[LN] The Doct - er, General Is In

[iamresponding]

Step number one of taking over leadership from Bunny was getting as informed as possible. That was why Rich had commandeered a room to essentially use as an office. It was now packed with books and scrolls to study to get a handle on the lore, magical mechanics, and history of this world.

He'd also managed to get his hands on a tablet to use as a datapad. One lucky thing about the technology he'd used during the war was that he was already used to typing one-handed, due to the datapads they'd used during the war being pretty small. And he was left-handed so he still had his dominant hand.

Still, what he wouldn't give for the medicos he had during the war. He'd lost a leg once, during the bombardment on Daedalus 5, and they'd grown him a new one in the space of a few days. Sadly, they didn't have the technological resources here for organ cloning, even if they possibly had people with the right expertise to do it. They probably had the resources to make him a decent prosthetic to use outside of battle, though, and that was something he planned on requesting.

Something else he needed besides all the lore and info on the enemy was data on all the people here. Skill sets, powers, fighting experience and so on.

So, for the ones Bunny wasn't able to give him info on, Rich was calling them in for a little interview. Each time, he introduced himself (to the ones he hadn't already met, at least) and explained the situation.

"I called you in here because Bunny's going to be relinquishing leadership of our little band of misfits to me as soon as I'm caught up on everything, so one thing I need to do is find out what everyone can do. I just have a few questions to ask you. This is also an opportunity for you to ask any questions of me."

Comments

[morescaredofyou]

"Uh, don't you already know what I can do? I mean, you know me. or you know the other me. Also, how the hell did you manage to get made leader? You only just got here! Who did you fight to the death for this gig?"

[iamresponding]

"Annihilus, technically," said Nova glibly, setting up a little profile for Peter. It was a valid question, why he was qualified to just slip right into the job. So he figured he'd get that out of the way first and then ask Peter questions from there. "My bonafides include being commander-in-chief of an army of more than a hundred different species that fought against a genocidal space dictator that killed billions of sentients. I got the Kree and the Skrulls actually working together when they'd been at war for probably about a million years or more." Where had that app icon gone - oh, there it was. "The bugs almost beat us when they weaponized Galactus but I got a strike team in to take Annihilus himself out - you know what they say: kill the head and the body dies. I pulled his guts out through his mouth and stopped the Wave three months before Earth got turned into a much more horrible version of the Klendathu scene from Starship Troopers." He wasn't just a superhero or just a cop. He was a soldier. He was a general.

[fromfryingpantofire]

Sam's been around enough fighters and soldiers in his time to recognize that this Rich guy knew what he was doing. There was something about him that reminded him of his dad, if John hadn't gotten focused on Yellow-Eyes.

"I tend not to hold back questions if I have them. Ask Bunny or Jack sometime." He flashed a half smile and nodded. "Sam Winchester, by the way."

[iamresponding]

"Nice to meet you Sam." He set up a profile for him. "To start with, what powers do you have here and how much experience do you have? I'm trying to gauge who might need powers training. Some people have the same powers back home and others got them when they got here." The ones that got them by showing up probably needed some help learning to hone them better. Fortunately, there seemed to be at least a few experienced superheroes and metas that could maybe help out. Learning control and figuring out the full applications of those powers was important.

[shutupaisha]

Once Gene enters, he grabs a chair, turns it around backwards, and flumps down in it. He looks tired, the kind of tired anyone who has issues with authority gets when presented with it. The kind of tired that happens when you're faced with a load of paperwork.

"Yeah, I got a question. What kinda leashes are you lookin' to throw on people here, huh? How tight and short are they, and what's the penalty for breaking out of 'em? Which is actually two questions, but they're pretty related."

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Well, I've been here for about a year. Though, apparently, there was an extended break sometime in the middle of that. I don't have memories of being gone, but whatever brought us here probably wasn't ready to let me go." And it later dragged his brother in.

He reached out for a chair, pulling it over. "As for powers...telekinesis. I had some experience with it back home, but it's a lot easier to use here." Didn't need demon blood, to start with. That was always a help.

[bedazzledmyface]

"Hi, I'm Mabel!"

One grownup in charge was as good as another, as far as Mabel was concerned. She and Dipper were probably still going to do what they did, and clearly the Easter Bunny's efforts were better focused on stuff like Easter than figuring out how to lead a galactic war, so she was just as pleased to meet Rich as to meet any other adult who knew how to handle this sort of universe-threatening stuff.

"Look what I can do!"

She launched straight into a demonstration of all her flashy powers, a rainbow tower of light bursting forth around her to pierce the heavens while Aoshima swam in graceful arcs through the air, chattering his inspiring chatter. Mabel punched the air, filling it with mewing kitten fists as Kraz and Xyler rose up on an elevated stage behind her, playing the keytaur-and-drums power ballads that no one on the side of JUSTICE could fail to feel stronger, more courageous, more full of inspiration, upon hearing.

Mabel beheld her own spectacle and cried a single, awed, glittery tear.

[iamresponding]

"I'm looking for volunteers." He wasn't about to forcibly conscript an army to his will. "Anyone willing to fight had better be willing. But if people don't want to listen to me and wanna do their own thing, all I ask is that they stay out of the way of the rest of us and don't mess up what we're trying to do." If anyone wanted to run around out there and be a hero independently, they could do whatever they wanted, as long as it didn't mess up the efforts of the rest of the myths that were cooperating together. "Either you follow or you do your own thing and just stay out of the way." It wasn't exactly unreasonable.

[iamresponding]

Rich just watched all that with eyebrows that slowly inched closer and closer to his hairline. That was...huh. Whatever part of his brain was responsible for being shocked by strange things was stretched to full capacity (like it so often was) and then it simply snapped. And he adjusted. (Like he always did.) He typed away on his tablet. "So your power is that you're basically a walking Lisa Frank binder?" It actually wasn't that surprising, given the nature of all their powers. Some of them seemed very...personalized. And she was a little girl.

[iamresponding]

"How much control do you have? Are you managing power, precision, or both?" He know different teke wielders had different levels of control and different things they were good at. Vance, for instance, was able to manage a lot of power and sometimes a lot of control. But others were only good at brute force, and some had teke that was weak but could, for instance, do something like move the inner mechanics of a lock to open it. Knowing whether Sam was better at brute force or precision - or good at both - was important.

[morescaredofyou]

"...Okay, I admit, that is one seriously impressive resume," Peter said. "And it's not that, you know, I don't think you can lead this motley crew or anything. But when people are picking leaders, they usually people people they know, you know? And you haven't been here long enough for anyone to get to know you. And now I've just said the word 'know' way too many times."

[iamresponding]

"That's why I'm not taking over right right now. Bunny's still in charge until I meet everyone, get a thorough sitrep, do a few missions, and get caught up on the history and lore." He went on, "It's going to be a process but I have to start somewhere, right? Meeting everyone and finding out what they can do - and them being able to ask me questions, too - is a start." He knew they wouldn't trust him instantly. But once he was caught up, he could show them what he could do in the field and transition things over when he had a good handle on everything.

[morescaredofyou]

"Right, so you're like, I guess, the Easter Bunny's second-command or something for now? Until you take over," Peter said. "I hope you know how utterly crazy that is. The Easter Bunny. I'm still not used to that, you know."

Never mind that he was living in Santa's workshop and on a regular basis making off with his snow globes. You'd think he'd have adjusted by now, but even now it hadn't fully sunk in.

"And you've met me already. And you know what I can do. Well, except for the stuff that I can't do anymore. And if there's anything different in my abilities and the other Peter's abilities...okay, so maybe you do still need to interview me."

[iamresponding]

Rich nodded. "Exactly." Now he got it. "What I know of my Spidey is he has the agility, speed, flexibility, endurance, low-end superstrength, sticking to walls, the webbing, and that -" He waved his hand in a vague gesture "- weird thing he does where he can sometimes react to danger without even looking at it." That had to be a power in its own right rather than just fast reflexes. Sometimes he wasn't even facing the direction the danger was coming from. "If you've got more than that - or less - it's important that I know."

[morescaredofyou]

"Yeah, I have all of that. Or I did, back home. When I first got here all I had at first were my web shooters -" Peter pulled down one sleeve and waved his arm about, showing the device around his wrist. "-and my spider sense. Uh, I mean, the weird thing were I know when I'm in danger. And then after Kon introduced me to that kid, Jamie, I had my agility and flexibility back. Which oh man, I was really glad for. I know they that just being myths makes you more agile, but it sure didn't feel like. Do you know how often I tripped over my own feet?"

Way too many times, that was for sure. It was an embarrassment, really.

"Um. But there was kinda something else, when I first arrived. I don't really know what it was, but when the fearlings attacked my spider sense felt...weird. Not like it usually did. But it hasn't happened again, so I don't know what it was."

[iamresponding]

Rich thought hard about that. "People's powers sometimes change to fit this place better. From what Bunny says, sometimes the changes make it so people's powers are geared towards protecting the kids better. Do you think maybe you were able to sense the fearlings themselves? Like some kind of extra sensitivity to them?" That seemed the most reasonable possibility if his spider sense had gone off and reacted to them a certain way.

[morescaredofyou]

"I don't know. Maybe? Whenever my spider sense has gone off apart from that it's been like it always was, so, it's possible. But I can't be sure. I guess I'd need to see if it happens again, the next time I see some fearlings."

He wasn't sure how he'd feel about being able to sense fearlings. They had been...disturbing, and any kind of connection to those things wasn't something he wanted. But still, if it could actually help...

[fromfryingpantofire]

It got him to grimace, at least a bit. "Mostly seems to be power at the moment. I'm working on precision at the moment, but it's slow going. Brain seems more geared toward the bigger actions, like being able to shield a group or throw the bad guys as far away as possible."

It wasn't impossible for him to do the door thing. It was just fiddly and he'd be faster with a set of actual lockpicks.

[bedazzledmyface]

"Yup! But I'm more than my powers. I'm a one-woman welcoming committee! Tada!"

She whipped from behind her back a personalized Santa hat, swirling with galactic glitter and gold pipe cleaners bent into shapes that coordinated with Rich's uniform.

"Welcome to the Guardians, Fearless Leader! Here is your complimentary hat."

[the_civilian]

Tadashi regarded the other man thoughtfully as he rolled the brim of a baseball cap (black, with a purple brim, and matching piping picking out the symbols "BH6" on the front) between his palms, then grimaced a little as he put the hat back on his head.

"I've got a couple questions," he hedged. "But they're slightly invasive and possibly none of my business." He ducked his head, grimacing apologetically this time. "I didn't mean to pry, I'm not used to this scanning thing yet."

[iamresponding]

At hearing that it was because of some kind of scanning ability, a little smile quirked at the corners of Rich's mouth. If he could scan him, that had probably prompted a whole lot of questions given what he was carrying around inside him. "Go ahead." 'What the hell are you?' probably would've covered it all but he was curious as to how the man was going to word it.

[the_civilian]

"Kind of already did," Tadashi admitted sheepishly. "Which is aggravating because I didn't program it to be automatic or reflexive and I can't get a look at my own coding to see where the bug or trigger is."

He waved a hand to clear aside his complaint for the moment (if this guy was going to be in charge here, he was going to want to know about what Tadashi's new super powers could do) and get back to the topic he'd been granted permission to broach.

"If you're injured, are you going to melt down or blow up or anything along those lines? Or is there something in place to keep that sort of thing from happening?"

[iamresponding]

"I'm not gonna melt down or blow up. The Nova Force in me is more...integrated than that. Fused in at the molecular level." What was a good way to explain it? "Think energy in a plant's cells more than nuclear reactor. It's just, uh, a very big, very powerful plant." Good question. That said something promising about this guy, that his brain immediately flipped to what was most practical to know. "You mentioned code. Are you a cyborg?" he asked as if it was a perfectly normal question to ask.

[the_civilian]

"Huge plant," Tadashi agreed. He couldn't exactly measure energy produced by a person, but what he was getting was incredibly impressive. It was reassuring to know that the person he was talking to wasn't likely to accidentally turn into a walking nuke.

He blinked at the question he got in return, more confused by the tone than by the question itself. But then, he was talking to a guy wearing some sort of futuristic sci-fi armored costume, who knew what he through was normal? "Only if you consider someone who regularly uses technology for communication and research to be a cyborg. Personally, I was going to save that designation until I got a pacemaker installed or something."

He was never going to need a pacemaker. Tadashi clenched his jaw, swallowed hard, and soldiered on. "I'm -- Back home, I was a robotics engineering student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. My big project was a healthcare companion robot, Baymax. Somehow, this trip through a few layers of reality gave me abilities analogous to what Baymax can do, plus a sort of...I don't know if it's a healing touch, I haven't experimented with it enough to say, but that girl healed faster than either of us were expecting her to."

[iamresponding]

"I'm guessing all this is otherdimensional superhero stuff is a little bit outside your wheelhouse." That was what it sounded like anyway. "Any experience with killer robots or out of control AIs hellbent on world domination, anything like that?" Again, with the tone that made it sound like that was a normal thing to sometimes have experience.