All it takes is an idea. -INVITE ONLY-

Ever since she returned home after the kidnapping, Andree's room had become a laboratory in which she did everything. There was a mini fridge, which had enough food to last her and a bathroom. She didn't need to leave her room at all, which, besides for Gracie's birthday, she didn't. For the first few days after returning home, she had just lay there in bed, trying to sort out reality from faux memories. But all it did was bring her pain. So she buried herself in work, and in the first part of her self induced captivity, she made Gracie her birthday presents. And now, she had moved on to making her armour smaller.

Nanobots were the method that she chose to do this task. The problem with nanobots was actually making the tiny little buggers. So, in one of the shipments that contained mostly materials for Gracie's presents, she had ordered a miniature high powered microscope so she could actually see what she was working on. Nanobots were invisible to the human eye, making this microscope a necessity. She would only need it to make the very first one, she could program it to make the others and save her time. If this was successful and she could make a bunch of them, they wouldn't have to do anything again. The nanobots could clean the kitchen, being so tiny that it would look as if the kitchen was cleaning itself, it could cook food, it could sew. There were many applications for it.

And that's how she found herself balancing on her bed with a microscope held up by half of the books she had on her shelf and the computer on the top of a shelf. It was nowhere near a good idea, but she preferred to stand and didn't have many surfaces to put stuff on that would allow her to see them without leaning down or getting on her tip toes. The first bot was almost finished, the only problem being the lack of a constant energy source. By her guess, a thin layer of radioactive particles could keep it powered forever as it continually renewed it's own power source. She would need to maybe get Gracie to help her with that part, she was the energy expert. But, then she realized that it needed a way to travel in and out of her body and began to work on a component that would allow it to phase through her body.

That's when she heard the gentle knock of Gracie on the door. All Gracie got as a reply, due to the fact she was busy, were a few mumbles. Then she heard a much more firm knock on the door. She thought nothing of it, at first. Then came Scar's voice and she dropped what she was working on, the component so tiny that it was now lost on the ground. At least the actual nanobot was safely in a glass case in the bathroom now. The books holding up the microscope fell, taking Andree with them. Her hair was a mess, not having been washed since Gracie's birthday. At least her clothes, a pair of sweat pants and an old t shirt, were clean. Or maybe she had worn them a few days ago. She really couldn't remember, it was a trivial thing in her mind right now. Recovering from being tackled by books, she got up and opened the door, a bit nervous. She didn't want Scar to see her like this. "Uh.....hi?" She said as she opened the door, her voice making her nervousness very, very obvious.

Oh God, this was no where close to how Andree wanted to see Scar again. She didn't want Scar to see her as a wreck, as she looked right now. Her arm reached up and scratched her neck nervously, an embarrassed look glued firmly on her face. While Scar's eyes wandered around her bedroom, Andree gave Gracie a pretty pissed off look. She was annoyed that Gracie had called Scar without warning her, leading to her current embarrassment. "I do not." She muttered to Gracie. Hey, she had taken a shower before coming out that day.

Her eyes made their way back over to Scar as she swallowed out of a bit of fear, wondering what Scar was going to do. She respected Scar and looked up to her as if she was her mother, so this wasn't exactly going too well in her mind. "I...can...explain?" She half stated, half asked, nervous pauses between each word. But, it seemed the explanation would have to wait as she found herself practically shoved into the bathroom by Scar. "She's lying, it was better." She said as she closed the bathroom door.

There wasn't a foreseeable way out of this situation, so she just went with it. She stripped out of her clothes and had a quick shower. Once it was over, she searched for something a little bit nicer to wear, yet still casual. She had only been wearing old clothes in case something happened that ruined them. Now dressed in her usual attire of a white tank top and jeans, she strolled back out to the kitchen where Scar was waiting. "So..." She said, unsure of what was going to happen next, as she used her arms to push against the top of the counter so she could sit on it.

Andree swung her legs back and forth over the edge of the counter. She faintly hummed the tune to 'My Little Sunshine' as she did so, memories replaying in her head and, at the moment, she was remembering phone calls from her Dad when she had trouble sleeping after her mother had died. "Hey!" She groaned in reply, jokingly. She nudged Scar with her hand a little, teasingly. "Yeah, I guess." She stuck her tongue out at Scar, still teasingly, as she finished talking.

"Yeah, I know, it's just...I'm not good with help. I don't like it very much. It just makes me feel guilty, like I'm dragging others into my own problems that I should just deal with myself. I don't know, I just feel selfish doing it." Andree replied in response to Scar's first question. She was awful at asking for help, preferring to do it on her own or just burying herself in work and forgetting about it. "Yeah, that would be nice." Was Andree's short reply to Scar's comment about staying over for a bit. She'd love that, and the fact that she perked up and her eyes got a bit brighter reflected that fact. A sigh of joy passed through her lips as Scar brushed the hair from her eyes. Her arms reached up and wrapped around Scar with joy.

Sachin stared at the chessboard while Gracie was gone talking to Scar and Andree, and then she returned and made a winning move. And then started her ‘winner’ dance. “Fucking hell.” He growled in English, speaking in his usual Californian/Indian English mix. Globalisation was a beautiful thing. He glanced up at Scar when she said “Have you heard of GUN?”

He shot right up. “Yes!” he said. “You mean the same GUN that ran around years ago fighting crime before collapsing into inactivity before the group rose up one last time to defeat the demonic threat that had come through led by the man who claimed to be the son of the Devil, Raide, and eventually defeated it with the help of other groups like the Hand of Justice and, unfortunately, villains like the now dead Ferrum and Nightkill?” Sachin was on a roll now. “Oh, and they also ended the symbiote invasion that happened ten years ago that the government covered up. Also did a lot of minor things like constantly fight SCAR and keep that group from doing any actual damage. They were led by Pain and they were unstoppable, but then they just died and collapsed.” He said, now seeming almost depressed.

He saw that people were suddenly staring at him. He shrugged. “I, err, kinda looked some stuff up. Went to places to learn and stuff. I was kind of a fan when they were active all those years back, though I was just a kid.” He said, looking embarrassed. “Anyway, so what did you want to say about GUN?” He decided not to talk more after making that speech/exposition.

"Alright." Andree replied to Scar, with a heavy sigh. Sightseeing. It was an activity her mom often took her on before she died. Andree had to hold back a few tears as she thought about it. The feeling of Scar's hands rubbing her back was soothing to her, as her breathing became slower as it had been increased while she tried to hold back a few tears. So, when Scar changed the subject away from that, it made her feel a bit better.

"Oh, yeah, go on, you have me interested." Andree replied to Scar asking if they wanted something to focus their minds on. She had let the hug with Scar go already and stretched her arms backwards now. As she did so, she looked at Gracie with a slight bit of confusion as she danced around. Oh, her victory dance. Andree had seen her do it to Sachin any times.

She allowed Scar to lead her to the living room, curious what she had to suggest to them. When she asked the next question, regarding having heard of GUN, she was going to reply 'yes' but was taken aback when Sachin went full nerdgasm mode. "Umm...yeah." She said as he finished, in rely to Scar.

"Yes!" Sachin stood up and shouted. "Yes, of course! That'll be awesome, are you kidding? Holy crap..." various fanboy nerd things went through his mind. "Dude, that'll just be bloody amazing. We're totally in." he said, speaking for everyone in his excitement, regardless of everyone's actual opinion on the subject matter. It was also generally how movie choices were decided in the Nerd Herd apartment, as well as the TV when the Euro cup was on.

Sachin now realised Gracie and Andree's opinion was also probably pretty important. "Anyway, I pretty much am not exactly what you would call 'a leader'. Or a warrior. So if we do make it, Gracie and Andree can lead and talk to you guys and Pain and stuff, since I'm pretty much the weak link here." he said, analysing that pretty well. He also started thinking and realised he'd end up being pretty useless due to his general failings in combat in general. "Yeah." he said, enthuaism falling a bit. "I'll, err, go out for a bit then. You guys can debate the details." he said, walking outside the apartment, now in a bit of a worse mood than he was before Scar had entered. "Good game, Gracie." he said as he left. Maybe he could hang out at the comic shop and mope around with fellow nerd mopers.

Andree could tell immediately that Scar didn't like what Sachin had to say, it possibly brought back bad memories. Of what though, she did not know. Possibly the same as what the two had witnessed together in the nightmares. No matter what it was, Andree didn't like it. She didn't want to see Scar go back into that helpless state that she had been in during that time. Andree's arm draped around Scar, trying to soothe her a bit by rubbing her back. "It's okay, Scar." She whispered, hoping that only Scarletta would hear it.

"Well, that sounds like fun." She commented on the topic of GUN coming back and them being a part of a sort of youth group. This was only after Sachin went into another burst of Nerdgasm. Sachin's exit made Andree look to Gracie awkwardly. "Uh...what was that?" She asked Gracie, Scar obviously wouldn't know. "Anyway then, moving on, I guess?" She asked, trying to shift the subject off of Sachin's exit and back to the group, definitely the more interesting concept here.

"Yeah, I know." Andree replied to Gracie. Sachin did have some serious self esteem problems that he needed to have worked out. The guy could heal himself if you were cutting him up. Chop off a limb, he'd regrow it. He needed to quit saying he was useless. He'd be good as a medic or something. He'd be extremely useful there. Much more useful than he thought.

"Scar, you know you don't need to tell me stuff like that. I know it hurts you." She told Scar. It was something she had told her during the nightmares, she understood that there were things one needed to keep inside them and not let out. For example, she hadn't told Scar why she got kidnapped in the first place all those years ago yet.

"The group sounds like something interesting though." She said to no one in particular. It would be a fun experience. Now that she had sold some of her designs, she'd have enough money to pay for some of the base and equipment as well. Her mind was already off wandering, drafting up imaginary designs and ideas for the base and vehicles.

Gracie nodded some what and then jumped to her feet.

"I'm going to go get Sachin and then spook some nerdy guys by being a girl in a comic book shop," she mused and then grabbed her jacket, heading out the door. "Cool idea Ms J," she nodded and then closed the door behind her.


**End of Topic**