SHIELD Headquarters

[agentof.livejournal.com]

The flight, as advertised, is brief - slightly less than four minutes to reach the Helicarrier, ahead of the final moments of sundown. A sturdy room is arranged for Roxy, while the others are ushered into a pleasant but perfunctory briefing room, while medical technicians flit about, looking for signs of contagion.

The small assortment of magazines are soon supplemented with briefing folders - high level views of recent history, designed with interdimensional travelers in mind. Delivering the folders is a green-haired woman with an air of curt authority.

"I'm Special Agent Brand, Liaison to Offworld Visitors, amongst my other duties. I'm here to baby-sit you while we wait for the Director. I've got instructions to answer your questions to the best of my ability, provided there are no security implications."

The recitation of the speech gives the impression she does it just often enough for it to have become rote.

"We've got food here, if you require it. If you have special nutritional needs, let us know."

SHIELD agents, on cue, wheel in carts of food, fresh from the Helicarrier's cafeteria.

Comments

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

"Agent Brand."

She's home. Her spine pulls a little straighter. Her uniform, if possible, seems even tidier. Some things are refreshingly consistant, and the dour, green haired woman is one of them.

How long has she craved the comforting walls of a SHIELD Helicarrier? If she goes down four levels, she'll find her quarters. Two more down, she'll find Kurt and Anna Marie. Well, she would if she was actually home.

"Do you have a Director Shaw here?" She can't give him a real debriefing. This isn't her world. It'd still be refreshing to share a drink and exchange some unclassified stories. She pauses, unsure if she wants to know about herself or her children, but curiosity gets her. "Or any Agents Darkholme?"

[wwii-hero.livejournal.com]

"Or Fury or Dugan?" Barnes adds.

[agentof.livejournal.com]

Agent Brand touches an intercom panel.

"Comm, locate Agent Darkholme, and send him down, at his earliest convenience."

She smirks. "I thought you looked familiar. No Shaw - Fury and Dugan are retired, five years now."

[proteus-maximus.livejournal.com]

Morph is busily thumbing through the briefing folder.

"So no Fantastic Four, here, I guess - doesn't look like Reed's ship got hit with the cosmic ray storm.."

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Raven perks up. Agent Darkholme?

While she waits, she idly looks through the folder for other familiar names - Erik Lensherr, Mortimer Toynbee, James Howlett. The history so far seems fairly consistant with her own up until the 1960's. Interesting.

[fuzzyblue-elf.livejournal.com]

The door opens, and a fuzzy blue man dressed in a smart-looking SHIELD-agent's uniform steps in.

He glances around, and spots Raven, moving towards her.

"You must be... um... Darkholme," he says, offering a three-fingered hand.

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Her face lights up. After seeing Anna Marie and James die on other worlds, her healthy son is a sight for sore eyes.

She takes his hand, smiling. "You look dapper."

[fuzzyblue-elf.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," he says, smiling back, a look of confusion still hiding out in his eyes. "You look... more feminine than I was expecting."

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

She cocks her head to one side. "Really?"

Keeping the uniform, she shifts male. Her hair shortens and curls until it nearly matches his own but for color. Short, straight, and neat cuts down on her ability to sense her environment.

"Is this more...familiar?" He raises an eyebrow.

[fuzzyblue-elf.livejournal.com]

"Much," he admits. "Is... Mom my dad in your universe, or are you just trying on different genders for fun?"

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

Spidey's letting the weird reunions happen - there's never anybody he knows personally on these dopey missions.

Frees him up to actually work on the job at hand. He's looking for any information he can on Doom - where he's held, why he's held, and what he has to do with this Galactimus thing. If he hasn't shown up here, maybe they've done some long-range studies or something...

In the corner, he flips through the briefing reports, occasionally extending a small point of a talon from his finger to use as a page turner. Printed paper. For all the advancement, still not quite up with the times - unless there's a nostalgic streak in King Richards.

Not that he'd disrespect Reed Richards. The man is still a legend in scientific circles. It'd be like getting snotty about Einstein.

"Hey!" he suddenly jumps, as one of the 'disease control' techs gets a little too friendly. "Watch where you stick that thing..."

[agentof.livejournal.com]

"I was." She winks.

"Are you looking for anything - or anyone - in particular, or just comparing between worlds?"

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

That gets a raised eyebrow. Well, now.

Keep it casual. He's not sure if he finds these people refreshing for not being as aggressive as the Public Eye, or creepy because of it.

He jerks a thumb to the others.

"These guys always have some kind of shorthand, where everybody they meet is a puzzle piece that fits in a different socket. I've always got to learn new worlds from scratch. Luckily, I'm a good student."

[agentof.livejournal.com]

"Really?" She smirks. "And what kind of socket do you normally fit?"

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

She's only worn this uniform as a woman. Raven shifts back into her default gender, letting her skin settle comfortably around her as she takes a seat in a corner.

Her fingertips slide along the heavy surface of the envelope. Somewhere is a world where she and Irene raised their son together. Just knowing that makes this life easier. After finding herelf as Vampire Queen of Austria, hearing the kids talk about her throwing her infant son off a cliff in one world and constantly trying to kill him as an adult in another, she'd begun to worry she was the exception, not the norm.

She lights another cigarette - force of habit, really - and studies what the locals want her to know about thier world.

[proteus-maximus.livejournal.com]

Morph waves the handout.

"If nothing else, this world's efficient. And I don't mean in the Hitlerian 'trains running on time' sense, either.. Apparently, they managed to get Banner's green side under control, here."

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

"Good. We've dealt with enough of the Prime Minister's shenanigans the last few worlds." Shenanigans. That was her SHIELD's official designation for his occasional tirades.

"I like the welcoming committee, too. You kids are the right age for trendy cynicism, but speaking as someone in the business, this is a good balance between public security and welcoming strangers."

She's only talking to their monitors a little. It really is about what she'd do in thier situation. Of course, she's SHIELD.

[webslingah.livejournal.com]

"Allright, enough - medical technicians, clear out and start analyzing. I want to talk to our 'guests'."

Entering the room, with an air of authority and the familiar blue and white uniform of a SHIELD director, is none other than Colonel Peter Parker. He looks irritated, to say the least.

"It seems like most of you aren't analogues of people we're familiar with - a little unusual in these cases. The one we've been able to identify - " Here, he points at Mystique. " - is a mutant with shapeshifting abilities, perfect for some kind of infiltration. The fact that you cooperated by coming here is the only thing keeping me from being convinced that you're hostile."

"And now, I hear you want to speak to the Science Council. Color me suspicious, but I'd like to know why."

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah steps forward at this, somewhat more authoritative, now that she has some reassurance from her 'not-mom', and knows they'll be addressing Dr. Richards.
"Colonel Parker, we've come from another dimension to warn your world of impending disaster. I'll be happy to take any sort of lie detector test you care to subject me to, as that technology has doubtless been perfected here. We mean no harm, and the disaster has nothing to do with us or our arrival. I don't know if the name Galactus would mean anything to you or not at this point."

[webslingah.livejournal.com]

Colonel Parker looks at Sarah, skeptically.

"We're pretty handy with lie detectors, that's true - but nothing's foolproof. And are the rest of your friends as eager to volunteer for polygraph tests, or are you the one that can control her metabolism to fool them? As for Galactus - I can't say as the name rings a bell, no."

An aide comes back into the room, delivering to Colonel Parker a small folder, apparently with the medical testing results, at which he glances.

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Years of habit straighten Raven's spine at the sight of the uniform. The man in it, on the other hand.

"I'd volunteer, sir, but we both know it would be pointless. You're welcome to try anyway." Chemicals are pointless on her - mechanical stress tests even more so. Even when she tries to cooperate, telepaths have a difficult time with her ever shifting grey matter.

"Colonel, the multiverse is full of surprises. Where I'm from, you're a professional wrestler who just broke into acting. Somewhere on a world we passed through, I'm Queen of Austria." And a vampire, but he doesn't need to hear that. "We're not here as immigrants or conquorors. We all want to go home. Before we can do that, though, we're here to save your world from destruction."

[uneasy-rider.livejournal.com]

How does one get started on this? "Um..." She's looking around at her "team." Big Blue has clues to spare. Miguel the Spider Guy and Morph seem all kinds of smart - and Bucky and Sara are just in their own class of knowing what they're doing.

[nuttinbeatsrock.livejournal.com]

"Nice ta'meetchya, Sarah." Ben says jovially to the girl, listening intently. Cosmic devourers of worlds? A 'Fantastic Four'? No wonder Parker got his manties in a twist...

The General continues to wait, his boorish, carefree demeanor hiding a calculating mind with years of experience at protecting ol'Reed's Utopia. It sounds ludicrious, but then again, so do half the thinks his old roommate used to get him into...but, he wants to see if these visitors really convey the picture they're giving.

[proteus-maximus.livejournal.com]

"This gist is this - Galactus has, at one time or another, menaced most of our home Earths. Big dude, immensely powerful. Thing is, he carries with him a great deterrent. The way the Fantastic Four stopped him back home was they they stole this weapon off of Galactus's own ship - called the Ultimate Nullifier. Just the credible threat of its use was enough to make Big G back off."

[webslingah.livejournal.com]

"It all sounds so far-fetched. I wouldn't want to waste the council's time.."

Parker glances to General Grimm - more or less knowing that the General's response is going to be, and resigning himself to the inevitable.