l1ttle_billy | AU Mainland, Tuesday (Reply)

NSA HEADQUARTERS

”General Hawk Sir? Agents Duke and Scarlet are on the line Sir.”

“Thank you Ms. Hargrove.” Hawk had wanted to talk to them yesterday, but Agent Hauser had assured him that due to the delicate nature of Agent O’Hara’s mission, today was as good as he could get. Having worked undercover in the past, Hawk was willing to cut them some slack on that front.

“General Abernathy.” Shana sighed. “I’m told you had something rather urgent to talk to me about?”

“As a matter of fact Agent O’Hara, I do. Agent Kessler was AWOL in Alexandria yesterday afternoon. As his handler, I’d hoped you might have an explanation for that.”

Shana stared at the General for a moment as if he’d grown a second head. “Sir? That’s impossible.”

“Really? Then it’s a remarkable resemblance.”

“Sir, Agent Kessler is in the next room right now.”

This was as close to dumbfounded as Hawk ever got. “I beg your pardon?”

“We located the agents of the Oktober Guard here, we were just going over our plans for infiltration when you contacted me.”

“Agent Hauser,” Hawk sighed. “Send her the images the cameras captured yesterday.”

While Shana’s brow furrowed in deepest confusion, Hawk spoke to Hauser.

“Were your Joes able to apprehend the supposed Agent Kessler?”

“Yes sir they’re transporting him to the Pitt now. And there seems to be some, confusion. As none of his records make any mention of a missing eye or leg.”

“This is probably some kind of trick of Cobra’s.” Hawk decided. “Perhaps we didn’t destroy all of Dr. Mindbender’s research as we’d thought. Agent O’Hara, I want you and Agent Kessler back down here right away. The Russian situation can wait.”

“Yes Sir, we’ll be on the next flight. Scarlet out.”

Hawk sighed. Sometimes he hated this job.

SPRINGFIELD, SOMEWHERE

The persistent beeping of an incoming message woke Anastasia from her rest. Sometimes she wondered if she was getting too old for this revolution business. Then something like this happened.

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DANGEROUS LIASON

Anastasia snapped fully awake at that. Her protégé never contacted her except for very important reasons. She opened the message and gasped.

PRODIGAL LOCATED…

She read the rest of the message and grinned disbelievingly. “Well done Annette, well done.”

She dashed through the building to her leader’s suite and burst in without knocking. She was the only one who could get away with that. “Commander!”

She swore the man never slept. He was always up by the time she retired, and by the time she awoke.

“Yes? I assume it’s urgent, you never get this worked up over trivia.”

“We’ve found him Commander. We’ve found William.” She showed him the communiqué which he read quickly. “God damn. That girl never ceases to amaze me. “Call Spin Doctor, I have a feeling he’ll want to be there for this.” He personally contacted Zartan.

“I’ve a very special mission for you.” He said. “Your Dreadnocks must leave immediately.”

“That may be a problem.” Zartan said. “It appears Commander that they’re engaged in weighty philosophical debate.”

“Oh, brawling again eh? Well tell them we’ve located the Pitt. That should get their attention.”

Zartan took a moment digesting this. “Yes. Yes I believe it will. Give me the details and I’ll sort this lot out quickly.”

THE PITT, EVENING

Billy didn't know where he was, he'd woken up with a bag over his head and heavily restrained. Blindfighting worked great when you were fighting, but not so much for determining locations.

The trip had taken some time, how much time he did not know. Then he'd been marched down an echoing corridor, and finally released from his restraints, but before he could do anything, he'd been shoved forward, and a door slammed shut behind him.

"You." Blair's angry voice came from the corner as he stepped closer to Billy. "What are you doing here?"

Billy ripped the bag from his head and rose, his brain still unhappy from the beating and the WTF of earlier. That wasn't helped by his cellmate. "Blair? What the hell?"

"I think that's my line, man." Blair stepped closer, glaring at Billy. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you." Billy said. "Are you ok?"

Blair stared at Billy for a long moment. "You're kidding me, right? You're really asking me if I'm okay?"

"I'm...really asking if you're okay." Billy said. "And, I have to ask again, what the hell are you doing here?"

"No, you jerk." Blair growled, grabbing Billy's shirt, shoving him against the wall. "Does this look like an okay place? Does this look like I'm having fun? I'm here because you put me here and I'm NOT OKAY!"

"I did what?" Billy asked incredulously. "Last I saw you, you were like, five at Aziraphale's party, YESTERday! And since when do you shove people?"

"Yesterday." Blair laughed bitterly, shoving at Billy again before taking a step back. "That's funny, man. Considering that I've been locked up here for six months and all."

Billy stared at Blair. "Six mon-what the hell?!" Then he started to realize what was happening. The way certain people had been acting... "Oh son of a..." He sank to the floor, facepalming.

"That's exactly what you are, man." Blair spat at Billy, taking a seat along the other wall. "Why are you here? Come to gloat?"

"Hey it's my dad that's evil, not my Mom." He closed his eyes and tried to think this through. "Ever hear of Fandom High?"

Blair's face didn't flash recognition at all, but he didn't answer the question. "You think that because you put me here, you can use me as your informant? That'll I'll tell you about other groups that are out there fighting against The Man. You're an idiot, man."

"Not exactly." Billy sighed. He pushed himself up and walked to the barred door of the cell. "I think we have ourselves a bit of a case of mistaken identity. I don't think I'm who you think I am."

"Really?" Blair rolled his eyes. "You're not the agent who joined my group under false pretenses in order to arrest me? Because you certainly look like the same guy."

"No. I'm not." Billy pulled up his pant leg, revealing the metal prosthetic beneath. "I have this last time you saw me?"

Blair stared at the leg for a moment. "No."

"I lost that leg when I was 13 or so. Same with the eye. You believe in alternate dimensions?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Blair muttered, but his eyes were curious.

"That's about my reaction. There's an island off the coast of Virginia, it's like, some kinda nexus or something. There's a version of you there. I think when I left I wandered into the wrong world."

"So this other me..." Blair held up a hand. "Not that I'm saying I believe any of this...but this other me. Does he fight against The Man too? Is the government out to get people there too? Is there a version of Cobra there to help him? Or the Dreadnocks?"

"Uhhm, well, as far as I know, yes he does, though he's more concerned with finishing High School I think, some people think the government is out to get people, and sometimes I find it hard to disagree, and finally WHAT?"

"The government is out to get people, man." Blair shuddered, his eyes going dark. "You think we fight because we're bored? We fight because the government here is evil. You can't even imagine the things they've done to people. Groups like Cobra and Dreadnocks are trying to make things better. The rest of us are fighting to survive."

"That's..." Billy rested his head against the bars of the door. "Okay I'm gonna have to get my brain around that. The government being evil, that I can deal with. Cobra and the Dreadnocks as good guys? That's harder. Well, Zartan had his moments I guess. And his daughter's kinda cool."

"They aren't the good guys where you're from?" Blair in any dimension had an open mind, and it was easy for him to accept that this Billy wasn't the same one he knew. "Really?"

"Cobra Commander was fond of indoctrination and brainwashing." Billy shuddered. "This leg?" he banged his fist against the prosthetic with a clang. "I'm pretty sure is courtesy of his men blowing up the car I was in. With two civilians. And that's for starters."

"Switch the federal government for Cobra and you've got an idea of some of what goes on around here." Blair muttered, crossing his arms. "Also just for starters."

"Son of a bitch." Billy muttered. "Explains the way certain people were acting." He turned to Blair. "I didn't put you in here, but I'll try my damndest to get you out."

"Well, I don't know that I trust you, man. But six months in here is enough to make me try any way out." Blair stopped in front of Billy and grinned. "I know it's not fair, but I've been waiting to do this for months." With that, he drew back his fist and punched Billy in the face.

"Ow!" Billy was really glad that the wound on his chin had disappeared when he returned to teenhood. "Okay, a version of me deserved that. But don't do that again please." At that moment, the lights went out, and the standard issue red light of power outages came on, along with the alarm. "The hell?"

"Not a problem, man." Blair nodded his agreement with the no more punching plan. Crouching down, he backed up till he hit a wall. "I'm really hoping this is a good sign."

An armed guard hurried down the corridor. “Everyone to the back of the cells!” he ordered. “Now!” The way he was holding that cattle prod made it pretty clear what would happen if they didn’t comply.

Another guard joined soon joined him, but rather than add his own orders to the mix, shocked the first one. He turned towards Billy and Blair’s cell, and his form wavered, as if on a TV with bad reception, then blinked out, replaced with that of a man wearing a hood and dark makeup around his eyes.

“Oh for God’s sake.” Billy groaned.

“William?” Zartan smirked. “My my you’ve grown. Buzzer!” he hollered down the corridor. “Give me good news!”

“The twins are in the system!” an Australian accented voice called back. “Zarana says the doors should be opening right about, now!”

The doors to every cell in the prison opened.

“Right! We don’t have much time! Everyone out as quickly as you can! Help anyone who might have trouble moving fast, we haven’t much time. William, come with me. You’re father’s very anxious to see you.”

“He is huh.” Billy reluctantly began to walk with Zartan. His father here was a good guy right?

"Freedom is freedom, man." Blair agreed. "Thanks."

“You're quite welcome." Zartan smirked. Sounds of destruction echoed from ahead and soon they could see three men trashing the offices. One with a blowtorch, one with a chainsaw, and one with a blade that looked like a giant can opener. Some things never changed apparently.

"Oy! Is there a Blair Sandburg here?" Zarana, a pink haired young woman called out.

"Over here!" Blair called out, jogging forward a bit. "Are the person to thank for this escape?"

"It was a group effort." she smirked. "We've been lookin' for this place for a long time. Yer wayward friend there," she pointed to Billy. "We managed to keep an eye on him when he got pinched. Led us right here. You've some friends out by the vans who're bloody well not leavin' less you're with 'em they said."

"I could kiss you!" Blair whooped ecstatically. "But I'll save it for when we'd have more time." Turning to Billy, he held out his hand. "Sorry again, man. Hopefully we're you're from won't get this bad. Now I've got to go find my people and teach them that it's bad news to hang around outside one of these places." With a smirk and a wave to the others, Blair headed off down the hall.

Billy smirked and shook his hand. "Keep the fight going man." he nodded. Then he turned to Zartan. "Okay, let's go see my dad."

ooc: AU Annette used with permission. Pitt thread preplayed with the sensational