A Strange New World ...

[big_blue_boyscout]

A moment ago, Clark had been flying over Hob's Bay, surrounded by the familiar sights and sounds of Metropolis. Now, not so much.

Instead the Metropolis skyline was gone, and in it's place was a town full of people going about their lives. It was familiar in the way that most small towns were for someone who grew up in Smallville, but he didn't recognize it, and while it was helpful the 'Welcome To Burgess' sign didn't ring any bells either.

It probably says a lot about him and his life that he isn't too disoriented by all this. After all it wouldn't be his first teleport, sudden or otherwise. Not that it necessarily made the situation any better. Knowing what happened doesn't mean that he knows how or why, and given past experiences it could be anything from a teleporter malfunction to the Crime Syndicate.

A quick scan of the electromagnetic spectrum rules that one out, though. There's nothing but the usual low-level background noise, none of the telltale spikes that come with all the teleport technology he's encountered. That left him with magic, which began to make a little more sense when he took another look around him.

Everywhere he goes, people look up at the sky to see him fly by or call out to him. It's just a fact of life with the costume. So how come nobody here was even looking at him. That creeping feeling that it was going to be those days gets justified pretty darn quick when someone actually walks through him like he wasn't even there. Doubly so when he tries to call the Watchtower and all he gets is static.

Comments

[revvinguptheharley]

There was that feeling again. It was really starting to spoil the buzz Harley had from a successful mission. What was it her brain was trying to tell her? She considered tapping into the Harleen side of her mind to see if the logic and reason she left shoved in a box might be able to piece together the puzzle for her. Then she burst out into laughter and grinned cheekily at Superman in agreement. It really was a nice change of pace wasn't it?

And just like that her train of thought was derailed.

"Oh yeah! Superboy is by far my new favorite teen superhero. He's kinda appointed himself my parole officer and wants to keep me on the slightly crooked and narrow." She grinned opting not to tell Supes that Supes Jr. had gone so far as to threaten her...in a light hearted and indirect way of course.

"Couple weeks ago he even cooked us all a down home cooking style meal. Fried Chicken, biscuits, grits. A full spread of greasy dishes from America's heartland. It was great!"

The sleigh raced through the night sky making the wind whip up Harley's hair. Surely Superboy must be the big secret nagging at her that she was supposed to share...

[big_blue_boyscout]

"Superboy?" Clark repeated, smiling slightly wider. The surprise wears off quickly, though. After all, Kon was a hero in his own right, it isn't a surprise that he'd be here. It is nice to know that he's doing well for himself.

He laughs at Harley's piece. "I didn't know he cooked."

"I guess I won't have to look all that hard for familiar faces." He leaned back in his seat, looking out past the side of the sled as the world flew past below them.

[iamresponding]

"They should be back by now. Hopefully."

He really, really hoped they were back by now.

"Ah, one thing we have to worry about on top of everything else is that fact that Kuk chewing on the edges of this world's reality means sometimes shards of it fall off into other dimensions. They usually look like random objects. Luckily, we had some big collective of cosmic beings from multiple universes that were a little worried about that tearing apart existence and they gave us a way to travel into those other worlds to get them back."

He briefly put the reins of the sleigh in his lap to call up the brand, shimmering like a hologram above his hand. They could be personalized by thought so his was in the shape of the standard Nova starburst. After showing it off, he went back to holding the reins.

"If you think about it a little bit, you can call up yours, too. Happens automatic when anyone shows up. Anyway, when a shard does that, the brands flare up and we can open a door to the other world. Sometimes the brands let us track the shard easily like a compass and even give us a time limit on how long we have before reality fragments, sometimes they don't. Sometimes the door back can be summoned back anywhere in the other world, sometimes it stays in one place we have to go back to with a bunch of enemies trailing on our asses. Sometimes the Man in the Moon can tell us a bit about the other world - which can be handy since those worlds are sometimes written about in this world's media so we can gather some intel ahead of time - sometimes he can't and we have to go in blind."

A pause.

"For a system created by a bunch of cosmic beings with ultimate power, it's pretty goddamn unreliable. And naturally they said they can't fight Kuk himself, somehow their presence would enhance his ability to break up reality or somethin'. Anyway, it's all we got and if the shards aren't brought back to rejoin this reality, there's risk of Kuk breaking in through the cracks. So alongside the missions we have to fight in this universe world, we've got that to juggle, too."

As for why he was telling Superman all this, he had more of a reason than just the standard infodump.

"Kon, Cassie, Nightwing, and three of our other people - Spider-Man, Danny Phantom, and Haruto - are on one of those missions right now to a version of your world. They're all superheroes and there are superheroes there to work with so I'm not too worried but if we get back to the Pole and they're not back yet, it might mean they need some backup. I know you're brand new but if they're not back I want to send you in. We're shorthanded right now and we've got fearling attacks all over today. We don't have many people to spare and you're a pretty much the superhero version of a tank and a Swiss Army Knife in one."

Rich looked back at him so Clark saw the concern on his face - so he understood that Rich was taking the threat very seriously.

"We did some research and in that world, that version of Superman went bad and some of the other heroes went bad with him. You know, the standard totalitarian dictatorship to try to make the planet perfect, that nonsense. And they're not above killing even other heroes in their way. A lot of our people are too green for something like that or not powerful enough so if they do need help, you're the best person I can think of for the job."

Other than himself anyway, but Rich had way too many fires to fight. As soon as he got back, he was probably going to need to zip off to give someone else some heavy-hitting backup. And there was also the whole dealing with the logistics of it. Someone needed to give out the orders.

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley shrieked as Nova finally triggered her memories.

"OHMIGOSH! Yes! That! Why couldn't I tell you sooner?! You should go! You need to go I mean...they wouldn't let me go because I guess I'm a "Liability" She pouted at that. "But from what we read? It's bad over there big blue! Real bad. That place needs a hot injection of heroic justice! Hope! Love and peace! I know you just got here but...well could we really stop you if we tried knowing all this?"