Around LA, Tuesday Noon Onwards
It had been a long, long night and morning.
They'd buried the woman - older Gert? older Gert - eventually. But not before they'd fought about her, and who she was, and what it meant. Chase had believed it was Gert. Gert had not. (And Karolina had to wonder whether anyone would, when it was supposed to be an older version of them.) He'd wanted Nico to bring her back to life with the Staff of One, but she'd already used up that spell with Alex, and in any case, it hadn't worked, anyway. But they tried another one. One that let Nico see where the woman had come from. And yes, she was Gert in a couple of decades. And Nico saw Victorious, too. Said he was horrible.
That was when Karolina started calming everyone down and saying Victor was just a kid, and that he wouldn't, couldn't be that bad. She didn't go so far as to say she knew him, but she did her best to keep them from jumping to conclusions. Or a homicidal rage, as the case may have been with Chase. They talked about who his father might be, and Karolina wondered whether she should call Victor, the one in Fandom, and try to find things out. In fact, while the others were finding shovels to dig a grave, she tried calling.
But of course the multiversal lines were suddenly on the fritz. Of course. She was on her own with this one. All she could do was try and keep things from escalating.
But they had to bury older Gertrude. And that was awful, for everyone. Karolina tried to keep from wondering whether Victor could really grow up into someone who'd do that. It wasn't helpful. Not right now. And once their makeshift funeral was over, they got to work on finding Victor, using the info on the back of the old yearbook photo older Gert had brought with her. By noon, they were already flying out to East Angeles High School. The Leapfrog hovered above the field where they'd just interrupted football practice. "Attention, jocks!," Gert called to the people below through the loudspeakers. "We're looking for one of your classmates, Victor Mancha! Tell us where he is, and you can return to your meaningless ball chasing!"
"There!" Karolina said, pointing out towards the bleachers. She could spot Victor easily enough. "Please, let me go talk to him first." Because she thought she might know how to approach him. She hoped she did, anyway. And they let her, and she flew down to meet Victor. And okay, maybe it would've been better had she not been glowing like the Majesdanian she was, but how else was she supposed to get down without parking the Leapfrog?
He stared at her. Along with some guy she didn't know. His friend, probably. "Victor, please don't freak out," she said. "We just want to talk to you. I know what you are and --"
"Get away from me!" Victor yelled. Sparks flew out of his mouth, and behind him the bleachers began to twist and curl together. Into a big metallic shape. A giant fist made of twisted metal. Karolina flew backwards a little bit. "Vic, what are you...?"
Victor turned his hand. The metal fist moved as his real hand did - and it hit Karolina, hard, tossing her halfway across the field where slumped on the grass. And apparently passed out, since the next thing she knew, Chase was kneeling next to her and asking her if she was alright. As he helped her up, she saw that the Leapfrog was parked, Victor was laying unconscious at Nico's feet, and Molly was just getting up, her hair sticking up like she was a cartoon victim of a big jolt of electricity.
"You guys all right?" Chase asked the others as he helped Karolina to them. "'Cause Karolina should be okay, after a sunbath or whatever it is she does."
"We're fine, Chase," said Nico, with a glance down at Victor.
"Just a bad case of sympathy pain for me," Gert confirmed, rubbing her temple.
Molly made a face. "And my stupid hair's got all staticky."
"You better fire up the Leapfrog, Chase," Nico added, "while I figure out what to do with the boy."
And Karolina was about to object to that, or at least the phrasing, when they realized they had company. "What you're going to do is keep your hands to yourself, sister," said a voice, "and start acting your age."
There were a bunch of heroes on the edge of the field, now. The woman who'd spoken had a mask, and gloves reminiscent of the Fistigons. Behind her, there was a man in a helmet, a man with discs, another one whose chest seemed to be on fire, and behind them all, a girl floating in the air. They all looked like they meant business. And they were grown-ups. Neither was usually a great sign for Karolina and her friends. There was a lot of staring, at first, then some commotion as Victor came back to consciousness, and got up. Nico held the Staff of One sideways, keeping him behind it. The super strangers said they were from a group which had apparently been founded to help 'kids like them', meaning Karolina and the rest. They were called Excelsior.
"What are you, a Christian glam band?" Gert asked, incredulous.
"Like Stryper?" added Nico.
Victor looked at both of them like they were idiots. "Don't you guys know anything about super heroes?" he asked, pointing at the guy in the helmet. "That's Turbo... from the New Warriors!" The woman with the gloves and the boots. "And Darkhawk, right?" The floating girl. "Lightspeed, from Power Pack." The guy on fire. "That guy's Chamber, used to be with Generation X."
... The last guy.
"And... well, I don't really know him."
"Aw, that is cold, dude," the guy muttered.
"Nico," said Darkhawk, "why don't you let the charmingly fanboyish civilian go, so we can work this out ourselves?"
"Because he's not a civilian," Nico said. "This kid has powers. He's a murderer."
"We don't know that," Karolina murmured. She doubted anyone even heard it, since Victor snapped, exactly at the same time, "That's a lie!"
"Victor, relax," she said, trying to be soothing. "We'll talk about it later." Once they were no longer dealing with... whoever these people were. Of course, they didn't seem so into the idea of leaving the kids alone. "Listen, we have no interest in fighting you," Darkhawk said. "Let's open the lines of communication here, and try to find out what we need to do to make you feel more comfortable with --"
She got hit with some kind of a green laser. And then so did the others, and there was the sound of whooping above them.
Chase in the leapfrog.
"Check it!" he hollered through the loudspeakers once all of the Excelsior group were down for the count, and he lowered the Leapfrog to the ground again. "Did you guys know the Leapfrog had lasers? It's got lasers!"
They shuffled Victor along with them into the Leapfrog and took off. They didn't get a whole lot out of him. He thought his dad had died defending the country. It didn't really add up with what older Gert had told them, no. And Karolina wondered when it would be good to break it to him what he was. The moment didn't seem to come, though. Because while they were talking, the Leapfrog couldn't cloak because it had used all that power on the newly discovered lasers. Which meant the Excelsior bunch found them far too soon.
And zapped them out of the sky.
Which meant they crash landed right through the roof of a film studio with the Leapfrog knocked offline. Which in turn meant the girls had to fight Excelsior off while Chase and Victor got Leapfrog back online. Luckily, it wasn't a hard fight. Adults could be so useless sometimes. And as soon as the 'Frog was up and running, they took off again, and this time, they made it back to the Hostel. They had a long night ahead of them, too.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay. Taken with tweakage from Runaways vol. 2, issues two and three. TBC tomorrow (it was going to be today but lol I took my time finishing this)!]
They'd buried the woman - older Gert? older Gert - eventually. But not before they'd fought about her, and who she was, and what it meant. Chase had believed it was Gert. Gert had not. (And Karolina had to wonder whether anyone would, when it was supposed to be an older version of them.) He'd wanted Nico to bring her back to life with the Staff of One, but she'd already used up that spell with Alex, and in any case, it hadn't worked, anyway. But they tried another one. One that let Nico see where the woman had come from. And yes, she was Gert in a couple of decades. And Nico saw Victorious, too. Said he was horrible.
That was when Karolina started calming everyone down and saying Victor was just a kid, and that he wouldn't, couldn't be that bad. She didn't go so far as to say she knew him, but she did her best to keep them from jumping to conclusions. Or a homicidal rage, as the case may have been with Chase. They talked about who his father might be, and Karolina wondered whether she should call Victor, the one in Fandom, and try to find things out. In fact, while the others were finding shovels to dig a grave, she tried calling.
But of course the multiversal lines were suddenly on the fritz. Of course. She was on her own with this one. All she could do was try and keep things from escalating.
But they had to bury older Gertrude. And that was awful, for everyone. Karolina tried to keep from wondering whether Victor could really grow up into someone who'd do that. It wasn't helpful. Not right now. And once their makeshift funeral was over, they got to work on finding Victor, using the info on the back of the old yearbook photo older Gert had brought with her. By noon, they were already flying out to East Angeles High School. The Leapfrog hovered above the field where they'd just interrupted football practice. "Attention, jocks!," Gert called to the people below through the loudspeakers. "We're looking for one of your classmates, Victor Mancha! Tell us where he is, and you can return to your meaningless ball chasing!"
"There!" Karolina said, pointing out towards the bleachers. She could spot Victor easily enough. "Please, let me go talk to him first." Because she thought she might know how to approach him. She hoped she did, anyway. And they let her, and she flew down to meet Victor. And okay, maybe it would've been better had she not been glowing like the Majesdanian she was, but how else was she supposed to get down without parking the Leapfrog?
He stared at her. Along with some guy she didn't know. His friend, probably. "Victor, please don't freak out," she said. "We just want to talk to you. I know what you are and --"
"Get away from me!" Victor yelled. Sparks flew out of his mouth, and behind him the bleachers began to twist and curl together. Into a big metallic shape. A giant fist made of twisted metal. Karolina flew backwards a little bit. "Vic, what are you...?"
Victor turned his hand. The metal fist moved as his real hand did - and it hit Karolina, hard, tossing her halfway across the field where slumped on the grass. And apparently passed out, since the next thing she knew, Chase was kneeling next to her and asking her if she was alright. As he helped her up, she saw that the Leapfrog was parked, Victor was laying unconscious at Nico's feet, and Molly was just getting up, her hair sticking up like she was a cartoon victim of a big jolt of electricity.
"You guys all right?" Chase asked the others as he helped Karolina to them. "'Cause Karolina should be okay, after a sunbath or whatever it is she does."
"We're fine, Chase," said Nico, with a glance down at Victor.
"Just a bad case of sympathy pain for me," Gert confirmed, rubbing her temple.
Molly made a face. "And my stupid hair's got all staticky."
"You better fire up the Leapfrog, Chase," Nico added, "while I figure out what to do with the boy."
And Karolina was about to object to that, or at least the phrasing, when they realized they had company. "What you're going to do is keep your hands to yourself, sister," said a voice, "and start acting your age."
There were a bunch of heroes on the edge of the field, now. The woman who'd spoken had a mask, and gloves reminiscent of the Fistigons. Behind her, there was a man in a helmet, a man with discs, another one whose chest seemed to be on fire, and behind them all, a girl floating in the air. They all looked like they meant business. And they were grown-ups. Neither was usually a great sign for Karolina and her friends. There was a lot of staring, at first, then some commotion as Victor came back to consciousness, and got up. Nico held the Staff of One sideways, keeping him behind it. The super strangers said they were from a group which had apparently been founded to help 'kids like them', meaning Karolina and the rest. They were called Excelsior.
"What are you, a Christian glam band?" Gert asked, incredulous.
"Like Stryper?" added Nico.
Victor looked at both of them like they were idiots. "Don't you guys know anything about super heroes?" he asked, pointing at the guy in the helmet. "That's Turbo... from the New Warriors!" The woman with the gloves and the boots. "And Darkhawk, right?" The floating girl. "Lightspeed, from Power Pack." The guy on fire. "That guy's Chamber, used to be with Generation X."
... The last guy.
"And... well, I don't really know him."
"Aw, that is cold, dude," the guy muttered.
"Nico," said Darkhawk, "why don't you let the charmingly fanboyish civilian go, so we can work this out ourselves?"
"Because he's not a civilian," Nico said. "This kid has powers. He's a murderer."
"We don't know that," Karolina murmured. She doubted anyone even heard it, since Victor snapped, exactly at the same time, "That's a lie!"
"Victor, relax," she said, trying to be soothing. "We'll talk about it later." Once they were no longer dealing with... whoever these people were. Of course, they didn't seem so into the idea of leaving the kids alone. "Listen, we have no interest in fighting you," Darkhawk said. "Let's open the lines of communication here, and try to find out what we need to do to make you feel more comfortable with --"
She got hit with some kind of a green laser. And then so did the others, and there was the sound of whooping above them.
Chase in the leapfrog.
"Check it!" he hollered through the loudspeakers once all of the Excelsior group were down for the count, and he lowered the Leapfrog to the ground again. "Did you guys know the Leapfrog had lasers? It's got lasers!"
They shuffled Victor along with them into the Leapfrog and took off. They didn't get a whole lot out of him. He thought his dad had died defending the country. It didn't really add up with what older Gert had told them, no. And Karolina wondered when it would be good to break it to him what he was. The moment didn't seem to come, though. Because while they were talking, the Leapfrog couldn't cloak because it had used all that power on the newly discovered lasers. Which meant the Excelsior bunch found them far too soon.
And zapped them out of the sky.
Which meant they crash landed right through the roof of a film studio with the Leapfrog knocked offline. Which in turn meant the girls had to fight Excelsior off while Chase and Victor got Leapfrog back online. Luckily, it wasn't a hard fight. Adults could be so useless sometimes. And as soon as the 'Frog was up and running, they took off again, and this time, they made it back to the Hostel. They had a long night ahead of them, too.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay. Taken with tweakage from Runaways vol. 2, issues two and three. TBC tomorrow (it was going to be today but lol I took my time finishing this)!]