I haven't been keeping great track of the time flow in this fic. :x This chapter takes place in mid-December, so the whole fic has so far been throughout the course of about a month. I'll try to be more careful.

Chapter Eleven – A Tea Party and a Reality Check

Every year, the female supers got together for a little tea party. This would take place about a week before the supers' version of Sadie Hawkins, called Superwoman, held on December 23rd. They would discuss things that they couldn't with the men, things like supersuit fashion, who was dating who, and other things of that nature.

Before the whole Crescentia ordeal, Agatha usually spent a month planning what she was going to wear to the tea party, as it was the social highlight of the year for the women supers. However, lately she had been spending so much time worrying about her new enemy that she hadn't even picked out an outfit yet! It was 3 days until the tea party's date on December 15th.

So here she was at Macy's with last month's paycheck, frantically trying to decide which dress looked the best. She laughed to herself while trying to decide between a blue pinafore over a lacy white dress and a red skirt with a white blouse, thinking that she had to be one of the most self-conscious women in Metroville. She finally decided on the former and stopped by a costume store on the way home to pick up a mask that matched. It would be refreshing to attend a supers' event without having to wear her supersuit.

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"Stratogale, Stormicide, Psycwave, Plasmabolt, Elastigirl, Blazestone, and Apogee. Looks like we're all here!" tittered Psycwave enthusiastically. It was her turn to host the tea party, and she was glad to have the company. They were all dressed beautifully, and fit perfectly at the round table Psycwave had brought in. Each super lady had her choice of raspberry tea, lemon tea, mint tea, and peach tea. Agatha quietly poured herself a cup of raspberry tea, added a few spoonfuls of sugar, and sipped delicately.

"So, it looks like the number of guys this year as gone up, gals," Elastigirl said to the table. "We have more of a selection, you know?"

"Though the quality of the choices hasn't exactly gone up at all," Blazestone mumbled, her words tumbling out of her mouth quick as lightning, as usual. Everybody knew, of course, that she would choose Frozone anyway.

"We'll go through the claims now, so we'll start from Stratogale and go up," Psycwave ordered, drinking a spot of her peach tea.

"I'll take Universal Man, if there aren't any objections." Stratogale was one of the youngest of the supers, only about 16 years old. She had only been a superhero for two years, though last year during the Superwoman, she had opted to not participate.

"Is there…any particular reason?" Stormicide asked, genuinely confused. Universal Man had a massive ego, and the age difference was a palpable problem.

Stratogale smiled nervously. "Well…not…really. He doesn't have to say yes, after all."

"Sounds like Gale here has a bit of a crush!" Psycwave laughed. "How cute!" Stratogale turned a bright shade of red, which Psycwave chose to ignore. "Anyway, I guess we're moving on. Stormy?"

"Gamma Jack, of course." She shrugged. Stormicide was a perfect match for Jack. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and was very beautiful. Agatha thought that Jack acted a little bit chauvinistic towards her, but Stormicide didn't seem to mind. Her powers weren't exactly the greatest, only being able to absorb and emit vapors out of the air. As a result, if anything, having Stormicide with him was an ego boost. Nobody argued with her, so Psycwave's turn was next.

"I'll be taking Thunderhead this year," she smiled, laughing a little. Agatha almost choked on her tea.

"Thunderhead?" Elastigirl's jaw dropped in shock. "What happened to Everseer?"

Psycwave's face took on a pout as she replied, "I got sick of getting turned down every year. Silly man said he hated crowds…too many—"

"Germs." The entire table spoke in unison.

"Besides," Psycwave went on, "Thunderhead's kinda cute." At least she won't have to worry about her date being more intelligent than her. Agatha thought devilishly. There were no objections, of course, and the group moved on to Plasmabolt.

With a nonchalant shrug, she quickly decided on Macroburst, who was her date every year. "We're both androgynous, what can I say?" she joked. Everybody had a healthy laugh before it was Elastigirl's turn.

She stood up and eloquently said: "I'm takin' Incredible, and if any of you guys have a problem with that, you can shove it." Then Elastigirl sat down. There were a few awkward moments of silence. "What? I'm not letting anybody else have him!"

"You didn't have to be so…blunt." Stormicide replied, rolling her eyes. Elastigirl shrugged. "Anyway, Blazestone can choose Frozone now." She grinned.

"Hey! JustbecauseIchoseFrozoneeveryyearbeforenowdoesn'tmeanthatI'mgoingtonow. Wewerejustalittleteamforashorttimeduringmyrehab!" She shouted, her words running together. Agatha had to strain to hear, and even then, only understood half of what she'd said.

"Not that I got all of that, but does that mean that you're not choosing Frozone?" Psycwave asked.

"I didn't say I wasn't, I was just saying that I might not have." Blazestone tried to slow down her words so that they'd be more intelligible. The table breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll choose Frozone…just because nobody else would have him." The rest of the women exchanged glances, then smiled collectively. They wouldn't say anything, of course. Nobody in his or her right mind argued with Blazestone. She was known for her temper.

"So…Apogee. Who's your prospective date this year?" Psycwave asked with a smug grin. Agatha had gone through several dates over the years…rarely the same one twice. The year before, she had actually gone with Meta Man. None of this was by choice, however, she just hadn't had anybody else to go with. Gazerbeam, last year, had gone with Stormicide. This year, however, he was free…

"Gazerbeam." She said without preamble.

"Wow, good luck with that one," Stormicide laughed, getting the other ladies to join in. Gazerbeam was famous for his lack of a sense of humor, and his strange need to be overly dramatic and serious.

"Oh come on, he's not that bad. He can be really sweet," Agatha replied, trying to defend Gazerbeam's honor. "And in any case, he's the only one I'll go with." She added quietly. He could be serious, and a tad melodramatic, but at least he wasn't boring.

Stormicide regarded her carefully. "If that's what you want, Apogee, it's of no consequence. Go with whomever you like." The others nodded their agreement and Agatha smiled brightly, thanking them. They went on talking about other things, teasing Stratogale for going out with Universal Man, and making fun of Thunderhead (much to Psycwave's chagrin). Agatha felt a weight lifted, and finally felt accepted for the first time since she had come to Metroville from Los Angeles.