ic Mile in My Shoes [IC]

[Electra]

"You just have to think it to land," Koshiro told Kimber, even as he smoothed his hands over his arms. With the fight over for a moment, he could concentrate more attention on sculpting himself back to something close to human. His fingers were recognizably separate digits now, and some color was creeping slowly over the bluish-silver metal that made up his body now. He took a few steps towards her, looking up. "Once you get down to floor level, think about it being a piece of paper again, and it'll unfold. You'll be able to step right off." Despite the strange circumstances, he sounded almost encouraging.

[Avenger Assembled]

"He dropped it over the ocean, and then I took him out. I couldn't just let the jerk drown, even though I was sorely tempted. Stupid Fathom." Sharl glared at the still-unconscious Fathom, then turned to the others, forcing himself to concentrate on Corbin's words so that he wouldn't be a threat to anyone else. "All right, thanks, CT, yeah, I think I've got that...Look, we can solve this, right? We can get out there, search the ocean, maybe find one of the, uh, magic students if we have to, and we can sort it out." As tempting as it was to call in Miss A, he wanted to solve this on his own: especially since he had to admit, at least to himself, that it was his fault. "Somehow everyone's powers got...shoved around..." He shot a glance at the metal man who he realized had to be Koshiro, the fire around him receding as he concentrated on Corbin's words. "I seem to be embedded in the matrix of Templar's ring, and I'm projecting myself through that instead of my emitter. And that doesn't make a lot of sense, but we can figure it out once we find the Bauble. The important thing is, thanks to Cobalt Templar, I don't think I'm going to set anything on fire...hey, there's an idea! Who got Sage's powers?"

[Fox]

"Um - I did, I believe," Wraith raised her hand, "but they are very strange, and I think I got a human body to go with them."

She frowned, trying not to fidget, and trying extra-hard not to think about her fleshy, too-light body full of pulsing organs. "I think I was able to grab one of them with my mind, earlier - Fathom, as he was flying away. I was not able to do the...mind...speaking thing, when I tried, on Granite. I do not think I know how it works."

[April]

Floating silently a few feet above the ground, lost in her thoughts, the white-haired heroine was broken free of her reverie with the mention that the bauble, that strange piece of crystal clock, had fallen loose from Fathom had plunged into the water. Sage frowned, briefly entertained the idea of contacting her brother, then dismissed the idea; it didn't seem like a good idea to involve the others, especially if the artifact was still active.

She raised an eyebrow when Citizen asked who got her powers, wishing (not for the first time) she could read what he was thinking. She was surprised when Wraith raised her hand but the surprise passed when, taking the rest of the team into account, it made sense.

Sage drifted over to Wraith, landing gently in front of her. "It may help if you close your eyes," she suggested, speaking quietly in her French-accented soprano. "Ignore the world for the moment and focus your attention inward. You should feel a lingering sensation in the back of your mind; like barely audible whispers teasing the limits of your hearing."

"No mind is truly closed; something of the psyche always leaks out and lets one follow it back to the source. It's like a fingerprint, like how you can identify who is approaching from the sound their footsteps make, or the way they smell. The whispers in the back of your mind, they are the thoughts of those around you."

"Once you find the mind you seek you simply push your thoughts and emotions into it."

[Fox]

Wraith dutifully closed her eyes, taking another deep breath as she tried to focus. It was pretty easy to see the moment she sorted things out: her face pinched up at the unfamiliar sensation of...well. Of everything.

It took the Indian teenager a moment to sort things out, but the smell analogy certainly helped - mind powers were weird, but that she got. In a few moments she opened her eyes again and looked around. It is...this is a very strange ability, she thought - broadcast, really, though she'd at least taken a moment to single out her teammates rather than project to everyone in her still-unknown radius. Very, very strange. It is actually a bit like meditating, only I have turned my stillness inside out. ....though I do not believe that translates very well.

[Gizmo]

Kimber did as Koshiro instructed, gradually bringing the paper airplane to a skidding halt on the museum floor, rolling off of it in what was perhaps not the most graceful or dignified dismount but at least effective. The aircraft shrunk back down to it's original size and she pocketed it with the careful reverence of someone borrowing a friend's favourite toy.

With her feet back on solid ground and Indira's voice in her head, the newly corporeal teenager quickly snapped back to her excitable nature. "Ohmigoodness, you're human right now? Like with bones and eyeballs and stuff? Me too! I am going to hug everyone, seriously, you don't even know!" Pausing mid-outburst, the Canadian blinked and placed one hand over her stomach. "Also, I haven't eaten in like sixteen years."

[Avenger Assembled]

"That's not a bad idea," said Citizen, thinking hard and trying not to dwell too closely on the unsettling transformation he'd undergone. He was having enough trouble just holding himself together. Man, I can't believe Corbin can do this all the time. He gave Cobalt Templar a grateful nod, still grateful for the advice he'd gotten, and said, "The last thing we need is to be messed up by any biological or physical tricks none of us are expecting. So if you need to eat, go eat, I guess." He wasn't sure when he'd started giving orders; maybe it was just the ring that made its wearer more confident! "In the meantime...Wraith, do you think you can use Sage's powers well enough to scan the sea bottom and look for the Bauble? It's beyond what I could normally reach if it's not near any cameras down there. I don't even know if I _can_ interface with computers..."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin had frozen mid-"step" as soon as Kimber warned him about the fires of his own ring. The irony was almost painful; the tool that had served him so faithfully for so long was now his mortal enemy, at least until this was sorted out. His attention had drifted a bit as he pondered the situation, but he snapped back in focus when Wraith mind-spoke to them all. He gave her a small smile and a quick nod.

"Nice work. That should help us out while we search for this thing."

He quirked an eyebrow as Sharl suggested Wraith try searching the seabottom with her mind. When he'd finished speaking, he politely cleared his spectral throat before speaking.

"Or I could just float down to the bottom and look around for it. It wouldn't strain me at all, and she could just keep in mental contact with me while I do it. No worries about cameras or mental strain or anything. I'll probably need a minute to adjust to the feeling, but it shouldn't be an issue."

[Electra]

Koshiro took a few steps towards the unconscious and/or bound villains, already acquiring a hint of his usual relaxed gait. He blinked his eyes, another small accomplishment, and glanced over at the others. "We should probably call the Star Squad or something too, we don't want to end up babysitting these guys while we look for the Bauble and try to get ourselves sorted out. Plus, given how they screwed the whole thing up once, we don't want to risk them getting a hand on the stupid thing again." He absently reached for his pocket to create a barrier enclosing Fathom and his goon squad, only to realize he didn't even have pants, much less pockets, much less the paper he always carried. Nor would he have been able to use it if he had it.

He thought for a second. "Hey Ghost Girl, I want to try something. Give me a piece of paper, would you?"

[Gizmo]

"Oh, of course!" Kimber replied, distracted from her hunger pang as she jogged over to Koshiro and patted her pockets until she found a stack of unfolded sheets, handing him one once she was sure his newly reformed fingers had a solid grip. "So, um, thanks for helping me get down there," the brunette continued in a quieter voice but with a grin that was no less sunny than usual. "And you look, y'know, good!" she added encouragingly, giving him a thumbs up and feeling a little guilty that she'd apparently inherited his solidness. "If we run into any Kinigosi girls, they'll totally be all, 'heeeeey!'" The former phantom wisely decided this wasn't the time to mention that Indira's people didn't really have genders as such.

Hopping up and down a bit, she turned her energetic chattering in Corbin's direction. "You'd for sure be fine, Cee Tee, you're dead!" Evidently not realizing that that prospect might have been at all disturbing for the temporary ghost, she began ticking off fingers. "You can walk right through stuff and be invisible and you don't have to eat or sleep or breath or--" Stopping abruptly, the Canadian teen blinked a few times, then brought both hands to either side of her head with a yelp. "Oh jams, I can't stop thinking about breathing now! Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, ahh!"

[Fox]

"Strictly speaking, we do not truly have 'genders'," Wraith noted, apparently not quite so restrained on the subject as her roommate. "That is something that takes quite a bit of getting used to, when first encountered. I do not have your secondary--"

She paused, grimacing as she realized something, and looked down at herself. "....n..never mind. Let us concentrate on switching back, please. And if we are going to eat, I should probably join you. If Ghost Girl has not eaten in sixteen years, I am likely no better off."

[April]

"How about we combine both efforts?" Sage suggested, glancing between Sharl and Cobalt Templar, a slender white eyebrow raised in question. "If Wraith has my powers then her ability to locate a mind will have considerable range, lunar orbit at least. The object Fathom dropped is markedly closer, and it should have his residual psychic signature. Then you two can go down there and retrieve it."

"It should be a simple matter for Wraith to guide you there, I'll be here to guide her as best as I can while Ghost Girl and Papercut help me keep an eye on this lot. We need to get them back to normal too."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm concerned about splitting up," Citizen admitted, though he didn't look entirely displeased at Sage's suggestion. "I can..." He blinked, then shook his head. "Actually, no, I can't call Star Squad, but it looks like the civilians are doing that," he said with a nod to the people nearby on their cellphones, the ones that weren't taking pictures, anyway. "Why don't we wait for them to get here, so we know for sure we're not leaving these jokers to run away or cause more trouble? We can put enough ice and paper around these guys that they'l get nowhere fast. In any event, Wraith, can you and Sage find the thing? If not, we might as well call the League right now."

[Fox]

"I...I think so." Wraith nodded, but she shuffled a little uneasily before finally taking a seat on the ground, her awful bones keeping her from being properly still and comfortable while upright. With as much instruction and guidance as Sage could give her, she tried to be still, internally and externally, trying to reach out with her mind. It was like scents, right? That much she got. She just had to find the right scent....

When her eyes opened they didn't see anything anymore, but there was a brief impression of something shapeless and three-eyed pulling itself up off her body and fading away. Not that her mind actually went anywhere, but it helped her focus, helped her to imagine tracking that one, single scent in a forest of thinking, feeling--

~I have it,~ she thought to the others, cocking her head to the side like a dog that found something interesting at the foot of a tree. ~I believe I can lead you to it from here.~

[Electra]

While the others were talking, Koshiro focused on the paper in his hands, an effortless series of motions suddenly made alien and difficult by the strangeness of his own fingers. The more he tried to concentrate on the paper, the more likely his own fingers were to flatten out like paper themselves, ready to be folded up into any number of useful shapes, except of course for freaking fingers.

Frustrated, he looked up from the work for a moment. "If we're going out to the bay, we might as well kill two birds with one stone and get some food while we're there. There's a bunch of little places for the tourists, and that thing's going to be just as stuck on the bottom of the ocean an hour from now. We don't need anybody passing out because they've never had anything to eat." Apparently not paying attention did the trick, since when Koshiro looked down again, he'd finished folding the lidded box he'd been struggling with.

"Use this," he directed Kimber, passing over the toy. "Toss it in their direction, but think about it being big, big enough to fit around all of them, and strong like metal. The paper does what you want it to, but you have to be clear about it."

[Gizmo]

Kimber took the folded box in both hands, cradling it carefully and blinking for a moment before her expression lit up. "Oh! Just like you used on the gloopy hag that one time! That's fantastic! Thank you!" Tucking the origami into her pocket she bounced forward to wrap her arms around Koshiro in a bear hug, the force indenting his slightly viscous sides a bit as she stood on her tip toes to give him a brief peck on his half-formed cheek. The expression she made as she stepped away suggested she immediately regretted it, however. "Bleuh, metally..." she grimaced, rubbing the sleeve of her hoodie across her mouth before clapping her hand together and exclaiming with her tongue sticking out, "Hey, tathe 'uds! Ohmigoodness. Pancakes. Wraith, I've got to show you pancakes! So much better than eating metal, you don't even know, seriously."

Indira was a little busy to defend her usual consumption habits tracking the faint trace of Professor Fathom's oddly liquid mental echo on the Quantum Bauble. The human minds she could hear whispering about her were alien enough without whatever changes had been made to the Factor Four by the Prime Elements but with Eve's help she was able to get a good sense of the artifact's position. It was moving along with the current of the river toward the bay, just as Papercut had suggested, and quickly.

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin had followed along quietly, concentrating on moving himself through daylight. Something that used to be of no consequence now constantly reminded him of his nature; he could feel the sun's rays preventing him from even trying to appear normal. So he strove to think about anything but that. He considered ways to approach the Bauble, how best to get it back to the group, and how they might harness it to put them all back in their proper condition.

He'd waited nearby while Indira traced the Quantum Bauble. He took the time to take in any more tips Kimber had, as well as working cautiously to explore the limits of his powers. He glanced at Sharl and moved a bit closer.

"How's your control holding up? It should be getting more automatic after a while. The Ring adapts itself to you, after a fashion; I imagine it will "reset" when this is done, though. Were you planning to go down with me when Indira found the Bauble? The water won't matter; the Ring doesn't care, it'll burn so long as you will it to."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, I'm not burning a hole in the floor, and I'm not in danger of getting sucked back into the matrix inside the ring, so that's good," said the blue-tinted Citizen with a pained smile. He looked down at his hand where the ring had come to rest, then back to Corbin. "I don't know how you keep yourself together like this," he admitted to the former (and future!) Cobalt Templar. "I mean, I know you don't project yourself, but just keeping things together and concentrating on them...it's not easy. If I didn't already have experience rebuilding myself, I'd never have gotten this far. And yeah, I'll probably go down. I can't usually go underwater in Freedom City without lots of special equipment; might as well give it a try now."

[Electra]

Koshiro looked down at himself, all silvery-blue metal, mannequin-shapeless and naked, and wished he had control of his paper again. At least with paper, he could make himself some clothes! He paused and considered, looking at his fingers. Those had turned papery pretty easily. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself covered in a layer of construction paper, the sort he sprayed with water and molded to give folded projects a clothlike texture. He imagined molding it, forming a shirt, pants, wrapping shoes around his feet. When he opened his eyes again, he was wearing clothes, more or less, though they looked a bit strange, unhemmed and unfinished. They also had a vaguely construction-papery texture, but he wasn't going to quibble about that. He pulled the hood up onto his head and looked over to Sharl. "Try and blend in," he told his roommate.

Walking with more certainty now, Koshiro began heading towards the door. "Let's get going then. We'll get food on the way, but we don't want to have to answer a lot of questions till we know what's going on, right?" Since the alarms were already blaring, he didn't quibble about pushing open the emergency door and walking out. It seemed safer than using the impromptu exits that had been created during the fight.

[Fox]

"Um. Yes, right. I believe I can guide the others and walk or eat, as long as I do not have to do much else as well," Wraith hesitantly agreed, making her stiff, bone-filled legs straighten out so she could stand up. And then she just stood there for a beat, like she was expecting something to happen.

The newly-human girl blinked, pinching part of her outfit between two fingers and pulling it out a little bit. "....yes, okay. I am wearing actual clothing, now, apparently. That is...that is very inconvenient." She took another deep breath, making herself trot after Koshiro before he got too far ahead. "Human food and human taste had better be very good to make all this worth it."

[Gizmo]

The three trounced members of the Factor Four clearly weren't going anywhere any time soon, so as distant sirens grew louder to mix with the museum's own alarms, Kimber dashed off in the direction Eve had disappeared to when the villains first arrived, reappearing with an armful of civilian clothes and shoving them cheerfully into Indira's arms. Papercut usually got away with walking about in his graffiti tagged hoodie without drawing too much attention and Sage's new, Tronik style coat would look normal enough once it was done up. With the more conspicuous Cobalt Templar and Citizen wading about the bottom of the river, looking for the Bauble with Wraith's remote assistance, the freshly corporeal teen was confident the rest of the group would be able to avoid attention at least long enough to get something to eat.

"~Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes...!~" Bringing up the rear as the team excused themselves out the emergency exit and headed toward the bay with the river to their right, Ghost Girl glanced at the pile of French gymnast sized clothing she'd dumped on her roommate. "Er... are you going to need a hand with those?"

[Fox]

"I am familiar with clothing," Wraith assured her friend, though she had a rather dubious look on her face as she took Eve's clothes and held one of the items up. "I...will attempt to not stretch her clothing out too much."

The reassurance lasted only as long as it took her to duck into a side room and change, at which point it was a rather blatant lie: the skirt was fine, and still plenty decent if somewhat shorter than it had been on her petite teammate. Eve's undershirt fared less well, though, and an embarrassed Indira had apparently been forced to tie the bottom of the looser overshirt together to keep it closed and save her own dignity - and even then the undershirt was pulled up enough that it may as well have been an especially fit midriff.

"I...do not think this shirt will fit you anymore," she hesitantly informed her comrade, self-consciously tugging at the clothes (as if she didn't have enough other distractions) as they resumed their way to food, her heroic outfit tucked under one arm as an inconspicuous dark roll of cloth. "I am very sorry."

[Electra]

Koshiro took a glance at Indira, but only one, before turning again and leading the way towards the bay. She was his teammate, after all, and it wasn't polite to stare. And god only knew what physiological responses this stupid metal body might have waiting to surprise him. He concentrated on folding paper as they walked, handing Kimber an assortment of boxes and creatures and gadgets that could come in handy in a fight, one at a time as he finished them. It was somewhat unnerving the way that his paper creations didn't come alive anymore, but at least he still remembered how to do the folds. "Just remember not to let any of these things get in the water," he reminded Kimber. "Even if they seem alive, they're just paper and they'll dissolve right away."

[KnightDisciple]

While the others went about the business of getting food, especially pancakes, Corbin had worked himself to the point of invisibility and traveled to the river where the Bauble had fallen. Once there, he dove down into the murk, his ghostly eyes adjusting rapidly. He moved quickly, efficiently, keeping his attention spread out so he could spot the piece of crystal.

He stayed in contact with Indira, both to reassure himself he wasn't suddenly lost in the depths of the water an abandoned soul cursed to linger forever alone, and to make sure he was on the right track. It wasn't incredibly precise, but he had a pretty good sense of direction down here. He was aware of Sharl following him, but tried not to focus on the fact too much. While he searched, he let his private thoughts ramble a bit.

'Bad enough I'm a bodiless ghost. Ugh, stop it Corbin this is every day for Kimber you insensitive oaf. Stop whining. Just find the Bauble, then give the girls a chance to enjoy themselves for a bit before we work out how to fix this. It won't kill me to stay like this for an hour or two. Heh, kill. It's sorta funny, because I'm a ghost.'

[Avenger Assembled]

For his part, Citizen was trying not to boil the sea around him, doing his best to make sure his fiery body didn't burst into flames and ruin everything. He lacked the ability to think underwater in a way anyone could understand; his ring-based consciousness as impervious to telepathy as his regular one, so instead he gestured as they 'walked', hovering around the ring on his finger so that he could navigate better. I wish I hadn't let him drop the Bauble. Stupid Fathom. I hate science criminals who don't really know anything about science. He sighed, his head turning back and forth beneath the bay. Why is the water here so filthy anyway? They don't even eat algae or plankton!