Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One

            The pre-selected music of Scottish singer Sheena Easton played all throughout the limitless interior of the TARDIS, a Type-Z model.

            Craig couldn’t believe he almost gave up his adventures in the Infinite DC. Since he learned that Thomas – an incarnation of a Time Lord named Neas, who became part of Craig’s family – underwent a unique form of regeneration that allowed him to maintain the same personality and memories, albeit in a different body, their adventures seem to have gone another level.

            Now a young Irishwoman named Seana, Thomas was more energetic than ever.

            And she put that energy to use in the engine room – a spacious area within the heart of her Type-Z TARDIS. It was accessible through an observation deck from where the pilot/engineer would suit up in a bulky turquoise radiation suit to protect them from the black hole inside the room.

            Craig was in total awe when he first saw it.

            A supermassive, majestic beast that swirled and sparkled in the spacious room.

            “That’s what powers your TARDIS?” Craig gasped. “It’s huge!”

            “Aye, that it be, lil’ brotha,” Seana concurred whilst taking off her green military-style jacket, showing off the grey muscle shirt she wore beneath. Tying her long red hair into a ponytail, she slipped on a pair of welder’s goggles and gloves that looked to have been worn several times over, smudged with grime and a bit scorched.

            Noticing how she was about to leave the deck with such a subtle change of wear, Craig inquired, “Aren’t you gonna wear one of those?” He indicated the three that were available, hanging near the chamber entrance.

            “Nah, won’t be needin’ one,” Seana declared. “Back in a smidgen!”

            Craig took her word for it. She traveled in the ship longer than anyone else, so she rightfully knew the ins and outs. Of course, there was still the exposure to the black hole to be concerned about. Craig didn’t know much about astronomy, but he did know that black holes only existed in space…and there was no oxygen in space…or gravity, for that matter.

            And yet, Seana walked out into the engine room, moving across the catwalk and onto the engine platform with no problem whatsoever. Was there sustainable oxygen and gravity in there? If so, how could a black hole even be able to function? And why were the radiation suits necessary?

            There were a multitude of questions Craig always had about Neas’s TARDIS, but the engine room held a plethora of mysteries Craig’s fourth grade level could barely comprehend. However, from the way Seana’s body started smoking while in proximity of the black hole, Craig’s concern intensified. He switched off the music and patched through the intercom on the deck’s control panel to alert, “Seana! You’re on fire!”

            Seana turned from the platform and gave a thumb’s up, assuming Craig was complimenting her hard work on the many valves and knobs assorted around the engine. She didn’t seem to notice that she was smoldering.

            But, as Craig soon noticed, she wasn’t actually on fire.

            Her clothes and skin were still perfectly intact, albeit drenched in her own sweat. The rubber band that held her ponytail together, on the other hand, snapped from the tense atmosphere, leaving her fiery locks hanging wild and out. Luckily, by that time, she was finished with tuning up the engine and returned to the observation deck.

            Craig could feel the heat radiating off her body, as soon as she walked in.

            “Stay back,” she told him, crouched down on the floor with one gloved hand stuck out towards her 10-year-old companion. “Just gimme a sec.” She wasn’t exhausted, but she certainly looked thirsty. Craig went to a mini-fridge in the deck that he figured was kept there for such circumstances. He rolled a water bottle over to her, but when she grabbed it, the water instantaneously boiled and evaporated inside the bottle, leaving nothing but confined steam.

            “Whoa!” Craig yelped, witnessing the rare sight.

            “Yep…I’m just that hot,” Seana snickered. “Lemme chill a bit and you can hold the bottle for me while I suck on it like a wee babe, yeah?”

            Craig did just that, once she was safe to be nearby.

            He could feel her lips and tongue almost suck the bottle right out of his hand, just as he put it in her mouth. She was thirstier than he imagined. “I guess that’s why those radiation suits are there,” he indicated again.

            After sucking the water bottle dry, Seana detached her mouth from it and let out a long, refreshed respire. “Normal beings woulda needed one, lil’ brotha,” she told Craig. “But I’m the bleedin’ Gladiator of Gallifrey.” She glimpsed at her bare, toned arms. “When Rassilon reawakened me Time Lord genes, he added somethin’ extra.”

            “So, you’re indestructible?” Craig presumed.

            “Nay, though I wish I were,” Seana said. “I’m just impervious to certain climates.”

            Craig was captivated with sheer euphoria whenever he learned such new facts about Neas’s Time Lord biology. Just when he thought he knew everything, there was so much more. It was one of many reasons why he was glad to have continued journeying with this Alternate of the Eleventh Gladiator, the big brother he adopted into his family.

            In spite of being a white Irish redhead, Seana physically retained a few of Thomas’s features. For one, she was very tall – well over six feet. Craig hadn’t noticed it the first time they met, but it started to become more noticeable throughout their adventures together, when Seana would stand next to regular human males and even the monsters she faced. Her brown boots added an additional two or three inches; every step she took in them made mighty stomps that were like a warning to her enemies.

            Thomas had the same type of stomps, weighted by muscle and fierce determination.

            These were the sort of traits that helped Craig to see that Seana wasn’t just any other regeneration of Neas – she was the eleventh of their incarnations. Not exactly a clone, but more of an alter-ego. Seana once compared it to The Incredible Hulk, a character Craig had zero awareness of, though Seana promised she would one day introduce him to the real deal.

            Removing her goggles and gloves, Seana stood up straight to her full, powerful height. Her busty bosom inflated as she took a deep raspy breath, following such a taxing task in the engine room. Still feeling a little lightheaded, she slumped down at one of the two black, leather swivel chairs bolted near the deck controls. Craig sat in the other, his feet dangling excitedly as he asked, “So, where we headed to next?”

            “Welp,” Seana smiled at him, playfully spinning his chair with her right foot. Craig giggled from the ride. “I figure I’d finally introduce ya to the jolly green fella I told ya about.”

            “You mean the Hulk?” Craig gasped. Seana stopped his little ride with his excited face looking back at her. “Where’ll we see him?”

            “Earth-M,” Seana said. “One of many Earths that share semblances to Earth-199999.”

            “Those are a lot of nines!” Craig noted.

            “Tell me ‘bout it,” Seana chuckled. “Earth-M is home to lots of off-the-wall wonders – the biggest of ‘em all bein’ Muppets.”

            “I heard you use that word last week, when we were talking about Mr. Sanchez.”

            “Yeah, he’s a ‘muppet’ in the moronic sense. The Muppets of Earth-M are livin’ puppets, like the ones in that lil’ show Jessica likes to watch befer school.”

            The synapses in Craig’s brain, those triggered by his imagination, fired up.

            He waited with anticipation as Seana put her jacket back on, and they headed back to the console room. With the tune-up she gave to the engines, the Type-Z operated a lot faster and smoother under her operation. In a millisecond quicker than usual, the ship dematerialized out of the Infinite DC and into a lavish penthouse apartment.

            Craig stepped out of the TARDIS and into not only an apartment but a whole new world. The first impressions were always the same during arrival: there was no sure way of determining the distinctive features of a realm until further investigation. Right now, this lavish apartment was no different than any of the hotels Craig and his family stayed in during vacation – or those in any of the other worlds he went to with Neas.

            “It feels kinda wrong for us to be here,” he told Seana. “Doesn’t this all belong to someone?”

            “Oh, chillax, lil’ brotha.” He spotted Seana raiding the refrigerator. “Sit back and kick yer feet up.” She tossed him a bottled soda.

            Craig almost didn’t catch it, which would’ve added to his uneasiness in trespassing on private property. Luckily, the soda bottle was plastic. He curiously glanced at its label. Throughout their journeys, Craig had been introduced to various snacks and beverages from other worlds – Wonka Bars, Doritos, Surge, M&M’s, and Apollo Bars. This one he held cold in his hand was something called “Dr. Pepper.”

            “Who’s Dr. Pepper?” he asked. “Does he own this place?”

            Seana nearly choked on her soda, amused by Craig’s presumptions. “Lil’ brotha, ya almost killed me!” Once she was able to gather herself, she finally eased Craig’s concerns by telling him, “I’m the owner of this wonderful palace…well, this wee part of it. Welcome to the Arconia!”

            Relieved to know the truth, Craig sat at one of the comfortable green lounge chairs positioned near an entertainment center, complete with a flatscreen set. He popped open his bottle of Dr. Pepper and took a swig, enticed by the enigmatic elixir of effervescence. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the flavor, other than “deep” and “bold.”

            Seana plopped herself down on the couch across from the flatscreen, switching it on with the remote that sat on the coffee table in-between. The first thing that popped on the screen was a puppet show with a weary, bespectacled puppet-man character acting as if he was a real anchorman. “What’s this show called?” Craig asked Seana.

            “It’s the news,” Seana replied before taking a long sip of her soda.

            Her answer intrigued Craig as much as it baffled him. “So…it’s like…news for kids?” He thought of Jessica – his little sister – from the concept. At the age of seven, she was an avid watcher of the news, as well as economic talk shows like the Charles Abraham Discussion Hour, and even the stock market. The idea of a puppet segment of news broadcasts, like the one they were watching there in the penthouse, was a fun idea.

            That was until Seana elaborated, “It’s news for everyone, lil’ brotha. Like I told ya, this is a world with Muppets, like the newscaster on the telly right now.”

            “That’s a Muppet?” Craig looked on the newscaster with renewed interest.

            The Muppet man’s wacky appearance contrasted with the serious report that he gave. “Our new Captain America, Sam Wilson, will be honored tomorrow at Lincoln Memorial for his outstanding service since taking up the shield, once carried by Steve Rogers, whose current whereabouts still remain unknown.”

            “Get up outta that!” Seana exclaimed. “This world’s got a Captain America who’s one of our own, lil’ brotha!”

            “One of our own?” Craig skeptically inquired.

            Seana noticed the derisive look he gave her, reminding her of the obvious fact that she was no longer African-American like her counterpart. In a huff and an eyeroll, she remarked, “Ya get wot I mean.”

            Craig watched the Muppet newscast for a few extra minutes before it surprisingly got uninteresting for him. He left Seana to watch all the other updates, including one about some place called “Westview,” while he looked out one of the windows. The sun was setting, offering a regal swirl of orange and purple across the twilight sky. The cityscape of New York’s Upper West Side began to twinkle with lights on every building like lights on a Christmas tree. The majesty of it all made Craig misty-eyed.

            The floor they were on in the Arconia looked to be somewhere on the tenth, high enough to take in the view. And yet, there was more down below, such as one three-story establishment across the street that appeared to be the most popular joint that side of the city. Above it, a bright neon sign advertised it by name: “PizzeRizzo.” Alongside the name was the assurance of it serving “The City’s Top Rated Pizza” – although a few broken letters left it saying “It’s Rat Pizza.”

            There was even an intriguing design of a rat dressed as a chef, holding a pizza.

            Craig presumed this rat chef must have been PizzeRizzo’s mascot.

            “I've never been to New York City,” he admitted to Seana. “I’ve seen it in movies and TV and all, but not in real…” He stopped when he heard loud snoring reverberating from the couch. “Seana?” he called to his big sister, returning to the side of the couch to see that she had fallen fast asleep.

            Her exhaustion could have been a delayed reaction to her hard work earlier in the TARDIS engine room. Nonetheless, Craig let her rest, covering her with a bedsheet that was folded along the spot on the couch adjacent to where she slept. Finding it there, it was obvious this wasn’t the first time she slept there; that and the gleaming fact that the couch was long and wide enough for a person as tall as Seana (or Thomas) to use as a spur-of-the-moment bed.

            With her out of commission for the evening, Craig had two options: find something more entertaining to watch on TV or…

            PizzeRizzo.

            He only just discovered the place, and he was already enticed by it.

            Much as he wanted to go there right then and there, he couldn’t necessarily wander out of a foreign apartment building in a world that was equally foreign to him.

            Then there was the whole fact that the Hierarchy had him targeted with sleeper agents in wait across the multiverse; at least, that was according to what Seana told him, shortly after they began their latest string of journeys. Not only was she serving as hostess to their trips, but she was also his protector – and he couldn’t imagine she would be all that happy with him wandering off alone.

            But the call of pizza – even if it was “rat pizza” – was too irresistible.

            He only hoped a quick in-and-out visit wouldn’t lead to any sort of danger.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

            Craig was very careful walking out of Seana’s apartment, closing the door behind him slowly and quietly. He made note of the apartment number as well, a habit that he picked up on from the hotels he stayed in. He also took Seana’s sonic screwdriver with him, so that he wouldn’t get locked out. The handy tool of his Time Lord friend had received quite an upgrade, taking any form its user wishes with the press of a button. Seana claimed this new feature was from Cybertronian tech. Craig merely took her word for it, unable to grasp all the technical specs.

            After double-checking everything, Craig was now en route to PizzeRizzo. As he walked down the fancy corridor and passed all the doors to the other apartments on that floor of the Arconia, he noticed one whose lock was being picked by a Muppet man. Unlike the one Craig saw earlier on TV, this one was blue and rather gruff-looking. His brow was bushy, his hair was unkempt, and his outfit consisted of a dark brown blazer, a worn-out vanilla shirt, black slacks, and black shoes.

            “C’mon, you stupid son of a bitch!” he grumbled at the lock. He stopped the illicit activity when he noticed the bewildered Craig staring his way. “What’s the matter, kid? Ain’t never seen a Muppet pickin’ a lock before?” Craig shook his head uneasily, amusing the blue Muppet man. “Hmph. Well, I ain’t the sicko you should be worried about. You stayin’ here with anyone. Yer parents, maybe?”

            Again, Craig shook his head, but this time he verbally clarified, “Just my sister.”

            “She picked one helluva place for you to stay,” the Muppet man indicated. “A lotta murders been happenin’ in this building. My advice to you: watch yer back. Same goes for yer sister.” And with that, he went right back to his lockpicking.

            His warning did unnerve Craig.

            What kind of place did Seana bring them where murders have happened?

            Did she even know before coming there with him?

            The growling of his stomach did away with whatever nerves came over him. Alarming as the lockpicking Muppet’s warning was, he was too hungry and too anxious to check out PizzeRizzo’s to turn back.

            So, he pressed onward, leaving the Arconia and walking out onto the bustling street corner that separated him from his intended destination. New York City was a lot louder than what he was used to in the quiet community of Herkleton County, Maryland. It was also a lot more crowded. Before he knew it, he was bunched in with several adults at the crosswalk. Definitely no turning back now, he thought as they all made their way to the other side of the street. He could hardly see beyond all the butts that surrounded him.

            Thankfully, once the crowd dispersed, he found himself right in front of PizzeRizzo’s. “Dinner time,” he hungrily licked his lips. He already smelled the pizza from outside the establishment, particularly the pepperoni and cheese, which he knew to be Seana’s favorite (since it’s Thomas’s favorite as well).

            Immediately, he found out how popular this joint was upon entering.

            PizzeRizzo’s was packed to the gills that evening with humans and Muppets alike.

            Some were on dates, some ate together as a family, and some were businesspeople on a dinner meeting.

            Regardless of the purpose, everyone was having a swanky time.

            And it was hard not to with the band that played near the entrance. They were a weird yet talented group of Muppet performers – a green pianist with a flashy set of teeth (one of which was a gold tooth), a wild and hairy red-and-orange man on drums, a bassist with a bright orange mustache and hair, a female lead guitarist with large lips and a uvula that shook when she sang, and a blue saxophonist wearing sunglasses.

Can you picture? You gotta see it in your mind!
Can you picture? You know it's quick and easy to find!
Can you picture? You don't have to buy a frame!
Can you picture? Can you picture that?
Can you picture that?

            Craig was so captivated by the band’s performance that he almost forgot the whole reason he was there: to eat. He saw one booth left available for two people. He was just about to take a seat there until his path was suddenly blocked by a Muppet rat with a blond mohawk and a wifebeater small and wide enough to fit his tiny, plump frame. “Where ya think youse goin’, short stuff?” he asked Craig.

            “Short stuff?!” Craig glowered. “I’m bigger than you.”

            “Ya ain’t gettin’ a table with dat attitude, kid!” The rat scolded him. “And youse certainly ain’t gettin’ one without a reservation!”

            Craig didn’t figure this to be that type of establishment.

            Reservations were usually meant for restaurants of a class higher than this one – an everyday pizza parlor. Yes, it was incredibly trendy, much like a few eateries he knew back in Herkleton. But none of them required something as important as a reservation; more like a waiting period, if there was any difference.

            He was prepared to return to the Arconia before a girl who was close to Craig’s age appeared right next to him and told the rat, “It’s all good, Bubba. He’s with me.” Craig hardly knew who she was. She reminded him a lot of Kit – one of his friends back in the Creek and proprietor of the Trading Tree – with her large round violet glasses. Unlike Kit, who wore her hair in braided pigtails with a widow’s peak, this girl had a large bushy, pom-pom hairstyle.

            “My bad, Miss Lafayette,” Bubba the rat told the girl. “Had no idea the kid was your date.”

            Date?! Craig flared internally. He would’ve protested, but he played along…anything to secure a table at PizzeRizzo’s. Bubba led them straight to the two-seater Craig saw on the way in. Soon after the Muppet rat took their orders and left, Craig laughed and told his “date,” “Thanks for that. I owe you big.”

            “You better,” the girl snickered. “This meal’s on you.”

            “That’s fair, Miss Lafayette,” Craig accepted.

            “You can call me ‘Lunella,’ Mister…?”

            “Craig. So, do you like know the owner or something?”

            “Nah. I’ve just been coming here a lot in the last month. I’m kind of a regular.” Lunella then changed the subject and asked, “So why’s a little boy like you all alone this night at a pizza joint?”

            “I’m not alone.” And I’m not so “little” either. “I’m here with my big sister.”

            “Uh-huh,” Lunella uttered, somewhat condescendingly. “And where’s she?”

            “Across the street, in the Arconia.”

            Lunella’s dark brown eyes widened behind her glasses. “You’re staying there?! Don’t y’all know what goes on in that place?! Nothing good, that much I can tell you!”

            “Is it really that bad? It seems like such a clean place.”

            “It may look clean, but it’s got a filthy reputation.”

            Craig didn’t want to bring up the “murders” he heard from that lockpicker he ran into. Instead, he rerouted the conversation back on Lunella: “So why’s a little girl like you alone in this pizza joint?”

            Lunella smirked at him. “I see what you did there. Don’t think I took that ‘little’ smack any less lightly than you. But, to answer your question, I’m here with some people myself.” She pointed to a few people in the crowded restaurant: a family man, a lonely woman, and a chatty yellow Muppet man. “See all of them? They’re undercover agents tailing me for my protection.”

            Craig snorted. “Yeah, right!” Clearly, he didn’t believe a word of it.

            Lunella laughed along with him, which was more than enough to assure Craig that the whole thing was a joke; though, for a fleeting second, he did consider the possibility of it being true. With all he had seen in the Infinite DC, the concept of secret agents wasn’t so hard to sell. Lunella, however, didn’t seem like the type of girl to be involved in such espionage.

            The night transformed into a legitimate date for the two kids, laughing as they dined on their meatball pizza and sharing their stories. As it turned out, Lunella was a super genius, apparently capable of building and designing anything she put her mind to, such as an automatic hands-free toothbrush.

            “Whoa!” Craig beamed at the idea. “I could get dressed so much faster with something like that! I could even play Power Punchers!”

            “Power Punchers?” Lunella pondered on the name. “What kind of game is that?”

            “Well, it’s…” Before Craig could go any further in explaining, the lights in the pizzeria suddenly dimmed.

            It soon followed with a mousey-sounding voice with a Brooklyn accent announcing over the speakers, “Ladies and gentlemen! Put yer hands, paws, and othua appendages up fer tonight’s special guest! He’s a famous theatre director and a frequent performer ‘ere at PizzeRizzo! Give it up fer Mistuh Oliver Putnam!”

            An elder gentleman in flashy, colorful attire, accentuated by a lavish scarf, made his way onstage where the Muppet band waited to perform as backup. He busted into a tune that sounded like old-timey disco to the adolescent ears of Craig and Lunella…

Sittin' here eatin' my heart out waitin'
Waitin' for some lover to call
Dialed about a thousand numbers lately
Almost rang the phone off the wall

Lookin' for some hot stuff baby this evenin'
I need some hot stuff baby tonight
I want some hot stuff baby this evenin'
Gotta have some hot stuff
Gotta have some love tonight (hot stuff)
I need hot stuff
I want some hot stuff
I need hot stuff

            The elderly man’s performance didn’t have quite the same appeal to Craig as the Muppet band before him; and yet, everyone in the pizzeria seemed able to jam along with it. He looked to his date to see if she felt the same way, but he was surprised to see that she was no longer sitting there.

            Looking around, he spotted Lunella being ushered out of PizzeRizzo with the same three individuals she jokingly outed as undercover agents. Of course, Craig began to rethink if it even was a joke.

            He left his booth and followed them outside.

            By then, he was too late. Lunella and the three agents drove away in a black unmarked van. Lunella sat despondently in the backseat, looking towards the floor of the van. The look on her face told Craig how much she hated to leave their fake date, after such a fun hour of laughter and pizza. And he hated it himself.

            With a heavy sigh, he started to make his way back inside PizzeRizzo before he detected strange noises coming from the alley adjacent to the pizzeria.

            They were followed by a familiar voice with a stutter.

            “J-Just relax, O.K.? We-We’re not here to hurt you.”

            Craig heard that stuttering, geeky voice somewhere before – in one of the other worlds. It sounded a lot like Morty Smith, grandson of Rick Sanchez, a brilliant albeit alcoholic inventor and traveler of the multiverse (along with Morty). He was also a known acquaintance of Neas, having dated them when they were in their “Ms. Mars” incarnation.

            “But we will pru-*buurrp*-ne your ass, if we have to.”

            That other voice, plagued by a bad habit of belching, obviously belonged to Rick.

            Craig snuck his way into the alley to see what the grandfather/grandson duo were up to in Earth-M. Hiding behind a smelly dumpster, he glimpsed around the corner to see Rick and Morty standing in front of a cowering human man in a maroon hoodie with the sleeves rolled up.

            Rick and Morty weren’t alone with him.

            There was also a white-haired man in a brown suit. His nose was a tad crooked.

            Holding some sort of pad in his hand, he identified the man in the maroon hoodie as, “Joshua Singleton, age 32. Works at Plugger-Inners but also is a very talented video game designer.” He regarded Josh with great interest. “You’re the guy behind Ladder World? My kids love that game!”

            Josh clearly wasn’t in the mood for recognition. “Look, I don’t know what the hell’s going on here! I was just driving home when this weird portal showed up on the road! And next I’m here in this freaked-out place!” He couldn’t stop staring at Rick, who was wielding some type of baton in his hand, sparkling with energy. “You’re not gonna stick that up my ass, are you?!”

            “N-No!” Morty intercepted. “Rick, would you please put that thing away? Mobius strictly told us we’re not pruning anybody!”

            The white-haired man Craig presumed to be “Mobius” let out an exasperated sigh. “And I meant it, too,” he stressed to them. “You fellas are only temps. You’re not, under any circumstances, TVA approved. Not until your replacements are ready.”

            “Alright, fine!” Rick conceded in frustration. “Why even bother bringing us?”

            “Because we needed your expertise on dimensional rifts, like the ones that’re teeming in this reality,” Mobius stated.

            “Exactly my point!” Rick retorted. “How else do you plan on dealing with that shitstorm?”

            “Not by pruning, that’s for sure,” Mobius restricted. “That was the old TVA. We’re under new management now.” He ended the discussion there, taking Josh carefully by the arm and guiding him through a peach-colored translucent door that was opened by the pad in his hand. Rick and Morty followed thereafter, and the door faded into the ground, leaving not a single trace.

            In one evening, Craig experienced three odd events in this world Seana brought him to. He couldn’t wait to tell her about it in the morning.

Chapter Text

Chapter Three

            Twelve full hours of sleep later, Seana awoke the following morning to the warm, radiant sun shining over her face. The hue of her blue eyes sparkled as they opened in the blinding glow. She sat up on the couch, figuring that her long fiery locks were a mess. It had been forever since she even had hair that long. Nothing that a good shower, some shampoo/conditioner, and a little combing couldn’t handle.

            Craig was asleep in the only available bedroom in the apartment, which Seana was more than happy to let him have. He never slept in a king-sized bed, which was designed to suit a tall individual; Craig’s small body barely took up half of it. “Bless his wee heart,” Seana muttered as she watched him sleeping in his oversized purple cat shirt, his usual nightwear.

            After her shower, she realized that her sonic screwdriver was missing from the pocket of her jacket where she kept it. She heard it beeping somewhere in the apartment and was surprised to find it on the kitchen table, right next to a PizzeRizzo box. On the box was a Post-it note with Craig’s handwriting that read: “I went out last night. Sorry. But I got you some pizza! Love, Craig.”

            Seana had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, she was not happy with Craig’s decision to wander out on his own, which she would never allow him to do, even if he weren’t on the Hierarchy’s hit list. But she was grateful that he wasn’t hurt…and that he bought her pizza. “Oh, lil’ brotha. What am I gonna do with ya.”

            The beeping resonating from her sonic screwdriver was a proximity alert, which usually went off when it had been away from her possession for several hours. When she reclaimed it, there was recorded footage of its whereabouts prior to the recovery. Much like a smartphone, it had USB accessibility, so it could be plugged into any compatible device, such as a computer or a TV. Seana chose the latter to review what the sonic captured from its hidden camera, all while eating the pepperoni pizza from PizzeRizzo.

            The first thing she saw was her sleeping form on the couch, as it was from the previous night. Rarely did she take a moment to look at herself, in a recording or in the mirror, so she was a little impressed by how perfect she appeared while resting. Wish it could be the same when I wake up!

            Continuing, the footage showed Craig briefly interacting with a Muppet man lockpicking one of the neighboring apartments. “A lotta murders been happenin’ in this building,” the lockpicker warned in the recording. “My advice to you: watch yer back. Same goes for yer sister.”

            Seana figured that’d be enough to make Craig turn back and stay in the apartment, but his little feet pressed on, much to Seana’s chagrin. Her nerves were shot, seeing him walk out of the Arconia and into a massive crowd of pedestrians at the crosswalk – a sea of butts filled the screen, belonging to businesspeople and hippies alike. Craig was the only kid among them, bounced around like a bumper car until he finally made it to his primary destination: PizzeRizzo. Seana was glad that he made it there safely, but the massive crowd inside the establishment wasn’t any better. Any one of those patrons could’ve been a Hierarchy sleeper agent waiting to pounce.

            A rat bouncer attempted to bar Craig for not having a reservation, but a girl close to Craig’s age stepped in and vouched for him. She was a girl neither Craig nor Seana had seen before, yet she was kind enough to lie for Craig, stating that they were on a “date” and getting them a table.

            The rest of the recording warmed both of Seana’s hearts.

            This put-on date felt more like a real one between Craig and the girl, whose name was mentioned to be “Lunella” in the video. They shared each other’s stories and laughed about their experiences while enjoying pizza together. Unfortunately, it all ended abruptly when Lunella was guided out of the pizzeria by people she joked about being secret agents. She drove away with them in an unmarked black van.

            Secret agents in an unmarked van. The only ones Seana could think of were S.H.I.E.L.D., Earth-M’s equivalent to U.N.I.T. in her own world.

            She saw Craig’s heartbroken face reflected in one of the windows of PizzeRizzo. “Oh, lil’ brotha,” she sympathized with him. “And the date was goin’ so well.”

            Things got weirder from there when Craig discovered Rick and Morty in the alley adjacent to PizzeRizzo. There were two other individuals Seana didn’t recognize – a white-haired man in a brown suit and a terrified guy in a red hoodie. They took the hoodie fellow away in a portal that closed after they passed.

            “What the bleedin’…?” Seana muttered from the bizarre scene.

            “You’re up!” She suddenly heard Craig entering and immediately switched off the TV. He was still in his nightshirt, joining Seana on the couch. “What were you watching? More news?”

            “Yep,” Seana fibbed. “Gotta keep up-to-date, ya know?” She shifted the PizzeRizzo box on the coffee table towards him. “Thanks fer de treat…and de note.”

            Craig huffed after she brought up the latter. “I really am sorry for going out. That place – PizzeRizzo – just looked so inviting. I never had ‘rat pizza’ before. And the rats there make delicious pizza!”

            “Aye,” Seana agreed, taking another bite of her slice. “But let’s not take any more risks fer a pie tis good, eh?”

            “Agreed,” Craig settled, grabbing one of the few slices left out from the box.

            Playing dumb, she pressed Craig, “So…was dere anything tat happened last night ya wanna tell me ‘bout?”

            Remembering, Craig said before taking his first bite, “Oh, yeah! I saw Morty and his granddad last night. They were with this old guy and were gonna ‘prune’ this other guy with a nightstick. Do you know anything in the multiverse that can do that?”

            “Dere were myths ‘bout some bureaucratic organization existin’ outside of time and space,” Seana recalled. “Dey refer temselves as de ‘Time Variance Authority,’ or ‘TVA’ fer short. Dey send Minutemen to do der footwork, includin’ tat ‘prune’ method ya heard ‘bout.”

            “What happens when you prune them?” Craig asked.

            Seana shrugged. “Don’t know. Never seen it happen up close. Like I said, it be just a myth.”

            “Well, you always said that whatever’s a myth in the Infinite DC can always be fact,” Craig cited.

            “Did I now?” Seana smirked. “Ya got a grand memory dere, lil’ brotha.”

            Their quaint pizza breakfast was suddenly disrupted by a loud crash that erupted right outside their apartment. Torn away from their breakfast, they looked out the window and towards the street corner below where chaos was unfolding. A giant cephalopod creature battled against a trio of superheroes – three girls and…

            “Is that a hamster?!” Craig could barely point it out amid the crazy scene, but he was certain there was a tiny flying hamster in a yellow suit and an orange cape.

            “Looks tat way,” Seana said whilst taking a casual bite of her pizza.

            “Shouldn’t we go down there and help them?” Craig suggested.

            “Nah, dose lasses got it covered,” Seana said. “Besides, we got a bigger mystery to solve in tat alley.”

            Once they finished breakfast, Seana and Craig began their investigation in the alley adjacent to PizzeRizzo. Seana used an advanced function of her Cybertronian-upgraded sonic screwdriver to scan the exact spot where the TVA portal appeared and disappeared. As she worked her magic, Craig couldn’t stop staring at the superhero/monster brawl that came to a rousing conclusion with the three super girls as the victors, when the one in the purple dress with a large white “G” on the front punched the giant cephalopod right in its single bulbous eye.

            The crowd cheered for them in the aftermath.

            Craig felt a little jealous that they were receiving all the attention, while he and Seana were secluded from the public eye in a damp, smelly alleyway. His gaze switched back and forth between the super girl trio and Seana, whose plain clothes were a stark contrast to their flashy costumes. Craig always looked at Neas as a superhero, saving countless worlds across the multiverse with only their wits, combat skills, and a sonic screwdriver.

            And yet, there the multiverse’s greatest hero was in the alley, crouching down among the muck with a scrappy ponytail and her jeans riding low enough to show the tip of her butt crack. Not all heroes wear capes, Craig remembered the old idiom that his grandmother once told him – and it couldn’t be truer when it came to this incarnation of the Gladiator of Gallifrey…a young Irishwoman whose thick, unrefined accent made it difficult for her to be understood at times.

            “Ya O.K., lil’ brotha?” Her concerned voice snapped him out of his train of thought.

            “Yeah, why?” Craig returned.

            “Ya be starin’ off like ya were off yer head,” Seana indicated. “Dat pizza’s not gettin’ tah ya, is it?”

            “No, I’m fine,” Craig said. “Did the sonic find anything?”

            Seana stood upright, readjusting her jeans with one hand while gazing on the other that held her trusty device. “Aye, a lot. I believe I can reroute te energy tah reopen de door fer us.”

            “Really?!” Craig beamed with excitement. “So, we get to see this TVA place?”

            “Aye,” Seana confirmed, equally excited.

            She was just about to proceed with the trick before the screeching of tires distracted them – or, more precisely, Craig. Seana saw him look away from both her and the alley, refocusing on the street corner where the super girls took down the giant cephalopod. She was a little annoyed with how distracted he was from all the activity. And then she heard him say, “It’s the van!”

            “What van?” she asked.

            “The one from last night,” he clarified. “The one that took Lunella!”

            Seana joined him at the corner, looking around it to see five of those unmarked black vans pull up around the unconscious cephalopod. A large crew of people in hazmat suits sealed off the entire area with caution tape and a dome that inflated around the monster. There was no telling what they were doing inside the dome, but they guessed it had something to do with burning the cephalopod’s carcass down to cinders.

            There was one man among them that appeared to be the boss, judging from the way that the superhero girls reported directly to them.

            Craig recognized him in wide-eyed astonishment. “It’s…It’s you!”

            Sure enough, the man in charge was an identical match to Thomas, Seana’s counterpart and the eleventh incarnation of Neas.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four

            Director Sean Livingston.

            That was the name that one of the reporters on the scene – Christine Everhart – addressed the Thomas lookalike as. He was the director of an organization called “S.W.O.R.D.,” having inherited it following the “mysterious disappearance” of former director, Tyler Hayward. As new director, Livingston oversaw the protection of Earth from both extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional threats, including the cephalopod that his team – Moon Girl, Super Gretel, Super Hamster, and Havoc – took down.

            “He looks so cool,” the starry-eyed Craig awed. “He’s just like…” He heard a loud yawn behind him, and he turned to see a disinterested Seana with one of her hands dug down into her jeans. “Wha…?! What’re you doing?!”

            “Me trousers are feelin’ banjaxed today.” She tugged and readjusted from the inside, all while letting out a loud, irritating yawn. “And I’m bored. Let’s get on with lookin’ into dat TVA portal, eh?”

            Her disinterest frustrated Craig, who nonetheless returned to their investigation.

            And then they heard Director Livingston call out, “Doctor! You’re up!”

            This enticed both Seana and Craig’s curiosity, looking back around the corner to see a snazzy-dressed, mustached black man step out of another of the black unmarked vans, followed by a young, short-haired blonde wearing a short jacket with white shearling and a short, red plaid skirt.

            “I doubt your men left much for me to work with, Director,” the black man told Livingston, speaking with a unique Scottish-Rwandan accent. “Just so you know, I’ve worked with more professional superiors of clandestine organizations than you.”

            “I’m sure you have,” Livingston glibly remarked, donning a gas mask with the man and his companion prior to heading into the dome with the incinerated cephalopod.

            Having eavesdropped in on their interaction, Craig surmised, “That mustached guy with the weird accent was the Doctor!”

            “So, it be,” Seana noted. And then, not missing a bit, she suggested, “Back to dat portal now, eh?”

            “What?!” Her obstinate disinterest surprised him. “Don’t you wanna go see him? He could help us, or we could help him!”

            “Lil’ brotha, if I learned one thing ‘bout de Doctor, it’s dat he’s got de situation well under hand – especially if he’s workin’ with Director What’s-His-Face.”

            “Livingston! It’s Director Livingston!” Craig scolded her. “And I’m gonna go and help him and the Doctor!”

            He had already set off on his objective, even as Seana made one last ditch effort to talk him out of it: “I know what dis is ‘bout. You just wanna hang with dat ‘Thomas’ wannabe. Well, he’s not me, lil’ brotha! He be just a variant!”

            “I don’t care!” Craig refused to turn back. “And you’re just jealous!”

            “Jealous?!” Seana groaned. “Argh! What’s it ‘bout dis world dat’s got ya actin’ so bleedin’ thick?!” Her hand quickly went to her mouth after that insulting remark. It was enough to stop Craig in his tracks, sharply turning to face her with a look of hurt. Seana tried to apologize immediately, “Lil’ brotha, I didn’t mean…”

            “You think I’m acting thick?” His hands tightened into fists and tears flooded his eyes. “Fine then! If I’m so thick, you don’t need me around!” He turned again to continue his way out of the alley, only to stop and add, “Oh, and by the way…” He reached into his Purse of Holding and pulled out a brown leather belt that he tossed to Seana. “That’ll help your ‘banjaxed’ trousers!”

            Seana held the belt, feeling ashamed of herself and her Irish temper.

            There was nothing more she could do to make up for her insult, outside of watching Craig leave her alone in the damp, smelly alley. As soon as she strapped the belt on, she used her sonic screwdriver to reopen the TVA portal from its last activated location and walked through, disappearing from Earth-M.

            Wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his shirt, Craig put on a confident face as he approached Director Livingston’s superhero team. Not exactly certain how to greet such awesome-looking crusaders, he settled on how he usually greeted his friends back in the Creek, “Hey, guys!” He grew a bit nervous when their eyes all turned to him. “Uh…I know this is weird…some random kid coming up to y’all for no reason…but I happen to know that man who’s with Director Livingston and I…”

            “Craig?!” The one named Moon Girl somehow recognized him. Her cyan goggles projected exclamation marks over their red lenses, reflecting her reaction to seeing Craig.

            This obviously caught him by surprise. “You know me? How do you know me?”

            Moon Girl removed her helmet and goggles, revealing a face Craig had only known since the previous night.

            “Lunella?!” he exclaimed with a flabbergasted gasp. “You’re a superhero?!”

            Emerging on the other side of the portal, Seana had anticipated an alien climate – something otherworldly with a plethora of creatures from various different realities converged within a single space.

            Instead, she walked into an empty lobby that was like something out of a DMV.

            There was an unusual 1970s motif in its design, as well as its technology, judging from the style of the monitor sitting on the vacant front desk. Adjacent to it was a ticket dispenser, like in an actual DMV. A digital display on the far-left corner registered the number “26.” Seana gazed at her number, which was only the symbol for infinity.

            “What?!” she frowned in confusion, tossing the ticket to the floor and opting just to sit down at one of the available hard plastic benches and wait. The bench she chose creaked a bit once her buttocks touched down. She knew she didn’t weigh that much, so she figured the TVA’s benches just weren’t manufactured for taller folk.

            A part of her hoped that the bench would collapse underneath her. She deserved it for how she treated Craig earlier. Never had she spoken to him so horribly – not even as Thomas. She felt sick to her stomach just thinking of how she described him. You called him – the most intelligent boy in the multiverse – thick!

            “How do I fix dis, Tom?” she verbally consulted with her counterpart, an unseen party that only existed in their shared subconscious.

            “What you need fixin’, hon?”

            Seana jumped when she heard a female voice with a southern drawl speak to her. That’s when she saw it – a translucent, anthropomorphic orange clockface that floated beside her. She was animated like an old 1930s cartoon with eyes and a smile that reminded Seana of Betty Boop. There were no hands on her clock “face” that she could discern.

            “You’re…You’re an A.I. construct,” Seana distinguished.

            “And you have been cryin’,” the A.I. indicated Seana’s face.

            Seana frowned, touching her face and baffled to feel how wet it was. How could she not have realized that she had been crying the entire time? She was sadder about Craig than she consciously realized.

            “Me emotional stasis ain’t what I’m ‘ere fer!” She negated while drying her face off with the sleeve of her jacket. “I’m ‘ere dah see yer manager.”

            “Our ‘manager’?” the A.I. clock cringed.

            “Yer boss,” Seana clarified. “Whoever de ‘ell’s in charge ‘ere!”

            “He’s occupied at the moment,” the A.I. said. “But you may report your issue to any of our other personnel.”

            Seana huffed. “Fine. Who else can I talk to?”

            “How about me?” a voice spoke from the other side of the front desk. This one also belonged to an American woman, but it was more urban than that of the A.I. Seana also heard this voice before – once a long time ago.

            Looking past the front desk and towards the entrance of the hallway leading out of it, she spotted a young blonde with Japanese features, dressed in a white suit jacket, a black blouse that was halfway-unbuttoned, white pressed pants, and white sneakers. The last time Seana saw this woman, she had just been born via regeneration from the “death” of her previous incarnation: Skeeta Jenkins.

            “Pop-Pop!” Seana cheered. “Or should I call ya ‘Miya’?”

            “‘Pop-Pop’ sounds just fine,” Miya smiled, rushing up to Seana and embracing her. “Oh, my goodness! Look at how big you’ve gotten!” She gazed up and down at Seana’s form, marveling over how this incarnation of Neas was a whole foot and a half taller in this regeneration. “How many regenerations is this for you?”

            “Eleven,” Seana answered. “But dis one’s a long story, Pop-Pop.”

            “I figured that much…love the accent, by the way,” Miya said. “North Dublin?”

            Seana shrugged. “Never really bothered dah guess. I just ran with it.”

            “Well, I love it,” Miya approved. “I’ve been loving a lot of things since regenerating into this body.” She jokingly patted herself on her slim, toned torso. “Cooking, for one thing.”

            “What can ya cook?” Seana inquired.

            “Well, I…”

            “Ahem!” The A.I. reminded them of her lingering presence. “Not to be rude, but do y’all need me for anything else?”

            “No, that’ll be all, Miss Minutes,” Miya dismissed the A.I.

            “Ring if y’all need anything,” Minutes instructed before she departed in a cartoonish dissolve.

            “Miss Minutes?” Seana snickered at the name.

            “Hey, I didn’t program her with it,” Miya giggled. “But the fella who did was quite the genius. In fact, everything in this place is pure genius – an inventor’s wonderland. I should take you down to Repairs and Advancement sometime. There’s a great lil’ guy there named Ouroboros, but we all call him ‘O.B.’”

            “I’d like dat, Pop-Pop, but I need dah see de man in charge,” Seana belayed.

            “Um…” Miya seemed very hesitant. “How about I give you a lil’ tour along the way? This is your first time in the TVA, right? I’m sure you’re curious to see all that a headquarters that exists outside time and space has to offer.”

            “Not really,” Seana professed. “It be no different from de Protectorate HQ. Plus, every’tin smells like pie fer some reason.”

            “That’s the cafeteria you’re smelling,” Miya said. “Let’s go there and grab a bite!”

            Seana noticed her father’s behavior becoming shakier by the second. She wasn’t certain if this was a common trait with this regeneration of them or if she was deliberately hiding something. “What’s goin’ on with ya, Pop-Pop?”

            Miya played coy on the matter. “I don’t know whatcha talkin’ about, sweetheart.”

            Footsteps soon resonated down the hall and Seana looked that way to see the same white-haired man who was in the alley with Rick and Morty, back in Earth-M. His attention was barely in front of himself, instead looking into a file that he carried, along with a TVA-branded mug filled with coffee.

            “Maybe dat fella will take me to dah man in charge,” Seana said, walking directly over to the white-haired man. Miya tried to get her to stop, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. “Oi! You! Frank Drebin!” Seana called to the white-haired man.

            He looked up from the file, seeing the statuesque Irish redhead marching his way. “Name’s Mobius, actually,” he told her.

            “Yah, I don’t give-a shite, whitey!” Seana barked. “Take me to dah man in charge!”

            “Mobius, I am so sorry for my daughter,” Miya said, once she caught up. “This regeneration’s a lil’ on the temperamental side.”

            “Aye,” Seana concurred. “And yer all ‘re gonna get a mouthful, unless I get me some answers!”

            Mobius eyed her curiously. “So, you’re Neas.” He then motioned his coffee cup towards Miya. “Your dad’s talked a lot about you. Did she tell you how she’s one of the best freelancers we’ve had assisting our staff lately? She came to us after the whole ‘Womak’ incident with those creatures. Those…” Struggling to recall the name, he asked Miya, “What were they again?”

            Miya had her head in her hands, embarrassed. “Fraggles,” she muffled.

            “That’s it – the Freckles!” Mobius misinterpreted. “Anyway, with her vast knowledge of the multiverse and interdimensional technology, we recruited her.”

            “And Rick Sanchez,” Seana added.

            Hearing that name nauseated Mobius as much as it did Miya. “Yeah, well, they can’t all be A-listers,” Mobius scoffed.

            “Look, Mr. Mobius, I just wanna see yer boss,” Seana asserted. “I don’t care how busy he is.”

            “He’s not busy at all,” Mobius told her. “As a matter of fact, he’s been waiting to see you.”

            This caught Seana off guard. She proceeded to follow Mobius into the elevator. Miya accompanied them, and as they rode up many floors, she cautioned Seana, “Neas, when you see the M.I.C., please refrain from doing anything Gladiator-y.”

            “Gladiator-y?” Seana frowned at the term. “Who is dis man?”

            When they finally arrived at the floor where the manager’s office was located, the three of them entered a room that was decked-out like the apartments in the Arconia. It housed a collection of artifacts that Seana distinguished as Norse in origin. She analyzed one of them up close: a golden, horned headpiece.

            “Dis belonged tah Loki, de God of Mischief,” Seana ascertained.

            “It did indeed,” the calm, chilling voice of a man verified. Seana looked towards the desk near the shaded windows. The chair situated there had faced away from the group, until it swiveled around to reveal its occupant: Loki himself.

            He stood up, straightening the TVA uniform that he wore, and smiled as he greeted Seana, “Welcome to the new Time Variance Authority, Gladiator.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Five

            “How?”

            That was the only thing Seana could think to say in reaction to what she saw in front of her.

            “How what?” Loki returned.

            “How did you get to be head of the TVA?!” Seana reiterated, her tone bordering on hostility.

            Taking note of it, Loki calmly shared his story. “I was summoned here by visions…visions from a life that I’ve never lived. It was only when I came here that I realized I was seeing through the eyes of my variant – a Loki who made the ultimate sacrifice for the whole of the multiverse. His actions baffled me at first, and then they motivated me. I wanted to be as good as he was. So, I decided to serve a higher purpose rather than a glorious one.

            My first act was to ensure the protection of Earth-M, which this sector of the TVA monitors. There’ve been multiple rifts that have opened around the dimension, but neither I nor our sources have been able to determine the source of the problem. That’s why I’ve hired Rick Sanchez and your father…er, your mother…I’m still not entirely sure how that works.”

            “She’s me dad,” Seana clarified. “And dat’s besides de point ‘ere!”

            “You’re right,” Loki concurred. “Earth-M is at stake, and with you and your father together, I truly believe we can get things done much faster.”

            Seana huffed. “I don’t trust any variant of ya, Loki – no matter how good. But I ain’t one tah just sit by and watch an entire world get destroyed. So…I’ll go along with ya, so long as ya don’t feck me over.”

            Loki frowned at her Irish lingo. “Even if I knew what that meant, you have my promise that I won’t.”

            Miya stepped in with one of the pads that Seana saw Mobius carrying in the alley. Seana saw how it displayed a map of New York area. “Most of the rifts have occurred in the Upper West Side of Manhattan,” Miya indicated the spots on the digital map.

            “Dat’s where Craig and I first landed, in de Arconia,” Seana said.

            “Craig’s in Earth-M?!” Miya beamed with delight. “Aww! How’s the lil’ fella doin’? I haven’t seen him since our lil’ adventure aboard Discovery—”

            “Later, Pop-Pop,” Seana belayed. “Let’s focus on the rifts.”

            Miya cleared her throat, returning to her serious mode. “Right. So, I’ve determined the next rift to hit somewhere within a five-mile radius in the next nine hours or so.”

            Seana gave an affirmed nod. “Den dat’s where we’ll start.”

            With the temporal functions of the TVA’s time portals, Seana and Miya arrived nine hours later from the moment Seana stepped through the alley portal. It was like no time had passed at all for them, whereas the daytime had turned to dusk over New York City. They established a suitable vantage point from the roof of the Arconia.

            “Brrrr!” Miya shivered whilst keeping an eye on her rift detector, a handheld device that she invented to make a DING sound when a rift was detected. “Man, is it brisk up here! I forget just how cold New York is, this time of the year.”

            “Uh-huh,” Seana muttered. Perched upon one edge of the rooftop, her focus was towards a specific street corner.

            Meanwhile, Miya couldn’t refrain from shivering; the rift detector twitched in her unsteady grip. “I-I-I s-should’ve b-brought a-a b-bigger c-c-c-coat! I’m g-gonna f-freeze m-my b-butt o-off!”

            “Uh-huh,” Seana muttered again.

            Hearing that detached tone in her voice again shifted Miya’s focus from her device to her daughter, seeing that her attention was nowhere around the rooftop. As a test, Miya told her, “Uh-oh! I think I’m so cold I’m about to regenerate!”

            “Uh-huh.”

            “It’s happenin’! My hand’s startin’ to do its glow-y thing!”

            “Uh-huh.”

            “Change is coming, Neas! It was nice knowin’ ya!”

            “Uh-huh.”

            Nothing. Not a single reaction. She didn’t even bother to look Miya’s way, even for a second.

            Rather than try any further to get her daughter’s attention, Miya joined at Seana’s side and followed her gaze towards the street corner below. She saw a large dome and several first responders cleaning up the last remains of a destructive scene that took place there, sometime ago. Among with the firetrucks, news vans, and squad cars were unmarked black vans. Converged near one of them was 10-year-old Craig Williams, who interacted with a team of super girls, one of whom was an unmasked African-American girl.

            But it was Craig specifically who Miya finally understood where Seana’s attention had been. “Ahh, I get it now,” she smiled. “You wanna tell me now how the lil’ fella’s doin’?”

            “He’s fine, Pop,” Seana dryly remarked.

            Miya frowned at her attitude. “Only one ‘Pop’ there?” She wasn’t so easily fooled. “C’mon, babe. Tell me what’s really going on. Did you two get into a fight or something?”

            Seana sighed. “Yeah…we did.”

            “What was it about?”

            “Nothin’.”

            Miya could see that she was still withholding the details, but she respected her daughter’s privacy, seeing that she was distraught enough. Changing the subject, she reflected, “I can still remember when I first met Craigy, aboard Discovery One. A lot of the details of how we met are vague, but I remember how intimidated he was by Skeeta.” She giggled as she reminisced, “He was so much like a lil’ soldier – always standin’ at attention whenever I addressed him. I think he even saluted once.”

            A soft chuckle escaped from Seana’s peach-blossomed lips.

            Noticing it, Miya kept on: “It’s like he knew I was a militiaman and if he would piss me off, even for a second, I’d go Full Metal Jacket on his lil’ behind.”

            Seana snorted out a full-blown guffaw that Miya happily shared with her.

            Once she settled down, Miya concluded, “But he had nothin’ to worry about. Skeeta may have had a tough exterior, but he was as cuddly as a teddy bear on the inside.”

            Seana was grateful for her father’s jovial reminiscence. It briefly took her mind off of what was happening on the street corner, until she found herself looking back down at Craig and Lunella (who was a superhero, apparently) as they conversed. She wished that she could have listened in on them.

            And then, as if she could read her mind (and she very well may have, being a Time Lord), Miya handed her an earpiece. “It taps on all airwaves like radio frequencies but pinpoints specifically on those you’re looking at directly,” she enlightened on the technical specs, putting in her own earpiece.

            Accepting the eavesdropping instrument, Seana put the earpiece into her right ear and gazed intently on Craig and Lunella. Immediately, she could hear the two kids’ exchange.

            “This won’t be like PizzeRizzo, Craig,” Lunella said. “S.W.O.R.D. is a very covert organization – more so than S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Livingston’s not just gonna let you join like that.”

            “He will once he hears that I know the Doctor,” Craig asserted.

            “The Doctor?!” Lunella reacted. “How do you know the…?”

            Their conversation was derailed as soon as Craig saw Director Livingston exiting the dome with the Doctor and his young blond companion. “That’s the latest model of our dear Doctor?!” Miya observed the flashy incarnation. “Dude’s come a long way from the long scarves and Jelly Babies.”

            Seana grew nervous, watching Craig as he rushed straight up to Director Livingston. “M-Mister Director? I mean, Mister Livingston? Director Livingston?” She could hear the intimidation in Craig’s voice.

            Miya detected it as well. “Just like with Skeeta – bless his heart,” she pitied Craig.

            Before Craig could get another word in, Director Livingston looked around at the other S.W.O.R.D. personnel and shouted, “Who allowed this child into the area?” He hardly even looked Craig’s way. “C’mon, people! We gotta work together here! All civilians are off limits!”

            “B-But I…” Craig timidly stammered.

            “Go home, kid,” the Director brushed him off. “You got no business bein’ here.”

            Seana tensed as she saw him shove Craig aside; from her overprotective perspective, it seemed like a rough shove. “Leave ‘im alone, ya gobshite,” she grumbled. “He just wants tah ‘elp ya.”

            Miya herself felt like jumping down there and tackling Director Livingston for his poor treatment of a boy she grew to love like a third child.

            “He does have business here, Director,” the Doctor suddenly vouched for Craig. “I happen to know this boy, and he can be a great help to our situation.”

            The Director looked long and hard at his Time Lord advisor.

            Without a word, he permitted Craig but kept his focus away from the boy as he returned to one of the unmarked black vans, driving away. Some of the other S.W.O.R.D. personnel began to do the same, deflating the dome and collecting the remains of the incinerated cephalopod in a dozen large, steel crates that were marked “radioactive.” Lunella’s fellow supers hopped into another van and waited for her. Putting her Moon Girl helmet back on, Lunella told Craig, “I don’t know what history you have with the Doctor or how you know anything about what’s going on here, but there’s more to you than what you’re telling, Craig Williams.” On that, Moon Girl rejoined her team in the van and rode off.

            “Where’s everybody going?” Craig asked the only person remaining: the Doctor.

            “S.W.O.R.D. HQ,” the Doctor answered. “You’re gonna love it.” He then gestured to his companion and introduced, “Craig Williams, this is Ruby Sunday. Ruby Sunday, meet Craig Williams.”

            Ruby greeted Craig with a friendly handshake. “Nice to meet ya, Craig. No offense, but how does a young boy like you know the Doctor?”

            “We met each other on a desert planet, during an incident with a Stargate,” the Doctor told her.

            Overhearing this, Miya turned to Seana and curiously asked, “When was this?!”

            Seana shrugged. “Ya got me. I wasn’t dere.”

            “So,” the Doctor continued with Craig, “if you’re here, then Neas can’t be too far behind, can they?”

            “Neas?” Ruby queried.

            “They’re a Time Lord, somewhat like me, with a TARDIS that’s a bit different from mine,” the Doctor elaborated. “It’s a Type-Z model that could’ve handled the journey to this dimension a little easier than my old Type-40 did.”

            Impressed, Ruby asked, “So where is this other Time Lord?”

            They both looked on Craig, who folded his arms and answered with an air of defiance, “She left.”

            Seana’s hearts sank in shame and distress.

            “Left you here all alone?” the baffled Doctor said. “That doesn’t sound like the Neas I know.”

            “Well, this one’s different than the others you’ve met,” Craig proclaimed.

            Seana felt her tears flowing out this time. Heartbroken, she removed her earpiece, having heard enough. Not that it would have mattered, since Craig left with Ruby and the Doctor in another unmarked van, shortly thereafter.

            Removing her earpiece as well, Miya placed a comforting hand on her daughter’s back. “He’s just angry, sweetheart,” she told her.

            “He has good reason to be,” Seana shuddered.

            Before Miya could look any further into this tiff between Seana and Craig, her rift detector finally dinged. “Two rifts just opened a few blocks that way,” she pointed in the direction of a nearby harbor that bordered the Hudson River.

            Wiping away her tears, Seana switched gears. “Let’s get on it den!”

Chapter Text

Chapter Six

            Taking Seana’s TARDIS to get there much faster, the Time Ladies arrived across the street from a warehouse at the harbor. Miya’s rift detector led them directly inside, although Seana had to use her sonic screwdriver to bypass the padlock. Yes, it was breaking and entering (as well as trespassing), but it was for the right reasons.

            “I’m reading two rifts in this area,” Miya indicated from her detector.

            “Den let’s divide and conquer,” Seana suggested. “You search one end of de warehouse, and I’ll search de odder.”

            “Copy,” Miya acknowledged. “Earpieces in.”

            The warehouse was the length of a single football field – large and spacious. This search was certain to take most of the night, unless Miya’s detector was spot-on in its data. With it, her side of the investigation was much easier, following the blip on the readout like the arrow on a compass. It beeped like a metal detector, and the beeps grew faster as she got closer to the source.

            Rounding a corner, she was hot on the rift’s trail until she stopped.

            Ahead of her was a two-year-old black child in a green hoodie and jeans, sitting on the floor, all alone. Oblivious to what was going on around him, he gazed up at Miya with twinkling eyes that melted both of her hearts. “Aww,” she gushed, her parental instincts flaring. This incarnation was more vulnerable to them, presumably due to a massive uptick in empathy. Whatever it was, she didn’t care. There was an abandoned child sitting in front of her, and he needed to be cared for.

            “Hey there, lil’ man,” she sweetly greeted him, taking his tiny hand between her thumb and index finger for a small handshake. “Whatchu doin’ here all by yourself?” She knew he couldn’t outright tell her, although he was at the age where his speech would be a bit developed. He seemed like a very shy but very curious person. Nonetheless, Miya comforted him, “It’s O.K., sweetheart. We’ll figure it out together.”

            “Who ya talkin’ to, Pop-Pop?” She heard Seana over their comms.

            Finger to her ear, Miya responded, “I found the source of our first rift – a handsome lil’ two-year-old boy.”

            “What?!” Seana reacted. “Where’d he come from?”

            “No idea,” Miya sighed. “Poor thing’s got no one lookin’ out for him.”

            “I know dat voice,” Seana said with a chuckle. “Yer gonna take de wee lad in ‘til we find his mum and dada, aren’t ya?”

            “Of course!” Miya verified. “I’m not one to abandon a child in need.” She took the boy into her arms, looking him over to see if he sustained any injuries from his trip between dimensions. Fortunately, she found none on him; however, she did find something to identify him – a name written with a black marker on the rear inside of his hoodie collar. “Clifton J.,” she read it aloud. Finally able to put a name to the face, she smiled and said, “Nice to meet ya, Cliff. You wouldn’t happen to know any Norms, would ya?” Clifton responded with a curious stare. “Yeah, I imagine that’s the first Dad Joke you ever heard, huh?”

            Overhearing Miya spout out one Dad Joke after another to her new little friend, Seana wanted to shut off her earpiece. She opted instead to just focus on the investigation. Unlike her father, she didn’t need tech to locate the rift. Traveling across the Infinite DC, she acquired skills in detecting rifts, purely through her own senses. She could almost see the misty trail leading to the other one in the warehouse.

            “Closin’ in on de odder rift, Pop-Pop,” she alerted Miya, who was already on her fourth Dad Joke. “Wish me luck.”

            She rounded the corner into the very center of the warehouse.

            There, she was blinded by a flashbulb aimed at her eyes at close range.

            “GAH!” she cried out. “Cunús! Tá mé dall!”

            “Come again?” a familiar voice inquired.

            “Erm, I think it’s Pig Latin,” another familiar voice presumed. “Piggy taught it to me once.”

            “It’s Gaelic, ya langers!” Seana griped, wiping her eyes. Gradually, her vision returned, and the first thing she saw were three familiar figures in front of her – a bear wearing a white polka dot necktie and a brown pork pie hat (with a “press” card sticking from the band); a frog in a grey hat and trench coat; and a blue, hook-nosed weirdo holding the flashbulb camera he blinded Seana with. “Fozzie? Kermit? Gonzo?”

            “Did you find him, Lori?” Kermit asked her.

            “Lori?!” Seana frowned. “And find who?!”

            “Who else? The Green Goblin!” Fozzie said. “We were tracking him until that weird flash – that didn’t come from Gonzo’s camera, for once – and now we all ended up here.”

            “I’m not exactly sure all of us did, Fozzie,” Kermit contradicted. “I didn’t see Sean come in here with us.”

            “Director Livingston?” Seana assumed that’s who they meant. “He’s back at S.W.O.R.D. headquarters.”

            “What the heck is S.W.O.R.D.?” Gonzo asked. “And how many do they have?”

            “And why’re you talking with that Irish accent, Lori?” Fozzie followed up.

            “Who’s Lori?!” Seana’s patience began to wear thin with the Muppet trio. And then, it dawned on her: “Wait a tick. Yer not from Earth-M, are ya? Yer Muppets from a different Earth…with its own Spider-Man.”

            “Did you hit your head or something, Lori?” a baffled Kermit queried. “What’s all this about ‘different Earths’?”

            Before Seana could look any further into this new mystery, she heard Miya’s approaching voice, as it told yet another Dad Joke: “Here’s a good one – when two vegans get in an argument, is it still called a beef?”

            Fozzie exploded with laughter, hearing the joke. “Ahh! That’s a good one!”

            “This guy gets it!” Miya smiled, pointing at the bear.

            “Who’s she?” Kermit inquired of her.

            “We’ll explain every’tin in our ship outside,” Seana reassured.

            “Ship?!” Now Kermit was really confused. “Lori, what is going on here?!”

            “My name is Seana, and I assume dis ‘Lori’ you dink I am is someone who I look a lotta like, but I ain’t ‘er.”

            “She’s right,” Miya vouched. “You guys are victims of a tear in the fabric of space-time that bounced you out of your dimension and into another.” She indicated Clifton in her arms and added, “Same goes for this lil’ fella here.”

            Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo exchanged bewildered gazes.

            Returning on Seana and Miya, Kermit flatly stated, “That’s the craziest thing I have ever heard!”

            “And flyin’ green goblins ain’t?!” Seana retorted.

            “Well, we’ve seen that,” Gonzo said. “But the thing you’re talking about sounds…”

            “Impossible!” Miya blurted out, all of the sudden.

            “I was gonna say ‘crazy’,” Gonzo uttered, “but that works, too.”

            Seana turned to Miya as she heard her outcry, and they both discovered that Clifton had suddenly vanished from Miya’s arms. “He’s gotta be around somewhere!” Miya panicked as if she were Clifton’s own mother. She frantically reached into her pocket and took the rift detector back out, using it to guide them to Clifton’s new location.

            It brought them back outside where they spotted Clifton sitting in the middle of the street, just as street sweeper was headed towards him.

            “Oh, god!” Miya gasped; her hand clasped over her mouth in horror.

            Seana acted fast, dashing over to Clifton and snatching him out of harm’s way, only a second before the street sweeper could’ve claimed his life. Rolling to safety onto a nearby sidewalk, Seana held Clifton close to her bosom. The child was surprisingly calm during the entire exploit, but more so afterwards, listening to the unique rhythm of Seana’s double heartbeats, thumping through her chest.

            Miya caught up to them, with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo following close behind.

            “Felt like my hearts were gonna jump outta my throat there,” she wheezed while tenderly caressing the back of Clifton’s head. “How in the world did he end up all the way out here?”

            “Don’t know,” Seana said. “He’s such a brave lil’ lad. Not a single tear.”

            Miya smiled on the child. “You were just as brave at his age. I remember y—”

            The tender moment was interrupted by a sudden sinister cackle that rang across the night sky, accompanied by the roar of jet engines. Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo knew these registers all too well, having heard it recently at the World Unity Fair in their dimension.

            “It’s him!” Fozzie yelped.

            “He’s here!” Kermit exclaimed.

            Gonzo’s camera went up, aiming it aloft.

            Seana and Miya looked up in time to see a figure clad in a green technologically advanced battle-suit and a goblin-shaped helmet rocketing towards them on a purple mechanical glider. In a chilling voice, he demanded, “Hand over the boy…or die!!!”

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven

            Neas and Aznavorian had seen a lot of oddities in their time together and apart within the Infinite DC. This “Green Goblin” character was no exception. The goblin aspect of his villainous schtick overall came from his helmet; and he was certainly green in apparel. None of it intimidated Seana or Miya – not at least as much as it had Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo. Even little Clifton kept some semblance of serenity, despite being the Goblin’s primary target, for some reason.

            After handing him over to Miya, Seana challenged the Goblin, “Yer gonna have tah go thru me tah get ‘im, ya bleedin’ leprechaun!” Accepting her challenge, the Goblin proceeded to rocket down towards them. Her body tensing, Seana instructed Miya and the others, “Take cover now!”

            Miya didn’t want to leave her alone to face the Goblin; but, with Clifton in her arms and three Muppet civilians to protect, she had no choice. They ducked behind a red sportscar parked close by, while Seana drew out her trans-temporal sonic screwdriver. Aiming it at the Goblin’s glider, she triggered a malfunction with the press of a button.

            Almost knocked off, the Goblin maintained his balance by crouching down much lower and gripping the glider’s front edge. He swerved just in time to narrowly avoid colliding into a building. The glider grinded to a halt, hovering along the third story of the building long enough for the Goblin to reach into his glider and retrieve a small, orb-shaped device that glowed green and ticked when activated.

            “I have enough redheaded harlots getting in my way!” The Goblin bellowed right before he hurled the device towards Seana.

            She watched as it soared her way, seeing how it resembled a pumpkin with its orange metallic shell and green lights emitting from its top and through etchings in the shell itself. In the time she had to marvel over such a creative weapon, she could have avoided the destructive explosion that it detonated at point-blank range.

            The force of the blast was powerful; the shockwave knocking Seana off her feet and through the wall of the warehouse. Everything within radius of her suffered devastating damages – a fire hydrant, half of a freight truck, and a portion of the warehouse’s foundation.

            “NEAS!!!” Miya shrieked. Her mortified cries were too much for Clifton’s sensitive ears, scaring the child into tears.

            Hearing them, the Goblin turned his glider their way and snarled beneath his mask, “Now…where were we?” Miya glared at him, fueled by rage over what the green menace had done to her daughter. She was prepared to hand Clifton over to Fozzie and do whatever necessary to avenge Neas, until…

            “Oi! Leprechaun!”

            Miya was extremely relieved to hear Seana’s voice come from the smoldering devastation created by the Goblin’s pumpkin bomb. She emerged from the smoke with only a few scratches – one on her left arm drawing blood that trickled down to her hand. Fragments of her green military jacket and the lower half of her sweatshirt singed off from the blast, leaving her biceps and abdominals exposed and flexed in a fit of anger.

            “First off, I really liked dis jacket,” she told the Goblin, “…and second, if yer gonna kill somebody, yer gonna hafta do better dan dat!”

            “Careful what you wish for, my dear!” The Goblin thundered.

            Returning aim on the resilient Irishwoman, the Goblin activated another feature on his glider – sharp daggers produced along the frontside. He banked downwards with more speed and ferocity than before with the intention of impaling Seana to death. However, the Gladiator moved quicker than the glider, leaping into the air once her flying green adversary was close enough and gripping his ‘face’.

            With remarkable reflexes and strength that the Goblin hadn’t anticipated from what he perceived to be an ordinary redhead, he was thrown off his glider and slammed down on the asphalt. The glider, left without a pilot, flew into one of the surviving portions of the warehouse’s exterior structure, its produced daggers embedded in a brick wall. Its rockets burnt out after a few seconds, shutting down entirely.

            Seana applied more pressure to the Goblin man’s mask, shattering it with her bare hands to unmask the identity of her adversary. With his human face now visible, the Goblin man’s personality shifted completely, transforming into a sniveling coward. “P-Please!” he whimpered. “Don’t kill me! It was the Goblin! He wanted the child, not me!”

            “Nice try, arsehole!” Seana growled, following her retort with a swift and mighty punch to the man’s face that rendered him unconscious.

            With the threat neutralized, Miya and the three Muppet reporters stepped out from hiding and regrouped with Seana. Clifton was still crying in Miya’s arms, so she switched on her paternal nurturing, gently rubbing his back and shushing him. “It’s O.K., lil’ man,” she told him. “The bad ol’ Goblin dude is flat on his green butt. See?” She pointed to the unconscious and unmasked Green Goblin, seeing his true face. It made her wonder aloud, “Who is this guy?”

            Seana shrugged. “I have no bleedin’ idea.”

            Kermit, on the other hand, knew exactly who the Green Goblin’s true identity was: “That’s Norman Osborn!” He sounded very shocked upon this discovery.

            “Norman Osborn’s the Green Goblin?!” Gonzo’s eyelids folded back in shock, shortly before he snapped a photograph of the unmasked Goblin.

            “Why’s Norman Osborn the Green Goblin?!” Fozzie exclaimed.

            Seana and Miya saw how flabbergasted and alarmed they were. Seana attempted to ask them more about this ‘Osborn’ fellow, but the inquiry was delayed by the emergence of a large, ring-shaped sparkly interdimensional portal that opened near them. From it materialized what appeared to be Spider-Man, swinging from a web line. He landed beside the inert Norman Osborn, picking him off the ground and jumping back through the portal with his body.

            “Hey, wait dere a sec, Spidey!” Seana protested. “Ya can’t just—!”

            “Actually, he can,” a voice contended through the portal. Another figure floated his way out through it, a cloak levitating along with its goatee-sporting wearer – a sorcerer of some type. Spider-Man reemerged from the portal, joining the sorcerer’s side as he told the Time Lords and the three Muppets, “My name’s Stephen Strange…Doctor Stephen Strange.”

            Miya smiled, facing the sorcerer. “I know who you are, Doctor Strange. I’ve ran into a few of your variants during my travels across the multiverse.”

            “I know,” Strange returned. “I’ve seen you quite often in my dreams. Your name’s Miya, am I right?”

            Miya nodded. “Correct.”

            “Now, hold on!” Seana remonstrated. “I wanna know what de feck’s goin’ on! Who’s dat Goblin fella and why’s he so hellbent on takin’ dis wee lad!” She gestured to Clifton for emphasis.

            “Don’t worry, ma’am,” Spider-Man told her. “We can handle him from here.”

            “Firstly, laddie, don’t call me ‘mum’,” Seana objected.

            “He didn’t call you ‘mum’,” Fozzie interjected. “He called you ‘ma’am’.”

            “Dat’s what I said!” Seana roared to the Muppet bear.

            “I’m just gonna stop this routine right here, before it goes any further,” Strange diffused. He then waved his hands in a rhythmic gesture towards Seana. Suddenly, the Irishwoman’s singed jacket was magically woven back to normal on her body.

            Delighted and impressed by the mystic stitchwork, Seana expressed her gratitude to Strange in her Gaelic tongue, “Go raibh maith agat!”

            “I’ll take that as a ‘Thank You’,” Strange said before centering his attention on Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo. “Now, I must insist you three come with us. And you…” He pointed to Miya, who was still holding Clifton. “…please hand over the boy.”

            Miya deflected. “With all due respect, Doctor Strange, this is TVA business.”

            “Yes, I know who the TVA are and who their new manager is,” Strange bitterly established. “And that’s part of the reason why I’m asking you all to come back to the Sanctum with us.”

            “Pop-Pop and me, too? Why?” Seana inquired.

            Strange huffed. “Because this problem’s a lot bigger than the TVA imagined.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight

            Riding with the S.W.O.R.D. convoy was a little awkward for Craig. No one said a word the entire ride through the New York streets – not even Lunella. She made it very clear that she was upset with him for not telling her about being from another dimension. Of course, he had more than enough reason himself to be upset right back for her being a superhero the whole time.

            It wouldn’t have mattered for him either way, as they finally arrived at the rendezvous point – a dark, secluded area of Central Park. Craig was very confused when everyone got out of their vehicles and gathered near one vacant spot. “What’s going on?” he asked the Doctor, the only one in the group he felt comfortable talking with.

            “Oh, you’re gonna love this bit, Craig,” the Doctor said, pointing to Agent Livingston, who pressed a button on his wristband device.

            Suddenly, a pillar of clear blue light shot down from the night sky, illuminating the area. Craig was taken aback by it, thinking it was some sort of stairway to heaven. He looked up to see where the light was coming from, but he could only see the stars. But then something began to descend down the beam of light – some sort of white, hexagonal transport that was big enough to fit the entire group. Once it gracefully touched down to the earth, they boarded it.

            The interior reminded Craig much of the TARDIS.

            It was almost alien in design, like something straight out of the future.

            There were seats available near the panoramic windows, offering a majestic view of the ascent from Earth to whatever was at the top of the beam.

            Craig felt the gravity shift around him, feeling weighed down at first and getting lighter as soon as they were out of the Earth’s gravitational field. They should’ve been floating at that point, but something was still keeping everyone on their feet (or their butts, if they were sitting). He recalled Neas and Aznavorian mentioning ‘artificial gravity’ once and figured this to be exactly that.

            “Is this…an elevator?” Craig found himself consulting with the Doctor again.

            “It’s a space elevator!” The Doctor gleefully elaborated. “And it’s taking us straight up to the S.A.B.E.R. space station.”

            “The S.A.B.E.R. space station?” Craig frowned.

            The Doctor pointed straight up, prompting Craig to look out the window. He saw that indeed the space elevator was bringing them to a colossal space station that orbited the planet. The station itself, from what Craig could tell, looked like two large Frisbees sitting on top of each other with a long, upside-down tower underneath them. It was the tower portion through which their elevator ascended. The panoramic view of the Earth and stars had momentarily turned dark before multiple levels of the space station blurred past the windows.

            Craig got a little dizzy from the transition; he was thankful that it was all over in seconds, stepping out of the elevator and trying not to collapse. “You O.K., luv?” He heard Ruby ask him. Looking at her, he saw three of her spinning around like a kaleidoscope.

            “Yeah,” Craig gagged. “I think so.”

            On the contrary, Super Gretel flew out of the elevator with her sidekick, Hamster, and cheered, “Oh, man! I love riding that thing! It’s like flying!”

            “But you can already fly,” Havoc told her.

            “Yeah, but that kind of flying is so much cooler – because it’s through space!” Gretel highlighted.

            The group headed straight to the Main Deck where they met up with an elderly black man wearing an eyepatch and a young blond Caucasian woman wearing a cool-looking red-blue-and-gold space uniform. “Nick Fury and Captain Marvel,” the Doctor introduced them to Craig in a hushed voice.

            “Another rift opened in the Upper West Side of Manhattan,” Agent Livingston informed Fury. “We still can’t figure out what’s causing the damned things. Any luck with the eggheads up here?”

            “We’re just as in the dark as you guys,” Fury admitted. “But since you brought him…” He gestured to the Doctor. “…we may have better luck.”

            “What about the other one that’s already here?” Livingston inquired. “She’s the one who brought him and is the same species as him, if not way more intelligent.”

            “Oi!” The Doctor scolded him. “I’m standin’ right here, babes!”

            Craig couldn’t help but to interject himself into the adult conversation. “Other one? You mean another Time Lord?” His mind started to consider the infinite possibilities of who it might’ve been. He only knew a few – Neas, Aznavorian, and the Doctor. “Who is it?”

            “CRAIG?!?!” He heard a familiar angelic voice yell out from across the room.

            Looking past all the passing personnel, he spotted one young brunette wearing a form-fitting black turtleneck, a pair of olive-green skinny jeans, and some brown hiking shoes that were slightly dilapidated from years and years of running. Craig knew this brunette as his middle school teacher back in Herkleton, his personal tutor, his best friend, and the sixth incarnation of Neas’s Time Lord father, Aznavorian the Tinkerer.

            “Rania!” He yelled right back with a breath of delight.

            Everyone watched as the two friends ran to each other’s arms, engulfing themselves in the longest and warmest of hugs.

            “The Tink knows the kid?” Hamster observed in his dry monotone. “Who’d have thunk it?”

            Lunella was the least surprised of them all. “Of course he does,” she huffed with crossed arms. “Is there anybody in this dimension he doesn’t know?!”

            “Never mind them, Moon Girl,” Agent Livingston said. “Let’s debrief in Fury’s office. We need to figure out our next course of action, just in case.” His team followed him, Fury, and Captain Marvel out of the Main Deck, leaving Craig and Rania behind.

            The two friends let each other go and concurrently asked, “What’re you doing here? Why are you here?”

            They laughed over their inadvertent synchronization.

            “You go first,” Rania insisted.

            “It’s just…I don’t remember you ever coming to this dimension,” Craig noted.

            “I’ve been here once or twice before,” Rania admitted. “As a matter of fact, one of my past regenerations should be here right at this moment.”

            This news sparked Craig’s enthusiasm. “Really?! Which one? Is it Skeeta?”

            Rania shook her head. “Nah, it’s one you haven’t properly met yet. She was my first regeneration as a girl – her name’s Miya.”

            “Miya,” Craig uttered the name with intrigue. “I can’t wait to see what she’s like.”

            “She’s certainly looking forward to meeting you,” Rania smiled.

            “How?” Craig frowned. “By that time, she doesn’t know me.”

            Rania winked. “Let’s just say you’ve left an impression on me long before you knew me as that Jewish woman with the long, curly red hair.” She suddenly noticed Craig glancing in the direction that Agent Livingston and his team went; it was evident by the despondency on his face who the young S.W.O.R.D. director reminded the 10-year-old of. “I know, sweetheart,” she told him. “It took every ounce of myself not to hug him.”

            “But he’s not him,” Craig clarified – more for himself than for Rania. “The only reason I even came here was because of him. But I’m just fooling myself.”

            “Oh, sweetheart.” Rania comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder. Not wanting their happy reunion to turn dour, she quickly changed the subject. “Hey, you wanna see something cool but also very dangerous?”

            “Yeah!” Craig’s mood shifted back to enthusiastic almost instantly.

            He followed her to another area of the space station that was a bit dimmer than the other sectors. This particular area was reserved for wall-to-wall holding cells in the form of glass cylinders. At the moment they arrived, one of the cells was occupied by a man Craig had only met a few seconds ago.

            “Wait…isn’t that Nick Fury?!” He pointed to the prisoner. “But I just saw him!”

            “Hey, kid!” Fury slammed his fist against the glass. “Get me out of here! They’re making a mistake! I’m the real Nick Fury! The one who’s roamin’ free ‘round this station is an impos—!”

            “BE QUIET!!!” Rania roared to the prisoner. “You’re not foolin’ anyone – especially not this intelligent lil’ fella right here.” She patted the baffled Craig on the back.

            Craig’s gaze bounced back and forth between the imprisoned Fury and Rania, the latter tapping away on a smart tablet that seemed to have controlled the atmosphere within the cylindrical holding cell. She tapped one command on the screen that emitted a puff of red smoke from the vents along the floor of the cell, engulfing Fury.

            “What’re you doing?!” He asked Rania in panic. “Stop it!”

            “Just trust me, Craig,” Rania beckoned. “You’ll see what I mean in a sec.”

            Craig waited patiently albeit uneasily. He kept his attention on the fumigated cell, unable to see Fury’s shape within the shrouds of red smoke – not until Rania tapped another command on the tablet that cleared all of it.

            Once it dispersed, Craig jolted in shock.

            No longer was Nick Fury standing inside the cell; instead, it was a tall humanoid alien with an elongated head that had squiggly horns protruding from the skull. It looked like a cross between a crab and a starfish, specifically the former with its exoskeleton. Its face was mortifyingly demonic with red eyes that seemed to have glowed as they glared on both Craig and Rania.

            Petrified with fear, Craig stammered, “W-W-What is that?!?!”

            “It’s called a Zygon,” Rania told him. “Or at least a version of one from another dimension. They’re a lot different from the ones in my dimension.”

            “H-How…H-H-How are they…different?” Craig struggled to ask.

            “We are more advanced,” the Zygon spoke in a gurgling whisper that sounded haunting to Craig’s ears.

            “You’re not that advanced, Buddy,” Rania counterclaimed. She leaned towards Craig and whispered, “I call him ‘Buddy,’ since he refuses to tell me his real name.” She saw how horrified Craig was in the presence of the Zygon. Feeling ashamed for subjecting him to it, she gingerly comforted him, “Hey, it’s alright. He can’t hurt you from in there. That glass is made from the densest crystal on the planet of Thra – thankfully, it’s not the crystal that powers their whole planet.”

            “Thra?” Craig parroted. “Where’s that?”

            “It’s one of the planets that I visited while I was here in Earth-M,” Rania said. “Maybe I’ll take you there, once I’m through with whatever war this big lug…” She nodded towards Buddy. “…and his friends have broken out with the Skrulls.”

            “Skrulls?” Craig (again) parroted.

            “Another race of alien shapeshifters,” Rania elaborated. “Unlike Buddy and his fellow Zygons, they’re native to this dimension. Fury – the real Fury – is working closely with a Skrull named Talos and the Skrull Council to help us deal with the Zygon menace.”

            “Are these ‘Zygons’ also the reason for all the rifts that Lunella and Agent Livingston are dealing with?” Craig pondered.

            His intuition impressed Rania. “Intelligent and cute as always, Mr. Williams.” She playfully tickled his chin, a gesture that made him giggle. “You’re absolutely right. After I came through the rift, I had enlisted in the Doctor’s help. A two-birds-one-stone combo of Time Lords. And, apparently, he’s also been to Earth-M before…more than a few times.” She huffed in despair, crossing her arms. “But, even with his assistance, the Zygons are so elusive, it’s been difficult to determine the scale of the problem. For all we know, they’re the cause of the rifts.”

            “We are not, Time Lord,” Buddy refuted in a hiss.

            “I don’t believe you,” Rania argued. Ignoring the Zygon, she turned to Craig and asked, “You hungry?”

            Craig didn’t think he was all that famished until that moment. Even with the imprisoned Zygon snarling at them from its glass cell, his stomach growled for sustenance. “I’m starving,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’ve had any food since PizzeRizzo’s.”

            Rania cringed. “That pizzeria run by those rats?! Oh, sweetheart. You deserve to eat somewhere far more respectable than that.”

            “Where?” Craig queried.

            “A place that I’ve always wanted to take you in our journeys but never had the chance…until now.”