The Adventure

okay, here it is, 575... Hmmm, this address seems really familiar, hang on zoom out a little OMG that's our address. That can't be right.

well, I guess I can try calling Darshelle, let's see I've got her listed under like five different names... here I'll just send a text: "hey girl where you at? You guys are getting squirrely 🐿️ 🔩"

Though again confused by her opponent's abilities, Eliza is in no mood to just let Mr. Smith retreat. In her mind, he's still an OmniCorp goon, and is likely trying to summon reinforcements.

She fiddles with the special googles she's been wearing since Small Fry appeared, hoping to get a bead on him.

The girl genius scans everything within sight, but it's no use. Doppelganger's transformations are too cunning.

"Dammit! Why doesn't my tech...ughh...no use whining about it! Maybe I can get out of here before those losers return!"

She addresses her robo-animals, who are equally distraught that their strange foes are so elusive: "OK, team! Whatever's already been packed, shove it in the van NOW! Everything else gets left behind! We'll be burning rubber, and blasting any cops, goons, or scumbags in general who try'n stop us!"

She rushes outside to check on the robo-chimp and the van, while her robots hurriedly do her bidding.

---

Combat over for the moment, but Eliza is still amped up. She has no problem fighting again.

It's unclear if Doppelganger has their phone on them. If so, I'd need a clever explanation, since they've transformed multiple times, including into a "quantum blur."

Summary of all "damaged" cliches:

Shield Maiden: down to Mild-Mannered Alter Ego (3)
Fuchsia Blu: down to Light & Color Manipulator (3) and Blinding Optimism (1)
Eliza Caldwell: down to Engineer Extraordinaire (3)
Horde of Robo-Animals: down to (2)
Mr. Smith: down to Shapeshifting Virtuoso (3)

Eliza reaches the van, hears her robo-chimp's squeals, and rushes over.

"What's going on?! Are you----"

The chimp interrupts her, launching into a frenzied "explanation" of Small Fry's appearance, disappearance, and key theft. To someone else, this performance would be inscrutable, but (in case it wasn't clear) Eliza can understand the "languages" of all her robot creations.

"Who the hell are these psycho idiots?! And again with the Mom stuff! I. DO. NOT. WANT. TO. TALK. TO. MY. MOTHER!"

No key? No problem, for an Engineer Extraordinaire. (Even one who's missing a dice.) She pulls tools out of her belt and starts fiddling with stuff inside the van, intent on hotwiring the vehicle!

(Maybe she should've put a magnetic box with a spare key somewhere on the chassis...but who has the time, when you're perfecting antimatter shotguns?!)

As she's stripping insulation from the relevant wires, the two robo-squirrels hop onto her shoulders and chatter in her ear.

"Everything's loaded up? Good! Tell everyone to get inside! As soon as I get this sucker running, we're outta here!"

Eliza sneers at Small Fry, then snatches the key. After undoing everything she'd done to hotwire the vehicle, she shoves the key in the ignition and zooms away from her lair! She steers towards the only entrance/exit for the abandoned sawmill, a long driveway that leads back to a two-lane country road.

"So you steal my key, then give it back...and what, I'm supposed to be blown away by your magnanimity?! And what's with that OmniCorp jackass?! He wants to abduct me solo, but then he runs away?! Is he part of your team, or are you separately crazy and stupid?!"

But she doesn't attack Small Fry. Instead, she reaches into her toolbelt and pulls out a thick metal bracelet with glowing red lights "veined" across it. Should Small Fry touch it, she'll feel warmth and the crackle of unknown energy."I'm tired of you flitting around. If you wanna talk, put this on. It'll neutralize any powers you have. And once it's on, you ain't getting it off, not without me...so don't waste your time. If you refuse, then I'm kicking you to the curb...literally!"

The Shield Maiden hears the cell phone ringing from the backseat and scoffs. "Bah! They left the phone here! We must try an alternative method."

She turns to her spirit guide, Hilde. "Can you sniff them out? Maybe use some of your spirit magic to sense their auras or something?"

The cat blinks slowly at the Shield Maiden, then reaches out with her supernatural senses.

Eliza's hand hovers near Small Fry's arm, clearly indicating that she's eager to snap the bracelet onto the heroine's wrist. But again, she refrains from attacking or hindering the shrinking super.

"You want a civil convo, huh? Suuurrre...you're just a bland, hypocritical hero, who wants to launch into a lecture about me being a good little girl and returning to my mother. Let me tell you the real story, and then we'll see how you respond...."

By now, the van has reached the country road. Eliza expertly power-slides onto the road, narrowly missing a USPS rural carrier. The other car lays on the horn, and Eliza's robo-animals squawk and squeal, but she's unworried.

"My mom sucks, OK? She has zero personality, zero goals, zero...anything. You know, I used to be angry with dad for leaving her, but now..."

A pause. You can see her face reddening.

"But I could put up with that if she'd just let...me...be! I'm smarter than her...smarter than you, too! I don't need to stay in school, I don't need to...to socialize or be a Girl Scout or play sports any of that crap! I can build anything! I could be a millionaire with tons of scientific breakthroughs already, but noooo! She's worried I might lose my intelligence or some shit!"

She pulls out yet another gadget from her toolbelt. It's a rectangular device with a small video screen.

"I've already tested myself for the so-called X-gene. I'm not a mutant. I don't have powers. I'm just smart. And I'm not gonna get dumber somehow! That's not how it works!"

Her face is now fire-engine red, and her hands are trembling.

"And my mom...hit me! She...ughh...it pisses me off just to talk about it! My mom was making some lasagna, and I was testing out my robo-squirrels. One of them glitched, and knocked the dish onto the floor. Lasagna everywhere. And WHACK! She slapped me hard, said she was tired of my 'chaos'."

In her anger, she swerves onto the other lane, nearly hitting a big rig. But then she sighs, and visibly relaxes. Still, the van is heading west at about 70 mph, and this road isn't the straightest or smoothest.

"Look, my mom isn't some...some monster child abuser. That's the only time she's hit me in my entire life. And she did cry a lot about it, and apologize. But still...it won't happen again. I ain't no victim, and I ain't a dumbass; I can do whatever I want. There's zero point in me staying at home with some loser who can't do 1/1000th of what I can, and who's gonna freak out when things get a bit messy."

She glances over at Small Fry with an unreadable expression.

"Whaddaya say to that, super-duper hero?"

The super-engineer gives Small Fry a withering look. Many pre-teens or teens are experts at such condescension, but Eliza is still in a league of her own.

"Oh, since you got spanked too, child abuse is OK?! Wow. Just wow. Psychiatrist of the year!"

"As for me shooting goons and cops...hell yeah, if they threatened me! What, I should just submit and let 'em oppress me?! Like that OmniCorp whackjob back at the lumber mill?! If that's even what he really was! And you still haven't told me if you're connected to him!"

"Look, I don't wanna kill anyone...but I will, if it's me or them! That's not being evil, that's just self-defense!"

Then she sighs, and slams on the brakes, skidding to a stop. Luckily, no other vehicles are nearby.

"It's clear you just want to reunite me with my mother, so you can get Hero Points, or whatever. You don't really care about me...my goals...my situation. So let's get it over with. I'll just wait until everyone is out of my hair, build better stealth and transport tech, and leave again...and nobody's catching me then!"

"So, is that the plan? Turn around and go back?"

Eliza attempts to brush Small Fry off the steering wheel.

"Move. You're distracting me."

She does a 180 on the road, and zooms back towards the sawmill. Her robo-companions unleash a cacophony. Some of them nudge her, or grab at her clothes.

To the robots: "Calm down, it'll be OK! We've just had a temporary change of plans. We'll be independent eventually, just wait."

To Small Fry: "Just because I tossed a death threat at you doesn't mean I was gonna go through with it! You startled me, and I responded by trying to intimidate you. Like with that goon...and you still won't talk about him! How many times do I have to mention it?!"

"You seem to think I'm destined to be a super-villain! It's ridiculous! Why would I wanna be some...some would-be world conqueror who everyone hates?!"

"As for my goals, I thought it was obvious: I don't want to live with my mother, I don't want to go back to school, I don't want people nagging me about anything! I want to create my own space where I can build amazing things, make scientific breakthroughs, maybe travel the multiverse!"

"But apparently these are absurd, selfish, villainous goals! Maybe I should create a device that eradicates my intelligence, turns me back into a normal, boring girl. That'll solve everything, wouldn't it?"

She pulls back into the sawmill, parking right by her lair, where you first encountered her. She then puts the van in park, turns it off, and waits for Small Fry's response.

Eliza stares at the bracelet, then at Small Fry. After a beat, she returns the item to her toolbelt.

"Point taken. I only wanted to temporarily remove your powers because you were being tricky. But...you can definitely do some cool stuff. I bet I could devise some tech that----"

She stops and coughs, perhaps thinking she's being too nice.

"That thing is your teammate? A shape-shifter? But why would they disguise themselves as OmniCorp...? Ughh...why do I even ask? I'm sure there's some convoluted, nonsensical answer...."

"Anyway...I don't want to live with my mom, and she'd never agree to homeschooling, either. She has to work...well, she doesn't have to. I could do some freelance STEM work and make good money, but nuh-uh. In her mind, that's cheating, or ruining my childhood, or whatever rationale she comes up with. You've met her, right? Not exactly an unconventional thinker...."

She glances at the animals lovingly as Small Fry mentions them.

"Not all the spare parts came from Sal's. This lumber mill has a lot of stuff lying around, too. And there's some junk in the woods...old stuff that's all overgrown and that everyone's forgotten about."

"And Sal doesn't own this place. Timbermaxx does, but they sent all these jobs to some Third World country, and now this dump is just...rusting away."

She gets out to stretch her legs. All her robots follow her, clamoring about with a mix of excitement and worry...because they still don't know what their master's future holds....