"The Avengers," she repeated. Probably not the British show from the 1960s that her adoptive parents seemed to love. But she got the gist. A group of super friends. Which meant that there was something 'super' about her new friend here. But after her experiences with Second-Rate Guy, she decided she couldn't come out and ask. "Well, that's fancy," she continued. "My group never even had a name."

Then again, they'd always had a name. But that was before they'd gotten into the business of saving--or rather, failing to save--the world.

"You guys don't exist in my universe. And our world ended in 2014. So in terms of failure, I think my world wins. I'm not sure it's really failure our Overlords are interested in."

Now there was an unexpected, new thought.

What if it was the effort they cared about?