"Meow?"

"Yes, Sherman, I'm leaving."

"Meow?" The cat pressed the point, rubbing up against her leg beneath the long skirt, scratching himself against the abrasive surface.

The sand-skinned nova sighed. "You've got fresh water and food, and fresh sand in your box." Of the best sort, she silently added; the minor quantum expenditure twice daily was better for the overall smell of the utility room than was scoopable litter, and a lot easier on her dwindling bank account. The latter of which, she hoped, would be taken care of -- or at least in line to be taken care of -- today.

She removed the reluctant cat from her leg, grabbed her handbag, and headed out the door.

--------------------

An hour of chaotic Chicago traffic and a ten-dollar parking permit later, she was walking in the front doors of the headquarters for Chicago's latest addition to public safety -- the nova municipal defense team known as the Windy City Knights. Stepping briskly across the marble floor, she made her way to the reception desk, where a bespectacled young brunette looked up from her flatscreen. "Welcome to the Windy City Knights; can I help you?"

"Yes, I have an appointment for an interview," replied the newcomer. "Anne Marie Vincenne...also known as Sandcaster."

The receptionist (Rochelle, according to her tag) nods and checks her memorandum, apparently unfazed by Sandcaster's appearance. Of course, she has to have seen stranger things in this line of work. Looking back up, she smiles politely and responds:

"Welcome to HQ, Ms. Vincenne. If you could wait a few moments, I'll put out a page and someone will be right with you."

Putting action to words, Rochelle taps a couple of buttons at her OpNet console and speaks quietly into her headset. Sandcaster is left to her own devices, standing near the reception desk in the WCK Headquarters lobby - sun pouring in through the sheet glass and bringing a warm glow to the rosy marble.

She has been waiting barely thirty seconds when she is first met. A light breeze springs up, smelling a little like the wind that comes in off the lake, and a young latina suddenly appears a few steps away from Sandcaster. The breeze dies down as quickly as it rose, and the woman (or girl - she looks to be barely twenty) steps up with a broad grin.

She is wearing a charcoal jumpsuit with the WCK logo emblazoned across the left breast, so this would have to be April Rice - the youngest member of the current team. She seems to have a tendency toward speaking very rapidly.

"Hi! You've got to be Sandcaster. Alchemist said we might be seeing you soon. You're thinking about joining the team, right? I'm not your interviewer or whatever, but I heard you were here and thought I'd come down and say hi. So, hi!"

"It'll be great to have another field member, assuming the sponsors let you in, which they probably will. I heard that you have good projected Q-ratings, and you're actually more qualified for the job than half of us. Jager and Digi've done this kind of thing before, but that's, like, it. Though you didn't hear any of that from me."

Sandcaster smiles broadly as she shakes April's hand. "Thank you! I wouldn't necessarily say more qualified; for all it's size, Long Island City is pretty calm compared to New York City itself, or Chicago for that matter. But thank you for the compliment! I'm hopeful about my chances; Alchemist seems to be of the mind that I'd be better placed here than back in the classroom..." her mood darkens just a touch "...and with some of the public tone lately, that may be just as well."

The brief dark cloud passes, and she smiles again. "So, what can you tell me about the Knights? I spoke a little about it with Alchemist, but beyond the fact that its a municipal defender organization and a few of the member names, I'm still not terribly familiar with it."

April shrugs explosively, rising up off the floor a few inches as she does so (and staying there): "Well, my credentials are a year in college. Studying architecture. And superpowers, I guess ... that was probably the selling point, y'know?"

She seems oblivious to Sandcaster's momentarily dark mood, diving straight into the topic of the WCK, saying, "Oh, well, actually, we're not exactly municipal defenders. We've got, like, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, though we do do more in Chicago than anywhere else. It's home."

"Ohio's talking about joining, too, but I don't know if that'll work, since they're kind of far out. Me and Jager - Jager and I - are the only one's who can get out that far, so maybe they'll just look at making a group of their own with, I dunno, Pennsylvania or something."

"So, um, who d'we have? There's me. I'm a native, or at least my family moved here when I was little. Everyone else is from out of town now that Interceptor's gone. He started the group with the city board, but he couldn't stay for long. He's still got a business around here, though I think he's doing DeVries more, now."

"Jager and Digi - Digigeist - are the rest of the field team. They're also, like, our resident spooks and detectives and everything. Damanor was kinda on the field team, too, but he's, um, gone. For the moment. I guess you know Alchemist, right? We also have Bandwidth, with his computers. They sometimes get in the field, but mostly they work from HQ."

Trailing off, she hesitates and then fills what she takes to be an awkward silence (though it's actually just a moment or so), and adds:

"Yeah, so. That's us."

"You know, I'm not sure why, but I always thought that the team for the Knights was a bit larger...especially taking into consideration the kind of range you just described. That is quite an expansive zone of operations; quite a bit more than I'm used to handling. Of course, I wouldn't be handling it alone, like I did back in Long Island."

A moment of silence, then: "Do you have any idea who will be conducting the interview?"

"Not me, or so I hope not, anyway," Jager quips from out of nowhere. With him are two rather officious and self-important types. It is hard to notice them as Jager is wearing his He has got to be the Hero face today. His eyes mesmerize and his whole body seems achingly perfect. His smile is flawless. Yet, he seems to emanate this I'm just part of the team air as well.
Jager gives April a quick wink and turns on Sandcaster.
"Hi. I'm Jager. Your Sandcaster. I've heard a good many things about you. This here," he motions to one of the two men behind him,
"is Robby Cornwall, the Mayor's Aide."
Jager's face flashes with a conspiratorial grin even as Robby casts an unfriendly eye down at Sandcaster's sand slowly gathering at her feet. If Jager notices, the nova gives no sign.
"This is one of our executive producers, Marvin Washington. He's our unofficial official liaison with the municipality."
"Call me Marv," says the second man, stepping forward and offering to shake Sandcaster's hand.
Turning to Jager, Marv continues,
"Thanks for the update, Jason. Keep us both informed of any further updates on that ... situation."
"You got it Marv."
Marv smiles at April then Sandcaster.
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Sandcaster. Good to see you back up and about, April."
Marv turns and puts his arm around Robby's shoulders as the two men turn and leave. The novas can catch hints of
" ... its going to be a good thing ..."
as the two men exit the building.

Jager turns to the ladies, gives a slightly less high-beam smile and says,
"Well, that could have been worse. Seems BlackStar is going to be joining us, as well as Sandcaster here and one other ... providing the interviewing goes fine."
"So Sandcaster, do you think you will be joining the field team?"

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cornwall, Marv, Jager," Sandcaster says as she shakes their hands. Familiar territory, she thinks to herself, recalling the many meetings she had endured with various civic functionaries over the previous dozen years.

She watched them leave, then turns back to Jager at his question. "Well, I hope so, provided that the interview goes well. Mind you, I'm not a flyer, so transport could be an issue -- especially with the range that April says you cover -- but I think that my skills could come in useful in the field."

Just as promised, at midday a black shape appears on the Helipad. Then it changes to the Nova called BlackStar.

Going to the door that connect the roof to the rest of the building, he punches the code deactivating the alarm. He open the door, enter and activates it anew.

He moves within the WCK´s HQ looking the additions made by the group in his time out.

The Spanish Nova arrives to the lobby and watches the talk between Jager, April and a blonde Nova, probably the new addition to the team, Sandcaster.

Approaching the group, BlackStar grins to his friends greeting them effusively.
"April, Jag, how are you people?. Then he nods to Sandcaster and says: "Pleased to meet you miss Vincenne. Sorry, I hear your last sentence and you needn´t to worry about that. One of my abilities is the teleportation and I could take another person with me". At the same time he offers his hand to her.

"I'm just glad to have the field team start to fill out. With Damanor gone, its been a bit thin out on the streets."
Seeing BlackStar approach, Jager gives his fellow ex-Elite a warm smile.
"Good to see you, old man. At some point you need to tell us what the stars are like. It's good to see you decided to come back."

"Hey, BlackStar, why don't you two pop up to a little place we've got in upstate Wisconin? Its up on Lake Superior near Bark Point. Its a few thousand acres that fell into my hands a few years back and its a good place for us to cut loose if needed."

At the same time he shakes Sandcaster´s hand, BlackStar turns the head towards Jager. "I have been studying the limit of our planetary system. It´s so wonderful, I lost the sense of the time. And, you know, being out there is very relaxing to me".

"As for going to your place, I don´t have any problem. What do you think about, miss Vincenne?".

"I think it sounds lovely," Sandcaster smiles, "but I also think that I'm supposed to have an interview here at some point today. When were you considering doing this, Jager?"

Before Jager could answer, the receptionist called out, "Ms. Vincenne, the interviewer is ready for you. Would you please come this way?"

"I'm sorry, Jager; it looks like we'll have to pick up this conversation again later. Here's hoping we'll be working together!" Sandcaster shakes his and BlackStar's hands again (carefully, ever mindful of what a rough handshake can do to someone else's skin), and follows the receptionist to an empty conference room. A moment later, another door to the side opens. She turns to greet Alchemist...and is a touch diappointed to find herself greeting instead a Mr. Alphonse Laurino, a baseline who was apparently part of the Knight's HR department. They sit, and Mr. Laurino quickly gets down to the matter.

-----------------------

Three hours and the most thorough interview of her life later, Sandcaster emerged from the conference room, slightly shell-shocked and the latest addition to the Windy City Knights.

As Sandcaster goes out of the interview room, she notices the Spanish Nova and April laughing and teasing one another over what seems like a portable fridge, the sort you could take to a picnic.

At last BlackStar opens the fridge and the delitghful cries of joy from April sounds across the lobby.

"Aragon´s fruits, give me some, please, Black!"

With a smile he takes a bag of something wrapped on colorful plastic pieces and gives it to the young Nova.

Then, he takes another one and approaching you says: "sorry, miss Vincenne, I don´t know if you would like to have some of that. They are only small pieces of comfits bathed on chocolate. They are tipical of my city, Zaragoza".

"You don't have to call me Miss Vincenne, Blackstar; I'm out of the classroom," Sandcaster says with a grin. "You could call me Sandcaster, though, because as of five minutes ago, I'm part of the team. And I don't mind if I do...but you might want to just hand me one; I don't want to get sand in the bag."

Jager has had to go to a training session with some of the local SWAT members, but leaves the location with BlackStar.

"Thanks, Sandcaster, but the whole bag is for you. I have several more in the fridge for the rest of the group".

At the same time, April is wolfing down comfits greedily from her own bag.

"Oh, of course I could help you".

Sandcaster looks how one of the things obeying a gesture of his other hand, levitates itself slowly out of the bag. Then it unwraps and the comfit goes slowly to Sandcaster´s lips.

"At your service, my lady".