Welcome to the Omniverse, Claire Ferguson

[Blink]

The first thing that Blink saw when she stepped out of the portal was Dante's Abyss. She had just spent three days surviving on an island full of strangers, battling them in a game of survival of the fittest, all in the name of entertainment. She had made it to the top fifteen and was killed a fiery blaze. The last thing she needed to see was a reminder of the game she had just fought in. But as soon as she stepped foot in the top tier of the beautiful city of Coruscant, a big poster of a young-looking boy covered in scars filled up her pupils. It said 'Dante's Abyss Grand Champion - Sasuke Uchiha.' Her lips twitched a bit as she tried to remember who it was. She couldn't. She had never run into the person who ended up winning the entire game.

In front of the poster was a handful of people looking at it and discussing the topic. As she got closer, she could see the poster wasn't a poster at all. It was actually just a large screen, and was just showing a shot of this Sasuke character at the very end of the game. It clipped to another man; a tall marine that actually did look familiar to her. His name appeared as 'Dante's Abyss Runner-Up - Doomguy.' She had briefly scuffled with him before sending him through a portal so she could escape. She was mildly satisfied he didn't win, even though she had minimal interaction with him.

As she was approaching the group, she made eye contact with the one of the young women talking about the game. She could tell immediately by the reaction of the teenager's face that she was recognized. The girl's eyes sparked and her face lit up, causing Blink to quickly turn, trying to veer off away from them. She definitely was not trying to draw any attention.

"OhmyOmni it's her! It's the pink girl from the Abyss!" The girl rudely pointed at Blink, who was trying very hard to remain inconspicuous. Almost all of the eyes in the group turned. Though she didn't want to be noticed, Blink was a little offended that she was known as 'the pink girl.' It's not like Blink was a tough name to remember.

"Don't be racist. Just because she's pink doesn't mean..." One of them said.

"No, no it's her! Same clothes, same hair! It's the girl that teleports!" Blink was a little more satisfied with that description of her. "Hey! Hey Blink!"

Blink stopped walking and let out a sigh. At this point, it would have just been a jerk move to keep walking. After all, she was probably asking for the attention in that bright green cloak with her purple locks up in a ponytail, completely exposing her face. She turned to the side and smiled politely. She wasn't looking to be famous or recognizable, especially in her current confused state, but she didn't want to be mean either. The group of six teenagers clearly were fans of the show she was just on, and she rationalized that the least she could do was say hi.

"Hello," she said meakly, "You got me."

Big, surprised eyes met her as all of the Dante Fans rushed over to her. "OhmyOmni it's so cool to meet you! You were so awesome!"

"My dad is never gonna believe I met a Dante's Abyss fighter!"

"How do you teleport? Is it hard?"

"Did it hurt when you blew up?!"

"Make a portal right now! Show us how you do it!"

Blink was surprised by the enthusiasm from the fans. She hadn't even come closer to winning the game but they still wanted a piece of it from her all the same. She didn't get to respond to any of the teenagers, instead just listening to them ramble on about their favorite parts of the game. She puts both of her hands up, trying to cut them off, but most of them wanted to just keep talking. Finally, one of them, the small girl that initially recognized her, held up a small paper card. Blink looked down to see it. It was a trading card. Her picture was on the front, showing half of her body coming out of a heavy exagerated version of her portals. It said '#15 Blink' on the top of it. "Will you sign my card?" She asked.

"Oh, um...yea, sure." Blink reached down to take the card and then the offered sharpie. She was about to write 'Claire' on it, but stopped herself. She had never signed the word 'Blink' in cursive, but she thought it was appropriate. She wrote as carefully as she could along the side of the badge, making it look as girly as possible. "There you go."

"Thanks," the girl beamed happily.

Blink was about to say something to the girl, but suddenly an irritating sound began to emit from her pocket. She looked down, realizing that one of the devices she was given after the game was over was ringing. If by 'ringing' you understand it to be 'make a siren-like noise that annoys pink women', of course. Blink quickly reached down and clicked the button of the side of it to silence it. "Sorry," she told the teens, "It was nice meeting you all."

She turned around and could hear the disappointment in the 'awwwwww'-like sound a couple of them made. Deciding to make it worth their while, she used her free hand to open a portal right in front of her, and then walked through it. All of the teens cheers for the sight of using her own special version of teleportation.

On the other side of the portal, she found herself in a small alley. It was the nicest looking alley she'd ever seen. In fact, the entire district she was was sparkling clean and filled with technologic wonder. The kids she was just talking to all had fancy clothes on that seemed expensive, even for a former X-Man's standards. Blink put the communicator, which was really just a watch, up towards her mouth. "Hello?"

"Hello, Claire." Came the voice on the other side. Blink looked at it, shocked. This was why she was Coruscant. This is what led her here. Somebody knew her real name, despite the fact she had told nobody. Somebody either knew enough about her to identify her name, or it was somebody she knew. She didn't know which idea was scarier.

"You sent that note," she declared. She was referring to the note that said her name in the box of 'personal belongings' she was given.

The communicator buzzed again as the voice came through it. "I'm glad you decided to come. We have a lot of things to discuss."

"First you need to tell me who you are," she countered.

"I could give you a name, but it could be fake." Blink had to admit that the logic of this voice in her watch was sound. "If I tell you who I am, there is no way to prove it. Instead, come and meet me, on equal terms, and we can speak without going off of assumptions and guesses."

Blink frowned a bit. It was all a bit too cryptic for her. She'd been in some really sticky situations in her life, and the fuzzy feeling she got at the beginning of those situations felt similar to what she had in the pit of her tummy at that moment. It was not a good feeling. But none the less, she pressed for information. "Where do you want to meet?"

"The Luna Moor Inn. Third Tier. Room 507."

"A hotel? I'm not really that kind of girl," she tried to joke.

"See you there."

She could hear a click on the other end of her communicator. She frowned, mainly because she had told a good joke and he either didn't hear her or didn't find the humor in it. She put her arm down, sighing as she tried to process the conversation. This mysterious voice had seen her on Dante's Abyss and lured her to Coruscant, and wanted to meet her in a hotel. She was starting to think it was someone she knew from her original universe...or multiverse, in her case, as she had a lot of universes that she had protected over the years. Whoever it was likely had bad intentions. If it was a friend, there wouldn't be any reason to be secretive. The person on the other end of that communicator had secrets, and she didn't like dealing with someone that had secrets.

She heard footsteps behind her. She quickly spun around, spawning a glowing pink dagger in her hand as she turned. As if he was politely waiting for her to finish her call, a big man walked up close to her. He had a shaved head by a short beard that covered the bottom half of his face in dark hair. He had on a white tank top and jeans, with a thick chain draped around his neck as if it was a necklace for a giant. He had a rough look about him. She couldn't tell if he was deliberately trying to give off a tough appearance, or if he had really been through some shit. She was going to assume the latter, just in case.

"Sorry to interrupt your phone call, sweet cheeks," he said. His left hand hovered near his hip, which Blink realized featured a holster with a pistol in it. It was likely in response to her own weapon. "But I gotta talk to you."

"So talk," she told him, backing away a bit further. She was fairly confident she could avoid the bullets if she teleported fast enough, but she wasn't going to need distance to ensure she had time to strike in defense. "I'm not stopping you."

"Alright," he said. "First off, I ain't here to fight. I work for a guy that gives a shit about this city, and he wants to talk to you about a job opportunity."

"So he sent you?" She asked, a bit surprised. "You're not a great impression for my first potential employer in this city."

He smirked. He seemed to like her answer. She shrugged his shoulders, but with his size he seemed to almost to roll his torso in slow motion. "Listen. I'm not a big talker. But this guy that I want you to meet...he's the real deal. He saved my life. He's trying to save this city from destroying itself. He tells me that you can help and I believe him. So you're going to meet him. It's up to you if you want to do it willingly or not."

"Oh..." she nodded her head, as if she suddenly understood the situation. "So you're hoping I don't go willingly. You're not a big talker, right? So this mystery man that sent you didn't intend on me going quietly. He plans on having to chase me. But lemme tell you something, baldy..." she backed up a little bit again. "I'm really good at getting away. You'll never catch me. Not with those big ass arms slowing you down."

"It's a good thing I don't need to use my arms."

Claire squinted with confusion at that response. Suddenly his fingers gripped his pistol and he yanked it out. She was counting on them and quickly lept sideways, using a hand to create herself a portal to cross through. The pink mutant disappeared into it and behind him, holding her magenta, transparent dagger with the other hand. What she didn't count on was the fact that he had another pistol tucked in the back of his jeans, which he grabbed and turned right on her, as if counting on her location.

The gun fired right at her. She quickly tossed her dagger and it took the bullet, shattering into a splatter of energy. Another gunshot was stopped by her energy shield, a small wall that she put up with both hands. He suddenly started to run at her, opening fire on the fake brick wall she was squatting behind. She looked up, over it, seeing him approach.

She teleported straight from location and appeared right at his side, slamming into him. He was strong enough to easily toss her sideways, but one of his pistols scattered to the ground. She rolled from her back and onto her feet as he charged towards her. She wasn't quick enough to 'port away, taking his weight into her smaller body as she was slammed into the back of one of the buildings surrounding them. He raised her up, one hand on her hip to lift her up slightly. "I told you," he told her, annoyance in his voice. "You are coming with me." He put the side of the pistol against her stomach, pointed upwards so the muzzle was sitting between her breasts, pointed up at her chin. "Got it?"

She struggled a moment to see how tight the grip was. She obviously had no way of getting out in any conventional means. Her fingers find his torso, both hands pressing into him. "I don't even know your name," she hissed at him. "How's a girl supposed to trust a man with a gun and she don't even know his name?"

"Rufus," he told her.

"Well..." her fingertips began to glow pink. Her palms grew hot. "Fuck you, Rufus!"

With a flash of fuchsia, all of her teleportation energy shot forward and blasted him into his chest. The power was enough to send him backwards, though she quickly realized she wasn't going to be able to teleport him. Once he was off of her and flying backwards, she sent three more blasts of energy at him. He let out a groan as he lost his grip of both her and the weapon, landing on his back and rolling sideways away from her. He quickly looked up, raising up onto one knee and one elbow, nursing his wounds. "Fuckin' bitch..." he panted, "Sneaky."

"I told you..." She turned her body sideways so she could look at him while at the same time put a portal up behind her. On the other side of her gateway was the original plaza she had come in on. "You'll never catch me."

The man known as Rufus suddenly reached down towards his show, pulling out yet another metallic blue pistol to engage her with. She quickly jumped back into the portal just as he opened fire. She could tell that if she hadn't closed the portal in time, she'd have been hit and wouldn't have been able to close it. She fell back, just from the panic alone, but was relieved to see she had successfully gotten away. For now.

Brushing herself off, Blink stood up and turned to see the city. It was a beautiful city, now that she finally had the chance to look at it. No crazy bald shooters. No mysterious voices in her watch. No teenage fangirls asking for her autograph. It was just her and the tippy top of Coruscant, looking down with wonder and amazement. "Well, you made it, Claire-bear," she told herself in a whisper. She was right. She had finally found a moment of peace. For one brief second, she was finally free of Dante's Abyss and the fact that she was a pink teleporter everyone wanted on her side. She was just another citizen of the Omniverse, and she was in a tall, marvelous city known as Coruscant.

She enjoyed it while it lasted, as long as she possibly could.

[Blink]

The Luna Moore Inn. Despite her doubts about the man that had given her the direction to come to this location, Blink found herself standing in front of the neon sign advertising the hotel behind it. A man that somehow knew her real name had called her on a communicator he provided and sent her here, so they could meet in person. It was all very shady and suspicious. But even still, she had nowhere else to go. She had no home, no friends and no idea of where she actually was. Whoever this person was had some kind of answers for her. So she no choice. She had to meet him.

She had to figure out exactly how to get to the Third Tier, first. It took some trouble figuring out how the city was laid out. It turned out that Coruscant was a city stacked on top of itself, all the way to seven levels. She had been on the first tier, or the top one. She found an elevator and made her way down to the third tier, which was where this inn was. She glanced at the building. The room she had been directed to was on the top floor. Five.

Blink felt a tinge of pain in her stomach from when she had been kicked. She thought about the encounter earlier. A bald man named Rufus had attacked her after she refused to meet his boss. She had to admit that she was a bit curious who was trying to find her and what job this person had in mind for her. It might have seemed just as seedy as whoever this mysterious man was in this hotel, but at this Rufus guy had fought her straight on. He was honest in his approach, which is more then she could say for whoever she about to meet.

Rather then go to the lobby, she decided to go straight for the room itself. She headed in through a side entrance and took an elevator up. The hotel's color scheme was white and blue, which made sense given it was supposed to be a moonlight theme. The room that the pink mutant was supposed to find was 507 - easy enough to locate. Once in front of the dark blue door, she gave it a couple knocks.

Nothing.

She knocked again. She frowned as she could hear no noise on the other side of it. Blink had hyped up a big meeting in her head, as if some big muscular man kick the door open and attack her. But she was greeted to silence. Her long fingers found the pointed handle of the door and pushed down, just to try it. The knob clicked and the door opened slightly. Being wary, she carefully pushed it open and stepped in.

Once inside Room 507, Blink let the door shut behind her. She was in a hotel room. It had one big bed in the center, a desk in the corner and a door leading into what she assumed was a bathroom. Outside of being unlocked, there was nothing unusual about the room at all. Her green eyes peeked along the tabletop of the TV stand and the desk, to try and see if there was a message left for her. Her fingers slid over the top of the desk, glancing at the different advertisement pamphlets. She took a moment to think about the last time she was in a hotel...it had been ages. She had maybe used a seedy highway hotel while she was on the run from somebody, but never a fancy place like this. The fact that she could afford to stay here if she wanted to made her feel good.

There was a noise behind her. She spun around quickly, her fingers glowing fuchsia in preparation for attack. But when she spun, there was just an old man in front of her. He was leaning both hands on a cane, looking at her in a blank stare. She hadn't heard him come in, and he didn't seem to be threatening. "Who are you?" she asked, stepping a step back until her backside was up against the table.

"My name is Gruu," he said calmly. He had a long, drawn out white beard hanging off of his face. His glasses were dim, like a mix between reading spectacles and sunglasses. "It's nice to finally meet you, Claire."

"My name is Blink," she said defensively. She didn't know this person, and she didn't like his using her given name. It was a privilege he hadn't earned. "How did you get in here? I didn't hear you come in."

"That's because I didn't," he said mysterious. She squinted her eyes in confusion. "Who is to say that I am here at all?"

Blink understood what he said the moment he said it, but he felt the need to prove it anyway. The old telepath shifted her perception of the room, causing the walls to melt away and leave them in an atmosphere similar to space. This void was purple and black, the lights whirling around them as if they were caught in a wormhole. She had to admit, inwardly, that it was beautiful. On the outside, though, she snarled. "Get out of my head."

"I just want to talk, Claire. And I felt this was the best way to discuss what I had to offer. I wanted to give you something familiar." Through-out the show, he didn't move at all. The old man remained looking forward at her, hands on the wooden walking stick.

The light show did feel familiar to her. She had spent years defending her multiverse against monsters and villains of all shapes and sizes. This particular portal they were in felt just like the one she used before. It would send her to new timelines and planets, all across the universe. She had traveled more then anyone in the entire multiverse. This light show around her did make her feel a bit at home - but on the negative, it also reminded her of how far away from home she really was. She wasn't sure there actually was a thing called home anymore.

The old man continued to talk. "I didn't know how you react upon us meeting. This way I can tell you what I have to say, and if you choose to leave, then you can leave."

Claire was busy looking around, admiring the sight of the inter-dimensional portal around them. Of course she it wasn't real. He was telepathic, like the leader of the X-Men she had been apart of. He had burrowed into her brain and found this memory to calm her down. But it still made her fingers tingle, looking at it. "I don't like people messing with my head," she said plainly.

"It was nessecary. Now...will you listen to me?"

Blink finally turned around to face the man. "Let's start with who you are. Is that even your real form?"

The man finally seemed to react. He looked up at her through tired eyes, and finally nodded his head. "Yes, this is my real form. As for who I am..." she noticed he had spoke slowly and deliberately, as if he was pondering his words as he said that. "My name, as I said, is Gruu. I am the head of a company here in Coruscant that creates technological advancement through Omnilium. Your communicator that I gifted you is one such example of GruuTech."

Blink couldn't help but look down at her watch, which also doubled as her communicated. Sure enough, it had a fancy 'G' logo up above the screen, showing that he was telling the truth. "That's all very interesting," she said sarcastically, "But what does that have to do with me? None of that explains why you led me to a hotel room and then fed images into my brain."

"I've spent the majority of my life - both here and my original world - creating technology to better the universe." He seemed to reflect a little bit, his voice getting quieter. "It's never enough. The dark always seem to find a way to come out on top. The good always have the tougher time. So I started to do something different. To turn the tide towards the light. I've created and funded highly trained teams under GruuTech. Mercenary teams, that operate outside of the law to protect the weak and stop evil."

Blink squinted her eyes again, until they were just green slits. This old guy, a CEO of a successful corporation, was creating his own private army. "If you're fighting for good and all that, why are you operating outside of the law? Why not just fund the police form?"

"Because in my experience, government and police are not mutually exclusive with 'good' and 'fair.'"

Claire nodded. It was a true statement. She had seen her fair share of corrupt militaries. "Where do I come into it? Why me?"

"I was there at the Dante's Abyss pre-show. I was recruiting for my fifth team. The last team." He smiled a bit, which was the first time she had seen any real expression from him. "You were perfect. I looked into your mind and I saw some of the things you've done. The people you've led came from completely different universes and fought together for a single, unified goal. The keep the universe safe. That's exactly what I need. I have four highly skills teams all over the Omniverse. You're the last piece of the puzzle. The last leader to create the last team. And together we'll make the Omniverse a better place."

It took a moment for Blink to completely absorb the speech that Gruu was giving her. She could appreciate that he sounded genuine and like he actually believed it, but it sounded ridiculous. It sounded almost too good to be true. "So you want me..." she couldn't help but crack up a little bit, breaking a giggle. "Lead like a superhero team? Here?"

"Why not? It's what you're good at."

"Listen," she said, still smiling at the sillyness of the situation. "I appreciate the offer. If it's true at all, I think it's a good thing you're doing. But you're just some old guy that makes fancy gadgets and reads people's minds without asking permission. I'm not about to put any kind of faith in you. I've been doing this Omniverse thing for like...a week. Less. I don't know enough about anything here to start protecting it. I don't even know if I want to stay."

Gruu nodded. He didn't seem to be terrible upset. "That's alright, Claire. I understand. I hope you find what you're looking for."

She hadn't expected him to be so polite about it. Before she could open her mouth to respond, everything suddenly changed. The vortex around her vanished and she was left in an empty hotel room. Back were the tables and the windows and the big bed. Gone was the old man that had been conversing with her. "That's it?" She asked, surprised that it was over so soon.

The pink mutant turned to try to find some kind of clue of what just happened. Anything to prove it wasn't a hallucination. She found it on the end table where she had previously found the advertising pamphlets. They were still there, but near them was a single sticky note pressed against the table. 'If you change your mind,' it said, 'Come back to this room.'

She looked up at the mirror in front of her. It was the first time she really got a good look at herself since arriving at Coruscant. Her bright green garbs matched the color of her glowing eyes. She had met this mysterious man and she turned him down. She was annoyed at how quickly he accepted her denial - maybe he had expected it. But now that he was out of her life, she had to figure out what to do now.

Blink headed out of the room and back downstairs, this time utilizing the stairs. She walked outside of the Luna Moor Inn and glanced up at the sky. She admired the light show that was the third tier of a sprawling city. The lack of an actual sky didn't stop it from looking so natural and beautiful. It didn't feel like home, but still felt good. She felt secure and safe in a bed with four walls for the first time in a long time.

Behind her, she could feel something move. She turned and laid eyes on a familiar sight. The big, burly bald man known as Rufus, this time with back-up in the form of a black woman featuring a hilariously large afro. "Hello, again," she said, clutching a small shotgun in one hand. Blink quickly backed up, planning to teleport away. "I told you that I wasn't going to stop."

"And I told you," she countered, "that you'll never--oof!" she grunted as she turned around, planning on portaling away in high style, but instead slammed right into a sharp fist. She didn't see exactly who threw it before she was on the ground, clutching her jaw. "Motherf--aaagh!" She screamed, caught in mid-profanity by a zap from what she assumed was a taser. She twisted and convulted as the electricity shot up her spine and caused all of her nerves to tingle.

She looked up, struggling to crawl onto all fours. "I just need you to meet someone. You coulda done this the easy way."

Blink was about to say something sarcastic and rude, but the dark-skinned woman next to Rufus brought her foot down on the pink mutant's face, silencing her and blackening her vision.

[Blink]

"Did you have to hit her so hard?"

"Probably not. She had it coming, though."

"Still...we're trying to ask for her to help, not break her neck."

"She'll be fine. Call it a lesson learned."

"For who?"

"Her."

"She's awake."

The last choice that Blink heard was unfamiliar. Her head stirred a bit as she started to regain consciousness. The first two voices were easy to identify. One was Rufus, the big, bald guy that she had fought in the alley earlier that day. The second voice was the black girl that had kicked her outside of the Luna Moore Inn; Blink didn't know her name, but she did know that she did not like that woman. The last voice was deeper, almost like a growl. When her green eyes opened, she could see that third person was staring at her, which is how he knew she was awake.

She blinked her eyes a couple more times as she tries to get the haze out of her head. The first thing she felt was a powerful throbbing on her forehead where she had been struck. She flicked her pupils back and forth across the room to figure out where she was. It was a large room, but it seemed to be pretty run-down and dimly lit. The painting on the walls were dark blue, but seemed to be chipped and peeling off from age. Most of the lights above her were out, leaving only little pieces of the room illuminated. Rufus was located near the only door, leaning up against the frame. He had a trench-coat on, which made him look less intimidating then the wife beater he was wearing earlier. The dark-toned woman with the obnoxious afro was sitting on a dusty table up against a wall. She had on a brown vest, shirt and pants that made her look like a hipster. Finally, Blink looked at the third person in the room - he was sitting right in front of her, examining her as she woke up. He was bald, just like Rufus, but was much skinnier and had his face covered with tattoos. He reminded Blink of a teleporter she had dealt with in her original universe.

Blink tried to move forward to stand, but she felt her limbs restrained. Her ankles were secured tightly to the chair she was sitting in. Her wrists were handcuffed to the rests, so she could at least move them, but not very far. When she looked up in surprise, she could see the three onlookers tense, as if waiting for her to do something. "What the hell is this?" She asked, accusingly, "Are you kidding me? I've been in this city for like five hours and I'm already kidnapped?"

"I told you," Rufus said from the doorway. "I just wanted you to meet the boss."

"This isn't what I could call a great welcoming committee," Blink spat back. "Fighting me in an alley, then grabbing me on the street? Not a good first impression."

"It's important," is all Rufus said in response.

Blink squinted to show her anger. The glare went right past the man with the face tattoos and right into Rufus' bearded face. "I don't care how important it is. You are going to let me out of this chair right now if you want me to listen to one damn word you have to say." Her gaze shifted from Rufus to the man in front of her. "You hear me? Let me out of this damn chair!" Her fingertips began to glow as she prepared to unleash some of her energy. Annoyingly enough, the man with ink on his face did not move. He just smirked at her. "Fine!" She screamed, obviously frustrated. "You think a stupid chair is gonna hold me? Think aga-aaaaagh!"

Both Rufus and the dark chick tensed again as Blink lit up in glowing pink energy. Even the stranger in front of her seemed to react as she tries to teleport. But the chair was bolted down tightly to the ground. When her portal shifted around her, the chair being stuck to the deck made it impossible to move it, causing her her whole body to convulse. It felt she had tried to yank a semi-truck through a small hole and threw her back out. She let out another scream as she released the energy, collapsing back into the chair, panting. That didn't work. She looked up, her chest heaving as she tried to recover her breath.

The skinny guy stood up. He was taller then Blink expected, and she could now see a weapon holstered at his belt: a machete inside a brown leather sheath. "I know that you're mad," he said calmly. "...But all of this is just for a chance to talk to you. That's all I want to do." Blink glared up at him, squinting her emerald eyes again. "If I let you out of that chair, can I count on you to please just hear me out?"

"You sure that's a good idea?" The afro-girl asked. She moved to stand in front of the table she was perched on.

Blink watched as the man in charge brought his hand down to the handcuff around her left wrist. He had a key between his index finger and thumb. He ignored the black woman behind him. "Well? Can I trust you?"

Her eyes flickered between the man in front of her and the bearded muscle-man at the door. Rufus nodded his head to her, as if he was signaling her that it was okay. Despite her short, violent history with the man, his reassurance of her situation made her feel better. He felt sincere compared to the other people in the room. She looked up at the man questioning her and nodded her pink head. "Yes."

"Good," he said, smiling. He clicked the key into her cuff and then unlocked it. He moved to her right wrist and un-did that one, too. He seemed tense as he waited to see if she reacted, but she didn't. She just rubbed her wrists and watched what he did. Once he was satisfied she wasn't going to attack him, he moved down and unwrapped the tight bungee cords around her ankles. He backed up away from her, giving her room to breath. She thought about running - it wouldn't be terribly hard to port to the door, dispatch Rufus and run for it. But she didn't know where she was, nor who was waiting for her in the rest of the run-down building. So she sat there, waiting, like a good little girl.

The man sat down in his chair, watching her for a moment. Blink glanced at the other two bodies in the room. Rufus hadn't moved, but the woman now had her hand on the hanging gun off of her belt. It was a sawed-off shotgun, dangling at her side.

The tattoo'd man noticed her gaze and looked back. "Rufus, Tiana, let me talk to her in private."

"I don't think that..." The woman started. That must have been Tiana. It was good to get a name to the boot that was on her face earlier. "I mean, she could-"

"You're making her nervous, T." That was Rufus. He nodded his head at the instruction for his leader. "Come on, let's go get some food."

Tiana didn't seem to take that well. She had a scowl on her face at being told what to do. Blink kept a dumb stare at her, trying not to contort her face to show how she really felt. She felt a smug sense of victory when Tiana headed out of the room with Rufus, clicking her tongue. That inner-smile died when she returned to reality, looking face to face at the stranger in front of her. Despite his kindness of telling the girl to leave and undoing her bindings, Blink had to remind herself that this was the guy that got her kidnapped in the first place.

"Okay," he said, letting out a sigh. He put his hands on his skinny knees. "I'm sorry that it took such a...show of force to get you here. Let me introduce myself, eh? My name is Vendetta."

"Vendetta?" She asked, looking confused. "What kind of name is Vendetta?"

"What kind of name is Blink?"

Claire looked surprised at the comeback. "Fair enough," she relented.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. Obviously my real name isn't Vendetta and I hope your's isn't Blink. I'm not trying to recruit you to be my friend." He tone had changed. He wasn't being unfriendly, but he certainly wasn't trying to keep her calm anymore. He had switched to all business. His learned forward, causing the dim lighting to reflect a bit more off of his bald head. Blink realized the face tattoos were like arrows pointing upwards. "I have something planned and I need someone that can do the things you can do. It's a paid job, it's mildly dangerous and it's not entirely legal. But it will help the quality of life in this city. It will even the playing field."

Blink must have looked confused, because it got a bit of a chuckle out of Vendetta. "Who exactly are you people? Bank robbers?"

"If the job calls for it, yes," he nodded, "We are the Coruscant Freedom Fighters. We fight for the lower verses in this city. You've seen the top tier, right?" Blink gave a head nod of affirmation. "It's shiny and clean up there. Security is full force. The people are friendly and polite. But the lower you go..." he made a hand movement his fingers, as if they were stepping down stairs. "The worse it gets. The more neglect you see. And the people that live down there, in the depths of this city...there's no getting out. There's no earning your way to a higher tier. You just become forgotten about. It's bad down here, and a lot of this is the citizen's faults. But nobody is trying to fix it. That's where we come in."

Blink had heard versions of this story before. She had traveled the multiverse back home and seen plenty of bad governments and growing rebellions. In her experience, both sides had tendencies to be at least a little corrupt. That's what led her to be suspicious. "Why do you need me?"

"We're going to rob a museum," he said matter-of-factly. "There is a weapon there. It's not lethal, but it's useful. It will help turn the tide and make them listen to us. It's the only thing that is going to get us taken seriously as a threat. I need you because you're a teleporter, and that's a big part of our plan to get to the item."

"I can't be the only teleporter in the city," Blink shot back. She knew she was good, but there had to be a reason why they wanted her in particular.

Vendetta nodded, agreeing with us. "You're not. We could have hired anyone. But you're new here. Less likely to have been corrupted. And you're a known figure. The fact that you made it deep into Dante's Abyss puts a bit of celebrity on you. Having you associated with us, even if it's temporary...it's a plus."

"A plus for you. Sounds like a headache for me."

"Nothing worth doing ever came without a bit of consequence."

That sounded like a political slogan. Blink didn't care for it. But she nodded her head anyway, to be polite. The whole thing sounded like a noble idea. She applauded rebellions - heck, she had been a part of a few herself. "Listen," she tried to explain, "I think it's a great thing you're doing. If it's really as bad as you say it is, then yes, someone should stand up for the little people. I don't know if you're doing it the right way...sounds like innocent people could get hurt this way. But regardless, it's not my fight."

"You don't think so?"

"No, I don't. I'm new here. You said it yourself." She shrugged. "I don't have a negative opinion about the government. Or the city. I don't even know if I'm staying."

"Let me show you, then," he offered. He seemed to be genuine, at least. "Stay with us for a few days. Help us go over the plan, case it out. If you don't want to stay, no hard feelings. But give me a chance to give you a purpose in this city." He stood up, offering his hand out. "I can show you how you to make a difference in the Omniverse."

She seemed hesitant at least - it was that default level of distrust that she had in her heart. She compared this offer to the one she had earlier, in the hotel, with Gruu. Both offers were basically all about fighting crime - one was about doing it on a military level, and this one was doing it as a rebellion. She felt like a tool being passed around because of her abilities, and it wasn't a great feeling. But when she weighed the offer up against the alternative (which was nothing, at this point), she brought her hand up and took Vendetta's in her palm. She shook his hand as she stood up. "Alright. I'll give it a shot. See what you guys are all about."

"You won't be disappointed," he promised. He nodded his head to the door and then moved to walk towards it. Blink rubbed her wrists that had been previously cuffed and followed him out.

Gruu had offered her to be the leader of a silly superhero team, and she turned him down only to kind-of join a group of freedom fighters. She felt a bit like a hypocrite. But something in the way this group approached her and pitched the idea turned her on. They fought her head on to show their strength, and then forced her to listen. They weren't rude (for the most part). They were standing up for something bigger then themselves. It made sense to her to at least hear them out further. They were more like what she wanted to represent.

Not to mention, it wasn't like she had any better ideas.

[Blink]

When Blink's green eyes fluttered open to the world, she felt like she was floating on clouds. She turned her head to the side to look at the mattress she was laying on, reminding herself that she had fallen asleep the night before. The night before. This was the first time she could say she had slept through an entire night. Her slender torso stretched out as she strained her muscles, letting out a groan as she worked out the kinks in her body from laying down for so long. When fighting in Dante's Abyss, she had slept in uncomfortably short bursts on the dirty ground. But this time, she had a nice, long slumber on a mattress that felt heavenly.

When she sat up, her brain began to process her situation. The daylight was streaming through the window, so that told her it was at least the morning. The day before, she had agreed to stay on temporarily with a rebel group known as the Coruscant Freedom Fighters. Today was going to determine if that move was the right thing to do. They needed her 'expertise' - or rather, her teleporting powers - to help them steal something that would assist in their goals. She didn't have a dog in the fight, but she had been struggling to find her place, so she agreed to stay.

She was sitting in a small bedroom. It almost felt like more like a big closet and someone just threw a mattress inside it. It hardly mattered to her, considering how awesome the sleep had been. There was a knock at the door. Blink looked up as it opened without waiting for word from her. The dark-skinned female from yesterday appeared on the other side of it. Tiana, she remembered. That had been her name. She also recalled not having a great first impression of this chick.

"Time to go to work," was all the woman said, followed by throwing a pile of clothes in her direction. Blink caught the fabrics, but the afro-sporting chick was gone before she could retort.

Blink frowned as she moved to get up. "Good morning to you too," she said to nobody, shrugging. She looked down at the clothes; it appeared to be some martial arts get-up, but it was at least the right colors that Blink liked (green and red). She moved to pull her current, wrinkled outfit off to change into the costume that was picked out for her.

It was going to be an interesting day.



"She's here," Tiana announced to the room. Blink stepped into what appeared to be a command center, watching as whatever conversation that was going on immediately ended.

"Glad you could join us." Vendetta was situated in the center of the room, looking at a rickety table that had some blueprints on it. It looked like some kind of 'war room' set-up. "We were just about to go over the mission."

Blink nodded as she stepped further into the room. She had a sneaky suspicion that she had been the topic of conversation until about five seconds ago. She looked around the area to get an idea for where she was. The building itself, as she had scoped out the night before, was a run-down house in the fifth tier of the city. It was large but she could tell it had been forgotten as far as maintenance went. Weeds crept up from the floor and cracks littered the walls. "Nice place you got here," she complimented sarcastically.

"It suits our purposes," Vendetta said with a smirk. She met his glance, raising her brow at his smile. "This is our meeting room. Let me run you through the crew." Blink followed his finger as it pointed around the room at the various inhabitants surrounding her. "You know Tiana and Rufus already." Tiana didn't react, but Rufus nodded his bald head at her out of respect. She returned it. "This is Psi, our tech guy."

"Nice to meet ya," the man said respectfully. He was an Asian man with spiked up black hair and a silver gadget attached to one of his ears. It looked like a communicator of some kind. He put his hand out to shake Blink's, and she accepted it.

"You too."

Vendetta continued to the other two people in the room. They were both light-skinned men, standing next to each other. They had short black hair, looking like both had been buzzed recently. "This is Tank and Turk. Brothers. They're the muscle around here."

"I can see that," Blink said, impressed. The two monsters were huge, even more stacked in the muscle department then Rufus. Both of them nodded at Blink, but neither said anything. She was fairly sure that with names like those, they had to be related somehow. But this wasn't the time to really meet and greet.

The tattoo'd Vendetta looked down at the blueprints on the table. "Alright, so here's the play." Everyone in the room moved around the table. He put his finger on a picture at the corner of the blue paper, which showed a small apple-sized sphere. "This is the Orb of Horace. It's an article that was brought to the Omniverse by a Prime in the beginning of days of the Verses. It's said to give the holder an enhancement of their powers. In the hand of a lowly secondary, it's useful. But held by someone with actual powers and abilities...it's dangerous."

"So why do you want it?" Blink asked. She kept her eyes on Vendetta, but she could feel gazes shift to her, as if to say, how dare you?

But Vendetta was expecting the question, and nodded. "Right now, The Freedom Fighters of Coruscant is sitting in this room. We have some supporters in the city, but no one willing to make a move. None of us are strong enough on our own to stand a chance against the sheer numbers that the Coruscant Government can throw our way. But with this orb...we can make a show of force. We can get people to stand behind us, and really give a voice to the people."

Blink nodded, and didn't give a follow up question. But in her head, she had a few. As in, how could she trust this group to use the orb to promote peace? What if they wanted to use it as an instrument of war?

"What's the security?" Rufus finally spoke up. Vendetta nodded in his direction, dragging his finger onto the blueprints of an elaborate building.

Vendetta looked up as his finger traced the exterior of of the drawings. "This is the Mystical Worlds Museum on Tier Two. It's designed to house magical artifacts from different worlds that don't have homes. Just about anything that doesn't belong in the Coruscant Library is here in the Museum. Primes over the last ten years have been summoning items from their home worlds and for whatever reason, have lost custody of them. The plan is to break in silently, and break out loudly."

"Just the way I like it," Tiana grinned.

Blink noted that the two muscleheads seemed to like that idea too. They were grinning and nodding at each other. Vendetta continued. "We're going to be doing at night, just before it closes. This is so we can draw maximum attention after we obtain the Orb. Psi is gonna explain how we're going to get the Orb itself."

Psi nodded and stepped forward. He put his own fingers down onto the paper. "It's pretty simple. We'll all be scattered around the museum floor. Tiana, Tank and Turk are going to put down some guards in the second floor, where the Orb of Horace is. Blink, you're gonna teleport me into the main security room where I'll work on getting the big issues down: laser wires, cameras, alarms. I'm only going to be able to put these down for shorts bursts, so we won't have a ton of time."

"How long, exactly?" Blink asked.

"Minutes. Maybe." He was honest, at least, but Blink didn't like his answer. "After you get me into the security room, this is when Tiana and the guys are going to start putting down the immediate threats. You're going to drop a portal from Vendetta's location, here..." he pointed to the entrance of the museum, "And one here." He directed his finger at the location where the Orb was supposed to be. "At my signal, Vendetta goes through, gets the orb, and we bust out. With the Orb, we shouldn't have any issues getting out."

Again, Blink had questions that she knew better to ask in public like this. But busting out publicly didn't sound like a peaceful idea to her. Especially when she could easily portal everybody out the building. Well, maybe not easily. Her powers weren't nearly as reliable in this world then they were back home.

"Any questions?" Vendetta asked. "Concerns?"

"Just one," Blink spoke up. "I have to scout the museum first."

"What, you don't trust us?" Tiana asked rudely. "How do we know you're not gonna just rat us out?"

"Relax," she responded. She put her hand up. "I can't teleport to a place I've never seen before. I have to go there and see it. The more I see, the better I'll be able to move around through portals." She glanced at Vendetta, as if looking for his approval. "Make sense?"

He nodded. "Yea. Take Rufus with you."

She smirked. Apparently she wasn't the only one with trust issues. "Alrighty." She looked at Rufus, who nodded, tilting his head to the side to direct her towards the exit of the room.

"Should be a fun bonding experience," she said playfully at him as she walked by him towards the door. She could feel the glare of Tiana behind her as she made her way to the door.

It was true that she need to 'scout' the museum in order to properly portal her way around it. But she also wanted to see for herself what the mission was like. She was taking a lot of this 'mission' on faith, and she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if some of her concerns came true. What if they planned to use this Orb for war? What if something went wrong and someone went down because of a planning error? She was too new here to start getting people killed, or herself in trouble.

She wasn't going to get these answers in a briefing room. She needed to see the city for herself.

[Blink]

The Mystical Worlds Museum lived up to the hype that Claire had built up for it in her head. She envisioned something like an art gallery, with rich spectators gazing over things they couldn't have and probably only partially understood. There were glass cases covering confusing-looking artifacts, pictures and paintings on the walls and even sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Blink herself felt like she fit right in as they walked in through the front door, scanning their tickets they just bought outside on the way through. Her bright green outfit over fuschia skin made her look distinguished, even the truth was far from it. Other customers at the museum had similar extremes, such as a tiny blue man in a white beanie, or a strange smiling man with a green face. Unfortunately, not everyone could fit into the environment. Not Rufus.

"At what point did you think a wife-beater was the right call for fancy-museum day?" Blink asked the bald man wearing the stained white tank top. They were walking past the entrance security checkpoint and just meeting back up after an annoying stop to get frisked.

Rufus looked completely out of place in this high class atmosphere, yet he personally didn't seem to be bothered at all. "What's wrong with a wife-beater?" he asked, and Blink actually believed he genuinely meant the question. "It fits, doesn't it?"

"Barely," she answered honestly.

Rufus grunted, uninterested, in response. He led them to the right, towards the stairs. "C'mon, the orb is up here."

"Hold on, I wanna look at this...thing." She tugged his bulky, exposed arm over towards one of the exhibits. It was the first of many artifacts in the 'Weapons' section of the museum. It looked to be an old, rust-covered gun, but it had a newer-looking blade attached to the underside. The information panel listed the gun as a 'Lancer.' Looking over at Rufus, he seemed to appreciate that they were stopping to admire the 'art', but Blink really didn't care much about it. She had an ulterior motive for stopping here. "You like it?"

The bulky man nodded his head. "You can't really beat putting a chainsaw on a gun. Whoever actually wields that thing is a pretty dangerous guy, if he's still around the Omniverse." Rufus' eyes drifted to the left, to the stairs again. "We need to go scout out the orb so you can make portals around it."

Blink gave him a stern look. "I'm aware." Obviously she knew what they were doing there. She was supposed to be mapping the place out in her head so she could teleport around the museum for their heist job. But that was only her secondary goal. After all, it was something that happened automatically in her head when she arrived in new places. Her real plan was to get into Rufus' head. Find out exactly what they were doing there. What he was doing there. "What's your story, Rufus?"

"Same story as everyone else here," Rufus answered, disinterested. "I showed up, confused. I fought people. Won some fights. Lost some fights." Blink frowned a bit at his refusal to elaborate on his words. "Now I'm here." He began to walk away, guiding her towards the stairs. Blink swiftly followed behind.

"So why are you doing his Freedom Fighters thing? To make a difference?" She was asking almost sarcastically, but it wasn't like that would have been a terrible answer.

"Keeps me busy," he told her simply. "It's not like I'm doing anything else worth my time. May as well do this."

The duo began to head upstairs towards the second level of the Mystical Worlds Museum. The section that greeted them was labeled as 'featured exhibits.' She could see different types of artifacts, all in strange shapes and sizes. She didn't need to go far to see her goal: the Orb of Horace was featured prominently in the center of the exhibit floor, right in front of the stairway. It was almost as if the museum was asking for it to be stolen. It had to have been the most public spot in the museum with which to taunt potential thieves. "So here it is, huh?" she asked rhetorically. They worked their way past a small crowd to post themselves at a velvet rope fencing off the perimeter of the glass case. It was a metallic-looking sphere, with a strange green energy oozing from opening slivers around the exterior. It definitely gave off an aura of importance. "Why do you guys want this thing, exactly?"

"Vendetta told you already," Rufus grunted down at her. "To help us put up a fight against the Coruscant government when it abuses it's power for the top tier citizens."

"I know why Vendetta wants it. Why do you want it? What's your personal stake here?"

Rufus chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought of answer. She could tell she was making him uncomfortable with her questions, which was okay by her. "I don't have one," he admitted. "I owe a lot to Vendetta since I've been here. Him and T have been good to me. Haven't steered me wrong yet."

"I don't know them like you do," Blink admitted. She nodded her head toward the orb. "But we're putting a lot of faith in them to put this cube thing in their hand and assume they'll use it right."

The balded goatee'd man glanced down at the shorter girl with a squinty glare, clearly not appreciating whatever she was trying to hint. "If you got something to say, Pinky, say it."

She turned so her back was to the orb, and her green eyes could scan the room for security personnel. The truth was, she trusted Rufus. He seemed to be the honest muscle who was just following what he was told to do. She didn't get the impression that he was involved in the planning operation, and that meant he likely wasn't involved in it's motive. He was probably just as oblivious as she was. The only difference, was she was skeptical enough to go into it with a suspicious mind. "If we do this, and something does wrong. If it goes sideways and someone does something they aren't supposed to...that's on you. On us. We have to know we're doing the right thing."

Rufus gave her another glare and then turned to walk away from her. She reached up and grab his arm with one hand, forcing him to stop and turn back to her.

"I didn't come to this city just to start a war. Your guys better be doing this for the right reasons. Or they'll answer to me."

"I hear you, Pinky." She was surprised by his response. It was much more supportive that she anticipated. But he nodded his head at her, corrected the squint in his brown eyes and looked up at the orb in front of them. "I hear you." He nudged himself away from her and walked off towards a hallway, presumably to resume scouting.

Blink glanced over at the orb they were supposed to be stealing soon. She let out a sigh, unsure if she was making the right call...and walked away.

[Blink]

From where she was standing behind a thin balcony railing, Claire Ferguson could clearly see the entire first floor of the Mystical Worlds Museum, as well as many exhibits that were along the second floor. To her left, downstairs, was the entrance lobby of the museum, security checkpoint and the front door. To her right, on her level, was the beginning of the 'Featured' Exhibits' area. Her green eyes squinted a bit to see into the open room. She could see some glowing radiating off of the orb that she had seen earlier, but she couldn't see it directly from where she standing.

Everybody ready? The voice came from her head. It was the telepathic and telekinetic Vendetta who had organized this whole operation that was speaking directly into her brain. It felt as if someone else was having a thought inside her head. She never enjoyed it when telepaths talked to her like this, and this time wasn't any exception. We're starting in two minutes.

Blink didn't have a good feeling about this. She had a history of bad decisions in her previous world, so this was feeling awfully familiar. She had turned out what seemed like a legitimate/boring corporately funded job in favor of this highly dangerous, illegal operation because it sounded like a good idea at the time. As she looked around the museum and saw some of her co-horts, she was feeling less optimistic. Not because she thought the plan would fail: it wouldn't. It was a good plan to steal a dangerous artifact. But because she had only been with this team for a couple days, and she was taking a lot of their Robin Hood style promises on faith.

Across from her on the balcony was Rufus, now sporting a white coat and sunglasses (even though he was indoors). There was a joke there that he finally decided to wear something appropriate, and now looked like a bank robber. Downstairs, positioned at choke points where guards would be coming from when the action started, was the two bronze-skinned brawls known as Turk and Tank. They didn't talk much, but Blink was certain they had a lot to say in their fists. Both looked eager to get started. Over near the access point for the featured exhibits was Tiana. She looked about as cheerful as usual. When she locked eyes Blink, there was a quick flash of annoyance across her face. Yea, that girls didn't like her.

"Ready?" Came a voice behind Blink. She turned her head to see the cybernetic-adorned Psi. He had been wandering near her the entire time, though out of view. "It's about go-time."

"Doesn't really matter if I'm ready at this point," she shrugged. She wasn't making an effort to hide her discomfort at the situation. "We're here now. Past of the point of no return."

Psi nodded in agreement. "It'll work. We'll get the orb."

"Yea...hopefully for a good cause."

This time, she didn't get a response. She didn't know if maybe it was because Psi had similar doubting thoughts about their allies, or maybe because he didn't want to argue with her. Either way, he went quiet and backed up a bit, away from her.

Alright folks, here we go. Vendetta was speaking into their heads again. Blink could see the faces of her teammates all look up at the same time. They were all looking at her. Blink, get Psi into the security room and get out here.

Blink turned around to look at Psi, who was staring directly towards the left: where the security room was located. If she had time, she might have scolded him for being super obvious about it. But no guards were around them in the immediate vicinity, so no big deal. She put her hand up and shot a small roseate bolt of energy towards the corner of the room. It lit up into a green-and-pink doorway; much smaller then her usual portals. On the other side, she could see into the security room from the back. It was time to move. She led the charge.

In a matter of moments, Claire had lept into the room and assessed the situation. Three guards: one sitting at the console and the other two towards the left, talking. She went for them first, throwing a punch at the guy on the right and bringing it back so her elbow caught the one on the left. She disarmed the pistol that left-guy was bringing up and quickly shoved him backwards. Her speed was unmatched by the duo, even if her puny arms weren't exactly doling out knockout shots. She punched the other guard twice, enough to send him back.

The sound of laser fire lit up the room. She looked up in time to see Psi had jumped into the portal behind her and shot the guy that had been sitting down. He quickly shot the one Blink shoved away as well. "Look out!" He barked at her, causing her to teleport to the other side of the room, just in time to see the one closest to guy swing a nasty-looking baton at the spot she used to be. Psi fired his pistol, which Blink now realized had appeared around his hand mechanically, and took out the last guy. She took a deep breath, relieved that he had joined the fight. Perhaps she had over-estimated herself there.

"Are they...?" she asked, nodding to the corpses.

"Nah, just knocked out." He responded. She felt relieved. Not only because it meant she didn't assist in murder, but also because it meant Psi was not a murderer. She felt better about being in his company. "I'll get the security sorted. You get outside."

Blink nodded and backed up. "Thanks. You did good, there," she complimented, and then turned around into a portal. She appeared outside, in an alley overlooking the museum across the street. Vendetta was there, sitting down on a folding chair, watching the building. "Psi's in," She told the telekinetic. "You knew that, though, huh?"

"Nope," he responded without looking back at her. "Can't read minds, just talk into them. But maybe once we get this Orb of Horace, that'll change."

She didn't respond to him. She still wasn't sure what would happen once he got that orb. She was hoping he'd walk away and nobody would get hurt. That they would use it as leverage in his fight against corruption in the lower tiers of Coruscant. She glad that her doubt wasn't able to be read; that had been a concern of her's since she met Vendetta.

"Good job, though," he finally praised. "If everything goes right, Psi will only cut the security systems in the featured exhibits, so we won't see any resistance until we grab the Orb."

"Then we leave," Blink finished.

"Right."

There were some awkward moments after that, as Blink looked past his tattoo'd head and towards the seemingly quiet museum. It had been barely populated earlier, as it was nearing closing time. Now the only people left were their team, maybe a couple last onlookers and tourists, and the crew locking the place up. There wasn't much to see from where she was sitting.

Finally, Vendetta spoke up, but not verbally. Tiana, move towards the security room to make sure nobody goes in there. Everyone else, Psi is almost ready to hit it. Get ready in case of alarms.

"I thought you said no alarms?" Blink asked. He literally just said that.

He looked back at her. "I said hopefully no alarms."

At that moment, there were alarms.

[Blink]

"Now!" Vendetta's panic spread onto Blink's face, who froze for a moment. She had to shake the cobwebs out of head in order to react. She threw a portal up in front of them and sprung forward. Vendetta lept up next to her and then jumped through the pink gateway into the museum. Inside, the alarm was blaring much louder then it had been outside. The Orb of Horace was sitting in front of them, inside it's glass case, but it was lightened only by a single security light that was lit from the corner of the room. The rest of the glow, aside from some dim or blinking emergency lighting, had been cut off in Psi's attempt to get the security down. Blink could hear some laser fire and gunshots, indicating the rest of the crew were in action.

"We've gotta get out of here," Blink said quickly. "The plan is compromised."

"Not yet." Vendetta was staring at the artifact in front of them. He didn't seem particularly concerned by all of the action around him. They were supposed to be in and out with little to no confrontation. But alarms were lighting the museum up. Security guards were moving and actual government soldiers were probably mobilized by now. But instead of panic and concern, as Blink had, he was moving closer and closer, calmly, to the glass case. "We're getting what we came here for."

Blink's pointy ears twitched a bit in frustration as Vendetta seemed to discount her. She would have yelled at him, had she not seen a security guard appear at the entrance to the exhibit. She quickly teleported right in front of him, catching the gun-wielding woman off guard, and threw an elbow that sent her against the wall. The female rent-a-cop put up a mild fight by throwing two punches, but Blink was able to block them both and knock her out with a hard jab. The teleporter turned around to find that Vendetta have levitated the glass case up into the air, and had the orb floating towards him.

As soon as the Orb of Horace touched the skin of the tattoo'd telekinetic, it lit up like a christmas tree. All of the curves and indents began to glow a bright white, as if it had been waiting for someone with power to come into contact with it. His body tensed for a moment as the power soaked through him, straightening up like he was being electricuted. Even the ink on the top of his bald head seemed to glow. Once he seemed to get comfortable with the sensation, his spine curled again and he relaxed. He turned towards Blink, smiling. It was not a happy smile. It was an evil smile.

It's done. Tiana, take care of Psi. Before Blink could say anything, Vendetta suddenly shoved her backwards towards a wall with a telekinetic blast. His power was strong, and she felt like she might go through it. Instead, she slammed through a glass case holding a small leather suit of armor, which cushioned her impact against the structure. I'll take care of Blink.

"What the hell?!" She asked, squirming as his held her tightly with just his powers. His hand was up towards her, but he wasn't actually near her. It an invisible ability of telekinesis that pressed her to the wall, as if holding her by her shoulders. "Are you freakin' kidding me?!" She hated when she was right. "What happened to helping the little guy against the government? To making a change?!"

"I am making a change. This whole city is going to bend underneath me. Thanks to you!"

He brought his hand back, as if he was going to throw a punch. Just as he brought it forward, towards her, she opened the palm her hand and lit up the wall behind her with energy. "Nope!" She declared, disappearing into a last minute portal. She closed it before his attack could hit her. She imagined it probably took out the wall she had been pinned against. Blink turned around to see where she had been put herself - right in the security room.

Right in front her was the the body of Psi, who was slumped dead in front of the main security room console. He had clearly been shot in his mid-section by a large projectile. Wires and organs had spilled from his cybernetically enhanced body. Her green eyes went wide as she backed up, surprised, and put a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, sweetheart," she heard near her. "Too late!"

On instinct, Blink ducked and teleported at the same time. She appeared on the other side of the room just as Tiana blasted the consoles that were behind Blink with a sawed off shotgun shell. As glass and sparks flew around the monitors, Blink teleported up close to Tiana, only to get whapped with the butt of the shotgun, causing her to stumble into the table behind Tiana with a nasty pain above her left eye.

"I never liked you, anyway," Tiana declared as she aimed the double-barrelled shotgun with one hand at Blink's head.

Blink squinted her emerald gaze up at Tiana and then swiftly brought her leg up to kick the back of the afro-girl's knee. Tiana grunted as she lost her footing, but recovered well enough to avoid Blink slicing at her with an cosmically enhanced green dagger. Blink quickly disappeared again as Tiana tried to hit her with the gun, reappearing in a portal behind her. "Got you!" Claire declared, wrapping both of her arms around Tiana - one around her chest and the other on her neck - and yanked her backwards into the gateway she had created.

On the other side, Blink released Tiana as the two fell through the air. Blink landed on the balcony overlooking the entrance lobby as Tiana fell down towards the first floor ground. She suddenly stopped moving in mid-air, caught by the telekinetic Vendetta who was situated on the ground floor. "Oh, thank Omni." Tiana exclaimed, clearly happy she didn't go splat.

"Don't move." Blink heard. Her eyes shifted so she could see out of her peripheral vision. Rufus stood next to her, pistol in his head, aiming at her head. She couldn't see past his sunglasses, but she imagined his gaze was not friendly.

Claire remained calm, gripping the rail of the balcony as she looked down at the scene. There were bodies - most were unconscious but she could tell some were dead - littered around the hall. Tank and Turk were also among the casualties, both laying together near the wall. She had no doubt Vendetta had something to do with it. "Rufus," Blink began. "Don't do this. Vendetta is bad news. Just like I said."

"Shut up." He ordered.

Down below, Tiana was still hovering in the air. Vendetta had one arm up, supporting her levitation with his powers. "You were supposed to do a job. You failed." He stated. He was obviously referring to the fact that Blink was still breathing. "I expected better from you, Tiana."

"V, hold on now..." Tiana was saying, but then her voice began to crack. It got high pitched and loud until she was squealing into the museum lobby. "Vendetta, wait! Hold on! Aiiiii-urk!" Her ear-rattling scream was immediately muzzled as her head and body were yanked in opposite directions, cracking her spine and shutting her up. Her body was tossed sideways, into the glass of the museum's front doors. The shattering of the entrance opened way for the sirens that were outside to be heard much louder.

Rufus finally broke contact with Blink to look down and see the carnage. Vendetta, the leader of the supposed Coruscant Freedom Fighters, had just killed his bodyguards and his right-hand woman. Not to mention his tech guy was dead and the teleporter they hired had been marked, too. "What the hell, V?" He asked, almost rhetorically.

"Rufus, kill her," Vendetta said sternly. "Stormtroopers are coming in soon. She's a distraction."

Rufus' eyes grew as he collected the words and processed them rather slowly. Blink watched as he slowly gathered all the facts about his former boss in his head. "Vendetta. What have you done?"

"This is bigger then them, Rufus," Vendetta slowly began to rise up in the air. The Orb of Horace glowed bright in his hand, illuminating his face. Despite the calmness in his voice, he had a big bright toothy smile across his painted mug. It only made him look that much more sinister. "This is about bringing justice to the city. This is about rooting out the corruption. Our way."

"But...Tiana..." Rufus backed up. The gun was lowered by Blink's ear towards the ground. "Psi. The brothers. What was the point?"

"It never going to be about them, Rufus. It was always about you and me. From the beginning."

Blink glanced between the two of them, but didn't move yet. She knew that Vendetta was expecting her to teleport, and didn't want to give him the chance to stop her or follow her through a portal. Rufus was no longer paying attention to her, instead completely focused on the man in front of him. "No," he said. His fingers gripped the pistol as his other hand pulled the other out of it's holster. "It was never about us. This whole thing...it was always about...you!"

Gunfire. Twice. Rufus shot the guns towards his former friend and watched as they were stopped in mid-air by an invisible telekinetic shield. Vendetta had his hand out as he hovered right in front of the balcony, keeping the bullets floating in the air. "That's a shame, Rufus. You were the one I liked." He then blasted the two bullets back towards him.

"No!" Claire lept in front of Rufus and put up her own energy shield, bouncing the projectiles away. She had a moment to question exactly what she was doing - why she had gotten herself into this mess. And then she realized she was staring an overpowered telekinetic in the face, with just a duel-pistol-wielding renegade at her back.

"Put down your weapons and surrender!" The lines were shouted into a megaphone from outside the museum. Vendetta looked down to see stormtroopers rushing into the main lobby, aiming their blasted up at him. Blink had a moment to realize was going on and then spun around. "Put your weapons d-"

"Hang on!" She shouted at Rufus, who didn't have time to register what was going on. She wrapped her arms around him and lept forward, sending both of them through a portal to anywhere-but-there.

They landed on a mattress.

[Blink]

"Where the hell are we?" Rufus asked as he ruffled around the small rectangular room. He was ruffling through the drawers in the dark compartment as he searched for an answer to his question. When he found nothing, he settled on flipping the small dinner tray that had been left out near the door to the space. "Where did you send us?" He turned around and pointed at Blink, accusingly. "What the hell did you do?" For her part, she was just sitting quietly on the bed that they had teleported onto. Her feet were dangling off the side, and she was staring down at the carpeted floor, as if she was drifting off.

They had been in the Mystical Worlds Museum. She had agreed to be part of a Freedom Fighters group that were stealing an artifact to use for good against a corrupt government. She had agreed to do so without any extra information and without too much of a fight. She had aided a psychopath in acquiring a power-enhancing artifact and watched as he killed everyone that he had worked with. He used all of them. He used her. And the worst part was...she had absolutely seen it coming. It was literally all her fault.

She looked up. "We're at the Luna Moore Inn. Room...507."

"Why?" Rufus asked, again with a stern, untrusting tone. "Why are we here?"

Blink didn't answer. She just looked down again. Why was this the first place she sent them to in the heat of the moment? She had only been here once before. She had been given an offer...and she turned it down. Maybe it was because the person that had sent her here was the only person she could call an ally now. After the mistakes she made.

As if on cue, his voice was heard. You're here for me, Rufus. Both Rufus and Blink looked over towards the door. An older man stood there, though neither of them actually heard him enter. He was leaning with both hands on a walking stick, hunched over as if he was having trouble standing. He had grey hair wrapped up in a ponytail behind him. "It's good to see you again, Claire." He was staring at Blink, which led Rufus to connect who she was talking to.

"Your name is Claire?" He asked, dumb-founded, as if that was the more pressing issue right now. He caught himself and shook his head, pointing his accusing finger now at the old man. "Wait, wait, who the hell are you?"

"His name is Gruu," Blink explained. She remained sitting on the side of the full hotel bed. "He offered me a job to lead one of his good-guy teams. Instead, I went with you guys. Now Vendetta is out there, doing who-knows-what to Coruscant, all because I helped him get his hand on that thing."

Rufus slumped a bit as he remembered his part in the whole thing. He nodded his head at her. "He had all of us fooled. I thought that we had a real connection. That's what I operate on. Loyalty. Relationships. And he was good at me." He took a pause, as if trying to dig up a happy memory, but it only made him frown more. "But now I can see it was all part of the plan. He was using me. Using Tiana, and Psi, and even the brothers. What happened back there is on me. I should have seen it coming."

"It's on both of us," she answered. "I did see it coming and I let it happen."

Gruu finally stepped forward and put his walking stick firmly on the ground, attracting the attention of the teleporter and the gunslinger. "There is plenty of blame to go around, but no time to waddle in it. Your man is currently making his way up towards Tier 1, taking out multiple stormtroopers at a time. He's making a very public spectacle of himself and sooner or later, someone is going to attack him and make a mess of the situation. A larger mess."

"At this point, there's nothing we can do," Rufus shook his head. "What am I gonna do? Shoot him?"

"We have to do something, Rufus." Blink stood up, stepping forward closer to him. "It's our responsibility. Nobody else's."

Rufus furrowed his brow. He was unconvinced, obviously, but he nodded his head down at her sternly none-the-less. "I've never been one to back away from a fight. Especially when I caused the problem to begin with. Let's do it."

Blink took a deep breath and nodded. She was happy he was on board. She was doubly happy that Gruu was there, clearly forgiving her for brushing him off. But before any real conversation about the future could tell place, she had to fix the mistake she made. She had to figure out a way to stop Vendetta's rampage across the city. "Alright...so what's the plan?"

[Blink]

When Blink jumped out of one of her pink portals and onto the roof of an apartment building, the  first thing she saw was the blaster fire shooting down the street. Stormtroopers were lined up in formation on one end of Tier Two's main street, opening fire at will on their target down the road. Blink glanced to the right to see what they were aiming at. Vendetta was in the middle of the street a few dozen yards away, literally holding futuristic looking cars up with his telekinesis and using them as shields from the lasers. He then slammed forward towards the soldiers in white, causing them to scatter as it came crashing down onto the pavement in front of them, barely avoiding getting any of them. "Come on!" He was screaming, "Is that all you've got!?"

Behind Blink came Rufus, stepping out of the same portal she had come through. The sound of the gateway closing hit her pointy ears. "What a cluster-fuck," Rufus said to her. He stroked his goatee as he watched the chaos down below. Vendetta was now approaching the fallen line of soldier-clones and was tossing them aside with his telekinetic powers. "What's the point? He's staging a one-army assault on the entire city. Even with the Orb, what's his gameplan? As soon as some of the stronger Primes get wind of this, he'll be toast."

"Maybe he's counting on that," Blink answered. "I don't think he has an overall goal. I think he's trying to maximize the amount of damage he can do before he's done."

"Yea, but when is he done?" Rufus asked, as if Blink had a legitimate answer.

She shrugged back at him. In her head, she was sure that Vendetta was slowly making a chaos-riddled path of destruction towards Tier One, where he likely wanted to challenge the Primes there head on. But telling Rufus and getting him worked up over a theory wasn't going to do them any favors. They had to stop him here, on this street, to avoid any further casualties. The more Primes that got involved in this fight, and the further up the city the conflict moved, the more danger there was for everybody involved. "You ready?" she finally asked, breaking a brief silence.

This time, it was Rufus' turn to nod.

"You sure you're okay with this?" She followed up.

"Yea. Fuck it all, right?"

The pink teleporter smiled at his dry humor. He smirked back and punched his own palm, cracking his knuckles in that pose. He backed up a bit on the roof and then took a breath, nodding at her to show he was ready. He then jumped forward and lept off the roof, right into a carefully-placed pink portal that Blink laid down. Down on the street, Rufus appeared on the surface level with Vendetta, only about ten yards away. He had both of his pistols in his hands, pointed down towards the pavement. There was a burning car near him as he glared at Vendetta, squinting with anger. Blink thought he looked like a cowboy, a bit, about to duel for his life.

"Rufus!" Vendetta welcomed him with open arms, literally. He was obviously being overly sarcastic. "Come to beg me to take you back?"

"You know why I'm here." Rufus answered vaguely. Blink began to move along the rooftop so she was closer to the pair. She could barely hear their conversation, even with her exception hearing. "You tricked me into this. You fooled all of us. And now people are dead."

Vendetta reached into his jacket, gripping something solid that had been bulging from his chest. He pulled out the orb, which glowed a light green with power. His tattoos adorned across his bald head seemed to glow as well, as if he was literally drawing energy from the artifact. "Rufus, I never tried to fool you. You and I have been together since you came to this universe. You knew what I want. You knew what this was leading to. You knew...why we did this."

As they spoke, Blink could seem stormtroopers lining up down the street again, this time for a more concentrated attack. She glanced down the other side, where a mirror image was taking place. There was a silver-armored trooper directing them and speaking to others on a radio. Snipers appeared on the rooftop across from her. She could see that Rufus was doing a good job of keeping Vendetta in place, but wasn't sure of his chances once Vendetta or the troopers attacked. She was going to need to act faster then she thought.

She was just waiting for the signal.

"This was never about fighting for freedom!" Rufus angrily spat at Vendetta. "This was always about you! You manipulated me to help you do this. Now I'm going to make things right."

Vendetta smirked. "Who? You? Rufus, you're a good shot but you already know that you can't kill me with bullets. And Blink? How far do you think a teleporter is really going to go for you? They run from fights, not towards them."

"I guess we'll find out!" Rufus lifted his guns up.

That was the signal. He never actually the pistols. Vendetta was much too fast, blasting a ball of telekinetic energy towards him and shoving him backwards as if he got caught in the wind. Rufus did a good job of landing on his shoulders and rolling backwards onto his feet in a squatting position. Vendetta threw another ball of gust, this time sending a nearby bench flying into a pizza shop behind Rufus. Rufus, for his part, ran down the sidewalk, starting to open fire on a laughing telepath. "I told you already! You can't-hrk!"

He was cut off as Blink appeared above him and sliced one of her green energy daggers through his arm, cutting a clear path along the side of it. His fingers opened on instinct, causing the Orb of Horace to roll from his grasp. There was a moment of panic by both of them as the Orb floated in the air, falling towards the ground. Blood spilled from the side of Vendetta's arm, right under the elbow. Blink dropped down, kicking one foot out towards the orb. Her boot-covered foot made contact with it, sending it flying away from the pair and towards the sidewalk.

Rufus caught the orb and a bright flash of light erupted from it, causing him to stumble sideways mid-run. But he caught his composure, clearly not letting the power overwhelm him as he ran straight of the stormtrooper barricade.

"NO!" Vendetta howled as he lifted an arm (the non-injured one) to stop Rufus from getting away, but Blink sliced her blade across his back to stop his movement. He let out a howl of pain as more blood splattered towards the paved road and his jacket remained cut open. He finally turned around to face her, growling with frustration. "You sneaky little pink bitch!" He howled, this time using both hands to push her backwards through the air. She easily teleported herself up on a light post, catching her balance quickly. He looked up at her, fingers curling with anger. "You shouldn't have done that, Blink!"

"You don't have your little toy to protect you anymore," Blink teased him, perhaps boasting a little more then she should have. Still, it felt good. "You don't want a fair fight?"

He gritted his teeth at her taunting. "I might not have the orb, but don't get it twisted...I never needed it to take care of you!"

There was a moment there were Blink felt like he was just over-compensating for a lack of actual talent. But soon the fallen vehicle that had been near them, which he threw earlier, sprang to life and began to float up in the air. Her emerald eyes bulged as she could it turning to point upwards towards her. Clearly he didn't need the orb when it came down to how much strength he had in his telekinesis, because those things looked damn heavy. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me," he mumbled to herself.

The vehicle shot forward towards her, spinning in mid-air as he hurled it towards her. She teleported forward, expertly running along the top of the car as it soared through the air. When she realized another object - this time, a postal box - was heading towards her, she ducked it and teleported again. She arrived on the ground level with Vendetta, bringing her power dagger down towards his shoulder. Just as his came up defensively to knock her back, she teleported again, appearing behind him and stabbing the energy blade right into his back, underneath where she sliced earlier.

"Agh!" He grunted, a hand coming up to his chest where the blade poked out. While he clearly had a ton of power, his actual fighting ability didn't seem up to par. He dropped down to one knee, clutching his chest. She put a hand on his head, as if preparing for an execution. "Do it!" He hissed in front of her. "If you don't kill me right now, I will always remember you. I will always come after you."

She brought her knee up and connected it squarely with the back of his head. His voice went quiet as he fell forward onto the road, unconsciousness.

"Step away from the suspect!" She heard someone say. She looked up to see the stormtroopers (better late then never) starting to move forward with their guns trained on her. She instinctively put her hands up and backed up.

It had been a quick fight. She had expected a lot tougher encounter. But at the end of the day, it was clear that maybe he just wasn't a particularly good bad guy. That was why he needed the orb - a serious case of over-compensation. He could never do anything like the destruction he rained down without it. He just wanted to be powerful. To know what it felt like. But even with that orb and all the power he contained in his skinny, bald little frame, he was no match for little pink Claire Ferguson.

[Blink]

It took some time, but Blink and Rufus eventually found their destination. They had traveled down into Coruscant to the fourth tier, which was much darker then the levels above it. Well, that wasn't entirely true. It was darker in that it appeared to be nighttime, despite the fact it was clearly past sunrise. But it more then made up for the lack of sunlight in the brightly lit neon signs that lined up the streets. They saw stores selling weapons, night clubs promoting various entertainment items and more then their fair share of drug dealers. Fortunately, most people left them alone. Rufus had his tank top on, exposing his muscles and two holstered in a strap at his sides were more then enough to scare people off. Blink had on a black trenchcoat, so the pink woman wasn't doing herself any favors in the social department either.

Blink had to guide her and Rufus to what appeared to be a red light district, onto a wide sidewalk that was near a strip of businesses. They were looking into an empty lot with a wooden entrance. There were no windows. No signs. Just a wooden wall and a similarly structured door. Blink glanced side to side. The lot was nestled between a mini-mart, called Omni-Stop, and a strip club called 'Siren's Song.' She wished she had made that up in her head. She hadn't.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Rufus asked, clearly not impressed.

"I'm pretty sure," Blink admitted, "I think it looks...cozy."

"Looks like a garbage dump."

Blink gave him a look of skepticism, as if to say 'really?' But she couldn't argue too much with his opinion. Considering she'd been staying in a pretty large apartment belonging to the Freedom Fighters, followed by the Luna Moore Inn, this particular place didn't look like it was going to live up to those standards. "Let's take a look," she finally decided, and the duo moved in. Blink led the way, opening the unlocked door and stepping inside.

The front room of the building didn't seem to boast much. It was dimly lit by some old school light bulbs that obviously needed to be changed out. There was a dusty desk and a filing cabinet off to the side, like it was set up to be a lobby. "See? Garbage dump." Rufus stated.

That wasn't the interesting part, however. Blink nudged his shoulder and pointed him towards the back of the room. It led into a small hallway that went both left and right. To the right was a bright greenish light coming from the opposite end of the hall. "There's something back there," Blink told him. They moved to investigate. Once they made it into the hall, Blink glanced to the left. There was a small office with a glass window on the door. Further down, the hall opened up into a larger room. She decided to investigate it later, opting to turn right and head towards the green-lit room. "What the...?"

The room in front of them was already open; the double doors had been left unlocked and pushed in for the two to find. "What is this? The damn Matrix?" Rufus asked, in awe.

They were looking at what seemed like a server room. The various switchboards and server stands all lit up an emerald shade of light, which is what caused the hue down the hallway. The wires all seemed to route towards the back wall, in the middle, where a single computer was mounted to the structure. As Blink walked in with Rufus shadowing her, she squinted to see the small writing desk in front of the monitor. There was a small black spiral notepad. On the front was a pink sticky note that read 'Cell 5.'

Welcome to your new Headquarters, Claire. Blink glanced up towards Rufus, who seemed to have the same confused expression on his face, which indicated that he heard the voice of Gruu as well. You are the fifth and final cell. My last team to send out into the Omniverse to fight for good. I entrust all of the resources and responsibilities of this team to you.

"You couldn't have sprung for a better pad?" Rufus asked aloud, causing Blink to smirk. "I mean, I've stayed in some pretty shoddy places before, but no one is going to take us seriously in this dump."

I'm glad you could join us, Mr. Kain. You'll make a good addition to Ms. Ferguson's team. Gruu spoke telepathically. All I can do is provide you the resources. You'll have the money and through this dataverse room, you'll all the information. I'll give you the tools, but you have to put the work in and put them to use.

"In other words, he said to clean it up yourself," Blink giggled at him. Rufus rolled his eyes, but he did give her a smirk.

Your first mission is to recruit. Gruu continued. In the Datavase, you'll find dossiers on potential team members. Whether you choose to go after them or recruit your own allies, that's up to you. I'd like you to build the team before you take on any missions, but...be ready, as always.

"I can't just tell people that I'm recruiting for a secret military team," she refused. "Also, I can't say I'm putting a superhero team together either. That sounds even worse."

You won't have to. You'll find your cover on the terminal.

Both Rufus and Blink looked up at the computer. It had a black background but green robotic font, making it seem like something right out of a computerized world. The screen lit up and showed Blink what Gruu was talking about. She was looking at a name that brought back a flood of memories...both happy and awful. It reminded her of what she lost, but it also made her think about what she could do here, in the Omniverse...in the future.

Exiles Detective Agency
Login: Claire Ferguson / Blink

Welcome

With a deep breath and a last ditch effort to choke back any emotional tears that might have been threatening to water her green eyes, Blink spun around and nodded sternly at Rufus. "Let's do this."