Author's Note: City of Heroes still belongs to Paragon Studios.
Catherine looked up at the building facade in front of her, then down at the business card in her hand, then back up at the Portal Corporation sign once more. She had been there once before, but that had been with Ophelia and Harrison the day after she had been discharged from the hospital, but it was another thing entirely trying to get there herself. She took a deep breath and held it, then released it slowly. No use in bringing back that particular memory. There was no mistaking it though, this was the place all right.
She took a deep breath, tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her right ear, and unthinkingly attempted to open the door with her right hand, eliciting a grimace as she belatedly remembered her sprained wrist. With an exasperated sigh she tucked the small black fabric purse that had been part of the clothing bundle donated to her earlier in the week by the EUPTF under her right arm and opened the door with her left. Inside she was greeted with a blast of cool air, a welcome change from the high heat and humidity of the summer day outdoors.
She slowly made her way to a desk with an 'Information' sign above it, soaking in the atmosphere. Doors slid aside without a sound as men and women in lab coats or business suits walked through on their way to their destination. Almost everyone carried a briefcase or an air of importance; more than a few carried both.
The Information Desk itself was made of burnished metal and polished glass. A pleasant-looking redheaded woman in a neatly tailored suit sat behind it. As Catherine approached, looking vaguely lost amongst the hubbub, the secretary looked up from her computer and smiled warmly.
"Welcome to Portal Corp! How can I help you, ma'am?"
Catherine handed the woman the business card she'd been given. "I have an appointment to see Harrison Jones at one thirty."
The redhead glanced at it and nodded. "Take a seat, and I'll notify Mr. Jones that you're here."
Catherine dutifully sat in the black leather chair the secretary, whose name tag indicated her name was Stephanie, pointed out, and started to shuffle through the magazines neatly stacked to one side. Some were technical journals well above her head, while others were dedicated to superheroes, while still others were the lifestyle magazines she'd always hated.
She fished through them slowly, separating the ones focused on superheroes from the mix. One in particular caught her eye- on the cover was a picture of Manticore, and splashed below it in rather large print was 'Hero of the Year!' Must be more about that thing with Crey, she thought. Before she could take more than a cursory glance at the inside of the magazine Harrison walked up to the desk, the tall man dressed again in khakis and a blue shirt.
Catherine levered herself from the chair and shook his proffered hand. He winced and clutched his hand in mock pain. "You have a strong handshake." She snorted a laugh as he continued. "If you'll come with me, I'll show you to my office." He walked towards the same door he had come through at a casual saunter. "How has life been treating you so far?"
She thought for a long moment, trying to sort through her feelings. "This whole place is amazing… superheroes really exist! Heroes and Villains and epic battles and…" She stopped mid-sentence when she noticed the look Harrison was giving her. "I'm sorry, it's just… this is the stuff of comics books in my universe. It's all so different."
There was a pause in the conversation as Harrison took them left around a corner, then up a flight of stairs.
"You've come to understand that you aren't in your own universe, then?"
Catherine winced, remembering her reaction after Ophelia had checked every database she had access to, searching for her Social Security number or a person otherwise recognizable as her and found nothing. "I'm going to have to apologize to Ophelia," she muttered, her cheeks turning faintly red.
Harrison stopped and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It was an understandable reaction. I can't say I would have done anything different, had I been in your shoes. And with any luck, we'll be able to get you home today."
She sighed and shook her head.
He smiled warmly and started out down the hallway again. "Come on, we're nearly there. In fact… here we are." He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, which was an old-fashioned wooden one and not one of the many on a motion sensor. It had the initials 'EUPTF' done in silver lettering displayed prominently on it.
The office itself was smaller than she had expected, and very neat. Two overstuffed chairs faced a desk with knickknacks and family pictures displayed in a row, and an electronic device inset into it that took Catherine a second look to realize was even a computer.
Harrison gestured to the closest chair. "Take a seat."
Catherine did so gratefully, sinking a bit into the cushion. He seated himself in his own leather office chair, then opened a drawer and pulled out a file with her name on it, then handed it to her. She took it and began leafing through the paperwork as Harrison explained.
"The paperwork you have there lists the risks of the procedure you may undergo today, pending the results of your tests. You don't need to sign it now, not until our technicians are able to locate the universe you came from."
Catherine leafed through the paperwork, looking through everything thoroughly. Unlike most of the legal paperwork she had signed before, this was understandable, if a bit dry. It seemed simple enough- the Extra-Universal Persons Task Force, a division of Portal Corps, would attempt to find what universe she had come from, using their own equipment and a detailed questionnaire that she had filled out on her first trip to Portal Corps.
After that rather vague description came a list of possible side effects. The list was rather impressive, spanning from 'death', and 'inter-dimensional division of the psyche' to 'unintentional transfer into a non-origin universe'. That was enough of that, she thought.
Harrison watched with a raised eyebrow as Catherine opened her purse and began to look through it. After a moment she found what she was looking for- a pen. She took a deep breath, let it out, then flipped to the last page of the contract where there was a line for her signature and that of a witness. She carefully laid the folder on her lap, then signed on the dotted line. No point in waiting.
She closed the folder and held it out for Harrison, who nodded. "Done."
"As long as you don't have any questions, I'll take you down to the lab and we'll get things started."
Catherine shook her head and Harrison nodded again. He stood, edged around the side of his desk, and opened the door for her. She followed him out into the hallway, then waited as he relocked the door. He set off at a brisk pace down the hallway, folder in hand, and Catherine had to take a couple of long strides to catch up with him.
The two made it most of the way down the hallway in silence before Catherine frowned, having just thought of something. "I do have one question for you. Val- did she make it back? I haven't seen her at The Gardens in a couple of days."
He ran his hand through his short brown hair and smiled. "She did, yesterday."
"That's good. I'm glad she's home. She was so worried about her daughter…" She sighed, a wave of homesickness welling up. It went away after a moment, like it always did, but the thought of how much her parents had to be panicking at the disappearance of their only daughter stuck with her. After all, she was supposed to have met with them the same night she'd been kidnapped into the completely wrong universe. She held her breath for a long minute, trying to get herself back under control. There was no point breaking down into tears in front of a relative stranger.
After more turns around various corners Catherine had lost any sense of where they were in relation to anything else, Harrison stopped in front of a very heavy looking variation on the doors she had seen throughout the whole building. These didn't apparently have a motion sensor, as the doors stayed shut even as the duo stood directly in front of them.
Harrison opened a panel on the wall, then placed his hand on the scanner on the inside. The doors slid apart with only the slightest sound of pneumatics, and revealed a room so amazing it took her breath away. In the center of the far wall, surrounded by scaffolding, was a circular ring that reached almost all of the way to the ceiling. Inside the ring... something swirled and a low hum that she could feel in her chest emanated from it.
She drifted a few feet farther into the room and leaned out over the railing that edged the upper deck, only half aware she was even doing so, trying to take in everything at once. Half a dozen scientists wearing lab coats and carrying clipboards were clustered near what had to be the portal, talking animatedly and taking notes. Along both of the side walls were banks of what she assumed were computers, with yet more people in lab coats here and there smoothly operating them.
Catherine jumped and whirled around, breathing quickly, as someone tapped her on the shoulder. Taken slightly aback by the reaction, Ophelia stared, mouth agape.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
Catherine blushed faintly. "Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you either." Before Ophelia could say anything else, she turned and gestured towards the whole room. "This is amazing. Is that the portal?"
Ophelia smiled and looked inordinately proud of herself. "It is, one of many Portal Corp. has under its control.
This particular one is under my jurisdiction as the head of the Extra-Universal Persons Task Force.
It's ready for use now, so if you'll come this way…" Ophelia pointed towards the closest ramp leading to the floor.
Catherine nodded and followed a step behind, looking around as she did so, trying to take in everything at once. She'd seen bits and pieces of the evidence over the course of the last week, but that room was proof the universe she had landed in was far, far more technically advanced than the one she belonged to. She was sure that quite a few scientists would give an arm or a leg to be able to take apart even the most casually used piece of equipment there.
Ophelia led Catherine and Harrison to a cubicle tucked away underneath the suspended walkway the two had entered on. It was much quieter there behind the barrier, and Catherine looked at Ophelia questioningly.
"The walls in this area are lined with a material that absorbs not only vibration, but any energy put out by the portal when it's active. This way we can get an accurate reading with our scans. Now, if you're ready to begin?"
Catherine opened her mouth, then closed it again as words temporarily failed her. The thought of finally being able to end the nightmare of being in the wrong universe was nearly overwhelming, but so was the thought that if it didn't work she would be trapped forever. After a long pause, she nodded. "I'm ready."
Ophelia smiled and pulled a hand-held scanner that looked for all the world like something out of Star Trek out of a drawer and turned it on. It beeped long and low, causing the elder woman to scowl at it and begin to type, fingers flying over the display. Catherine watched, bemused, as after a minute or so the scowl turned to a satisfied smile.
"OK, it's ready. All I need you to do is stand right here, up against the barrier, so I can get as clean a scan as possible."
Catherine did as she was instructed, her heart rate and breathing picking up. Harrison, ever present, picked up on it quickly from his position in a leather rolling chair a few feet away.
"Relax. I know this must seem like the end of the world is looming, but it's not. Ophelia here is the head of the technical side of the Task Force for a reason- she's the best technician we've got. If she can't do it, no one can."
Catherine smiled thinly and took a deep breath. Easy for him to say. There was nothing for it though. "I'm ready as I'll ever be."
Ophelia nodded and held the device at Catherine's head, then slowly swept it down her body, all the while beeping methodically. She repeated his twice more, then pressed a few more buttons, and it stopped beeping.
She set the scanner down into an inset holder on the console next to her, then turned towards Catherine.
"You can relax now; that was the hard part. Now all there is to do is wait for the computer to match your universal signature to one of the dozen or so we've preliminarily identified as possibly being your universe of origin.
I have to say, the universe you've described is fascinating. Most of what we see are variations on our own- worlds in which various villain factions that are kept in check here by heroes conqueror everything there, things of that nature. Yours, on the other hand, has no heroes, no magic, no villains…"
Catherine shrugged and shook her head, feeling compelled to defend her version of Earth. "We've gotten along just fine without magic," she said, "and we've got heroes of our own, who don't even need superpowers."
Ophelia put up her hands placatingly and got as far as "I'm sorry," before the computer behind her toned and she turned her attention back to her work. Catherine raised her eyebrows at the back of Ophelia's head and glanced over at Harrison, who smiled.
Catherine watched over Ophelia's shoulder as she flew through screens and menus so fast the refugee could barely make one out before another came up. After a few minutes the elder woman sighed and removed the scanner from its slot. "I need to scan you one more time. There seems to be some sort of energy interfering with the readings, but it's not coming from the portal. You aren't carrying anything that emits radiation, are you?"
The younger woman tried not to look at Ophelia as if she'd grown another head. "No, not as far as I'm aware."
Ophelia nodded, oblivious to Catherine's tone of voice, and repeated the process one more time. Not having anything better to do, Catherine stared cross-eyed at the scanner each time it rose to eye level. This time, Ophelia didn't even turn around, her full attention on the downloaded information scrolling down the screen.
Harrison stood and clasped Catherine on the shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly. She let out a deep breath and leaned back against the barrier behind her. "Everything will be fine."
Catherine smiled halfheartedly and wished for something to do besides wait and see. Mom and Dad are probably panicking right about now. The thought sprang unbidden into her mind. I was supposed to have brunch with them that weekend. And I've probably lost my job, too…
The sound of the tone from the computer brought Catherine out of her reverie. She could feel the beginnings of tears forming, but she fought them back. Crying would get her nowhere, but the looks on Ophelia's face was almost enough to put her over the edge.
"There's something wrong, isn't there," she said flatly.
Ophelia took a moment before speaking. "The energy interference I mentioned a moment ago is magical in nature; most likely you absorbed it when you were brought here by the Circle of Thorns. It's… very strong magic, so strong in fact that the universal frequency recorder can't divorce it from your own signature." She sighed. "I'm so sorry, but we can't send you home."