I:
Will let out a silent whistle as he considered just how much Rick was giving away. None of it was news to him, of course, but it had been like pulling teeth to get some of it out of the guy, way back when. He decided to put it down to just how much he wanted these three to trust him.
"Wait a minute," Tara interjected. "Wonder Woman never had a secret identity, and she never worked for the U.S. government. I read her autobiography, and there's nothing about any of this in there. And don't hand me any lines about not telling the whole story, because she was the goddess of truth for a while!"
"Ah. Yes. Well." Rick's little frown was a clear indication (to Will, at least) that he was heading into some uncomfortable territory. "The situation is somewhat ... complicated." He was silent for a few moments, and Will guessed that he was searching for the right way to tell the next part. Apparently, he settled on the blunt truth. "I'm not from this Earth."
"I don't get it," said Tara. "If you're from another planet, then how can --"
"Maybe I should have said, this *dimension*. There are ... well, not an infinity, but a very large number of realities parallel to this one, floating in a medium called hypertime. Most of them contain an Earth, its sun, and so on and so forth. But aside from such similarities on a large scale, they can all be very different from one another."
"How different?" Rumiko asked quietly. "Excuse me, I meant how different was your world from this one?"
He smiled for the first time since he'd greeted them all. "Different in too many ways to quickly enumerate, Nagai-san."
"I am Rumiko, please."
He nodded, then continued. "I suppose the most relevant difference was that, on this Earth, superhumans started appearing in the late 1930s, whereas on my homeworld they didn't become active until the mid-1950s. But those who arrived then were the generation of heroes who manifested in this world's late 1980s -- Superman, for example."
"I've never heard of this `hypertime' stuff," Tara said, and Will could hear the skepticism in her tone.
Rick sighed. "Neither had anyone back home until some of my friends -- and our enemies -- became involved in a situation that ... well, to make a very long story short, it ended up with me stranded here."
"Trapped in a world you never made?" Diane commented sourly.
"Yes, but who isn't?" he replied with a weird little smile in her direction. Her perpetual scowl deepened in respons.
Will didn't get why Rick was handling the very frightening woman on the other side of the table with such kid gloves. She'd beaten her grandfather to death with her bare hands, over *nothing*, for pity's sake. If Rick thought she was some sort of counterpart to that girl he'd left behind, Heaven whatsername, he was seriously messed up.
"You didn't come alone, though," Rumiko stated abruptly. "The woman we all fought yesterday -- the Harlequin -- is also from your world, originally. Isn't she?"
He nodded again. "Very clever, Rumiko."
She shrugged dismissively. "It was just reasonable. She was clearly familiar with you, from her ... comments as the two of you fought. If you are from another reality, then the rest must follow."
"Lemme guess, she's the daughter of the Joker and Circe the Sorceress?" Will flinched at Tara's wisecrack.
"The best guess is that she *is* the Joker's daughter." Rick's tone was mild, but he was frowning all the same. "She's made statements that pretty clearly indicate that. Her mother's identity is something of an enigma. When I get back home, I'll have to add Circe's name to our list of possible suspects. Thank you for your suggestion."
"Uh. Right." She shifted in her chair, plainly uncomfortable, and turned to look at Will. "Are you from this ... other world, too?"
"Nope," Will answered quickly. "Strictly a local boy. In a very broad sense, of course. I basically ran into the boss here --" He nodded in Rick's direction. "-- a few years ago. He talked me into this whole gig. Before that, I had no intention of every putting on a costume. Well ... not to fight crime, anyway."
"Amazing. Somehow you're giving us too much information and not enough at the same time."
He coughed at Diane's comments. "To make another long story short, my folks were both in the game, too. My dad's Captain Marvel Junior, and my mom ... we all called her Mary Marvel, but to the public she was better known as the `other' Captain Marvel."
"Wait ... isn't Captain Marvel Jr. her brother?" Tara asked, edging away from him.
Will rolled his ees, but answered patiently. "No, she's the sister of the male Captain Marvel."
Tara continued to lean back. "So she married her nephew, then? I mean, if he's Captain Marvel Junior, then --"
"No," he answered, feeling his teeth clench involuntarily. "My dad isn't related to Bi-- the original Captain Marvel. At all."
"So why is he Junior, then?"
"Because he's a junior captain," he explained calmly, then scowled at her. "How the flaming moonbeams should I know? It's not like I've got the old wizard who gave them all their powers on speed dial!"
"All right," Rick said, holding up a hand. "That's enough. It's important that we all learn to trust each other, but possibly I'm asking some of you to move just a little too quickly for our respective comfort zones."
Thank God, thought Will. He'd wanted to join a super team, not a therapy group.
II:
Rumiko cleared her throat. "Actually, Mr. Wayne, I believe that I'm quite ready to discuss my situation." She noted, but did not comment upon, the way Mr. Freeman's face fell at her words.
"In that case, please go ahead. And call me Rick, please."
She nodded, and began to tell her tale. It was less dramatic that Rick's to be sure, but she hoped that it would explain why she had chosen this path rather than another. At first, all she had wanted was to become worth of the two swords she had been bequeathed. But even before she reached the level of skill that the uninitiated deemed "mastery -- and which she now knew was only a degree that measured excellence, with others following that she had not begun to reach -- she had realized that it was not enough.
Yamashiro Tatsu had also begun her studies as only a hobby, but she had eventually decided to wield her sword in the name of vengeance against those who'd murdered her family, and ultimately in the name of justice as well. And she had not only bequeathed her swords to Rumiko, but also the mask she had worn.
So Rumiko had set out to find a cause that merited her skills. She had travelled across much of the western United States, and there had been the occasional encounter with those who saw fit to ignore both the law and the rights of others. (She saw Rick nod as she spoke of this, and was not surprised to learn that he had known of her activities.) Yet it had not been until yesterday that she had found what she truly sought.
Foes more than equal to her skills. Allies upon whom she could rely. A chance to truly test herself, and to be of help to a world in need of it. "And how appropriate that I should find such things in a group named for the one with which my cousin also found them," she concluded.
Rumiko had seen Tara's clear desire to inquire about certain details of her story, and had avoided the interruptions that irritated Will by continuing to speak even as the other woman opened her mouth. This had left no time for the other's comments. Now, however, when she asked if there were any questions, Tara simply glowered at her.
On the other hand, Will had opened her mouth, but appeared to be struggling to find the words he wished to speak. She gently prodded him with the word, "Yes?"
"Um, I was wondering about ... well, about your, um, your ..." He trailed off, clearly embarrassed, and settled for rubbing his cheek.
"My scar?" Rumiko confirmed, pointing at her own cheek.
He nodded, still flushing.
"I acquired it through carelessness. I had only recently progressed to the stage where one uses a true blade in practice, rather than a wooden bokken. Due to my inexperience, the student who was practicing with me accidentally cut into my cheek. I elected not to have the mark surgically removed, so that it would continue to remind me what carelessness can cost."
"That was an accident?" Diane asked, sounding skeptical.
"Of course," Rumiko answered. "The other student apologized very sincerely afterwards, and I forgave him, and that was that."
"And I suppose he also stopped practicing at your school, too?"
She found this line of questions very odd. "As a matter of fact, he did. He was probably as ashamed of his role in the accident as I was of mine."
"Right," Diane said, rolling her eyes.
What a confusing person, thought Rumiko.
"Well. I really do think that's enough for now," Rick announced. "Let's move on to a tour of the complex and it's --"
His suggestion was interrupted by a loud horn blaring.
"Or not," he murmured, and turned to look at the screen as a white-haired woman's face appeared there. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Lorraine Cheyenne, the head of the Cheyenne Financial Group, who donated the complex to our team. Lorraine, I take it that a crisis sitatuion is developing?"
"Yes, Knight, I'm afraid so. A gigantic, crablike robotic vehicle has just emerged from the bay. Its pilot is threatening to wreck the harbor area unless he is paid one hundred million dollars."
"Well, he's starting for less than Tzin-Tzin eventually accepted from the Chinese," Rick replied. "Do we know this particular pilot?"
A faint, rather cruel smile crested on her lips. "I think that Captain Wonder in particular is quite well acquainted with him."
The screen suddenly split, with Lorraine's face on the left. On the right, there was a still image of a bald, portly man with thick glasses and a large, beak-like nose, holding a fist above his head and caught in mid-rant.
Will groaned at the sight. "Aw no. Not him. I've been good all month, and this is what happens?"
"So who the hell is he?" asked Tara.
"This is my arch-enemy -- fortunate, lucky me -- and his name is Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana the Third ..." he trailed of, then concluded in an even more gloomy voice, "OB-GYN."
Will let out a silent whistle as he considered just how much Rick was giving away. None of it was news to him, of course, but it had been like pulling teeth to get some of it out of the guy, way back when. He decided to put it down to just how much he wanted these three to trust him.
"Wait a minute," Tara interjected. "Wonder Woman never had a secret identity, and she never worked for the U.S. government. I read her autobiography, and there's nothing about any of this in there. And don't hand me any lines about not telling the whole story, because she was the goddess of truth for a while!"
"Ah. Yes. Well." Rick's little frown was a clear indication (to Will, at least) that he was heading into some uncomfortable territory. "The situation is somewhat ... complicated." He was silent for a few moments, and Will guessed that he was searching for the right way to tell the next part. Apparently, he settled on the blunt truth. "I'm not from this Earth."
"I don't get it," said Tara. "If you're from another planet, then how can --"
"Maybe I should have said, this *dimension*. There are ... well, not an infinity, but a very large number of realities parallel to this one, floating in a medium called hypertime. Most of them contain an Earth, its sun, and so on and so forth. But aside from such similarities on a large scale, they can all be very different from one another."
"How different?" Rumiko asked quietly. "Excuse me, I meant how different was your world from this one?"
He smiled for the first time since he'd greeted them all. "Different in too many ways to quickly enumerate, Nagai-san."
"I am Rumiko, please."
He nodded, then continued. "I suppose the most relevant difference was that, on this Earth, superhumans started appearing in the late 1930s, whereas on my homeworld they didn't become active until the mid-1950s. But those who arrived then were the generation of heroes who manifested in this world's late 1980s -- Superman, for example."
"I've never heard of this `hypertime' stuff," Tara said, and Will could hear the skepticism in her tone.
Rick sighed. "Neither had anyone back home until some of my friends -- and our enemies -- became involved in a situation that ... well, to make a very long story short, it ended up with me stranded here."
"Trapped in a world you never made?" Diane commented sourly.
"Yes, but who isn't?" he replied with a weird little smile in her direction. Her perpetual scowl deepened in respons.
Will didn't get why Rick was handling the very frightening woman on the other side of the table with such kid gloves. She'd beaten her grandfather to death with her bare hands, over *nothing*, for pity's sake. If Rick thought she was some sort of counterpart to that girl he'd left behind, Heaven whatsername, he was seriously messed up.
"You didn't come alone, though," Rumiko stated abruptly. "The woman we all fought yesterday -- the Harlequin -- is also from your world, originally. Isn't she?"
He nodded again. "Very clever, Rumiko."
She shrugged dismissively. "It was just reasonable. She was clearly familiar with you, from her ... comments as the two of you fought. If you are from another reality, then the rest must follow."
"Lemme guess, she's the daughter of the Joker and Circe the Sorceress?" Will flinched at Tara's wisecrack.
"The best guess is that she *is* the Joker's daughter." Rick's tone was mild, but he was frowning all the same. "She's made statements that pretty clearly indicate that. Her mother's identity is something of an enigma. When I get back home, I'll have to add Circe's name to our list of possible suspects. Thank you for your suggestion."
"Uh. Right." She shifted in her chair, plainly uncomfortable, and turned to look at Will. "Are you from this ... other world, too?"
"Nope," Will answered quickly. "Strictly a local boy. In a very broad sense, of course. I basically ran into the boss here --" He nodded in Rick's direction. "-- a few years ago. He talked me into this whole gig. Before that, I had no intention of every putting on a costume. Well ... not to fight crime, anyway."
"Amazing. Somehow you're giving us too much information and not enough at the same time."
He coughed at Diane's comments. "To make another long story short, my folks were both in the game, too. My dad's Captain Marvel Junior, and my mom ... we all called her Mary Marvel, but to the public she was better known as the `other' Captain Marvel."
"Wait ... isn't Captain Marvel Jr. her brother?" Tara asked, edging away from him.
Will rolled his ees, but answered patiently. "No, she's the sister of the male Captain Marvel."
Tara continued to lean back. "So she married her nephew, then? I mean, if he's Captain Marvel Junior, then --"
"No," he answered, feeling his teeth clench involuntarily. "My dad isn't related to Bi-- the original Captain Marvel. At all."
"So why is he Junior, then?"
"Because he's a junior captain," he explained calmly, then scowled at her. "How the flaming moonbeams should I know? It's not like I've got the old wizard who gave them all their powers on speed dial!"
"All right," Rick said, holding up a hand. "That's enough. It's important that we all learn to trust each other, but possibly I'm asking some of you to move just a little too quickly for our respective comfort zones."
Thank God, thought Will. He'd wanted to join a super team, not a therapy group.
II:
Rumiko cleared her throat. "Actually, Mr. Wayne, I believe that I'm quite ready to discuss my situation." She noted, but did not comment upon, the way Mr. Freeman's face fell at her words.
"In that case, please go ahead. And call me Rick, please."
She nodded, and began to tell her tale. It was less dramatic that Rick's to be sure, but she hoped that it would explain why she had chosen this path rather than another. At first, all she had wanted was to become worth of the two swords she had been bequeathed. But even before she reached the level of skill that the uninitiated deemed "mastery -- and which she now knew was only a degree that measured excellence, with others following that she had not begun to reach -- she had realized that it was not enough.
Yamashiro Tatsu had also begun her studies as only a hobby, but she had eventually decided to wield her sword in the name of vengeance against those who'd murdered her family, and ultimately in the name of justice as well. And she had not only bequeathed her swords to Rumiko, but also the mask she had worn.
So Rumiko had set out to find a cause that merited her skills. She had travelled across much of the western United States, and there had been the occasional encounter with those who saw fit to ignore both the law and the rights of others. (She saw Rick nod as she spoke of this, and was not surprised to learn that he had known of her activities.) Yet it had not been until yesterday that she had found what she truly sought.
Foes more than equal to her skills. Allies upon whom she could rely. A chance to truly test herself, and to be of help to a world in need of it. "And how appropriate that I should find such things in a group named for the one with which my cousin also found them," she concluded.
Rumiko had seen Tara's clear desire to inquire about certain details of her story, and had avoided the interruptions that irritated Will by continuing to speak even as the other woman opened her mouth. This had left no time for the other's comments. Now, however, when she asked if there were any questions, Tara simply glowered at her.
On the other hand, Will had opened her mouth, but appeared to be struggling to find the words he wished to speak. She gently prodded him with the word, "Yes?"
"Um, I was wondering about ... well, about your, um, your ..." He trailed off, clearly embarrassed, and settled for rubbing his cheek.
"My scar?" Rumiko confirmed, pointing at her own cheek.
He nodded, still flushing.
"I acquired it through carelessness. I had only recently progressed to the stage where one uses a true blade in practice, rather than a wooden bokken. Due to my inexperience, the student who was practicing with me accidentally cut into my cheek. I elected not to have the mark surgically removed, so that it would continue to remind me what carelessness can cost."
"That was an accident?" Diane asked, sounding skeptical.
"Of course," Rumiko answered. "The other student apologized very sincerely afterwards, and I forgave him, and that was that."
"And I suppose he also stopped practicing at your school, too?"
She found this line of questions very odd. "As a matter of fact, he did. He was probably as ashamed of his role in the accident as I was of mine."
"Right," Diane said, rolling her eyes.
What a confusing person, thought Rumiko.
"Well. I really do think that's enough for now," Rick announced. "Let's move on to a tour of the complex and it's --"
His suggestion was interrupted by a loud horn blaring.
"Or not," he murmured, and turned to look at the screen as a white-haired woman's face appeared there. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Lorraine Cheyenne, the head of the Cheyenne Financial Group, who donated the complex to our team. Lorraine, I take it that a crisis sitatuion is developing?"
"Yes, Knight, I'm afraid so. A gigantic, crablike robotic vehicle has just emerged from the bay. Its pilot is threatening to wreck the harbor area unless he is paid one hundred million dollars."
"Well, he's starting for less than Tzin-Tzin eventually accepted from the Chinese," Rick replied. "Do we know this particular pilot?"
A faint, rather cruel smile crested on her lips. "I think that Captain Wonder in particular is quite well acquainted with him."
The screen suddenly split, with Lorraine's face on the left. On the right, there was a still image of a bald, portly man with thick glasses and a large, beak-like nose, holding a fist above his head and caught in mid-rant.
Will groaned at the sight. "Aw no. Not him. I've been good all month, and this is what happens?"
"So who the hell is he?" asked Tara.
"This is my arch-enemy -- fortunate, lucky me -- and his name is Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana the Third ..." he trailed of, then concluded in an even more gloomy voice, "OB-GYN."