Visiting Shadows | Rena

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

"Yes, the Teen Titans! We live in that giant T on the bay, it's kinda hard to miss!" Shift spat, struggling against the bonds still. "Who are the Teen Tyrants? That's the stupidest name I ever heard of! Now will you let me go? I don't even know who you are, you crazy person!" The Titan snapped, as confused and angry as Tinker herself. The lightening died down, though, slowly, and Shift let some of her anger seep away as she noticed the dawning look of - something, accomplishment? - cross Tinker's face.

Athena slumped when Tinker released her, touching her face and grimacing at the blood. Ugh, great. She eyed Tinker warily, one hand curling into a fist before the purple haired woman turned sheepish, accented apologies tripping up the Teen Titans' flustered anger at having been, somehow, ridiculously, confused for someone else. Instead of swinging a punch just yet, she threw her arms into the air. "Yes, Shift! A hero - who else would I be? Look --" The Titan pulled out her communicator, then hooked it back onto her belt loop. She moved aside the strap of her shirt as well, showing the scarred old knife wound that lay there, an easy way to identify her no matter the color of her body. Or so she thought.

Now she frowned in genuine confusion - a running theme in both the conversations he thought she was having, and whatever conversation Tinker seemed to be having half with herself. "Why would I - how would I be red? I'm green, of course. Ugh, red would just be...weird. My pops was green, and so am I. What, have you been living under a rock for, like, ever?"

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Giant 'T' in the bay. Well, that painted a good picture, and it's not like Tinker hasn't flown around the city at all, so of course she knew what Shift was talking about.
was wondering what that was... Tinker thought after a moments consideration. Well, it wasn't as tacky as what the Tyrants called home, at the very least. How did she ever like being in that place, she didn't know.

"Uh, Kinda? I'unno," Tinker shrugged, not even seeming to mind in the least that she had all intents to kill Shift just now over the mistaken identity. It was in the past, right? And it's not like anyone got hurt over it.

Ok shut up, but it was only superficial, and it's not like there's actual bone in the nose to break, just cartilage, right?

"okayyy, yeah that musta hurt," Tinker said, raising one eyebrow looking at the ragged scar. It wasn't a clean wound, meant to hurt the normally furred hero, not kill, aside from the area being a generally non-lethal target.

It was all wrong though, or Tinker might have guessed Shift's identity. The scar was on the wrong shoulder, and it wasn't from her gun, but from a stabwound. Sure Tinker used blades, but not that kind.

"Well... I mean, aren't you normally... Hey, you're not green!" Tinker accused poking Shift playfully, running her finger along the socalled green hero's collar bone, with a strikingly familiar little twinge of a playful smirk that seemed to hold others in place.

Wait... A thought passed her head, as she began to put two and two together, her finger pausing, tantalizingly near the scar. "green... fur? ...Really?" a bit of a dumbfounded look, that certainly looked like Tinker thought Green fur was... an odd choice of fur colour. Tinker shrugged off the odd image of a green furry human, and withdrew her touch, tapping her lips with it, before bringing it to a thoughtful rest on her cheek.

Tinker came to another realization, as it seemed a point of enthusiasm crossed over her features. "Hold on. This means... I did it!"

Tinker sprung into the air, flinging her arms around Shift's head, neck and shoulders. Little weight though, she was floating again instead of hanging off of the taller woman, and real joy was in her voice. "I got here first, Yes!" she said excitedly.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Satisfied, Shift straightened her shirt. "Yeah, it did." Still did, sometimes, if she overworked or overextended her arm - and she couldn't quite rotate it all the way, either - but some stranger in a costume didn't need to know about that. Then again, there was something familiar about her. The accent was harsh, but she'd heard it somewhere before, and that look on her face when she'd shown her scar. Surprise was something Athena had expected, but confusion? And still Tinker had accepted her word and her scar. Why?

Shift rolled her eyes at Tinker's touch, an answering smirk touching her lips as the purple-haired heroine pointed out the obvious. "Not right now, but normally I am. It's, uh, complicated." She paused a moment as Tinker took a closer look at her wound. "I got hit with a lazer and lost my powers, but, uh, we're working on fixing it." Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT complicated. And they were pretty sure she was going to get her powers back - once they got Luthor's kid to cough up the lazer he said could undo whatever the first lazer had done. She was nervous of all the technology being used on her, but she couldn't superhero without her powers - she was no Batgirl - so that was how it had to be.

That teasing hand over hers pulled away, and Shift felt herself follow it for a moment before pulling back. "Listen, I like my fur. Usually. I don't get out pick the color, though; it's always the same green, no matter what I turn into. Seriously, what -- uuh, did what?" Athena interrupted herself, as Tinker realized something and launched herself at the short heroine. Athena didn't have time to do anything - Tinker was too close, and too quick in her excitement - but she did shove the smaller girl off of her as Tinker celebrated. "Okay, hold up, slow down."

She held the universe-swapped Rena by her shoulders, head tilted slightly to the side as if to denote her seriousness. "Explain to me, slowly, what you mean and why I shouldn't deck you for slamming me into a wall. Twice. Because I really kinda want to."

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Rather than getting mad again, after all, it's not like Shift was some sort of wrongdoer, Tinker just shrugged off the veiled threat. Punching wasn't a crime, a bit mean, but not a crime. "Heh, I have a few too, not quite that bad though, maybe you'll see them someday." Tinker said with a wink, strange how one could wink with these domino masks, and momentarily touching her upper left arm. It was a mighty fine thing Athena's scars and such hadn't lined up. Tinker wouldn't have let Athena go free then, considering her close resemblance to someone. Aside from... Green fur, and actually seeming like a decent sentient being.

Tinker decided not to question the anit-power laser. It could be that this socalled green girl was a bang baby, or maybe she had the x-gene or something. Of course, the latter didn't exist, but Tinker wished it did. Still, that was something to be wary of. It's not like she was a kryptonian, or tamaranean, where the powers were inherent with the species makeup. The latter at least under a yellow sun. She was a simple meta-human, and if somebody figured out how to turn that off, then that was bad news for all involved, it didn't matter who had it. Even she wouldn't go so far.

It was rather easy to push the masked girl to the ground even just the weight of Athena's arms and grasp was enough, as she was only using barest of her ability to levitate from the ground.

Tinker could kiss Athena, she was so happy right now. Instead, at the moment, chuckling out her excitement in breath. Aside from her mysteriously sudden excitement, there was another reason Tinker was filled with a bit of mirth. "Aw, if you keep talking like that, I won't want to kiss you anymore." Tinker was playing a weird flirtation with Athena. Question, almost kill, then excitement, and now this. This probably wouldn't look good in any sort of PR, considering how small Tinker was, looked like she was basically a kid.

Guiding Athena's hands from her shoulders, holding them between each other, Tinker clasped them together, tantalizingly near the normally green heroines bosom. Their height difference striking, with how physically close they were now. "I mean, you could, but it's a bad idea. After all, the best it would do, is piss me off." Tinker narrowed her eyes, and a cocky little grin stretched her lips a little. "And you really... really don't want to do that," the warning was clear. Though technically permission was given, there would be rather dire consequences if Shift did punch her. "Okay?" Her tone wouldn't be amiss to curdle milk, and released the woman's hands, rolling her left arm a little, stretching the shoulder as she put her own to a resting position.

Tinker stepped away from her, so she wasn't basically pinning Athena to the wall. "In any case, bigger fish to fry. I don't want to kill you yet, Cookie for you." Which she presented to Athena, a cookie, from her belt of pouches that the batfamily loved, she tossed it in the air between them with a gentle arc, an easy catch.

Tinker held up a hand to stop Athena from talking if she was. "No talking, Story time, eat your cookie," she said. "You need help, and if you're as weak as you look, even Changeling, ALONE, could kill you easily." Tinker had some breath on her it seemed, and a low opinion of both this Changeling person, and their prowess.

"I'm warning you now, you're probably going to die, as weak as you look. Lex said I'd probably be disappointed, and I suppose he was right. Anyway, not important, what's important is, I'm from another world, and the Tyrants, also from my world decided to try and take your world, too, so I'm here to warn you, and give you the slightest bit of chance of success against them."

In simpler terms, other world villains coming to this world, and Tinker was some hero associated with Lex, and the only Lex worth mentioning was... the grand villain Lex Luthor. "Aw Gee Willickers, Jester told me to end with a joke, release the tension, uh.... Knock knock?"

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

This girl flirting with her was going to drive her over the brink, Athena thought, faintly. It wasn't like she was unused to being hit on; fellow heroes, villains, even a few citizens they'd saved had flirted with Shift before - she was just glad her skin color and fur hid her blush well. Even if Chae was missing in action, however, Athena wasn't going to just flirt with the first person who batted their eyelashes at her - they didn't know where Rainbow was, she hadn't said anything before she'd left, not a note or anything left before; they didn't even have an East Titans' team anymore! She wasn't even sure talking about comparing scars would really even be flirting - it was more like a measuring contest.

Uncertain and still smarting with tiny pains, Athena pulled her hands back like Rena was on fire when she joked about kissing her - at the same time, Tinker had grabbed those same hands and held them in her own, and Shift couldn't find it in herself to struggle. So being threatened so soon after having been heavily flirted with flummoxed the Titan, and her mouth dropped open slightly. She would definitely have to get her story out of this purple-haired girl - whatever that ended up being, it would explain more than she knew now! Like what Tinker had meant by saying 'she'd arrived first'. "I - wait - what, did you...was there a bet? Did you take a shuttle out here or something?" She asked, confused, glancing over Tinkers' shoulder - not hard, since the top of her head barely came up passed Shift's chin - as if looking for some other strangely dressed punks.

Moving on instinct, Athena caught the cookie in one hand, an open-palmed snatch that seemed to surprise the shape shifter herself. Holding it between her index and thumb, she eyed the cookie for a second, then Tinker again, one eyebrow sliding upwards in a meaningful, silent question. What was going on? Out of the three dozen or so questions in her head, Athena managed to spit out the most pressing ones first...and some commentating on Tinker herself, a verbal returning volley for her judgmental words. "Okay, first off, if I had my powers there's no way you'd beat me, and secondly, who are you? Who's Changeling?" She was kind of insulted by the clear, well, insult, and implied low opinion that Tinker held of her. So much so she dropped numbering her questions, instead grabbing Tinker's shoulders, heedless of the danger she might be facing if Tinker took that unkindly, in her shock.

"Lex? As in, Luthor?" That was enough of a surprise, even before Rena dropped her bombshell of an explanation. "Wait, go back; how'd you get here from another world? Another universe? Why are they trying to take us over? Who are they?" She was lightly shaking the smaller heroine by the time she got to the end of her questions, voice rising in volume and pitch as nerves besieged the serious shape shifter. The only effect the 'joke' seemed to have on her was a twitch in her jaw - and that might have been at Jester's name, another question she stacked on top of the swiftly accumulating pile.

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Squeezing lightly down on the small girl's shoulders as she shook them, Shift would notice both were a bit hard. She was wearing padding beneath the latex. A bit of extra protection. Given her casual attitude about dangers, it was likely that was the case. And unlike the little shapeshifter, she didn't need to worry about certain

"awawaa~~" How.... moe. The girl even made noises, along with her cutesy little words. Each 'wa' was accompanied in turn with the little shakes Athena was giving her. Was she even taking her own warning seriously, one had to wonder. "Ye-e-esss. Lex, as in Luthor! But not yours!" she declared quickly. Lex had said that his self in this world was evil, like how, supposedly as Tinker would withold her judgement on the matter, Changeling was good here. And apparently green, too, though she doubted that really. "/my/ Lex! He's like, the best guy I know." Tinker spoke the truth, in that regard. The Lex back in her world, was among those she held a high amount of respect for. Jester, though he shared a name, was Joker's equivalent. ALways believed in the best of people. "And he helped me get here, so the Tyrants don't kill more."

Tinker had a time in her life she believed that. She raised her hand gently brushing a strand of frizzied hair, from the previous static attack, pulling it behind Athena's ear, drawing her closer. Tinker rose off the ground a slight, bringing them within range to feel their breaths on their cheeks. "Will you believe me, if I show you?" Tinker asked. So close, her eyes beneath the domino mask could just be made out through the shield, wide and staring into Shift's own.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

"Lex Luthor is the best guy you know?" Shift repeated in disbelief. She made a face, clearly not computing how, even in some bizarre opposite world, such a thing was possible. Lex Luthor was...he was Lex Luthor. Taking over the world every other week in his younger years, passing on the same evil-doing to his kids if the rumors about them were true. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't; it was hard to tell with politicians. They were slimy like that.

But if what Tinker was saying was true, then he'd helped her get to their world in an effort to - save it? Athena still had a hard time believing Luthor wouldn't have some kind of ultierior motive, but Tinker seemed to genuinely believe what she was saying. And what she was saying about the Tyrants was...worrying, to put it lightly. "Killing?" Shift interjected, letting her hands drop from Tinkers' shoulders. (Was she wearing armor under there? Jeez. She'd have to get this kid in touch with Robin, he'd love to talk shop about that.)

Another thought distracted by Tinker moving - not flying, really, but floating so Shift tilted her head as their faces moved to an even height. And was she closer? Tinker was definitely unlike any other opponent Shift knew. Even most of her allies wouldn't have gotten quite so...close as the purple haired heroine. In fact, the shape shifter couldn't think of a single time she'd been close enough to see Robin's eyes through his mask, and yet Tinkers' eyes were really...

Really distracting. She was distracting. Caught between the rock wall behind her and the young woman in front of her, Athena didn't have anywhere to retreat to, and she'd never been the retreating kind of girl in the first place. So she sidestepped instead, scraping slightly against the rock as she went, relaxing only when there was half a foot of space between herself and Rena. Tinker. Whatever her name was. "Show me what?" Shift asked, inordinately proud of her voice not wobbling too much.

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This girl has a slow learning curve,doens't she? Had she not already said that her Luthor was the best guy she knew? The spandex wearing girl watched Shift bow and duck away from her. A very clear nope, that might have hurt if Tinker had been serious about coming onto her.

Kind of a cute little nope, considering how flabbergasted the normally silly coloured girl was all but telegraphing her reddened cheeks. "Yes. Kill, as in, no longer moving. For good." Tinker reiterated her point, though she felt it should have been an unnecessary statement. I mean, how many times does it take for this girl to get it through her head, that these Tyrants aren't just some kids trying to be cool bullies anymore. They had become truly dangerous. "I've lost friends to these willies."

Tinker let that comment hang in the air. Lost friends, watched them kill, likely had been on the receiving end of a beating or two, if the Tyrants were as dangerous as she was trying to say. "Relax, and you'll see." Tinker floated gently over to Shift again, reaching slowly with a hand, to caress her cheek to draw the girl in closer, and now with her other hand. As long as Shift stayed, she would begin to see things in just a moments. It wasn't like a vision, though that'd be likely the best description of how they came to the gimped shapeshifter's mind.

A dream overlayed upon the real world, watching through a filter. Closing her eyes would help them become more clear. From Tinker to Shift, the memories came through. From children trying to survive, that were taken in by this scary looking preteen in red fur. To flashing of when Tinker watched the other don a mask the first time... and then the last time. The anguish would be felt, as through Tinker's eyes, Shift would see the blood on the gloved hands. A confrontation, as Tinker fought, and ran unable to deal with it.

From a harder look, Lex Luthor took the lost girl in, bringing her to various heroes of the world. Even one that might send chills up Shift's spine. The Joker! Tinker was with the Joker, crying over the loss of her friends when she left the red furred girl. He cheered her up with a few corny jokes. That wasn't the Joker.

"that's Lex. And that's the Jester. Lex told me your world's version is..." Tinker's voice came through, echoing as she inserted the thought into the memories. She let it trail off. It'd be a dark day for sure if the Joker set his sights on Jump.

Flashes of memories, Tinker fought against various members of the Tyrants, though always held off, when she might have been able to win, and running when it became too much for her to handle, as powerful as her lightning was. Coming across the dead and dying. Caused by the various villains of the world, alternate versions of heros. Ultraman, and Superwoman. Owlman, and more. It was not a safe world Tinker hailed from, with evil amazonians, and kryptonians, a version of batman wanting nothing but destruction.

The memory shifted, and Tinker was laying in a crater. Looking down at a puddle stained red, reflecting her domino mask half torn off, revealing one familiar dark eye, tears streaming down a battered face. 'please.... you can be better,' This one was a strong memory. 'please, don't do this. you won't do this.'

The memoryTinker's voice wavered as she seemed to be trying to convince herself of her own words. She looked, pleading at her lost friends. The red furred teen, and her enterage, even a business looking man was there which her gaze lingered on. 'I believe you won't, you're my friends, you can be good, please,' she plead, the memory going black, a remembered pain shot through the memory.

Tinker withdrew her hands from Shift's cheeks, letting her small form touch back to the ground. Tinker hadn't confirmed it, but that was a moment she had died. Killed by those she had wanted the best of, the members of the Teen Tyrants. "That, is who those no good baddies are...." Tinker said, her voice iced over. She had seen the worst, and suffered for it. "And they're here, there is no doubt."

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Letting some random woman put hands on her and do - magic? or was she some kind of psychic? - wasn't the smartest thing Athena had ever done. It was probably in the top ten of the dumbest things she'd done, if one ranked them, and she was glad that nobody else was here to see that she let it happen, because the heroine knew she'd no doubt get an ear-full from friends and teammates. Smart or not, though, she let it happen - this 'Tinker' was moving in slowly, floating to make the movement easier, and Shift closed her eyes as the flashes of visions, memories, started blooming in her minds' eye.

She saw...herself. But younger, much younger, and - red? Why was she red? That wasn't right. But if she was 'seeing' herself from this woman's view, when they were kids, that narrowed down the possibilities to a handful of people. Athena had a creeping feeling she wasn't going to like the answer to the question 'Who is Tinker?' The fleeting memories of masks and rainy nights and blood, and she wasn't sure if her scar was really aching or if it was all in her head, but her heart was clenching in acute pain as she saw, no matter the universe, it seemed this constant played out the same. She never made the right choice. Things always spiraled out of control - and this time, she saw it from Tinker...no, Rena, other-Rena's...body.

The sight of faces that were wanted around the multi-verse snapped the Titan out of her self-pitying reverie - and almost snapped her out of Tinker's little 'trick' altogether, the fear reaction was so strong. But this wasn't the ghoulishly grinning Joker that had wanted posters plastered from Gotham to Atlantis or the coldly tyrannical Lex Luthor of the Teen Titans' world. No, these men were clearly being remembered with fondness. The Jester? She'd have to remember to tell Young Justice about that. But the lighter moment was swept away all-too-quickly, as bodies and blood inundated Tinker's vision.

Athena saw herself, her other self, closer to her own age now, and a dark red that was the perfect mirror to her own forest-green. Not all of that red was fur, she could tell, even through second-hand memory. Tinker's eyes, dark and damningly familiar, lingered on a face that Shift knew nearly as well her own, though the other Irazehl looked more well-kept. Well kept and streamlined, like a jaguar, or a shark that's got a seal in its' sights. The rest of the not-quite-her-team ranged behind them, blurrier in the memory, but distinct all the same, these other versions just as off as her own double was.

"RENA!" It was a good thing Tinker pulled away when she did, for Athena ripped herself in the opposite direction when the vision went suddenly black, dizzy and horrified, a sick feeling brewing in her stomach as the Titan realized she'd screamed aloud. She noticed, distantly, that her eyes had opened sometime between when she'd lurched away from Tinker - Rena! another Rena, a good one! she could hardly believe it - and when she'd hit the cliff wall a few paces behind her. Shift slumped against the rock, eyes wide as saucers, questions and apologies all waiting on the tip of her tongue - if only her brain could make her mouth move! "You...I..." I didn't mean to. No. I would never...The team would never -! That was history, ancient history, and rehashing it now would waste time. Please forgive me/not me. Please forgive us. There would be long hours to stumble over apologies and split memories. This can't happen again! I won't let it! Determination seemed to resolve a quandary inside the heroine, and her slack, shocked face hardened into its' usual look, more haggard around the edges.

"What can we do? Can we send them back? Do you know where they came out?" Shift snapped off the questions. It was probably rude of her to demand difficult answers so suddenly, but she had just experienced second-hand death; she figured she was allowed some leniency.

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