"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

Gotham City

[morethanmyth]

It was a good thing they had those powers. There was something very...dystopian about the place. Creepy pro-Superman and pro-stormtrooper propaganda posters were plastered all over.

Now that it was after dark the streets were empty because of the curfew, making it even creepier.

Silence was perhaps better than the usual Gotham night-sounds of gunfire and yelling but it was still just a little too quiet, devoid of the sounds of cars or night life or people commuting to their overnight shift jobs - the normal sounds of any large city at night.

Re: Gotham City

[daddyphantom]

"It always amazes me when I run into people who apparently think Emperor Palpatine had the right idea," was Danny's snide remark as he surreptitiously used a ball of ectoplasmic light to get a better look at one of the posters.

[willbeyourhope]

Haruto placed a hand over his chest - it was subtle, but he could feel a difference, almost like he had too much mana. "I feel it, too. Guess the world overall is on our side even if the inhabitants aren't."

[mark_in_the_sands]

"Put the glow away," Cassie hissed, reaching over and pushing Danny's arm down. "Bad enough we're out here after curfew, let's not let them know we're free-range metahumans too."

She'd hidden her bracers under an overlarge boyfriend sweater, her blond hair under a brunette wig, and her face behind glasses and heavy make-up. She was trying to slouch to disguise her height, but that wasn't working very well at the moment. It felt good to be back at full power, even if this definitely wasn't her Gotham.

"Most of the inhabitants are on our side," she countered. "We're trying to keep Kuk from destroying this and every other universe. I can't imagine there are that many people who want to be utterly destroyed, even here."

[morescaredofyou]

"So now I can actually stick to a wall without falling off of it again? Awesome. Good to know that I don't have to worry about experiencing that particular indignity on this mission. Although I'm sure I'll find plenty of other indignities to experience instead."

Peter didn't test out the theory to make sure. Crawling up the nearest wall wasn't exactly 'inconspicuous'.

[goddamnwingman]

"Don't get used to it. We're not going to be here long."

Just because he wasn't very recognizable as Nightwing didn't mean Dick hadn't changed his appearance as much as he could. After all, they were in Gotham and people knew Dick Grayson. A lot of them had watched him grow up from afar in the society pages and the like.

Still, disguises were one of the skills that Batman had made certain they all learned, so Dick was probably the LEAST recognizable of the three now. Those who really knew what to look for could see the resemblance, but with luck, they could avoid those. This world's Dick Grayson was dead, after all. Best to avoid having people see ghosts.

Well. Even if his counterpart apparently was one.

[morethanmyth]

This was not going to be easy. The city was swarming with Peacekeepers, mostly because it was Gotham and they were desperate to find Batman, the leader of the resistance.

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon held out his hand and called up the glowing magical brand they used to find the shards, cupping his other hand over top of it to hide the glow. Rather than pointing in the direction of the shard, it spun around in circles, utterly useless.

"Great, the brand doesn't seem to be doing squat," he said. "Mine's just spinning around in circle."

He waved it away and pulled the brim of his hat down more over his eyes to hide the blue glow as he used his X-ray vision. He peered around, through the surrounding buildings. He also listened very carefully to try to catch sounds from far away.

"And there are stormtroopers everywhere," he said. "I can see 'em with my X-ray vision and hear their voices and radio chatter. They have them on every block and even on the top of some buildings."

Their patrol patterns didn't seem to have any gaps.

[daddyphantom]

Danny rubbed his beard, looking for a way to skip past the thugs.

"Normally, I'd say check the sewer system, but my guess it's probably bugged ceiling to floor. They are looking for a guy who lives underground. I can pass on my invisibility, but I need physical contact for that, and with six people that'll be awkward at best."

[willbeyourhope]

Haruto steps forward, peering at one of the posters with stormtroopers on it for a few moments before turning his attention to Kon. "How accurate is this picture to their uniforms? If it's pretty close, then I think I can help us blend in some," he explains, reaching for a ring on the bandolier hanging off his belt.

[morescaredofyou]

"Maybe we shouldn't all go as stormtroopers? Just, you know, so we're not putting all our eggs in one basket here. So some of us do the Chameleon thing, and some of us do the Invisible Woman thing. Then at least when something goes horribly wrong, at least one group can bail the other out."

[goddamnwingman]

"Even those who are invisible won't be able to consider themselves safe. There are generally still ways to track even that, if you know what you're looking for." Still, it wasn't a bad plan. "Conner, how big are the groups that they go in?"

It would let him figure out a good way to divide their forces, at least for a little while. Long enough, hopefully, to get a better idea where the shard was.

[mark_in_the_sands]

"I'm with him," Cassie agreed, jerking her thumb at Peter without actually looking at him -- she was more concerned with keeping an eye out, even if Kon would probably see any stormtroopers long before she did. "Danny, does your invisibility go beyond the human visual spectrum? Because if I were hunting you-know-who, I wouldn't do it without night vision goggles."

consider this an npc round

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon hadn't quite been paying attention at first because he'd been busy counting and tracking all the different stormtroopers and trying to judge which streets they were on. It wasn't the easiest when he was on ground level with them and he didn't want to risk being seen by floating.

He twisted around, muttering what sounded like directions and street names under his breath, as if he was trying to figure out their patrol routes.

"Those posters do look pretty accurate," he finally said to Haruto, quinting as he looked through a building at one of the closer groups to check out their uniforms. "And they're going around mostly in groups of threes and fours? We can probably split the group in half, which shouldn't be hard for Danny to manage."

He jerked his thumb down a nearby street.

"When we start, we should move that-a-way to try to fit into their patrol patterns," he said.

Then he raised his hand and wiggled his fingers like an excitable elementary school kid.

"I call dibs on Stormtrooper." Playing dress up on adventures was fun, okay? "They have some smaller people but they also seem to have a lot of big dudes - or ladies - so it'd look good to have at least one big guy in disguise."

[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.