This story is being co-authored by Sue Penkivech, Silvercaladan, and myself, Wishful Thinking. If all goes as planned, we will be taking turns each writing a chapter of the story. This one is Sue's, the next will be Silver's, and third will be mine.
Disclaimer: The X-Men, X-Factor, and Bobby Drake are the property of Marvel Comics, Gundam Wing and Duo belong to Bandai. None of the authors involved with this story are making any money from it, or the use of the afore-mentioned copywritten characters.
Additional (necessary) Disclaimer: Although our characters are based on the writers, its rather loosely based at some parts…and stop bugging us about it, we're not loaning you the realizer.
They're REAL!
Part 1—Sue Penkivech
Sil was sitting at her computer chatting via instant messenger when the doorbell rang. Grumbling, she picked her way through the piles of books, jewelry and clothes that littered her floor until she passed through the door and walked down the hallway to the front door. Opening it, she was a confronted by a middle-aged UPS guy, who thrust a clipboard into her face and growled, "Sign".
Shrugging, she signed the clipboard, and took the package he handed to her. It wasn't until she'd closed the door that she glanced at the package and realized that it wasn't addressed to her, after all. In fact, it wasn't addressed to anyone in her family either. She carried it to her room, set it down amidst the other clutter on the floor, and returned her attention to her computer as it beeped annoyingly at her.
A few hours later, she shut down her computer and immediately tripped over the package. She picked it up and shook it, and was rewarded by a rattling sound.
"Hmmm, well, I signed for it, I'm opening it," she decided, and began ripping the shipping tape off the box. Opening the box, Sil reached in and pulled out an odd looking machine with a large number of buttons on it.
"Wonder what's inside?" she wondered aloud, turning it this way and that. She turned the box over, dumping a huge amount of shipping and a thin manual to the floor, where it fell unnoticed, only to be buried under things as Sil danced this way and that, pretending that she was in a snowstorm. When she finally finished, she looked again at the shipping invoice.
"Acme Cosmic Realizer? What the hell is an Acme Cosmic Realizer?" she asked, shaking her head. She tossed the box back down and picked up the odd looking machine again, noticing that the buttons had lit up. "Hmm, must be solar powered," she muttered, and began pressing random buttons to see what would happen.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out through a lens on the front and settled on one of the Gundam Wing posters on her wall. Another light began glowing, and a figure began to appear before her, growing steadily more solid as she watched. Finally, it stopped, and before her she saw a gorgeous guy with long brown, braided hair who was looking around with a confused expression on his face.
"D-Duo?" she stuttered, staring at first the guy, then the poster, which was now missing its principal character.
"Wha-" he began asking as he turned to face her, then faded out.
"What the – hey! Give him back!" she shouted, pounding on the machine, which didn't seem to be paying her any attention. Finally, she gave up and stuffed it back in the box, picked it up, and stormed out the door.
*********************
Meanwhile…
"What do you mean my package has been delivered?" a tall thin man with a face that bore a startling resemblance to that of a rat was saying into the telephone. "It isn't here."
"It's been signed for? Who signed for it?" he asked irritably.
"What do you mean you can't tell me that! It's my package – oh fine. No, I don't want to talk to your manager, I want to destroy your company! But I'll do that later."
"Oh, go ahead and report me. Goodbye."
The rat-faced man slammed down the phone and turned to his tubby underling. "They lost the Cosmic Realizer."
"Now what will we do, boss?" the other man whined. "We're going to have a hard time meeting our schedule without the Realizer…"
"Can we reorder from ACME?" the rat-faced man asked.
"No, boss," the other trembled. "It was a special order. Six month lead time required."
"Well then," the first man proclaimed. "There's nothing else to be done. We must find where the Cosmic Realizer was delivered, and retrieve it. But first, we need to make a stop. There's a UPS delivery station we have an appointment with.
*******************************
As Sil had expected, she found Kat and Sue lying on the floor of Kat's room, pouring over Sue's latest stack of "great finds" from the comic book show the weekend before.
"Nice of you to knock," Kat said as Sil just walked in and plopped the box down on top of the biggest stack of comics.
"Hey!" Sue objected, shoving the box off the pile and grabbing the comic that had been on its top, which Sil recognized as a recent issue of Uncanny X-Men.
Completely forgetting about the box for a moment, Sil grabbed the issue out of her hands and announced, "Hey, I don't have this one!"
"And you don't have it now, either!" Sue protested, pulling it back. "That's the one with Bobby and Annie! In other words, MINE!"
"You have it already!" Sil objected.
"No, I HAD it!" Sue corrected. "I lent it to you, and you didn't give it back. I figured I'd never see it again, so I bought a new copy. But you're not getting this one," she concluded, hugging her precious comic to her chest.
"Oh," Sil replied, remembering that she did have Sue's other copy, and that it was probably on her floor, covered by the popcorn that had fallen out of the - box! "Hey, you're not going to believe what happened!" she exclaimed.
"You cleaned your room?" Kat asked distractedly, still immersed in an old issue of X-Factor. "Hey, Sue, this one has Lev in it!"
"I know," Sue replied with a smug grin.
"Are you guys listening?" Sil protested, and as they both turned to look at her she continued excitedly. "I got this package in the mail, and it had this thing in it, and when I pushed the buttons Duo popped off my wall and into my room. But he disappeared before I could latch onto him…" she finished lamely, still upset about the vanishing act.
Kat and Sue stared at her blankly. Finally, Kat turned back to Sue, and said, "Did you get the whole storyline, or just this one?"
"DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID!" Silver yelled.
"We heard you," Sue replied as she rummaged through the pile, pulling out more issues of the Judgement War storyline and tossing them to Kat.
"It just wasn't worth commenting on," Kat explained, grinning as she grabbed the next comic in the series and started looking for Lev appearances.
"Duo appeared in my room and it wasn't worth commenting on?" Sil asked, shocked.
"Nope. Its just another one of your random 'guess what happened' stories. Either that or you had too many flaming hot Cheetos. Come on, check this out," Kat said, gesturing to an empty spot on the floor. "And tell us what's REALLY in the box."
"I DID!" Sil protested, reaching into the box and pulling out the Cosmic Realizer. "See?"
"What IS that thing," Sue asked, grabbing it out of her hands and turning it over. "Some kind of scanner?"
"It's an ACME Cosmic Realizer," Sil said. "I just TOLD you that."
"ACME?? That's the company name?" Kat asked incredulously.
"Uh huh," Sue said distractedly, carrying it over to the side of the room, where she set it down on the floor while she rummaged through her purse and pulled out a screwdriver. Sil recognized the signs of Sue in "computer geek" mode, and went over and grabbed the Realizer out of her hands.
"Hey, I want to open it up!" Sue protested, displaying her screwdriver as evidence.
"Forget it! This thing took the Duo off my poster and made him a real person. You are NOT taking it apart!" Sil announced, putting it behind her.
"Can I at least LOOK at it?" Sue pleaded. "Not that I believe your story, but I want to see what it really DOES do."
"Ok," Sil said warily, but kept custody until Sue reluctantly put her screwdriver back in her purse. "Here."
"Hmmm," Sue said, sitting back down on the floor next to her copy of Uncanny, which was lying open. "And you pushed some buttons and Duo appeared?" she asked suspiciously, pressing a few buttons herself.
"Uh huh. A light shot out and hit the poster on my wall, and then - hey, look, it's doing it again!"
The three of them looked on as a light shot out of the upturned machine and focused on Sue's comic book, then stared wide-eyed as a figure began to materialize in front of them.
"Bobby!" Sue yelled as the figure began to solidify. She dropped the Realizer and jumped to her feet.
"…kissing is about - about warmth, and I want someone who will - I want someone…"
Knowing what was coming next, Sue substituted herself in the place where Annie'd been standing in the comic pane and leaned forward just in time for Bobby, his eyes still closed, to kiss her.
"Not fair!" Kat objected loudly, and Bobby's eyes popped open.
"What the hell!" he said, pulling back from Sue and looking around. "Where's Annie? While we're on the subject, where am I? And who are you!"
************************
There were approximately 5 seconds of absolute silence as everyone stared at Bobby and he stared back. Then everyone seemed to react at once.
"AIIIIIII!" Kat squealed. Jumping up, and scattering Sue's comics, she scrambled over to her own stack, shoving the top ones aside to find the one she was looking for.
"He's stayed around longer than Duo did…" Sil glowered, poking the empty comic panel as if she expected Bobby to reappear there instantly.
Sue touched one finger to Bobby's lips and said, "Hold that thought," then turned around and tied into Kat.
"How COULD you! I've been dreaming about that scene for months!"
"So what? You've got him," Kat shrugged. "It's my turn."
"Excuse me," Bobby said, and all eyes turned back to him. "I'm sorry to interrupt this fascinating conversation about your fantasy lives, especially since I seem to be in one of them, but what am I doing here?"
"I 'realized' you," Sue said proudly.
"Uh, ok-ay - what does that mean, exactly?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "We're still trying to figure that out. But you were there," she added, gesturing at the now half-empty pane, "and now you're here!"
"And Duo's still not," Sil inserted irritably. "How come he's sticking around when Duo disappeared?" she added, gesturing at the very confused-looking Bobby Drake.
"I'm a better button pusher," Sue said smugly.
"Hey, what's that?" Bobby asked, bending over to pick up the issue of Uncanny X-Men. "A comic book? You expect me to believe you got me out of a comic book?" he asked, looking at them with his eyebrows raised.
"Maybe you could think of it as an alternate universe," Sue said helpfully, taking his arm and leading him to the door.
"I guess…" he replied, looking down at the stacks of X-Factor comics the girls had been looking through. "Hey, there's me! And Hank without his fur! Anyway," he said reluctantly, turning away from the comic books. "Can you send me back?"
"Maybe," Sue said doubtfully. "I'm not quite sure how I got you here in the first place. Besides, you don't really want to be there for the wedding, do you?"
***********************
"hereitis…givemethat!" Kat pulled a comic out of the stack and flipped it open, then snatched the Realizer from Sil and shoved in front of the open page. She sat there, expectantly, until Sil hit what seemed to be the 'on' button.
"Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?" She asked distractedly, watching Bobby and Sue leave the room, talking animatedly. Kat just nodded agreement, transfixed.
The machine whirred and beeped as a stream of light edged its way out. Kat watched as the ray grew longer, until it hit the comic. The Realizer began making processing sounds as the ray of light grew fuzzy. Both girls caught their breath…and the machine abruptly stopped.
"Hey!! What happened? Did it run out of batteries?" Kat asked frantically, poking it.
"Couldn't have, it runs on solar power." Sil muttered as she toggled the buttons on the side.
"Solar power?" Kat repeated incredulously as she rummaged in a nearby drawer. "I hope it's not AA's, I don't think I have any left…"
"Well, how can it be battery powered? Where would you put the batteries in?" Sil replied, turning the machine over.
"How could it be solar powered? When is there ever any light in your room?" Kat retorted, having given up searching for nonexistent batteries. "Maybe we *should* take it outside. You know, just to see." She got up reluctantly and looked around curiously.
"Where's Sue?"
*********************
"How do you know about…oh, it's in the comic, right?" Bobby was saying as they left the room, rubbing his head. "This is going to take some getting used to." Suddenly, he straightened up and looked at her. "What else do you know?" he asked accusingly.
"Umm, well, pretty much everything," Sue admitted. "I'm kind of addicted to your storyline, I guess."
"Then you know about the –"
"Ice? Well, yeah, you showed Annie a couple of months ago…"
"What? We just fought Black Tom a couple of weeks ago!"
"I guess time moves differently there than it does here," Sue said, shrugging, then suddenly smiled. "Hey, I just thought of something. We don't have mutants here, even if Kat does keep trying to turn invisible. And you don't FEEL cold – are you still undergoing secondary mutation?"
Bobby blinked. "I don't know – I didn't exactly check," he admitted.
"I'll check!" Sue offered, but Bobby just grinned and shook his finger at her. He turned his back and looked down his shirt.
"Hey!" he exclaimed and turned back to Sue, then picked her up and swung her around. She took the opportunity to put her arms around his neck, and didn't bother to let go when he put her back down.
"No secondary mutation, I take it?" she asked.
"No sign of one," he answered happily.
"It wouldn't have mattered," she assured him as she leaned in and kissed him. After a moment's hesitation, he responded in kind.
*************************
A few minutes later, Kat stuck her head out the door, and Bobby and Sue separated. Bobby blushed a bit at the reminder of the audience, but Sue simply looked smug.
"Excuse me, but if you two could come back to Earth for a few minutes…" she said snidely.
"Yeah, ok, what's up?" Sue asked.
"I want my chance to do that with Duo!" Sil whined. "Give it back! Besides, I'm the one who found it, and I just happened to feel like sharing. Don't you think it's about time for MY turn?"
"Oh, fine," Sue grumbled. She walked through the door and was approaching the Realizer when she stopped and cast a glance over her shoulder at Bobby. "Hang on," she said to Sil, and grabbed the issue of Uncanny off the floor. "I think you should wait in the hall," she said to Bobby, handing him the comic book. "Just in case this thing misfires or something." Still protesting, Bobby was pushed back into the hallway, and Kat closed the door behind him.
"My mom's not going to be too thrilled if she finds him standing out there," Kat pointed out.
"Any other ideas? I'm not taking any chances," Sue retorted, picking up the Realizer. "Come on, I've got better things to do here – or out there, to be more precise. Who should we try this on next?"
***************************
Who WILL they use the Realizer on next? Will Bobby stay "realized"? Will Kat get her turn? And what's up with that rat-faced guy anyway? The answer to these and all your other questions will be revealed in part 2, by SilverCaladan! Watch for it!