Jump City
Franklin Earnest
Funny thing about the multiverse, in one universe you could be some caped vigilante, another you could be a villain, others you can be some ordinary joe blow working at the DMV. For Franklin, unbeknownst to him in the wider multiverse, he was Earnest Franklin, an antihero that cut off his victims beards, and was dubbed the Beard Cutter.
But for this universe? Franklin was an honest lawman, a squad captain that commanded swat teams and police to safeguard Jump City; while he looked vastly different to his counterpart, the 'Beard Hunter', he was nonetheless a man that made sure the criminal scum of his city were behind bars.
As of right now, he was sitting in the passenger seat while his deputy drove to the crashed semi truck that was supposed to not crash and deliver Plasmus's contained human form to his new cell block; accidents happen, but Franklin was also of the mind that the accidents can also be man-made.
For all he knew, some new costumed villain cut the brakes of the crashed semi truck to cause a distraction, you never knew what sort of new psychopath would pop up to try and rob a bank or lab.
Right now though, he needed his men to take care of Plasmus, lives were at stake, he only hoped that weird pink alien kid was around; he cared not for the help from supers, at the end of the day, the city and its people mattered to him, and he needed all the help he could get with these sorts of situations.
While the Swat and Police cars drove behind and alongside the car he was in, it wasn't long before his deputy rounded the corner of a street to finally reach the crash site of the semi-truck; in the distance he could see a cybertic looking teen kid of African descent judging by the small fracking of human skin showing, racking his brain, that must be Victor Stone. He read Silas's file, the poor man lost his wife and almost his son.
He has a wife of his own, and a son, he could sympathize with Silas's situation; Beside Victor Stone, was an unknown gray skinned, pinked haired girl, he hadn't seen her around, so she must be a newcomer to the city. He'd bet his week's pay that she was probably a metahuman, her cautious eyes towards the approaching law enforcement told Franklin enough that she had prior incidents with the law.
As his cop car came to screeching halt, he saw that Buu kid, some alien the Star Labs woke up, all other information had been classified from his snooping; so far, the pink kid has been rather okay living in his city, with the occasional hero activity he did whenever a crime happened in his vicinity, but otherwise, worked at the docks and studied at the library from what his informants have told him.
Little guy was probably trying to figure out how to adapt to life on Earth or something.
Beside the pink alien kid, was a ball containing a sleeping person, and judging by the familiar face inside the pod looking pink thing, it was Otto, all asleep.
Well at least Franklin didn't have to worry about losing men to take down Plasmus.
Majin Buu
I glanced at the pod that Otto was inside of; I frowned a bit, I'd had best remove him out there and take the pod back into myself. Star Labs already has bits of me as well as my blood in their labs, having this much of myself just lying around for others to use was too much.
…I really should see what Star Labs has been doing with my Buu bits and blood…hindsight is twenty twenty, and I wasn't thinking much when I left the lab without taking what they took from me back into myself.
Reaching out to the pod containing Otto, the entire ball shifted a bit and dumped Otto out, while the rest of the pink pod flew back to me; the pink goo became one with me once more, as it slipped under my hoodie and was absorbed back into me.
"You sure that was a good idea, kid?" The Police Squad Captain hollered over at me as he approached me, he towered over me by at most twice my height, making me glance up at him as he stood a few feet away from me; he palmed his sides as he gave me a direct stare, "That might have woken him up." he warned.
I glanced at the now approaching men in hazard suits and the Swat team that Surrounded Otto, and began doing their job of putting the poor dude into a new vat to keep him asleep; Otto kinda has a bit of a Hulk situation going on for him judging by this version of him, a good person when asleep and right as he wakes up, but his villain counterpart was nothing short of mayhem and evil.
No wait, both characters are like Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde…I think…
I shrugged at the Captain, giving him a dismissive look, before smirking a bit, "Not worry much, Buu will just deal with goop man again." I answered him, and glanced at the process of men placing Otto into his new Vat, before shutting the top latch, and filling it up with green liquid. Must be some sort of breathable liquid that kept the dude asleep as well.
The Squad Captain grunted at me, before speaking again after scoffing, "Well, in any case, thanks for putting him down, who knows what amount of damage he could have done." he pointedly looked around at all the broken windows in the vicinity.
Thinning my lips a bit at the little possible jab at me, I shrugged and turned around. Focusing my energy into my antennae, I made sure to aim at every broken window and the shards around the area; shortly after, a pink beam shot out from my prehensile antennae and zapped every window back to its prior state.
Looking around, I looked down where my head had impacted the road, where there was now a sizable pothole; aiming my antenna again, I zapped the road and the broken bits to fix the road back up.
Smiling to myself, this was a broken magic ability. I know for a fact that Buu used people in the anime to make his own home, but I think that was just part of Buu not caring about others before Hercule came into the picture.
The Squad Captain whistled a bit of appreciation, before speaking again to me, his gaze directed to the fixed damage of the windows and street "I think this is the first case I've seen a Hero fix the damage he did." he remarked, some amusement in his tone was evident.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure business is booming in Superman's city with construction companies everytime the caped hero defends his city from a heavy hitter. Hundred Bucks says Lex Luther pays for all the damage in Metropolis to get cutbacks on his taxes or something like that.
…or at least, that's my first thought, I'm not really sure how tax cutbacks work for the wealthy.
The Squad Captain shook his head with a wry smirk, and looked at me, "In any case, stick around while I speak with your friends." He told me while walking off towards Victor and Jinx, "I have a police report to write up, and I need as much eyewitness information about this accident."
…you know, sometimes I forget that being part of the police force involves a lot of documentation…
Later
Star Labs
Jinx
The front doors hissed open, allowing the three of them to enter the front lobby of the building; while most of the building was off limits to any normal civilian, save for the lobby and visitor center, the atmosphere felt quite nice in all fairness in Jinx's opinion.
The earlier confrontation with that Police Captain had led to simple questions of their eyewitness accounts and names, and while Jinx didn't exactly have any serious criminal records from her old home town, she still had a bit of history with Truancy officers and some minor misdemeanors from pranks she pulled that earned her a visit from the police.
Jinx wouldn't put it past the Captain to look up her records, not like she cared, but she wasn't going to be forced to go back home.
When they were allowed to leave the scene, Victor had led the way back to his home to use his phone, before he could ask permission to head into his Dad's lab to ask a few questions in person.
So that led to the situation that was right now, Jinx was treated to the sight of an older looking man of African descent, who was standing out beside the front desk looking over a few things.
The man looked up from the papers, and smiled as his eyes honed in on Victor, "Son! When you called, I was honestly hoping you'd have done so, I saw the news not too long ago."
Victor stepped in ahead of her and Buu, to speak more directly with his dad while Jinx and Buu continued to follow after the teen, "Yeah, Buu had it handled." He thumbed back towards the person in question, she could vaguely imagine Victor was making a smirk with that tone of his.
Victor's dad smiled over at the pink alien, "Well I'm glad you're handling yourself just fine out there, Buu." he noted, earning a response back from Buu.
Frowning before he spoke, Buu grunted "Hmm, had to end fight quickly, sludge man looked too dangerous." he answered, earning a nod from Victor's dad.
The man frowned, "Otto has been one of our patients many times in the past, unfortunately, we have yet to figure out a way to help the poor kid." he shook his head at the end.
To Jinx, that did suck, having to sleep your whole life to keep an alter ego of yourself at bay, "What is he, some metahuman?" She spoke up, curiosity seeping into her tone.
Victor's dad looked at her with a curious glance, then focused on giving her a nod, "While I'm not at liberty to say much on his records, I will say he is in fact a metahuman." He reached out to shake hands with her, "The name's Silas by the way, I wasn't aware my son already had a girlfriend." he smirked a bit.
While Jinx was aware so much of that was not true, and she could tell Silas was joking, it didn't make Victor look any less embarrassed, "Oh come on dad! Dang." He reached up to scratch at his head, "I just met her at some corner of the street, then we ended up going to the same restaurant!" he remarked.
Silas on the other hand gave his son a raised eyebrow, before shaking his head, then looked back at her, "Well, whatever the case is, my son here said you came to this city for some sort of school?" he asked.
Giving the man a hapless shrug, she blew a stray strand of her hair from her face and crossed her arms before speaking with Silas, "Well the more I think about it, the more silly it sounds, a school for gifted kids with powers." she answered him, banking on him to know something at least.
Silas rubbed at his chin covered by a thin beard, before speaking with a curious tone, "That's…I mean…I have submitting out mail to registered metahumans that need help with their powers, in exchange for research on the metagene, but I don't think I recall seeing you on any of our files." he answered her.
Silas then frowned as he looked at her, "But if you're looking a for a school that involves taking in teens with powers…that…would be Hive Academy…" he then seemed to be sizing her up a bit, making a her a bit self conscious, "A very…villainous and hidden academy that grooms teens to become villains."
So…she essentially would have been signing up to learn how to become a villain? Yeah, she could see herself doing that, but the way Silas worded it made her skin crawl.
Wait, then she met up with the wrong duo? Well whoever is running the academy's methods of recruiting teens into the school, needs to be fired.
Glancing at Victor and then at Buu for a second, then back at Silas, she shrugged at the man, meh, at the end of the day, she came here to get away from her hometown, whether she became a villain or a hero, was her own choice in the end. "Whatever." She answered Victor's dad with a drawl, "Well, since I missed my chance, I guess I'll figure things out on my own." she shrugged again, before walking off to leave the lab and the three.
Majin Buu
There was some definite misunderstanding having gone awry with this whole thing involving Jinx, but I do like the thought of messing up canon by trying to encourage her to be a hero rather than a villain. While Jinx was leaving with her back turned towards us, I glanced over at Victor's face, showing visible uncertainty, I wasn't sure.
I do know though, that there was supposed to be chemistry between the two in the show, so I suppose I should be a good wingman here.
I elbowed Victor, earning his attention, "Jinx girl could use friends, yes?" I smirked at him, "Big town, no place to stay, wasn't Victor man's plan inviting her to stay at his home till girl can figure out life?" I encouraged him. I was able to use his name more often this time, as well as Jinx's, but still kept using broken english.
It was like trying to work with the knob frequency of a radio, I would always get some broken English out of my words regardless.
Victor snapped his fingers, and looked over at his dad, who looked back at his son with a raised brow, "If your asking if that girl could borrow the guest room, go ahead." he shrugged, and walked off with his hands in his lab coat pockets, but paused and looked back at him, "And if she's willing, the lab can help her if she wishes to control her powers in exchange for studying her metagene." Silas hollered back as he left afterwards.
Victor's Home
Seeing Victor fumble a bit while trying to play it off all cool to invite Jinx to his home, seemed to work just fine to Jinx when she smirked a bit at Victor's attempt at being suave about the whole thing.
So now here we were, walking into Victor's house, a modest looking place if there was ever one on the east coast. While Jinx placed her suitcase aside atop a couch, she looked around with a critical gaze, "I don't want to be staying here forever, I didn't come here to lodge up with some random people after all." She gruffly remarked, expressing a dispassionate look around the place.
While I stayed near the entrance of the house, Victor walked past Jinx and shrugged while looking over his shoulder, "Well the offer my dad gave still stands, the lab shouldn't be that bad compared to some villain academy." he answered, before walking off into the kitchen.
Victor had of course discussed with Jinx what his dad was offering at the lab.
Jinx glanced over at me while in the background in the kitchen, Victor opened the fridge to grab something. "Did they experiment much on you in the lab, in return for relearning your powers?" she questioned me, her tone of voice expressing uncertainty.
The walk back to Victor's house had been long enough for a few conversations to take place, and among them was the topic that I woke up and stayed at the lab for a week before breaking out. Key topic of that story was that I willingly stayed there for a week, to understand my powers enough, before getting out.
But seeing as how Jinx was a human, and not some walking pile of pink destruction? I'm pretty sure the lab would be less cautious around her, it wasn't like she could conjure up a death ball and decimate the entire planet.
…not like the scientist knew that about me, but they knew for a fact I held enough strength within myself and contained quite a bit of power.
I flashed Jinx an impish smirk, "Is Jinx girl afraid of needles?" I questioned, making her glare a bit at me, "How much does Jinx need help with powers?" I followed up with, "No pressure to do request, but Victor's father man offered help." I shrugged.
Jinx frowned a bit, before sighing with her arms crossed while she plopped herself down into the chair behind her, "I'll think about it, I still need help mastering these powers afterall." She answered while lifting her finger up to show a static looking pink energy swirl around her index finger.
Meanwhile, Victor walked back with three pop cans in hand, two in one and one in the other, "Yo." He nonchalantly tossed me a can, making me catch it out of the air. I looked down at it while he handed the other extra one to Jinx, the brand was 'Doctor Dude'.
That whole name came off as a cheesy way to sell to teens. I raised my brow as I popped mine open and peered into it…it's green…does that mean it's this world's Mountain Dew?
"Something wrong with it dude?" Victor asked me while he opened his up.
I took a quick sip of it, and swallowed the contents down after tasting it. Definitely mountain dew taste. "Buu never tasted this brand yet, that's all." I answered him. Half truth, half lie…wait, now I'm getting an aftertaste of lemon? Weird.