"Misato? Is that you?" asked a redhaired girl.
"Asuka?" asked Misato. "Damn. You made it to the same next life?"
"'Next life'?" asked Asuka Langley Soryuu.
"Well, this place is harsh, but it's not hell," appended Misato.
"It's 1992, America, and superheroes are apparently real," pointed out Asuka. "It's sure not any heaven I've ever heard of. But another life? I didn't die! I was going down a long tunnel of light when the ride cut out halfway through."
"Hmmm, that's the same thing that happened to me," said Misato. "Did you get any superpowers?"
Asuka smirked and held up a fist, which abruptly ignited. "Pyrokinesis. I discovered it the first day."
Misato nodded. "Me too. Except my 'superpower' is gravity related. I can lessen gravity on objects or spike it."
"I demonstrated my powers and got a job with the Metropolis Fire Department," said Asuka.
Misato grinned. "I'm working for STAR Labs. I showed off what I could do and they expedited my paperwork. So does Maya."
"Maya?" asked Asuka, thinking back. "Oh yeah. That gal who worked for Doctor Akagi. So what's her juju?"
"Fixing things," said Misato. "She can tell how to repair broken machines by touching them. Around here, you can imagine how handy THAT is."
Konoha:
She had died. Worse, she had been erased from having ever existed in a Crisis On Infinite Earths. Now she had never existed on any Earth.
Down to a bare spark of existence, she'd felt a tug and a rushing sensation. Then she was here.
So she was not surprised at all that she wasn't at full power. This wasn't even an alternate version of Earth, and power fluctuations in different universes happened. She hadn't had as many adventures involving such things as her cousin did, but she HAD done that part of this before.
The sun looked a bit reddish to her. Which indicated her full powers might not ever return. Or it could simply take some time.
Covered in bandages, with some sort of local-magic-based healing technique supplementing the more standard medical techniques, she knew she'd be awhile recovering. At this point she was grateful enough to BE recovering.
In her hospital bed, glancing over at the scarred man, she tried to relax.
"This is for the record," said the scarred man. "I'll just go over the basics so you can confirm. Your name is Kara Zor-El, and you are not human or from this world."
"Yes," admitted Kara.
"You were one of the last survivors of your homeworld, Krypton, but you found an adopted home on a world named 'Earth' where you followed in the footsteps of your cousin 'Kal-El' and became a hero. Why?"
"To do good, to help the people of my adopted homeland, and to protect the innocent," said Kara.
"You reacted poorly upon learning that this was a ninja village and that you were being considered a possible recruit for ninja," said Ibiki Morino.
"Ninja, in my adopted homeworld, are mainly assassins who hide their identity, strike without warning, and betray everyone who trusts them," said Kara.
"Some are like that, mainly those from Kiri and Cloud," pointed out Ibiki. "Mainly that's not Konoha, though we do get a few assassination missions from time to time."
"I won't do it," flatly said Kara. "I don't kill."
Ibiki shrugged slightly. Some ninja never made it past genin. This sounded like one. They had odd ideas about being a ninja, though some of them adapted when situations forced them to confront the gap between their philosophy and reality. "We'll see. I hear similar things from the young and untried until someone is trying their best to kill them - or someone they spared slaughters their friends and family."
"Then I'll just have to become strong enough to protect them."
Ibiki didn't let anything show to indicate it, but that WAS the sort of response to indicate she just might fit in around here anyway.
Two days later she was out of the hospital and attending the Academy, just another twelve-year-old girl as far as the rest of the students were concerned.
She had been a little dismayed to find out that she was having to eat three times what a normal human did, and that her powers HAD altered in this environment. Not only was she back to being twelve and at an even lower power level than what she remembered - her powers had altered some. She might regain those lost abilities, but she might not.
As a Kryptonian, she had some abilities because her ancient ancestors had done some manipulation on their own genetic structure. Those were overshadowed, most of the time, by the boost of power a Kryptonian received from the yellow sun of Earth.
It was her ability to speed-read, memorize, and then work out details that was proving to be the most use while her body continued to recover.
This makes no sense. Their written history goes back only a little over two hundred years. Detailed history only spans one-hundred years. Five generations as they measured them here. Some of which, like the current Third Hokage, have been alive for half that time!
Iruka-sensei, the teacher for this period, started arguing with a snake-girl about some point of the Second Shinobi War as apparently that girl had read a slightly different version of those events.
Kara flipped through the history book, looking to confirm something she'd read earlier.
So it implies that, prior to the village system developing, the boundaries of nations were more fluid. Areas could be targetted by ninja and razed to the ground, civilian casualties must have been horrific. A state of continual war without any 'safe areas' where the battlefront could be anywhere at any given time. Yet this old photograph shows what looks like phone-lines in the background. Is this a future Earth?
Kara quickly flipped to the section showing the Elemental Countries and studied the shorelines. If it IS, then the coasts don't match anything. Colony world maybe?
"Who can answer that... Kara?"
"Loose alliances with Takigakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure, Tanigakure, and Yugakure. Otogakure was not present at the time of the signing of the treaty. Yugakure has since disbanded its ninja village, maintaining only a small ninja police force instead," absently answered Kara.
"That's right," said Ibiki, who was sure she hadn't been paying attention - but that HAD been the right answer. "Did you just read all three history textbooks?"
"Yes, sensei," said Kara, looking up. "Is there anything more about the time prior to the Hidden Villages, or why the technology level seems so haphazard?"
"If you figure THAT one out, share it," said the lamia who'd argued with the teacher.
"What do you mean 'haphazard'?" asked Iruka.
"You have phones and phonelines, but no computers or cars," said the lamia, sitting back on her tail. "No planes. Plastics are rare but I do see them. There are radio headsets, but I have yet to see any manufacturing facilities that could produce such."
Kara inclined her head. The snake-girl would have likely been thought of as a villain back home, but in this environment was apparently an ally of sorts.
"Just the technology to build and maintain your electrical supply," said an elf, "seems kind of Schizo-tech."
"I... have no idea what you're talking about," admitted Iruka.
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(Posted Fri, 10 Aug 2012 01:02)
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