Chapter 2 The Mission
Disclaimer: The universes and the characters these are based on all belong to Marvel.
"Well," said the Timebroker. "Introductions first or the mission. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo... You're the leader, Ruckus. For now. After a while, you can change, make whatever decisions you want."
"How about the mission?"
"Okey-dokey. Long story short, you're from different realities. Different universes. Time, for a number of reasons, has gotten messed up, and the entire multiverse is in chaos. If we don't fix things as best as we can, the resulting chain reaction may destroy entire universes. Other universes will be made into living hells. Still others will suffer minor but unpleasant consequences. The further this chain reaction proceeds, the worse things will get."
The Timebroker walked over to a candy counter that had just appeared. "Candy, anyone?"
"Sure," said Creed. He helped himself to a large assortment of chewy candies.
"Some of these threads are at least partially correctable. And certain people are nexi... or nexuses, if you will. They have the special ability to correct the specific changes in other timelines... although not their own, and thus to save significant portions of the multiverse from destruction or devastation."
"That is us?" asked Ruckus.
"Exactly. And, as a result, you have been taken out of your times to help fix things. It's an automatic response, you understand, and I am just a figment of your imaginations - your collective imaginations - come here to explain what you already know. I am not real, this place isn't real, this candy, tasty as it may be, is not real," he pointed at Creed, "and you have to understand, there is no intelligence behind this. God has set the multiverse on autopilot, if you will, and this is all as basic as the laws of nature!"
"So we are supposed to set timelines right?" asked Ruckus.
"Not entirely. It would be impossible to set things along their original path, but you can set them back close enough to minimize the damage, and in so doing, get your own realities back."
"What do you mean?" asked Tyrone.
The Timebroker smiled. "Now, for introductions!"
"Tyrone Johnson. Energy vampire and teleporter. The dark entity known as Cloak." A book magically appeared and showed the young Tyrone Johnson. "Experimented on and turned into a black void along with his fiancee, Tandy Bowen, on what was supposed to be their wedding night. She, of course, became a creature of light. Together they fight vigilante missions against all who prey on others, particularly against the military junta of Canada, which has decimated the population of the Great Lakes region of the U.S. While trying to keep order, they also fight to maintain freedom and to prevent their own government from imposing martial law and destroying the United States in the process."
As the Timebroker spoke, the images kept changing. Now the page turned, and a completely new set of images appeared.
"Katherine 'Kat' Marko. After her half-sister Charlene Xavier began to rally the mutants of the world to destroy the wild-type humans (A/N wild-type = non-mutant), she sought help from the president of Egypt, Amahl Farouk, in finding the ancient Oracle En Sabah Nur, the only one said to know the location of the Gem of Cyttorak. Finding it, she absorbed its power and became the Juggernaut, but En Sabah Nur paid for the help with his life, taken by her sister.
"Her entire life, Kat has sought to reconcile wild-types and mutants, being somewhat outside the categories of either. Along the way, she has lost many lovers, and been heartbroken to discover the curse of Cyttorak - sterility. Nonetheless, along with Fred Dukes, St. John Allerdyce, Scott Summers, and Logan, she has won many fights against Professor. X, and her realm is slowly becoming tolerant of mutants."
The page turned again.
"On most universes, Magneto and Professor X are enemies, with one or the other fighting to destroy wild-types. On the world that Ruckus inhabits, both are united in a quest to destroy not just humans, but any mutant unworthy of life and advancement in their eyes. Led by Apocalypse, both Charles Xavier and Erica Lensherr were well on their way to destroying the last bastion of humanity, Africa, when one of Apocalypse's old henchmen, Nathaniel Essex, intervened. Along with his marauders, his team of "Nasty Boys" managed to push him back and to retake Europe and Asia. The few humans who remained in concentration camps were freed. One of them, Wilson Fisk, began trying to vie for power in the post-Apocalyptic world, but Ruckus and Gorgeous George managed to kill him before he gave Europe back to Apocalypse."
"And Cloak took his place!" grumbled Ruckus.
"Not this Cloak," said the Timebroker.
The page turned again. "Anyhow, in Graydon Creed's world, the Nazis have taken over all of Europe and Africa. Hitler was assassinated soon after, and his second-in-command, a Johann Schmidt, took over the Nazi Empire.
"Fleeing the Red Skull's persecution for their political views, Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme managed to make it to America, and there she gave birth to Graydon.
"Graydon was born with a muscle-wasting disease, and in a last-ditch attempt to save him, Tony Stark gave him a cybernetic body that replaced much of his musculature and which helped to heal the rest. Today he fights to protect Asia and the rest of the world from the menace of the Red Skull, using the enhanced strength and magnetic capabilities his cybernetic half affords him.
"But the one group the Nazis does not persecute are mutants - as long as they tow the line. And Graydon must face the Red Skull's right-hand mutant on many occasions - his own half-brother, Kurt Schmidt, the Red Skull's adoptive son and his own half-brother."
The page turned again. "Jessica Maldebank was a normal human living in a relatively peaceful world. That is, until Mr. Sinister captured her and used genetic manipulation to give her the combined powers of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, and Havok. She was mind-controlled for several years and spent the time preparing to create an evolutionary cataclysm, until rescued by Spider-Man, whom she took as a lover, and who helped her to find and take out Mr. Sinister once and for all."
The Timebroker looked at the last member of the team.
"Raven Darkholme II, also known as Rubique, comes from a dark world where mutants and wild-types are at all-out war. With the Earth's population down to half a billion, she has fought both sides and wants to produce peace for all peoples. She was conceived when her mother, Raven Darkholme I, was raped by Scott Summers in retaliation for her sympathizing with wild-types. Her mother killed herself when Raven II was four, and now she lives to avenge her mother on her father as well as to gain peace for the world as a whole."
The Timebroker looked at them all. "There you have it. All of you are willing to bend the rules, to do what you think is right. The universes you will be sent to are those that no one know how to deal with. Ones that you can't get specific instruction on. Not like the other groups."
"Other groups?" asked Creed.
"Never mine. I never said anything." The Timebroker looked at them all.
"You will sent to set things right in other universes. Succeed in enough universes, and you will be sent back to your timelines, which will be more or less like you left them. Fail, and you will also be sent back, but they will be vastly changed. Except for Rubique."
"Why not me?" asked Rubique.
"Let me explain. In the altered timelines," said the Timebroker, "Cloak, Canada takes over half of the US, and the other half is turned into a police state. Eventually, one hundred million people die. Kat, you never become the Juggernaut and all of humanity- wild-type and mutant - are destroyed. Ruckus, Dr. Essex is destroyed early on and Apocalypse takes over the world. Creed, the Nazis take over the entire eastern hemisphere and you lose your parents to your half-brother Kurt. Mongrel, Spider-Man dies and you never leave Sinister's grasp. Rubique, your reality collapses on itself and its entire existence will be erased. Fail, and these altered realities await you."
"And if we die? And if we fix some universes, will our realities be put partially right?" asked Ruckus.
"So many questions and so few answers!" said the Timebroker. "Oompa-loompa, it's time to go!"
Blackness filled the field, and they disappeared.