Owner	Pose
Vorpal	There isn't much that seems out of place in this particular part of Brooklyn. What with the new construction projects lending a certain uniformity to the neighborhood and its ordery apartments spaced just so from each other, crisscrossed by perfectly regular cross-streets, one might be forgiven for thinking of an incipient chessboard springing up in Brooklyn. It might certainly seem that way from above, at least for the new area. The Cheshire cat known as Vorpal is resting at the edge of one of the rooftops, sipping on a latte and taking the world in during his patrol. So far, it had been failry calm and uneventful. Down the street, though, there was a man. An unusual man by most standards, in that he was dressed in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Cardinal of the catholic church... but not quite. There was an awful lot of red to him, though, but his headwear wasn't quite right. Under some angles it might look like a papal mitre, even, but under others it could look like a very pointy crown. His face was, also, the kind of face one seldom forgets: aquiline to the extreme, perhaps even of a Bergeracesque turn. "Thirty five.... sixty eight.... eighteen.... two...." he mutters under his breath, his eyes nailed to the floor and counting his steps in some system that won't make much sense to anyone with hearing sharp enough to listen. Oh, yes, and there is a case attached to his red-gloved hand by a tiny chain. This case is, too, red.
Kian	No patrol, not for the birdman. Kian is still acclimating to this odd world and is perched quietly in a tree along the street, trying not to be seen, watching all these odd wingless bipeds, trying to make some sense out of them.     Someone all in red catches his attention. They don't have cardinals -- the birds or the clerics -- on his world, so he hasn't really got a frame of reference for someone dressed like that. But it is unusual, even in his limited experience, to see someone dressed like that.     So what he does is sprawl out on a sufficiently stout branch, and watch, staying quiet, but quite curious.
Sam Axe	Sam has been trying to lay low in his new city, honestly he has. Sadly there is a world of difference between trying and being successful. Between the incident in Gotham and helping foil the robery of a Charity event, he has been a bit too noticable. Tonight he decides to play it safe and just have a few drink at one of the less trendy clubs in Brooklyn.&r&tHe enjoying a mojito out on the patio of the club and he notices the red clad man and catches a snippet of the odd counting. he takes a drink form his glass and asks himself quietly, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
Vorpal	Vorpal, on the other hand, has not noticed the man at all. He is, actually, texting on his phone. He has two friends who went back to France with whom he hasn't spoken in a while, so he decided to take the chance to play catch-up. Otherwise, he might have confirmed Sam's bad feelings were well-founded. The Red Bishop stops at the corner of the intersection and stops counting. He looks all the way up and down the street and nods to himself, seemingly satisfied. The briefcase flies open without him apparenty imputting a code or tapping the lock mechanism. Red chalk falls out. Yes. Just a few sticks of red chalk, the kind you find in school roo- Wait. They have whiteboards now. Okay, let me back up- see, there used to be these things called blackboards back in- No, screw that. You google it. It was a thing. The Red Bishop takes the chalk and quickly draws a square that nearly takes up the whole corner, inconveniencing a good number of people who are trying to get to the crosswalk, thank you very much. And when the square is complete, something strange and wondrous happens. The lines glow brightly, enough to be seen plainly from afar during the day. What's more, the square now begins to //expand//. It begins to slowly creep out, and whatever becomes engulfed in it... well, changes. It becomes something *insane*- the lamppost becomes a tendril of strange, sinewy material with a glowing ball at the end, reminiscent of the stem of a pilotfish. It is rooted to the ground itself, where odd-colored grass is replacing the pavement. It changes color depending on the angle- sometimes red-purple, sometimes green-blue. It's *weird*. As for the people? Fortunately people have started screaming and running away from the expanding space, in an astonishing show of good sense (then again, Brooklynites tend to have more common sense than your usual rubbernecker, considering all the weird stuff that has started here.) But out of the square, three more Red Bishops step through out of nowhere and join the fourth, each one taking up one of the corners and walking just a little ahead of it, as if to clear the path. Vorpal stops, as suddenly he *senses* something terrible. His eyes look over to the corner and he drops his phone. Onto the roof. He's surprised, but not surprised ENOUGH to just let a Starkphone fall several stories down. Hello? "Oh no..." he says, standing up on the ledge. He can't quite remember, his soul fusion having messed up some of his memories, but this feels familiar. And very bad. Wonderland is here.
Kian	Even in his limited experience with Earth, Kian knows that This Is Not Normal. Even though he considers this whole planet abnormal, this is above and beyond the call of duty for not normal.     Even so, he doesn't know what to *do*. Maybe this *is* normal for Earth? He sits up a little on his branch, wings spread, fight competing with flight for how to react.     And he has not noticed that he has a faint blue glow, as he is wont to develop when about to use his powers.
Sam Axe	Wow that was not what Sam was expecting, he is still getting used ot being in an rea with a lot of supers. He looks at his drink for a moemtn tan at the other people reacting, "Ok not a hallucination." He says to himself, "Likely not a dream, or a hoax." He finishes his drink and does the most unsual thing of moving towards the disturbance and not away, "Things like this never happened in Miami." He states and is technically correct. He ran into more governemnt conspiracies than there is in a Bourne movie marathon but nothing like this.
Vorpal	The Cheshire cat tries to rack up his memory for signs of what was going on. He can't put his finger on it, except for the incredibly obvious fact that the men in red are dangerous in some form or fashion. Great job, memory. The cat leaps across the void and grabs onto a banner showcasing an advertisement for the latest festival. It rips, predictably enough, but it tears in just a way that it helps him get across. You might cry Hollywood bullshit at this- and you'd be right, too! What the casual observer doesn't see is the burst of chaos magic Vorpal releases into the banner as he grabs it, allowing him to control the tear. He rolls, almost gets run over by a speeding car, and manages to get to the other side (almost out of breath) in time to intercept Sam. "Wha...wha you doin'..." he pants. It wasn't that the activity was abnormal for him, he just had the breath scared out of him by almost becoming a hood ornament for a Mercedes. "Other way! You run in the opposite direction of the danger!" he says, pointing over Sam's shoulder. Meanwhile, the Bishops pick up speed, and with them the widening square. A mailbox enters the zone now, and instantly becomes a contraption that looks like the hybrid between a mailbox and a phonograph. A creature with a fish head and a powdered wig, dressed in livery, appears out of the 'frame' of the square and steps up to the strange contraption. The strange personage inserts a large letter (where did it come from? The envelope is almost as large as his arm) into the mouth of the machine. It immediately seems to shred the envelope and deposit the shreds of paper onto the sidewalk, where the strips begin to multiply and are blown out by the wind. As they fly into the air, they become large envelopes themselves with an embossed red heart where the address ought to be. A cruious bystander who has been recording all this grabs one of them as it flies towards him and, frowning, opens it. There is a brief moment where reality simply warps around the poor man, and then suddenly in his place, there is a man-sized playing card, with a face resembling the bystander's, and instead of his phone there is a nasty-looking halberd in a hand. This hand is attached to a rather horribly thin arm that protrudes, like the rest of his limbs, from the card body itself. The spectacle is not quaint. There is, in fact, something horrific about it.
Kian	When Kian reacts, it's entirely on instinct. If he had to think about it, he would remain hiding. Since he doesn't stop to think about it, what he does is launch himself from his perch, and go envelope hunting.     One trusts that envelopes can't fly as well as a birdman. One further trusts that they can't return fire -- Kian is for once letting loose with his abilities, trying to shoot them down individually when necessary and in groups when possible.     After this is all over, he won't believe it either.
Sam Axe	Poor Sam his first actual conversation with a superhero turns out to be a talking cat, he blinks a bit, and looks back ot the pannicked crowd, "I figured they had the running away part covered." He asks the obvious question, "So what is going on? How do we stop this thing?" Yes he used we. His tone of voice is an odd mix of confidence and fear even as his words try to cover the fear part.
Vorpal	Well, it seems that unexpected reinforcements are in the area. There is an actua winged man blasting those letters out of the air- and he's doing a very good job of it. The ashes that fall do not reform into anything, fortunately, and the fish-headed creature is obviously scared away by the display- a messenger and nothing more. He runs 'off frame' and vanishes. "I... I think we need to stop those four guys..." he looks at the advancing Bishops and frowns. "Maybe knock them out. But we'll need all of us because I get the impression they just won't let us pick them off one by one... can you take that card dude down? Down, not kill him... I'm going to see if I can catch our bird man's attention and see if we can coordinate, okay?" The aforementioned 'card dude' is currently chasing a businessman, that halberg flashing in the air as he tries a few slashes at him. Fortunately the man is too fast to be caught. Yet. The Cheshire cat vanishes into a tear in reality as he leaves Sam to deal with the card guard. He drops from the sky several feet above Kain's general whereabouts, "Hey!" he calls out while in mid-fall, trying to catch Kian's attention. "Pow!" he says, pointing to an area that across the street where three people have received the letters. One of them has opened it and is in the process of turning herself into a card, but two other men, their backs turned to her, have just now started tearing the envelope. His meaning is clear: blast those envelopes!
Kian	Kian will -- if he can clear his brain from a CAT! APPEARING! IN! FRONT! OF! HIM! "/Kya/!!" Instinctively, he dives aside -- and just as instinctively, he follows the cat-man's pointing finger, and ... oh.     Don't think, Kian, just do.     Proximity is the problem -- he dives towards the victims fast, very fast, so that when he does unload on the 'poison pen letters', it's with minimal chance of hitting the people by mistake.     And then it occurs to him -- that cat-man didn't have wings. So being in the air above Kian was a naturally untenable situation.     He doubles back *fast*. Now that it's gotten into his head that cat-people are merely scary and not necessarily actually demons, it just wouldn't do to let one plummet.
Sam Axe	Sam nods to Vorpal, "Not a problem." he starts to run towards the card man as he gets close he launches himself into the air siming his shoulder atthe cardman expecting his greater mass to be the important factor in the hoped for collision. "I've cut the cards many times but know I have to make sure the cards don't cut me."
Vorpal	Saved from plummeting, Vorpal says "Thanks!" though, admittedly, he could have gotten away with another Rabbit Hole- but the birdman's intention is fully appreciated. Being carried by the bird-man, the Cheshire wastes no time. "Can you grab something and drop it onto the red guys' heads?" he says, "Just stay away from the widening square and you'll be fine." There is the matter of the other card-woman, though. "Before you do , throw me at her," he points at the card-lady. "Trust me, I'll be fine." Fortunately, if Kian hasn't picked up on the language of the planet, his skin contact with Vorpal should be able to telepathically convey the meaning. Sam's tackle is successful, taking the card soldier by surprise and sending him sprawling- the halberd rolling away and causing sparks to fly when it hits the ground. The card-soldier flops rather awkwardly and then flips to his feet with a *twang* of plastic. It eyes the halberd and makes a dash for it to recover it. Sam is at an equal distance from it, too, if he decides to go for the weapon, or try a different tactic.
Kian	Kian's command of English is woefully inadequate to the task, but yes, the physical contact makes his telepathy possible, if slightly weird. <<I understand you, yes, but that would be an... inefficient way of dealing with them. And I'd have to land to get something heavy in the first place. I'll... see what I can do.>>     He hadn't particularly noticed the one Vorpal was referring to, but follows his mental lead, and is surprised by the confidence behind 'trust me, I'll be fine' -- however, throwing him is not an option. Zooming off in her direction and dive-bombing with Vorpal, that he can do. <<Good luck,>> is the last thing he sends before breaking contact, and turning back to the 'cardinals'.     He knows roughly how much power it would take to stun one of his people -- by measurement, not by actually going out and stunning them. And he dumps precisely that amount of electricity into the nearest guy in red, and hopes it's not *too* much.
Sam Axe	Sam is likely slower than the card, after all he is well into middle aged but he does think quickly and has seen the Disney version of this story, so he point to a spot behind the card person and gasps, "The Red Queen." hoping that buys him enough time to get the halbred. Sometimes the old tricks are the best ones though who knows if this is one of those times.
Vorpal	The cardinal receiving the attack stops in his tracks, which makes the three others stop as well and glare up at Kian. Something horrific happens to the Cardinal being shocked by Kian- It pops. There are no blood and guts, though, only red crepe paper that is instantly dispersed by the wind. There is a furious cry from the cardinals. Two of them rush to the spot where their fallen member stood and begin to draw in the air with their chalk sticks, deftly beginning to eke out another Cardinal right then and there, the chalk drawing in mid-air being completed at an amazing speed, but not quite finished yet. The third Cardinal, or Bishop, or whatever? He's drawing a bow and arrows in the air. It's fairly easy and comprised of basic shapes, so it soon grabs onto the bow and begins to take an arrow, one by one, and firing them towards the flying bird. Meanwhile, Sam's card does indeed move faster, but he isn't *as* bright, for Sam's cry of the Red Queen terrifies the card. He turns around in a panick, ready to genuflect- but there's no-one there! The halberd hasn't moved an inch, fortunately. No, I don't know why it WOULD move on its own but, having seen everything that has gone on so far, would it really surprise you? The cheshire cat, on the other hand, did an excellent dive-bombing of the card and they are, currently, struggling for the halberd in an almost comical way. "Mine!" "No, MINE!" "ALright, we'll Knob for it!" And they turn the halberd upside-down and begin the process of 'Knobbing Up', which is when players of opposite teams in Baseball walk their hands up the bat, with the top hand winning. One red-gloved hand reaches the top of the halberd's butt and the card laughs, "I win!" Vorpal agrees, "Yes you did!" And then Vorpal whacks the card with the butt of the halberd. The card goes down with a *thwip* "The agony of defeat!"
Kian	"/c'Rhys'yw/!" Whatever that means. It doesn't sound like it's celebratory, that's for certain. On the plus side, Kian recognizes a bow and arrow -- ancient predecessor to the crossbow, a much more sensible weapon for an avian to use -- and knows which end of it is the wrong one to be on.     Instinct. He daren't think he won't be able to act. At least the way the one... disappeared... suggests they're not flesh and blood.     He dives to the side and spreads his arms, letting out a fan of current like from a Tesla coil, hoping to put all four out of commission. He'd settle for three. Or two. Or the one shooting at him.     The only conscious thought he allows himself is that this planet is *crazy*.
Sam Axe	Sam picks up the halbred and looks at it for a moment, from the way he handles the weapon it is clear he has not used one before. He settles on holding it in front of him as if it was a quaterstaff. he does not attack the cardman instead uses the weapon ot provide defence and distance. He calls out, "I think we need ot get the chalk from them." He offers no helpful ideas on how to accomplish that however.
Vorpal	"That's an excellent idea!" the Cheshire calls back. The halberd is in his hands now, and he turns it and himself invisible. Then, he runs towards the bishops whose attention is focused solely on Kian right now. One good swing should take out two of them. Unfortunately, being invisible means that other people can't see you, including your allies. Vorpal hasn't really had much practice at this 'teamwork' thing, not being... you know... in a team. He raises the halberd, only to find himself zapped as the halberd attracts the electricity. FZZZZZZT! Vorpal becomes visible immediately, and it's not the best look on him. Fortunately there was *some* shielding on the handle ,but he still was able to get a good amount of zap through him. This means that right now his fur makes him look, pretty much, like a koosh doll. It also means that he twitches for a couple of seconds, and then drops to his knees, stunned. Fortunatey for Vorpal, he didn't catch the full spread of the wave- just the wave that would have hit the third Cardinal. Three of them managed to get the full blast and have, subsequently, turned into red paper, red rose petals and red ash, respectively. Three chalk sticks fall to the ground and break, causing three of the lines to start fading out on the spreading ground. The area encapsulated by the spreading area of surreality now begins to fade in and out, replaced in blinking intervals by the actual street and sidewalk. But that last line is holding strong- and the remaining Cardinal is the one who is shooting at Kian. The card lunges forwardd and tries to get a hold of the shaft of the halberd in order to begin a tug-of-war game with Sam. "LET. GO!"
Kian	"/c'Rhys'yw/!" again. Not only did Kian not get the one he most wanted to stop, he accidentally hit the cat-man! Okay. All right. Two things to do simultaneously.     One: In the name of all the Gods there are, don't get hit with an arrow. There's no med-unit on this world, no one who knows anything about his species' physiology, *any* wound has the potential to be fatal.     Two: While trying not to get shot, present a sufficiently enticing target so the archer doesn't get interested in less mobile targets. So basically, offer himself up to be shot at while making sure he doesn't actually get shot.     Kian dives fast, low to the sidewalk and perpendicularly away from the imaginary line connecting Vorpal and Sam.     He also decides he was wrong. This planet isn't crazy. He himself is.
Sam Axe	The cardman man and Sam engage in a back and forth tug of war neither side gaining any real advantage until right as the card is pulling Sam responds wit ha shove instead of a push letting go of the halbred, hoping to send the card tumbling, wheather his plow succeeds or not the ex-Seal rushes forward with a kick to the card.
Vorpal	The card looses footing at Sam's play and stumbles backwards, trying to regain its balance when WHAM! Sam's kick connects... oooh, right in the diamonds, too! It crumbles in on itself with a wheezing cry that makes every male in a mile-wide radius to cringe without really knowing why. And the Cardinal manages to hit Kian with one of his arrows- fortunately it pierces a part of the wing that is pure feather, luckily. Vorpal, on the other hand, is slowly coming out of his stunned state, but not fast enough to be able to do anything about Mr. Red Zapper.
Kian	Kian whitens -- less with fear than with actual anger. It's one thing to take a shot at him, but his wings are /kan'thar/, the physical mark given his people by his Gods. So that wasn't just a close call, that was blasphemy.     A brief digression here.     There is a game they play on the birdfolk's worlds. It's basically flying flag tag, capture the flags carried by the other team and keep your own. And the best players are strong, fast and agile. Kian was - is - a very good player.     So what he does is a little hard to follow, not because it's complicated, but because it's very very fast. Up, right, powerdive down about a meter off the ground, using the ground effect to multiply his speed and drives his shoulder into the archer as hard as he can.     He really really hopes he goes *pop* like the others rather than being solid... too bad he doesn't think about that until about a microsecond after impact.
Sam Axe	Even Sam winces at the effects of his kick and shakes his head, "Never knew playing card were fully equiped." He shrugs and looks around the situation seems well in hand at least for the moment. He looks betwene the bird and the cat, "Will you guys vanish two when all the other weirdness does?"
Vorpal	Sam's question is the first thing that Vorpal hears when he comes out of his daze. He gives the man a look of 'what' before he sees the speeding bird bullet. Out of reflex alone he jumps to the side and ducks before the impact- The Bishop doesn't burst. Not right away, but the impact is powerful enough to send him flying backwards... and right into the surreal area. This was probably something that was meant to be avoided, because the chalk stick immediately cracks into dust upon entering the area. And then, suddenly, the world is all right again. The cards turn back into humans- but they are standing instead of unconscious... and they look puzzled. "Why am I standing in the middle of the street?" the man who had been Sam's card asks. There is no trace of Wonderland, or the Cardinal slash Bishop that remained. Someone with good memory and powers of observation might remember that the first Cardibishop drew the square and had the chalk sticks waiting for the other Cardibishops as they stepped into this world. "Ungh... I am real enough, as you can see. I'm the Cheshire Cat, but I fully belong here." He gets to his feet and rubs his forehead, looking at Kian and Sam. "... good job, you t-" he stops. Right. He walks over to Kian and takes his hand and squeezes it in his own. He remembers that strange contact and the voice in his mind only happened when he was being grabbed by the bird man. Tactile telepathy is not the weirdest thing he has encountered. I mean... he knows Beast Boy, for crying out loud. "Good job, you two... so... are you two part of a team or something?" This is where sirens start sounding in the distance.
Kian	It actually takes that physical contact to pull Kian back to himself, and in that brief instant while he does, Vorpal can sense a wild whirl of jagged and confused emotions and not a lot of especially clear thought.     But Kian does get control of himself. (/I... forgive me. I don't know what came over me... no, I do know./) He takes another couple deep breaths, centering himself, and following Vorpal's mental indication of Sam, to whom he bows. "/Kie/." It sounds like a greeting; due to the mental contact, Vorpal can tell it is.     A word sinks in. (/Team? I have not gotten involved in any organized athletics here.../)     And then a noise sinks in -- the sirens. Kian jumps, startled, breaking contact with Vorpal. "/Ash takh-tai/?" Whatever he said, he sounds frightened.
Sam Axe	The question causes Sam to laugh, "Been part of a lot of ad hoc teams on missions before but this is a new expeirence for me." He has no clue with Kie means but gives Kian a nod, "Right back attcha."     Sam looks toward the sounds of the sirens and back ot the pair, "so are we gonna tell this story of is it time to exit... stage left even." He adds the last part with a Snagglepuss flourish since he is speaking with a talking cat after all. His brian my just be a little bit broken at the moment.
Vorpal	And the sirens aren't... exactly unwelcome, but the Young Avengers haven't been set up properly yet, so it wouldn't exactly be a good thing to make any statements. "I think an exit would be just right." He reaches out and takes Kian's hand again, "We'lll head out, okay? Those are the authorities. And while we didn't break any laws and did a lot of good, I think we'd probably want to lie low." He looks at Sam, "Where would you like me to drop you off? I can create a Rabbit Hole for you, then send us away. Here..." He tosses him a card. It's a Young Avengers card, with a phone number. Okay, so it's the first thing he had printed. Call him eager.
Kian	Kian blinks at the cat, at the approaching noise, back at the cat. (/I don't understand... if we did no wrong, why wouldn't we want to explain to the authorities and help them determine what exactly happened here?/)
Sam Axe	Sam Axe catches a card and says, "I'm living above a pizza shop." he gives the shops name and adress, it is in Brooklyn on the cheaper side of things for the area. "Didn't realize superheroes had business cards."
Vorpal	"It makes it easier to contact us. And I figured you look like a man of action. Feel free to contact us if you ever need a hand." The cat grins and obligingly opens a portal to Sam's destination, and then opens one for himself that leads to his apartment- a good place to lay low for now. As he heads towards the Rabbit Hole, he keeps a hold of Kia's arm, and says "Let me tell you about the Young Avengers project... I think you might be interested..."