Log:History Repeats Presently

2021/05/25 	 Dreamgirl Hotfoot Victory  Magda  Artemis

1

For those involved the Unpowered alternate reality event, the start of this seems very similar. Without any apparent cause, you all find yourself seated about a large table in what the military minded will instantly recognize as a war room. You're wearing a anagram of your normal costumes and US armed forces uniforms. On the other side of the table are SS and Wehrmacht officers. One wall of the room is filled by a world map. Russian, the far east, and most of eastern Europe are colored red. So is most of the East coast of the United States. The western regions of the United States, England and some of Western Europe are colored blue....

Dreamgirl didn't experience the Unpowered event, so is completely unprepared for the sudden transition. She looks about the room in confusion.

Artemis looks about, surprised to find herself elsewhere. Her battleskirt is gone, but her britches remain. Her armored boots look more like military formal boots now. Her uniform is black and red with some gold metal embellishments on the buttons, cuffs, and shoulders. Her hair is braided up into a bun to make it look short, and she has a military hat on. "By Bezad's beard, what mischief be this?" she demands.

One of the SS officers is giving a briefing. "The 101st have held at San Fransisco up to now, but unless reinforcements arrive soon that will not continue. Washington is gone. The Imperial Showing results for Japanese intelligence service Kenpeitai succeeded in smuggling a pocket nuke into the city. On the Eastern front Russian's new T97 tank is smashing our forces. Da Fuehrer refuses to allow a retreat. We must assume the 1st SS panther division will be encircled and lost." He shakes his head, "Gentleman, and allies of the German-American Alliance, both our situations are dire."

Dreamgirl looks back at the map, trying to correlate that with what's just been said, still wondering what the heck is going on. It must be a parallel Earth, she assumes, however she got here.

Wade blinks and looks around. The circumstances seem similar to what happened with the unpowered event, so perhaps time travel is involved again. Though would those fae try again to mess with Earth? Maybe. But this change seems...odd.

Hotfoot is dressed as a despatch rider, with black boots nearly up to her knees, a black belted coat with large pockets that reaches to mid-thigh, red trousers tucked into her boots and a short-visored red cap with goggles. She takes a quick look around the room, and then looks at Wade, raising an eyebrow as if to say, "Again?"

Artemis look about the table and notices some familiar faces. She notes Hotfoot, and then smiles a bit at seeing Wade, but notes he is dressed different and assumes he is not the Wade she knows. Her smile dims and she looks back to the briefing.

Victory is actually dressed...pretty similarly to the way he normally does. The blue is a bit darker. The red is a bit darker. A Snyder-verse version of his normal costume.

Dreamgirl tries to meet the eyes of heroes she suspects of being similarly displaced.

Victory wants to check the date. Check the history. But they have to get out of this meeting first. And the PDAs likely won't work. "What do you propose be done?"

Magda's eyes tighten at the sight of the Nazis, but she continues to hold up her section of wall, arms crossed. Her uniform is essentially that of her 'military self' in this timeline, since it is after all made of her alloy. She remains silent, only her eyes moving as she tracks the conversation. So far as she is concerned, this is a very ugly strike to against the likely culprit.

The general nods to an Intelligence officer seated at his side. The officer stands, moves over to the map and taps a point close to Moscow. "Odessa National Physical Research laboratory," he says. "When da Fuehrer was enacting the relocation of undesirables, a number of scientists fled to Russian. Among them a Dr Albert Einstein. We have a report that he has succeeded in creating a time machine. Our hope is that you of the 1st Meta regiment will infiltrate the laboratory, and use the time machine to travel back to 1937 and assassinate Imperial Envoy Toto before the Russian-Japanese pact was signed."

Artemis thinks on what was asked. "And so...this will bring about peace?" she uses her executive assistant dialect to fit in. None of this historical fact is something she understands. She's been more interested in Urth's ancient history.

The General adds as the Intelligence officer stops speaking. "Without that pact it was likely that Japan would fall into ut camp, leaving Russia isolated and an easy conquest."

Dreamgirl tries to take that all in. Einstein - on the Russian side, sounds like. And they speak of him as if he's still alive, which is strange. THen again, if they have a time machine, why haven't they used it? Unless they have and that's what - no, hang on, they can't have caused this future with a time machine that didn't exist except in this future, She begins to feel a headache coming on, although she's immune to headaches.

The General stands, signaling the meeting is over. Aides escort you all to the guest quarters.

"If we can gain access, and if we can dial it in properly," Magda says, emphasizing her own German accent. Of course, there is going to be some research done on this timeline beforehand ...

Dreamgirl bides her time and awaits the chance to talk to the heroes she suspects of being displaced.

Artemis is escorted to the guest quarters and frowns somewhat, thinking herself stuck alone in this strange timeline. She rubs her chin and considers what to do. Magda's accent has her convinced these are not the people she knows.

Once they're in the guest area, Wade starts to check with the others to see if they have similar memories. He starts with Artemis, "Artemis...does this place seem strange to you? I was in Colonial Bay, and then...just here. Like that time when I was confined due to a lack of powers?"

Dreamgirl already had her eye on Wade and Artemis, so interrupts. "This has happened to you before, then?"

Victory nods to Dreamgirl, "Umm...once before."

Artemis looks over to Wade in surprise. And then she beams a great big smile. "Friend Wade! 'Tis thee! The one I know! I recognized thee not with thy change in colors!" she says excitedly, stepping over to moving to try to lift him up in her enthusiasm.

Dreamgirl says, "First time for me. Any idea what's going on, then?"

Victory doesn't try to avoid Artemis lifting him up. He chuckles. "I have a rough idea, but we need to determine who remembers the Colonial Bay that we remember. Then we can plan."

Magda normally has an accent that includes a lot of German elements; this one is just ... stronger. Once out of the meeting, she glances down to flick a speck of dust from her uniform, checking her rank -- ah, lieutenant colonel, that makes sense. After a bit, and once they're in 'guest quarters', she 'looks' around to sweep for listening devices, and a sweep of her fingers at her throat alters her alloy-uniform into the clothing she's normally seen in on the streets of Colonial Bay -- gypsy brown skirt, white shirt, colourful jacket.

Artemis smiles brightly as she looks up at him. "I thought this time, I was alone in a strange time or dimension." She sets him down gingerly. "Have thee thy prowess this time? Hit me as hard as thee can!" she offers enthusiastically to see if he's unpowered.

There are such listening devices, as Magda can detect. But is seems they have very recently been blown out by an EMP. Just like the ones Magda can create.

Magda smiles a little. "Well, /someone/ was on the ball," she says with soft amusement. "Good. We can speak freely," she says, more loudly. "The bugs got zapped by prior-me."

Victory chuckles. "I'm not going to punch you, Artemis. Suffice it to say, I'm my normal self in that regard." He looks to Magda, "So, you're in the same boat? You remember Colonial Bay as we do? No...ongoing war?"

Hotfoot says, "Is it ongoing, or a new war?"

Artemis nods at Victory's decision. "If thee say this is so, my Friend. And I am sorry for hoisting thee. I realize like mine Beloved, you must not enjoy that. My joy overcame my senses and I forgot to restrain mine affections," she smiles apologetically. She looks to Dreamgirl, then Magda, and Hotfoot. "Be...thee all from Colonial Bay as well?" she asks uncertainly.

Dreamgirl says, "I can't figure out the history at all. They made it sound like Einstein is still alive and working for the Russians!"

Dreamgirl says, "I am. But then I suppose there's more than one Colonial Bay."

Victory puts a hand on Artemis's shoulder, "No need to apologize." He nods to Dreamgirl. "So...here's what happened last time this occurred. We..." He points to Magda, Artemis, Hotfoot, and himself. "...all just...appeared in a world where we were mostly without powers. And everyone else had them. Artemis was an exception, being an alien. But the power/unpowered balance was flipped for the humans in the group. It turned out there was a fae lord who had messed with our past. In 1824, creating a virus which gave powers to humanity, but eventually would kill them off. We, without powers and without that weakness, travelled back in time, and fixed the problem."

Victory continues, "It stands to reason that this fae lord tried again. He was imprisoned for some time. 100 years, if I recall correctly. That means he could have started to try again to muck with things staring in 1924."

"No," Magda replies to Wade, "and I do wonder how the alternate of me handled this ... alliance. -Ie was in the camps."

Victory nods. "Perhaps this event in 1937 is the crux point where history was altered? I'd like to try to check the current...world history, to see if we can figure out when things diverged. Then we can use that time machine that was mentioned to go back and make things right."

"And probably before 1924," Magda adds.

Victory nods. "It's possible. But if it's that fae lord, I suspect the divergence will on or after 1924."

Dreamgirl says, "So - we need to find out the history. And remember ow ours is supposed to be."

Victory nods. "Hmm." On a lark, he tries out his PDA, to see if the one he has on him...works.

Wade's PDA direct links to the United States military data network thorough a satellite connection.

Artemis smiles at Victory accepting her apology by not needing it. She listens to the group carefully. "Ah, this fae lord hath disobeyed his Queen again? And these scheme must be meant to eliminate hoomans from Urth, yes? Then...why if this is the same time period as whence we came do hoomans still exist?"

Victory shakes his head, "No...he hasn't disobeyed her. If you recall...he was punished by her not for attempting to change things, but for failing."

Victory first tries to look up their location...and current political maps, just to know where current boundaries are.

Hotfoot tries looking up historical events, starting with the mid-1920's

Artemis rubs her chin thoughtfully. "Ah...be that why she punished him? I see."

Magda activates her own PDA, working swiftly to delve into and through the systems to which she has access. She is fairly certain that the quality of their systems is going to be higher than those found in their native Colonial Bay; war makes for intense development, and nothing is more important then information and its security. "Rest assured," she says absently, "she will not be making that mistake a third time."

The historical records are complete, although with the usual bias from when ever historian wrote them. Nothing much seems to have happened out of the ordinary. The Presidential Election in 1924 was won by Henry Ford after a poor campaign by incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge. President Coolidge suffered from a respiratory disease that robbed him of his voice. A fatal circumstance in a close fought election.

Victory thinks about it as he starts to look up history, starting in the 1920s. "I'm guessing...that this was an attempt to engineer a nuclear war. There WILL be an exchange, if Washington was already taken out."

Hotfoot says, "I think I found something. Henry Ford beat Coolidge in the 1924 election."

"An...exchange," Artemis nods slowly. She finally gives up with a sigh and admits her struggle. "I be afraid none of these words, names, nor places have any meaning to me. But I trust in thee all to find the fight so that I might lend aid there."

Victory nods, "That...definitely doesn't sound right. Ford was never President on our world. That seems like the first big departure."

Magda nods. "One critical stone,". she agrees. "And the loss of your voice certainly sounds like a fairy curse to me."

Victory nods. "I would guess...that having Ford in office would cause the USA to lean closer to Germany and away from the UK and France." He keeps looking through the history...skimming it until 1937, at least.

Within a year of Henry Ford's election he was supplying aid to the fascist party in Germany, and was the first leader to sign a treaty with Germany after Hitler rose to power.

Magda, with her heightened reading speed and comprehension, will delve deeper into the candidacy of Ford and the circumstances of Coolidge losing his voice.

The United States joined Germany in Operation Barbarossa against the communists in Russian in 1943.

Victory nods to himself. "That election is definitely the change. No question now. And the generals in this world also didn't learn from Napoleon. Go figure."

Hotfoot says, "As we heard in the meeting just now."