ya_assemble | [LN] He flies through the air with the greatest of ease

"You just need to keep it on your person," Kon said and then he rolled his eyes affectionately and grinned at the jumping and flipping.

"I'm the last person who should be calling people on being show-offs given my storied history of announcing the name of my cool power every other fight but here I am doing it anyway."

He was smiling as he settled down on the edge of the roof, though.

"Okay, to start with, what are the last few major events and/or assorted crises you remember? Let's see if we're even from the same universe."

Edited 2015-05-05 22:17 (UTC)

"Too much anime." Dick raised an eyebrow and grinned, still managing to be silent across the roof. Not that he realized it wasn't necessarily his own doing. He sat down beside Kon, frowning as he looked out over the neighborhood.

"Well. I guess the easiest way to go with this is to ask if you know about Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor, Jr." Because that was probably the easiest way to go with it. "If you do, that was a little over a year ago for me."

He's not even certain why he's taking this so well. Other than the fact that 'cross world shenanigans' wasn't exactly a new thing for them. Especially not with the fate of the world in the balance. "Which includes the dropping of Chemo on 'Haven."

"So you're from my past or a version of my past. We might be from the same world then. I'm from a few years later. Maybe four? I've lost track a little bit in this world because the months were different when we came in and we've been here for a while."

Yes, four years.

He smiled at him.

"Yeah, you heard that right. Four years. Although I didn't age for one of those since I was taking a really, really long nap. In the dirt. Lucky for me, I got to go through that big ol' revolving door some of find us our way through. The Legion found a very, very complicated mad science way to revive me. It took three Brainiac 5's, Kal's chrysalis thing that revived him, and some time travel, but here I am."

Swinging his feet slightly on the edge of the roof, clearly happy to be there.

Edited 2015-05-05 22:43 (UTC)

Dick paused, raising an eyebrow at that. It...really wasn't something completely out of the realms of possibility. Especially when adding in the Legion in the future.

Still took a moment to process, though.

"I...can honestly say that's probably some of the best news I've heard in a long while, Kon. And I'm pretty sure I know of a couple of people who must be thrilled."

Tim had taken Kon's death hard. Given everything else, though, that was hardly surprising.

"I don't care about the timeline and all the stupid rules, tell Tim I come back. Apparently he went completely off the rails when I was gone. Tried to reclone me and cut a deal with Ra's Al Ghul to get some juice from the Lazarus Pit to revive me, his dad, and Steph."

He didn't care if there were risks if it meant his best friend was in less pain.

"Tell Cass, too." A pause. "And Kal and Ma and -"

He closed his eyes tight at the thought of Pa. Who'd he'd never gotten to see again. "And we're already treading on 'do I tell you what happens to someone to save them or don't risk changing the timeline?' territory."

He reached up his hands and tugged at his hair.

"Just tell Cass and Tim. The others will understand."

Edited 2015-05-05 23:26 (UTC)

It wasn't like Dick wasn't known as the second (or third, now, thanks to Tim) greatest detective in his own world for nothing. It didn't take a lot to put together who Kon WASN'T mentioning along with what followed and his own lips thinned in consideration.

Sure, they were treading that line. But Dick could leave it for the moment. "That doesn't surprise me about Tim. A lot hit him at the same time and having that chance...I can see why he'd think about it."

He didn't know that he was the one to talk Tim down. Not yet, at least. It wouldn't stop him from doing it again. "I'll tell them. As long as you understand that I might not remember anything of this when I go home."

"I know. This stuff tends to get whacky."

Now what?

"Okay, so do you want to know about our situation here or do you wanna know about the crazy stuff going on back home that Cassie and I came straight from? Both are pretty big bombs to drop and I know the timeline stuff can't really be altered but it's still important to know as far as some stuff that affects me and Cass."

So Dick knew why sometimes he was going to act so goddamn weird and messed up and why they might talk about heroes Nightwing had never heard of.

Edited 2015-05-10 00:49 (UTC)

Dick considered that for a moment. Because both were important, but...

"Immediate concerns, first. What's the situation here? Like, why am I no longer in New York?" Not that New York was being all that great for him, but he needed his own patch. Especially after what happened to 'Haven. "We can get to the stuff where you and Cassie are from later. Believe me, I'm very interested. Just...triage, I suppose."

"Okay, hold your questions to the end, it's a hell of an infodump," Kon said, raising his eyebrows. "Basically, we're in another universe. In this universe, belief is really powerful, and there are a lot of mythical beings, like Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, except they're all real people or mythical creatures that became powerful and immortal through the belief of kids. Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, the Sandman, and Anansi the Spider are a group called the Guardians, brought together by the Man in the Moon and they used the powers the belief gives them to protect kids and give them gifts and easter eggs and stuff."

That was pretty self-explanatory, right?

"One of their worst enemies was Pitch Black, the Bogeyman, who gets power from the fear of the kids of the world. He's a power-hungry moron so he opened this giant magical door that was holding out a great evil, trying to get an army of shadow creatures called fearlings that corrupt and transform children to make more of themselves. Only when he did it, he opened the door to this horrible dark god named Kuk, this being of total darkness. Now that the door is open a crack Kuk wants to get all the way into this universe and then use it as a stepping stone to destroy all of existence - every world, everywhere. He captured a whole bunch of the good myths, including all the Guardians other than Bunnymund and Jack Frost, and imprisoned them in this crystal prison in the pocket dimension outside his magical door, where he can feed off of their belief. His army of fearlings is terrorizing the world and they're trying to make more of themselves out of innocent kids."

Also pretty self-explanatory.

"Kuk's making reality in this world thin so belief and fear are even more powerful. That means things that kids fear become real, like horror movie monsters and stuff. It even sometimes bends reality so certain areas get all twisted up in fiction, like part of a neighborhood can suddenly twist up to be like a horror video game. The monsters and villains are either made up wholecloth or pulled from dimensions where their stories really happened. Kuk's recruited a lot of these monsters and villains to work for him, although some of them cause problems all on their own. The other side of the coin is that the kids' belief is also bringing in good characters from their fiction."

He raised his eyebrows again.

"Us. Either it's just coincidence that writers in this world thought up our stories or the inspiration for them somehow traveled through the multiverse but we're all fiction here and the belief pulls us from the universes where we're real. The belief of the kids also gives us powers or changes them so that we're like the myths here. And those powers are tied into the belief of the kids. The more believers you have the more powerful you are. My powers are a lot weaker here, for instance, but as I've picked up a few believers they've gotten a little stronger again."

That was all the basics, right?

Edited 2015-05-14 02:28 (UTC)

Because he was close (and had better than average eye sight), Kon would see the way that Dick's eyes got wide for a moment before blinking. Blinking a few times, really, because... "When you said infodump, you weren't kidding."

Which meant that he was processing. It was going to take a few minutes, which meant he turned and looked around, watching the area around them. "Okay. So, basically, evil from beyond this world is trying to break in and take out the entire multiverse and we've been called on, thanks to fictional bleed between the worlds, to help stop it." Dick paused. "Some of this is sounding entirely too much like what happened a year ago." Which meant that if a doppleganger Kon showed up, Dick was going to be very peeved.

"The thing that worries me is the villains. We don't know if they come in on their own or if Kuk has some sway and pulls them in specifically to oppose us."

Which mean there was a huge risk that their presence might lead to their bad guys being yanked him.

"Here's hoping it isn't the second one, 'cause if it is, we've got some pretty bad bad guys he might try to yank in."

Like Prime. Or the Joker.

"Oh, and another part of it is Kuk messing with reality means shards of this universe sometimes fall off and into nearby dimensions so sometimes we have to have to go to other dimensions to get them back. So that the borders of this dimension don't crumble and let Kuk in."

Kon called up his brand, a little shining sun-like sigil that hovered over his hand.

"We've all got these. Everyone gets 'em when they pop in now. If you concentrate you'll be able to call up yours, too. They let us open doors to the dimensions with the shards and kinda act like compasses to find 'em. They don't always work so great, though. The doors usually open fine but sometimes they have trouble homing in on where the shards are. The Man in the Moon is this really powerful spirit, though, and sometimes he can peek into the other dimensions and help us out. Sometimes those dimensions are also based on books and stuff here, too, so we can even read up on what the other world is like."

Edited 2015-05-16 21:49 (UTC)

Dick frowned, not liking that at all. Because, yeah. There were definitely some villains that he wouldn't want to see in this world. The Joker was...yeah. Very high on that list. Lex Luthor as well. Sinestro...

"Yeah, definitely hoping it's the second one," he agreed with a grimace.

He found himself rubbing his hand before shaking his head. "This is...this is a lot," he finally admitted. "And I'm feeling a little out of my depth. Though I think that'll probably go away once I've had a chance to really assimilate."

Wasn't entirely true. Dick usually felt out of his depth and outclassed among a lot of the heroes he worked with. But, like Bruce, he'd learned how to hide it and how to work around it. Everybody had a weakness, after all. Dick just didn't go so far as to keep files on all of them. He tended to sort it out as needed.

"Yeeeah," said Kon. "I'm used to this stuff, but, you know. That happens when you get strapped to a nuke to go on a jaunt through Hypertime."

That one had happened after an alternate version of himself had died right on the Justice League's meeting table.

When they'd strapped him to that nuke in that weird hypertime jacket, that'd been one of the few times Batman had ever said something nice to him, even if it was just "Robin speaks highly of you."

In any case, Kon was definitely one of the people in the superhero community that had spent a lot more time on alternate dimension and time travel adventures than most. In fact, he'd lost count of how many alternate selves and alternate future selves he'd met.

"Don't worry, I'll show you the ropes with this alternate dimension stuff," he said with mock arrogance, as if he was ever-so-much-more experienced. "And we've got good people here to work with. Aside from me and Cass - Wondy-Cass, not Bat-Cass - Jack and Bunny are pretty decent. And there's some other superheroes, ninjas, warriors - you know, the usual types we run around with."

Edited 2015-05-17 00:49 (UTC)

"I'm used to parallel worlds." He'd dealt with a few, after all. Not nearly as often as Kon, of course, but there'd been a few.

Dick considered that for a moment before he nodded. "Guess I'll be in good company, then." Though, yeah, part of him would really have liked Bat-Cass there. Or Tim.

He possibly wouldn't even mind Jason. Too much. Eventually.

"I think you'll get along with Invisible Kid. He's one of the two Legonnaires here - him and Brainiac 5. He's got just as much of an annoying habit of sneaking up on people as you Bats do."

And that was the breakdown of their situation there.

"That's most of what you need to know about what's going on in this world. We can get you briefed on anything else about what's going on when I get you back to the Pole."

"Invisible Kid, huh? Now that's a useful ability." Not that the Bats did too badly without any sort of powers. But invisibility was one that Dick actually wouldn't mind if he had it.

Dick nodded, pushing himself to his feet. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Wouldn't mind getting a better lay of the land before anything hits the fan."

Kon pulled a little snowglobe - yes, a snowglobe - out of one of the pouches of his belt, shook it, and said, "The Pole," into it, before tossing it into the air so that the portal appeared on the roof next to them.

He jerked a thumb towards it.

"Get ready for a whimsy overload. The place has more of it than Gotham's had during its whole existence."

Kon stepped through and once Dick stepped through he'd understand what he meant. Santa's workshop was a grand, beautiful place with wooden columns covered in beautiful carvings. Yetis bustled around, working hard as they built the toys, and elves ran around under foot, their belled hats jingling. Strange and beautiful toys in bright colors whizzed around through the air overhead flying through the levels through the workshop. A massive, brightly painted globe loomed over a hole in the floor (one that went down through all the other levels), bright little lights blinking and shining all over the Earth.

Kon flew up in the air and gestured to the globe.

"The lights are supposed to represent the kids. The ones that believe in the Guardians - and now in us. Kinda helps us know how much belief we're working with - and when they go out it sometimes gives us a heads up that there's a problem. If kids disappear or suddenly stop believing, there's usually something making them do it."

Yeah. Yeah, this was...not anything like what Dick was expecting. Sure, he spent most of his life in a cave growing up, with all sorts of cool things down there, but this was...

"Wow."

Dick reached up, pulling his domino mask off so that he could be certain nothing was playing tricks on his eyes using the lenses. Nope, everything was still the same. He managed to pull his attention back while Kon was explaining the globe, tilting his head to look over the lights. "I assume that you start looking for large areas, rather than just one or two lights going out." Even Tim would have had trouble just picking out one or two lights not being there that had been before.

"That's the best we can do," said Kon, floating back down towards Nightwing. "Which sucks but we're still working out how to go proactive with this thing. I mean, we do patrols, but there are so few of us..."

He didn't land, which wasn't surprising. Anyone that knew Kon well knew he spent most of his life in the air, often floating or flying when even other fliers might have walked. Probably had something to do with the fact that unlike a lot of heroes that'd gotten their powers later, he'd been "born" with the ability to fly, so that it was just as natural to him as walking.

And now that he was free of Project: Gladiator - where he'd been kept completely grounded and sometimes powerless in the red rooms when he wasn't on missions - he spent even more time in the air.

"I'll give you the tour. Over there's the lounge." He pointed at an area with lots of comfy couches and chairs. There were also big screen TVs and a multitude of game systems hooked up. "That's where a lot of us hang out. That way's the kitchen. Don't ask me where the yetis get the groceries, none of us know."

The floating doesn't bother Dick in the least. After all, it was just sort of something that Kon did. Dick was used to it. So were most of the people who hung around Kon very much.

He followed along, taking mental notes of the places that Kon was pointing out. "Probably better not to ask, honestly. Though, to be honest, I'm a little surprised at the yetis." That wasn't part of the Santa Claus myth that he knew of back home.

"Apparently the yetis make the toys and the elves just test them." He leaned down enough to whisper, "They're not very bright."

Case in point, nearby, one of them accidentally electrocuted himself by chewing on some Christmas lights several elves were decking a small tree with. He got up, dazed and a little charred, but mostly fine afterward.

"They kinda think like little kids? Really, the yetis do all the work. Which, I know it looks like a house-elf Harry Potter situation, like they're slaves or something, but they legit just like building crap. Phil says it's just their culture. They like building crap and they like doing it for the kids." He added, since it wouldn't be immediately obvious, "Phil's one of the yetis in charge."

Kon started to lead Dick down the stairs to the first of many workshop levels.

Dick couldn't help but wince at the one that was electrocuted, though it didn't seem to bother the elf much. Shaking his head, he followed Kon down the stairs. "This is all just seriously trippy. You're sure I haven't been hit by something the Scarecrow cooked up?"

Though, really, this wasn't something that was in Crane's usual repertoire. There wasn't anything scary, just...weird. "Maybe Hatter."

"Nope," he said. "And it's not Mysterio, either."

A pause.

"Who's a villain you haven't met. Yet. That, uh, brings us to the 'what happened back home' part of explaining things I still need to get to."

Which was kinda huge.

"About two odd years ago we had another Crisis back home. A huge one. It involved our universe and another universe - with another version of Earth filled with superheroes. We won but reality was so damaged the only way to save both universes was cram them together. So now Earth is this giant melded mess and the population doubled overnight. Gotham, Philadelphia, both New York Cities, Metropolis - they're all part of one giant megacity now, that takes up a huge chunk of New Jersey and New York. Bludhaven's going to be part of it soon - the way they're rebuilding, and the way Gotham shifted, means they're going to start overlapping. Already Bludhaven's overlapping with Atlantic City a bit."

At least Bludhaven was rebuilding at all. He knew that was something Nightwing might like hearing.

Admittedly, he didn't want to admit that the reason it'd finally gotten cleaned up was because of Luthor's actions as president. A lot of the US had gotten cleaned up and relative order had been restored thanks to Luthor - a demonstration of how absolutely idiotic he was for being a supervillain and using his position of power for evil when he could be off curing cancer or stopping world hunger or whatever.

And that? That was a LOT more to take in than even the earlier information about this world.

Dick paused, leaning against the nearest wall to take it in. And, honestly, was feeling a bit more exposed than normal for having his domino off. Still, he was good at keeping his expression controlled. It was necessary more often than not.

He drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Okay, wow, that...that's good. I mean, the bit about 'Haven. The rest of it is kinda...yeah, a lot to take in." And he would absolutely agree about Luthor. A great mind that could have been doing so much more had he been willing to let everything with Superman go by the wayside. "Is Cassie from the same time, then?"

"Yep."

He tapped his temple

"The weirdest thing of all was once it happened, we remembered we'd all met the heroes of that other world before. A whole bunch of times! Cosmic crap messed with our memories and there's this guy named Access whose job was keeping the worlds apart and making us all forget. He was able to travel between the two of them - he helped us all during the Crisis. A lot of our memories of what happened are fuzzy but I remember that much."

He went on, "But there are these two cosmic beings that are like, the living embodiment of each universe, and they're brothers or something, who didn't want to be separated. And apparently our world's been close to merging with the other one for ages. We teamed up to hold it off a bunch of times and just forgot after - but most of us remember every time we met each other now."

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