ya_assemble | [LN] By the Light of the Moon

The fearlings? Pretty nasty, especially for a new myth to take on by their lonesome. Fortunately, Kon and Red had gotten there not very long after the fearlings did.

New guy definitely looked like he knew his stuff.

Wait, new guy looked like older guy. Was that a second Raph? Maybe not, because he was bigger and had darker skin. But maybe yes on him being an alternate. That happened when otherdimensional shenanigans went on. Kon himself had met plenty of alternate hims while doing the superhero thang.

Whatever. They could settle it later. After helping.

They'd brought the sleigh, as the Yetis needed to replenish the stock of magic snowglobes. They could barely crank them out fast enough for them to travel all the places they needed to. As soon as they were close, Kon did a swan dive out of the sleigh and flew down to jump into the fight. That meant Raph suddenly had a rather hulking teenage boy with black hair and a black shirt and jeans fly down to join him.

"When there's trouble, you know who to caaallll - The Teen Titan!" he sang, punching a large fearling so hard that it paffed instantly. He loved the sound of fearlings paffing. "Hey, green jeans, you look like you could use a hand. We're here to help. And explain stuff. But we usually do that after the helping."

Edited 2015-02-01 06:19 (UTC)

Red rolled her eyes a little, laughing, at Kon's dramatic entrance before leaping off the sleigh herself. Her landing wasn't quite the showstopper Kon's was, with song and paffing and snappy banter, but she landed in the midst of a group of fearlings with an explosion of crackling energy, knocking them back, then swung the Transistor to impact one as it leaped towards her.

A loud guitar riff sounded from her general direction, with the distinct sense that it means "Pay attention!"

She'd let Kon deal with the introductions, considering her attempts would probably be a little baffling to a newbie...

Raph'd be happy to see some back-up except being happy requires the prerequisite knowledge of where you are, and what is happening and what's going on and how things work. And right now he only knows that fighting these things makes them go away.

"Just keep killin' em, fly boy!" He shouts, with a glance at the guitar girl to make sure she knows that includes her too.

These things are faster than he is, but as long as he keeps knocking them out before they gang up on him, he should be fine, right? But then there's that cold-blooded thing creeping up on him. His strikes are getting slower, less powerful, his movements aren't as agile...It's freaking freezing and it shows.

There was a sudden paffpaffpaffpaffpaff as Kon put on the superspeed, punching a bunch of fearlings in quick succession.

With their combined efforts, the mass of fearlings decreased slightly in size, but that was about the best they were going to get. In attacks like this on newly arrived myths, the stream tended to be never-ending, due to the enemy's attempts to make sure the new myth wasn't brought in safely.

That meant the goal was never beating them - it was extraction.

The sleigh made a sharp turn in the air, fearlings getting destroyed by the hooves of the reindeer during their descent, and then it came to a stop in the snow.

"Jump on! We need to get out of here!"

Especially since the turtle guy seemed to be slowing down. His myth healing might prevent him from dying but cold was cold. Barring the invulnerable types like him and Cass, most of them were still susceptible to slowing down in the cold, even if it didn't kill them. And this guy seemed to be slowing down even faster than most.

So that meant they really needed to make a quick escape.

...On what was very obviously Santa's sleigh.

Using the Transistor back home, Red had never had to worry about other people, or extraction - if she couldn't defeat all her enemies, there wouldn't be a way out anyway. So she had a tendency to end up more that a little too far away. She heard Kon yell, and the Sleigh make its landing, so she let off a ball of energy that ricocheted off the closest few fearlings, concentrated...

Time slowed, just for a moment. She slammed the Transistor into the ground, sending a blast of energy at a fearling trying to get the drop on Kon, then raced for Raph, reaching him just as time slid back into place and caught up with her. From an outsider's perspective, it would look like she'd just moved inhumanly fast, and maybe that was all it was.

She still didn't understand the power the Transistor gave her, entirely.

She stopped in front of Raph and grabbed his arm, tugging him towards the sleigh with a brassy run up half an octave that felt like, "Come on!" She was going to need to catch her breath soon, but they needed to get in the sleigh first.

"Is that...Santa's sleigh?"

Raph' blinks twice as he forces one foot through the snow onto a fearling as he runs, letting himself be pulled towards the sleigh. His sense of honor suggests he should stick around and fight -those things are probably dangerous to everyone- but he also blundered into this fight ass-first and unprepared, and his common sense is winning out.

But on something that might have been Santa's sleigh? He's pretty sure that even his brother Mikey doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Mikey is practically Captain Christmas.

"What, are you joking?"

"Yep!" Kon called out cheerfully as he hopped in and manned the pilot seat, buckling himself in. Yes, it was Santa's sleigh.

"And nope!" No, they weren't joking. "Buddy, trust me, your life just got a whole lot weirder. Now buckle up!"

At the insistence of just about everyone, seatbelts had been added when they weren't in North's original design. So had footholds for people to use if they wanted to stand up and fight as the thing moved without falling out. Jack pretty much never used them but Kon liked not having to use his flight to stay in the damn thing. He hadn't had his TTK since he got here so he couldn't just glue himself to the floor with it anymore.

Kon had the sleigh already moving as soon as New Guy and Red were in it, so that they started to lift away from the fearlings and started warming the turbo thrusters. As soon as they were both safely buckled in they were booking it.

Red didn't quite collapse once she got back into the sleigh, but she sat down hard, opting to loop her seatbelt around her arm rather than let go of the Transistor long enough to actually buckle it.

She really needed to practice doing that time-slow move more when they got back, try and get to a point where it wouldn't drain her so badly.

She asked Kon if they were clear in a slightly off-key flute, hoping the sound reached him, her free hand gripping the Transistor's handle tightly.

Raph felt like collapsing too, the effects of the cold compounded with the come-down from the fight. Now that there were no enemies to jab his pointy things into he was going to have to deal with the current situation on a more intellectual level. Where was he, how did he get here, what were those things and who these super-powered people are.

"Alright, you two, what the shell is going on here!?"

"You use 'shell' as a curse word, that is adorable," said Kon, as he hit the turbo boosters. The sleigh lurched forward even faster than before breaking free from the fearlings. "Just gimme a sec to get us entirely clear and I'll explain."

It really was only just a second with how fast they were going, and then Kon slammed a hand down on another button that made a shimmering stealth shield appear around the sleigh.

Okay, coast was clear.

"Cliff notes version: this is a really weird version of Earth where belief is powerful. To the point Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all that are real. Now, they all started as humans or weaker spirits, first, so it's not like they came out of nowhere, but it's not like those hokey stop-action specials. They're real people and pretty powerful and in between them giving out presents and collecting teeth they basically act like superheroes and protect kids."

He went on, glancing back over his shoulder, "Problem is, one of their enemies, the Bogeyman, accidentally let out this ancient evil named Kuk that's trying to destroy all of existence. Because of it, a bunch of them got captured and now reality's gone a little thin. Since the kids are scared, they're subconsciously reaching out for heroes and people that make them feel safe. In this world a lot of us are in their fiction, because people here just coincidentally wrote our stories thinking they were original. Reality's so thin that the kids' belief is pulling us in from the worlds where we're actually real people and turning us into myths."

Edited 2015-02-05 07:54 (UTC)

Red couldn't really contribute to the conversation, though she was listening, and took the opportunity to actually buckle herself in once they were clear and a little more steady.

Once they got back to the pole, she was getting a big mug of cocoa and not moving for at least an hour before she went down to the training room...

"Heh. 'Shell' is kind of an old family habit," he shrugs, the closest he'll ever look to sheepish to about it. It was coined during the long-ago phase where Raph had to promise not to swear in front of his "little" brothers.

"And I guess I'm gonna need it if I'm gonna be savin' kids, eh?" Raphael ain't stupid; he's had enough experience to know that he'll probably get wrapped up in this even if he grouses. That doesn't mean he has to look happy about it, of course, though at this point he's more puzzled than grouchy.

Also, he hates kids. Well, he's always said he hates kids.

"Well...perfect. Always wanted to be a legend, but this wasn't what I had in mind. Name's Raphael, by the way."

A strange little smirk stole over Kon's face when Raph mentioned his name. So he was a version of the same person. Kon himself was pretty familiar with the concept, having met roughly a kajillion alternate versions of himself when fighting Black Zero (who had also been an evil alternate version of himself).

That meant they were going to have two Raphs meeting each other. Oh boy, was that going to be interesting. Maybe he could sell tickets.

"Yep. For most of the people here, the myth powers are handy." He added, "For most of the people. I'm a superhero with a ridiculous number of powers back home, so I actually took a downgrade but for most of the others they got more than they had. Supposedly if we can get the kids to believe in us we'll become more powerful."

He went on, "Three of the Guardians are still free: The Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, and the Tooth Fairy, so they've at least been able to offer some guidance on all this, but the rest, like Santa, were captured. We've been squatting in Santa's digs in between fighting Kuk and his fearlings since it's pretty secure. The Guardians think once we stop Kuk we'll be able to go home to our own universes. Or at least be able to free some of the myths It has captured that might have the power to send us home."

Edited 2015-02-07 00:29 (UTC)

"Huh. Actually, that don't sound too bad..."

But Raphie ain't stupid.

"What's the catch? Gotta give up a sense for each power? Kuk's got a way to get rid of 'em when we're around?"

As long as it's time for questions: "And what's going on 'back home?' Are my brothers wondering where I disappeared to from the middle of the lair or is some kinda weird time thing?"

The last time that happened it didn't go so well for his brother Donnie from what he was told. If Raph thought that his family might still be home, not knowing where he is, completely unable to find him...thinking he was dead...

Well, he'd love to help but if that was the case? Then Raph was going home, and Kuk can shove his shadow monsters up his own ass.

"The catch is unless we have kids that believe in us, most normal folks won't be able to see us. Jack Frost at least has this kid named Jamie that he's friends with so we at least have one, but that's about it. Also we can't age while we're like this. Also lots of very bad people wanna capture or kill us. Belief is pulling evil people into this and making them myths, too. Kuk sometimes recruits them and some of them run amok on their own."

He went on, "That's why those fearlings were after you. And Kuk and his minions are not gonna stop until you're not a threat. There's a spell one our guys can do to make you harder to trace by them but right now you're persona non grata with a being of primordial evil."

He added brightly, "Upside is one of ours got slingshotted back home for a bit before being pulled back and she said barely any time had passed back home despite her being here for months. So, yeah, there's a weird time thing. Chances are your bros won't have a lot of time to worry."

Oh yeah, he hadn't introduced himself.

"I'm Superboy, by the way." He reached back and held out a hand to shake Raph. "My friends call me Kon. And my softspoken friend back there is Red."

Edited 2015-02-13 02:25 (UTC)

Red tossed off a jaunty little salute, along with a friendly little harp flourish. 'Softspoken' was definitely one way to put it, that was for sure.

The Transistor glowed a little brighter, and Red leaned forward to wrap her arms around it, almost like she was embracing it, still watching and listening to Raph and Kon's conversation.

Just because she couldn't really contribute at the moment didn't mean she couldn't follow closely.

"Superboy, eh? You know the Justice Force by any chance?"

He gives a courteous and approving nod to Red -anyone that quiet can't be all bad, though the harp thing was weird- but the frustration hasn't exactly been extinguished by knowing his family would be OK. He's still being yanked away from them without his permission and forced to take yet another fight as his own.

He wouldn't be as cross as he's building up to be if his brothers were here, he knew that.

"If I had a nickle for every time I made an enemy of a 'being of primordial evil' I could buy Bolivia..." he muttered, "So how many strong is this little army we got going?"

Kon smirked.

"Never heard of the Justice Force but in my world we have the Justice League," he said, "so our worlds might be close parallels. Wouldn't surprise me - one time I met like fifty alternate versions of myself at once because we were fighting one version that went evil."

He added, "Speaking of the League, I really wish they were here right now because this little army of ours is all of about twenty people, give or take. People sometimes zap back home and then get pulled back so it's not always consistent."

"Alternates. Yeah, I could sing a few bars. Nothing quite that crazy though. Just fighting a guy trying to wipe us out by killing the original universe alternates or somethin'?" He shrugs, as he really doesn't understand it himself. "I dunno, this is my brother's bag, not mine."

Raph lets out a huff. "Eh, not so bad. My brothers and I have done more with less."

Mostly because they had to, and Raph isn't sure about a team where people are coming and going at all hours, always having to adjust dynamics and relationships but the first rule of being a badass is that you never, ever, admit when you aren't sure about your victory.

The air was getting colder, though the sleigh seemed to have some kind of invisible bubble around it keeping the heat in.

They weren't far from the Pole now.

Kon launched into a smarmy airplane captain voice.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land at Kris Kringle airport. For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the sleigh has come to a complete stop. Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you."

He went on, "If you require deplaning assistance when we land, one of our crew members will be pleased to assist you by pretty much just shoving you over the side."

The Pole appeared below, countless tiny lights illuminating a huge and complex set of buildings that seemed set into a huge icy mountain. Above the complex the northern lights added further illumination, filling the night scene with even more warmth and splendor.

Kon glanced back with a little smirk. He loved seeing people react to the Pole the first time.

"Haha, wiseass. Why don't you-"

Wow.

Seemed like the North Pole was a bit more than the little workshop Raph always envisioned as a turtle tot.

Not that Raph would ever mean to look dazzled in front of non-family members he's going to be kicking butt with, but his heart has always been firmly on his sleeve. He kind of wishes Don was here. He'd get a kick out of whatever magic-tech was in there. Mikey too...

Except there's this nagging feeling that Mikey has seen this...He remembers it, except the memory doesn't make any sense, because the Mikey he's remembering isn't his brother. Except it is. And there are a thousand more nonsense memories lurking right at the edge of his head.

His brows furrow. Dealing with it right now is not an option, not if he wants to keep his head around his new buddies, so he goes back to what he's been doing: staying in the moment and ignoring everything else.

"Not bad. It'll do for now, at least until you get me a mansion to crash in."

Red couldn't help but grin at Raph's reaction to the Pole - it was pretty impressive, after all.

She chuckled, silently - well, silently but for the slight chiming - and patted Raph's arm. He could play it cool all he wanted, but she'd seen his initial reaction. She knew.

Kon flew the sleigh in through the ice tunnels that went to the garage and brought it in for a landing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Kris Kringle Airport. Local time is 9:45 pm and the temperature is probably about negative one billion degrees. On behalf of Tinsel and Holly Airlines and the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip. We are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future.”

Kon hoped out of the sleigh as yetis moved in to take care of the reindeer.

"Time for the tour and to introduce you to our ragtag gang of lovable misfits. And the yetis - they're good people. Then we'll brief you on the bad guys, what stuff we're using to fight them, what you can do to keep yourself safe, all that fun stuff."

He motioned for Raph to follow, although now he had a funny little smirk, as if he was sitting on some kind of hilarious secret that was about to be revealed.

Raph, in that grand tradition of people who aren't good with words but kind of touchy-feely anyway, smiles a bit at Red. She's almost cancelling out the chatter-box sitting next to her.

The chatter-box who had the exact same smirk as his brother Mikey when he was about to play a stupid prank on him. So Raph gives him the pinched, suspicious expression he saves for this kind of situation as he himself climbs out, nodding at the yetis in a noncommittal acknowledgement. They didn't seem bad, exactly, but Raph is still wary.

Not as wary as he is of Kon though.

"...What're you up to?"

"Just some light mischief," Kon reassured him. "Nothing to worry about."

Kon flew a few feet in the air, looking over a railing to another level of the workshop. One of the places that'd been set up for everyone hanging out was down below and he saw a flash of green and red.

"Hey, green jeans, get up here!" Kon called down. "I wanna show you something."

"Which green jeans? You call us both that," called up a very disgruntled sounding teenage boy. "And nothing I do seems to get you to stop."

"It's easy: you're green jeans, your little brother is green bean. Now get up here, I have a surprise. A very fun surprise!"

Red doesn't even need her little musical helpers to get across her reaction to this, facepalming and shaking her head at Kon. Well, at least it was a mostly harmless prank, as long as it didn't traumatize either of them.

Still, Kon, let it be known (accompanied by an untranslatable little sigh of clarinet) that Red thinks you're being a little ridiculous.

The person Kon was talking to didn't bother with the stairs, instead jumping on the railings of the stairs and flipping off the railing to land next to him. The reason he was able to do the flippy thing so effortlessly was because he was a ninja, just like Raph. And he was a turtle, just like Raph (albeit a much tinier one).

And that was because, like Raph, he was also Raph.

"What?" he asked, voice irritable. He'd been playing a video game.

Kon was an okay guy but man, he was annoying sometimes - and hello, what.

What.

At the sight of the other Raph, Raph's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

"Raph, this is Raph," Kon said to big Raph, with a big, goofy grin on his face. (Dimensional alternates were hilarious!) Then he turned to little Raph. "Raph, this is also Raph."

Then Kon stuck his pinky up to his mouth, Dr. Evil-style, and said with his best Dr. Evil impression, "And you shall call him...mini-me!"

Raph stared at Raph for a few moments and then shot Kon the dirtiest look in the world. He used up the entire world's supply of dirty looks in that one glance.

"You could've told me," he mutters under his breath.

Duplicates are, in Raph's experience, trouble. Nothing but. Generally good guys, because they're still him and his brothers, but gigantic pains in the shell. And you'd think the experience he's already had would make it easier but the Raphs he met before were oblivious or psychotic.

He could promise this little Raph he wouldn't call him Mini-Me, except he couldn't do that and still be honest. He again thought back to when he met his loony-bird duplicates and crossed his arms.

"Alright. Get it out of your system," he said to his counterpart.

Oh, fantastic. That was just -

What was he even supposed to -

How? How was he so much bigger? Was he ever going to get that big?

Was it steroids? It had to be steroids.

Raph crossed his arms.

"I'm calling it right now: I'm Raph One and you're Raph Two. I was here first. Or if we're not going with numbers, I get to be Raph and you have to pick a nickname or something."

Dibs! Diiiibs! He is the alpha Raph!

Edited 2015-02-25 02:47 (UTC)

"Hate to break it to you, kid, but you're gonna be 'Little Raph' within the week."

Well, Raph guesses he's not out of the woods as far as as far as shell cracks are concerned.

Raph narrowed his eyes.

"Not if I belt you one every time you say it."

He wasn't that big!

~~Yes, he was.~~

"I'm not playing second fiddle to some roid-riddled cheap knockoff that thinks he can barge in and act like I'm some bitty sidekick or something. Either I'm Raph One and you're Raph Two, or we can do something like one of us is Raph and the other goes by Raphael."

Tetchy, titchy little thing, isn't he.

Kon laughed at him. Because. He was a tiny little teenager and he remembered being a tiny little teenager and his hyper-defensiveness was hilarious.

Oh, those were the days. Drama every five seconds. Flirting with every girl he came across every two seconds.

"'Bitty's' one way of putting it but I kinda think you're more 'fun-sized.'"

Oh, OK, now would be a good time to explain to this Raph that all alternate Hamato clans stemmed from one original, albeit insane, source, and that while there were basic similarities between universes, it doesn't really make sense to call any of them knock offs.

"Knock-off?! Who're you calling a knock-off, shorty?"

Or they could do this. This is fine.

"You can go by whatever you want! Call yourself Napoleon after your complex, I don't care. Yeesh, I shoulda known something like this would happen. I can't go five minutes anymore without tripping over another annoying alternate me!"

"Napoleon complex?!" Here comes the rage train, choo choo.

Who's really surprised that this is the result of sticking the two of them in the same room together?

Part of it was Raph liking how much respect he got in this place. For someone that was used to most people running and screaming when they saw him, to go from that to being treated like a normal person and a respected member of a team was the difference between night and day. It felt like such a tenuous thing, like something that could slip through his fingers so easily. He didn't want to lose it because some big dumb alternate him wanted to treat him like a kid.

And part of it was Raph just plain had a temper.

He balled his hands into fists.

"You're the annoying one! You don't get to waltz in here and saddle me with some stupid nickname just because you're older and more of a meathead."

"Oh, you think I just woke up today and walked into this world on a whim? And I wasn't the one who got all steamed about the name thing!"

Geeze, Raph, you can't take a joke? Probably not, because Raph can't either, actually. But Raph is not about to be pushed around by some punk who thinks he's a big man. He'd never let anyone else do that to him, nevermind his kid self.

"You think you got something to prove. I get it. I've been there, alright?" he says. It seems like a safe bet, knowing him, "But whatever you think I'm trying to do to you, believe me, I'm not. I've had enough of this alternate universe crap for one lifetime."

To the left there was suddenly a loud crunching sound.

That was because Kon had, in the space of a minute or two, flown off at superspeed and come back with popcorn. He was floating in the air in a seated position eating it. Worldlessly, he held the bowl out to Red, watching the two of them avidly.

When Little Raph turned to glare at him, he made a little 'don't mind me' gesture.

"Carry on."

As much as Red was mildly exasperated with Kon's flair for trolling, she had to admit... this was a pretty amusing display of testosterone.

She swung the transistor around to balance it on its tip, letting it land with a loud thunk, and took a handful of popcorn before leaning on it and watching the two turtles expectantly.

~~Hers is bigger than yours, boys.~~

At Kon's popcorning, Raph let out an actual growl, then slapped the bowl up in Kon's face so that the popcorn was thrown all over him.

Then he turned and stomped off, grumbling to himself, kicking at anything that was in his way, like a little mini Christmas tree near the railing.

Maybe later he'd be able to talk to the older Raph in a calmer and more mature fashion. Right now, he felt like his place was threatened and he was in a snitty mood over it.

Raph watched him go and shook his head. He couldn't even bring himself to laugh at Kon's popcorn mess.

"Big, big help! Thanks!" he said to Kon, bitterly sarcastic. He was going to be sharing a space with a him even more volatile than him and Kon had clearly known it and he clearly thought this was hilarious. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't smack you right now."

There was going to have to be SOME peace between them if they were every going to fight effectively, but Raph has never exactly been the peace-maker of his family.

"Well, for one, I'm invulnerable so you'd probably break your hand," said Kon, who started to pick the popcorn off the floor and dust it off his clothes. "Two, he was going to throw a tantrum anyway and one thing I've learned is the more you treat it like an immature teenager thing, the more he gets embarrassed because he realizes he's overreacting, and then he eventually stops."

He went on, "Indulging in his drama bombing just makes him take it even more seriously."

Red sighed silently and resisted the urge to facepalm at Kon. No, Kon, don't eat food off the floor.

Still, she agreed with what he was saying about Raph and nodded, a high clear set of chimes professing the thought, it's true. It was followed up with a much more difficult to make out cello melody with bass counterpoint not quite on beat with the cello that mostly expressed fondness but slight exasperation, but also had an undertone of familiarity with the situation.

It was all kind of muddled, though. This was what happened if Red didn't keep her thoughts clear and distinct while trying to communicate more complicated stuff...

Raph is silent, half because he thinks Kon might be right and half because he's pretty sure Kon is wrong. He knows the kind of rage Little Raph is feeling and that it takes a while to dissipate, but he's also pretty sure that having his rage dismissed will just make him feel like something's wrong with him. It worked for Big Raph, sure, but will it work for his counterpart?

"...Let him know that if he calms down enough to talk, I'll talk."

He might as well address the problem the same way he does: letting him sulk. He listens to Red's...music? hoping it'll calm him. He'll have to ask about that later, but after he's settled.

"So, what now?"

"I will. He'll want to. He'll be kicking himself for losing his temper."

Kon handed off the bowl to one of the elves, which started to eat the popcorn even though it'd been on the floor. (They weren't very bright.)

"For now, why don't you look around? Stake out a room. Say hi to everybody. We'll give you the more formal briefing and tour when you're settled in."

Edited 2015-03-04 08:27 (UTC)

[LN] By the Light of the Moon

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