swan girls' powers, but it's nice to have them on paper. They sign up for the Junebugs - the evaluator sniffs and says that it's the Gemini Guard, have some respect if you're going to join them! - with Bella as a solo bonus, junior grade, stratum 3 (she gets a badge and dog tags and a lollipop) and Alli as her optional/emergency support, junior grade, stratum 4 (she gets dog tags and a lollipop but no badge).
The evaluative office is crowded. A bunch of twins got their bonuses over the weekend and piled up on the Monday appointment slots. There's a pair where one can apparently conjure objects and the other wield telekinesis over them, juggling. There's a cryokinetic and someone who seems to cling to arbitrary surfaces, the one making a little ice sculpture and the other sitting on the wall (Bella supposes he can probably cling to his brother's ice). There's a set of triplets who don't seem to be doing anything, so she can hazard no guess as to what their powers are. There's a girl weeping into her hands while her brother tries to soothe her; she's crying about fire, ash, devastation, the menace lurking under the ground, and Bella hopes that's an overreaction to some TV show. But considering where she is -
"Er, what's her bonus?" Bella asks the brother.
"Not sure," he says. "Besides really upsetting. I just got a luck tweak, far as we can tell, dice and stuff..."
"So she doesn't pyro or -?"
"No, no, she's not dangerous," he assures Bella. "Not so much as a wisp of smoke, I don't know what the problem is, bonuses are supposed to help."
"I hope the evaluators can figure it out," Bella says, disconcerted, and she and Alli go back to school.
Spanish class is the next one they can catch.
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point_b
blink_and
"That - would be fantastic, thank you so much. Dad! Dad, Bella's offering us a place to stay - yeah. Hey, uh - Bella, can you teleport over here to bring me there so I can put a portal down there?"
point_b
"Yeah, be right over." Bella puts down the phone and flickers over to the Sanders house and knocks.
point_b
"My dad says you and Adana and your dad can crash at his place like me and Alli and Renée. I'm going to pop Adana up there so she can make a portal."
you_miss_it
"Oh! Thank you, that's - that's really nice of you and your dad. Adana's -"
point_b
And then Bella and Adana are standing in the living room of Charlie's house.
"Dad, I brought Adana, she's going to make a portal so they can bring the essentials over," Bella calls. "Mom and Alli are still packing."
"Dad, I brought Adana, she's going to make a portal so they can bring the essentials over," Bella calls. "Mom and Alli are still packing."
sundayfish
Charlie pokes his head in from the kitchen. "Good to meet you, Adana, wish the circumstances were better. Food stockpile's in the basement, I set up a tarp in the backyard to put other stuff under if there's no good spot for it in the house."
blink_and
"Good to meet you, too. And - yeah. Me too. I'll put the portal in the backyard, the house is probably going to be very busy."
She does this thing, and then says, "When we've got everything through I can do the same for your stuff, Savannah's -"
She does this thing, and then says, "When we've got everything through I can do the same for your stuff, Savannah's -"
you_miss_it
Savannah zips through the portal, carrying a box of canned food. She drops it off just outside, and zips back to get more.
point_b
"I was just going to nip all the boxes up here myself, but if Savannah wants to take over moving house I can - report to the Junebugs a little earlier, I guess."
blink_and
Adana nods. "I - really want to go now, too, but I've - still got to keep these portals open and am pretty much useless to the Junebugs without them."
So she grabs one of the dropped off boxes and gets to depositing it, because that is the smart thing to do.
So she grabs one of the dropped off boxes and gets to depositing it, because that is the smart thing to do.
point_b
"Okay. I'm gonna go - grab one of Alli and talk to the Junebugs. Tell the other Alli if you want a ride to the office or anything comes up?"
blink_and
And then the Sanders get back to work moving. They finish pretty quickly, which makes sense, considering they only recently moved to Phoenix and Savannah has super-speed. Then, in the interest of fairness, Savannah zips over to Renee's house, Adana creates a portal from there to Charlie's house, and then they help them evacuate, too.
Adana and Savannah report to the Junebugs two hours later.
Adana and Savannah report to the Junebugs two hours later.
alli_oop
An Alli is there, apparently twining latitudes and longitudes to her sister off a piece of paper so that either the stationary Junebugs can update her on the fly or so Bella just doesn't need to engage her vision on anything other than orienting herself in each new environment. The need for new instructions is intermittent enough that Alli says to the Sanders twins, "Hi."
you_miss_it
"Hey," says Savannah, and then they both go to check themselves in to start doing things. They're pretty sure they will be really useful for evacuation, the both of them.
The receptionist, who looks exhausted and drawn but functional, ID's them, and directs them to collect Junebug jackets and hats so they'll look official to the panicked residents of places to-be-evacuated. "Right then," she says, reading the synopses of their powers. "Sanders, when Bella's done deploying standard National Guard to control rioting in to-be-evacuated civilian areas we'll call her back to put Savannah in -" She taps her computer. "Denver, and Adana in -" Tap tap. "Juneau, until Juneau's full to bursting. Savannah, you'll talk to the Guard deployed in the evacuating site and help them keep people organized and under control. We cannot save everyone and we have to prioritize. Our priorities are small children, their parents, gemini of any age, their immediate families, emergency personnel - your job isn't to sort these people, your job is not to argue with the senior Guard over their sortings. Do not slow down the evacuation of Denver because you want to save different parts of Denver. Is that understood?"
you_miss_it
Savannah takes a second to let this sink in, scowls, and then - she nods. Grudgingly.
alli_oop
"Swan," the receptionist calls across the room to Alli. "Report in."
"Bella," Alli says, "what's the story? When you're done with this you're putting Savannah and Adana places -" And then shortly afterward: "She's ninety percent done with this guard unit and thinks she can keep going for another six or seven hours before she has to break for food and coffee."
"And you?" asks the receptionist.
"I can go forever, other me's napping at home, we can converge and diverge when this one flags and Bella can just grab one again," says Alli in a small voice. "I - I'm fine."
"Bella," Alli says, "what's the story? When you're done with this you're putting Savannah and Adana places -" And then shortly afterward: "She's ninety percent done with this guard unit and thinks she can keep going for another six or seven hours before she has to break for food and coffee."
"And you?" asks the receptionist.
"I can go forever, other me's napping at home, we can converge and diverge when this one flags and Bella can just grab one again," says Alli in a small voice. "I - I'm fine."