It's shaping up to be another average day on the Transmigration 9. Crew members are going about their business as usual and all is (to most appearances, at least) about as "well" as things ever are on the ship.

Some crew members are going to be stopped out of the blue by impact with a force field.

"Attention Crewmen: You have been chosen to participate in an experiment!" GLaDOS's voice informs. They're not alone, someone else that was nearby is also caught within the same narrow radius. "Participation is mandatory. Please try to relax and enjoy the experience, as this will improve the quality of the test results."

Clearly this is going to be a wonderful day for science.

"You and your new scientific partner are now on a date," GLaDOS goes on. "As it would be detrimental to our study of the date experience if you were to be separated, you must remain close to your partner for the duration of the experiment. This will be enforced with the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field. Prolonged exposure to the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field may have unexpected side-effects. While any side-effects encountered will be documented and your desire to offer yourself to science is commendable, it is not a necessary part of this experiment."

"You will be informed when the test has been completed. We would like to thank you in advance for your full cooperation in the experiment and failure to attempt to foil it in any way."

"The experiment has begun, so you may begin dating."

( OOC Notes Below Cut! )

Thump.

"God damn it!" Howard hops out of the car he's been practicing parking in and runs behind it to check what he hit. Just one of the cones he set up, thank goodness, and there's no damage to the car, but after four hours of this he's getting beyond frustrated. He sets the cone back up and gets back in the car.

The car itself is, in the kindest form of the word, a junker. Howard considers it a minor miracle that between pouring over the manual and putting pieces of it together with duct tape and dried bubblegum he's managed to get the engine running. Granted, he doubts it can handle more than ten miles an hour, the brake lights and turn signals don't work, and the windshield and rearview window are missing, but he isn't looking for a permanent vehicle here. He just needs something to practice in.

Normal fifteen year-olds take driver's ed, right? And he's always done better learning on his own than listening to lectures. So after reading through a few books on driving and watching some tapes in the Media Library, not to mention having driven around a few times back in the FAYZ, he thinks he's about due to do something this normal. Scratch that - the universe owes it to him. So that's why he found a mostly empty street in the city to set up a little driving obstacle course.

He does, however, wish he could have found an automatic junker to salvage. Clearly the inventor of the stick-shift only created it so he could mess with Howard. And with those poor traffic cones.

Thunk.

[OOC: bendied to before foodplot and survivalist plot.]

On the surface of his emotions, Terry was feeling pretty good, all things considered. He was now on the security team. His best friend was on the ship now. The former Robins had agreed to be a part of an actual team with him. Underneath that surface feeling somewhat content, though, there was something worse. He'd swore to himself, the second time he'd woken from the pods, that he'd get involved with everything going on on the ship. That he'd make the Ohm pay for everything they'd ever done. But now, he was feeling listless. He'd make steps, but he didn't know where to go from there.

He wandered around the ship like usual, but now that he'd realized this, he was in a slight daze. He was pissed off at himself, and didn't really know what to do. There were times in his life when he'd really needed guidance - his stint in Juvie, his father's death - and this was another one of them.

Hopefully he could find this guidance from someone on the ship.

After sending out his little invite, Terry sat back and waited. He didn't know how well this would go over, but he had to give it his best shot. He'd met a lot of different people that claimed to have been a part of Bruce's little collection of broken kids, but they'd never really tried to work together. And now, all but two had gone back to the pods.

Well, he was Batman, wasn't he? He knew he wouldn't treat Dick and Tim as sidekicks, but at least he could be an organizer. And now Max was here, too. He had to introduce her to the guys - if he was going to was going to bring together a team, she was going to be on it.

Now, all he had to do was wait.

Somewhere in the hallways, a chute opened up in the wall, and unceremoniously deposited Clark Kent flat on his back before promptly closing up.

Clark picked himself up, rubbing the back of his neck out of reflex rather than any sort of pain.

"Y'know, ONE of these days someone's not gonna take so kindly to you lying about that cake GlaDOS." he said, glaring at the spot the exit had disappeared from.

Waking up covered in slime and naked had been strange enough. One minute she'd been sleeping peacefully in the humid, mildly sticky jungle, the next she'd been waking up in the humid, EXTREMELY sticky room with the stacks and stacks of pods bulging from the walls, surrounded by humans, more humans than she'd seen in months. More naked humans than she'd seen in her life. And then Jane had found herself in a maze.

And another maze. And another one. With . . . something, that was most certainly a machine, but so much more advanced than any machine she'd ever seen - and much more vindictive, too. Had GlaDOS known somehow that of the few things she'd missed about England, cake had been high on the list?

Jane, deposited on the Observatory floor, stood from her ungraceful landing still livid with frustration from her weeks of 'testing.' Whatever that had been for.

"Oh! You wretched - you vile machine, if there were cake, why I'd jam every one of your gears with it!"

Oh! It appeared she was no longer in the strange, awfully austere mazes anymore. Jane looked around, considering that her surroundings had suddenly become much more like the strange room she'd been in before being captured by that terrible thing that had promised cake and not (for it's own good, no doubt!) delivered. Perhaps some of the people she'd seen around when she first woke up in a place not the jungle were available to answer some of her questions.

"Excuse me! Is - is anyone here? Hello? I don't suppose there is cake after all?"

The theme park world had been kind to Kriem.

Between the games, the overpriced souvenir shops she had collected an impressive amount of plush toys and those same toys were now providing her with entertainment as she poured herself a drink.

Plush bears, cats, dogs, rabbits, and even monsters were wrestling and bouncing around, dancing and bouncing off one another.

"Such silly things." She mused as one of the bears poured her some wine.

"My babies." she accepted the wine and sipped it life was good.

...but not perfect. She had been so bored wandering around the ship exploring, so today she was reliving one of her favorite memories.

Mister Jake, a massive muscular blond haired man was giving a man in full armor the pounding of a life time, bright flashes of light and bursts of energy knocking the helpless hero around a massive abandoned stadium.

"Beautiful."

Hydroponics was simply amazing.

It was relaxing. That was the best way Aerith could describe it. She was sure there had been plenty before her to make this observation, though. Still, it was comforted her in a way she'd needed. Even if it wasn't the planet, her planet, it still gave her a sense of peace. Despite it being an artificial environment, it was realistic and that in itself was astonishing to her.

Nanaki had mentioned the area before, but seeing it for herself was a different story. It made her forget, just for a moment, about being on a strange ship in the middle of space.

That was a nice feeling. She could see why people would spend a lot of time here.

So she wandered around, absorbing what she could, taking in all that was around her. Aerith didn't have a specific purpose - other than exploring. It certainly was a big place.

Inventing a new spell; a most tricky and daunting proposition. Beyond most wizards. Lupin flattered himself by thinking he had a chance, but if pressed, well, he had helped with the Marauder's Map, had he not? He knew a thing or two about Defense Against the Dark Arts, and this was not dissimilar.

Besides, what did it hurt to try? (Besides the very real chance of an injurious backfire.)

Lupin came to the City, seeking out a place by the river where he (probably wrongly) thought no one would venture close enough to be harmed by his experimentation. Once there, he sat down on the grass without much regards for his dignity, and began writing on the book he had liberated for such a purpose.

"Protego Minutiae," he began, writing the words down as he spoke them.

Pram hated the concept behind training. It never went well with her image as "the youngest overlord with growing power." She was supposed to be a genius! The smart one that controlled others through her fake oracle future-reading. But ever since she had came out of the pods during the pod release before the most recent one, her Mana Power hadn't been up to where it should have been, making it harder to keep her image of being a strong overlord.

After some time of mulling over it, Pram finally gave into training her Mana Power. She stepped into one of the unused Sensorium, letting the room take her memories of her Netherworld palace. She let the Sensorium conjure a few low-ranking demons (that she could care less of) from her memories. They gave out growls as they turned to face Pram, ready to attack.

"Hmph, it will have to do." Pram mumbled to herself with a sigh as she brushed her hair away. She took a breath as she floated up, closing her eyes as she concentrated.

"...Frost Dragon!" She yelled out, and a ball of light blue light formed before shattering into pieces. The lolita overlord gave a growl as she gave a light stomp.

"Why?!" She demanded to no one in particular, frustration clearly showing on her face as she scowled down at her feet. She resorted to the skills she could use as she fended off the demons that took the chance to attack her before she forced the Sensorium to make the scenery disappear back to the default blank place.

"I should have collected enough Mana Power! Ugh, this is so stupid!" She was so frustrated that she have forgotten that she didn't fully close the door behind her when she entered the room...

'Running away' is, in Howard's opinion, the most useful thing the human body can do. And unfortunately, he has plenty of reasons to think it will come in handy at some point, or at various points, in the future.

That's why he's set up a 400 yard circular track-slash-obstacle course in Hydroponics, as well as set up markers for hundred meter, two hundred meter, and mile routes. Every other morning, before Med Bay shifts, he's here, improving on speed and stamina. He knows full well that even if he gets into the best shape of his life, he can still be outrun (or outflown) by his super-powered, magical or metahuman peers, but it's better to have that added little bit of competence if and when he ends up sprinting away from danger.

He's feeling the results, too. There's no way to time if he's getting faster, but where he was once just skinny, he's becoming lean, and the mile run that used to exhaust him leaves him considerably less winded than it did a few months ago. And he's getting much more confident going through the tunnels and up the ladders of the obstacle course.

The only thing looking worse for the wear is his shoes. At some point he's going to have to relegate his velociraptor shoes to a beloved keepsake, because the seams are literally coming apart around his toes.

Howard double-knots his shoelaces and stretches a bit before running the obstacle course again.

Terry's first priority when he'd found himself on the ship for a second time, now with so much changed, had been to touch base with those he'd known before, and get up to date on what had happened while he was away. He still needed to go through the ship's roster in more detail to pick out any more familiar names, and find out a few more of the details on what all had been going on, but he was feeling a bit more at ease now, and could turn to his second priority: making sure he was ready for the war with those damned bugs when it all finally came to a head.

He'd made a lot of use out of the sensoriums before, but it was mostly recreating his city, to have something to hold on to. About a year had passed outside of his pod, though, and he felt that he had to accept that Gotham, for now at least, was gone. His focus had to be on the current situation, not the past, however much he wanted to go back to things as they were.

Besides, he'd also used the sensoriums for fight practice - like the battle robots Bruce had had made for training back home. But he'd been asleep in a pod for a year, and though he'd only felt like he'd had a very long and restful night's sleep, he had to admit that his muscles atrophied somewhat in the stasis.

So he'd shaped this sensorium session into his own private work-out room. A mix between the Batcave and the gym at juvie. It surprised him, one he'd thought of it, just how much the ship reminded him of the latter.

He started in on a simple, but effective, warm up and then work out. He didn't quite notice anyone come in right away.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicom. New crew-mates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that) and purple girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Stacy's voice speaks over the whole of the ship. What she has to say has become very familiar over the the podlings have spent here.

||Pod Release Protocols Initiating,|| she says. ||Please proceed to the Observation Deck to meet your new crew mates.||

Those crew members that don't head to the Obs Deck on their own are hurried there via gentle but insistent tentacles. A few people stop by Engineering to help bring and pass out omnicoms and comm rings to the new crew members as well.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

After helping Kaylee while her arm was hurt, Jamie was curious as to exactly what it would take to try and learn enough about simple repair to try and do the same with the Engineering department. The work in the city wouldn't take forever, after all, and while there were other things he agreed to do, he didn't think they would take a lot of his time. He could volunteer for security, but he wasn't sure if that was something he really wanted to do. And since there wasn't really a 'creeping along corridors' department, maybe this would be some other way he could help.

He had managed to get the information onto one of the data pads and settled down for a good read. Some time later, however, he found himself staring at the screen in dismay. There was a lot more to it than he had expected. Sure, he could push buttons and throw levers when directed - and he had helped fix that one frayed wire. But everything else...

"Och," he muttered, pushing the pad aside in frustration. Maybe later, he'd look at it again. Right now, he needed to do something, anything other than just sit there and stare at a wee little screen and try and figure out what it all meant. Maybe a walk was in order. After some aimless wandering, Jamie found himself in the vehicle bay. It was as good a place as any, he supposed. He'd just have a quick peek around, then get back to work.

It was when he was nosing about that he heard the sound. He was being very careful not to actually touch anything - you never knew when someone would show up and get all upset over some imagined scrape and blame you for it. That meant it wasn't anything he had done...so it was likely someone else was there with him.

Raising his voice so it would carry a bit, he called out, "Hey, anyone there?"

Back home, Terry McGinnis had had the reputation of being that guy that was never around. And when he was around, he was usually only half-awake, if even that. It mostly came from being Batman - spending most of the night patrolling left the young man with little time to sleep besides in class. And after school, he'd have to leave for 'work' to maintain his cover of being Bruce Wayne's assistant. Back home, he just wasn't ever around.

Things weren't much different on the ship. While he didn't have to patrol, didn't have to make sure the old man took his meds and Ace got walked, he still tried to keep himself busy. He wanted to stay alert and focuses, and not let himself get rusty on his Batman training. So he'd spent a lot of time in the Sensoriums working out and running through simulated fights, staying away from most everyone else. He'd never admit it, but he was pretty much turning into the old man. Too focused on Batman, not focused enough on having a life.

But he'd ventured out of the Sensorium today... if only to find himself in the media library, researching computer hacking and detective skills. The two things he relied on Max and Bruce for, but couldn't any more.

Or, at least that's what he'd planned to do. He'd really fallen asleep at a desk, a media tablet under his arm. And he seemed to be snoring ever so slightly.

Anyone up to prodding the big lug and reminding him libraries are supposed to be quite places?

The past few days had been mind-wracking for the Man of Steel. There were chunks of his memories missing - a lot of them he knew felt wrong. Something was wrong and he couldn't put his finger on it. At the same time, those missing memories were screwing around with something else - things he wanted to do.

Upon seeing the ravaged City after... something tore through it, well, someone had to clean it up.

The artificial sun's bright and warm... yet, it's not enough to actually put me back at full power. At the same time, though... Superman mused. ...this place isn't going to clean itself up. Better get to work...

With that, the hero began a long and tiring task of attempting to repair the City.

You're the ones who are good enough (or lucky) enough to be close to Escherville. You've had the good fortune to be scooped up and now you need to regroup and get ready to take on the Nightmare King himself. Time to reorganize and gear up as best you can with what you've got. The Nightmare King isn't going to wait for you.

Get moving.

_{((OOC: This is for the various groups/peoples who will be fighting the Nightmare King directly or assisting in that endeavor. If your character was in one of the Challenge from Beyond Groups, tag them in here! Feel free to do some tagging back and forth and enjoy yourselves. Please get tagged in by Tuesday night, March 2nd though, so we can get the Final Fight properly organized. ))}

Nightmare becomes reality....

_{[roster: Leader - Terry / Batman II, Allen Gentry Dark Smoke Puncher, Pirogoeth, Ronon]}

Terry had sent the message out, and now he was waiting on one of the couches in the obs deck. He'd heard about Jason being on the ship, but had yet to meet him. Well, it was about time that he did. They were all part of the same family, in a sense. He figured that more or less made them allies. And it was important to know his allies.

[ooc: This is mostly for Jason, but anyone in the area can feel free to talk to Terry. Just do so in a separate thread from the Jason stuff, please.]