It'll Only Get Better From Here

[isahellofadrug]

"Uhhhnnnnnnnnooooooowhyyyyy."

That quiet whine was brought to you by Robbie Baldwin. Whining was a perfectly natural reaction to what he'd just been through and he'd have argued the point if there was anyone there to argue with him.

Not that he could see if there was anyone else there, because his vision was blacked out and he was only just starting to get it back. It felt like his nose was bleeding, too.

Whatever had happened, it had been bad. One second Robbie had been bouncing through the hall in Mt. Wundagore, heading to the kitchen to have dinner with the other New Warriors and Jake Waffles -- the next, he'd felt like he'd slammed into a wall at 500 miles per hour. Then he'd felt squeeeezed like something had tried to cram him into a two-dimensional space even though he had three dimensions. His kinetic field was still crackling with pent up energy from...whatever had happened.

The last time he'd felt like this, like he'd been slammed into something and had his kinetic field fried had been --

"AAAUGH!" Robbie shot upright, screaming.

It had been when he woke up after Stamford. For a moment, he had a mini heart attack, until he realized that he wasn't sitting in the twisted, exploded remains of Mt. Wundagore. As far as he could tell, with his dim vision, it was some kind of bleak landscape that looked like an alien planet.

Comments

[headinjuries]

"Stealth. Got it. So glowing blue is heavily discouraged, then."

He'd have to keep the Nova Force toned way down, to move around without being obvious. There might be a worse duo for a stealth mission somewhere out there, but Sam couldn't name it.

He reached to scratch the back of his neck. "So...do we just find someone and watch to see if they do any weird bad guy stuff before we make contact?"

[isahellofadrug]

"Glowing blue and traveling around with a stream of gold bubbles trailing behind you like you're a walking fireworks show. Heavily against all superhero stealth recommendations."

Robbie's powers weren't much more conducive to stealth than Sam's, although he could name a worse duo.

"The only pair that'd be worse at stealth than us are Dazzler and that X-chick whose power is shooting fireworks. Do you think you can carry me around without glowing blue? I can't bounce without the bubbles."

This was always the kind of thing Night Thrasher had handled back in the day, but well...

Robbie tried not to hold onto that thought.

"And yeah, that's the plan: find, observe, possibly befriend, work together, escape. Something tells me that if that thing is messing with people, it's going to be pretty obvious if anyone's gone 'round the bend and started indulging in some good ol-fashioned ultraviolence."

[headinjuries]

Sam bit his lip. "I...can try?"

He'd never tried to tone it down all that much; it had never been a priority before now. Usually it was already obvious that he was there, and he had more to gain from speed and brute force than from trying to be sneaky. There was a reason Kamala had called him a flying jackhammer.

"I think I might be able to get it down lower if I keep my speed down. If we have to make a fast getaway, then I'll probably be back into blindingly obvious mode, though."

[isahellofadrug]

"If we need to make a fast getaway, that means stealth doesn't matter anymore. Let's just move slowly and quietly through the streets. Up high, so it's harder to get pinned down. We can try to spot anyone hiding out, and if we see someone, we can hide and scope them out, see if they're acting bananers. If someone attacks us, we make a break for it."

Robbie stood up and held out his arms.

"Armpit me." A pause. "And be super grateful you're a flier. Getting armpitted is the worst."

[headinjuries]

"I think armpit is the worst sounding verb I've ever heard."

Since that was what he'd decided to pick on, though, presumably Sam had no complaints about the actual plan. He took off just enough to hover a couple of yards above the rooftop, and reached down to grab Robbie. "Try not to like...squirm around, though? It messes with my balance."

[isahellofadrug]

"Tch. And here I was planning on doing the wiggle, the twist, and the electric slide. Mid-air, over an alien wasteland."

He tried his best to keep still though. Successful armpitting depended just as much on the person being carried as it did on the flier.

"That's always been my dream, to perform the great dances of Earth history for the masses of probably-cannibalistic wasteland wanderers. I was always destined for greatness."

[sir_vancelot]

"Might be easier not to need to be armpitted?"

The voice would be familiar to them both and looking up they would see Vance floating above them with a concerned look on his face.

He'd been in Mt. Wundagore as well, since that was where the New Warriors were operating out of these days. He hadn't been in uniform, though, so when he'd woken up after feeling like he'd had the entire mountain dropped on him? It was just in jeans and a t-shirt.

He dropped down, setting down on the roof next to them. "Let me guess. You guys got the welcome speech from the weird guy with no face?"

[headinjuries]

Sam looked up.

And made a little erk noise.

"Uh, not that I'm not glad to see you or anything, except the more people are here, that's kind of bad even while it's good." Backup was good, safety in numbers was good.

But nobody wished being stuck in a weird alternate dimension with creepy soul-sucking monsters on somebody they liked, even if it was kind of lonely otherwise.

I know this is ancient but I'd love to continue it if you guys are

[isahellofadrug]

"Oh thank God, I don't have be the grown up leader-type now."

Whoops. Sorry if that blew up any illusion of competence there, Sam.

Not that his plan had been a bad one necessarily but Robbie inherently knew, deep down in his bones, that no matter how logical his plans were, no matter how much experience he had, that if he was the only one in charge of getting his younger teammate safely home, he'd mess it up.

Look at how the the whole thing had gone down with The High Evolutionary. If it hadn't been for Vance coming back with the ol' one-two teke punch, the world would've been doomed.

"Useless failure" was practically written into Robbie's DNA.

With Vance around, now they at least had a chance.

"Give me a lift with the teke already, will ya? Getting armpitted is the absolute worst."

Vance's glowing teke wasn't all that stealthy either but he could at least dim it pretty well if he needed to.

[sir_vancelot]

Vance would object strenuously to the idea that "useless failure" was anywhere in Robbie's DNA, but that was an argument for another time. Assuming Robbie ever actually said it out loud.

The team had stayed alive long enough for Vance to be able to do that one-two punch. That was a win, no matter how you cut it.

"I know, I know. More people, bad idea because it's more danger. On the other hand, it's not like you guys wished for me to be here, so let's just make the best of a bad situation." Which this most definitely was.

He wrapped his teke field around himself and Robbie, raising an eyebrow at Sam. "You want a lift or you want to go under your own power?"

[headinjuries]

"I can handle myself."

Which was more practical, anyway. The more Vance had to handle at once, the worse off he'd be if something jumped them.