5066/A Crack In The Sky

A Crack In The Sky
Date of Scene:	31 July 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	The Titans and Superboy cross paths. And a knight falls from the sky.
Cast of Characters:	87, Superboy, Brick, Stardust

---

Vorpal (87) has posed:
'Suicide Slum' is not everybody's first destination when returning from a trip abroad... if they can help it. Vorpal, however, can't quite help it- for various reasons, which will become apparent soon.

The Rabbit Hole opens up in an alleyway, close to ten pm, and out comes out what looks to be a very disoriented Cheshire Cat. It takes him several minutes to gather his thoughts, apparently. Little discharges of purple light occasionally blast from him, dissipating before they hit anything.

Almost at the same time as he appears, and not coincidentally, something begins to happen in the sky over the city- a disturbance that is not unlike a small maelstrom of swirling lights.

Local sensors will immediately pick up the disturbance as a spike in dimensional energy- a portal is building.

Superboy has posed:
     The call went out to Cadmus, there was something happening in Suicide Slum. Of course, it only took Project Kr a couple seconds to put on his suit, trading a scrublike white getup to the blue, red, black, and gold fatigues he was last seen in. The 'S' shield was emblazoned on his chest, and soon after, he was off. Cadmus employees meanwhile were talking in his ear, giving what information they had to Project Kr.

  The teenaged Kryptonian arrived on-scene with a bang, landing in the street below the crack in the sky as he awaited whatever it was that was about to come through the portal.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The loud noise causes the Cheshire cat to quickly turn in its directions, ears perked and eyes wide. His hands curled up into claws, briefly, causing another discharge which, this time, grounds itself and causes the nearest brick wall in the alleyway to be covered in flowers and ivy, which wither away almost instantly.

Moving with an uneven gait, he slinks along the shadows until he can get a clear view of the cause of that noise, and he pauses.

If he recognizes anything about Project Kr, it does not show in his face.

The concentration of energies finally comes to a head. The maelstrom spits out one resplendent figure, which seems to glide in the air with the greatests of ease, and disperses almost immediately.

The figure is heading straight for the street where the Kryptonian is... with a slight deviation. Its trajectory actually has it landing in the alleyway.

It is hard to make out any specific features, but it seems to be humanoid, covered in some sort of glittering armor, of a decidedly ancient make. It is difficult to say whether the metal is so resplendent that it reflects the lights of the city below tenfold, or if it simply creates its own luminescence. The figure is armed with a sword, which hangs at its side in a scabbard, and there seems to be no further armament.

Vorpal has not noticed the figure yet, as he seems to be fixed on the Kryptonian. His eyes are mostly unfocused, yet he seems to be trying to get a grip and make sense of his surroundings. Due to his altered state, he is not being tremendously stealthy.

Superboy has posed:
     The black haired teen watches as the figure emerges from the portal. His first instinct is to go forth and engage. But he hears something, or someone around him. He turns towards Vorpal, and canters his head. "You okay there?" He asks, trying to see if this person is friend or foe, despite the claws and seemingly...out of sorts.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Words. Language. Syntax. He hasn't had -those- in a while. In fact, being in an environment that does not change in response to your thoughts is a novelty he hasn't had for the last three weeks. "... okay?" he repeats, as if trying to comprehend the words. He frowns and steps out into the light.

His uniform is torn in several places, and his hair is wild, trailing over one side of his face. He looks like a person hunted.

His eyes focus on the symbol, and finally a spark of recognition crosses his face.

"Super... Superman?"

The figure that had been gliding through the air suddenly makes a very drastic change- it hovers in the air for an instant, and then it blinks into a tiny sphere of light. Said sphere darts with impossible speed, landing on the alleyway and forming the glittering knight once more.

It moves swiftly, extending a hand towards Vorpal and throwing what appears to be a delicate tendril of silver from its glove. It encircles Vorpal from behind and fastens round him in a single tug, and the cat's eyes grow wide in panic as the knight tugs back with one formidable movement, dragging the cat back towards him down the alleyway.

"Wha-No!" He reacts, trying to grab a hold of something along the wall.

Superboy has posed:
     Project Kr looks to the symbol on his chest, then back to Vorpal. "Not quite." He doesn't get much time to say anything else before Vorpal is starting to be dragged off by the knight.

  The Superboy reaches a hand towards Vorpal, trying to grab ahold and impede the knight. "You there! I order you to cease any supernatural activity, and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the next convenient parallel dimension!" He yells at the knight, seemingly trying to take this young man against his will.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Amid all the strangeness, and despite the acute disorientation, Vorpal manages to focus enough on what PKr is saying to frown for a moment, and says "You talk like Brick..." he quickly reaches for the Kryptonian's hand.

The knight redoubles his efforts, causing Vorpal to cry out in pain as he becomes the middle ground of a tug-of-war. The silver rope cuts into his flesh, and he quickly releases Kr to avoid even more pain.

Superboy has posed:
     "It's kinda from a movie I like." He says with a chuckle. Superboy let's Vorpal go, if only momentarily before he starts to stare at the knight. His eyes start glowing red, before beams of heat energy shoot out with a haunting sound. He's aiming for the rope before he starts to really beat on the knight.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The rope begins to heat up as it is targeted by Superboy. Amazingly, it manages to resist the energy, probably by virtue of some magical nature, but the hunter is clearly taking no chances with its prey now that some sort of defender has shown up. With one sweeping movement, the knight slams Vorpal against the wall and the Cheshire falls down, the wind knocked out of him and on the brink of fading out.

The sword comes out of its scabbard without a sound, and the knight begins to advance towards Superboy, the edge of the sword leaving a verdigris aura as it moves.

Superboy has posed:
     "Hold on, uhh, guy." Though Vorpal is knocked aside, Project Kr sees the opportunity to do something drastic he didn't want the Cheshire to be hooked to the knight for.

  The Kryptonian youth rears back, holding his fists in front of him before he leaps towards the knight. He flies with great strength and power against the knight, attempting to ram him into a nearby wall, very hard.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
It is quite easy for Superboy to ram his opponent into the wall. Amazingly easy, in fact, since the suit of armor is completely empty. As the Teen of Steel impacts the wall, the armor quickly falls apart, the enchantment that held it together all but gone in a flash of sickly green light.

The sword clatters to the ground and, surprisngly, shatters like glass. The shards soon begin to smoke and disintegrate with a malodorous scent.

A few seconds later, Vorpal begins to stir, groaning and wincing a bit as the silver cord has cut into his arms and chest.

Superboy has posed:
     The dark haired teen is all but amazed at the simplicity here. But is sure this can't be over.

  Project Kr flies back to reach Vorpal, only to have his flight give out a foot off the ground. A slight thud to his boots garners a sigh from the blue-eyes boy before he reaches down towards Vorpal. "Can you stand?" He asks, looking to the Cheshire with a friendly smile.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Let's find out," Vorpal replies, dazed from the up close and personal view he just had of the alley wall. To his credit, he makes a brave attempt at it, but ends up deciding that he likes leaning against the wall for now. His hand fumbles, trying to get the cord off of him.

He focuses on his rescuer, his eyes becoming more and more aware now. Maybe that conk helped. "Stupid... goddamned... string!"

He finally gets the rope off him after re-enacting a slightly bloodier version of every cat caught with a yarn ball wrapped around him, and slides to a sitting position down the wall.

"Where am I?" he asks, focusing his eyes on Superboy.

Superboy has posed:
     Superboy helps to take off the rope, making sure to be gentle around the wounds.

  The Kryptonian smiles as he stands up again, looking to Vorpal. "Metropolis, The United States, North America, the Northern and Western Hemishperes, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way galaxy. I could go bigger if you need."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire stares at Superboy, and then he finally nods. "... well. I made it back in one piece, at least." He frowns, suddenly. "What month and year?" he seems to be particularly anxious when he asks the question, and it has something to do with the young man in front of him, by the way the cat's eyes could easily burn a hole through him.

Superboy has posed:
     Superboy has a bit of a hesitation when he is asked about the year and month. "July, 2026." He answers, looking to Vorpal. "You're not from the past are you? Time travel is...weird."

  The Kryptonian looks to the Cat. "So...where were you before?" He asks, nodding towards where the knight once stood. "And was that from where you came from?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire cat looks extremely relieved, and he once more tries to stand up. He is clearly not at his best, physically, and he shows signs of exhaustion now that adrenaline is not powering his survival mode.

"I'm from here. I just thought I may have ended up in the future." He gathers enough of himself to give Superboy a slightly insolent smirk. "What with you wearing the 'S', I figured I might have traveled in time to a future where the big blue scout ended up having a gorgeous son with... I dunno. Wonder Woman? People ship that, you know." He rambles when he's tired.

"Time works... funny on Ildathach. Sometimes a day lasts a day. Sometimes a week lasts twenty years, I guess."

He reaches for something in his pocket and brings out a phone that looks to be about as beat up as he is, and looks at the screen to make sure it syncs.

"Okay... so I lost three weeks in three days. Wow."

He exhales and leans back against the wall for support.

Superboy has posed:
     "Yeah, its kind of complicated." Project Kr gives a small blush. "Umm, Ship?" He May know movies, but he doesn't really know much about internet stuff. "What's Ildathach? Sounds...exotic."

     Superboy holds out a hand to help support Vorpal. "Do you need a lift somewhere? I can fly you there if you want.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal takes the hand to steady himself, and mutters "Elfand. Faerie. Vengeful assholes they are..." he looks at Superboy and frowns. "Okay, mister complicated. Then, what do I call //you//?"

He thinks about the question, and says "I'm with the Titans... I can take myself back to-"

He attempts to open a Rabbit Hole. It does not go very well- the place where the Rabbit Hole was to open is seized by a terrible ripple in the fabric of reality, a distorsion, and the very faint hint of something VERY unpleasant bubbling under the surface.

The Cheshire cat loses his footing and ends up leaning on Superboy, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"... On the other hand...."

Superboy has posed:
     "The Titans? Oh yeah, I know that place. Big T shaped building, right?" He offers up, before he wraps an arm around Vorpal, making sure to hold the Cat up with a good amount of support. "I'll take you there."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"... if you insist," Vorpal answers, his eyes riveted on the place where that... thing almost came out, clearly too frightened to object, for the moment.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
#####################################

Up there, in the sky!
It's a bird!
No, it's a plane!
No, it's-

"It's kind of terrifying," Vorpal says, clinging to Superboy tighter than he really has to. The realization that he can't invoke his Rabbit Holes has left him quite shaken- and very aware that, should he fall, he can't rescue himself via a convenient hole in reality.

Not that the Kryptonian would let him fall... but he's not quite in the right headspace to think about that.

He doesn't have his communicator with him- it's somewhere back in Tir Nah You Get the Eff Off, of course, with the third of the uniform that was torn off in his escape. For three weeks, he has basically been unreachable and unfindable on any maps by virtue of being out of this world.

Still, the Tower would have immediately picked up his approach and identified him as one of the two approaching flyers.

"... we should have called ahead. They hate surprises," the Cheshire cat comments, holding on for dear life.

Superboy has posed:
     The other flyer, dressed in a blue and red shining uniform, accented with gold and black is holding up Vorpal. He deliberately took it slow in getting to the Tower, since Vorpal seemed a bit out of sorts.

  "Yes, Kryptonian delivery service, I have a...purple guy here for delivery to Titans Tower."

  Granted, the earpiece in his ear was connected to Cadmus, and they knew exactly what Project Kr was doing. They would order him home in due time. But they needed to see how he would interact with others in the real world, so they allowed this deviation of protocol.

Brick has posed:
*PINGPINGPING*

"Oh? Incoming," Brick Marsten says, as he adjusts a piece of equipment that looks entirely unsuited for what it actually is. And what that is ... is unclear. Kirby-tech is the popular name for this kind of design, for no particular reason.

"Can you tell who it is, Maire Boit?"

Stardust has posed:
There are some fairly good advanced warning systems on the tower, indeed some intended specifically for identifying people of an aerial persuasion. Thus the imminent arrival of psuedo-Kryptonion and bedraggled feline is noted in advance, the flyers are scanned, and a suitable response is enacted. Of course, clear identification hasn't yet been made, but these are the Titans, and responses are often a little hasty. One particularly hasty part of that response consists of a flyer of their own, streaking up from the roof of the tower to meet the pair as they descend.

     <<UNHAND THAT small mammalian often kept as pets on the planet Krypton which look a bit like cats, KRYPTONIAN!>> the flyer bellows in Kryptonian as she approaches the flying pair. Because Colette. She stops a few feet away, blinking, then resumes, thankfully, in English. "Hang on. You're not Superman. I've seen him. He's older. Why are you delivering Vorpal? He normally doesn't need delivery." She peers at the bedraggled form of her team mate. "You okay Vorp?" She turns her attention back to Superboy, speaking slowly as if to someone a little stupid. "He has rabbit holes. For delivering himself. Normally people deliver pizzas to us. Did you bring pizza, too?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"They don't work," Vorpal snaps, trying to mend his broken dignity at this point, "Stardust. My Rabbit Holes are out of commission." He is still clinging to Superboy, he notices, and very awkwardly lets go of him once it is one hundred percent guaranteed that he is stepping on terr firma. "Do I look okay?"

He doesn't look his best. His uniform is torn in multiple places, and he has wounds- albeit of the flesh, superficial ones, but having fur does make blood look a lot more spectacular.

"For the time being, I can't use... do any of my..." he trails off, and then he looks back at the teen of Steel. "You still haven't told me who you are, you know..."

Superboy has posed:
     Superboy stops as he is approached, and yelled at in a language he barely understands. He responds the only way he really knows how to. <<Can you show me where the bathroom is?>>

  Project Kr blushes, reaching behind his head and scratching at his scalp a little. "Sorry, I'm not really good at Kryptonese." He says, then looking to Vorpal. "Umm, I found him in Suicide Slum, there was a knight, I think? That was accosting him. He seemed a bit not well. But he said he was a Titan, so I just wanted to bring him where he could rest up. The Kryptonian clone descends to the tower roof, allowing Vorpal to get back on solid ground.

  "Oh, um, I don't really have a name." He responds, looking to Vorpal, again giving an apologetic smile. "Oh and I don't have Pizza, should I have brought one with me?"

Brick has posed:
"Isn't it great when she has to make up for being utterly deadly serious for more than a half hour?" Brick says to Maire Boit (his apparently invisible friend) as he finishes adjusting the device that sits on the roof of the tower. It's only sitting there because it's about to be tested, and one doesn't necessarily perform functionality testing of a flying rig inside a building. Which suggests it's passed the preliminary tests.

"Come on down here," he yells up to the flying floating argument. He's not eager to test it that close to other people.

**PING**

"All right, fine. First aid pod please."

There's a crackling FOOP!! and a piece of luggage about the size of two large picnic coolers end-to-end appears to "thunk" into existence in front of him. He opens the seal and begins preparing for first aid.

Stardust has posed:
"You look like something the cat dragged in," Colette replies to Vorpal. "Which is entirely the wrong way around. I thought you were in Scotland. Did you call them English or something?"

    She turns to Superboy, giving him a long, hard, stare. "Don't worry. I don't really speak Kryptonian either. Kryptonese? Whatever. You found him in Suicide Slum, fighting a knight. That sounds incredibly unlikely. However, this is Vorpal, and incredibly unlikely things happen nine times out of ten when he's around." She holds out her hand. "Hi, Kryptonian-with-no-name, I'm Stardust. How do you manage to have no name? Please decant the cat into Brick's healing pod thingy."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"I'm fine. I'm fine, I don't need a healing pod!" Vorpal says, trying to avoid reality and not meet anyone's eyes in the hopes that it works. Finding a great distraction is also a good way of helping it work, and thus he latches onto one:

"Yeah... how come you don't have a name?" He turns around to face Superboy and puts a finger on the 'S' emblem, looking at him curiously. He is also making every effort to stand up without assistance, which is working quite well and he hopes will be enough to get the mothering off him.

It's not going to last for long. But for the time being-

"And I'm curious about the S..."

Superboy has posed:
     Superboy shakes Colette's hand, it's firm, but not crushingly strong. "Hello, Stardust." He chimes in, helping Vorpal closer to the pod, wether or not he wants to.

  The young Kryptonian's smile fades a bit. "Well, they don't really call me anything other than..." A moment, he leans his head to the left ever so slightly. "I can't really say."

  Then the S is brought up. "Well, that's the symbol of...me. Superman's symbol." He wasn't Superman, but he definitely bore a resemblance to the Man of Steel. "

Brick has posed:
*PINGPINGPING* sounds in Vorpal's head as well as in the ears of everyone present. ((Only in Vorpal's mind, a mellow and slightly matronly, almost Poppinsian voice says, 'Tommy, you come down here and let us clean up those scratches right now.' It's not QUITE a Bene Geserit command voice.))

"Yeah, set him on the end there, where it goes flat. Geez, V-man --- what have you been doing anyway? Playing mumble-ty-body with Excalibur?"

Stardust has posed:
Colette returns the shake about as firmly. "You need a name. You can't expect people to address you as 'hey you, guy with no name' all the time. You should come up with something. Before someone else does, because that's never a good idea. So are you like Superman's son or something? Do you have supergrowth, and grew from an infant in three months? I bet that's it."

    "If you were fine, Vorp... that would be a first. " Colette arches a sceptical eyebrow at him, taking in all the blood. "In the pod, or I'll punch you until you agree you're damaged enough." She winks to the cat as she speaks.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Not now, I am trying to find out-" and the voice goes off in his head- it is close enough to the 'mother' voice trigger that Vorpal simply moves into compliance, letting himself be led. Because Colette has also threatened to punch punch.

"I fell into Faerie and got chased by elves, okay? I don't really want to talk about it right now. I've spent three weeks without a shower or pizza." There is a lot more to his story- but he's not ready to even think about that. Instead, distraction.

He shoots Superboy a glance. "Who is 'they'?" he asks. He knows he's not going to get an answer- it sounds like one of 'those' things, so he simply recovers and says "Alright, then. If you won't tell us who you are I'm going to call you something." As he takes his place at the pod, he decides to make the best of a bad spot. He looks at the Kryptonian from head to toe. Twice, because the colors and the emblem and the eyes... yeah. He is really having a hard time not believing he's somehow ended in a parallel timeline where Superman has had a kid.

"Henceforth I'm going to call you Superkid. Thank you for saving me, Superkid."

Superboy has posed:
     "They're the people who..." Another slight leaning of his head. "Sorry, I can't say. Not yet." Though it doesn't seem that he is totally trying to keep secrets.

  "Superboy. Call me Superboy." He says, giving a smile. "Well, if he's going to be well, I should probably get back home." He says, nodding towards Vorpal.

Brick has posed:
"ON the pod, Stardust, NOT INSIDE IT," Brick semi-yells, because she's off in her own special world where she goes when the inside voices are too loud and the outside voices are simultaneously loud and boring and less fun than making it up herself. Still. When the Cheshire Cat is close enough to scan properly, Brick is confused by some of the information he spots.

"Where have you been?" he asks, first using a sponge saturated with a special form of water that is four times wetter than normal, so he can clean up the excess blood. Of course Maire Boit will tell him if there's any embedded material like Snow Blade Shards or parasitic space worm eggs. Once the damage is assessed, Brick applies a gel to the injuries, and shines an intense purple light on them from a sort of 'flashligbt' that he sets hanging in mid-air. It only does PHYSICAL healing, not mental healing, unfortunately.

Stardust has posed:
"On, in, it's all the same," Colette replies to Brick. "Do they healy-ma-whatsit stuff on him and you can explain the inner workings of healy-ma-whatsit pods to me later."

    Superboy continues to get a hard stare. "See? That's what I mean, Superkid. Vorp named you first. Now you have to be called Superkid. That's the /rules./" She breaks into a grin and shakes her head a little. "You could stay for pizzas if you like, " she offers. "We can order them in. No need to bring your own."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"I told you," the cat says to Brick, "Later. I don't want to think about that stuff right now." He really doesn't, because there is something that he keeps remembering that is making him very uneasy. And it doesn't help that it is trying to bring itself to his attention despite the distractions he is putting in his way. It crept up his brain when he tried to summon the Rabbit Hole and... things happened.

Distract. Distract. Distract until you can retreat, regroup and re-evaluate.

He looks at the Kryptonian and smirks a little. "Okay. I re-dub you Superboy, then. Superboy. Come stay for a pizza, you can not tell us all about yourself and then Stardust can tell you everything about herself." Two distractions- Superboy (who was distraction enough) //and// Colette in a talkative mood could very well keep whatever it was trying to emerge to his conscious mind down in the 'sub' area.

"Whaddaya say? We get discount coupons all the time."

Superboy has posed:
     He thinks for a moment, with that darn earpiece speaking into his head again. "Sorry, next time. I don't want to be late." He offers, lifting up into the air. "Nice to meet you, Titans!" He chimes before he jets off towards Metropolis and Cadmus HQ. Where he'd ask the team for a name, a real name.