The Capital of Brazil is not Buenos Aires. (Closed to Ember)

Meera laughed, a melidious sound, not too different from Gracie's own. "I'm not actually angry at you for ruining our date- that was our parents who cared more. Do you know how these marriages work? After I turned nineteen a year ago, my parents actually wrote up a full profile of me, a bit different than the one I would have written myself, and shared it with family and friends to see if they had any guy who was compatible. Sachin was one my parents and his had high hopes for, since they've always gotten along- my father and Sachin's both worked in Khan Industries until mine died a few months ago." Quiet for a short bit.

Sachin walked up and handed the drink. Having caught none of the conversation, he just seemed relieved Gracie and Meera weren't trying to kill each other. "Bonjour, Meera." he greeted.

"Hello, Sachin." She replied, smiling. "I see you had some luck after I left that day." she said, gesturing to Gracie.

Sachin stammered awkwardly "Yeah, err, yeah, you know, about that-"

"Don't worry, I was just telling Gracie I don't give a shit about what happened. I don't blame you at all and I don't blame her. The person to blame is the arse who Gracie had to attack- good work with that- and the other arse who screwed up the airport computers and put my flight a few hours earlier than it should have been. I had to run to make my flight."

Sachin nonchalantly sipped his drink in that way of people who were guilty and tried to seem innocent. He changed the subject. "Who's the next guy your parents have set up?" he asked.

"Truthfully? They're still hoping on you. My father thought you'd be the best bet and my mum is trying to go by what she thinks he wanted. Of course, you threw a chink in those wheels." Meera told Gracie with a stunning smile. "So they're just waiting for what they feel will be your inevitable breakup."

"Oh, how absolutely joyful. Remember when Ravi had a girlfriend?" he asked.

"And they dug up information on her and started sending those bloody notes, trying to scare her off?"

"It worked damn well." Sachin sighed. "She left after just the first one." Here he blinked. "Ay, my dad!" he waved a hand. "Ay, Papa!" he yelled, greeting his dad far more warmly than his mom or brother.

Mameet Mankar was a middle aged man who wore spectacles and a White shirt, impeccable looking. Not a single crease. "Hello, son." he said in Hindi, shaking his son's hand. "May you live long." he said, delivering a standard blessing.

He then looked at Meera. "Meera, darling!" he said, greeting her with a hug. "I am very glad to see you." he smiled.

Then he saw Gracie and kept the smile. "Ah...Grace, isn't it? Grace Marie Daniels. It is very good to meet you." he said, switching flawlessly into English with a decidedly English accent.

The long flight from Chicago to Brasilia was boring, uneventful and exhausting at the same time. Airplane flights usually were. Over the course of the long flight, not much happened. They didn't hit much turbulence nor did they crash. They didn't even turn into a giant fireball in the middle of the air and go crumbling down to the surface below. Not that the last two were very common occurances, just possibilities. As the white, metal bird flew through the sky, Andree took in her surroundings. She sat in the isle seat, next to an Indian boy and African American girl. I know her from somewhere. Where was it? Oh, that's right, she was in Brooklyn. She told herself as she leaned the chair back a bit and closed her eyes. The soothing motions of flight from the plane eased her into sleep. Eventually, she heard someone come over the intercom. The woman on the intercom was speaking in a language that Andree hadn't bothered to learn. I'll download a translator app later. She thought to herself as her eyes fluttered open. Her hand reached over to the lever to straighten her seat back up again. Yawning, she waited until they had landed and the sign above said they could unfasten their seat belts. After doing so, she followed the crowd and took her carry on bag out of the compartment above and left the plan to go to the luggage carousel to get her one other bag. After retrieving the green suitcase from the baggage claim, she left through the double automatic doors and left the airport.


Once outside, she looked around to see where she could grab a cab. Seeing a cab coming her direction, she stuck out her hand and yelled towards the driver "Taxi!" to signal to him that she wanted a ride. The cab pulled over for her and she opened up the back door. After getting her luggage inside, she slid into the seats. "Follow that car up there." She told him, pointing to the car the girl from Brooklyn had gotten in. Where is she going? Andree asked herself. Despite it being absolutely none of her business as to where this girl was going, she wanted to know what another person with powers was doing here. It was a funny coincidence, running into her.

The taxi drove a fair ways behind the car in order to avoid suspicion. As they approached the destination of where the girl's car was going, a mansion, Andree spoke to the cab driver once more "Keep driving further, past them and the mansion up there. Keep going about one sixth of a mile then let me out. " I'm creepy. She thought to herself as the driver followed her instructions. Once they reached the distance away from the mansion she specified, she got out of the cab and got her stuff. The cab driver drove off quickly, in a hurry to find someone else to drive for money. Dragging her two bags behind her, she walked up to the mansion. "Hello? Could I have a bit of help? I don't read any of the languages they speak around here and no one I have run into speaks proper English. The cab driver just kicked me out because he doesn't accept American and I forgot to have my bills changed before I came up here. Would one of you be able to help me?" She asked with a fake sob story.

Mr. Mankar raised his eyes in some surprise. "You read that? I'm glad someone has been paying attention. Of course, we require more funding, preferably by the government, if we are to make larger strides in biomedical engineering." Here Meera and Sachin's eyes seemed to glaze over while Mankar spoke excitedly about how they were working on ways to alter DNA to incredible extents using technology, effectively ending disease. It was interesting and all, but the way he phrased everything, with every other word being over four syllables, bored them pretty well. So it was almost a relief when the American girl walked up.

Mr. Mankar raised his eyes in surprise again, but a different sort of surprise. "A Brazilian driver rejected American dollars?" he asked. "A very stupid driver, considering how much American dollars are worth. Sachin, help this young lady." he said, walking off.

Sachin blinked. "Err, alright. So where were you heading?" he asked Andree. "What brings you here to Brazil? Business or pleasure?" he joked.

"Yes, thank you. It makes no sense, I suppose he doesn't keep up with exchange rates. Idiot." Andree replied to Mr. Mankar, one eye darting between him and Gracie. Listening to the two questions that the boy from the plane, whom what she assumed to be his father identified as Sachin, Andree replied to the second of the two while her mind worked on a believable answer for the first besides "I was stalking you". "Business." As she said this, her mind wandered away from the first question and to the contents of one of her two bags. The one that she had brought on the plane carried her suit and equipment. The case itself was able to hide this fact from the security at the airports though. The real reason she was here through was not for pleasure, well, maybe a little. She was here to pick up a suit made of a light, bulletproof material she heard of that she could pick up down here. What stopped her mind from wandering and snapped it back into the present was the scream of "Birdie!" from Grace, the girl from Brooklyn.


Wait, wait one moment. I don't remember showing you my face. She thought to herself, wearing a confused expression. Shaking the girl's hand as well, she felt herself get dragged along by her. Leaning in closer and whispering as she got dragged along by the girl, she asked her "{I never showed you my face, how do you know who I am? It was the phone number, wasn't it?" Eventually, Grace asked the question that Andree was hoping she didn't. "I wasn't following you. I fell asleep in the cab, the driver drove me out here for some reason and wouldn't accept American. I suppose when I pointed in a direction, he thought I was pointing to follow your car." Oh, god, that was a terrible fake story. I hope she falls for it but I doubt it, she's not stupid. "And no, I have definitely not been following you since Brooklyn. I live in Chicago and came down here for a vacation." She informed her truthfully. Please, following her since Brooklyn? I may be creepy but I'm not that creepy. She smiled meekly at Grace's comment about the two being defenders of Brooklyn. Quickly though, this smile was replaced with a look of confusion. "Wait. I never told you my name."

Sachin nodded to Gracie and the girl identified as Birdie, impressed. "This is the sort of thing you should tell me." he told his girlfriend. "I can put this sort of thing in my comic- obviously with you wearing better clothing this time." he said with a chuckle of embarrassment. He listened to 'Birdie''s explanation of how she got here and spoke to Gracie in their private French-Spanish language. "On a scale of one to ten, how full of shit is she?" he asked. "I think she's stalking you. Might as well find out why."

He spoke to Birdie in English now. "You want to talk inside? We have a bunch of drinks. If you got lost here, you might as well enjoy the food before you go. We can probably get a driver to take you wherever you need to go. Where were you going to go before your idiot driver took you here?"

Sachin knew you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out this girl's story was full of holes. "After all, our defenders of Brooklyn deserve nothing but the best. I wasn't there in a combat role, though I did heal some refugees- you know, using my medical school knowledge." he said hastily.

Yet another confused expression landed on Andree's face as the couple began to speak in a language that Andree didn't understand. They're talking about me, aren't they? Well, of course they are. Why else would they be talking in another language? I hate it when people talk about me. She waited, annoyed, until they finished talking. Once they finished, she listened to them both speak and subconsciously ordered which question to ask first. "Well, fair enough." She started with Grace's question. "I thought it was quite the coincidence when I sat next to you on the flight and was curious where you were going. Now, I could have just asked and not be my usually creepy self but, first, where is the fun in that? And, second, I didn't think you'd go through the effort to look me up, therefore I thought that it would be creepier to just take the role of a stranger asking where you were going and instead decided to take the role of a stranger looking for directions. Obviously, you know who I really am and this whole charade was rather pointless but I did not know that on the plane. Do you believe me?" She replied to her, answering truthfully this time.


She then turned to Sachin to answer his question. "As for where I am going, I need to pick up a special type of fiber that a man out here is selling me. It's called spider silk. It's as soft as silk, as light as silk but it's as strong as steel and able to defend the wearer from bullets." She sighed as she finished her statement, reminding herself that she had to meet the man in a few hours. "Also, I would hate to intrude further by coming inside but thank you for the offer. I can run to where I need to go from here if I just figure out where exactly here is and the direction I need to go. Oh, and also, I don't believe you about medical school. The way you hesitated and hastily added it is a common trait in unpracticed lying. Now, I don't really care whether or not I'm wrong and you really did go to medical school or if I'm right with my assumption and you have powers but if I'm being truthful, so are you." She told him, trying not to sound rude. "Also, get her to tell you about the last creature that we had to face sometime. Now that was the interesting part."

Sachin raised an eyebrow at her frank explanation of everything. "Alright then, glad to see someone who has even fewer social skills than I do." he joked. He nodded. "I have healing powers. Nice to meet you. It'd be no intrusion if you came inside for a drink, since we have a lot of space." he said.

This is all interesting, certainly. He looked at his girlfriend with new respect at the general badassness of the whole thing. "You damn better." he grinned. "I want to hear every detail. Tell me about the last creature then- sounds like a fun story." he said. He wondered if he could make a story out of this...would be an interesting one, certainly.

(It's short, apologies. I'm on an IPhone)

Listening to Sachins' reply, Andree chuckled as she looked up at the mansion. Yes, I bet you do have a lot of space. The large mansion was obviously going to have loads of space. "Well, I don't know." She told him before her eyes shot between Sachin and Gracie, examining them. She wasn't good on the whole "love" thing but could see the chemical reactions of it being shared between the two, particularly Gracie at the moment. Her pupils had dilated and Andree was willing to bet that her heart rate had was elevated. What snapped her out of noticing this was Gracie's insistence that she stay.


As she listened to Gracie, she ran a hand through her brown hair. She had dyed the blonde streak out recently. After hearing the first part of what Gracie had to say, she questioned her. "Oh. What with?" Her eyes had narrowed slightly, in confusion. What could she need me for? The question she asked herself silently was soon answered when Gracie produced a note for them to look at. After her eyes took milliseconds to read the short note, she looked up at the two of them with sympathy in her eyes. "Oh God. We are not going to let this happen." As she spoke, her mind was working to think up a plan. "Luckily, I brought weapons. I need to find my way to that man with the suit so we can have two armoured suits here, better than having no protection. You two can take them if you want, I just need to get the second one. Preferably as soon as possible so that we have it prepared if they try to strike."

Sachin stared at the note, stunned. He didn’t follow Mandarin Chinese even in the slightest, but from what Gracie said, it was extremely worrying. This was too far if it was his relatives trying to scare off his girlfriend- they’d send these notes, hell, they’d send them in Chinese, but they wouldn’t go this far. Would they?

He suddenly realized the incredible sadness of not knowing what his own family would threaten to get rid of his girlfriend.

He shook his head. “I don’t think I have any enemies other than Elena, and she wouldn’t try this. Plus, isn’t she dead? That’s the news I heard. Maybe it’s my father who has the enemies. I mean, he does have that high level job and stuff.” Sachin’s thoughts raced as he tried to figure some sense from this situation. “What about you?” he asked Gracie. “Or you?”

He took a seat on a nearby bench. “Alright. This may be just empty threats. But just in case it isn’t, we should pick up your suit.” He told Andree. “I agree with you that we need all the help we can get, since I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

Of course, he couldn’t fight. He knew this about himself. He simply was not very good at it, not to mention he couldn’t kill. He remembered how he had just broken down when the highwaymen had attacked him, Gracie and Danny all that time ago. When was that? Not even a full year yet. He felt he should mention this, so he fidgeted with his fingers before he spoke.

“I can’t fight though. Well, maybe I can fight. But I can’t kill. Gracie, you know that, you know I freeze up when I have to kill. I’m a healer, I fix. I can’t tear down or destroy. I just can’t do that.”

"Elena's dead? Oh, thank god. I hated the Crimson Bitch." Andree commented with a hint of joy in her voice. Don't take joy in that fact. Oh, what the hell? I have the right to do it after what she did to me. "What does your father do for a living? Sorry if I should know this, I don't pay much attention to things I don't care about too much." She questioned him, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she listened to the pair speak.

I am not going to let anyone die as long as I'm around. Death is inevitable, murder is preventable though. And I am going to prevent this one to the best of my abilities. The three of us have to stay sober, alert and cautious until this threat passes. Andree thought to herself as she listened to them talk. She hated intruding on this family but hated the thought of murder far more. "With Elena dead, I don't believe I have any enemies that would follow me out here. I have one but I don't think she considers me such a thing. She's.....interesting. Psychotic, but interesting. Hopefully I can repay the favour for what she did to me." Andree then realized that she had gone into one of her mini rants and apologized. "Sorry, I tend to go off topic in little rants like that."

She hoped they would ignore her and listened to what they continued to say. "As Gracie said, we don't expect you to tear people apart. Though, I have the same problem, I don't kill. So, I have non lethal weapons. Weapons that are open for either of you to use." Leaning over her bag, she unzipped the outside pocket and pulled out a small pistol. "Stun pistol. The bullets don't kill, they send enough electricity through the body to cause a form of temporary paralysis." She explained before holding it out for Sachin. "All yours."

Listening to Gracie tell her to take care of Sachin, she replied. "Gracie, you have my word. You also have my number, use it if they come while we are away."

Before she made it to Meera and the other Mankars, Gracie heard a voice yell 'Oy, Gracie!' and then saw an Indian comic book writer running toward her before giving her a great big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." he said simply before rushing back to Andree.

"I take it that you knew Elena? I see she's made a general impact on everyone." he said with a chuckle, walking along with her and acting as if his last interaction with Gracie hadn't just happened. "I hated that bitch so much. But now I can focus on my life again, like getting an apartment with lower rent, telling Gracie I really do love her, and oh, I dunno, saving my family from possibly being massacred brutally." He sighed. "You know, I could get along fine without the last bit." he said, looking down at his stun gun. "Good gun here. Damn good gun. Can probably knock out any organic creature and maybe even robots, but that last bit is just the comic nerd in me talking." he paused.

"I knew it! I knew I knew you from somewhere! Back in Chicago, at the comic store! You were buying a t-shirt for yourself, I helped you buy one and we had ice cream after that!" he laughed. "Back then, I had no idea you actually were a goddamn heroine."
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Meera was talking with a few other relatives. Unfortunately, one of them was a disgruntled Dharun Mankar.

"....So my bloody car just breaks down two minutes after I leave from the fucking airport, and I have to get some fucking Brazilian to help pick me up. Goddamn horrible day." Dharun was ranting in Hindi while Meera paid polite but bored attention.

"Oh, Gracie!" Meera remarked, clearly glad to have Dharun shut up. "How are you?"

Dharun smiled, switching to English quickly. "Yes, good to see you again, Ms. Daniels."