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Queen AryaNano Impulse & The Champion
January 2nd, 09:15 AM
US Army Outopost ‘Land’s End’ Facility, Hub City, IL.
US Army Outopost ‘Land’s End’ Facility, Hub City, IL.
"QUARANTINE!?" The voice of a young, distressed, and McDonalds-lacking girl echoed loudly across the small room that the group of survivors had been confined within. Despite her tone and the way one might take it, Nano's group was not in any sort of inhuman condition. Sure, the room wasn't huge, but there was enough room for all of them. There were more than enough beds for each member of the group to have their own, and there were private bathrooms and showers. Along the walls were plenty of books to keep one entertained, and there were simple couches and chairs where one could sit. The far wall had a long window along it, providing a view not of the border, but the city that lay beyond. As if meant to let those in the room orient themselves a bit before they would be allowed into the city. Of course, there was also a part of the room with medical equipment set up in case there were any emergencies. The doors were locked closed, but still it was quite a humane treatment. But the girl within the room, was completely distressed. She had spent so long wandering the scar, that Nano wanted nothing more than to be free in the city. Able to experience what she had missed, and not worry about some eldritch horror around every corner.
As such, she was pacing the room, stopping every now and then to comfort a member of her party or chat with them. But it was clear to see she was upset by the sudden change of being locked into the quarantine room. She wanted nothing more than to get out, and go get her damned McDonalds right now. Still pacing, she ranted to herself about being stuck. After a long few minutes on this track, the girl let out a sigh and moved to one of the beds along the wall with the window. Sitting on it and putting a metallic hand to the window she muttered softly to herself. "I made it, Mal, mom, Verra. I lived for you guys and made it out of hell." She said softly, a small smile gracing her features.
The US Army Border Processing Facility- Hub City (known to the locals simply as ‘Land’s End’) was always a… special little adventure for Duncan. Usually, whenever they called looking for him specifically, it was because they’d accidentally let in something they shouldn’t have, were being attacked by some Coven raiding party looking for weaknesses, sacrifices or runaway slaves or, once or twice, dealing with a serious dragon problem.
Needless to say, the man had seen the place on fire more times than he had not. And it was pretty much guaranteed that a day spent here was not exactly going to be a pleasant one.
Today, however, was a bit of an exception. As apparent with how they’d called him personally instead of going through the usual channels (and while he may or may not have been laying on the couch, sans pants) to pay back a little favour he’d asked of them nearly a decade ago now.
To call him up at the first sign of anything relating to Central City.
The American Army was generally good about these things once you’d saved their country once or twice.
Touching down on the tarmac in front of the base and breathing a visible sigh of relief that, at first glance anyway, the whole place was neither on fire nor under siege by some murderraping death-cultists and/or a giant monsters, The Champion took a minute to brush off all the winter frost his jacket had accumulated on the short trip over from Halifax. Just as two uniformed men strolled on over to meet him, as they always did on those rare occasions he was here and everything wasn’t going right to shit.
“Champion. Glad you could make it.” The older of the two, a Colonel greeted with a slight nod and just the slightest upward twinge of his scarred lip.
”Glad that you called, Lennox.” Champ replied, finishing off his post-flight maintenance and walking forward. ”How many and how are they?”
“Probably best you see for yourself.”
The girl never saw the Champion arrive, having turned away when the local kid had asked her to come play with him. Of course, the young hero obliged the boy as she wanted to ensure he felt as comfortable as he could. Afterall, it would be a bit of a shock to see the normal world for him, one that he had never seen before. So, while the Champion was being briefed and brought to the quarantine Nano was ‘chasing’ the member of her group in a game of tag. Naturally, the cybernetic girl ran a bit slower to let the boy get ahead and have his fun. Though everybody in the room stopped and turned when they heard the sound of the doors unsealing with a soft hiss, opening up slowly. While the group wondered who was coming into the building, and if another group of survivors had miraculously been found on the same day they had.
What they found instead, was Colonel Lennox and his Sergeant, a mountain of a man with a red visor in place of the eyes he’d lost to a harpy and the maroon beret of the airborne infantry who was trying his level best not to look like walking, talking murder-machine judging by the awkward, forced smile he was currently wearing.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.” The Colonel said as he entered, removing his cap with a warm grin “How are we all settling in?”
As the two military men walked in, Nano instinctively moved to stand in front of the group of survivors she had brought back. Although unlike her, most of them seemed pretty relaxed to seeing the men come in. However, afterall having years of surviving in the scar she was naturally distrustful of men who were holding them ‘captive’. Quarantine wasn’t quite the same, but it still triggered reflexes within the girl. As she stepped forward, the tail that had been previously just lazily hanging behind her sprung up over her shoulder. The three talons around the outside opening to reveal the three nozzles inside menacingly. "We’re fine. What do you want?” She said in an even tone, looking back at the others in the room who still seemed a bit calm, and as such made herself slowly lower the tail. Though she seemed tensed, as if ready for a fight.
The Colonel raised a brow at that, but held his ground. Seemingly unphased by the implied threat of the young woman’s tail. The Sergeant, reacted in much the same fashion, though something could be seen shifting slightly beneath the arm of his uniform.
Before either of them could get a word in, however...
”They just want to know how you’re all holding up, Kiddo.” Came Champ’s voice from behind the two, walking up as they stepped slightly top the side with a relaxed gait, one hand in his pocket and the other wrapped around a styrofoam cup of java. ”...The bladed flamethrower’s a little much.”
Lennox simply cast a small glance back at the Canuck for a few solid moments before waving down his Sergeant and turning to leave.
“I’ll have monitoring systems shut off and leave y’all to get acquainted.” He stated flatly as he went. “All yours now.”
”Thanks, Matt.”
“Don’t mention it.”
And with that, the doors hissed shut and they were all left to their own devices.
”So…” The Kryptonian finally stated after a solid few seconds of silence, after he’d confirmed he couldn’t hear the minute electric buzzing of the various hidden cameras and microphones in the room anymore. ”You’re Nano from Central City, I take it?”
The girl noticed the sergeant moving, but didn’t really have time to react to it before a voice she had heard… many years ago made its way into the room. In a mere instant, she was suddenly a little eight year old again. Standing silent and still, she was at a loss for words as he addressed her. A feeling of awe struck in her, a typical reaction whenever The Champion himself appeared. As the soldiers left, and the Kryptonian addressed her, the girl started to quickly move towards the man standing near the door.
Emotions boiled over, a decade of trauma and fighting for her life every single day catching up to her. Nano’s pupils began to glow a menacing red as she approached the Champion, not all that dissimilar to the eyes of certain robotic exterminators from the old movies her father had enjoyed so, or to the color of the chaos magic that still hung within her system. The normally more collected young hero was overtaken by emotion, as she approached the Champion and swung a vicious punch towards his chest. Screaming in rage, in pain, as she struck out towards the hero so many idolized.
Champ, for his part, just kept on sipping at his coffee. Unphased by the hit and raising a brow he may just have learned over a decade of working with a particular Gotham vigilante at her.
”Well hello to you, too.”
Despite the gasps of surprise from the group she had escorted, along with some exclamations telling Nano to calm down the girl continued to swing towards the hero. Tears began to run freely from her eyes as she kept hitting the hero, screaming with each hit. "Where the hell were you!? We needed you!” She screamed, emotion clouding any sense of rational judgement. "Verra died! You weren’t there! You and Velocity just left us in hell!” She screamed at him, dark thoughts that had been lingering in the back of her mind finally bubbling up to the surface.
And as the young girl continued her assault on the Lion of Nova Scotia himself, the man in question’s demeanour steadily melted from playful sarcasm into concern… and then something else entirely as his coffee abruptly slipped from his fingers and an unreadable expression made it’s way unto his face as she screamed out one particular bombshell.
’Verra...?’
Very suddenly— faster than anyone could hope to track, in fact— the young cyborg’s fist was intercepted by the Champion’s open palm as he took a small step forward to get a closer look, his own eyes glowing red now, too.
”...Lexi?”
As he caught her fist after seeming to recognize the name Verra, the young girl tried desperately to pull away from the man. "You left us to die!" She screamed, tears running down her face freely as she froze upon hearing the name. She shook her head slowly in response. "Nano, now. Lexi died in Central City.
Abruptly, two things happened.
One, the glow in Duncan’s eyes faded away, replaced instead by a sad smile.
”Well, that’s a shame...”
And two, the Champion, Lion of Nova Scotia, Defender of Earth and the strongest man in the world... had gently pulled her into a hug.
”Because her sister and I have been looking for her for a very long time.”
The girl was caught off guard to say the least, a small noise of surprise easily heard as she was pulled into the hug. There her anger slowly died down, as she seemed to start to calm down. Now replaced by sobbing from the girl as she held onto Champ. "Verra lived?" Were the only words she squeezed out between the tears, a decade of trauma catching up to the poor girl.
”She did.”
Was all Duncan could say as the girl clung to him for dear life, a hand raising slightly to stroke her back reassuringly as she let it all out... being an older brother himself had armed particularly well for these kinds of things, it appeared. There were a lot of things he could say there. He could tell her who her sister really was. How he’d watched her smile fade, never to return, as she slowly, quietly collapsed in on herself and could do nothing to stop it. How every time he dared enter the scar, desperately searching for any sign of her or her mother, the Three Horned God would appear and beat him to near-death, so empowered by the chaotic forces of the scar.
He could tell her how he’d failed them both. And how sorry he was, but that wasn’t going to make it right.
No. There was only one thing he could do.
”...I can take you to her, if you want.”
He finally offered, releasing the embrace but still resting his hands on the girl’s shoulders to give them a gentle squeeze. Looking down at her with that same sad smile.
Only now, with a little glimmer of hope.
Nano looked up at Duncan, the red fading from her eyes and instead being replaced by the bright, youthful hope that had been missing from them for nearly a decade. Something that had always been in her eyes when she talked to him and proudly declared how she would be a hero like Velocity and him the few times he visited when she was younger. For a moment she looked about to agree before stopping, and looking back towards her group then shaking her head.
"I… I can't. I want to go, but I told everybody here that I would be at their side until we made it. I need to see them into getting their freedom in civilization." She said in a sad tone, looking back towards the group watching her with various different expressions. The youngest looking at the girl with the same gaze that Nano herself always had whenever something came up on the news about Velocity as a little girl. "I believe I had always declared how I would be a hero one day, right Champion? I think a hero would save being selfish just a little bit longer to keep their promise to these people." She said again, looking over her shoulder at those she had led out of hell itself.
At this, Champ nodded slowly, releasing the girl’s shoulders and taking a step back.
”You’re right, kid. But only half right.” He said, a bit more warmth and mirth making it’s way back into his voice as he raised his gauntlet-mounted computer. ”...A hero also helps their friends be selfish every once in a while.”
And with that he turned his eyes from the girl to speak into the back of his hand.
”Mom. Can ya get Lennox back in here?”
”Of course, Duun.”
The girl looked up at Champ as he stepped away from her, tilting her head as he spoke. Though a look of complete confusion moved over her face as the Champion asked his… mom for help. That was a strange moment for the young girl, but her attention was soon stolen whenever she felt a small tug at her hand. Turning around, she looked towards the boy pulling at her hand. Pointing towards the man talking to her with a questioning look. "Oh. Thats right, you never knew about them.” She said as she crouched down to his level and guided him over next to her. "Meet The Champion. He’s a superhero, like me. He actually was the guy who inspired me back when I was your age.” She said with a small smile before the boy moved behind her, still seeming slightly shy, and whispering to her that she was still his hero.
Two Hours Later…
One conversation with Lennox, a lot of paperwork and a whole hell of a lot of vaccinations later. Champ found himself in an oddly familiar, if unforeseen situation.
Soaring through the air with a Valinova on his back.
It honestly didn’t take all that much to get Lennox to agree (as previously stated he had saved the man from a dragon or two). And after he’d vouched for them and ran their backgrounds through the Justice League’s own mainframe, the scar survivors were allowed out of quarantine after the usual (though drastically lessened) amount of red tape and on a bus towards their new subsidized, fully-furnished homes on Uncle Sam’s dime.
Though, truth be told, Duncan was never that fond of throwing his weight around and calling in favours whenever it suited him, this was… a special case.
”Hey, Kid.” He called over his shoulder, in between keeping an ear out for any super-sonic footfalls on the ground below. ”You alright back there, or should I speed up?”
The entire time they were flying, the Champion wouldn’t be bombarded by the squeals of delight and joy he had heard when flying the younger girl he knew around. Instead, she remained silent as she looked around the open sky. A sign that her life in the scar had very likely left the once jubilant girl in a much more mellow, subdued manner. When he asked his question, the girl had to shout for him to hear her over the roar of the wind. "I’m alright, I just want to find her!”
At that, the Kryptonian Canuck flashed the girl a little smile.
”Well… alright then.”
