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The areas turned out to be residential, and every home Leah tried had a personal computer. None, however, had any electricty coming into their (twin round pin) mains sockets, so trying to find people online was out, even if she could use a foreigncomputer with no access software.

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So instead she started collecting batteries and settled down in one of the more secure first floor flats to pull apart a hifi system and construct a useable Short Wave radio. This she tuned through miles of thick white noise while adding a transmitter.

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The morse code transmitter is easy. It's a few days and a lot of cannibalised electrical appliances before she perfects a battery powered motion device that will keep the SOS code on a loop on a fixed frequency, but she manages that.

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That channel stays open while she starts building a new radio.

[OOC: very much open, but please do not tag if your character would be able to locate and rescue Leah. I want to keep her lost for a while]

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Leah smirks. Yep, this woman's in the business, all right.

"And what's your sort of woman?"

"The kind that thinks," Babs laughs. "And unless your name is an ironic joke, it suggests that you do."

"Nah, my sense of irony borders on the severely inappropriate," Leah admits. "I wouldn't use it to choose a codename. One'a me mates came up with it in the field- s'where most of them come from, if i'm gonna be honest."

"You're operating on short wave at the moment. I'm guessing you don't have much in the way of gear with you." And that any abnormal abilities were't going to help with communication or mobility.

"All I've got is the headset from my PC and a retractable tripod," Leah confirms. "The radio's cannibalised from the stereo system in this flat. I wouldn't go by the name if I relied on being super-prepared."

She snorts softly in laughter.

"OK, tell me I'm an idiot for that."

Barbara's grin is audible even through the voice distortion, "You're an idiot."

She shakes her head, "At least you can improvise. Most people we've run into are the next best thing to helpless."

"A social worker once called me a 'survivor'," Leah says. "It's a buzzword to say I ain't dead yet."

Social worker... "Grew up fast, did you? That's unfortunately common in our line, huh?"

"I take it you're alone? Run into any survivors? There are pockets of them all over the place. Be careful: some of them are decidedly unfriendly."

"If we grow up at all," Leah counters. "Still play with toys - and yeah, found about six survivors, all male, all unfriendly, all still surviving."

That last fact carries a note of indifference, making it difficult to tell if Leah's relieved or regretful about that fact.

"I know you have supplies. Are you secure to hold out for however long it takes to nail down your location for pickup?" Babs rubs her face, "Normally you'd be pretty high up on my priority list since I need some more hands, but right now there are too many people who can't survive out there."

Balancing the need together more resources and people with the need to save everyone now is giving Barbara a headache, not to mention nightmares.

"I can hold my own."

That's very very much a 'yes'. "And I'm probably more useful to you as a voice, anyway. That's what I do."

"Not one for the field, huh?" Babs shrugs. "In that case I could really use you. At least if you're any good. There's a whole lot of work that needs to be done which isn't because I can't find time."

"Not the crack shot I was in my youth."

Leah's Liverpool accent and high voice makes her sound younger than she is, which even then isn't the grown up side of thirty.

"I'm good. Used to solving problems, with the right information."

"Information is what I do, though I suppose That's obvious."

Barbara checks her monitors. "The satellite I'm bouncing my signal through is out of range in three minutes. You want me to try to dig up any specific info or records before our next contact?"

"Nah," Leah admits. "I've marked this frequency and'll keep it open. Best way to use me is to have the problems ready for my perspective. All I need from you is the company."

"I think I can handle that," Babs grins. "As long as I'm not running an op."

"If you're running an op," Leah turns her head upwards, an overwhelming feeling of home surging back, "I'm gonna need an exact visualisation and all the operative's special skills. Figure out what you can share with me."

"Oooh, the ever tricky trust issue. Especially tough when I've got no data on you. Since you're not in my files already you're either new or from a different world than I am."

She taps her chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Got any bright ideas to demonstrate what you can do?"

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"Hypotheticals work."

Barbara reaches back into her perfect memory and nods to herself. "One of the baddies wants you bad enough to turn his entire organization on you. You know that you can only continue to operate and keep your location under wraps at the same time for about a week. What do you do?"

"Apart from fashion a useable manual radio from household scraps?" Leah says with some sarcasm. "I have anecdotes a plenty, but this is me confirming we're different worlds, 'cause I'd know if you operated on mine.

"Tell you what - I can work hypotheticals if you need proof. There are anecdotes as well, but I coulda had them prepared."

"That's not a situation; that's a choice," Leah points out.

"No way my sorry self's worth what I know. All my soft data's burnable or portable, so I burn it and move. Except for the scrambler - that's an old hub I set up back when I invented the support network. Random call ins, random call outs. Suddenly the Innovator's just a network of spandex helping each other out when needed.: Lord Drakhen calling Red Falcon calling Buckler calling Trickshot. Leave out the keystone shadows and you're out of a lead. No central brain, no major secrets. Me? I have a public ID I can fall into. Linked to the business, known inactive. Even then, I get traced as one'a the potentials, there are ways of wiping even organic memory stores."

"Interesting," Babs muses. "I take it that you operate on an extremely flexible infrastructure. It took me months to recover when I had to blow the Clocktower."

Emotionally in addition to simple capability.

"Don't like being reliant," Leah admits. "On technology much as people. The key is improvisation."