The Universe's Mixer

"Take that back to the bank!" Barbara shouted, knocking one of the darkly dressed criminals to the pavement. She grit her teeth, narrowed her eyes and lifted her foot, putting a yellow boot into the stomach of another one of the group. She was clearly outnumbered, her singular to their ten, but she had fought greater numbers than that. And it wasn't as though the criminal element didn't know she was here. Eddie was on the up and up that she arrived and Babs suspected that he had relayed the information to every con man and criminal in town. They would know to look for the bat symbol of nothing else.

Sending the guy to the ground, Barbara spun in a circle, planting her foot back on to the ground. She raised her fists and looked at the rest of those that remained in the ever closing circle with a grin. "Who's next? You guys aren't very smart, are you? Taking on a poor, defenseless little girl?" It was a tease. Obviously she was more than capable of defending herself.

One of the masked criminals scoffed at Barbara's comment, "You ain't defenseless, but I am going to teach you a lesson in pain that you're never gonna forget!"

Another brandished a billy club, swinging it at the red-head. Instantly Barbara threw an arm up to block, deflecting the swing with her forearm. A cracking noise careened off of the brick walls of the alley and Barbara winced, before swinging her free hand up. She made a fist and punched the man that had struck at her in the face, sending him backward.

Her cape flapped as she swirled around, narrowing her eyes. Her arm was definitely going to bruise.

Gloves fingers worked a collapsible Batarang out of her Utility Belt and she unfolded it, swinging it hard at a couple of the guys. It smacked into one of them but missed the other and went skittering off down the alley. "Dang," Barbara breathed. "Awe, did the little girl lose her toys?" One of the criminals jeered. "Yeah, I did. Didn't you come over to play?" Barbara retorted, kicking the man in the shin.

The cabin, for the most part, had been relatively quiet. Logan tended to like it that way considering the fact that just about everything else behind the doors was chaotic and noisy. Not that he wasn't a man of action when the situation called for it, and he had been known to start a fight or two in his time, but now that Giselle was around Logan found himself trying to hold on to the quieter moments. That was not the first time in his life he had felt that way, Japan had brought a lot of solace to him as well when it could. It almost felt like home in a way, the familiarity of it touching him some.

Logan was settled on a chair in the kitchen, the newspaper spread out before him. He was browsing through it, trying to keep up with current events. Beyond the random appearances of dinosaurs, something he was used to by now with time spent in the jungle, there was not much else that captured his attention. If the dinosaurs got out of hand...well, this place did have its share of heros that would probably stand up long before Logan had to. Which he didn't mind.

Somewhere about Logan could hear Giselle getting up to whatever it is that had taken her heart. She did so much around the cabin as far as cooking and upkeep. Logan appreciated it.

He had things of his own that took his attention, people that needed tending to and assistance when he could give it. He had yet to bring up the subject of Melody, not that he wanted to discuss it with Giselle. He would keep it to himself for as long as he could not wanting to burden the woman with what he had been up to. Logan wanted nothing more than for her to be happy and he would not dampen her spirits if he could help it. At least, he would try his hardest not to.

From out of nowhere came a knock at the door. Then another. The very wood itself seemed to groan with the impact, which had Logan narrowing his eyes in distaste. The paper was folded neatly and set upon the kitchen table for later before the mutant rose from his chair. "Better be good..." Logan mumbled, heading for the door.

It swung open and already his fingers were clamped down, biting against his palm ready to strike when he saw a familiar face. That was not a face Logan cared much to see. "Help you?" He was trying to be polite for Giselle's sake. He really was.

Barbara swung her fist, connecting the yellow gloved knuckles with the side of the face of a rogue clown that had been terrorizing one of the dark alleyways of Gotham. When the blow collided, the man shouted in surprise and Barbara grinned. Pulling her fist back, she tilted her body backward at an angle enough to lift her leg up and kick outward. The movement was sent with enough force to send the man flying backward into a pile of trash in the alley. Satisfied, Barbara put her hands on her hips and her feet flat on the pavement, peering down through the eyeholes of her mask at the man laying on the concrete.

"You look better with pavement as a backdrop. Maybe next time you decide to make a deal for Joker you'll think twice about doing it on my streets." Her back was twinging some but she ignored it. With the flap of her cape, Barbara turned and fled from the scene. In the distance she could hear sirens. Someone must have called Gotham's finest because of the shouting and fighting noises. Fighting was not the most silent of activities unless the fighters truly wanted it to be, but in their case why would they? It didn't matter who was listening, it mattered who won.

She exited the alley and mounted the motorcycle that was parked at the corner of the street, kicking the thing into life with the pushing down of a yellow clad foot against the ignition. The key was turned and she was off down the street with her cape flapping behind her. Where there were one of those guys, more lurked around and word seemed to get around quickly through the villain grapevine that trouble was about. Barbara was curious to know if Joker had some kind of personal vendetta against her or if it was just one more way to get close to Bruce. Probably both.

And as afraid to face the Clown Prince of Crime as she was, Barbara remained undeterred. She had to keep fighting. Her interest in it, though, had waned some since her recovery. There were so many in the Bat Family besides her that roamed the streets. Honestly, she figured that taking up her old post was to prove to herself that she could do it and to prove to Joker that he had not gotten her down. But was all of this really necessary? She obviously still felt the pain from the shooting, now and again the aches crept into her body and she felt lifeless when it did. Other times she couldn't move at all from the fear. Her dreams were full of laughter and gunfire.

Distracted, Barbara didn't see that the scenery had changed. Where it had once been night time, the sun shone brightly. It took her a moment to realize that something was different, and since her mind had been in two places the young woman didn't know until it was too late that she was careening right into a pack of velociraptor. Wait....Velociraptor? She had to be dreaming.

Blinking, Barbara wove her way through the pack of now interested carnivores. They turned and began to chase her bike as she threaded her way through the bright streets. One of them snapped at her leg, tearing through the matte black strip of leather and flesh. She cried out and winced, before the bike turned. It tipped and Barbara pushed herself from it, rolling down the street as the bike lay against the pavement.

A raptor mounted the fallen bike like a perch, emitted a roar of triumph and approached the fallen girl. Barbara struggled to sit up, her leg being the least of her worries. Her brown eyes filled with fear but there was a sense of wonder there too. Those were dinosaurs. Honest to God dinosaurs. Did she fall into some tainted version of Jurassic Park? This didn't seem like an attraction or any CGI or 3D training program that she was familiar with. The bleeding wound brought that evidence to light.

"Great. I'm about to be a snack for a dinosaur," she mumbled, then winced. Pressing her palm against her leg for a moment, Barbara pulled herself to her feet. Removing her hand, she turned and ran down the street knowing it was futile. But she wouldn't just stand there and die.

"And in weather, due to the presence of the God of Thunder, we like to add the disclaimer that there is always a chance of ... thunder and light showers."

Siggy looked up sharply at the television when she heard that. God of thunder? There was only one god of thunder that she knew. Despite what Peggy had told her, she never truly stopped believing that she was truly in the realm of the gods, and now she knew for sure. She gathered her skirts around her and bolted out the door before she could stop herself, running down the street. Thor had been the god that Rollo had worshiped above all others; perhaps Thor would remember his prayers and sacrifices? Perhaps Rollo was still praying for her, in the world of the living?

The leather soles of her boots slapped on the pavement as she ran, looking up. She was becoming winded already, but she had to know. She thought that she saw something in the distance; could that be him. "My lord Thor!" she shouted, not caring who heard. "Dróttinn minn Thor!"

( Avengers Assemble? )

Giselle had been shopping when the T-rex came to town. After having seen how many other women dressed here in the City, and after having realized that her own mode of dress made her quite noticeable in perhaps not the best of ways, she had opted to try to dress more appropriately. She wanted Logan not to be ashamed of her, or of taking her out with him, either - though he'd never seemed to mind what she wore. In fact, there were many times when he said he liked her dress.

And so, with that in mind, she went to find a few things that looked somewhat like what she wore but also matched the modernity of the City. She'd been doing quite well for herself, too, and even started to think that perhaps she should try working in a dress shop herself, when a great roar shocked her from her browsing. Along with the rest of the people in the store, she hurried to the window to see what the commotion was --

-- and was greeted with a large green tail swiping through the glass. She shrieked and jerked back just quickly enough to miss most of the tail, and to get spattered with flying glass. It left stinging cuts on her skin.

Before she could recover, another roar completely unlike the other blasted their hearing. She got to her feet and this time, instead of running to the window, she ran away from it. It was just as well, as a car was tossed through the rest of the window and landed in the shop just exactly where she'd been a few moments before.

Giselle stayed put, shivering and cowering, until the horrible sounds outside died down. And then, carefully and quietly, she crept back to the window... and out onto the destroyed City street. Dust and debris was still floating in the air in a lazy descent downward. It coated her, that dust, and made her cough. Whatever had happened? She was completely turned around and directionless, but still tried to find her way through the mess.

She ended up in the middle of the street. It was just as well; no cars were daring to run through this mess.

But a double-decker bus thought it was a good idea, just beyond the dust and muck in the air, just out of sight.

There was a flash of light. The Bifrost was too bright, too quick to be a fleeting rainbow. In it's wake it left a scorched, circular pattern on the road in the middle of traffic. Thor knew what cars were and the basics of how they worked and awkwardly made his way out of the road, confused to still be on what looked like Midgard instead of his home of Asgard.

"HEIMDALL!" Thor bellowed to the sky. But nothing happened. The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian did not respond to the lost prince. Something was wrong. The people of the City continued to pass Thor on the sidewalk like the man in the red cape was merely an inconvenience. In many respects, he was.

"Excuse me. Excuse me, madame." Thor needed space to swing his hammer, launch himself into the sky, and get a better look of where he was, what city he was in or where his closest allies were. This place was busy like New York, if that was the case the Avengers Tower would be nearby.

[WARNING: SPOILERS FOR AGE OF ULTRON BECAUSE THOR IS NOT CONCERNED WITH MESSING WITH PEOPLE'S TIMELINES BY TELLING THEM THINGS THAT HAVEN'T HAPPENED YET. HE HASN'T SEEN BACK TO THE FUTURE, OKAY?]