2014-12-01 - The Bet: Gathering

Voices appear in the infinite darkness, where nothing else could possibly exist. One seems old, but full of life. The other, young. Also pretty full of it. "Two pair."

"You're cheating. You could never beat me fairly at anything."

"Oh don't be like that. You chose the game."

"Oh like you could do better. Your imagination came up with Disco."

"That wasn't me, but you have to admit, it was interesting."

After a time, they speak again. "New game then?"

Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El is at the farm, enjoying some pie. It was very nice pie. Unfortunately, she finds herself unable to finish it as the bite being raised to her lips vanishes, along with the entire world.

Black Bat, aka Cassandra Cain, is doing handstand pushups with one hand on top of a building when she finds the building gone. Eyes glancing about, she wonders where the building went. And gravity, since she was upside-down and now she's not.

The place they are at? It appears to be a simple brown room, with dirt floors and walls made of some kind of corrugated plastic. No doors are immediately visible, but they do appear to both be there.

Kara Zor-El was all ready to have Ma Kent's apple pie. The one that Kal raves about. And Kal had gone into town to get two of those milkshakes which were so thick that you could use a spoon! Sure it defeated the purpose of a milkshake, but still! Then she's standing.

Without her pie.

And Ma Kent and the house are no longer there.

And instead of civilian clothes, she's in her Supergirl outfit.

And judging from her surroundings, and Cassandra standing there as well, there's one thing that can be certain.

She definitely was not in Kansas anymore.

Kara looks over at Cassandra. "Er... hey. I'm going to assume that you didnt have anything to do with this right?" She looks around at the nondescript brown, plastic room. "Because if you were, and this is Batman's new cave, he sort of needs a decorator. Badly." she says before using X-ray vision on the walls.

Wearing her Black Bat costume, the one with the mask and not the full-face stuff, Cassandra looks about the room quickly to take in any possible threats. Spotting Supergirl, she shakes her head in response to the question being asked of her and gives a grin at Supergirl's following comments. Dusting herself off, she wonders idly how anyone gets in and out of the place. "No doors," she says with her usual thriftiness of speech.

From the center of the room, a voice comes, saying, "It's fascinating watching them immediately go into detective mode, isn't it? The Kryptonian dives into her super powers and ....I have to admit, I've been more impressed by Black Bat's detective skills."

A small balding man in a badly tailored yellow suit is suddenly sitting upside-down on the roof, nowhere near the voice, that says, "You're judging them based on that? Don't be ridiculous, here. Give them something to detect." He waves his hand and suddenly there is a WORLD outside, teeming with people. There are windows to look out of, and passersby, and background radiation and everything.

In the middle of the room, the voice turns into a tiny male with a batgirl costume, right down to the skirt. He dances around in the middle of the room, looking highly amused, and says, "Batgirl! Supergirl! It's such an amazing honor to meet you both in person for reals!

Kara Zor-El looks at the absence of.... well... ANYTHING beyond the walls. That's really weird. Not air. Not stars. Not even subatomic particles. A complete oblivion of nothing. Even a black hole had -something-. "Yeah, I'm beginning to think no doors is a good thing." she responds to Cassandra, right before the voices start chatting with each other.

Then Mxyzptlk appears, and Kara seems to recognize him from the Oracle Files. She leans over and whispers to Cassandra, "I think I've heard of this guy, but who's he talking to?" She says to Mxyzptlk, "Okay - why did you bring us here?!" And then Bat-Mite pops in right after a world pops into being outside of the room, causing Kara's sternness to turn to confusion.

She looks at Mxyzptlk, and the even more oddly dressed Bat-Mite. "Okay.. um... this guy I havent heard of." she says to Cassandra before saying, "Er......." She scratches her head a little. "Thank... you. I think?" She looks at Cassandra again.

Cassandra mostly just stands there looking at Mxyzptlk as he appears. No visible response to either him OR to the world outside starting to make noise. Listening to him, and to Kara, she gives her usual slight shrug. That's a fairly eloquent response for her.

When Bat-Mite appears, she literally leaps backward into a crouch and spreads her hands as if ready to defend herself, staying low and growling. Yes, growling. There's a definite difference in her response level on this one. "Bat-Mite," she says without pausing in the growling. Which is a bit of a trick.

Completely ignoring the Bat's response, Mxyzptlk looks directly at Supergirl and smiles his winning smile. "We haven't met yet? I always get the timelines mixed up, I was certain we'd played before. We're here in this noble, grand empire," Mxyzptlk spreads his short arms wide, "to invite you to play a game for us!"

Bat-Mite is hugging Black Bat as she makes a serious effort to pry him loose from her leg, as he adds, "You'll do it right? I just know you will."

Kara Zor-El rubs the bridge of her nose. "From what I've read, don't you usually deal with my cousin?" she says to Mxyzptlk before noticing Black Bat's biggest new fan. When Cassandra does say the name of the other 5th Dimensional Imp, Kara says. "Bat-Mite? That's seriously your name?" She looks back at Mxyzptlk. "How about the game of 'take us back home right now?'

Mxyzptlk, with his usual aplomb, says, "You're turning down our invitation? Bat-Mite, let go of your champion's leg. We came all the way across multiple universes to ask you for...oh for heaven's sake. We're going to have you fight in a gladiatorial tournament because we're bored."

Bat-Mite, still holding Cassandra's leg even though she's spraying him with mace, says, "You always rush things. Cassandra, may I call you Cassandra? I know, I just KNOW you can do it. I've read all of your comics. But it'll be you fighting against some of the best fighters the universe has to offer. And if you don't do it then they'll fight each other and most of them will end up dead. I know you're a hero, you can beat them safely...." and he trails off, with Cassandra having gone dead-still. Except for the can of mace, which spritzes one more time hopefully.

Kara Zor-El crosses her arms. "Look, there's no-" She pauses and looks at Cassandra, who seems to be considering it. "Seriously?" She looks at the Imps. "We do this and you send us back home - no needing to trick you into saying your name backwards or... whatever this guy's deal is?" She thumbs at Bat-Mite the leg-gripper.

The two imps step away from their respective champions, allowing Cassandra to try to clean her leg of the slightly used feeling. "Skirt? Seriously?" She asks, still looking kind of torn on this whole topic.

Mxyzptlk says, "I give my word, we'll send you home. To your own place in the timestream, since you didn't think to ask and I'm feeling generous. No, no, don't both of you thank me at once. It's meaningless anyway." He raises his hand to snap his fingers and Bat-Mite forestalls him sending them away with a spell of his own. "I was not through talking, here." Huff.

He pauses, then looks at his outfit. "I try to dress up appropriately for whoever I'm visiting." He's suddenly wearing a full leather bondage mask and leather pants, which look inutterably ridiculous on him. "Mm cn't tlk in dss one tfough," he mumbles, then unzips his head and climbs out, standing next to his own body, which poofs in a puff of smoke. Now he's dressed like Batman.

Cassandra glances at Kara, rolling her eyes, and tries to meet her gaze. "Up for a fight?"

Kara Zor-El decidedly does NOT thank Mxyzptlk, right before they're sent... wherever. When they re-appear... wherever... and Cassandra asks her the question, Kara is the one to shrug a bit this time. "Sooner we get this done, the sooner I get back home for pie. Rao I hate magic so much."