#evil ages

so @sweetcircuits & i were talking about Evil Ages for unrelated reasons & my brain fed me this idea, so!

it started with me once again dwelling on my thoughts on Evil Ages (fun & cute but also, frustrating bc it's all earth/american-centric history when shuggazoom is a separate planet, & it would have been rly cool to see unique lore/eras. tho it being a 00's kids show i understand why that's not what we got)

and THEN i started thinking about like, the eras of the show we DID get to see--a glimpse of Scrapperton-era Shuggazoom, and then, of course, Cap's flashbacks to the Golden Age.

which THEN led me to, uh. this.

(also BIG thank you to @sweetcircuits who both encouraged me to write this & also was a big help with making sure it worked with the episode <3 ilu)

Instead of landing in the Prehistoric-era, Chiro & Nova land in Shuggazoom. Kind of. It's... different. Recognizably home, but altered enough they feel like strangers. There are buildings missing on the skyline. Some are shorter than they remember. Others are wearing different logos, painted alternate colors. Hovercars whiz down the street, but not the cars of their memory. These ones are shiny chrome with sharp angles and boxy fronts.

They wander the streets, looking for any clue as to what the heck is going on. And then they see people running. They share a glance before they take off running as well, towards the source of the disturbance, not away.

I like the idea of them reaching the place where the Robot is now parked, but it could just as easily be the site of the museum, a town plaza, a park---it doesn't really matter. What matters is what they see:

A man who looks awfully like the museum curator stands in the center, surrounded by giant, creepy puppets with abnormally wide grins. Across from him, a stranger hovers several feet off the ground. He's clad in black and white and orange, a cape billowing from his shoulders. His uniform is familiar; Chiro is wearing it's match right now. But it's not the uniform that really draws the eye.

It's the helmet.

"He's wearing our logo," Chiro says dumbly. He meets Nova's eyes, and sees his confusion echoed there.

Chiro doesn't get a chance to ask what it could mean.

The stranger says--- "You won't get away with this, Puppeteer!"

And the curator-lookalike laughs. "I already have!" He raises a set of pipes to his lips, and begins to blow. The puppets fly forward, hands raised to hurt, and the stranger throws bolts of electricity. It's enough to startle both Nova and Chiro into the fray, joining the stranger.

They are, of course, overwhelmed, defeated, and they wake up in the dungeon with the others, no sign of the helmeted stranger. They don't think about it, for a bit; instead focused on stopping and defeating the Curator.

And then the episode ends. The Curator is gone, disappeared to who-knows-where, or when. The team returns to Shuggazoom, where the dolls sit on display; small and life-less once more. Among them is the stranger. Chiro picks him up, looks at him. He's never heard of any other heroes on Shuggazoom---but then, history was never his best subject. (That's what he has Antauri for, now.)

Speaking of. Antauri approaches. "What have you found?" he asks, and this prompts Chiro to explain the bubble that he and Nova were caught in.

Antauri, too, seems mystified.

On a whim, Chiro pulls at the helmet. It slips off. (Ignore that this doesn't make sense, please and thanks.) It doesn't make sense, but he's half expecting to see the Alchemist. He doesn't. The monkeys have gathered around, now, and upon the sight of the stranger's face, their heads tilt. The doll is simple, of course, but there's enough detail before them. Short, slightly spiky brown hair. Dark eyes. Chiro thinks he's meant to be handsome.

"He looks... familiar," Nova says, visibly unsettled. The other monkeys nod, slowly, just as unnerved. Just as perplexed.

"Who IS he?" Chiro asks.

Episode fade-out.