damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Courtyard

"..." Were they just going to stand here and argue? Skuld tried not to growl; she wanted them gone so she could relax for a minute.

Looks like it's time to chase them off, Scarlet said.

Skuld nodded. Bughammer slung over her shoulder, she walked just far enough out of the shadow of the tree to be seen; her expression made it clear she meant business. "Figure it out somewhere else," she advised.

Kon snorted at the old guys little rant. "That there? Is why you seriously need to relax. You're so paranoid. Not everyone's out to get you, you know?" And when he started getting all indignant about being called old Kon couldn't help but laugh. "For serious? You're grey man! And the moment you use the phrase 'when I was your age' you're automatically over the hill." It was almost tempting to mention his actual - chronological, whatever you wanted to call it - age, see what this guy Teisel had really been doing when he was Kon's age. But it was kinda complicated explaining the whole clone deal so he just grinned widely at the other man.

"Should I have heard of you? What do you guys do? Are you a family of heroes like the Marvels?" OK so maybe the Marvels weren't all related but it was kinda like how he and Kal-El were sort of family. Well maybe not, but it was something.

That explanation about the prison made no sense and he was used to hanging out with Impulse who took the cake for incomprehensible explanations. Admittedly that was mostly because they were too fast to make out but whatever. "Uh so this place is run by Black Zero?" That was important, he was supposed to be finding whoever Zero was so being in a prison run by him wasn't so bad. "Dude, they chop people up here?" he gaped at that. Normally it wouldn't be anything he'd have to worry about but yeah, TTK? Not home right now.

Then the other babe came out the shadows like freakin' Robin or something. Looked almost as threatening too. Turning back from the way he'd twisted to face Teisel he asked, "Why? You waiting on someone out here?" He grinned saucily at her, "We can keep you company till they get here."

Truth be told, with Teisel's criminal record, a lot of people really were out to get him. Paranoia was a healthy state of mind for a pirate. Not to mention...wait, was this stooge laughing at him? "I'll have you know," he said standing, hands on hips, "that premature graying runs in my family. Besides, my life isn't exactly stress-free."

Not in the mood to outright laugh at the guy's ridiculous assumption, Teisel settled for a soft chuckle. "Ah, kid, that's cute. Heroes..." He shook his head. "Not quite. We happen to be one of the most feared pirate bands in the northern hemisphere," he said, glowing with pride. "The seige of Kattelox? That was us!"

Now, the explanation had been confusing; Teisel didn't really understand it himself yet. "Black Zero? Never heard of him." Playing with his hair, he tried to remember the name Haku had told him. "The guy who runs this is...ah, damnit, it's on the tip of my tongue! Oh! Yeah, Martin Landel." And he hadn't really meant to freak the guy out about the surgery, but it was gratifying to see someone else who wasn't completely calm about it. "Well, that must be what happened, because my optics are gone. I haven't had eyes since..." He counted on his fingers; it really had been a while. "Since I was around your age, I guess."

He'd forgotten about the girl. The surprized yelp that escaped his throat was quite a bit higher-pitched than he'd have liked. Clutching his chest to make sure his heart hadn't really jumped up into his mouth, he looked from her to her hammer and back. "I'm sorry, miss," he said, very politely and trying to ignore the other guy's idea of gentlemanly behavior. "Are we bothering you?"

Martin Landel? At least it wasn't "Queen" Sayoko again, though Skuld still didn't know what was going on. "Where're you trying to go?" It would definitely be useful to know; even if they tried to lie, she figured she'd know.

In case the other one was getting any ideas, she added, "My sisters will be here soon." Behind her, Noble Scarlet nodded firmly; even if their expected back-up took a long time to come back, if these two tried to hurt her, they would regret it so much.

The whole hands on hips thing? That had Kon laughing even harder than before. And then the guy finally relaxed some when he started talking about his family.

"Pirates? That's wicked!" Except pirates were normally bad guys but Teisel didn't seem like a bad guy so maybe they were Robin Hood-like pirates. Only stealing from rich people or something. "Where's Kattelox? I've never heard of it." Of course he'd never really paid attention in geography so it was no big deal.

From what Teisel had said it seemed if this place did have something to do with Black Zero then he was keeping quiet about it. No big deal. Soon as he got his TTK back he'd take care of this guy Martin and be on his way. The rest of the explanation was way more interesting. "You used to be a cyborg? Why would they fix that? It doesn't make sense." Never mind how gross it was to replace someone's eyeballs. Where would you get them from? A dead guy or someone living? Either way it was creepy!

Snickering at Teisel's freak out, Kon stretched out comfortably on the ground, grin never slipping an inch. "We weren't heading anywhere in particular," he told the chick still lurking over in the shadows. "I'm happy to stay right here, especially if your sisters are anywhere near as cute as you." Older would be nice too. She was probably only a little younger than him but he'd always preferred older women.

In light of the guy's apparent admiration for pirates, Teisel was willing to let the laughter slide this time. For the sake of diplomacy, of course. "A lot of folks would disagree with you there," he said with a lop-sided grin. "Not that I can blame them." Most islanders didn't take too kindly to pirates, and that was putting it mildly. As for Kattelox, Teisel was a little surprized, since the seige had been in the interisland news for a while. "It is a pretty obscure little rock; most people who aren't in the digging business don't know where it is." He shrugged. Oh well, it had been a while ago. "We came out of it...pretty well, considering. So did Kattelox in the long run." Seeing as there still was a Kattelox Island, it had been a win-win situation.

Cyborg? "I'm not... I don't know if I'd go that far," he said. "I was blinded and I had my eyes replaced, that's all. It's not all that uncommon for a digger to lose a few body parts here and there." Professor Caskett himself had not only optics, but half a skull's worth of metal plating, thanks to a particularly horrible accident. "I didn't know they could fix it, to be honest." Though he'd pushed it to the back of his mind, it was still intensely distressing. They'd done such a good job of it, too. If Teisel hadn't known better, he'd almost think that the eyes had been there the whole time.

He couldn't decide what bothered him more, the guy giggling at Teisel's (admittedly girlish) yell, the guy stretching out on the ground as though he were completely safe, or the fact that the guy couldn't seem to talk to anything even vaguely resembling a female without hitting on it. So he just glared three times as much as normal.

Turning to the young lady, Teisel mentally smoothed himself out as best he could. "We've just been injured, miss, we need to rest a moment. Him especially," he said smoothly, shooting another covert glare at the other man. "I think he has a concussion." Or he would, if he didn't stop acting like a rabbit in springtime. With a small smile, sat back down on the bench, looking relaxed without actually feeling it. "You and your sisters can pretend we're not even here. We won't disturb you." Another warning look at the other guy. "We promise, don't we?"

Skuld twitched, and this time the pond behind her started rippling. It was really, really tempting to just nail the boy with another tidal wave... should she even let them stay?

If they do, we can keep an eye on them, Scarlet pointed out.

She nodded. "Fine." Despite what she said, the water behind her didn't settle down; she wanted them to know just how very outmatched they would be if they went up against her.

Sounded like Teisel's family were definitely the good kind of pirates which was pretty cool, though he could almost hear Robin telling him that stealing was still stealing and it didn't matter how noble the intentions were. But whatever, Rob needed to learn to relax too.

"That must've totally sucked," Kon said, wincing in sympathy at the thought of being blinded. And he still wanted to know where a prison would get spare eyes like that. Made him think of the clone banks of Krypton, all those clones being made just to supply spare parts. Shivering at the thought he sat up determinedly, saying "We need to find out how they did that. You can't just stick body parts in people like that!"

Of course, he was totally side tracked by doom and gloom over there acting like he was a kid in need of supervision. "My head's just fine! And I won't upset anyone! Geez, you're acting like I'm the one causing trouble here!"

Turning to the girl, he was about to ask her if she could help them out - or when her sisters would be arriving - when the water of the pond started rippling like crazy. "Whoa! That's so cool! Is that you?" he asked.

"It wasn't much fun, no," Teisel said, not really very keen on revisiting those cheerful memories. "But it happens all the time. Sometimes, people like us..." He struggled for a brief explanation, without going into too much detail. "Sometimes, by the time you find someone willing to help you, it's too late, y'know?" And he left it at that. That part of his life was over and done with.

It was hard to describe how good it felt to have a sympathizer in his optical problem. Somehow it made it seem less crazy. "Yeah, that's exactly right! Where do they get off, anyway? I liked my optics just fine, thank you very much."

Either his veiled threat had gone right over the other guy's head, or he was playing it up for laughs. It was hard to figure out which. "Oh, I don't know if I'd say that," Teisel replied. "You're not concussed, maybe, but fine?" Raising one eyebrow (which was a more impressive gesture on Teisel than most), he gave the guy a pointed look.

That was strange. I don't feel any wind; I wonder what's doing that... Though he had a sinking feeling that they were upsetting the androids, even if one had grudgingly agreed not to thwomp them. So far. "Thank you so much, miss," Teisel said, in the most sugary tone he could muster. "All we want is some peace and quiet. We won't be any trouble at all."

Skuld smirked again; behind her, a wave rose up and crashed down... this time in the middle of the pond. She'd learned her lesson. "Yeah. You can stay--but don't even think about trying to get past me."

Scarlet nodded firmly; they were a force to be reckoned with. The people here didn't know what they were dealing with, though, so she and Skuld would be merciful... to an extent.

When Teisel started struggling to explain himself, Kon's grin softened from his normal 'yeah, I am pretty super' look to something more sympathetic. "Yeah I get you" he said thinking of the Superboy who'd been killed trying to warn his world. He wondered sometimes what would've become of him if he hadn't had people like Dubbilex and Roxy and Tana looking out for him. If he hadn't had friends around keep him safe.

He was jolted out if his musings by the look Teisel aimed his way. What was he on about now? Glancing down at his arm which was still throbbing dully Kon replied "Nah, I'm OK. I'm a superhero, I'm used to stuff like this." Except normally his powers meant he didn't really get hurt bad unless something was already wrong with him. And he seriously needed to figure out what had happened to his TTK. It couldn't just be missing unless someone had done something to him. Maybe the girls could help them out, they seemed to have powers which worked.

Kon rolled his eyes again as Teisel started kissing up to them. That wasn't the way to get them to help. You'd think he'd never spoken to a girl before he seemed so freaked by them. In the interests of making sure the guy didn't give himself a heart attack and to show him how things were done, Kon scrambled to his feet wincing as this made pain flare up in his arm. Sauntering over to the girl standing by the pond he went to drape his uninjured arm around her. "Seriously, don't worry about him. That's a neat trick you got there. You got superpowers too?" Maybe she was like Aquaman only like, a hundred times better and better looking.

Good. Some people wanted to know all the grisly details; Teisel personally couldn't see the appeal.

Yep, right over his head. With a defeated sigh and a muttered "Of course you are," Teisel let the matter drop. He'd just have to give the guy a sharp smack upside the head if he got out of line with the "girls" again.

That wave was...impressive. Teisel wasn't sure how she was doing that, but at the moment the 'how' didn't matter so much. She could hurt them, and that was reason enough to convince her that she could safely ignore them. She seemed to be in a better mood than she'd started (if androids could have moods), and Teisel was pretty comfortable that he'd diffused the situation when an unforseen complication occurred. The complication in question had just stood up and was starting over toward Certain Doom. "Wait a minute, what are you-" His voice sputtered out as he saw what the genius intended to do. He wouldn't, would he? He is. We're going to die.

Frantically shaking his head with several "stop that" gestures, he tried to get the guy's attention. Too late. When the genius slung his arm around the android's shoulders, Teisel froze to the spot, waiting to see if it was even worth trying to get out of the way.

Skuld frowned, extremely suspicious; when the boy tried to touch her... she suddenly flashed to one of several anti-goddess tools.

Don't touch her! Scarlet screamed as Skuld backed away fast.

"Don't think you can fool me!" the little goddess snarled. The incantation took scant seconds, and then an out-and-out tidal wave was rushing towards the boy. After it slammed him into the nearest object, the old man would be next--he hadn't done anything, no, but they weren't giving him the chance to either.

Teisel got glared at for that disparaging little comment. Soon as he got his powers back, Mr Impending Doom was getting a demonstration that Kon really was a grade A superhero. Maybe he'd take him flying. See if he believed him when they were miles up in the air with nothing but good old tactile telekinesis holding them up.

Of course, the effect his display of affection had on his companion went completely unnoticed by Kon. But there was no way he could miss the girl's overreaction. "Fool you? I wasn't trying to-" anything else he was about to say was lost in a gurgle as the wall of water knocked him off his feet, washing him backwards and slamming him into a tree.

Gasping and spluttering, Kon stayed sprawled back against the tree, waiting for the world to stop spinning and his arm to stop screaming at him. "What the hell was that for?" he yelled once he got his breath back. "Geez do you always react like that when someone tries to be nice?" Great, he was wet, cold and in pain and his TTK wasn't working. Now things couldn't get any worse.

As soon as he saw the water rise up (and up) Teisel knew he didn't have time to get out of its path. Wrapping his arms around the bench, he took a deep breath and braced himself. The force of the water squeezed the air right back out of his lungs. He gritted his teeth, arms straining to keep his grip on the bench as the wave tried to pull him away. When the water subsided, he collapsed onto the muddy ground, gulping air and blinking water out of his stinging eyes.

SuperIdiot's indignation was the last straw. Mad as a wet hen and still gasping for breath, he used the bench to hoist himself up to his feet. "You...utter...moron!" He took a moment to get his breath back. "What'd you do a damn stupid thing like that for? How is acting like a sleazebag supposed to be nice?" he added, almost as an afterthought. Obviously, SuperIdiot thought that the androids were actual girls, which made his advances that much more distasteful. If the guy had tried that crap with Teisel's sister, heavy artillery would have been involved.

"'Nice'? You think I wouldn't notice you trying to subdue me?" Skuld demanded. Noble Scarlet was glowering as if daring one of them to try that again.

Hoping to be discreet about it, Skuld fumbled behind her for a bomb... and, as feared, came up empty. The motion of the water behind her increased--partly because of her own agitation, partly to intimidate her opponents. They definitely had reason to fear what she could do with that.

Still, she was uncertain if she could hold this place on her own; Noble Scarlet flew up to look around. No back-up that she could see. Belldandy? Urd? Peorth? she called.

No answer. Not good. Skuld warned the boys, her voice low, "I wouldn't try anything funny."

[Sorry for my fail! Assessments caught me by surprise.]

Kon blinked at Teisel, taken aback by just how worked up he was. He wasn't the one with a great gaping hole in his arm that had just gotten slammed into a tree. Staggering upright he shouted back "Sleazebag? I was not acting like a sleazebag! It's called flirting! Maybe if you tried it sometime you wouldn't be so freaking uptight!"

Spinning to point at the girl who'd decided to send him on his painful little trip he snapped "And I wasn't trying to do anything to you! It's called being friendly! People do it all the time where I'm from!" Watching the pond warily in case she decided he needed another bath, Kon continued, "Why the hell would you think I'd try and attack you anyway? I'm Superboy!"

He started to fold his arms before wincing and dropping them back to his sides as his injury protested again, looking put out by the whole situation.

"Oh, is that what you call it?" Teisel yelled. This kid was standing on his last nerve. "That's funny, I don't remember her asking you to waltz up and drape yourself on her! She was going to leave us alone; why didn't you just back off?"

Wringing some of the water out of his ponytail (which was so soaked it must've weighed about ten pounds now), he listened in disbelief as the idiot started bellowing at the android who'd just kicked his ass. And he had a feeling that she'd been fairly gentle that time. This guy must be just plain tired of living... And what was he going on about? Maybe there were people here who actually were delusional.

As "Superboy" pouted like a child, Teisel kept a weather eye on the androids. They looked distinctly unhappy. He wasn't feeling too chipper himself. His hair was going to smell completely rancid if he didn't get a chance to wash the pond gunk out of it, and the kid's bites stood a good chance of getting infected now that they'd been drenched in filthy water. "Nice going, idiot," he muttered.

Skuld just stared at him. " 'Superboy'--?" Sure, she'd seen some Superman manga, but... last she checked, he was a green-eyed blond. And not a kid.

Maybe the brainwaves affecting most of the people in here were just making them delusional about who they were? It made as much sense as anything else.

She still just had to point out, "The Superman that I remember can stand up to a whole lot more than just a water blast." If the real one somehow showed up, she'd just let him by--he was a good guy anyway, and she wouldn't have much of a choice. But this kid? Please, whatever was going on with him had to be messing with his head.

"Look man, just 'cause no one ever wants to get cozy with you doesn't mean it's wrong for other people to do it! It's not like I was about to grope her or something!" Just when he'd been thinking Teisel was OK before, now he was yelling and carrying on like Kon was some stupid kid who'd done something wrong. How could have been expected to know that the girl would totally over react to his getting close to her? Even Robin didn't freak out like that when Kon tried to touch him.

Deciding Teisel was no longer worth his attention, Kon pointedly turned back to the girl - who obviously was just as annoying as Aquaman. Maybe they were related. "First up, I said I'm Superboy not Superman! And second, like I've been trying to tell people all night my powers aren't working! I don't know why but if they were I would've flown out of here ages ago! And it still doesn't explain why you'd think I was going to attack you!"

Now, that was just plain uncalled for. "Oh yeah? For your information, plenty of people get cozy with me!" Granted, the foremost among them had been a man, but that wasn't the point. The point was... But he was letting the guy sidetrack him. "What makes you think you can just walk up to some girl you don't even know and... Oh, forget it!" Teisel crossed his arms in a huff. If the guy didn't even see anything wrong with his extremely unchivalrous behavior, then pointing it out would do no good at all.

And now he was being ignored. Fine! See if I care! Teisel shivered in the cool night air, wondering why he'd gone out of his way to help this reject from Brainville. The guy's outburst and his argument with the android girl just got him all kinds of confused, though. He didn't like feeling out of the loop. "Super what?" he snapped, frustrated beyond belief and trying to keep his voice in check. "What are you going on about?" This was intolerable. If the night didn't start to improve, he was going to have to hurt something. Or someone, and he already had a short list whipped up. A very short list.

"You got the boy part right, at least," he grumbled.

"Anti-goddess tools can be disguised as anything--or didn't you know that?" Skuld retorted. She didn't see any rings on him, and she'd never heard of one that was animate (she wasn't discounting the possibility that he was a construct of some kind), but she wasn't about to let anyone get the better of her.

Scarlet just glared; she and Skuld were getting a little worried, but they were not going to show it. Even with just magic at their disposal, they had the upper hand right now, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to keep it that way.

Our weakest is still better than their strongest, she said, in response to how Skuld's anxiety was still creeping up. We'll keep things under control no matter how long it takes the others to get here.

She nodded, not taking her eyes off their opponents, but her angel's words made her smirk. Yeah--really, who could stand up against them?

Kon hadn't intended to dignify anything else Teisel said with a response. He was way too defensive to have actually gotten much action lately - probably hadn't been laid in ages which would explain why he was so uptight. But then he didn't seem to have any idea who Superman was and there was no way that could be right. "Superman," Kon repeated for him slowly. "You know, flies around Metropolis in tights and a cape, has saved the world more times than anyone can count, part of the Justice League? That guy? Well, I'm Superboy. I'm kind of like his understudy."

"Even you can't be so over-the-hill you've never heard of Superman," Kon said, payback for the boy comment.

He frowned at the girl, "Wait - goddess? Are you saying you're a goddess?" Great. This was just like that thing with the supposed goddess Pele back in Hawaii. Hopefully it wouldn't end as badly as that had - she may have knocked him into a tree and gotten him all gross thanks to the pond water but he didn't want this girl to die. At least this time there were no innocent bystanders to worry about. Teisel so didn't count as innocent after the way he'd been carrying on at him.

And now the girl was nodding like she was talking to someone. Was she crazy or was it something else? Maybe she was telepathic like Dubbilex? Whatever. He needed to make sure she wasn't going to hurt anyone, including herself.

"So, why would a goddess be in a place like this? Seems pretty weird if you ask me." He had to get her talking, try and figure out what she wanted. And he wasn't going to make the mistake of getting too close to her again. Kon was staying right here by his tree in case she tried to drown him again. If he was lucky he could climb out of the way. Or something.

Reaching out he tried shoving on the ground again - nope. Still couldn't fly. Great. Just great.

Teisel laughed. He just couldn't help himself; it was too ridiculous. "Oh, kid," he gasped, trying to get a hold of himself, "you can't be serious! That's your story, huh? Some goofball poncing around in tights and a cape...!" He couldn't breathe, he was laughing too hard. "Sorry, Superboy," he said, barely managing to get the name out at all. "Can't say I've ever heard of you." Breathless, sides aching, he wiped a tear out of the corner of his eye. "You really expect me to buy that? Sounds more like a lousy comic book to me." On a whim, he grabbed his ponytail. "Tell you what," he said, waggling the tail at the guy, "You fly, and I'll cut off my hair."

Feeling a lot less tense now, Teisel could turn his attention back to more important matters. Anti-goddess tool? Nearly all he knew about androids was what Professor Caskett had filled him in on, and his brief run-in with Megaman Juno. He'd only ever heard about Mothers and Megamen, not Goddesses. Was it some rank in between? So many questions, but it probably wasn't a good idea to ask her directly. For now, he was content to let Superboy do the talking; Teisel would watch and listen from the sidelines where it was a little safer.

Skuld pictured the Superman she knew in that getup and had to try not to laugh. Snorting, she looked at his fanboy and said, "You seriously don't know the signs?" She pointed to the marks on her face. "This is how you tell." Noble Scarlet leaned forward, and she added, "And, more powerful goddesses have angel companions."

As for what she was doing here--ugh. "My sister's stupid boyfriend. We don't know who took him, so--I'm supposed to stay here and block anybody who comes through from getting any further. Don't take it personally."

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