The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

I swallowed and blinked back tears, then took Rose's hand in mine.

"I can do that. I'd like to do that. But I think I need to meet your parents first, just as me, not as Wraith."

I looked over at Rose, her eyes brimming with concern and held back tears , and I just did it.

I leaned over and kissed her.

Then realizing what I had done I pulled back.

"'m sorry, that just... came out of me. i didn't mean, well, I did, I mean I've wanted to since you kissed me but I didn't know if you wanted me to kiss you back and then there was the cave, then the green guy and then everything went crazy......"

Yeah, I was babbling. Smooooth.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"Themyscira? I don't hear that name very often," Kara remarked. She had learned about it through her private studies, but aside from some tiny bits and pieces she hadn't learned much.

If anything, though, Kara certainly knew where the Mediterranean was.

"What's it like there?" she asked as she they moved out of the house and down the front steps. The sun had fallen by now, but it still wasn't yet dark out.

Diana suggested they walk into town, but that was quite a ways away from the Kent Farm. It was a quick run if Kara used her speed, but she didn't want to show her abilities to Diana.

"Well town is pretty far from here, but we can just walk until we decide to turn around. I could probably walk from here to New York if I wanted too," Kara said with a playful smile.

"Smallville doesn't have all that much to offer. Aside from farms and some nice beaches, we're not really known for anything other than being struck by meteor showers," Kara said as they walked down the dirt road towards the main roadway.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick tensed when he realized he had seen Bruce once before... and from the look on Bruce's face he was pretty sure his Lone Ranger mask didn't serve it's purpose too well.

Merick shifted a bit uneasily, "Yoohoo if you have it would be a delight. Or anything really, please dont put yourself out on my account sir.

"Sorry to barge in, I just kinda figured maybe Rose was gonna be here, she kinda went AWOL, and I didn't know how to reach you either, Chloe. And then there's this whole business with the Jolly Green Giant saying you were safe, but not where, so... anyway. Bruce, nice to meet you. I have heard a bit about you to be honest. So is every one okay then? And does anyone have the foggiest what the hell is going on? Merick stood to meet Bruce, and extended his hand. "Thank you for the hospitality. I think we both have a bit of explaining to do. So what was this shindig supposed to be about tonight? I get the feeling we were not getting together for 'Smores and camp fire songs." Merick finished reeling off, in that same nervous, and slightly too fast manner he had used with Chloe. Then he turned to Chloe, and sat back down and gave her a brief hug. "I really am glad you are ok. I was a bit worried. The Green Monster didn't seem to friendly."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe, Bruce and Alfred

"Yoohoo it is, then," Alfred nodded firmly, with something of a twinkle in his eye, and then turned a questioning glance to Chloe.

Chloe opened her mouth, and then shut it again. She scrunched up her face worriedly. "Would coffee be all right?"

"Of course," Alfred assured her. "In a rare moment of impulsive spending, Master Bruce has recently invested in one of those one-cup-at-a-time coffee makers, and I've been meaning to crack open its instruction manual for a dog's age."

Chloe ran her tongue over her teeth. "Almond mocha with extra whip? Please-and-thankyou? It'll be like the third one I've had today, but the bonus-round comfort would not go amiss."

She paused, though, inwardly. Third? No, second. I had one with Merick at The Talon, and there was... there was another one. I'm almost sure of it.

What am I not remembering?

Alfred had already glanced across at Bruce. "And yourself, sa'?"

"Coffee, please," Bruce nodded briskly, though not ungratefully. "Just regular coffee."

"Cream?" Alfred prompted, a little dryly, eyes twinkling, already knowing the answer.

"Black, Alfred," Bruce replied, dry as could be, all part of a little private joke. "Thank you."

Alfred grinned a little. "Right away, sa'," he nodded, and then glanced to the others before vanishing as swiftly as Var-Sen of Krypton ever could. "Shan't be a moment."

Chloe and Bruce then settled in to listen to Merick's semi-frantic exposition/enquiry, attentive as they could manage, under the circumstances.

Bruce was a little taken aback as he shook Merick's hand. The guy could jump from topic to topic just as instantaneously as he could pop from place to place.

Chloe hugged Merick, hugged him emphatically, and Bruce was brilliantly, flawlessly expressionless.

"We'd planned to meet," Bruce explained, "originally, to pore through my father's library for hints as to these mysterious books that were presented to me, but it seems as though it's mushroomed out into something much bigger, comparing notes on all the wild things that have been happening 'round here lately.

"Of course," he noted with a wry ghost of a smile, "things have gotten even wilder still since then."

Chloe managed to grow a little paler, beyond the pale, as Merick's continued references to a green thing penetrated her hazy consciousness...

She couldn't remember much of these last few hours, not much of them at all.

But she remembered burning red eyes, and a voice like red sand in ageless winds... both emanating from a face smooth of skin and emerald green.

"'Green Monster,'" she chuckled brokenly, shaking her head with worry. "I don't. I don't know what that means. Did you go on a Field of Dreams kick, decide to 'port to Fenway and catch a game?"

She bit the inside of her cheek and her eyes grew quite wide.

"Is there another Green Monster I should know about?"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick was starting to settle in. He was beginning to feel a little less awkward.

"Well, see, when the shower started I stole this kid's Lone Ranger mask, best I could manage in the panic, and started using my little metaphysic origami to try to get people out of the line of fire. In the process, Tommy, the little boy that you met earlier? Turns out he is my brother. Supposed to have died in the first shower, but aparently... anyway, he was helping me, being my eyes if you will. And he alerted me to some trouble at Miller's Bend, so I popped over and there was this battle, a real slobberknocker. Well, Bruce can probably help explain that part, he was there after all. Anyway, these... I guess aliens or some such crashed, attacked us, and all Hell broke loose. After that, this big angry Green Dude, showed up, throw us all into the wall of the Caves, and I guess Pete Ross knew him cause he said something about the Green Dude, supposed to be watching out for you or something, and the Dude said you were safe then took off. Didn't even take the Oreo I offered him as a matter of fact. How rude? Anyway, then I dropped the McCrimmons, and my Mom off in Kauai, and came back looking for you and Rose. And well, I found you so far. Merick grinned as he took a deep breath. A tear starting to roll down his cheek. "I think Tommy died to help us though. He really wasn't a bad kid ya know. I mean, he died trying to help me. Man, I really need a Yoohoo. Merick shifted in his seat a little. Too tired to be embarrassed by the show of emotion.

"So... about these books?

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

She blinked for a moment. Her eyes were as wide as they had ever been.

Her fingers wavered, and slowly went up to touch her lips.

She smiled a quiet little secret little smile, and she blushed nearly as red as her hair.

"Talk about good things coming out of the darkness," she murmured softly, and blinked and found that her tears were gone.

And she reached out and she pulled Kyle's face to hers and she kissed him softly, quietly, adoringly... interrupting him mid-babble.

Her technique still needed work, of course. But her embouchure wasn't terrible. And she couldn't be faulted when it came to passion.

Her lips found his with her heightened sense of touch and kissed them exploringly for awhile, there in the musty semi-dark.

A few moments later-- or was it just one really long moment? --she came back up for air, laughing and blushing, and kissed him once more on the forehead.

"'And then everything went crazy,'" she agreed.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bruce and Chloe

Chloe held her head in her hands. It was really. Her head was really hurting.

It was like her brain was trying to heal itself in all directions at once and she really didn't know why it would have to do that...

Bruce stared as Merick unleashed the full force of his rapid-fire dialogue. He had seen Chloe and Rose go off on some pretty serious tangents over the last few days but this put them both to shame.

Chloe shot Bruce a weary, bewildered look. "You fought aliens?"

Bruce shrugged awkwardly, modestly. "Powerhouses. Shook the Earth as they walked. I couldn't do much, though I knocked one over the back of the head with a funny green rock. (Rose was the one who killed her.)"

Chloe sat back sharply, her iridescent eyes searching Bruce's face.

Rose killed one of them? Scaredy, twitchy little Cerebra? How serious are you being? Sometimes it's impossible to tell with you.

"I didn't see a Green Dude, though," Bruce declared, honestly enough.

"But Pete knew him," Chloe made a face. "And there was this thing with Oreos?"

This is waaaay too surreal. This is like a Dali painting except without the realism.

She rubbed her face with one hand, and resumed rational thought just in time for the tearful revelation about Tommy.

Chloe blinked, and took Merick gently by the hand.

"This was the same doppleganger that attacked you outside The Torch?" she wondered, awestruck. "Wow. He. Uh. Didn't waste any time redeeming himself, huh?"

She winced sadly. "Guess we'll never know what he really was. But at least we know he wasn't one of the bad guys."

"The books," Bruce informed Merick, "had to do with those Caves we were all at today. They belong to The Kawatche, a local Native American tribe, and the books described their folklore and symbolism. I gave them to Chloe to have a look-over, but judging from how popular she's been today, I doubt she's had a chance to really go in-depth."

"I left the books in the car," Chloe mumbled in a broken sort of way, and then frowned. "I left the books in the car."

She shook her head sharply, focused, zeroed in on Merick: "Waaaaitasecond. Kauai? You can Swoosh to Kauai?"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick chuckled softly. "Sure. Wanna catch a wave?" It's only around I think noonish there, we could hit the beach, catch a few waves and make it back for a late dinner."

Merick rearranged himself, grinning a bit."Anyway, seems I am not the only one with powers. I met this tall dark and spooky dude too. And I've known Rose for a while, but I never knew she could do those things. Amazing really. So, these books, in your car, where is this? I mean I can probably pop us over there, grab them and pop us back in a matter of a second or two."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe, Bruce and Alfred

Chloe laughed again, at the spontaneous Hawaiian getaway idea.

A little more brokenly, this time.

"No, no," she shook her head. "Thanks, though. I'm not really. I don't go much for the outdoors. Animals don't dig me, plus I sunburn if you shine a Mag-Lite in my general direction."

Bruce's eyes gleamed with a kind of gently-veiled amusement. "That's okay, Chloe. I do my surfing after dark."

Chloe grinned at him, grateful as could be, then glanced back at Merick. "Yeah. We knew about Rose. (Not much, but you know, she's not escaped my notice. I need to have a talk with that girl.) Fortunately, I already had her picture on The Wall so we didn't have to move anything around. But 'Tall, Dark, and Spooky?' Was this different than The Green Dude? It wasn't a certain semi-infamous semi-local supervigilante wreathed in living night, was it?"

Bruce held up a hand, though, warning her to steady on.

"Merick has a point," he noted. "Where did you park?"

Before she could reply, her face an unmixed mask of bewilderment, Alfred returned with a tray of drinks. Two coffee mugs and a Yoohoo.

He presented the Yoohoo to Merick, the glass lightly frosted with flecks of ice, chilly as could be, with a bendy-straw sticking out of the mouth of the bottle for ease of consumption. "Hope that's to your liking."

He presented the first of the two mugs to Chloe, a plain red mug piled high with whipped cream. "Mind, it's a touch hot, still."

The second mug went to Bruce, a slightly-dented receptacle with a Will Eisner drawing of Zorro on the side, a relic of a more innocent time.

Bruce chuckled softly. Alfred never did pull any punches when it came to embarrassing him in front of people.

But then again, Bruce detected with a slight sniff, there had been a dash of chocolate added to this coffee.

"Tell me Alfred," he murmured, glancing up at his servant, surrogate father, and friend, "how is it you know--"

"--everything?" Alfred readily supplied, with a grin and a wink. "Couldn't say, sa'. Pennyworth family secret."

And then he was gone again, leaving Bruce to shake his head and blow softly on the top layer of his coffee.

Chloe was sitting, looking very much deep in thought, concentrating. Occasionally, she would sip at her almond mocha-- which was delicious --as per the proper method.

Concentrating wasn't the word. She was willing. Willing the memory to come to her, as if by some method of internalised psychokinesis.

"You'll have to forgive me," she murmured. "I'm not used to not being able to remember stuff."

And then she twitched, as if there had been a barrier smashed in her mind, and she bit her lip and darted her broken gaze from Merick to Bruce and back again.

"We have to go to Crater Lake."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick smiled warmly. He could tell that Chloe had obviously had a very rough day. "Ok, so Crater Lake huh? I've been there. Shouldn't be too tough. Hang on. Merick takes a quick sip of his YooHoo, savoring it. Then he wraps his arm around Chloe and puts a hand on Bruces shoulder. "Hang on to your coffee yeah?"

SWOOSH

Merick had nailed it. They were standing on the shore of the lake. Merick, realizing just as he began to flip the world than he needed to support them as they were seated. Now, in the same position they were in the sitting room they sat upon a nigh invisible construction of force.

"Ok, so where now?" Merick releases his grip on Chloe and Bruce and takes a second drink of his YooHoo. "This is delicious. Just the right amount of frost. Your man Friday is incredible."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Bruce

"Alfred is a godsend," Bruce agreed, managing to keep his voice-- and coffee mug --steady despite the sudden, bewildering sensation of finding himself somewhere else. He'd always had an unerring sense of direction, an internal compass, but now he found that sense floundering, recalibrating, realigning.

"Back in England, his ancestors served in Buckingham Palace," he explained, "save only for a brief, often-lamented period-- during which they worked for a family called Cobblepot --before returning to the service of The Crown. You could say, quite literally, that Alfred Pennyworth is a Gentleman fit for a King."

Not to mention, he'd probably take being likened to a Robinson Crusoe character as quite a compliment.

But he really wasn't paying attention to Merick. He was gazing intently at Chloe, who had risen from the seat of force and taken a few strides over the sand.

She gazed apprehensively at a small four-door sedan parked uncermoniously in the shallow end of Crater Lake itself, three of the four doors open wide. She clutched her latest almond mocha like it was the realest thing in the world, and her eyes were twin pools of dark dismay.

Chloe had been gradually getting more and more pale. But now, she very much looked as pale as moonlight. As pale as Moonlight's Ghost.

Bruce rose, too, and moved to her side, touched her shoulder gingerly.

"Are you okay?" he murmured softly, ever so softly. "You look like someone just walked over your grave."

Chloe shook her head and spoke barely audibly at all. "Someone did. I think it was me."

Bruce didn't pretend to understand that bit of nonsense for a minute, but the goal was clear: the books were in the car. He handed his coffee to Chloe, removed his socks and shoes, rolled up his pants, and waded out into the shallows to investigate the car.

Chloe stood there, holding the coffees, and wondered what she was forgetting.

(She was forgetting something.)

Bruce waded back after a moment, shaking his head. "There's nothing in there. It's not inconceivable that they might have washed away; it's half-full of water."

Chloe shook her head. "No," she murmured. "There was other stuff with your books. Stuff that wouldn't've washed away. Someone's been here."

Bruce glanced over at Merick. "Sorry, friend," he mused with a bit of laconic humour-- a veil across the worry he felt --and a touch of irony. "Looks like we had you come all this way for nothing."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick just smiled at the notion of "coming all this way". "Hey, no worries. Any idea who might have snagged the goods? I mean, in the midst of a meteor shower who's gonna ransack a half submerged car? Anyway, Chloe, are you sure your okay? You really seem a bit weak. Perhaps, a doctor? I mean I reckon they are all pretty busy but... Anything I can do?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

Wow!

Once I came up for air I just leaned back and looked at Rose with a little grin on my face.

"You are something else Rose McCrimmon."

I stood up, brushing off my jeans & offered Rose a hand.

"Well, it's dark enough now that I can get us to anywhere you want to go. Care to take a ride on the Wraith express?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

"I'm something else?" Rose grinned sheepishly, a rather fetching shade of pink as she took his hand and used it as a tetherline to rise to her feet.

The Key returned to her pocket, the laptop bags returned to her shoulders, the straps criss-crossing her front.

"I'm just a Strange Little Girl," she reminded him with a languid, self-deprecating smile. "You're the one who beats up underworld thugs on a semi-nightly basis."

She paused, though, and pursed her lips, deep in thought.

"You could find me, couldn't you?" she realised, managing once more, through a stroke of fortuitousness, to put two and two together. "Once at The Cave and once here. Without knowing where I was, you zeroed in on me."

She regarded Kyle with a thoughtful gaze.

"Could you zero in on someone else?" she wondered. "Because one of these bags has Chloe's laptop in it and I think I should get it back to her sooner rather than later."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

"Well, my powers are derived from a realm of magic, not physics. I guess I can sorta bend the scientific rules. If I want it bad enough, I can go where I want to. Though it doesn't always work. I once tried to go to London, but my mind was sorta wandering."

I paused, then blushed.

"I ended up in the girls locker room. Lucky for me the cheerleading team had just left, or it would have been very interesting. And loud."


I closed my eyes and relaxed my control. Power flooded into me, shadows swirled, and I stood before Rose as Wraith once more.

"Take my hand. I have only done this with someone else once, but I think we will be OK. Don't let go, and don't be afraid. To make this work I concentrate, then shift to Shadow & shift back to Earth. Your about to go see another dimension sweetheart."


I concentrated, shadows swirled around us, and a second later all that was left in the tree house was dead leaves and dust.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

Rose stepped in close to him, and tightly held his hand.

He was cool to the touch, but in a different way, somehow, than the metal of the Kryptonian Key. He was cool on a whole 'nother level.

"Is this going to be like with Cloak and Dagger," she wondered, "when Cloak takes them into The Darkforce--"

The world shifted. Rippled. Tore.

The curtain parted, the ley-lines peeled back.

They went beyond The Boundaries of Fantasia.

Rose's little enquiry perished in her throat.

It was cold here, so cold. Cold like the shadows that had come to life in The Torch. Cold in a way that went beyond simple absence of heat.

...there was light here, and sky above their heads, and grassy ground beneath their feet.

Not pitch endless blackness, not like she'd expected. The sky was light with the same kind of lingering lavenderish indigo as his eyes, the colour of sunset long faded, the colour of day just gone. No sun haunted the Heavens, nor moon, nor stars, but there was a hint of a light source beyond the far-distant horizon.

But the closer you got to the sun that had just set, Rose realised with a dawning kind of instinct, the faster you followed it over the horizon, the further it would be away.

It would always be Dusk, here, and never Moonrise.

Like Faerie, she noted, remembering childhood tales taught to her at night-time bedside. 'The Land of Summer's Twilight.'

She turned in silence, never releasing The Wraith's clawed hand, and she gazed about her.

A vast expanse of lake, brackish murky waters, lapped dusty shores with waves carried by a semi-constant wind. A hill sloped up and away beside them, the grasses the colour of slate and granite, and it led up to a castle, an ancient time-weary fortress laid ruin by innumerable millennia...

...like, well, something out of a fairy-tale.

But then came a roar in the distance, out in the woodlands that bordered the grassy foothills in which the castle stood, out in the trees, and it was a roar that made Rose's blood run frozen.

She stiffened, huddled closer to The Wraith's steely carapace, and she fired a glance out at the sky over those trees.

The trees wobbled as if in winds that preceded a torrential storm, wobbled and waved... and then, in grandeur and in horror, a great black shape oozed out of those trees and climbed into the air, framing its black bleak silhouette against the lingering lavender of the sky.

A black shape with wings demonic and batlike. A black shape that seemed miles long, with emerald flame dancing at its snout with every exhalation.

...Rose remembered another part of the myth.

...Rose remembered that, every so often, Faerie had to pay a tithe to Hell Itself, or be consumed by its forces. This was Faerie clutched in the fist of Perdition.

The Shadow Dragon's wings crushed the air as it wheeled around and began to seek them, began to hunt them, and despite herself Rose clenched her eyes shut and buried her face in The Wraith's chest.

The world shifted. Rippled. Tore.

The curtain parted...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Chloe, and Bruce

Rose opened her eyes again, and they were by the shore of a far friendlier lake.

Merick was there.

And Bruce. And Chloe.

Bruce had taken up a defensive posture between The Wraith's wreathing shadows and Chloe, very much the dragonslayer.

And Chloe, who looked white as a sheet, smiled a soft little smile.

"Hello, McCrimmon," she murmured softly. "And this fellow? 'Tall, Dark, and Spooky,' I presume?"

Bruce's eye twitched, and he didn't relax his guard in the slightest. "Nice entrance," he coolly intoned.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick spun toward the appearing forces. Ready to blast at whatever it was. At the last second he realized who it was. Tall, Dark and Spooky had just warped the worlds, and with him was Rose.

"Damn, I need a cooler entrance. Yours is all flashy and such. Well, not flashy really, more like anti-flashy. Rose! I am so glad you are okay. I dreaded popping back to Kauai and telling your parents that I couldn't find you. Anyway, I am really glad your okay.

Merick took another swig of his YooHoo. He was tired, and now that Rose was here, he felt much better. "So now that the Scooby Gang is together again, I would recommend, that we get somewhere where we can relax and try to piece this together. I think your Dad might have some ideas on the matter to be honest Rose, I can flip over to grab them, and come back. Any other Ideas? Oh, if we are gonna go all super hero, I think we need a name, I mean, how about, the Super Friends? Nah, little goofy. Rose? Any ideas. You so rule with this stuff."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

OOC: damn your fast Luna!!!


"I have a kick-ass special effects department."

I looked over at Chloe.

"Tall dark and spooky, while accurate, is a mouthful. Call me Wraith."

I then looked over at Merick. "I agree, we should go somewhere a bit more secure than the lakeshore. And Super Friends is so, nineteenfifty's. Between Rose and Chloe, they should be able to brainstorm something cool. And let the adults chill a bit, we need to figure some things out on our own."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Chloe, and Bruce

"Kawaii?" Rose blinked, more than a little disoriented, God bless her. "What's kawaii? Are you saying that you think that my parents are cute?"

Chloe, now holding both coffee cups in one hand, touched Bruce's shoulder gently with the other, an echo and a reflection of the way he'd done to her moments previously, silently suggesting he stand down.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on my stuff," Chloe thanked Rose with equal parts gratitude and irony.

"And, uh," she smirked softly at The Wraith, "thank you, Wraith, for being such an effective and timely courier service. Industrial Dark and Magic notwithstanding."

"You're welcome," Rose grinned softly. "Least I could do."

"Your first official act," Chloe declared, "as a member of 'The Power Company.'"

"'The Forever People,'" Rose pondered, trying the shape of it out in her mouth.

"'The Shadowpact,'" Chloe riposted.

"'Justice Legion A,'" Rose rejoindered, lightning-quick.

"'SFX Unlimited,'" Chloe breezed.

Rose blinked. "That's not bad," she admitted.

Bruce flashed an impossibly charming smile. "Let's not make any final decisions yet. As for a 'headquarters?'"

He gestured towards the general vicinity of Wayne Manour, his sense of direction having finally reasserted itself. "We could do worse than my place. It worked okay for us before, and with Alfred there--" and at this he glanced at Wraith "--we wouldn't be entirely without adult supervision."

Bruce rubbed his chin, thinking hard, and counted the number of people present even as he retrieved his socks and shoes.

"At this rate, though," he pointed out, "population-wise? We may have to move out of the sitting room and into the ballroom."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick grinned. That foolish, lovable grin. "Ok, so we head back to the Wayne Homestead. Wraith, if you have a less spooky form available, I reckon it would be a good idea not to give Alfred a heart attack. So, back to the sitting room with us, or, given our numbers shall I just give us curbside service?"

Merick sipped contentedly on his YooHoo. Eyeing Wraith cautiously.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I looked at merick.

Stared actually.

"I think I shall stay as I am. Some people here know who I am, but I prefer to keep that number very low. I'll make my own way there, so Bruce has time to let him know that 'Tall Dark and Spooky' will be stopping by."

I looked over at the ladies then.

"I shall see you there shortly."

Stepping back. shadows swirled around me and I was gone, reappearing in Shadow.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick continued to sip on his YooHoo. He could understand the value Wraith placed on anonymity. Not so long ago Merick tried to obscure his own identity. But he still felt slightly uncomfortible. Maybe he was just too trusting. Maybe it was that he always believed in the utmost good inside everyone. But Merick had a hard time trusting anyone that didn't trust him. He glanced at the spot where Wraith had stood. "Out of darkness comes light." Merick mumbles to himself.

"Ok, ladies, Bruce, if everyone will kindly keep their hands and feet inside the ride at all times, I think we can get under way. Did I just offend the Boogeyman? I hope not. I mean, I would hate to fin him in my closet. Anyway, lets head."

Merick reached out an pulled Chloe and Rose into a group hug, and layed a hand on Bruce's shoulder. In a second there was a Swoosh and they were standing on the front porch of the Wayne House.

"Sorry, didn't think it was safe to drop us all in to the middle of a well furnished room. I don't know what would happen if I accidentally place one of us in the middle of a chair. Bruce, thank you again for the use of your place. It's like your own personal Room of Requirement."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Chloe, and Bruce

"Mi casa es su casa," Bruce suggested with a bemused chuckle, secretly wondering to himself if it was a requirement for teleporters to hug pretty girls as close as possible in order for their powers to properly function. "It'll be here whenever you need it."

"'Room of Requirement.'" Mulling with an eyebrow arched, Chloe handed Bruce his coffee back to him and took a pensive sip of her own mocha brew. "That wouldn't make us 'Dumbledore's Army,' would it?"

(A little more colour was in her cheeks, now. A little more strength in her step, a little more spring to her stride. A little more edge to her humour. She didn't know what happened, exactly, at Crater Lake... she just knew she wanted to be as far from that place as possible.)

"Sort of a post-ironic cover band sort of thing?" Rose wondered, holding her head. "I think it would work better with something more oblique. We could be 'Puddlemere United.'"

(Rose, on the other hand, was feeling a little bit dizzy. She'd just been teleported in two different ways, one right after the other, both of which had been entirely new to her, and in the process of the first one she'd been menaced by a big black dragon.

...Welsh myth allowed for red dragons and it allowed for white dragons but black dragons were right out.

She wondered where Kyle had gone in such a hurry. He always seemed to have someplace else he had to be.

But then, he'd had practise as a lone wolf long before becoming part of a group, albeit a hastily-assembled one. A little more lone-wolfery was to be expected, really. Anti-heroes had an image to maintain.

It's just his way.)

Bruce ascended the front steps, traipsing across the very same floorboards with which Merick had had a bit of a conversation earlier.

"See, I've been thinking about that," he mused, as he held the door for the others. "If we're going to insist on having a name for this little club, I don't think it should be ironic or post-ironic or pre-ironic... it should really be something that we can use in polite conversation without arousing suspicion. Something that people at school would simply chalk up to being the descriptor of our little 'clique.'"

He paused to take a quick sip of his coffee. "If we're going to call ourselves something," he suggested, "why don't we call ourselves 'The Outsiders?'"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick grinned at Bruce. "I think I can be down with that Pony Boy. So, you reckon we shoul give Alfred a warning about Spawn's little brother? I mean, I wouldn't want the dude to just pop into my place unannounced right? Alfred is trustworthy right? I mean, he seemed great and all."

Merick put a hand on Rose's shoulder, she looke more than a bit under the weather. "Hey, kiddo, listen, you need something or anything? You look a little out of sorts. I know you have had a hell of a day. Seriously. Anything you need. You too Chloe, your both looking a bit out of sorts." Merick had real concern in his voice. This, he had found, was his truest weakness. He cared. He tried to be nonchalant, he tried to be enigmaticly chipper. But, he was a bleeding heart. It was torturous to see these two people, people he considered friends, in obvious discomfort.