[AI] The Study

[howaboutnoh]

Noh-var hated waking up in strange locations not knowing where he was. His life had become a string of such awakenings and misery usually followed not long after. He really ought to be used to it by now.

At least they'd left him his negabands and weaponry.

They'd also left him...another person? A teenage boy?

A Skrull?

Noh-varr nudged him unceremoniously with his foot.

"You. Skrull boy. Wake up. I need to see if you're useful or not."

Comments

[howaboutnoh]

"Yes. Yes, he was what you would call a #&%&. I'm relieved you didn't have to suffer at his hands as long as I did." If that had happened, if they hadn't been rescued, if he'd brought them in only to have them languish in torment because he'd brought them there... Well, he'd already wanted to be dead before they were there. It wouldn't have helped the feeling. Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them all. The Kree Way - the Kree Way of his Kree - was supreme. "I am...better. Than I was." Hence the intensity levels going down a bit. And the lack of rage. Those things started to go away when you healed from grief and trauma. It wasn't that hard for them to be provoked again but for now, he was much calmer. "My teammates and I have been fighting Luthor's forces to prevent any other aliens from being taken in like we were. Ones that are unaffiliated with superteams or other forms of protection have been demonstrating an uncanny ability to suddenly disappear off the face of the planet." They were almost through the candy room now and still no attack. All they had to do was take a lemon drop path through a field of over-sized gummy bears and there was a door on the wall at the end of it.

[always_teddy]

"I was...pretty much unconscious for everything," Teddy said, a bit uncomfortably. What he'd been through hadn't been anywhere near as bad as what the others had been through, really. He'd just been sore and a little out of it, but not so out of it that he hadn't been able to stop Xavin from doing something she (?) would have regretted. Xavin had had her (?) neck broken. Karolina and Billy had been forced to watch the Warden cut him apart. And, well, Noh-Varr had gone through things way, way worse.

And speaking of Xavin and Karolina...

"Do you know where the others are being taken?" he asked, brows knitting. "I've got some unaffiliated friends and I don't know how to get in touch with them." He'd seen Karolina losing a fight with Match; it had cut away before he took her down so he was hoping that meant that she'd escaped, but...

[howaboutnoh]

"No. We haven't pinpointed where they're being held yet. It's one of our top priorities." Breaking them out was number two on the list. "We've been attempting to save them before they're taken in at all. Who are you worried about? We may have already helped them get into hiding." They'd saved quite a few, called in a few of Songbird's favors, and gotten them into hiding across the globe.

[always_teddy]

"Karolina Dean and Xavin," Teddy said. "They're from Los Angeles. Karolina, she's, I think she said Majesdanian? She's human-looking, but she lights up like a rainbow. And Xavin's a Skrull, with Super-Skrull powers."

He pauses on the path, because he can't both keep an eye on the giant gummy bears and look hopefully at Noh-Varr for information on his friends.

[howaboutnoh]

"Ah yes, they were our allies for a time. Xavin was surprisingly tolerable for a Skrull. We worked with the two of them before the rest of their friends returned from the Crisis. The Majesdanian is now safely with her teammates, the ones that call themselves the Runaways. Xavin was pulled back to the Crisis by the dimensional slingshot effect, as some heroes are." Almost there to the door... But boy had it been too quiet so far. "Xavin has access to my computer's teleportation unit. Once she returns to reality, she will have the capacity to teleport away from harm if she needs it."

[always_teddy]

Teddy grins, relief flushing his system of some of the tension he'd been carrying with him since he woke up in the strange mostly-empty white room. He tries to gather some of it up again, eying the gummy bears with suspicion, but it's hard to maintain.

"That's great. I mean, not that Karolina and Xavin are separated, but I saw a recording of Karolina trying to fight Match, and I was worried. Thanks. And...thanks for looking out for everyone. It can't be easy being on the run all the time."

[howaboutnoh]

"You had good reason for concern. Match is a monster complicit in countless acts of terrorism and violence committed by the Luthor regime. He must be destroyed." That much he was sure of. He'd have given him the benefit of a doubt and assumed he was under the government's thumb like he'd been but the man was far too glib and cocky. He didn't act like someone brainwashed and in constant pain. "Being on the run is simple necessity. Much of what Luthor and Osborn are doing is cloaked with an air of legitimacy. To prove anything, the Defenders would have to break the law and risk losing their charter. All of us are already criminals and most of us escaped various government-sanctioned teams and would be eliminated for that fact regardless of what we did. Since we're all already criminals and on the run anyway it doesn't matter if we break the law in the name of exposing the current regime. If we uncover anything that the Defenders can legally intercede on, we can simply direct your attention to it."