[Video]

[cantcatchme]

I finally see what you all were talking about with the whole waking up on the ship thing.

[Pietro looks tense, but he's dressed, at least. However, the uniform is unfamiliar. He's clearly still inside the ship.]

But can someone tell me why my powers aren't working?!

[His voice climbs a few octaves closer to panic at the end.]

Comments

[Video]

[cantcatchme]

Oh, yeah, there's a bunch of us. Me and my sister, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor... I guess you can count Hawkeye in there, if you have to.

[He shrugs at the other boy's concern] Like you said. It's not like people don't know who I am, even back home. The hero gig's full-time, for me.

[Video]

[roddy_reinigen]

That sounds pretty cool. I can't imagine anyone in my world openly using their powers like that, but then, people having powers isn't really a well known thing in my world.

[And there were plenty of people planning on keeping things that way.]

[cantcatchme]

I can understand that. The mutants only just came out a few months back, back home. The world's not taking it so hot. Guess the Avengers get special treatment, having saved the world publicly a few times and all.

[And having SHIELD permission to operate.]

[roddy_reinigen]

Yeah, I doubt that'll ever happen in my world.

[His description of his world was starting to sound very familiar, though...]

Are you from the same world as Kurt?

[cantcatchme]

Kind of. Another version of me was, I'm... from a very similar reality, I guess. Only I don't know him in that reality. At all.

[roddy_reinigen]

Oh. Well, I guess with how we ended up here, with the ship rescuing people from rifts in realities or whatever, something like that's going to happen sooner or later.

[After all, it only meant that a reality had split several times and ended up going in different directions, right? At least, if his understanding of how sci fi worked, it should be right.]

I'm guessing in his reality, he knows you?

[Otherwise, he wouldn't see why that would be mentioned in the first place, after all.]

[cantcatchme]

The other me was here for quite a while, I guess. And yeah, they knew each other. Not exactly on friendly terms, before this whole mess happened, though I guess they're cool now.

[He'd been filled in on the basics of Brotherhood and X-men dynamics during his last visit.]

Can't say I'm very comfortable with another guy running around with my good looks and impeccable fashion sense. Just seems wrong, y'know?

[roddy_reinigen]

[Roddy snorted.] Impeccable fashion sense. Right.

[That bit of mocking aside, though...] I know what you mean, though. Must get really awkward when you run into someone he knew. And it must really suck when you run into someone he pissed off.

[cantcatchme]

True genius is always misunderstood.

[He sniffs a little.] I'm mostly sick of people trying to convince me of this whole cockamamie idea about my father-

[He doesn't want to think about that too much]

Anyhow, I pi- peeve off people just fine on my own, thanks. Haven't needed his help so far.

[roddy_reinigen]

Your father?

[Not that Roddy meant to intrude, he just hadn't been expecting that.]

Yeah, I'm pretty good at that myself. Although, I don't seem to do that quite as much here as back home.

[He had the feeling it had more to do with the people around him than any changes in his behavior. When dealing with spoiled rich kids, it was pretty easy to get on their bad side.]

[cantcatchme]

Not my fault people can't handle how awesome I am.

[He rolls his eyes a little.] And my father was a good man, despite what some people will tell you about us gypsies. [Sure, a small-time thief when he had to be, to provide for his family. It'd been necessary.] But the other me spread something around about his father being this freaky anti-human super-mutant, Magneto. There's just no way.

[roddy_reinigen]

I live in the US. Most Americans aren't sure whether gypsies are real.

[And as such, aside from the Hunchback of Notre Dame and countless movies with gypsy witches, not much really was said about them in the context of 'people who really exist'. Of course, to be fair, in Roddy's world there probably were lots of magical gypsies...just as there were magical music students, magical auto body mechanics, and magical lawyers. There were a lot of people with powers in his world.]

I guess it's just an alternate universe thing.

[It didn't seem to inconceivable that someone's father in another universe had a completely different personality and nature.]

[cantcatchme]

Still plenty of us Roma around in Romania and Transia, anyway. Can't speak for the rest of the world. [Transia doesn't exist in many other universes, but he doesn't know that yet.]

I'm chocking most weird stuff up to the alternate universe thing. But from what I remember from the news, that Magneto guy's kind of an ass.

And also dead or something. We were a little distracted during that whole Egyptian supermutant thing, so I'm not sure what exactly happened.

[roddy_reinigen]

[Of course, Roddy only barely understands geography. Pietro could likely list off ten countries that didn't exist in either of their worlds and Roddy wouldn't know the difference.]

Now I'm just wondering what was more attention grabbing than 'egyptian supermutant'.

[cantcatchme]

It involved the Sub-Mariner, underwater Nazis, and my sister- no, wait, you know what? It's probably better not to ask.

Besides, the mutants seemed to have a handle on things. [SHIELD had been keeping them updated, too, just in case things went too far south.]

[roddy_reinigen]

[Roddy stared.]

Right. Yeah, your world sounds like something out of a comic book. And I'm guessing you mean 'other mutants'? Since I got the impression the Avengers were mutants.

[Hence why 'special treatment' compared to other mutants would apply.]

[cantcatchme]

What? Oh, no. We're mostly plain ol' humans. I mean, Thor's some kind of... alien god or something. But most of us weren't born with superpowers.

Except me and my sister. I guess we're probably mutants. It was never particularly important.

[Hey, it makes perfect sense to him.]

[roddy_reinigen]

Oh. Okay. [All right, after all of that...he was just going to accept it.]

I was born with powers. [Was he trying to make himself seem cooler in front of a superhero? Well, obviously, who wouldn't? It was true, though.] Well, sort of, they didn't come out until I was a teenager, but...

[But as he understood it, that's now mutants worked, too.]

My world doesn't exactly have mutants, though.

[cantcatchme]

Yeah, Wanda and I were early bloomers, but we still didn't have powers until we were, like, eight or something. I think physical mutations are supposed to show up earlier, though.

So... what are you, then?

[He pauses a beat.]

If that's not... an incredibly rude thing to ask, anyway.

[roddy_reinigen]

I don't mind. I'm a reinigen. [He pauses, then decides more explanation is needed.] So I have, like...rat powers.

[cantcatchme]

[Yes, more explanation was definitely needed, since Pietro just gives him a blank look at first.]

Rat powers, huh? I guess I've heard stranger.

[roddy_reinigen]

[He noted the blank look, and decided to explain.]

Basically I control rats with music. And turn into a rat-like creature.

[cantcatchme]

I've still heard - and seen - stranger. You'd fit in just fine, back home.