7858/The City on the Edge of Forever

The City on the Edge of Forever
Date of Scene:	16 September 2021
Location:	TVA
Synopsis:	An intrepid trio braves the TVA attempting to rescue Daniel Sousa from their evil time cop clutches. Their efforts for naught, to discover that Daniel has agreed to work with them and so too much they to stop Arturo Malevolo from destroying all of space and time.
Cast of Characters:	Abcde Prescelta, Peggy Carter, Melinda May, Daniel Sousa

---

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    The day in the life of a TVA Agent is one of repetition. Their job is to make sure things happen the way they've always happened. Infinite Perfection. As the orange doorway opens and through it steps TVA agents and their captive prey, Daniel Sousa, they march him off to processing.

    The other TVA agents that step through fist bump each other, take of their helmets and remove their body armor. Their shift is over. It's time for them to go eat, to socialise, to tell the tail of the strange magical ritual they just interrupted.

    The door closes behind them, or seems to at least. All is right in the Time Variance Authority. Reset charges are restocked, armor is cleaned and agents file through the locker rooms. There is no sleep in the city at the edge of forever - only shifts.

    Between shifts, the infinitely small dot that was meant to be a closed TVA portal is pried open in one last desperate act of defiance by the Carter-Sousa extended family and a portal opens. It was Peggy who was first through, followed quickly by May and finally Abcde right before the door snapped shut.

    The trio find themselves in a strange palette of beige, brown, gold, and orange. The room itself is quiet for now, surrounded by locked lockers and little else.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The moment the portal is open wide enough for Peggy to get through, she's swinging one arm and one leg in, her head ducked, but ICER in her hands just in case. She sweeps the room and then presses back against the wall, not seeing any evidence of people to fight them, but also not seeing any evidence of her husband.

She blinks, dark eyes scanning the room as she keeps her back protected and does another slow look around, now searching for cameras or any places it looks like an attack might come from. She listens in silence for several too-quick heartbeats. "...this place looks like NASA when it started. They took him to NASA?" She asks with a confused whisper. She remembers those halls. These halls? But not.

Melinda May has posed:
May rolls through the portal after Peggy, swinging around with the case for Daniel's modern prosthetic leg in her fist. Probably a good thing there was some sort of delay between the stormtroopers' retreat and the SHIELD agents' arrival. Otherwise, some poor timecop would probably have been laid out flat by her swing.

She retreats to the opposite side of the corridor, easing her own ICER out and looking the opposite way down the corridor to Peggy.

"Clear, this side," she reports calmly. Her eyes dart to the decor that looks like something right out of the 70's. Pretty sure she was about 10 years old when this stuff was popular. "Okay," she says, arching a brow. "*When* are we?" It's a legitimate question, when you're dealing with time magic, right? "Nevermind where..."

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
Abcde has her wand in hand still pointed forward when she stumbles through. She skids to a stop and switches her wand to reverse grip as she turns around a couple of times. Only seeing Peggy and May, she stands up straighter and ducks back to avoid being the most obvious target in the room.

    "This reminds me of those old James Bond movies," she adds to the explanations of the decor. "Where? When? I don't know the answer to either of those questions. Though I have to admit.. I thought we'd see Daniel when we got here."

    The strange time technology mixed with magic may not have behaved quite the way she'd expected. The power cell in the ICER shuts down, disabling that subtle blue glow. "Let me see if I can't locate him."

    She fishes in to her top and pulls out a compass, points her wand to it and says, "ostende mihi viam" .. but the tell tale blue magic that accompanies her on these requests does not appear on her hands nor her wand. She tries it again a second.. then a third time.. then looks at the other two women with dread.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The moment Peggy feels the very subtle shift in her hand as her ICER's power dies, she looks down to the weapon and stares. She shakes it towards the floor, tapping the side. "Dead." She looks up, searching for confirmation from the other two. Then she's cursing beneath her breath. She slips the weapon back down into her belt and, from beneath her shoulder, she pulls a proper, old fashioned .38. "What? A girl comes prepared. I have two knives as well. Hopefully we don't need them."

Then the young witch is looking even more pale. Peggy frowns, her brow knitting. "What is it now?"

Melinda May has posed:
May looks at her own ICER as it powers down. "Mine, too," she repeats. It gets tucked into her jacket and she fishes out her own beretta. She sets the case down and checks gun's firing mechanism, checks the chamber, checks the safety, and glances back at the others. "We're exposed here," she notes, eyes falling on Abcde's apparently useless wand.

"Magic doesn't work. Tech doesn't work. I'm hoping these still work." And, yeah. She's got a knife or two on her, too. Not to mention her hands and feet. She's a walking weapon all by herself, and they all know it. "We need to move..."

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Abcde presses her lips together as May answers for her. She nods her head, "That should be impossible. But I've heard of a concept called symbolic-shift which would render magic and technologies useless. The ontology we use to define our lives isn't necessarily constant.. I guess we just got proof of the theory."

    She slides her wand in to its holster and looks around. "Right.. I'm not a trained agent, so.. just tell me where to go and what to do." She notices some writing on the wall inset in to long horizontal orange lines. TVA. She runs her fingers over it a moment, "What do you think TVA means?"

    The sound of friendly banter can be heard approaching from the corridor. Two people wearing suits walk past casually but don't even glance their way. Abcde hushes the moment she hears them and watches with fascination. A place that looks like NASA and people wearing suits. Once they've passed she says, "Sooooo.. corporate 70s villain lair?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
As May confirms that her ICER is dead too, and the wand is down, Peggy curses beneath her breath. She's not willing to test her gun just to see, but she's awful curious. As they keep looking over the room, Peggy's looking down, searching for any clues of a trail from where they are. "...this path is a bit more worn, a lot of people walk this way on any given day, but whether that's where they took Daniel... " She shrugs. She's pointing out the direction towards processing and the offices -- both Variants and TVA agents go down this floor an incredible amount, the faint smoothness of the floor clear to her trained eyes.

She goes dead quiet as people walk past, pressing against the wall, her heart in her throat. She waits a few moments ready to test that gun if she needs to, but it seems they unseen. When the sound of their feet is finally gone, Peggy gives a little shrug, "There is no agency on the globe named TVA so... who knows. But lets see if we can find out. Follow them. Listen." And then she's spilling out into the hall, walking silent on the balls of her feet and keeping to the shadows. She's good at following people when she needs.

Melinda May has posed:
"I've got our six," May tells Peggy, making sure Abcde stays between them. She knows the girl isn't trained. Damned, though, if she isn't going to rectify that personally, when they get home.

Not, mind, that she actually blames Abcde at all. These things take time.

"You're going to blend in more than we are," May says, again to Peggy. Yep. Once in a while, it pays to indulge in retro fashion. She glances to Abcde. "Lose the robes and hat. Let's try not to draw any more attention than we have to." Which means she and Peggy need to conceal their weapons... or at least make them a little less obvious. She stoops to pick up the case again, keeping her black gun close to the black leg of her trousers.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Lose the robes and hat??! "But.." She looks a touch forlorn as she takes off her pointy hat and shrugs out of her robes. Underneath she's wearing a nice vest, a shirt, and jeans. She folds them up and places them in the corner of the room.

    Peggy is leading the way and May has the rear. She can work with this. Stick between the two of them. It's not like she hasn't been protected by them like this before.

    As they head down the corridor listening to the chatter from the two people in suits it becomes obvious they are 'agents'. They're talking about cases and work loads and ancient Greece?

    Abcde sees something in a room as they pass it and she pats Peggy on the shoulder. A whisper to them both, "I think I just saw our way out of here.." She ducks in to the room. The dull yellow lights turn on revealing a bounty of treasures in boxes. But the one that caught Abcde's eye -

    The Eye of Agamotto

    "This is the Eye of Agamotto. Strange because the Sorcerer Supreme owns it. I've read about it. It's supposed to command time somehow." She picks it up and turns it this way and that. Some sort of dull green stone is set within it. She gives it a small shake and frowns. "...Also dead."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peg gives them just enough time to get comfortable, out of strange clothes, and ready to move, but then she's moving. While she's trying to keep to the shadows, she also has her shoulders straight and back upright, walking like she utterly belongs here as she tries to catch snippets of their conversation. "I'm in charge, then." She mutters to May as the woman comments on her blending in, flashing a smile along with it.

When Abcde catches sight of something that veers them off course, Pegyg mentally curses and looks hesitant to stop. She almost keeps following, but then ducks into the room with the pair. Her frown deepens as their next 'way out' is just as dead as their guns. "...Those two are clearly agents of some sort of... Government. They have case loads. This is a processing center... But not one of our world, I'd say... Maybe one that *watches* our world."

Melinda May has posed:
"They look human," May notes in response to Peggy's assessment. A beat. "They *feel* like humans..." Which makes her wonder where they've come from. As they move around a loop, she glances toward a bank of windows. "Right, definitely not in Kansas any more." The vista out the window, after all, is that of a futuristic city. Giant stone figure hold up round disks that look like something out of the Jetsons cartoon. There's no horizon, only the curving vista of the city. "Space station?"

If it is, it's either one they haven't detected or one that's not even in their own plane of exisitence.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Abcde looks at the tag attached to the eye by a piece of string. "Evidence #188712. Huh?" She frowns, "Time Variance Authority?" She says as she reads the back side of the tag. Her eyes turn to the window that May is looking out of.

    "If we're in space.. where are the stars?" Because that seems like something you'd expect from a space station. She nods to Peggy's assessment. "Time cops. We've found time cops." Because what else could this be. "May be they'll be reasonable if we just ... talk to them."

    Two TVA guards round the corner and catch sight of the group. They look at each other and one of them lifts up a golden device while the other turns on his weapon, sparks hissing from its tip as he approaches. Apparently, he doesn't believe three people are much of a threat to him.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The moment that May offers the possibility of a space station, Peggy's brow furrows. "You'd think Fury..." And then Abcde finds the label. Peggy dares to come over, double checking it herself. "Well, we were trying to *fix* a time..." And then it's too late. The guards are coming around the corner and Peggy really doesn't feel like shooting people who are vaguely on her side.

She takes a breath, squares off her shoulders, and rounds around to stare at them with her best diplomatic smile. "We've been waiting for you! We here to help with the case of Daniel Sousa but... well, you know all these floors. Easy to get lost." She smiles a bit wider, that 'good old boys' smile she uses with so many higher up politicians. "If you could show my assistants and I where to find the case, I'd be very thankful. They're a little new. Just shaking off the fresh package dust!"

Melinda May has posed:
"That curvature may be interior walls," May tells Abcde. "Just because you can't see stars, doesn't mean it's not a space station." Then again, Time Cops make just as much sense. "I mean... where the hell do time cops build a station?"

She turns slightly when she senses the approach of the guards. The spike in their wariness and suspicion gives her enough warning that they're probably in trouble. She steps away from Abcde, turning her body so the gun in her hand isn't evident. She pretty sure, though, she may need it. Although she smiles to reinforce Peggy's lie, she doubts it's going to work. Their suspicion is too strong.

And, given those pikes? The case may in fact be a more useful weapon. Thus, she moves casually to put herself where she can intercept at least one of them when the shit inevitably hits the fan.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    "Right. Time cops in space." Because of course. She's the one who does the weird magic and even she's finding this place hard to believe. But they are here, standing in this place with seemingly infinite space beyond the windows. Abcde is the last to realise they have been found.

    The proposition put forward by Peggy makes the guard pause for just one moment. But, if she were really in charge of these people she'd have a TVA Padd and certainly wouldn't have trouble navigating this place.

    A bit of a smirk as he says, "Nice try." His stick is set to reduce those struck to 15 times slower speed.. especially since intruders are so rare. The second guard with his own TVA Padd out is calling for reinforcements it seems.

    Abcde figures now is the time to fight. She puts up her fists but that's about as much as she knows about fisticuffs and martial arts. She is small and nimble though. She dashes past the first guard and runs for the second in an attempt to remove his mouth from his Padd before it's too late.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Well, Peggy had to try. She had a feeling it wouldn't work. Still, she thought her gun might. When she fires off at the man's shoulder and there is nothing but a click, she hisses out, "Oh *hell*," even as she's swinging into action. If she's going to go down, she'll go down fighting. "Stay BACK!" She snaps to the young witch, fairly certain she doesn't know how to fight.

But May and Peggy certainly do. She trusts May to take care of the agent on her side while Peggy rounds on the one she squared off with, a violent, high kick tossed to the strange stick in his hand and she quickly follows up with a round house to his face. She's trying to disarm him, knock him out, then get his weapon. She's a pretty damn good fighter. If he's not kept up on his training, she'll have him. But maybe he has.

Melinda May has posed:
May is one of SHIELD's best hand-to-hand fighters. She doesn't need to squeeze her own trigger to realize the gun is useless. All it takes is the hollow click of Peggy's weapon.

She drops her own gun and ducks under the swing of a glowing yellow baton tip. She thrusts the prosthetic case to block the next blow and then spins to use it to clock the guard in the side of the head. Sure, the guy has a helmet -- but the case is pretty solid metal box. And May knows how to turn just about anything into an effective weapon.

Chances are, even with their training, these are guys May can take down. She's the Cavalry, after all. However, were either of them able to use either of her companions as leverage? Yeah... Even she has her weak points.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    The words leave the guards lips "Something to do with the Daniel Sousa case.." as he sees the young witch charging at him. She snatches the Padd off of him and he in turn grabs her by the hair and yanks her back. A swift punch is delivered to her stomach even as he sees his colleague dropped by a big case.

    He draws his stave and turns it on, holding it to Abcde, close but not touching. "One more step and she gets reset," he warns as May can sense more jackboots approaching. Abcde drops the padd on the ground and kicks it toward Peggy in defiance of her situation.

    "Sorry, I heard you say Stay Back and alls I could think about was not staying back," she says to Peggy. The TVA device has a lock screen on it with a low resolution image of a finger print.

Peggy Carter has posed:
A low groan escapes Peggy's lips, even as May does an excellent job of being a partner in fighting, the kid doesn't help and now they are in a hostage situation. Peggy's hands slowly go up, still holding her useless gun but having it hooked around her thumb with the safety on. "Don't... reset, her... Whatever that means. She's just a kid. She's in over her head and doesn't deserve this. I... I'm sure we can talk this out. We're on the same side, believe it or not. The side that wants to protect the timeline... at all costs."

Confessing that is like ice in her gut because, deep down, Peggy knows she means it. Hopefully one of them is a good judge of character and will realize she's being honest. She was willing to send her husband back to his death but now they are here and... everything is upside down.

Melinda May has posed:
May lowers the case as it becomes evident Abcde is in trouble. Her eyes fall on that orange pad with the finger print display. She's not sure what it is, but she suspects it's important.

She can feel Peggy's sincerity. She can also feel how the timecops are reacting to everything her friend says. And, if she needs to... she will intervene.

Somehow.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Several more guards round the corner on both sides with their weapons out and activated. One of the guards is wearing a long black cape and she strides forward. "I hear you," she says and regards Peggy with interest. Perhaps the words she chose mean more than she realised.

    "For the sake of the sacred timeline, I will need you three to surrender yourselves. Mobius has requested you be brought to him but none of you should be here. " From her pocket she takes out what looks like a neck sized band and she approaches May first.

    "Your neck," she says not at all interested in being rebuffed. This is a person who is used to getting what she wants after all. She has two more it seems, one for each of them. They snap on like a snap bracelet, except about ones throat.

    She adds, "Mobius is the one handling the Sousa case now. I'm sure what he has to say will be very enlightening." Her eyes fall upon Abcde for a moment, "And we have questions for you." Like, how the heck did she keep a time portal open for them to sneak in to the TVA in the first place.

Peggy Carter has posed:
While Peggy doesn't take orders from May, the woman is her best friend. Her right hand, in so many ways. Probably even closer than that. When Peggy sees the strange woman nearing her partner, something stiffens in her spine and she stares down May hard, waiting for the nod. She'll fight, if they need. She knows they will probably die. 'I'm sorry.' She mouths silently to the woman, but the fight doesn't come.

And then the collar snaps on. Peggy closes her eyes, almost defiantly raising her chin, like a woman going to a hanging. She won't grovel and beg, she'll go with dignity. "...Who is Mobius? And if you all would just... put us back where we were, we were in the middle of trying to get my husband back there to *fix* this. But... let go of the kid. She's still just a kid. We're coming. Put us back or take us to him. Just... relax on the kid."

Melinda May has posed:
May's weight shifts as the woman approaches with the collar. She pivots on a heel, chin lowering and shoulders squaring. The knuckles of the hand that hold Daniel's case noticeably whiten. There's a flash of 'Hell, no' that blazes across her dark eyes. Collared? Really? No. No frickin' way. Cuffs, she'd understand. A collar? That's how metahumans get enslaved. And, like it or not... May is metahuman, now. Inhuman.

Moreover, she knows Peggy will have her back, whatever happens.

"We just said we'd cooperate," she says, her tone even -- calm, but tense. Peggy knows that tone. It's a dangerous tone. That's May being reasonable right before she becomes very, very *un*reasonable. "You've got a hostage. You don't need *those*." Hey. People should be impressed May's at least *starting* with words. Not so many months ago, that would never have happened.

"We know who you are," the caped woman tells May, pausing when it becomes clear the SHIELD agent isn't about to submit easily. Maybe she's not used to being rebuffed, but she does know how to deal with challenging women. That, she's being doing for... eons, possibly. Her eyes dart to Peggy as well. "Both of you. We *could* reopen our case into the 1949 affair. If you'd like. That's caused us no end of headaches." Just no serious nexus events. Which is odd in and of itself.

May's upper lip twitches, very nearly drawing back into a snarl. Before she can react further, however, the caped woman glances to the guard holding Abcde. She starts to nod and the guard lifts the glowing tip of his baton towards Abcde's throat.

"Fine!" May snarls. She lifts her chin, accepting the ignominity of the control the collar. And when she does, of course, Peggy does. Though Peggy shows a whole lot more class about it than May. The Asian woman keeps her dignity, perhaps, but that seething anger that is her armor is evident smouldering in her eyes.

They're all just lucky she's NOT projecting.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Abcde lets out a struggled nRRlk noise as that baton starts to get dangerous close to her and she tries her best to pull away from it. Then it's lowered when both May and Peggy submit to the TVA. She is summarily released and pushed forward. As she stands back up is confronted by a collar about the neck too.

    The woman looks at Peggy and says, "Just a kid?" She pulls the wand out of Abcde's holster and looks it over. "Hm." She tosses the wand over to one of the guards and then motions for the group to move. "Take them to Mobius." She heads off in a different direction.

    The guards give the trio an unfriendly shove despite the plea of cooperation May and Peggy put forth. Abcde frowns. She can't help but feel this was her fault. All of it. From Daniel coming to the future, to losing Daniel in to this place, to getting caught just now. "I'm sorry..." she says in a slightly lower voice, "For everything. I made a promise to make the world a better place and alls I've done is make things worse since I got to New York."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Seeing that look in May's eyes breaks Peggy's heart. For one moment, her shoulders tense. It looks like she's absolutely ready to fight tooth and nail for her best friend. But then the sound of that baton comes, the threat to the youngest, and they both submit. Peggy mutters another faint curse beneath her breath, swallowing back tightly against the metal about her throat. "She deserves better than this. They *both* do." Peggy mutters to their captors, the best defense she can give for May. But the comment of 1949 does make her tense. There's no fighting back now.

As they are lead down the hall, Peggy smirks to Abcde, "I'm 100 years old. I think I have the right to call you kid. And in the future, when I tell you to stay back, stay *back*, got it?" Then she's stumbling along, dark eyes taking in every bit around them, memorizing paths and structures. "So... just who is this *Mobius*?" She asks as they walk.

Melinda May has posed:
May stumbles away from the rough shove. The man that shoves her is damned lucky she's playing nice right now. She shoots him a deathglare, nonetheless. Then, she's feeling Abcde's spike of guilt. "Oh, no," she says sharply, albeit quietly. She doesn't even try to hide her annoyance at Abcde's self-recrimination. "You don't get to start that. You need to blame someone? Blame the djinn. Blame Arturo. Blame HYDRA. There'll be plenty of blame you can shoulder later in your career. You don't get to start out that way." A beat. "House rules."

Yeah. May cares. It's her biggest weakness. And greatest strength.

Still, she keeps an ear on any answers Peggy might -- really big stress on the *might* -- be given. And counts corridors and doorways as they pass, committing the layout of the place to memory as they go. Not that any of those places indicate an exit. But... maybe if she can get her hands on one of those orange pads?

Yeah. Just give her time.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    The guards don't seem too interested in Peggy's instruction that May and Abcde deserve better. From their perspective, they all deserve worse for somehow breaking in to the TVA. Abcde huffs a moment and nods her head, "I'll work on that." The response is a bit wry but she moves along quietly as they are marched to .. whatever a Mobius is.

    "And so you see, that's how we dealt with the sentient spears," Mobius says to Daniel as he continues to talk about some of the troubles they've been having with Arturo so far. The man, it seems, has armed himself with all manner of magical paraphenalia, as well as jumping about in time keeping several steps ahead of them.

    The doors open and the question of 'Who is Mobius?' is answered with a smile and a moustache. "Hey, we've got guests. Friends of yours Daniel?"

    He motions, "Come in come in. You guys can wait outside." He shooes the TVA guards out of his lovely office and motions to the couch, "Take a seat. You guys have come a long way. Lily? No.. May. Peggy. Ab.. see.. Ab suh... Alphabet girl too."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Sentient spears, that's new," Daniel remarks bringing his tumbler of whiskey to his lips. He takes a drink and continues. "Seems like he's betting heavy on magic, I know someone who might be able to help with that..."

That's when the guards bring Peggy and the others in. "Peggy," he breathes almost dropping his glass as he stands. He hastily puts it on the desk and then goes to her, limping on his old leg to do it. He's dressed in the brown and orange jump suit they put him in and he pulls Peggy into a hug if she lets him, "What are you guys doing here?" he glances back to Mobius. "They don't have anything to do with me coming forward in time, not on purpose, they were trying to help me fix it."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The guards are getting a heavy glare from Peggy, especially as they could seem to care less about the two women with her. The only thing that softens it is the slight crack of a smile across her lips as May gives Abcde the pep talk. One she's heard herself, to be fair. "Don't argue with Melinda. She's wise. And usually right." Peggy mutters to the younger woman. Then there's voices coming down the hall and her brows furrow. Sentient spears?...

When they enter the room, her eyes fly wide and flood with relief. The only nice thing about being in a collar instead of her hands tied is that she can return that hug tight as possible, holding on for dear life and every breath. She then pulls him into a kiss that would probably be considered uncouth but she never knew if she'd find him alive again. "I'd... ask the same. Things went wrong. Abcde... did something. We were here looking for you. To help..." Then her eyes flicker over to Mobius, staring curiously. "Seems you found a...friend? Can you get us out of these damn collars?"

Melinda May has posed:
"And don't you forget it," May mutters in response to Peggy's reinforcement of her words to Abcde. She senses Daniel's familiar emotional signature in the distance and her body language changes from unhappily caged tiger to that of a hound that's caught a scent. The fact Daniel seems... relaxed, and is near someone else who is also relaxed... Well, okay, it doesn't relax May at all, but it does make her a little less likely to lash out at the guards when they finally reach their destination.

They enter Mobius' office and she chuffs out a nearly silent breath to see with her own eyes that Daniel doesn't appear to either be harmed or 'relaxed' because of some artificial means. (Unless, of course, that whiskey's been roofied.)

That these people are also mistaking her for Lily, however, doesn't actually make May feel better about all this. Nor about the collar around her throat. After all, these guys are time cops and Lily is her temporal twin. *That's* not awkward. Not at all!

She clears her throat lightly, once Peggy's finished kissing her husband hello. Giving Daniel a wry smile, she wordlessly holds out the case in her hand -- the one with his modern prosthetic in it. He'll want this, she's sure.

                             ---------------------                            

1956. The breeze is light. The day is sunny. The sightline from the building behind the Roosevelt Hotel -- the one that overlooks the pool area and, more importantly, that utility door just behind the garden -- is clear. Cradling the experimental sniper rifle she stole from the Triskelion's armoury only a day and 11 years (give or take) ago... ahead... whenever... Lily Chen carefully inserts a bullet appropriate to the era into the barrel of the gun. Settling into that zen calm both she and Melinda find so easily before a fight, she leans her head down to look through the scope.

The side door opens. A woman steps out, her bright blue eyes clear and filled with a hunter's anticipation. A strange sorrow tightens in Lily's chest. "I'm sorry, Dottie," she murmurs softly. "I really am..." It doesn't stop her from squeezing the trigger.

Surprise flashes momentarily through Dottie's eyes as the bullet pierces her heart. She hardly has time to make a moue of disappointment before she's falling heavily against the white brick of the building beside her. A crimson smear stains its surface. The gun in her fingers slips soundlessly to the grass beside her.

Calmly, Lily picks up the brass casing and shoulders the gun. In a flicker of chronal energy... she crosses space to just where she next needs to be.

                             ---------------------                            

At the TVA, sharp alarms begin to scream. The timeline branches unexpectedly... a nexus event in progress.

Abcde Prescelta has posed:
    Abcde never gets tired of reuniting these two. Ih's always worth it. She smiles and then nods at Peggy's question, motioning to her neck.

    Mobius considers for a moment. "Ah hell," he picks up his golden padd and taps on it, "Let me just check which which of you you are and see if that'll be okay." He taps a moment and murmurs a moment adn looks at May, "Nope, not _that_ one." He then peers over at Abcde and the wand the guard has placed down on his table top. "Definitely not _that_ one." His eyes look Peggy up and down, "Right, I think I know who you all are then."

    With a button press the collars all come off with a snap and he walks over to collect them, including the one that Daniel was wearing. "There we go. Daniel has graciously agreed to help us capture Arturo Malevolo. We've been chatting about his most recent escapades over whiskey. Would any one like a drink?"

    "He's been causing time aberrations constantly since he got away from us." He motions to the big display showing a single line with several small branches twitching off.. and then suddenly a big one leaps out. "Oh shoot. Looks like he's at it again."

    He picks up the wand and tosses it across the room to Abcde. "Daniel why don't you fit that leg, we're going to join them on this one. I need you all to see just how destructive Arturo has become. If we're going to stop him then I think you could all lend a hand. Unless you want all of space and time to end. Your choice," he says letting that linger a moment as he takes a final drink from his whiskey tumbler.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel doesn't hesitate to return the kiss, not caring who's watching or much else for that matter until it breaks, at which point he looks over as May clears her throat and then glances to Abcde as well. "Hey," he greets a touch bashfully, still close to Peggy.

When the collars come off, Daniel rubs his neck, and give Mobius a nod of thanks. "Yeah, seems like they tried to use Arturo to hunt me but he slipped their control and has been causing chaos ever since, it's bad, real bad, if they don't stop the changes he makes before it gets too far along," he nods to Mobius when he fills in the end of time and reality stuff. "That," he says simply. "I figured I'd give them a hand and stop him."

Peggy Carter has posed:
A deeper, more thankful smile crosses Peggy's lips as May gives a little shake of that prosthetic case. The woman's quick thinking to grab it probably has saved them a lot of trouble. Then the strange agent comes over and frees her from the throat collar. She lets a long breath out, not having had any reason to physically restrain it but being collared feels a little like being choked. She doesn't even bother picking her's up off the floor, she lets Mobius do that, like her discarded trash. "Missed you." For the whole maybe hour they were separated? Peggy and Daniel are too much in their old married couple-ness. Sometimes.

Then there are alarms going off. Her eyes go wide, trained mind ready to go into action and this isn't even her place. She looks from Mobius back to May, the case, then Daniel, "Come on, old man, get your leg on and lets get moving here. The quicker we can all handle Malevolo, the better. I'll help anyone hunt HYDRA, any time, you know that." She motions him down into the couch, taking the case from May so she can help him get it on. It's just old habit by now. "Get us everything you know about the current situation, Agent Mobius. If we are back in our... world? I guess that's what it's called, Abcde will be most effective to defend against magic. May's our best fighter. Daniel and I can coordinate back lines and often share a mind without ever sharing words. You've got yourself a team... let's go clean up HYDRA's mess."

Melinda May has posed:
May can't quite suppress the snirk that lodges in the back of her throat as Daniel and Mobius basically explain the situation. She does, however, suppress the sharp retort that rises to mind. What the hell do these people think they were trying to do in the first place?

She sets the case down for Daniel and Peggy and rubs her throat briefly as she's freed from the damned collar. Then, there are alarms going off and the sound of footsteps pounding down the corridor outside. "We need the rest of what we came with," she tells Peggy. "Abcde's robes, my gun. Just in case." Leave nothing for these people. Other than that, though? Yes. She's perfectly willing to kick some HYDRA ass. Anytime. Anywhere. Always.

                             ---------------------                            

The strange orange portal frame hangs amidst the azaleas. The advance team of TVA agents swarm through. As they begin to scour the area for clues as to the disturbance, Lily flickers from her sniper's perch to just behind the last one of them to emerge through the temporal doorway.

Giving a jaunty salute to the surprised soul who turns when he senses the timewalker's presence behind him, Lily gives a mild shrug and a lopsided smile. "Sorry," she says lightly. "I needed the transport. Feel free to reset the timeline, though. Dottie's really not so bad, once you get to know her."

She plucks the tempad from the agent's hand. "I'll be sure to send someone back for you." Then, she steps backward through the portal and into the TVA's action staging chamber.

The portal winks out. The rest of the teams gathering in the staging chamber pause in clear surprise to see her standing among them -- tucking the tempad into her trademarked brown bomber jacket.

"Hi," she says, gesturing over her shoulder with one thumb. "You should probably go rescue them."

Batons light up with orange tips and, almost like a single organism, they surge forward. Unlike any other foe they've ever faced, however, Lily is not quite so easily subdued. Time, ultimately, is more her plaything than theirs. And they can't hit the woman who can loop time just right to learn how to avoid them in an instant.

In the end, they're left scrambling to figure out where she's gone, while she flickers from junction to junction throughout the complex... until she finally appears in Mobius office.

"Oh, good," she says, giving a shitfaced grin that hasn't been seen on Melinda May's face in *years*. "The gang's all here."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
...Elsewhere in another timeline...

The castle was in ruins, as were the rings of defenses that had failed to keep it safe, Arturo surveys it with a critical eye. It would do. He ventures deeper into a vault with a variety of machines, likely all to do with that so-called superscience, parlor tricks compare to the power of magic, as he was about to demonstrate.

Pulling a box from his pocket he opens it, it's contents bathing him in a golden glow. He leans towards it and whispers quietly in Latin, and golden dust emerges from the box as if carried by a strong wind, flying about the chamber, this way and that. As it flies machines and masonry are restored, the dead fortress brought back to life, but it wasn't the only thing.

Surounding a twisted corpse in the corner of the room the dust circles it as if caught in a tornado lifting the body from the floor before the dust dives inwards penetrating the body which suddenly straightens and fills out as life returns. The figure drops panting to the floor.

Arturo puts the box away and approaches, looking down at the red faced figure. "Guten tag, Herr Schmidt," he greets with a smile. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."