Switcheroo
6/1/1948, GA Townhouse, Washington DC, Earth–139119
The Utopian was in the medical station, looking around with some worry and as she did so, looking towards them, one of the members of the… Golden Agency? They made her curious as the one called Dusk Sawbones was looking over her wounds before seeing something, “Are you sure that you’re Zarda?” he asked of THe Utopian who nodded towards his question.
“Can you please explain to me what is going on?” she asked of the man who nodded, “Of course… you see, our Zarda vanished when you appeared, most likely it was due to the fact of something on your end… do you recall what happened?” he asked, making Zarda think before she nodded, “I was facing off against The Scarlet Centurion, and then I used the sword there to–”
She saw that the sword vanished, her way out of the universe or wherever this was, was missing, “Where’d the sword go?” she asked, making the man think, “The Boogeyman took it for our safety.” he explained towards Zarda, making her angry and worried by the fact, “Wait… if the sword has the power of Perun, and if he’s here on this universe–” there was a crash, making them look, knowing what might be coming.
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The GA agents had rushed out, Howie having a pistol at the ready as he saw that there was a man in armor and a bearskin cloak, holding an ax like a long staff to hold himself up before he spoke, “Где вор?(Where is the thief?)” he demanded of the man, the lightning started to crackle around him, “ГДЕ?!(WHERE?!)” he snarled, his voice sounding like thunder as the others rushed in.
Zoran flying forward to fight the man, crashing in as the others rushed in, “Who the Hell is that?” Frank questioned towards the group as Zarda and Christian started to come into the area, “Perun,” Zarda said, “I was fighting with him against The Scarlet Centurion, and now–” “ТЫ! Ты вор! Как ты украл мою молнию!(YOU! You are the thief! How have you stolen my lightning!)” he snapped towards her.
“I didn’t steal it, it was given by– wait, where’s Chernobog?” she asked, making the others look towards him, “Chernobog?” Jim Dore asked, making the woman about to say something when she had been grabbed by a large claw from a shadow, making the group flinch towards the sight as a draconic winged demon had come out now, grinning like a monster.
“Перун, оторвать ли мне крылья этой птичке?(Perun, shall I tear off the wings of this little bird?)” this Chernobog asked with a grin before Mimi screamed towards the dieva, causing him to let go while Tristan acted, going to fire a beam of light towards the demon while Perun slammed the butt of the ax down, making a thunderclap that thrw them all backwards, all but The Apparition.
“Stop, you two, there is no thief, only one gifted your lightning.” he explained towards the two of them, making the humanoid snarl while Chernobog continued to fight against the others more out of boredom while Perun started to turn towards the man, “And what exactly does that mean?” Perun snarled towards him and hearing that, The Apparition looked towards Zarda, “May you please explain?”
Zarda nodded towards that as she spoke, “I was at The United Nations Building, and the Time Traveler, The Scarlet Centurion, attacked and we fought, but I used a The Perun Sword against his staff and– and I ended up here.” she said, The two were confused, Chernobog stopping and Perun just had a confused expression, “Извините, это должно было иметь смысл?(I'm sorry, was that supposed to make sense?)”
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Perun and Chernobog were in front of a chalk board as The Norn was volunteered to explain the situation while they discussed what was going on in the war room, “Alright, so how are we going to send her back to her reality in case there’s an issue on the other side and they can’t do it on their end.” Wayne said towards the group and The Apparition was happy to speak again.
“We need not worry, they are hunting on their end for The Scarlet Centurion, but there is more than one way return home.” he said to them, taking a breath before looking to Power Extraordinary, Tucker Sullivan, “Would you be so kind as to take The Norns place? We require them to assist us.” he said, making the scientist nod in consent, his Russian wasn’t perfect, but it was fluent.
“What do you require?” He asked The Apparition, “We need a mirror to see, and an hourglass to cross over.” he told the Norn who nodded, “I understand, I will return with them posthaste.” He told them and hearing that, the group were curious while he headed into the room he reserved as a portal for his own sanctum supreme away from everything else.
“I don’t understand, what are we doing?” Zarda asked, “Why is The Norn getting a Mirror and an Hourglass?” she asked as Winston, Win, spoke, “Unfortunately, The Norn is what you would call a collecter, and the magical artifacts that he collects are all quite powerful, and I assume that the two that The Apparition sent them to gather are necessary for us to make sure everything is sorted.
Zarda was curious, seeing how they were acting with each other before she saw that The gods walked in looking towards the group, “Когда будете уходить, не забудьте вернуть взятую вами молнию.(When you leave, make sure to return the lightning you took.)” Perun told him, followed by the two of them vanishing, Perun in a flash of lightning and CHernobog absorbed into his own shadow.
It was surprising that they had been so fine with just giving it up as Tucker walked out and looked towards the group, “So, are we using magic or that thing that ULT gave us?” he asked of them, making the woman confused, wondering who ULT was before Mimi spoke, “Apps planning to use one of Norns tools–” “He shouldn’t.” Tucker explained towards them.
“The Hourglass is a magical artifact, The Scarlet Centurion is a scientific tool, that difference can cause a alteration in the reaction.” Tucker explained, making the group look towards him with curiosity as The Norn returned with both the glass and the hourglass, “I have the required tools.” They explained, making The Apparition look towards the man and took the tools from him.
“Wait, didn’t you–?” “They are BOTH for a window inside of the other world.” he explained towards them all as The Vessel opened the hourglass and sprinkled the sand onto the mirror face, causing it to melt in and cause the device to begin glowing bright and brighter, “Now all we require is blood from the universe we desire to observe.” he explained, looking towards Zarda, “Wait, Julian.” Howard said to him.
Making the part man part god look towards him with curiosity, “Are you sure that this won’t backfire? I mean like with what happened to Namor–” “You have a Namor here?” Zarda asked of the surprised, “We HAD a Namor.” Jack Danner told her, making the members of The Golden Agency look downwards, aggrieved of the loss, “What happened?” Zarda asked, unsure what had happened to cause him to die.
“The Atom Bomb, he was there, fighting against Meranno, to wipe them both out, he sacrificed himself so that both of them and The Serpent Crown would be destroyed.” Alex Tyrell, Countdown, told the woman who was shocked, “What about Robert Frank? Joseph Ledger? Walter Johnson? Skymax? Jim Hammond? The Young Invaders?” she said, listing off her team members from The Squadron and The Invaders.
“What’s a Skymax?” Mimi asked of her, “We don’t know most of those people you mentioned, plus The Young Invaders had all died during the war,” Wayne Williams told her, “Steve’s still pretty beat up about the whole thing.” he told Zarda who paused, looking towards him while The Norn extracted the blood without anyone realizing that he was doing so with her arm.
“Hey–!” Mimi shouted, only for them to see the glow of the mirror was replaced with Fort Erskine, the people there discussing something, “It worked.” Win said with surprise as The Norn placed the mirror onto the wall of The Townhouse, “Yes, The Sands of Chronos and a Mirror made with a feather from the Raven Munin.” He explained towards them as Zarda memorized the recipe.
The group peered into the reflection, seeing how their friend was in there with them, The Squadron Supreme explaining what was happening while the others were relieved, “It seems that they are planning to track down The Scarlet Centurion, to drag him into a conflict so that he would utilize the weapon that had caused this disruption in the first place, “Alright, so what should we do?” Howard asked.
“We should wait, and prepare for the worst possible scenario to happen.” Zarda told them, making the group nod, her plan sounding like one that their own Zarda would create, alright then, until then, is there anything that you want to see or do while you are here?” Zoran, Jin–Mak had asked of Zarda, “Can one of you tell me how our universes differ? I might as well learn while I’m here.”
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6/1/1948, The Library, GA Townhouse
Zarda had been reading through the history of the Earth that she was on and on the surface, the changes only really started when 1939 came along, a few people here and there who were wrong or weren’t around, she saw that Victor Creed and his brother, James Howlett, were a part of a criminal society called The Privateers which hurt, she had hoped they would be heroes here.
Scrolling through everything from the books that she was able to find, the woman noticed that Howard Shelton was waiting at the border of the room, “This is your Townhouse, you don’t need permission to enter.” Zarda told him, making the human take a breath before he walked in, “Sorry, you just looked like My Zarda when you were skimming through everything there.” he explained.
Zarda shrugged towards the statement, “Well, it seems that there aren’t too many differences between us.” She told Howard, pointing towards a diary that she found in a place SHE would hide one, Howard walked over chuckling as he sat down, “So… is there a Howard Shelton where you live?” he asked of her, making Zarda nod, “Yes, and I love him with all my heart.” Zarda told him.
That made the man smile towards the statement before Howard paused, thinking before realizing that there was a noise, an opera, looking around, they realized that there was a horde of whinged, cherub sized chimpanzees in 18th Century fashion who were performing an opera which made the two of them confused, “Who the Hell is that?” Zarda asked of the man who went to an alarm by the door.
He slammed it down, making a loud clarion, “It’s The 4–D Man!” he shouted towards her, making the woman all the more confused before seeing there was a man or being there who appeared to be a featureless man that had two versions of himself overlapping each other, one of them tinged blue the other tinged red, “Hey there, Zarda! I haven’t seen you since me and Vanora had that scheme to make a baby god!
That made the group curious before they saw that there was The 4–D man who was cackling like the Wicked Witch of The West as he landed, “Oh wait! You haven’t met the X–patrol, or the fact that this is 1948, so–” she started to say before the man covered his mouth, “Oops!” he said before the man looked, “Not time yet, so we’re gonna have some friends come instead!”
That confused The Utopian as all of a sudden, a Scarecrow that had been dressed as a redcoat with a musket scythe, a Tin Man who was made from a cannon and ironclad scrapes and a Lion that wore the clothes and crown of a royal appeared, snarling towards her as they saw that there was a members of The GA coming in, “4–D! We do NOT have the time for you!” Jack snapped to the man.
But he simply shook his head towards that and instead started to bubble and melt, becoming a puddle that reformed as Glinda The Good, “Please! There is never a dull moment when I’m here!” the 4–D Man said towards them and hearing that, Zarda looked, “Who The Hell is this?” she asked of them, making The 4–D Man pause and then another version looking like an old school news reporter before speaking.
“You haven’t heard the news? The 4–D Man! Master of The Superflow! Existing outside of Space and Time! The Fly in every Dominions Soup and the enemy of X–Patrol since issue #1!” he told her, giving her a strange comic which had an image of strange people and The 4–D Man who was on the cover speaking, “You seriously never heard of me yet?” He asked in a speech bubble.
Seeing that, Zarda went to elbow him, but all she hit was an exact jello replica as The Glinda The Good version took a breath, “See? I admit that I’m a knockoff of Mister Nobody, but come on!” The person said towards them all, not knowing who Mister Nobody was, but before they could ask, the scarecrow swiped towards Howard who ducked, emptying his clip into the scarecrows head.
Photon Flyer on the other hand was more than happy to melt The tin man who was about to fire at them, but before he could fire a cannonball towards them, but there was nothing at all coming out as The Lion went on all fours, growling towards them, he leapt towards The Norn who simply shrank the lion to the size of a Chihuahua, making the man starting to fall down, quivering in fear towards them.
“Oh bother! Did you seriously have to do that?!” the entity asked of them as the flying monkeys started to swirl around them, “And here I was planning to help! Well you can just wait for your Zarda like good dogs at Hope Town!” he shouted towards the group and hearing that, the members of The Golden Agency were confused, wondering what exactly was going on with this being in the brain.
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6/2/1948, Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Earth–139119
The group arrived there all of them wearing dog ears and noses, they were confused on why the members of The Golden Agency and Zarda were all here in confusion before there was something which made them all look, it was the tear that had been made there, “It appears that we have our way to return you–” He started to say before there was a crackle and white glow around her.
She looked down at herself in confusion, “I guess they got the way back for me.” Zarda said before bowing towards them, “Thank you for caring for me until I was able to return home.” she told them and hearing that, the others smiled towards that before there was a white out that made her start to lose her sight, seeing a strange reflection of herself before she felt things change around her.
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6/2/1948, Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Earth–20484
The Power Princess started to cough, getting up and as she did so, the woman realized that there was something which made her realize she was still where The 4–D Man sent then, “Hope Town again? Guys?” Zarda said, she said towards them before there a familiar being approach, “Zarda!” Skymax said relieved as Namor had said towards her, going to hug the woman.
“If it wasn’t for Namor, than we have no idea how we would have gotten you back.” Joseph said, joining Skymax as the woman looked towards the tired Atlantean who she now approached, “Thank you for helping, Namor.” she told him with tears, seeing him here and not dead, she was glad to have met the GA but to see her friends alive here was all the better.
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6/2/1948, Fort Erskine, Teton Wilderness
Zarda took a deep breath in annoyance before she began to tell them everything that happened, “So that is everything that happened.” she said towards them and herding that, General Burr looked towards them and seemed to be annoyed by the moment as he spoke, “Can we acquire those materials? Allowing us to–?” “We would need the blood of someone that was from that universe.” she told them.
Hearing that, Burr smiled, “Than it’s a good thing that we acquired sampled from the other Zarda, we can use those and–” he started to say before a small bellhop appeared with four eyes and 3–D glasses on, “Hello there! I have a message from The 4–D Man!” the bellhop said before pressing their hand to their mouth like a trumpet, only for a voice to speak up to them.
“Hi there! This is The 4–D Man! And I’m glad that you’re back in your own universe before everything goes crazy!” The person said towards them as the bellhop started to break down, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be busy with my usual playmates so you don’t have to worry about me since 6/3/1983, so tata unless someone bribes me!” It said.
The tiny bellhop had vanished now, leaving only the 3–D glasses which Drutch took and put on, almost yelping in dear as he tore off the items in fear and then going to run away from the item which made Skymax curious and put them on, which was when he saw something, there were more people in the base, even himself who was talking happily with a girl who had pink and white hair.
“This is… I think it’s showing another universe.” he said, making the people in the glasses look towards him now, the Skymax there shook his head and pulled out a notepad, “Not the Multiverse, but time.” Future Skymax wrote for him and seeing that, the SKrull took them off, “They can see the future.” he told them, recalling that it was all red, so he tried closing his eye and looking through again.
“And this shows the past.” he said towards them, looking through and seeing that there was first and a mining team who was breaking through to make the base, surprised by that as he took them off, “So, is there any place where we can properly hide these? I don’t think they’d be safe for anyone.” The Skrull said and Robbie took them, putting the item on and looking through it.
“Well, I think we’ll have to use that armory now.” The Speedster said, making them all look, “Wait, what?” The group said towards him, The General more in surprise than anything else as the man pulled out a map, “Yes, here, the vault that Burr designed for this place.” he said, making the General curious towards that before they started to head towards the vault in question.
They headed towards the vault in question and looking to see that there was a secure door there, seeing that they were before the opening, Burr went and started to type in the code, “Here it is, if you need to ever come in here, just make sure to punch in this code and you’ll be able to come in here easily.” Burr said as they noticed the shelves that were set up for everything.
“Just go ahead and place it wherever, we can catalogue it in the space it was put.” he explained towards them and hearing that Skymax placed in on A–1 where he saw a notecard to write on, these time travelers were all strange, but they gave them a useful tool, as well as the fact that The Mace was something that they or at least Nestor was going to look into the strange item.
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6/3/1948, The Foundry, Mount Rainier
“Apparently this chain belongs to a divine weapon.” he said, having wrapped it around his wrist which he was planning to weld to the gauntlet, what that Zarda said about his powers with the chain and how he had been descended from a Norse God made him think that he was going to have to deal with the fact that he could– before Golmen could think anything else, the chain shocked him.
He flinched, memories rushing through his mind of a battle against blue giants, a woman with raven hair and a sibling that was man and woman who seemed to take joy in His suffering, there was also Amora The Enchantress and a woman in green– no, red– and he thought… he wasn’t so sure, but when he snapped out of it, Golmen bent over, scratching his head and feeling his hair, “What the Hell?” he asked.
His hair had lengthened and become more golden blonde, he had a goatee now… these changes were odd and it made him confused as everything felt electrified, but what he and Thompson DIDN’T know, was that there was someone who had been watching them, Amora watched this in wonder and seeing that Golmen was changed, she knew what happened and now had another reason to stay here.