“I said stop it,” repeated Blue Star. Cosmic Kid shivered involuntarily; the temperature in the room had plummeted as Gabrielle read out the last piece. He threw a worried look at Blue Star, whose hands were clenched so tightly together that each vein stood out. Matteo and Starfish seemed to have found the last article particularly amusing, but their mirth was not improving the mood of the room.
“Gabrielle, we get the point,” said Camille somewhat testily. “Can we just move on?”
“No, this is the point!” yelled Gabrielle. “We don’t get to just move on! The press had finally beaten the Boardwalk explosion into the ground. They were ready to move on to the next story and we gave it to them: a team victory out at Avalon One. Do you know how much work I put into spinning that story? We barely pulled a thwart out of that mess! Between the island rising from the deep and the resulting tsunami devastating the harbor, most people’s gut reaction was that we arrived late and botched everything. Not to mention that Keystone subsequently defected and we’ve had at least two members on Injured Reserve all Season. Hell, I spent the last three weeks trying to salvage the situation so that we wouldn’t actually hit bottom in the rankings. Even so the Cool Kids are ranked higher than us right now! Let me remind you all that being #8 doesn’t win you endorsements. And in one 15-minute lunch, the two of you manage to give enough salacious details to carry the superazzi through the rest of the Season! Can we move on?! Jesus Christ, people. It’s not like the two of you are new, either. How many ways can I say you should have known better? Cosmic - what’s the first rule of public behavior?”
Cosmic Kid shifted uncomfortably. “Don’t do or say anything in public unless you’re okay with it being recorded and broadcast to the world.”
“Thank you! And what do you do if a superazzi insults you or someone close to you?”
“Ignore, deep breath, disengage,” he said quickly, remembering the phrase she had drilled into his head in one of their many practice sessions early on.
“Yes! Now, tell me how it is that the fresh-faced super teen who can’t even drink beer yet knows more about handling the superazzi than the two of you do? Christ, between the two of you, you’ve got nearly 60 years of experience!”
Starfish raised a hand.
“What is it Starfish?” asked Gabrielle.
He smiled at her. “Can the good little boys and girls who haven’t caused any problems get back to saving the world now?”
Gabrielle sighed. “In a minute. Listen people, this isn’t a Blue Star and Camille problem; this is a West Pacific Supers problem. We can expect every news conference from now until the next crisis to be dominated with questions about Blue Star’s sex life. We can expect every patrol to be monitored to see what the pairings are. We can expect everyone on the team to be pressed for comments about whether the team is injury-prone and who’s dating whom. Camille, they will be staking out your house and watching to see whether you and Jules hold hands when you pick up Meghan from school.”
“They can’t do that!” exclaimed Camille.
Gabrielle gave her a pitying look. “Oh yes they can. You decided against a secret identity and lost all the legal protections that go along with one. Blue Star - I suggest you move your granddaughter to a new and more secure apartment complex, or she can expect to be accosted about your love life every time she goes out for groceries.”
The temperature in the room dropped a few more degrees.
“Hey, it could be worse,” said Cosmic Kid jauntily. “Over-sexed is better than washed up. At least the team’s getting publicity. And like you say, when the next crisis comes, this will all be behind us.”
Gabrielle shook her head. “That’s only if we nail the next crisis. If we slip up at all - AT ALL - the coverage will go right back to the mess we’re in now: WPS team leader too involved in his sex life to effectively lead the team, Camille holding back because she’s a glass cannon, Dr. Sterling out of touch and probably hunting for other employment, and Seawolf so old that she’s planning her retirement party.”
“I am not old,” muttered Seawolf bitterly.
“Well, you’re not young either,” retorted Gabrielle. “It certainly doesn’t help that you keep getting injured in fights that no one else sees. We need to counteract the perception that you’re not healing as quickly as you should be. Maybe we should consider bringing in an occult healer…”
“No!” snapped Seawolf. “I’m not risking my soul over a stiff leg. Besides, I’m ready to get back in the field now. I feel fine!”
“Liar,” said Dr. Sterling, who had been tapping on her HoloBerry and generally ignoring the conversation. “Dr. Gavriel says that you need a few more weeks.”
“Weeks!” screeched Seawolf. “You’ve got to be kidding! I…” Dr. Sterling raised an eyebrow at her and Seawolf fell silent.
“Whatever,” said Gabrielle. “The point is that the things that came up in Camille and Blue Star’s little chat are going to haunt us for the rest of the Season. We cannot have anything like this happen again.”
“It won’t,” said Camille shortly.
“All the more reason,” said Starfish, “that we get back to saving the world. If the press has to choose between us matching wits with the Infinite Circle or covering some ridiculous personal issue…”
“…they will chose the ridiculous personal issue every time,” finished Gabrielle. “There’s a reason the tabloids are in every supermarket aisle.”
“You know,” suggested Cosmic Kid, “I use soundwave scramblers when I talk in public, but you still have to watch out for lip readers.”
“Good point,” agreed Gabrielle. “Tech can help avoid some of these issues.”
“Or you can just not say anything stupid in public,” observed Seawolf.
Starfish chuckled as Camille glared. Gabrielle cleared her throat. “Onto damage control,” she said. “Blue Star, you need a solid relationship and you need one NOW.”
“What?” the team leader said. “I don’t see how…”
“And you don’t have to,” Gabrielle snapped. “I’ll do the spin, you just follow instructions. First priority for you - above training, patrol, or meetings with the Governing Board - is a steady girlfriend. And someone respectable, please - not Nancy in accounts who’s 22 and actually not a natural blonde - yes, I’ve seen you checking her out.”
Blue Star paled slightly and Cosmic Kid shook his head in disbelief. The old man had a mutant hormone system or something going on. It was really amazing how far he seemed to get on reputation or war stories or whatever it was that women saw in him.
“Camille,” continued Gabrielle. “You don’t exactly have a great history with the West Pacific press, so we can write off them giving you the benefit of the doubt. We have two issues to deal with here - one, your marriage and two, your physical fitness. It would be great if you, Jules, and Meghan could be seen in public doing normal family things - go shopping, take her to a playground on the weekend, that sort of thing. I’ll also schedule you for the City Parks Carnival in a couple of weeks - a good wholesome activity. Actually, Keystone used to run that, so I’ll schedule Blue Star for it as well. Better to have full coverage.”
“I thought you were trying to keep us apart!” protested Blue Star.
“If the two of you are never together, it’ll look like you have something to hide,” replied Gabrielle immediately. “The second issue though is more critical to the team. We need to quash the idea that you are weak.”
“Not really,” said Blue Star.
“What?” snapped Gabrielle.
“He’s right,” said Cosmic Kid quickly. “It can actually work to our advantage. It’s more important that she doesn’t over-extend herself to prove the rumors wrong and in the process get injured.”
Gabrielle frowned. “Maybe - I’ll leave that up to Dr. Sterling and Dr. Gavriel. So focus on the relationships, Camille.”
“I don’t use my family for publicity purposes,” Camille said flatly.
&n
bsp; “You can’t have it both ways,” Gabrielle said. “You can’t be the fully public super with nothing to hide and then try to hide your family as soon as the going gets rough. Once you’re out, you’re out.”
“Spoken like someone who knows the difference, I guess,” said Camille. “Are you really going to keep up the farce of your secret identity now that we all know who you are?”
Gabrielle looked at her incredulously. “Just because you couldn’t handle a secret identity, don’t try threatening mine. No one except the people in this room know who White Knight is, which means I know who to track down if word gets out.”
“Not to mention that it’s a Federal offense to reveal a secret identity,” commented Dr. Sterling, looking up again from her HoloBerry. “Though I’m sure no one was implying that.”
Camille flushed angrily.
Blue Star cleared his throat. “No one is threatening anyone, though if this meeting goes on much longer, I might start. Matteo, we might not have secret identities, but we still have some privacy rights, correct?”
“Mostly against stalking or harassing,” Matteo agreed.
“The same rights that actors and politicians have,” interjected Gabrielle, “which means, not many.”
“That’s not fair,” said Camille. “These people are constantly after me! It’s like they’re trying to ruin my life.”
“Ah the perils of being a shameless flirt and publicity whore,” mused Seawolf.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” said Camille into the stunned silence that followed.
Seawolf rolled her eyes and Starfish laughed almost hysterically. Cosmic Kid exchanged a worried look with Matteo. Clearly the meeting was making people unhinged.
“Can we wrap this up, Gabrielle?” asked Dr. Sterling. “I need to speak with our esteemed team leader about our continuing investigation into the Boardwalk attack. In my office, Blue Star.”
“Of course, that’s all I’ve got,” said Gabrielle, looking around the room in some alarm. “Remember, we want the press to focus on what we do, not who we are!”
Chapter 30
11:45 a.m., Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
WPS Headquarters
West Pacific, CA
“Do you have a moment?” Seawolf asked Starfish as they left the conference room together. She desperately wanted to know if there’d been any leads on her mutant sealife investigation, but he never seemed to be in his office when she called.
“I would love to, but it appears that you’ve got company,” replied Starfish.
“What do you mean?” she asked. She turned around and saw Camille bearing down on her with an angry expression.
“Catch you later,” said Starfish with a grin as he headed for the elevators.
Seawolf stopped and waited for the younger woman. “What the hell was that back there?” Camille demanded.
“What?” Seawolf asked, moving to one side as Cosmic Kid and Blue Star hurriedly walked by.
“Don’t give me that. You know what - that crack about me being a publicity whore.”
Seawolf grinned. Her teeth were a little larger and sharper than most people’s so she usually only showed them all off on special occasions. This seemed like one of them. “I’m just telling it like it is, Camille. Your outrage over this whole incident is laughable. You love being the center of attention - you probably orchestrated the whole thing.”
“Orchestrated?!” Camille was sputtering. “I have no idea what delusional world…”
“Oh please,” Seawolf said. “I’m not the one with delusions. I’ve heard the tape. You were flirting with him.”
“What?!” Camille had turned a peculiar reddish purple.
“You flirt with anyone who looks,” Seawolf continued calmly. “And pout when someone doesn’t. Maybe it made sense when you were 19 and wore a miniskirt, but I though the whole point of that little incident was that you were all grown up now.”
“That little incident?!” Camille was struggling to control herself. “I don’t know what your problem with me has always been, Seawolf, but that ‘little incident’ was about me standing up on behalf of all female supers against teams trying to sexualize them for the sake of marketing revenue. I lost my job over that.”
Seawolf rolled her eyes. “Spare me the heroics. You got tired of people staring at your perfect legs, so you created a drama, milked the story for all it was worth, and managed to get traded up to the Infinity Team to boot. Hardly being thrown out on streets.”
“My perfect legs? Is that what this is all about? You’re jealous of how I look?” Camille sounded incredulous.
Seawolf looked at Camille for a moment, thinking of how envious she had always been of Camille’s grace in the air, her smooth furless skin, and the way people seemed to instantly warm to her. Even back when Camille was just the newest troubled kid at the Academy, people saw potential in her, just because of the way she looked. Seawolf shrugged. “Don’t you understand that in order to be sexualized, you have to be judged normal enough to be attractive? If I had your legs, I would be thrilled to display them in a miniskirt. Get over yourself, Camille. The truth is that the superazzi are only interested in you because you’re attractive and you know it and aren’t afraid to use it. If Starfish and I had had the same conversation at the same restaurant, no one would have even cared.”
“That is so not true!” said Camille, sounding petulant. Seawolf wondered idly if she were going to stamp her foot.
“And yet,” said Seawolf, “if you actually read the marketing and publicity reports you would see that it is indeed so true. Little boys may wish to grow up to be the Monster of Detroit or Cicada Man, but little girls most assuredly do not want to develop fur and webbed fingers.”
Camille stared at her. “I work hard at what I do, Seawolf. I do the same amount of heroics as you do - actually, given my power set, I’d say I do a fair share more. Maybe I get more of the spotlight, but it’s not like you ever try to be popular with the press. And you know what? It’s not easy being in the spotlight all the time! I get followed back to my house, my family is practically always under observation, my daughter’s teacher is obsessed with what I do, my husband gets asked more questions about me at his concerts than he does about his music, everything I say or wear is analyzed on national news…What?”
“You are so self-absorbed,” Seawolf observed. “It’s too bad that you can’t hear yourself speak.”
“What are you talking about?”
Seawolf shook her head. She hadn’t thought that Camille was really this dense. “Your family, your daughter, your husband - not all of us have those things, Camille. Perhaps the demands of your job affect them in unfortunate ways, but then again, perhaps you should have thought of that before you gave up your secret identity. Like Gabrielle said, you can’t have it all.”
Camille frowned. “I’m sorry that your life is so pathetic that you feel a need to take it out on me. Whatever you may think, my life is not perfect.”
This conversation had gone on too long. Seawolf looked at Camille and spoke quite slowly. “There are people with actual problems in the world who need attending to.” With that, she turned, wrenching her still-painful leg, and stalked slowly off to the stairwell.
Chapter 31
10:32 a.m., Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
Training Gym C, WPS HQ
West Pacific, CA
“So who’s your new soul mate?” asked Cosmic Kid as he neatly sidestepped a tire iron and then grabbed and tossed the big guy facing him into one of the padded blue zones, which removed him from play. He and Blue Star were in another Dr. Sterling training scenario. Today they were being beset by West Pacific College’s football team and had to rescue the team’s cheerleaders who were being held hostage. West Pacific College was a Division III team, which meant no athletic scholarships for its players. Thus Dr. Sterling tried to do her best to use West Pacific College athletes for training exercises and to pay them well for their services.
“Gabrielle said you needed a steady girlfriend before anything else, even training, and here you are training – so I figured you found a special someone. So what’s she like? It’s not the mayor’s daughter or anything like that, is it?” asked Cosmic Kid as he sprung up and kicked who he believed was one of the team’s wide receivers, sending him flying into another blue zone.
“No. Listen, Kid, I’m team leader – the PR director doesn’t order me around.” Blue Star caught three more players in a flurry of snow. They were bundled in padding, but they quickly fell back against the freezing cold.
“So you’re having problems connecting with someone – or is it performance problems? I can understand the former, but I’m young, so no idea about the latter,” said Cosmic Kid as he jumped up to the ladder leading to the next level.
Dr. Sterling’s voice boomed over the intercom through the upper training center: “I can see why the Sea Turtles lose most of their games – you guys are pathetic little girls! The woman’s field hockey team did twice as good as you sissies. It’s a senior citizen and a teenager – come on, kick their asses!”
Cosmic Kid had to admit Dr. Sterling was right. The woman’s field hockey team had come to play hard and worked as a team; the football team on the other hand had no unity and seemed genuinely intimidated. However, it did appear as if Dr. Sterling’s words had sparked the team a little, but that would only give them a small boost. Battles were always won before they were fought and the football team lost this one the moment the bus dropped them off at the building.
West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide Page 31