Heroes Collide

Natalie

A mechanical whirr and a soft vibration brought Natalie back to consciousness. She had no idea how or when she fell asleep. She tried to open her eyes but couldn't, they were glued shut with sleep gunk. She brought her arms up to rub the sleep from her eyes and hit her elbow against something. When she was able to see she realized that she wasn't in a bed. She stared out a small window at solid rock. She put her hands on the door in front of her and looked down. She was in some sort of black stretchy jumpsuit that should have been killing her in the intense heat that she should have been feeling being in an enclosed space for so long. But she was surprisingly cool. She hit her fists against the door, making a small dent, but pulled her hand back when pain shot through her knuckles. Her memory slowly started to come back. She knew who she was. Her name was Natalie... and she wasn't completely "of Earth". She wasn't like all of her friends, but she couldn't remember what made her different. She looked around her small... place. It wasn't like there were any people around to compare herself to. She punched the door in front of her, making another dent, and growled.

A soft rumble came from outside her compartment. She pressed herself against the window but couldn't see anything, as if wherever she was had been buried in solid rock. But she could feel the rumbling getting closer. Suddenly the stones in front of the window started to splinter and crack. She started smacking her palms against the door and as she did the stones fell away from the window letting a little more light in, but not that much. She heard a muffled voice from outside.

"Hello?" She tried to get on her tippy toes and hit the door again, causing it to creak.

She heard a yell, then the door creak again as slowly a fluffy head peeked into the window. "Hello?" As soon as her eyes met the blue eyes of a Border Collie she let out a scream. The Border Collie jumped back and also screamed, falling out of her line of sight. She pushed against the door and it flew open. She peeked out and realized she was suspended in the roof of a rather large cave. She saw the Border Collie splayed out on the floor, dressed in military-style civilian dress with a star-spangled bandana tied around the top of his head.

He sat up and rubbed his head, and when he realized Natalie was watching him scrambled up to his feet. "HEY!"

Natalie jumped out of the pod and landed on the floor in front of him barefoot on the damp sandy floor with a loud thump. She took a step forward into the small stream of light peeking through the distant mouth of the cave and looked the dog dead in the eyes. "What?"

There was the slightest glimmer of fear in the dog's eyes, but he extended his paws out to his sides and quickly clapped them shut.

Natalie winced in surprise as rocks came loose from the walls of the cave and rained at her from all sides. The rocks all shattered into pieces as Natalie looked down at herself in bewilderment. "Whoa..."

The dog's eyes widened and he backed away. "Ohhhhh dog..."

Natalie looked up at him and brushed herself off. "Where do you think you are going?"

He turned around and started to run towards the mouth of the cave. "I am so sorry! I am not hostile I swear!" He tripped over a rock and hit his knee against the ground as she suddenly appeared in front of him. He whimpered and gripped his leg, looking up at her with a pitiful expression. "I am so sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt you. I just was caught off guard."

Natalie watched him grovel for a few seconds before squatting on the ground next to him. "Probably no more than I am... I don't even know how I got here..." She looked around the cave as the dog sat up. "Or where here is..."

The Collie looked up at her, still holding his leg. "We're in Canada. I would tell you exactly what city and province but I don't think anyone has known that for a long time..."He looked at her. "W-Who the heck are you?"

Natalie sat down next to the dog. "Natalie."

"Natalie Who? How did you do all of that?" Cason groaned as he saw blood dripping slowly from a small cut on his leg. "Ummm... And can you hand me that bag over there?" He waved his paw over to his bag which had fallen off when he tripped.

Natalie reached over and handed it to him. "I'm not sure. I don't remember anything except my name." She watched the dog fumble with his bag and pull out a red bag with a plus on it. "What are you?"

The dog chuckled and hissed as he dabbed up the blood with a cotton swab. "Nice. I am intrigued by who you are and what you can do and all you're curious about is what I am?"

Natalie put her hands up. "Whoa! I didn't mean any offense by it. I've just... not seen anyone like you before."

Cason shrugged as he dabbed the cut with another cotton swab he had dipped in rubbing alcohol. "I am a Border Collie. And my name is Cason." He hissed a little.

Natalie winced as she watched him. "Sounds like that hurts." She hesitated before using his name "Cason... Do you need some help with that? Is it broken or anything? I can take you to a hospital..."

Cason let out a laugh. "Okay then. Someone must have been inside that claustrophobia-inducing death trap for a while." He gestured up to the pod she was in.

Natalie's eyes followed his up toward the pod, but her attention was caught by a makeshift rock staircase that seemed to have jumped from the ground leading up to the pod. She then looked back at Cason. "Wait... Are you a superhero?" After she asked this, so many other questions popped into her head. There were so many pressing matters. Like what happened while she was in that pod. Or maybe she should ask how she ended up in the pod... But why would Cason know that?

Cason listened to her contemplate question after question out loud without her realizing she was even talking out loud before he interrupted her. "Well... Maybe I can answer some of those questions for you... What's the last thing you remember happening?"

Natalie scratched her head and thought hard, and just when she was about to give up her mind started piecing things together. "It was after we helped stop that huge collision of several alternate universes! The Red Sox had won their third World Series in a row, they came out with that Prince movie..." She thought a little harder. "And Lana Luthor was running for president."

Cason's ears flattened and he coughed, taking a quick sip from his canteen before offering it to Natalie. "We have a lot to catch up on."