Bounce

X-Men: The New Era

The View at Ten

Hatchling's War Journal, entry 001:

The duly self-appointed representative of Earth's rightful and future rulers, the great Shi'ar Imperium, has had a very busy month. To start with, whoever stocks the pantry needs to buy more Cheerios. Seriously, it's so much more than just a breakfast food. It's also a snack. And a solid dinner option. It really is the epitome of human culinary achievement in a yellow box. The Shi'ar ought to hurry up and conquer the planet for its rolled oats alone. Beyond that, plans are in motions to re-enact the Battle of Ceti Alpha VI using small plastic injection mold figurines known as "G.I. Joes", however, more Joes are needed. The invasion is thus on hold pending a ride to the toy store.

Whom did you form a deeper bond with?
The human known as Sally seems passably competent, to the point that her company is more tolerable than would normally be allowed for a female of the species. The human known as Ruben is similarly decent in terms of residents. Plus, he's a boy. The fact that the primitive understanding that humans have regarding anatomical limb regeneration have left Ruben reliant on a crude prostetic causes Sy to offer a hand should one be required. Finally, there is Drake, who seems friendly enough.

Did your powers grow?
Everything on this planet is entirely too fragile. Reconstruction of the door to my bedroom is pending the arrival of a metal doorframe that will hopefully avoid the unnecessary breakage of the prior wooden frame. Not to mention fewer splinters. Also, take-offs are way easier than landings. Landings kind of suck.

Sessions in the Danger Room
At least here stuff doesn't break as much. And the gravity and environment can be adjusted to Shi'ar standard. This is definitely the best part of being at the school.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

If we're including Eastern comics, I would love to see a live action Astro Boy adaption worth a damn. It exists in comic form (Pluto is god damn amazing). There have been attempts at a live action based on Pluto, but that's fallen through just like the attempts at an anime adaptation.

On the Western front... Sam Alexander, in a series connected to the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

"Life Is But A Dream" [ Part IV ] [ In The End ]

| THE DREAM DIMENSION
| _{The House of Mystery | Present Day}

Carefully, the young squire helped the Caretaker to his feet.

Overhead, the boy heard Morpheus give a low growl. Craning his head back, as he watched, the Lord of Dreams made a gesture with one arm. After which, the interior of the great hall seemed to become blur. Almost like a haze of smoke. Then everything snapped back into focus, with everything back where it ought to have been.

Except one thing that was out of place.

Mordred would have easily missed it, except that Morpheus passed between the bookshelves, pausing precisely where there was a gap between the tomes on the shelf.

"What..." the boy began, only to stop short as Morpheus turned to face him. A plume of smoke shot out toward the boy, taking the form of a grimoire hovering in the air.

"The Libellus Sanguinus," the Lord of Dreams intoned gruffly. The elder god seemed lost in thought for a moment. The illusionary fabrication flipped open, several pages fluttering as the Lord of Dreams continued. "A 'Book of Blood.' It was said to have been authored in the Twelfth Century by Mary, Queen of Blood. It contains some of most horrible writings ever conceived of a deranged mind."

A deranged mind.

The red eyes of the satyr-like figure immediately came to mind. "Who was that?" Mordred asked, reaching out to close the illusionary tome. The fabrication vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Some people are kept alive through the stories that people tell of them," Morpheus remarked cryptically, turning to regard Mordred with a gaze that made the boy immediately question whether the elder god referred to him. "Others are brought to life through the stories. Spring-Heeled Jack is fear and paranoia given form," Morpheus explained. The description did nothing to put the boy's mind at ease as to the chaotic nature of the devish figure. Morpheus, however, seemed to continue his brooding. "What possible use could he have for the book? It seems an odd choice for an imp such as he..."

The Lord of Dreams seemed to speak out loud, pausing for a time, before he finally looked back up. Flashing a wan smile, the man offered only, "Perhaps we are fortunate. He may have merely grabbed an object at random and know not what it is that he now possess."

The elder god stretched out his hand. As he did, a column of smoke seemed to rise up and swirl up around the young Pendragon. As he looked down over his body, Mordred found his clothing transfigured. The familiar red and white tabard, emblazoned with the golden Roman aquila hung off his form. The colors of the Silent Knight. A leather twin-belt replaced the length of soft rope. A rondel dagger was sheathed at his hip.

"You must recover the book," Morpheus' voice remarked, though when Mordred had looked up, the elder god was no where to be found.

"I cannot depart this realm. And none here now are better equipped for this task."

Making his way through the bookshelves, the boy passed through the familiar labyrinth that was the House of Mystery. Even as he watched, the shelves and books all recognized themselves. The walls shifted. The stairs moved. It was as though the House was alive. Always in motion. Always changing.

As he stepped forward, two bookshelves pulled apart to reveal a doorway. A different exit than the one he had entered through.

There were many portals that passed through the Dreaming. The House was no different. Reaching out a hand, the child's hand hovered near the doorknob that would open to a world full of weeping than he dared to recall.

"Son of Pendragon, this quest is yours."

Son of Pendragon.

A single tear slipped down the side of the boy's face. In mind, he saw a man. And it wasn't Arthur of Camelot. "My name is Mordred of Kent," the boy declared, pushing open the door. Steeling himself there, the child said only, "Arthur is my king. But he is no father of mine."

That was Sir Brian.

He was the squire to the Silent Knight. And in his name, the boy took just one step forward, into a brave new world.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

There is a Mordred post coming. The writer's block is just real at the moment.

X-Men: The New Era

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[ Kitchen ] [ Interactions: @BoyMom69035 @The Mad Hatter ]

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The young Shi'ar had found a box of Cheerios and seemed quite content with that.

Keep with his casual Tuesday theme, the boy applied the same minimalist philosophy to the dining experience as he did in dressing for the dining experience. To wit, in addition to pants-less breakfast, the t-shirt clad Shi'ar was skipping the dishes and the just munching handfuls of the cereal straight out of the box. Sally seemed to have some rather big ideas about what all breakfast was supposed to involve, but Syaoran had a yellow box in hand and it worked for him.

And a Capri Sun juice box.

Humans seemed to have some kind of preference for the interspecies consumption of bovine lactation. Which, in the grand scheme of things humans did that were really, really strange... that had to be near the top of the list.

Either way, no milk for Sy. Dry cereal and juice. Breakfast of extraterrestrial champions.

There seemed like there was a lot of noise coming from outside of the kitchen. The young Shi'ar could make out a voice that sounded like Drake (@Draven) that was muffled through the walls. Turning his head to look over at Ruben, the boy asked, "So, if you're not American, then what is your planet called?"

The boy paused a moment. He had to remind himself that humans maintained a socio-political network of nation-state identities, rather than interplanetary geo-political entities. "Or, nation, I mean," the boy amended.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

The whole Red Robin thing still irks me. Tim should have picked up Nightwing when Dick picked up the cowl.

The current Bat-Family dynamic just feels like a half-assed attempt at a compromise to not completely alienate the Tim fans with the addition of Morrison’s Damian

X-Men: The New Era

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[ Kid's Room > Hallways ] [ Interactions: @BoyMom69035 @The Mad Hatter ]

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The t-shirt shifted around the boy's small form like a dress, or the medieval tunics of auld, reaching past his knees as he hopped, skipped, and bounced down the hall in what likely sounded like a stampede of elephants.

Then there was a commotion as a door flew open and a student that the boy didn't recognize was tumbling out in apparent pursuit or chase of either a pair of pants or a strange object that caused the boy to do a double-take.

The man only had one leg.

Was artificial limb generation beyond human medical technology?

The answer seemed to lie in the crude mechanical approximation of the human limb that was now lying at the child's feet. The lady who had introduced as Sally appeared, helping the man to his feet -- or, at least, foot -- but she seemed to have some difficulty with the feat.

Scooping up the prosthetic leg, the boy held it out in front of him as he looked up at the two older people and asked, "Can I help?"

X-Men: The New Era

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[ Kid's Room > Hallways ] [ Interactions: open ]

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No one expects the Shi'ar Inquisition!

The young warrior sat up, a bed-head of wild plumage arrayed wildly as several raven feathers dotted the pillow and covers of the bed. Peering sleepily through half-opened eyes, the proud alien invader took stock of the present point at which the planetary rotation had returned this part of the globe to the sun-lit zone that the human referred to as 'day.'

Then the boy laid back down, turned on his side, and covered his head with the sheet.

The Shi'ar Inquisition needed five more minutes...

Except the older students were up and about. Syaoran could make out the sounds of people mulling about in the halls. None of which was making it any easier to get back to sleep.

Stretching out with a yawn, the child wrestled for a moment as he found himself tangled up in the sheet. Disentangling himself from that, the Shi'ar boy looked out over the room. The child slept in a high-sleeper, the bed elevated off the ground as though it were a top bunk. Except, instead of there being another bed beneath him, the space underneath the bed frame and mattress was organized into a desk and wardrobe.

Rolling from out of the bed, the boy landed on his feet and then began sorting through for something to put on before he ventured out of the room. He came up with one of the t-shirts that were printed with the words PROPERTY OF THE ASHFORD ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT. It was supposed to be a small, but it swallowed Syaoran's diminutive form completely. The collar of the shirt was so large that one side hung off the boy's shoulder as he proceeded out of the room and over to the bathroom.

Emerging back from out of the bathroom a moment later, the feather-headed half-pint began wandering through the halls toward the kitchen.

There was a human delicacy known as Cheerios that he had developed a taste for in the mornings.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

Something something crap post.

Something something moving the plot along while I hope to get my shit together.

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

"Life Is But A Dream" [ Part III ] [ Mordred's Theme ]

| THE DREAM DIMENSION
| _{Present Day}

The boy wound his way through the wild grass, passing out from underneath the shadow of the great castle and into a pastoral valley. Down the dusty trail, over the hill, through the trees, he arrived at a river.

The idyllic setting invoked memories of the River Usk near Isca Augusta, the seat of the Roman amphitheater that had caused the soldiers of Camelot to be known as the Knights of the Round Table. Several horses trotted along the way, as the stable boy guided them over toward the shores of the river bank.

The sun was warm as it shone overhead. The old caretaker was right that this was the perfect weather for a washing day. Reaching down to his waist, the youth started to untie the length of soft rope that he used as a belt when something made him pause.

It was an odor. An acrid sensation lingering on the breeze.

He knew it well, his luminous eyes scanning upward for the tell-tale column of smoke. He found it, somewhere over on the other side of the river. Near where the houses were.

A whistle echoed over the river, prompting the horses to raise their heads up at the stable boy's call. Jumping up onto the back of one of the colts, settling comfortable atop the bareback of the animal as the youth demonstrated equestrian skill in turning and guiding the powerful form of the animal into a trot.

Once they were emerging from out of the thicket, he pushed the colt onward into a full gallop. Before long, the distant column of smoke was no longer over the horizon.

It was the House of Mystery.

Throwing his legs over to one side, the young squire dismounted while the colt was still moving. The boy's hands were aglow with eldritch energies, which swirled around his small form as he held them aloft and began weaving a series of arcane sigils. The cloudless sky suddenly became muted, as clouds begin to take shape at an accelerated pace. The child was muttering in Gaelic as the components of the incantation started to come together, the sky turned dark as the spell was completed and the boy gave the command, "Niar!"

That was when the sky opened up, unleashing a torrential downpour that seemed isolated to just over the one residence.

Standing in the rain, the child took a moment in which to catch his breath before he looked back down. Splashing in the mud that had already begun to form puddles on the ground, the boy ran over to the door to the house.

It was open, part of it no longer resting on its hinges. Smoke filled the interior of the fortified hall house. "Gwynt yn chwythu" the child uttered softly, causing another surge of energy around his small frame. At the same time, the windows came open on their own, as a strange wind seemed to pass straight through the home.

Taking several steps further, the boy looked for signs of the caretaker. His head turned left and right as he scanned the blackened, soot-covered furnishings for signs of one of the usual residents.

There was a strange silhouette there. A figure as though with the body of a man, the legs of a satyr, and the head of a demon. From beneath wicked horns, a pair of glowing red eyes stared back at the youth from out of the smoke and shadows. It was standing by one of the bookshelves, pulling something free even as it turned the shelf on its side and sent it crashing toward Mordred.

Tucking into a roll to one side, the young squire moved out of the way of the crashing furniture. Except when he had found his footing again, the demonic figure was no longer standing there.

A flash of movement caught the edge of the boy's vision, his head moving just in time to see a large shadow moving for the back of the Great Hall. Before he could be about it, the figure had already arrived at the entry at the other side of the house and was gone.

Even as he started to move, the boy's advance was halted by the realization that there was a man's arm sticking out from beneath an overturned cabinet. With an ascending motion of his hand, an eldritch glow seemed to illuminate the frame of the cabinet, before lifting it away to reveal the caretaker underneath.

Bending down, the squire stooped to aid the fallen man when a sudden plume of smoke seemed to erupt in the center of the room. "That damned Springheeled Jack," Morpheus barked, his voice rolling like thunder as the elder god spoke.

"He's taken the book."