15442/The world that Jinx made

The world that Jinx made
Date of Scene:	23 July 2023
Location:	La Ligue d'Heroisme HQ - Brussels - JNX-001
Synopsis:	The meeting of minds between two timelines puts together a plan to save them both. Everything seems to be going well, after heated moments pass -- until the very end.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Donna Troy

---

Jinx has posed:
The situation room was spacious. More spacious even than SHIELD's command center. But it was also busy. At the center is a holographic projection of Earth and on it there are dots. Yellow dots indicating amber. Purple dots indicating quarantine. New York is completely blotted out. There are dots all over China and India. The higher the population the more dots it seems.

In a circle around the map are computer terminals of SHIELD agents busy chatting on comms with teams around the world and emergency responders. Outside that, another circle of terminals much the same but with runners going between people. Beyond that, tables and chairs - many occupied - for meetings and adhoc problem solving.

This is a world in crisis. The room next to it has a glass windowed view of this chaos but the glass blocks out most of the sound. Captain Britain stands with his hands tucked behind his back. He turns when the group enters and his expression changes quickly.

"Bar the door. Don't let Valentina know. Erase the tapes. It might already be too late." Europe's Chest is wide and fine but just as powerful is his chin. If the man wasn't a superhero he'd be a model or a movie star.

"On it," replies Nigel and types a code in to the panel.

Kel Fountaine can't stop looking at Jinx with wiggling eyebrows as emotions flash across her face. "It's really you. I was so out of it that sometimes I think I imagined you but you're real."

The TV is on in the corner of the heroes meeting room and Red Skull stands behind the Presidential Podium. The volume is off but the ticker tape underneath says he is closing borders to the rest of the world.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia follows where the heroes the heroes of this alternate timeline lead her. Her hands are kept where they are visible in a non-threatening manner, as she is currently in let herself be captured to learn more mode. It's one of the Red Room's most basic techniques. "Who is Valentina?" She asks curiously. Not to anyone in particular, more in the manner of a offhand remark that just kind of slips out. Her eyes meanwhile dart this way and that taking in all of the activity in the room and trying to categorize and mentally catalogue it, you never know what could be useful later.

    Jinx being the sudden center of attention does draw Nadia's focus as well though as she looks between Jinx and Kel. "Is she a friend of yours?" She asides to Jinx, though before she can ask any follow up questions she's left just sort of staring at the screen showing /President/ Red Skull.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "She may not be who you think she is. Exactly. Kind of," Donna explains to Kel, interposing herself somewhat between the Kel and Jinx, and clarifying the situation not one bit.

    Donna spends the first few seconds after entering the Situation Room taking in every detail she can. Situation maps, data on screens, the attitudes and body language of everyone standing around the room, all filed away. Even the Captain's chest. "Braddock," Donna says to him with a nod of greeting, which may or may not come as a huge surprise to him, but all things considered probably comes as at least a small surprise.

    "Okay, so cards on the table. You are obviously dealing with a whole lot of trouble, though you may not realize just how much of a problem your universe is facing. We have come from a different universe -- or more correctly a different timeline -- to yours. One which diverged twenty-seven years ago. What has happened in your universe has created some ripples in ours which we came here to investigate. Hopefully we can help you stabilize things here, but I'll be completely honest. Given what we know, I have a strong suspicion that is really not going to be easy. "

    She fixes her eyes on Kel. "I take it you are Kel Fontaine?" she asks. "We came looking for you. You're the key to this, the point of divergence was what happened to you twenty-seven years ago. I think you know what I'm talking about. A situation involving a rather unpleasant spell concocted in Syracuse some two and a half millennia ago. Perhaps you could tell us what you believe happened to you back then?"

Jinx has posed:
"Ssssh," Nigel insists of Nadia, "if you speak the devils name she will appear." No love lost on Valentina, whoever she is. Which is to say that the door unlocks itself and in walks a very angry looking woman flanked by four SHIELD agents carrying what look like fancy energy weapons.

"... too late," Nigel adds. "Director of SHIELD, Valentina Fury." She glares at Nigel and then looks between Nadia, Donna, and Jinx.

"Jeannine you better have a damn good reason why these invaders aren't in cuffs right now," Fury says flatly to Guillotine.

Brian Braddock aka Captain Britain steps forward between their new guests and the angry Director of SHIELD. "It's my team, my call."

"The hell it is. The world is falling a part and last time I checked you weren't the Director of SHIELD now are you /Brian/."

Kel waves her hands even as she notes how protective of Jinx Donna is. Filing that away for later, "They're here to help. She just said so," Kel motions to Donna and and then to the mess out there in the command centre. "And we could really use some help."

Behind the SHIELD agents steps in Erik Selvig and he folds his arms looking none too pleased. "The signature matches Director. They're definitely from the _other_ side."

Valentina points a finger at the obviously an amazon Donna. "I want some answers and I want them right now. What the hell are those probes and why is my world breaking apart like humpty dumpty sat on a jack hammer."

Jinx looks bewildered. "Stop everyone please..." She grimaces. She used the 'please' word. Cait would be proud. "This is all my mess. I caused it all so if you're going to blame anyone blame me. I'm the plonker who messed with time."

Kel speaks up again, "Yes you did. But you also saved my life - and you haven't even aged a day." She looks a little confused at the way Donna describes Jinx as 'not being who she thinks she is'. But a nod is given to her confirming her identity.

One of the SHIELD agents points his gun at Jinx as he starts to figure out what it was Jinx just admitted to. "You pikie piece of trash. You're the reason my brothers died?" He takes off his helmet revealing a scar down the side of his face and across his neck. "You don't remember me? Huh? do you? with your damn probes!"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia holds up her hands when the weapon is raised stepping in between Jinx and the 'SHIELD' agent. "Woah woah woah, we're trying to help. I would really suggest lowering your weapon. What probes? We don't know anything about any probes." She turns her head pointedly in Jinx's direction, "We don't right?" Before continuing. "Anyway, my portal should be the first between our timeline and this one and there were no probes, so could you elaborate on that part? Multiverse theory is an area of physics that's still being mapped out, but a timeline that split off only 27 years ago is going to have a very 'thin' shell," It's clear she wishes there was a more precise descriptor for this, but it just hasn't been nailed down yet. "That shell is what protects it from the ...foam of the multiverse, basically what these incursions from beyond your timeline are. What seems to be happening is it is colliding repeatedly with the timeline that it branched off from, ours, this normally shouldn't be happening to this degree. If I had to take a guess, based on what we know so far, it's probably something magic. Usually when there's weird phenomena occurring without obvious cause within explained physics, it winds up being due to magic." From her expression this clearly frustrates her and probably goes a long way towards explaining her personal quest for a Grand Unified Theory of Everything that includes Magic.

    "Your amber technology is really interesting, I haven't seen it's like before and I'm curious how you developed it. But it's also clearly a temporary solution at best as eventually you'll have frozen all habitable space and there will be nothing left. So, we should really figure out how to address the root cause." She looks back at Jinx and Kel, because she definitely has suspisions as to what is linking these timelines together.

Donna Troy has posed:
"I suggest you listen to my friend and put your gun away, agent," Donna says with just a hint of warning in her voice. "When our companion claimed the blame for your problems she did so out of guilt, nothing more. And threatening people who have come to help you is never a good idea. So put the gun away, calm down, and we'll all just forget about your racist language, hmm?" If that's an odd thing to have picked on there in the situation, Nadia at least knows Donna well enough to know she's probably got a reason for it.

    Donna stares at Valentina Fury for a few moments before folding her arms, then lifting one hand to study her fingernails. A double message there, as the sunlight glints from her Amazon bracer. "I am princess Troia of Themyscira," Donna says in a very calm and level voice. "I believe some of you may have known this world's version of my sister. My companions are Nadia Pym-van-Dyne, one of our world's leading experts in temporal and dimensional science, and Jinx, who's birth marked the divergence between your universe and ours. We have information you obviously do not, and we are here to help. However if you want that help we're going to have to pool information. Perhaps you can start off by telling us what these 'probes' you keep mentioning are, because as I keep saying, we are not from your universe and this is the first we've heard of them."

    Donna looks away from her nails and into Valentina's eyes for a few moments, giving away nothing with her expression. Then she looks to Kel. "This is your director of SHIELD, huh? We have a different one where we come from. How hard is it going to be to get her to understand things involving magic to her? Specifically things involving your personal past, a kidnapping, two magical daggers and the consequences of some strange things that happened back then? I'm not sure we have a whole lot of time..."

Jinx has posed:
It seems with the words coming from both Nadia and Donna that Valentina starts to re-evaluate the situation. She motions for the guns to be lowered. All but that one agent lowers his weapon. "Agent. Stand down." He does not.

La Fleur du Mal, the magical sword that Jeannine carries, suddenly shakes in her hands and lifts up. It yanks her forward in time to deflect the weapons fire from the agent back at him. Before Jeannine can do anything about it, the sword twirls and stabs through his arm and in to him. "AACH!"

Blood gushes from the wound and twirls about the sword blade as it absorbs in to it. There's an ominous deep unsettling voice that reverberates through everyone's mind, "Huuuungrryyyy.."

Kel laughs nervously and motions her hands down to Donna, Nadia, and Jinx. "Oh she's.. she's well aware of magic. Just not the particulars in this scenario. Perhaps if Jinx and I could go ta---"

Kel's line of thought is cut off as a portal appears in the middle of the room. Toni Ho, aka Rescue, shoots through it backwards while firing her palm weapon back through the portal. Weapons fire dances around behind her and it is clear she has someone held over her shoulder.

That someone is Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl. Unconscious and bleeding. Four little squirrels bound through the portal before it shuts off. Toni sets Squirrel girl down on the ground. "Superstar! Red Skull's men got to her before I could."

Kel quickly drops down to one knee and rests her hands upon Doreen. A white light begins to glow from them as she starts to perform healing magic.

Erik Selvig takes the initiative to try and bridge the gap going on here. It's clear there's a lot of distrust but lab coats have got to stick together. He walks over to a wall and presses his hand to it opening up a containment box made of glass. Inside - a bullet shaped probe with chunks of dirt still on it. It looks slickly built and designed to tunnel through the ground."

"One of the probes. This is the only one we've captured whole. They like to blow up when they think we've cornered them," he explains. Valentina glares at him. "Why can't you people keep a damn secret." She looks at the injured Squirrel girl and the now dead SHIELD agent beside her. The sword being pulled from it by Jeannine. Blood seems to linger in the air and is yanked by an invisible force in to the sword as if it didn't want to let go of its meal. "God damn it Jeannine if you can't control that sword---"

Jeannine looks ashen and she is gripping the sword handle tight, white knuckled tight. "Putting it away now Director." She quickly exits the room as two of the other agents gather up their dead comrad and carry him out of the room too.

Brian holds out his hands, "There's a lot going on at once here. Let's all just calm down and take this apart piece by piece. Val, I'm going to ask you to trust us on this. When have we ever let you down."

Valentina folds her arms, "There's a first time for everything." She and her agents step back to let The League do their thing.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    There is an expression of mild horror on Nadia's face as the SHIELD agent gets cut down by the magic sword that /drinks his blood/ and then extolls its hunger through some form of mental sorcery. She's not in the Red Room anymore, she can express her horror if she wants to, expressing emotions other than constant positivity is really progress for her in its own way. She had really been hoping to defuse that situation non-violently though. "Okay, yeah, please lock up the Murder Sword." She side glances towards Captain Britain with an expression that just says 'what the fuck', the Avengers and Titans never had Murder Swords, at least when she was around.

    Thankfully, Dr. Selvig gives her something else to overwhelm and occupy her attention. Nadia steps forward examining the probe closely. "Do you mind if I take out some tools to perform some scans?" She asks Dr. Selvig. Where she might be keeping such tools with no visible luggage is perhaps a mystery to everyone save Donna and Jinx. "At first glance though I can tell you that this isn't from our timeline, which would make it not from either of our timelines. It's not like any of the technologies I've seen before, and I've seen a lot. But I can only get so much with just my eyes from behind glass, and," She points in the direction of the SHIELD agents with their energy weapons, "I'd rather not deal with them firing at me and getting murder sworded again if I take something out." Or Donna sworded, since the Murder Sword has been locked up.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna pinches the bridge of her nose. "Amazon standing right here," she tells Guillotine. "Intercepting bullets without stabbing people is kind of our thing. Keep that in mind next time," she says with just the hint of a sigh.

    Donna gives Captain Britain a smile and a grateful nod. "Thank you Braddock," she says. "A little trust is a real good idea right now, but I don't really expect that to come easily to a director of SHIELD in any universe. However it's not like we've got time to waste debating this if you guys want to save your universe, and I'm sure if people think about it they'll notice that we've been very cooperative so far. If we meant you any harm, we would not be here like this. I mean it's pretty obvious to me that you've lost a lot of your Superheroes in this world. That isn't the case in mine, so I'm pretty sure that if we really wanted to invade you then that wouldn't be much of a problem. Hades... I could have come with an army of Amazons, but I came with experts in the situation instead. It's really not that much of an ask to accept that we're here to help. "

    Donna gives Kel a thoughtful look. "Magic is... a complicated subject," she says carefully. "It might perhaps be a good idea if you, Jinx and myself were to go somewhere quiet to discuss what happened back then, while the scientists do their thing? Would that be okay, Nadia? I'll be on the other end of a T-Com if you need me, and you know how fast I can move if necessary. Not that I doubt you can take care of yourself, but I'm probably better at a non-lethal response if anyone else decides to be stupid while Captain Britain's back is turned." Yes, there's a few layers to that little speech.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx stares in a rather 'what the fuck' way at that cursed sword too. She exchanges glances back with Nadia. Jeannine frowns at Donna. "Normally I have more control over the sword but lately it's been -- thirsty." The door opens and she walks out.

It's Kel and Toni Ho who move next. Kel rises, her hands covered in blood now. "She's stable," is all she has to say to Toni who scoops up the squirrel girl. The four squirrels dance behind her as she carries Doreen through a different door toward their quarters in the other I of the H building.

"I knew Diana. I knew a lot of the Amazons. I'm sorry to tell you even though you didn't know them, I'm sure they would have felt like sisters to you Princess Troia. Themyscira was taken by a break in reality," Brian says and nods to her as she talks about trust.

Nigel pipes up, "Trust is hard. SHIELD broke in two when Red Skull took over in America. What was left of the organisation joined us in Europe. The Skull has a secret program to infiltrate your world. He believes we're at war - a lot of people believe it. The Earth Protection Act was one of his first political moves."

Kel sighs, "You can't talk sense to a nazi." She nods with interesting at Donna's idea. "First let me catch you up. We theorised that we could separate our two worlds at a place called Pathstow in England. We built a machine - Erik, perhaps you could show Nadia our technology specs. But the machine didn't work."

Erik pipes up, "I've theorised that we got the place right, but the timeline wrong. The only way we can save our universe is if it's done in your timeline." He places a tablet down next to Nadia and then opens up the glass case for her. On the tablet are specs for the Amber as well as a machine to 'push' two timelines farther away from each other.

"Wait, Troia." Brian says as Donna suggests a plan, "If you can really bring that many heroes here we could use that kind of help. Stay a moment - they can talk magic shop - there's a lot you and your people could do to help save us. And sure, it'll cost us some breaches but may be our scientists can work out a way to soften that blow too. There's logistics to consider - and aid - smallpox is burning through Africa right now."

Valentina seeths as Brian suggests even more people from -the other side- come over here to help. More breaches, more damage. More disasters.

Jinx lifts up her hands, "Donna it's okay. If everything Nettie said about Kel is half true I'll be fine with her." She shakes her head at the chaos these people are dealing with. She wonders if the Avengers or the Justice League have it this bad.

Kel nudges her head, "This way Jinx." She heads out the same way that Ho and Squirrel girl went. Jinx follows along clearly looking overwhelmed by it all.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Since nobody has told her 'no', not that she really explained in detail what she was going to do, Nadia reaches into one of the pockets of her labcoat and withdraws one of her Waspette gauntlets from within. It must be bigger on the inside. Slipping the gauntlet over her forearm, she begins tapping away at a touchscreen interface set into its surface while holding her palm over the exposed probe. Data begins streaming across the lenses of a pair of unassuming looking glasses that are actually a condensed version of the HUD technology she uses in the Waspette suit's helmet. "This is definitely not from either of our realities or timelines, from the energy signatures on it, this is also far from the first timeline that it has visited. I couldn't begin to guess who made it, but they clearly know /a lot/ about dimensional physics and the nature of the multiverse. I'm not picking up anything overtly hostile with it, they may just be investigating the formation of a relatively young timeline unaware of the damage that breaching such a young timeline has on it, just like I was when I opened our portal. Though the fact that they explode when cornered is pretty concerning and throws any kind of peaceful exploration explanation into serious doubt."

    Seemlessly multitasking, Nadia looks over the tablet provided by Dr. Selvig while her gauntlet scanner gathers more data. "I think Dr. Selvig is right, this machine should work, we just need to get it to the precise ground zero where the split occurred which means the original timeline rather than the one that branched off of it. Also this Amber technology is fascinating and we may need it before all is said and done because if I'm right and my calculations are correct, and I kind of hope they're not, this phenomenon may be spreading to our timeline now through the Gate that I opened," That is not a happy realization for her. Sometimes SCIENCE! has some unfortunate and messy consequences. "All the more reason to get this machine where it needs to go to do what it needs to do."

    The bit about Other-Timeline Red Skull apparently sending agents to infiltrate their timeline isn't lost on her either, but one crisis at a time. First they need to stop both realities from being destroyed. Then they can worry about the secret cross-dimensional Nazi infiltrators.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives a long, hard look at Jinx, then nods her head. "Fine," she says finally. She glances briefly at Kel, then back again. "But same applies to you, okay? I'm just a T-Com away. This is a different timeline and we don't know what the situation really is here. I would by hypocritical if I didn't offer the same trust to Kel as I'm asking they give us, so go ahead. But if you think for a moment you need me, don't hesitate. I'll be there."

    She gives Jinx's arm a quick squeeze on the way out. "It'll be okay," she says with a smile.

    Donna turns to Brian, nodding her head. "This isn't my first time in another timeline, Braddock. The last one I visited, Themyscira was just about the only place on Earth that /hadn't/ been lost. There are probably countless alternative versions of our worlds. I cannot afford to mourn the sisters I have lost on every one of them. Though it is sad, it isn't personal. Just as you may be cheered to know that many you have mourned in your world still live in mine, it doesn't make up for your loss. But I thank you."

    Donna gives another nod, this time in Val's direction. "Director Fury is right though." Oh diplomacy! Make everyone your friend, why not? "We came here to investigate what was going on, so we did not prepare to bring large amounts of people or materials. That is something we can do in the future, it's what we did for that other alternative universe I mentioned. However right now things are very fragile. We didn't anticipate that our own transit here would have caused fractures to your reality, and it would be dangerous to try bringing more without figuring out a way to stabilize the situation first. "

    "I don't wish to sugar-coat this. If my suspicions are right, the situation for your timeline is extremely fragile. Nadia is the scientist not me, but I believe that the divergence that separated our universes was one that wasn't meant to happen. The divergence was a fluke magical event that happened within a paradox, and to me that just doesn't sound like the basis for creating a stable timeline. If I'm right we need to find a way to... increase the separation. To make your universe less reliant on ours. "

    "It may be worth the risk sending you over a few crates of smallpox vaccine as soon as possible. Providing you with the aid you need to remove Red Skull and set your world to rights is something we should perhaps wait until your universe is more stable before considering." Particularly if, as Nadia suggests, there's a danger of it spreading back to their own timeline!

    Donna steps over beside Nadia to watch her work. "Ground zero -- I wonder if technically that ground zero entirely exists any more. The ground zero was a paradox event. Would we need to set that thing off not just in our timeline, but at the right time too? Within the temporal loop?"

    As for cross-dimensional Nazi infiltrators -- they'll have a tougher time than they probably realize, invading a version of the universe where things have not fallen apart to anything like the same degree they clearly have here. Like Nadia, Donna says nothing. However she cannot help reflect on how Diana used to tell her stories of fighting Nazis during the second world war, and how when she first came to Man's World in she wasn't exactly clear how few the opportunities would be to follow in her sister's footsteps by beating up Nazi invaders. When Diana had explained this to her she'd been disappointed. She's twelve years older and a lot more experienced now, but nevertheless she can't help feeling a certain thrill at the notion she may soon get to punch Nazis.

Jinx has posed:
Erik watches with fascination as Nadia exposes her technology to him, "Did you pull that out of some sort of pocket dimension?" But then he's interested in the next shiny thing, that this probe isn't from their timeline at all. It's from somewhere else, someone else.

"It's possible the devices explode so that their technology won't be stolen. Perhaps a bit like the prime directive of Star Trek," Erik summises at Nadia's otherwise dark assessment.

Valentina is surprised Donna says she's right. "You could learn a thing or two from this one Braddock," she quips in triumph. Though the notion that this other Earth could become an ally instead of an antagonist is one that she knows will send shockwaves through the politi.

Erik nods his head to Donna, "That's precisely what the machine is meant to do - with Kel's help. There's a magical component to the solution. We just couldn't make it work from here and unlike you, we don't have a casual breaching machine between realities. That is the only thing stopping Red Skull from enacting his plan. Though - intelligence suggests he might be close to a break through."

Jinx smiles and grips Donna's arm in return. She nods to her and says, "Don't worry. I'll be fine and if anything goes wrong I'll call out to you." She's changed a lot since she first met Donna. All that positive reinforcement seems to be doing the trick. Perhaps also hanging around with people like Nadia who 'get it' has also helped.

There is general milling happening and discussions of logistics and science when there's the sound of lightning cracking. Toni Ho opens the door and stares down the hallway as Kel and Jinx tumble out of another room and in to the hallway in full view of everyone.

Covered in blood, Jinx pulls a dagger from Kel's heart. She looks horrified and then realises how it looks to everyone else. "It's.. it's not what it looks like."

Valentina is not so convinced. She hits the Red Alert button on the wall.

[ Indiana - Bad Luck -- https://youtu.be/iPUMn09Ldmg ]

...to be continued