Dinner was ready when I came back in and the rest of the night was spent reminiscing about their friend and all of her antics and accidents.  And while it was clear that she was a disaster area of a fighter and probably more of a liability than an asset, I couldn’t deny the affection that they had for her.  But more telling was the fact that after all of the anger and hateful words that had been said, everyone was once more friendly with each other, joking around and letting their emotions run free.  Hell, even Ghostie seemed to open up, which I imagine was due to the fact that everyone was deep into the booze, the wine having run out early on.

Right around ten, I went out again to the back patio to smoke and this time I was joined by Ana.  Here comes the real truth table I thought to myself.  “You really do love her like a sister, or maybe a mother,” said Ana immediately.

I smiled as I lit up.  “She’s the only person other than my father who has talked to me the way she does that didn’t get their lights put out for general purpose.”  She sighed.  “Are you really going back to the Isles?  It’s going to break her heart.  You know that the moment you do, they are going to lift the peace petition.  You know what they are going to do to her once it’s lifted?”

I nodded.  “I would assume some sort of trial where they deliver some sort of punishment.  But do you honestly think she didn’t already know this from the jump?  Let’s be blunt, from everything I have seen and heard, she loves the Babes more than anything, and I would be willing to bet that she is the most beloved Babe.  If they drag her into whatever your Tribunal is about, they make a show of things at the most, but what’s the worst punishment they could mete out?  Are they going to strike her name from the roster and never more speak it again?  That would never happen even in the environment you speak of.  You described a shit show relating to Xai and she killed many of your sisters, yet there was a debate.  Now do you think someone like Deb is going to suffer the same fate, whatever that was?  Oh and the moment I am out of the picture, DiDi will retract the Petition of Grievance.  None of them are going to stone her for this.”

“She has told me on numerous occasions that everything I say or do is calculated.  Only someone who thinks the same way would say such a thing.  She planned this shit out like a movie script, so the question is why.  Maybe she’s trying to shake things up.  Maybe she sees how things are going and wants to alter it.  Everyone talks about Deb and her projects.  I don’t know dick about this Cortexia incident and I am sure losing her powers hurt her more than she says but losing Beam and Windy broke her.”

Ana looked up into the sky, “Losing them broke us all.  Libby isn’t a bad person but she just wasn’t ready to take it all on.  She was the lone PQ.  For six months we took no action other than doing everything we all could to find out what happened.  Portal Corp, Vanguard; none of them had answers, partly because the Rapid Response Team; Beamer, Windy and the others were the only ones that had Omega clearance.  Finally, Libby filled the thrones with Miss N and CK, mostly because they were senior.  But CK was a sword arm, she herself admits having no true leadership capacity outside of the tactical.  And Miss N, well she’s logistics . . . keeping the lights on at headquarters.  But no decisions on anything relating to change occurred for a year.  We lost members, recruiting dried up, and those who did join don’t stay long.”

I pointed at her.  “Libby isn’t your problem, it’s the Cheerleaders.  Specifically, it’s the one you call Fetch.  She feels she should be a Prom Queen, and maybe she should as she has been the only one to demonstrate any ambition from what you have alluded to.  You just don’t realize that it is you that should be there not her.  But she does.  If the PQs really do hammer Deb, do you think that CK will stay?  No, she’ll walk simply out of loyalty to her and probably to the old guard.  Someone will be bumped up.  And that is about the time the Petition of Grievance on you and Atty that I am confident Fetch has all ready and waiting will be fired up the chain.  And that will be the last straw for you two and so will end the Babes of War.  And the sad part is, Libby will realize that it’s too late that she never understood the simplicity of the burden that was laid upon her.  She didn’t have to keep the old Babes of War alive; she had to shape the new Babes of War.

Ana lowered her head to her lap and sighed.  “What about you?  What about when the petition is lifted and we aren’t at peace?”  I sighed, “Ana, I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t at war with you all.  Three months ago my answer would have been I would have smoked you all if you got in my way, two months before that I may very well have gone after you at even the threat but a month and a half ago I was sitting on a battlefield surrounded by dead Longbow and Sky Raiders talking to fucking Ms. Liberty about responsibility and the color of her spankies.  Shit a month ago I never thought I’d be kick fighting in stilettos and two weeks ago I damn sure didn’t think I would be talking to a psychiatrist about conversations I had with my father in my head.”

Ana asked how I knew Atty was psychic, “I felt her probing me and I let her; gave her permission.  But she’s not just a normal HC is she; she can read and control for real?  She’s a Pegacorn; she didn’t need my permission.” I paused to interlock my little fingers . . . “I won’t say anything, pinky swear.”

This drew a smile from Ana but she didn’t say anything.  “No Ana, all that hero hunting shit is in the past.  I can’t change what I did and as I have said, I don’t expect forgiveness.  But I have to go back to the Isles because that place is just wrong.  It shouldn’t even be a thing, no less the threat that it is so close to the States.  I just don’t get how the government has allowed it to remain.  But I am going bring that whole place down around their ears.”

Soon after, the gathering broke up as most of the Babes were headed for Paragon with CCs Slayer to have their ceremony on Sunday.  This left just Deb and I.  She seemed at peace, somewhat happy even, I supposed because of all of the memories everyone shared about CC.  Conversely, I didn’t want to ask her some of the things I wanted to ask her.  I simply went about cleaning up the kitchen until she inevitably started talking.

“So the service is at 11 and will be short; only Henry and I are going to say anything.  He says a number of CCs non hero friends are coming as are some of his.  You and I are the only metas that will be there.”  I nodded and she then said, “Look I know you have questions about what happened tonight and I am sure about Cortexia, but let’s save them for later.  I need to go get the Pillbox prepped.  Besides, you have a manual to read . . . and by the way Mari, thank you for tonight, you have no idea how much it meant to me.”

She sauntered off to her room while I looked at the hard backed book that was on the kitchen counter The Babes of War Handbook . . . Cry Hottie.  Holy shit it was literally written on the book itself.  In smaller print it identified itself as Revision Three.

As I lay in bed reading it, I was quite honestly dumbfounded by its depth.  If Deb was the author she had some serious input by someone with a military background.  It covered everything from their code of conduct and how their uniforms were to be worn down to more significant details that are necessary for the smooth operation of any people-based structure including logistics and manpower management.  They had their own set of medals they awarded including sundry awards for a variety of things that might seem silly on the outside, as I would have once thought, but when you look at their purpose it spoke of efforts to boost morale and individual excellence within the group.  Naturally there was a significant section on disciplinary issues and details on things such as the Truth Table and the Stiletto Tribunal.  There was a significant focus on the concept of quorum building and numerous checks and balances put in place to prevent dominance of a single leader.  Naturally I could see right away that many of my assumptions that I had expressed to Ana were correct.  There were gaps of course as there were many references to four other Babes of War texts; the Book of Rituals, the Book of Deeds, the Book of Privileges and the Book of War.  The first was obviously their secret handshakes and things that have been alluded to like the Retiring of the Colors.  The second one I could only assume was a chronicling of the heroic acts of the various members, or their history.  I had no idea what the third one was and from the name of the fourth one I assumed it was about combat tactics.

In the morning Deb and I had breakfast and got cleaned up as well as me putting together my funeral outfit.  Soon she had done my makeup and tweaked my hair and then did hers.  As the time that she had said we were to leave approached, she came out of her bedroom in the Full Dress Uniform of the Babes of War and while I had seen examples of wear in the Handbook it looked far more impressive in person and while I thought the concept was somewhat ludicrous, the pillbox hat with the veil was in fact quite regal.  Then I began to look at all of her regalia.  Her right sleeve had fourteen gold service stripes while the insignia on the left sleeve indicated that she was Varsity and also had the red triangle for the Rapid Response Squad and the blue Circle identifying her as a Trainer.  On her left shoulder was the Red Cross in the white circle patch indicating that she was the Senior Healer of the Group.  The number of medals that she wore amazed me, and I had come from the military and Vigilance with a pile to compare.  I was amazed.  The ones on the right side, which were ones not awarded by the Babes and they included numerous awards of the Stalwart Medallion, the Statesman Star and the Freedom Cross and well as scores of medals I didn’t recognize.  On her left side were her Babe specific medals, and again they were numerous.  However, the one that stood out the most was the one hanging from around her neck.  “Deb is that a Presidential Medal of Freedom?”

She looked down as if she wasn’t sure what it was.  “Yeah, it was for my significant contributions to the safety of the nation during the Fury Virus Pandemic in 02’.  So are you ready?”  I told Deb that she looked very dignified.  She smiled and thanked me and once more noted that it would be nice to get to wear the other variant.

Soon enough we were at the funeral home where the services were being held.  Pulling into the parking lot we saw that there were not many spaces available but we found one and in short order we were inside the facility.  I won’t lie when I say that I have never been comfortable in places like that, not because of death aspect of it but rather the clinical, almost assembly line-like nature of it.  The effort to try and simulate peace and comfort comes off even more fake.  Funeral homes are the equivalent of the corporate equal opportunity video, unrealistic and stilted.

Henry’s speech was basic, and while there was thought put into it, it was essentially short and sweet.  As he spoke, I scanned the room, getting a gauge of all of the people.  As Deb had warned, all of the assembled people were just average people and while Henry did speak of his wife’s role as a crime fighter, he was focused primarily on her life as a mother to Nellie.  And that was where all of the audience responded.  I watched the little girl as she sat in the front row, next to Deb, kicking her little legs.  Who I didn’t see was the ex-wife, which was probably for the best.  I was one row back, though Nellie had seen me and waved to me.

Some priest said some sort of prayer and some other words that just buzzed around in my head and then Deb went up to the podium.  Her pace and gait were purposeful and authoritative and there was no doubt that the audience was impressed by her regalia.  She projected her voice clearly so that the entire room heard her yet wasn’t so loud that it was overwhelming.  She started by pointing out Henry and Nellie and thanked everyone for coming to CCs service.  She then began describing the various acts of heroism that she had performed in multiple cities and the nation as a whole.  She then spoke of her major awards and launched into CCs most redeeming traits, those that made her more than a heroine but a friend of the highest caliber.  She spoke of her humor and her practical jokes as well as her love of coffee and soda.

She then launched into several short stories of humorous events that occurred while she was fighting crime.  Each one brought the assembled audience to laughter and it was clear that Nellie was very happy to hear these amusing anecdotes, sometimes even clapping.  By the end of her speech, everyone seemed like their mood had been lifted and even though she started to break up and cry when she ended her speech, she still had a joyful look on her face.

Afterwards as the mourners filed out of the place, telling Henry how beautiful the service was, they all made a point to let Deb know that her speech was very funny, uplifting and a fitting tribute to CC.  While Deb was dealing with the well-wishers, Henry slipped up next to me and spoke, “She really got CC didn’t she?  I am so glad you convinced me to change my mind regarding her being here.  She was able to say all of the things I couldn’t.”

I put my hand on his shoulder, “You said all of the things she couldn’t.  You were her husband and her best man.  CC was the sum of her two lives; her life with the Babes and her life with you and Nellie and though she had adventures fighting evil, I am confident that she felt the richer of the two lives was with you and your daughter.”  I was naturally caught off guard when he hugged me and thanked me before he got back to his duties thanking everyone.

Eventually Deb joined me and with her came Nellie who seemed to be handling everything.  She looked like she wanted to say something but looked up at Deb for approval, to which Deb nodded and then the little girl spoke.

“Hi Miss Misty, I wanted to give you something to remember my mommy by.  She always liked shiny or glowy things but I wanted you to have this shiny thing to remember her by.”  She then held out a silver pin and smiled telling me, “It was mommy’s Flag Girl pin.  Naomi calls her a mudflap girl but I think its mommy.”  Giving the pin a closer look, sure as shit it was a fucking mud flap girl, the whole silhouette of a naked woman thing you see on the mud flaps of semi-trucks.  I smiled and thanked her for something so pretty; I lied.  She then leaped up and gave me a big hug then released me, running back to her father.

I looked at the pin as Deb moved in close to me.  “Was this really the pin given to Flag Girls?”  She nodded, “I understand your response, almost every Babe ever has had the same response, but part of being a Babe was taking ownership of the various images of male objectification and making them our images of empowerment.  Take a close look, I think you will find it appropriate.”  As I looked closer at the device, it realized that the woman in the design was holding out a pistol and was wearing heels.

“Cheerleaders add a halo and PQs add angel wings.  You’d be surprised how loyal the Babes are to those images.  During the early days of Windy’s tenure as a PQ, she tried to make them go away but the Cheerleaders let the PQs know that it wasn’t going anywhere.  From that point on the CLs almost always referred to it as the Windy pin, just to get her goat.”

She looked back at Henry and Nellie and waved saying to me as she did, “Okay let’s go home, I need to stow this and get on the road to Paragon; Rhode Island isn’t far but traffic is a pain in the ass.”  On the ride back to her place she poked me in the ribs and said, “Okay, you can ask your questions now because I am sure you read the manual last night.”  I smirked at her, “What?  No Cry Hottie.”  She smiled in response, “Only when you say its full name or refer to it as the Handbook . . . Cry Hottie.”  I snorted, “Oh for fucks sake it’s just you and me Deb.”  She laughed heartily and reminded me that all organized institutions tend to engender various repetitions designed to reinforce identity, pointing out the Marine Corps with Semper Fi and Ooh Rah.

“We give them a uniform; we give them an identity beyond themselves and we give them shiny medals and pins to both reinforce their individuality and their place as a member of a greater team.  We have ranks and insignia and catch phrases and traditions.  It was designed to follow the same model as any military force, you can see that.  Yet because it’s sparkly and sexy and girly, it’s not the same?  That’s horseshit and you of all people I would expect to not only see it but respect it.  I mean that soapbox speech you gave Ana last night was amazing; literally everything the Babes used to be about.  You, the Butch Butcher of Brickstown lecturing a Babe of War about not being enough of a feminist role model.  It was fucking classic; the best.”

I got serious with her.  “Deb, are you worried about the Stiletto Tribunal?  Are you concerned about what is going to happen to you once the Tempus Pacis is ended?”  Once more she laughed.  “Oh sweetie, if I was worried about me, I could always invoke Privilege Two.”  I told her I didn’t know what that meant.  She snapped her fingers and said, “I forgot, that’s outlined in the Book of Privileges.  Look the details aren’t for your ears, but essentially each Babe is accorded a certain number of one-time exceptions to the rules that they can invoke.  Flag Girls get three then Cheerleaders get a few more and Prom Queens a couple more.  They range from the mundane to the significant.  Many have consequences if they are invoked and all invocations must be announced to the entire membership so they aren’t used very often.  Anyway, in short Privilege Two is nullification of any single judgement of a Stiletto Tribunal.  I have never used mine and they all know it.  But I won’t have to.”

I squinted at her waiting for the other shoe to drop.  “Look Mari, I didn’t put the petition in right away because I didn’t know you.  I’m not Atty or Leslie so I couldn’t read you, I was just being a doctor.  But when the first psionic manifestations occurred, I knew you were going to need help beyond just a few days so I put it in with the justification of mentorship of uncontrolled psionic manifestation.  Sure, the timing was right with Nster being out of town, but if she had been around, I would have strong-armed the request through.  I may be a powerless retiree but I am still a fucking PQ and membership has its privileges as it were.

“But what if they had rejected it.  Is there a privilege to override that?”  She smiled and nodded, “Yes.  Privilege One, but I burned that one a few years ago.  But don’t worry, you were never at risk.  Remember, a Tempus Pacis is in force the moment it is requested until it is disapproved but if it is, the individual parties are all informed and there is a 24-hour cooldown in place.  They would have to notify me and conversely I you in order to be fair and allow you to escape.  Rules baby, they come in real handy.”

She then sighed a bit before continuing, “Now admittedly I fucked up with DiDi telling you her name and lying to her about your identity.  That is why I told her to file the petition of grievance right after the blow up at the range.  She has every right to be pissed because it’s a breach of trust, something we take very seriously in the Babes and I may not even execute Privilege Two, I may let them punish me for that.”

My eyes widened, “Deb I read the Handbook” Fuck!  Cry Hottie she said.  “The punishment for those two articles is expulsion from the Group.”  She wiggled her finger, “The punishment can be as severe as expulsion.  But did you miss the part where it’s the petitioner who determines the severity of the punishment.  DiDi is not going to expel me, I delivered her sons for crying out loud.  The worst she would do, and I mean if she was still super pissed and being bitchy would be to bounce me down a rank.  So what, I lose a couple of privileges.

“Yeah and what if one of them executes a privilege to override it?”  Deb laughed at me once more.  “Do you think that they are all that catty?  Look, Libby may not like you one bit but she still likes me.  She isn’t a PQ because of her looks, though it does help.  She is smart and actually a good leader and she knows that if she overrides the punishment from the person airing the grievance, that it sends a message to the rank and file that if she can make it harder, she could also make it softer.”  I shook my head, “Then why have the privilege?”

“Because sometimes you have to do what’s right in your heart and not what’s in the book.  But that’s what I mean by consequences.  It makes you really think before you invoke one, conversely, they don’t get invoked very often.  Usually, it’s a young Flag Girl who made a simple mistake, you know, learn from your lumps.  Or it’s something you feel really strongly about; lead with your heart.  Beam used to call them silver bullets, and occasionally silver bullshit when they were things that she didn’t agree with.”

She then put her hand on my leg, “Look Mari, early on, maybe up until a couple of weeks ago, I really thought you would stay here in the States.  And yes, I’ve gotten really attached to you.  I haven’t felt this comfortable, this happy with a friend in a long time . . . since Beam.  You know the saying about the caged bird never singing, well I want you to sing.  That’s why I need to go back to Baltimore, because I know me well enough to know that I will find some way to keep you here, some way to hold you back from doing what you need to do to be you, for you to sing.  Will I be sad?  Of course!  I will bawl my eyes out for days and definitely drink too much wine, and I will be a real pain in Ruby’s ass for weeks.  All I would ask is that you call me once in a while, maybe even visit a couple times when you and your gang need to come off the line as you say.”

When we pulled up to her place and drove the car into the garage.  However, when she turned the ignition off, she kept her hand on my leg.  “Cortexia was what I executed Privilege One for; that overturns a PQ Quorum decision.  I executed it because the PQs declined to allow her to join the Babes of War.  I was her sponsor in the Hottie Hopefuls where candidates are evaluated.  The thing is, I trained her in the use of her mental powers before she petitioned for membership.  She was my project before you, though I never call you all projects.  I trained her well too; she could really sling the psionics.  She was an HN Blaster across the board; Primary and Secondary.  I read the field reports as they were coming in from the various Cheerleaders that were running her candidate group through.  Words like unstable, overaggressive, careless were in a lot of the reports, but I ignored them because I had been paired with Blasters almost all my career.  All of them are a little of all of those things.  So, I just attributed it to the Cheerleaders being overcautious on their evaluations.  Ana was one of them and so was Libby before she was a PQ.  I trained her and I knew her better than anyone else.  So, when it came time to vote, Windy and Beam were thumbs down.  Beam was especially harsh about it.  So I invoked and she was in.  And for the first month, everything seemed to be good, no reports of issues, just successful and injury free missions.  We all chalked the early reports up to inexperience and jitters.”

I saw her take a deep breath and close her eyes as if debating whether to continue explaining or not.  “You remember how bad Paragon was right after the war and I am sure you remember how bad Skyway City was especially with those little fucking Clockwork assholes.  So we cherry pick members from the three Pep Squad Teams to form a team tailored to putting those little jerks down.  You know the drill, Tanks with electrical resistance, shooters with electrical or energy powers and if you got them, psionics.  So, we put Molly Hackit in charge; Cheerleader and experienced tanker . . . sublime with that battle axe of hers.  We assigned Teslarina an electrical blaster and an electric controller named Short Fuze, and was she short, like four foot nine and Cortexia.  So they are doing sweeps and are cleaning those junkers out.  Molly says that early on, Cortexia was hitting them so hard that their metal was melting; I mean one shotting those Knights.  And perhaps that is where things went south.  Molly’s report wasn’t clear but we believe that at some point she was hit by an Assembler Prince, we know it was a big one.  And those fuckers really can lay the amps on you.  Anyway, we think it was after she was hit that she went . . . berserk.  She lost fire discipline, stopped following orders from Molly and in general began to hazard the team.  Naturally Molly pulls them back and is doing to shut down operations, go back to HQ and sort out what happened.  But Cortexia was out of control.  She fired on her team, intentionally knocking Short Fuze out instantly.  Naturally the rest of the team was caught off guard and didn’t respond immediately.  She fired on the other blaster and it had to have been a Tier four power, which we never identified because it blew the armor plates off of Teslarina and caused her battery pack to explode.  And if Molly hadn’t jumped into the line of fire and taken the second shot, it would have been a death blow to Tes.  Molly knocked her the fuck right out.”

“So they get back to base and thankfully, Fuze and Tes are okay but we have Cortexia in Class 2 Restraints and a psionic inhibitor strapped to her head.  You know those shock collars for your brain.  And the medical examination shows that she did indeed take some brain damage from the Assembler.  So technically it wasn’t her fault, but it is still a bad look.  So Leslie and I are both working on her, trying to heal the damage or find a way to rewire her neural pathways to circumvent things and get her healthy.”

“But a few days later Leslie and I lost control of her.  She had so much pent-up anger.  She hit us with a Tier four that threw us across the room.  I hit the security breach alarm and Leslie was literally firing off bolts of psionic energy just to try and deflect Cortexia’s shots.  And it was red Mari, so much red energy.  There were three fucking Psionic Tornados blasting that room and all of us to shit and slamming into each other.  And then she dropped a wail on us.  I had been on the giving end of a Psychic Wail but never on the receiving and I don’t want too ever again.  It knocked Leslie out and probably would have taken me out too if I hadn’t been thrown across the room by one of the tornadoes.  And then Beam arrived and Lobo’d her; emptied six darts into her and she fought it which was real stupid of her because she overloaded, discharging PKE like ball lightning which stuck Beam several times.  She was a bit of a glass cannon against psionics so she went down, but then about a second later, so did Cortexia.”

Another deep sigh and a sniff.  “Well, you already know about the Lobos so you can imagine what happened when the suppression ended.  There she was in Mother of Mercy Hospital in a full Class Six containment chamber and all of us PQs watched her as the Lobo wore off.  Normal, then suddenly burning with PKE, radiating off her body like pavement on a hot day looks like, brighter and brighter as she struggled with the restraints and then pop, all gone.  Jaw open, drool forming in the corners of her mouth and that hollow look in her eyes . . . alive but not.”

Deb started crying and trying to wipe away the tears with her sleeve.  “Windy didn’t say anything, she didn’t have too, but Beamer did, Beamer always had something to say.  She said, ‘That was your one Deb.  Never again.’  But she wasn’t talking about me using Privilege One, she meant my projects as a whole.  Cortexia was my one failure.  I brought ParaMedic, Ms. Mysteria, Attraction and Madame Mirage into the Babes through my training, all now distinguished members, but I will always be remembered for Cortexia.  After that I still had my projects but I never tried to bring them into the Babes, even if they were legitimate candidates.  I didn’t want it to happen again.”

She then let go of my leg and opened the door, “Times a wasting Mari, I need to put the pillbox back in the closet and finish packing for Paragon.”