[IC] Return to the Multiverse

[Earnest Evans]

Pete slid off Jack's back like oil off a duck's back, somehow managing to land in a standing position. Seeing Jack looking suspiciously at Bee and seeing a perfectly good chance to get Bee incapacitated, Pete nodded grimly at Jack. He subtly pointed his thumb towards his pod, and pointed his other hand's index finger at Bee. Pete waggled his eyebrows knowingly, expecting Jack to somehow pick up Charades skills in a scant few seconds.

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack raised his arms back up, now that he was able to since Pete finished up that bear-hug. He peered at his trustworthy companion and friend, as Cuban Pete gave a solemn nod to him. Good! He knows whats up...But, do I know what he means? Rattlesnake Jack thought to himself. He had to confirm the message he saw however, as the waggling eyebrows he wasn't sure what they meant. He gestured his head to glance at Bee, before he darted his pupils to glance back at the Pod. He gave a slow nod to Pete. And slightly after that, he slightly raised his shoulders, before lowering them back down. He wasn't sure exactly what the clown was suggesting, but it should be a good idea.

[Earnest Evans]

Pete once again jerked his thumb to the pod. He then rather less subtly mimed hitting someone over the head with a blunt weapon, dragging a body away from somewhere, and messily performing invasive surgery on it. Unfortunately, Pete's charades skills were phenomenally rusty, so that last action ended up looking rather more like a one-man do-si-do from a seated position than whatever it was Pete was trying to pantomime. Settling down, Pete looked at Jack and waggled his eyebrows meaningfully. How exactly a rubber mask could convey waggling eyebrows was a mystery for the ages that even Pete would have difficulty explaining.

[Prostagma]

"I dun' wanna spar I wanna danmaku.", Cirno grumbled childishly, kicking sand around, "Stupid grannies. I was gonna be like THAT and like THAT and then summa' THAT-", each THAT was punctuated by a four-foot razor-tipped spear of ice appearing from thin air and embedding itself in the wall of the igloo, "-An' then it was gonna be like POW BOOM AAARGH OH CIRNO YOU'RE THE STRONGEST an' then we were gonna all eat ice cream."

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack glanced again at his compatriot as he did the charades again. AH! So that was the plan! Though he had no idea what the last bit was as he scratched his head with his right hand. But he was sure he got the point. He gave a quick nod to Cuban Pete and a quick thumbs up. He paused for a moment as he glanced back to where he heard the child talking about things. But first he had to secure the safety of the child, by violently knocking out Bee and taking him to Cuban Pete's space pod. He glanced again towards Cuban Pete as he mimed his left hand into a gun, sticking his index finger out and brought his thumb down. Then after mimicking a bit of recoil, he gestured towards Bee, before glancing back at Pete. He gave a quick nod.

[IncredibleBee]

"Well, I don't know about a danmako, but if you want ice cream..." Bee pulled out his wallet and looked through it. "I got like... twelve dollars and change. We can all go grab some, if you want." he offered gently.

[Earnest Evans]

Nodding grimly, Pete moved in to secure Bee. Performing the least subtle sneaky walk possible and honking all the while, Pete crept up on Bee. With a sly grin hidden beneath his plastic-molded ear-to-ear grin, Pete gently tapped on Bee's shoulder. Pete held his other arm conspicuously behind his back, hiding all manner of potential methods of incapacitation. If Pete could get at Bee, he'd be happy to die now!

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack quickly reached down for his Colt on the left side. He watched as his associate not so subtly walked towards Bee, as he kept his focus on the target. Rattlesnake Jack tapped his right foot, as the spur on the back of his boot jangled a bit. He kept a close eye on Bee, waiting for the right moment. Surely, nothing would go wrong with this plan, and his clown friend would get the job done.

[IncredibleBee]

Bee watched as the clown approached him. Something in his gut told him clowns in all manner to be avoided, but it was probably nothing. "You want some ice cream too, clown? I don't think I can afford much, but three cones should be no problem." he said, pocketing his wallet.

[Earnest Evans]

Pete shook his head. He needed no ice cream, where he was going. With a flick of his thumb, Pete activated the stun baton that he used to tap Bee's shoulders and gave Bee a light thwack about the shoulder. As Bee crumpled up, Pete gave a pleasant little honk with his horn. If anyone there knew how to speak Clown, they would understand what Pete had just said. And what he said was

Hider

"out-played."

Pete grabbed hold of Bee's collars and began dragging him back towards Jack, grinning from ear to ear. Of course, Pete was always grinning. This time, however, his real face matched his outer one.

[Shisa]

Various things that Okuu just didn't understand happened once again, and then they were in a weird place with a big lizard, and then they were in a big place with really big house-looking things, and then it was a place with lots of sand and water. More water than Okuu had ever seen in one place before. "Whoa, look at all that water," she cried, ignoring all those other things that she just wasn't equipped to understand and latching onto something amazing that she did, "It's the biggest water I've ever seen!" Okuu immediately ran over near the large body of water, having gotten a great idea from the hero of justice. Okuu plopped herself down near the moist sand, and started molding it. "I'm making a big house," she stated to no one in particular, "And me and Orin and the mistress are all gonna live together and we'll all be so happy and Cirno can come over every day to play."

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack gave a thumbs up as the stun baton activated and was quickly applied to Bee. Truly, it was for the best, and he was glad the Clown was able to do the part. He gave a nod to Cuban Pete as he dragged Bee towards him. He walked around to the other side of Bee as he rubbed his hands together. He peered at Cuban Pete as he went down and grabbed him by the legs. "Ready partner?"

[IncredibleBee]

"Wait, that baton" was all Bee had time to say before his muscles clenched, knocking him to the floor. Hours of his life wasted with pixelated sociopaths and science came flooding back to him. This was the tool of the trade for shitcurity. "F-F-F-F-F-F-FUUU-C-C-CK-K-K." he shouted, as the clown and cowboy grabbed either end. "No, no, this never ends well. Fuck, Okuu, Ajax! Don't let the clown take me!"

[Earnest Evans]

Pete, seeing Cirno at last, gave her a friendly wave as he helped Jack pick up Bee. Of course, any attempt to help Pete would result in immediate misery, as Pete presented himself to be entirely incapable of cooperating with Jack's efforts to help. Pete pulled roughly, fully expecting Jack to work at Pete's speed and not his own. Understandably, this whole ordeal was rather annoying to the stricken Bee.

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack simply glared down at Bee. He was not a good man, but at least he could trust the clown. He glanced back at the Clown, as Pete began roughly pulling at Bee. Rattlesnake Jack, wanted to move faster as he took a few steps forwards, pushing Bee closer against Cuban Pete in the process. This man had to be taken to the pod in a quick and efficient manner, and Jack was going to do that.

[Earnest Evans]

With much effort expended, Pete and Jack managed to get Bee into the escape pod. As Pete prepared to lay Bee on the workbench and have some fun, Pete realized that Bee's thirty seconds of stunning were up. The reaction was instantaneous: somehow, Bee went from being held limp in Jack and Pete's hands to standing up and fully alert. Reacting quickly, Pete struck Bee in the back with his baton... but, "luckily", the baton was off! All Pete ended up doing was give Bee a good whack across the back with a blunt object!

[IncredibleBee]

Bee stood up, an unfitting scowl marring his face. He lifted his fist, and a robotic voice was heard, saying "limiters removed. Support gear unlocked." The robotic hand shot out on a length of chain, grappling the doorway. Retracting the chain, Bee zipped towards the exit, flipping off the cowboy and clown as he exited.

[Zero Hex]

"I shall await your next challenge, mighty warrior" were the last words Ganondorf heard amidst the clash of their fists, while his body disappeared. And then it was over. Ajax stood amidst a pile of rubble and grit that was a mountain only minutes ago. His face was grim. He felt no real joy from this victory. The fight itself, that had been joyous. Almost mechanically, he removed the large belt that had remained strapped to his waist throughout the entire fight and lifted it high over his head. Another victory. Even amidst the falling dust, the belt seemed to shine bright as if light sought out it's golden surface. He sighed deeply as the world transformed around him. He was confronted with all six Sages, representatives of all species and all elements if his memory of this world was correct, and offered...whatever it was he was summoned to acquire. "I'm only a travelling fighter, nothing more. But as a word of advice, putting the power of gods within the reach of men leads to nothing but grief. You'd do well to remember that". And so, he grabbed the orb and found himself transported back to where he'd started, a blue void with an overgrown lizard. Before he could ask why it even needed any kind of assistance whatsoever, a shadowy being disappeared with the item he'd retrieved, snatching it right out the dragon's hands. He was once again given no real chance to speak up, this time about the dragon's competence, before he found himself transported once more. But where everyone else was taken to the interdimensional nexus, Ajax materialized in an ancient structure resembling a massive greek amphitheater. In its center was a large ring, a crude construction using cut down logs as ringposts, wads of cloth wrapped around the turnbuckles as padding and actual ropes rather than cables. The canvas, and indeed everything else, was clearly old, dirty and almost entirely stained in blood and sweat, but the entire setup was still obviously quite solid and ready to use. He recognized the place. It was where boxing, wrestling and eventually pankration events were held in his hometown. Wondering why exactly he was there, he climbed up the ring and put his weight on the ropes, which held together with no sign of strain. It felt good, it had been too long. Before he could start actually running across the ring, however, a pair of figures materialized in front of him. Though not as massive as he was, both of them were fairly tall and obviously muscular, very clearly athletes of some kind dressed in a garb similar to his. He recognized them both. His father, Diagoras, and his aide, Aurelios. Both had passed away long ago. "You can relax, Ajax. This is no demonic trickery", the figure bearing his father's face spoke. "We are but a creation of both The Crucible and your mind, made to safeguard you from your own pride", continued Aurelios. Then they spoke in unison. "You've received power from the artifact, certainly you felt as much. But you will not allow yourself such a shortcut. Commendable, but should you try to reject the Crucible's energies you might cause permanent damage to yourself, if not outright erase your very existence. To prevent this, it searched your mind for a way to let your ego accept the situation. You are to train here until you master your new abilities". Ajax nodded, fully aware that their judgement was correct. He would've hated wielding power that he did not feel was truly his own. He probably would've rejected it, violently. By picking the place where his fighting career had begun and manifesting the two men whose advice and expertise he held above all others, it ensured that Ajax would at least listen. By letting him achieve his new powers via training and pushing himself, it had provided the perfect way for him to come to terms with them. "Your training here is real, but time spent is unimportant. You will take as long as you need and but a few moments will have passed elsewhere". And with that, Ajax's great training montage began. An overly long and torturous series of impossible exercises that bore little to no relation with reality and that should, by all rights, have killed him. I mean, how the hell does one train to stand in the air, nevermind fight in space, without recurring to out and out magical energy explanations ingrained into a setting. I've no idea. I'm also not feeling like making this that much longer since I still have to cover for his arrival to the city. So lets just say he spent a good long while there, training to do the impossible, it's not like his previous limits were reasonable, and eventually succeeded. And then, only then, he awoke to find himself standing about knee-deep in seawater, fully clothed and totally rested. He'd been standing there like a particularly dim zombie for the past few moments, while his mind worked overtime to deal with the automatic powerup situation and trying to end it without Ajax exploding, either literally or figuratively. It had done a fairly good job. After the workout, he felt calm, relaxed, ready to explore...wherever this was. For the moment, he did not think of fighting. "...huh. How long have I been standing here? And did anyone say my name? Or icecream? I could go for some icecream now" he said to no one in particular.

[Professor_Wyvern]

Rattlesnake Jack just stared at Bee as his mechanical arm shot out a chain. "Slick, seriously using a grapplin' hook while on GROUND LEVEL? ...Really? What ya think it look cool or something?" He said incredulously as he watched his prey escape. Behind the mask, Jack could have given many expressions. The one he chose was a mystery. "Leave it to me friend." Rattlesnake Jack said to the Clown as he gave a single nod to his associate. And thus, with a noticeable blur he rushed out of the pod. If anyone was watching, they'd would be unable to track the man in his exit. However, Rattlesnake Jack over-shot the dash, as he lost track of Bee. "Shit!" Rattlesnake Jack hissed out, realizing he ran too fast, and as he walked to take another step, he smacked right dab into Ajax. Falling down into the sea water with a noticeable splash, he quickly got back up and rubbed his right temple, as he cursed out about the water. "How are ya expected to ford through this... too much..." He then realized, who he was near. "Pardner, ya see the man with the robot arm? ...Need to get him real quick like. Now." He said with a sense of urgency. He had to make sure he found him, before Bee went back to the innocents. Rattlesnake Jack wasn't about to let them suffer at the hands of that man. No, Rattlesnake Jack would catch and subdue the fiend. He had to. For the good of the people, Rattlesnake Jack had to subdue the menace. Rattlesnake Jack quickly turned his head around as he began eying the terrain, looking for any trace of his target prey. He wasn't going to escape Rattlesnake Jack, no he couldn't escape. Jack wouldn't let him.

[IncredibleBee]

Bee rode the momentum of his grappling hook, and flew from the pod, flipping around and landing feet first on Ajax, the boxer's might completely stopping his momentum. He hopped off of his pecs, and stepped into the water. "Ice cream? Yeah, I was gonna get us ice cream. You want some?" he offered the fighter.