Rich stood there in silence for a moment, processing that.
"There's two ways this conversation is going to go from here," he said, and his voice was perfectly calm -- still friendly even. It was all said very matter-of-factly, as if he was just following some kind of procedure by rote.
It was an "Officer Friendly" sort of voice.
"And which way it goes depends on you. Either you're going to tell me you were possessed or something like that and things'll be fine. Or you're going to tell me you're actually a supervillain -- like still. And then I'll have to do the threatening you to keep you in line act. Maybe belt you one, I dunno. Depends on how awkward and aggro this gets."
Because there was some simmering anger under the surface. Maybe it was another world, maybe it was another corps, but seriously, fuuuuck that. It made him angry, knowing another universe had suffered the same, another corps of space police -- probably just trying to serve -- had been mowed down. Even if they'd been rebuilt.
And if Hal was genuinely still a supervillain there were kids on this little team they'd found themselves on. Real young teens. And there had to be some lines drawn in the sand. Possibly violently. Rich wasn't entirely above that. He policed a very different universe back home.
no subject
"There's two ways this conversation is going to go from here," he said, and his voice was perfectly calm -- still friendly even. It was all said very matter-of-factly, as if he was just following some kind of procedure by rote.
It was an "Officer Friendly" sort of voice.
"And which way it goes depends on you. Either you're going to tell me you were possessed or something like that and things'll be fine. Or you're going to tell me you're actually a supervillain -- like still. And then I'll have to do the threatening you to keep you in line act. Maybe belt you one, I dunno. Depends on how awkward and aggro this gets."
Because there was some simmering anger under the surface. Maybe it was another world, maybe it was another corps, but seriously, fuuuuck that. It made him angry, knowing another universe had suffered the same, another corps of space police -- probably just trying to serve -- had been mowed down. Even if they'd been rebuilt.
And if Hal was genuinely still a supervillain there were kids on this little team they'd found themselves on. Real young teens. And there had to be some lines drawn in the sand. Possibly violently. Rich wasn't entirely above that. He policed a very different universe back home.
"So, which one?"