knowhen | EVENT ONE: JUNE 21ST-28TH

[Hey, he's not usually fragile. That doesn't count. Space guns are a special exemption. He can shield against kinetic and concussive energy blasts just fine.

Robbie waits patiently for a few seconds, listening to the blip blip of the weapons and the increasingly annoying screeching, which he swears is going through his entire nervous system to his hand and making it throb in rhythm.]

Because bubbles aren't made for punching through! And they're my schtick!

[Stepping out from his hiding spot, Robbie sends a blast of bright blue energy at the remaining gorillas. He's careful to keep Nita out of fire. Even with ... whatever she's doing, it's not worth the risk. Unfortunately for the corridor, that means that the destructive force isn't going down the empty hall, but into the wall.

The gorilla's don't fare so well, lying unconscious under rubble.

Neither does the wall. Several of the rooms along the right hand side are much more of an open floor plan. It doesn't look like anyone was inside them. Robbie hadn't thought there would be, with a contingent of invaders in the area.

It's quiet for several seconds, until one final girder breaks off on one end and slowly squeeeeaks its way down the floor.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the New Warriors.]

You look like Vance.

I'm way hotter than Super-Tights.

[The retort is automatic. She's much more interested in where her unprecedented ability to shield herself comes from, and where Robbie's unprecedented ability to fire horribly destructive, non-bubbly energy blasts comes from.]

I'm.

Not sure how I turn this off.

[It feels almost as though she's clenching a muscle she has no control over, like some kind of psychic cramp from moving too suddenly.]

How do you make the kinetic field go away?

Well duh.

[The answer is also automatic. She's totally hotter than he is, and she has Robbie's permanent vote for the cover of the Swimsuit Edition.

At the request, he gingerly steps through the rubble until he's standing on a giant metal chunk. He knocks on the energy field with his left hand and sighs.]

I... don't. It's always there; it kicks up when I get hit. It's not something I think about. But - I guess it has something to do with the fear-tension-pain cycle, so I'd say relax? The monkeys are down, no other threats in sight. You don't need the bubble. You're safe. If anything turns up, I've got it. You can relax.

Sounds reasonable. It's just--all my powers are physical. I've never had to think about them before.

[But her hybrid powers give her amazing control over her body. She can extend that by analogy, right?

Nita shuts her eyes and relaxes every last muscle...which makes her drop out of the air as even her ankle wings droop. At least it works. The glow of the psionic shielding vanishes as she falls in an undignified heap atop the debris Robbie created, and the slight discomfort of the landing isn't nearly enough to trigger the force field again.]

Oof. Gonna have to work on that.

4 point oh. The Croatian judge really nailed you on the landing.

[He really wants to relax that much. He's too exhilarated from the rush of fighting alien squid gorillas with ray guns.]

Man, I can see-

[Why Rich does it. That's what he had been about to say, but the fight's not distracting him anymore. The new information comes rushing right back into his head. Rich doesn't do space fights anymore. It's a struggle to keep the right tone in his voice.]

-myself getting thrown into debtors' prison already. I don't have the money to pay for this kind of collateral damage. We should keep moving.

[Before anyone comes upon them and blames them instead of the monkeys.]

[Distracted by her own thoughts, Nita doesn't pick up on Robbie's little pause.]

'Sokay, I'm good for it.

[Probably? Her titles and holdings almost certainly reverted to Namor, and he's never been able to say no to her.

She rises back into the air and offers him a hand to carry him out of his debris field, her long ponytail falling over her shoulder as she leans down.]

Since when do you shoot huge blue blasts, Robbie?

[He takes her hand and allows himself to be lifted and towed. He hadn't wanted to mention things like structural integrity when she was trying to calm down, but getting clear is a good idea.]

I understand my powers better now. It's still kinetic energy.

[He's hedgey about it. If she's from when she said, he wants to keep her in the dark about as much of what's happened as he can. Nita doesn't need to know. If he doesn't tell her, then she doesn't have to lose anyone but Rich.]

Not like you suddenly catching a wicked case of TK.

[Too late. She's already been to Earth and read the Wikipedia article on Stamford.

After someone explained Wikipedia to her.

And the Internet.]

I think it's the Infinity Gem. It's the only thing different between now and the last time I got into a fight, and believe me, it would have come in handy then.

[She sets Robbie down where the undamaged decking starts, and lands to walk beside him.]

Sounds far-fetched, I know--what could shatter an Infinity Gem?--but it's the only explanation I've got.

[Maybe they hadn't explained Google to her. He will still hold out hope that she hasn't googled his name. The Wikipedia page was bad, but the comments on news articles and blogs were far worse. Unmoderated vortexes of vitriol, that's what they were.]

Has it been inside you long enough to work? I really have no idea why I thought that would matter. Infinity Gems are something for the Avengers to handle. Not us.

[Except the Avengers were apparently smart enough to not get hit with flying shards of crystal, which is more than either one of them could say right now.]

It's not the only thing different. Were you here? Maybe something's give off a radiation that effects Atlanteans. I wasn't there. I doubt the pink gorillas were there. It's not like I'm making bubbles. Er. Not new kinds, anyway.

They're a source of unfathomable cosmic power. I don't think there's a waiting period.

[Yeah, she has only slightly more of an idea of what she's talking about than he does.]

I...actually was on the version of Knowhere from our universe, right before--

[Just going to assume they're from the same universe because she needs a friend. And not going to discuss Rich because she can't deal with that right now.]

--well. I've been here before. There weren't any Infinity Gems involved.

Probably not. There's not any waiting period if you get caught in a lab accident and doused with energy from another dimension, either. That's a tip in case it ever comes up.

[Yeah, he knows pauses like that. Robbie can't handle taking about him - he's still barely handling talking to her without flinging his arms around her and never letting go. He knows that he'd fall apart if he did, so he helps steer the conversation back to the present situation.]

Which way do we go, then? Where's the stupidly obvious place that everyone would try to hide that the hostiles will definitely think to check? Where's the space station equivalent of under the bed? And when we find that, where's a smarter place to hide people?

That Kree kid on the holo mentioned something about the observation deck, which is up in the eyes.

[In case you'd forgotten you're in the skull of a dead space god.

She shakes her head.]

I dunno, Robbie. They're supposed to have the Luminals--space Avengers, basically--protecting the station, plus the security chief [who is a talking psychic Russian dog] but I haven't seen anyone besides you who isn't acting like an invader. Something's gone even more wrong than usual. I'm not sure there is a smarter place.

So... we go up?

[It's a serious question, because he's making the assumption that the floor is down and not up in relationship to where the top of the head is. Heck, it could even be sideways.]

Space Avengers. Luminals. Got it.

[If this is a usual day at Knowhere, he can see the need for space Avengers.]

There has to be someone else. It's not me, you, the Kree kid, and a space station full of bad guys. The lights are still on. There has to be a crew somewhere.

Not sure. The passport bracelets are supposed to have a map, I think.

[Nita pokes tentatively at hers, which she's wearing over her bracer. It looks pretty dumb.]

I know they have some kind of, like, interdimensional panic room, but I don't know the details. Stuff was going down fast the last time I was here and...we didn't exactly have time for the tour.

[Robbie might be familiar with the amount of mental effort it takes to not think about the painful details of things while discussing them at the same time, but it's not something that comes naturally to her.]

Awesome, if the damn things were working. Don't they have one of those standing mall maps? With the little stars on them. You are here. That'd be great.

[He doesn't even bother trying to play with his. He's tried hitting all the buttons, holding them down for ten seconds, using combos. Nothing turns it on.

Robbie puts a hand on her shoulder, but he takes it away quickly. He doesn't want anyone to fall apart, and he's getting a clearer picture of the last time she was here every time Nita mentions it.]

So I say we go up, and we keep an eye out for any pictograms that look like they mean interdimensional panic room. If we find the bathroom or the observation deck, even better.

[She looks at Robbie's hand on her shoulder for a second before he thinks better of it, and doesn't say anything.]

I bet if we head towards wherever there's more resistance, there'll be something important after we break through.

[That is the most Namor thing to come out of her mouth in ages.]

[That... there's nothing wrong with her suggestion. She's probably right. The hologram had said that "they" were headed for the Continuum Cortex, whatever that was. Whoever they were. He really wishes that he had an intergalactic cheat sheet or whatever presentation the kid had been babbling, because he's flying by the seat of his pants here.]

Fine, you lead the way.

[It's more terse than he's been to this point. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong with what she said, but it still feels like he's being iced out. He'd only meant to help. Even the comment about a bathroom wasn't entirely banter. Robbie's thinking in Earth terms, where bathrooms mean water.]

But I'll settle for any resistance.

[Nita isn't concerned about dehydration yet; she hasn't been exerting herself too hard and it's only been a few hours from her last shower. That Robbie Rider's boss had had to come haul her out of it after she succumbed to a crying jag and everyone else got worried is totally irrelevant and she's not thinking about it, thank you.]

Uh...okay.

[She's only leading the way for about 10 seconds before she looks back over her shoulder.]

What's wrong?

[Y'know, besides everything.]

[He stops walking when she questions him and just stares at her for a long moment. He looks to the bracelet on his wrist and then at their surroundings, craning his head this way and that deliberately to make it obvious before meeting her eyes once again.

He shakes his head very lightly.]

Are you kidding?

[Everything is clearly wrong.]

This is the second time today I've wound up getting teleported somewhere that I'm not supposed to be, and I just fought space monkeys and bumped into you, and you're - you're asking me what's wrong?

[Robbie sighs and scrubs his cheek with his palm. There isn't any one thing wrong to put the blame on, except that this entire conversation shouldn't, logically, be happening to him.]

I'm trying to get to the part where we find the Kree kid and find out what's going on. That's all.

[Nita looks at him for a long moment. She might be off her game, but she knows how to read her friends. ...Assuming Robbie still is her friend. What if he's mad at her for Stamford?

She wouldn't blame him, really.]

...Okay. We can talk later.

[The look is so uncomfortable. Like ill-fitting polyester, he wants it off of him as quickly as possible. Robbie knows when he's being scrutinized, but, dammit, she has to agree that everything that's happened since he zapped in here is insane.

He's probably lying on the floor of Mount Wundagore with a massive head wound.

It's sad that that makes so much more sense and sadder that that's why he doesn't think he is on the floor of Mount Wundagore.]

Okay, we'll catch up later.

[He's humoring her, but the smile is easier now. He waves her onward.]

EVENT ONE: JUNE 21ST-28TH

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