ticket to the multiverse

“Right? How the tables turn right?” He laughed and shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll make messes of our own sometime soon. We never can keep out of trouble for too long. I’m just excited to have the Young Avengers back together. It’s not official because we’re all supposed to be on this one big thing but it feels like that.” They all lived on the same floor and were back to spending all their time together. It felt like old times or at least like it could get to old times levels.

“It’s almost all of us. Eli’s the only one missing and you never know with him. Dami’s here though. Did you meet him? Batman’s kid?” Teddy couldn’t remember honestly. There was always something going on so timelines were hard to keep straight when you were thinking in terms of whether it was before or after an alien abduction or mission. “He’s great. He’s kind of prickly like a pissed off little porcupine but when you get past that he’s awesome.”

Teddy was always so damn earnest, it was hard not to smile. America allowed it, the small curve of her lips at his enthusiasm as she nodded along dutifully. "I have no doubt. We never were very good at staying out of trouble, I'll say that." And she was including herself in that one. Trouble found her, yes, but she made no secret of the fact that she was often looking for it.

“You wouldn’t!” Billy gasped, but it was pointless – both of them knew that she would and that it was bound to be super effective. Damn it. He resisted the urge to cross his arms over his chest, because it would make him look like some sulking child while America just made it seem badass, instead rolling his shoulders to casually shake himself off. Whatever he had sensed was gone anyway and he wanted to take the opportunity to catch up with the girl. His eyes widened at the mention of her mothers, a story he only knew a little bit of and suspected there to be more tragedy than America willingly divulged.  

“Then I’m glad you got out in time. It only got worse ever since,” he commented, not wanting to consider the possibility of what the ISA could have done with her abilities. “Did you… get any luck with your moms? Do you need help?” He wasn’t sure what he could do, if he could do anything, but he offered it nonetheless.

"You know I would," she countered, eyebrows raising a little. Still, he shook himself off and she watched the investigative urge leave him so she relaxed too, her shoulders slouching down a little as she waited for him to settle back in. He was always so expressive, so bad at hiding his response to things she said and so, she was hardly surprised when he asked about her moms and the journey she had been undergoing. "You'll have to tell me all about the ISA. I want to know what we're handling if I'm sticking around for a while," she started. That was the easy part.

What was it with Peter and finding younger heroes lurking in alley’s these days? At least this one he recognised and smiled when she turned and spotted him. “If you say so.” Then he stepped forward. “It’s nice to see you, America. Still making men cry I see.” He gestured to the mugger who was holding his nose a sobbing in pain. 

Did that mean…? “Are the others here too?” He asked. It had been quite a while since Peter had clapped eyes on the Young Avengers, a team he had helped mentored at the very start of things. Wasn’t a team player, yet had practically trained two of them so far. 

"Nice to see you too, Parker," she said casually, prodding at the sobbing man with her foot - if only to add insult to injury. "Sometimes I have to otherwise they don't get the memo," she drawled as the man attempted to shift and crawl away from her. She let him go. He had gotten the message.

The mutants were familiar to America. Her mother had spoken of them in a tone that brokered only fondness and camaraderie and yet, she had not encountered all that many. Certainly not to the extent of Bobby Drake - one of the original X-Men team. She could see him coming from across the way and she raised her eyebrows faintly, leaning back and resting her arm over the back of the sofa she was currently occupying in the communal lounge.

She wasn’t using her full strength – a good thing, considering what she was capable of in the battlefield – but Billy lowered those few inches back down, feet touching the ground once more. He made a face as she tried to talk him out of his detective stunt. Fine, she was probably right, but… “I don’t see why not, there’s two of us now.” No one can call him out on putting himself in danger on his own this time.

“I just told you. Oh, you mean here, in Sokovia…” He deflated, unsure of how to proceed. In spite of having helped their team before, America had disappeared for years, and there was a lot at stake there for him to give out too much information. “It’s kind of classified. Magical stuff happened, it’s all under control now. What are you doing here? We thought something had happened to you.”

His grumbling hadn't ceased any since moving over to Sokovia from New York then, and America was relieved to see that some things would never change. His gentle wheedling to attempt to get into the woods wouldn't land with her though. She merely kept an eyebrow raised and shook her head. "I'm not going in there and I know for a fact I could go tell Teddy that you went alone," she countered, knowing she had him beat.

She acted like she’d been around this whole time and she wasn’t just popping back into their lives. “I don’t think we’ve made any recently. Billy had to help clean one up though. Remember how he always talked about Scarlet Witch? Well he got to meet her recently. And it was kind of a big deal.” He wondered if that was why America was here. Maybe she felt a pull. He didn’t really get how her stuff worked totally.

“Have you seen the others yet?”

The Scarlet Witch. That was some heavy-duty magic and probably part of what had caused the ripple that pulled her back here. That, at least, made sense in comparison to everything else here. "Well, that's new. Usually we make the mess, rather than clean them up," she said wryly, a faint amusement ticking at the corner of her eyes as she spoke. His question about the others made her shift a little from foot to foot. "Not yet."

@americanwish​

Exploring Matchak was high on Teddy’s list once he got all settled in the Mousehole with Billy. He needed a break from being bombarded with meeting the coolest people in the world. Besides he’d never been to Eastern Europe before. He wanted to see what it was like. So he walked down the streets hearing the sounds and smelling the fresh scents of foods he didn’t even recognize. He didn’t understand a word of Sokovian, but he wasn’t looking to talk to anyone right now.

He didn’t expect to see someone else he knew. Maybe he should have, but the actual person it was was more shocking than all of it. 

“America?!” He asked, barely believing his eyes. “What are you doing here?” Teddy hadn’t seen her since the invasion.

.

America had been browsing the markets of Matchak, if only to get a feel for the place and for the kind of people she could hope to encounter throughout her time here, when she heard a familiar voice just over her right shoulder. She turned to see Teddy approaching her, eyes wide and earnest, and she couldn't help the half smile that twitched her lips. It was hard not to smile when confronted with Teddy's particular brand of earnestness.

"Hey," she said casually, handing over some money to the vendor and taking the fruit she had been looking at when he had approached.  

Billy should never do that kind of thing by himself, but it seemed that he was too stubborn to learn. Instead of summoning one of his teammates to his side, he gave in to curiosity and skirted the edge of the woods outside the Mousehole, simply because he sensed that there was a presence hiding somewhere among the trees. It wouldn’t hurt to be useful, to prove his worth–

“Holy shit!” He let out, an arm thrown up to create a solid forcefield in front of him, the same color as the star that appeared on the forest ground. “Oh, it’s just you… wait, it’s you.” A smile lit up his face as he dropped his defense, staring up at the girl. Miss America, as they’d come to know her, and that was quite literally the only bit of information they had about her aside from the handy superstrength and earth-shattering stars. “Why not? Something’s in there, isn’t it?” He craned his neck to look over her shoulder, floating a bit to match her height.

The forcefield came up in time to stop any real harm coming to him and America folded her arms, staring down at him with one raised eyebrow, as she watched the recognition dawn in his eyes. She hadn't exactly stuck around often during their few teamups but the fact that he remembered her was quite something. "It's me," she confirmed instead of saying any of that aloud.

The catch with superheroes was that more often than not – unless they had an overt mutation or singular traits of a different species – they looked like regular humans, their extraordinary abilities coming into play solely when necessary. It surely served them well in times of having to escape the ISA at every turn. On his part, not strictly related to vigilantes, Steve had a good eye for people with combat training – how they carried themselves, how they took in their surroundings and gauged threats or opponents.

Young as she looked, that girl fit the bill, and Steve had a vague recollection of a similar heroine having operated in New York City years before. Considering that the Young Avengers were flocking to Sokovia, it wasn’t a surprise to find others like them hanging around. Either that or the ISA had brought fresh new hunters to their roster. It was a while until their eyes met and he waited for a reaction, her attitude already letting him know that she didn’t fear him at all. He crossed the square towards her, sitting down on the other end of the bench. “Do you need any help?”  

America had no interest in the Avengers - in joining their ranks, or in the acts they executed - but she had been living in New York before leaving to search the multiverse. She knew who Steve Rogers was. She also knew he was bound to approach her - a relatively young adult sat alone in the middle of a city with the attitude of a brawler? He wouldn't be able to resist. Sure enough, he began to cross the square and America squared her shoulders a little, her brow still raised fractionally.

Patrolling around the city and the surrounding areas had revealed to America that, if anywhere was going to cause problems, it would be the woods just outside Mišićev Dvorac. Naturally, if she knew anyone who would manage to seek out the most problematic area in a 30 mile radius like he was a moth to a flame, it would be the damn twink that the Demiurge had chosen.

Which is why she wasn't surprised to see him, a little too close to a spot she had come to term as the tipping point of weird shit. Much further into the woods and he would start to experience some sort of terror which she would prefer he didn't. So America dropped from her position in the tree branches above, landing with an almighty stomp as she often did, the familiar star bursting from her feet.

The ripple of whatever the hell was going on in Sokovia had been felt throughout the entirety of the multiverse. Just a twinge - something familiar but frustrating pulling at the edges of her awareness. One well-placed stomp of her foot had landed America safely just outside Matchak, in a crackling blue star, before she had started the long hike into town, hair swept up into a twist with rogue curls framing her face.

"Fucking Demiurge," she muttered to herself, eventually crossing into the square of the town. Sharp eyes scanned for anything unusual.

“Take it down a gear. No shame in being afraid. Being brave isn't the same thing as not being scared.”