"Hold on," said Dorinda, clearly confused. "Did you mean 'Batman and Spider-Man'?"
Simon shook his head. "No, I meant Baman Piderman."
David seemed to be the only one who knew what Simon was talking about, because he quickly explained it to the three girls.
"Baman Piderman is an online web series that follows the adventures of Baman and Piderman, obviously based on Batman and Spider-Man. The videos are... out there, to say the least."
Viral sighed. "'Out there' is putting it VERY mildly. When I was trying to do research on the characters of that universe, I couldn't watch the videos without feeling like my brain was melting from the IQ loss."
Kellyn giggled. "Well, in that case, maybe that evil guild will ignore it. If these videos really are ridiculous, maybe they won't be a target."
Staring out the window into the far reaches of spaces, Simon looked firm.
"Unfortunately, Kellyn, the Guild of Super Evil already has that universe in their sights. If we don't hurry and recruit members from there, it may already be too late to save them."
"Oh..." Kellyn frowned, understanding Simon's point of view.
Dorinda stared at the floor, twiddling her thumbs nervously. Even if she did want to be with Hottie and help her out, she still had to realize that this was going to be a serious mission, unlike anything they had ever faced.
David and Hottie were more excited than Kellyn and Dorinda, and it showed. David had this stupid grin on his face, and Hottie was thinking about all the possible worlds they could visit. What if she went inside the worlds of her favorite movies? Now THAT would be incredible.
Lost in her thoughts, Hottie at first didn't notice Viral standing right behind her, his sharp teeth twisted in a grin.
"Jeez- you scared me!" Hottie gave Viral a stern look, but he simply laughed.
"Easy there, Hottie," Viral said, crossing his arms and shooting her a smug look. "I just wanted to ask a question."
"Really? What kind of question?"
"I just wanted to know if you would be willing to change up your superheroine appearance a little bit."
Hottie glowered. "Is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?!"
Putting his hands in front of him in a defensive state, Viral still was clearly enjoying teasing the pyrokinetic.
"I didn't mean to imply that, honestly. I just wanted to know, because we have some gear Simon and I would like you to try on."
Hottie's anger faded, replaced with that of interest. She considered it briefly, then nodded.
"Sure, let's give it a try."
After changing her outfit to better fit her original superhero outfit she had worn long ago, Hottie leaned against the wall of the ship/robot, hoping to leave an impression on the others.
The outfit in question was a black dress, with a gold band at the waist. A red cape was attached to her back, and she wore a flaming "H" necklace around her neck. Her friends were in awe, especially David.
Viral examined her, looking somewhat impressed.
"Looks nice. But you're going to need a few upgrades."
Hottie raised an eyebrow. "Upgrades?"
"Well, yeah. There's going to be a lot of villains to face, so you're going to need all the help you can get."
She shrugged. "That makes sense."
Viral nodded. Digging around his belt buckle, he pulled out a necklace with a drill on it.
"Hold out your hand."
Hottie obeyed, and Viral dropped the necklace into her hand.
"What is this?" She asked, examining it closely.
"It's a Core Drill," Viral explained. "You can use it to pilot your very own Lagann, like the giant red robot you saw me and Simon control earlier."
"Wow..." Hottie said, her eyes wide in excitement.
"Pretty cool, right? There's more where that came from. Now close your eyes and hold out both your hands."
Hottie did so. Seconds later, she felt a metallic surface press against one of her palms, and a leathery feeling against the other.
"You can open them now, y'know."
Looking down, she saw a sword. On the end of the sword (where the leather was), a skull had been crafted, with a little red swirl on its forehead.
"A sword?"
Viral nodded. "The Nothung is its name. We picked it up from a few adventurers in the Land of Ooo."
Hottie felt fascinated by the way the sword looked, and noticed there were markings above the turquoise gem, which was above the leather and below the blade.
"What are these?"
Viral shrugged. "Beats me. We didn't ask about everything. But if there's one thing I know, it's that the sword changes size depending on what the user wants."
"In that case..." Hottie shrunk the sword to a smaller size, and tucked it into her waistband.
"There we go. Now I don't have to lug it around everywhere."
David let out an excited squeal. "This is awesome! Hottie, you look amazing!"
"Thanks!" Hottie smiled, causing David to smile as well.
Viral cleared his throat. "You two can stop flirting, now. I get it, you two have unresolved sexual tension."
Hottie blushed, furiously trying to hide it. "We do not! We've always just been friends! Right, David?"
"Y-yeah! Just friends..." David's voice trailed off. Hottie figured that it had to do with the fact that David was just tired. The idea of David actually liking her like THAT didn't really cross her mind.
"Looking good, Allison," Simon said, happy with Viral's upgrades. "There's just one more thing you need."
In his hand, he held out a pair of triangle-shaped glasses. Hottie took them and examined them carefully.
"These are interesting sunglasses..." She mused.
Simon solemnly nodded. "They belonged to someone special from my world. His name was Kamina. These are special to me, so be careful."
Hottie put them on. Her eyesight was tinted with red, causing her to squint in an attempt to see better. Shaking her head, she looked up at Simon.
"You said these were important to you. I'm sorry, Simon. I can't accept these."
Taking them off, she held them out to him, and he took them without a word, just a soft, understanding nod.
Kellyn couldn't help but eye this with suspicion. Was her best friend trying to put the moves on her new crush? Was she trying to impress him with her kindness or something? She couldn't let that pass.
What was she thinking? Allison would never do that to her. Why would she even think that?
Meanwhile, Dorinda had a lot of questions. How much progress has this evil group made? How were they going to leave their homes without their parents noticing? And what if someone dies?
Viral noticed the look of discomfort and confusion on her face, and walked up to place a hand on her shoulder.
"You look really worried," he whispered.
Dorinda sighed. "I am worried. First of all, our parents are going to notice that we're missing. What do we do then?"
"No need to worry about that," Viral assured. "Simon and I designed androids of you guys to take your place. No one should notice a difference."
At least she didn't have to worry about that. But the possibility of death scared her most of all.
"What if we... don't make it?"
Viral's demeanor turned serious. "We will make it. I'll make sure of it."
It had been 30 minutes since the group of heroes went aboard the ship. Kellyn was becoming seriously bored, since she wasn't used to so much inactivity.
"Isn't there anything we can do on this ship?" she asked.
Simon nodded. "Sure, there's lots of things on this ship. Do you want to watch a movie?"
All of a sudden, a TV materialized out of nowhere, along with a few DVD cases. Kellyn's eyes widened in awe.
Simon chuckled. "Anything you want, this ship has. That's thanks to a few upgrades we got not that long ago."
"Do you have Mean Girls on DVD?"
Right after she finished the sentence, a Mean Girls DVD appeared in front of her. Placing her finger in the middle of the disc hole, she felt that it was, indeed, real, and not just a figment created by the ship.
"Wicked..."
Simon smiled. "I wouldn't get too comfortable just yet. We're getting closer to the Baman Piderman universe."
Kellyn sighed. Dammit. But at least she would be able to spend some time with Simon on their mission.
Hottie overheard what Simon said, and she suddenly felt nervous. Maybe this really was dangerous, like Dorinda had said earlier. Would she really be helpful to these guys? Could she really be a hero for millions of people in millions of universes?
Figuring that worrying about it wouldn't help, she decided to take a walk around the ship. Viral and Simon never gave her or her friends a proper tour, so maybe she should just do that herself.
Walking down a long hallway with many doors, Hottie wondered if any of them were locked or if she should be in this part of the ship in the first place. Maybe it would be best to head back, she thought.
Turning the other way, she heard a creak of a door open behind her. She tried to ignore it and continued, but she soon stopped in her tracks again when she heard a voice.
"Allison..."
That was spooky. The voice held an ominous tone, and Hottie wasn't sure if she should follow it or not. It's not like Simon or Viral would put anything on this ship to harm them, right?
Deciding that nothing on this ship would be too harmful, she followed the sound of the creepy voice, into the open door. Once she was inside the room, the voice stopped.
Confused, she stepped inside the room and examined everything. The room was pitch black, and not even the light from the hallway helped her to see. That was when she noticed a faint light, distant in the room, slowly coming closer and closer.
Feelings she couldn't describe welled up inside her. She felt as if she needed to touch the light, that something good would happen if she did... She reached out and grabbed it, and the light died away.
Examining it, she saw that it was a wristwatch of some sort. It was white, with a large black flame symbol in the middle. Below the symbol was the time, 12:49 A.M. exactly.
A flame symbol? Was this designed with her in mind? That would make sense. After all, it was calling her name earlier.
Hesitantly, she put the wristwatch on. Just then, she felt a fire burning inside her, her power magnifying. However, this feeling was over within a few seconds.
Maybe this will be useful later, she thought.
"Hottie? Where are you?"
Hottie stiffened upon hearing Viral's voice. Appearing out of a corner of the room, he sighed in relief.
"I thought I'd never find you. We're about to land in the Baman Piderman world. As much as I don't want to go, we kind of have to. So come on, let's go!"
"Ok, ok! I'm coming!" Hottie ran as fast as she could, not knowing what to expect in this strange new world.
