Awkwardness ensues that night, and bumped off the front page in the morning!

The Full House gang was hauled off on stretchers, defiantly insulting both the heroines who had captured them and the police bringing them in. The one kindness that you did them was insisting that Don Vida was an alien or extradimensional shapeshifter, and therefore Queen shouldn't be charged with **** among her otherwise exhaustive list of crimes. Unfortunately they wanted to an interview with you right away, which meant that both you and Dr. Rainbow had to give a brief synopsis of the battle with a distinct fishy smell on your breath. Hopefully those super-reporters were inured to it.

Dr. Rainbow was a lot better at dealing with the press than you. She even suggested that the money confiscated from the black market accounts of Signoria and Vida should be given to a charity for funding marriage counseling and suicide prevention. The press loved that but you had to drag her away from the interview right then and there via grappling hook before she said anything that would reveal too much of the melodramatic story you'd just witnessed.

Doc graciously accepted your invitation back to your personal headquarters for a nice lengthy shower and some discussion of where you could take this dynamic duo next.

Several hours later though you found yourself in a silk robe (but still with your mask on), sitting at an awkwardly silent table in the 'house' portion of your headquarters. There'd been a few quiet minutes of you staring at Rainbow and avoiding eye contact with your usual partner. Unfortunately, Julia seemed to be giving Dr. Rainbow the cold shoulder and made a number of rude comments that she thought would go over the colorfully ditzy heroine's head (or maybe she didn't).

"So, this is the first time you've ever been out on a 'successful' patrol with another hero?" Julia asked her over a plate of carry-out sushi rolls (vegetarian, of course, for Rainbow's sake). When the teal-haired girl nodded eagerly, Julia gave you a smug, I-told-you-so look. It was time to ask what was going on here.

"Heyy... Rainbow." you touched the other heroine's hand lightly. "Would you mind closing your eyes for a moment? I've, uh, got a nasty spot of gunk in my hair that I missed while washing up earlier and I'm too self-conscious to let you watch it."

"Okay!" she says immediately, swallowing your unlikely explanation easily. Using your sonic powers you then set up a silent conversation between you and Julia.

"Jules," you say with concern, "what is going on? When I first started to go into this whole adventure, you begged me to come along because you were, quote, 'a big fan of heroes'. Why do you keep trying to make my new ally look bad with every question and comment?"

"I think she's making herself look bad!" Julia shrugged defensively, sitting back in her chair. "It's my job to watch out for you, Rick."

"If you're going to say something, come on out and say it! Come on, this isn't like you." You reply firmly.

"Well, for starters, she dragged you into an absolute mess and nearly got you killed. Oh good lord... and THEN! You bring her in after that to help us discuss strategy?? If you've got... some kind of fetish for imitation jailbait, you ought to own up to it and not let it compromise your rational mind! You think that you're going to do better just... just throwing yourself out there alongside her and wishing on a star for the best, disregarding all my planning and observation? Besides, I've heard things about her..."

"Heard things about her? From the same little bird?" Julia averts her eyes and doesn't deny it.

You continue. "Is THAT what this is about? You're getting jealous now?" Rolling your eyes and giving her a mirthless smirk, you gesture to your costume hanging up on a nearby rack. "I'm going to be going out every night dressed like THAT. The agents I've spoken to at the League say it is strongly recommended that heroes in the first year of their career avoid any committed relationships for the sake of their public image. Kind of like certain rock stars, you know? A lot of the biggest movie stars, tycoons, heiresses and playboys pay astronomical living costs to be here for no other reason than they think they can eventually get lucky with a costumed living fantasy, or at the very least get a steady stream of eye candy."

Raising your eyebrow you give the (now blushing) Julia a poke in the chest. "Come on. I know you listened to those scumbags bragging about what Diamond-9 **** me to do with them that first night. The next day I overheard you re-listening to it twice. You're getting bothered by me going out on a mission with another superheroine, but not by me sucking and fucking two criminals at once in a VIP room?"

"That's different!" Julia protests with a blush. Her eyes stare into yours with renewed indignation as she continues. "I mean, you weren't very well going to invite a couple of horny no-name thugs up here, and start acting like you were going to have them doing MY job, were you?"

Your lips, a pale pink without the bright gloss that you usually wore while going out on patrol, sank into a shallow frown. "I... I didn't mean it that way, Julia. I didn't think about how it might look. I'm sorry."

Julia sighs and leans over the table to give you a hug. "No Rikki, I'm sorry. You're right, I was... I am acting jealous, maybe I just didn't want to admit it. Hah!" she perks up and gives a sharp laugh. "I remember part of the way I sold myself to you, aside from my obvious genius, of course, was that 'Come on, Rikki, it will be better this way than if you hire some supposed veteran who just wants to take advantage of you, because we're both two-thirds straight and we won't be tempted to complicate things."

"Don't worry about not complicating things. It's a complicated city. But I owe Dr. Rainbow for her help now. And besides, a light theme and a sound theme? That's pretty good for a hero-ing partner that just fell into my lap. I owe it to her to help her with her next few patrols, at least."

"I know." Julia says, calming down. "I'm glad we talked about this... I hope you're not going to be thinking I am some shame-slinging prude now. If you want to do it with rainbow-girl, or the rumors about certain members of the police precinct being shameless about trying to get into new heroines' panties turn out to be true, it's fine. My only request is that you please let me do my job of mission control and don't go out of contact if you can help it, in the future."

You nod to her vehemently. "It's a deal!"

Turning back to Dr. Rainbow, you notice that a few minutes of keeping her eyes closed was enough to make her pass out completely and start snoozing loudly in her seat. You and Julia shared a giggle, and carefully carried her off to a guest bed while you wound down yourself, getting ready for your first real moment of fame. Tomorrow morning you'll be basking in the glory of your first superheroine headline...

"RAAAAARGH!" This howl of inchoate rage does not come from the notoriously destructive and uncontrollable heroine Angry Housewife going into another of her trademark rages. This time, it is merely you, Rikki Drakeson, losing control of your vocal superpowers and giving a glass-cracking cry of fury when you see the morning's headline.

The newspaper is torn into a cloud of confetti in the blink of an eye. Julia and Dr. Rainbow stare at you across the breakfast table, stunned by your unexpected outburst.

"Argloo-gitmo-wahlberg-urkel-ass-tall? Pyrogasm? What the fuck is this? Julia, please tell me that you're having a practical joke at my expense."

She shakes her head, her features drooping in disappointment as a counterpoint to your frustration.

"Well," Dr. Rainbow says, not skipping a beat, "I think it's wonderful that another even greater victory for justice was being won at the same time we were capturing those naughty criminals! I think it's wonderful that there was a new team of heroes there to save the day! I love that living coat the one heroine has! What an ethical alternative to the fur industry!"

"Page five," you say, resting both palms on the table. "They put our adventure on page FIVE. And you said the nightly news relegated us to the crawl?! Damn them! Damn Hot-stuff! Damn unpronounceable demon! Damn ASPIC! Now we're going to be back out on patrol stopping penny-ante crooks and just waiting for another opportunity like that and hoping fate doesn't conspire to upstage us again..."

Julia can't think of anything to cheer you up. At least, not until everyone's attention is drawn by a knock at the door. Raising an eyebrow curiously, you go over to a nearby video monitor and see who could be visiting you this time. Maybe Julia's fling from before trying to score again?

You gulped when you saw. Molly Drakeson - your mother - was standing in the hallway outside your apartment, wearing a black designer dress as usual. She resembled you impressively closely for a woman in her early fifties, with fiery red hair done up in a bun, and a serene, genuine beauty. Of course, at this exact moment, her appearance in your hallway wasn't exactly beautiful.

It looked like your failure to make the news headlines had a silver lining after all.