Outside of the Cooper Farm

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

The trip from St. Louis didn't really take long.

However since the trip involved a stubborn 12 year old earth bender and a snarky 15 year old precog?

It felt like it took forever.

So when Jamie pulled to what he thought was the Madrox farm he was disappointed to find that in this dimension? Totally not his.

"Great. Just great. Five hours in a car with insane teenagers and all for nothing."

"On the contrary," Layla said pulling out the bag of fresh fruit she had taken from an abadoned roadside stand and getting out of the car. "This is exactly where we need to be."

Comments

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

Toph scootches out of the cab and lands firmly on both feet, standing still for a few seconds to get the lay of the land.

"There are people in there," she said.

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Can you tell if there's a bathroom?" Jamie asked jumping a little bit here and there. "Because really it would be a benefit at this time."

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

"What do you want from me?" Toph snaps at him. "Go and ask them yourself!"

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

Jamie grumbled a bit as he headed toward the farm about young snarky girls and why he's never traveling with them again ever.

Layla on the other hand just stuck out her tongue at Toph because she's mature like that.

[hero_farmboy]

The sound of a car tends to get Clark's attention. Mainly because it either means Chloe is showing up unannounced again (but she's not, because Clark knows what her car specifically sounds like and that isn't it) or there are new people.

Naturally, it's the latter, and he jogs down the front steps of the house to meet them.

"Hey."

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

Toph follows Jamie, ignoring Layla because she can't see her stick her tongue out.

"People!" she declares happily when she feels someone approach. "Finally!"

[sheknowsstuff.livejournal.com]

"And what are we?" Layla grumbles. "Chopped liver?"

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Jamie said in greeting. "Sorry to intrude on your place here. I thought this was... well it's a long story. I'm Jamie Madrox."

[hero_farmboy]

"Clark Kent," he replies, offering a hand. "It's not actually my place, though. I mean, I live here, but I don't own it." Not anymore.

"Not that that means you're not welcome. We have a habit of taking in strays."

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Well that pretty much describes us at the moment," Jamie said scratching his head. "The girl over there with blonde hair is Layla Miller and-"

"I know stuff!" she piped up.

Jamie rolled his eyes and continued. "And we accidentally got zapped to St. Louis. We know that Kansas is a save haven for whatever happened but... well what did happen?"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark gives Layla a small smile and a wave. Jamie's question gets a soft sigh.

"Monsters, I guess you'd call them, got brought in through the same type of portals that brought you all here. And most of us," he nods back toward the house.

Beat.

"They didn't take it so well."

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Monsters," Jamie said with a sigh. "Perfect but we are safe here in Kansas, correct?"

[hero_farmboy]

"As far as I know. I'm not actually from here myself." And isn't it just a little bit strange to be able to say that without really worrying about it being taken the wrong way.

Or the right way, as the case may be.

"Nothing's made any trouble since I arrived, anyway. Seems to be safer than most other places. More intact, too."

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"So is anyone here from the same universe? Or should I start coming up with interdimensional conspiracy theories?"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark has to think about that one for a minute.

"You know, I'm not actually sure. No one who lives here, I don't think, but then I doubt everyone who was brought in lives here. It just feels like it sometimes."

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

Toph uses this moment to decide she's sick of being ignored.

"Do you have any benders?"

The idea of other people with special powers hasn't yet occured to her.

[hero_farmboy]

"Benders?" Clark asks in a way that clearly indicates he's never heard the term before, that didn't include too much alcohol.

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

"You know," Toph says, against the evidence that he won't.

"People who bend the elements."

[hero_farmboy]

"Bend the elements. Uh, not that I'm aware of." It's the safest answer he can give for just about anything. Clark has no illusions that he knows even half of what's going on at the farm.

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

Toph doesn't roll her eyes, because she doesn't exactly use her eyes that much at all.

"Lucky for you I turned up, then."

[hero_farmboy]

"Oh?" Clark looks her over. "Why's that?"

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

"Because I happen to be the greatest Earthbender in the whole world," Toph says.

"It's better than knowing stuff."

[sheknowsstuff.livejournal.com]

And that would be a cue for a apple to be thrown at a certain earthbender's head.

[hero_farmboy]

An apple that somehow ends up in Clark's hand before it hits its mark.

"Knowing stuff is pretty useful. And I'm sure Earthbending is, too, although I admit I don't exactly know what it is."

[runaway-bandit.livejournal.com]

Toph sticks a hand up anyway, and is confused when there's nothing there.

So that would be the ground underneath Layla's feet jerking up suddenly.

"I felt that, Smartypants."

[hero_farmboy]

Clark instinctively takes a step away from the moved earth.

"Right. Gotcha. That's definitely interesting."

[sheknowsstuff.livejournal.com]

You don't need to "know stuff" to know that there'd be a counterattack.

Which is why Layla stepped out of the way and let Jamie take the whole ground attack hit him.

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

Which sent Jamie tumbling to the ground and creating several duplicates of himself who all stood up and glared at Toph and Layla.

"Okay. That's enough of that! I've spent the last several hours listening to you two snipe at each other and I'm not going to spend the rest of the day getting tossed about!"

Remarkably all seven dupes said that in unison.