Interlude: The Reality Gem

Agent X, Blackbird, Jericho Tesla, Maelstrom, and Radical Warrior appear on a cement staircase on a busy New York Street, facing the front door of an older-looking house.

Behind you, people are lined up along the street as if waiting for something, and a festive mood fills the air.

The house is one Rad recognizes. He saw it the night of his arrival in New York - the old early 20th century home surrounded by all the newer constructions tood out as strangely out of place to him.

Rad raises his hand to knock on the door, but it swings open before hs knuckles can make contact with it.

There in the foyer before you is a man in a green dress suit, wearing a maching green cape, and, oddly enough, a matching green fez.

"Well", he says, "it's about time you showed up."

Jericho feels a strange sense of deja vu, as this man seems vaguely familiar...but he just can't seem to place him...

"Ah, we are expected?" Blackbird extends a hand to the man. "Dr. Strange pointed us in this direction and suggested that you might possibly be of assistance."

And, after the handshake (or declined handshake, if the man isn't the shaking type), he will offer the man the scroll.

"Indeed. I have been waiting for you for nearly half a century. Please, come in, sit."

The man rolls his eyes at the mention of Dr. Strange. "Oh. Of course. Probably the first smart thing he's done..."

He responds to the offered hand with a firm handshake and a modest, respectful bow. Motioning for you to come in, he shows you into a living room, furnished like something out of the 1940s. A silver serving tray with several cups, two pitchers, and cardboard cannister sits on a white lace doily covering a low table.

Blackbird blinks once, then recovers quickly to add, "In that case, my deepest apologies for being so tardy."

Maelstrom enters behind Blackbird, his eye catching the green fez. With a slightly suspicious tone he says, "If you've been waiting so long, why didn't you speak up? I've seen you lurking about at least twice now - the first time when the mansion was destoyed, the second at a press conference. Both times you disappeared without speaking. No offense, but your fez is distinctive."

X now has returned to his original look. He has been rather quite scince the "advice" given to him by Energystar. Apparently she did not get that he was asking about her health. I guess vagueness is not going to do the job here. The only other option that is not stupid is frankness. It would seem that I must approach the AEF from a different angle then.

Malestrom give the man the comon courtisy of gettin himself in and ready. Things of such import only occur in the right point in time. If he had come to you with the story of these stones then would it have made anysence to you at that point.

"Agent X - care in your words, please. Remember the warning the good doctor gave us."

"I have been 'keeping tabs on you' as it were, since my reawakening, as I knew we were destined to cross paths, but that it had to come at a moment of your choosing. Many years ago, a magical ritual gave me a glimpse into the future. I foresaw a being of immense power come to Earth and a group of heroes, mostly unknown to me, stand against him. I also learned that my help would be needed for them to be able to overcome the being and so I retreated from the world, awaiting the day when the creature would come to Earth and put into motion the events I foresaw. My understanding is you would need me to help recover a 'weapon' of some sort to defeat the creature. I assume that's why you are here now."

"Thank you, I'm quite fond of it!", he replies, smiling. Leaning forward from his couch, the man reaches for the cardboard canister and a spoon from the serving tray. "May I offer anyone some Ovaltine? It's good both hot or cold."

"Stones?", the man in the fez asks. "A most primitive weapon. Perhaps THE most primitive." He sits back on the couch, taking a sip of the warm, chocolatey drink he just mixed for himself. "Mmmm. Fortified with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, and D, as well as niacin and phosphorous. It's practically a health tonic."

Placing his cup down on a saucer, the man in the fez continues "Well, let's see what the good doctor prescribed for you, shall we?"

He unrolls the scroll and begins to look it over. "Hm. Sumerian grammar is incorrect. The Phoenician characters look more like Babylonian. And the context is wrong in the Egyptian section. Huh. Amateur. Well, shall we see what we come up with from the note your little correspondance-school sorcerer has given you?"

"Warning?", the man in the fez asks. "Probably something about not telling me it's true nature, I would assume, since the scroll seems to be rather vague on that part..."

Blink. Ovaltine? Really. Oh my god. I LOVE that stuff

"Ahh ... actually, yes please. That would be very nice."

A sharp jab in the ribs from Maelstrom. AHEM! ixnay on the onestay.... He may know Sumerian, but does he know pig Latin?

"YES! That's what I think! Why does no one else .... errr..."

Maelstrom trailed off as Blackbird turned to look at him.

Maelstrom accepted a glass of the chocolatey concoction (a treat to which Bova had introduced him), and he seated himself nearby. Ovaltine had gone a long way toward reassuring him about THE FEZ, but he still maintained a watchful eye.

"Please do, sir."

Obviously a man of good breeding and upper class tastes like himself (Beorn did already compliment his fez, after all), the man in the fez happily mixes Maelstrom a healty size potion of the malted beverage and hands it to him.

"Switzerland", the man in the fez replies. "The source of all exceptional chocolate products."

"Let's see...", he says, examining the scroll. After mumbling something completely uncoherant for close to a minute, he looks up and gestures with his hand. The illumination in the room drops significantly and small sparkles of light come to life all around it. Some cluster together in small pockets. "This is a representation of our universe. There...", the man in the fez indicates, pointing to a yellow spot significantly brighter than the others, "is where your weapon lies. Let's see if we can focus in and see specifically where in the universe that point lies..."