Guin Stark
Location: Stark Tower - New York City, New York (
Outfit)
Skills: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Guin nodded at her grandfather's questions - Allison did have mental powers.
"If the hypothesis is that her mental powers are why Allison remembers this other world... Then wouldn't I have the same situation as her then?" Guin asked, more of talking to herself. She was a telepath. And while she wasn't going to openly say this, she was also a Stark. Her family was known for their intellectual capabilities, so if anyone was going to remember the real world, why wasn't it her? There was no news from Pietro, meaning that her brain was focused on this issue. Eventually she was forced to come to the conclusion that it was more or less luck of the draw, if Allison's story was to be believed.
She paced back and forth slightly. She knew there was nothing on the scans to suggest that Allison was lying - they seemed to indicate that she was telling the truth. However, accepting that the reality she knew was fake... That was a lot to take in. Guin wasn't some sort of crime fighting hero. She was raised in wealth and privilege, never having to learn how to fight and not even needing to work a job. Everything had come effortlessly and she had two parents that loved her, as well as the best grandparents in the world, and she was marrying a prince! Her life was a fairytale here.
"Okay, Allison, assuming you're right... Which is hard to wrap my head around... How did reality change like this? Who else remembers it? What were our lives like in the other reality? And I imagine you'll be pissed at me for asking but... you said Oshea was dead in the other world. What if this world is the better of the two? Should we be trying to change things back? I mean, isn't that kinda like playing god?" she asked. She felt like she could trust Pietro with this, but she didn't know about Wanda - and given that they were twins, she knew anything she told Pietro would end up being told to Wanda at some point.
"...Let's not involve Pietro with this," Guin said, her arms crossed.
"I don't know who we can trust if you're right, Allison."
Casper Theriot
Location: Outside -> Inside the Casino - New Orleans, Louisiana
Skills: Mediumship
Casper was incredibly thankful that his brother managed to knock out the psychopath, as the blue glow around his hands faded and he no longer was channeling Ben into the real world. He felt incredibly hungry, as if he hadn't eaten for days, and a bit dizzy as well.
"Anyone got any Go-Gurt? Or Paul Rudd with a Go-Gurt? Either works..." Casper asked, taking a few steadying breaths and his hands were shaking slightly, like he had overused a muscle.
"I really hope Paul Rudd is still a thing in this world... He's an inspiration to us all..." "Where the hell are we..." Ben muttered. Chrysi's explanations had just been vaguely threatening statements at the end of it and given her mental state, Ben didn't trust her. He didn't believe her story about knowing that there was an infinity stone and besides, it looked like Chrysi had nearly killed her sister. She was as much of a reliable source as Tony Stark was on affordable and sustainable living.
Casper then spotted the spirit of a ginger and he swore under his breath. While he actively avoided using his powers whenever possible (Ben being the only exception), he knew that it wasn't a good sign to see the spirit of someone who just collapsed. People near death in comas had an ability to end up in a limbo state of sorts.
"Hey, uh, Jackie?" Casper called out, running after his brother. He wondered if anyone had been watching Jack's kid while they were out there - though he was pretty convinced the kid had to have been kidnapped. His brother was a playboy and slept around, but he knew how to use a condom... or at least, Casper
assumed he did.
"I think she's in a coma... I just saw her spirit," Casper explained, wringing his hands slightly. It freaked him out a bit that the thought of spirits and ghosts
didn't scare him. In the real world, he used drugs regularly in order to shut out his powers and to try to forget the childhood abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, the seemingly perfect Charles Xavier.
"And uh should the kid really see this?" he asked.
"She might end up like me if she does..." "Good point, no one would want to end up like you," Ben teased.
Dominika Novikova and Runa Blake
Location: The Quinjet - Sydney, Australia
Skills: Eldritch Magic
Runa complied with Niah's request, taking a seat. She hated doing everything these people asked but it was in Lance's best interest. She knew that she was just human in this reality and didn't have the durability of an Asgardian, but old habits died hard. Runa still unconsciously thought of herself as being in no real danger from a human - and only some from a mutant. There were some on Asgard who enjoyed interacting with Midgardians, but the majority viewed Midgardians as no stronger than an ant. However, her hands started to shake with anger as James callously proposed
killing Lance. She was glaring at him so intensely that if looks could kill, James would have died more than once.
Novikova, meanwhile, was hoping that James would say
Hail HYDRA - it would explain his cruelty.
"And here I thought we all had to get psyche evals before joining the Red Guard," she commented, throwing a look in James' direction. Between Niah's passive anti-human behavior and James' active psychopathy, she was getting a small headache. Of course, she was one to talk when it came to making comments about mental illness. She hadn't been the same ever since she developed a control over metal. She chuckled slightly at Shelly's comments about the auto-pilot, finding that refreshing compared to the entire situation at hand.
Lance didn't seem to pay any attention to Runa as she went over to him and she felt the little bubble of happiness she had when thinking about him falter slightly. She let go of his hand, listening to what one of the agents had to say - that Lance's father was the green beast called
the Hulk. Her uncle Thor had told her about the mindless beast of Midgard, one that somehow could channel its rage and fight battles that ordinary Midgardians could not. His strength easily matched if not exceeded that of the average Asgardian. Loki had manipulated the Hulk before - so to her, it was more evidence that her other uncle was behind all of this.
"The beast is vulnerable to magic," Runa reminded them.
However, there was an earlier matter that she had to attend to, as Abercrombie handled the ice manipulator, encasing the others' feet in ice and then knocking the girl out. Runa made a beeline over to James. She spat in his face.
"You're a monster," she told him, before she punched him in the gut. Instead of just being a physical blow, however, she knocked James' astral form out of his body.
"I'll put you back in your body once you cease to annoy me." Mystique and Sapphire were both unconscious, and Novikova wasn't sure what Runa had done to James, but it seemed to have taken care of him.
"Maria, love, do you trust me?" Novikova asked, taking her girlfriend's hand in her own. She took a slight breath.
"This world... it isn't real. Someone messed with reality, reshaped it to be the way they wanted it to be. In the real world, this skinny little wimp... he's our friend, Sparky," she told Maria, hopeful that maybe this would jog her memory. If Maria didn't stand down, she would have to knock her unconscious. Of course, they had bigger problems to deal with. The Hulk was loose and it was a gamble that delivering him the Red Guard agents who kidnapped his son would calm him down.
Novikova knew the basics about the Hulk - he had been an ordinary radiophysicist prior to the accident and during her PhD, she had cited a few of his papers in her thesis. Wolverine's method of punching the Hulk until he calmed down struck her as one of the more likely ones. Looking around her at the quinjet, she got a potentially horrible idea.
"It's no Iron Man suit but... I might be able to pummel him with the quinjet," she suggested.
