#serges

"Zero, you knew her?" the old man who wasn't a robot asked in surprise.

"Yeah. She was around for that Limited crisis that I told you about." Zero looked over at the old man. "You should probably get yourself introduced to her properly when you wake her up, or else who knows what's going to happen."

"Considering her present state, I'm not surprised that she didn't recognize me," commented the giant red and white robot. "And who might you be, young lady?"

It took Myra a moment to realize that the robot was talking about her. "My name's Myra."

"Greetings, Myra. I am Ratchet. I understand that you were present when..." Ratchet paused. "When the World Jumper was awakened."

Myra swallowed and nodded. "Y-yeah."

"All right. Cain and Serges-" The old scientist and the old man robot both nodded in turn "-are going to cycle Energon through her systems in order to activate them enough to awaken her. Myra, we are going to require you to say something in order to awaken her higher core processing before her defenses rise up and make themselves known. Are you prepared?"

Myra absorbed this with a slightly open-mouthed expression that showed her confusion. Then she blinked and swallowed. "I-I've got it, yeah. I don't know if I'm going to be enough, but yeah."

"All right." Serges gave a wide grin before running over and grabbing a pipe that was partially filled with blue liquid. He ran over to the World Jumper and pried off some of the armor that was covering her right arm before sticking the pipe inside. Then he retreated a moment later as the blue liquid started moving forward.

It didn't take too long before the World Jumper's head started to move, her eyelids flickering. When her body started to stiffen and strain against the straps that were keeping her limbs in place, Myra sucked in a breath again.

"World Jumper?" she asked. "I-it's me. I-I'm the one you saved a little while ago?"

The World Jumper didn't seem to respond for a moment, turning her head this way and that as she strained against the bonds.

"W-World Jumper?" Myra asked, her voice squeaking as she spoke more loudly.

The World Jumper paused at Myra's voice, then her eyes cracked open slowly. The blue color was dull, and she had a grim expression on her face.

The World Jumper grunted. "Where...?"

"You're in Mar's Haven," the scientist with the beard replied. "I'm Doctor Cain, and these are my associates - the Autobot Ratchet and Serges."

The World Jumper's eyes flickered with recognition, and she seemed to relax slightly. "Why...am I here?"

Myra frowned, concerned. The World Jumper sounded tired and hoarse.

"Steve Rogers brought you back from an abandoned laboratory," Ratchet explained from above them. "Whatever it was that happened to you, it damaged a large amount of your inner systems irreversibly."

"I wanted to go forward with the upgrades, but these two thought it was a good idea to ask first." Serges said contemptuously.

The World Jumper's eyes narrowed. "Don't touch my programs or my core. Otherwise... Wake me when you're done."

With that, the World Jumper closed her eyes as her body went limp.

"Well, there's your permission," Zero commented dryly. He turned and started to step away from the lab, then paused. "The rest of you might want to get out of here, unless you really want to see her get torn open." With that, the armored blond stepped out and disappeared from sight.

Myra blinked, looking at where Zero had been standing a moment before, then looked over at the others, watching as Serges and Cain started to take apart the World Jumper's armor, exposing wires and what looked like meshing pieces of metal.

"What..."

Captain America placed a hand on Myra's shoulder, causing her to look up at the Avenger.

"Come on. Let's leave them to their work." Captain America directed Myra out of the lab.

"Ratchet!" Serges screeched. "Get me the—"

The door to the mechanics' lab closed behind them, cutting the screech off.

They were nearly back to the huts when Captain America spoke again.

"If you have any questions about her, you can go ahead and ask," the Avenger said.

Myra asked immediately what was on her mind. "What was with the wires and things hiding under the World Jumper's armor? According to the stories I heard, she was human."

"She was," James piped up, reminding Myra that Captain America's son was still nearby. "She isn't now."

"How? You can't just be transformed like that." Myra saw something flicker across Captain America's face, and she frowned. "C-can you?"

"I've heard of technology that can turn someone into a robot, but I haven't come across it myself," Captain America responded with a shake of his head. He was about to continue, but then he paused for a moment before he kept going. "The World Jumper was a different case. From what I can remember her telling me, she ran into an accident the third time she left her home world. She wouldn't have survived had it not been for a man named Dr. Light. I'm not sure of what process he used, but he basically transferred her soul into the body of a robot."

"Transferred her soul...?" Myra's eyes widened at that. "But isn't that impossible?"

"When you've seen crazier things than that, it's kind of hard to say what is and isn't impossible," James responded dryly. "I mean, this version of Cap isn't related to me by blood." He jabbed a thumb at the Avenger. "My real dad is dead."

The serious statement caused Myra to stop walking. "What?"

"You are familiar with the idea of there being other worlds, right?" James looked at Myra curiously as she hesitated for a moment before giving a slight nod.

"Yeah. The World Jumper's stories mentioned a lot of things like that, and I know that this place was multiple worlds before." Myra frowned. "But why-"

"Some of these other worlds are nearly identical except for a few minor things," James continued. "For example, my dad and his team of Avengers ended up facing a nasty opponent called Ultron. The only ones who managed to survive were Iron Man, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Thor. Everybody else lost their lives fighting that robot." James sent a sidelong look up at Captain America. "My world's dimension collapsed, and my team survived when we were kicked over to his world by our dimension's Iron Man. We had some time to adjust before all the other worlds got merged together."

Myra blinked a couple times when she heard that. "You're serious?"

"Unfortunately." Captain America let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head. "We had some trouble with Kang because he was trying to wipe them out of existence, but we managed to convince him to let them stay."

James grinned a little, but that wavered a couple seconds later before he regained his serious expression. "I'm glad that I got to know my dad - even if he isn't my dimension's version of him. Now we just have to make sure that everyone else can get happy endings."

Myra didn't even need to consider James' statement as she nodded in agreement. "Right."

The father-son duo dropped Myra off at her hut, and as soon as she stepped through the door into the small room – which had nothing more than a bunk bed set – Crystal practically jumped her.

"What was that back there?" Crystal asked in an eager - and concerned - voice. "Do you have a connection with...that person, somehow?"

"Uh..." Myra blinked a couple times. "I guess so? I was there when she woke up, so I guess that I managed to get some kind of level of trust."

"Okay." Crystal backed up, letting Myra into the room as she went and sat down on the lower of the two bunks. "Do you know what she is? Because she felt strange."

"I know she's some kind of robot and that World Jumper that's been talked about all over the place."

Crystal blinked. "I knew about the World Jumper part, but I didn't know that she was some kind of robot."

Myra reeled back in surprise. "You did? How?!"

"I met her a friend of hers." Crystal smiled brightly. "I saved her friend's life, too. Apparently, the World Jumper was off saving another world, so she couldn't come and help her friend."

"Save a world?" Myra couldn't believe what it was that Crystal was saying. "Seriously?"

"Yup!" Crystal's ears and tail twitched upward as her smile almost seemed to brighten. "Khrista told me that my Ranger friend, Aria, looks just like the World Jumper." Her smiled faded a little. "And then all this happened."

Myra sobered up. "Yeah. I guess so. Is your friend...?"

Crystal's ears folded back as her tail fell onto the bed, and she gave a slight nod. "Yeah. I've been wondering if I can go out and find her, but...well, they're probably going to end up with a pretty powerful...pawn, I think is the right word."

"Oh." Myra sobered up a little. "You're really that strong?"

Crystal nodded, looking subdued. "You were wondering about my ears and tail earlier, right?" When Myra nodded in response, Crystal continued, "I was the result of an experiment that took place on my world about eleven years ago. This group of people called Team Rocket decided that they wanted to make the strongest creature in existence. I was a side project that one of the scientists did."

Myra blinked a couple times when she heard that. "Seriously? You're something that they made?"

Crystal looked up at Myra with an unhappy expression. "Yeah. I'm a mix of human and Pokémon DNA – Pokémon are creatures that live on my world. They help humans with everyday tasks, and some have even formed teams that spar against other teams for fun - it's a big part of the culture there. There are some creatures that are inherently stronger than others, and the Pokémon DNA I have is from what's considered to be the strongest and rarest by a lot of people."

"So, you have the powers of that...Pokémon?" Myra raised an eyebrow.

Crystal nodded. "Mew - the Pokémon I share DNA with - is a little pink creature that I've been told looks like a creature called a 'cat' from other places. They can use any and every ability that other Pokémon can use. So, for example, some Pokémon can speak to others using their minds..."

"...and so can I."

Myra jumped when she heard Crystal's voice echo in her head. "Whoa!"

Crystal smiled a little at Myra's surprise. "Yeah. That's how a lot of people react when they find out. I was pretty surprised when Professor X and Jean were able to talk to me in the same way - I didn't know that humans could do something like that."

"Well, humans can be pretty surprising sometimes..." Myra trailed off as a yawn forced its way out.

Crystal blinked at that, then gave a slight smile. "You must be pretty tired after everything that's happened. Why don't you go ahead and sleep for a while? Nobody's going to try and get the jump on you around here."

Myra blinked, frowning a little at Crystal's statement. "Has that happened before?"

"A couple times. I don't think that anyone's tried it in a long time, though." Crystal shrugged. "We can take turns sleeping for a while, if you want. Wherever you were before, you probably weren't able to relax for too long."

Myra felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered that she had been on the run from a group of rather nasty-looking people before she had come across the World Jumper. When another yawn snuck out of her, she realized that getting some sleep might not actually be a bad idea.

"Yeah...sleep sounds pretty good right now." Myra made her way over to her bed. "Not really much else to do right now, anyway."

Crystal hummed in response to the statement, then bobbed her head. "Not right now, anyway. I'll wake you if anything important happens, okay?"

Myra gave Crystal a nod. "Yeah. Sounds good." Then she crawled under the covers of the bed - which was a lot softer than the other places she had been hiding in previously - and she slowly drifted off...

Time Break

When Myra awoke, she rolled over and looked over the edge of the bed. She blinked when she found out that Crystal was nowhere in sight.

Myra frowned. "I wonder where Crystal went..." She slipped off the bed and landed on the floor of the room. After looking around for a moment longer, she paused and shook her head. "She probably has things that she can do around here..."

"Quite. And you seem to have a role that you are able to play as well."

Myra squeaked and scrambled back against the other wall as the voice came out from under the bed. She stared with wide eyes as a pair of glowing yellow eyes peered out from underneath Crystal's lower bed.

"Th-the Nightmare King…." Myra swallowed, color draining from her face.

There came a dark chuckle from below the bed. "Your fear of me is delicious, child, but you have no reason to be. I do not intend harm on those here. The creatures outside this haven, however, have great reason to have fear for what they have done. However, as much as I'd like to leave you alone, there's something about you that's different from the other kids I've followed around."

"S-something different?" Myra swallowed. "Wh-what is it?"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." The shadow chuckled again.

Myra's forehead furrowed as she frowned. "I have been getting the feeling that a lot of people are going to be telling me that and I don't like it. You said you've been following people around – do you know anything about what's happened with the World Jumper?"

The Nightmare King blinked. "The World Jumper? You mean that child that the red, white, and blue Avenger carried in with you?" A shadowy limb that looked like an arm came out from under the bed and made a waving motion, then retreated back under the bed. "Never met her."

"But you know about her," Myra insisted.

"I've only heard stories, but I can say with certainty that she's going to be the only World Jumper you're going to find around here. Only one per section of the Multiverse, depending on how many people get dragged off-world." The Nightmare King grumbled something, then continued speaking at his normal volume. "Those monsters don't like her, either. That's probably why they locked her away and picked her to pieces."

"The Dark Arms?" Myra blinked, then flinched back as the Nightmare King snarled.

"Yes. Them." The figure under the bed growled again. "They have made it very difficult for us to reverse what has been done, and they have made it impossible to say the World Jumper's name."

Myra frowned. "The World Jumper's name?"

"Yes. You do know that she has one, don't you?"

Myra blinked in confusion. "W-well, I should think that she does…."

"Do you know it?"

Myra paused at the question, brow furrowing. "N-no. But that's because no one ever says it."

"And why is that, Myra Arym?"

Myra opened her mouth to answer, then stopped, blinking. "H-how do you know my name?"

"I know a large number of things." The Nightmare King chuckled darkly. "If you want some answers, you will have to find them yourself!"

Before Myra could ask him what that meant, the darkness under the bed seemed to become less opaque as the yellow eyes disappeared from sight.

Crystal stuck her head in. "I heard Pitch talking. Is he still—" She cut herself off when she saw the absence of the yellow eyes under the bed. "I just missed him. Shoot."

"You wanted to talk to him?" Myra frowned in confusion.

"I did, but now I'm just hoping that he's listening. There's something going on in the Dark City Zone."

Myra cocked her head slightly at the statement. "What do you mean?"

Crystal's expression brightened when the subject changed. "I've been out and about listening to what's been going on, and it sounds like there's been a bit of a ruckus at the place where you guys found the World Jumper! There's Mind Tech'd people crawling all over the place! It sounds like some people are getting ready to get into the action again!"

Myra blinked in surprise when she saw that Crystal's eyes were practically shining out of eagerness. She frowned. "You mean they weren't active before?"

Crystal shook her head. "I've never been involved in that kind of stuff because-" She motioned to her Mew ears "-but I've heard that we haven't been able to do much against the monsters, and they haven't been able to find us because we've been laying low for so long. Now that Captain America's back and we have the World Jumper, they're going to be looking for us a lot more, and we might be able to start striking back - and maybe we'll be able to get people back, too!"

Myra blinked a couple times as she absorbed what Crystal had just said, trying to wrap her head around the fact that Crystal was excited that they were after them after they had been living under the radar for some time. She frowned. "You do realize that there's a chance that they could find us and finish us off once and for all now, right?"

Crystal frowned for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm not too worried about that. We have the Justice League up in the Watchtower, and they'll come down if we need the help." She grinned. "Besides, when the World Jumper's fixed, we'll have her help, too! She'll be able to rescue more people than ever thanks to her! I mean, she got Captain America back - she could get everyone else rescued, too!"

Myra's frown deepened. "...isn't that a lot to be putting on one person's shoulders?"

"She's done stuff like that before," Crystal chirped in response. "I told you about how she was off saving a world when I saved her friend, remember?"

It took Myra a moment to remember that Crystal had said something about it before she had gotten some rest. "You did mention it."

"So something like this isn't going to be too much of a problem - especially with the rest of us to back her up!" Crystal insisted. She looked strangely giddy. "I can't wait to meet her!"

Before Myra could respond to that, she suddenly felt a wave of pressure come over her, making her want to scramble under the covers of her bed and hide. While she flinched in that direction, Crystal responded in a similar fashion, her eyes widening as her ears plastered themselves against the top of her head.

"Dark-Types..." Crystal murmured fearfully.

"It isn't going to be as easy as you think it is, child of Mew," snorted the Nightmare King from under the bed. "Do you really think that the World Jumper is going to sweep our opponents? When they've picked her apart and put her back together?"

The pressure was suddenly released, leaving Myra gasping for breath. Crystal looked shaken.

"Ho-ly Arceus." Crystal shuddered. "I really hate it when he does that."

"H-how often d-does he do that?" Myra shivered. "I-it almost felt like there was something pushing down on my head…."

Crystal took in a shaky breath and breathed out slowly, forcing herself to relax. "N-not often. I-I guess he wanted to make a point." She took in another breath and stood with her eyes closed for a moment before her eyes snapped open. "Oh, yeah! Seeker came by - he said to let you know that the World Jumper's fixed up, and that they want you there to officially meet her!"

Myra's head shot up in surprise. "What?! Already? But they only just got her so that they could do the repairs!"