The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2 - Chapter Five (w/ Commentary Notes)

Chapter Five: Project Geo Base – 2012

            With her hands in pockets located on opposite sides of her red robe, Gigi stared long and hard at the sphere from Bruce Banner and Erik Selvig’s open laboratory. The sight of it was bittersweet for the sorceress; she truly believed to have been rid of it after the nightmare it put her and her family through during her previous venture with it. Although it was the sphere that granted her with the powers she continued to possess in her new body, she knew it was a danger to all realities and had to be disposed of. She altered time and space to be rid of the troublesome mechanism, leaving only her memories and those of her mother and friends from the Muppet Theater in the year 1977 intact, as well as her connections to the Disneyverse. Neither her son nor anyone from the year 2010 would recall those events, which was how she intended it to be to keep them and the new timeline to come out of it all safe.

            But the nightmare was far from over with S.H.I.E.L.D. harboring the sphere within the top secret base. She felt furious whilst glaring at its structure, wondering what would drive S.H.I.E.L.D. into tampering with it so much that it had left a man – or an “Iron Man” as they referred to him – trapped somewhere in the Disneyverse. Now it was up to her to literally bring him back to reality with help from Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, and the young man she continued to believe was her son. While she waited for the men to ready themselves for the rescue mission, Gigi continued staring upon the sphere with agents moving about around her. Nearby, Fury observed her curiously with Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton standing beside and watching along with the S.H.I.E.L.D. director.

(Authorial Note: In most of their scenes together in this story, particularly in the early half, Livingston had Maria Hill, Black Widow, and Hawkeye standing beside each other or Nick Fury to represent their unity as trustworthy S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. From a post-Winter Soldier perspective, this unity seems stronger now.)

            “What the hell is she doing?” Barton inquired after some time of observation.

            “She claims to have a connection with the sphere.” Fury answered. “My guess is that she’s ‘communicating’ with it.”

            “Looks more like she’s giving it the ‘evil eye’ to me.” Natasha sarcastically deduced.

            Fury almost chuckled from Romanoff’s comment. “Whatever it is, let’s hope it’ll take us directly to Stark.”

            “You think we should really trust her with Banner, Cap, and one of our own?” Barton asked Fury.

            “If she values her own life, she wouldn’t think twice of turning on us…especially when Banner is near.” A smug expression masked Fury’s face as he mentioned Bruce Banner in his answer; neither he nor anyone else, including Sean, had told Gigi the truth about why Banner was allowed on the rescue mission; they merely told her that his “scientific expertise” could be of some value to them.

(Marvel Note: S.H.I.E.L.D. uses Bruce Banner and his alter-ego for separate purposes - Banner for his mind and Hulk for his muscle. They see the Hulk more as a weapon they can use than a destructible monster, which is the reason why he was recruited for the Avengers.)

            Of course, what none of them realized was that Gigi was already aware of Banner’s “condition” – the powerful green monster that lied within him; and if Fury really thought that “The Hulk,” as she heard one agent in the base call the beast, could somehow stop her, then he was certainly mistaken. Gigi had faced worse monsters when she was still known as Joanie Navarro, working as protector of the Disneyverse, from Maleficent in dragon form to the Hydra in Hercules. She kept her awareness of the “secret” to herself in order to allow Fury to continue letting her be trusted in finding Tony Stark.

(Narrative Note: The reference to the Hydra from Hercules is an unintentional side-reference to the terrorist organization in the Marvel Universe, which posed as a major threat in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as in Marvel Mayhem.)

            For the first time in the hour she spent gazing at the sphere, she finally turned to Fury and made a strict request. “I’ll take my hat now.” She extended her right arm towards him and opened her hand for emphasis. Fury remained hesitant in acknowledging her request until she exclaimed to him, “I’m serious, man. I’m gonna need it to find your guy.”

            Her word was all Fury had to go with; he walked over to her, removing the unusual pointy hat from beneath his coat and handing it over. With a smile, Gigi placed the hat upon her head; as he watched her do so, Fury could have sworn that her body emitted a radiant glow for a brief moment. He would have pondered over it further had Rogers, Banner, and Livingston had not entered the scene, appearing ready to leave. Rogers was donned in his Captain America uniform, which got quite a surprised reaction out of Gigi.

(Marvel Note: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Captain America has undergone five different costume changes, counting Avengers: Age of Ultron. At the time The Marvelous World was written, he underwent only three, and Livingston envisioned the look from The Avengers to represent the version of Cap in this story.)

            “Oh, w-wow.” The sorceress stammered. “Captain Rogers, you look quite…um…very…erm…”

            Rogers looked to himself in confusion. “What? Would this outfit compromise our mission?”

            Gigi quickly shook her head. “No! No, of course not. It’s just…”

            Sean saw the amused grin on Gigi’s face as she was eyeing Cap’s suit from top to bottom – mostly the bottom – and he shook his head in disgust. Quickly, he moved in between the two and said, “May we please get on with the mission now?”

(Narrative Note: We will see this type of reaction again from Sean later in the story with his real mother. It is a known pet peeve of his character to be irritated in the face of flirtation between older people.)

            As soon as she saw Sean, Gigi refocused on the task at hand. “Hmm? Right! Well, uh, you gentlemen just gather around me…but not too close.” She winked at Cap while adding that last instruction, only driving Sean even battier by doing so. “Now just shut your eyes and trust me.”

            Sean began to realize how much that command was easier said than done with the zaniness that Gigi displayed ever since she was brought to the base, but he did as she said nonetheless and closed his eyes. Rogers and Banner did the same and, shortly after them, Gigi did as well. Fury, Natasha, Hill, and Barton watched closely as Gigi outstretched her arms and tilted her head back, allowing her hat to point towards the sphere. The stars on her hat glowed and, once she opened them, her eyes also had glowed ghostly white. A peculiar humming noise radiated from the sphere itself while Gigi conjured up what Fury, Natasha, Hill, and Barton could only call real sorcery.

(Narrative Note: This method Gigi uses is rare in the case that both the Sphere and Yen Sid's hat are within proximity of each other, intensifying the power of the Guardian, since both objects are connected to her.)

            Within seconds, the bodies of the sorceress and the three men were engulfed in a golden flash of light and rapidly atomized, vanishing into thin air. Fury and the other agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reacted to the phenomenon with immense astonishment; it was enough proof to them to show that all of what Gigi said about herself and the sphere was the truth. Of course, that did not necessarily mean Fury fully trusted her; even though she possessed great power, there was still a chance of her betraying them all. It would not be the first time Fury dealt with a being capable of wicked magic.

----------------------------

            At the moment he reopened his eyes, Sean was taken aback from how discombobulated and nauseated he was from whatever Gigi had done to him, Rogers, and Banner. Everything appeared blurry to him, although it did not take much detail for him to see that he was outdoors in an area with lots of tall trees. Sean made an effort to stand up, but the nausea kept him from succeeding. Soon after his attempt, he felt a hand lightly touch his shoulder and Gigi’s voice softly tell him, “Try to take it easy, hon. Your body’s gonna need a little time to recover from traveling between dimensions.”

(Narrative Note: Disorientation is a usual side effect from real world subjects transporting to a Disneyverse realm, as shown in World of Disney. The only notable objections are Guardians or sorcerers from the Fantasia realm, who are accustomed to the inter-dimensional travel.)

            “Where are we?” Sean managed to say in the midst of his recovery.

            Gigi looked around them; it was indeed a jungle as she figured upon first setting eyes on it. “I’m not sure,” she honestly answered.

            Sean frowned in frustration. “What do you mean you’re not sure? Didn’t you know where you were sending us before you did your mumbo-jumbo?”

            “Well, I’m…a little rusty?” She sheepishly explained herself, but it was not enough to calm the angry young agent down.

            Just as he started to get his vision back and feel the nausea drop, Sean shot up to his feet and furiously shouted to Gigi: “A little rusty? What kind of sorceress are you anyway?”

            “Hey, at least I got us here, didn’t I?”

            It was then that Sean realized that Rogers and Banner were not anywhere near them. “Wait. Where’s Cap and Doctor Banner?” Gigi looked about them as well and appeared surprised, expecting the two men to have arrived in the same space. She tried to give Sean a straight answer, but she had nothing for him. Her lack of an answer only made him more frustrated to the point where he drew out his Screaming Eagle and aimed it at her head. “Tell me where they are!”

(Narrative Note: By this action, we get a clear understanding of how dramatically different Agent Sean Livingston is from Sean Thomas - one being a trained killer, the other a simple man living in simple times.)

            Gigi stood shocked by his sudden action, raising her trembling arms up in protest. “S-Sean…h-how could you pull a gun on your own mother?”

            “You’re not my mother! You’re a threat to our mission and you need to be eliminated!”

            Gigi was at a loss for words; tears started to stream down her eyes upon watching the young man’s finger begin to squeeze the trigger, showing exactly how serious he was about “eliminating” her. Not wanting to watch herself be gunned down, she shut her eyes tight and braced herself. There was a loud gunshot that made her jump instinctively, but she felt no extreme pain. Slowly she reopened her eyes and saw how Sean lowered his gun and looked upward curiously. The barrel of the Screaming Eagle was not smoking as she thought it would be, signifying that the gun had not been fired; of course, she was aware of that from the fact that she still alive and unharmed. That only begged the question as to where the shot came from.

            Following the sound, Sean disappeared into the jungle. Gigi watched him leave, still shaking from the incident that just occurred between them. As much frightening images as she had witnessed within the Disneyverse, the sight of her own son pointing a gun at her head scared her the most. It was clear that the young man she arrived back in the Disneyverse with was not her real son; but her heart continued to reject the truth. That was why she followed after Sean with little hesitation, because she had to watch out for him while there in the yet-to-be-identified Disney world.

(UP NEXT: He's no John Smith!)