Warning: Spoilers for Pretty Little Liars follow.
.
.
.
On the other side of the portal, it was a dark and stormy night. (Yeah, yeah, I know, but it actually was.) The town looked sad and gloomy, and creepy dolls lined every street corner. Thunder and lightning flashed in the distance.
"What kind of a place is this?" Drea asked anxiously.
"Eerie…" said Daphne.
"…Creepy…" said Matilda.
"…Ominous…" said Emmett.
"…Sounds like Bay's ideal vacation spot, am I right?" Nicholas said with a grin. Bay scowled at him in response.
In the distance, an accordion player was playing the Pretty Little Liars theme song, which nobody recognized because that show didn't air in either of their universes (because they're characters on Freeform, after all).
"Well, hel-lo, creepy accordion music!" Bay snarked.
"I'm gonna go request a new tune," said Nicholas. Once he got done talking to the accordionist, they switched from playing the Pretty Little Liars theme song to playing "My Bologna" by Weird Al Yankovic.
"Of course you would," Bay said to Nicholas. Toby explained to Daphne and Emmett what had just happened with the music.
"What? The guy's a musical genius," Nicholas replied to Bay. "And plus, it beats your emo music!"
"Just because I am emo doesn't mean I listen to emo music," Bay replied indignantly. But then with a resigned tone of voice, she immediately admitted, "Oh, who am I kidding? I love emo music."
"Guys, my GPS says we're in a town called Rosewood, Pennsylvania," said Matilda. "Not too far from Philadelphia."
"Awesome!" said Nicholas. "I always wanted to try a Philly cheese steak."
"But the only thing is, it also says the year is 2010. September 2010, to be exact."
"Aw, come on, I hate time travel! I always get motion sickness when I time travel."
"Nicholas, you've never time traveled before," said Genevieve.
"All the more reason for me to get motion sickness right now!"
Just then, four teenage girls approached our heroes, with knives drawn, as thunder and lightning flashed again in the distance.
"I hate to rain on everybody's parade," Bay said half-sarcastically, "but I think we're in trouble."
"I knew I should've stayed home today…" said Drea.
"You watch too many 90's cartoons," Matilda retorted.
"If we don't make it out of here alive," said Nicholas, "then tell my mum I love her!"
"How can we tell her if we're dead too?" said Genevieve.
"It's an expression, okay? Plus I've always wanted to say that."
The girls continued to approach cautiously, with knives still drawn.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Spencer Hastings yelled at the heroes.
"Explain yourselves!" said Aria Montgomery.
"Whoa, whoa, cool your jets," said Bay. She introduced everyone in the group, and then said, "We're here looking for some psycho blackmailer named 'A'. You heard of them?"
The Pretty Little Liars took a step back, and put their knives away.
"What do you know of 'A'?" said Emily Fields.
"Well," said Nicholas, "I know it's the first letter of the alphabet!" Genevieve elbowed him, and the Liars pulled out their knives again.
"Kidding!" he said. The Liars put their knives away again. Muttering to himself, he said, "Jeez, these girls are just like Bay."
"I heard that!" said Bay.
"But seriously," said Genevieve, "I received a threatening text from 'A', and so did two of my friends here. He/she/they were threatening to reveal some of our worst secrets. How they got their hands on the secrets is beyond me. But we followed them through a portal into this town, to try to find them, and then when we do, we end up in this town, 11 years in the past, maybe in an alternate dimension for all we know, and then we run into you guys."
"I see," said Hanna Marin. "Well, we've been getting texts from 'A' too. Ever since the mysterious death of our clique leader, Alison DiLaurentis."
"Yeah, and even after we blocked the texts," said Aria, "we still got menacing notes from 'A' and messages scrawled on our mirrors and such."
"And ever since then, we've been trying to figure out how to find 'A' and put a stop to her," said Emily.
"Well, maybe you can do that without drawing knives on literally everyone you meet?" Bay snarked. "Not everyone is Jason Voorhees, you know." Then, in her signature sarcastic tone of voice, she added, "I'm sure you guys must be a lot of fun at parties."
Spencer grabbed Bay by the collar. "Listen up, wise guy," she snapped, "I don't know who you think you are, but if you think you can come here and crack wise at us—"
"Well, technically, I'm a gal," said Bay, "so shouldn't I be a wise gal?"
Spencer angrily shoved Bay backwards. "Jeez," said Bay, "someone tell these hardcases to get a sense of humor!"
After Bay said this, Nicholas snickered at her.
"What?" she said, annoyed.
"Nothing," said Nicholas, feigning innocence.
"I'm really sorry," said Spencer. "I'm not usually like this. But we've all been on edge lately with A's constant threats against us."
"Also, we don't carry knives all the time," said Hannah, "just whenever we might need them. You never know when you might come across 'A'."
"Well," said Mingo, "how do you propose we find 'A', if you don't know who they are or how to find them?"
"Dunno," said Emily. "Get lucky, I guess?"
"It's almost like she's omniscient," said Aria. "She knows our every move."
"It must be the portal," said Toby. "She must have been using it to spy on us."
"Question: why are you all dressed so fancy?" Matilda said to the Liars. "Are you, like, rich kids or something?"
"Matilda! That's not polite," said Genevieve.
"And why are you all dressed like hipsters?" Spencer said to the Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters. "Where do you think you're from? Portland?"
"Spencer! That's not polite," said Hanna. "But…what's with that doughnut necklace, Drea? And Nicholas, would it kill you to comb your hair?"
"Oh my God! She just made fun of my hair," said Nicholas. "Why does everyone always make fun of my hair?"
"So tell us more about your friend Alison," said Matilda. "What was she like?"
"It's complicated," said Aria.
Bay rolled her eyes. "Evasive much?"
"It's complicated," said Emily.
"Is that you guys' go-to answer for everything?" said Genevieve.
"It's—" Hanna began to respond, before deciding to change her answer to, "—not simple."
The Switched at Birth and Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters all received a text from "A". It read:
"Congratulations on finding my town and meeting my 'friends'! That was the easy part. The next part won't be so easy. You better watch your backs, bitches, all of you. -A"
"Well, that sure isn't creepy at all!" said Bay.
Just then, Jenna walked by with Toby Cavanaugh. Noticing Jenna was blind, Drea felt a bit of empathy for her, as a fellow person with a disability. So she decided to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Drea."
"You don't need to introduce yourself, Drea Stevens," Jenna said in an ominous tone of voice. "I already know ALL about you."
Nervous, Drea took a step backwards. Her body language indicated she was creeped out.
"Come on, let's not antagonize them," said Toby Cavanaugh. He and Jenna moved on.
"Who's that?" said Emmett.
"Jenna Marshall, and her brother Toby Cavanaugh," said Spencer.
"For Christ's sake," said Toby Kennish, "can't I go anywhere without running into another Toby?"
"What's Jenna's deal?" asked Drea.
"Not sure. But we think she's working for 'A'," said Aria. "Be careful around her."
"All right, this whole 'A' thing was fun while it lasted," said Genevieve, "but I'm gonna do what y'all should've done, like, 20 years ago and call the cops on 'A'."
"Please don't do that," said Hanna. "The cops in this town are corrupt, and plus, if we get called as witnesses in a trial, we could be forced to testify about—"
Noticing the other Liars were staring at her, she instead said, "...never mind."
"A Mafia-type code of silence, huh? I love it!" said Nicholas. "It reminds me of the Godfather." Imitating a Godfather-type accent, he said, "Let's make 'A' an offer she can't refuse, huh?" All the Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters (plus Mingo and Hanna) giggled, whereas everybody else rolled their eyes.
"Sadly, A's the one who's been making us offers we can't refuse," said Hanna. "She knows too many of our secrets."
Just then, a figure in a black hoodie who was wearing black gloves and carrying a machete approached our heroes from behind, as thunder and lightning flashed in the distance yet again.
"Look out!" said Emily. "It's 'A'!"
As "A" raised her machete to attack the group, many of the heroes screamed. Nicholas, on the other hand, nonchalantly pulled out his smartphone and started playing "Everything You Know Is Wrong" by Weird Al Yankovic on YouTube.
Upon hearing the song, "A" dropped her machete and started running around in circles screaming, "Aaaahh! Noooo! Comedy! Get it away from me! Get it away from me!" and then ran away. Alex explained to Daphne and Emmett what had just happened.
Nicholas said to Matilda and Genevieve, "Remember, kids: the next time you visit a creepy dystopia like this one, that trick works on the villains every time."
The Liars slightly grimaced at him calling Rosewood a "dystopia", but realized he might have a point with the rest of what he had just said.
Later, the heroes ran into none other than Tellulah.
"Tellulah?! What are you doing here?!" said Genevieve.
"What do you think, dumbass? Working with 'A' to give her all your secrets, to get revenge on you for abandoning me!" The Liars looked at each other, stunned that somebody who works for "A" would actually admit to it.
"Tellulah, 'A' is outright evil," said Genevieve. "Like, the kind of villain you'd see in movies. She won't hesitate to betray you if she has the chance."
"Yep! I know, such a beautiful thing, right? Mean girls for the win!"
Facepalming, Genevieve decided to try a different tactic. "Tellulah, we outnumber you. Now, please tell us everything you know about 'A'."
"Never! You can threaten me all you want to, but I will tell you nothing! Nothing!"
Nicholas pulled out a picture of Justin Bieber in his pocket, and said, "Tell us everything or Justin here gets torn in two!"
"I like Justin Bieber too, but I'll allow that," said Hanna.
"All right, all right! I'll talk!" said Tellulah. "'A' used the portal to find me, and promised me revenge on Genevieve in exchange for joining the 'A-Team'."
"Great show!" said Nicholas. "I loved Mr. T in it."
"No, no, a different A-Team. It's what 'A' calls the people who work for her."
"Well, how did she find you?" asked Drea. "And find us?"
"Sorry, but I don't talk to losers," said Tellulah in a taunting voice.
Nicholas made one small tear in the picture of Justin Bieber.
"Okay, okay, have it your way, Drea. Yeesh," said Tellulah. "She told me she'd learned there were other dimensions out there just like her own, and that ours was one of them. And then she found the portal." After a few seconds, she added, "I'm starting to hate it here, though. TikTok doesn't exist yet, smartphones are barely a thing yet, and everybody here uses some dorky kind of cell phone called a 'Microsoft Kin'. Ugh."
"C'mon, Kins are the future!" said Hanna. "I think they're on track to become just as big as BlackBerries." Upon hearing this, all the Switched at Birth and Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters looked at each other in amusement.
"Should we tell them?" said Genevieve.
"Naaaahhhh," said Nicholas. "If they wanna be stuck 10 years behind us, then that's their problem."
"And of course TikTok exists in our time period!" Hanna added. "It's that one song by Kesha." This caused even more snickers from the Switched at Birth and Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters.
"Oh, and by the way, those dweebs from Kansas City aren't from our dimension," added Tellulah. "No idea how they ended up in ours."
"That...explains a lot, actually," said Genevieve, as it all dawned on her why the characters from Switched at Birth acted so differently than the ones from her own universe.
Observing what was happening from afar, "A" sent Tellulah a text warning her she knew Tellulah was talking to the heroes, and threatening to expose some of her secrets if she continued talking to them. But unfortunately for "A", Tellulah had put her phone on Do Not Disturb, because she had been watching porn on her phone earlier and she didn't want any texts to interrupt her, and she forgot to turn off Do Not Disturb when she was done.
"Why isn't her phone buzzing?" said 'A'. "Did she block me? That asshole! I knew I couldn't trust her!" Of course, the whole concept of Do Not Disturb was foreign to her. (Remember what Tellulah said a little while ago about smartphones...)
After a while, "A" sighed and said, "Fiiine, if I must take matters into my own hands, I will." She physically approached Tellulah and said, "Tellulah, you imbecile! You're not supposed to be telling them my secrets! What part of 'secret mission' don't you understand?"
"But they forced me to!" said Tellulah.
"And you blocked my number! You're off the A-Team."
"I didn't block it, I swear! I put it on Do Not Disturb."
"You put it on...what, now?"
"You know, Do Not Disturb! Don't they have that on the flip phones in your time period?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Oh come on! You visited my universe in my time period, and you never once thought to check out how our technology had advanced since your time?!"
The Liars then realized they had an opportunity to take down "A".
"Everyone, we have her outnumbered. Get ready to fight!" said Spencer.
The Liars pulled out their knives, the Switched at Birth characters clenched their fists, and Nicholas pulled up YouTube on his smartphone.
"You know what? Your A-Team sucks anyway!" said Tellulah. "I'm taking you down!" She then clenched her fists too.
Realizing she was outmatched—and that Nicholas had begun to play the Benny Hill theme on his phone—"A" decided it was time to run away. After Alex explained to Daphne and Emmett what kind of song was being played (and after Bay mumbled something under her breath about Nicholas), everyone chased after "A".
She was hard to catch. She ran around the block, and up and down the streets. She then tried to run towards the portal, in the hopes she might lose them after crossing through, but to no avail. Everyone else crossed through after her, and continued chasing her.
They chased her through several different Freeform universes, including The Fosters, Grown-ish, and Single Drunk Female. They even chased her through the universe of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin—not technically a Freeform show, but still a spinoff of Pretty Little Liars.
When the Original Sin version of "A" saw the original "A" being chased by a bunch of other characters to the tune of the Benny Hill theme, he watched in disbelief for a second, but then shrugged and got back to what he was doing.
Finally, when "A" crossed back into the Pretty Little Liars universe, Nicholas threw a banana peel in front of her, causing her to slip on it.
After "A" fell, Aria said, "She's down! Now's our chance to find out who she is."
When the Liars pulled back the hood, they found the face of Mona Vanderwaal. (Hey, I warned you there'd be spoilers, didn't I?)
"Mona?!" said Hanna. "My best friend Mona?! But I trusted you!"
"You need to be careful who you trust, bitch," said Mona.
Doing his best impression of Mona's voice, Nicholas said, "...And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" Everybody laughed except Mona.
"So what do we do with her now?" said Emily. "I don't trust Officer Wilden as far as I can throw him."
"Oh, I have the perfect idea, trust me," said Nicholas. "When we're done with her, she'll wish she was in jail!"
Bay shook her head, but Nicholas knew he had an ace in the hole.
"Mona Christine Vanderwaal, I am so ashamed of you!" Nicholas' mom Penny said to Mona over a video call, back in 2021 at Nicholas' house.
"My middle name isn't Christine," said Mona.
"I don't give a rat's ass what your middle name is. You're almost 16! You should know better than to do this kind of crap. What would your parents think of this? You do realize blackmail is a serious crime, right? When I was your age, one of my friends tried to blackmail me, and I wouldn't have any of it. I reported her to the principal, and she got expelled. Expelled! Is that really the life you want for yourself? And don't even get me started on the time my ex tried to blackmail me. He thought it would be funny to post my nude photos on the Internet, but what he wasn't counting on was that I'd have dirt on him too."
Penny continued on and on with personal anecdotes to the point where Mona started to fall asleep. When she finally woke up, she was so tired of being bored to death that she said, "Okay, okay, I get it! I'll turn my life around and put all this behind me."
"You'd better. Because if you don't, then we're gonna have another talk."
"Okay, fine."
Aria approached the heroes from the other two shows, and said, "We can't thank you enough. Our town is a lot safer thanks to you."
"Eh, don't mention it," said Genevieve. "But who knew having a goofball brother would actually come in handy?"
Just then, a Postal Service truck and an ice cream truck drove past the house while street-racing with each other, and a mime ran down the street being chased by a mob of angry clowns.
"What kind of a Mickey Mouse world is this?" said Spencer.
Unfazed by the shenanigans, Bay replied, "You get used to it after a while."
"Hey, at least it's better than your world," Matilda said to Spencer.
"Touché," said Spencer.
"Well, we should probably get home now," said Emily. "And take Mona with us."
"It was nice meeting you!" said Daphne. "And I'm glad we were able to help."
The Liars crossed through the portal back into their own universe, taking Mona with them.
After they did so, Tellulah stood up and said to Genevieve, "We may have been allies during the fight with 'A', but that's over now! We are enemies once again! Enemies, I say! I swear to Bieber I will get my revenge on you yet!"
"'Kay," said Genevieve nonchalantly.
"What 'A' did is child's play compared to what I'm planning to do to you!"
"'Kay," Genevieve said nonchalantly again.
"If you see a bag of ladybugs mysteriously appear on your porch, then I hope that teaches you a lesson for betraying me!"
"You do realize my brother's an entomologist, right? And that everyone loves ladybugs?"
"Fine then! If you want hardcore, then I can play A's game instead! I'll threaten to out Matilda as autistic to her entire family!"
Nicholas cracked up laughing. "You think they don't know that already?"
"Just give it up already," Genevieve said to Tellulah.
"This is not over, Moss! I will be back! And I know where you live!"
"...Which you say in the actual house where we live," Genevieve retorted.
"It's an expression!" Tellulah paused a second before saying, "You're no fun," and stormed out of the house.
"Man, with enemies like these, who needs friends?" said Nicholas. All the other Everything's Gonna Be Okay characters laughed.
Bay went up to Nicholas and said, "Look, I know you're probably surprised I'm approaching you without a torch and pitchfork in my hands, and I can't believe I'm saying this either, but...I think you're all right after all."
"Coming from Bay, that's a pretty high compliment," said Toby Kennish.
"Awwww, you really do like me!" said Nicholas. "Hopefully only as a friend, though, 'cause you do know I'm gay, right? And I'm taken?" Bay giggled. (Yes, I'm just as surprised as you are she laughed at him.)
Genevieve whispered in Nicholas' ear.
"And, to return the compliment," Nicholas said to Bay, "well...I love your snark. I love how you go snarkety-snark over everyone that pisses you off. Hopefully you only do it to people that deserve it, though, 'cause if you do it to people that don't, well, that's just wrong."
"Well," said Bay, "I can assure you there's no shortage of people in my life that deserve it."