Returning to the scene of the crime (SN then open)

Riot took the communicators and studied them for a moment, managing to appear thoughtful despite his blank helmet. "I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO WITH THESE. WITH ANY LUCK, THEY'LL BE USEFUL." He'd have his work cut out for him replacing the casing, inspecting the internals, and setting them up on a unique wavelength. He placed them into a few pouches on his belt. He then looked back to Ao as she continued, tilting his head at the bow. It's design was deceptively simple, with a touch of ingenuity. He rather enjoyed the fusion of ancient and advanced technology.

When she pulled out the vials, he listened. Enchanted? Damn. It looks like I'm a detriment for once. I'll have to watch that in the future. He sucked in air through his teeth, though the sound wouldn't be heard by anyone outside of his suit. He did however, stand up a little straighter as he did so. "DO YOU HAVE A WAY TO RE-ENCHANT THOSE? IF NOT, YOU'LL WANT TO FIND ANOTHER USE FOR THEM. ANY ENCHANTMENT YOU HAD ON THEM WAS GONE THE MOMENT YOU STOOD NEXT TO ME." He tapped his breastplate before continuing. "THIS SUIT WAS DESIGNED TO PUT A HUMAN SOLDIER ON PAR WITH ANY META. INCLUDING THE LEAGUE. THAT MEANS BRINGING MY STRENGTHS UP TO THEIRS. AND IF THEIR POWERS AREN'T ROOTED IN SCIENCE: ELIMINATING THEIR UNNATURAL POWERS AND RETURNING THEM TO THE LEVEL THEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE LEFT. MAGIC CANNOT EXIST IN MY PRESENCE." There was a long pause as he thought, his gaze wandering to the basement of the old tower.

"IF YOU CANNOT USE THEM, I MAY BE ABLE TO USE THEM TO BOLSTER OUR DEFENSES UNTIL WE CAN DEPLOY SOMETHING BETTER." Then something clicked. Something she'd said that he glazed over. Her world? What did she mean by that? "YOUR WORLD? YOU ARE NOT FROM THIS WORLD?" He looked her up and down slowly. "THEN YOU ARE EXTRATERRESTRIAL? NOT HUMAN? IF THAT IS THE CASE, DO YOU HAVE SOME FORM OF TRANSLATOR? YOU ARE HANDLING THE LANGUAGE WELL. A FEW HICCUPS HERE AND THERE, BUT OVERALL WELL. DID YOU LEARN JAPANESE FIRST?" Despite his harsh robotic voice, he didn't seem to be accusing her or thinking any less of her. He merely seemed curious. The man himself wouldn't even notice himself appearing any other way, too involved in thought to take notice. "AND YES." He added, "THE MORE, THE MERRIER."

Ao nodded to his statement. "Yeah I hope they will prove to be of some use." She then went through the rest of her things and blinked when he asked if she could reenchant her vials. "No... I usually have to ask my family in my world to enchant them for-" She seemed to pause as she heard that the enchantments would have worn off and looked to them muttering under her breath. "15 hours of labor and $250 dollars worth of labor... all gone... in a second....." She sighed and put them back in their slots.

"Unless you want them I may just pitch these since they are now deadly weapons that I can't use in battle. I don't like to kill others and these are now devices that would kill others if used in the normal manner i usually use them in." She explained looking up to him again as he then explained his suit and tilted her head to the side confused by his words. She sighed and sounded apologetic as she replied. "I'm sorry but mot of the explanation is lost to me due to the fact that i do know what the league you are talking about is."

"What ever it is I believe it may be a group that, like the titans, are only existent in your earth but not mine." She said trying to explain. She then nodded at the fact that he could use them and started to remove the vials and disks for him. "Alright, here you can use them then." She said offering him the vials and disks. He caught her statement of her saying 'her world' and nodded at his question. "That's correct I'm not from here..."

He asked if she was an alien which made her chuckle while shaking her head. She took off her helmet then some rather questionable music playing from her helmet that he couldn't hear before when she had been wearing the helmet. It played some of the music from the helmet before she turned it off and looked up to him. Other then her black and blue eyes and horns she looked totally human. "Normally I would not show off my face but the normal risks that would make me hide my face aren't in this world."

"You see I'm actually from another universe... another earth." She looked from the ruble and ruins to the city with a rather blank but thoughtful look. "An earth that makes this one look like candy land, rainbows, unicorns, and happiness edition...." She shook her head refocusing and looked back up to Riot as he said that her english had some hiccups and blushed sightly from embarrassment.

"I Actually learned German first... then Japanese... then Russian and not too long ago I really started to get to know english... mostly so I could know what i was singing on stage but also due to interacting with Americans proved to be a hassle since many of them refused to learn any other language than english." She said muttering the last parts in annoyance. She then looked to the barriers she made as he spoke then back to him and froze for a moment.

She then proceeded to look at herself then to where she came at riots chest as if measuring herself and then looked to the barrier and how she would have to climb it but riot could just walk over it. She stared at it for a long while before her head slightly lowered in annoyance towards herself now as she realized that at it's current height the barriers wouldn't work on people like riot. She then sighed but nodded to his statement. "Right I'll get on that." She said as she went to put her helmet back on. If he wasn't stopped for what ever reason she then would start to make the barriers a bit taller before moving onto any new ones.

"I'LL TAKE THEM. I HAVE AN IDEA FOR THEM." Riot responded, holding out a hand. Assuming she gave him her ice bombs, he'd stow them in various pouches as well, though he made sure none of them shared a pouch with any of the communicators. "THE BRIEF EXPLANATION IS THAT THEY ARE LIKE THE TITANS, BUT SEVERAL STEPS HIGHER: SUPERHEROES IN THEIR PRIME WHO HAVE JOINED FORCES TO DEFEND THIS WORLD. HOWEVER TO MY KNOWLEDGE THEY WERE TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD BY AN EVENT KNOWN ONLY AS THE VANISHING." Riot seemed almost hesitant to continue talking about the subject. In truth, it was a touchy subject for him - even when brainstorming with others, he was still no closer to finding the cause of the Vanishing than he had been at the start.

Ao mentioning her home dimension again snapped him out of his thoughts. He rose an eyebrow at her music. "INTERESTING CHOICE..." Then he saw her horns and eyes, and his other eyebrow rose to join its twin. "HMMM... INTERESTING. THEY SEEM TO BE VESTIGIAL. I'D THOUGHT THEY WERE PART OF YOUR HELMET. DO THEY GIVE YOU ANY DISCOMFORT? ARE THEY BONE OR SOMETHING ELSE? I WONDER IF THEY HELP CONDUCT YOUR POWERS..." Riots mind was racing as he leaned down for a closer look. "CAN YOU FEEL WITH THEM? AND THOSE EYES... I WONDER WHAT PURPOSE THOSE SERVE... DID YOU ALWAYS HAVE THESE? DID THEY MANIFEST WITH YOUR POWERS? IF YOU GOT THEM LATER IN LIFE, DID YOUR VISION CHANGE AT ALL?" When presented with such curiosities, the scientific mind of the man within the suit could hardly help himself. Especially now, when he actually had an opportunity to converse with the source of such curiosities rather than having to fight it and wonder later.

"MY APOLOGIES, I'M BEING RUDE." He managed to drag himself out of his mess of theories long enough to continue following the conversation. "I WOULD VERY MUCH ENJOY THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS THIS OTHER DIMENSION WITH YOU, IF YOU'D ALLOW IT. PERHAPS IT CAN FILL THE TIME WHILE WE WORK." As she got back to work so did he, making sure she always had ample building material on hand. As he did so, he couldn't resist the urge to tease her a little. "IF YOU LEARNED GERMAN FIRST, THEN WHY AREN'T YOU BLAU HASE?"

However as he worked he couldn't stop thinking about what she'd told him: Another dimension existed. Was this actual proof that the many worlds theory was true? Were there an infinite number of realities, each with a different outcome? He wondered how many versions of him got to live a normal life. He found himself envying them and tried to change the subject. All his mind was able to switch to was wondering how many versions of him became the killer he'd been trained to be. He shuddered at the thought, and thanked his luck that his suit hid the action for the most part. He shoved thoughts of alternate realities from his mind for now as it was far safer to think of them with Ao talking and keeping him on track - keeping his mind from wandering too far into the dark.

Ao blinked hearing his explanation seeming very surprised based on her tone. "Really? They sound monstrous to have such power and strength... hopefully they are true heroes by your standards and not by my world's." She thought about the event he spoke of curiously, she wondered what the vanishing could possibly be, but if the name of it had anything to do with what happened she could probably guess what happened.... or at least one possible thing that happened.

He then made a comment about her music and smirked with a shrug. "One of my cousins showed me the song and it's been one of my favorites since." She then seemed to lose her smirk after mentioning her cousin and when silent until she heard him begin to speak again. She blinked at his words before realizing that he was talking about her horns and shook her head. "Nope these thing are coming 100% from and out of me... As for discomfort... some times..."

"Though i got used to them about a year after I got them. I'm not sure what they are but no..." She frowned a bit. "They aren't there to assist me.... they are... more of a.... cost... I had to pay to get my powers... They don't help me... You must give to receive..." She muttered the last part a if lost in thought before refocusing a bit letting him get closer. "Yeah... I can definitely feel with them... they are meant to make me feel pain more intensely when its from a certain source after all... And my eye well... they are just a side effect.... another thing i had to give up to receive my powers..."

When he asked more questions she sighed looked down. "Look.... I could go into exactly what all of this is for and where they came from but..." She looked really distressed. "I'd rather not go into it all right now.... but lets just say... I wasn't born like this and my powers came at a cost and this was the cost..." She said almost sadly but bluntly. She then shook her head when he apologized. "It's fine..." Despite her words her tone and face really showed that he had brought up a rather sad and sensitive subject to her.

When he teased her she chuckled half heartedly and spoke up to reply to him. "Because I used to fight on a team with my cousins and they at the tie of picking our names only knew russian and japanese. So we went with their first language, since i didn't know russian fully at the time." She smiled thinking of the good times before frowning as those memories were only brief ones compared to the hurt full and sad ones.

She nodded still holding the same expression but it seemed to almost get colder at the topic of her own world. "Sure..." She put on her helmet and got back to work as she spoke. "A long time ago in my world the world decided to become more strict in laws to stop and slow down the horrors of the world and the people who caused them... Though as time went by... the people who made and followed these laws... became what they wanted to stop...."

She kept moving s her tone held its sad but calm and blunt sound. "Now and days anyone who breaks ANY law will be hunted until they turn themselves into jail or until the police make your body into a case for bullets...." She paused her work as her voice got really cold. "Have you ever seen a 5 year old get gunned down by and officer of the law for trying to take a candy bar from a store without paying....? Cause I have..."

She touched her face as if there was something on it.... like there had been something splattered on it and she was trying to verify what is was from touch alone. she refocused and continued in her tone from before. "If you break a law and your face is seen or they know who you are... your family then become targets of harassment... my family being the best example since they are all vigilantist or killers... usually both.... putting on a mask is all the police needs now and days to claim you broke a law of being a vigilantist."

"In my world our heroes that are like yours are called vigilantist and revolutionary vigilantist... while heroes are people who were brought in by the police and are usually worse than any villain around. Villains in my world... well they can be either anything from someone who breaks any law and doesn't call themselves vigilantists to mass murders..." She paused before continuing. "In my world you have to be a true monster in order to be a villain who lasts.... and you usually are something similar when your are a vigilantist..."

"Usually because you have to become one if you want to live... if you want to try and make a difference in the world... either you give up all that you can to live and make a difference... or you die..." Her voice got cold again towards the ending. "In my world... all of California is a graveyard... every since the Massacre of the Children in Masks... Anyone else who survived is either in jewel city and living in true hell..." Her voice almost seemed devoid of life. "Or was killed by my cousins.... Jenny and Addison Necowl.... aka Shiro Usagi... and Kuro Usagi..."

Her grip on her rubble she held tightened then before putting it back down. "In my world... you either die... watch people die.... and or watch your family die.... To be honest... I think my family may think I'm dead right now... but hey... at least addison wont have to be afraid that I would get the parts of jenny she took now..." She finished a wall and looked to him and spoke bluntly.

"This world... the events going on in this world... are miracles in mine since the death count was only probably single numbers and the city is only left being moderately scared... I don't know if me coming here is a gift... or a major set back in what i am trying to do in my world..." She then would then go silent and get back to work.

"QUITE THE OPPOSITE! THEY WERE PILLARS OF SOCIETY, SOMEONE FLEDGLING HEROES AND ORDINARY CITIZENS ALIKE COULD LOOK UP TO AND STRIVE TO EMULATE. BEING INVITED TO JOIN THE LEAGUE WAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST HONORS A HERO COULD RECEIVE. THEY PROTECTED THIS WORLD FROM EVIL, AND BROUGHT IT BACK FROM THE BRINK OF DISASTER MANY TIMES." Riot replied before listening to her as she described her horns.

It almost sounded like she made some sort of pact. And a dangerous one at that. "IF THEY ARE SO VULNERABLE, THEN I WONDER IF THERE IS A WAY TO PROTECT THEM..." He mused aloud, cupping the bottom of his helm thoughtfully, as if stroking his chin.

His jaw tightened as she described the world she'd come from. It sounded horrible. Unimaginably so. How could the government become so corrupt? He knew those in power were always capable of sinking into corruption and commonly always had, but he'd never heard of an institution designed to protect and serve its people slaughtering them on such a scale before. This rivaled the acts of such infamous individuals as Stalin and Hitler. He thought of Jump city and where it was heading. It already seemed well on its way to becoming the same nightmare she'd left. He began to understand at least in some small part her zeal for reforging the Titans and bringing the city back to order. Riot thought back to his childhood... No, that was the wrong word. He'd never truly been a child. He'd been a guinea pig. He thought back to his training. They'd wanted him to be a soldier, a killer. Had they been trying to make a world like Ao's? Would HIVE make a world like the one she'd left? Even if they failed, would the government merely step in and finish the job? He looked down to Ao and knew then answer to both questions.

There was a hiss of compressed air as the seals on his visor disengaged. The beak-like visor rose, almost like a gilded mouth opening impossibly wide. The bottom of his jaw was still hidden by a gorget that was part of the helmet while the helmet itself framed the rest of his head, but his face was plainly visible to Ao - as was the expression of grim determination. His golden eyes locked with hers as he knelt down, ironically making her only barely taller than him. "Ao Usagi, you have my word. Fight with me and so long as I stand, this world will NEVER become the nightmare you came from."

[END?]

» returning home to find out you live in a new nation (open)
» The Club Scene Is Not My Thing (OPEN)
» Returning Late (Solo)
» The Not So Perfect Crime (SN)
» Left the Window Open (Open to 1)