"You have to start out learning to believe the little lies to believe the big ones."

[matchmadeinhell]

They had to try their best to do this thing incognito. After all, the plan was get in, get the shard, get out, and while several of them were total unknowns in this world, three of them ran the risk of being recognized by some of the resident superheroes and supervillains since they were from a similar dimension and had equivalents here.

Nightwing, not so much since he usually wore a mask, but Cassie and Kon didn't wear masks as part of their costumes, and Kon especially wore a very familiar face. He was younger than Kal but still approaching adulthood now and that meant his cloney resemblance to the current de facto ruler of the world was pretty uncanny now.

That was why Kon was in disguise. He was wearing his usual jeans, black long-sleeved shirt, black boots, and black gloves. But he had a dumpy, shapeless, brown jacket over top of it all, a blue baseball cap, and a pair of dorky, large-framed glasses. Fortunately, spring was only just starting in this world and hadn't quite chased away the chill of winter so they could all bundle up with clothes that made them look innocuous.

The magical door had appeared in an alley, against a nondescript wall. As soon as they were all through and had closed it behind then, Kon peered around a corner to see if he could recognize where they were by the city's night-time skyline.

"Looks like Gotham." A pause. "It's hardly recognizable, though. I've never seen Gotham this clean."

He squinted instinctually, trying to peer around some more with his X-ray vision and found it working in full when he usually struggled with it back in the Guardians' universe. He held up his hand and poured on the teke, creating a field around it.

"My powers seem to be stronger here for some reason. The ones that are limited in the Guardians' universe are back, like my teke. You guys feeling the same? Most of us are superheroes or equivalents in our worlds. Being in a superhero universe might be amping up our powers or something. Maybe making the belief stronger."

It all ran on narratives, right? Stories? This was a story superheroes were supposed to be in.

Comments

[daddyphantom]

"Yeah, Heck, I can get us beyond infrared if I make us intangible."

Most equipment used for detecting ghosts in Danny's reality were specifically designed for the purpose. The likelihood of the stormtroopers having their equipment already adjusted to find him was fairly low, he thought. Not impossible, but improbable.

[willbeyourhope]

There's a faint nod at Kon's answer, and after Haruto slips the ring on, he holds it down to his waist. The belt there rattles off 'DRESS UP, PLEASE!', and a red magic circle forms behind Haruto. He spins into it as it also turns toward him, then fades in a shower of sparkling glitter, giving him a mostly accurate stormtrooper outfit - save for the hand-shaped belt buckle at his waist and the big rings on each hand.

He makes a slightly flamboyant gesture of testing his arm range, then shrugs at the group. "Convincing enough?"

[morescaredofyou]

For a few seconds, Peter just stands there and processes what just happened: Haruto changed outfits in a spectacle of giant magic circles and glitter. One day, when he tries to tell MJ all about this...she isn't going to believe him.

"You know this is where I would normally make some incredibly witty banter about how you must have just walked out of a magical girl anime. Except I have to admit that I am, right now, incredibly jealous. Do you know how much hassle it is trying to find places to change into my suit? And you just spin around, and ta da! You're all done! That is not. fair."

[goddamnwingman]

It was probably just because he was already on edge, but the sound and light show make Dick wince, head up to keep an eye on the area. "I don't suppose there's a way to tone that down at all?"

Still, he shakes his head. "Conner and I will go as stormtroopers. Danny, you take Cassie and Peter. Their attacks are quiet and, if we need help, they'll best be able to keep the element of surprise."

He probably would have put Conner on Team Invisible, but he had a point. Their 'patrol team' would look more convincing with him on it. And while Peter and Cassie would both make good 'troopers, Dick himself didn't have any offensive powers. This division made more sense.

Still, Dick cast a glance upward. "I would so much rather be on the rooftops." But those would probably be even more heavily guarded than the sewers. Kal knew about how much Bats loved heights. "Right. We better get this done now before we lose the patrol pattern too much."

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie didn't wince, but she did shoot Haruto an exasperated glare.

"What did I just say about light shows?" she hissed. Nightwing didn't have any glow powers (and knew better besides), and Kon wasn't likely to use his heat vision at this point, so she just looked at Peter. "If you have bio-luminescence, I am officially asking that you not use it right now."

She moved to stand beside Danny, waving for Peter to follow her. Nightwing had made the call, she wasn't going to fight him on it. "How disorienting is it for people when you turn them invisible and then let them go visible again? I need to know what to expect if this comes down to a fight."

npc round

[matchmadeinhell]

Meanwhile, Kon turned to Haruto, holding out his arms.

"Stormtrooper me." Evil minion time. "I wish they were able to customize their looks, or else I'd see if you could do me up kinda like Boba Fett, but they all look pretty uniform."

Which mean that belt buckle of his might be a problem but they could always pass it off as a soldier going slightly against uniform regs.

Re: npc round

[daddyphantom]

Danny Was less than impressed with Haruto's costume change. He'd been doing basically the same thing since he was 14, it was old hat by this point.

"It isn't." He answered Cassie with a shake of his head. "Nobody I've done this with had any issues."

[willbeyourhope]

Haruto chuckles and makes a slight faux-mystical gesture at Peter with one hand, showing off one of his rings. "Perhaps I did, with the way this whole myth thing works..." After all, Mayu was a magic-user too. And then there's the time Nitou pretended to be a magical girl...

Dick and Cassie get a puzzled headtilt, and then he looks down at the hand-buckle. "Ah, sorry. I've been around it so long, I forgot how loud it is. Just one more shot, though," he says, putting his right hand over the buckle once more - DRESS-UP, PLEASE! - and then holds his hand out toward Dick and Kon. The circle and sparkles spin over them, giving them the same kind of outfit. With that done, he swaps rings out.

[morescaredofyou]

Peter waited a moment before moving over to Danny and Cassie, staring mournfully at Haruto's transformation abilities. Sure, it was ridiculously flashy and looked completely ridiculous - but it would just be so very convenient...he'd never have to worry about ending up on YouTube with half his costume missing ever again...

"So, is this the point where we all hold hands and start skipping?" he asked Danny.

[goddamnwingman]

Dick would just stick to actually having to go home to change. Not all of them could do the 'spandex under the suit' like Superman could, after all.

He looked down at himself after the change, shifting a bit to get used to the feel of the armor. Not too terrible. Turning to Cassie, Danny and Peter, he nodded to them. "You guys stay close. If it looks like things are going to go down, only intervene as a last resort. Keeping some of us out and mobile could be important." After all, if worst came to absolute worst, they might be able to get back to the Guardians' world and try again.

[mark_in_the_sands]

Satisfied by Danny's assurance, Cassie nodded once in acknowledgement of Dick's orders, and offered her hand to Danny.

"Let's fly the not-so-friendly invisible skies," she quipped.

npc tag

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon didn't need any time to get used to the evil stormtrooper armor. The full-body uniform they'd stuck him in when Project: Gladiator had him had been close enough. In fact, the way he fell into jackbooted step was just a little too natural.

He nodded at Nightwing and Haruto to start moving with him.

"This way. We need to move or we'll lose our chance of falling into their patrol patterns - if we can at all. I'm worried about what I'm seeing. There aren't many gaps in their grid."

Time to march.

Re: npc tag

[daddyphantom]

At Peter's comment, Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Do I look like I can pull off ruby slippers?" he asked, before grabbing Peter and Cassie's hands. A little bit of concentration, and the trio faded out of sight.

[morescaredofyou]

"You mean ruby slippers and a gingham dress aren't the height of masculinity?" Peter said, taking Danny's hand.

And Danny had been right - it wasn't disorienting to fade out of sight like this. That didn't mean that seeing himself disappear wasn't, well. Weird. He waved one arm about, and while he could feel where it was, he couldn't see it.

"...This is both incredibly cool and really, really unsettling at the same time. Look at me! Or don't, because you can't. Oh man. The Invisible Woman does this all the time?"

[willbeyourhope]

It was harder for Haruto to try and imitate the manner Kon was walking in - which is to say, he wasn't doing well at it at all. He'd never done any kind of marching like this, so there was some obvious struggle on his part to blend in on that front. He tried sticking behind Kon to try and keep himself covered on that front - can't point out issues with what you can't see, right?

[goddamnwingman]

Dick didn't even bother trying to match Kon exactly. Everybody had their own stride and learning to work yours to others was part of working as a group. If they had to, he was already formulating a story that put Haruto as a rookie, out on patrol with them for the first time.

With any luck, that would work. Though, with MORE luck, they wouldn't need the story at all.

He wasn't counting on that much luck at the moment.

[mark_in_the_sands]

"I've done blind-fighting, Peter, I don't have to see you to pinch you," Cassie whispered. "Shhhhhhh!"

Not that she disagreed with his assessment of the situation. Being invisible herself was pretty weird -- though not as much of a pain as flying an invisible plane.

npc tag

[matchmadeinhell]

They marched along and Kon discreetly checked his brand as they did, his other hand over it like before to hide the glow. (Fortunately, due to having superpowers, the stormtroopers didn't carry guns so they didn't have to.) Moving didn't seem to be helping. They just weren't getting a read on the thing.

"Still not getting a bead on the shard," Kon said, and when he looked up for another scan of his X-ray vision, his eyes widened behind the mask.

"We're in trouble," he said. "These guys know what they're doing. I've got a group of stormtroopers coming at us from around the corner and if we run back the other we're gonna be line of sight for two others. We're gonna have to fast-talk our way out of this."

The stormtroopers rounded the corner.

"Hey! What are you doing off route?" one of them called out.

"Heard a noise," Kon quickly lied. "But it's nothing. Turned out to be just a stray. But, you know, we didn't wanna take any chances."

"Well, get back on course," said the stormtrooper. "Phillips will kill us if we leave any gaps in our patrol patterns. Especially after last time."

Kon nodded a curt nod and the stormtrooper almost turned around to go back the other way with his companions, but spotted something that made him stop. He pointed to Haruto's belt buckle.

"What are you doing, wearing that? It's against regs."

Kon looked over at Haruto and Nightwing, hoping desperately one of them had a good lie. He couldn't think of one.

[goddamnwingman]

"Idiot rookie mistake," Dick spoke up, putting a bit of gruffness into his voice. Not that most people would recognize Dick Grayson's voice, but still. "First day and he was TRYING to make an impression." He set his mouth in a disapproving line. "Didn't have a chance to track down another belt before we had to be on patrol." He reached out, cuffing Haruto on the shoulder. "He's been taken to task over it. Swears it won't happen again, don't you, kid?"

[willbeyourhope]

For better or worse in corroborating their alibi, Haruto looked a touch nervous at the approaching group in his body language. Thankfully, Dick's comment gave him something to run with - or at least stumble with, once he gets bopped on the shoulder. He wobbles forward, then raises an awkward salute. "Aye, sir, never again!"

interjecting an npc tag, then the invisible peeps can go

[matchmadeinhell]

"You better not. They're cracking down on dresscode violations. Edwards got dinged for graffiti on his helmet the other day." The guard signaled for his two compatriots to get back on course for their patrol, then stopped suddenly, as if listening to some niggling instinct, turning to look back at Kon. "You know, your voice sounds an awful lot like his."

"Uh, 'his'?" Kon said, instinctually speaking in a deeper voice, like a teenager being called on a fake ID, not realizing that making his voice deeper was only going to add to the problem. "Whose?"

"The Big Guy's. The bossman's. Uncanny, really. Best impression I've ever heard and you're not even trying."

"Oh, I get that a lot," said Kon. "I'm six foot. I got them booming, manful dulcet tones you get when you're big as me." He shrugged. "Back on my high school football team my nickname was 'Man of Steel' and everything. Part of why I signed up for this gig is I always looked up to him."

Fuuuu -

It hadn't occurred to him to really change his voice like Dick had. He didn't have to worry about anyone recognizing Superboy's voice when he was younger and wasn't that big a deal in this world - or in many worlds, really. But of course they'd recognize Superman's voice when he was on the TV giving booming speeches as he ascended to world dictatorship. And if this Superman was younger and he was older...

It hadn't occurred to him that he'd gotten that old, changed so much to be like the Big Guy, and it was a very recognizable voice to most people that heard it.

So right now this guard probably didn't know what to do with the fact that a random Stormtrooper, slightly off course from his patrol, sounded like his fearless leader and the guy setting himself up as ruler of the world. It was like the setup of some kinda zany Charlie Chaplin film. Even if he couldn't figure out what it meant he was clearly registering that, bare minimum, it was weird.

"What position did you play?" the guard asked.

"Defensive tackle," Kon said, mentally thanking the students of Smallville high school for never shutting up about football so he knew enough to bluff. "Notched 62 tackles my senior year. Why?"

"Nothing, it's just -" The man suddenly had a bout of inspiration as he realized that he didn't have to figure out exactly what was going on so much as just figuring out something was wrong. And all he had to do to do it was to ask one question: "Who's your commanding officer, by the way?"

He held up a hand before Kon could answer. "And I want all three of you to answer when I count down from five. At the same time."

Busted.

"Captain Hit Him," Kon said before the guard started counting.

"Oh, I know Hitham -" one of the guards behind the Smart Guard interjected but he wasn't going to be allowed to finish.

Re: interjecting an npc tag, then the invisible peeps can go

[daddyphantom]

There was an audible "BONK!" as said guard was whacked in the back of the head by a glowing green baseball bat.

"Just our luck. We would get a stormtrooper too smart for his own good." Danny said as he reappeared.

[mark_in_the_sands]

"Take 'em out before they call out!" Cassie said, going for a second. There were other stormtroopers in shouting range, and they did not want them to bring their weapons to bear on them.

[morescaredofyou]

Peter didn't go for the nearest stormtrooper. No, he instead went for the nearest wall, darting off bursts of webs at the stormtrooper's faces and weapons as he skittered up it. Better to stay a moving target. Well, best not to be a target at all, but you couldn't have everything.

"Remember how I said that this would all go horribly wrong? Anyone? I must be developing psychic powers. Either that or an incredible grasp of the depressingly inevitable."

[goddamnwingman]

Dick threw himself straight into the fight. Thanks to Kon, they knew there were other teams very close by and he could only hope that the sounds of a scuffle wouldn't bring them.

Like their luck was that good.

"Pretty sure it's just the depressingly inevitable," Dick replied, aiming a snap kick at the head of the nearest guard, neatly avoiding Peter's webbing. "Not enough research time. Actual, intelligent stormtroopers. It was only a matter of time."

Which was why they'd split up in the first place. Because, yeah, this was likely to happen.