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The Remains of What was Once Prescott Street
(Minus Halliwell Manor Which Has Somehow Managed to Remain Intact)
Same Time, Dawn's P.O.V
"Okay! This is getting old," she said as for the umpteenth time she got thrown into the air only to come down on the concrete street hard enough to leave spider web cracks behind. "We need a new plan because just bashing him into submission isn't working."
"I'm open to ideas!" Xander yelled as he performed a punch, knee thrust and elbow combo to Doomsday, only managing to land two of the three blows before forced to evade a counter move.
"Perhaps we can be of assistance!" Came a familiar voice before a trio of black objects streaked through the air before impacting on Warren's body, detonating on impact.
Looking back where the trio of objects had come from, she was surprised to see Giles and the others running towards them. According to the battle plan set out at the beginning of the fight, they were in charge of damage control and rescuing civilians in danger. Since the battle with Doomsday was nowhere near over, they should still be someplace else keeping the loss of life and the damage to the city to a minimum.
"What are you guys doing here?" Xander asked as the fight briefly paused in order to take stock of the new entries into this little battle royal.
"Whistler gave us some interesting information." Giles replied extracting two dagger-like batarangs from his utility belt and got into a stance to wield them as such, "Turns out Doomsday here's like a disease and the longer he stays here, the worse it'll get for White Hats everywhere."
Her brow furrowed a bit at this statement because it was already plainly obvious that the longer Warren stayed in this reality the more damage he'd wind up doing. So why was the Brit Batman saying this like it was important? Deciding to start out simple she examined the first part of what had been said: Whistler had shown up again and given Giles' team some new information. For the balance demon messenger of the Powers to show up a second time after giving them their upgrades it must mean that something new had been discovered by the current situation. The Watcher referred to Doomsday as a disease that would make things worse for the good guys the longer he was here in this dimension. This would imply a greater threat than something on a local scale like the fight they were currently embroiled in, something worldwide, and that things would only get worse over time. Was something happening that they could not perceive? Some effect that would make things easier for the forces of badness? She didn't understand what this effect could be but, if the others thought that it was serious enough to leave their posts to join them here, than it must be big.
"Well, then, do you have any ideas for taking this bruiser down?" She asked as she turned her gaze back to their enemy, "'cause aside from pounding on him until it goes down, we got nothing."
"Let's see how he likes the sound of my voice." Tara replied with a look of determination that was a bit uncommon for her.
Watching as Willow's girlfriend took in as much air as she could, it took less than a second for her to clue into what was about to happen. With super speed at her disposal, she immediately covered her ears and watched as the others do the same with the exception of Doomsday, who looked clueless.
Tara screamed as she unleashed the canary cry that was now hers to control.
It was a sight to see and, even with ears covered, it was hard not to be affected by the sonic attack but to see how it affected the environment was something else. Concrete was torn up as though hit with a solid physical object, trees were either uprooted or shattered and Warren was most definitely not having a good time. However she didn't expect it to last though because, if Xander's description of Doomsday's abilities turned out to be accurate, it wouldn't take long for the behemoth to evolve past this kind of attack. This was soon proven to be the case when, not one minute into the attack, all signs of being affected by the sonic attack vanished from Warren leaving only a smug looking monster in its place. Deciding to do something about that, she took her golden lasso from its place on her hip and, with skill that she had not possessed a week ago, managed to wrap the rope around Doomsday just as Tara's attack came to an end. The monster didn't seem worried in the least and with good reason since this didn't appear to be the golden lasso that was empowered with Zeus' lightning.
"Nice try, Wonder Fool! But how long do you really think this flimsy rope will hold me?" Warren asked with contempt and disrespect in every word.
"Long enough for me to do this, moron!" Willow said as arcane energy danced on the tip of her wand, "Enots esir pu dna parw flesruoy dnuora siht retsnom!"
The concrete street surrounding them shattered into dozens of pieces before levitating off the ground and rushing Doomsday from all sides. Now one might think that the sensible course of action would have been to destroy as much of the oncoming concrete as possible to prevent the spell from succeeding. Unfortunately Warren being what he was, an arrogant sonuvabitch, he just stood there and let layer after layer of stone wrap around him like nothing at all is happening.
His mistake.
Unless she was very much mistaken, this was only step one of a two part plan on the part of the leggy Wicca and the next phase was bound to be special. It was about a minute later, once about a meter of stone had been applied to Warren on all sides, that it looked like this second act was about to happen, so she watched to see what the girl genius had in mind.
"Enots uoy evah enod ruoy boj. Won nrut otni muinatit ot hsinif eht boj!" Willow declared before an amazing blast of energy was channeled through her wand, across the short distance and into the oval stone tomb of Doomsday.
Wow! She thought as she watched what was once stone turn into solid metal.
Even though this was the first real instance in which she'd heard Willow use her powers, it wasn't hard to figure out that the spellcasting, for some reason, required her to speak every word backwards. With that in mind she knew that the magic bombarding Warren's cocoon was turning the rocks into Titanium and that made sense since that metal was probably the strongest one on the planet. However it made her wonder just how much juice was being put into this spell, considering that the former redhead was essentially doing transmutation. She knew enough from research sessions with the rest of the gang that while it was possible to transform one thing into another, it was a feat indeed to be able to transform worthless stone into a precious material or substance. After all, if it easy to do then just about everyone with even a little talent in the arcane arts would be trying to pull it off in order to get rich quick. The theory that transmuting one thing into another was extremely difficult was proven true moments later when the blast of mystical energy stopped and Willow would have dropped to her knees if Tara hadn't caught her. Looking at the cocoon, she could see that there were maybe five spots where things were still mostly stone but that made up less than five percent of the whole, so she hoped that it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference.
"G-good job, Willow." Came Buffy's voice as the winged Slayer limped towards them cradling her ribs with one arm while grasping her mace with the other, "Don't suppose you have enough juice for a quick healing spell, do ya?"
"M-maybe in a minute or so." Willow said as life begin to fill her eyes as time passed, "Just need to catch my breath, 'cause transmutin' stone into Titanium? Not as easy as it looks."
"I doubt we have that kind of time." Xander said as he looked at the cocoon with heightened focus, "Titanium might be the strongest metal on the planet and it might be skintight in there, but Warren's body will find a way to break him loose sooner or later. I'd bet on sooner."
"Agreed, but since we're all in one place now and Doomsday is, for the moment at least, restrained, the Powers That Be should be opening the portal to send us off to that other dimension soon." Batman said as he put his razorangs back into his utility belt.
"Don't worry, Bats! The higher ups plan on following through on this." Came Whistler's voice as he faded into existence, "In fact, they're already preparing to open the portal. I just asked them to wait a bit 'cause there's one more person joining ya on your little dimensional trip."
"Really? Who?" Xander asked looking as surprised as the rest of them probably felt.
They got their answer two seconds when a red and gold blur did a single loop around them before coming to a stop in the center of their group. With two sacks slung over his shoulder was a man clad in the costume of one Wally West, aka The Flash. It had been touched up in terms of the materials it was made out of, to make it more practical for superhero combat, but only those with the eye for it could tell the difference between simple costume material and combat wear. However that wasn't what had her attention or the attention of anyone else present. No, what had their attention was the all too familiar jaw and the cocky eyes that were the only two areas not covered by the outfit. They didn't even need to look for a full minute to know who was wearing the costume and just about everyone could hear the groans of disbelief at the identity of their newest comrade. Well, most of them anyways, she didn't mind and was actually glad that he wouldn't be left behind alone in this world without them around. It was a fact that the majority of them only tolerated his presence but none could deny that he occasionally proved useful as extra muscle. Nevertheless, she could tell that if he was coming with them then it'd be a hassle and a half to get everyone to live together civilly.
"Well! Looks like I got here just in time," Spike said grinning in his usual cocky manner as he took in the looks of annoyance on the faces of some of the Scoobies. "Got our pocket change right here. Should be enough to set us up pretty when we get to where ever it is we're going."
"What do you have in the bags, Spike?" Giles asked, sounding even creepier than any other actor playing the Caped Crusader in intimidation mode.
"Oh, nothing much. Just decided to collect on a few debts owed by some chums of the demonic persuasion." Spike replied sounding perfectly casual about shaking down or stealing from demons. "After all, we can't use money from 'round here can we?"
"No. I suppose not." Giles replied, reluctantly admitting that any money they had here in this dimension would be useless where they were going for a number of reasons.
"An' before you try an' say you can't bring a vampire with you, have Blue Boy there check me out with his super-peepers." Spike said, looking quite pleased with the fact that he was shooting down any reasons they could come up with for leaving him behind.
Looking to Xander, she could see that he didn't waste any time following through with that idea but, after a minute of what had to have been the most thorough super eyes once over ever, she could tell that Spike's claim as confirmed.
"He's human." Xander said, sounding like he'd been one second away from lying but decided to tell the truth in the end.
"Of course he is! Wouldn't be right to have a super fast vampire running around." Whistler said, like it'd been his idea to make Spike human again, "Considerin' he has Wally West's version of the Flash powers, he'd be drainin' people by the dozens just to keep his strength up. Now, since the clock's ticking, it's time for you lot to say Goodbye to here and hello to you're new home."
With those words a neon blue portal crackled into existence not ten feet from the group and it put any past portals they'd seen, be it in person or those produced by Hollywood. Still, half of her didn't want to go through it, didn't want to leave behind the place that she called home, because she couldn't quite believe in the crappy balance that Whistler and Giles spoke about. At the same time, though, she trusted the wisdom of the elder Watcher and if he said that they had to leave all they knew behind in order to keep the darkness from winning here, then she'd do the right thing, no matter how difficult each step towards the portal might be for her.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see Xander looking at her with his usual lopsided grin and she knew what he was trying to convey. Even though they might be leaving all they knew behind they were also taking the most important things they had with them on this journey into the unknown.
Their loved ones.
With that in mind, she felt the sadness and reluctance fade away to the furthest reaches of her mind and proudly crossed the event horizon of the portal that would take her to a new beginning.
A new beginning for them all.
Earth, Dimension 1610, The Sky Above New York City, Noon, Xander's P.O.V
"WHAT THE FUCK!?!" Xander bellowed as the scene before him went from a blue tunnel with crackling lightning to the open sky above what looked like the Big Apple.
He could hear the others making their shock and displeasure known but he had more important things to concern himself with at the moment. Top priority went to snagging those people in their group who couldn't stay aloft on their own and then getting down to terra firma so they could sort out what they'd do next. Going for the two closest to him, he was quick to grab a hold of Giles and Willow then looked to see how the others were making out. Anya had moved to intercept Spike and Tara leaving Dawn with the problem of lowering Warrensday down to the ground safely since dropping him would be a bad idea in more ways than one. If dropping a penny from the top of the Eiffel Tower was capable of killing someone, then he could only imagine the devastation dropping a monster like Doomsday into the middle NYC would cause. Looking at Buffy, he could see that she descending at a controlled rate, using her wings to control her speed but he knew that she was trying to get to terra firma as quickly as possible. She was still pretty banged up by her earlier encounter with Doomsday and was no doubt looking for a place where she could set down and give her body time to recover. Having a bad feeling that they were going to need every warm body they could, he began to angle his descent so that he'd touch down at the same spot as Buffy he hoped that Willow would be able to heal the former blonde enough so the new Thanagarian could fight. As a group, all the new arrivals in this dimension began to glide down to the city below where he hoped that they'd be able to figure out a way to neutralize Warren. He knew that in less than an hour the behemoth would find a way out of his titanium prison and, if they were still in the city by that time, then they'd be back playing that same old game of beat the crap out of each other. Searching through his inherited knowledge from Kal-El, he tried to figure out what method could be used to put an end to the threat that Warrensday represented.
Being so new to this world, he had no idea whether or not this world had the tech to match the offensive and defensive evolutionary abilities of Doomsday. Any prison cell devised would have to possess adaptation abilities capable of keeping up with any countermeasure Warren's body could come up with and it would need to be able to do this for a very long time. That problem wasn't favorable because if the prison failed to contain him, Doomsday would no doubt be far too powerful to put into a new one. As had been shown in the comics, even if they succeeded in seemingly killing Warrensday once, he would inevitably revive and be impervious to whatever killed him before.
The second option would be to send him into outer space to either fly the monster into the sun to be incinerated or to wind up on some uninhabited planet. However, even with his telescopic vision, he would have had a hard time making sure that Warren didn't wind up on an inhabited planet. At maximum levels he might be able to see as far as the asteroid belt and throw Warrensday clear of all the planets between Earth and there, but beyond that it'd be a crap shoot. He could wind up sending the monster to a lovely planet full of peaceful people or a warlike people that possessed technology advanced enough to control him. A dangerous option but one that he wouldn't mind going with or accepting responsibility for if it took a terrible turn in the end. The others, though, would have to be consulted before trying this though.
Another possibility would be to somehow use Willow's magic to attempt dimensional displacement. It would be similarly effective as the 'throw into outer space' plan, he was unsure if it'd work given the jewel Warrensday claimed could nullify any magic directed at him so long as he willed it so. For that course of action to work they'd have to seriously rattle his brain, rattle it so coherent thought would be impossible, or else he would simply neutralize the portal spell. Considering the fact that Doomsday was on a level of physical might on even ground with him, he wasn't sure if it'd be possible to inflict that kind of damage. Of them all, only he, Anya and Dawn were capable of holding their own on a physical level against the brute and Buffy might be capable of inflicting some damage but was too vulnerable to a counterattack. Willow's magic was likewise flawed as long as Warren had that jewel inside of him. Could they somehow tear that miserable thing out of him? Possibly but they'd have to find it first.
KREEEEEK!
Jarred out of his thoughts by the sound of metal under extreme strain reaching his super sensitive ears, he turned to the titanium cocoon that contained the big bad of the moment. Little by little he could see the lump of metal being warped and pushed out of shape by what lay within and, with a moment of concentration, he used his X-Ray vision to take a peek.
What he saw was not good.
From what he could see Warren's body was beginning to generate an energy field of some kind that was pushing the titanium away from his body and that field was getting stronger by the minute. He estimated that it might be as little as twenty seconds before the cocoon cracked like an egg and Doomsday was free to terrorize the city below. Not bothering with words, he strengthened his grip on Giles and Willow before diving to the ground below at the fastest speed he could without harming his passengers. Setting down on the roof of the building he figured Buffy would be landing on soon enough, he propelled himself back into the sky just in time to see a fist with bone spiked knuckles burst from the cocoon.
"Wonder Girl! Get your lasso off of him!" he yelled as he picked up speed so that he'd get to his target in time.
Dawn, bless her heart, didn't hesitate for even a second, obeying his command and, by the time he plowed into Doomsday, the golden lasso was completely back in her hands. Slapping on a full nelson, he quickly punched his rate of flight up into the mach level with all his willpower since he remembered all too well what happened to the comic book Superman when he tried this.
He had no desire to get a bone spike in the side.
However, just as he reached the upper atmosphere, he was knocked for a loop by the same energy field that had freed Warren from his titanium restraints. He hadn't anticipated this, he'd assumed that it had been some form of magnetic energy, and it had cost him since by the time he'd righted himself, Warrensday was well on his way back to the surface of the planet. In hot pursuit, he was beginning to wonder if it truly was impossible to solve this situation without property damage and loss of life. Even if he caught up to Mears and grabbed him, it'd be all he could do to somehow keep himself from being pounded into paste. The powers of Superman were his but, against Doomsday, powers that just meant that he'd last longer than most of the others would in a fight with the nerd-turned-behemoth. With the idiot's power to evolve to beat any foe, it wouldn't be long before he became too much for any of them to handle and then it would be game over. With that in mind he decided that it was time for him to try something a little more desperate than either he or Superman usually were. Accelerating to a speed much greater than anything he'd ever tried before, he decided he'd see if the bruiser could handle a re-entry level impact. Using his telescopic vision to locate a safe ground zero, he was more than ready when he finally slammed into the back of Warren and re-established his full nelson, only this time he'd be ready for the energy field.
It still felt like he was trying to keep the moon from crashing into the Earth when it tried to push him off but thankfully the same stubbornness that helped him keep out of the bottle his parents had fallen into proved to be stronger than the energy field. Thirty seconds later he set eyes on his impact point of what he now recognized as Central Park from the planning he'd tried to do for his road trip. For two seconds he wondered why the PTB and Whistler chose to send them here instead of this dimension's version of Sunnydale or California. Knowing them, they probably had their reasons but quite frankly he didn't want to know since it'd probably just make him want to kick their ass even more. He knew that the reasons were pretty strong for drop kicking him and his friends off their native dimension and sending them here but it didn't change how he felt about the so-called higher beings dropping the ball. They claimed to be so high and mighty, so infallible, but they got tricked by a puff of smoke that can't do anything but talk you to death. Fortunately he had a convenient punching bag to work off his frustrations with but that would have to wait ten seconds or so because in seconds he was going to impact with the ground. Suffice it to say it was a ground breaking experience would be putting it mildly, but thankfully his powers were enough to keep him both conscious and able to continue fighting. Rising up out of the impact crater, he was able to take some satisfaction in the fact that Warren actually looked a little dazed, but that was understandable considering he took the brunt of the impact. However he could not allow any semblance of coherency to form in Doomsday's mind or else all would be lost. This was the opportunity he'd been waiting for!
He just hoped that Willow would clue into what he was trying to do.
Charging forward through the air, he began to lay into Warren with blows strong enough to send shockwaves through the air from the point of impact. Kicks were included into the mix as well and he definitely felt good about the fact that he managed to break off one of Warrensday's knee spikes in the process. The sound of the idiot's scream of pain was music to his ears since it was so much better than the taunting and contempt Mears had been tossing at them so far. Nevertheless, he didn't let it stop him from continuing the pounding he was delivering unto Doomsday while mentally praying for Willow to get to where he was ASAP so they could make it to phase two of his plan.
Wait three more minutes, Xander, and you'll have your wish. Said Anya from within his mind sounding like she was in a hurry, I'm en route with her now and I've already told her your plan. She said she'll be ready to open the portal if you can keep Doomsday busy until she's done.
Then tell her to start warming up her magic wand because Mears isn't going anywhere but limbo as long as I am around. He thought back at her before snapping off the remaining bone spike.
He just hoped that he'd be able to make good on that promise because it was getting more difficult to see that desired dazed look in Warrensday's eyes. He was being forced to up the power in his blows with every single one he dealt out and he was beginning to feel the burn of his exertions. That was a bit odd, considering that his body now derived its strength from the sun and the sun of this world was yellow, so it was just right for his body to consume. He could only presume that the reason he was beginning to feel tired was because of the sheer level of power he was putting into every movement and every strike. However he could not afford to start rationing his power, indeed he needed to put more power into every strike, because it was only a matter of time before Warren became impervious to even the mightiest of his blows.
NO! Don't think like that. He thought as he tried to shove all doubt from his mind, Gotta believe I can do this! Positive thinking! If I believe I can win, then I will!
He didn't know if thinking positively would do any good but at this point he'd try anything.
Too bad even he didn't know the full extent of dimension because if he did he'd known that, he had more than positive thinking on his side.
Earth's Solar System, Jupiter, The Center of the Red Spot,
One Hundred Kilometers Into the Atmosphere, Unknown Point of View
[Receiving data from Sol-3 Observational Probe]
[Data is Priority One in Nature]
[Terminate Energy Conservation Measures]
[Activate Secondary and Tertiary Systems]
[Bringing A.V.I.A Program Online]
While some humanoids might call it waking up, it was in fact simply a program coming online, connecting itself to the various systems that it was supposed to work with and then follow its core directives. She was the Audio Visual Interactive Avatar of the system and, as such, was capable of running everything by herself although she was designed to work in concert with a complement of her creator's people. There was also the fact that she referred to herself as female and thought of herself that way, even though technically an A.I type program she had no gender to speak of. However it had been decided by her creator that the crew would have an easier time interacting with the program if it had a form that they could relate to or find some common ground with. Why her creator chose to settle on the ideal female form of his race, she did not know. Her knowledge of her creator's race did not suggest a predisposition towards favoring physical perfection or emphasis on the perfect female form. Her personal observation of her creator also didn't indicate any abnormal tendencies or perversions that might have indicated the reason for his choices concerning her. In the end it didn't matter whether or not her Kryptonian maker had an ulterior motive in mind when he designed her or not. She was who she was and contemplating her origins would not change that.
Turning her thoughts away from such irrelevant topics, she turned her attention towards the reason she had been brought back online in the first place; a dimensional portal opening up in the atmosphere of the third planet of the system she had lived in for the past five hundred years. Upon the determination that it would be impossible to complete sufficient repairs to return to her creator's home world, she chose instead to follow her primary mission directive: to observe, analyze and catalogue all that she encountered. Her mission was one of covert exploration as it was a strong desire for knowledge that motivated her creator's people but they also believed in preserving the purity of that knowledge. Thus, all exploratory missions required that those being observed be completely unaware of their presence and that there be absolutely no sign of their presence afterwards. With that in mind, she had launched a trans-phasic probe to each planet in the system she was in to learn all that could be learned about them. These probes existed slightly out of phase with the rest of the dimension, rendering them undetectable by any technology that wasn't on par with it. If there was ever any danger of discovery, standard protocol dictated that all observation of the species be terminated and to leave the region immediately. Now, though, it seemed as though an anomaly had shown up that warranted her personal attention rather than the standard procedure that had been repeated countless times since the last full systems check a century ago.
A Kryptonian had been detected exiting the dimensional portal, along with a Thanagarian and what looked to be a survivor of the Martian race that she had thought extinct for over three hundred years.
It was a most unusual combination and the scans also showed several humans either baseline in nature or possessing a bio-sign that indicated para-human abilities. As per previous orders installed into each probe, it focused all its scanners on the group emerging from the dimensional portal in order to compile as much info on these newcomers as possible. It was only when preliminary scans had been completed that probe Sol-3 had transmitted its findings back to the ship causing the systems to bring her online. Now that she was operational, she could begin deciphering the various bits of data in order to bring them together in a cohesive analysis that can only be done by a sentient being or an A.I like her. First up was their method of arrival, a dimensional portal of considerable power that, based on these scans, they do not possess the ability to generate on their person. One of their number did possess para-human abilities consistent with what the inhabitants of Sol-3's planet referred to as 'magic' but the data she was looking at indicated she was incapable of producing such a potent portal on her own. The others didn't possess any technological means of generating it that the probe could detect and that meant that the portal generator was located at the departure point. Did that mean that they intended to stay in this dimension and on this planet? Or would another portal open at a pre-arranged time? Unknown.
Hmmmm. What's in that titanium cocoon of theirs? She thought as she reviewed the scans of that object, This looks familiar. Running comparison against level five-R files.
The level five-R database stored files concerning illegal experiments conducted not only by Kryptonians but also by other races. These experiments were either judged to be too dangerous to ever be seen by anyone other than the highest levels of the Science Council of Kandor or the results of which were still at large, representing a clear danger to sentient races galaxy-wide. It didn't take long for her search to find a match for the creature encased in titanium and, when she did, she immediately began preparations to deal with it. While the being was obviously an evolved version of the one in the level five-R database but the similarities and outright matches were too great to ignore. It was without a doubt a product of Dr. Bertron's creations and it had become far more powerful than any of the others discovered by the Science Council. Its evolutionary powers, ones that previous prototypes could only use over the course of several years, had become so powerful that it could evolve to beat any weapon or opponent in hours if not minutes. It had already evolved to the point where conventional military forces would be helpless against it and would necessitate the deployment of other beings with special abilities just to contain it. Based on her scans of the other dimensional travelers, only three or four of them possessed the ability to fight on more or less even terms with the creature.
For now, that was.
However based on data from the probe and the files on Bertron's experiments, she calculated that the creature would evolve past the abilities of the Kryptonian, the Thanagarian and the Martian within the hour, if not sooner. Already could see that its body was adapting to absorb the kinetic energy behind physical attacks, thus neutralizing them, and it already possessed biological characteristics rendering it highly resistant to both energy based attacks as well as sonics. Going through the list of devices on their person, the group that obviously opposed the creature would have to do something quickly if they were going to stand any chance of defeating the behemoth.
She had to do something.
Both because it was the moral thing to do and because there were standing orders concerning the discovery of a five-R on a populated world and she would follow those orders.
However there was one large problem.
She had no crew to send to deal with the matter.
They had been killed during the event that had stranded her in this system in the first place. They had either died during the event itself or soon after despite her attempts to use the ship's medical facilities to ensure that they lived. While she had been able to use worker robots and built in repair systems to undo the damage done to the ship, she had been powerless to save her crew. Some might wonder what the point was of studying the inhabitants of the system but it was her belief that a rescue operation was underway to find her and the missing ship. While not as valuable to Krypton as a flag ship or battleship, it was one of the newer models of starship currently in service. That alone warranted a search but, when added to the fact that the command staff of the ship came from noble houses, simply abandoning them was not something that'd be done lightly. With that in mind she had chosen to continue with her primary mission of exploration while using the large gas giant the humans called 'Jupiter' both as concealment as well as a way to maintain the ship itself. The composition of the gas giant, while not ideal, was sufficient to fuel her systems and provide raw materials for various alloys and substances. However the one thing it could not provide for her was a full crew and thus she had no one to send to deal with Bertron's creation.
Running through the various scenarios in her metaphorical mind, she tried to devise a way to neutralize the menace with the fewest dead sentient beings at the end. She could not physically take the ship to the planet currently under observation by the Sol-3 probe since that would only make her presence known to the primitive inhabitants. She could not send anyone there, not even a worker robot, since that would again reveal to the Earthlings the existence of a highly advanced source of technology. In the end only one scenario seemed to be acceptable and that was to use the embarkation room and open a transmat gateway to Earth and extend the Phantom Zone Projector through it to dispose of the monster. It would be difficult, having the device half here and half on Earth, but even at full extension from the access port in the embarkation room it would just barely reach. However she calculated a sixty-eight percent chance of success and, as she monitored the incoming visual feed from the Sol-3 probe, she decided that that would have to be good enough.
She just hoped that she didn't wind up making matters worse.
Approaching Central Park, NYC, One Minute Later, Buffy's P.O.V
"How're you feeling, Bu…Hawkgirl?" Dawn 'Wonder Girl' Summers asked her as they rapidly approached Central Park where one helluva fight was going on if the noise was any hint.
"Still sore in places I didn't have two days ago plus a few that I've always had, but Willow's mojo patched up the big aches good." She replied as she tried to not let the ever rising wierdness factor get to her, "All set to take another crack at Dumbsday. Hopefully this time I won't get my wings handed to me."
"Not going to happen. This time we've got a plan and, from the sounds of it, Superman's performing his part of it just fine." Willow said from the arms of Anya as the city passed beneath them, "Anya? Set me down just inside the park. I'll walk the rest of the way so the rest of you guys can soften up Doomsday for the spell."
"Sure thing. Just wait until I think at you before moving in." Anya said as they all began to descend towards the park.
Looking at Anya, she still found it amazing that the usually tactless and somewhat ditzy blonde was now a somewhat professional sounding and intelligent young woman. While she couldn't say that she and Anya had ever been best buds or anything, she was considered a member of the Scooby gang if for no other reason than because she knew almost as much as Giles about the wacky and demonic. Still, the thousand year old former vengeance demon with the body of a twenty year old young woman said something nigh-daily that most people wouldn't say out loud or in public. She had to admit it was both amusing and interesting to hear her say something that made Xander look like he'd like the ground to swallow him whole. Oh, she'd never say that out loud since it'd only get her Xander-shaped friend mad at her and, considering her oh-so-short list of friends in this new dimension, she couldn't afford to lose any.
Thinking that thought halved her ability to suppress the truth of not only her new look but her new set of circumstances. Watching as Anya set down Willow before rising back up to an altitude equal to her own she had to wonder what she'd done in a past life to deserve a life that went from troublesome to downright abnormal. It was no secret that she often cursed her Calling as the Slayer, hated it for depriving her of a normal life, but at the moment she'd give just about anything to have it back. At least as the Slayer she was more or less human. Now she was some sort of alien angel girl with real live wings sticking out of her back that she'd never be able to take off without experiencing extreme pain and a lot of blood loss. She didn't even want to think about how hard it was going to be trying to sleep at night with the issue of rolling onto her wings being a problem. Who knew how many other problems she might have deal with that she didn't even know about yet. She might have inherited enough info from Shayera Hol, aka Hakwgirl, in her head to be able to fly around and swing the Nth metal mace without looking like a ditz, but that didn't mean she knew everything when it came to the Thanagarian race. She didn't know anything about their culture aside from cliff notes that explained why her inner Amazon wanted her to charge into battle to prove that she was strong. Her inner warrior wanted her to do that because her people were a military oriented people and, if you weren't a soldier, you were a civilian whose job aided the military in some manner. Hawkgirl was definitely a career soldier who had her heart set on Hro Talak as a potential husband and had been looking forward to it until her reconnaissance mission to Earth to measure its defenses.
NO! I am not her! She thought as she shook her head a bit to get back in her right mind, I am Buffy Anne Summers! Former Slayer, sort of, and currently the sole Thanagarian member of the Scooby League.
Sure, it was a corny name, but it let her believe that she wasn't completely letting go of her past and was making an effort to accept who she truly was now. She was determined to take a piece of the past with her into this scary, unknown future that was laid out before them all, if only to let the foundation it provided for her keep her from losing it completely. Some people would look at this as a fresh start, a chance to live the dream of countless teenage girls by being a superheroine, but she saw it as just another thing taking her away from the life she used to have and would very much like to have back. Sadly that didn't look like it was going to happen since, not only did she not have a clue as to how Whistler and the Pricks That Be turned her into 'Hawkgirl', but she was fairly certain it was beyond either Willow or Giles to change them back. Neither of the two geniuses of the Scooby gang had ever worked the mojo to this level and she wasn't going to hold her breath that they'd somehow manage to pull off the improbable. So, like it or not, unless they found someone in this dimension they knew nothing about, that could pull of feats of magical might on that level, she had no choice but to accept what she was right now as what she would always be. It was yet another thing Fate and Destiny had thrown at her that she had no say in.
If she ever met the two of them, she was going to pound them into sub-atomic powder!
Looking ahead, she was just in time to see Doomsday deliver a right hook to Xander's jaw that sent the young Superman flying through the air and eventually through buildings. She wasn't worried about him being overly hurt, he was SUPERMAN for crying out loud, but it did mean that the primary person in charge of keeping Warren off balance was temporarily out of the picture. That left only Anya and Dawn to ring the nerd's bell until Willow could whip up a one way portal for Mears that hopefully took him someplace he'd never return from. She'd be in that smackdown herself but she was still a little leery of getting into the thick of things, considering what Warrensday did to her last time. Sure, her mace managed to rattle him, but she didn't have the invulnerability or uber-healing that the others did and luck only lasted for so long before it just up and failed you. So as much as her inner Xena was yelling at her to dive in there and kick some ass, she would hang back instead ready to act as a distraction if someone got into trouble. Watching as Dawn 'Wonder Girl' Summers and Anya 'Martian' Jenkins started laying into Doomsday, she had to wonder what all this meant to them. What did they think about their new forms and circumstances?
Dawn was probably loving all this, from the costume to the powers, but probably most of all a chance to fight alongside her first serious crush. It was no secret that, despite the fact that Xander still treated her like a little sister, her sibling still held a torch for him and the possibility that someday they might be something more than pseudo-siblings. What did she think of that? Naturally she was uncomfortable with it, seeing as how Dawn is… er… was too young for him and he was one of her best friends, but she had to wonder about how that'd changed now. Prior to this whole mess, Dawn was three years younger than the rest of them and now anyone looking at her would assume they all went to the same classes and hung out at the same places. HELL! Dawn looked like she belonged on the cover of Cosmo and MAXIM! The body upgrade her younger sister got looked like something that would have cost a fortune to get a plastic surgeon to copy and to anyone, save a mystic, everyone'd probably assume it was all natural. Did she envy her sister? Looking down at her own body, she had to admit that being a couple inches taller and having a gymnist's body with breasts a cup size bigger wasn't terrible, but she could have done without the angel wings on her back. Mostly because it'd take considerably more than a change of clothes for her to be able to walk down the sidewalks along with everyone else. HELL! That was assuming that she'd be able to do anything like that ever again! Maybe Willow could work some mojo so no one would see the wings but she somehow doubted that they'd be able to get rid of them entirely, whether permanently or temporarily. With Warren proving he can work the heavy stuff magic-wise, it'd be too big a risk in the eyes of the PTBs that he might be able to reverse their empowerment of the Scooby gang somehow. The only way to make sure that didn't happen would be to make it permanent beyond any hope of change or reversal. She knew that she was being a little self-centered and selfish but it was kind of hard not to dwell on changes like this when they were big enough to change your entire life and you couldn't do anything about them. She was stuck a Thanagarian and, as an alien, she couldn't exactly get a job in this city or even get a decent apartment, given how people would probably react to her appearance. Some would probably be able to look past it but the rest would just see a freak with wings. That much she was sure of.
Looking up, she could see Xander returning to the fight and was glad because, from what she had seen before, both Dawn and Anya were only just proving capable of keeping Doomsday occupied. With the Man of Steel back in the fight, Warrensday was being pounded from three sides and that couldn't be a good thing to experience on the receiving side of things. Seeing Willow approaching down the cracked pathway of the park, she reduced her altitude a bit to make sure she could intercept any debris Mears tried to hurl at the female magician. It would likely take every ounce of concentration in order to open this portal and that would make her vulnerable to attack. She wasn't quite sure what level of magic the now-raven-haired girl possessed but it was unlikely that it'd be enough to make portal making an easy thing to do. Observing as her friend raised her arms and a black swirling vortex began to take shape, she hoped that the portal wouldn't take too long to fully open because she was beginning to see signs of Warren gaining the upper hand in his fight with the others. He was beginning to show a greater ability to block their blows and was only failing to land any of his own by an increasingly slim margin. Compared to how he had been doing five minutes ago, that meant that it would likely be minutes before her friends would be on the defensive and that would be the pebble that would start the avalanche leading to their defeat.
Fortunately for them it only took a single minute for Willow to open up the portal but, given the way her hands were trembling a bit, she probably skipped a few steps and, given how Giles always lectured them on shortcuts, this was not going to be a good thing. There'd be side effects and consequences, one of which would be an hour long lecture from Giles, that would not only be visited on Willow but the group as a whole. Still, it was better than it happening five minutes from now when Warren was officially pounding her friends into the ground when his stupid powers bulked him up even further. Watching as her friends began to pound the paste out of Mears even more so than before as they maneuvered him towards the portal, it was with a smile of satisfaction as Dawn and Xander delivered a double uppercut, sending the bony pain in their collective butts flying towards the portal.
A portal which infuriatingly shattered like it was made of glass the second Warrensday hit the event horizon, leaving just about all of them with dropped jaws of disbelief.
It was probably only instinct that had Willow diving out of the way as the grey behemoth landed on the grass. That was the one thing you could usually always say when it came to living in Sunnydale: you developed GREAT survival instincts. However, with plan A an official failure, now they were left with nothing but the old standby of 'keep hitting it until it stays down' approach but, with how Warren's body worked now, that wasn't going to do anything but get them killed. Steeling herself or battle, she listened as an overconfident chuckle grew into laughter as he floated out from the mouth of the monster beneath her.
"Nice try but just a little too late." Warren said with a crooked smile on his face, "If you'd done it five minutes ago, there's a chance my brain woulda been too rattled to activate the jewel but that's all water under the bridge right now. Now all that's left to do is finish this little schoolyard fight with you losers and move onto the big time. Question is: who's first?"
She was about to answer 'you are' but something popped up that seemed a little more important than trying to put a positive spin on a bad situation.
That something being a curved curtain of golden energy suddenly appearing in front of Warrensday that had everyone frozen in place trying to figure out what the HELL it was.
It turned out Karma was a bitch and she didn't like Mears all that much because, with a ripple in the curtain, something that looked like a sci-fi film projector poked out and, before anyone could say anything, it fired a beam of energy at Doomsday. It all happened so fast, one minute it hit him and the next he was gone, there was nothing but a little crackle in the air where one Warren Mears had been moments earlier in all his Doomsday glory.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked as she set down next to Willow who was almost on her feet.
"Don't know, Hawkgirl, but at least it looks like our Doomsday problems are over with." 'Zatanna' replied looking at the vanishing arcs of energy with her inquiring mind no doubt whirring in her head, "Um… now what?"
That question stopped her cold for what seemed like an hour but turned out to be only ten seconds.
Ever since they first laid eyes on Doomsday, their entire train of thought had been focused on one objective: stop Warren Mears. From the initial attempt at banishment to reluctantly accepting Whistler's story along with the empowerment to arriving here, whereever in the multi-verse here was. All of their minds had been focused on their next attempt at putting down Mears for good and now that it had happened, they were left standing in the middle of a demolished park looking like idiots. This was another dimension where they didn't exist in any way but physically and, aside from what they might be able to sell from the sacks Spike brought with him, they'd be penniless. It felt like someone had dropped a Thanagarian battle cruiser on top of her and, thanks to the memories she'd gotten from Hawkgirl, she had a pretty good idea of what that'd feel like.
It was just them now.
Eight people in a reality, a dimension not their own, with nothing but their costumes and two sacks of baubles to sustain them.
Needless to say she had to fight the overwhelming urge to just have a mental breakdown right then and there but fortunately Anya was quick to supply another reason why they shouldn't lose it just yet.
"Crack later, Hawkgirl! I'm picking up some major noise on the E.S.P frequency." Declared the green skinned blonde as she looked around at something only she could see, "Everyone from the cops to something called 'The Ultimates' are on their way here and I don't think we want to be here when they get here."
"That's all well and good, pet, but we need a place to go first before we can be someplace else." Spike said as he appeared in a blur of scarlet, "Ideas anyone?"
"Spike! Where were you when the rest of us were fighting for our lives?!" Xander asked sounding like the answer would determine whether or not the former vampire would need a cast in the near future.
"Selling off the baubles Blue Boy." Spike replied with a bit of attitude as he pulled out a nice wad of cash for everyone to see, "Couldn't help you pound tall, dark and bony without makin' a mess of myself or the park, so I decided to do something a little more useful."
It sounded reasonable but she still had to wonder how Spike could have gotten into normal clothes, found a pawn shop or something, and sold two sacks worth of who knew what in the time that had passed since they'd arrived. Sure, he was some sort of super speedster or something, but people tend to freak out when seemingly normal people do abnormal things like, oh, vanish in a blur of motion.
"He's telling the truth." Came a dark and British voice from the shade of a nearby clump of trees, "I kept an eye on him while the rest of you dealt with Doomsday."
Turning in the direction of the voice they could see Rupert 'Batman' Giles pulling off the barely formed shadow cliché that was completely in keeping with his Dark Knight schtick. She almost rolled her eyes at this because it seemed idiotic that the usually proper and stiff Brit would employ tactics more commonly used by Angel. Unfortunately because the sphere for the Caped Crusader was chosen by her Watcher and that meant she would have to get used to him acting all 'voice in the dark'.
It was just about then though that yet another strange thing happened and it came from the curtain of energy that still hadn't gone away even after the sci-fi projector had slid back into it from whence it came. The newest strange thing came in the form of an obvious hologram, given its transparent nature, of a female humanoid that had such a wonderful curvaceous figure that her mind automatically labeled it as bought, not human or only in the comic books Xander read. The hologram was a collection of different shades of red, black and gold clad in what looked to be some sort of skintight (of course it had to be skintight! Heaven forbid a beautiful woman be seen in anything normal) bodysuit. The arms and sides were black but the central areas were red with a black and gold strip incorporated from the right inner thigh right up to the right shoulder stopping just shy of the black turtleneck part. The head was essentially a solid bald female head, given standard female facial features from lips to cheekbone positioning to her eyes making it look like it was meant to be eye candy along with… whatever else it was supposed to do.
"Dpnf vhsg nd. J ehkk sbjf zpt tpnfvgdsd rbgd." Said the hologram but in a language she couldn't make heads or tails of.
Given the look on Xander's face, though, it looked like he had a good idea of what was being said and what language it was being spoken in. She could tell by the hanging jaw and the light in his eyes that said 'I can understand this when I couldn't speak French to save my life two weeks ago' and hopefully he'd clue the rest of them in on what was going on soon enough.
"Um… she's apparently offering to take us someplace safe if we go with her." Xander said once he got over the shock of both the message and his own comprehension of it.
"You understood what the ghost bint said?" Spike asked, sounding surprised but whether that was because Xander understood another language or something else, she didn't know or want to know.
"What language was she speaking?" Giles asked approaching the main group thus giving up the spooky mystique of the shade.
"If my inherited memories are right, she's speaking Kryptonian and her outfit is sort of like what Kal-El wore during his big 'Krypton Man' phase." Xander replied, looking a little wary about trusting the hologram, "While I'm not crazy about going anywhere with something that reminds me of my predecessor's Vulcan phase, I think we should go with her. Unless one of you has a better idea?"
Looking around at everyone else, she could tell that none of them really had a spectacular idea but, then again, neither did she. Pretty much all she could come up with was get out of sight of the locals, snag whatever was fashionably accessible from the clotheslines and then try to blend into the crowd. Considering that she had never been to New York City, didn't think anyone would be likely to have her sort of clothes on their clotheslines and didn't know enough about this world to blend in, it wasn't a very good idea. Still, if Xander was edgy about going with hologram girl and he had the powers of Superman, then that did not do wonders for her confidence in ghost girl's invitation. Nevertheless, with no other ideas and the local boys in blue heading their way, it wasn't like they had time to play twenty questions with the young woman to make them less afraid of her invitation.
"We should go." Giles said as he began moving towards the energy curtain, "Between the eight of us I'm pretty sure we can handle the situation if things become hostile."
With everyone looking back and forward between one another, they had to admit that together it'd take something pretty impressive to lock them up or blow them to in wet red meaty chunks. So with confidence that SO wasn't in each step, they took they moved to pass through the energy curtain since it was so obviously like that Stargate thing from one of Xander's shows. She hoped she didn't wind up barfing or something when she got to the other side because she was fairly sure that that would not make for a good first impression.
Plus I'd have to be the one to clean it up probably. She thought falling into stride beside Xander, Take about Ew!
It was just as she and Xander, the last two still in the park, were about to pass through the even horizon (she still couldn't get over the fact that she knew what an event horizon was!) that she noticed something on her friend's cheek that had not been there before he'd been knocked out of the park by Doomsday.
"Xander? Is that lipstick on your cheek?" she asked before letting a wicked smile blossom on her face.
The blush that happened two seconds later was confirmation enough that she had struck gold in the teasing and blackmail department where this Man of Steel was concerned.
That alone would give her something to keep her mind of the present situation.
Midtown High School, Cafeteria, 12:45p.m, Peter Parker's P.O.V
"So did you see them? The ones that wrecked Central Park?" Mary Jane asked as she picked at her lunch while listening to him.
"A little bit. They left through some sort of portal thing just as I got there." He replied, recalling his speed swinging from school to Central Park when news of a big time fight involving spandex came over the radio the cafeteria staff was listening to, "They looked like they should be in college, five girls and three guys, but they completely trashed Central Park. I'm talkin' meteor crater and impact ripples everywhere!"
That was exactly how it looked when he finally landed on a rooftop across from Central Park. It looked like a meteor had fallen from the sky and slammed into the grass leaving a crater big enough to put a decent sized pool into if the city wanted to. The ones he presumed caused it had vanished along with their golden curtain, he'd only caught a fleeting glimpse of them from three blocks away, so he could only presume that they were the ones to cause the mess. Them or whatever it was they were fighting. That was the troubling thing: he didn't know which side they were on. Were they like him? People with powers trying to do the right thing? Or were they like Osborn, using their powers to do whatever they wanted and to hell with how it affects others? He really wished he had the answers to those questions because the idea of eight people out there with the kind of power to demolish Central Park like that did not sit well with him.
"Sounds like a team I wouldn't mind being on." MJ said before taking a bite out of her burger, "A team dominated by women."
Her saying that, of course, made him wonder what it'd be like to be on a team where he was one of only three guys partnered up with five spandex clad ladies. Why spandex? Well, it was either that or leather, considering both were the materials of choice among the super powered and public and… well… he'd be okay with either being the case. For a moment he got lost in the imagery that that line of thought produced, images of ladies from both the X-Men as well as the Ultimates, but fortunately his best friend Ms. Watson brought him back to reality with a swift smack upside the head.
Ow.
"Mind out of the gutter, Peter." She said with a mostly humorous but no less warning tone of voice.
"But it's so comfy there!" he said with a smile on his face that made it clear he was trying to make with the funny.
MJ just rolled her eyes at this and he was pretty sure he heard a muttered 'MEN' come from her mouth but it'd still probably not be a good idea to linger in the land of sexily clad women his mind had created.
He'd save it for when his life was really crappy and he needed a happy place to go to.
God knew there were times when he needed one!
"ANYway! Do you think they're gone for good?" she asked him while grabbing a handful of fries from her plate.
"If they have any sense they will!" he said as he recalled the mess that had been made, "It's gonna cost a lot of money to fix up the park and people are going to look for someplace to send the bill. I wouldn't want to see the bill I have comin' to me for all the messes I've made!"
They both had a good laugh about that even though they knew that with his speed and the concealing nature of his costume, the odds of anyone being able to slap a receipt in his hand was slim indeed. He knew that there were more than a few people out there who probably wanted to sue the tights off of him but were told how impossible that would be since Spider-Man didn't exactly have a forwarding address to send bill too. Didn't mean he could forget about it entirely, since he was pretty sure he'd have to turn in his superhero membership card if he got too willy nilly with the property damage. All-in-all, he was lucky that the other members of the spandex set were either too busy with their own problems or could relate to him well enough that they didn't want to take him down. If that ever changed, he knew that he'd be forced into early retirement whether he liked it or not because there was no way he was going to hold out against Captain America, Iron Man or Thor in a fight. He was good, no arguing that, but he wasn't THAT good! If he got word that every hero on the east coast was gunning for him, he'd crawl into bed and pull the sheets over his head before he'd go out and be Spider-Man.
BBBRRIIINNGGG!
"Well we better get to geometry class." MJ said as she walked her tray over to the nearest trash can, "We got a test at the end of the week and it's review day today."
"Joy!" he said as he predicting a mind numbing hour of a review of stuff he already knew forwards and backwards.
He would SO rather be fighting bad guys right now!
The Baxter Building, Same Time, Dr. Franklin Storm's P.O.V
"So how far is this going to set us back?" asked Dr. Frank Storm of the think tank that was the Baxter Building.
"Not as much as you might think. The Richards kid has pretty much finished his work with the O.W. Device and, with young Mr. Van Damme helping him with the calculations, we could be ready for the organic phase of testing within a month or so." Replied his personal assistant as she flipped through the preliminary report on the damages, "The walkway in the main laboratory area is the biggest mess but building maintenance will have the debris cleared away by the end of the week and a new walkway built by the end of the month."
"Good. How's Susan doing?" he asked as his mind brought back memories of what had happened less than an hour ago.
"A few scrapes and cuts but nothing that a bit of disinfectant or a few band aids won't fix." Miss Davis replied, taking a look at another note in her hands, "It could've been a lot worse if that flying guy hadn't caught her. You saw what she would've fallen onto if he hadn't been there."
"Yes. I saw." Was all he could say to that.
It had been another day at the Baxter building with most of the attention being on finishing up the preliminary work on Reed's teleportation device so that they'd be ready to construct the life sized version of it in the Nevada desert. The equations he'd reviewed so far were, as usual, brilliant and while there were a few places that needed to be looked over, he had not seen any reason to delay the Nevada test. Sue had called down to him from the overhead walkway and asked if he wanted to step out and get a bite to eat when it happened. Out of nowhere this blur of blue and red crashed through the wall, demolished the walkway and left Sue teetering on the edge of what remained of the concrete construct. With the momentum apparently played out, the blur had resolved itself into the form of a young man in his early twenties, clad in a dark blue bodysuit with his boots, gloves and cape crimson in color. His face was partially obscured by a mask that covered everything with the exception of the lower part of his face, the eyes and the top of the head, where brown locks could be seen curled up. Add to that a diamond shaped crest on his chest with a stylized 'S' at its center and he looked very much like a superhero fresh from the pages of a comic book. His actions lent support to this title since, in a blurred movement, the unknown costumed man saved his daughter, who had fallen from her precarious perch and would have landed on the jagged pieces of debris below had he not flown up to catch her mid-air. He barely held in the shudder at the images that that possibility, the possibility of his daughter dying, motivated his mind to produce. It had been like a soothing flow of water had fallen on him seeing the young man float down to the ground before setting Sue on her feet.
What surprised him, though, was when his eldest child kissed the guy on the cheek with this look on her face that was so… different… from what he knew. Unlike some fathers, he was not blind to the fact that his daughter was a beautiful nineteen year old woman and with that came the usual infatuations and the occasion crush on a guy. However lately he'd seen something developing between her and the Richards boy, a quiet sort of romance, but personally didn't think much would come of it. While his daughter knew how to balance a normal lifestyle as a young woman with her interest in the sciences, he got the distinct feeling that science was Reed Richards' first love and all else was secondary to that. Would he overcome that if he and Sue decided to get serious and start dating as a couple? Possibly, but he wasn't sure if he was willing to risk his darling daughter getting hurt if it turned out that Reed couldn't commit himself enough to a relationship with her. Then again, he couldn't precisely go up to his daughter and say 'I do not think Reed is the right man for you' because then she'd tell him that she's a grown woman and her love life is none of his business.
Then again… given the way she was looking at that caped young man…he thought as he began to identify the look that had been on his daughter's face prior to her 'thank you' kiss.
Was it the start of a crush?
Perhaps.
However he was uncertain whether this cape adventurer would be suitable for his child. He knew nothing about the young man aside from the facts that he had super powers and had apparently chosen to save his daughter for no other reason than she had been in danger. A promising start, yes, but not one that he was going to let go to his head anytime soon. He'd already asked Miss Davis to look into the young man and learn what she could for him by the end of the week. Hopefully by then enough would be learned that he could form a more concrete opinion of the young man and make up his mind about whether he should be treating the guy as someone to call the Ultimates about or someone he should be 'polite' towards.
Hearing a familiar pitter-patter of feet, he turned to see the star of his thoughts walking towards him looking none the worse for wear, just like his assistant had told him. In fact, he might need to put a rush on that fact finding assignment Miss Davis had on the young man who saved the intelligent blonde walking towards him because right now she was smiling more than when she'd earned her first doctorate. Considering that that was a major achievement for her, that indicated just how strong an effect the entire event had had on her and it was definitely something to take note of. Depending on how far she decided to take this, he might need to have a 'talk' with her. For now he'd play it cool and treat it all like he was clueless about why she was smiling or what he thought was going on in her head.
"Hey pumpkin'! Did the doctors give you a clean bill of health?" he asked as he opened his arms for a hug.
"Clean as a whistle, Dad! They say in a week or so you'll never even know anything happened." Sue replied as she wrapped her arms around him accepting the invitation to a hug.
"Good to know. How about we take the rest of the day off?" he asked, deciding that he wanted to feel out how his daughter felt about her recent mid-air rescue and her hero, "The equipment is pretty trashed and I doubt they're going to be able to replace it before tomorrow, so we might as well spend some quality father-daughter time together. Whattaya say?"
"You're not going to take me anyplace too kiddy, are you?" she asked with the tone of a daughter who knew her father sometimes forgot she was legally an adult.
"Of course not! You choose the restaurant and the movie. I'll pick up the tab for it all." He said with his hands up in a half serious 'do not shoot the messenger' position.
"Then let's get going." Sue said as she began to make her way to the residential wing, "'cause you've just given me unlimited options and I've some expensive possibilities in mind!"
There goes three of my credit cards for the rest of the month! He thought as he followed his daughter who was no doubt going to get dressed to enjoy her expensive evening.