noteasytobepink | Canon AU ~ Clarice and Bill beginning

Canon AU ~ Clarice and Bill beginning

Owwwwwwww...

There was a flash of magenta light and the shadow of a woman flying through the air at a rather high speed. What world had it been? 739? Mutants Everywhere Planet, let's stop a serial killer because the Talus said so planet.

A super powered serial killer who had been rather hard to hit, much less hurt, especially with the team down several members. She'd been able to create an opening, at cost, for the others to take, but now, well, she was bleeding. And dizzy. And oh, that was a knife in her shoulder, huh, what if teh cops had needed that for evidence..

...right back on track. The talus had flashed, they'd been getting ready to leave and the partner, the killers partner that the Talus had told them NOTHING about had come careening in with a scream. Her lower arm ached, dully. and trailed more blood from where she'd lost the Talus. It had been ripped away and she'd been shoved through a half-formed portal. Not a fun ride.

By the time she tumbled to a halt she couldn't tell left from right, much less what world she was on. There could have been snipers in the trees and giant mutant snakes rearing to strike at her and she'd have just said 'Wha?'. She was...hitched up against a tree. Nice tree, yeah, she was going to...pass out now.

Yep.

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"Clarice Creed," She offered in kind. "A pleasure Mr. Pardy, I think." Maybe. Depended on how he reacted to the next bit.

"I guess the important question to ask you, before I answer the 'where' part is...what does this world know of mutants and mutations?" Otherwise her story would sound very much like science fiction.

"It is," he replied, hoping that was the truth.

That might not be the case, though, as her question made his head tilt, and his eyes narrow a fraction.

"Mutants? What kind of mutants?"

If she was another one of those space alien hunting weirdos...

Bill had had his fill of those after the slug invasion, and wouldn't hesitate to run another out of town if that's what she was here about.

She arched an eyebrow in a rather universal 'Really?!' look. Because, really? She lifted her head from her hand in order to use said hand to gesture at herself.

Hello, Pink? And weird? And, oh, pointed ears now that she was tucking hair behind one?

"Considering the lack of lynch mob I was hoping well known enough to be tolerant...or unknown."

Bill's expression shifted into confusion, and he looked at her shaking his head slightly and arching his shoulders in an obvious 'whu?' gesture.

"You're a mutant."

On top of the confusion there was also skepticism. Because yeah, she was pink, with the ears and carrying around pointy things, but...

Okay, yeah, maybe, but then, what the hell is a mutant?

"What the hell is a mutant?"

"Unknown then. Right. This will be fun and sound an awful lot like a science fiction movie." She snorted and plopped her chin back in her hand. "A mutant is anyone with an X-gene, X for unknown despite popular idea that it's for 'xeno' or alien. Average humans have a dormant, inactive gene where mine is active and transcribed. Just like some people get blue eyes from genetics, I get pink, and glowy eyes, and teleporting."

She eyed him, trying to judge when she was going to cross the 'holy shit' line here..."Demonstration time? I know I babbled something about teleporting earlier right. Curious?" Yes, she was being very, very open. The sooner she established the 'weirdness' the sooner she'd know if she was safe.

Bill sat and listened, trying to understand what she was saying.

The part about her being pink because of genes made some sense, that was how people got how they were, after all.

(Although pink was really pushing it.)

Then she brought up the teleporting thing again, and that part was where he had his doubts.

"Yeah, you mentioned it earlier."

The inflection in his voice was enough to make his curiosity known, and a prompt for her to go on.

"Teleporting, the ability for me to bridge two points in space on a world that I know with my own weird energies." She lifted her chin again so she could free up her hand. "Spike. Failing that a pencil or something but it won't be a big portal." It was just how her power worked!

"Assuming you want a portal. Direct teleport is a little different, but then how would I get you back here?"

It's a bit funny how much a person can say with a look.

Right then Bill's look was not only asking 'are you serious?', but also pretty clearly saying 'do I look stupid to you?'.

No, he would not be giving her any of the sharp spike things they took off her, especially because he was becoming more and more convinced that she was some kind of crazy.

Still, if he let her try and it didn't work, it might be easier to convince her to see a doctor or something.

Looking over at the tray where his cold coffee was sitting, Bill picked up the plastic stirrer and held it out to her.

"Here, try that."

"Cute," she noted, lifting it up to peer through the inside. Not much to the thing huh? Not much matter at all, that meant tiiiiiny portal. Wow. "Don't blame me if you can't poke much through it." Probably not much more than a finger or two.

"Downside being it needs to be someplace I know on this world and...I don't remember where I landed well, which means wonderful exploration of this room." That said she balanced the stir straw on a fingertip and smiled, letting light flow up through the plastic molecules.

Ew. Plastic never felt right to work with. It was synthetic and odd, and lick pushing power through oatmeal, but needs must...

A negligent toss and it zipped to just in front of Bill, stretching into a small, glowing circle instead of a straw. "Go ahead, it comes out just the other side of the coffee cup. You should be able to poke the creamer."

Bill watched her, blinking when the stirrer began to glow, and staring dumbly at the glowing... hole in front of him.

Looking from her to it and back again, he shook his head.

"I'm not stickin' my hand in there."

He did look over at his coffee, cup, though, to see if there was anything there.

Yep, a flicker of magenta light past his mug! She eyed him, eyed the portal, then sighed. "Really, because I'm TOTALLY going to hurt the guy who got me MEDICAL ATTENTION instead of SETTING ME ON FIRE or something." She thought she had a point really.

That said she grimaced and slid to the floor so she could pace over past the coffee mug and stick her fingers through to wiggle at him. "Believe it or not this is my main mode of transportation and so on and so forth perfectly safe yadda yadda."

Wood scraped on floor tile as Bill flinched back in his seat when her fingers came through to wave at him.

"Bwah."

Ok, so...

Give him a minute, and maybe his brain might start processing some of this.

"That's really fuckin' weird."

"Gee, thanks." She snorted and drew her fingers back out of the portal so she could make her way back to the bed. God she'd taken a beating. No matter what anyone said, distracting psychos was painful.

"So, long story short, my world ended and I ended up 'displaced' in reality, got recruited into a team that fixes other realities, the device that was attached to my arm to help get us between world was ripped off and here I am."

Guilt finally made Bill recover, and he gave her an apologetic look.

"I just... I ain't ever seen anything like that."

And even though he was just a small town boy, Bill actually had seen a lot.

As strange and hard to believe as all of this was, there were still a few factors in it that Bill could grasp onto and work with.

Forgetting the pink, and the teleporting, there was still other problems to deal with; she was lost, she was hurt, and he needed to find a way to fix both.

"Who stabbed you? Did it happen here, or back where you came from?"

Guilt was a wonderful motivator in some circumstances! She actually flopped on the bed and used a button to raise it this time, just so she wouldn't have to talk to him laying down. "I'm a little unique among teleporters, don't worry." She hadn't expected him to have seen anything like it just...

...a little trust was nice when she felt like crap? Just a little?

Regardless.

"Guy named Atrin. Last mission was to stop a serial killer and...well, we weren't getting through. I...neutralized the knife? So not here. You're safe. You're fine." 'You' being the town in this case. "Talus didn't tell us he had a partner, so we were leaving and that little thing came out of nowhere, kicked me hard in an already broken rib and took the Talus off my arm when I fell through the portal. Just I fell in as far as I know."

Bill moved his chair a bit closer to the bed; careful to avoid the spot where the tiny portal had been.

"Just you, as far as you know," Bill repeated, not liking the idea at all that there might now be a serial killer running around in Wheelsy.

"And if he took your thing, how're you supposed t'get back?"

"He didn't." She pointed out very clearly and very carefully. "He is dead. His partner took the Talus off me...and he can't use it." She snorted, wondering at the sheer idiocy of the move really.

"The Talus it's...it's not a tool. It can't be used. It uses you, if you're a team member, giving you the new assignment and where you should be, then helping you get there. If you're not ready to go, or willing to do what's needed, too bad." And she really didn't like it honestly but hey, it was a purpose. She was telling him this so he knew things were probably safe here?

And because of the pain killers.

"I...don't. Team members get lost sometimes in various ways. If they need me back there will be a mission to retrieve me, but I'm not powerful enough on my own to shift realities." And it...sounded hollow in her ears. Yes, she knew she was most likely stranded. Likely for the rest of her life. It was...part of teh job? And part of losing your own reality.

It was good to hear that he didn't have to worry about trouble from her world, but hearing her situation turned worry to concern.

"But aren't they like you? Can't they get it back an' teleport here?"

Not that he wanted a town full of pink skinned strangers, because that was bound to cause a big stir, but he also didn't want her trapped here, either.

"No..." she chuckled softly. "...they are not like me." They simply...weren't.

"Mutation expresses in many different ways. I'm the only pink skinned woman I know of, and I've met a lot of mutants. I'm also the only teleporter our team had. If they're skipping about it's purely on the Talus, not innate ability."

"Well, shit."

That didn't leave them with many options. Actually, it left them with No options. She couldn't get there, and they couldn't get here unless that Talus thingy decided to bring them.

Studying her, Bill weighed the possibility that she was lying, or screwing with him. But, he saw the portal, he could tell plain as day there was more than a few things different about her from anyone else, and this was one hell of a wild story to be making up.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Bill made a decision, and sighed.

"I guess you'll be stayin' here for a spell, then. I don't mean here, here, of course. Soon as the doc releases you we'll set you up somewhere an'... figure out what to tell folks."

"Skin condition," She offered, sighing. "I'll...huh. I'll have to get a job huh? Never actually had one before except for the vigilante thing." Which was more of a calling/survival method come to think of it.

"I can keep the teleporting thing a secret, or I can run your towns special delivery system, whichever you think will work better?" Secret was easy, she just only teleported in dire need. On the other hand she could be a great taxi, or even reduce school field trip costs immensely.

"Or, if you want, I can leave. Easy to disappear in a whole world."

"You ain't got to leave," Bill said right away, making sure she knew that wasn't something he was thinking.

"I would appreciate it, though, if you didn't do the teleportin', or mention the bein' from another world thing t'folks."

There was apology in his voice, and he offered an explanation to go with it.

"S'just, we had some troubles here not too long ago, an' folks... somethin' like that might scare 'em."

It took a lot of hard work putting Wheelsy back together, and Bill doesn't want to see that undone. He also doesn't want Clarice to run into any troubles, either.

"Not unless it's an emergency then," Clarice nodded. She fully intended to always have at least one spike on her, no matter what, just in case she was wrong about others making it to this world, but she wouldn't carry her quiver. "And you're taking this very well...despite." It all. Yeah, she knew it was hard to take in.

"What kind of trouble?" This? This would be the quizzical 'Hero senses danger' look. She might already be plotting to get a view inside people's homes just in case she needed to run a mass evacuation for some reason.

"It's been a long day," he replied, a touch wry. "I reckon I'm too tired to take it any other way."

Giving her a small smile, it faltered on her question.

He could just step around it, but if she was going to be staying in Wheelsy any amount of time she'd probably hear about it eventually.

"We were... invaded. It sounds crazy, but something landed here and caused a lot of trouble. Lot of folks died. It's been taken care of, town's been rebuilt, but it's had an affect on people."

"Kree? Skrull?" Apparently these were the two big bads in space aliens she was most worried about? Galactus, after all, was too big for a little home town to handle and the Shi'ar would still be very, very evident.

"Oh, wait, do you mean invaded and landed more like Normandy? Foreign invaders but not alien?" She...should have thought of that possibility first. Duh.

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