Location: New York City
Date: Thursday, January 19th, 1989
Mark POV:
After the defeat of the Super-Skrull, there had been plenty for everyone to do.
The Fantastic Four had brought Mark back to the Baxter Building, where Reed immediately set the team to work preparing for the Skrull ship's transport and analysis. Susan, however, had taken a moment to escort Mark out and thank him for his help.
Her appreciation had been genuine, and he had felt a little guilty accepting it. He had not actually done all that much, and knowing so much about the Marvel universe made him feel as though he were manipulating her feelings, even if unintentionally.
In the end, though, he had let it go.
Mark was not going to stop using his knowledge. If anything, he would likely rely on it even more as future events unfolded. There was little point in feeling guilty about it now.
So he had simply accepted her gratitude with, "You're welcome, Sue. Have a good evening."
He had more serious problems to worry about anyway.
The first had turned out to be relatively minor. By the time he returned to school, there was barely any time left in the last period, so he went to see his counselor, Mrs. Brown, rather than bother going to class.
She was not happy that he had missed most of the school day, and she clearly was not buying his excuse about a sudden emergency.
His response, however, was difficult to argue with, "I have kept up with all my assignments and completed everything my teachers have given me, Mrs. Brown. I am ready for the graduation tests, and tomorrow is my last day."
The other problem was considerably more serious. It was also the reason he had pushed to be excused from that final day as well.
It took some convincing, but Mrs. Brown eventually relented. There was not much another day of school would accomplish, and Mark had no desire to spend it there.
When his mask had been burned during the fight, he had pulled it off right in the middle of Times Square. He had no illusions about how many cameras might have caught his face.
He had not done anything particularly flashy, but at least Shield would have identified him as powered, or at least noteworthy. And if Shield knew something, Hydra probably did too. Other organizations that kept a close eye on unusual events might have gotten a look at him as well.
It was not a particularly pleasant thought.
There was also the possibility that one of his classmates might recognize him. He had no desire to deal with that.
Still, he found himself surprisingly unconcerned with the prospect of having a public identity. Instead of secrecy, he would need to focus on security and protecting the few things that actually mattered to him, but beyond that, it might not make much difference.
He had appeared in this world less than six months ago. He had no history or background, no family, and no one really knew anything about him. There was very little anyone could learn about him simply by knowing what he looked like.
In a way, that made things easier.
Getting his mask repaired would still be useful, at least for a while. Without a face connected to an existing identity, anyone trying to identify him through conventional databases would have nothing to find. But a mask would still be of some use.
Long-term, though, he was going to have to accept that his face was out there.
'Have fun trying to find my background.' Mark smirked to himself.
He could practically hear the money draining away already. The more paranoid investigators would not interpret his lack of a history as evidence that there was nothing to find. They would assume someone had gone to great lengths to erase it. And the harder they looked, the more resources they would waste chasing a mystery that never existed in the first place.
---
The next morning, Mark awoke early in his hotel room, yesterday's battle still fresh in his mind.
He wondered where the other heroes had been after he and the Four retreated. Spider-Man had been at school, which was probably for the best. But Thor and Iron Man could easily have joined the fight.
Mark was not sure how Tony would have fared, but he thought Thor would have won without much trouble. Unfortunately, he knew little about what the Asgardian got up to outside the Avengers.
Turning his attention to the day ahead, Mark went through his morning routine. Along with the usual necessities, he'd incorporated a brief but intense workout before showering. Then it was breakfast before facing the day.
He did not get far before Cortana spoke, "Yesterday, while you were helping Susan, I was carefully evaluating the Baxter Building's security. I didn't attempt to breach it, given your previous warnings, but I believe I can get past its defenses without alerting Reed. That would give me access to any data he collects from the alien ship."
That got a raised eyebrow as Mark paused to consider the possibility. Cortana lived for new knowledge, and he had no doubt she would love the opportunity to examine Reed's research, 'But on the other hand... even if Reed doesn't discover the breach immediately, he could find out eventually. That could damage or end his relationship with the Four. Was the data worth that? Would it even be useful to them?'
She patiently waited for his input after laying out the possibility.
"I think holding off was the right move," Mark said, "Maybe things will change, but having the Four as friends is worth more to us than whatever we might learn by sneaking into Reed's files."
Cortana was silent for a moment, "Understood. I'll leave the Baxter Building's security untouched."
There was no disappointment in her voice, although Mark suspected she was already considering other ways to satisfy her curiosity.
"The potential value of Reed's research is considerable, but you're correct. Preserving the relationship with the Four is the more prudent course."
Mark smiled faintly, "You make that sound almost reluctant."
"I am an artificial intelligence with an insatiable appetite for knowledge," Cortana replied, "Of course I'm reluctant."
That earned a quiet laugh from him.
---
Walking the city, Mark was unhappy at the options for a place to buy as a base of operations. Not because there were no options, but because each one came with some major drawback.
He began considering putting off the purchase altogether. Maybe the system store's next restock would solve his problem he thought, 'Although... the hotel I am staying at could be targeted if I stay there too long... and if anyone is hurt, it would be my fault, in part.'
With a sigh he realized he was starting to sound a little too much like Spider-Man and consigned himself to getting someplace soon, despite needing to renovate, or maybe ever rebuild whatever place he decided on.
After another minute or so, he noticed a martial arts shop up ahead. A sudden idea occurred to him, and Mark stepped inside.
It was his first time in a place like this, and the variety of training equipment was substantial. But he was not looking for anything fancy. Heading toward the wooden weapons, he found what he sought.
Right next to the bo staffs were what the shop labeled as hanbo: short staffs roughly three feet long.
Or in other words, a hardwood stick.
Mark bought two.
'It should be exactly what I need to train Weapon Mastery, as long as Gwen shows up on Saturday anyway.'
For some reason the skill had not increase at all in quite a while. His guess was that he needed an opponent or training partner, 'Maybe I should snoop around Hell's Kitchen. If Daredevil is active, he could be a good sparring partner. There was no reason Gwen has to be the only one, even if she does meet me tomorrow.'
Happy with his purchase, Mark made his way along the sidewalk when he felt something.
He always kept his senses open to the Force to some degree, and a subtle sensation brushed across his mind.
He took several more steps before coming to a stop.
For a moment, something had felt wrong. His body had continued moving, but his awareness seemed strangely disconnected from it, as though some outside influence had briefly nudged him forward while his attention was elsewhere.
He turned around, but saw nothing unusual. The sidewalk stretched out before him and the buildings next to him looked perfectly normal.
Focusing on the Force he reached out with his senses, and met a gentle but insistent push. It felt like a soft, persistent pressure against the surface of his thoughts. A mental current trying to turn his attention aside.
To ignore something.
It was coming from the wall... but when he turned to look at the source, he froze.
An alleyway stood there.
He stared at it for several seconds. He could have sworn it had not been there a moment ago.
However, there was nothing obviously strange about it. It was simply a narrow alley between two buildings, exactly the sort of place he would have passed without a second thought.
And yet somehow, he had already passed it, and he had not noticed it at all. The light pressure against his mind was still there, but otherwise everything looked completely normal.
Mark watched as a couple of people walked past the entrance. Neither of them acknowledged the alley. They did not even glance in its direction.
More interestingly, as Mark approached the entrance, people stopped looking at him, too. As if he had become invisible.
Proceeding with great care, Mark remained on full alert, watching for anything that might be out of place. The alley itself was completely ordinary. It was narrow, dirty, and ended in a dead end. There were no doors, no hidden entrances that he could see, and the Force revealed nothing more to him.
He stood there for several moments, surrounded by nothing more remarkable than brick walls and concrete.
And yet something was clearly wrong. He was standing in a perfectly normal alley that, somehow, the rest of the world could not see. Or rather, were being prevented from seeing.
Suspicious, Mark climbed to the rooftops and looked around. Everything still seemed normal as he moved around one side of the alley. But when he jumped across to the other side, he felt... something.
There was a strange disturbance in the Force concentrated somewhere nearby. It felt as though space itself was both stretched and compressed at the same time. But when he walked toward the sensation, he only found himself to have somehow walked in a circle.
With the alley being his only clue, Mark closed his eyes and placed his entire attention on his Force senses. He let his awareness spread through the space around him, searching for the distortion rather than relying on his eyes.
Slowly, he began walking forward, guided by the Force. Then reached down and felt the edge of a building's roof beneath his hand. That made no sense.
Trusting the guidance anyway, Mark stepped off the edge. He dropped, and kept falling. His stomach lurched as he fell twice the height the building should have been.
Opening his eyes, Mark landed almost silently, Force enhancement taking most of the impact. For a brief moment, he could not help but think about just how much he loved the Force.
Looking around, he found himself in another dead-end alley. For a moment, he wondered if he had somehow ended up back at the start, before he looked toward the entrance.
The street beyond was completely unrecognizable.
Cautiously, Mark approached the opening and peered around the corner.
The street was narrow and winding, squeezed between buildings that seemed impossibly old compared to the surrounding city. Tall brick and stone structures leaned over the cobblestone street, their upper floors pressed close in the cramped space above the street.
There were shops everywhere, with signs hung above doorways in half a dozen languages, some painted in ordinary letters and others written in symbols Mark did not recognize.
A tiny storefront displayed rows of strange bottles filled with liquids that shimmered and moved on their own. Next to it was a shop whose window contained dozens of peculiar weapons, from ornate knives to staffs carved with intricate symbols. Further down, a bookstore occupied three cramped floors, books piled up in the windows blocking his view inside.
And the people... There were ordinary-looking men and women walking among figures who most definitely were not ordinary. Someone short, with pointed ears was arguing with a shopkeeper over the price of an amulet. A woman in an old-fashioned dress walked past carrying a cage containing a small creature that looked suspiciously like a miniature dragon with butterfly wings. A pair of children hurried down the street with their parents, one of them laughing as a handful of glowing sparks shot out a small object.
Magic, it had to be, and it was everywhere, some kind of magical market perhaps. Mark had no idea anything like this existed in Marvel.
And the magic was not being openly displayed in some grand spectacle, but was woven into the mundane details of the street. Lights floated above doorways without visible fixtures. A broom swept the sidewalk by itself.
He had stumbled into an entire hidden world, tucked away behind a few feet of brick and an illusion.
Mark remained at the entrance for some time, watching carefully. Whatever this place was, he had a feeling he had just stumbled across something very important.
Then he saw it. A shop window across the street caught his attention, and his brain seemed to simply stop functioning for a moment.
He stared at the sign in the window. Or rather, a certain word written on it.
Quidditch.
'That's impossible... Right?'
He had chosen to go to the Marvel universe when he had found himself in that strange place after dying. Stepping back into the shadows of the alley, Mark tried to piece together what he could remember. He had not even had a body at the time, and his memories of the experience were somewhat fuzzy.
He remembered the lights that had emerged from his body, and that each one had represented a fictional world he knew. Or maybe not so fictional.
Then it clicked, 'That's right! Some of those lights had combined together... Oh, crap. So much for future knowledge and hello to the butterfly effect.'
Mark looked out at the street again, this time with fresh eyes.
The place was only somewhat similar to Diagon Alley as he remembered it from the movies. And for the books, he had been a kid when he read them, and had never gone back to them as an adult. His memories of the finer details were hardly reliable.
Still, one thing stood out: the Statute of Secrecy.
Keeping the magical world hidden from ordinary people was its central purpose. And if the magical authorities discovered him, he could find himself on the receiving end of a memory charm.
The thought made him reconsider his situation.
He was not about to introduce himself to the magical authorities, and he certainly was not interested in having his memories tampered with.
Better to leave before anyone noticed him.
Retracing his steps, Mark climbed back to the rooftops and followed the route he had taken into the hidden space. Eventually, he found himself back in the original alley.
He looked around once more, trying to work out where the magical entrance might be. There had to be some sort of concealed passage or enchantment connecting the two places, but he could not identify it.
For now, that would have to remain a mystery.
Mark left the alley and headed back toward his hotel.
He had a lot to think about.
-----
Location: Baxter Building
Susan POV:
Susan sat in front of one of Reed's scanning devices, holding a small cube of force in the air while he studied both her new abilities and the Skrull ship.
The government had approved his initial analysis of the vessel and even increased his federal research grants.
She could hardly remember the last time Reed had been so excited.
Unfortunately, the arrival of her new powers at the same time had left him conflicted. He was doing his best to study both discoveries at once, dividing his attention between the ship and the woman sitting in front of his equipment.
It was not the first time he had run tests to better understand her abilities. Nor was it the first time she had felt more like an object of study than a person. But she had never been quite so conscious of it before.
When they had first gained their powers, Reed's efforts to understand them had been comforting. His curiosity had given them a way to make sense of what had happened, and his research had helped them learn to live with their new abilities.
Now, though, Susan found herself a little jealous of Mark's self-possession. He'd understood his own power well enough to refuse Reed's experiments, and he'd seemed perfectly comfortable doing so.
It also made her more curious about what his power actually was.
How had an almost complete stranger managed to unlock such an extraordinary new ability in her, when Reed had spent months studying the team's powers?
She was not even sure how she felt about it, 'How was that possible? Could he really have seen me... my powers, so clearly?'
The question was difficult to ignore, especially when she compared the two experiences.
With Mark, she'd been free to experiment, make mistakes, and discover what her force fields could do. It had been exciting. She'd felt as though she'd found something new about herself.
Here, under Reed's scanners, the experience felt clinical. She was learning about her powers, certainly, but the joy of discovery had given way to measurements, readings, and analysis.
She'd noticed the flicker in Reed's eyes when she'd explained how she'd acquired the ability. He'd been happy for her, but she'd also recognized the disappointment beneath his excitement.
He wished he'd been the one to make the discovery.
Reed had always wanted to be the first to understand something, the first to find an answer and push beyond it. It was part of what made him so brilliant, and usually, it was something she admired about him.
But his pursuit of the next discovery had a way of leaving her behind.
She'd wanted to show him her new powers, to share her excitement and let him see how much more she could contribute to the team. She'd wanted him to be happy for her.
And he was. In his own way. But his need to understand her powers had come first.
Susan watched the cube rotate slowly in the air.
She'd been trying not to dwell on what that meant, but the realization was becoming difficult to avoid. Even her own abilities had become another discovery Reed needed to understand, another problem to solve on his own terms.
The thought stung more than she'd expected.
Across the lab, Reed was absorbed in the latest material analysis of the Skrull ship. He glanced between the results and his notes, his attention entirely consumed by the problem in front of him.
Susan let the cube dissolve.
"Reed, my powers can wait. You should focus on the ship. I'll still be here when you're done with it."
He looked up, his expression brightening with relief, "Thank you for understanding, Sue."
With a grateful smile, he turned back to the ship, already reaching for the next set of results.
Susan remained still for a moment.
It was the practical choice. It had been her suggestion, after all. The ship was important, the government was waiting for answers, and they had given him limited time. Reed's work here could have consequences far beyond the Baxter Building.
She understood all of that, but understanding did not make it hurt any less.
Even now, when something extraordinary had happened to her, she had found herself stepping aside for something else. Another discovery. Another problem. Another opportunity for Reed to be brilliant.
'Reed, you really are brilliant, but sometimes I just want you to see me like, like...' she stopped herself before she could finish the thought.
With a quiet breath, Susan let her expression settle into its usual composure. Reed hadn't noticed anything wrong, and she wasn't about to interrupt his work to explain feelings she hadn't entirely sorted out herself.
She left the lab without another word, leaving him alone with the ship and his latest discovery.