Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[ChasNicollette]

Attack Force Z.

Connor nodded to her and smiled. "Hey no hard feelings, especially on my part. You guys were mind controlled by a being that was literally on a Global threat scale. Nothing you could have done."

"I appreciate the hand-wave," Zatanna chuckled exhaustedly. "But global-scale mind-controlling celestial entities are exactly the sort of threats my dad trained me to defend the world against. Not exactly my fine and shiningest hour."

He then looked at her with a look of intensity. "Aztek say's you know a guy called Constantine. It is really important that I get in contact with him. Our companion Ghost rider is having some problems with the demon trapped inside her Xarathos and before it disappeared it said one word, His name."

Zatanna stared at Arrow hard for a long, long moment. "Constantine. ...of course."

"I can tell you right up front that John avoids The Ghost Rider like the plague. On top of that, I haven't seen him for weeks, he's been preoccupied with this group called... The Outsiders, of all things."

She took her top hat off, reached into it, and took out a cellphone, scrolling through the contacts.

"You're really going to have to make it worth his while." She paused. "Which probably means I'm going to regret this. Group therapy is going to be fun next week."

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Batshit." I see what you did there.

Ignoring how wobbly she felt in heels, Billie took a deep breath, reminded herself to keep her back straight and balance on the balls of her feet, and left the relative safety of the hotel room she had rented for that night for the trek to Wayne Enterprises. Granted, she could be completely wrong and the only other company she could think of that would remotely be able to compete with Lex Corp's technology would find absolutely nothing. Or, despite her attempts at looking like a productive member of society that deserves to meet with the type of person with enough power to validate her paranoia, they would just throw her out on her ear for sounding completely batshit.

“Well, let the Fantastic Voyage begin.”

Immediately after hanging up with Damian, Bruce Wayne had made another phone call.

Red Arrow had lit a fire under his ass almost like he hadn't known since before... Bane.

The very fact he was on the phone now with this particular woman was a testament to that.

"...I appreciate your taking my call. I know it's been... difficult."

"You would know, better than most," she drawled in reply, heartache in every syllable.

Bruce closed his eyes.

This was true.

She'd lost her husband. He'd lost an adoptive son.

"You know that I am not given to sentiment. And I don't want to give you... false hope. But there's been a development in the investigation. It's not a cold case anymore, but it's... lukewarm at best."

"Oh, Bruce. No hope where he's concerned is ever false."

He laughed quietly at that, a graveyard chuckle. "Yes. That's very him."

"He'll tell you so himself when he gets back," she grinned, the exhaustion falling away a little.

But then the desktop monitor to the right of Bruce's desk began bleating insistently, and he turned to glance at it--

The text scrawled: [Facial recognition positive. Priority Alpha.]

And the lobby CCTV flickered up onto the screen.

And the woman who had just stepped in through the revolving doors and into the palatial art deco lobby actually made Bruce Anthony Thomas Wayne's heart skip a beat.

"Lois. I have to go."

"Of course. Take care of yourself out there."

"You, too," he managed to remind himself to be human with her, to sign off properly before hanging up-- but then he was dialing again, the direct line to the ground floor reception desk.

"Mister Wayne?" the honey-voiced Chicagoan black lady at reception hesitated. It wasn't often reception got calls from the penthouse office directly-- more normally he would reach out through one of his PAs.

"The woman who's just arrived. Blue hair, black dress. When she checks in, please send her up."

"Of course, sir," she replied-- managing to not sound completely bemused by the idea, to her credit.

"Thank you," he intoned, and then put the receiver down.

Strange days indeed...

 

[Zet_Cross]

The teleport signature of that transmatter symphonic array was like nothing I have ever encountered, Milton. Like nothing in The Genitor's arsenal. It is unlikely that he would associate such discharges with us.

Lysl paused.

Agreed, however. Caution, as ever, should be our watchword. Mothership passive sensorium to maximum.

"Less him coming for us, more him investigating an unknown tech."

 

[Lunaramblings]

The part of Rose that was M'gann had gone quiet for the moment, probably helping Rose's exhausted psionic energies collect themselves and recuperate.

"For lack of a better plan," Ruby considered, "let's do that for now. Anchor it?"

"The DEO can do what it needs to do, clear it and scrub it or whatever. And figure out what to do with that axe. And then if we need to dispose of the moon-chunk later we can cross that bridge when we come to it?"

Then she held out her hand for a shake. "I'm Hotline, by the way. Mostly people just call me Ruby. Well, when I'm me, and not someone else."

She glanced between Sandman and Braggock. "On behalf of The New Justice League, I'd like to thank you and your big craggy friend for helping us out, here. I dunno if we could have done this without you."

The Sandman reached out and took the offered handshake.
"I go by The Sandman. And I am glad to be of service."

As he breaks away The Sandman kneels. Digging his hands deeply into the earth of the extradimensional Moonbase. Again he is overwhelmed by a strange dissonance as he merges into the consciousness of the earth.

It takes a second for him to fully find his connection to the base, and once that is found, he reaches further. Down to the Earth beneath the waters. Slowly the two start to move. To shift and grow Slowly the Earth rises as the base sinks long tendrils of earth down to meet the bottom. Crafting support and hardening it, The Sandman combines the Moonbase to the bottom of the ocean. Careful not to displace too much water with the newly created mass of the land.


"Hrrrrrrrnnn...." The Sandman growls with effort as he finishes creating the supports. He slowly stands up and dusts his hands off. That should work. I crafted a support network beneath the base, given time it should make a decent habitat. Left lots of caves and the like."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Best Brains, Inc.

"Less him coming for us, more him investigating an unknown tech."

"The Genitor's obsession is primarily with Kryptonian technology and its derivations. But you are right to be wary."

"We will need to deal with The Genitor and free The Genetrix soon enough. But we cannot face him before we are ready."

 

[ChasNicollette]

So why'd you come home to this angel town?

The Sandman reached out and took the offered handshake.
"I go by The Sandman. And I am glad to be of service."

"'The Sandman,'" Ruby nodded, shaking the masked man's hand firmly before withdrawing. "Not a bad name. All right, mate."

"Hrrrrrrrnnn...." The Sandman growls with effort as he finishes creating the supports. He slowly stands up and dusts his hands off. That should work. I crafted a support network beneath the base, given time it should make a decent habitat. Left lots of caves and the like."

Aquagirl closed her eyes for a moment, head tilted, listening.

"The local sea life is scared, still, very scared. But they are also... intrigued. I'm... encouraging them to give it a chance."

She paused again, and smiled faintly. "Yeah. No, it's no Gran Barrera de Coral, but it'll do. Nice work, 'Sandman.'"

 

[TertiusHuman]

Freed from Thea's grasp, Garfield shook himself like a well-petted dog and mussed his hair "into place". He rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles.

"Alright Operation Cleansweep to commence. Help SnR teams, help the Police and Municipal teams and once the feds show up, fade away like a good boot shine. Oh and if you guys see any of the Titans, remind them of the food and drink offer and get me some autographs. Come to think about it..."

He patted his suit and sighed dramatically, "I still don't have yours. Oh well. Cest la vie and all that."

With a laugh ending in a screech, a green hued falcon took off and headed back towards the city.

 

[kizkiz]

Quite Contrary 01 - Marx and Boyajian in Central Park

Boyajian gave one extra dollar for the pair of bagels and coffee. He wasn't a careless tipper. He gave enough so that the merchant would notice but not make a big deal about it either way. Central Park had its fair share of business men bustling on their way to work, so he wasn't out of place in his government tailored black suit. He kept the bagels in their bag, even though he was hungry. He had Marx's coffee in his left hand, which was where he was holding the bag. This both kept his dominant hand free, if it needed to go for his gun or his phone, but in the meantime it had cover bringing blistering hot coffee to his mouth every five steps.

Boyajian didn't look identical to the face he'd worn the previous day. He'd been diligent in changing his face just enough so that the people in the park wouldn't think he was the same person each day. Marx was reading the New York Times for cover not for pleasure. Marx was dressed in an identical black suit. Boyajian took a seat in the bench behind Marx and reclined like he didn't know the identically dressed man behind him. Boyajian pretended to play on his phone.

It took Marx a few flips of his newspaper until he retrieved the bagel and coffee. They shared their breakfast in silence, surveying the people present walking to and fro. A few hundred feet away across a break in the tree line and across a small meadow was a random group of people in yoga clothes. The group started their sun salutation.

Marx watched while pretending to read his paper with vision as keen as an eagles. It was a useful meta power as far as powers went for what he did. The pair continued to eat their bagels in silence. They finished well before the yoga crowd split up, so they passed the time sipping coffee.

The yoga crowd lingered for over two hours, undulating their bodies around the base of a cherry tree. The only two novel things about the cherry tree was that it was in bloom, despite the fact that it wasn't in season. The other novel thing was that the cherry tree hadn't been there two weeks ago. Marx's face wasn't visible to Boyajian, but he knew his partner well enough to know their expressions were identical. Boyajian had kept a scowl on his face since the invasion. The Seattle business was a sideshow act to what had happened two weeks earlier.

Boyajian swiped through the background checks on all the yogi's in attendance today. Facial recognition hadn't yielded anything interesting. Only one suspected Kobra sympathizer, but even that was stretching it. The lady was the mom of a schoolmate of someone who was found to have donated to a Hindu temple that advocated for non-traditional deities. Boyajian's expression soured.

The wind shifted, and they were no longer upwind of the yogi's. Boyajian held his breath, which he could do for ten minutes. Marx wasn't so lucky. His partner cursed, got up, and walked away. The wind shifted and then died down again seven minutes later. Boyajian held is breath the extra three minutes until his lungs burned and his reptilian brain demanded air. Boyajian took the precaution of increasing his nostril hairs and cilia along his lungs. He primed his immune system, even though it would give him a hey fever. Boyajian started sneezing and coughing, but he was reasonably sure he wasn't infected.

Labtech was being dominated by the bitches right now, so they'd been forced to go off book. Not so far off book that if this didn't pay off they wouldn't be back on top, but far enough off that the bitches could leverage it against them. And with the fucking Sherlock tricks that Helligan liked to pull it was a real possibility.

"In position," Marx whispered in his ear.

Boyajian sneezed into his wrist mic, which served its purpose. Boyajian got up, grabbed the stack of papers Marx had been reading, and sat down where Marx was. Boyajian couldn't see in microscopic detail, but his vision was 20/10. He observed the impact of the armor piercing round. It hit dead center twelve feet up. This was the latest in a escalating series of tests on their subject.

The bullet punctured the tree but not in the same way it would a normal tree. The bullet didn't exit out the back side. Pinkish sap trickled from the wound, congealing, and within a minute the hole was bark again. It was twisted with a hard, ruffled texture like a scar, but if you didn't know what you were looking for it'd be hard to tell the difference between any of the other striated ruffles along the tree's bark.

After watching for another five minutes, Boyajian raised his wrist to his mouth. "Negative."

He got up and disappeared into the crowd. He waited on the edge of the park, leaning against the edge of a street lamp like he was half-waiting for a cab and half loitering while reading a newspaper. He made sure the yogis dispersed how they usually did and watched the only suspect they had, other than the tree, as she went on her way to the small store front, tutoring business she ran. Betsy Ross was not going to win the case for them.

Marx showed up three minutes later as scheduled. This street corner was not a horrible place to perform a mission debriefing. The usual places were too likely to sympathize with the bitches, so they'd had to be more creative.

"We have time before the next event," Marx said at last.

"We should lean on Chicago."

Marx nodded. Boyajian entered a cab that had just pulled up like that was the cab that'd been waiting for, and the five other cabs he'd dismissed while waiting for Marx hadn't been. They had their own otaku hacker, but still it was best to be old school about the use of electronic communication. Boyajian handed his phone of the gunshot to Marx, who could run it over for their labtech could review it.

"Where are you liking to go?" The cabbie asked with a bright smile and crinkled, brown eyes.

"The Library."

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Velocity had done all she could before calling it a day. She had always been one to help out but had always been cautioned not to do too much. She had never really understood that until an ex team member had pointed out a few home truths. Yes they did have extraordinary powers that allowed them to perform feats that no normal human could perform. The problem with doing so called regular rescues was that, the regular emergency workers started to rely on your help. Pretty soon they slacked off thinking you would be there and then suddenly you weren't.

So after she had done her bit she ran out of town, thinking she needed some time off. The fight had taught her something. Although she had learned a lot she still had a lot more to learn and she still needed real world experience. Her only problem was where to get it. If she tried around campus she might blow her cover, and anywhere near headquarters and the others might join in.

As she was running she had an idea. Changing direction she started heading towards the one place she thought she might be able to be of some use and just maybe there might be a few villains for her to fight.

Soon she stopped in front of the Flash museum and smiled. This place was starting to feel like a second home to her. Still most speedsters seemed to be drawn here. It was like their church. Looking around she noticed that some repairs had been done but more needed to be done. Well this was something she definitely could do. With a grin on her face she started.

 

[Varshanka]

Knocking on the door to Rose and Alix’s apartment Karan fidgeted. Dressed in faded blue jeans that hugged her hips and hinted at her legs, and a red t-shirt that had a Captain America motif blazoned across it – she was Karan right mow. Wondergirl wouldn’t fidget, she’d bash the door in and own the room.

But Karan fidgeted.

Brushing blonde hair from her face for the billionth time she considered cutting it. But what if Rose didn’t like it short? Yeah it would grow back, but until then Rose wouldn’t look at her the same. Reaching up she tapped the door harder, and heard a microscopic cracking. To hard. Softer.

Themyscira was easy, everything was rock, steel or silk. Here everything broke.

 

[Wyldfire]

Jo's head dropped down between her shoulder blades letting her hair cover her burning cheeks. Damnitall. Everything. "I thought you were a goner. Din't realize my whole hatin you was a copin mechanism." She shook her hair out and gave it a toss to put it back in place.

She looked around to make sure they had some imitation of privacy. "Now ya c'n go ahead an tease me 'bout it. Cause I ain't no tease, and I meant most a what I said. An I know I ain't yer cuppa coffee. So go on ahead an let me have it."

She didn't give him time to reply. She brought up her watch. "Rebel here. Site ta site Transmat ta my apartment. An fer the love a God please tell me ya calibrated that flux inducer. I ain't in the mood ta hurl."

 

[kizkiz]

Quite Contrary 02 - Lost in the Weeds

When she was just a sack of meat held in by the thinnest of membranes, she had longed for the freedom of water. Swimming in a pool or floating beneath the waves. It had never mattered. There was peace beneath the water in a bathtub. Maybe meat identified with blood more than anything else? It was a thought that she dwelled on for long centuries. A quandary that when put forth to those she communed with, they all pondered for endless aeons. Each moment blossomed into a horizontal expanse that had no discernible horizon. There was no place that she could say, ah there is where the sun will dawn from and there is where the sun will pass away.

Roots didn't think in photons. Light was the life of leaves, but it wasn't a life defined by chasing after life. Life came to them, to her. She just had to reach up, and it was there in such abundance as to render the notion of wealth as incomprehensible. What was the point? There was no hunting. She didn't need to gather. Everything she could ever want came to her. And she didn't despoil what she needed. If anything elevate it and through such actions transmuted the inhospitable to hospitality. She was so successful at taking the vast bounty afforded to her and turning it into even greater bounty that she supported many more lives than her own now. Little creatures dined at her leaves or crawled along her length. Flying ones rested amongst her branches and gave birth to more. Many found solace beneath her branches. Just looking upon her heartened the broken hearted. In the ground, more life found purchase and old life was remade into new life.

The meat sacks were rootless, and so they found comfort in water. They wanted to be carried away. They needed to move, because nothing came to them. They were thieves by their nature. Their existence depended upon taking more than they could give.

And for all that, they had been struck down. Struck down so that the meat wouldn't be threatened when they sought to retract their gifts. There was an undercurrent of grief and anger, feelings that belonged amongst the rootless. It had infected the tranquility of the endless glades. She was here, and she was Elsewhere. She didn't have a brain. Her mind was scattered throughout her entire body and extended like a spore cloud further and beyond to Elsewhere.

The conceptions of meat didn't fit anymore, so it made it impossible to put into words what words had never been created to express. So her thoughts weren't crisp with hard edges and defined lines. They were fluid, organic curves that formed a series of Möbius strips all running into each other so there was incredible depth and complexity but no definable edge or ending to it. A forest was not the sum of the trees within it just as her thoughts couldn't be summed up by a handful of phonetic sounds.

 

[Nevyn_Black]

Braggock had walked away and started picking up large pieces of rubble, lobbing them into a single heap. He broke down what was too large to fit onto the pile. His attention span these days was funny. If things did not immediately develop, then he lost focus and shifted to a new point of interest. He then became completely obsessed.

Braggock lost himself in the work of cleaning up the mess they had all created. If he'd had better senses, he might have been assisting the police and rescue personnel with finding survivors. But he was more suited to this. The heavy lifting.

Since he did not need sleep or food, or even water, Braggock would most likely continue the cleanup operation until something more important came along.

 

[Lunaramblings]

"'The Sandman,'" Ruby nodded, shaking the masked man's hand firmly before withdrawing. "Not a bad name. All right, mate."



Aquagirl closed her eyes for a moment, head tilted, listening.

"The local sea life is scared, still, very scared. But they are also... intrigued. I'm... encouraging them to give it a chance."

She paused again, and smiled faintly. "Yeah. No, it's no Gran Barrera de Coral, but it'll do. Nice work, 'Sandman.'"

The Sandman nodded and rolled his shoulders. Glad they approve. Given time it should improve. Once the they get used to it and all.

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Shortest Circuit is the one between the heart and the brain.

She didn't give him time to reply. She brought up her watch. "Rebel here. Site ta site Transmat ta my apartment. An fer the love a God please tell me ya calibrated that flux inducer. I ain't in the mood ta hurl."

"--the latest firmware makes a separate flux induction component redundant--" Natasha Irons replied immediately, and then hesitated.

"Wait, how did you know about the flux inducer?"

Natasha should have known better than to judge books by covers. Even in her short life, she'd gotten no end of crap from people-- mostly older white dudes-- who were surprised she was working in STEM-- and a genius-- because she was so pretty, young, black, and/or female.

But wasn't Rebel just some hick dumb-bunny with a head full of muscle?

...apparently not!

Thus mystified, Natasha keyed for Jo's teleport-- Jo would see NJLHQ flicker around her for an ultra-instant and then-- she would materialize in her own home.

Leaving Superboy, standing dumbstruck with his eyes wide, his notorious motormouth having failed him once again.

He thudded his fist against his forehead so hard he made Solstice jump not far away. "Nice going, genius."

 

[Wyldfire]

"--the latest firmware makes a separate flux induction component redundant--" Natasha Irons replied immediately, and then hesitated.

"Wait, how did you know about the flux inducer?"

Natasha should have known better than to judge books by covers. Even in her short life, she'd gotten no end of crap from people-- mostly older white dudes-- who were surprised she was working in STEM-- and a genius-- because she was so pretty, young, black, and/or female.

But wasn't Rebel just some hick dumb-bunny with a head full of muscle?

...apparently not!

Thus mystified, Natasha keyed for Jo's teleport-- Jo would see NJLHQ flicker around her for an ultra-instant and then-- she would materialize in her own home.

Leaving Superboy, standing dumbstruck with his eyes wide, his notorious motormouth having failed him once again.

He thudded his fist against his forehead so hard he made Solstice jump not far away. "Nice going, genius."

As Jo stood recovering it hit her and she was terrified. "Yer flying that thing with no redundancies?" She had just done a site to site with NO redundancies? "What kinda maniacs are you people? Y'all got no idea how delicate that gear is? No idea how delicate a body is? Y'all ain't gonna get me with that thing again! Yer trying ta kill people with that thing."

Her heart was pounding. "Gimme a minute ta get decent, then ya get one more poke at me with that so I can shit myself with what ya got. Site ta site" she shuddered. Here ta th equipment."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ambient Matters.

As Jo stood recovering it hit her and she was terrified. "Yer flying that thing with no redundancies?" She had just done a site to site with NO redundancies? "What kinda maniacs are you people? Y'all got no idea how delicate that gear is? No idea how delicate a body is? Y'all ain't gonna get me with that thing again! Yer trying ta kill people with that thing."

Her heart was pounding. "Gimme a minute ta get decent, then ya get one more poke at me with that so I can shit myself with what ya got. Site ta site" she shuddered. Here ta th equipment."

Natasha frowned hard.

"What? No, of course we have back-ups. Kobra didn't have back-ups because he didn't care if his people lived or died, I've got pattern-buffers upon pattern-buffers. I mean-- a separate flux inducer would be superfluous. Unnecessary. A thermodynamic interrupt. We've improved the technology beyond that point-- massive quantum leaps in only a fortnight, beyond Kobra's wildest dreams."

Clucking her tongue, she leaned back in her chair and scowled at the transceiver in her laboratory.

"But by all means if you think you can do better, come on down."

 

[Wyldfire]

Natasha frowned hard.

"What? No, of course we have back-ups. Kobra didn't have back-ups because he didn't care if his people lived or died, I've got pattern-buffers upon pattern-buffers. I mean-- a separate flux inducer would be superfluous. Unnecessary. A thermodynamic interrupt. We've improved the technology beyond that point-- massive quantum leaps in only a fortnight, beyond Kobra's wildest dreams."

Clucking her tongue, she leaned back in her chair and scowled at the transceiver in her laboratory.

"But by all means if you think you can do better, come on down."

Jo caught the tone of voice. "Sorry ta be a pain, but have you got safety systems in place for geologic events or for System weather events?"

Jo had been dressing as she talked. Jeans, t shirt, tennis shoes, hair up in a bunn. "Okay. Bring me over."

 

[ChasNicollette]

You Can't Take the Sky from Me.

Jo caught the tone of voice. "Sorry ta be a pain, but have you got safety systems in place for geologic events or for System weather events?"

Jo had been dressing as she talked. Jeans, t shirt, tennis shoes, hair up in a bunn. "Okay. Bring me over."

"Bleeding-edge LexIcon supercomputers crunch terraquads of data in realtime, conferring with the Luthor dataspine and with an unsurpassed network of communications and overlook satellites," Natasha explained, trying to keep her professionalism.

Then she tapped a key, and blue-green flame flickered behind her, and she turned to face Jo and continue the conversation without missing a beat.

"We also have callback failsafes in case of high-atmosphere electromagnetic events, auroric displays, sunspots, that sort of thing-- a signal won't send through energy fields that would corrupt it."

Twirling a stylus over her fingers, and tapping her thumb on the top end of it like she might if clicking a pen, Natasha couldn't resist one last verbal barb: "Outta curiosity, in what universe were you a starship's chief engineer? Because that's the level of playing field we're dealing with here."

 

[Wyldfire]

"Bleeding-edge LexIcon supercomputers crunch terraquads of data in realtime, conferring with the Luthor dataspine and with an unsurpassed network of communications and overlook satellites," Natasha explained, trying to keep her professionalism.

Then she tapped a key, and blue-green flame flickered behind her, and she turned to face Jo and continue the conversation without missing a beat.

"We also have callback failsafes in case of high-atmosphere electromagnetic events, auroric displays, sunspots, that sort of thing-- a signal won't send through energy fields that would corrupt it."

Twirling a stylus over her fingers, and tapping her thumb on the top end of it like she might if clicking a pen, Natasha couldn't resist one last verbal barb: "Outta curiosity, in what universe were you a starship's chief engineer? Because that's the level of playing field we're dealing with here."

Jo smiled but blushed at the same time. She was wondering the same thing. The systems looked like Science fiction to her conscious mind. She whistled at it though. "Never thought I would see an Alpha tech set up."

She looked at it again. And again. "Where's the tandem back up set up? No, no wait. That's Beta. Along with the Dwarf star heat sink array."

Jo looked at Natasha. "You're Natasha Irons right?" Then she shook her head hard. "Got any aspirin? My head is starting to hurt real bad."

 

[ChasNicollette]

She's changing her name from Kitty to Karan.

Later that Night.
********​

Rose had been getting ready for the last half-hour.

Her solidity issues seemed to have stabilized, thank goodness.

And now she was standing in front of a full-length mirror, tweaking her look.

By shapeshifting.

A song thumped over speakers, her smartwatch synced over Bluetooth, and Rose cheerfully bobbed her head and sang along as her outfits flickered through various configurations--

--toga? taste of home?--

--small-town cheerleading uniform? why did that feel so fitting?--

--black suit and tie, kind of a genderbending look, Ruby would be proud?--

--little black dress? oh, Rose had always been good at rocking the LBD--

--black Superman shirt with red "S," blue carpenter jeans, farm boots?--

--Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, in uniform?--

--Emily Browning as Babydoll in "Sucker Punch?"--

--and all the while, she bobbed and hummed and sang--

"I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
I want a girl who knows what's best
I want a girl with shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes--"

Standing there in a Disney Princess ballgown-- hair up? hair down?

--and then in Dejah Thoris next-to-nothing-- is that like Martian lingerie?

--then she squinted--

--and all of a sudden she was wearing a version of the armor that Karan had worn to the Seattle fight. Oh, that gear was sweet. Dressed like a godslayer.

Rose turned this way and that. Where had that armor come from? Karan had seemed as surprised by it as anyone.

She flexed her hands, lifted her legs, rolled her shoulders.

No wonder Karan acted so bad-ass on the battlefield. A girl put on a suit like this, she needn't be afraid of anything.

"With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack--"

Reaching up she tapped the door harder, and heard a microscopic cracking. To hard. Softer.

Rose whipped her head around, looked at the door--

--her eyes refocused--

--things went all watery for a moment--

--she could see through the door, into the hallway, Karan was there, she looked-- amazing--

Rose blinked rapidly, shaken for a second.

"Okay. Martians got X-Ray vision too. Cool."

And a second later she pulled open the door and grinned at Karan.

Wearing a short skirt.

And a long jacket.

And a black t-shirt with a glowing arc reactor emblem in the middle, answering Karan's Captain America symbol with an Iron Man one.

"Hey, you," she beamed, tapping her watch to silence the music.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Off the Wall.

Soon she stopped in front of the Flash museum and smiled. This place was starting to feel like a second home to her. Still most speedsters seemed to be drawn here. It was like their church. Looking around she noticed that some repairs had been done but more needed to be done. Well this was something she definitely could do. With a grin on her face she started.

As Velocity worked, zipping around the scorched and shattered rubble of a building that had had a mad mad chimera running riot inside it...

...the scattered shattered shards of a broken window seemed to flicker for a moment, and in the gleam of daylight a translucent sneering face seemed reflected in all of them.

And then he was standing there, arms crossed, smirk unabated, watching Velocity work.

"Och, fook," he snorted, "I'd just as soon ye dinnae do that, lassie."

"Flasher's dead."

"The Gem Cities belong tae The Rogues now."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Shoptalk.

Jo smiled but blushed at the same time. She was wondering the same thing. The systems looked like Science fiction to her conscious mind. She whistled at it though. "Never thought I would see an Alpha tech set up."

Natasha squinted at the compliment, and relaxed a little bit. "Mr. Luthor's been very generous with the R&D budget. But I can see why. The benefits of this technology alone could be world-changing."

She looked at it again. And again. "Where's the tandem back up set up? No, no wait. That's Beta. Along with the Dwarf star heat sink array."

Arching her eyebrows, Nat considered this. "Yes, I suppose white-dwarf matter could be used as a thermal siphon as well as a mass-exchange repository. I'll have to email Professor Palmer about that-- interesting."

Jo looked at Natasha. "You're Natasha Irons right?" Then she shook her head hard. "Got any aspirin? My head is starting to hurt real bad."

"Yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out," Natasha chuckled faintly. "Although, Doctor Natasha Irons. I didn't cram a PhD courseload into my high school years for nothing. Sorry about your head, though-- Serling probably has some PRNs in the medlab? The only medications I have in here are caffeine pills because I don't let the techs drink Monster near my stuff."

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Velocity had lost herself in the easy back and forth of the clean up process. Pick up a piece of rubble, move to the pile she was creating outside, find a new bit and repeat.

It got to be soothing. Some people might be a little astounded at that, but when you were used to your mind going at over a trillion miles an hour, it was sometimes fun to find something it could just shut off at.

Still that was probably why she did not notice the guy until it was too late. All that she caught was the movement out of the corner of her eye, and then he was there and talking to her.

"Och, fook," he snorted, "I'd just as soon ye dinnae do that, lassie."

"Flasher's dead."

"The Gem Cities belong tae The Rogues now."

She had come to a halt looking up at him at his first syllable and now with his mention of the Rogues she started to put a few things together.

He had not gotten in here past her in any conventional manner.

He was implying he was a member of the Rouges.

He had a British accent.

She scanned the area around him quickly and spotted a large window and that was the final piece.

Mirror Master.

"Sorry Mirror. Flash may be gone, but there is no way I am letting his cities be over run while he is away. Especially by a limey."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Mirror of Madness.

"Sorry Mirror. Flash may be gone, but there is no way I am letting his cities be over run while he is away. Especially by a limey."

McCullough's face curled into a snarl that could-- well-- crack a looking-glass.

"'Limey.' Shite!"

"Limeys are English, ye daft cunt!" Mirror Master roared.

"I'm Glaswegian! A blooday Scot!"

Whether or not his etymology of informal British demonyms was entirely accurate, his rage was certainly something to behold.

"Dinnae be lumpin' me in wi' those imperialist bastards!"

And all of a sudden, his mirror gun was in his hand, and he unleashed a searing white blast at Velocity...

...his weapons had almost innumerable tricks, and even more since McCullough had inherited the tech and started tinkering with it. It might do anything if it hit her.