Let's Get Us A Ship (Open the JL Cosmic)

Participants: Any of the Justice League Cosmic roster
Open/Closed: Semi-Closed
Location(s): Some backwater lawless planet
Time of Day: Late afternoon
Weather: Dusty and cloudy
Summary:  The Justice League Cosmic, while they have a ship from the JL, need something to call their own. Booster Gold is off to procure them one. Legally, or not so legally. It's a grey area, let's be honest.

~~~

Time was a fickle thing to a time traveler. While Michael had been making appearances on Kophy II for awhile now, for him, it had really only been a couple of days. You see, Kophy II was a small planet orbiting a similarly small Star, in a fairly small out-of-the-way Star System. It was the perfect place for ruffians, smugglers, and law breakers to hang out. Laws were nearly non-existent here, and humans even more-so. Booster had made himself known to the local populace, having created himself an elaborate backstory and character to better fit in with the riff-raff, all in the eventual hopes of acquiring, legally or not-so-legally, a starship he and his Justice League Cosmic could use. Sure they could continue to use one of the ships provided by the Justice League, but those were more-so geared towards Solar System travel, not interstellar travel. The team needed something that could easily traverse the depths of space if they were going to be a Cosmic team.

Booster had built himself up a character for this act of his. He was San Holo, which admittedly, was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT a Han Solo rip off, complete with an identical outfit Harrison Ford wore in the movie. In fact, you could say it was that suit exactly. Because it was. Booster was borrowing it. He was going to return it. Eventually. The only addition he had made to the Han Solo suit was keeping his goggles, as well as borrowing one of Rip Hunter's laser pistols. With the outfit set, Michael had also made sure to have spread information about San Holo throughout Kophy II. He was a notorious space smuggler who could make any run faster than anyone else. He could also talk himself out of any situation, was the fastest shot this side of Apocalypse, and was devilishly handsome, even for a human! The only reason people were just now hearing about him was because he wanted people to know about him. Sadly though, San Holo was down on his luck. After having successfully made the run from the Inh system to Kophy II faster than anyone before him, his ship was taken by a large pirate crew and they marooned him on Kophy II. In truth, Michael wasn't marooned anywhere, and was simply popping on and off the planet when he needed to with the help of his time travel circuitry.

But now he was near the end of his plan and he needed help finalizing what he was doing. With the help of his Time Sphere, Michael had dragged along one of his Justice League Cosmic cohorts and had given them an elaborate character and backstory as well. Truthfully, Michael probably could secure a ship himself with ease, but he needed backup in case things went south. He also had his eyes set on a fairly powerful crime lords ship. It was a reconfigured space luxury yacht-esq ship. Sleek and fast, and outfitted with a few guns in case it was needed. What's more, it also comfortably fit 10 people and only took one to operate, though the guns could be manually operated for better performance.

Adjusting his one hundred percent legally acquired Han Solo outfit as he stepped out of his timesphere into a room he had been gifted by an alien bar owner who had taken a shine to him, Michael awaited for his teammate to follow out. "Listen, we've got work to do and people are expected me to be somewhere soon, so let's hurry this up"

Admittedly aside from his parents, the Justice League Cosmic was Chris' main source of socialization. He didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with that because a team was supposed to be a family or a group of friends to each other, right? Then there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with that. At least it got him out of the house more. And boy did it get him out of the house - so far out, he found himself in space. He'd never gone to space often before. The last time before joining this team had been to try to handle the red sun problem Luthor and the government had created. He'd gone up with Thara only to be whisked away by the Nightwing Entity. Now he had neither Thara nor that entity.

But he wasn't alone and he was starting to get better at reminding himself what mattered. In this instance, he was with Booster Gold, whose movie reference was entirely lost on him since Chris had never seen a single Star Wars movie. He'd considered asking why his teammate was dressed up like that while he was in his Nightwing costume, but who was he to judge the fashion choices of someone else?

The mission had something to do with a ship. The reason honestly was a confusing one to him. Several - majority? - of the members of this team could fly and didn't they already have access to a ship since they were a branch of the Justice League? He didn't understand the need for another ship. The team was only so big and, well, surely the Justice League had more if needed. But being the newest member, he didn't think it was his place to question. For all he knew, this plan could've been in the works since before he'd joined.

Chris arched an eyebrow because out of the many things that confused him, Booster Gold was one of those. He could time travel; it didn't make sense that he'd be worried about being late somewhere or taking a while with some task. Now the young kryptonian didn't really know or understand any of the basics for time travel, understanding time itself could just be hard with all the games the Phantom Zone had played with his mind and body.

"If we mess up," he started, genuinely wanting to know if this was how it worked. "Can't you just go back and we try again? Or can't you technically be in two places at once?" He also wanted to ask why it took two people to purchase - They were making a legal transaction right? He didn't think his dad would approve otherwise. - a ship. Overall he had a lot of questions, including the ones he was trying to bite down about Booster's choice of mission wear, but with the request to hurry up, he didn't really feel like he had time to ask all of them and hopefully get answers.

So he settled for just one more question because he thought the answer to that was the most needed. "What are we even looking for?"

---

517 words
Michael Jon Carter + Justice League Cosmic
Let me know if you need more. 💕

Skeets, unfortunately, wasn't with the small group just yet. While Skeets' abilities would make him a great asset in a mission like this, he was also a highly advanced robotic intelligence. He'd be a very sought after prize on a backwater lawless planet like this. Michael did have a plan for him however, but it would come later.

As Chris exited the Timesphere, Michael glanced back and let out a heavy sigh. "You've never time traveled before, have you?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, Michael leaned past the other and ducked into the Timesphere. Pulling a small case out of seemingly nowhere, Michael tossed it into the room. "First off: No. We can't just keep trying if we fail. Time doesn't mind an attempt or two, but if you keep failing, things just get worse and worse" Michael wanted to elaborate and point out how Ted would still be alive, or Krypton wouldn't have been destroyed, or any number of events wouldn't have happened if he could keep trying, but that would just lead down a headache inducing rabbit hole. "Secondly, I have been in two places at once, and then I met myself. I don't want to do that again unless I plan to do so. Meeting yourself when it's planned is all well and good, randomly bumping into yourself when it isn't planned turns messy" Time travel was a very tricky thing just in general, but the rules of what could and couldn't be done were very loose and didn't always follow their own rules.

"Lastly!" Michael began before he dismissed the Timesphere and kicked open the crate, "You didn't come prepared" Tossing out some cloths onto one of the seats in the room, Michael pointed to Chris, then the cloths, then the bathroom. "That get up wont do here. People can't know we're heroes, and they sure as Hell can't know you're Kryptonian. They know I'm a human, they need to think you are too. So no using your powers, except maybe your strength, unless you absolutely have to" There really weren't a lot of Kryptonians left in the galaxy, so it made them hot commodities, especially to criminal organizations.

"Remember, while you're here with me, you aren't Nightwing, or Chris, or whatever. You're the human from Earth known as Rill Wiker. You are a longtime friend of mine who came to help me get off this planet with your own ship, but as soon as you landed, your ship got stolen too" This uniform was William T Riker's uniform from Star Trek, minus the pin. Again, this suit was also legally acquired and would be returned once everything was done. "We need these fake backstories and names because we're on a lawless planet Chris. Humans aren't well known here, but if we make enemies here by some fluke, we don't want it leading back to us or our families. With these fake stories, if we accidentally make enemies, then it wont follow us, it'll follow these fake people. And also, you can't let people know you're Kryptonian; you all kind of have way too much power to not want to be exploited by bad people"

Gesturing more to the bathroom, Michael then turned and continued rifling through the crate before pulling out and pocketing a fairly large coin. His bargaining chip, so to speak. As he waited for the other to change, Michael checked up on the pistol he had taken from Rip. "I'm getting us a ship. So we aren't really looking for anything. I have looked, I have found, now we just need to acquire. I've spent the last 30ish days on this planet running errands for a local crimeboss to get in good with him, er...they, them? But now that you arrived, I can say you brought my treasure I can trade them for a nice ship for us" Holstering the pistol, Michael once more looked at the coin. Brainiac 5 owed Booster a few favours here and there, and Michael had used a favour on this coin. The coin would show a galactic map to a supposed treasure worth more than any ship, the Treasure of K'lidn. While Booster had zero idea who K'lidn was, it was apparently a well known enough treasure and story amongst the underbelly of galactic society. In reality, while the coin would show a fake map of the apparent location, the coin was also rigged to be something of a long-lasting stun grenade, specifically marked to avoid human and Kryptonian DNA. while the map may be good enough to act as a trade, the rigged explosive was insurance if needed.

Tapping his foot, Michael would toss a translator headpiece to Chris as well. His goggles luckily had a built in feature for him, and since he wasn't sure what Chris could speak or understand, this was for the best. "Now unless you've been taught how to handle unrulies with your words and not your fists, let me do the talking, got it kid?"