Blasting In Again (Ask)

Hugh made three observations before coming back to the one he should have made. First - the structure he'd appeared before was Titans Tower. A little seldom viewed from this angle, but he'd stared at it through a telescope long enough to know it on sight, and recognised it now. Second - he was not where he was. There'd been no travel in between. Teleportation, or a memory lapse perhaps. Third - he was not alone. There was a second figure roughly ten foot away from him off to his left. The way they hung, head under shoulders, and with their clothes billowing, helped Hugh make his last observation.

He was suspended in the air. Higher than the Tower. Dropping fast.

Now Pix was no stranger to flying. But he normally did it with a platform beneath his feet. He didn't really have that graceful Superman arc to his body. He could flail his feet, he supposed, and plummet primarily in a downwards direction, but Buzz Lightyear himself would have to abandon his pretensions and call it falling.

He screamed. It wasn't really helpful. Just one of those things he did. Spinning, he saw the enveloping void that surrounded the island. He had the sensation of being in a snow-globe. Sans the snow. It was intriguing. Though he doubted it had anything to do with gravity just now. Pix tried to right himself, failed, growled and transformed anyway.

His body shimmered. Flesh and blood left him to be replaced by pixels. His contoured face became nothing more than emoticons (). The ground was coming up fast. Not the soft sand of the beaches. But a rocky shoreline. If such can be called a shoreline without a shore to line.

Pix braced himself for impact. Only to be caught completely unawares by a lighter impact from the opposite direction. An object had buffeted him from above. Not an object, a person - the second person. They'd clamped themselves onto him. He was outraged. Then he had no more time to be outraged.

The sprite concentrated on the pixels of his own body. Lifting the weight of two people was harder, but he managed, for a few seconds. He managed to counteract their velocity and levitated himself just eight foot off the ground. Then momentum returned. He dropped the last few feet like a stone, shattering to pieces. Not a large impact though. He'd pulled himself back together in no time.

People in danger outside their very Tower and they fail to get here even then. It's official; Titan response time is deplorable.

to someone of a different disposition the sudden unexplained danger that came from falling out the sky with no support and with such spontaneity could be classed as a cause for a concern. it weren't so much the case with quinn. she had several times descended from a great height like this before - albeit with some forewarning and preparation too. but that familiarity aided her in this case. there was no screaming, no flailing of limbs although there was a tug of desire to tell the person descending as well off to her right to shut the hell up. but she refrained, if only cause her focus was needed elsewhere. spreading her limbs out, the speed at which she fell decreased slightly, leaving her an slightly longer opportunity to gaze at the terrain below. there was an island and with it the stupidly recognizable t-tower and of course a globe - at last the environmental agency had taken notice and fish bowled them in.


the only way was down, and well. quinn re-positioned her limbs close to her body like a rocket almost and dived downward towards her sky diving companion. the distance that had manifested between them was covered with ease as quinn shot downward through the sky like a missile. on nearing the other figure she braced herself for the inevitable collision. it occurred and may very well have propelled them further to the ground but quinn held onto him like it were a piggyback ride. if she weren't supplied a parachute then she would at least now, hopefully, have a softer landing.


but then the worst thing in the world happened. the figure she had fastened herself onto began to change and with it there was familiarity as flesh was replaced with pixels, and that could only mean this was one person. pix. immediately her face scrunched up with displeasure. why did she have to end up here with pix? why not someone cooler? like nina or -little bit sick- kris?! no, it had to be the savior of the mushroom kingdom. it just had to be. before quinn could really note anything further their fall came to a halt as they levitated from off the ground. quinn let go and fell backwards, her body twisting through the air for her to land on her feet, a hand palm pressed to the ground. taking a moment to gain her bearings before standing to her height.


"you"

Pix pushed up with both his reformed hands and balanced on his knees. He was in pain. He tried to tell himself it was phantom pain. That it was useless. His body was fine, but it didn't lessen any. Mind over matter my ass.

The other person spoke, reminding Hugh that they were there. They sounded unhurt. Goody. Whatever would he do if the person who tried to meat-shield him came to an untimely demise? He'd be unable to sleep. Too busy laughing.

"You? What, the 'thank' was silent? Despite your best efforts I just saved both our- our..." He wheeled on a rock and saw who was speaking to him. The resemblance was enough to make his retort peel off.

She looked different than he remembered. And she'd always bourn that sort of anonymity about her features. As if she could go unremarked upon. But there was just enough there that gave Pix pause. It's possible he could be mistaken. But he was never someone who'd let uncertainty stop them from reaction.

"Quinn? That is you." He hadn't seen her in years. Not through lack of trying. Only the pain suggested that he was still awake.

and there it was. the typical drivel that one could expect to splurge from out the nintendo poster boy's mouth with that familiar tone and arrogant voice. it was hard to tell much about pix that had changed whilst he remained in his pixelled form. not much from what she could assume. there was a very good reason behind the distance the past few years, maybe a few more and she would be unrecognizable to the point that he would never see the kill coming.

"ohh wow, my hero". said in a voice laced with sarcasm and coupled with a rolling of the eyes. but the truth was that without his help she would be snake paste stuck to the floor right now.

"course it is, dummy". though this time she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. her glance veered around at their surroundings a little. no cityscape in the background, no signs of the place once called home either. something was very off about here. turning her sights back to him, she folded her arms across her chest and weighted herself more on her right. "I'll give you a fifteen second head-start, run". did he expect her to have forgotton? not a chance.

A lot of questions. Very short amount of time. Bigger picture wise, Pix was glad he'd been deposited who knows where with an ally. It improved his chances of figuring out just what was going on. But to the immediate he was disheartened to see his old friend. They had some... unfinished business.

Caesar the monkey had faked Quinn's death. Convincingly. He was arguably the world's best surgeon after all. And Pix had sold him the resultant corpse. Quinn being alive made that whole situation very awkward. She'd disappeared before he'd been able to persuade her of the errors in her accountability factoring.

Because for some outlandish reason she blamed Pix.

It was not a conversation he wanted to have unprepared. But it was thrust upon him. And he had revised arguments before now. So here he must bite the bullet and earnestly, humbly, explain exactly why her thinking on the matter was wrong.

She appeared to have an alternate suggestion for solving this. Pix's eyes widened, (0_0) "Run?" It was Quinn. She was kidding him. Right? She wouldn't be such a fool as to genuinely attribute 'death' as fair punishment. Even assuming she'd misattributed blame.

"Look. You were gone a long time. And you've probably harboured erroneous notions ever since. You weren't speaking to me. So I understand how they went uncorrected. But give me five minutes. Then we can hold hands, sing kumbaya, and try to figure out exactly what we just landed ourselves into. Or remain stubborn. I'll throw a blanket over you so you can continue hiding your grudges away." That was his fifteen seconds. He forced himself to remain still.

there was no blame wrongly assumed here, contrary to what some choose to believe. and it didn't mean because she placed blame at the feet of the super nintendo sprite that there wasn't blame placed elsewhere at the feet of others. no, she hadn't forgotton about caesar either. he was another recipitent of blame that quinn wished to make vanish at her own hand. unfortunately caesar wasn't here, but pix was. it had been years but quinn assumed that the 16-bit hero could recall that she had never held a fondness for the spoken word, more a preference to the violent method of ending conflicts. maybe he had not landed so perfectly from the fall, maybe his mind was out of sync. maybe he was just a dum dum.

"you do realize that's your fifteen seconds gone, right?". she said as she quirked an eyebrow up at his words. cowardice came in many different forms. most chose to run but then others, like pix, believed they could find the correct combination of words to difuse a threat. with her glance falling onto the ground, the brunette shrugged her shoulders back with a casual roll as she took her first step forward. "poor decision". she commented as the claws on her gauntlets extended that bit more as she moved to close the distance between them.

Ah. Right. The whole lunkhead thing. Quinn seemed to pride herself on an immunity to good reasoning. Blame her brain-washed upbringing for quashing critical thinking. He wasn't going to get five minutes. Best speak faster. Pix really did believe the correct combination of words existed.

And besides. She was his friend. She wasn't going to hurt him. She knew she couldn't anyway (well 'hurt' yes; 'kill' not so much). Quinn was a kidder. She wanted him to scare. Rationally, he had nothing to be scared of. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

Pix stepped back.

"Y'know if you kill me. You'll be a hypocrite if you don't start lugging the body around with you everywhere." I'm pixels, I'm safe. I'm pixels, I'm safe. I'm pixels, I'm safe.

there he was again trying to reason in the wrong way. there had been years that had passed and the best he could come up with was a fleeting threat of hypocrisy - since when did quinn care for what others might think of her.

"I'm okay with being that". she snapped back with. it wasn't the worst sacrifice to make for the good of having a pix that was mute. "at least then I have a shield that won't talk back". she added, a slight smirk tugging back at her lips. with another few steps closer the distance was covered. in a quick snap she balled her first and punched him in the chest; to knock him down. "you're lucky you're useful"

Nina would start to walk up to the two "I thought I heard you both! How are you guys?" she smiled before noticing the tension between them "oh, oh right...guys don't fight okay, we gotta work together in this weird place" she said as she looked between them.

Well it wasn't an eight foot fall. But it still hurt. Pix was so rattled he thought he'd heard Nina's voice. As he rolled onto an arm he realised it was Nina. At the top of a grassy verge she suddenly appeared. He was pretty sure she hadn't dropped down with them a moment ago. And how would she even survive a landing like that? Helicopter her tails? No. She was here already. She was too at ease to think otherwise.

"I wouldn't call it a mutual decision." He gave Quinn a sidelong glance. It appeared she was done for now. She needed him? Obviously. Whatever freaky pocket dimension thing they had going here wasn't likely to be solved by punches, poisons, or stabs. Maybe some of his own forethoughting had rubbed off on her after all.

"Were you expecting us? Because we weren't expecting us. I've checked my diary. We weren't due to sky-dive onto Titans Island without prep until Tuesday. What've you been doing, Nina?"

quinn was not an idiot, not entirely. there weren't a whole lot she could do while pix was transformed bar knocking him about a bit. and while that was fun, that wasn't the same as watching the last few breaths flee a person. she had to wait for that outcome. then I guess pix was useful in the unknown with his inquisitive and scheming ways - even if terribly irksome too.

fortunately the annoyance of pix took a breather as nina took center stage. approaching them from seemingly out of nowhere. another quinn had maybe purposefully lost contact with. it was nina after all that had rescued her - and been the one quinn had escaped in order to disappear for such a long time. quinn held back a smile, half throwing a glance over to her friend but her focus would remain with her prey.

"we'll call it paused, for now". she remarked back, noting the sidelong glance she was being given. soon as they were out this bubble then the hunt begins again with those free fifteen seconds. that's it. then the fun starts.

"what's this 'we' you're on about?". she posed with another quirked brow.

Nina shrugged "I woke up here, and I've been trying to find a way in, there currently seems to be no door, but then I saw you two" she would fold her arms and stared at Quinn "Quinny, we need to work together to get out of here, I know what Pix did was unforgivable, but I'm here now, and I won't let you fight each other, we need Pix's brain to get us out of here, if there is indeed a way out" she said.

Pix took umbrage with what the fox said (Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!). Seriously? He was stood right there, "Unforgiveable? Ba-ba-ba! I didn't murder her Nina. She's awful lucky I didn't decide on a cremation. What, are the family members of organ donors morally bankrupt too? What's so heinous about-" He cut himself off. Quinn had given him a stay of execution. Better to use that time to figure out a better way of winning her to his side than pissing her off again.

"I know. I know. Shut up. Not the time."

He would skitter over lichen encrusted rocks towards the dark void. Tentatively he tore off some skin flakes worth of pixels and pressed them against its perimeter. When nothing untoward occurred he put his hand against its surface, "Forcefield. Possibly." But from what? Did it stem from inside the abyss? Or were the Titans projecting it to protect this place?

Pix had tried to keep up-to-date on Titan defences. He was suppose to represent their opposition after all. (Even if he had successfully never come to blows with them passed that Toji incident.) But it was a difficult task. Paper trails from Yang's company and subsidiaries were easy enough to track. But Hotwire could revolutionise and transform any technology he got his hands on. Theoretically there was no telling what their security grid was like now.

He mainly knew the outer perimeter security from times Titan enemies had descended down upon them. But an island spanning forcefield, especially one that may be holding at bay this... void was beyond his expectations.

"Question is. Is it just dark outside? Or is there nothing there?" He took a pebble and tossed it in his hand a few times. The gravity seemed consistent. Their gravity was regulated by the spin of the globe. Suggesting they were still on Earth; supporting the darkness theory. Unless the gravity was artificial.

Pix lit his palm up like a Christmas tree and looked beyond the perimeter. No light was getting through. Explained how they could see each other without the Sun. The natural light was trapped. Pin-balling around the island.

He considered the ramifications and then turned his attention to the others, "Nina. When you make clones. You can have them fill a space you're not currently occupying. Try and make one on the other side of this barrier."

"you know its okay to shut up". quinn said in a monotonous voice with a deadpan expression, pointing it out to pix after he had rambled off some trying to scare away the responsibility that sat at his feet. with a frown and a sigh her attention turned to nina - the one innocent friend in all this mess. "fine - I won't kill him yet... but only cause you're here".

"there he goes again... putting the mortality of someone else last...". it was said in a mumbled fashion beneath baited breath at the idea being thrown around. sure, it was just a clone but there was a free-spirit kind of carelessness to the first idea pix had come up with.

Nina would approach the wall and put a hand to it, tapping on the field and sighing "alright, here goes" she said, knowing she would feel whatever the clone felt, cold emptyness, crushing gravity, she didn't know, she just knew it'd probably feel bad. Nina would then create a clone, trying to focus on placing it on the other side of the wall, closing her eyes, the next thing Nina would feel was pain all against her front as her clone was created but almost spat out of the field, the clone appearing stood up but then quickly landed on her butt, rubbing her face with a pained groan, Nina feeling the same thing "nope, doesn't work, doesn't work!" she said as Nina turned to her friends "feels like I just ran front first into a brick wall" she said. Both Nina and the clone would be rubbing their faces in pain, the clone slowly standing up and steadying itself before also turning to Quinn and Pix's direction.