Canon AU ~ Clarice and Bill beginning

[noteasytobepink]

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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[noteasytobepink]

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."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

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."

[noteasytobepink]

"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."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

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?"

[noteasytobepink]

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."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

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?"

[noteasytobepink]

"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.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

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.

[noteasytobepink]

"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."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"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."

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"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."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"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.

[noteasytobepink]

"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.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"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."

[noteasytobepink]

"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.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

Bill blinked at her reaction and the names she gave, then shook his head.

"Slugs. Aliens. Do you-- have you dealt with stuff like that?"

[noteasytobepink]

"....huh." Yep, slugs were a new one on her? "No shapeshifting? No sudden and brutal need to rule over you? No raining fire from the sky and setting people on each other in arena combat for their amusement?" Yeeeah, she hadn't liked that world. At all.

It left scars.

"Slugs." Damn. "Fill me in. They had to be a little more scary than I'm imagining right? Not exactly the salt them and they die type." Because she didn't think Bill would exaggerate the scary danger part?

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

For a moment he thought she wasn't taking him serious, her questions and what they suggested so off the wall she had to be joking.

When he realized she was serious he wondered just exactly what kind of screwed up place she came from.

"They infected people, changed 'em into... into monsters."

Zombies, but he really hated to use that word.

Shaking his head, he stood up and went to retrieve his coffee.

"Tried takin' over the town, an' did a lot of damage."

He hated talking about that night, and with his back to her he tried to shake the memories as he also tried swallowing the cold sludge in his cup.

"Anyways, it's all over with, so y'don't gotta worry 'bout it. Just be aware some folks are still sensitive, an' most don't really like bringin' it up."

[noteasytobepink]

Ugh. Taking people over. Never a good way to go. Ever. "Infectious parasite type?" Ew ew ew. "Hive mind I take it? Something that could coordinate?" Because one couldn't normally stuff enough brains for independent thought in something like a slug.

"How long ago?" Better to know. And even more importantly..."Any likelihood of return? Should I keep an eye out for them?" Because...true monsters rarely stayed dead.

Especially infectious kinds.

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Yeah. Took out the center of it all an' that stopped it."

There was a phantom ache in his gut, and he smoothed his hand over his stomach where there was now a scar.

"Happened a couple years ago. They ain't comin' back."

He said it with conviction, as if his words alone would make it true.

[noteasytobepink]

"You got a plan just in case?" She said it with the tired practicality of someone who had been fighting, one way or another, since she was little. "If you do, factor in anything I can do teleport wise." Because if there was a powerful tool available, it HAD to be used in emergency situations.

"You took it out?" And...yep, she was tilting her head, watching him rub his belly. He'd been tagged, hurt doing it. Maybe he understood a bit more about her taking that knife than she'd thought. Well then. "Good job."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He sees her eyes on his hand and drops it, tugging his uniform straight.

"There is no 'in case', the man's dead, the slugs are gone, an' we've moved on."

He sets his coffee back down again, disgusted with it, and retakes his seat.

"I did my job."

Above and beyond, but he doesn't like taking so much credit, especially when he thinks about all that was lost that night.

[noteasytobepink]

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Sheriff, but part of the JOB of law enforcement is to plan for worst case scenarios. In case. Because people NEED to be protected. Assuming something and not planning for it ALWAYS comes back to bite you in the ass. Always." Take it from a veteran adventurer? She lifted the little plastic pitcher of water on her bedside table, offering it to him as a substitute for crappy coffee.

"I have more scars than I care to count anymore, most of them from things I thought were dead. You, and people like me, have to be smarter than that, bite the damn bullet, and think about bad things so others don't have to." That said she sighed. "Granted, I always end up in life and death situations and it may have made me paranoid."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

Bill's jaw tightened, and Clarice just crossed a line Bill was very defensive about.

Straightening up in his seat, he managed to rein in most of his temper, but there was still an edge to his voice when he responded.

"Look, I can see you're tryin' to be useful here, but I don't need anyone tellin' me how t'run my town. I know my job, I've been doin' it my full grown life, an' you better believe I can handle it."

Standing up, he grabs his chair and moves it back to its place across the room.

"The day I wake up on the side of the road with a blade stickin' out of me is the day you get t'tell me I'm not smart enough for what I'm doin'."

Snatching his cup up, he heads for the door.

"I'm gonna get some more coffee, don't go anywhere."

[noteasytobepink]

Way to go Clarice, always good with local law enforcement.

Wonderful.

"I lost my best friend because we thought the scientist was dead. I lived, he didn't. And everything was suppose to be okay after the bad guy died. I get touchy and I'm sorry." It was...better, for her, yes, Mr. Creed found her in the rubble. Still. Not planning got people dead.

Very dead.

"No where to go, sir. No one to help, no one to keep alive." She watched him storm out and slipped from the bed so she could at least poke around the room and see what it had to offer. That and...peer out the window in case she needed to port out quickly given her stellar people skills. Gah, hospital gown. Easy to move in yes...but a little cold.