Split or String

Chapter 1

            “That’s what I came in to tell you,” Natalia interrupted.

            “What?” Pepper’s eyes widened. Hill looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. This was the moment they were dreading.

            “Agent May, do you remember when you worked with an Asgardian named Lady Sif?” Natalia asked. Melinda stepped forward to the table.

            “Yes, she assisted with stopping another Asgardian, Lorelei. Why?”

            “Well, she just left the Triskelion and she’s on her way to your battle-carrier. She has a guest with her.”

            “Who!?” Victoria’s husky voice went up an octave.

            “She calls herself ‘Diana’. And I think she’s taller than you, Hand,” Natalia smirked.

            “What is their shuttle location?” Maria interjected.

Pepper leaned over to her computer and typed rapidly to pull up the information. “They are three hours away from your coordinates,” she answered finally.

            “Is this Diana woman Asgardian as well?” Melinda asked.

            “No, but she and Sif seemed to get along. I’m confident she’s on our side,” Natalia replied.

            “So, Pepper, what now? Does this new intel change any of your briefing?” Maria returned to the main topic.

            “Yes and no. I retract my statement about contact from other universes. If we have someone visiting from another galaxy who brought along someone from another universe, we have a whole new set of potential problems. But, as for the situation on earth, Stark Industries, in association with SHIELD, has yet to find anything unusual,” Pepper stated.

            “Aside from all the crazy civilians trying to contact aliens,” Maria added.

            “Yes, well, let’s not even talk about the people who are convinced it’s the End of Days,” Pepper shuffled the papers in front of her. “But to continue, we all are hard at work trying to figure out the exact source of the Bridge. We know Doctor Doom is behind it, but it’s not the same one that the Fantastic Four defeated several years ago. We are currently investigating him though to see if there is any connection.”

            “SHIELD is sending another squadron of battle-carriers into space tomorrow. We are preparing for the worst,” Natalia added.

            “Well, let’s hope we can handle the worst,” Maria sighed. She had seen forces from other galaxies, but the idea of forces from another universe gave her chills.

            “I’ll be sending you all of our updated research on the phenomena. The best we can do at this point is study it. Study and wait,” Pepper said.

            “I bet Tony is having a field day,” Natalia rolled her eyes.

            “Yay science,” Pepper smiled stiffly.

            “We have pinpointed other locations of Particle M067. I’ll send you recent coordinates. Maybe SHIELD can send another ground team to investigate,” Maria reported.

            “I have a team ready to dispatch tomorrow, once they get the location,” Victoria mentioned.  

            “May I add something?”