Witchcraft!
Ami's stance didn't quite relax. On the one hand, at least she knew what was going on. On the other, the information really didn't help with deciding if she can trust him. She wasn't even sure if she could believe what he said - he looked pretty young to have been a Master back in 2004. On the other hand, it's not exactly information he's likely to come across any other way. And it's not as if having been a Master sixteen years ago meant altogether that much at this point.
Eventually, she came to a decision. She was going to give him a little bit of trust - but still watch her back.
And then it became a moot point, as her attention became distracted again by their captors.
"... Fine," she grumbled, looking surprisingly dispirited, and turned away from Shirou. The wind died down again (not that it mattered so much with that... ninja... interfering), "I just wanted to know how he knew so much about my mama. Anyone who knows my mama is a Servant could be a threat."
The rest of what the so-called Center for Universal Survival said only served to reignite the fire. How dare they?
"Hey, here's an idea! Solve your own problems. 'Cause kidnapping me ain't making me too inclined to solve 'em for ya. Shades has the right idea," She added, jabbing a thumb towards Shizuka. Then she punctuated her statement with a middle finger towards the intercom. Despite her words, though, the idea did pull at her just a little. It sounded like fun, even if it meant being away from her parents even longer. And, no matter how much of a show she made of being a hooligan and a wicked witch, she was never good at ignoring people in danger.
And then there was a kunai flying at her. "Gyah!" It missed, fortunately, because she hadn't noticed it in time to try and stop it with Atlas, but the fact remained that someone had just thrown a knife at her.
"You wanna start a fight?" She motioned aggressively to the girl in orange, "'cause I'm happy to give it to ya."
edited 4th Jul '16 2:35:01 PM by RhymeAndTreason
Another figure had been sitting unnoticed against the wall of the parking garage, his garb so dark and filthy he might have been mistaken for a shadow on the wall. A pair of glowing yellow eyes stared out from beneath a black hood, illuminating a gaunt, withered face. Layers of robes, cloaks, furs and rags wrapped around his shrivelled, wiry frame, the ruined shell of a man who had once been Obi-Wan Kenobi basked in the fear, confusion and anger radiating from all around him. A smile tugged the corner of his mouth when it escalated to violence, and he chuckled softly to himself, barely listening to the voice explaining their plight.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
"Scott, if this was a big crossover fight, why would I ask you to stop fighting? Lady, meet Spawn. He's a demon from hell who uses his powers to fight crime and other demons. That might sound familiar to you. Marco, I can't get your psychic signals, I'm sitting in totally different universe."
"Look, I know this seems suspicious. The reason why we got you guys together for this instead of sending an SAS team or a Delta detachment is because we can't. We would be sending them on a suicide mission. We can't just send a team into the multiverse and drag them back when they're done. It's beyond our means."
"We've sent you because when you've found the solution to our problem, you'll be able to go home. We can't bring anyone from our own universe home."
"Let me explain. There's this woman, her name is Rook. We have confirmed that she has access to cache of technology created by a race known as the Nomads. They are or were a race that ascended to godhood, and their technology is on the level of miracles. They developed multiversal travel on such a scale that there's no way they never built something that could permanently stabilize a universe. They'll have encountered our problem a hundred times over."
"According to our best multiversal theorists, the only way to permanently secure our universe's survival, and not just create a temporary patch, is to instantly cut it off from the rest of the multiverse. No snapback, no excretion. This device would save us, but it would strand anyone from our universe outside of it, and anything inside our universe in it. Trust me, I'd be right there with you if it didn't mean I couldn't go home."
"That's where you come in. We've known about the multiverse for millennia, and multiversal travelers have been visiting this universe for billions of years. But up until four months ago, we never developed a multiversal travel device of our own. What we have been able to develop is the multiversal equivalent of a radar, a listening post. Odin's Eye, we call it. We can seen anything inside a universe with an hole connecting it to our universe. Which, at this stage, is every damn universe out there."
"Four months ago, the people at the CUS developed the Bifrost system. It's an incredibly basic multiversal travel system. It can't open its own holes in the universe, but it can temporarily reopen closed ones. The only problem with it is that it only open the hole once. After that, it's sealed for good."
"So there's the first problem. We can't send you home. But Rook can."
"The second problem is that half of you shouldn't be here."
"What?"
"Project Rook, that's what we're calling ourselves, is only one of hundreds of projects at the CUS. It's the best shot, so it gets the lion's share of the funding. So you can imagine how it makes all those other project leaders feel."
"...those cockbites sabotaged you, didn't they?"
"We did our best to prevent it. We developed Heimdall, a remote monitoring and activation system for the Bifrost. We equipped it with the best firewalls, the best security. We finalized the list for our team and checked it fifteen times, each step of the way verified and authenticated. The bastards still got in."
"They subtly sabotaged the list. They replaced half the names, so the other half would look okay at a glance. They even changed some of the other half, keeping the same names but changing the version. By the time we found out, it was too late. As part of the anti-sabotage measures, once Heimdall was activated he couldn't be turned off or have the names altered. Trust me, the minute we find the person who put a crippled kids, he's dead. I know how to make it as painful as possible while making it look like an accident."
"Anyway, we gathered you here because this was Rook's base of operations in this universe. It has a high concentration of multiversal rifts to open. From here I would introduce you to your mobile base of operations, give you the earpieces, tell you about the healing nanite injector, introduce you to the sleeping quarters for lack of a better word, and send you on Rook's trail, but..."
"Well, that was kinda sabotaged too."
The Mighty Pen
Tali opened her mouth to answer the human who had walked up. Then another human unlimbered what looked dangerously like a missile launcher.
"Get down!" she shouted at her questioner, and promptly threw herself flat on the ground just as the rocket detonated. No damage to her barriers, but that could change any minute. She tapped the control to amplify her helmet vox, to make sure she could be heard.
"Cease fire! Cease fire! Are you crazy? You'll bring this whole place down on top of us!" She did not want to trust that the bulding was structrually sound, especially after the other stranger broke right through a support column. Fortunately, someone else had a barrier and a good one, too, it looked like. As the weapon fire ceased, she heard that voice over her comm again, and from all around them, too. Slowly rising to a crouch and taking aim at the trigger-happy idiot, she listened. What they had to say was...insane. She had answers, at least. But as usual, they didn't bring any peace. Different universes? Universal collapse? And they wanted her help. They could be lying, but that seemed just as absurd as what they were saying. Why not make up a more believable story if that were the case? So, these people were on the verge of destroying not just their own universe, but hers, too, and they needed help cleaning up their mess. A surge of frustration welled up and she wanted to shout No, send me back! Hadn't she earned a little peace after everything? There was always another fight, did they really need her for this one? Then she sighed, and turned down her vox to a normal volume again.
"All right," she said quietly, "I'll help. I can't speak for anyone else, but we just saved my galaxy and I won't let it be destroyed again. First, what do you need us to do? I don't know anything about how to close dimensional rifts. And second, some of the people here aren't suited for this." She glanced over at the too-young humans and the one missing an arm. "You have to send them back. You can't force them into this, it isn't right. And will the rest of you just stop it!" She jabbed a finger at Shizuka. "You think they're lying? Do you have a better explanation for how or why we're all here?" Then she pointed at Mitsuhide. "And you, I'm sure your lord, whoever he is, wouldn't appreciate his universe being destroyed because you did nothing to help! I don't like this any more than you do, but no matter what you think, we can get much more done if we work together!"
And still there was more. She lowered her weapon once again, now that no one seemed to be shooting, and listened. This sounded strangely familiar. A hyper-advanced race with technological miracles that went around wrecking things? I wonder...could that be where the Reapers came from? Some other universe? Some project of these Nomads gone wrong? Or maybe they just felt like playing gods. Then their hosts said none of them could go home, not unless they found this person, this Rook. And sabotage, yes, that would make sense. This place didn't seem much like a base, or if it had been, it certainly wasn't now.
"How could they sabotage a project trying to save their own universe?" she asked, "Even if they felt their own projects would succeed, why not have as many chances to save this place as possible?" A horrible thought occurred to her. "Do you think they were indoctrinated, brainwashed somehow? And all right, we don't have what you thought we would. So what do we have here? Are we stuck with this as our base anyway?"
edited 4th Jul '16 2:52:02 PM by RedCedar
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu
Emissary of the Void
Xigbar was startled at the mention of the godlike beings that caused much grief to his existence and those before him. His hands shook a little as he shouted," The Nomads!? Are you serious!? C'mon dude. I thought that stuff was done and over with. You can't serious expect this lady to give this stuff to you! Or any of us for that matter." He paused as he calmed himself down before continuing, "I'd have half a mind to say no if it wasn't for the fact that I can't leave here (relatively speaking of course)! I've had enough problems with them before, so for your sake, you'd better make this ordeal worth it!"
edited 4th Jul '16 2:55:39 PM by VoidsEmpathy
[DATA LOST]
(Avatar by Coffee)
Yet no attack came. Disappointed, Mitsuhide straightened up, though his hand hovered still near the handle of his sword. The mages' explanation only made him fume even more. Ignoring the chaos around him, he addressed his captors once more. "You refuse to risk your own servants, so you went ahead and kidnapped others..." he said, "that is despicable." He paused. "This group" — he indicated his fellow Alternates with a sweep of his hand — "would not be able to fight a contingent of peasants, let alone find this 'Rook', and even if we somehow miraculously found her and took her technology from her, why should we give it to you?"
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Lady wanted to yell and scream in disbelief that a demon could ever be anything more then a monster, but it was about this time she had noticed it had yet to try to murder the man in the shield. She kept the weapons pointed a second longer, then shook her head and lowered them. "Did he have to dress so stereotypical then?" She muttered to herself. Then, she glanced at Tali quickly.
"Calm down, bubblehead, I know what I'm doing, I'm not about to bring the place down."
Then she looked to the intercom.
"Before I go on, one thing. I am nothing like him, and you'll do well to never make that comparison again. Now, I have to say, not impressed guys. You're not filling me with a lot of confidence that you know what the hell you're doing at all. So, couple of questions. Firstly, what exactly do you mean by "The wrong version"? I assume you're talking about more then the kids and that one armed guy over there?" She said as she jerked a thumb behind her at them. Second, what exactly makes you think this "Rook" wants anything to do with you people? I know I don't right now. If you're about to ask us to rob her or kill her, or both, you can count me out, I have standards, damn it. Third, is there anything you can do correctly? Because right now all I've heard is about how you're fucked up in various ways."
Lastly, she glanced at the samurai who snarked about peasants. "Ok, jackass pretty boy over there, You have nothing but a katana and a smart mouth, you do not get to make condescending comments about me, or anyone else for that matter."
huzzaaaaaaaah
The sudden appearance of a giant monkey also sent Korra stumbling back, not out of surprise but out of shock. She had never seen a creature like this (her knowledge of the fauna of her world was limited to whatever was the compound's library and the occasional bird). "What... what's going on?" She asked, widened eyes and mouth agape.
Will's explanation didn't do much in the matter of subsiding her shock, but it did replace it with something else: outrage. "From my perspective, I don't think you're qualified to be telling us what to do!" She yelled at the ceiling (trying to tell herself it wasn't as stupid as it looked). "Your own people sabotaged your plans. You just told us that we already have a problem before this quest has even started. The fate of the... the mul... the multiverse is on the hands of a bunch of idiots!"
Groaning out loud, Korra kicked aside a loose can, gritting her teeth. "And even if somehow all of this is true, although it only sounds more stupid the more I keep saying it, our universes aren't under threat- yours is! So we're being led by an idiot, and we can't possibly get to this Rook, and it seems like everyone here is incapable of not killing each other!" She made sure to direct that last statement at Lady, before waving in the direction of her weapon. "What is that thing even supposed to be, anyway?"
If I could've, I would have rolled my eyes conspicuously as the in-fighting intensified. We could barely work together as a team! Let alone try to save an entire universe - or multiverse, whatever. A long-haired guy off in the corner started going on about how none of us could do anything right except himself. He was going to be fun to work with. <Look,> I snapped, unconsciously letting myself fall back into my usual "resistance general" persona. <Where I come from, we work with what I have.> That was true. (have you ever tried to coordinate the dietary needs of six different species aboard one hijacked ship? Try plugging in an Orff toilet sometime and then tell me about "difficult"). At any rate, Loudspeaker Guy probably had a point. Thought-speak was probably getting weird for people, and demorphing might help take things off edge.
I pictured my usual 30-something- year old self in my mind and felt the changes begin. My thick pelt of fur dwindled to nothing. By the time my opposable toes had melted back into their good old homo sapiens feet, my shoulders had shrivelled enough for me to pick myself up off the ground and back up onto two feet. <If some of us aren't supposed to be here, then-> My thought-speech abruptly cut out as my rubbery gorilla head melted back into my normal dark-haired human face. I was barefoot - we still had never found a way to morph shoes - but my usual attire of patched-together combat gear, scavenged from Controller factories and old prewar ruins, seemed to have survived the trip across the dimensions intact.
"- we're still stuck with one another, so we're going to have to suck it up." I continued. "And from what Loudspeaker Guy is telling us, if we rush into this situation like idiots and wind up tripping on each other's feet, then we die. Game over. No multiverse for anyone." I rolled my shoulders and flexed my head, adjusting to my normal body, then looked at my new compatriots. "Think - how do we find someone that doesn't want to be found?"
edited 4th Jul '16 3:59:42 PM by Locoman
Annoyed Mode: ON
Elesis had failed to make any comments in the beginning. The situation she suddenly found herself in was way too bizarre for her to make anything out of it. Bizarre architecture, a woman firing projectiles at... something, what seemed to be a nasod trying to protect a wooden puppet, and a lot of other bizarre people she had absolutely no time to waste on. Or any desire to actually spending any sensible amount of time with some of them, for that matter.
"So let me get this straight," the red-haired woman began, pulling out the claymore she had accidentally lodged on the ground upon arriving. "You brought us here against our wills after spying on us, and left us without a way to return us to our homes unless we do what you want and track down this Rook woman so that she can either fix or give us what you need to fix your problem. And you expect us all to work together with people we never met so that we can go back home. Did I get all that right?"
(Avatar by Coffee)
Mitsuhide leered at Lady. "I am Akechi Mitsuhide, Daimyo of Tanba and general of Oda Nobunaga. You are naught but a careless nobody. Know your place."
He then turned his back at her, crossing his arms and looking at Marco instead. "If you do not know that person, and know not the lay of the land, then you must seek for clues," he said. "If possible, you find that which they hold dear and hold it hostage." With a frown, the Samurai looked around. "However, it seems we are in dearth of all three."
So, the pieces were finally starting to come together. Outside help necessary, convenient sabotages, and multiverse-wide manhunt to save a universe. This would be one hell of a story for the guys back home. 'course, maybe the guys back home, specifically Justice Leaguers, would've had a better time with this. After all, what was some street-level hero with a bunch of fancy doodads supposed to help with something on a cosmic scale like this.
And there it was. "Quite the puzzle!" He said loudly, strolling over to the gorilla-turned-man. "If only we had someone, a private investigator maybe, that one time tracked down a guy with no record, just a picture and a name, in the space of a seven days. Hey. Dick Grayson, Enigma Private Consultants, call me Riddler. I might have an idea or two to catch this lady."
Benevolent Devilish Angel
Conan watched the events unfold with watchful blue eyes as Naruko attempted to aid Shirou. He had to admit, he knew how the red haired boy felt. He himself didn't feel very useful...and now with the explanation of why so many kids had gotten kidnapped, he understood.
So they had been sabotaged. He understood that.
Knitting his brows, Conan put a hand on his chin and tried to think now. As he did, he used his other hand to write on his notepad that lie in his lap. He was still, after all, keeping notes on everyone. But now he also wanted to agree to help. So on another page, he wrote a notice. He assumed they were using cameras or something to watch them.
Friend on the shoulder of whom I am sitting, can you try to help me show this to a camera? Or at least, whatever they're using to watch us. Also what name should I know you as? Sir, Will Aryl you said it was...? Look, I'm not much and I don't even know much about myself right now but I'll try to help. My name is Conan Edogawa and I am a detective that is already in a strange situation, and now all of this. But I'll do my best. I can't talk, so I'm having to write and I will keep having to do so in order to respond to you or answer anything.
He then carefully tried to hand the notice to Delta, trying to request her help in getting it known. Still, he couldn't fully process all of this. Universes in danger, a woman named Rook, Godlike technology, and this was their only way out? There was no other way, he had to help them. Somehow. All of the angry bickering though and even Elesis' confusion sunk through his consciousness. He was also still worried about Shirou and Naruko. Plus Lady, that demon, and everything else...
His only hope was to start communicating with these people and start trying to find this woman.
edited 4th Jul '16 5:15:05 PM by angeloffluffiness
And in this heart, our bond cannot break. From here to the end and back again I will stand sharp. The light in me will guide you home...
Icarax
Suddenly, a voice- metallic and gruttal- spoke out from the darkness of the room's left corner. It reverberated around the room leaving behind it a stain of contempt with a slight aftertaste of weariness.
"Your worlds sit on the brink of oblivion and yet you still find time to bicker."
With a jumbled crash of metal and broken furniture, something big stood up in the darkness and began to walk towards the group. The waning artificial light soon revealed the speaker: Makuta Icarax stood towering over the assembled group, red and black armor gleaming coldly in the dim lighting. Upon his face was a great black mask; from it's great dark sockets stared out two sapphire suns.
The Makuta sized up the group and crossed his arms over his chest, concealing for the moment the faded lightning emblem. After a moment of silence, there entered his eyes the slightest glint of amusement.
"Surely there is nothing new under the sun."
Reimu took a long drag of her cigarette, thought about it, then exhaled. So, unknown beat, potentially crazy partners, and a job way out of her league. This was almost like home. Though, she wasn't gonna start bitching about it. Not yet. This whole room was getting close to breaking into a gunfight, and Reimu wasn't entirely sure if she'd be able to incapacitate most of the people present with the calibers she was packing. Time to play it cool, work together, try to find common ground.
Thankfully, the latter proved easy to find. Reimu walked over to gorilla man Marco (trying very hard not to look at him as he transformed) and what seemed to be a colleague.
"That's a good story, Riddler," Reimu said cheerfully. "I once found a woman in half that time, under the same conditions, but with only a basic description. Granted, she had a flamethrower and Dragon's Breath, so it turned out to be easier than I'd thought."
She tipped her hat to the two gentlemen.
"Reimu Hakurei, Incident Resolver. I do a lot of looking for people who don't want to be found."
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
huzzaaaaaaaah
Marco may not have noticed it, but his transformation had left Korra in a profound state of awe.
"I can't believe it." She muttered, hands hanging loosely by her side. "That kind... that kind of ability- I've only seen it once before, in my father's library, and it's... are you a spirit?" She asked, approaching Marco and instinctively trying to touch his face with one hand, whilst the other kept a firm grip on the beads. "Or a man who's been touched by a spirit— that's the only way you could... do that..."
They were real. They were real. They weren't just objectives Korra could never reach, they were real, they were here, and there was nothing else that mattered. Suddenly everything around her began making sense: was this concrete prison the result of her meditation? Had she finally passed the never-ending barrier?
Lady turned to face Korra as she asked about her rocket launcher. "Never seen one before?" She took a glance at her clothing, quickly guessing she came from the dark ages of before the invention of guns. "It's a rocket launcher. Fires big metal cylinders that explode into giant balls of fire. Great for blowing up demons."
As she spoke, she glanced around and started to take in some of the....weirder stuff. She counted at least two robots, some giant in a scuba suit that had a giant drill arm and a wooden puppet (That appeared to be moving, Lady had to hold back her instant of shooting at it when she noticed that), an alien, a gorilla that somehow transformed into a human and caused Lady to look away as her skin started squirming at the.....explosive nature of the transformation, and to cap off the weirdness, some weirdos in spandex.
Lady could feel the headache coming on as she started to understand these were the people she was now stuck with. Ignoring the mouthy samurai, Lady figured she may as well get introductions out of the way.
"Well, looks like I'm stuck here. The name's Lady, Devil Hunter. I'm not going to pretend I'm very good at tracking, that's not my skillset, but if we run into any demons or the like, you can count on my firepower to take them out."
Situation status: defused! Not because of her own little half-baked intervention, most likely, but Susan could feel like she did something.
Not like she would be doing much more, of course. Susan, in pondering the provided statements, spent a lot of time dwelling on the phrase "wrong version". She didn't think of herself as incorrect, of course, and she didn't see how there could be a more correct version of her...but along the same lines, she could indeed be the wrong one. She was a corporate executive, first and foremost, and the extent of any real skills she had was her collected years of business acumen, along with encyclopedic knowledge of human anatomy. This Mitsuhide fellow was quite right in his estimation. Not even counting those other things she could do, wouldn't there be a version of her out there that was some kind of Navy Seal hero alongside all of that? Someone competent?
These were heavy thoughts, but with everyone around her arguing or barking questions to their unseen kidnapper, she didn't have the opportunity to ask if she was incorrect. She didn't want to find out that much, either.
There was another thing that was a more pertinent issue in front of her. As a giant insectoid man of metal made his entrance from some forgotten corner of the room, he said something quite helpful. He could've made it more obvious, or otherwise be not so threatening, but it stood to be repeated. "Whoever he is, he's right," she said out loud to the group as she pointed at Icarax. "Even if there wasn't some kind of ridiculous stakes at hand that i still dont understand, shouting over each other isn't going to get us any further out of this mess." She quickly shot a glance at Lady as she said, "We've got no reason to shoot or otherwise kill each other just yet, right?"
After a moment...and some ensuing chaos, their kidnappers have finally appeared, it seems they needed them to save the multiverse from collapsing...and to save their own universe too from being destroyed.
Some members of the group started introducing themselves to each other, Yi certainly obliged...but..
"My...my name..." Yi clutched his head in pain for a moment, as he looked at the ground for a moment in self-doubt. "It's...Yi, I think..I think it's Yi. I used to be a master swordsman of Wuju Style before...before...the...surgery."
I CAN'T FEEL MY BODY
edited 4th Jul '16 4:47:29 PM by Darkomega245
Calamity is a housewife
Jack-O' sighed. Heated emotions were emerging all around her, and she couldn't blame anyone. Had the Prototype Gear lacked the temperament she had developed for so many years, she'd be demanding answers too.
Will's answers didn't seem to be pleasing anybody. No surprises there. And Will's little project wouldn't have summoned these children and that cripple if some jealous, money-grubbing fools hadn't let their emotions get the better of them. No surprises there either.
"I could use some retribution myself. But for now, we have only one way to move; forwards."
That part about the 'different versions of the same name' intrigued her further, however. She'd made a mental note to bring it up again later.
She looked upon Shizuka, a motherly smile crept on her face without her knowing. She was thinking about what she could do to calm this child's nerves (and also about whether she usually wore sunglasses indoors).
"I'm upset too, but there might not be another way out of this. Just stick close to me, okay? I'll keep you safe."
As she turned back to wherever Will's voice was coming from, she made sure her smirk was visible, though her tone seemed to lack any obvious sarcasm.
"Your project is off to a great start, Will. So if we can't receive a proper mission briefing, what would you have us do now?"
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
Yeeeeah! Uh-huh! Wiz Khalifa Knows What It Is!
Damian's eyes went wide when the Riddler removed his mask. How could Dick be alive all this time? Everything, the painful memories, the anguish, the guilt, came back, and for a moment, Damian had to bow his head and put a hand to his mask to try and block out the outside world.
He kept it there as he listened to the intercoms, realizing that what he'd just said through his power ring probably sounded like a bunch of gibberish. If nothing else, it made more sense how Dick was standing in front of him and using what Damian knew as a villain's identity. He waited through all the announcements, all the questions and responses, but right when Damian's composure came back, Dick walked away.
Just then, though, Damian spotted what appeared to be another Lantern—only this one was wearing an unfamiliar color. Damian was a Yellow Lantern—though as of approximately five minutes ago, not affiliated with the Sinestro Corps—and he knew of the Green Lantern Corps already. But he'd never heard of a Blue Lantern. Figuring he might as well try and start a conversation, he walked over.
"So," said Nightwing, "if yellow rings harness fear, and green ones use willpower, then what does blue draw on? Confidence? Serenity?"
edited 4th Jul '16 11:14:51 PM by NitrousThunder
Just pretend I wrote something witty here, okay?
Okay, we had detectives. Detectives were good. I could work with detectives. Even if they were... well... not wearing the most confidence-inspiring outfits, but hey- you work with what you've got. Even Long-Haired Guy seemed to be warming up a little bit.
"Right." I pointed at him as he mentioned taking someone hostage. "You find out what they care about and set a trap. Set the trap, choose the bait, reel 'em in..." I snapped my fingers. "...instant Filet-O-Fish."
People always think of me as ruthless. Personally? I think of myself as efficient. I see what I want and find the shortest route to get it. Twenty-five years of guerilla warfare (and occasionally, gorilla warfare) get to you. In my war- a war where the enemy controls the air, the sea, the land... well, you quickly realize that you don't have a lot of room for sentimental detours.
"Name's Marco, by the way," I quickly explained. "If we're going to be saving reality as we know it together... y'know... might be helpful to get some-" I was quickly cut off when a nearby girl - a dark haired kid that reminded me of one of our recent recruits note started grabbing my face, demanding to know if I was a spirit.
Oh.
Should have seen this coming - who said that universes were on the same time-frame? Heck, where I came from, no two planets had the same rate of technological development. Probably she was from some primitive version of Earth. "Er... no," I explained, as gently as I could. "It's... biotechnology. Like..." I fumbled for a metaphor. "Like a tiny machine in my body." Some Andalite could probably explain it better than I ever could.
huzzaaaaaaaah
"A machine." The explanation didn't do much to quell Korra's doubts... about herself. She knew what a machine was and she understood that explanation, even though it seemed impossible by her own standards- though she had quickly realized from the odd composition of this team that if she were to stand by and freak out at anything even seemingly impossible, she would waste her entire life on this concrete place.
Even so, the explanation did make her feel shame at having shown her true colors at such an early stage. Now they all knew what she looked like at one of her most fragile moments (at least the ones that were paying attention) and it was all because she let herself get carried away by a wisp of hope, a wisp that turned out to be a false alarm.
"I understand." Korra whispered, mostly to herself, letting go of Marco's face and recomposing herself. "I understand." She repeated, and it was as if her very soul had died on those few seconds in between sentences, replaced almost instantly by a colder, stone-like copy of it. Crossing her arms, Korra left Marco aside and went back to staring at the others, waiting for the next instruction.
Scott frowned and smacked his fist into his palm. Damn, so no fighting tournament. He supposed saving the universe was an ok plot as things went. There was one very important question, though. "So, are we getting paid for this?"
Scott's ear caught wind of another swordsman, and Scott made his way over; throwing his arm over the cyborg-looking man's shoulder. "Another swordsman? Sweet! No clue what Wuju is, but I'm a pretty great swordsman myself. If you ever want any tips, don't be afraid to ask." Then his expression suddenly changed to a scowl. "Unless you're a robot. You're not a robot, are you?"
Resisting a growl at how bratty Ami was being, the kunoichi nevertheless expected her to fling wind at the handicapped man like she did. "Oh you little..." Her eyes narrowing at the hand-sign-less casting of elemental release, the ninja crossed her fingers together to perform her trademark jutsu. With an audible pop and a puff of smoke that briefly distorted her from view before it got blown away, where once was one teen in orange were now two. One of them flashed towards the incapacitated redhead to physically free him, supplying chakra to the soles of her feet so the wind could push but not fling her. The other one grunted and got ready to shoot the kunai she held at the girl so as to interrupt her casting to protect herself.
That was when the announcement came on, a man that was all but spouting out heartfelt pleas and apologies to the group. One part of her mind told her to reject those words and snap back, but the greater part of her held back such a response by being a sucker for sob stories. Her ears didn't pick up much bullshit too so that was another reason she refrained from adding fuel to the fire like the others were doing. "...I'll help out for now I guess. If I found out that you're lying though... I'll be disappointed." Her shoulders drooping as she let out a small sigh, the ninja's hand still moved as she shot her sharp weapon in the general direction of Ami. Not to hit her, but to make it flash just close enough to scare her.
And then to add to more of her headache regarding the situation, a crazy woman was shooting out great explosions out of her large and sold rod at the man in black. Thankfully there was what looked like a barrier jutsu being cast that blocked the damage, as well as several people reprimanding the demon-hater. This of course caused a huge frown to grace her youthful face as she thought about Kurama and the circle of hatred. No doubt she would be attacked without warning if she showed such signs, even though the Nine-Tails was not that bad a guy. Someone to look out for on this trip it seems."