Jake and Kazuma are Introduced to Duela and Her Parents.

[wind_contractor]

Who: Duela, Jokester, Harlequin, Jake Berenson, Mari Broderick, and Kazuma Yagami

What: As it reads on the tin. Mari arrives with the new allies as they'll come up with a plan on what to do about the Copycat Joker.

When: Just after this scene!

Where: Kazuma's old home in the world he originally grew up in.


Kazuma pocketed his phone after staring at it a moment. A part of him wanted to contact his family; his cousin Ayano and younger brother Ren--but then he had second thoughts.

Since Kazuma's lived a life with Jake and his other friends in another world for over a few years, he figured it would be very awkward, with a lot of drama involved. Also, he sure as hell didn't want Ren near Vertigo. The vile and cruel lizard sorceress had a very different way of using magic. In a fight against Mari's boyfriend, from what he heard, she had dodged and blocked his fire attacks. Ayano was more than capable of taking care of herself, while Ren wasn't close to being powerful as their cousin.

He frowned, pondering about that sadistic, murderous clown. Ayano and her friends from school went to the city often, for their school was over there. And there were places in which they'd hang out at on the weekends or after school. Kazuma squeezed his jaws together. He could picture a crazy fight scene in his mind of Ayano and the Joker... Maybe she is somewhere far away from him.

Oh, who was he trying to kid? He then shook his head, before he could let himself get worked up over that.

As he stood in the foyer, he noticed the knob of the front door being turned. He noticed a red haired lady with pale make up on coming in. In remembering what Mari's texts had described, he figured this had to be one of their new allies who decided to help them track the murdering criminal down. In seeing this woman, that had to mean Mari and the other two were close behind. Wearing a relaxed smile, he said, "Well, that was quick.”

Comments

[laughing_girl]

If she thinks about it, she might realize that 'Ella' is just short for Duela, when it's not one of her several interdimensional aliases.

Jokester's attention is completely on his daughter, while Harlequin takes a moment to pass out some of the golf-ball-sized grenades, saying "Just don't press the little red button until you want them to go off." She bites her lip as she glances worriedly back to the other two.

Duela pulls away after a bit. She's managed to keep from actually crying, because she doesn't want to go into action with messy greasepaint... but it was a close thing and she's still holding back tears. Still she'll step closer to Kazuma and give him a glare. "In the interests of full disclosure, I just want you to know I am putting a lot of effort into not knocking you upside the head right now. Because... because one of the worst things is watching someone else do something that, unless I really really screw up sometime in the future, is probably going to stay the biggest mistake of my life ever. Wait 'till this one thing is over if you've gotta... I know, people are getting hurt and priorities and everything... but... Right after this. Because... you keep making excuses, and one day home won't be there to go back to."

[wind_contractor]

“I’ll go grab something to put those grenades in, for now. Be right back,” Kazuma heard Mari say to Harlequin before going upstairs.

He frowned as he somewhat understood what Duela meant. That was as much emotion he could allow himself to express at this point. The very idea of that damned lunatic clown and his cousin, the future head of the Kannagi family—the two of them in an encounter continued to stare at him in the face.

“Given everything that you, Mari, and I have been through,” Jake began, his tone a somber one. “You’re lucky to be back in your world right now. The fact that the Nexus we know most brought us here, is a chance to see Ren and Ayano again. I don’t know if that was really her intention or not, but Duela and Mari are right. ”

I really don’t want to get into this right now, but it seems I don’t have much of a choice at this point. This was starting to become stressful, yet he remained calm as he voiced his reasoning. “I’m only looking at everything as a whole here, for both my original family, and this one Mari and everyone else had accepted us to be a part of. When this Joker problem is resolved, the rest can be straightened out. One crisis at a time would be best.”

He sighed, and looked to Duela and her parents. “As I said before, Ayano sometimes has a temper. Not that I’m overly worried for anyone. Mari and Jake could dodge whatever fire magic my cousin unleashes, and Mari can restrain her easily if necessary if my cousin starts thinking and assuming the wrong thing...” He shook his head a bit. “The Kannagis, some of them in particular, are hot-headed. And stubborn.” He couldn’t help but sound a tad resentful as he thought a bit about his old man, Gemna. “I’ve already been accepted back in, more or less, four years before I found myself in a nexus and met Jake, Mari, and everyone else. But not everyone of the Kannagi family are nearly as accepting.

“They're the reason why I’m the only wind magic user, and why I changed my last name to Yagami.”

[laughing_girl]

Duela's expression gets oddly distant, too serious to be normal for her, as she speaks. "My possibly-ex-boyfriend... I thought I could trust him, even though he... he'd been an enemy. He said he wanted out of that. After a while, I believed him. I took him to our home. And maybe some things got said that nobody really meant..."

Jokester fidgets at that, remembering exactly what was said... and not much liking the look on Duela's face either. It reminds him of the time he told Eddie and Ozzy about certain things... His baby girl had had her own Bad Day, and he'd helped cause it. It didn't matter that it hadn't been a good day for anyone, it still wasn't something he'd forgive himself for any time soon.

"And we left... and less than a minute after we were gone, the place was raided. I don't know if he set us up, or if he got set up too. He's not around to ask. I thought everyone died. I ended up in a different universe's Gotham, then I got shot by some creep who didn't like me jumping timelines. And then Daddy... he'd made it out and came looking for me, only to get shot maybe a week or so later by the same creep. The whole reason my whole family isn't plant food is because our reality broke and that meant Mom could change things and bring us back..."

"And I get that we have to deal with the Joker first. I know what he can do. But... family is important. And they won't be there forever. Any time you get, that's the most precious thing there is. Don't screw it up."

Jokester steps forward to pull her into a hug. "Baby girl... if anyone ever tries to say you're not mine, ever again, even if it's me, you smack them silly... got that?"

[nexus_resident_morpher]

Jake frowned and had been silent this entire time as he listened to Duela and Kazuma share information about their pasts. Only, Duela had been more open about hers.

Everyone in this house seemed to have been through hell and back, himself included. Although, Jake wasn't going to start speaking of the ongoing war against a parasitic alien species in his universe, or the time someone who had threatened and attempted to kill Jake and his Animorph friends had met Vertigo...

Barely a minute had passed before Kazuma broke the silence. "I don't intend to screw it up. And that's beyond awful, what you've been through."

Jake heard Mari coming down the stairs. "I found this tote bag. It looks sturdy enough to hold a load of grenades. That all right with you, Kaz?"

Kazuma didn't hesitate to respond, and seemed to snap out of whatever it was he was thinking about. "It's fine. I don't think I'll have any use for it. So it's yours."

"Cool."

[laughing_girl]

Duela stays snuggled where she is for just a moment longer before looking up again. One can almost imagine a door slamming hard somewhere in her head, locking the memories away again, as her smile reappears as if that whole section of conversation had never happened. "They're not really big grenades," she says. "Actually, grenades isn't even the right word because they don't have explosives or you'd get shrapnel everywhere, but something like 'gas dispersal unit' just sounds awkward. I think they look like those toy Pokeballs I saw in a gumball machine once, but without animals in the middle."

Harlequin just hopes that the sudden mood swings she's so familiar with in her family won't make anyone else uneasy.

Jokester is back to pacing, but ideas for how to keep a Joker away from an audience - or innocent bystanders, as the case may be - just aren't popping up. What was it Eddie would say about clowns... 'I live for the laughter, I live for the crowd, without them I am nothing, what am I?' If this were Gotham, if he had the contacts here to set up some kind of bait...

[i_am_the_most_abnormal]

Mari hadn’t heard the conversation, but she did pick up on the tension in Duela’s and Kazuma’s voices moments ago. In coming down the stairs, she noticed how quiet Jake was.

She could read people well enough to tell that there was something they’d rather not openly say much about – even with how calm and focused Kaz was – yet she decided not to say anything about that for now. Staying on task and forming a good, solid plan to put that endurable killer clown for good was important.

Mari still didn’t like being targeted by two Big Bads. All those she was close with in her assorted family and their Nexus herself wouldn’t want that either.

“I think it’d be a good idea to keep them separate anyways. I’ve noticed how light these things are, so it’s no wonder...” She put the tote bag down on the floor, and looked to Jokester pacing, thinking very hard. He's really determined to take down that chaotic counterpart. In knowing this, she wasn't nervous or uncomfortable at all around him at this point.

“I may not like the current circumstances, but I’ll do what it takes to keep my home turf safe,” Kazuma said. She noticed him looking thoughtful. “Sort of like old times. It’s been mostly other magic users, using their powers to harm.”

“Still don’t get is why he never stayed down, after I dealt him the serious heavy hitters.” Mari shrugged, and moved to stand next to Jake. “If it’s nothing magic related, then what?”

[no_sanity_clause]

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Jokester says, "but I wish we had a Bat to throw at him. That's about the only thing that could distract him from trying to make as big of a disaster as possible."

"It'll be ok, Daddy," Duela says. "If we can't keep him from picking where things go down, we'll just have to make sure everyone gets away safe."

Harlequin shrugs. "I've got no idea why the guy's so hard to knock down... not that any of us are easy. It reminds me a little of a present Ivy gave me, but... I dunno. It could be anything."

[wind_contractor]

"What present?" Mari was a second faster than Kazuma when it came to asking that question. "A little bit of anything's better than nothing, such as no running into Batman anytime soon." She frowned in thought, probably wondering if there was a Batman in Kazuma's world to begin with.

But we're not screwed. We're far from it, Mari. You and Nexus could find him if we really needed him. Right?

"We know he seems to be out on his own. The number of us should favor against him."

"Overpowering him may be a challenge though," Mari said.

[reality_warper]

"I think I said something about this back in the Nexus," Harlequin says, "But when I first met Red... Ivy," she makes the correction in case they don't know her usual nickname for Pamela Isley, "she dosed me with something she was working on... half to help, and half 'cause I was a convenient guinea pig. One of the bigger effects was it made me mostly immune to most toxins, including hers. I'm also stronger and faster than most people, and I heal fast... Though not as fast as the guy we're going up against, from what you've said."

"Mom beat Waylon in a fight once," Duela says with a proud smile.

"Killer Croc," Harlequin says, in case they don't recognize Waylon Jones by his other name. Though, they might not know that one either. "And it was more of a draw..."

"I inherited the poison immunity, but no such luck on the other stuff that I've noticed," Duela says.

[wind_contractor]

He looked to Mari, since she clearly knew more about this Batman, Joker, and the others when he knew next to nothing about it. Jake seemed to as well, and he was glad for that. Kazuma never had the time to get into comic books as a boy. There were a lot of normal things he didn’t experience as a kid—but he’d never complain, or look back on the past.

His childhood throughout adolescence; it had been too painful.

“It’d suck if this Joker was immune to all poison. It’s bad enough that he’s immune to all the heavy physical damage I can do to him.”

“We’ll figure out his weakness,” Jake said, “There has to be one.” With determination, he added, “At least there’s only one of him to deal with. And now Harlequin may be one more who can move faster than he can.”

“He won’t get far,” Kazuma added. “A little heavy wind might slow him down. I’ve got to try.”