In Another Life (IC)

[Darksider42]

Prime

Rift took a deep breath as he waited. He could now hear them coming down. He was glad to see that he wasn't going to have to do this alone. This place was started to creep the hell out of the guitarist. Get this done and I can go back to my evening plans. He thought as he continued to click his tongue. Darkness really held less meaning for him with echolocation.

"So glad you could join me." Rift said with a wave as soon as he could see them.

Erde

Well, that's an improvement at least. The Lieutenant thought as they started heading downstairs. He really didn't need his trust, only his co-operation. He kept an eye on the Inquisitor just as they went down deeper into the warehouse. He paused for a moment when a thought hit him.

"Where did Watanabe go?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Erde

"Yes sir, certainly," said Tulink, carefully not making eye contact with either Watanabe. He didn't know much about how the occupiers of North America's western half treated sentient machines, and he certainly wasn't eager to find out. Orders were easier to process than abuse, anyway. As for the people of this dimension, he...he couldn't think about that, not about this Tronik, not in the midst of the aliens. He cocked his head, accessing the local electronic systems again. "There is an antique store a few blocks away. They may have some of the needed equipment in storage."

He cocked his head. "The others are going below to stop the hound. I will transfer myself to the city's electronics grid so that I may assist you at the antique store."

Prime

Wilder's noticed you're missing. thought Citizen as he hovered at the doorway to the basement, trying to reach his double again. What are you doing? Where's Koshiro?

They're going to find the missing parts for our dimensional transporter.

"They're scouting the perimeter for other exits," lied Citizen smoothly as he drifted down into the darkness to join the others. "The other Tulink is assisting them. They should follow us down in a few moments, assuming they don't find anything." This Tulink looked distinctly less servile than the one Warren and Corbin were familiar with; he certainly lacked the processed look of his Erde counterpart.

[Avenger Assembled]

The streets of Freedom City at night were a familiar sight to Koshiro McMillan; he'd certainly gone 'patrolling' often enough to recognize them well enough. It was a warm night, but not so hot as to chase people off the streets, and they passed several homeless guys on the streets of the Fens as they made their way through the neighborhood: nobody seemed to think the identical Asian twins were a particularly likely-looking set of marks.

For Koshiro Watanabe, of course, this was an alien version of Freedom City; the streets and buildings like something from an aged-up old movie of life in the United States before the war, with no sign of the house-to-house fighting that had destroyed most of the old American buildings he was familiar with. There were certainly more people here than he'd have expected to find in a falling-down neighborhood like this back home, which made sense if his double was telling the truth about the lack of ethnic

The antique store did indeed turn out to be closed, locked up tighter than a drum, but luckily the efficient Tulink had already 'ported himself inside. "Herr Rosenberg has evidently invested in a top of the line computer system," he smoothly said as he opened the swinging door for the two other boys. "I have projected myself with only 10% loss of signal."

----

Thanks to his echolocation, Rift was able to pinpoint the location of the monster they were chasing; it was both good and bad news. The old bootlegging tunnels were intact, the claw marks left by the creature were easy to follow on the floor, and they managed to corner it in a blind alley. But they had a problem, down there a good twenty feet below the surface: the creature was in a blind corridor, but was clawing and biting furiously at the obstacle in its way. Peering down in the half-lit gloom, the boys could see the target Rift and Wilder had heard first: the dog was ripping and clawing at a massive underground pipe, easily big enough for a sewer line; something no doubt part of the city's utilities, its claws starting to make headway against the rusted iron.

"If it eats through the line," muttered Citizen, "that could trigger anything from a gas explosion to a structural collapse in that old street. We're going to have to be careful..."

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar mulled the situation over for a few moments, shifting uncomfortably in the rather tight (to him) tunnels. Finally, he spoke up.

"I think I can grab it. Normally I'd just grow and manhandle him, but it's too tight down here. But if you give me a minute, I can just reach out with my power directly and grab him. The thing looks tough, but not quite that tough."

"Hmph, or I could do that. I've had plenty more practice, and have way more fine control than you'd be able to summon up."

"Yeah, I bet you've had plenty of practice."

The Inquisitor just glared back at CT. For almost 30 seconds, they had a staring contest, before Templar broke it with a sigh and a shrug.

"Okay then. You lead off, and I'll back you up. Stopping that thing's more important than arguing, or comparing whose ring makes bigger constructs. Unless anyone else has a better idea?"

He gazed around at the other teenagers present, seeing if any of them had any suggestions or criticisms to offer the plan. The Inquisitor himself stood there, looking a bit shocked. He was sure he'd need to beat it into the half-giant's head, but apparently he occasionally could think in that over-sized skull of his.

[Darksider42]

Rift thought through this for a moment before nodding. "Plan sounds solid man. Got no complaints from my end." He said with a smile.

His counterpart frowned on the other hand. "And what about it trying to struggle and attempt to escape?"

"Well...Guess we could play a few notes and knock it out." Rift said as he unslung his guitar. "You play?"

The Lieutenant reached into the bag he had been lugging around with him this whole time and pulled out a guitar. It had similar looking modifications as Rift Prime, though it was completely undecorated. "Course. Try and make sure no one gets any backlash." He said before getting ready. Rift rolled his eyes and did the same.

[Electra]

The native Koshiro led the way into the store, stepping carefully in case there was merchandise or even a shop cat on the floor somewhere. "Look for old radios and TVs, the older the better," he instructed. "Vacuum tubes haven't been used in any tech here for at least thirty years. We might be able to make our own with some equipment, but I don't know how to do it myself. It'd be a lot easier to find some."

"Well if you don't use vacuum tubes, how do you work your technology?" Koshiro wondered, picking his way equally carefully in the other direction. "What have you got instead?"

"Um, I think it was transistors first, back in the seventies or so," Koshiro replied, trying to think back to his engineering history. "Now it's like integrated circuits and semiconductors and stuff. But we're not going to upgrade your tech, I'm not even getting anywhere near the problems that'd cause."

[Avenger Assembled]

Papercut thought he saw the vague intimation of a very familiar sneer on the other Tulink's face when the talk turned to Erde's technological levels, but by the time his counterpart had looked back, the electronic teenager was all servility and cooperation. "Integrating technology from this dimension would surely be very difficult, particularly since the Reich would likely consider it the creation of Jewish science." He floated past the other two, shimmering faintly in the dark, and pronounced, "There are several old televisions, and what appears to be a box of recovered vacumn tubes, in the service area behind the shop floor. There are signs of human habitation in the upper floors, so you should endeavor to tread carefully," he told the humans.

[Darksider42]

Warren took one last quick look at the Ghost dog down int he tunnel. He checked the plan twice in his mind then with a nod to his displaced double, Rift took off from his spot and started playing a string of notes at blinding speed. Sound waves bouncing off the walls and heading towards to dog and interrupting its dig that would spell disaster for many that lived and worked nearby. Rift was joined a split second later by Lieutenant Wilder who followed his lead, though looking much more serious compared to the grin Rift had as his mind worked in directing the sonic blast.

[Avenger Assembled]

The ghost hound wailed and shivered under the joint attack of the two sonic controllers, prompting Citizen to fly in for the kill. He punched it, hard, putting his back into it, only to shout in uncomputer-like alarm as he felt the flesh of his hand briefly sear. "Ah, damn it, it's got some kind of energy barrier! I can't penetrate it, and it burns like...well, it burns!" Pain wasn't something Sharl felt a lot of while projecting, so the sensation was new and deeply unpleasant. He flew back, getting out of the way so the two Corbins could open fire. He hoped his counterpart was having more luck with the two Koshiros. "Hit it hard, try not to make the roof collapse on you!"

[KnightDisciple]

"We're going to make sure it's not a threat to the pipe."

"Is this a good idea?"

"You didn't give a better one, and there's no time. Now, let's go!"

With that, both Corbins lifted their right arms, supporting them with their left; they unconsciously adopted the same wide stance to support themselves as they worked. From the Inquisitor's ring, golden, hard-edged light spilled forth, racing toward the creature as it shaped itself into a simple lasso. Templar's energy was a bit more rounded, and a bit fuzzier with the tongues of holy flame licking off the giant hand construct that reached forward.

Templar's hand reached the beast a moment before the Inquisitor's lasso. The hand of fire latched onto the torso of the beast, while the lasso of light made itself into a noose (though not a choking one) that went around the unholy thing's neck. Both young men pulled back at the same time, hoping to drag the creature all the way to to middle of their little gathering, and then hold it there.

[Darksider42]

Rift frowned as his attack went wide and hit nothing but the floor while his doubles hit the creature perfectly. "Now thats just sloppy." The lieutenant said to his counterpart. Rift rolled his eyes and moved out of the way as the creature was dragged between them. Rift was smiling again though as he started to strum notes. "Well then, lets bring the noise and see who does better this time." He said as she started to play more furiously, high powered waves of sound baring down on the creature with each note. The Lieutenant joined in not long, still with the same determined look on his face

[KnightDisciple]

"It's still near the pipe..."

"Not any more. On 3, pull with me. 1, 2, 3!"

With that, both Corbins hauled back on their ring arms, and a visible line of energy connected their constructs wrapped around the creature with their hands. With unnerving speed, the vaguely canine thing was hauled through the air with unusual grace. Despite the noose around its throat, it wasn't choked, merely held at the directional mercy of its captors. The hound landed right in the center of the group, held fast still by the efforts of the ring-slingers.

"Gentlemen, if you would please take care of the creature of us."

"We can do this just about all day, but we can't do much else while we're doing this."

[Avenger Assembled]

Under the assault of the united heroes and their assorted allies from Erde, there was nothing the misplaced monster could do to resist them. With one last punch from Citizen, the monster fell apart, the Hound of Tindalos shrieking into fragments as each howling piece of the demonic dog was torn apart and hurled into the vortex between dimensions. They were left alone in the darkness beneath the old warehouse, left alone with the realization that the real problem here wasn't the monster at all. "This isn't my area, but I think we took care of that," said Sharl, shooting a glance at Corbin and Warren. His own, anyway; even though Rift was before his time, he seemed more trustworthy than the dimensional outsiders. "Are you all right? Do any of you need medical attention?" he temporized.

[Darksider42]

Prime

Rift dusted himself off as soon as the hound fell apart from the combined assault by the heroes. He could still feel his ears ringing. "Think I'll be fine man. What about you? Punching something that burns you is bound to leave a mark somewhere somehow." The Guitarist said, rubbing his ears. He couldn't help but feel that this wasn't over just yet.

Erde

Lieutenant Wilder simply slung his guitar over his shoulder and cracked his knuckles. "Excellent work." Wilder said, flexing his fingers. He hated to sensation of his fingers locking up. He paused for a moment. "I wonder if Watanabe has been successful in acquiring the parts needed to get the device working again..." He said out loud to no one in particular as he bent down and picked up the Dimensional teleporter he kept hidden during the fight. His mind was again working to find some other alternative to fixing it if they proved unsuccessful in locating the vacuum tubes

[Electra]

Both Koshiros looked upward immediately when Tulink told them that there was someone upstairs, but for the moment at least, everything seemed still and quiet. "If you see what we need, go get it," Koshiro whispered impatiently to the computer construct. "We're wasting time."

"Hey, ease off him," Koshiro whispered to his counterpart with a frown. "He's just doing his job." Despite whatever masquerade this Sharl was trying to pull, Koshiro couldn't quite stand by and let his own alternate self treat the AI like a dumb machine. Erde-Koshiro gave him a look that was more puzzled than angry, and Prime-Koshiro shrugged. "We've all got a job to do. I haven't got a clue what vacuum tubes are supposed to cost."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm fine," said Citizen, shaking it off as he rubbed his lightly-burned hand. "I don't get hurt very much while I'm projecting, so it was just surprising." He shot a glance at the others, still mindful of his counterpart's evident secret, and modulated his tone. "I am undamaged. I am in contact with my counterpart; he indicated that the mission on the surface is proceeding according to plan. Perhaps we should adjourn to the upper level and wait for their return. If we are sighted alongside our dimensional counterparts, we may have difficult questions to answer from our superiors," he extemporized to his Corbin and Warren with a glance upwards.

Across town, Sharl floated across the room and gathered up the box of vacumn tubes. He felt no more guilt about potentially stealing from these people than he would about robbing a human on Erde; indeed, the thought of a population of humans he could work out his frustrations on was at least momentarily appealing. At least until he remembered that other Tronik, and the memories of his counterpart. His eyes twitched momentarily towards the Koshiro who'd spoken up for him, geniunely surprised by the concern, but he shrugged off the way the other Koshiro acted. It was better than most. "Several of these units are intact, and should suffice to complete our purposes."

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar blinked for a moment at Sharl's tone shift. Something was off, but with not-entirely-trustworthy duplicates mucking about, he wasn't willing to call the Tronik native out on it. Instead, he shrugged and looked at the others.

"Sounds fine to me. It's late, but the less ruckus we cause the better."

The Inquisitor frowned slightly, but nodded. He seemed perturbed slightly, but Hughes was the sort who was always slightly perturbed.

"I'd rather not provoke unnecessary...drama...with the local authorities. I would imagine they shouldn't take that much time at any rate."

At that, he lifted off the floor with a slight glow and started heading upstairs, his blue-clad half-giant counterpart not too far behind.

[Darksider42]

Rift Raised an eyebrow at Citizen. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on with the sudden shift in attitude from Citizen, but played along for now. Something else was probably up "Whatever you say Mr Roboto." he replied as he started to make his way back up to the warehouse. The Guitarist wondered how much longer this night was gonna take.

Lieutenant wilder nodded. "That is good news." He noted as he followed after the group. He continued to study the device, trying to figure out a way of stopping a repeat of what happened here when they made the jump back to Erde. Last thing needed was another hitchhiker coming along with them and blowing their cover. Not to mention the possible damage it could bring should it happen...

[Electra]

"Okay, great, take what you need and let's get out of here," Koshiro whispered to Tulink. Digging into his back pocket, he pulled out his wallet and found the single twenty he kept in there. Ignoring the sharp twinge at spending that kind of cash, he tucked it halfway under the register so that someone would probably find it and think it had missed the drawer during a transaction. He honestly didn't know if he was overpaying or underpaying, but it was all he could afford anyway.

Koshiro took a curious look at the money his counterpart laid down, then followed him towards the exit. "Why are you bothering to pay for that?" he asked in a whisper. "They won't notice anything missing in this disaster. Anyway, aren't you a city guardian here? They owe you."

"That's not how it works here," Koshiro whispered back. "People don't feel like they owe heroes anything. We have to pay for what we use. And I'm already in enough legal trouble without getting busted for stealing. At least this way I've got some kind of cover/" Both Koshiros shook their heads in unison as they snuck out of the store, the Koshiro from Prime holding the door open for the computer construct behind them.

[Avenger Assembled]

Up top, the heroes and their counterparts from Erde took shelter in the darkness of the warehouse as they waited for the Koshiros to return. While the others studied each other, Citizen's attention was focused almost entirely on the other Sharl, still carrying that box of acquired vacumn tubes, paying just a little attention to the dimensional device that had accidentally transported the Axis agents.

The streets of a free, prosperous city of humans passed before Tulink's eyes, and he almost wanted to weep.

Sharl floated uncertainly for a moment in the air, thinking briefly of logistics, before he sent back, he thought with more and more determination.

and Sharl knew that tone very well.

That was enough to get his counterpart thinking, or at least enough to shut him up for a while. As Sharl studied the dimensional device again, he decided that was close enough.

[KnightDisciple]

While the rest of the group either waited on the repairs or helped with them, the two Hughes men were over to one side talking softly. Well, mostly just staring at each other with occasional glances to the workbench, but occasionally speaking. The shorter Corbin seemed constantly offended somehow. Finally, his larger double spoke up.

"What's got your boxers in a twist?"

"You and your self-righteous attitude. You know nothing about me except my appearance and the ring I wield. You think I chose this ring? Did you pick yours?"

"Well, no, I found it-"

"What age?"

"I was sixteen and-"

"I wasn't even ten years old when mine flew onto my hand and scared the daylights out of my parents. So while it runs on fear, it's what I've got you thick-headed half-giant."

"Look just chill out, okay? I'm not going to throttle you. I'll give you your space, Inquisitor Hughes."

Said Inquisitor just watched in sullen silence as Cobalt Templar found another part of the abandoned room to give him space from everyone else, where he could try to ignore his double's glares. Try to ignore the way he'd talked about how young he'd been when the ring found him; the bitterness that oozed from his words. There was more to his story, but the Inquisitor wasn't talking.

[Avenger Assembled]

Eventually the boys reunited, the Koshiros and Tulink arriving silently and discreetly with the parts needed to repair the dimensional transporter. "We can complete repairs working together," the machine intelligences reassured their allies, "it will be only a few moments." The truth was, Tulink was nervous about letting his own team's gadgeteer near the device, and Sharl was willing to help him keep the repairs in the hands of the Tronikian duo. said Tulink without hesitation.

promised Sharl as they screwed vacumn tubes into place together without saying a word out loud where the others could hear, a technological team with similar instincts.

"We're nearly finished, sirs," Tulink said out loud. "All this lacks is a power source."

[Electra]

"A power source?" Koshiro demanded. "He couldn't have told us that before, when we were at the shop?" He'd been keeping an eye on the reconstruction of the device, but now he began looking around the vacant building for anything that might serve as power. This place hadn't seen electricity in a long time, and nothing looked too promising.

"What kind of power source?" Koshiro asked. "Like some kind of actual battery, or something weird?" He could understand his double's frustration, but he suspected that if Tulink was stalling, there was a reason for it. Or maybe it was simply that a normal battery wasn't going to do the trick. He gave his own flashlight a doubtful look, suspecting it couldn't be that easy.

[Darksider42]

Lieutenant Wilders frustration was growing. First with Hughes inexplicable antagonism with his double, monster threats and now another delay towards getting back had presented itself. He rolled his eyes as he made his way over and started to examine the device. He had been handling it this whole time. How could he have missed that?

Rift looked a little deflated. So close to getting these people back and now not so much. "Please tell me this will not involve somehow plugging this thing into a power grid or grabbing plutonium or some other exotic component." He asked.

[KnightDisciple]

"If it's got a battery or something like that, and just needs a charge, I think I-we-can charge it."

"We can?"

"I've got enough control I could conjure up a charger or something. Then the Inquisitor could feed power into it."

"I'd rather not explode it."

"That's why you're feeding the charge in; you seem to have more fine control over how much power you put into things. You're better equipped to do a trickle-charge."

The Inquisitor was honestly surprised the other him was so helpful; surprised enough he wasn't unduly frustrated by yet another delay thanks to the bumbling artificial intelligence-thing.

"I suppose that makes sense. Assuming it would work..."