V is for VROOOM. That noise you make flying planet to planet trying to fix stuff.

[helmetisntdumb]

He comes in with a flash of energy jets from the vents in his suit, and a vorpThe grin on his face is the smuggiest grin that ever smugged, only he has a damn good reason for it

Comments

[nipplefaucets]

"Party. Definitely party." Robbie is a helper! "Maybe introduce your bestest-ever Earth friend to some galactic cuties."

"Mrrrrow." The cat at his ankles, meanwhile, suggests that you celebrate by letting him dine upon your succulent flesh, shiny-human. (You shall pay for the humiliation you have visited upon him, He-Who-Is-Called-Nova. Oh, you shall pay.)

[helmetisntdumb]

"You couldn't handle 'em, toothpick. Way too much woman for you. Possibly too much green, blue, and other colors, too. And Peter Quill said this stuff about Kree women bein' able to suck out your life force. No idea what the story there is, but I believe it."

||Richard, I am getting strange readings from that feline.||

Yeah, of course you are. That's Niels.

||That is the same cat you retrieved.||

I know. Niels.

||No, Richard, I don't think you understand...||

[nipplefaucets]

Robbie crouches down, scritching Niels behind the ears. Completely oblivious to the grotesque violence his cat wishes to pay upon his best friend. "Too much? No woman is too much for Robert Baldwin, Love God of Springdale, Stamford, and nay, even the whole of Fairfield County."

[helmetisntdumb]

"Yeah, except that space chicks've got way more impressive titles than 'love god of Fairfield County.' Like 'The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe.'"

||Richard, that cat is the exact same cat you rescued. The readings, including the dimensional residue on him, are identical. He is from our universe of origin. There are also anomalous readings around your friend.||

Outwardly, Rich's expression falls and he looks a little confused.

Anomalous how?

||It is difficult to tell. There is some sort of strange chronal residue...||

"Say, toothpick, where'd you pick up Niels from? Your world? Or did you find him around here?"

[nipplefaucets]

"Huh? He's been with me since I got here, R -- Nova." Not that he can remember... exactly how that happened.

A bit of a troubled look starts to find its way to his face, as well. He may be a dweeb, Robbie, stubborn and impulsive and flippant, but even he can take two and two and realise that it might just mean four.

[helmetisntdumb]

"Are you sure?"

[nipplefaucets]

"Yeah."

Aw, @%#$.

"You don't think..."

[helmetisntdumb]

Rich is...hesitant to say anything that will upset him.

"Worldmind--that's the Xandarian super-computer, which is in my head now--he can't get a read on you. Like, he can tell, at least with things from our universe, that they're from our universe, Some sort of energy signature. Residue. But you've got some sort of chronal stuff on you that's making it impossible for him to ping you. Niels, on the other hand, is pinging as the same Niels from our world, our time. Ours as in me and Worldmind's. I'm not sure what it all means..."

[nipplefaucets]

"And Mathemaniac was chasing me around earlier, screaming something about chrono-edding... whatevers. I don't know if even he knows what he's saying, most of the time..." There's a vaguely frantic note in his voice, in the joke. Not panic, not quite. Just -- if he's not himself, who is he?

[helmetisntdumb]

"I think you're you, toothpick, just...I dunno. Maybe some weird time thing is going on. What's the last thing you remember back home?"

[nipplefaucets]

"School." A world's worth of loathing and dread, in a single word. "I think I'm going to flunk out of algebra again."

Sixteen, then. (And that stupid earring probably seals it.) Rich probably heard an earful about this particular period from Robbie, and from his mother when the whole reality TV show thing was being pulled together.

[helmetisntdumb]

Rich rubbed the back of his head. "Have you talked to anyone from a world like ours yet? I'm guessing no. 'Cause there was something that...happened in a lot of worlds. In mine. Something that might happen in yours--I dunno. But if I tell you that might mess up time. If I don't, someone else might, but in a worse way."

[nipplefaucets]

"Not beside... y'know, you and Mathemaniac." A pause. "And that -- mercenary guy in the red and black. Deadguy, Deathcool... whatever his name was."

No Squirrel Girl, yet. Thank God.

"Something, huh?" Damn temporal ethics dilemmas. "How bad of a something?"

[helmetisntdumb]

"World-changingly bad. In my world, you-changingly bad." Stupid temporal crap. "I dunno if it's a good idea to tell you, 'cause of time stuff, but I don't want you to get blindsided by someone else, either. I dunno what to do here..."

[nipplefaucets]

Save the world, save lives, or take the safer path and avoid possibly messing up time itself. But from what he's been hearing in the Nexus...

"Screw the time stuff. It's already boned, from what I've heard here."

Baldwin is impulsive, and sometimes stupid. But he means well, at least.

"Tell me what happens."

[helmetisntdumb]

||Attention, Richard! It is critical you pay attention at this time! I advise you not to inform him of his future--you could severely damage the time stream, and critically alter important events for the worse--||

Or for the better. Look at him, Worldmind. Shouldn't he have the chance to stay this way? Shouldn't Thrash and the others have the chance to stay alive? And Nita...

||Richard, you are letting your personal feelings affect your judgment. It is your duty as a Nova Centurion to protect the universe to the best of your capabilities, and that included from time alteration where applicable, if possible--||

I can tell him to warn the Corps...

||And then prevent you from becoming empowered with the Nova Force and becoming the general of the United Front.||

Fine, I'll just tell him to make sure I go up into space, and that I absolutely have to, and not tell him why. And then there won't be a Civil War. Earth's heroes will be able to help with Annihilus, the Phalanx invasion could be prevented--all those people will still be