"Pick one, then," he shrugs.

"I'll call you Matt, I knew an actual Matt in Phoenix and he answered to approximately your description," shrugs Juliet. "And I'm Bella, here, not Juliet. Outside Milliways-type encounters only my boyfriend calls me Juliet." Here is the front door. She picks up her messenger bag from where it rests, puts it on, and strolls down to the sidewalk and hangs a left.

Sue ambles after her. "Okay," he says agreeably. "This is a nice town, I like it."

Bella bursts out laughing. "This town is a hotspot for all kinds of demonic activity and even with the vampire population shrunk as small as can be it's got a ludicrous death rate. It's not even much to look at if you ignore that. Gosh, you really have been in space for a long time."

"Ten years," he says, grinning.

"That is a long time. I'm sure it has its advantages even if it makes Sunnydale look like a nice town, though." They turn a corner. It's a hot day, but there's a breeze coming from this direction and some yards have trees and shrubs in late flower.

"I got to save humanity!" he says brightly. "It was fun."

"I'm supposed to get a few chances to do that. Haven't yet. Slow apocalypse year, apparently. Any tips for when some nasty reaches for the destroy-Earth button?"

"It's probably different," he says.

"Probably. How'd you do it?"

"Cheated," he snorts.

"Ooh, that sounds like a fun story."

"You know how I'm a mutie? Well, I linked up my whole command. And then when we got to the buggers' home planet, I linked them and they surrendered as soon as our side found somebody for them to surrender to."

"Oh, nicely done. Reminds me of how I handled the Prom Ghost, only yours is obviously much larger-scale."

"What's a Prom Ghost?"

"Her name's Minnie. She got killed at her prom about eighty years ago, and her ghost had serious anger issues and she killed some people at proms thereafter if they met certain criteria. I found her, talked to her a bit, and used some of the square wishcoins Shell Bell made for me when she visited to fix the emotional problems and the part where she could only haunt prom, and now she's running around enjoying herself someplace. Standard procedure would have had me disperse her instead."

"Good one," he approves.

"Thanks. Now that you've made peace with the aliens, what're you and Aegis gonna do next?"

"Be admirals," he says. "If we can get ourselves unkidnapped first."

"I wish you the very best of luck. What do space admirals do?"

"Not a whole lot, when there's no war on," shrugs Sue. "But we're gonna be talking to the buggers for a while. Right now I'm pretty much the only one who can."

"Because of the mutation thing. Can you do that with your Bell or does she shut you out? What about me? And you met Angela and Stella and Amariah before, right, did you try them?"

"I can do Aegis if she tries," he says, nudging Juliet's mind.

Juliet's version of the power doesn't work like a wall. It works like she's insubstantial. There is nothing to nudge, even if it looks like there should be. Juliet doesn't appear to notice him doing anything.

"But not you, apparently."