Cal Morgan, THE MIGHTY INCH, is head over heels for their gal Raidne!
They're really cute together!

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NUMBER FOUR: TWO HOT BABES SAVE THE UNIVERSE
[8F-211][PW-55]

------- ME AND MY MUTUALS ------------------

Cal Morgan, THE MIGHTY INCH, age 18. They/them.
It's me! Only an inch tall! So tiny! Good at punching! So mighty! I'm
pretty okay, mostly.

Raidne, age N/A. She/her.
A.I. construct that lives in my suit! She's funny, and smart, and
sexy, and 101% awesome. Plus she's in love with me for some reason! I
don't get it either, but I'll take it!

Lily Green, THE LIVING UWU, age 26. She/her.
Marxist catgirl (but not that kind of catgirl). Extremely online.
Makes you feel kinda warm and fuzzy all over. Reformed supervillain
who used to fight my sister but only me and Raidne know that.

Lola Brodeur, DUST DEVIL, age 23. She/her.
Cyborg who does cyclone stuff. Human head on a super-spindly body with
like these thin metal tubes for limbs. We actually have more in common
than I thought at first, she seems pretty rad.

Audrey Brown, MATCHSTICK, age 33. She/her.
Newly-cracked egg (but I don't know that yet!). Lily is helping her
out, and is the only one that knows her secret. Married to the rock
star who hit me with a shrink ray and ruined my life, so, uh, there's
that.

Bethany Clayton, KNOCKOUT MOUSE, age 32. She/her.
Leader of the Daylighters (btw we're part of the Daylighters). Good at
punching I guess for an old person. I don't know her super-well, she's
friends with my sister Kate.

Kate Morgan, SHIMMER, age 31. She/her.
Speaking of which: it's my sister, who also basically raised me. We
get along better now than we used to, but it's complicated? Fraught?
Anyway, she can phase through matter and now also she does magic
apparently so there's that.

Pam Bierce, LOOP, age 31. She/her.
She does time magic apparently? I haven't met her yet, I have no idea
what her whole deal is.

--------------------------------------------

"So, Pam, what's your whole deal?"

"I rewind time a little." She's just finished waving her hands all
eldritch-like at what everyone is now calling "the time sink". She and
Cal (and Raidne) are waiting in the Lighthouse's meeting room for the
others to arrive so Pam can give everyone the skinny on what's the
what.

"No, I know that part," says Cal. "I just mean, tell me about Pam."

"Not a whole lot to tell," says Pam. "I was living my life, stuff
happened, everyone thought I was dead. Spent the last six years under
the ruins of Las Vegas all on my lonesome."

"That doesn't sound like a fun time."

"Nope," says Pam. "Lotsa boring trauma, ain't gonna talk about it.
Anyway, now I'm doing this whole thing." Pam runs her fingers up the
length of her right arm, tracing the chaotic web of glowing lines.
"Pulled a mystical muscle," she says. She taps the tight, controlled
circle on the back of her hand. "Mancer's mark sprung a leak."

"Ah," says Cal. "I, uh, I was wondering, but wasn't sure if I should ask.."

"You did," says Pam. "I just wound time back and cut to the chase."

"You do that kind of thing often?" says Cal.

"You know, the first time you asked me that, I lied and said no,"
says Pam. "So, yeah, I do it a lot. I say something I wish I could
take back. Someone else says something they wish they could take back.
And so I do. Wouldn't you?"

"Maybe," says Cal. "Do things hurt any less?"

"God no. I still remember everything. Still get embarrassed when I
put my foot in my mouth, even if I make it so it never got there in
the first place. Still get hurt. Still feel," she searches for the
word. "Vulnerable. But," she shrugs, "I dunno, I guess it makes me
feel a little better after? Like a form of self-care?"

"Yeah, I get that," says Cal.

()

As the others finally file into the meeting room, Cal notices how each
of them were whammied by the all-nighter. [Audrey] is strangely quiet
and nervous – not nervous the way [she] always is, but in some
different way that's hard for Cal to put their finger on. Lily's
gentle buzz is gentler and buzzier than usual. Cal wants to say that
Bethany is crabbier but honestly? That lady's been getting crabbier
for a while. About the only one that seems utterly unphased by it is
Lola, which makes sense, because as near as far as they know, she
doesn't need to sleep.

Which leaves Kate, who definitely does need to sleep, but hasn't
had a decent night in a good long while. Side effect of spending two
sleepless years on the other side of a mirror. Screwed up her sleep
cycle somewhat fierce, and that's before you even factor in the
trauma. Cal tries to keep that in mind every time the two of them
bicker and snipe, tries to make allowances every time Kate says
something thoughtless and invalidating.

(Don't wanna think about that now. Push it down.)

"Okay," Pam begins, "so the time sink is stable. Stable-ish,
anyway; as stable as these things get. I didn't actually have to do
all that much; Kate did a great job considering time magic isn't her
forte."

Kate nods, and it's hard to tell if it's a "thank you" nod, or a
"yes, of course" nod, or maybe both.

"It's stable," says Bethany, "but not closed?"

"That I'm having a little trouble with," says Pam. "But
functionally, it's pretty similar to the time dilator."

"Time dilator?" says Lily. "I need to get me one of those if I ever
have temporal bottom surgery."

The room stares at her blankly.

"My comedy genius is wasted on the cis."

"The time dilator," says Bethany, "is something Pam worked on, for
the war. It's hush-hush stuff, can't get into details, but the gist of
it is that time moves a lot slower around it."

Pam nods. "It's possible the physics nerds that helped me with that
can help with this."

"Sounds like a plan," says Bethany. "[Audrey]? Your turn."

"I did another sweep of the Lighthouse like you asked." [She] must
be even more exhausted than Cal thought; there's none of the usual
bombast and drama, everything is very subdued. "Nothing's out of the
ordinary. No physical signs of how they futzed the Lighthouse's suite
of security features."

Raidne pipes up. "And I'm still coming up empty on my end. A lot of
the Lighthouse's recent memory was corrupted by the enemy construct,
and when I pushed it out, those files went with it."

"So, we still have no idea how they got in and out," summarizes
Bethany. "Great."

()

After the others are dismissed, Bethany meets separately with Cal,
Raidne, and Kate. "So, let's talk about the Lighthouse."

"Can I ask you a question first?" says Kate.

"Sure," says Bethany.

"How's Derek?"

Bethany grimaces. "It's rough. I'm not cut out to be a caretaker."

"Then don't be. There are other people who can take care of him."

"They do," says Bethany. "Pam helps. So does Melody. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"You know Melody. She doesn't want to help, she wants to fix it,
and those are two different things." She smiles. "Sounds like Derek.
Maybe that's why they never got along."

"Sounds like you, too," says Kate.

"Cal, you want to step outside while I punch your sister in the face?"

Cal's surprised Kate and Bethany remembered they were there.
They're used to being overlooked when the tall people are talking.
"Absolutely not."

"Thanks, Cal," says Kate.

"I wanna watch."

"Thanks, Cal."

"Can we get back to business?" bristles Bethany. "I don't know why
you brought Derek up in the first place."

"Because I'm your friend and I know you're going through a hard
time," says Kate. "Also, because this is his fault."

"How is this his fault?" says Bethany. "To be clear, I'm not
disagreeing with you. Most things are his fault. I just need you to be
more specific."

"Even before he left us running skinny, no one was minding the
store. The question isn't how they got into the Lighthouse, it's how
this didn't happen before."

"You're not wrong," admits Bethany. "We really need to have some of
our people here at all times."

"Kinda like what you were doing with the fake Forlorn Hope complex?
Rotating people in and out around the clock?"