Wild C.A.T.s Reborn

DhampyrX2

Well-Known Member
#1
Okay it was suggested that I move the slowly restoring WildC.A.T.s stuff in the new 52 'verse from the Krystonian Keitaro thread to a thread of its own so here it is. This is still in the KK 'verse with Keitaro mistakenly awakening the clone Voodoo, that thinks she's the original, and will now be searching out the rest of her team. First up will obviously be Grifter being he's the easiest to find on Earth, is being hunted by the Daemonites (that Voodoo was working for before being "awakened"), and let's face it, he's already picked up his old mask be cosmic coincidence so that will resonate with her when she finds him.

On a side note, Midnighter has suddenly had his old history restored within the new 52 universe according to wikipedia. It seems that Midnighter and Apollo are back to "normal" and had their history brought back due to aliens mucking with the timeline while trying to create a "New" Stormwatch. This seemed to erase the new costumes for Midnighter and Apollo and restored some of their Wildstorm-era history. Could someone be pulling a Keitaro here and trying to set the Wildstorm section of the DCU right? And more importantly, given his connection to Zealot in the new-52 would that mean that Midnighter could be an in for Voodoo and Grifter to wake up our favorite sword-happy Coda Queen?

Oh, and here's the first snippet I wrote with Keitaro waking up Voodoo's clone in the other thread.

Okay, simple enough. I just follow Ollie in, wake him up, and leave. Don't look at anything and make sure Motoko and Naru never learn I was in here, even for work, Keitaro thought to himself as he made his way carefully through the strip club. He really didn't want to be there, but Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, had entered while doing surveillance on a mobster he was shadowing and it was the best opportunity for Keitaro to get near the billionaire since he had no access to any of Ollie's regular contacts to try to awaken him.

Now if only he could get closer to him without seeming too creepy. And try to forget hearing Kara grumbling about how it was her luck that he's run into Karen working there or something. Which was ridiculous of course. Karen had never worked as an exotic dancer that he knew of even if she was a bit flamboyant sometimes. And he certainly never pictured her naked. That would be like picturing Kara naked since they were essentially the same person at slightly different ages and Keitaro did NOT need to be picturing his best friend in the nude. No siree. Never. Uh-uh.

He was so going to hell for even having this train of thought. Especially as a VERY comely blonde in a white bit of lingerie that hid NOTHING smiled at him in a way that reminded him of Karen.

Keitaro shook his head as he returned her look with a nervous smile and milled through the crowd toward Ollie. God, he just knew he would never hear the end of this if Dinah-sensei ever heard about it once they had fixed the timeline. Well, after she "sparred" with Green Arrow for "leading" him in here, at any rate.

Ronin steeled himself as he concentrated and bringing the red aura into his right hand and moved closer to Ollie from behind, who was talking with a very attractive purple-haired dancer. Just a few feet closer and he'd be able to do it. He just hoped it worked and Ollie didn't make too big of a scene...

"So anyway, handsome, you can call me Voodoo. Are you sure I can't interest you in a two-for-one right now?" Voodoo asked with her best come-hither look. It didn't take a genius to see the blonde man scanning the room was both looking for something in particular and practically oozed money. Money she would need to better serve the Daemonite cause as she gathered intelligence on the meta-human threat.

"I appreciate the offer, miss, but I'm not interested at this moment," Ollie responded with a charming grin.

Voodoo, or rather Priscilla Kitaen, huffed a bit but accepted the rather polite dismissal. There were plenty of other gullible humans in the room for her to take advantage of and every dancer got rejected from time to time. It was better to move on rather than keep pushing.

And speaking of pushing, a rather rude and fat human took that moment to bump in to a cute if somewhat gangly bespectacled younger human male that had been trying to make his way through the crowded room to am empty seat, causing the young man to bump into her and take her hand to steady himself. She felt a flush of warmth for a moment and everything seemed red before he straightened himself with an awkward "excuse me" and moved to find a different seat.

Voodoo dismissed the whole event for the most part, although she started to feel an odd headache and decided to head back to the dressing room to catch her breath instead of fighting the crowd. She stumbled in and took a seat and she held her head and fought off a wave of dizziness.

Another dancer looked on and clicked her tongue before remarking, "I thought you knew better than to party too much during work, Pris. Save it for when you get one of these saps to take you to a nice hotel."

"Can it, Margaret," Priscilla snapped as she tried to get a handle on the mounting headache.

"That's Marguerite," the obviously surgically-altered bottled blonde corrected.

"Sure it is," Voodoo snapped sarcastically, causing the other dancer to sniff indignantly before storming out of the room and leaving Priscilla blessedly alone. God she hated humans sometimes. The world would be so much better when Daemonites ruled it all. It just had to be.

And with that thought in mind Voodoo moved to look at herself in the mirrors before going to her locker to take some pain killers and get back to work. Only something was different as she looked at her reflection. Everything seemed to... ripple for a moment before coming back to reality with a frightening clarity. "Jeremy...Maul. Warblade. Spartan. Grifter. Zealot," she recited as images seemed to flood her mind. It was all too much to take as her headache became more intense and she grunted in pain, falling to her knees as she clutched at her skull. Voodoo bit back a scream as the pain reached and crescendo before finally receding.

"Oh God. What happened?" Voodoo thought aloud as she got up and looked in the mirror. Had she been captured? Brainwashed? Well of course she had. She was working as a Daemonite agent with a full compliment of false memories. Who else would set her up like this?

But what had freed her? Had she managed some kind of... self-depossession to fight off whatever was done to her? Or had something triggered it? Now that she thought about it, she did think she had seen a flash of red from that guy with the glasses earlier. Was he a Kherubim with a gift similar to hers? Or maybe one of the peaceful Daemonites she had encountered since her visit to Khera? She supposed it didn't matter for the moment. For now, the best thing she could do would be to track down Jeremy and the others. They must be worried sick about her. God only knew how long she had been missing to be implanted with such a full compliment of false memories. With any luck, Jeremy would be able to get in touch with Grifter and warn the WildCATs. She had a feeling this was going to get ugly.

She didn't even bother to mention that she was leaving to the club manager as she quickly dressed and headed out the back door. This was more important than her dancing and she knew she needed to hurry. As she headed down the street she muttered to herself that she hoped Jeremy forgave her for how she had ended their relationship and failed to notice a front page headline entitled "CAN WE TRUST CAPTAIN ATOM?" with an accompanying picture that was vastly different than the Captain Atom she and the other WildCATS had recently encountered. Had she seen it, she might have had a better understanding of just how scrambled[/i] the world truly was at the moment.
As always I live this up to be round-robiny much like Krytonian Keitaro has been. Let's bounce ideas off each other and see what sticks.
 

Emerald Oracle

Well-Known Member
#2
hm, I should probably go read back issues of Deathstroke if I want to have any comprehension of his bit in this. As far as the Midnighter and Apollo go, a recent reality revision re-wrote Stormwatch entirely and replaced/removed them with classic Stormwatch characters like Fuji and Hellfire alongside new DC characters like the Weird.

A question for this verse in general is: Did the merging of Wildstorm, New Earth, and Vertigo strip out Earth 2, returning it to its own universe? Because that's what it looks like happened. If this IS the case, then why did whoever is behind this mess do it? Did (s)he fear the Spectre and Doctor Fate? Was (s)he worried about the Justice Society as a whole interfering with various machinations? This is relevant here because there WAS a Wildstorm equivalent to the Justice Society in Tranquility and they've been MIA as well since the merge.
 

DhampyrX2

Well-Known Member
#3
I think the reality revision got them out of Stormwatch and restored their long-standing history together, it didn't write them out of existence. From what I understand Midnighter and Apollo now have their original costumes, powers, and histories back. Which works well with the theme of trying to fix the universe if they didn't just get changed, but regained full knowledge of their Wildstorm past since it means Midnighter would be more inclined to help Voodoo and Grifter wake up Zealot.

Honestly, it's something that gives me a faint glimmer of hope that DC is looking for an escape clause form the new 52 silliness. Starfire having a past with Dick that Roy is trying to get her to remember is another. In the New 52 the JLA has just formed for the first time. If that's true, why would there have ever BEEN a Titans team in the past? The Teen Titans were originally a way a for the junior partners of the Justice League to network and keep an eye on each other. In a world where only Batman and his family have been operating long term and the Justice League is a new concept, the Titans should not have existed and Kory should not have any kid of significant past with Dick. But she DOES. We've been told that much, and we know something has messed with her mid to make her forget it. That's canon right now. I can only hope that if she does regain her memories she regains the memories of the pre-New 52 Starfire. Heck, it gives a glimmer of hope that Arsenal could end up being the pre-New 52 Aresenal trying to pull a Kryptonian Keitaro in canon while watching Jason's back as a favor to Dick.

We also know Earth 2 is now fully separate again thanks to Powergirl and Huntress being their actual Earth 2 selves. (Helena Wayne apparently assumed the identity of a murdered Helena Bertinelli with nobody but Powergirl being able to tell the difference.)

Now as for a point where things can start to brush together, if not merge the two universe storylines totally, well the moment where Tim works to free Superboy from Deathstroke's organization seems to be a good point. If the Ronin League gets involved too (I don't see Kara turning her back on helping her clone cousin or Keitaro turning his back on a friend) and the WildCATs are there to wake up and rescue Warblade (thus saving him from the fate of having Slade execute him) you have a nice little meet up point. And frankly, I'd like to see heroic WildCAT Warblade tear into Deathstroke and his organization. I don't think Reno will be all that thrilled with his new history.
 

DhampyrX2

Well-Known Member
#4
The first thing Voodoo did when she got back to her apartment was pack. She held no illusions about the fact that while she was granted a ridiculous amount of freedom by the Daemonites after they had somehow brainwashed her and released her she would still be watched. And she wanted out from under the eyes of her distant half-cousins as soon as possible. So she threw together some clothes that would be good for traveling (and a few work outfits in case she needed extra cash and had to resort to working the club circuit), whatever cash and other small valuables she had in the apartment, her laptop, and a few snacks she could easily carry before heading out to find a motel room for the night.

Part of her felt vaguely uneasy, as silly as it sounded, that her old WildCAT uniform was not in her closet. Granted, the Daemonites could not possible be stupid enough to send such as potent reminder with her into the field, but now that she was free she felt vaguely naked without it there for her to at least LOOK at. She'd be glad when she could contact the others for a pick up and get a replacement made. Even if she wasn't a full time part of the team any longer she still wanted the security of her uniform. It just felt... right to her.

She swiftly found and checked into a decent middle of the road level hotel, not the pricey places Priscilla would entertain clients and parties and certainly nothing seedy, she had standards after all. She also made certain the hotel had internet access so she could contact Jeremy and the others to come get her. The sooner she was no longer out in the open the better.

She was settled into her room all of ten minutes when she hit her first roadblock, namely that none of Jeremy's e-mail addresses seemed to exist. The same was true for Grifter's and Warblade's. Priscilla knew she could not risk using her cell phone for security reasons and had left it in the apartment before rabbiting. Now she had to wonder it it would have been worth the risk. Had the WildCATs been hacked and forced to develop new email accounts while she was gone? Could Void, who handled such matters, even ALLOW that to happen?

Ans uneasy feeling settled into the pit of Pricilla's stomach as she headed for the nearest "superstore" and bought a cheap disposable pre-paid phone. The other might be on lockdown, but she knew Jeremy would at least keep his private cell phone with him even if it was only to check the voicemail on it. Voodoo was in for another shock when Maul's number came back as disconnected. That really worried her, especially as she called Warblade and got a clearly Korean accented voice answering. She hung up silently, much to the ire of the person on the other end as she tried to work out what exactly was going on.

She decided to search out Halo on the internet, hoping to find some way to contact Spartan as the new head in the wake of Marlowe's ascension, and was more than disturbed to find nothing on the company. How is that even possible? Searches for the artist Reno Bryce aka Warblade, and Dr. Jeremy Stone aka Maul came up similarly empty. Voodoo knew better than to bother researching anything about the WildCATs, Grifter, or Zealot directly. There would and should be nothing public about them. There was a Covert action team for a reason.

Instead she decided to surf general news sites and got her next major shock of the evening as there was a lengthy article about public distrust in Captain Atom. "What the hell? He went back home to his dimension. We made sure of it. And he sure as hell didn't look like that," Priscilla muttered to herself as she tried to gather her wits to understand what was going on. Why was Captain Atom back? Was he somehow involved in this whole mess? Was this even Captain Atop at all, or was it some kind of Kherubim or Daemonite Agent using his name? Too many questions and no where to even start looking for answers.

Voodoo decided after a moment that the best place to start was to gather her thoughts in regards to the false memories she had been implanted with. She knew her mission had been to gather intelligence and resources for the Daemonites on the meta-human threat. Meta-human. Meta-human. Where had she heard that phrase before.

"That's what Captain Atom told up people with powers were called in his reality," Voodoo realized with a growing sense of unease. Had she been somehow thrown into Captain Atom's universe by the Daemonites? Were they trying to conquer a universe without a Kherubim presence there to stop them? No, that didn't make any sense. There was a deeply seated network of Daemonite agents out there with a whole infrastructure of various cells and networks in place throughout the planet. Given what they had learned from Captain Atom before sending him home there was not way that the Daemonites could have set something like that up long term given the various heroes and even villains that would oppose them here. But then how were the Daemonites here at all? Was Voodoo really the only one here?

Her attention was briefly caught by a link on the news site, this to a picture of what was purported to be a super-hero battle of some kind. She idly glanced at the photo only to stop short as she recognized both heroes supposedly duking it out. "Is that Apollo and Mr. Majestic?" Voodoo asked herself aloud. The caption for the photo names Majestros as "Superman" which she supposed explained the odd stylized "S" on his chest. "I can't be the only one here, then. Maybe that is a fake Captain Atom, or maybe something really screwy is going on but I have to try to find the others. And if I can't locate Jeremy or Reno, then the next easiest one to try to track down will have to be Grifter," Voodoo muttered to herself.

Granted she had a pretty good idea of where to find Majestros, if that really was him, and possibly Apollo, but for some reason she decided to go with Grifter. She wanted her team there with her to make her feel safe and make sense of the world. And while Majestros might be a Kherubim Lord, he also represned in Voodoo mind the prejudices she had seen on Khera to those if mixed Daemonite heritage such as herself. More so than even Zealot. At Zealot still trained Voodoo in how to fight.

And so with a course of action tentatively set, Voodoo began her search for Cole Cash, and hopefully, the rest of her team as well.



Author's Note: Yes I know Majestros and Spartan are now part of Team 7 and have been introduced into the New 52. Voodoo, however, does not know that and would make the very easy assumption that Clark was in fact Majestros. Especially with the photoshopped pick that popped up on the net of him fighting Apollo (the same pick that led to Apollo getting recruited into Stormwatch before the temporal whoswhatsits altered the team.) This was just a little exposition to get everything flowing and hopefully get things rolling here.
 
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