As much as she hated it, Stephanie was accustomed to receiving calls and messages demanding her presence in Poseidon’s office. She knew the arrangement and she understood that she was at the boss’s beck and call. What was no and entirely unwelcome was a command issued from Poseidon’s minions. River might have been one of his favorite, most useful minions, but she was still a minion.

After an initial instinct to tell the woman to shove her “important task” right up her a**, but the last thing she needed was word of insubordination reaching Poseidon’s ears. More than that, the way River acted when she told Stephanie what she needed… something about her was just off. Her speech patterns were scattered and she seemed not all there, but she was convinced Stephanie and one of the new Syndicate members needed to accomplish a mission on the other side of the rift.

It was more blackmail. Syndicate needed some way to claim the deed to a property on the other side, but the building currently in place was currently a branch of a pharmaceutical company. According to River’s jumbled instructions, the company possessed at least two medical patents connected to the prototype of M, but that sounded like more of an afterthought to the technopath. Motivations were hazy, but the means were clear: get to CEO Holly Danvers, gain access into the base of operations, and gather proof of shady business dealings. (And to obtain patents like those, it was safe to say there were shady business dealings.

And so, Stephanie was sitting in a delicatessen, eating tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, waiting for the other member of Syndicate she was supposed to be coordinating with. River was oddly insistent that Stephanie had to work with “Gwen,” and that the two of them would figure things out from there. When she tried to ask for a picture of her apparent partner, River simply spat out the address of the delicatessen and told Stephanie to wait for “the woman with stars in her eyes.” Apparently, River was a poet, but she also refused to say anything else beyond that point, retreating to her computer.

It was probably her new favorite place for soup, despite the interdimensional commute, but that did not change her confusion. The girl with stars in her eyes? Stephanie surveyed the other patrons of the shop, trying to figure out what the hell that could even mean.

Gwen was starting to fit in. She couldn't help her accent or the way she talked, but other than that and the occasionally stare at her eyes, she was fitted. Or whatever. She could eat this new food without feeling nausea, she had learned how to use electricity, she even had one of those smartphones that let people talk through the air or waves or whatever it's called. 

Okay, maybe she didn't know the details behind things but honestly, most people in this time didn't know them either. Ask someone on the street if they knew how a cell phone works or the internet and she'd wager they wouldn't be able to answer correctly. At least, that made her feel better thinking that.

In either case, Gwen had received a phone call from a River, one of Charlie (and now hers) associates. She had to assist with getting the Syndicate over into the new universe. It turned out she wasn't the only time anomaly going on in the world. Whether that was good or bad, she wasn't sure, but at least she had a good job that paid her pretty well despite her lack of skills.

They had to find some dirt on a pharmaceutical company that was creating an illegal drug known as M. They had to find out how to blackmail the CEO, Holly Danvers, to get a deed. Or something like that, anyways. 

Gwendolyn was fitting in well and so she decided to wear a nice pair of skinny jeans and a long sweater with a jacket. It wasn't too chilly, but they would be outside probably at night some. She wanted to be prepared for that. 

Gwen walked into the delicatessen with a pair of sunglasses on. She took them off and stashed them in a purse she had resting on her side. Fashion! 21st century style! Woohoo! She immediately smelled a grilled cheese. It was her favorite food in this time and not a lot of places had grilled cheeses.

She wasn't really told a lot about who she was suppose to meet - all that she was told was that the woman would recognize her. So, with not much to go on, Gwen ordered her grilled cheese and a Coke and looked around the delicatessen to see if someone might recognize her. 

As far as blackmail plots went, the extortion of Holly Danvers would be on the easier end of moral justification. Assuming the intel of potentially corrupt business practices was accurate, they were not taking advantage of some bleeding-heart organization trying to fix the world. Despite working in the medical industry, Pharmaceutical companies were not universally revered and even those staying on the right side of the law often employed greedy, shady techniques to maximize profits. It was a cut-throat, competitive world with purchased political influence, artificially created monopolies, and money-over-innovation philosophies. Compared to what Poseidon forced Stephanie to do to Honey for the sake of political leverage, the thief could go probably go after Miss Danvers with a smile on her face and a song on her heart.

The Syndicate were not the good guys, but neither was Danvers Pharma.

Daylight was slowly ticking away and Stephanie’s plans would require some daylight. Stephanie checked the clock on her phone, which she had to admit, felt less dramatic than checking a wristwatch. Try as she might, she could not justify the practical but outdated accessory. Stephanie prided herself on preparation, so her phone was always charged and her app usage monitored, so she rarely found herself without the device. With such an accurate clock on hand at all times, a watch seemed superfluous. The classics were nice, but Stephanie had too much going on not to evolve with the times.

Looking over the small crowd of customers, Stephanie noticed a woman who seemed out of place. Nothing about her was peculiar at a glance, but she was looking around the delicatessen curiously and the way she carried herself struck Stephanie as different.

Out of curiosity, Stephanie waited for the woman to look in her direction and what she saw put River’s words into context. River was not being poetic, which should have been obvious since River did not seem to have a creative bone or circuit in her creepy cyborg-ass body. Gwen quite literally had what appeared to be twinkling white stars dotting her cosmically violet eyes. Suddenly, Stephanie’s own grey-blue eyes felt far less spectacular.

”Oh, Gwendolyn! Over here,” she called out in her cheery, Southern voice like she was calling out to an old friend. ”We have so much to talk about,” she added with a warm smile, not looking to let on to the other patrons that their meeting was one of business.

Gwen had been convinced the Syndicate was the best place for her to make good - after all, mutants were heavily disadvtanged. While Charlie told her that the organization supported all people, it was focused on helping the most vulernable. It was a cause Gwen could take up, make her own, and excel at - after all, she was an abolitionist, a woman suffragist, among other supporter of liberty.

It turned out that the modern world was nearly as corrupt as the old world. Even in modern times, people were forced to choose medicine over life, medicine or rent, medicine or food, or some type of variation of that. It was disgraceful, in Gwen's opinion, especially considering how far humanity had come. There was food everywhere, how could someone not use it? She even read an article in the newspaper (thank God they still existed,) that somewhere of 40% of food is wasted in the Union. Maddening!

In either case, Gwen's mind drifted back to her current mission. Her and this Stephanie were going to find some dirt on a rather shady CEO and her company. It was still remarkable to Gwen that a woman could even be a CEO of an company, let alone one that was this powerful. It made her proud. On the other hand, it made her sick. How could a woman be complicit in such robbery? Such misery? Despite their advances, humanity would never grow up.

Hearing a cheery, Southern voice made Gwen's eyes snap over towards her. "Oh, Stephanie! There you are!" She smiled. It wasn't exactly legal what they were doing - so they had to be secretive about it. She made her way over towards the woman and sat down, "Just the woman I was looking for," she said more quietly with a smile.

The Rip in the Universe provided the Syndicate with opportunities and an influx of potential membership. It was sickening to see how easily Poseidon could take a cataclysmic event and work it to his advantage, but she could not deny the man’s resourcefulness. Luck did not put the boss where he was. Power was great, but if it was the be all end all, every powerhouse would be a world power. Poseidon was ruthlessly ambitious and cunning, so he did not let opportunities pass him by, and that was the difference between him and wannabe gangsters.

With recruitment seemingly in full force, Stephanie was wary about the men and women who would be drawn in by Poseidon’s message. Some were there with idealistic hopes, but others were fine being living weapons for Syndicate.

The initial impression Stephanie got from Gwen was positive, but it was only superficial. Maniacs and sadists could look like pretty young women; Alice and Zed were both attractive and both bat-s*** mental. She had to be cautious and measured until she got a read on the woman, and even then, there were some thoughts she had to keep to herself. The nicest person could still have a loyal streak, so one wrong word could put her on Poseidon’s chopping block.

Understanding Stephanie’s attempt to act casual, Gwen joined her like they were old friends. She was not dealing with an oblivious idiot, which was nice. Once they were both sitting together, Stephanie finished chewing a bite of her sandwich before setting it down. ”So River gives me the creeps, but apparently she knows her way around a deli.” How the technomancer knew about the place, she would never know; Steph was still convinced River never left Atlantis.

”So… Gwen,” she started, stating the name like it was a fact rather than a greeting. ”What do you know so far about our plans for the day?” Her southern voice was quieter and she was still speaking vaguely on the off-chance of eavesdroppers. There was also a one-percent chance in her head that Gwen was the wrong person parading around as her potential partner, but with eyes like hers, that seemed unlikely.

”Nice eyes, by the way,” she added nonchalantly, following it with a sip from her ice water.

Gwen knew the Syndicate wasn't a saintly organization - she realized that they were about to blackmail someone into property or something along those lines. It wasn't something that was a good thing but Gwen could get behind the reasoning - the Syndicate needed a foothold in this world and this was the best way to ensure it. Charlie had made a convincing case, after all. The Syndicate supported equality but mutants needed an extra leg due to the discrimination forced upon them. Well, us. 

It wasn't long before she had her own grilled cheese sandwich, plus a coke. D*mn, sodas were good. She really wished she could have had these things since her birth. Maybe she was a little addicted but who the heck cares. It was delicious, cold, burny goodness.

She chuckled and nodded at Stephanie's comment about River. The girl was weird, but she had only ever talked to her via phone? Internet? It was something like that, anyways. "Agreed," she took a bite of the grilled cheese and savored the taste as it melted into her mouth. Mmm, so delicious, "I quite agree with that, this is delicious." 

She took a sip of her coke and smiled, "Not too much, but I hear we're going to visit a well to do a friend of ours." 

Gwen was taken by surprise by the compliment on her eyes and she blushed slightly, "Oh. Thank you much. They were not this color at first." She looked away and took a sip of her drink again. She did enjoy her eyes now, that was undeniable. However, the compliments she received always caught her by surprise. not to mention, she found everyone gorgeous now. She didn't really understand it but women and men were giving her all sorts of butterflies. She was a terrible flirt now, for some reason, so she usually just nervously laughed and avoided the conversation. 

In theory, there was good Syndicate could do in the world, even if Stephanie did not fully agree with the sometimes supremist mentality. Mutants did have to struggle to find a place in the world. Her own mutation put her on the path to her life of crime and, had she not been living so successfully under various pseudonyms, she would have been subjected to the camps like so many of her peers.

It was possible to see the Syndicate as a necessary evil if one worked under a captain. Many members of the organization were not personally acquainted with the big boss, and those members were lucky. Poseidon had his beliefs, but he was ruthless and willing to do whatever he had to do so he could get what he wanted. Poseidon was rarely denied, and when he was, the consequences were brutal.

Stephanie was not ashamed of herself for refusing speaking out against Poseidon to other members, but she wished she would provide words of caution for some of the more amicable members. The problem was knowing the consequences of stepping out of line in such a way. Stephanie could not trust anyone in Syndicate if there was a chance they would rat her out for insubordination and Poseidon was good at inspiring a surprising amount of loyalty.

To play it smart, Stephanie would keep Gwen at an arm’s length, but she was curious about the lovely woman with the violet, star-filled eyes. The way she spoke was different than most people. Stephanie picked things up in people’s voices; accents, inflections, speech patterns. It made people easier to understand, which was important for a con. Gwen’s speech was antiquated, like she spoke in a way people had forgotten about. There was also something childlike to the way her eyes lit up at the taste of her soda. It was cute, which she rarely associated with Syndicate personnel.

It was tricky talking about a mission in public, but Gwen understood the need to use vague terminology. ”Kind of. Our friend forgot something back at her apartment, so we need to go there and pick it up. She’s still at work.” Translation: They were going to break into the CEO’s apartment to grab a possession so Gwen could use the mutation River filled Steph in on. ”I hear you have amazing sight. River said it’s something really special. Guess those pretty eyes aren’t just for show, fancy new color and all,” she said with a grin, punctuating her compliment with a sip of water.

She took another bite of her grilled cheese as she waited for Stephanie to reply. She looked over the woman in front of hers face - the slender cheek bones, the beautiful eyes, the sweet southern voice. Okay, she probably shouldn't focus so much on her face. She took a sip of her coke and sighed in happiness. So tasty. 

She perked a brow and nodded, "Oh, I see. Well, let's finish up here and get going so we can pick it up for her." She gave a mischievous smile. She laughed, "Yeah, you can say that. I can see pretty... Far. They might be pretty but they definitely have a use." Of course, her eyes weren't purple because of her mutation. Gwen wasn't one to correct people on it, though. There really wasn't any point, anyways. She quickly finished her grilled cheese and proceeded to wait for Steph. "I hope you can drive, I don't have a license," she remarked, "Unless you have another way for us to get there?" 

Not that she wanted to drive - the metal boxes still freaked her out a bit. They weren't that much different than trains but it just scared her for some reason. Not really important for Steph to know, though. 

Gwen was an interesting person to watch. She was so expressive, from the content sighs as she sipped her soda to the way she kept looking at Stephanie. If every girl she chatted up at a bar was as easy to read as Gwen, Stephanie could save a lot of time and frustration in her escapades. The attention was appreciated, and Stephanie would reward it with little touches: a sparkling smile, a nervous bite of the lip, lingering eye contact. Who could blame her for playing it up when Gwen seemed like she might be fun to play with?

The rumors of Gwen’s eagle-eye power were true, which would be a boon for the thief. Being able to see through someone’s eyes meant easy intel, and any successful heist hinged on good intelligence. ”I’m becoming a bigger fan of those eyes of yours by the minute,” she admitted with a wink, setting down some money to pay for their meals and getting up.

Steph led the way out of the delicatessen, asking if Stephanie could drive. Last she checked, it was hard to get a car through the checkpoint between worlds without special clearance, so a private vehicle was a no-go. ”We’re taking the metro. No one’ll keep track of where we go that way. An Uber or taxi could be tracked back to us.”

Looking around, Steph spotted the nearest entrance to the subway and led the way down the steps. Buying one-use tickets with cash, she and Gwen stopped at the map for a moment so Stephanie could reconfirm the path they needed to take. Grabbing Gwen’s hand (mainly to see what she would do,) she hopped into a subway car just before the doors started closing.

The car was half-full, so the women could take two seats next to one another. The best thing about the subway was the noise; Gwen was close enough to hear her, but no one else would overhear even if they wanted to eavesdrop. ”So we have some time. Tell me, Gwen: what’s your deal? Are you from this side or the other?” Stephanie wanted to know more about who she was working with.

With one final sip of her coke, she settled back with a deep sigh. It was so good. Apparently, there was all sorts of terrible chemicals in these drinks and foods, but it was just so delicious. If there was one thing amazing about the future, it was the food and drinks. Gwen wasn't exactly sure if Steph liked her or not but there was little things she was doing, mainly biting of the lip. That really made Gwen squirm in her seat with a small blush. 

She giggled at Stephanie's compliment of her eyes, blushed, and looked away, "Well... Thank you, I, um, they're my eyes." She nervously laughed and of course wincing slightly at how dumb she sounded. She just was a terrible flirt. And by terrible, it was super terrible. Especially with women. Granted, she was still exploring her sexuality. She knew she liked guys... But she knew now she liked girls, too. It was all so conflicting. 

She nodded, "Okay, sounds good to me." She smirked, "I have some interesting experiences inside train cars." She really had no idea what an Uber was but Stephanie didn't need to know that. She had heard the phrase in passing and occasionally she saw it in the newspaper due some assault allegations, but otherwise, she wasn't very in the know. She also had no idea how they could be tracked. Some things were better left to the 21st century people, after all. 

It wasn't long before her and Stephanie had examined their route and were sitting in the seats. She perked a brow at the sudden questions, "Oh? Um, I am not entirely sure... I am pretty sure I am from this timeline, the MROverse side. At least, as far as I can tell." She really was not sure. How could she know? She was ripped from her own time. It could have been from the AV, the MRO, or heck, a whole other one. She smiled, "You are from the AV side, right?" She paused, "Did River tell you about... How I ended up here?" 

Whatever Gwen’s story was, it did not involve a lot of flirting with women. It was clear she was younger—early twenties if Steph had to hazard a guess. Old enough to have experience with flirtation, but young enough to have missed that boat. With looks like hers, some of the boys and girls from her classes must have given her attention, but she seemed wholly unprepared for everything Steph was bringing to the table. It was honestly adorable; pathetic, but adorable.

With Steph taking the lead, Gwen was surprisingly compliant. Amicable, polite, almost innocent. Was she sure she was meeting with a member of the Syndicate?

They had several stops to wait through before they reached their destination, so Stephanie was interested to see what she was dealing with in Gwen. Something about her was off, and it was not just her sweet disposition. The way she spoke and the way she carried herself, she was particularly unique. She was from the ‘MROverse,’ at least she believed, which was another red flag. The word choice in her answer was unexpected: timeline. People talked about universes, worlds, realms, but who was talking about timelines?

Apparently, there was a story and Steph could not help but be curious. ”I’m from the AV. At least, that’s what they’ve been calling it on the news for whatever reason.” Supposedly, it was related to some internet phenomenon, but Stephanie was too busy with her life to get involved in the mess that was modern internet culture. ”But River told me nothing about you beyond your eyes and your mutation. Tell me your story?” she asked as a genuine invitation to share.

Gwen settled into the train car seat in her usual fashion - her back only slightly slunched (a bad habit since getting torpedoed into the present) and with her hands folded delicately on top of one another on her lap. Even if she was in the future now, she was still her father's daughter. She was taught to be upstanding and upstanding she would be... Mostly, anyways.

She shrugged, "Right, I am not quite sure why it is named what it is named. I guess people just choose whatever and go with it." 

She perked a brow. She was a bit surprised that River didn't say anything. Then again, maybe River didn't view it as her place. River was a bit of a strange person. Gwen just had some hope that she wouldn't have to reexplain her situation for the millionth and tenth time. It looked like she would be, though. So, like clockwork, she pulled the newspaper article out of her purse and handed it over to Stephanie. The front page read

"TRAIN CAR APPEARS OUT OF NO WHERE - ONE CONFIRMED DEAD" 

She sighed. At least the one confirmed dead wasn't actually dead and turned out to be Charlie. It wasn't all too bad, at least. She took a breath after a couple seconds, "I'm from 1862. A mutant boy somehow transported us both here. He was killed somehow, I'm guessing his power destroyed him." She rubbed the back of her head and turned away. "I am a girl out of time, quite literally." Before continuing, she paused. She wanted to make sure to answer any initial questions before she got into more details. 

Before providing some kind of explanation to Stephanie, Gwen felt the need to dig through her purse for something. Waiting patiently to see what prop would be used in the telling of Gwen’s origin story, Stephanie watched curiously as a cut-out from a New York newspaper was handed over. It was MROverse news, so Stephanie clearly missed it. In a city where crazy, unexplainable events happened every week, it was not hard to miss one minor catastrophe in the grand scheme of things.

Wondering how the train tied into Gwen’s life, the first words she received stopped her in her mental tracks. Eyes wide, she looked at Gwen again, trying to process how the woman with the violet eyes was from over a hundred and fifty years in the past. It was a mutation, but not her own; some boy that could not survive the trip. It was a marvel that Gwen survived at all.

It was still important to keep her emotional distance from Gwen, but it was hard not to sympathize. Unexpectedly, she was thrown into a new world where nothing made sense and everyone she knew was dead. That had to be a shock. The story did fill in all the gaps that made Gwen seem out of place; as she said, she was literally out of time. ”I suppose… that does clear up some things. They didn’t exactly have soda in eighteen-sixty-two, right?” she asked with a friendly smile.

”This must be a culture shock. How are you adjusting to our world filled with sin, noise, and saturated fats?” If more people knew about Gwen, she was probably tired of answering questions, but it could not be helped. How often would Stephanie get the chance to talk to someone from the past?

Gwen tentatively looked at Stephanie as the woman began to process Gwen's story. It was crazy and made no sense, but it had happened. She was the living proof of it. The wide eyes were a pretty common reaction. It was nearly unbelievable. Heck, she wouldn't believe it if it didn't happen to her. 

She perked a brow at the soda question and she laughed, "Quite. It was not invented for several decades later. Quite unfortunate, really. I do not know how I lived without it, to be frank..." Her voice came out a bit more stronger than it did before, mainly due to the natural tense feelings she had go away. The woman knew now, so she didn't have to act like she was suppose to be in the 21st century. 

She nodded, smirked, and chuckled, "Yeah... Kind of. There is a lot of things I do not understand. I am still adjusting to the technology. The first day was terrifying though. Do you know Charlo-- er, Charlie?" Gwen wasn't sure, but if she did, then she'd probably understand the next little bit of her story. She paused for a moment, "The poor boy though, he was just a child. I believe he lost control of his powers. All that was left was his melted shoes on the train car." 

Of all the weird, incredible stories related to mutations Stephanie had heard, Gwen the time traveler still managed to shoot to the top of the list. It was an impressive feat, since her list also included the otherworldly horrors of Halloween. That was some kind of illusion or something, according to reports, but there were no tricks to Gwen. If she was telling the truth, she was kicked across time by being at the wrong place at the wrong… well, time.

The way Gwen spoke made sense when Stephanie imagined what people might have sounded like in the eighteen-hundreds. The way Gwen saw the world around them must have been so much different. Soda was the least of the revelations she would experience, though it sounded high on Gwen’s list of favorites.

While some in Syndicate were not concerned about the lives of others, Gwen seemed truly upset about the fate of the boy that brought her to the future. ”It sounds like a bad break for the poor boy,” she agreed, frowning at the notion of a child being obliterated due to his own mutation. ”And I know of Charlie. She works closely with the boss, from what I understand.” The new girl’s familiarity with Poseidon did not put her in Stephanie’s good graces, so she was not bending over backwards to make time with Charlie Sinclair.