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ya_assemble2015-06-14 12:32 am
big_blue_boyscout) wrote in ya_assemble2015-06-14 12:32 am
Entry tags:
A Strange New World ...
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.
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.
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It's an all too familiar scenario. A woman in business clothes and heels standing for some reason on the roof of a tall building. None of the buildings in Burgess were anywhere near as tall as Metropolis, but a five story office building was tall enough for someone to meet a messy end on the pavement below.
Teetering and flailing in an almost comical fashion the blond woman plunged off the side of the building screaming at the top of her lungs despite the fact that not a single person on the street below looked up.
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It's a familiar scenario, familiar enough that he would probably notice the little things off about it if he weren't rushing to save her life. Right now, he was just praying that he'd be just solid for her than he was for the passerby.
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It was like falling into a moving car. The sudden change of direction made her stomach flip! And yet he was somehow gentle enough to avoid giving her whiplash! She'd chalk it up to him having experience.
Her heels fell uselessly to the ground passing right through some woman taking her dog for a walk.
"My hero!" The blond cheered allowing her natural accent to come back through as she wrapped her arms around his thick neck and planted a sloppy, wet, Bugs Bunny style kiss on his cheek.
Because this victim was no ordinary victim. She's a nerd! She's Insane! It's none other then Harley Quinn!
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"It's alright, ma'am, I've got y--" And then she starts talking and he recognizes the voice in a heartbeat.
"Harley?" The number of questions just doubled. He's setting aside the fact that she clearly just threw herself off a building to get her attention for now. Clark's known her long enough to know that it's the sort of thing that just occurs to her, and she'd probably do something like that again regardless of what he says. It isn't going to stop them from having a talk about that later, but for the moment he's going to prioritize getting a handle on things.
He banks, flying towards the nearest rooftop and setting her down.
"So. Considering you can actually see me, I'm going to assume you know more about what's going on than I do. Care to explain?"
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Floating above them both in the air was a very large man who was quite obviously a superhero. There was something a bit imposing about his appearance, and it wasn't just the helmet and spiky bits. It also wasn't the missing right arm, which made it quite clear the man had definitely seen some serious action.
It was probably the way he carried himself, confident and self-possessed and well...a bit like Superman often did, like all the little picture was missing was a cape blowing in the breeze.
Despite being perhaps a bit annoyed at how Harley had gotten Superman's attention, he didn't seem that angry at her. At least she hadn't gotten herself hurt.
"Sorry about the whole Harley being Harley -" he waved vaguely at the roof and at Harley. "- thing. I'm still getting used to the fact Harley's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag." He stared at her with an expression that straddled the very thin line between exasperated and amused. "Tends to make every mission with her pretty much the equivalent of a wild spin 'round a roulette wheel."
He floated down to Superman's level and landed on the roof with them.
"I'm Nova. Harley and I are here to help explain what's happened to you and get you somewhere safe." He held out his hand for Superman to shake.
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"The last time I tangled with Big Blue I got blown up. I couldn't just flag him down in a boring way." Wiping a tear from her eye she offered a twisted grin.
"Come on handsome~ you're about to go from being a living legend to a fairytale titan!"
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Nova's a new face for Clark, but the costume and bearing do tell a story. He may not know him, but something in his gut tells him that he can trust him at least this far. It might not be especially concrete, but in and out of costume he's learned to trust those instincts.
He'll reach out and shake Nova's hand, offering a grin along with it.
"That sounds about right. Glad to meet you" He does raise an eyebrow though. "Safe? Are we expecting trouble?"
That eyebrow gets turned to Harley though as he starts to untangle himself from her. Blown up? Another thing he's going to have to ask about in that talk of hers, because that isn't jogging any memories for him.
"Fairytale titan?" So it is magic. Wonderful.
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He held two fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly.
Nova preempted, "Speaking of said ride, yes, it's exactly what it looks like, and no, the big man isn't around for you to meet him. The enemy has him."
Who said "big man" was would be very, very obvious in a moment. The far-off jingling of sleigh bells gave some slight warning as to what was approaching but it still was a strange sight to behold as it flew into view, led by eight massive reindeer.
Yes, that was Santa's sleigh. The real deal. The genuine article.
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The second thing he noticed, he's still working on believing. You're going to have to forgive him the blank stare as Santa's sleigh lands on the roof next to him. Today's a little surreal even by his standards.
"You're kidding me."
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"What's the matter? You not a believer? Don't tell me Metropolis's favorite son hasn't been in the MVP section of the nice list since he came to Earth?"
Hopping up into the sleigh she bounced eagerly in place and spread her arms out along the back so she would be sitting between Nova and Clark looking incredibly pleased with herself.
In actuality, she was just delighted to have another person from her world around. The more firepower the better!
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He flew over and took a seat himself.
"Two of our allies? Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny. Yes, this is really happening. Get used to it and fast 'cause your life's only gonna get a helluva lot weirder from here."
Wait until they got into the stuff with alternate dimensions and being fictional to the people of this world. Hoo boy.
"Just take some solace in the fact you're not the only one wrapped up in this mess that thinks the universe has taken a sharp left turn into Looneyville. I swear to God, I keep half-expecting everything to turn into stop-motion. Just watch, we'll suddenly start hearing Burl Ives narrating our lives."
He took the reigns in his hand and looked over at Superman expectantly.
Hop on in, Mr. Kent.
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Turning to Nova: "It's weird, but I can think of worse things than a Rankin/Bass special." Shocking no one, he loves the folksy charm of them.
Sorry, Nova, but he's more with Harley on this one. There's a small smile on his lips as he steps up to the sleigh, running a hand over the lacquered wood, feeling the texture and knowing that it's real. The kid in him is over the moon right now.
Superman takes his seat next to Harley and settles back for the ride. Sure, he might be able to get where they're going faster, but he's sitting in Santa's sleigh. Might as well ride it.
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"Well Captain buckethead, do you wanna give him the tutorial or should I? He's a pretty advanced player so I think we can skip the press A to jump and press start to look at your inventory stuff." She paused again and added "Actually I find it hard to imagine you playing video games Supes. What exactly do you do for fun?"
Harley Quinn, queen of focus and maintaining a single train of thought, sometimes it was best just to take the parts of her babbling that was needed.
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"Okay, Cliff's Notes version that's definitely not going to stay short no matter how hard I try to make it short: Obviously this is another dimension, one where Santa's real. And the Easter Bunny. And Jack Frost. Except they do more than the snow days and easter eggs and tooth money and all that. Basically, in this world, the belief of children gave real people - or real mythical creatures - power. Made them immortal. They call themselves the Guardians and they all have superpowers, so in between the gifts and the whimsy, they protect kids from the things that go bump in the night."
He'd get into who they were and what had happened to them once he got to the Big Bad but fiiirst he needed to explain the 'we're all fiction' thing.
"And apparently stories cross over into other dimensions real easy or writers in other dimensions just happen on stories about people who are real in other universes, so we - as in all the people who've recently been yanked here from other worlds - are fictional characters in this world's media." A pause. "And sometimes fictional in each other's worlds. Me, you, and Harley here are in comics books in this world - and you and Harl are in comics in my world, incidentally."
He smirked slightly. "Never got into yours much myself - I was more of a sci fi buff so it was the Legion of Superheroes all the way for me, but you, Superman, are basically the most recognizable superhero in the world - in this world and many others. Like mine."
He turned to look back over his shoulder, eyes twinkling slightly.
"So that whole rep you have in your world, being the Big Blue Boy Scout, the other heroes rallying behind you? That's a legacy spread across worlds. You inspire even more people than you know."
That part was important, understanding the scope of it, the power of the stories that had pulled them here. How they were just as much symbols and inspirational figures as heroes fighting against Kuk's might.
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His attention turns to Nova, and listens. It's not quite so out there. Well, it is, but not when you compare it to the laundry list of inter-dimensional situations he's dealt with in his career. Even being a fictional character isn't all that new. He does smile though, as Nova turns back.
"I can understand that. I'm a bit of Legion fan myself."
It's ... flattering, to say the absolute least. As far as he's concerned, everyone does their part. He's just doing his. He learned a long time ago that as Superman, he became a whole lot more than that. The eyes of the world were always on him, and whether he liked it or not, he was an example people would follow. The least he could do is offer a good one.
Knowing that he has, and that it's one that people everywhere see and appreciate? There isn't a word for how immensely satisfying that was. He's sure Lois would correct him on that, but he thinks it gets the point across.
"So why are we here? I take it the things that go bump in the night are getting a little noisy."
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"All around the world little boys and girls have fears, nightmares, nasty icky shadows that lurk and make them tremble under their monogrammed bedsheets. So what do they do to be brave and find the courage to face the night? They think of characters! Figures of myth they love and adore! People who make them feel safe!" Leaning closer with a crooked grin and wide eyes she added conspiratorially "And sometimes they make a terrible mistake and think of people like me instead."
Bursting out with laughter at her own joke she rummaged around int he sleigh and produced a bag full of red, white and green candies, popping a green one into her mouth and sucking on it before offering the bag to the boys.
"So because reality is all messed up and broken or whatever, when the kids want us here badly enough...POP! We appear! And now we're drafted into this war against the nightmares that have also been POPPED into reality."
And that was...as far as Harley considered it, the basics.
"And we're led by this handsome devil, as well as the Easter Bunny, and Jack Frost, and I think the Tooth Fairy but I might have imagined that. I know I saw this unicorn with a little fairy following her around...and there's these kids from Oregon, and this geeky guy who I think may have watched every TV show ever, and there's the Yeti and the elves..." And what had started off somewhat helpful was veering off into rambling territory. Time to reign her in Rich.
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He listens to her explanation in turn, though as she veers off topic, he puts a hand on her shoulder to slow her down.
"I think I get the picture." Clark stops her with an appreciative smile. "People need my help. That's enough for me."
If he's here because some child out there feels safe because of him, and needs to be protected, he can't really say 'no,' now, can he?
"But I do have one last question. What's going on at home while I'm here?" He has obligations to Metropolis, to the Justice League, and he can't be in two places at once. While he has all the faith in the world in the others, it doesn't stop him from wondering how things might turn out differently if he was there.
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Something that Rich found daunting, but hey, he'd turned into a dimensional door and faded out of existence before he'd been yanked into all this. He wasn't sure he'd get to do anything other than go back and disappear. It was something he tried not to think about - there were much more important things to focus on besides his possible death.
"Bad news is we probably won't get to leave this place until we take out the Big Bad. See, in this universe, the Guardians fight against Pitch Black, also known as the Bogeyman. He's the one that started all this; he was trying to find this ancient army of creatures called fearlings to use them to defeat the Guardians, and while looking for them, he opened this magic door that was holding something outside the universe - a being called Kuk. Pitch opened the door a crack and found out that army he wanted to steal was more of a handful than he'd thought and that it already had a master. Now that the door's open a crack, Kuk's trying to push the door all the way open and get all the way into this universe, and after It destroys this universe, It wants to use this world as a stepping to destroy all of existence."
Pretty dire stuff, but hey, this interdimensionaal adventure bisines susuallly was.
"Because Kuk is chewing at the edge of the universe, the walls between this universe and others have worn down. That's how fear has enough power to bring in the villains and monsters that Kuk usually recruits to fight for him, and how the kids' belief subconsciously brings us in from places where we're real so we defend them. Until we take Kuk out or at least manage to lock him behind the door again, we're probably not going to be able to pull free of the belief holding us here."
He shrugged.
"But hey, it's where we're needed anyway, right? At least that means there are people here that can help fight. Kuk's bad news."
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"I mean I thought we were pretty good before but I never imagined I'd be saving the world along side The Man himself. Say when we're done here you mind helping me swing back over to another universe I was in and helping me tear it apart in a totally heroic and not at all vengeful way? They're kind of evil people, Brainiac can tell you all about em...oh that's right!" She sat bolt upright with a bright eye'd grin. "We've got like...teen hero Brainiac on our side! Have you ever met him before? He's as dry as a box of saltines!"
There was something nagging at the back of Harley's mind. Something she felt like he might want to know...but what was it? As the sleigh raced through the night sky she puzzled over it some more.
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He turns back to Harley: "It's a nice change of pace, isn't it?" He does mean that. Despite her usual company, Harley's never struck him as a bad person. Just misguided. Maybe coming here's going to give he the chance she needs to make a change for the better in her life.
"Brainiac 5?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. It definitely sounds like him at least.
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He looked faux thoughtful, and added, "Oh, and I don't know if you know him, but this young guy named Superboy? Looks a lot like you. Uncanny, really."
He turned back to flash a grin at Clark, making it clear he knew full well they were related.
"He never shuts up about you, by the way. It's always 'Kal always says this' and 'One time, Superman did that.' He's gonna be thrilled to see you."
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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...
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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.
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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.
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"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?"