ic Going to the Other Place (IC)

[Electra]

Koshiro and Kotone hung back at the rear of the group, both of them with their hands tucked in their pockets. A good host, Kotone produced a paper airplane suited to carrying Koshiro's large backpack, so that floated along behind like an odd untethered balloon. Koshiro had sort of wondered if his feminine counterpart would use pink paper the way his evil counterpart had used black, but so far at least, Kotone's sculptures were plain white like most of his own.

Thinking about that other Koshiro, he tilted his head to his counterpart and spoke in Japanese. "So a few weeks back, did you get an incursion-"

"From Erde?" Kotone finished for him, her mind obviously moving in a similar direction. "Yes, and I uncovered some new information-"

"About Takeshi,"

"Takara,"

"Whatever," Koshiro acknowledged with a nod. "If there's any chance of learning more by comparing notes, we should talk."

"Yeah, but later," Kotone agreed. "Get the school stuff out of the way first." They sighed in unison at that, and got into the futuristic car that was such a big step up from the Wonder Bus.

[Gizmo]

Kimber and Roy floated effortlessly through the doors of the Wonder Car, maneuvering their respective pets through the open windows. "Oh wow, it's very shiny and new!" Kimber praised, looking about the high tech interior with interest. "Just look at all the light-up bits! I thought it'd be bigger on the inside, though."

Roy's head and one of Argus' cocked to one side in confusion while another positioned itself out the window, tail wagging in anticipation of the wind in her fur. "Er, sorry?"

"Well, it's just that we got our bus from this really nice space sasquatch, see, and it's got pretty much a whole house on the inside, lots of rooms and everything!" the Prime poltergeist explained, indicating the physics defying nature of the Wonder Bus with elaborate and emphatic hand gestures. "It's a bit... paisley, admittedly."

Roy's jaw dropped further than someone with actual skin and bones probably could have managed. "You have a magic bus? Outrageous!"

"Well, Sharl says it's not really magic but he says that about everything so..."

The local ghost snorted. "Oh, don't look at me. I'm just a post-mortem free roaming psychic echo," he quoted, doing what ended up being a fairly good imitation of the holographic skeptic.

Kimber stifled a snort, covering her mouth with the back of one hand and gesturing for silence with the other as Avro climbed up her arm and settled down on her shoulder with a contemptuous glance in the puppy's direction. "Shh, shh, stop it! You shouldn't make fun, it's just the way they were raised."

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl and Sharla rolled their eyes affectionately as the sound of the Storms filtered up from the back of the Wonder-Car. I guess some things don't change in any universe, thought Sharl dryly as he looked at his reflection. "So how do we fly this, does it have standard grav-controls, or-" She interrupted him with a smirk and simply dived into the control surfaces of the car, followed a second later by a whooping Sharl. Everyone outside the system saw lights come on and heard the engines roar, and seconds later the anti-grav powered car swooped up into the air and began flying through the blue skies of Freedom City. It was a lovely day here, and from the sky as they swooped towards the 13th Floor nothing looked that different.

"Hang on, and we'll be there in a flash!" said Sharla from an open comm panel as she and Sharl appeared together in what looked like a cockpit seen through a camera but of course was just a construct from a virtual world. As the antigrav drive hummed, the two computer pilots waved before Sharla reached up and muted the internal display. When her friends weren't looking, the narrow-faced electronic teenager suddenly looked haunted.

"Did you get one too? A version from a Tronik on Erde?" she asked in a sudden rush inside the system, looking at Citizen and pulling back her sunglasses to peer over at him, something she'd obviously been holding back spilling out. "Another Tulink? Another us?"

"I...I did," said Sharl, sensing a distress deeper than his own in Sharla's words. He checked the system around them to make sure it was clear, then went on, "We're planning a rescue mission. I'm training up our team, and that includes Mali and maybe Kristen these days if she shakes out, to go over to that version of Erde and rescue our people. I won't let any version of Tronik suffer like that, even if I get in trouble with the school. What about you?"

"They're going to sell her," said Sharla, her lips tight. "Right after she graduates. They're property there, just slaves to those bastards. I don't know what it's like for boys, for your double, but she's a pretty girl in a world run by sexist human scum. I could do the math." She stared at the holo-dials in front of her as the car sped towards the 13th Floor. "I'd die before I let that happen. I know I'm not alone anymore with Tronik, but still...you know what it's like."

Sharl nodded, completely understanding, occasionally steering the car as they went. Luckily there was a very good autopilot on board, and the fact that he'd never actually had time to get his gravcar license didn't matter when it came to navigation. "I know. But like you said, we're not alone. And humans aren't all bad. I mean, you've got Mister Olympic, right?"

"Yeah. He...he's a good man," she said, looking a little sad as the borrowed lab building came into view. "People like them, who helped us when we were at our weakest, they're what showed me that humans can be heroes too." She grinned. "And then after that thing with that crazy school with all the bizarre drugs and the killer forest, I realized my friends are heroes too. Life could be a lot worse."

They were both still smiling at that when the grav-car touched down on the ceiling of the scientific skyscraper, and everyone started to exit for the trip into the building.

[Avenger Assembled]

Once they reached the 13th Floor, the team broke up to tour the alternate headquarters and talk. It didn't look too dissimilar from the 13th Floor back home; the Miss Americana poster by Sharl's work area had been replaced by the tall, strapping, clean-cut Mister Olympic on the far wall, and it looked like Roy and Indi preferred playing HALO on the big video game station to Kimber and Indira's usual fare, but all in all things weren't too different on the gross level. Sharl and Sharla quickly closeted themselves away inside the computer, leaving the others to explore the building and see how different the 'home away from home' of their counterparts was. The news was playing on the kitchenette TV someone had left running; Mr. America and Captain Thunder were at the opening of a new exhibit at the Hero Museum in Midtown, while President Robinson was in town for a campaign speech. A typical day in Freedom City...almost.

[Scuffles]

Kristin and Kristopher wore similarly curious expressions as they took a tour of the facilities on the thirteenth floor, and as they returned to the lounge Kristin looked at her counterpart with a raised eyebrow. "You haven't been here before either have you?" she asked and pulled a face as Kristopher replied with a shake of his head. "It's pretty sweet isn't it? Guess we just have to make it stick."

The two telekinetics headed to the gym and claimed a corner of the mats, where they sat opposite each other. Both pulled an Australian 50c piece out of a pocket and moments later the coins were floating softly between them. The halo of light around Kristin's coin seemed more intense, and Kristopher whistled softly. "You haven't worked on the tight control stuff as much have you?" he asked teasingly, and Kristin blushed faintly. "Gives me a headache. And I haven't been able to reduce the power leak as well as I'd like."

"If I can do it then you can," Kristopher noted as he waved his hand dismissively and deftly plucked the second coin out of Kristin's mental grip. "Watch! Or more like.. feel." he suggested as the coins started to weave a complicated pattern in the air. "I still can't describe what I do - what we do - but I know we can feel it as well as do it.."

Kristin rested her chin on her hands and watched, nodding as she let her mind expand to take in the movement of the coins. "I can, but that still makes my head hurt too!" she chuckled. "The top end is way more fun. Big stuff isn't so... fiddly! Just get a grip and push til it moves!"

Kristopher smiled and dropped his mental grip on the coins, letting them clatter to the mat. "Just how big have you gone then? I had to lift a ten ton truck, and I gotta say I didn't think I was going to get it done for a minute there. Wasn't so bad once I had it up though."

"Cargo ship," Kristin countered. "Couple of hundred tons I think, I never checked. Carried it like 30km too. It was going to sink and there were people on board, I just had to move the damn thing. Cost me though. You know you had plenty in reserve when you did the truck right?" She shrugged as her male double nodded thoughtfully. "The ship was everything I had and then some, and I had a migraine for a week. But it was the first time I ever really turned it loose."

The pair locked eyes and the normal mischievous grins were nowhere to be seen for a moment. "The first time I believed. I'm Glow. And she's me. You're her too.. wait, no that's way wrong!"

A serious conversation fell apart in the blink of an eye as both Aussie telekinetics fell about laughing on the mats.

Kristopher recovered first, and when he spoke his voice contained a quite intensity that would have been familiar to anyone who'd seen either Glow in action when the chips were down. "You're right, I do believe it. I.. We belong here. Well, you belong there."

"Man this dimensional stuff is complicated!" he groused, then gave Kristin an appraising look. "How's your Judo? Been training?"

Kristin was on her feet in an instant. "Now you're talking!"

[Thunder King]

"You know we're gonna have to..." Mali said with a grin.

"Spar?" finished Malian, who crossed his arms and chuckled. "Think you can beat me?"

"Think you can deal with the humiliation of being beaten up by a girl?"

"Mom used to kick my butt in our spars all the time, I got used to it."

"Well then, how do you want to do it?" Though, to be fair, she already had an idea.

"We should do it right, you know. I don't think any of our friends have seen a proper Muay Thai match."

"The rituals and everything?"

"Yup."

"I can do that." She said, grateful that she'd brought along a few of the necessities. She'd not had a 'proper' match in a long time, and eagerly awaited fighting her male double. She anticipated that he might be a bit stronger, but perhaps not as fast. She'd definitely had to put that to the test.

"Wait, one more condition..." Malian said, raising his hand.

They both silently agreed. They would pull their punches. Both of them had bad memories of the one time they got reckless when fighting a friend. Never again.

[Fox]

"We should perhaps--"

Indira and 'Indi' blinked, glanced at each other, and laughed - they'd said the same thing at the same time, presumably for the same reason. Still, that at least made the decision easier.

The disguised aliens sat down in a corner of the closest training space they'd found and took a moment to just center themselves, focusing on what made them them and what made other people...not. It was one of those things they'd never really tried to explain to anyone but their incorporeal roommate, and even then they weren't sure it had made much sense.

Still, it was supposed to help, or so those early school videos had said. When they were ready, they steadied themselves, put out one hand each, and ever so slowly moved their palms together...each watching the other's hand like they expected it to reach out and bite them. It took minutes of hesitating movement, but at long last, they touched....

....and nothing happened.

"" Indi smiled, letting his hand drop. ""

""

""

It was Indira's turn to smile, now. ""

And then the hammer she'd been hiding behind her back came down on him. He was quick to respond in kind, laughing.

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside the computer of the 13th Floor, Sharl and Sharla sat around the table in Sharla's house and talked. It made things easier to deal with when they were in a system rather than outside dealing with the others, it also made it much easier for them to talk where no one could hear. "I guess it would be different in human culture if I was a girl and Gina was a woman," said Sharl with a little frown as he heard Sharla's story. "I still go back and visit her all the time, and stay over if we've been working late together. There's never been any issues with that."

"George made sure I moved out to Clairemont as soon as I was enrolled here," said Sharla, her eyes narrowing in judgement of the human culture that had made her friend's life so difficult. "He said people would talk if a teenage girl program that he could edit whenever he wanted to lived in his place, even though he's never been anything but good to me. I feel really sorry for him," she confessed suddenly. "He's got so many problems that could be fixed in a second if he were from Tronik, but he doesn't want to hear about getting changed. He's happy the way he is, or at least that's what he wants me to think. If it wasn't for Lady Freebooter, I don't know if he'd talk to anyone when he wasn't inhabiting the robot."

"That's really a shame," said Sharl sympathetically. "Gina has it a little better, she's got a boyfriend and everything, but she's still working on...everything," He winced, then asked, "So, how about you? You getting anywhere with your Crimson Tiger or Glow?"

"No way, Kotone's got a thing for Malian this big, and Glow...you know, I hadn't thought about it," she admitted, Loran her dog barking out in the field behind the computer house as he chased butterlifes. "He is pretty cute, and he does have that crazy red hair!"

"I know, right? It's crazy how different humans look from each other."

[Gizmo]

Kimber and Roy floated near the ceiling as the bulk of their respective classmates began sparring in a whirling mass of martial arts and shapeshifting. "So, um..." Kimber began, puffing out one cheek in consideration, "should we be, like, duking it out or something?"

"I dunno, maybe? Maybe it's like a thing you're supposed to do?" Roy pondered, resting his chin in his hand. They'd both missed a fair amount after dying, so it wasn't inconceivable but it did seem like an awfully specific situation. "I'm good if you are."

His female counterpart let out the faux breath and nodded as she scratched Avro behind the ears. "I'm pretty sure they're all just kinda... fighty," she suggested, changing her position in the air a bit to get a better look at the match between the two Kinigosi, trying to figure out which was which now that they'd shed their human guises. She thought she saw a subtle difference in the way they formed their torsos but that might have just been her imagination. "I'm really glad Indira is getting to hang out with another Kinigosi," she confided in her local double. "She doesn't mention it as much as Sharl, but it's gotta be weird being around aliens all the time."

"Oh, totally! Indi is super stoic about that stuff. Like, ninja-stoic, but I can still tell it bugs him." You got to know a guy pretty well playing video games for hours while everyone else was asleep, after all. There was a brief pause before he spoke up, "D'you think it's weird that your team, I mean the lady versions, are, er--"

"Total cuties? Nah, it's fine, I'm totally checking out your friends, too," Kimber assured him with a slightly embarrassed grin. "I swear, though, somebody on this team better start dating soon so I can live vicariously though them!" She ran a hand over her face with a groan, the ectoplasm stretching a little more than real flesh would have.

Roy's cheeks turned to a darker blue and he cast his gaze upward momentarily, coughing quietly even though he had no need to clear a largely nonexistent throat. "Aheh, well, I mean I... Adjusting as Argus clamored about to his opposite shoulder, he glanced over to receive a flat look from Kimber. "...yeah, okay, same."

[Scuffles]

Kristin hit the mat with a rather resounding thud amidst a flare of green. The Australian duo had proved to be extremely evenly matched, but Kristopher had been first to give in to the temptation of adding a little telekinesis to the game. "No fair!" the fallen redhead protested, though from the grin on her face it was clear that she wasn't really offended.

"Like you weren't going to do the same thing!" Kristopher retorted with his amusement equally plain to see. "I was just using a preemptive strike. You know, tactics! You do pay attention in classes right?"

A moment later he was upended by a similar telekinetic trip as the female Glow retaliated, and after a moment or two both burst out laughing. "Okay, I totally deserved that."

Despite their obvious competitiveness, neither wished to turn the sparring session into a full-on telekinetic brawl. Instead they took a seat to watch the other matches going on. Both were intrigued by the opportunity to watch the Kinigosi pair, having had few opportunities to see their respective shapeshifter really cut loose.

[Electra]

With the honed survival instincts necessary to the weakest team member, Koshiro and Kotone had quickly gotten out of the way of the sparring matches and settled on the sideline to watch. <"This assignment blows,"> Koshiro said after awhile, more as a way of making conversation than anything else. It was at least nice to have someone to speak Japanese with for awhile.

<"Five pages,"> Kotone agreed ruefully. <"On how things are different between us? I'm not sure I can get 'he has a dick and I have tits' to stretch that far, even with big margins.">

Koshiro snorted. <"Yeah, aside from everyone looking like they're in drag, it doesn't seem much different around here. Course, if I were trying to make a pickup, it'd be a lot easier as a woman...">

Kotone snorted right back. <"Shows how much you know. You're a lot better off being a sullen delinquent when you're a guy. I bet the girls are falling at your feet.">

<"Pshht, not like there are a lot of opportunities available,"> he pointed out. <"Look at my team!">

<"Look at mine!">

<"Okay, point."> Both of them sighed in unison and watched the fighting.