nexus_crossings | Strange Awakening

Strange Awakening

He was supposed to be dead. Not wherever he is now.

Not even moments ago he was on a hopeless mission, standing in the ruins of the parliamentary chambers surrounded by dead guards and the quailing politicians who'd spent years spitting and stamping on people like him. In his hand, he clutched the explosive that would bring the whole corrupt system crashing down on all of them.

He knew he was on a suicide mission from the instant the tide of battle turned against his forces and had no choice but to turn to panicked flight into the countryside. But he'd stayed. Despite the danger, the scattered executions and volleys of gunfire echoing across the field, it was his only chance. They were so close, and they would never get this opportunity ever again. This all had to be for something.

He had glared at the chamber with his white eyes, one hand still on his blaster. Wounded, vicious, victorious - He'd clicked it, and then... nothing.

Or it should have been.

He felt the wave of fire flash up his arm, then was left blinking and disorientated when he found himself lying on the edge of a small pond, waves lapping gently at his wounds. And more importantly, alive.

He stared at his hands, and then his surroundings. Just a quiet copse of trees, birds chirping sweetly around him. No stench of smoke and blood in the distance. Just a peaceful, forest setting. There was even a picturesque cobblestone path set into the ground, winding its way into the distance. Climbing painfully to his feet, completely lost for words, he only managed to whisper out -

"What the sneck is going on?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hnn. That kind of story." The kind that hurts too much to speak of easily. It's a shame, but she gets it. She will, however, be all the more keen to nudge him into talking about the fun stories. All the better to cheer him up, right?

"But not beaten," she counters readily. Defeatism finds no purchase here. "Actually, I, uh, wasn't alive for a whole chunk of that time. Between that and a few reboots- well, I remember the last few years since Ghost brought me back. That covers all the important parts." There's a certain amount of determination in that, but she genuinely doesn't seem troubled by her situation. "And all the best stories. We work off a bounty system for some things, too. Not so much the important targets, but taking them down isn't about the glimmer."

For that matter, she's a little bit proud of herself for successfully - and painlessly - first-aiding their new friend. Her commander's ~~crochet lessons~~ manual dexterity drills must be paying off. Blaze gets to her feet, ready to offer him a supporting hand if he seems to need it. "All right, let's give it a shot."

"Those cuts will probably need some kind of sutures," Ghost notes with concern.

He yanks his shirt down over the bandages and grabs the tree trunk with a white-knuckled grip, slowly getting to his feet. He slips a little in the snow and his other hand darts out to catch her arm, which doesn't even give slightly under the weight. The exertion already makes his breath come out in short pants, misting up the winter air. "Heh, well. The day people stop being the worst kind of bastard is the day I'll believe it."

He lets go of both Blaze and the tree, and starts determinedly limping down the paved path. "You don't remember most of your life? How can something like that happen?" The thought gives him a sick feeling, even if it looks like it doesn't bother her. He nods his head in agreement to the second half, though. "Sometimes it's not about the money, it's about making the world a little better by taking them out." He quirks a small smile. "Not that I argue with the money either."

Johnny ~~accepts his pain~~ waves off Ghost's concerns. "If it hasn't killed me by now, it can wait a little longer." Stitches are a good idea, though. "Long as nobody punches me, I'll be fine."

"They'll find their way eventually. Most of them." She's heard stories of their cousins across the multiverse that test even her faith in humanity - but then, her people can't have been any better, before the Golden Age. And they learned.

"Every Exo's been wiped a few times, and Guardians normally don't remember who they were before. Considering we're recruited from the dead, I figure that's a mercy." Blaze keeps watch while he pulls himself onto his feet, keeping close to offer an easy handhold should he slip again. She has to respect the strength of will that's keeping him moving; nonetheless, she wonders if there's an easier way. "Think you're up to hanging on to a thrust bike? Fastest way to get somewhere with heating."

Ghost is just going to give a little artificial sigh. He's heard injuries brushed off like this before. True, the anti-violence field ought to ensure Johnny can't get punched, but the man reminds him far too much of a Guardian to make that reassuring.

"Wiped." He states flatly. It irritates him, the way Blaze refers to her entire memory, her history being wiped away, like it's nothing. "Who the hell does that to you? Do you let them erase your memory like that?" He couldn't imagine Blaze letting anything she didn't like happen without a fight.

But... Blaze was dead too. Once upon a time. Huh. He finds it a little weird that it's standard practice to just raise people from the dead to be soldiers, but maybe there's a process to it he doesn't understand. "Well at least we've got one more thing in common. I died too, and you're right on that account. Sometimes I think it'd be a mercy if I didn't remember anything. Or was never brought back at all."

Johnny breathes a silent sigh of relief at her suggestion. The trek there would have been manageable, but it was cold. Thank the stars she didn't make the trip out here on foot. "If it's anything like a hoverbike, I'm game. What kind of model is it, if you don't mind me asking?" He hears the sigh from Ghost and brushes a quick, apologetic smile. "Sorry, lil fella. You've probably heard that a lot, huh?"

Something internal twinges and Blaze stops in her tracks, optics narrowing. Maybe it does sound bad, but most people don't react so vehemently. There was a time she'd have brushed it off easily, but lately her experiences in the Nexus have dredged up a murky load of questions and fragmented memories and... emotions she's not cut out to handle. She doesn't know how to feel about the subject, and her kneejerk response is to tense up uneasily.

"Settle down, it's not so- it's not like that. No-one's running around doing anything to us. Pretty sure the only people who'd know how are centuries gone." She lifts a hand to rub awkwardly at one antenna. "Truth is, I don't remember that either. But I don't believe they'd have done anything we didn't agree to. So maybe we needed rebooting, or wanted it. Or maybe- maybe it just happens. Not much left to get up in arms about, either way."

It's funny how death is the lighter topic of conversation here. Well, Blaze has an easier time with it at least. Even Ghost stops hanging back and watching carefully to give Johnny a curious look. "You did? How'd you get resurrected?"

Ghost gives a little dip of his shell as he answers the question, part of his attention on summoning the promised bike. "

Let's say I normally hear 'We'll be fine' right before someone jumps into a three-way melee. Or collapses the citadel under us. Or punches an evil shrine.

"

"You said 'destroy it'," Blaze remarks, watching a sleek grey and white bike materialize in front of them. The anti-gravs flare to life when she slaps the handlebars, the engine thrumming gently. "So this is a Sparrow - Cavalier series, S-21 variant. Won't be a comfortable ride, but extra weight isn't a problem."

Johnny notices her discomfort and fragmented speech and raises his hands apologetically. "Sorry. It's not my business, and I shouldn't pry if you don't want me to." But he knows how it feels to have unfinished business, to have closure permanently shut on him. To know what it feels like to have no choice but to move on. "But I'm glad to hear it. Nobody should ever 'need' to be rebooted. You're so much more than that." His mouth twists slightly at that, reminded of those who dictated what was best for people. "Have you ever tried digging up your past?"

Johnny accepts the topic change as gracefully as he can. "I died for a start. My friend McNulty brought my body to the Stone Wizards, and they yanked me back into my corpse." He exhales sharply, and his hand drifts closer to his heart. "I was dead ten years, and things changed. I caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people, and started a war I never should have. He meant well, but I'm still not sure if I should be thanking him or not. Not sure if I've changed my mind about living, either. I was trying to fix that mistake, right before I arrived here." The tone in which he says fix suggests very specifically, how he was planning to do that.

Hearing their back-and-forth exchange startles an amused huff from Johnny. "From personal experience, punching solves a lot of problems," he jokes. "Maybe you should keep an open mind, Ghost." He stares at the vehicle materializing in front of him and runs a fingertip across the sleek wing, impressed. "Now that's a fancy piece of tech," he remarks quietly. He hoists himself up to the back, leaving a handprint of blood on the seat. "Not the beat up hoverbike I was imagining. It's almost a shame to get it dirty."

"It's fine. Just isn't much to say about it," she insists, though this is more a statement of intent than of fact. But there's an unexpected sort of empathy in his voice, his words, and after a moment she answers his question: "No. I've seen other Exos who tried. Digging only gets you more questions, and not the useful kind. But-" she should warn him about this; it's only fair, if he's carrying any demons with him at all, "the Nexus sometimes has a way of dredging up the past and hitting you with it. Or things that might be the past. Kinda hard to verify if it's showing the truth."

There. Fair warning given, she figures.

His story gives both machines cause for concern... and not a little sympathy. Getting dragged back into the land of the living, thrust into a world you barely recognize? Blaze understands that. Ghost looks a little shifty, but she just observes, "Sounds like something isn't done with you, yet." She knows how that is too. "Did you finish what had to be done?"

Ghost was afraid Johnny would say something like that, but then the little bot chose his own Guardian, so he must have a fondness for the type. For now he vanishes again, leaving Blaze to mount up on the Sparrow and let their passenger get settled. Blaze still has her pulse rifle latched onto her back, all quiet and harmless for the moment.

"Don't let the polish fool you: this thing gets its share of beatings. Ghost's just a hell of a mechanic, that's all. No point having the gear if you don't put it to the test, right?" Soon as he's settled, she'll move them out, sticking to an easy cruising speed so as not to strain her passenger. It's still infinitely faster - and smoother - than walking; modified for the armored weight of a Titan, the Sparrow is heavier than it looks, but it bears the mass easily, even nimbly as they breeze down the path.

The corners of Johnny's mouth tug down into a thoughtful frown. He has a lot of skeletons in his closet that he'd been keeping shut for a while, but lately they weren't holding. She wouldn't warn him like that if there wasn't good reason for it. "I can respect that. Thanks for the warning, sounds like you experienced it first hand. How long have you been living here?"

"Yeah. Made sure it was the last thing I did." He says this with vicious satisfaction, a slight cruel edge to his words. Oops. His vindictiveness is showing. "Blew everyone to hell, to face at least some justice no one else would hold them accountable for. But it was too many dead. And not even a vengeance worth having. I don't have much reason to go back anymore, I've done enough damage. There's only one person I still give a damn about, and McNulty was still alive, last I saw. They don't need me to royally sneck things up any further."

He turns to address Ghost, curious as to how he materialized an entire thrust bike out of nowhere, but raises his eyebrows when Ghost vanishes. "Where did Ghost go?" Although Johnny isn't fooled by Blaze seeming less dangerous now. He has no doubt she could probably still snap his neck in a second without it.

"Right." He tightens his grip on the seat as they start off, but the longer Blaze shows off her deft piloting skills and doesn't ram them into a tree trunk, the more he gradually relaxes. They make good time, trees and landscape whipping by them, and he has to raise his voice a little to be heard over the wind. "How fast does this thing go? You ever race this?" She definitely seems the type to do that.

Blaze nods: she's had a taste of the Nexus's games all right. No sense in refusing to acknowledge the fact. At least he'll have a chance of being prepared - provided the Nexus doesn't choose to throw some completely different tricks his way. "Landed here about eighteen months ago, but we aren't residents. Our path in and out is stable, so we just come back to patrol the area. Collect field data, catch up with friends. Whatever's needed."

Make sure nothing escapes their world through here.

There's a low synthetic whistle at what he shares. It's not disapproving, although Blaze remembers a fraction of a second later that his story isn't the pleasant kind of messy. She wonders what his enemies did- still, fair is fair. He didn't press for her story. Besides- she likes how he stacks up so far. She's inclined to believe the best of the many ugly possibilities.

"Guess that solves one problem on this end," she says. "Not everyone finds a quick route home. It's good you don't have any unfinished business at your back." Closest thing to a clean break you can have with all those memories, she figures.

"I'm still here," Ghost pipes up, his voice noticeably tinnier, coming from the speaker outputs embedded at the Guardian's collar. "We don't all have hands to hold onto a Sparrow with. It's safest if I hitch a ride inside my Guardian's armor."

"Still weird when you talk through it," is Blaze's opinion. She's not used to hearing him quite so indirectly. She's focused on making sure Johnny stays on board for a few minutes- that and keeping her sensors peeled for any sudden pedestrians jumping out. Round here they'd probably just bounce off comically, but she's not taking that bet. On the other hand... that question brings a wistful chuckle that's all but lost in the wind. "Sure. Hard not to when there's another Guardian out with you. Give us a good run and we've topped two-twenty kilometers an hour, if those units mean anything. I owe a race or two still. Too short on time lately."

"Yeah." Johnny says, for a lack of better things to say. "So I'm here to stay. Does that mean I'll see you around sometime?"

That's... good. Johnny finds the thought somewhat reassuring. It's handy to have a six foot armored titan around as a friendly face. But the mech under the armor (part of the armor?) seems like a genuinely good person, and didn't throw him off the bike on hearing what he said in that little outburst. He feels a little shamed, actually, despite the lack of reproach. But he did warn her. No point in prettying up the deeds he's done to make himself look better.

Johnny did used to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever he could, but that was before all...this.

He jumps a bit in his seat on hearing Ghost's voice coming out of Blaze's armor, but settles soon enough. "Hard to imagine you fixing this bike without hands, either." He hides a smile at the thought. "But I bet she keeps you safe in there. And two-twenty? Now that's impressive. I've only been up to one-fifty myself, but that's the most my reflexes can handle safely. And if I really want to gun it, two hundred for long, boring, straight dirt roads. You guardians team up a lot?"

She'd smile, if she could. She won't forget anything he's said in a hurry, but bloodied hands don't trouble her so much unless they're earned dishonorably. She knows her own nature too well to object to violence in itself, but she cares very much about where it's directed.

"Count on it. Besides, the local comm devices all work interdimensionally. Get yourself one of those and we'll be easy to get hold of." And the more they see of him, the better to judge his character. Benefits all round.

"Well, you don't look as if you can see that well, and there's nothing wrong with your aim." The curiosity is evident in Ghost's voice, difficult though conversation can be with all the wind. Now that Johnny is en route to warmth and no longer bleeding out, it's possible to consider other priorities.

"Hah! Most of us take it down a gear when we're working - I only know a few people with the reflexes to hit those speeds in urban terrain without wrecking themselves. Still makes it more fun than straight roads." That's the only concern she thinks of, since in most of the cities she's seen the only pedestrians are hostile. "We usually form up into small fireteams - three, maybe six if the mission's serious enough. I don't have a regular team yet, myself. How about you? Used to working solo?"

"I'll be sure to do that first thing. You know how I can get ahold of one? Don't have much cash on me, much less anything they might take here." He could probably find odd jobs, but he doesn't know if bounty hunters are needed, or even wanted here.

Johnny blinks. "These? They're my mutation. I can see just fine with them. Better than most people, and a fair bit besides that." That very much understates the true ability of his eyes, but he's not one to talk big about himself when it's not necessary. People have always either heard it through wildly exaggerated second-hand rumors or been on the receiving end, and in both cases, it really didn't matter if they knew exactly what he could do or not.

"What kind of missions do you usually take? You look like you pack a lot of firepower by yourself already, can't imagine what you'd need six for."

Johnny's quiet for long enough to make the silence uncomfortable. "I used to. I had a partner called Wulf. We went everywhere together. He was a viking from the twelfth century, believe it or not. I saved his life on a time job and he wouldn't let me leave without him. Heh. He was always stubborn like that. Best twelve years of my life." He exhales sharply. "McNulty too. Those were better days."

"I've seen basic models in vending machines, but you can find someone to sell you just about anything. Don't know too much about starting out here, but most people aren't carrying a lot of money when they turn up. Got to be plenty of security work if that interests you - even heard some people are trying to police this place."

The first buildings aren't far ahead once they clear the trees: looks like there's a whole town living here. Or maybe fragments of a thousand different towns: even on the outskirts, traditional Korean houses sit alongside a marble-faced complex with graffiti in Ancient Greek scrawled over the walls, tree-houses and internet cafes and alchemical supply shops all jumbled up against one another with no rhyme or reason. Blaze cuts their speed as they approach - and yes, even if it's a fancy space-bike, the horn still has to go 'beep-beep'. You don't screw with a good tradition.

"Are mutations common on your Earth?" If Johnny's willing to talk about the subject, Ghost takes it as an opening to indulge his curiosity.

"Takes six Guardians to kill a god in his throne room." The pride rings through in Blaze's voice: it wasn't her work, but she revels in the victories of her brothers and sisters. "Ain't all about firepower though. Our strike teams mostly focus on taking out key enemy leadership, securing top-priority assets, that kind of thing." At least... when they're following orders, and not evicting Cabal troops from a stronghold because they want it for Sparrow stunts.

Even Blaze notices a subject is sore when the silence stretches out that long. She's a little quieter when she speaks. Respectful. Even the implications of 'time job' can wait a minute. "And he followed you all the way forward? Heh, that's a guy you want at your back. Our people still tell stories about the vikings, though they're mostly myth by now."

Johnny almost gives himself whiplash trying to get a better glimpse at the mismatched architecture in this place. He's used to alien structures, but this looks like actual earth history all smashed together in one place. Blaze throttling back the speed lets him take a closer look at their surroundings, and he hums under his breath, impressed.

"Yeah, might think of doing something like that." Johnny says absent-mindedly. "Don't suppose there's a need for bounties around here? I don't work so well with local law enforcement." They tended to be corrupt, anti-mutant pigs puffed up with their small town importance. And the ones who weren't were fascist as all hell. "They don't usually tend to like me for some reason. Something to do with being a swaggering mutie barging in on their jurisdiction."

"It's common enough. A result of the nuclear radiation from the dirty bombs - it really snecked up the environment. Most people aren't as lucky as me though. It's usually lumps, a second nose or extra arms, things like that. I even knew a guy who had his knee replaced with his face." Ah, good old Kid Knee. But his small grin fades slightly. "Well... it'll be much less common now."

Johnny stares at the snow. Not the time to spiral back into bitterness. Pulling himself together, he lets Blaze's words spark some measure of awe in his imagination. Now he understands the caliber of a Guardian, and what that really means. "Elite strike teams. I'm not surprised." He appreciates her tone. It alleviates some of the pressure growing in his chest, the sympathy of someone who doesn't really even know him but offers it anyway. "He lived up to all those legends, and more. Bloody great with a hammer, and picked up the sniper rifle easily enough once he wrapped his head around it. Would've landed myself in a shallow grave much earlier if I hadn't met him."

There's some weirder stuff the farther in they go, but it's the people who vary more wildly than the architecture: they don't have to be practical. Humanoids still seem to dominate, but the Nexus is home (or home from home) to everything from mechs like Blaze to centaurs and demons to the insectoid aliens scarfing the entire inventory of a hot dog stand over there. At least it looks like they're paying.

"Aw, you wouldn't swagger, would you?" she teases... though she also notches up another point of evidence about the Earth he's just come from. "I've seen bounties posted around. People like putting them up around drinking holes for some reason. I don't know so much about the accommodation here, but maybe one of our friends could help you out."

"That sounds like an uncomfortable place to keep your face," Ghost decides. "Not that I can really compare knee structures."

Blaze can neither blush nor smile at the compliment to her people, but she appreciates it. For all that it feeds her desire to earn that place among them for herself. She's young yet. "With our numbers, every Guardian has to count. Besides, there's all the more glory in it." Speaking of glory, though... "Hammer and sniper rifle, huh? Wish I could've seen that! And what about this time travel? Where we're from only our enemies have that kind of tech."

"Oh, you know me." Johnny says dryly. "Always gotta be the center of attention." They coast down the street, and the area reminds Johnny of hub worlds and alien ports in their sheer variety of life forms and goods on sale. "This place is a lot more orderly than most cross-planetary places I've been to. But there has to be something illegal going on, I suppose. Can't expect everyone to be bringing the same law from their homes," Johnny remarks. "Gives me something to do, at least. Though with the anti-violence field, it's probably more a question of tracking people down than anything."

He nods in appreciated assent. "They seem like good people if you trust them, but I can probably get on my feet alright. You already gave me a headstart." Literally. "But if I'm going to be spending time here, I might run into them sooner or later. Want to tell me anything about them?"

"Heh, no kidding." He's kind of starting to get Ghost's sense of humor. "Mother Nature isn't always generous with what she gives us. You're just lucky you don't have that problem." With knee structures or otherwise.

Hearing about Blaze's enemy's time tech perks Johnny's interest right up. His own forces were on the receiving end of time weapons before they'd co-opted it for themselves, after all. "What kind of tech are we talking about here?"

But the last statement by Blaze has Johnny thinking over his own response. There's a lot to cover in a few short words. "Well, time travel's a thing, but it's pretty restricted. You need a lot of paperwork and training to even think about it, and that's only on approved jobs only. No messing around in the time stream for personal reasons, otherwise the whole universe is gone. Sometimes a sneckhead escapes custody, flees to the 8th Century and starts messing around, killing ancestors and replacing the timeline, and I'm one of the few certified to take them out with the least fuss. And that's that." He says with a sniff.

Edited 2017-02-15 17:44 (UTC)

"It stays pretty boring around the central plaza most days. Maybe boring's the wrong word- it stays civilized. You head downtown towards the Industrial District, or the Underbelly, you find places where the anti-violence field gets a whole lot shakier and the, hnn, businesses get shadier. Hell, even in the regular commercial areas we've caught people trying extortion rackets. I don't think you'll be too short of work." She's glad if there's someone else around to answer those calls, honestly. Not her best kind of work.

"Sure. There's Katsuya Suou, he's a police officer on his Earth - but he's the honorable kind," she's quick to add. She can't imagine Katsuya sneering at anyone. She points down one of the streets they're passing. "He runs the Crossroads Cafe down that way, handles the baking. Good guy to have at your back. There's a space captain called Han Solo, he's been grounded here for a while. Well, he's a smuggler-" yes thank you Blaze, very discreet, "-but he's basically a good guy under all the cynicism. Reminds me of some Guardians I know. And, heh, you'll know Steve Rogers when you meet him. He looks small, but the man's got more nerve than a whole squad of shock troops. If you're out looking for trouble you're bound to cross paths with him." She speaks of them all with warm affection. They've met so many people here, more of them good than bad.

Ghost is happy to elaborate on their enemy's tech. If Johnny's actually had hands-on experience with timestream shenanigans, his knowledge could prove very helpful. It'll certainly serve him well in the Nexus. "

The Vex use networks of portals to move back and forth through the timeline, operating in multiple eras at once. I don't think they ever interfered with our past directly. Maybe they can't. But then the Vex are a genocidal machine collective from who-knows-where. It's... hard to guess their motives.

"

"I'm just glad we don't get people trying to rewrite history." Blaze snorts. "It's enough of a damned mess already. So if you go back, do you have to go low-tech yourself? Try to fit in with the locals?"

Sounds like exactly that." Johnny agrees. He feels a tingle of anticipation run down his spine. Good, honest work. A strange way to think about bounty hunting, but it works for him. "You have a pretty interesting cast of friends," he says diplomatically. A police officer from Earth, a smuggler... He catalogs them all in his head, and the picture Blaze paints of them is very generous. It's clear that her affection for them shines through in her voice, making Johnny nostalgic for times passed. They pass the exact cafe Blaze was just talking about, and Johnny can't resist from breathing in deep. "They sound like good people. If I tell him you sent me, think he'll give me a discount?"

Ghosts's account is somewhat shocking. "That's..." Johnny puts a hand to his forehead. "Well, incredibly unprecedented, for one. That's an abuse of time travel on a level I can't even deal with. And you guys are fighting them alright? Christ." He's used to time travel on an individual, small scale. Not as an established foundation for an entire civilization. "I've used time traps and time bombs before, but nothing like that."

Blaze's statement is much easier to deal with. "Kind of. When I went back to Norway, it was bad enough that it really didn't matter. The first time I met Wulf, he tried to drown me in a river because he mistook me for a demon." Johnny huffs slightly at the memory, remembering that ridiculous day. "We got over it though. But otherwise, yeah. It's easier for me to pass as 'normal' than most others. Throw on a pair of shades, be in and out as fast as I can. Harder to do that with four arms. It's not as important as getting the job done, though. And most targets we grab at the end of their lifespans, anyway. If any notorious criminal who's never faced trial for what they've done dies or disappears in mysterious circumstances, it was probably the GCC."

"Hah, I don't know, but he might if you tell him you're new in town." She does have a very optimistic view of her friends - but then, she's seen the good in them for herself. They've been kind to her, watched her back, put themselves on the line for others. But she reckons Johnny will see that for himself, should they cross paths. For now she's heading (ever more slowly) toward the central plaza: a huge open space ahead scattered with furniture and vending machines and an awful lot of people hanging around just... talking to one another. "The plaza up here seems like the center of activity here. Easiest starting point to find a doctor and, well, everything else you're going to need."

As for their time-trashing enemies? "We're gaining ground on them," she assures Johnny with satisfaction. "Seems like they have a hard time countering us. At least, like Ghost says, they can't just jump into Earth's history and rewrite it. Thank the Light for that." She says it literally, though it's easy to take either way.

"It helps that all our other enemies are just as willing to fight them as they are us..." Being able to set all those numerically superior forces against one another is an advantage they'll exploit with glee.

She has to laugh at that meeting story. "That's an awkward start. ...But why wait so long to neutralize your targets? The faster they're dealt with the better."

Johnny has no real investment in their struggle in another universe, or the scale of what a battle like that might mean, but Blaze and Ghost are involved, and that's incentive enough to be relieved by it. "Enemy of my enemy and all that. I know what you mean. Suppose that even for all their tech, a bullet stops them just as quick."

The wind blasting Johnny in the face quietens, blocked by the structures around them, and he can make out a fairly lively plaza. Seeing these sociable creatures and people chattering away peacefully in every language; it's strangely calming. They've been slowing down for a while now, and despite everything, Johnny feels somewhat reluctant to get off so soon. "Trouble finding a parking spot?" Johnny teases. "You could probably just drop me off here. I'll manage."

He shifts in his seat, bracing himself for the inevitable movement. But then again, he still has time to answer one last curious question. "Can't mess with the timeline. Rule number one. And if we interfere before they've committed the crime, then what the hell are we arresting them for? It raises a lot of ethical questions if we go in too early - and I'm not really paid enough to answer those."

"What's parking?" she counters, half kidding. "Trying to figure out the best place to let you off. Wouldn't feel right just leaving you in the street. Clinic here ought to do, right?" Sure, he says he can manage. Nevertheless...

She's not too convinced about the hands-off approach to preserving the timeline, either. Granted, Blaze doesn't do hands-off in general. That's probably a good argument for not sending her back to any time period. (Besides the whole, well. Robot thing.)

"Hnn. Jumping back with malicious intent sounds like enough reason to me. Can't say I'd be willing to let them run riot and pick them up when they're done. Of course, here it's more likely to be people jumping into totally different timelines. Nobody's monitoring that." Troubling thought, but not a problem she can afford to focus on. It's not the war she was raised for.

"What? No, just roll me into the street. I'll be fine." Johnny is also, really, only half kidding. "Not sure if I could pay for the clinic anyway. This place looks pretty...reputable. Will they take me?" And it's true. This whole place is clean, bright, and airy. Not a place he usually finds himself in. It's a question he still feels like he needs to ask. Sure, it's not likely considering the variety of life forms he's seen here co-existing, but not everyone is happy to take a mutant in for treatment. And if someone recognised him here...

He squints against the sun in his eyes and chews on his tongue thoughtfully. "Well... it's complicated. Chronology doesn't work like you'd think. We didn't know he'd jump back until he did. Then the timeline changed, and all we could do was damage control. It's all pretty messed up, and I haven't had to do a time job in a long time. Thinking about it gives me a headache to be honest."

"Sure. Why wouldn't they...?" Her amusement fades as things click into place, one calculation after another. He's said enough, after all, for her to make some plausible if harsh assumptions about his world. Her faith in humanity runs deep, but it isn't blind.

The Sparrow slows as she glowers ahead for a minute, then picks up speed again. She's turning them toward a quieter section of the plaza, away from too many nosy loungers. "They'd better. But I've got a better idea - we're going to find someone you can definitely count on. Should have thought of it before."

At least his other remarks get a low chuckle out of her. "That part, I understand. Easier to take the Vex down when they jump into our time than go chasing them forward and back."

Once they reach a few empty couches (not that hard given the chilly weather) she'll bring them to a halt and offer Johnny a hand off the bike, looking around for the angel she has in mind. She doesn't understand how exactly their friend does these things, but she always seems to appear when needed...

"Hey! Angel!" That'll do it for sure.

"Yes?"

The answer is far too quick for Angel to not have already appeared behind Blaze well before the Guardian could shout out to her. At the moment she pays no mind to the Exo's companion (Human? He appears so but she has been fooled before) and hovers a few inches higher off of the ground so she can be at eye level with her Master.

Blaze keeps saying they are equals and Angel makes efforts to appease this belief.

"You would have need of me?"

Blaze looks determined all of a sudden, and it's all Johnny can do to hang on once she changes her course. If this is a kidnapping, it's a benevolent one. For now he trusts that she has his best interests in mind, and takes her hand as he dismounts the speeder, wrapping an arm around his side at the movement. He looks at Blaze curiously as she calls out for "Angel", but doesn't seem to direct it at anyone in their area.

"What the sneck-?!" He whirls around in surprise when a woman materializes out of nowhere behind them and speaks. "Where did you come from?" He takes a second to look at her and glances sidelong at Blaze, not sure who to address first. "Are you like Ghost?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

miiiisfire, whoops

no subject

no subject