IC: Clan House

[Nekoman]

Zach rubbed his wrist - Sara's grip was stronger than he would have thought- and pushed the bangs from his face.
"So we signed up into a seemingly harmless competition, then you abduct us, throw us in the future, and our only consolation is a one-in.." Zach paused to quickly count the number of contestants, "seventeen chance of winning a silly old house?"
Zach mentally stepped back, and shut his eyes as he did so. Often, his mind was a puzzle to himself, as his past of multiple personality syndrome caused him to hide his own intentions from himself. This was a form of meditation in order to uncover his own secrets.

Eyes still closed he spoke loudly, "What are you going to do with the losers? I don't expect you would just send them out into the world, with no job and no home?"

[Yetisarge]

"You had a good life at home Sara? Hmm as I recall you hate how your parents treat you and you pretty much hate the way teachers seem to be doing things and you are constantly complaining about not having a boyfriend. So it seems to me that you have a better time here since you don't have to deal with most of that stuff here." Aj said with a smirk from a near by couch.

"As to your comment Dylan not everyone wants to go back. Myself I would rather stay here personally because I don't have to deal with a shit I do back in my past so I rather like it here."

[charli]

"I didn't like my family, and I didn't like a few of my teachers," Sara glared at AJ, not pleased at all about these time travel laws. "But not all of my friends from there are here, and I was comfortable in that environment." Liar, you're just gonna miss Jimmy. Harumphing, she turned back to the bot. "Isn't there, like, mind wipe technology? Can't you guys suppress our memories of the future when we leave the house?"

[Nekoman]

Zach snapped his eyes open and looked at Sara.
"Please. I doubt anything besides a blunt object to the back of the head can induce memory loss, and we would just see ourselves after everything is edited and broad-casted."Then again, his hypnosis could have that very effect, but he wasn't about to give away his trump card. Zach swiveled in his chair to face her.
"My best guess is they will buy us off. Otherwise we'd go straight to court and sue them.. Unless there were things we didn't quite pick up in the sign-up sheet."

[Yetisarge]

"Hmm blunt object you say eh?" Aj said with a evil grinning slightly joking to himself as he thought about what he could do with a few of his own blunt objects in the house.

[charli]

At the mention of blunt objects, Sara's mind jumped immediately to drill rifles. Yeesh, her head throbbed just remembering that practice where the seniors had forced the freshman to try to spin. Unconsciously, she checked her hand. Yep, the scar was still there, too. "But I don't want money," she said to Zach. "I wanna be able to go home." She could feel herself slipping into that whiny voice that Kat hated, but Kat wasn't here, so oh well.

[Yetisarge]

"I swear to god I'm going to end up slapping you about that voice since Kat isn't here to do it so I get to be the one who does do it good lord." Aj said mostly just to have something to do until the Bots continued their little introduction speech and all that other BS.

[charli]

Sara bared her teeth and hissed at AJ, then turned to the bot. "So when are we gonna find out what the first challenge or whatever is?"

[TrickyLA]

Leyla and Lilly

Leyla paled at the news.

"Can't ever return.....? EVER!? What about my family! My brother! I had other friends back there too! What the hell!?"

She loved her parents, but the one she knew shed miss the most was her little brother. Never see him again? And what about her cousins? She would NEVER know what happened in Heroes NOW.

What about your other friends too? Kat would kill me if she knew.....

Straightening slightly, she stared blankly at Lilly.

Lilly herself looked a bit shaken. All she really had left was her family, and nnow they had been taken too.

"Sonnova...."

[Nekoman]

"I think they're waiting for our personal conversations to die down again." Zach smiled a bit, then stepped between the two. "Please don't get into a fight, you know the trouble they cause. And Sara, face it. We aren't going home. I don't want to sound heartless, but it's just not possible."

[charli]

-Eric-

Sara looked devastated. So did the fox chick and that girl, Leyla. But was Eric the only guy who did mind staying in the future? And what was with Zach? "Way to be comforting, man," Eric reprimanded, lounging back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling. "We will get back one way or another." He and his spellbook would make sure of that.

[Nekoman]

"My purpose is not to be comforting, my purpose is to help cope. Very slight difference in this situation." He turned to Eric. "You two seem really tight, why don't you show me your 'method'?"

[Yetisarge]

"Hmm robots who actually have manners? Wow that is a new one on me." Aj said just watching as the conversations seemed to slowly die and come back and die again. Looks like the bots would have to interrupt if they really cared about timeliness like most bots seemed to do.

[charli]

-Eric-

"Kid, you wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you about my 'methods'." A.K.A., Eric wasn't gonna cop to just being a beginning spellcaster. "But as for me and Sara 'being tight'. I just met the girl. You've known her longer seeing as how you're one of the Clan people."

[Nekoman]

"I suppose." Zach wanted to brush off the conversation, he had started it as mindless chatter, he hadn't thought it through. Eric's suggestion of his out-of-the-ordinary methods caught his curiosity, though, and Zach went back into thought.

[TheTimeSweeper]

Evan and Nav-E


Evan sat in silence taking the situation in and trying to figure out what they should all do if the worse should happen. Nav-E, on the other hand, was staring at Zach and wondering if his head was screwed on right.

“We can all go home easily if we had a time machine at our disposal, and we do. It’s just not here right now. It is possible, and right now I think we should all act positive, find out exactly what we will be doing here, and if we can go home afterwards before jumping to conclusions.”

Evan raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Maybe I smacked you upside the head a little too hard.”

“I’m fine, dammit. I just don’t want to hear someone saying that something is not true when it is.”

[Nekoman]

"I doubt they'd let us though." Zach said, reacting to Nav-E, " It looks as though it's standard protocol to force a being of the past to stay in the future, so they don't begin spreading the future's majesties around."

[TheTimeSweeper]

Evan and Nav-E


“Bah, majesties, smajesties. If you really want to go back to the past after all of this is done, then that can be arranged. Fortunately, I have a plan for such an endeavor.”

“And what, pray tell, is this so-called plan, Nav-E?” asked Evan. “In case you have forgotten, the DeLoreans have no idea where we are despite the fact that they know what year we are in.”

“It’s quite simple actually, my deluded twin brother. We just contact the Midtown Madness Universe with something other than our watches.”

Evan was confused for a moment until realization hit him.

“You don’t mean you’re going to…?”

Nav-E nodded. "Exactly."

“Are you out of your mind?! Do you have any idea what that could do? That method is unpredictable and unstable!”

“Hey, I’m trying to be helpful here and you’re stomping all over my good mood. If the people want a way to get back to the past, then this could be their only choice.”

Evan narrowed his eyes at Nav-E.

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“Trust me, it will. We’ve done it countless times before, but we’ll only use it in case of an emergency, alright?”

Evan shut his eyes in frustration and annoyance before opening them again.

“Alright.”

[charli]

~Sara~

Sara perked up at Nav-E's suggestion. Evan said that it was dangerous, but it seemed like it actually had a decent chance of working. And even if it didn't, there was always Eric's mystery plan they could fall back on. "How many people could you guys take back to the past, Nav-E?"

[TheTimeSweeper]

Evan and Nav-E


“Well, if everything goes according to plan, we can bring everyone back. However, we wouldn’t be going back in time immediately. We would need to locate the DeLoreans first and then only through their combined efforts could they reverse time for everyone.”

“Nav-E, the last time we did something like this on such a large scale, a few people disappeared and we never heard from them again,” replied Evan.

“That was only because they were careless and didn’t listen to our instructions and warnings. It’s not our fault that they were lost in a computerized world.”

“I’m concerned here because if we do this, there’s no telling where we could all end up. Knowing you, you brought along a copy of Midtown Madness 2 in case something like this should ever happen. We could end up in San Francisco, London, or any other of the 14+ cities within the MM2 dimension. Looking around the room, you can probably see that we’re not all dressed properly to endure the sub-zero temperatures of Winter City, nor are the DeLoreans going to be much help if we get stuck in Zebra Town. Or worse, we all get transported to an alternate version of San Francisco that’s being invaded by aliens. How would you feel if you got all of these people to safety with the hope that they can go back to the past and then they were abducted by white-skinned, faceless beings with the intent to run a whole bunch of weird, creepy experiments on them? Those guys hate outsiders. We were nearly killed the last time we went there by accident.”

“Well geez, if you put it that way, then yes, it’s a huge risk. I know how unpredictable and volatile it is, but if we are backed into a corner or up against a wall with a single decision, then it might be the only way to go. Don’t think that I haven’t given this any serious consideration. And besides, even if we do end up in Alien Invasion, we’ll have the Audi TTR to help us. That car knows all the ins and outs of that city and how to evade all of the military LTVs, Kia Claruses, and UFOs we might come across.”

“There’s only one problem. The car only has five seats and there are a lot more than just five of us in this room.”

“Heh, luckily for us, the Audi TTR can replicate itself so we’ll definitely have enough cars to go around.”

Evan’s eyes went wide upon hearing this information.

“Replicate itself? Like how the Toyota Yaris does it?”

“Exactly. It shouldn’t be a problem at all if we were sent to that city, but I’m with you on this too. I do not want to put anyone in danger of being abducted by those freaks and experimented on which is why we would only do this in case of an emergency.”

“I’m glad you understand the seriousness of all this.”

“Hey, I’m not a heartless asshole. I do care about others; I just don’t show my caring side that often.”

[charli]

-Eric-

Cars with minds of their own? Eric had seen some weird shit, but that was just ridiculous. He noticed that the Turk - she's Sara's friend, caller her by her name - Leyla was next to him, and she didn't look pleased. "What was it Sara said earlier?" Eric chuckled to her. "'Why so emo, terrorist?' C'mon, cheer up. We'll get you back to your brother."

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla narrowed her eyes at Eric, but then sighed. He obviously didn't mean any harm by calling her names. In fact, most of her friends did it on a regular basis.

"I'm not emo....And how can you be so sure? A talking car is REALLY going to be able to get us HOME?"

Pouting, Leyla crossed her arms.

"I doubt it...."

Lilly rolled her eyes at Leyla.

"Deal with it, you're not the only one who's leaving family behind."

Leyla glared at her.

"Well, you're a DEMON! You're family will at least look relatively the SAME! Who knows about mine!"

[charli]

-Eric-

He shrugged. "If the cars can't, then I will. It's as simple as that. Hey, you conjured up that confetti, right? What else can you do? Because you might be able to help me with getting us back when the time comes."

[TheTimeSweeper]

Nav-E


Nav-E smirked at Leyla.

“I can understand how all of this sounds -- talking cars and whatnot. We sound like we’re talking crazy, right? I don’t blame you for thinking that, but what Evan and I have been talking about is the truth, and if you want to get back to your own time then you and everyone else will need to trust us. We have been up against the dangers in this universe before, we know how to deal with them, but you don’t as far as we know, so we would be your best bet next to this other guy’s idea.”

Evan was impressed with Nav-E’s current behavior, but he knew it wouldn’t last long. All it took was something that he was interested in or caught his eye and he would go right back to his old self.

“Let’s just enjoy the moment while it lasts.”

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla nodded at Nav-E, acknowledging him fully for the first time.

"Just....I need to wrap my mind around it is all....Its a bit much to take in you know?"

Turning back to Eric, she rose an eyebrow.

Huh.....so someone actually DID notice that....thoguht I was going insane again for a minute there.....

"What do you mean? I have no idea what I did......all I did was think about how great it would be for there to be a party.....with confetti and stuff...."

She didn't see what she could possibly do to help, but then again she DID conjure up that book earlier. She looked down to her foot, noticing the steel-toed boots were still on her feet.

"Hmmmm...."

She didn't quite understand how any of these things were happening, but she knew it wasn't normal for her. Perhaps they had done something to make her more equipt to deal with her seemingly permanent stay in the future? All she knew was that she really needed some contact with her brother, with everyone. She didn't seem to have her Cell Phone on her either, and the computer was unreliable to her in contacting most of the people she needed to talk to.

If only she had her phone.....

"Leyla.....when did you get that phone?"

Leyla stared at the demon like she had just grown another head.

"Lilly? What are you talking about....."

Looking in her hand, she noticed her Pantech Duo. Shocked, she flipped it open and noticed all of her numbers were intact. It was the same phone.

What the......fuck?

[charli]

~Sara~

"Am I the only one who didn't get revamped for this thing?" Sara pouted. "I feel like the only one who didn't get a cool new power slash ability." Then a thought occurred to her. "Leyla, that your phone from the past, right? Would it call the numbers in this time, or the numbers as they were in 2009?"

[Nekoman]

"I severely doubt radio waves can travel through time, Sara. Besides, you guys are treating this like a survivalist situation. Just play the contest, then decide what to do when you lose." Zach turned towards the bots, getting a little bored with the frantic conversation behind him.

[Yetisarge]

Aj and Zerb just kind of looked around waiting for the conversation to die.

Aaron looked over at Leyla and picked a piece of confetti that was still in his hair and threw it back at her. It didn't go far though seeing as it was a single piece of confetti and that stuff just doesn't go very far on its own anyway.

[TrickyLA]

Leyla

Leyla looked a bit stumped.

"I have no idea....I wish it did though....but you know, I have no idea HOW I got this thing in the first place!"

She rose a brow at Aaron's attempt to throw confetti at her.

"Maybe next time...."

[echoes]

-Dan-

Dan had just stared in disbelief as Dylon turned out to be Upsilon.
It overloaded his brain with hatred. Upon being teleported, he still didn't move and barely registered what the machine was saying.
Though upon hearing that he couldn't return home, he looked up, and after a few minutes he spoke a single word.
"FUCK!" though it was shouted more than spoken.
"So this means I can't go back and slaughter my enemies?!" Dan was severely depressed until his nanites told him of the conversation Evan was having with a large number of the contestants.
He turned to the borderline insane, Midtown Madness obsessed being. "If you have ANY means of returning us, I don't care HOW dangerous it is, I'm going back, the timeline be damned!" Dan surprised himself with the last part, as he had always said, that if anyone ever made a time machine, he'd hunt them down, kill them and destroy their work completely, just to keep the timeline intact.