Adventures in Rifting [Open]

Participants: Sideways and whomever else
Open/Closed: Open
Location(s): Random place Derek has rifted to
Time of Day: Evening
Weather: Fair
Summary: Exhausting his ability has caused Sideways to rift uncontrollably to some unknown destination. Who will he run into? Find out right here, right now!

Derek was really interested in learning combat. He would always seen the big hero fights on tv when things were going down with supervillains or just regular villains. Wonder Woman would show up and put the hurt on someone like Doctor Psycho, or Batman could take on a gang of superpowers nobodies with a flurry of punches and kicks. Not to mention the Teen Titans, teenagers just like him except for the fact that they could go toe to toe with bounty hunters and mercenary assassins. Sideways wasn't a combative hero, he had no skills of karate or kung-fu under his belt. All he knew was annoy and rift away, or rift the threat away, or rift civilians away. How boring! And yet, anytime he would bring up the concept of martial arts Tempus, his rifting mentor, would fan it off with his one gigantic hand.

"Your powers make combat an obsolete strategy." Derek mocked the preserver of space-time as he opened a rift before him. He was working on retaining his constitution in the aftermath of creating tear after tear in the fabric of reality. It was hard, harder than he would have admitted to anyone. Staying up on his feet as nausea compounded was probably the toughest thing Derek ever forced himself to do, but he wanted to truly get better at being a hero and it seemed hard work was the only way. That really sucked.

His vision was getting blurry, and a little splotchy too, but if he couldn't even handle his main power then how on earth would he get Tempus to let him train in extensive combat? Derek needed to prove he could do this and keep on his feet. He pushed through as he leapt through the tear he made, splitting open another rift and jumping through that one as well. Derek stumbled slightly, staggering his way into the next rift. Said rift, however, tripped him up, and thanks to the dizziness and blurred vision he was on a quick track straight for a face plant!

Derek quickly threw his arms out in front of him, his gloves hands snapping open a rift just before he hit the dirt of Tempus Fuginaut's training facility. The costumed teen fumbled and tumbled through darkness. He couldn't focus on anything, there was no location in mind when he rifted, his thoughts were too jumbled and unorganized for that. All the young hero could do was brace himself for when the landing inevitably came.

Rifting was not a process that took too terribly long. It wasn't exactly instant, but it was a quick journey almost always. Derek's total travel time was barely over a second, but the uncertainty of where he would land made it feel like days.

Finally, fresh air entered Derek's nostrils and he knew he was out of the rift, it closed instantly behind him. He barely had time to blink before he was colliding into a body, falling onto someone from above. Derek groaned as his bones rattled from the impact - well, at least he was still alive? The breath had been knocked from his lungs and Derek fought to keep his stinging eyes from tearing up. His hands moved around in a slow search for something solid, something that would make it easier for him to push himself up and regain his composure. It was proving more difficult than expected considering his head was still swimming from the rift-overload. And then he remembered he was sitting on someone. Dammit, Derek!