"That's some table you've got there," commented Visionary as he was led into the Lair Mansion conference room. The table in the middle of the room was shaped like a giant "L", surrounded by egg shaped chairs.
"Not everyone has their team meetings at the kitchen table," Hallie reminded the possibly fake man as she followed behind with Maggie and Griffin. She was finding things a little hard to take in; everything appeared to be state of the art, but it didn't
feel like the state of the art she was used to.
"The Lair Legion is due back from their battle with Peter Von Doom any minute now," Flapjack, the polished gentleman butler, told them. "May I get you a beverage while you wait?"
The group declined, and with a courteous nod the major domo left the room. "I'm not sure which is creepier; this bizarro-Flapjack or the real one," Hallie said.
The kids looked at each other briefly before responding in unison. "The real one."
A new, yet somewhat familiar voice broke in. "Oh, we're all real in our own way."
Standing in the doorway was Hallie, or rather, this reality's version of Hallie. She appeared to be housed in a robot shell, complete with metal skirt and 1960's style big hair.
"Hallie?" asked Visionary.
"That's me! HALLIE! It stands for H-," she began to explain before the digital Hallie cut her off.
"Heuristic Artificial Life Learning Intelligence Entity," she summed up for her doppleganger. It had been a long time since Hallie had thought of the origins of her name.
"Why yes! How did you know?"
"Because she is your alternate reality counterpart from...Earth X," summed up the next person to enter the room.
"That name is taken," pointed out Griffin helpfully. CrazySugarFreakBoy! had insisted he be in charge of the boy's comic book education.
"Twice, actually," chimed in Maggie.
"Oh, well then," Harper sputtered, unused to being corrected. "Earth 2!"
"Taken," said Griffin.
"Earth Prime?"
"Try again."
"Counter-Earth?"
"Fraid not."
"She is a doppleganger from a parallel universe," Harper said. He would come up with a cool name for their universe when the little killjoys weren't around.
"The question is," said the square-jawed hero behind Dr. Harper, "are they friends or foes?"
"Hatty?" checked Visionary.
"Merciful Maple Leaf! He knows my name!" exclaimed Hatman in surprise.
"We know who all of you are!" exclaimed Maggie.
She then named the rest of the Lair Legion membership who had just walked into the room.
To be continued...by you?
