Welcome To The 80s

[Narrator]

The ride through the passage is rough. A relentless current winding it's way through nothing at all that is none the less pressing in from all sides, reducing the world to a narrow tunnel of water and murky darkness. Until it unceremoniously stops and the three 'passengers' are deposited into the relatively modest waves of the estuary. And until they drag themselves to shore in a rather undignified state (at least in Miriam's case) there's really nothing at all to indicate they even went anywhere. But even at a distance Maldon looks different, the harbor is busier with actual fishing boats, there are fewer modernized buildings and it overall looks a little more run down. And of course the cliffs to the south-west are empty. No lighthouse, no squat concrete and steel building sporting a satellite dish, no hangar doors in the cliff-face.

And to Sam the wind tastes different. Richer somehow, as if there is more oxygen in the air.

[Will Stanton]

Will, of course, stayed 'undignified' for just a moment or two; the wetsuit shifting and rippling around him into something that might attract a little less attention -- some black chinos, a white-and-blue printed shirt and a cream suit jacket on top.

He ran his hand through his hair, shedding water and having it snap back into a side-part from his normal shag as he looked around.

"Honestly, it's a little crazy how little things have changed," he pointed out, looking around. "Maybe that's just the inner American in me coming out. Or maybe it's something to do with parallelisms as opposed to time travel proper."

[Miriam Bell]

"That's a tiny English town for you." Miriam grouches as she does her best to wring out her shoulder length hair before combing it back with her hand. Only so much styling she can do compared to the two shapeshifters, but it'll do for a slicked-back look. At least her clothes dry themselves in the process of changing at her mental prompting.

[Samantha McManus]

"Don't know if we'll be staying," Sam says, her voice and accent changing as she shifts and gets into costume. "Hope the trail hasn't gone cold."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, let's take a look around and see what we've got. I've got a couple ideas on how we might be able to draw them out if there isn't a convenient 'shady paramilitary official base, 12 km' sign available, but first steps first," Will said, beginning to walk up the berm towards the town proper. "Get the lay of the land."

[Miriam Bell]

"I'll let you know if we come across anybody harbouring clandestine thoughts." she says as she climbs after Will. It's really not that steep but she just swam through a whirlpool and Miriam isn't nearly as fit as her companions.

[Will Stanton]

"I don't think we need to know if someone's crushing on Kelly LeBrock or are developing the early stages of Pac-Man fever," Will joked.

"...I wasn't alive for the '80s the first time around and was otherwise indisposed the second, so I'm flying as blind as the two of you," he added after a moment.

[Samantha McManus]

"Possible the drones will pick something up," she says as she follows.

[Narrator]

The town is, in the grand scheme of things, quite similar to their own. The cars are a bit more rectangular and red phone booths sit nestled against the buildings here and there, but then there's the Rose&Crown looking barely any different safe for the sign dangling above the door. Instead of it's normal signage of a rose encircled by a crown it shows a stylized dragon wearing said crown and gripping the flower in it's maw, the red like a puff of flame. The people they pass on the streets generally pay them little mind, though the older folks they come across look at them with some disdain simply for being young and dressed fashionably. Wills hair in particular seems to create some confused looks at what must certainly be a dreaded 'Punk' being dressed relatively sensibly.

At Sam's comment their ear-pieces come to live with only a vague warble to it's transmission. "The signal appears to be coming through well enough. I will let you know if I detect anything out of the ordinary."

[Will Stanton]

"It seems equal enough. It can't be a one-to-one map with our own history, 'cause, like, they were surprised that superpowers existed. But I'm not seeing anything totally out of the ordinary," Will commented as the trio walked. "I suppose the classic homo superior may have just been a bit quieter here than on either of our Earths, but, like Cap should have been a historical datapoint. Without things like that, you'd expect to see some bigger changes, but this seems...well, more or less like what I've seen in the movies, at any rate."

He peered into a couple shop windows, getting the lay of the land. "Thatcher. Ew."

[Samantha McManus]

Sam is mostly brushing gently against minds as they walk. It's been awhile since they were dealing with Will, but their lead is if they saw Ryn or Katarina. People almost don't want to see the Fury unless she wants to be seen, so she's leaning on her partner being recognizable.

[Narrator]

There is, in fact, little memory of Ryn to be found in peoples minds. A couple times she can catch glimpses of a red-head in the company of a barely registered person but it's sparse. Enough to tell that they must have walked down High Street much like they are right now. Up to the roundabout at Market Hill where the trail of memories seems to fade.

[Miriam Bell]

"If there are no mutants here we could probably get away with getting close enough to that bloody woman to fix her mind up some." Miriam muses.

[Samantha McManus]

"Seems they went this way up to the roundabout and then... nothing?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Maybe they got out of a car? Wouldn't put it past that little gremlin to crawl out of the sewers, really but she was with a more normal one, yeah? They certainly didn't just manifest inside the supermarket."

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know if we can discount that..."

[Will Stanton]

"We don't really know what they're capable of. That being said, there must be some sort of trail when we get up there, physical or otherwise. I think we can operate under the assumption they didn't just start existing when they showed up, so there must be some sign of them," Will said, continuing to stride up towards the roundabout.

"I didn't get a real chance to interact with either of them, but the little one can't teleport. She was fast and slippery, but if she coulda poofed out of there, surely she would have. So they must have come from somewhere."

[Miriam Bell]

"They didn't land in a black chopper unless they have those Men in Black things. You notice any conspicuous gaps in memory? Because I don't, but you can probably reach the intersection from here?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm still canvassing," Sam says, heading up to the roundabout, casting her mind about.

[Narrator]

Sam can't be certain, of course, not everyone who might have seen the two agents is around, of course, but at least from the people working in the surrounding shops she can't find anything of note. No altered memories or gaps. The earliest she can pin-point the two appearing is on the sidewalk close to where her group is now, walking south-east towards the water. There are plenty of stores with large enough windows all around that it at least seems likely somebody should have seen them arrive. Sure, the Fury could have probably passed unnoticed and maybe even kept Katarina from being spotted for a little bit but not for long enough to just appear in the middle of what's probably the highest trafficked area of Maldon.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam meanwhile stands a couple feet behind Sam, looking confused and slightly distracted. Before she can say anything their ear-pieces chime in.

"I can't be certain but I'm picking up some neutrino--I'll spare you the details. Something happened in your vicinity that left enough exotic particles behind to still be detectable. Could be anything that disturbs sub-atomic particles, a cloaking field, folded space, teleportation. Hell, for all I know of that place it could just be magic." They can almost hear the eye-roll amidst the exasperated tone of her voice at the last line.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh stood by in jeans and a blue hoodie over a plain white t-shirt, feeling not particularly useful without his smartphone/scanner. He was mainly there to act as Ashlie's hands if anything scientific needed to be done or in case the team lost contact.

"I guess it would be too much of a coincidence if whatever's going on has nothing to do with the portal," he commented.

[Samantha McManus]

"So it's something nearby. What looks out of place?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Bloody everything? Something feels weird. The vibes are off somehow."

[Will Stanton]

"Always trust a telepath's vibes," Will said.

"If no one remembers them before this spot, then there must be something special about here. I must have left my exotic particle detector in my other pants, though."

Will looked around at the shops, trying to see if there was anything special about any of them -- it looked, from his perspective, much like a normal high street.

"We could try drawing them to us instead, though that would blow the subterfuge basically immediately. Canvassing is probably out, considering no one remembers meeting them..." he mused.

"Why here. If it was teleportation, why not appear right by the water. There must be some kind of...space or area here that allowed them to show up. Otherwise, you wouldn't pop into the middle of Maldon and walk, surely. and neither the deva nor the diva seems like the one who would enjoy a walk through a crowded street. Not exactly clandestine. There must be a...a teleportation pad or a sigil or something. An X, marking the spot," Will said, heading for the first building on his right.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh cast an analytical eye around the area, looking for anything... hinky. They were looking for agents of a paranormal agency, so something other was quite possible.

"Maybe their organization has a special way of getting around like we have the portal to Lambeth. I hate to go straight to magic, but perhaps they have a series of magic doors or a special key or something along those lines. Of course, if it requires anything they have on them, then we're out of luck."

[Will Stanton]

"Not necessarily. I've had some good luck with keys in the past," Will said, cryptically.

[Narrator]

The intersection looks familiar yet off in the details. The Tesco is instead some smaller brand they don't recognize. The spa is a butchery, the men's clothing store on one corner is still the same if missing a renovation or two. The little cafe is there, though the vape store in the same building off in the alley is, predictably, not there. The old church on the corner looks exactly the same, a couple extra decades not meaning much for a building so old.

[Miriam Bell]

"What does that even mean? Are you just saying we can cram you into a lock and you'll figure it out from there?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I mean, we probably could."

[Will Stanton]

"I was trying to come over a little more suave than that, but more or less. If it's just a physical issue, I've broken into a couple things in my time."

[Miriam Bell]

"A key for a door we aren't even sure exists. Anybody feel like checking the sewers?"

[Will Stanton]

"I don't think they're Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I'm still on team sigil."

Will looked around. "And, wild flight of fancy. If the deva is older than time itself or whatever, then I'm guessing we start looking in the oldest place we can find. That screams church to me," he decided, striding forward and knocking as he entered.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"While I doubt it's anything specific to her, it's as good a guess as any." Tosh shrugged and followed after Will. He supposed it was a logical possibility for a paranormal agency to have connections to religious organizations. Inside, he looked for anything his comic book nerd brain registered as out of place in a church. Of course, he didn't know anything about actual paranormal symbolism.

[Miriam Bell]

The church door opens with a creak and reveals no church at all! Because the front tower is all that's left of it and past the entrance vestibule, through a glass door, is the attached building that now houses the 'Mealdun Heritage Centre.

Miriam is following behind and cranes her neck to look up the empty church tower. "It does feel weirder in here but I'll be buggered if I know why.

[Will Stanton]

"You were a vampire for a while," Will pointed out. "Residual discomfort?"

Will tried the door handle.

[Miriam Bell]

"To boring historical sites maybe." she snarks. "I don't know, it's just weird. Like double-vision or an echo in my head."

[Will Stanton]

"And it got stronger when you entered the church?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow.

[Miriam Bell]

"I think so, yes." she says and somewhat aimlessly wanders around the entrance. "It's not... I don't think it's stronger in any particular area in here and it's not like I'm hearing something. It's more like all of your thoughts are leaving afterimages..."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, that rules out using your head as the exotic particle detector. I mean, I can try shoving your face into every nook and cranny just to see what happens, but that's just more on the casual fun side rather than something actually useful."

He looked around again. "If this is what they're using, it certainly doesn't seem to be guarded. Maybe that indicates we can't just find it and use it? We might need them to use it for us?"