We return to our story as something has just made a huge hole in the wall. The open sky can clearly and easily be seen on the other side... WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?!?!?

It didn't take long to figure out what had probably happened, particularly if your brain ran on super speed: whatever The Cogstinator had done likely sent the lot of them into this alternate dimension where 'bad' was 'good' and 'good' was 'bad,' at least in as far as superheroes and villains were concerned. Delancey and the others were probably 'bad' guys then, though she didn't know if they counted for that supposed morality flip. Given the guns pointed at them, it was safe to assume they were at least dangerous, for now. Somewhat more certain was how the "White Lynx" was probably also a sort of villain... But what did that mean for Ch'rava? And the Brin Monarchy? What would an evil version of them look like? Or would the morality flip have skipped them over?

Still, those concerns could be considered more in full later. Right now, there were guns, an unknown helper in this rabbit lady, and a hole in the wall. And Ms. Rabbit wanted them to run? As fast as they could?

The speedster could do that.

Like a bolt, Lynx flashed away, electrical sparks flying as she disappeared through the new hole.

Twist flashed through the crowd of agents doing her human rubberband thang, depriving them of their weapons as she serenaded them with a jaunty R&B earworm. "Hey ya'll, prepare yourself for the Rubberband Ma'am! You've never seen a gal like the Rubberband Ma'am! You're bound to lose control when the Rubberband starts to jam! Rubberband Ma'am starts to jam, moving up and down 'cross the land! Got the people all in her wake. Everything prolly seems outta place! Just move it, just move, move, move it, just Rubberband, Rubberband Ma'am! Get down, oh, get down low!"

---

17:19, Today: Twist rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,5.  Hold Them Off (Drive Them Crazy). I pick one: 'you take away useful items from them'. That would be their firearms! ^_^

This was what Cosmic Girl was afraid of... they had ended up somewhere else. Well, it was getting her out of a geography test, so maybe it was for the best.

As the White Rabbit person gave instructions, and she was able to grasp what was going on with a very different and irate Agent Delancey, she did not need telling twice. Her Cosmic Aura flared around her, and she vworrppped out as fast as she could go, which was really quite fast indeed. She was not as fast as White Lynx, of course, but hardly anything was. But it was fast enough to get her at a distance from trouble.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 00:21, Sun 12 Feb 2023.

Cosmic Girl and White Lynx went outside. Inside were still Twist and Goodwill... but the agents were all suddenly disarmed, thanks to Twist, standing with a pile of rifles at her feet...

(Goodwill: is Scraps there? Or did we leave him back at home?)

Outside, Cosmic Girl and White Lynx observe that they're still on Plum Island. A Plum Island... And there's a big prison... But it looks different-- more steel, more round circles and less concrete and edges and corners. Got a big hole in the wall now, though.

New York and Manhattan look the same-- except the tallest skyscraper is new... It's really tall. And sinister-looking.

[Let's just leave Scraps at home for this.]


Goodwill looked at the tall, evil-looking skyscraper.

"That can't be good," he said. They clearly weren't where they'd been a minute ago. Were they in the universe that this 'Echo' person called home? "Somehow, 'run' sounds like a good idea, though."

He turned to Twist.

"Need a lift?"

Twist literally and figuratively extended her hand to Goodwill. ”I’m usually content to just get my swing on, but it’s good to see how the other half lives.” She let her arm play out some as Goodwill took flight, pausing long enough to taunt the agents with an insouciant finger-wiggle before snapping out through the gap in the wall in Goodwill’s wake. ”See ya around, boys!”

Not bothering to skid to a stop, Lynx continued, running at lightning speed in evasive maneuvers across the water back toward the city. It seemed that the forces of 'evil' had worked to craft a new building? It certainly looked intimidating enough, but if she were going to trust this white rabbit, she would run as far away from the island as she could. And that meant leaving it altogether. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too difficult to meet back up with the others later.

When Goodwill and Twist rejoin Cosmic Girl (well, you know, kind of below her) on a beach outside, the woman in the blue costume with the rabbit logo (insignia?) shows up too. She doesn't just appear... more like you can see her coming a'runnin', but it's hard to see her, like light is partially phasing through her body (but not entirely). It makes her a little transparent-- until she shows up again. "We should get to the city," she says. "Or at least off this island. Could I ask for a lift?"

Twist jerked a thumb in Goodwill’s direction. ”Too much of a stretch for me, pun very very intentional. Have to ask Mister Friendly Skies here, I’m just a passenger.”

Cosmic Girl bobbed down and floated above the goup, her aura shimmering purple and green, casting a very strange set of moving shadows around them all. "I'd be happy to take you myself, but I am not sure how my aura would interact with you. I do not know if the laws of cosmic energy are the same here - wherever we ended up! Besides, Gil is a lot stronger than I am!"

It was a good thing that her shimmery nimbus kept the shade of her face hidden. Using Goodwill's real name was a little slip of the tongue, perhaps. But she was still a teenager, and it was not unreasonable to presume that she had developed something of a crush. He was a few years older, strong, handsome, and a heroic figure. Plus, he had a Superdog, and nobody was immune to that sort of clincher! Whilst she was still very much able to focus on her work, she did contain all the raging hormones of a sixteen year old girl. All mixed in with the raging torrent of force that fuelled the universe. It was quite a lot to deal with.

She looked towards the city, and the unfamiliar - yet somehow also familiar - variation of the skyline. "Maybe I should scout ahead? We don't know what sort of reception we are likely to receive, and we have to assume someone is going to call ahead to get a rather angry welcome ready for us. It's a shame we don't have Scraps with us. His nose is far better than mine when it comes to spotting trouble!"

"I can take two passengers," Goodwill said. He noticed that Cosmic Girl had called him 'Gil' (which was fine, since his identity was public) and wondered what that signified. Probably just a slip of the tongue, he decided. He actually appreciated the note of familiarity between the two of them, though. He liked Cosmic Girl.

He liked her liked her. But there was that age difference to consider. He quietly sighed to himself and put the thought aside.

Positioning himself between Twist and Bunny-girl, Goodwill placed a hand around each one's waist. If each one rested a hand on his shoulder for stability, he'd be able to fly the three of them without trouble.

"I can show you where to go," says the woman in blue. "We have a secret lair set up. Do you know the Harlem River Lift Span of the Triborough Bridge? Whether you do or not, there's a rusty-looking door there, like a door on a submarine, that leads to a tunnel that widens as it goes... it leads under Manhattan..."

"I think we should all stick together," Goodwill countered. "It's a big world, and none of it is ours."

"I agree-- there's no need to scout ahead-- distractions have been prepared so that nothing should interfere with us on this route. I hope that that woman who ran with lightning speed is all right-- is she the new Silver Streak?"

---

Manhattan is the same as it was, but not the same. White Lynx sees lots of signs that say things like THE MAYORS ARE WATCHING and THE MAYORS KEEP US SAFE. O-kay... creepy.

Mayyyyybe White Lynx should go back and check on her friends...?

--Wait-- there's an explosion over... that way... to the south...

Check it out? Or go get her friends first...?

So... Did that mean there was more surveillance in the city now? And Mayors? Certainly it was rather interesting to see what might be different, but perhaps this area wasn't the safest to stay around in... The masked hare had told them all to flee, but maybe they'd still be around near the island. She could do a pass, if only to try to get back together faster—

An explosion?

Lynx's head darted over to the south where that booming sound had come from. She really should just ignore it... There was every possibility that it was some construction work demolishing something and, besides, if the Lynx in this world was meant to be a villain, her cover as a hero counted for nothing. Not to mention the fact that her group was on some important world-shattering business, so whatever this was had to be small potatoes compared to that. And it wasn't like the others would ever even know. It was only sensible...

White Lynx shook her head and took off running to the south. Sure, she wasn't technically a hero... But there was a chance someone needed help. As far as Ch'rava knew, there was no one else coming to help, and she simply could not stand by and let that happen. Screw sensible!

When she gets there, Tetsubo, the big scary guy with the iron club, is fighting the police. The explosion was a police car he smashed.

Except... wait... It's NOT the same person. This is a big scary WOMAN with red skin and horns growing out of HER forehead and glowing eyes. "Come on! You think you can stop me?! No one stops Agent Devil from making a divers-- I mean, from destroying public property!"

She's creating so much chaos, the police barely have time to aim their pistols. When she spots one trying it, she deflects the shot with her iron club, and then smashes whatever the cop had been using for cover...

So... Unless it was mere coincidence that the club-wielding Agent Devil looked very much like a female Tetsubo, it appeared that morality wasn't the only difference here? Unless she'd misunderstood something about the oni in her own universe; it was difficult at times to keep track of what was meant to separate gender in humans. Who knew, maybe that meant the large, evil-looking building was the result of some other shift between the realities.

In any case, that wasn't the important part here. Tetsubo had been, to all of Lynx's knowledge, a villain, so that would mean miss 'destruction of public property' over here would likely be more on the heroic side...

And what was that she'd said? 'Making a diver?' If she assumed that Agent Devil was trying to do something good here, she could read that as 'making a diversion,' but it seemed silly to just run with an assumption on any stranger's moral compass. Still, despite all the chaos, it didn't seem like she'd actually hurt anyone yet... But with guns waving around and explosions going off, someone needed to be concerned about safety.

Lynx scanned the area, looking for anyone else caught in the crossfire or about to get hurt, ready to rush in and get them out of harm's way.

Actually, surprisingly, no one else is in danger. It's almost as if Agent Devil is secretly trying to go out of her way to make sure that she's only serving as an inconvenience to the police department, specifically.

Lynx continued to scan the area for a moment longer, but if there was no one in danger, then she didn't exactly know what to do. Assuming Agent Devil was just making a diversion, then this wasn't really the most important thing going on here. And her working to avoid injuring anyone certainly pointed towards her actions being good. Lynx could
try to assist in this endeavor, but interfering could make the situation worse...

But at least it could also give her a better sense of how 'White Lynx' was seen in this world.

In an instant, she flashed into the fighting, choosing a spot that seemed relatively secure for the moment while also making her entrance exceedingly obvious to both the police and the club-wielding oni, ready to dodge away again at a moment's notice. Either they'd ignore her completely (in which case, she'd might as well run back toward the island to check on the others) or she'd get some kind of informative response. Possibly in the from of a bullet or a smash from the iron club.

Cosmic Girl looked in the direction of the bridge. "I know the spot. I am worried about Lynx, though. We really mustn't get divided! And if we are seen as our opposites here, we'll have every law enforcement agency in the country after us. Even the military."

She was under no illusions about her own capacity to be a weapon of mass desctruction. She had been groomed into that sort of role, after all, ever since birth. On their own Earth, she used her powers for good - or at least for the definition of good that the government decided upon. But here, if she was her own opposite, there might be a version of her out there, blowing up buildings and planes with a degree of malevolent enjoyment that was quite terrifying. She knew how much damage she had done when she had accidentally misfired, and knocked down buildings. Applied deliberately, this opposite Cosmic Girl might be a genuine flying disaster.

Unless... unless she was working for the government here, too. And they were the ones who were wicked. That was perhaps even worse...

Twist nonchalantly waved her hand. "Grew up in Harlem... well, a Harlem. Guess we'll see what the ghetto looks like in this place." She smirked then. "Maybe here it's more like Greenwich Village, and the Village is more like our Harlem."

"I don't even want to know what Nebraska is like in this world," Goodwill added.

Agent Devil turns at the flash of white. "Ah-- Ah... uh... um... You're not the Crimson Comet... Who the heck are you?"

The police point their guns at White Lynx, but they don't fire or even shout anything-- they also seem confused.

"--Oh!" says Agent Devil, seeming to realize something. "Oh!! Um, uh... You must be another hero, here to stop anyone who wants to overthrow the Mayors' totalitarian rule of the city! But... uh... uhhhh... And... and that means I'd better take my leave, because if you're here, hero, it means one of the Mayors is sure to show up soon and start helping you deliver a beatdown of a rebel like me! So if you're on the side of totalitarian martial law keeping this city in its iron grip, as usual, you'd... you'd better not follow me...!"

And with that, Agent Devil charges south, barreling through the blockade of police cars, smashing them aside as she runs. The cops scatter momentarily, so no cars fall on them. (None do.)

At the far end of the block, Agent Devil turns to see if White Lynx will follow, kind of giving her a C'mon, dammit look.

---

Meanwhile, the woman in blue, Twist, Goodwill and Cosmic Girl arrive at the submarine door under the Manhattan side of the bridge...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:30, Sat 18 Feb 2023.