“He never followed up with us, either,” Dealer pointed out, frowning. “That probably means either a major temporal lag, or the Widow in the Web brought us somewhere he can’t reach so easily, especially now that we’re more than just slivers of him?”

“Temporal lag...” I eyed Serenity, having a thought. “Ho, what do you think of your hometime accepting potential refugees?”

She blinked. “That... is an interesting question. Especially if they come from before the Gender War. There are entire nations and most of the continents with nobody on them anymore. The only thing is clearing it with the Council and making sure they are left alone by the existing men-haters.”

“That could be a BIG project. Alleviate a lot of population and cultural pressures,” Dealer murmured.

“Just have to keep out the hate groups so it doesn’t repeat,” I agreed. “I imagine the Crux and the Askar and their pawns would all go crazy on the women...”

“Oh, those aren’t patriarchal radical organizations at all, they aren’t,” Dealer sniffed right back. “I imagine this is something to bring up with Sama Rantha. She’d know what oppressed groups might be willing to leave. I imagine she has Casters who could do the Ritual with a temporal and planar Seal provided. If not, Dr. Richards could.”

We all looked at one another, and I sighed. “Let me send her a text...” I said, pulling out the Crystal Vaccine.

---------

-She did WHAT?- Briggs /asked, not sure he’d heard right.

-One of her Duplicates went into Thundra’s future alternity, finished the Gender War, and took over the matriarchy there. She’s wondering if we might not want to send some refugees or something there. Planetary population is under ten million, all gene-modded women with no evolutionary potential. A lot of the landscape is ravaged, but plenty of area is simply uninhabited.

-She’s wondering if there’s some people, tribes, refugees, or the like we would like to settle there, minus the radicals,- Sama /finished thoughtfully.

Briggs made something of a face. -Damn Powered. Always getting ahead of things. I can think of at least four peoples who would love to move the fuck away from their neighbors and come from generally peaceful societies.-

-Yes. It won’t hurt our interplanetary expansion plans, because they are Second and Third World at best, and a traditional culture shouldn’t irritate the women as much as an advanced patriarchal one.-

Briggs ruminated over that. -I have no objection to it, but it’s not my main concern,- he finally /admitted. -Do you want to run with it? I doubt she’ll pursue it if we aren’t interested.-

-I’ll send out some envoys to some elders for quiet meetings. If they are enthusiastic about the idea, we should be able to arrange some large-scale transfers, or at least a standing Portal. It being a non-direct alternity actually makes some things much easier...-

-That is true. I can arrange help with that portion if you set things up, and I imagine we can rope her in to help out. She’s already a bloody Seventeen...-

-She’s a 19/18/18 now.-

Briggs’ bushy eyebrows shot up. -What?!- he /spluttered.

-She says she consolidated with all her Duplicates once.-

Briggs’ Hammer-pounding had never stopped. The Shield taking shape on his forge could not be halted, after all. Still, he almost stuttered his Cadence.

She was 17/15/15 when they’d given her a Nova Core to develop! That had been only a month ago!

-Okay, I’m getting Madrox off of Muir Island and putting him into intensive training. MacTaggert seems to be absolutely useless, anyway.-

-She has you to contend with. So much for her mutant paradises.-

He /barked a short laugh. -Maybe her next time around.- He considered the point further. -Get Callie down from LaGrange and see if she can Mimic his power. We can train her in bloody everything imaginable.-

-I don’t think we want to test the universe’s acceptance of so many Dupes at Primus’ level,- Sama /warned him thoughtfully. -But if she goes back to basic on the Dupes, that is a wonderful idea. However, she has that fifty percent restriction on Mimicking. How do you make fifty percent of a Duplicate?-

Briggs thought that over. -What’s a half-strength Duplicate?- he /asked for confirmation.

-I would guess a Clone... of which you can only have one.-

-Then that’s what she’ll do. Madrox probably has a Dupe who wants to be a woman. No reason not to double up both sides of his equation, either,- he /added thoughtfully.

-Also logical!- Sama /agreed, and more plans were set in motion.

----------

I Powered up the Portal to LaGrange and sent Cerise on through. She would be more comfortable there then here on Terra, with more aliens around and a higher level of technology. Doc Bronze and Wrench were happy to have a good technician around to help who was familiar with alien technology... and who could spit the incalcitrant on an energy blade, if need be.

The former SHIELD tech who’d been eaten by a Dire Wraith was happy to stay in space and be working with the High Guard directly. Even the most powerful of the planet’s heroes needed some tech support, and if she looked like a sexy Shi’ar secret agent who could bench a Buick, more power to her!

More to the point, she was also awarded a Nova Core, completely stunning her as she received it. It was a long road to power, but she was now on it. Her Specs would be coming, but that would take some time. Even optimally, it took a couple weeks to grow a new pair.

I was going to distribute sets to Ursula, Sunny, and Dealer to help the growing speed, as all of them could make the Energized Materials at the high end necessary to grow the technorganic creatures. After all, the Ultraspecs gave anyone who wore them powers, so they didn’t have to be restricted to Nova-Cored people. They would just be really useful for them.

===============

Time passes...

The wall com beeped in a particular sequence and code. I glanced up as I pulled a tray out of the oven, setting it down to cool.

“Ho, Doc! What’s up?” Ben called out, wandering in as he smelled something. His blue eyes lit up at the sight of the tray of donuts sitting out there waiting.

“Good morning, Benjamin,” Doc Bronze’s voice came through the coms. “Just calling to let you know that we were signaled by the young Mr. Storm, and Primus has gone out to fetch him. If you pop the Portal to here, he should be home inside an hour.”

“Haw! The flamebrain finally did it!” Ben replied. “You got it, Doc! Just let us know when to fire it up, and we’ll bring him home. Tell Primus thanks fer his time, too!”

“I will, Ben. Have yourselves a good day!” the man called Paragon replied, and signed off with a toodle of beeps.

I looked at the kitchen, and absently swatted Ben’s hand as he reached for a donut. “Not for you, rock-head!” I said pointedly, stuck a finger to his ear, and as he protested led him firmly to one of the stools and sat him down. It was a lot easier when he was in human form. “These are for the kids coming in, big lab day. They’ll just taste like sugary paste to you.”

He sniffed longingly as he stared at the perfectly baked dough, the colorful toppings, and the tiny dabs of filling leaking out of them. “Wotta revoltin’ development,” he muttered to nobody in particular.

I just smiled at him. “Oh, you didn’t want a batch? Mr. Hill brought in some of those crap rubies from Mumbai last night. I already got ‘em mashed up in some peizogel. If you want to skip on it, that’s fine, I’ll just Energize ‘em to fire and put them all in Johnny’s batch.”

“Hey, no lettin’ that flamebrain steal my doughnuts before they’re even made!” he protested instantly, and sat down to watch me make up trays of Earth and Fire donuts for the two of them. The great thing about both is that they stayed fresh for weeks, not that they’d last a day with those two gluttons around...

------

The Portal to LaGrange powered up, space split and connected, and with a VOOP, we were looking into a corridor offload point in LaGrange Station.

Johnny was there in a set of spaceworthy togs, a rucksack over his shoulder. I waved at Cerise, who gave me a look that said Johnny was definitely flirting hard with her, I just winked, and greeted them, “Thanks for the escort, Cerise. I’ll have that freeze ray ready next time.”

Shi’ar can smile more widely than most humans. Hers was a beaming crescent. “Thank you!” she replied eagerly, as Johnny looked back and forth between us, wondering what was going on. “Got the other deliveries, Dyna?”

“Outta the way, Johnny. Terran vittles waits for no fire elementals!” With speed and surety, TK hands grabbed the stacked crates and zipped them across the Portal, dropping them on the hoverloader Cerise had behind her.

Quickly enough, the supplies were stacked up, Cerise gave me a wave as the Portal closed, and the aperture closed.

“Saves Primus a bunch of time running supplies,” Johnny nodded. Doc Bronze had been happy to use the Portal to maintain a steadier supply stream, and save Primus or Comet from having to haul up storage containers to the station. Teleporting the stuff often messed with sensitive components and made food taste odd, so walking it in through the Portal was a good solution.

If it weren’t for security purposes, I’d’ve moved it to the bottom floor, but at least it wasn’t hard to install next to the freight elevator and the back lower storerooms.

“Welcome back, Johnny,” I greeted him, and did him the privilege of giving him a sisterly hug, somewhat to his disappointment. “Stand there and let me look at you.” His grin was a bit lopsided as I looked him up and down once.

============

Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, The Fire of the Four

Male Powered Human/2 (Obsession: Thrillseeker), Avatar of Fire/10*

Vizard/5, Scout/4; Archer/10; Sorcerer (Fire)/7

Strength: 12-> 17

Dexterity: 15-> 21

Constitution: 14-> 18 (28)*

Intelligence: 14-> 17

Wisdom: 9-> 15

Charisma: 16-> 23 (33)*

Notable Talents/Traits: Pyrotechnic; Hot-Tempered, Roving Eye; Hot Rodder, Prankster; Slayer: Constructs (robots)

*Fire of the Four Template Characteristics: Alternate Elemental Form**; Fire and Radiance Immunity; Fire Control; Fire Absorption; Fiery Vitality; Fiery Will; Fire Attunement; Heated Flight**; Temperature Sensitivity; Energy Resistance**; Impact Resistance**

=============