ya_assemble | [LN] Dangerously Genre-Savvy [closed to Nico]

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[LN] Dangerously Genre-Savvy [closed to Nico]

"Inspector!" Rafa cried out, as the Inspector's ship crash landed in the purple jungles of Khalafross. Clad in his traditional animal skins, he was an imposing figure, even despite the fact that the Inspector was taller than him. "The danger light blinks! Rafa can see with the eyes of the ship! Our most hated enemy comes for us: Blorgons!"

Native to the planet Tumantis, Rafa was one of the Tessujex, a subgroup of the people known as the Suveteem. In the Inspector's adventures, he had discovered that the Suvateem were actually descendant of a crashed space exploration survey team. (Their name, in fact, was what "survey team" had devolved into over the centuries). The Tessujex had evolved from the animals on board that had accidentally been exposed to mutagens during the crash and developed human intelligence. (Hence the name Tessujex, a twisted version of the words "test subjects.")

After the Tessujex were used as slave labor for centuries, the Inspector was responsible for making the Suveteem realize that the humanoids among them were not the superior species they'd once thought they were and that their claim that they were descended from the gods was false, the Tessujex finally had a chance of being treated equal in their society. After that, Rafa, one of the Tessujex's most noble warriors and resistance fighters had declared that he would follow the Inspector to the end of time until the debt could be repaid, especially if it meant the Inspector could teach him the ways of peace after a lifetime of battle.

"We must leave! Quickly! And fight them in the jungle. Rafa knows the way!"

They had no way of defending themselves on the ship and there was no way to repair it while the Blorgons were on board.

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They finally got it open and Raph immediately set himself to work kicking the panel in. Now that he was closer to getting to the bottom of things, his drive to finish this thing meant he made short work of the comics panel.

Beyond it was a strange and beautiful world made of green buildings and structures everywhere, with strange aliens in green uniforms milling around all over, many of them flying in the air. At the center of it all was a massive green construct that looked like a lantern, beaming out green light from its openings.

"Guess we're going sci fi again." A pause. "At least I'll fit in. Same color scheme even."

Also, in a place full of aliens, it wasn't the turtle guy that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Edited 2015-01-15 07:50 (UTC)

"Must be human-breathable alien planet, or else our buddy wouldn't have gotten very far," Nico said. She crouched down and peered through the hole into the world inside the comic. "I think if we duck through here, we can run and take cover behind that wall before anyone sees us."

She began worrying a fingernail with her teeth -- after hopping between imaginary realities from one conflict into another, she wanted to be ready to bring the Staff of One to bear as soon as she set foot in the comic.

"Any suggestions for locator spells? I want to get out of this before the inevitable conflict, if we can."

"Can you do some kind of summoning spell first?" Raph said, as he watched all the people flying around all over - and sometimes creating constructs - and noticed the one thing they all had in common. "I have an idea. One that may involve larceny."

If she could do it it'd probably make things a whole lot easier for them.

Nico followed his gaze and smirked around her fingernail.

"I'm sure I can think of something. But I want to get in there before I summon the Staff of One, just in case it resets when I cross boundaries like this. Cover me?"

Always.

...No no no no no, he had to get those stupid thoughts out of his head.

"Got you covered."

He jumped through the hole, sais drawn, movements fluid in a way that would hopefully keep him from being noticed, planning on guarding her as they made their way to that cover she'd pointed out before.

Nico took a deep breath and followed him, though she was much less graceful. The rocky ground wasn't really meant for high heels. But no one seemed to have spotted her yet -- so far, so good. She chewed her nail as they went until she finally tasted blood just as they reached cover.

"When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge."

Of course now she actually had to come up with wording for the spell. She went with the first thing that came to mind.

"With this ring."

Fortunately, the summoning spell didn't result in two of these people falling to their deaths as their magic rings whipped off their fingers. Unfortunately, they had two utterly bewildered people suddenly flying toward them.

"Oops."

Raph didn't have time to have weird feelings over Nico saying something that was said during weddings because they had two aliens rocketing towards them.

"Uh oh."

The two Green Lanterns came flying down towards them and Raph jumped up in the air as they did, landing with a foot on each of their backs, making them divebomb to the ground with loud flumps. They hit hard enough to be dazed, their green auras temporarily disappearing due to the spell.

"Grab a ring!" Raph cried, putting his sais back in their holsters and yanking one of them off the alien's finger.

For a moment, it tried to move in his hand, as if trying to zip back to its owner, but then as the spell took hold, and the fantasy of the place accepted the two of them in, the ring chirped:

[ Raphael Hamato, of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. ]

The ring expanded and flew onto his finger, and all of a sudden, his appearance was transformed. His mask turned a bright green, a few shades lighter than his skin, and the eyes of his mask turned white, as if some kind of see-through fabric was obscuring them. His belt and his elbow and knee pads all turned that same light shade of a green. Where his belt buckle was, there now appeared a symbol that looked like a lantern. Only his arm and foot wraps stayed the same dingy brown and his hand wraps stayed dingy white.

Oh, and also he floated a few feet up in the air, a green aura surrounding him.

"Heck yeah! I'm think these things can do whatever you think."

Edited 2015-01-18 00:30 (UTC)

Having someone around to take care of the punching definitely made things easier. Nico balanced the Staff awkwardly in the crook of her arm and pulled off the other alien's ring with a bit of struggle. It went on her own finger about as easily, with the bonus sensation of an oncoming headache.

[ Nico Minoru, of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. ]

She got a mask not unlike Raph's, and a unitard with leggings in place of her blouse and skirt. That would at least make flying less awkward. Most of her new outfit stayed black though, just with glowing green lines spiraling out from the odd lantern symbol on her chest and wrapping around her body. The lines wound more and more closely together as they traveled down her arms and legs until they formed gloves and boots.

Her head still ached a bit, but the glowing after-images when she moved her hands were kind of cool.

"This is really weird."

As far as Raph was concerned, Nico just really, really needed to stop being pretty sometimes soon.

"Yeah. Weird."

They had a weird tall guy to go clobber, though. That was enough of a distraction to get his brain off Nico's outfit (one in a line of several interesting outfits so far).

"But useful. Let's go find that weird tall guy and make him tell us what's going on."

The ring seemed like it could do anything so Raph decided to just ask it for help.

"Hey, we're looking for a tall guy with a big nose. Maybe middle-eastern? Has one of these rings. Can you help us find him?"

[ Searching...Search complete. ]

The ring projected an image of the man they'd seen, wearing a uniform like they were, a ring on his finger.

[ Locating Green Lantern Abed Nadir... Green Lantern Abed Nadir is currently on patrol. Initiating wormhole travel to his location. ]

A the ring projected a big green vortex in front of them.

"Let's go give this guy a piece of our mind." A pause. "And possibly a few pieces of our fists."

He reached out his hand for Nico's.

Edited 2015-01-18 01:50 (UTC)

"A worm hole? Is this thing serious?"

Nico grabbed onto Raph's hand with her free one, grimacing at the vortex in front of them.

"I really, really hate portals," she muttered, clenching her fingers around the Staff of One. It felt almost like it was vibrating in her hand, but a quick glance showed it to be still.

"Ugh. Let's go."

As they flew into it, there was the strangest feeling that they were stretching, thinning out like spaghetti, yet somehow not being torn apart. Part of them reached their new location and the rest of them quickly caught up.

They appeared not in space but on a planet, one that was breathtakingly beautiful - and extremely alien. While much of the foliage was green like Earth, flowers and vines in every color coated almost every plant and tree and the grasses were all an odd shade of blue.

A vast city sprawled out not far in the distance, layers upon layers of buildings rising up against the horizon. All of them seemed designed to be open to the air.

They didn't have to go to that city to find who they were looking for. He was right nearby, flying towards it, wearing the same unitard that many of the other Lanterns had been wearing.

His ring bleeped out an alarm and he turned to face them before they even had a chance to call out.

"You!" Raph cried out, pointing at the man. "You've got about thirty seconds to explain what you did to us before we start seeing exactly how creative we can get with these things!"

Nico Minoru set foot on an alien planet for the first time and promptly threw up all over it's beautiful alien flora.

Worm holes. She is going to punch this Abed person on general principle.

Then Raph started shouting at the guy, so she hastily wiped her mouth and hefted the Staff of One. Screw the rings, better to stick with what she knew.

Abed's blank expression was probably not what they were expecting. It didn't look evil, like he'd been doing everything maliciously. But since it was blank, it was difficult to tell whether he was surprised or scared himself.

"I saw you both before," he said slowly, as if only just coming to that realization himself, in much the same way they slowly had come back to themselves. He made a strange gesture with his finger, a flick and curl that seemed thoughtful in its nature.

"Back when I was Inspector Spacetime. And when I was Han Solo. And when I was jaeger pilot. And when I was ninja turtle. At first you looked like Blorgons, Jabba the Hutt's flunkies, the kaiju, and the Foot, but then I saw you both there for a second instead, in their place. You're both from the wrong canon - even in the Mirage comic world you were out of place." He pointed to Raph. "You're from the 2012 cartoon."

He seemed to be having trouble looking either of them in the eyes, as if it made him uncomfortable, and so his gaze was turned downward, his head cocked slightly to the side in a birdlike gesture of confusion and alarm.

"Why would this be a crossover? It's inconsistent. So far it's been genre-hopping, not a crossover. Not cool. Not cool not cool."

Raph's desire to pummel the guy was slightly less strong as he watched him...panic? Maybe? It was hard to tell when his affect was so flat. He did seem agitated.

But he wasn't reacting in a way that was...normal. At least what Raph considered normal.

Was he crazy? Or...special, like people sometimes were on TV?

"What's he talking about?" he asked Nico, hoping to take his cues from her on how he should react to this.

"I don't know what he's talking about, but he seems more confused than 'actively hostile'." Nico narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, then stepped closer to Abed with a hand out to hopefully keep him from taking off to another reality.

"Yeah, that'd be us," she agreed. "Though he's not so much from the 2012 cartoon as the 2012 cartoon is based on his life. Reality's leaky, we got pulled in because it was getting worse. I assume that's why you're here, too."

Either that or he was here to make the holes wider. But he wasn't acting particularly malicious. Or even particularly aggressive.

Abed didn't reach for her hand, although it seemed less a snub and more him ignoring - or not noticing - the social cue.

"Ah, the many-worlds theory - I've always hoped that was true." He briefly looked up at Nico, eyes wide and excited for a moment. "Although that definitely begs the question of whether or not The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis holds true and if it does, is it because all those universes were really inside his head or did he somehow act as a conductor of knowledge from other universes where they were real?"

A pause as he looked down again.

"But I'm not sure you're real. I'm not sure I'm real. Myself as Abed. What if I'm someone else who's been brainwashed to pretend I'm Abed Nadir who was brainwashed into being a Green Lantern? I didn't realize I was myself until now. What if this myself isn't my actual self? Or what if it is, but you're not real? It wouldn't be my first psychotic break, or even my first psychotic break influenced by pop culture."

Okay, he was mentioning psychotic breaks. That...wasn't good. This was looking more and more like this guy'd had his head messed with like they had. And more to the point, it seemed like he'd seen himself as the good guy and them as the villains just like they had in reverse.

"We're real," said Raph. "All of this?"

He gestured at the alien world around them.

"Not so much. I don't know if you remember it, but we don't know how we got here. All we know is we've been yanked from movie to movie or tv show to tv show and put in different roles in them. It took us a while to even remember who we were - and during all that, we saw you the same way you saw us. We were the heroes, we'd be fighting the bad guys, and all of a sudden, we saw you there for just a second in their place, sometimes dressed like us - or in a giant robot the one time we were in one."

Edited 2015-01-18 05:34 (UTC)

"...I have no idea who Tommy Westphall is, but I think it's the second one," Nico said. "That's what we were told, at least. But Raph's right -- our crossover isn't actually happening here. I mean," she pointed at the ring on her hand, "was talking about how I could 'overcome great fear' and stuff. Not really my forte. This place is messing with our heads a bit, and it's probably messing with yours, too. But we do have a safe place to hole up."

If they could get back there...

"Troy, what do you remember last?" Abed said, turning to talk to...someone that wasn't there. There was just empty air beside him.

He didn't realize that that was all there'd ever been. Because Troy had been the Constable Reggie to his Inspector, the Luke to his Han, his jaeger copilot, the Michelangelo to his Donatello...

Either he was crazy or there was someone there they couldn't see. Whatever the case, Abed clearly seemed to think that person was real.

Okay, that was creepy. Either the guy was seeing things or -

Or more likely, given all the strangeness, there was something there that he and Nico couldn't see.

"Uh, Abed, right? Abed, there's nobody there."

But Raph remembered, back when they were fighting in the jaegers, that one lone voice over the intercom.

'Troy and Abed in a jaeger.' It sounded like some silly thing two friends would say, but there'd only been the one voice.

"It's always just been you that we saw and heard. Nobody else," said Raph, looking suspiciously at the space Abed was looking at.

"I'm not seeing or hearing anyone but you and Raph either," Nico agreed. "Is that, uh, something that's happened to you before? Seeing or hearing things that other people don't?"

Well, this was going to be fun. She tentatively reached out to poke the area Abed had looked at, in case he just had an invisible-and-unhearable friend.

(She'd met vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, mutants, aliens, and a few different kinds of witches. Invisible and can't be heard wasn't too out of the realm of possibility.)

Abed squinted at the space he'd been looking at, then looked over a Nico.

"One time I thought the entire world had turned into a stop motion Christmas special. And another time I thought I'd had my body stolen by an alternate evil version of myself from the darkest timeline, which was created one time when I almost rolled a dice to see which of my friends went to the door to bring up the pizza we ordered. And another time, I blanked out and thought me and my friends were all in a sitcom. And then when Troy left, I thought the floor had turned to lava -"

He turned back to the empty space backing away slowly in the air, head tilting as he looked thoughtfully at the tree tops below.

"Troy left. To travel around the world." He looked up at the empty space. "You left."

All of a sudden, someone appeared there, a young black man about Abed's age. "And I came back. I'm right here. I've been here all along. Who are you going to believe, me or a ninja turtle?" The man paused. "To be fair, I'd believe every single thing a ninja turtle said. Like, religiously. But you should still believe me more."

"But they said they didn't see you. Why didn't they see you?" Abed asked, clearly alarmed.

"Because they're not real."

Abed turned to look at Nico and Raph, clearly trying to figure it all out.

Edited 2015-01-18 06:12 (UTC)

If Raph had a proper back to have shivers crawl up, they would have done it. As it stood, he had no back for crawling or even hair for standing up, but still, the young man that suddenly appeared made the base of his spine itch.

"He wasn't there a second ago," Raph said, pointing to the other man. "He just appeared. Right now. And he's lying. We're real. I'm kinda thinking maybe he isn't."

And was that a glint of yellow in "Troy's" eyes?

"You heard the mysteriously-appearing friend of yours," Nico said dryly, jerking a thumb over her shoulder at Raph. She didn't take her eyes off 'Troy' for a moment. "Believe the ninja turtle."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, just for a moment. "When I saw you back in the...Mirage, you called it? Mirage universe, you said something about how I was in the wrong canon. So you know who I am, right?" She hefted the Staff for a moment, before lowering it again. "You know how this works?"

Abed nodded and his eyes went somewhat wide and dramatic, as if he respected the awesome power of what they were currently talking about.

"It's the Staff of One. It's supposed to have made the dread Dormammu tremble." A pause. "When the writers remember it, anyway."

He looked back and forth between her and Troy.

"If she's not real, it shouldn't be able to do anything to either of us," he said to Troy. "But if it can, that means it is real, and it means anything it does or reveals is real."

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