Chapter Thirteen: Unexpected Guest
Between the sleek, polished marble floor and smoothness in the fabric from the tight grey leggings that he had yet to figure out how he got into, Sean Thomas executed a perfect baseball slide out of whatever invisible force that had taken him away from the danger he faced mere seconds ago in Asgard. Clutched to his body was Walter, still left unconscious from the intense blow he received in the chaos.
Thomas was not exactly certain where he ended up. He only followed the advice of that mysterious young Native American woman and thought of Iron Man – whatever that meant. He looked around to see that he arrived in some type of classy, expensive penthouse suite that was in the process of renovation.
"That worked well." He heard a man say in a very sardonic tone of voice.
Turning in the direction that he heard the voice come from, he spotted four individuals standing around near him, each and every one visibly surprised. And yet somehow he knew their names – Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Sheryl, and Jacqueline. After a while, he even recalled the name of the area he arrived upon as "Stark Tower." How in the world did he know all of this? It was as if someone else thought for him.
"I have to admit, I didn't see that coming." Sheryl said. "I figured our sorcery would lead us to him, not bring him to us."
Jacqueline frowned in question. "We weren't behind this, Sheryl."
As soon as Sean was back on his feet and facing them, Jacqueline noticed something lying limp in his arms. At first she thought it was some type of doll, but she soon realized what – and specifically who – it was. Her body stiffened with anxiety.
"Walter!" She cried.
Seeing the unconscious Muppet brought her to the conclusion that the man standing in front of them was not Agent Sean Livingston of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Sean Thomas of the Muppet Theater.
"He needs help." Thomas informed the group. "He got banged up pretty bad when we encountered Loki in Asgard."
"Loki?" Banner exclaimed in surprise.
"Now there's a name I haven't heard since my last panic attack." Stark uttered. "I thought Thor said his angst-ridden brother was being kept under twenty-four-seven surveillance by his people."
Bruce gestured to Walter and instructed Thomas, "Bring him to my lab, so we can see how extensive the injuries are."
Sean did as the scientist said and carried his inert Muppet friend upstairs into a well-polished area that was still partially under construction, filled with technology that he could not begin to comprehend the functions of. He gently set Walter on an examination table, allowing Banner to conduct his work.
"H-How extensive the injuries are? Is that what you said?" Stark inquired with that signature wit evident in his tone again. "Can I clarify that this is a puppet we're talking about? He's made of foam. What bones or organs are there for him to injure?"
Thomas shot the billionaire a cold stare. "Hey! This is my friend you're talking about! He's still a living being and can hurt just like any of us can!"
"You tell 'im, brother."
To his immediate surprise, standing directly behind Stark was the young Native American woman. She smiled right at him, her eyes darting back and forth between him and Walter. "He's gonna be alright. We know how much of a tough lil' guy he is."
"We?"
Stark glanced Sean's way again when it seemed that he was being addressed. "We what?"
"I don't mean you." Sean clarified.
Tony looked behind him to directly where the young raven-haired woman stood. He then returned his focus on Thomas, a prudent look on his face. "Whatever you're on, better quit today, friend."
Stark's failure to see the woman plainly standing behind him baffled Sean. How could he not have seen her right there?
A hand rested on his left shoulder, directing his attention that way to see Sheryl, whose considerable height made her almost at perfect eye level with him. "Can the three of us talk in private for a sec?" She gestured among the two of them and Jacqueline.
The three headed back downstairs into the first floor suite, which they had all to themselves.
Jacqueline was immediate in the business at hand. "How did you and Walter get here to this universe?"
Sean shook his head, frowning. "I…have no idea."
"I do." Sean jumped when he heard the voice of his other half speak directly over his shoulder. "Just repeat after me."
He listened closely to her words and restated every one exactly as she said it, practically at excellent synchronization with her. Sheryl and Jacqueline listened to the explanation that had been given, each detail sounding more and more multifaceted.
"Wait. Go back." Jacqueline interrupted before he could have reached the conclusion that brought everything back to the present. "You breathed in the reincarnate remains and you're now fused with a new reincarnation who calls herself 'Natalie'?" It clearly sounded as strange to her as the perturbed look on her face made it seem.
Sheryl, on the other hand, was a little more open. "So you're like...an amalgamated reincarnation?" She gathered with enthusiasm. "That's pretty cool!"
"That's not cool." Jacqueline grimly stated. "Two different people sharing one body could put both of you in danger, especially Sean – it's his body that you're both sharing. Unlike Sheryl and me, 'Natalie' is a reincarnation merged with a living version of our original form."
This cautionary information unnerved Sean; he did not appreciate the idea of his body being at risk while manipulated by another entity.
"I promise that I won't let anything happen to us, as long as you give me complete control." Natalie told him, as if she sensed how he felt on the matter – which he knew for sure that she did.
Sean spotted her standing by the bar, growing furious over her. "And why should I? You're the reason why I'm here with your…dust…remains…or whatever you call what I breathed in back at the theater! It's because of you that I'm so far away from my home, my wife, and our child!"
Sheryl and Jacqueline watched on in confusion. From their perspective, Sean had screamed his accusations at nothing but thin air.
Concerned, Sheryl asked, "Who are you talking to?"
Sean looked to her and Jacqueline, seeing how perplexed they both were. "I'm talking to Natalie." He pointed exactly to where he saw her standing in the room, yet Sheryl and Jacqueline found no one there.
"When one of us tags out, nobody will be able to see or hear us – just you or me." Natalie informed.
Thomas sighed. "Great. Now I have to worry about looking like a total fool whenever I'm talking to you."
"You mean like right now?" Natalie inquired with a snicker.
She gestured to Sheryl and Jacqueline, who once again stared at him questionably.
"She has some sort of 'mental link' with me now, so I'm the only one who can see and hear her." He explained for them.
It made enough sense for the two Guardians, who had both experienced their share of the oddities that accompanied their endless list of abilities.
"Wish there was some way we can talk to her." Jacqueline said.
Sean looked back to the spot where his invisible companion stood, signifying to Sheryl and Jacqueline that he was listening to whatever statement Natalie wanted him to pass on. Whatever it was, however, irritated Sean.
"She says that there is," Sean told the two Guardians, "but I have to yield myself in order to do it."
Noting his irritation, Jacqueline inquired, "Is that gonna be a problem?"
Thomas heavily sighed. "If it gets me out of this mess…no, it won't."
He proceeded to take slow, deep breaths and closed his eyes. Following these gestures, he was hit with a sharp pain that started from his abdomen and migrated throughout the rest of his body. It sent him collapsing to the floor, twitching violently and curling himself up in a fetal position. Shocked by the display, Sheryl and Jacqueline observed it in fear of the idea that Sean Thomas was in the process of dying. However, what happened next rectified those fears…
Thomas underwent a full metamorphosis – hair, skin, eyes, sex, and other physical features shifted from his form to a completely new one. In a matter of seconds, Sean had been replaced by Natalie. Seeing her physically for the first time, Sheryl and Jacqueline were amused by how much she resembled a female version of him, minus the fact that she was a foot shorter and with brighter colored eyes.
Natalie faced the two Guardians, smiling. "What is it you two wanna ask me?"
Sheryl and Jacqueline were speechless by the surprising occurrence that led to them conversing with a whole new person before them.
Once she was over the shock, Jacqueline queried, "How did you come to be? Do you remember who you were before this form?"
Natalie grimaced in thought. "My memory of the previous life is fragmented. All I can really remember is just Yve Ette." Sheryl and Jacqueline shivered at the mentioning of that name, which had become a personification of evil for them as of late. "Also, this alien race called the Skrulls. I think the two may be working with each other on conquering this world." She then added gravely, "Genevieve's here, too. I don't know all the details, but she's in trouble – big trouble."
Jacqueline exchanged a troubled glance with Sheryl. "We've been looking for the wrong reincarnation. If Genevieve's here, then we're just giving Yve Ette a buffet of bloodshed."
"Well, with Natalie here, we've got a greater chance in finding where Genevieve and Mindy are in this world." Sheryl suggested.
Jacqueline acknowledged the notion with a nod and smile. "Excellent idea." She glanced over to Natalie. "You know what to do?"
"I'm way ahead of you." She confirmed.
The three women formed themselves into a circle, outstretching their arms and laying them atop each other. They titled their head back and closed their eyes, concentrating and channeling their Guardian power through each other. It coursed strongly through each of them – much stronger than it had when it was just Sheryl and Jacqueline. Within moments, they all shared a vision depicted from a first-person perspective, making it difficult to determine whose eyes they were looking through. However, they did see that this person was in some type of elevator with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sean Livingston and his family, plus one infant child.
This clued Sheryl, Jacqueline, and Natalie in on one certain fact: it was Mindy whose perspective they were seeing. Working with this, they went in deeper and tapped into her thoughts. From what they discovered, she and the Livingstons were on their way to a hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base, miles beneath the surface of Liberty Island.
It was all that they were able to uncover from the visualization.
They disengaged their circle, leaving themselves to consider what they gathered.
"Well, the good news is that we now know where Mindy is, but we haven't found a trace of Genevieve." Jacqueline said.
"Let's just be thankful of what we were able to find." Sheryl stated. "So what's our plan?"
Jacqueline's mind acted quickly. "You and I will meet up with Mindy in this 'Liberty Base' to get to the bottom – no pun intended – of these situations with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Skrulls. And Natalie will…"
"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Walter." Natalie offered. "Judging from the sense of anxiety I'm feeling, Sean's worried sick about the lil' fella."
Once the three women were collectively in agreement, Sheryl and Jacqueline both vanished from the room in a blinking flash of light.
Without a second thought, Natalie ventured back upstairs to Bruce Banner's lab. Neither Banner nor Stark saw her walk in, their attention focused solely on the full body x-ray displayed on an overhead screen near them. The table that Walter laid on lit underneath him in a light bluish hue. Natalie did not try to grasp the complications in the equipment but gathered that the light was what "scanned" Walter's body and provided Bruce with the x-ray.
"Son-of-a-gun," Stark muttered from the legit muscle tissue, organs, and skeletal structure that was on display. "I expected just cotton."
Natalie leaned against the wall, with a smirk of satisfaction and her arms folded. "Still so closed-minded, Tony? Even after dealing with demigods, the Chitauri, and Extremis?"
Banner and Stark nearly jumped out of their skins at the sound of Natalie's voice, turning and facing her at an instant. Both men stood baffled at her sudden presence in the complex.
"Where did you come from?" Tony asked.
"My other half brought me here with him and our little friend." Natalie answered, joining the two men near the examination table.
Bruce, looking up and down at her, noted how similarly she was dressed to the African American gentleman that arrived at the tower earlier, as well as how much she represented him at the opposite gender. Putting these two details together, he deduced, "You're him! Our unexpected guest! The one that came here with him!" He gestured to Walter. "You two share one body!" Bruce added with amusement.
Tony simpered. "Now how does that sound familiar?"
Banner knew what Stark was getting at, but this circumstance with Natalie and Sean was not in any way similar to himself and his "better half." The young woman standing in between him and Tony looked dramatically different from her male counterpart and even thought independently. It was a completely new person in control.
"How is it like for you?" He asked her.
She stared at him for a brief moment, as if contemplating in giving him an answer, but she sidetracked, directing her focus to the unconscious Muppet on the examination table. "How's he going to be?"
"He's sustained a few bruises and has a mild concussion but will otherwise be just fine." Bruce confirmed.
Natalie smiled as she looked upon Walter, who seemed peaceful in his insentient state. She gently stroked his stalky brown hair with her left index finger, a sense of guilt outweighing her, as well as the side of her that was still Sean Thomas.
"I'm so sorry I got you into this, lil' buddy. But I promise that I'll get you out."