Chapter 3
The dragged him back to a plane he assumed to be the local counterpart of a Quinjet and buckled him in.
“So… How well do you know the other me?” short haired Daisy asked.
“Well, I actually know two of you. One is native to my earth. She’s my fiancée and is carrying our child. Then there is a second you who came to live with us who’s Earth was rendered uninhabitable. She’s my friend and my junior partner. And they’re both on that plane I was just tossed out of.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Is this an official interrogation or are you just curious?”
“Shut up and answer me.”
“that’s an Oxymoron…”
“What did you just call me?”
“Fine, fine… I’ve been sent to locate some missing hardware for a friend. They’re a series of machines, look like old style computer user terminals. They function as interdimensional probes and can be used to bridge relaities. Somehow, several of these machines were brought here, and their creator asked me to find out why. Happy?”
The jet touched down and Scott was led outside.
“What, you don’t have Helicarriers?” Angry Daisy asked at Scott’s excited expression upon realizing where he was.
“Yeah, but it’s been grounded and mothballed.” Scott said “I’ve never gotten to go aboard it.”
She turned to one of the deck crew “Alert the Director we have someone here the council might want to talk to.”
The man nodded
“And find out what an Oxymoron is…”
Scott was still gleefully looking around when she came back and grabbed him by the arm.
“Come on, we’ve got people are going to want to talk to you.” She said, pulling him inside.
“Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate?” Scott asked as he past a sign bolted to the wall.
“I though you said you worked for SHIELD… You should know what it stands for.”
“Homeland Enforcement and Division.”
“What?”
“That’s what the H E and D stand for where I come from.”
“Yeah, right…” She said as she led him into a room and sat him down.
“Well, agent Johnson, you found something interesting alright.” Director Fury said.
“Thank you sir.” She replied, standing in the corner.
“Do you know who I am, son?” he asked Scott.
“Yes Sir, you’re Nick Fury.”
“How about her.” Fury said, pointing to the woman seated next to him “you know her”
“Maria Hill.”
“How about him?” point to the man seated on his other side.
“No. I’m sorry, I don’t recognize him.”
“I’m Professor Charles Xavier.”
“Pleasure meet you, Professor, Sir.” Scott answered.
“Oh, Sir is not nessiary, I’m just a consultant”.
“Force of habit.”
“So I’m told you’re from another dimension?”
Scott repeated what he’d said to the other Daisy.
“Interesting? Agent Johnson, do you think there’s any connection to Stark and the box?”
“None whatsoever.” She replied.
“Then why did you bring him here?”
“Because I think we can use him.”
“May I ask, Agent Riley” Xavier continued “The report the team sent ahead mention you used a vibrational power to slow your fall. Are you, by chance, a mutant?”
“A what? Um? Well, I’m an Inhuman and I’m an alien if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No, but that’s an acceptable answer.” Xavier said “Wait; did you say you’re an alien?”
“Well, part alien…”
“Interesting…”
“Can you tell us anything about this?” Fury said, sliding Scott a picture.
Scott recognized the image immediately.
“Oh my God… That’s… then that was the Skywall… Director Fury, I could tell you everything you could possibly want to know about it.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“On my earth, there was a TV show that used that box as its source of conflict. It was complete fiction, no such box exists, but that’s the beauty of the Omniverse. If you can think of it, there’s a world for it. So I should know everything there is to know about that box.”
“So there was a TV show on your earth about the Cosmic Cube?” Hill asked
“Well it had a different name. They called it the ‘Pandora Box’.”
“You mean Pandora’s Box” Xavier corrected him.
“It was a Japanese show, called ‘Kamen Rider Build’ and they don’t have any concept similar to the ‘Apostrophe S’, so no, I don’t. Let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
“The box was an artifact from another world, when touched, it caused walls to appear, splitting Japan.”
“Splitting it up into five parts?” Hill asked.
“No three.”
“Well, here’ we’ve got five.” Fury said, pointing to a map on the wall, showing the United States split into five sections.
Scott stood and walked towards the map.
The five lines shot straight out from what looked like St. Louis. Unlike on the show, where the wall zigged and zagged.
“We’ve tried going over them, we tried going under them, we tried going through them” Fury explained “Our only real option is to go around them, but it’s just too hard. So, people began to fight. And within a few years, you had the various sections breaking off.”
“How far does the wall go?”
“Well, the one section runs from Venezuela all the way to Russia. The other sides end when they get a few hundred miles out to sea.”
“It dammed the Caribbean?”
“Yeah, and the Bearing strait. All the fish died within a few years. The states surrounding the gulf banded together, causing a civil war within the section of Mexico on their side of the wall. Most of it joined the Gulf Alliance, but a large section remains independent. Each side of the wall is basically it's own separate country.”
“When did this all happen?”
“2004. I’ll get you the video.”
The screen next to the map switched on. Scott noticed it was a flat panel monitor, let alone a holocom, but a CRT.
The video came up, a live WHIH feed showing Tony Stark giving a speech, standing beneath the Gateway Arch.
“200 years ago today, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off up the river from just a few miles away from where we’re now standing, to map a continent and find a route to the Pacific. Today, in their honor, I would like to introduce you to a piece of future history.”
A security guard wheeled out a large object covered in cloth.
“As I’m sure you’re all well aware, I’ve been to Mars recently, on a ship, fittingly named Lewis and Clark. And I brought back a souvenir.”
He yanked off the cloth, revealing the box.
“We found this in the bottom of a cave. Physical proof of extraterrestrial life!”
He smiled to the crowd, wave as the flashed popped, and then put his hand on the box.
The box began to glow, and the camera began to shake, then cut out.
“Nearly five million people died that day in the metro St. Louis area alone.” Fury said “Grand total is somewhere much higher. The one wall cuts right across to San Francisco. Destroyed both cities completely.”
“What about Stark?”
“Somehow, he survived.” Hill said “But the next time we saw him, he was encased in an iron suit. Says it keeps him alive. He says the box has given him great power and we’re to surrender to him.”
“That was fifteen years ago? What’s he doing? Just sitting around.”
“We don’t know.” Fury said. “Maybe you could tell us what you saw when you arrived, we might be able to get a fix on your jet.”
“It’s not my jet I’m worried about…”