It was an ordinary side street, one that was obscured by the main event beyond. Always forgotten, left with overflowing dumpsters and the occasional rat for company. Nobody ever popped by, never wanting to pay a visit. And, if they did, it was usually not out of their volition. They would have to be forced to come down this side street, all dark and hidden. Nothing remotely spectacular happened in this tiny part of the city. It was simply a thin line on a map that everyone looked past and who could blame them for that?
That was the case until fiery wisps of orange energy appeared in a circle out of nowhere.
Four people stepped out through the impossible hole, leaving the safety of the sanctum behind. The Doctor led the way, confidently striding through the portal as if it were an everyday occurrence. Frankly, it was a miracle that her clumsy nature had allowed her to use the passage without any major hiccup. Yaz did her best to copy her, always wanting to be on the same level as her. After all, she had marched through much more daunting gateways than this before. Dan, on the other hand, tripped over the bottom rung of the magical force. He would have stumbled right into one of the dumpsters if it hadn't been for Jane, who was able to use her newly acquired strength to hold him by the back of his shirt. He was just grateful that she hadn't ripped it, which would have been even more embarrassing than falling over.
Dan dusted himself off, trying to act nonchalant about the almost-accident. He gave the woman a quick smile. "Thanks for that."
"No problem." She was more interested in the portal in truth. As much as she was used to the superpowered corner of the world (and beyond), there were still plenty of things that could amaze her. And she was thankful for that fact everyday, getting to walk through life with wide eyes. Even more so ever since her inadvertent acceptance of Thor's powers.
"It's not as photogenic as I was expecting, Egypt," Yaz remarked, turning her nose up at the sight of the rubbish that hadn't quite made it to the bins. She swore she could see parts of it moving. "Maybe my expectations were too high. Or maybe this Egypt is just vastly different to the one I'm used to seeing in our world."
"Don't judge it too quickly!" the Doctor instructed her, not phased by their current grim surroundings. "Once we move onto the proper streets, you're going to be blown away. Mark my words. Egypt is gorgeous. Everyone always pictures it as a sandy wasteland thanks to those movies you humans are always watching, but it's actually one of the most vibrant cities on the planet. High-rise towers and bustling roads right next to the pyramids of old. The past, present and future all mixing into one thanks to one city. I think it's a marvel. An absolute marvel."
"I think you're secretly happy that we got put on this mission."
"There's nothing secret about it! Do you really think I'd listen to any instructions that I wouldn't want to follow? Definitely not!"
"This is where I must leave you." Wong's voice came the other side of the opening as he gave them a nod of his head. The others looked at him in parts confusion and alarm, wondering what he was talking about.
"What are you talking about?" Jane asked. It was bad enough being with people who she didn't know, but it was a whole other thing when she was with people she didn't know who were also from a completely different universe entirely. What was she supposed to talk to them about? Well, probably the fact that they were from another reality but how was she supposed to casually slip that into conversation?
"I have other business to attend to. Urgent business."
"More urgent than this?" Dan sounded sceptical, as they all were. "I thought we were going after some big multiversal threat!"
"You are, and it's very important work. But, at the moment, it's basically just research and I get enough of that in my day job. Don't worry, I'll return to you fairly soon. This just simply cannot wait. I'm already late as it is and the person waiting for me really isn't someone you want to make angry."
Before they could complain any further, the Sorcerer Supreme was closing the portal, cutting their responses off. For a few seconds, in the safety of the sanctum, he composed himself, knowing what was about to happen. He then produced yet another gateway, though this one was for a completely different destination. Checking the clock on the wall, he realised that he was even later than he first realised, choosing to jump through the hole to make it seem that he was in a rush. And it would add a certain dramatic flair that he always liked to deliver.
The room he now found himself in was devoid of all personality, all grey and metal walls. There were a few guards by the door, a thick barrier that probably wouldn't have stopped someone with his powers. A long table was set up, a row of people in sharp suits turning their heads at his arrival. Through the glass window showing the viewing room, a collection of women in white gowns and floral headpieces watched on, which should have taken up more of his attention. In truth, the giant holding cell in the centre room was the thing that drew the eye, along with the curly haired woman who was currently glaring daggers at him.
"My apologies, Miss Walters," Wong said quickly, discovering a microphone right in front of him. His aim was too good sometimes. "Emil." He got a small wave from the man residing in the cell.
"Ah, finally!" Jennifer shouted at him. She smiled in a relieved fashion at the panel of judges.
"I lost track of time," he admitted, which was an understatement. How was he supposed to remember a court date when he was dealing with more superheroes (and people from alternate universes) than could fit in Kamar Taj?
The lawyer was already getting to the point. "I…I've asked Wong here today because…he is the man responsible for Emil Blonsky leaving prison. And I do think you'll see this whole thing in a totally different light after hearing from him." The look she gave him told him that that definitely would be the case if he wanted to survive the ordeal.
Wong cleared his throat, attention now fully on him. "Have you ever heard of a kumite?" He received completely blank looks from his audience. This was going to be more difficult than he envisaged.
xxxxxxxxxx
"What was all that about?" Yaz asked, frowning at the sight where the portal had just been.
The Doctor shrugged. "Wong gives me the impression that he likes to add a dash of mystery to his presence. That must be why I like him so much. We share it in common."
"Maybe too much mystery at times," her friend grumbled, remembering all the secrets that still hadn't been properly shared.
"Did you say something, Yaz?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Now wasn't the time to be having that discussion. They had a city to explore after all.
"Does he really think that we're going to be able to find anything that actually helps our cause without him guiding us?" Dan wondered. "He's the one who came up with the idea in the first place! How are we supposed to know anything about Egyptian mythology?"
"The whole point of this trip is because we don't know a single thing about that."
The Doctor let out a small harrumph. "Speak for yourself. I know plenty about the mythology, thank you very much. I've battled my fair share of Osirans, and they acted as the foundations of Egyptian legends."
Yaz looked at her questioningly. "So you've heard of Rama-Tut before?"
"Well…" The Doctor paused, pouting in annoyance. "Not exactly . There definitely wasn't a Pharaoh named Rama-Tut back on your Earth. I definitely would have bumped into them."
"See, that's the thing!" Dan gestured heavily with his hands as if she'd proven his point. "We can't be expected to do this when we're on a completely different Earth! We're at a major disadvantage."
Yaz patted him on the back, though it was more to get him moving along rather than to encourage him. "We've gotten past bigger hurdles in the past."
"And tripped over in the process, slamming our faces into the track."
"Always the optimist."
Jane was looking at them with almost a gleam in her eye. "So…you guys are really from another universe?"
"Oh, yes," the Doctor replied. She was slightly nervous about what sort of reaction they were going to get after the tension it had initially caused in the Sanctum. She was still recovering from her dalliance with the astral plane.
"That's…brilliant! I'm going to have to interview you guys for my journal when I eventually sit down to write about these findings. If I ever get the chance." Something about her smile faltered but it was quickly put back in place. "The public will want to know how you got here, how you survived the process, how things are actually different between realities."
"We're still trying to figure out the answer to all of those questions, but I'll be sure to tell you straight away once we get an explanation."
"Did you hop between worlds or did you land on this one first?"
"Thankfully, we crash landed up in space, so we didn't cause too much damage."
"And, to be fair, it was one of her better crash landings," Yaz said. "There's been a few."
"More than there should be," Dan added. The Tardis had basically been in a perpetual state of crashing ever since he'd come aboard. He was starting to take it personally, as if the ship just didn't like him. The Time Lord hadn't given him much reassurance when she'd told him it had happened in the past to a previous companion. At least the doors hadn't been locked on him yet.
The Doctor was frowning, seemingly not too pleased that her piloting skills were being put into question. "Maybe we should focus on the job at hand, which might involve actually venturing into the city instead of remaining in this alleyway. As pleasant as this spot is." It really wasn't, but she liked to see the best in everything, usually to her detriment.
They nodded their heads, starting to walk towards the street just beyond. Once they were on the pavement, it was like being transported into another world (yet again). Whilst the ginnel had been dark and ominously quiet, the city streets of Cairo were brilliantly lit by the lights of the buildings and they were hit by a wall of noise coming from the bustling pedestrians and impatient cars beeping their homes. Traffic was a mad rush as night washed around them, people probably wanting to get home or, perhaps, heading out for a night on the town. The Doctor had never done that, hitting the streets for an alcohol-infused evening with her friends. If they hadn't had a job to do, she might have considered changing that.
"What's the plan then?" Yaz was looking at her eagerly, tasting the sense of adventure. There were untold possibilities that she had the chance to grasp.
"Our best bet is heading towards the old part of the city," the Doctor suggested, though it was more of an instruction. "Seeing as we're wanting to delve into the history books. If anyone knows anything, then it'll probably be there. But…just ask the odd person you come across about any strange events happening in the city recently. If Egypt is connected to this multiversal threat, then maybe something happened around the time that we were brought here. It's quite possible that we might catch a break."
"When does that ever happen?" Dan gave her a sceptical look.
"Our luck might change! Go on, do as you're told. I'm the boss."
"Did Wong put you in charge?"
"He didn't need to! I already am. It was a non verbal agreement."
"To be honest, I see Yaz more as my boss."
The woman in question shouted out in triumph. "Hey! That's what I like to hear! It's good to see that you're finally seeing sense after all those years you've spent with me. Don't worry, Doctor. I won't let it go to my head. And you're still my boss so…" She flashed a grin in her direction before walking away, dragging Dan with her to start their investigation.
The Doctor hummed, rather liking the sound of that. She noticed Jane standing to her side, looking more nervous than any person with her physique and aura had any right to be. "Everything okay?"
The other woman seemed relatively surprised at the question. "Me? Yeah. Just wondering what you want me to do…boss."
"You could partner up with me, seeing as those two have gone off on their own. Probably causing trouble already, knowing them."
"That sounds nice."
They made their way through the crowds slowly, initially moving in silence. Jane didn't know how to act, still feeling as if she were wandering through a dream. It had been a haze since she'd picked up the hammer, being pushed from one moment to the next. She hadn't been allowed to take any of it in from the moment it had happened, with the Captain coming into her life and whisking her away. It left her breathless, and she always worried that was a sign of her underlying illness still tearing her down from the inside.
"You're not used to your powers yet, are you?" the Doctor asked with remarkably accurate perception.
Jane gave her a weak smile. "You could say that again."
The Doctor was about to do as instructed before realising that it was just a saying. "You'll get the hang of it eventually. I think. I don't really know how superpowers work. One day, you'll wake up and you'll start carrying yourself with the confidence that you deserve."
Another smile, perhaps more genuine this time. "Thanks for the show of faith, even if you don't know me."
"Well, let's rectify that, shall we? You're a scientist, right? That's what Kamala said."
"Doctor Jane Foster…I worked for years to get that title, and all it took was a hammer to give me another one to overshadow it."
"It's a good job that I'm a sucker for a scientist." She attempted to bump her shoulder with Jane but almost bounced off with how strong her companion was. She rubbed her arm painfully. "I'd rather focus on your brilliant mind rather than your muscles, as remarkable as they are."
"I'm flattered, truly. They called you a Doctor as well…"
" The Doctor. It's a technical difference but one I like to clamp down on."
"A doctor of what exactly?"
"Loads of things. My certificates have probably expired by now. When I was working through the Academy, I tried to dabble in loads of different fields so that I knew I wasn't missing out on anything. In the end, that meant I had far too many titles to know what to do with. It'd probably take someone half an hour to properly introduce me, so I tend to just go with the one title. It streamlines everything."
"Has…anyone told you that you're a bit strange?"
"Constantly!" The Doctor had her hands on her hips. "I'm still trying to figure out where those rumours are stemming from." It was good to hear Jane laugh, even if it still wasn't as carefree as she might have liked. It was a sign that her nerves were dissipating to a degree. "I don't mean to pry…"
"I think you really do."
"It's a bad habit of mine, to be fair. But…if you're willing to talk about it…"
"That depends on what it is…"
"When you were talking to Selvig on the phone, he mentioned something about you being in the hospital. Now, you shut that down very quickly and, with everything else going on around us, the others were perfectly happy to ignore it for the time being. But I'm not that sort of person."
Jane looked at the floor, watching her feet move without her properly thinking about it. "Sometimes I wish Erik didn't have as big of a mouth but he's done too much for me in the past for me to truly curse him."
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I know how private a matter it is. It's just…I know hard it is to keep a secret from your team and, as new a team as we are, it's still going to weigh you down."
"It might actually do me some good to talk about it. Ever since this …" Jane gestured at her transformed body. "...happened, I've been able to push it to the back of my mind but that was never going to work out for long."
They continued to walk, the Doctor not pushing the subject, giving Jane the time she required to compose herself. She idly wondered where her friends had gotten to, quickly lost in the wave of people moving to and fro. Despite being in such an open space, the volume of people gave them a paradoxical sense of privacy, their conversation remaining just between the two of them. It made Jane feel more comfortable, particularly compared to the number of discussions she'd been forced to have in stale white rooms with incessantly beeping monitors.
"I've got cancer," Jane eventually admitted, ripping off the plaster. It was best to just get it over with rather than messing around. She watched as the Doctor's face fell and she expected the usual comments of sympathy that were kind but ultimately worthless. But the other woman kept looking at her patiently, knowing there was more to the tale and giving her the room to tell it how she wanted. "Terminal. Of course, it had to be terminal. As a scientist, I've spent my life believing that detailed research would always help us in the end. And yet, when I needed science the most, it was unable to help me. The only thing I had left was faith and that's why I turned to this." She lifted up Mjolnir, looking at it carefully. "It granted me these powers and gave me the sort of strength that my body shouldn't be able to cope with. I think…it's keeping me alive. I don't want to ever let go because I'm scared of what I'll find I am without it."
"I can't claim to know how mystical forces like this work…"
"I don't expect you to. I don't really know how it works. But it's given me a second chance, which is probably why I threw myself into this escapade without thinking it through. Because I don't know how long this chance is going to last."
The Doctor nodded her head slowly. "I have this friend. He had cancer too, and he was just as scared as you about it returning. He came to me for comfort once but I didn't want to give him empty platitudes to appease him. I wanted to say something truly helpful that he could cling onto. So I went away and thought about it, concocting the best message that I could think of. And I'm going to tell you the same thing I did to him, once I'd figured all that out. You're not defined by this illness. You're far greater than it because you choose to keep on fighting, despite how scared you are. And it's okay to be scared, because it's a sensation that proves that you're still alive . You're human…you're fragile and breakable…and completely magnificent because of that, because you carry on doing wonderful things despite the things trying to pull you back down. I am constantly amazed by the human race, especially as I look at you now."
Jane wiped away something that she wasn't going to admit was a tear. Superheroes didn't cry. "You should write speeches professionally."
"Eh, I've already got a day job that keeps me pretty occupied." She smiled at her companion. "Thank you for telling me."
"Thank you for not thinking less of me. People find it hard to see past the cancer at times. It's taken this sort of transformation to distract everyone from it."
"Doctor!" Yaz was hurrying towards them through the street, putting the two women on high alert.
"What is it?" The Doctor was quickly looking for signs that she'd been hurt, immediately worried about her safety. She wondered where Dan was, worried about what could be keeping him from them. "Is something wrong?"
"Not wrong, no. We might have found something. We were asking around, like you suggested. And then this guy was telling us about the stars moving out of place, the entire night sky shifting. Not to mention that a bunch of people were left dead with no explanation."
"That certainly sounds like something we should be investigating."
"Dan's watching over him whilst I came to get you. I thought you'd be able to find out some extra details."
By the time they reached Dan, however, he was alone, nervously tapping his foot against the ground. He looked rather sheepish when he spotted them approaching, particularly when Yaz's eyes went wide. She sent a glare in his direction, marching up to him with her arms crossed.
"Where is he?" she barked. "What did you do? You're making me look bad in front of the superhero!"
He held his hands out to defend himself, not that she was hitting him just yet. "Okay, hear me out. I brought him away from the street so that I could keep a better eye on him. I turned my back for one second and he was gone! Like he vanished in the night. I'm wondering if it was a teleport…or maybe he has powers too and he's involved in all of this."
"It was me," a voice said from the shadows. A woman appeared, walking tentatively towards them. Her curly brown hair framed her face, though they were more focused on the gun she was pointing at them. Jane gripped Mjolnir tighter, which the assailant picked up on straight away. "Ah ah ah," she tsked. "I don't want to start a fight. But you've been making a lot of noise since you've got here…asking questions that people tend to shy away from me…and I'm wanting answers."
The Doctor took one step forward, going against Yaz's wishes, and held her hands up in surrender. "We'll tell you whatever you want. As long as you put that gun away and tell us who you are."
"The name's Layla…and you have no idea what you're messing with."