"By... bus?" Connor asked, still in the bedroom, and counting arrows somewhat obsessively. It was something familiar that he could latch onto to ground himself. He could deal with not being in San Francisco, or any other recognizable city, with a guy who seemed to know him but whom he knew nothing about.
"Bus? I was thinking more like a hover pad. Those can be cool." Kyle got rid of the other boards and shaped up the hover pad a bit until it was air worthy.
Travel by bus? Hah. Superheroes didn't travel by bus!
"Oh." Okay. That was a new one. Connor had always done alright with public transportation and his own two feet, which seemed to carry him pretty far. He reappeared in the hallway, dressed in green and brown and gold, longbow in hand and a double quiver slung over his shoulders.
And then he saw the floating glowing green thing that Kyle had made. "Where did that come from?" Though the similarly glowing green ring was probably a good clue.
Well, magic rings weren't a 'duh' sort of thing to Connor. He was also a bit tempted to ask how the name Green Lantern came up if his powers were based on the ring. But it really didn't matter.
"No, not at all." A pause, and his brow furrowed. "I'm sorry, did you give me a name? Other than Green Lantern?"
Because superhero theatrics aside, it wasn't a very useful thing to know.
Well they were off the streets now. "Kyle. Kyle Rayner. I'm from California, moved to New York for college, stayed here afterwards, got a few freelance jobs, and on the side met a little blue alien who gave me a Green Lantern Ring." There, life story in under thirty seconds.
Seeing that Connor was all done up in the familiar Green Arrow outfit, he gestured to the green hover board. "Hop on. You've got pretty good balance, at least the Connor I know does. We'll go out the window."
"And I met you... after you met the little blue alien." Connor was trying to fill in the gaps. He probably had a couple of lost years in there, where he'd known Kyle. And maybe figuring out what had happened would be helpful, now.
He eyed the hover board warily for a moment, but it did look solid enough, so he... hopped, trying to think of it as a surfboard. It didn't rock as much, for one, and he did have good balance, so it only took a few seconds for him to find his center and a steady place on the board.
"Right. After the aliens," Kyle said with a nod. He watched Kyle get on the board and was relieved to find that this Connor did still know how to balance.
A green hand opened one of the windows facing the streets and Kyle steered them both out of the apartment and then closed the window in their wake. "Which year are you from, then? I met you earlier this year... that was 2003 for me."
They headed upwards, gaining some altitude until the tops of buildings and the wall surrounding them could clearly be seen. Kyle turned them towards the nearest portion of the wall and they flew towards it.
"2001. May." Connor nodded. So, what year was it now, then, if both of them were in different places? Would his calendar still be reading as May 2001, or some month in 2003, or some time not in either of those years? Things to ponder.
Also things to ponder. Flight. He hadn't flown before. Scaled the Golden Gate - yes, of course, but he'd never been airborne. It was sort of cool. The wall looked awfully solid, though, and he hoped Kyle knew what he was doing.
Kyle did know what he was doing, or at least he had the shambles of a plan that were coming together as drew closer to the wall. He took them up higher so that they could easily see over it and Kyle could show Connor what he'd seen before.
"It's like one giant forest," he said once they'd gotten high enough. They were hovering far enough away from the wall so that they couldn't touch it or try to go over it just yet. While he didn't nessecarily like the wall being there, Kyle figured it was there for a reason and until they observed, he wasn't touching it. Who knew what was in those trees. "This sure as hell wasn't in New York or Gotham, and I know there're woods in California, but not like that."
"Yes, it is one giant forest," Connor replied. Not 'like' - it most definitely was. It didn't bode well, at all. This was about as non-San-Franciscan as you could get, what with water playing such a big role in that city.
He mentally ticked off fingers. "So, we are both in a city that resembles nothing we've seen, surrounded by a wall and a forest, and we're here from different time periods. Has anything like this happened before?"
"Um... no." Kyle was pretty sure he'd remember being transported to an alternate universe. "Not to me at least, but then again, I haven't been in this whole superhero gig for that long. I mean, it probably happens to the JLA all the time. I don't exactly go up against the types who can do this." Sininstro and Fatality were a different kind of villian, and as alien as they were (literaly) they definately weren't capable of this.
"We can't be the only ones though, right? There's a little piece of alot of cities here... that tower over there," Kyle turned and pointed to the skyline behind them. "It belongs in Metropolis. Superman's in Metropolis. So wouldn't it make sense that maybe he's here? Same thing with Gotham and Center City. I've seen parts of them, so where're their heroes?"
"Me neither. I've mostly ended up with drug dealers and gangs, and the occasional wacko who thinks that by taking over the city they can take over the world."
Connor shrugged a little, trying to not disrupt his balance. "It's possible. Both of us are here from different places, and I know I've seen things that look like San Francisco here. Should we be looking for them, you think?"
"Maybe." Kyle gave a small shrug. "I guess I'd hope that they'd do the same for us, and like we were saying before, strength in numbers, right?"
He looked back out at the city again and sat down cross legged in the air to ponder. "I have no clue where we'd start. Superman kinda hates it when people jump off buildings just to get his attention and I'm not sure if we want Batman's attention. No clue how to call Wonder Woman, or The Flash or any of the others. I wasn't really... on their level."
"At least from my time?" And how weird did that feel to say... "I don't think anyone knows who I am. I'm nowhere near Metropolis, or Gotham."
And really, if Kyle felt subpar to the Justice League, Connor - had he had less self-confidence - would've felt like some crazy kid who liked to shoot things and wear spandex. Approaching someone like Batman was a rather intimidating idea. But this whole city was like that.
"Gravitate towards a landmark, maybe? You mentioned a tower in Metropolis, after all."
"Assuming it's still there, sure." It looked like it was, but Kyle wasn't placing any bet on what it would look like when they got there. He turned them away from the wall and started back for the main city skyline. "There's so many true landmarks missing, like The Daily Planet for instance, I can't find it anywhere, and Lex Towers. Those two buildings make the Metropolis skyline.
"I didn't see Arkham when I was flying around either, makes me wonder if it was only the supers that got pulled in here, or if our villans did too. We wouldn't have any point without any one to fight."
"Well, I don't know... there's a lot else to do in the world," Connor replied seriously. Like making enough money for rent. That was a good one. And he'd be perfectly happy living a normal life, he thought.
"There's probably something around here. Otherwise, everything would be unbalanced. And I haven't seen that many 'regular' people, so someone else has to be here."