Breaking the Ice

A few minutes later, everyone had gathered at the venue bar, and introductions were made all around as they began to drink together.

"MJ! There's someone here I want you meet," Gwen yelled across the room at her best friend, waving her over. "Koriand'r this is Mary Jane Watson, the singer of our band. MJ, this is Kori -- she thought you were incredible tonight."

"Whoa..." MJ said, her eyes widening as she looked at Kori. "Uh, um... nice to meet you... G-glad you liked our set..."

Kori blushed slightly. "I loved it. I've never been so moved by a musical performance," she gushed, pulling MJ in for an eager hug. "You are such an incredible performer."

"Um, wow. You're an affectionate one, aren't you?" MJ giggled nervously, now blushing herself. "Not gonna lie, I like it."

"I am from a very affectionate culture," Kori explained. "Perhaps it is a bit much, but I was so inspired by you and your band..."

MJ smirked. "Not to me! It's flattering meeting someone who likes my music so much... seriously, I think it's cute."

Kori blushed deeply, unable to hide her grin. "I am happy to hear you say that," she said. "Would you like to continue this conversation in a quieter area? I would very much like to get to know you..."

"I'd like that too," MJ agreed, taking the Tamaranean's hand and finding a quiet corner to chat.

Gwen smiled, then walked over to Betty and Glory. "OK, so you guys are probably really confused right now..." she began.

"Yeah, I might have a few questions..." Betty remarked. "First of all, what the fuck just happened?"

"We, uh, jumped between universes," Gwen tried to explain. "I could give you a long, drawn out, somewhat scientific explanation, but I feel like this isn't the best place for it."

"...We're in another universe?" Glory asked in disbelief.

"I know it's hard to believe, Glory, but yeah," Gwen answered as she proceeded to summarize her past few days, hoping the conversation wouldn't end with them calling her sanity into question.

Glory and Betty sat there, dumbfounded, trying to process what Gwen had just told them. "Please don't think I'm crazy..." Gwen finished.

"...I'm a little more worried about myself..." Betty replied. "I'm having a fever dream, aren't I? Or something like that?"

"I've asked myself that a lot lately," Gwen shrugged. "I'll get us home, I promise. Until then... you guys gonna be OK?"

"We'll manage," Glory assured Gwen as Betty nodded in agreement. "Besides, it's not all bad. That might've been the best gig we've ever done."

Betty added, "Agreed. And we might as well enjoy ourselves while we're here. It certainly looks like MJ's having fun..." she continued, gesturing to the corner where MJ & Kori were sitting... and getting quite affectionate.

"Wow... those two got really cozy really quick," Glory observed. "I wonder what Felicia's gonna think...?"

Gwen shrugged. "Knowing Felicia, probably 'how do I get both of them into bed?'"

"Sounds about right to me," Betty conceded. "At any rate, it looks like she's having a pretty great time herself."

Betty & Gwen followed Glory's gaze to the dance floor, where Felicia was enthusiastically dancing with the blonde drummer of Black Canary -- who had introduced herself to them as Harley -- and a very sexy redheaded acquaintance of hers.

Betty & Glory stood up, and looked around the bar. "Well, I guess I should introduce myself to everyone here. We might be here a while..." Betty figured.

"I'm with you there," Glory agreed. "Looks like there's some interesting people here to meet. Wanna do the rounds?"

"Lead the way, Grant," Betty said, following Glory.

Gwen watched as her bandmates walked off, then made her way to the bar, where Barbara was chatting with Dinah. "Looks like your friends are settling in," Barbara noted.

"Yeah, they're rolling with the punches better than I thought they would," Gwen said. "Nobody's freaking out -- that's a W in my book."

"For now, at least. I take it you haven't told them about how our universes are gonna crash into each other?" Barbara asked.

"I'm working up to that," Gwen admitted. "You tell anybody on your side?"

"Just Dinah here," Barbara answered. "Dinah, this is Gwen. Gwen, Dinah."

Dinah extended her hand, which Gwen accepted. "I appreciate you and your band helping us out of a jam. You were awesome," she said.

"Thanks. Your band's pretty awesome, too," Gwen replied. "And you've got a killer voice."

"You have no idea," Dinah smirked. "Sounds like we're dealing with something seriously huge. Do you think we can actually stop our universes from smashing into each other? It seems like something way above our pay grade."

Gwen paused for a moment. "A crazy spider oracle lady seems to think we can do it. And I've made a career out of punching above my weight class. So even if I am in over my head, at the very least, I'm gonna give it everything I've got," she reasoned.

Dinah took a sip from her bottle and smiled. "I like your attitude, Gwen. I think we'll get along just fine," she said. "You have any idea where to begin?"

"I'm leaving that to Barbara for now," Gwen said, turning to the redhead sitting next to her. "In the meantime, I guess we should get to know each other a bit more, since we're going to be spending a lot of time together in the near future."

"Looks like your friends are way ahead of you," Dinah observed, gesturing over to the corner where Kori and MJ were making out, and then to the dance floor where Felicia was sandwiched between Harley and the redhead, the three of them getting very handsy with one another.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Gwen said, a bit shocked at the sight. "They're certainly having fun... I guess we can brief everyone tomorrow."