[one]

[justicecrusher]

[Action - 629 Topper Street]

[Kotetsu groggily opens his eyes and begins to stretch. Nothing out of the ordinary here...that is until he realizes he isn't in his bed and there's a strange woman lying next to him. Nope, not something that happens to him on a regular basis. He'll spend a few minutes frantically running around the house, searching for

Comments

phone

[nomorelosing]

Wish it was a dream, but that's getting very unlikely by the minute.

Calm down, buddy. You're not the only one who wants to go home.

[justicecrusher]

Then how do you explain how I got here?! I'm 100% sure I fell asleep in my own bed last night!

[He pauses for a moment.]

Wait a sec...there are others here? Besides you, I mean. Eh, who are you anyway?

[nomorelosing]

So am I! By all means, I was supposed to be sleeping in today!

Apparently, the guys behind this have been doing this for a while and with a LOT of other people. The way some guy explained it seemed to imply that there's some kind of - of magic involved here. Crazy, huh?

[he sucks in air, having rushed to get that all out.]

I'm Kaz. Kazuhira Miller. I just got here, too.

[justicecrusher]

Oh, you don't say! I'm supposed to be resigning today. Looks like that's not happening.

Magic? Do you mean their powers? [He laughs softly.]

My name is...

[He hesitates for a moment, trying to decide if he should give away his identity. But his mask is MIA and there's not much else around to hide it...] My name's Kotetsu Kaburagi!

[nomorelosing]

Unless we can find a way out by the end of the week, sorry. [and now a daily dose of huh?] Um, I guess? Magic isn't real where I'm from; I'd really like to say that there's a scientific explanation behind this, but...

[and he trails off.]

...Nevermind. Sorry that this had to happen to you, Kaburagi-san. Er - I can try to answer whatever questions you have, but I'm afraid I don't know as much as some of the other people here do.

[justicecrusher]

Y'mean you've never heard of people having superpowers? Where do you come from?

[He's more shocked by this than he should be.]

Ah, don't worry about it. Same to you! Sleeping in is...just as important as resigning! [Who is he kidding, nothing is more important than that at the moment.] So how do we get out of here?

[nomorelosing]

[so very dryly] Earth. I hear it's a nice place.

...Well, that's the problem. Word I've been getting is that it's more or less impossible, at least at face value. The people holding us here...they're something else altogether.

[justicecrusher]

Is there anything we can do? Anything at all? [Justice senses tingling.] It...it isn't right to do this to people! They need to be stopped, okay?!

[nomorelosing]

I know, man. From what I've heard, there are kids here. They don't deserve this, and if I had it my way, I'd make sure that those freaks behind this would be begging for a quick end.

[he inhales.]

But there's nothing we can do right away. I'm not saying that you gotta take this lying down, but you're not gonna help anyone by rushing into things, not least of all those kids and yourself.

[he pauses then, reluctantly, adds:] I've heard that they're big on brainwashing, too.

[justicecrusher]

[The line goes quiet for a few moments. He can't help but think of his own daughter being here, and how angry he would be at that.]

...ah, sorry.

Then what about some kind of plan?

[nomorelosing]

[...good question.]

Sticking together is the best option. The guy I spoke to about this told me that there's some kind of movement going on about opposing the guys doing this to us, but if that's been going on for very long and they're still in charge, I don't think it's been very successful.

I've also heard that, sometimes and for whatever reason, people do go home. But when they do, they leave behind an empty shell called a Drone.

[justicecrusher]

I want to help out with it! It's gotta work eventually. I promise I won't give up. [Getting a little too excited over this...]

1/2

[nomorelosing]

Yeah, neither will I. I've been through stuff worse than this on a good day. [barely by a margin, but hey, giant robots are way more scary than creepy faux 1950s towns.] And it's not like working with a large group of people like this is anything new either. I help manage a unit back home, so this should be easy. As long as we stay strong together, we'll be alright.

2/2

[nomorelosing]

[his tone becomes a little more somber.]

As for the people running it, I don't know too much about them. There's a Major General Olivier Armstrong trying to run one, and I think there are a few others, too. It's a safe bet that you should talk to her if you want to get involved with whatever she's doing.

[with all these factions popping up, would it even be a good time to establish some branch of MSF here?

well, of course. but he's not about to give that away to a civilian, especially when he doesn't even know where to begin with it himself.]

Ah, also... You're gonna wanna stay away from the Mayor and the Chief of Police. They're both in on this; dangerous, too.

[justicecrusher]

I think working as a group is the best option. [Never mind that he's had trouble working with just one other person before.] But yeah, we can do it!

Okay, Mayor and the Police Chief! Got it!