Around Los Angeles, Monday Evening to Tuesday Afternoon

[solarhippie]

So, they'd made it back to the lair, late at night. The way they were bringing Victor along was somewhere between a hostage situation and... Well, something less unpleasant. It was mostly Karolina that was trying to make it into the latter. She kept reminding Victor that they really were trying to look out for him as well as themselves. He just didn't seem all that convinced. Maybe because they didn't let him call anyone. And Nico cast a spell on him as soon as they were at the Hostel, to dampen his powers.

But those were just precautions!

And then they ended up spending a good chunk of time in a room in front of a holographic Rogues' Gallery of major villains, trying to guess who Victor's dad might be. And all through it, Karolina kept trying to call the Victor at hom-- in Fandom, to ask him for... well, help in dealing with him. She knew he wasn't all the way human, but how should she tell him that? How did you tell anyone that? She had had to find that out about herself by accident, and even she couldn't figure out a good way to break that to someone.

And of course, the phoneline stayed disconnected.

Tensions were rising, the longer the search was taking. It was around when Nico suggested they pull up Red Skull's file that Victor started to really get annoyed. "My Dad wasn't a Nazi, okay?" he snapped. "And... and even if he was, what does it matter to you? Lots of children of horrible people have grown up to be productive members of society! Haven't you heard of Ultron?" He used the displays remote control to pull up a hologram of the robot in question. "He was a demented killing machine, but he still created Vision, who turned out to be, like, one of the greatest heroes ever!"

"Victor, you can't compare nuts and bolts to flesh and blood," Nico said. Karolina winced, and frowned to herself.

"Then... then what about Magneto?" Victor tried, clicking on the remote again. "He was the father of two Avengers, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch!"

"Both of whom were once part of something called –– unironically, mind you –– the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," Gert pointed out, getting up to move closer to him. Karolina wasn't sure why. "That doesn't exactly help your case, big man." She was holding up a hand to placate him, now that he was getting anxious. But he wasn't having it. "You guys are worse than those people who got abused as kids, and then try to convince every person who got spanked once or twice that they're victims, too," he said. "I'm sorry for what your parents did to you, but it didn't happen to me!"

"Victor, just chill the ––"

"No!" Victor snapped, suddenly grabbing Gert and pulling her in front of him, holding the remote to her head. "You're all gonna do exactly as I say, or I... I blow this chick's head off!"

Chase shouted Gert's name. Old Lace hissed. Nico and Molly were immediately out of their chairs, too, and Karolina pulled her bracelet off. She wasn't intending to hurt Victor, of course. But she'd grab him if she had to. "Let her go!"

The only one who didn't look immeidately outwardly threatened was Gert herself. "Relax, people," she said. "He's a powerless kid holding a remote control."

Victor's confidence faltered. "I... I flipped this thing's vibranium battery when you weren't looking," he said, his voice wavering. He wasn't selling it very well. "If I press one button while the polarity is reversed, it... it won't be pretty."

Molly snorted, folding her arms. "Yeah, right," she scoffed. "Even I know he's tricking, and I dropped out of the fourth grade." Nico shook her head, though. "No, I can't risk any of you getting hurt again because I let the wrong boy into our lives." ... Okay, she'd done that once or twice before. "What do you want, Victor?" Victor responded to her question by reaching into Gert's pocket. "This." Gert squirmed in his grasp and immediately called him a perv; Victor told her not to flatter herself while he fished out her phone. He punched in the number and held it up to his ear. "Mom? I'm all right! Send the cops to ––"

His face fell.

"What? Mister, I don't know what you're ––"

His eyes got wider. They were all staring at him in silence now.

"Doctor Doom? As in, Victor von Doom?"

He let Gert go. And gasped at something he heard. It was clearly nothing good. He was just openly worried, now.

"Mom? Hello...?"

And then the call was apparently over. Old Lace circled over to growl at him suspiciously. "Did... did you say that was Doom?" Gert asked. "Dictator of all dictators? Beast of the Balkans?"

Yeah, Karolina was confused too. "I thought that creep died fighting the Fantastic Four our something?" she asked. Also... she'd like to think Victor might have mentioned if his dad was Doctor Doom. But like before, she couldn't check.

Nico shook her head. "I'm not sure, Karolina," she said, looking at Victor. Looking him over, with this new information in mind, probably. "Unfortunately, our 'rents haven't been updating their files from beyond the grave."

"Please, Nico," Victor said, now pretty distraught. Understandably. "He says he's my father, and he's... he's threatening to kill my mom. You have to let me go!"

"Let you go?" Chase asked. Well, yelled. "You were just about to blow Gert's head off!"

"I was bluffing, Chase! I would never hurt your girlfriend. I would never hurt anyone. I... I just wanted to get back to the people I love! You have to believe me, all I care about is helping my family."

Molly gave him a stern look. Sterner than should have come from someone her age.

"Sounds like this Mr. Doom guy is your family, Vic. So whose side are you on?"

-----

It was a question they left just sitting there. But it was decided they'd all get on the move to go to Doom's assigned meeting place. For a given definition of 'decided', anyway. "No!" Victor exclaimed, when they were already in the air on board the Leapfrog. "Turn this thing around! I told you, Doom said to show up alone!"

"Actually, he told you not to involve the authorities," Gert pointed out. "And seeing as we're all delinquent fugitives, I'm pretty sure we don't qualify."

"His name's not Doctor Semantics, Gert!" Victor snapped. Old Lace was still side-eyeing him from a close distance, as much as a dinosaur could side-eye anyone. "Whether or not I'm really related to this freak, if I walk in there with you people, my mom's as good as dead!"

Karolina bit her lip and shook her head. "And if you walk in there solo, he could go back on his word and kill you both," she pointed out gently. Trust us, if there's one thing parents are good at, it's lying to their kids. Besides, we've been rescuing civiliands from hostage situations like this ever since the bad guys started showing up in LA again. Let us help you."

"No offense, Karolina, but seeing how a novice like me almost took out half of you, I'm not sure why I should entrust my mom's life to the freakin' Teen Girl Squad!"

"That's Teen Girl Squad plus one, amigo," Chase called back from the pilot's chair, affronted. "And as soon as we're in range, this young stud is gonna bring the 'Frog smashing down on your old man's ugly gourd."

But Nico shot that idea down. "No, Turbo and the rest of those psycho grownup sidekicks we fought are probably still patrolling the area for any sign of us, so it's strictly cloaked from here on out. We've got enough on our plate as it is without calling attention to ourselves and drawing them into the mix."

"Can't you just use your magics to teleport in and rescue Mrs. Mancha, Nico?" Molly tried. "You know, like Nightcrawler?"

"Sorry, Mol, I've already used a 'porting spell once, and the Staff of One hates repeats. But I might be able to pop in there fire off some kind of a knockout spell that will ––"

Victor cut her off. "Haven't you guys ever taken a history class?" he wanted to know. "How do you think von Doom took control of an entire country? He's not just the greatest scientist on the planet, he's also one of the most powerful sorcerers. Sleight of hand from some glorfied magician's assistant ain't gonna cut it!"

It was a pretty depressing point of view. Gert sounded dry. "You have a better idea, Doom Junior?"

"Actually," Victor replied, after a few seconds. "I do."

-----

Yes, Victor's idea involved magic. Yes, it was dangerous. It involved Nico turning herself, Karolina, Gert, Molly, and Old Lace invisible – something which Karolina would have found absolutely fascinating under different circumstances. It was hard to enjoy the weird when the circumstances were sneaking into Doctor Doom's warehouse lair, tailing Victor who was visible and pretending to be loyal to Doom. Like a good son. It was a sparse room, just Doom in his armor, and Victor's mother tied to a chair behind him. While Victor was kneeling in front of Doom and lying about how he'd always hoped his real father was someone important, Nico snuck to Mrs. Mancha to untie the ropes.

Except that Doom caught sight of it. And fired a shot of energy right at Nico, who rippled back into view as she slumped on the floor. Close to her, the other girls turned visible again. Damn. "Karolina, get Nico and my mom to the ship!" Victor called. "Everyone else, Plan B!"

"We always go to Plan B!" Karolina prostested as she flew out of the way of further blasts of energy. "Next time, we should just make that our Plan A!" She flew out to Mrs. Mancha and after quickly looking Nico over to see she was breathing and not bleeding, got started on the ropes while the battle raged on behind her. By the time she'd gotten the ropes around Victor's mother's arms undone, both Old Lace and Gert were crumpled on the ground, and Doom had Victor and Molly by their necks. "Molly!" Karolina screamed. "Put her down!"

Despite Mrs. Mancha's objections and warnings, she flew out towards Doom, sending out a flow of energy... which hit Molly instead. "Your marksmanship needs improving, harlot," Doom told her. "Observe a master at work." He flung Molly through the air, right at her. They both fell hard on the floor. For the second time within 24 hours, Karolina got knocked out. She'd blame that on her lack of sleep, and it being nighttime.

She came back to consciousness to find Nico kneeling beside her, this time. She helped her up just in time to see... was that Ultron? And Victor sending an electric shock through Ultron's body. Doctor Doom on the floor. ... Wait, was he a robot? And where was Mrs. Mancha?

Nico hit Ultron with a spell that encased him in something that looked like a cocoon made out of diamond, then got to checking over the group to see how everyone was faring. Molly was still zonked out, and Chase had a dislocated arm, but other than that, no one was badly injured.

And right as Nico was pointing out that the Staff of One was weaker since it had been a while since the last spell, Ultron cracked through the diamond casing. "Karolina, fire everything you've got at the ceiling!"

"What, why? If I drain all my energy in one shot, I ––"

"Don't question me, dammit!"

Karolina held her hands up towards the warehouse ceiling and put every last bit of energy into a flare that went clean through the ceiling, up to the sky. It worked like a searchlight, just like Nico had expected it to. It was a matter of dozens of seconds before the Excelsior group were coming in through the hole Karolina had made. They were about as shocked to see Ultron as the kids had been. They didn't fight it much when Chamber shuffled them out of the battle and into another room. They'd done their part. Well, everyone but Victor, it seemed, because there were sparks flying out of his mouth as he yelled at Chamber to let him back in.

"That thing killed the only family I ever had!"

And that was when Karolina understood what had happened to his mother. Ultron had killed her. That was... Oh God. She was glad when Gert reasoned with Chamber (whose voice sounded weirdly familiar, yet a little off, and not just because it seemed to be coming straight into her head) to just let them go. Ultron was out of their league. There was nothing they could do.

It took dragging, but they got Victor to come with them.

-----

And that had been the middle of the night. It was the afternoon now. Down in the Hostel. Karolina had slept for a good ten hours, exhausted, but she was awake now. Finally. And another thing that finally happened? Her cell phone actually worked for multiversal calls. That was good, because she really needed to talk to both Jim and Liara. For a few reasons, not limited to telling them she needed to stay here a while.

[ooc: NFB, but open for calls/texts. Taken with tweaks from vol.2, issues four to six, bringing the True Believers arc to a close! Warning for NPC death. Yes, again.]

Comments

[fewer_explosions]

Liara had not seen Karolina for several days, and, all right, she had been mildly anxious since Monday.

So as soon as she received the phone call, she was scrambling - over the bed, dropping several heavy books off her nightstand as she did so - for the phone.

"Hello?!"

[solarhippie]

"Hi, it's me," Karolina said. "Karolina. Um... are you okay?"

She just sounded a little agitated.

[fewer_explosions]

"I am okay!" Liara was quick to announce. "I simply have Plato balancing on my-- knee!"

[solarhippie]

"... A book, right?"

Just checking.

[fewer_explosions]

"It is very heavy," Liara agreed. "Just give me a moment to--"

There was a noise not unlike a book being forcibly bioticed against the wall.

"There."

[solarhippie]

There was something vaguely comforting about that sound, actually. Karolina almost smiled.

"So, hey," she said. "How've you been?"

[fewer_explosions]

"It has been quiet here so far," Liara said, which was a marginally better answer than 'worried about you, actually'. "How is... how are you?"

[solarhippie]

"I'm okay, I'm just a little tired." That was putting a pretty optimistic spin on it. "We just had a really long day yesterday."

[fewer_explosions]

"Is everyone all right?" Liara asked, folding herself into impossible positions as she tried to sit up straight on the bed.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim hadn't been doing much when his phone rang. He was actually grateful for the distraction because he wanted to do something.

"Hello?" he said, phone to his ear.

[solarhippie]

Karolina needed the distraction too. "Hey, Jim," she said, sounding just a bit subdued. "It's me."

[pursuedthestars]

"It is you," Jim said, nodding. "And I don't think you're calling me from your room, are you?"

[solarhippie]

"No," she admitted, as if it needed admitting. "Things have been a little hectic here in LA. I think I'm gonna have to skip at least the first week of classes."

[pursuedthestars]

"Hectic?" Jim repeated. "Hectic in a bad way or hectic in the 'you got offered a role in a movie' way?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina paused.

"Well we did land the Leapfrog through the roof of a studio yesterday?"

Crashlanded, but, details.

[pursuedthestars]

"What're you into?" Jim asked, sighing. "Are you all right?"

[solarhippie]

"I'm fine." Mostly. "We just –– we finally met Victor. The Victor here, I mean. Not the one in Fandom."

[ultron_junior]

Victor - the one in Fandom -- had the worst timing in the world noticed Karolina hadn't been around in a couple days, and radio had mentioned her going home. Call him paranoid, but he was sending a quick text to check in.

Sorry if this is weird but are you still in LA? Is everything OK?

[solarhippie]

Karolina chewed on her lip for a bit, hesitating before she sent anything back.

I'm still here, yeah. I'll be here for most of this week, I think.

Oops, had she left that other question unanswered?

[ultron_junior]

She had! Weird how that happened. (Though the length of the visit was its own kind of answer, as it was unlikely any week-long visit home for either of them was going to be hugs and puppies.)

Have fun, Victor typed back, only semi-sarcastically, then -- before he could second-guess himself out of being nosy -- What's going on?

[solarhippie]

Again, hesitation. A lot of it. Did she want to do this now? Did it matter when he was going to find out eventually, and, well, it had all already happened to him anyway?

We met you.

[ultron_junior]

Oh.

And now Victor wasn't sure he was glad he knew, or sad to know some other version of him out there was having the worst few days of his entire life. (And also somewhat nauseated to know Karolina was about to head into what happened next, but that -- wasn't exactly the first thing on his mind.)

There was a long pause before he typed back his most important question.

How's my mom?

As if they went through this enough times, in enough realities, he could save her.

[solarhippie]

That was kind of a cruel question. Cruel to whom, though, she wasn't sure.

I'm so sorry.

He knew what she was sorry for.

[ultron_junior]

He did, yeah. He stared at the words as if they'd turn into something else. But of course they weren't going to.

Don't worry about it. Just hoped it would be different somehow for you, he typed back, then hesitated.

He didn't ask how the other Victor was, because he knew that too. (Mourning, with a very odd side of holy-shit-I-have-powers excitement.) And of course he didn't need to ask what had happened. He thought about asking whether she wished he'd warned her -- but he didn't want to know the answer to that one, and his masochism only ran so deep.

Give the other me a hug, OK? And try to get Chase to quit being so ... Chase at him.

[solarhippie]

Karolina wished he'd warned her. But she was never going to tell him that. That was just pointless extra guilt over something that couldn't be undone in either of their universes. It was done.

Okay, she sent back. I'll do both, I promise. Take care, Vic.