Raynn-Verse The Return IC

[Starsign]

Ashley was glad that her entire group hadn't gone off the deep end after the reality incident. Jill seemed to have the worst of it though. As Helen and White came to them Ashley simply waved. She did her best to hide her face when White mentioned Timelock. How would she explain that? Ashley knew the answer, but not how to say it, if now was even the best time. "I haven't seen him for a week now. Sorry I should go, I need to talk to Clark, who's been having... Difficulties apparently." She sighed as she made her way to Athena to get permission to enter the Lighthouse where Isiah hopefully was. Ashley did have a lot to get off her chest, and the one who would likely understand the most would ironically be the self-proclaimed smartest man in the world.

[Ladorak]

Ethan radiates concern at Helen as she sits down, his own fatigue forgotten 'Morning. Did you sleep well?' He touched her arm and leaned in to whisper 'Are you ok?'

[SuperCracker]

Jake grinned when Len agreed with him on the sauce… well, and the fearless leader comment.

"Keep up with that and you're going to have to call me Comrade Wallace, dude."

He grinned and chuckled. A few moments later he spotted Helen and White, who was literally aglow with excitement upon seeing the group. When she sat down he leaned towards her and kissed her cheek near the corner of her mouth.. though, her topic of conversation.

"Yeah… he uh.. he disappeared, really. Rumor's are floating around, but not much else."

He waved to Ashley as she left, "Good luck, Ash. Tell him we miss him."

[smuchmuch]

Suddenly the cartoony hammer strikes ! It rushes downright lightning fast in a rush of doom and suddenly stops about a millimeter over jake's head and touch it lightly with a little bell sounds. there's a second of hesitation (probaly enoughforthe Kind to realise he hasn't been crushed into paste; to his greater relief probably) and then jake takes a cartoony slap the face. "You're just lucky I didn't want to crush the muffin"

Jill throw the hammer away crashing in the background and swipes the muffin. You can't have it back, it's her now, before jumping into a free seat.. Ah , she sure drove her point. What point would that be ? she's not sure herself; but she sure showed them.

"I think he moved out because he was sad people didn't talk to him."

[SuperMuldoon]

"Yeah man, TimeLock is MIA...haven't seen him at all. That guy was always a bit off though." Len says with a shrug. He then watched Jill bring the hammer down in a comical fashion on Jake before tossing it away. "Well, I never have to worry about missing saturday morning cartoons ever again with you around Jill!" he says laughing in between bites of his now super delicious burrito.

[Raynn]

Helen smiled in reply to Ethan's whisper and merely whispered "I'm fine." she then kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Then she froze, and blushed, blurting out an excuse

"Sorry, sorry. . . Still working out my memories of the reality bubble universe and the real one... Sorry. . . So sorry... Forget that just happened."

Ethan had a flash of memory of his on and off again girlfriend, and preacher's daughter, Helen Sands of the bubble universe. He suddenly remembered a lot of kisses with that Helen. She blushes more at his nostalgic look.

Night speaks up after a moment

"It's wierd hearing about all those vampire kids, I mean I don't mind being the only one but from what I heard they were. . . Monsters. . . "

*

As Ashley searches the Campus for Athena she eventually finds Isiah in Athena's office speed reading whole pages in an instant. Seemingly Athena is elsewhere on family or hero business. She does have a toddler after all. In her absence Isiah Washington was seemingly free to briefly take charge, away from his duties on the Lighthouse.

He looked up from the papers, haggered

"electrokinetic . . . german, female. . . Oh hello Rycon? What is that you need? How may I help you? Athena is away with her daughter Abigail and her younger self today. A rare holiday."

He smiles broadly and genuinely.

[Starsign]

Ashley entered Athena's office, seeing Isiah in her place. Not that it was a problem... Hopefully. She asks in German, <Are you even allowed to be in here?> She then shakes her head and changes subject, knowing she won't be getting an answer aside from a probably lying "yes." <Isiah, I was wondering if I could talk to Clark. There's been quite a bit I've been meaning to discuss with him since last week.> She chuckled on purpose in front of him over his failure in resolving things last week, based on what the rumors anyway.

<And after Clark, I want to talk with you about... Some issues of my own. There's... A lot I know of that I don't want to keep to myself, but I don't want the other students to know, especially since he,> referring to Timelock, indicating it was about him, <had left recently...> She looked a bit like she was in fear of something, whatever she knew, Isiah could clearly tell that it was not a good thing.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len looks up at Night and puts his arm around her. "They were only monsters because they were being controlled...forced to do the things they did. From what I hear is that they are doing fine now, back to being normal kids." Len says smiling, giving Night a reassuring squeeze.

"Well looks like we have some free time today, anyone know if theres anything special in town this weekend? I'd like to make the most of today." Len says, finishing his breakfast and posing the question to the table.

[Ladorak]

Ethan's easy smile put Helen at ease 'Tell me about it. Every now and then I catch sight of my friends out of the corner of my eye and catch myself considering the best way to shake them down or dangle them off something. It's weird.' He turns his infectious grin on Jake 'Apart from you Jake, I'm used to it with you. I consider dangling you off something high every time you wake me up early.' Beneath the table he took her hand in his, savouring the brief contact, he waits until he catches her eye to speak again 'We'll work it out. Spirit of overcoming and blah blah blah, you guys are probably fed up of hearing inspirational speeches from me right?' He squeezed her fingers before relinquishing them 'But we will work it out. Promise.'

[Raynn]

Isiah looks Rycon up and down for a moment then falls into the chair

"<Yeah, we can talk when you're down with Clark. I opened a portal for him, he'll be here in a minute.>"

He leans back and almost lies down in the chair, he looks exhausted

"<I picked up German when I was twelve, ended up on this world where Germany is the only nation to have survived WWII, mainly because the American's used a Demon bomb rather than let the Nazi's take America. When I arrived they'd been at war for over half a century.

I've seen a lot. . .

So I want you to take this to heart when I say this Rycon. . .

Ashley. . .>"

He takes off his reading glasses and rubs them in his hands in a Giles sort of way, he leans forward

"<I'm worried about you. . . and your friends. So if you do need to talk I'm all ears. I'm not just your science teacher, or the vice principal, I'm also a protector of the entire human race, a Leaguer.

And you're one of those humans, one with immense potential.

Be careful.>"

With that he rises and steps through the door of his office onto the deck of the Lighthouse control room, a moment later Clark steps through the same door wearing jeans and black shirt with a golden C on his chest. He seems exhausted and forlorn

"You wanted to talk to me Ash?"

He gave a momentary smile, Ashley remember all the times he called the reality bubble Ashley culdis Ash, he'd never called Rycon that.

He closes the door behind himself.

*


Helen smiled back and squeezed Ethan's hand in a silent content reply.

Night replied happily to Len's question "I think the J.L.A. are playing downtown if you want to go check them out? I mean the last concert. . . could have gone better but this one is in a small venue, pretty much a big club so we should be fine? And they're good, I mean they won awards at the VMAs and stuff so they won't come off as massive rascists in public at least right? We need the downtime. . . "

[Starsign]

Ashley kept her eyes locked with Isiah's as he gave a snippet of his childhood. <Your Earth... Was almost entirely wiped out in WWII...> Ashley knew war was hell, but that... Went beyond hell, not even a nightmare could conjure something like that in one's sleep. She had wondered if that was one of the reasons for Isiah's act of his ego. A facade to hide his suffering? Ashley could imagine that being the case with a lot of people, herself included.

Potential...

That was a word Ashley had heard a lot about her. It was the whole reason why she was now here and not happily living with her family in Germany. She had wondered, how we're they doing? Right now it might have been best if she didn't know. Now was more important. <Isiah,> she began, paused, then finished, <thanks. I'll chat with you after I'm done with Clark.> Ashley felt that perhaps Isiah wasn't as annoying as she thought. He seemed to have suffered traumatic problems like she had, only worse. Ashley probably wouldn't be being all sympathetic on him so suddenly, but it did give her some insight on him.

As Clark entered, Ashley did her best to smile as she stood up. "Yeah, I was hoping to chat with you Clark." This was going to be hard to say... "Clark... How have you been doing? Please be honest, you've been rather different since last week." She took a moment to think. "We all have actually. I can't blame you at all, Jill has been taking it horribly." She sighs. "Was there something you've really been wanting to ask or say to me?" She knew Clark held feelings for her more so than ever now.

[Raynn]

"Yeah I guess the whole Jenny reality thing sort of threw me but I think. . . I think I'm dealing with it now> Just needed some time by myself I guess."

He takes a step forward

"I. . . I . . .

I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out some time?

Like go to a movie or something. . . just us?"

[Starsign]

"Just the two of us?" Ashley asks with a bit of worry. "I... Have nothing planned, so I can agree to that." She wasn't going to simply let Clark go however like that; her smile dwindled. "Sorry, I must be blunt, you've had feelings for me since last week, haven't you?" Up-front asking was her style, even if it never worked out in her favor. "How deep do those feelings run in your opinion? What does your heart really tell you?"

[Raynn]

Clark seemed a little taken aback by her bluntless but rather than be wierded out he just smiled, as if he was used to it and found it cute. Thanks to the Jenny reality memories he probably was

"I don't know. You're cute and smart, and even funny in a tell it like it is kind of way. I know the Jenny reality version of me was a bit of a bad boyfriend but I'm not him and you're not his Ash but I really would like to get to know you and see where that leads. You're cool and I like you, but I'm not that Clark so that's all. For now."

He ends with a grin.

[Starsign]

Ashley almost blushed at Clark. He really was serious. "Clark... How long has it been since we've known each other? Just to tell you, I could care less about what happened in the alternate reality. It's here where it matters." She paused to let it sink into Clark that she was hardly angry at him for anything. "I'll go out with you, but this time, nothing more than friends please. I don't have any feelings beyond friendship for this reality for anyone yet, so please don't think that I've already fallen in love. I find it too early for that." She chuckled at the end. "Promise me however that this is not because we had a relationship in an alternate reality." She was worried of Clark's feelings being artificial rather than genuine somehow.

"So, do you know of a place where we can go whenever we've got it planned?"

[smuchmuch]

Jill gives an odd look to Night when she enters. Then Len wo. And then to Hellen, (with a slight unrelated but noticable, if you were to pay attention to her, wince at the mention of mixed memories). Jake and White seems to be happy together.

Her expression is kind of undecypherable for a short second. Endearemeant maybe ? All these couple have to touch her shipping romantic vibe certainly. Or is it tainted with a recently found, one she refuse to aknowlege, feeling of.. frustration ? Envy ?
She shrugs to herself as she go back to binging her breakfeast away. Muffins make her in a better mood.

"Meh" jill comments at the concert idea. Last time din't really gave her a good impression of concert in general. However she is curious about something else "Wait isnt it like day right now ? You can go in the sun ?"

[SuperCracker]

He'd already turned back around by the time the hammer came down. So he didn't flinch – and he probably wouldn't have anyway. Something told him Jill wouldn't actually try to go all Gallagher on him. The bell was a nice touch. But the slap was unexpected. There were some cartoony stars around his head.

"Yeah yeah… I love you too, Jill."

He grinned at her and went back to eating, glad that the Timelock topic had been abruptly dropped.

He glanced over to Ethan when he talked about dangling him off of something high.

"Well, you know I fly, so you'd have to find a better way to silence me… Besides… didn't we get in a fist-fight once in Jenny-verse? I like the real you better."

He grinned at him. Of course they got into a fight there! Jake was the geeky white knight and Ethan the bad-boy. Who even knows what the reason was, but it had to have happened somehow.

Night talked about concerts.

"I'll try another concert. I'm willing to do that. No gods punching me in the face this time, please. That I can do without."

He turned towards White. He still remembers her being disintegrated in front of him in the Jenny-verse… and the murderous rage it had inspired in him. Mordred. He shuddered, but not visibly. Try as he might, this whole subject bothered him.

"What do you think, babe? Should we go to the concert or is there something else you want to do? I uh… haven't gotten to really take you out in awhile. Got to earn some brownie points."

[SuperMuldoon]

Len nods at Night's suggestion. "I think thats a great idea! Kinda still bummed that our first concert went the way it did." he smiles and turns to Jake. "And don't worry, I won't let any demigods punch you in the face this time. I'll make sure to get punched instead!"

[Raynn]

Night smiles at Jill and replies

"Legacy made me a ring that protects me from sunlight, but the magic runs off my innate magic so I'm weaker in the daylight."

White speaks up to reply to the King

"Judgement, Law & Anarchy are pretty mainstream so at least we're safe from another Mutants rights rally. Sounds good to me, so long as we're sure no one is going to be attacked like last time,"

she ends half jokingly.

*

Clark replies before leaving through the door he came in

"I promise, this is from me, not him. I know an chinese restaurant Dire reccomended last time I had a meeting with her, I'll text you once I'm sure when."

He leaves with a smile and a moment late Isiah is back in his place with the door closed

"<So, what was it you needed to tell me?>"

[Starsign]

Ashley nodded with a smile, "A Chinese restaurant? I've never be- she cut herself off as she saw that Clark had left.

When she turns to Isiah she takes a deep breath... She didn't want to bring too much worry to Isiah right away. "Isiah... Might I ask about Blitz?" She didn't want to bring up Mike, not yet. "She's apparently working for Labyrinth... Yet I saw her during the reality incident. She helped me, or us all, stop the incident." Her voice then turned quiet, "But she seems very Anti-Human... If I may say. Is she working for Claremont? I can't figure how it adds up." She gave a small look of uncertainty to Isiah, "But I feel you know, so I want to ask, if only to make the picture a bit bigger."

She did her best to smile here, but then dropped her shoulders and brought up the real thing, whether Isiah figured it out and called her out on it or not. "No way to fool you. This wasn't what I originally wanted to discuss. I was just wondering about Blitz and... For what I wanted to discuss I don't really have any way of giving any sort of conclusive proof for it, yet..."

[Ladorak]

Ethan winces slightly when Jake mentions their alternate lives altercations 'Please don't talk about that Jake. It causes me great pain to see myself fly at you so, my friend. In some ways it's the worst thing I've seen so far. Without Ame the other Ethan was so lost...' He looks almost wistful, lost in thought until White mentions the band's name. He hurries to hide a wry smile behind his hand. After he recovers himself he asks calmly ' Judgement, Law & Anarchy? Interesting name. Not sure I'll risk it, sounds certain to agitate the Spirit.'

[Raynn]

Isiah pauses for a moment collects himself then replies

"Blitz was. . . lets just say she wasn't in a good place when we found her. Some events had left her disillusioned and while she still believed her speciest rhetoric she didn't really believe in the third generation stuff anymore.

Then I came to her, with Nicholas, and told her we could help, she went on about mutant supremacy tried to start a fight but she was too drunk, so we told her it straight. If she worked for us she could help the race she believed was her people, or she could stay angry at all the humans she felt had wronged her and wind up just another drunken rock princess at the bottom of some gutter.

We used her, I'm sad to admit. Set her up on Black Squad then put her in place as a Liaison between the Labyrinth and SHADOW. A double agent. After a while having to work with others her speicism devolved away from blind hate to an idea that people who can shoot laser beams out of the Iris' are logically better than normal people, or flatlines if you want to use a slur. Right now I think she's made as much progress as she will anytime soon and she as loyal as can be expected, more so maybe.

She's been asking about you and your cousin btw,"

He leans back in his chair after walking across the room to it

"Ashley, can I call you Ashley? My powers manifested when I was 10, I've been tumbling across the Omniverse since then, originally without a choice and with no idea where the next jump would take me. That was my childhood. Most of my life actually if I'm honest. So believe me when I say I've seen enough that I can help, so come talk to me about anything you want. Even if you don't think it's important. I know Ava and Beacon probably have the market cornered on counselling so just consider me a friend. I mean I'm actually fixed at 21 so technically I'm less of an old fogey than the rest of the staff. . . do people still say old fogey?"

He grins and puts back on his glasses

"Was there anything else Ashley?"

*

Helen replies to Ethan's comment

"They're not metal or punk or anything the name might imply. They're just a group of teens who sing about the rights and wrongs of superheroing and the whole world of that stuff. You know, like if you guys formed a rock band rather than you know. . . be superheroes. They even have a token human, a me if you will The front man is cool to, Clark Kent or something. I don't think the spirit would mind them."

[Ladorak]

'Oh it's not that...' He grins openly 'It's just... You have no idea how much the Spirit's likely to talk about the music. I'll hear him ringing in my ears for days.'

[Starsign]

Ashley listened quietly to Isiah's explanation. "Being used..." She took a small sigh, worried about if she may ever be used someday... "I think I might go see Blitz sometime. I knew she had an interest in me, but in Danielle as well..." She had thought for a time, Danielle was more important than she had known. Would... Future foes be targeting her?

Ashley did her best to get it out of her mind. "Isiah," she began again. Time to spill the beans... "What do you know about... Tyrannus?" She gave him a strange glare. "Danielle picked up a strange vision that I absorbed into my mind. Man of the night, saying 'This is my gift to you' over and over again..." She turned to him. "Tyrannus's goal was apparently to eliminate all heroes across every parallel and dimension... And Jenny, from that horrible reality incident, mentioned she was working for someone who would bring death to all heroes across all dimensions..." She slumped back on her chair now.

"And... This brings me to the horrible part. When meeting with Timelock prior to the reality incident, Danielle absorbed his energy and sent us into the future, we met an older version of himself... And Jenny, a red-eyed Faith, as his right hand man, in a world that apparently seemed like a utopia." She clenched her teeth as she turned to Isiah, "How long did you know about these things, 'Smartest Man in the World'?" She went under the assumption that the higher-ups knew about this all the time, keeping it secret from the younger folk such as herself.

[Raynn]

"The others don't know.

Well I can't trust the Intelligencia not to know, Dire has eyes and ears everywhere but the rest don't know yet. Right now they think TimeLock is an idealist with few morals, but Neo told me right before he died that there something coming. Something worse than Omega. Something worse than the Black Entity. I don't know if Tyrannus is that thing or not but I've been keeping my investigation hidden from the others just incase. Until I know more I didn't think it was right to bring them into this.

I'm. . . I doubt I know more about the Timelock situation than you right now but I do know more about Jenny. . . I mean Faith. I knew her Father, and Her mother. Her Mother's name was Elizabeth Winters, her Father was a man name Michael Jones. A very long time ago. . . lets just say that her mother and Jenny shared some similarities. Eventually her Mother was able to remove her own abilities and I had been led to believe her daughter shared none of her unique gifts. I thought her powers were merely a result of a virus her father gained his powers from. One created by her grandfather or sorts.

I don't think her grandfather is something we should get into but lets just say that if anyone can tell us the link between Jenny and TimeLock then it's her parents. Sadly Elizabeth and Michael decided to live utterly mundane lives in the new universe. Her mother I am told runs a restaurant and her Father joined the Navy I believe, but recently I have been unable to track them down.

If this right hand woman of the future is Jenny, then Faith could be the Key to unravelling TimeLock's plan and stopping Tyrannus' return, but I don't think that's all that's going on here."

[Starsign]

Ashley listened in quietly, yet shuddered at every word Isiah mentioned. <That...> It was unbelievable. It was all so connected with Faith. <I... I think you're right. In the cafeteria a number of days ago. Prophecy mentioned about... The end of all Heroes... And underneath it, a great and terrible plan.> Things we're becoming worse and worse by the moment, just thinking about it was an exercise in getting a migraine... <This 'man of the night,' I saw in my cousin's vision... I had figured it might be future Timelock, or Tyrannus. But,> she turned to Isiah again, <could it be Faith's grandfather? He seems connected to this.> She thought further on it. <Who the hell is Faith? Who the hell is Jenny? Which one is the real person? Which is the alternate one created in the others mind?> She asked almost furiously... Then calmed down. <Sorry. I shouldn't be forcing all these on you like that.> Was she doubting Faith now? Jenny's words still appeared in her mind. <Don't answer the last ones. I think this is as hard on you as it is on us all...> She said those words melancholic, as if she fell before a great burden on herself.

Spoiler

Show

I realize I probably shouldn't be forcing all those questions right now, before the time skip, especially about Faith.

Also Ashley doesn't have a clue who Faith's grandfather is, before anyone asks, it'll be fun when she learns who it is.

[smuchmuch]

"Yeah yeah… I love you too, Jill."

Jake gets a cartoony tongue sticked at him with a "harumph".

Jill thinks she should totaky have crushed him. She didn't do it because the muffin, she swear. And maybe she didn't want to take the risk a hurting a freind, not that she'd ever admit it out loud. But that's not really the proper toonish zany crazy attitude.
Now everyone is going to think she's soft and predictable. And that means borring. No one as been worried about what she might do once borred in at least four days ! that is to say almost an eternity, she might as well be part of the furniture already. She decides to make up for it by doing something completly crazy and idiotic soon enough.
That'll show them ! She's still not sure what that'll show, but as long as it does she can figure the details after.


She take a bite of that morning burito thing and make a extreme 'Bleh' face before turning back to the conversation. somme epople are still mentionaing that alternate reallity thing.

"Legacy made me a ring that protects me from sunlight, but the magic runs off my innate magic so I'm weaker in the daylight."

"Sho in the end you're like a vampire with none of the inconvenients." Jill muses between two mouthfull "How comme none of the other vampire can do that ? Did you patent the method ?" She looks at Night curiously, like someoene who guess there's got to be a good storry behind that. "Kinda wondering if we could use that on the kidies if the rest fails."

They even have a token human, a me if you will

That got no comment from Jill but something of a weird little throat sound sound and a bit of a curious side glance.