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[Frankly, considering how used to playing punching bag he is back home, Pete's been able to largely ignore the still worsening view of him and the other outsiders on the turtle. That, and he figures it'll change again once resources aren't so scarce. But one thing he's not over is something he'd been noticing after several days in Atam.]

Does anybody else want to get as far away from this place as possible? I don't mean the turtle, either. Something about the mainland feels...wrong. Like, creepy Orwellian kind of wrong.

[Someone may or may not have asked about that central stockade. And noticed how nobody his age or younger was running around the city. It was hard to say which one creeped him out more, really...]

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[A wince. Suddenly, she didn't mind not having gotten a good look at those village squares so much.]

They're being ruled by fear.

But by who?

As much as I hate looking the other way, I don't know. Or want to find out. Whatever's in place there, it's not something any of us are going to be able to fix.

[And he really, really hated looking the other way. Even if she couldn't see it on his face, Zatanna would definitely be able to hear it in his voice. But as much as he wanted to do something about it, even largely de-powered, he couldn't solve it all himself. Especially if he got left behind, since it wasn't likely they were going to stay docked forever.]

[She did hear it. Unfortunately, his words took precedent over whatever sentiment may be lingering below.]

You're giving up awful easily, you know.

Even if we threw everyone on the turtle at this, it'd still take too much time. We won't stay docked forever, and once it's too far away, we'd get magically dragged back again.

[He's deliberately avoiding the "weakened powers" part. Mostly because he can't come up with a way to explain how he knew about it.]

Sometimes you just can't help people. If we got here a lot earlier, or the Emperor said that's why we came here, maybe, but...not this way.

Well, yeah. Maybe. Doesn't mean you have to put it so...definitively.

[Knowing deep down that there wasn't much they could do was one thing, but it was another to openly acknowledge it. Especially in such a public venue.]

We can here for a reason, right? Even if we...don't necessarily know exactly what that reason is yet.

I'm just saying, wait a little before deciding something like that.

That's what the kedan said, yeah. But the fact the Emperor went ashore instead of staying on the Turtle means it probably wasn't for us to help them start a revolt.

[He hadn't seen her there himself, but word tended to get around.]

If that was the case, she'd have probably stayed here. Plus, I doubt it's anything we'd take our time doing, considering everything going on.

[Hopefully, anyway. The Emperor biding her time before launching an attack while the people on the Turtle were running low on food didn't sound like a great plan.]

[Oh, great. She was sounding like the kedan. If there was ever a time she hated being out of the loop, it was now.]

I'm not talking about the Emperor, Peter. I'm talking about us.

See, where I come from, we have this thing where we try to help people whenever we can, however we can. Just like--

[--she's been doing on the Turtle at night, is what she wanted to say. But not here, over the Network. She was already in enough trouble with the rations people.]

...just like...what my dad used to do.

Do you think I like not doing whatever I can to help? It's bad enough I got brushed off when I tried helping out here.

[That...probably had a little more aggression to it than there needed to be, but Pete was definitely frustrated by the whole affair.]

But you can't fix every problem that comes up, and you can't help everyone. You just have to help as many as you can. And frankly, we've got a much better chance of figuring out what's wrong with the Turtle and avoiding everyone starving than we do pulling off a revolution in a place we don't know anything about.

Who said anything about a revolution?

[Calm down, Peter. Then again...the fact that you're getting riled up about it at all is better than total apathy.]

We all get brushed off. I got fired. I tried to save a kedan girl in an alleyway from getting beaten by her boyfriend for sympathizing with us, and you know what she did? She slapped me.

You think I should stop just because we're not getting praised for what we do?

Do you have any other plans for dealing with a city ruled the way that one is? I mean, I really doubt it's just a case of a few supervillains hiding in the shadows and terrorizing the populace when we aren't looking.

[Plus, if their emperor is any indication of how interested in the public welfare the average ruling class is in this world...]

I don't mean by the kedan, I meant by us. Other outsiders. Honestly? Getting fired from my job's been pretty tolerable in comparison.

[Yup, he's still got a pretty big chip on his shoulder, Wayne B|]

And I'm not saying you should stop helping, I'm saying you should focus on helping out here, not on the mainland. At least here you've got a better chance of doing some good.

Well, no worries there, seeing as how I never made it past the blood tests.

...wait, who else's been giving you a hard time?

Not really a hard time, just the brush off. And it was Wayne. I'm hoping Stark will at least give me a chance to help out around his labs while we try to figure this out.

[Which is something he never thought he'd say out loud, ever.]

I got the 'there's liability issues' line when I tried getting permission to help out in Wayne Enterprise's labs while they go over some water samples. I'd think the risk we could all run out of food, or that whatever's infecting the turtle might manage to mutate into a strain capable of infecting us would be a more serious risk than workplace liability, but I guess not everybody agrees.

[Her mouth opens to comment, remains open in faint surprise, then closes again.]

Wayne. As in...Bruce Wayne.

[Not really the name she had been expecting. Then again, with his reputation--or, at least, the reputation she knew of from her world--she can't say she's all that surprised he would turn away a teenager.]

[She wouldn't say as much aloud, of course, because that would just piss Peter off even further. The conversation was already going so well, after all.]

If it's research you want to do, I might know a few other people you could ask.

Yeah. The first one, assuming the other version's still around.

[Because hooray for alternate universes.]

And I'm open to suggestions. I've already had a few months experience interning at ESU's genetics lab under Dr. Connors, if it helps. So I'm more than familiar with how important safety is.

[Because seriously, four words: genetically modified electric eels. As a power source.]

I only ever met the one. His son, Dick, is one of my suitemates.

[Speaking of Alternate Universes....]

Well, I don't know much about that sort of thing, but I do have a few people who're into the whole science scene. There's Wally, for one. He's from my world. And I know Kara's been doing a lot of research on her own, too. Kara's my...um...

["Friend who may or may not actually be from my world, except she's also an alternate universe version"]

...it's a long story.

[Interpret that one at will.]

I've already met Wally. Well, before, anyway. I don't know if the one that's here now is the same one or not, since when he came back he didn't seem to remember he'd been here before.

[Pete had actually avoided talking to him for that very reason. He just wasn't really sure where to pick up, because he doubted this Wally remembered him. Which actually makes its way into his first guess at why Zee's having trouble explaining who Kara is.]

Does the story involve alternate universes? Because there's a lot of that going around.

Something like that, yeah.

And it's the same Wally. His memories are a little...not there...but it's him. I'll vouch, if you need it.

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