THINK THRICE !

"And I do believe you," as much as she can reasonably believe a complete stranger, but if this is an act it's an astonishingly convincing one. "But it's a matter of security, y'see, plus there's an awful lot of delicate techy-bits lying around," more so than usual, even. Just because he may not have touched anything on purpose doesn't mean he'll have an easy go of keeping out of the way of everything else, once he's back out.

"Don't think anybody's mad, just - well, um, Winston's a very careful person," she begins, at once not wanting to make him feel the full severity of the fright he'd given everyone and yet still not conceding to his release. "She's not dead, no! Of course not, she'll be right as rain soon enough, I swear it. Bigger threats than you have done worse to her before and she always bounces back. Win just needs time, I think, to get her up and running again, and then figure out a safeguard. But he's a miracle worker, he is, we'll have you out soon enough. Til then you've got me for company, and that's not so bad, is it?"

They'd be having a much better conversation if he'd stop just sort of looking pathetically at her, but worry not, she is indeed going to chip away at that particular problem.

'That's a bit presumptuous innit?'

She looked between the two of them, they were indeed exact copies.

"Probably for the best we leave it alone until we can figure out what the hell happened..."

After a moment of trying to shake off her disbelief, she grabbed her cell, and switched to speakerphone

"Athena? You still there?"

"Indeed, Agent Oxton."

"Do Winstons notes day anything about, uh, multiplying myself?"

There was a short pause as Athena ran through the documents.

"'In the event of a duplication paradox, it's unlikely for the anomaly to cause any notable or significant damage to the subject or its surroundings, however resolution of this issue is currently theoretical, and would need extensive testing to be properly understood.' Does that answer your query, Agent Oxton?" Lena froze a bit as Athena explained the situation. "That... Yeah... I think I've got it from here, thanks love." Click.

Lena paces a bit as she - er, Lena 2, or... Lena 1, maybe, or... hm, if this is going to stick they'll have to do something about that for the sake of saving everyone, including themselves, a headache - phones Athena, biting her lip with a bounce of her heels. She lets the quiet sit for only a moment, after, thinking. She reckons they both are. It's not the sort of thing you have to expect to process, is it? Even by her standards, this is uncharted territory.

"That's good though, isn't it? No risk of tearing a hole in spacetime, yeah?" A careful smile. Unlikely, was all Athena had said, but Lena has always opted to hope for the best as hard as she could manage... with maybe just a little bit of preparing for the worst on the side. "Not a big one, anyway."

But it does sound like she - they - are in for a lot of testing. She's not missed that. Not at all. She'd gotten so used to the accelerator being relatively stable, somewhat predictable, and now here they are again. Still, there are worse fates - far worse fates; that, they are both keenly aware of - and she's all the faith in the world that whatever they've mucked up can be undone. There's always a fix to be found... eventually.

Despite herself, the young upstart's face scrunches up. Like she needed any more indication that her explanation wasn't exactly airtight... "I dunno... fighting guys? I mean- you're also a fighting guy. Obviously- fighting lady- but, uh. I mean..."

Xue blows air out through pursed lips and puffed cheeks. Behind her, a bot peels off the wall and clatters to the ground as if to underscore the difficulty she's having coming up with a plausible explanation. "You wanted me to "show you what I got", right? Besides... you've got plenty of stuff you can do that I couldn't, right? Don't worry about not being able to..."

She is rapidly piecing together that this is less about the nineteen-foot vertical leap and more about... everything else.

"..."

It isn't as though Lena's putting her under too much scrutiny - none of her business, she figures, and besides that she seems awfully nervous being put on the spot like this - but it is neat, and she is a tad bit jealous. That and sorry for whoever is responsible for putting the bots back together again.

"And show me you have! I'm impressed, love. Not quite sure it's the same, though, on account of this old thing," she knocks her knuckles lightly against the accelerator on her chest. "Afraid me jumping through time's got nothing to do with talent."

Not getting nauseous while doing it, now that takes talent. But that's neither here nor there.

He knows she’s not gone. She would never let that happen. But the shock alone is enough to freeze him in place. When she reappears next to him as if nothing had happened, he jumps, a hand resting on his chest in fright. He almost, almost, lets his fear turn into anger. “How could you-“ Be so reckless? Scare me half to death? But instead, he stops himself and takes a deep breath. It’s been such a nice day. The last thing he wants to do is ruin it by taking things to heart.

Still, he can’t shake the dreadful feeling that watching her fall gave him.

She's not, though. She knows her limits, and this hadn't even been close to pushing the limits of either herself or the accelerator. Even if it had been, pushing limits is in her blood. Has to be, or else she'd never have stepped into the Slipstream's cockpit.

"Have you ever known me to do any different?" She returns his look with a smile, albeit a gentle one, because contrary to commonly-held belief she does know when not to push his buttons and rile him up. Although she'll never apologize for who she is, and never intends to change, she does at least know better than to pull such exploits in front of him, even if he already already knows how common they are for her. "I'm sorry, love, didn't mean to give you a fright. 's just the Oxton way, I'm afraid, and you're such an Oxton in my head that I forget otherwise every now and again." She puts a hand on his arm.

Winston was always especially cautious when they did missions in Ilios - for the sole reason of wanting to avoid the deep hole in the middle of the ground. He’d never learned why it was there, and he didn’t really want to ask. As they got their bearings and prepared for the next wave of attack, he looked over at Tracer, who was standing precariously close to the edge.

“Please be careful.”

“Psh- I’m always careful.” She had said, before looking at him, winking, and jumping into the hole.

The second dropship they're anticipating is nowhere to be seen just yet. The comms are clear. The open air under her feet calls to her, and when she leaps backwards into the hole the wind is warm as it rushes past her face. She closes her eyes and breathes in the feeling of free-fall - one, two, three - before she throws herself into reverse, falling this time into the stream of the accelerator as it whips her back through the timeline.

"Whew!" She lands neatly back on her feet, then pops right back up onto the edge, leaning over again to peer down. "This thing goes on for ages! Could've fallen further, but," she taps a finger against the casing of the accelerator, goes to say that it's probably best she not push it to its limits during a mission and it can be so temperamental, besides, but stops short when she smiles sideways at him and catches the expression on his face.