Comic-Con was a blast! Oh my God. So many people in costumes, geeking out over their favorite superheroes or villains. In school, there had always been a small group of us comic book fans, but here there were thousands of us and even though a surprising portion of ‘us’ forgot to put on deodorant, it was still one of the most welcoming places that I’d ever been to.
Eva and I only stood out a little bit in our costumes and then only because we had the toned muscles and flat stomachs to pull off our skimpy, comic-book outfits. Eva garnered quite a bit more attention than I did, since she also had all the curves and proportions to match her comic book heroine. It seemed like every few minutes we were asked to pose for a picture with someone. It dawned on me after the seventh time that, despite our badges, people were mistaking us for official Comic-Con employees!
Eva used her new-found fame to gather in as many Wonder-Women as she could find and take a group picture. Not to be left out, I did the same with the Super-girls. We ended up with several new friends and soon created a group on Telegram so we could keep in touch during the show or after it. We tried to gather up the Batmen for a similar photo, but they were all too surly.
Our VIP passes gave us priority access to the all the main events, presentation rooms, and discussion panels. We got to see previews of the newest Star Trek: The Next Generation spin off with Captain Riker commanding the Enterprise, a DC movie starring Superman Red and Superman Blue called ‘Rise of the Supermen’, Marvels latest Wolverine installment about his time in Japan, and the latest incarnation of Dr. Who.
One of the panelists in a discussion about ‘The Movies That Fans Want to See’ brought up the idea of a remake of The Princess Bride, with a more racially diverse cast. The near unanimous jeers and death threats that came from the crowd caused him to excuse himself and not return to the panel. It took me a few seconds to realize that Mark was physically restraining me from going after the guy.
We walked the exhibit halls several times, collecting all sorts of freebies from the booths and storing them in our tote bags. Mark was great at holding our bags as we rushed from one booth to the next, or as we got autographs from the Sci-fi and Comic celebrities. One booth had a virtual reality game where you got to experience training as the X-Man of your choice in the Danger Room. Beside the headset, they also had gloves and boots that tracked your hand and leg movements. It was amazingly realistic, as I shredded the bad guys as Wolverine. The video that Mark took of me from his vantage point outside of the virtual reality game didn’t show me in quite the superhero-ish light that I was imagining. I loved it anyways and noted down the company name to see what other games they had. Maybe a set up like this would be fun for the survivors at Hannah’s House to play with. I also wondered if we could create a Kung Fu teaching and sparring version.
My favorite part of the show happened on the third day and it wasn’t even part of Comic-Con. We’d just finished having lunch at the overpriced cafeteria with most of the Wonder Women and Super Girls when Eva suggested doing an impromptu Zumba class in one of the side halls after the last presentation of the day. Everyone loved the idea and Eva left to see if she could arrange it. Five hours later the room was packed with willing participants and Eva and I were on stage. Eva led the class and I was one of her two back-up dancers. The other girl, a Wonder-Woman named Andrea, was a big Zumba enthusiast and was able to follow along nicely. Having helped Eva create and test her routine, I was easily able to hold my own.
The video of us costumed superheroines doing Zumba was posted exclusively on the Comic-Con website and the site crashed from all the traffic. The organizers asked Eva to run another class on the final day and this time the room was jammed with people wanting to join in the fun. The organizers moved us to a much larger hall and Eva did her thing. Going from a thirty person class to over three hundred was an unbelievable experience. Afterwards, the organizers invited us back for next year’s convention. Not only would we get free passes, but we’d get paid to run two classes per day. Eva was in heaven! When I managed to sweet talk them into two extra passes for the boys, James joined her there.
With the end of Comic-Con, our itinerary had us staying in San Diego for two more days before moving on to Los Angles for three days. Eva and I were sharing one room and James and Mark shared another. For the five days left to us, we met the boys for an early breakfast and then we all went our separate ways until dinner. Mark went to the McKenzie office, Eva and James roamed the city, and I took care of ‘Foundation Business’. Eva, never one to let me get away without details, pressed the issue and I explained that I was thinking about opening a west-coast Hannah’s Home and was scoping out suitable locations.
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As planned, I spent the first day infiltrating the ten publicly traded companies that I’d researched and gained access to their servers. The following day, I headed out to Sharps Memorial Hospital to observe how they did things out west. Some of their surgeons were world-class and I wrapped them in fields, while scanning their actions inside the patient, to learn new variations on techniques that I’d studied at Galt. The hard part was figuring out the advantages of their techniques over the ones that I knew. It wasn’t as if I could ask them. Or could I? I took down the names of the surgeons with new techniques, along with the surgery they were performing, and made a note to see if they’d written a paper on it. Such papers were common, as they gave the surgeon greater renown and let them name the new technique. Usually, they named it after themselves and you ended up with “The Kripstein Variation” or “The Jamison Procedure”. Boring! If I ever created a new technique, one that I was able to publish, it was going to call it “Fluffy” or “Spot”. I could imagine how the conversation would go. ‘How’d you manage to remove the patient’s heart without making any incisions? Oh that. I used the Fluffy Maneuver.’
Early the next morning, Mark and I set off for Los Angeles. Eva and James had decided to accept the offer of one of the Wonder-Women and her boyfriend to go camping and hiking at the Mission Trails Regional Park with them and a bunch of other superheroes we’d met over the past week. I’d been invited as well and had promptly and politely declined. I’d had enough of camping last summer to last me for quite a long time. I wasn’t going to repeat the experience, unless I was consulting on a mining project and getting paid for it.
With no need to rush, Mark chose to take the Pacific Coast Highway up to Los Angeles and I got to see so many of the beaches that I’d only heard about in books and movies. The views were breathtaking, and we stopped twice to take in the view and to walk along a beach. All together, our two-hour drive took closer to four and we arrived in Los Angeles with enough time to check into our hotel and have some lunch before separating to do our own thing for the afternoon.
Despite the shorter than expected timeline available to me that day, I managed to break into the computer systems of most of the twenty companies on my list. Tomorrow morning, I would get up extra early and take a flight from LAX to Silicon Valley and get the rest. My portfolio was missing the tech component. There was a distinctive spaceship shaped building that I couldn’t wait to see in person. Howie had even procured some specialized software that would be of great help in dealing with their specialized operating system.
Mark and I met up back at the hotel around five and Mark suggested that we go to Venice Beach. Not one to refuse a beach excursion, I changed outfits and met him back in the lobby ten minutes later wearing my bikini under a pair of cropped daisy-dukes and a super-girl t-shirt. A beach bag filled with a towel, flip-flops, sun-screen, water and a hat was slung over my shoulder and I was ready to go. Mark looked more relaxed than I’d ever seen him, in his surfer-dude knee length bathing suit and an over-the-top Hawaiian shirt covered in palm trees. Mark took my hand and gently pulled me out to the waiting taxi, before opening the door for me and leading me inside. My heart skipped a beat at the physical contact, but I tamped down on my emotions and waived the moment away as a mere friendly gesture. Nothing to see here. Move along. Remember to breathe.
On the ride over to the beach, Mark gave me a rundown of his day and asked about mine. I told him that there wasn’t much chance of opening a Hannah’s House in Los Angeles proper. Maybe I’d consider something in the surrounding areas or elsewhere in California, if the prices were better and the traffic more manageable.
“If you won’t be real estate hunting, what are your plans for the next two days while I’m stuck in meetings?”
“I’ve got a few projects that I’m working on. Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of trouble.”
“So, I won’t be seeing a video of your adventures popping up on the internet?”
“That was only the one time!”
“And yet, I have two videos of you on my phone.”
“Yes, but the second one isn’t on the internet, so it doesn’t count.”
“What about the Superheroine Zumba Class video? Does that one count?”
“No. I knew they were filming and that video is mostly of Eva and the crowd. I’m only a side-kick in that one. A back-up dancer to the main event.”
“In that case, I look forward to seeing your fourth video, whether it’s on the internet or not.”
“Fifth.”
“Excuse me?”
“You already missed seeing the fourth one. Better luck with the fifth.”
“Abby, when was there a fourth video? Abby?”
As Siri says, we had arrived at our destination and I got out of the cab, ignoring Mark’s questions and let him pay the driver. The beach was calling me and I walked slowly towards the ocean so that Mark could catch up.