Bear's Beauties - Existential Crisis 3 (Patreon)

[center]<<Bear Sandosen>>[/center]

Looking out the window of the bridge into space was more surreal than I’d anticipated. The design of the Yamato reflected the fact that it was meant for water, for being in the ocean. Even having never so much as having been on a fishing trawler, something about the layout of the ship registered in my head as belonging on the sea. Looking through the window, at the vastness of space, resplendent with countless stars beyond mortal comprehension…

To say nothing of the man in a green and black jumpsuit towing us with a green glowing beam of energy from a dinky little ring on his finger. Thankfully, from what I could see, his outfit didn’t look anything like that awful CGI mess with Ryan Renyolds. Who with two brain cells to rub together thought that was a good look? I’m getting distracted.

Green Lantern had patched through to the Yamato’s comms and we’d talked. Our arrival was bizarre enough that we’d be meeting with the full League’s roster, but it was still going to be over an hour before we arrived at the Justice League’s Satellite (I suspected that the reason it would be so long was to give the League a chance to wrap up whatever they were working on and get there).

In the meantime, I’d asked Cameron to pull up a map of the ship. If we were going to be spending any amount of time here, we’d better get used to it. Looking over the map Cameron had printed out showed us that, by and large, the ship was what one would expect from a WWII era battleship. Just a few modifications.

The bedroom we'd woken up in was one of the officer’s quarters, as apparently the captain’s quarters bed wasn’t big enough for all seven of us. Much as I wanted to race to the captain’s quarters at the top of the bridge tower, I stayed on the bridge to continue the dialog with Green Lantern.

“So, I realize it’ll be easier to wait for the whole League, but I have to ask, who thought turning a World War II battleship into a spacecraft was a good idea?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, suspecting that the true reason for his asking was to alleviate boredom, but answered regardless, “I’ll save the long version for later, but the short version is a mix of desperation and lack of other options.”

“And the Bleed Generator you’ve got stashed in the back?”

“...the Wave Motion Engine draws energy from the Bleed?”

“You didn’t know that? And you built a battleship with one as the main powersource?”

“We were given the ship, part of that long story, but again: desperation and lack of other options.”

“Uh-huh. You got any shuttles in there? Because there’s no way I’m hauling this into Earth’s orbit. If necessary, I’ll ferry you guys to the satellite station, but figured you’d probably prefer to use your own car.”

I blinked in surprise, not expecting the joke, before turning a questioning glance in Cameron’s direction. In the show there were shuttles, but I wasn’t sure if our Yamato had them. The adorable murder machine punched a few buttons and a readout came up on the screen.

“Shuttles one through four fueled and read as fully operational,” she said calmly.

“Oh good, I’ll be parking your boat roughly halfway between Earth and Mars’s orbits, so even if your reactor goes critical it won’t do more than provide aurora across half the planet.”

Considering what I knew of the Bleed, that seemed surprisingly tame, “Really? You’re sure that’d be the worst of it?”

Green Lantern chuckled in amusement, “I can tell you haven’t done much space travel. Even with faster than light travel, space is big. Where I’m planning on parking your ship, even a beam of light would take about 12 minutes to reach Earth. I’ve also given your reactor a very thorough scan, and it’s easily the most stable Bleed Generator I’ve ever seen, so I very much doubt you have anything to worry about. But, one can never be too careful with Bleed Generators.”

That was a relief, from what I knew of the Bleed it wasn’t exactly the most… predictable of dimensions. Though I thought the Bleed wasn’t given that name until a decade after the Crisis we were sent to prevent. I shrugged it off, if it became important, we could address it later.

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It was roughly twenty minutes later that Green Lantern ‘parked’ the Yamato, and the seven of us piled into one of the shuttles. Cameron piloted, though Nikhol sat in the copilot’s seat and took in the various controls while carefully watching Cameron.

From there, the trip to Earth’s orbit was about another forty minutes. Harley, Lisa, Taylor, and I rapidly discovered that movies and TV had lied to us about how long space travel took. Lana had pulled out a novel of some kind and seemed to be quietly drawing amusement from our boredom.

“Be glad it’s a short trip, travel from one end of the Sith Empire to the other could take over a month, even with hyperspace,” she told us after Harley gave up doing handstands, not bothering to hide her amusement. Lisa, ever the mature one, flipped Lana the bird. Understanding the intent, if not the specific gesture, Lana deadpanned, “I’d invite you to use that, but the trip won’t be much longer.”

Lana was right, we were able to make out Earth in the distance, growing from a pale blue dot. Slowly, it grew, and my throat closed up as I stared at it. I’d heard stories from astronauts, about seeing Earth from space for the first time, but nothing can prepare you for seeing it for yourself. Even if it wasn’t the Earth I was born on, I was looking down at the birthplace of humanity, of every person I’d ever known. Every saint, every sinner, every prince, every pauper, all born and raised, on that blue marble.

“First time?” Nikhol’s voice broke me from the spell I’d been put under, and I wiped away the tears in my eyes. A glance on either side of me showed that Taylor, Lisa, and Harley were in a similar state as me. Lana had a soft, gentle smile on her face, while Nikhol looked amused. Taking a deep breath, there was only one thing that I could think to say.

“I realize that you two are used to it, but I pray that this view never becomes mundane.”

“Amen,” I heard Taylor whisper.

It was at this point that the Justice League’s satellite was being picked up by the shuttle’s sensors, and Cameron began directing the shuttle towards it, but I caught her gaze occasionally drifting towards Earth, and a gleam of emotion in her eyes. Seems that even killer robots aren’t immune to seeing Earth from space.

Green Lantern directed Cameron to a hanger bay, and either he was in contact with the rest of the League, or it was the one they used specifically for meeting with space-faring visitors, because from the looks of it, the whole roster was there waiting for us.

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman stood in front, and I blinked in surprise upon seeing that Superman looked exactly like Christopher Reeve. Okay, that was going to be surreal until I got used to it. Fortunately for my brain, Batman didn’t perfectly resemble any actors who’d played his role in movies back home, nor did the rest of the League from what I could see.

The shuttle touched down, and Cameron began the process to shut off the systems before the doors began to open. In hindsight, I should have expected it, but Harley squeezing out before the doors were open, let alone the ramp dropped, caught me by surprise.

“BATSY!”

I couldn’t help but facepalm. Sure, make the World’s Greatest Detective paranoid. It’s not like this version of him has ever been called that by anyone but the Joker. Sighing, I left the shuttle to engage in damage control. Stepping out of the shuttle, I was treated to the sight of Harley hugging Batman, while the rest of the League looked on in various levels of disguised amusement.

“Who are you?” he asked… in Kevin Conroy’s Bat-voice. Okay, settle down, this is not the time to pop a nerd-boner.

“Harley, is now really the time?” I asked, drawing almost everyone’s attention away from the bubbly woman.

“I just promised myself I’d give Batsy a hug next time I saw him,” Harley explained as she practically skipped over to the rest of us.

Shaking my head in amusement, I looked over to the League and… they are all really tall. I’m of average height in the area I’m from, but Superman looks to be a foot taller than me, and he’s not cheating by hovering. Wonder Woman had at least six inches on me, okay I’m going to stop before I give myself a Napoleon Complex.

“Green Lantern called ahead, said you have a complicated story to share,” Superman said, drawing my attention.

Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself. I had to convince the Justice League that there was a Crisis coming in five years that would destroy not only their Earth, but countless others. No pressure.

“For starters, are you familiar with the hypothesis that all works of fiction are glimpses into other universes?” I asked, figuring getting this out of the way would be the best way to start.

“Like Earth Prime?” Flash asked.

I blinked in surprise, not having expected them to already have experienced what I was expecting to be one of the more difficult to believe parts of the explanation. Huh…

“That makes this a lot easier. I’m from an Earth where everyone here is from some form of fiction, including the ladies with me,” I began, prompting some surprised and curious looks from the League.

“Definitely sounds like Earth Prime,” Green Arrow muttered, before Wonder Woman spoke up.

“Perhaps we should take this to the conference room,” she offered without opposition.

The trip was short, and soon we were all seated around a table I’d imagined countless times in my childhood. I was glad there wasn’t the Martian Manhunter here, I don’t think I’d be able to handle him sensing just how much I’m refraining from geeking out.

Before I could begin again, there was a sudden weight in my pocket. Reaching down, I pulled out what looked like a rubix cube with a sticky note that said, To save on long winded explanations. -TQ

Well that made this easier. Placing the cube on the table in front of me, it began to glow before a hologram of Tara appeared. Clothed, thankfully, that would be awkward if she weren’t.

“Greetings Justice League, I am a Q. You may call me Tara, and let me explain why I sent Bear and his companions to your universe,” the hologram of Tara began, before launching into an explanation of the oncoming Crisis. What would happen without our presence. The origin of the antimatter wave, the Anti-Monitor, and his followers, the Weaponers of Qward.

“Qward. Why does it have to be Qward,” I managed to catch Green Lantern mutter.

She gave a modified version of the explanation she gave me, leaving out the bet, which was probably for the best. When the explanation finished, I tried to get a gauge for how the League felt. Batman and Red Tornado were lost causes, the former had too good a poker face and the latter couldn’t form facial expressions. The rest mostly seemed contemplative.

Superman stood up, “This is something we’ll need to discuss. Do you mind waiting? Feel free to explore the museum across the hall.”

I gave a nod, standing up and trying to avoid nerding out. This was already more than I could have ever imagined growing up and now I’d get to see the Justice League’s museum? The only thing that would be better would be a tour of the Batcave. I had a feeling that I’d be suppressing the urge to geek out for a very long time.

The girls who’d woken on the Yamato all rose, following me as Superman pointed out the door to the museum. As the door to the conference room closed behind us, it was all I could do to keep from running into the museum.

“Someone’s excited,” Lisa teased, her trademark smile on her face.

“Lisa, I all but learned to read with comics depicting the people in there, of course I’m excited,” I said as I opened the door and entered.

The museum was everything I’d imagined and more. A replica of the Bottled City of Kandor. Dozens of costumes on mannequins. Souvenirs from battles, some I recognized, more that I didn’t. I… might have lost track of time, finally letting myself start geeking out over everything. Even if everything went to shit, this alone was worth taking Tara’s deal!

“Bear?” the voice of Wonder Woman broke me from my nerd-haze. Looking over towards the entrance, the Amazon Princess stood there with an amused smile. “We’re ready for you.”