Snuggles the Symbiote
As I made my way from the girl's lockers to Ashley and my shared bedroom, I came to the conclusion that I was getting just a little too used to living on base.
It'd only been a couple of days since the Poisons attacked the mall and so far there hadn't been any sign of them. I hadn't seen any sign of Ms. Mystic, either, but apparently, she'd been around and was insisting that Ashley still needed to be sequestered on base and well, I wasn't gonna leave her here alone.
Ashley was still in bed asleep, laying on her side in the bottom bunk with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms crossed around them. I wasn't sure if I should be concerned that she slept in the fetal position or if it was just something cute she did. At the desk, my Wards-issued phone buzzed. I checked it and had a message.
About a minute later, Ashley started to stir. I let her go through her routine of yawning and stretching, which took about another minute, before informing her about what was in the message. "That healer kid that Ms. Mystic mentioned at the debriefing is gonna get here in a little bit and she's gonna be joining us, so they want us to be part of the welcome wagon."
"Okay," she said with a yawn. "Does it say when? PR wants me to do that live-stream thing this afternoon."
Someone had overheard Vista's slip up about Cuddlebug being from a different world. After spending some time discussing it, PR had decided to just open up and be honest about it like Ashley wanted to in the first place.
"Soon," I answered, "the kid and her PRT escort crashed at a motel in the next town over last night and they're on the way now." I made a note to ask if the escort was a plain-clothes operative pretending to be a relative… No, that was probably it.
"Got it," Ashley said. She stood up from her bunk and shifted her Spider-Man pajamas into her Cuddlebug suit. "Now I just need to finish waking up. Think there's enough time to head to mess -hall for breakfast first?"
"They said they'll send another message when they make it to HQ, so probably. Give me a second, I'll walk you down."
Ashley nodded and left the room so I could get into costume.
A short while later, I found Ashley sitting in the common room and talking with Missy.
"I don't see what you're upset about," she said to the red girl. "Scars are ugly and gross."
"Not the point," Missy dismissed. "Those scars were proof that I'd been in fights and came out alive. Proof that I'm not just a kid. And now they've all healed away."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense… So, you get the message that we're getting a new kid?"
"Yeah. The new healer," Missy acknowledged. "The witch said she'll be able to fix up Dean's leg… Of course, she also said we needed those vaccines and Dennis got high on his. Anyway, I should probably get ready if the meeting with her is so god-fucking-damn early."
Missy got up off the couch and started heading back toward the rooms.
"You ready?" I said to Ashley.
"Yeah."
The very early shift in the PRT mess hall was a bit weird. It had breakfast, of course, but it also served PRT troopers getting off of the graveyard shift who didn't have the time or energy to eat at home or stop for something on the way so there was a lot of dinner food too. Chicken and waffles seemed to be a constant of the menu on this shift, which Ashley had gotten for herself with a side of bacon and a bottle of apple juice. Not being a ravenous little girl, I contented myself with a banana and a water bottle.
Ashley was already stuffing her face by the time I'd rolled my mask up. Watching her eat, sometimes I had to wonder if there wasn't a black hole in her belly.
"Have you always eaten that way?" I finally asked.
"Mmhmm!" She confirmed through a mouth full of bacon. She took a moment to chew and swallow. "It's part of my mutation," Ashley explained. "I need to eat more than a normal person. My doctor thought it was to make up for how my body produces extra chemicals. It doesn't line up exactly but I'm not the first mutant to have weird mass and energy stuff. There's a lady with the Great Lakes Avengers who can just make herself fat whenever she wants and then pukes the fat up when she wants to be thin."
I had to force myself to eat after hearing that. Ashley's own appetite did not seem affected.
We got the alert that the new kid was here just as Ashley finished eating. We finished up and made our way to the elevator.
"What do you think the new kid's gonna be like?" Ashley asked me.
"I don't know," I said. "They're a healer so I hope they're friendly." If anyone gets hurt, they'll have to depend on the new kid. And who would want to go to a healer you can't trust or get along with?
When we got back to Wards HQ, Vista was in costume and Kid Win, Clockblocker, and Aegis had arrived.
I'm pretty sure Clockblocker was just sitting on the couch asleep and Kid Win kept looking down the hall towards his lab. Aegis was the only one of the arrivals to be looking professional.
"Where's Browbeat?" I asked. Honestly, I hadn't seen him since the debriefing.
"He said something about his parents disliking the amount of danger the Wards get into," Aegis explained. "I don't know if he's leaving the program, but you shouldn't expect to see him around for a while."
I nodded, but apparently, Ashley wasn't satisfied. "But danger is part of being a superhero."
"Yeah, but we're kids," Aegis countered. "The situation in this city isn't normal. Most Wards only see actual combat a handful of times until they're almost adults."
Ashley scoffed. "Energizer was fighting the literal Legions of Hell when she was five and she turned out all right."
"...So, if we ever make contact with Ashley's homeworld I'd like to meet this Energizer," Vista admitted.
"Seriously, you're just messing with us at this point, aren't you?" Turns out Clockblocker was awake after all.
"Nope!" Ashley replied with a pop. "I was just a baby when it happened so I don't remember it but all of Manhattan got merged with a Hell-Realm and there were demons everywhere."
"...on the other hand," Vista backtracked, "maybe it'd be better if we never made contact."
"...Yeah, that's fair," Ashley admitted. Then she made an awkward laugh.
The masks on buzzer went off, but everyone already had their masks on, so no one did anything.
A few moments later Miss Militia led in a girl who looked around thirteen. The girl was dressed in a white bodysuit accented with a knee-length skirt, simple top, and hooded cloak in red. The mask she had on looked suspiciously like Ashley's but in white with black eye-lenses.
Then I noticed the animate, teddy bear sized bundle of twigs sitting on her shoulder.
"Wait," Vista said in recognition, "I know you. You're that Klara girl that saved Peat and Fenn… You changed your costume a little since then."
"Uh, yeah. My name's Klara Prast… Though apparently, I need to use a code name for this, so when I'm wearing this mask call me Rose Red."
"Well, I'm Vista. I normally look older and less red than this."
"Clockblocker," the young man said with a raise of the hand.
"Kid Win. I build lasers."
"I'm Aegis, I'm the leader of this team," our leader declared.
"I'm Weaver," I started. "I hope you're not arachnophobic."
"I'm Cuddlebug, I like hugs," Ashley finished.
"Okay… Would, would you like a hug now?"
"Not from you," Ashley said. "I know exactly what that costume is and if you and I ever touch it'll hurt my symbiote."
"...Okay," Rose Red replied.
"Je suis Groot," the bundle of twigs on her shoulder squeaked.
"Groot Jr. says it's nice to meet all of you," Rose Red translated.
"Literally all he said was 'I am Groot' in french," I found myself saying without meaning to.
"Groot's species have a limited vocal range but are capable of putting an infinity of meanings in that range with subtle nuances," Ashley explained as though reciting from an encyclopedia.
"Yes," Rose Red confirmed, "but I don't have any way of knowing what any of that means. I'm something called a botanopath. I can communicate with plants and Groot Jr. Is basically a walking talking tree so I can always understand exactly what he means."
"Cuddlebug's comment about Rose Red's costume brings us to an important point," Miss Militia began. "Red Rose is another Case 81 and based on cross-referencing her story against Cuddlebug's leads us to believe that she's from the same reality." She paused to let this set in. "That's part of the reason why we brought her here, we thought it'd be best to keep anyone with the same experiences together. Rose Red, why don't you tell your new teammates about yourself."
"I was born in 1896," Rose Red began. "I'm originally from Switzerland. When my birth parents found out about my special powers, they assumed that it was proof that I was inherently wicked and my mother sold me as a to a man heading for America… In 1907, I met a group of people from the 'modern-day' and went back to the future with them. I have absolutely no regrets about it."
Well, that brought the mood down.
"This is my second time working with a super team," the girl continued. "I used to be with the Runaways, who are my dearest friends who I love, but I retired from superheroics after the team was temporarily split up and I ended up in foster care." She paused for a moment. "I'm actually very unhappy about this situation because I finally had a stable home life where my chances of dying in a fire are low, which is apparently not normal because I'm apparently something called a mutant and mutant children don't get adopted. Back in my time, people like me were called Wonders. I like that better than Mutant."
"...Is dying in a fire something you're worried about on a regular basis?" Clockblocker asked.
"Very much so," Rose Red admitted. "I almost died in a textile factory fire. My friend's parents died in a fire. One of their friends died in the same fire. Another one of their friends died in a different fire… She came back to life later, but still. It's something that's on my mind frequently."
"Okay."
"I'm uh… Mostly adjusted to the modern world and modern values, so… Like, I don't have any problems with other races or homosexuals,… anymore. I uh… used to ignorant on some things. I know better now… Is it weird that I brought this up? I mean, the stereotype about people from my time is that—"
"We get it, it's okay," Aegis continued.
The new girl sighed in relief. "Uh… More personally I like gardening and I've gotten really good at video games. This costume was forced on me by the people who stranded me here. It lets me heal people and as far as I know, that's all it does. Your PRT agreed to give me a place to stay and help me get home to my adoptive fathers if I agreed to heal their heroes who get hurt until they find a way to send me home."
The girl moved forward further into the room. "I've been told there'd be a room ready for me when I got here. I, uh… It's been years since I've been up this early and I'd like to get back to sleep if it's not too much trouble."
"That's fair," Aegis said. "The rooms are down this way, I'll show you to one," and began leading the girl down the hall.
Miss Militia left as soon as Rose Red's introduction was over. Clockblocker leaned over the couch and glanced at Ashley. "So," he said, "our new friend was on a team before back in your world. Is there anything we should know about her that she didn't share?"
"What?" Ashley began. "Do you think every mutant knows who every other mutant is? The Runaways were small fish based on California. Klara's probably the creepy plant girl who can summon a vine forest to fight off a squad of paramilitaries. She seems friendly enough," Ashley finished, "so just don't get her mad and you'll be fine."
I was about to chide Ashley for phrasing it like that when I got another message on my phone. The Poisons had been spotted.