ya_assemble | [AI] Cold Reboot

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[AI] Cold Reboot

Something had hurt him. He wasn't sure what. He had been doing something. Something something. Getting something for someone. Home. Getting something for home?

He remember crumpled flowers in a puddle in an alley. Broken brick. A fight. He'd staggered around and fought. A suffocating feeling over his face. Energy pouring out. Molten brick, burning the flowers, vaporizing the puddle. He'd gotten free but the world had shattered into a million confusing crystalline shards. So many voices, perspectives, alien images and words in his head.

Crumpled flowers. They were important. They'd belonged to someone. After that, the voices told him to hide. They were broken like him, all of them.

SYSTEM FAILURE +++ ERROR ERROR +++ WORLDMIND GESTALT DATA CORRUPTED +++ REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

They tried so many times to fix themselves to fix him but something was wrong. So the voices told him to hide, to survive. It was still looking for him, trying to take him. The star.

"Star tryin' t'take me," the man said to the older woman doling out soup at the soup kitchen. "Told me to hide. Voices tol' me to hide. Starfish, bad starfish."

He trusted the old woman. For some reason. Something about her face. White hair, reminded him of someone. Another older woman. Flowers.

"I lost the flowers, ma, I'm sorry," he said to her. "But the star - the star got me. Now the voices're saying to hide. Voices."

"Oh, you poor dear," said the woman. "Why don't you sit over there, young man? I'm going to get someone to help you, okay? We have someone on staff here, they're going to talk to you to get you some help."

"Help," he echoed back, taking the bowl of soup gratefully, going over to sit where the woman had pointed him. "Help. Help me."

Someone could help him. Faces. Floating spheres and pink light. Fire. Winged feet. Black and red. Faces. There were people that could help him, good people, but he didn't know how to call them. Couldn't remember their names.

"Help me," he said into his bowl of soup. "Wish you were here, Pete. Always know what to do when things are broken."

They were stuck like this. Surviving. Him and the voices. They didn't know what to do, how to get help. All of them were too confused, too addled, splitting and blending.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

"Restart. Need to restart," he said, in between spoonfuls of soup. "How? How do I...? No button. Can't use a button. How? Why can't you tell me? Brother. Brother could. Where's my brother?"

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Teddy stiffened under Nate's hand, but didn't have the time to shrug it off before his former teammate and ex-friend had already taken to the air.

He was ignoring Nate for a reason, and that reason was that he'd rather not punch him in the neck. Nate wanted to act like it didn't matter whether Jonas had been a person, that he hadn't been Teddy's friend when Nate hadn't been around, he could do that. He'd just have to do it without any acknowledgment from Teddy whatsoever.

That didn't mean that Teddy didn't briefly fantasize about grabbing Nate by one armored foot, slamming him face first into the ground, and demanding answers.

Instead he took a deep breath to calm himself, digging into the first aid kit he was carrying and pulling out a protein bar.

"Never got an answer if you wanted this," he said, holding it out to Nova. "Did you-- whoa!"

As soon as the fake Avengers were out of sight, the Nova Corpsman had wobbled on his feet and almost collapsed right off of them. Teddy caught him, adjusted his grip and tore open the protein bar, jabbing the unwrapped end at the mouth opening in his helmet.

"Eat this, he said, his voice firm and reassuring. "You'll feel better."

"Are you all right?" asked J'onn, wanting to make sure there wasn't still an issue with Worldmind.

"Woofta. Thanks, kid." Nova grabbed the protein bar with his teeth and then gingerly sat down again, tearing into it.

"I'll be fine, I'm just a little dizzy," he said around his chewing. He was clearly ravenous. "I been on the street at least - what was it Worldmind? - three weeks apparently? So I haven't been eating well. I think I was getting fed at a soup kitchen or something. I barely knew what was going on. I'll be fine when I get a decent meal in me."

He looked up at them all.

"Can't believe I got taken by surprise like that. The starro attacked me after I picked up some flowers for my mom. I was gonna stop in and visit the 'rents before reporting in to the Defenders and never made it there."

Vance rubbed his face, breathing a sigh of relief when the Avengers headed out. Really, this had ended a lot better than he'd been afraid it would. Though, knowing Rich and the Nova Force as he did, he'd never been afraid that there'd been an energy spike.

Maybe he trusted his friends a little too much, but they'd always trusted him.

Turning around, finally, he snorted and shook his head at Rich. "This is why you call in when you get back to Earth, buckethead. So you don't end up wandering the streets for three weeks in a haze with nobody even knowing to look for you."

Which didn't stop him from walking over and offering his hand. "Good to see you, though. Welcome home, Rich."

"Glad to have you back on Earth, Nova."

Not what he wanted to say, although he trusted that Rich could guess he was acting like a hyperactive puppy on the inside. Robbie wasn't a fan of having to hide himself in general, but he especially hated being forced to act like he barely knew Rich and Vance.

"Do we have any way of tracking that Starro? Because if it can screw with something like the Worldmind we really need to bring it down as soon as possible."

Rich took Vance's hand and used it to get himself on his feet again. He was a little steadier now.

"I can maybe try to track it without Worldmind's sensors -" He looked past Vance and Robbie. "- or not! Look out!"

As if on cue, perhaps sensing it only had one more chance at capturing Rich now that he'd been found, it flew out of the nearby bushes and whizzed towards him.

Not that it really had a chance. The question wasn't if it'd get caught so much as who'd trap it first.

Edited 2015-03-30 06:22 (UTC)

It really was a 'who', since there were two telekines right there.

Vance had just an extra moment on J'onn, though, since he'd been facing Rich and had seen his friend's eyes widen. He already had his field coming up as he turned, reaching out mentally to catch the form he could feel hurtling toward them.

"That was easy," Rich said, raising an eyebrow under the helmet. Then he held a hand to his ear and buzzed the Green Lanterns.

"Green Lantern dispatch, this is Nova #11249-44396 reporting in. I've got a starro here on Earth that needs the paddy wagon. Sending coordinates. Isolated incident, which is what's weird. Not sure where the hell it came from because there's no invasion force but the damn thing attacked me. Didn't get a hold of me but scrambled the Worldmind but good until I had some help from some other heroes to reboot it. Is anybody reporting any strange Starro activity up there?"

He listened.

"Uh huh. Huh. Yeah, that is weird. It's secure. I'm here with a Terran telekinetic friend of mine who's got it trapped. I'll be waiting."

Transit did not take the Green Lanterns very long. They weren't the living rockets that Nova Centurions were but their long-distance transit was arguably faster, so a Green Lantern exited a portal up in orbit and rocketed down almost immediately.

"Please not Gardner, please not Gardner, please not Gardner..." Nova chanted under his breath but it wasn't Guy. In fact, Vance and Robbie would find the skinny young man fairly recognizable, even in his costume and green domino mask. In fact the mask was telltale - it was clearly configured to include glasses lenses.

Rich breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite Green Lantern."

Edited 2015-03-31 05:19 (UTC)

Robby smiled at his brother and then saw how ragged he looked, looked at the Starro, and seemed to put two and two together.

"Don't you try to butter me up like I won't notice you look like the cat dragged you in. What happened?"

Rich held up his hands.

"Nothing! No big deal. It attacked me, the Worldmind kept it from taking over and got a little scrambled, but Martian Manhunter here helped reboot it. No biggie."

He'd just, you know, leave out the part where he was wandering around on the street for a few weeks.

"It jumped me right before I went to visit mom and dad. I was picking up some flowers for mom to see if that'd help soften the usual passive-aggression and unrelenting disappointment."

"How long was Worldmind scrambled?" Robby asked, concerned.

"Not that long," came out of Rich's mouth before he remembered that he had three other people here that could totally call him on that lie.

He didn't want his brother to worry.

He also didn't want to reinforce what everyone was telling him. They were so wrong that he needed an R&R cycle. He was fine.

"If you count a few weeks as 'not that long', anyways."

Robbie may be happy to see Rich, but that doesn't mean he's going let him lie to his brother.

"You didn't report into the Defenders first? Blue blazes, Rich, that's what I was talking about!"

"It just slipped my mind! I'm not used to having anyone to report in to anymore."

Not with his probationers all having joined the Green Lanterns since he couldn't give them back any of the Nova Force.

Nova waved it off.

"Look, what's going on with the starros? B'dg said there's been a few other isolated incidents. Is there a pattern?"

Edited 2015-03-31 05:41 (UTC)

"There's been a few other isolated attacks by single Starros, seeking out high profile individuals in the galactic community," said Robby, using his Green Lantern ring to relieve Vance of the Starro, holding it in a green box that looked layered in a complicated way, as if he was reinforcing the container to the extremes.

"Ronan. Peter Quill. Adam Warlock. We just got reports in today that they were attacked too. Everyone's managed to fend them off just fine but they were all a single starro, with no invasion force. We think the Universal Church of Truth is targeting people that have the potential to inspire faith in others but for what reason we don't know yet."

"It sounds like it might be something big," Rich said, concerned. "I should maybe come back up and help you guys take a look at it. I can just fire off a 'we're both alive' message to mom and dad so they don't worry (as much)."

And get right back up into what he was comfortable with.

Instead of what Quill, his brother, Gamora, even Drax were trying to shove him into.

Edited 2015-03-31 05:47 (UTC)

"No. This is supposed to be an R&R cycle," Robby said, his voice getting higher and thinner with concern and annoyance. "Rich, how many hours have you been getting to sleep at night?"

Robbie interrupted before Rich could get a chance to lie again.

"Four. Straight from his mouth by way of Worldmind."

"That's plenty!" Rich protested, glaring at Robbie.

He was not letting everyone sideline him like this.

"I don't even need that much sleep a night, not with the Nova force. You and Quill and Gamora, you're all pushing way too hard with this vacation thing."

Please don't make him take a vacation. Anything but that.

"Robby, if the Universal Church of Truth and the Starros are working together, that's a big deal. I should be up there helping you green beans look into it. And there's plenty of people that still need my help after all that damage from the Merge."

Edited 2015-03-31 05:58 (UTC)

"Big brother, listen to me," said Robby, reaching his free hand to cup his brother's cheek under his helmet and force him to look him in the eye.

"You haven't stopped moving for years. Three years - almost four now with how time ran differently in that other dimension! In that time, you fought a war, found out half your friends were dead, got infected by and fought the Phalanx, lost the Nova Force, got it back, reformed the Nova Corps, fought Lovecraftian nightmare monsters from another dimension, nearly died as that dimension collapsed while pinning Thanos down, got lost in another dimension - where, according to Quill, you had to fight monsters and giant robots every day," He had to draw in a breath again to finish "- got back to the right dimension just in time to fight in the Crisis, helped form the Defenders, and then spent almost another year answering 8X8's in the regular. And I know I'm missing things in there because you've mentioned the heads of Celestials and space zombies and trying to arrest Galactus and a whole host of things crammed in between every single time you rocketed into the middle of a bigger crisis to save the day."

He made sure Rich was looking at him and enunciated each word carefully.

"You. Need. A. Vacation. You are hereby and forthwith flagged from any and all galactic crises for at least a year unless it gets so bad we have to call you back up. Earth's a mess, if what Rayner's said is any indication, so there will be plenty here to still keep you busy - but you can see mom and dad (and try to convince them to stop being angry at the both of us). You can hang out with your friends. You can - and I know this probably sounds wild - maybe even go on some dates with someone who doesn't have a rep as the deadliest woman in the galaxy."

Seriously, the woman was terrifying.

"I know you have trouble slowing down - human rocket and all - and I won't even say that nobody can keep up that pace. You did. You can. I know you'll keep doing it if somebody doesn't stop you. But spend time with your friends, catch up on some movies you missed, punch guys in the face that don't stand a chance against you for once. This isn't about you needing this, Rich, this is about how you seem to think you don't deserve this. But you do. You've earned a little rest. We've got everything under control up there."

For a moment, Rich looked like he was going to argue even more and insist he didn't need it. Truth was he didn't. If people needed him, he'd rocket from crisis to crisis exactly like he'd been doing for as long as they needed him to.

But maybe it was a good idea to see his friends and slow down for a little while. Maybe his brother was right and it wasn't something he needed. It was something he wanted, but as long as people needed help out there it was hard for him to convince himself it was something he was allowed to have.

His shoulders sloped slightly as he stood there looking at his brother, his body language suddenly making him look a lot smaller and more tired.

"I guess I could afford to slow it down for just a little while," he admitted reluctantly. He gave his brother a stern look. "But you have the GLs call me if anything big goes down, you hear me? While it's stil growing hair - I don't want the first time I hear about it to happen after it's already exploded into something huge."

Edited 2015-03-31 06:24 (UTC)

"Big brother, I promise we'll call you if it looks like a Celestial is going to destroy an inhabited galaxy by sneezing - or any other similar catastrophes."

Now Robby pulled him into a one-armed hug.

"Now slow down and enjoy picking on the supervillains and stealing their lunch money for a little while, okay?"

He pointed at the others.

"And you." He recognized Vance. He pretended not to recognize Robbie - he knew the drill. "Please make sure this big lug sticks to protecting just one planet for a little while. Instead of, you know, all of them."

Edited 2015-03-31 06:31 (UTC)

Vance relinquished the Starro once he could see the ring's field completely surrounding it. And had to stand there, a bit startled, as Robby Rider listed all of the things that he knew that Rich had done over the past few years.

And only the things that he knew Rich had done because, yeah, Nova had a thing about not tooting his own horn these days. Not that anybody who had only seen him during their early New Warriors days would ever believe that, but that was what growing up did.

From the sounds of it, Rich had done a lot of growing up in space.

He took a moment, then nodded when Robby spoke to him. "Yeah, I'll do everything in my power to keep him on Earth for a while. Though the way the personality interface was talking, I'm not sure that he won't find himself grounded if he doesn't take it easy for a while." And it was kind of a trip to think that dealing with the supervillains on Earth would be a vacation for Rich, but whatever. It sounded like he needed one.

With that, Robby left and Rich waved him off.

"Think I'm going to head back to the tower first before visiting my parents. I could use a meal and a shave."

And maybe a nap.

Or maybe even a good night's sleep. Wouldn't hurt to visit them tomorrow instead, right?

[AI] Cold Reboot

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