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.