The Doctor rolled up his sleeves expertly. All signs that he was worried before had vanished. Martha felt more secure with him back to normal. "Well, we're in." he said.
"What now?" Martha asked. She looked around curiously. There were guards at all of the major doors from what she could see. They would have to figure out a way to travel incognito.
"We find stuff out." he said simply. As if on cue, a woman with ginger hair walked by. She looked like a person of importance, with a secretary following her around and the guards nodding submissively at her. "Let's go talk to her." He fell into step beside the woman. "Hello."
"And tell Tony- oh." she was cut off from talking to her secretary and looked at the Doctor. "Uh, hi. Who are you?"
"My name's the Doctor. And you are?"
"Pepper..." she trailed off, not even sure why she was talking to this man. "No, wait. What? The Doctor? I meant your name." She hadn't been getting much sleep since Tony had begun to work on that project and this Doctor man wasn't helping at all.
"Yeah, he's the Doctor. Just the Doctor. And I'm Martha." Martha responded, following the Doctor's lead and flashing Pepper a smile.
She furrowed her brow. "Well, can I help you two?" The Doctor showed her the psychic paper. "Oh," she said, still sounding confused. "You're ... a priest?"
"Actually," Martha said. "I'm a Doctor, or will be when I get my degree."
The Doctor turned the psychic paper to face him. "Ah, yes, I'm a priest." He made a face.
"We were wondering who the boss was around here." Martha said. Pepper turned to face her. Once out of view, the Doctor face-palmed. "We need to talk to them." Martha said, shaking her head slightly at the Doctor.
"I'm her. Tony's not here at the moment, sorry." Pepper said.
"Tony?" the Doctor asked.
"Uh, yeah. Like Iron Man? Director Fury's out, too. You'll have to make an appointment to see them, anyway." Pepper said, quickening her step, assuming the conversation had ended.
"Director Fury?"
"Do they not have news in Britain?" she asked. Apparently, some of Tony's sarcasm had rubbed off on her. "Yeah, he kind of saved the world last year."
"I guess not. Mind telling us about that?" the Doctor asked.
"I have stuff to do, sorry. You can ask anyone, literally."
"Okay," Martha said. Well, they did learn a lot from this woman. "Thanks, anyway."
The Doctor and Martha turned back and started heading back the way they came. "If only we had the TARDIS," the Doctor said.
They stopped short. There was laughing behind them. They turned back around. "What's so funny?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"Who do you think you are? A TimeLord?"
Martha's breath caught her throat. The Doctor's eyes widened. "What did you say?"
Just as the Doctor, Amy, Steve, and Tony were heading on the door, something stopped them. A voice. It was unclear, crackly as if it were coming through a phone. Its tone was one of mockery, almost singsong-y. "Oh, Doctor." it said.
The Doctor looked up at the ceiling, trying to locate a speaker that could have projected the voice. It could easily be heard all over the building. He noticed Amy searching for the source too, but their two companions were frozen. Their jaws were clenched, their expressions were solemn, and their eyes were a blend of fear and recognition. "What was that?" Amy asked them. She had noticed their fear too. She saw that it was something big from the way they were reacting. The fear was spreading around the room like a contagious disease.
"Aw, you're so cute with your little search parties." the voice said.
"Hello, there, sir," the Doctor said spinning around, mostly directing his conversation to the ceiling. "I'm the Doctor. Who might you be?"
"Just like the TV show. I bet when people say that it ruins your ego." the voice remarked.
"Who are you?"
"It's Loki." Tony said, pure hatred and venom dripping from his words.
"I know you don't fear me, Doctor." the voice said. "But you should, really you should. I have a secret weapon on my side. And you have nothing but your sad little team of wannabes."
"Get out of our system, Loki." Steve growled.
"Hey, look, you're actually using twenty first century words like system. I'm so proud." Neither the Doctor nor Amy understood, but it was apparent that this remark irked Steve (and Tony) to a great extent.
"Well, I'll be off for now, but be prepared, Avengers. My secret weapon is greater than you can even imagine."
A small click echoed through the PA system. Loki was gone. For now.
Sherlock and John really did try to explain to the god that they didn't mean to drop in and that they brought here and needed help. They needed to get back to London. "Wasn't there an earthquake in London? That's the last thing I remember." John said.
The god and his girlfriend stood shoulder to shoulder, arms crossed, in front of the detective and the soldier like an impenetrable wall. "There hasn't been an earthquake in London, but nice try." Jane said.
"We're not burglars, I swear!" John exclaimed, tired of trying to explain it to these stubborn people. "There was an earthquake, then this big flash of light, and I woke up here! We need to get back to London. Check missing persons maybe. Lestrade probably reported us missing, if not Mycroft and Ms. Hudson."
"We're not going to believe you're stories, so stop trying." Jane said, firmly.
"They're not stories!"
Suddenly, a voice boomed through the room, "You'd be best to believe them, brother." it said.
"Loki." Thor growled.
"Loki!" John exclaimed, slightly too excited for the situation. Thor glanced at him, throwing him a harsh look. "God of mischief."
John could almost hear his smile, "You know my title well." he said. "As I know yours, John Watson."
Sherlock furrowed his brow and cut in, "How do you know that?"
"I told him." said a different voice. The voice cut through both Sherlock and John. It was a voice they both dreaded and hoped never to hear again. It was the voice of a dead man. It was Jim Moriarty's voice.
"What is it now? It's a Doctor Who reference, okay? I don't watch it that much, just with Tony in my spare time, which is not much, might I add." Pepper shrugged it off.
But the Doctor on the other hand was a different story. He walked up to her and lowered his voice slightly, "What do you mean, 'watch'?" he asked, She knew? But she was human and still only 21st century. How did she...? His eyes were focused on her with great concentration, acting like if he stared hard enough her thoughts would be his.
"It's a TV show. Now if you don't mind, I'm getting back to work, like I should have done a while ago." She turned to go again, but like her other attempts, actually getting away to work failed. The Doctor definitely wouldn't let her go that quickly.
"Really, I think it's best we talk, Miss...?"
"Potts. Get an appointment and I'll talk to you then."
The Doctor paused and let Pepper walk away. "What?" Martha asked. "You're not going after her?"
The Doctor waved a hand in the air dismissively. "Nah, we should probably check out this 'Doctor Who' show she mentioned and then check out these Avengers folks. See, I think I have a theory as to why everything's different."
"Really?" What's that?" Martha asked. They began to turn and walk the other way.
"I think we're in a parallel universe."
Amy, the Doctor, Tony and Steve snaked their way through the huge crowds at Grand Central Station. Tony and Steve wore disguises as to not attract attention, but the group doubted they would fool every person they passed in New York. They did their best, though, trying to go unnoticed. They went their separate ways out of the station, flowing along in the sea of people, not attracting attention to themselves, rather observing the public to see who stood out or who they recognized. Perhaps someone famous in one of their universes, who was oblivious to it in their own, had been brought. Then, possibly they could be recognized, but they all knew the chances of that situation occurring were slim. They split up once they exited Grand Central, Amy and Tony heading right, Steve and the Doctor heading left.
"So," Amy said awkwardly after a few minutes of walking in silence. "You're like a superhero, yeah?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
"Then what's your super power?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well," he shrugged, "I wear a suit and I fight bad guys."
"The Doctor wears a suit and fights bad guys." Amy pointed out.
"Yeah, but my suit's much cooler."
After a while of talking, it began to get hot, so Tony took off his jacket. Any couldn't help but notice the glowing circle that was slightly visible through the thin material of his t-shirt. She thought it might be rude to ask what it was, but curiosity got the best of her and she asked, "What's..." -she motioned towards her own chest, but kept her eyes trained on his- "that?"
Tony looked down as if he had almost forgotten it was there. "Comes with the suit." he said simply. "Keeps me from dying."
"Oh."
"So, tell me about you." Tony said, turning the conversation in a whole new direction. "How did you meet the Doctor?"
"Well, when I was seven, he crashed-landed his TARDIS into my garden. He came back later and well, to keep it brief, we had to rewrite history, so basically he came back on my wedding day." Amy said.
"You're married?"
"Yeah. My husband was in the TARDIS with us when we came here, but I guess he didn't fit your machine's standards because he sort of just disappeared. Probably got left behind." She shrugged, leaving it short and sweet.
Phil Coulson knocked on the door of the home of Jane Foster. Over the phone, Thor said he had some business to attend to. Nothing could be much more important than the Canon working, though, so Phil was sent to retrieve the god and bring him back to their New Jersey headquarters where the Doctor and Amy Pond were. Jane opened the door to her freshly air conditioned home. Under his suit, Phil was sweating greatly. It must have been 100 degrees! "Ah, hello, Ms. Foster," Phil said politely. "Where might Thor be?" He looked over her shoulder, but only a hallway was visible.
"Hi, Phil." Jane said, smiling, but she didn't appear to be very happy. "We have a bit of a problem. Thor's over here." She held the door open for Phil to come and shut it behind him. She led him to the living room where Thor was standing in front of two men, one who was rather lanky with dark curly hair, and the other shorter, wearing an expression that indicated to Phil he was scared out of his wits. However, Thor didn't appear to be the one scaring him. Thor actually made him seem more comfortable. Weird, Phil thought dismissively. The two strange men sat on the couch with Thor towering over them.
"We found these guys breaking in. I was just about to call the police. I-"
"We do not need the assistance of law enforcement. I can teach them a lesson with aid." Thor interjected.
"But maybe you should wait before you 'teach them a lesson'." Jane argued. "Loki knew who they were. They might be important."
"I don't know what kind of trick that man, Loki, was pulling, but Jim Moriarty's dead." the dark haired man said. Phil was surprised to hear a British accent. "It obviously wasn't you two who kidnapped us, though I don't doubt you would have the power to do so. Loki is probably your brother. Younger? Yes, younger. And you-"
"Silence. You will speak no more." Thor shouted. Phil hadn't seen him this angry in a while. The dark haired man rolled his eyes as Thor turned to Phil. "These men are strange. This man knows me. He claims me to be a comic book character."
Déjà vu quickly swept over Phil. It was like the Doctor and Amy Pond. They didn't know they were part of a TV show. Thor didn't know he was a comic book character. Could these men be the subjects of the Canon brought to New Mexico? The dark haired man appeared to be brilliant, just what the Canon was looking for. "Wait, how exactly did you get here?" he asked, talking for the first time since entering the room.
"Well, we're detectives, so we were at a crime scene in the middle of London and the room got really hot. There was this big flash of light, and we woke up here." the lighter haired man said with more composure than before.
"Jane, put the phone down. You're not calling the police." Phil said, piecing everything together.
"What?" Jane asked, pausing in mid-dial. "Why not? You don't actually believe their story, do you?"
"Yes, actually, I do."
Author's Note: I lied, the Doctor Who parts are set after Let's Kill Hitler. It isn't a part of this chapter, but future chapters. Also, it isn't that important, but important enough. :] Hope you're enjoying!