EVENT ONE: JUNE 21ST-28TH

[luminals]

TAKE BACK KNOWHERE
When: June 21-28
Who: Everyone.
Where: All over Knowhere, ending in the Continuum Cortex and Observation Deck.

Event details are here, IC announcement is here.

Prose & Action brackets are both acceptable ways of posting to these comments, please be mindful of what threads you are posting under!

Comments

Namorita | OPEN

[littlecousin]

[Fighting is a refreshing break from wondering what the hell is going on, and though the various aliens pressing around her seem to just keep coming, none of them have yet been strong enough or well-armed enough to slow Nita down--not that she has any real idea where she's going, but patience has never been her strong suit and she's done with waiting.

She tosses a mostly human-looking (if humans had tiger-striped skin) assailant into another, breaking the second one's charge and knocking both of them down amid what she assumes is a stream of curses...just in time to get sent flying herself as a third alien who resembles nothing so much as a pink gorilla punches her clear across the room, where a wall thoughtfully stops her and in return she leaves a Sub-Mariner-sized dent, then falls to the floor with a thump.]

Jerk! I hate this place!

[Nothing injured but her dignity.]

[timeywimeyorb]

[There was a lot to take in and Sailor Pluto was terribly lost. She wanted to get back to the Continuum Cortex, but the other aliens aboard did not seem to be in a helpful mood.

Pluto rushed around a corner and pulled up short when a young woman was thrown into a nearby wall. She couldn't help but wince, because honestly it looked pretty painful.

Her gaze didn't rest on the woman for very long since the aliens that had sent her flying were still on their feet and glaring them down. Pluto raised her Garnet Rod.]

Dead Scream.

[The tip of the rod glowed with energy that was quickly unleashed on the assailants. Pluto lowered the staff and looked back to the woman.]

Are you all right?

[littlecousin]

[Nita's back on her feet already, brushing invisible and probably imaginary dust off herself, none the worse for wear.]

Fine, thanks. Neat trick with the staff.

[She's average height for a Western woman, with a senshi-level enormous amount of blond hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and dressed for the beach in a scaly green swimsuit and nothing else. Plus she has pointed ears and little white wings at each ankle, and she left a dent in a metal wall but is already back on her feet, so there's something not-quite-human going on here.]

[timeywimeyorb]

[Well that was unexpected. Pluto should have realized she was going to be encountering a number of unexpected things today. This woman, whoever she is, is made of tougher stuff than your average mortal. She nods in response to both the thanks and the assessment of her own abilities. There's more where that came from.]

I am trying to get to the Continuum Cortex. You seem like you will be more willing to help with directions than anyone I've run across so far.

[She looks back at the aliens not taken out by her attack and scowls. This is going to be a lot of fighting.]

Of course, that will have to wait.

[littlecousin]

Oh yeah, thataway.

[Nita points up and over her shoulder to the where the Cortex is. She's been here before, or at least the equivalent location in another universe. Close enough, right?

She follows Setsuna's gaze to the bad guys (anyone fighting her is a bad guy by definition, duh) and sighs, rolling her shoulders to loosen the muscles.]

I can do this all day, but I don't know what it's getting us.

[timeywimeyorb]

Ah.

[Much easier than she'd been expecting. In fact, she's surprised by how easy that was. Which probably means that's the only easy thing that will happen today.]

Closer to answers I was hoping.

[By this point the designated "bad guys" have recovered enough to start approaching again. Pluto twirled the staff and gripped it in a way that suggested she was about to bash people's heads in with it...which was pretty accurate actually.]

Shall we continue and see if it does get us anything?

[littlecousin]

Sure, why not? I think we're gonna have to get to the end of this corridor and loop back around, though. The layout of this place doesn't really make sense.

[On account of it's the giant decapitated head of a space god and all.

In preparation for the fight, Nita rises into the air, little wings on her ankles fluttering. Flying gives her better maneuverability.]

My name's Nita Prentiss, by the way.

[timeywimeyorb]

[That would explain why Pluto had not been able to retrace her steps to the Continuum Cortex. After the announcement that had been the first thing she had attempted and that had failed miserably.]

Sailor Pluto.

[A four-legged boar-like creature with green spines and armor ran at them and she parried with her Garnet Rod. Talking was going to become a bit difficult now with the fighting back on. Pluto grunted at the impact and slammed the rod against the beast's snout, driving it away.]

[littlecousin]

Sailor? What, like on a boat?

[Nita likes boats!

She also has no problem talking in the middle of a fight, and kicks a sword-wielding humanoid in the chin from mid-air, at which point the unfortunate creature describes a graceful parabolic arc before crashing back down in a clatter of armor and dropped weapons.

Okay, that kind of alien can't fly. Noted.]

[timeywimeyorb]

No. Not like that.

[Although explaining the origin of the name of sailor would be a complicated one. Pluto wasn't even sure she had the necessary knowledge to do so. It was just a title to explain their role as far as she was concerned.]

It's a title of sorts, but it does not involve boats.

[Pluto slammed the rod into the boar-alien again, shoving him back further this time. She now had enough room to leap over him and take up a position behind him, which she took full advantage of by cracking him upside the head with the Garnet Orb, the top of her staff that held a pretty hefty garnet in it. There was a loud crack and the boar-alien dropped.]

[littlecousin]

Aww, too bad.

[She'd been hoping they had something in common. Besides being stranded on a crazy space station at the edge of the universe, that is.

Nita looks around for the next closest group of hostile aliens and charges into them like an airborne bowling ball, shoulder-checking one into a sprawl and clotheslining another, whom she immediately pulls, kicking and cursing, into a headlock. Her fighting style does not have a whole lot of finesse.]

Oh, shut up, this is your own fault.

[timeywimeyorb]

[She'd probably enjoy the company of Neptune or Mercury a bit more if that was the case.

Once the boar-alien dropped Pluto pressed forward. Very few of the aliens shared anything in common which struck her as odd for a proposed invasion. She also didn't quite understand why they were attacking, but she wasn't just going to set her staff down and not fight.

She launched herself over the dropped alien and landed closer to the hostile alien forces. She swept the legs out of several 3-feet tall bipeds with 5 eyes, each a different color. As soon as they were down Pluto took a deep breath and released another blast of energy (Dead Scream) from the tip of the rod. The planet-shaped energy cut through the gathered aliens.]

[littlecousin]

[Nita makes sure to stay out of Pluto's line of fire; that looks like it hurts. She herself can't take out multiple assailants at once like that, but she hits hard enough that one-on-one fights don't last past the first blow.]

Besides the Kree on the holo, I haven't seen a single species I recognize yet--uh. Unless you're human.

[The green hair makes her not so sure.]

[walkingballpit]

[For those who can manage to do two things at once, fighting is still an exercise in what the hell is going on. The only difference is that it's less about where Robbie is right now and more about the people he can see fighting at the other end of the corridor.

That would be where someone who looked a lot like Nita (... his life was suddenly full of women who looked like Nita) was throwing someone who looked a lot like Tigra into another cat-person. Did the Atlanteans and the cat-people have a thing that he didn't know about? It made a weird sort of sense. Fish. Cats.

Running to help one of them (he's not sure which one, but he's got another 50 feet to figure it out), Robbie skids to a halt after Namorita goes hurtling past him in the other direction, where she slams into a wall and slides to the floor.]

N- Faira!

[He catches the name at the last second, not wanting to get yelled at again for calling her Nita. The decision's made for him. If that's Tigra, she can handle herself for now. He's over at the Atlantean's side quickly, relieved that she's aware enough to be angry. The wall is pretty banged up. He leans over and offers her a hand up.]

Don't tell me. You've got a chunk of a magic gem inside you, and you've been teleported to a space station on the edge of the galaxy.

[littlecousin]

["Faira" means nothing to Nita beyond being just another name that could as easily be surface or alien as Atlantean, so she doesn't react until Robbie makes it to her side and starts being Robbie at her. She looks up at him, surprised, but with a smile creeping its way into her expression, and takes his offered hand.]

Heya, Toothpick. When did you bounce in?

[walkingballpit]

A couple of minutes before my new James Bond wristwatch told me we're all gonna die and then went kaput. Q just doesn't make'em the way he used to.

[He helps hoist her to her feet, and then it visibly clicks on his face what she's said. Robbie's upper body leans back at the realization, but he doesn't let go of her hand at all.]

... what did you just call me?

[Please don't be a Skrull. Please let this be some stupid payback practical joke that Vance came up with. Just not a Skrull.]

[littlecousin]

[Nita doesn't need the help at all, but she puts some weight on Robbie's arm while getting smoothly to her feet so he feels useful.]

Your nickname, Toothpick.

[His terrible, terrible nickname.]

[walkingballpit]

[Thank you for making him a part of this, Nita.]

Nobody calls me Toothpick anymore, Faira. You've known me what, five minutes? Who told you to call me that? Vance? Aracely? This is about the Namorita thing, isn't it?

[He doesn't look pleased to be having this conversation, but there's more pressing concerns. Like the pink gorilla that's now barreling down the hall at them.]

Your dance partner wants another waltz. Can I cut in?

[littlecousin]

My name's Namorita, dude. It's always been Namorita. Who's Faira?

[Something occurs to her.]

Oh my god, this better not be some parallel universe thing.

[She is so sick of parallel universes--but it can wait, she guesses, watching the gorilla charging with about as much concern as she would have shown an angry Chihuahua. That last hit was just a lucky shot.]

...Yeah sure, all yours. Yell if you get in over your head.

[walkingballpit]

[He's already in over his head, because there's a Skrull in front of him and Magilla Gorilla incoming. Robbie cannot deal with both of them at the same time. He directs a cascade of bubbles towards the primate and then tightens his grip on her arm.]

You are not Namorita. You've been telling us not call you Nita, over and over again. I finally get it right, and now you're starting in one "Who's Faira?" You're Faira!

[He groans at the suggestion that it's a parallel universe thing and drops her arm. She could be right. It makes more sense than a Skrull.]

No, you're right. It's probably another universe thing.

[littlecousin]

[Rather than snap back at Robbie, Nita points up at the girders crisscrossing the empty space where a ceiling should be, shadowed and inaccessible to anyone who can't fly, and a reasonably good location for private chat, as long as none of the participants are scared of heights.]

Look, let's blow this joint before King Kong Junior over there wakes up and we can talk. Stuff's been all kinds of weird for me lately and it'll probably clear things up for you if I explain.

[Ordinarily she wouldn't wait for agreement before throwing an arm around his waist and flying off with him, but nothing's ordinary anymore.]

[walkingballpit]

[No acrophobia here. He nods at the suggestion, wondering if her all kinds of weird has a chance to top talking to your (dead) friend and the whole Mount Wundagore episode that he'd been in the middle of before getting thrown into this episode.]

Yeah, go for it. I - that wasn't Tigra you threw earlier, was it? In my universe, it's not a good idea to go throwing Avengers around unless you're planning on flooding New York City.

[littlecousin]

[Oh Robbie little do you know. Nita picks him up one-armed and takes to the air.]

Tigra? [What even.] No, I think it was a guy.

...I sucker-punched Cap once, but he was being mind-controlled at the time.

[She settles lightly onto a girder almost wide enough to qualify as a catwalk and lets go of Robbie. In his Speedball form she can't tell that he's any different (read: all grown up) than he was the last time she'd seen him.]

[walkingballpit]

[He snickers at the Cap comment and settles down to sit on the beam. If it's going to be story time, they might as well be comfortable.]

Sometimes, he deserves it. Anyway, Tigra's an Avenger.

[Robbie depowers and looks up at her without the orange tinted lenses. She really does resemble Namorita or Faira, whatever she wants to call herself now. It almost hurts to see. He rolls his shoulders as a physical cue to let it go.]

When you say things've been weird, how weird are we talking about? Weirder than the past couple of hours? Weirder than bipedal, talking house pets?

[littlecousin]

I know who she is. I just don't think I've said more than ten words to her in my life.

[Nita leans back against a support and slides down to sit facing Robbie, bare, be-winged legs curled in front of her so she can hug them and rest her chin on her knees.]

I--Robbie, this might be rough, okay? I'm totally not bringing up anything to hurt you on purpose, but I gotta to explain what's going on.

[That's basically spelling out "Stamford" in six-inch capital letters, but what choice does she have?]

I'm from...before. Before everything. The Sphinx messed with the timestream and pulled me into the future. My future, I mean. Your present. It was this weird pocket dimension, and Richie and Chris were there from the present, and Black Bolt and Doc Richards and me were from the past. We fought the Sphinx--two Sphinxes, actually, it was so messed up--and we won, but when he died everything started unraveling and people were getting sent back to their own times. Rich grabbed me and pulled me out with him, because he didn't want me to go back.

["To die," she doesn't say, but she's thinking it and he must be, too.]

And everything in the pocket dimension was so broken from the two versions of the Sphinx having two Ka Stones at the same time that somehow me not going back to when I came from didn't change history.

[So yes, that is in fact weirder than alternate timelines or the High Evolutionary's mad science fair.]