KaiserElectric — Roleplayer Guild

One Month Earlier:
Shortly After Hounds Incident

"You okay Riles? You're looking like you're about to keel over."

Riley pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against, shaking her hair out of her eyes as a pair of Poseidon crewmen jogged past with armfuls of food packets. "Well, I have just finished flying into space. That is a bit tiring."

Jordan looked up from her electronic notepad with a wry grin, her eyebrows raised. "Wow, since when have you been sarcastic?"

"That is not a bad thing is it?" Riley said quickly, sounding concerned.

"Nah, just messing with you," Jordan said, craning her neck to glare at a couple of crewmen unpacking another large box. "Just been a while since I felt like joking around. Hey, be careful with those medical supplies, dumbasses!"

Riley sighed wistfully, getting a good look around Lost Haven one last time. A lifetime ago she escaped into the streets from a Poseidon laboratory, wanting to save people from the mad creations of the Game Genie. Now she was here, traveling into the skies and fighting alongside other heroes to stop a mad terrorist group threatening the nation. She tried to think of what BPE-45A, trapped in her cryogenic tube, would have thought if she heard that she would have flown into space to help take down a city-destroying super-weapon. Or battled with a mad general in a vulture-like robotic suit. Or even had an incredible hamburger with her best friends. Would that frozen alien ever believed that one day she would go so far to save the lives of millions of people, or were such things impossible dreams at best?

Maybe they were dreams, Riley decided. Dreams worth fighting for. And a part of her hoped she would fight for that dream again someday.

"Well unless you feel like floating on yourself, we have the plane fueled up and ready to go, Riles," Jordan suddenly piped in, snapping Riley back to the real world.

"You're not coming back?"

"Not yet at least, the boss wants me to oversee the relief efforts, at least over the next few days," Jordan explained. "Believe me, if I could I would. I am really missing Jane right now."

"I am missing home, and my friends," Riley reminesced. "Mr. Martel, Miss Patton, Typhoon, Monsterk4t..."

"Only you would ever consider supervillains 'friends', Riles," Jordan said with a laugh. "Either way, I'm sure they need you back home more then I do. Better get rolling." Jordan turned to leave but faltered, hovering mid-step before spinning right back and pulling Voyager into a bear hug.

"Thanks for everything, Riley," Jordan said, her tears soaking into Riley's jacket as she pressed her face into her shoulder. "Thanks for saving me. For saving everyone." Riley tried to say something, to try to put how she felt about her best friend that had gone through hell and came out swinging into words. All that she could do was stifle the tears running down her face, and as they broke apart, judging by the look on Jordan's face, Riley didn't need to say anything anyway. She understood.

"Well...I had better catch my flight," Riley remarked, still rubbing moisture from her eyes. "See you back home, Jordan."

"See you there, Voyager."

At long last she was headed home. Riley vaguely noticed how a handful of the crew had gathered near the plan to see her off, but mostly her thoughts rested on the trip back. Briley Patton had arranged for a more comfortable flight back home on a proper passenger-equipped plane, and Riley was certainly grateful. Giving a nod to the pilot to show she was ready, Riley gave a wistful sigh as she collapsed into the closest seat and, just as the plane touched off the ground, shut her eyes and slipped away into a well-earned rest.

Where are you?

Riley grumbled under her breath, twisting around in her seat.

Tell us where you are.

Riley flipped herself over and yelped as the seat vanished from underneath her. Scrambling to her feet, she blinked at the sudden change in her surroundings. The plane had vanished from around her, and she was in an inky black void, devoid of light.

"Huh? Wh-where am I?"

Where did you go?

"Who said that?" Riley demanded, spinning around nervously. "What is this place?"

You've been gone so long.

A light crept into her peripheral vision. Turning, Riley saw a tall figure a short distance away, illuminated like it was standing in a spotlight. Cautiously, she crept towards the figure, her arms raised and ready to fight.

We thought you were lost. Gone. But never forgotten.

Riley's hands started to shake as she drew closer and closer, drawing up to the figure's back.

Tell us where you went.

"H-here I am," Riley said nervously. "Wh-what do you want with me?" The figure turned his head, the silver steel and the wide grin glinting in the spotlight.

"Isn't THAT the million dollar question, darling?" Primetime said in his insipidly cheery tone of voice.

"You!" Riley snapped. "What are you doing here, smiling man?" Before Primetime could answer, Riley suddenly picked up the sound of...the ocean? Turning around in confusion, she spotted the torrent of rushing water just as it careened right into her, knocking her off her feet and carrying along the helpless alien for the ride. Riley tried to call for help, but the water twisted and threw her back and forth as it carried her along, drowning the words before they reached anyone's ears...if there even was anyone.

Shortly before she resigned herself to be drowned in an unstoppable flood, Riley felt her body smack into something solid, the water around her crashing to the ground. Sputtering and choking, she pushed herself up from the water pooling around her, trying to feel around for something to hold onto to get her bearings. Riley stopped short of this, not because she gave up, but because she felt she was wearing gloves now.

Blinking the last bit of water from her eyes, she looked down at her hands to find them five fingered and wearing gloves she did not recognize. Realizing she was lying in a pool of water, she leaned down to get a better look at herself and barely stifled a shriek. The face staring back was not hers, instead replaced with that of a man, unshaven and gruff looking with piercing blue eyes and an angry red patch of skin covering a portion of the right side of his face. Even the outfit had changed, replaced by what looked like a long leather duster and body armor. Stumbling to her very unfamiliar feet, she became aware of a purple glow filling the dark void, reflecting off the water gathering at her ankles.

At last.

Riley looked up to see a figure floating in midair, hovering just out of reach...herself. The other her stared down at Riley with an unreadable expression, her eyes filled with purple light, her arms extended outwards to the side.

"W-what's this supposed to mean?" Riley demanded, surprised she still had a familiar voice. "Why are you me?"

You can come home now.

The voice seemed to be coming from the other Riley, despite the doppelganger not even moving her mouth to make the words. "I was heading home, before you stuck me in the weird dark place!" she shouted up at herself, her hands clenching. At this, the other Riley turned her head, almost from bemusement.

Have you ever wondered where you came from?

Riley felt something drop like a stone in her chest. "What do you 'mean where I cam from'? I came from Pacific Point! In a box, perhaps, but technically speaking..."

Enlightenment is sought. You must find him to know.

"Him?" Riley asked, looking down at the unfamiliar reflection in the water. "Do you mean the guy you made me look like?"

He shares your gift. Lay the path for one another.

"B-but why?" Riley asked, almost pleading. The other Riley, as though in response, smiled slightly, without a word crossing her lips.

You will be able to come home.

Light began to flood the room, the black giving way to a blazing violet as the water below her began to percolate. Before Riley could demand a better answer, something overwhelmingly massive burst from the floor in front of her, sending waves crashing along the standing water. Riley caught a glimpse of the serpentine beast, its red and white feathered scales gleaming in the light, before it opened its maw and crashed down on top of her.

"YEAAAAAAGH!"

"Ach, sorry about that!" the pilot called from the cockpit of the jet. "Wasn't expecting any turbulence around here."

Riley blinked, realizing she was back on the floor of the private jet again. Scrambling rapidly, she pulled herself back to the seat and looked at the window. The familiar blue face and red eyes stared back at her, said blue looking quite a bit paler then usual. Breathing a sigh of relief, Voyager collapsed backwards into her seat.

"You alright back there?" the pilot called out.

"Ah, yes, I am fine!" Riley reassured him, straightening out in the chair. "Just...had a bad dream, I suppose."

"No worries, then. Sorry if I shook you awake, we should be smooth sailing from here to Cali."

"Sounds good, carry on!" Riley said, trying to sound encouraging. Leaning her head back, she ran over the details in her head of what had happened. Whatever was talking to her, it wanted her to come home. But where was home? The place that she was sent from when she showed up in that tube? Or maybe somewhere else? And then there was the other alien, Primetime. The other her. The strange man she took the appearance of. The surreal dragon. The spectral wolf. Wait, was there a wolf? Riley strained her memory. Nothing specific came to mind but...there had to have been one. A glowing, spectral wolf.

The one coming back clearly to her, though, was that man, the one who had powers like hers, according to whatever was talking to her. The one who she needed to find, to help both of them. Riley frowned at the prospect of following weird visions in her head. She wasn't sure whether to trust them yet, especially considering that strange-faced alien was involved.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out.

Time: After the Hounds Assault

The team Briley Patton had sent over to deal with the crisis in Lost Haven was experiencing something they hadn't truly felt since the Hounds first showed their face to the world; jubilation. It started with the news that the Finger of God had been reduced to a useless, burning husk, foiling their attempts to snuff out cities like candles, and things only got more celebratory when word reached the team that the Hounds leader had been captured as well. While the crew still worked diligently to prepare for the inevitable emergency relief, there was still a jovial lightheartedness, no doubt fueled by several cases of beer that had been rolled out just for the occasion. It was a dizzying hodgepodge of movement, save one figure sitting at her makeshift workstation, listening to the gentle beats of the Pet Shop Boys pumping through her headphones.

"In a West end town a dead end world," Jordan Fletcher sung breathily to herself, her cheek plastered to her keyboard. "...the East end boys and West end girls..." Turning over in her chair, she expected to feel just as jubilant as the others, especially given what she had gone through at the hands of those fascists, but she just felt...overpowered. Like her heart had been beating out of her chest for years before it finally slowed down again. She didn't feel bad or tired at all, just...relieved. Relieved that every single nightmare scenario that played in her head would not come true, relieved that things turned out alright after all. Deep down she really was elated of course, but coming down from the panic high took the wind out of you. So much so that she was barely aware when a familiar purple face plopped down on the desk next to her.

"Hey Jordan," Riley said sleepily, sounding remarkably like Jordan felt.

"Hey Riles'," Jordan replied back, shifting slightly to remove one of the headphone cups without using her hand. "Heard you got the Finger of God."

"Yep."

"Cool."

"Went into space."

"Sweet."

In the ensuing celebration, it seemed no one had spotted the alien super-heroine just yet, which was fine by the both of them. It was nice to just sit here and not have to worry anymore.

"They got the boss, by the way."

"Of the Hounds?"

"Yup."

"Good."

"Mhmm."

Jordan turned to look at Riley, who was grinning weakly at her.

"A burger sounds good right now."

"Damn right it does." Riley's eyes lit up slightly as Jordan flicked her head towards a pair of takeout boxes sitting at the head of the desk.

"Victory burger."

"You are awesome, Jordan."

"Only as much as you Riles."

They fist-bumped.

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