Something was... off about the whole place, but that was definitely to be expected from a parallel freaking dimension. Sveta was on edge, more than usual, about being near people, and being away from the portal. As the man walked her towards the set-up headquarters, she made sure they did not touch at all. There was no sign that the guy was a mutant... but Akshay was, and if he worked with them, it was not impossible either.

>>"I get that you'll want to go home. Thank you for accommodating us. You're a direct source for what's going on on the other side."

The police seemed trustworthy. As far as she could tell, they were doing their best to contain the situation, and they were also taking care of Akshay, who had been intent on getting back to them. If the guy worked for some government agency, then these were the people he trusted. She had to settle for that, for now.

>>"Hi. Sorry about all that. I don't really have a fancy name like Stalker so I don't mind telling you my name's Nolan. I work in intelligence and I'm really hoping you know a little bit more than we do. Could you start by going over what happened exactly? Stalker was on a rather important assignment and with him out of commission, we just don't know that status of that task."

Nolan. Sveta nodded, but she did not give her own name. It was not important. As for Akshay, though... that was clearly their business.

"He... fell out of nowhere into an alley in Harlem. I found him. He was wounded, and he claimed that he had been blasted there from Madison Square Park by some kind of a... time manipulating mutant. He said that he usually does not travel this far, but that he was... boosted, by the incident, somehow. We later figured out that he had gone through the portal, and then I helped him get back to the park, to return here..."

Nolan got his phone out to take notes, but the synopsis that the woman provided was so bare that he didn't feel like he needed to. She was succinct, but according to her she didn't know a heck of a lot.

"Harlem?" That was like, crazy far away. Instead of notes, he fired a text off to the boss lady about the situation. Delta 5 and Iota 1 had made contact. Trace had been there, the fool. Maybe he had spontaneously grown in power? Or maybe they really needed to find the power booster that was his accomplice. They had one on staff, but you never could have too many...

He unscrewed the lid to both water bottles and passed one to mystery lady. He planned for their chat to take a while. Wouldn't do to get parched.

"So... what's it like over there? You don't seem to have two heads or anything." Actually she seemed incredibly normal and nice.

Nolan spared a glance over his shoulder for the portal that glowed and hovered as if it'd always been there. There may have been more activity of people crossing or maybe agents and first responders had just finally gotten over the idea that it was toxic or something, now that someone had gone through and lived...

>>"Harlem?"

"Yeah." Sveta took the water bottle and drank "Believe me, he was surprised too."

She did not add that it was likely he had managed to zero in on her powers, and that was what made him take that jump. She did not trust this guy enough yet to tell him how her powers worked. Even though he seemed nice and also... somehow familiar. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, and she definitely would not put a finger on him. Safety first.

>>"So... what's it like over there? You don't seem to have two heads or anything.

"It's... pretty normal?" Sveta ventured "I mean, Akshay did not even notice he was not in... over here, until... well, it was a misunderstanding. But it seems pretty similar to me. We have mutants, we have humans, we have adapteds... police, New York... things."

What else really was there?

Akshay! Right! That was totally his name; his name was Akshay. Akshay, Akshay, Akshay. Nolan did some mental tabulation in order to attempt not to forget the Iota's name. If he wanted to look invested, he should know those things. Plus, intelligence not knowing something... well, that would just be embarrassing.

> "We have mutants, we have humans, we have adapteds... police, New York... things."

Oh. Interesting. She knew about adapteds. That wasn't your everyday average joe sort of intel. Nolan sipped his drink.

"Yeah, but do you have that great Indian place down on 52nd?" He joked. Clearly, Nolan was asking the important questions. Aaaaaaaand buying time while the woman either finished or set down her water. It would not be polite to grab.

"There's got to be something different." All joking aside, no universes would exist without some small difference. The problem was that it could have been as small as a butterfly's wings being blue instead of purple.

"Have you met any agents on the other side?" If she knew about adapteds, she might have known about the agency. Just in case she didn't he refrained from asking about it by name. Besides, years could go by and Nolan would still be slightly embarrassed to call himself "super."

"What about the X-men? Or any other mutant organizations?"

>>"Yeah, but do you have that great Indian place down on 52nd?... There's got to be something different."

That was one of those statements that sounded like they made a lot of sense, but once someone thought about them, they were not infallible. Why should there be a difference, really? There were, obviously, Sveta already knew that from Akshay's case, but theoretically, it was not a must, and it also did not mean that significant things, like countries or history or whatnot, had to differ. If there were endless possible universes, some had to be pretty much the same, right?...
If only they were so lucky.

>>"Have you met any agents on the other side?... What about the X-men? Or any other mutant organizations?"

Sveta set her bottle down, considering the question. Of course she had answers, but she was still not sure if sharing that kind of information was allowed, or even safe, on this side of the portal. Eventually, she decided to stick to what was common knowledge to most people who might cross.

"Well, we have the police... they have a division, MRC, Mutant Related Crimes. They are probably controlling the site now." or trying to, anyway. "They work with the X-men, yes. They fight mutant criminals together." she tilted her head "Agents, I don't know. You mean like, the FBI or the CIA?..."

Hed removed his gloves so that he could type faster because now they were getting to the good stuff.

"MRC, huh?" Now that was worth jotting down. It seemed the government oversight had failed in their world and the mutant problem had trickled down to the police level. At least it was still being handled, but it was absolutely shocking to hear that the X-men worked with the police. Directly. Unashamedly. Like, in broad daylight. "In this world the X-men are a black-hat group of vigilantes. They're organized and dangerous criminals. Not an honorary arm of the police or whatever. Wow. That's nuts."

She was helping. Little by little. And then she put down her drink and Nolan was sure that would be a lot more help.

"Do you mind?" Nolan smiled as he picked up her water bottle while standing under the premise that he would take their trash away.

"We like to recycle on this side of the..." His hand came in contact with the place where she must have touched and all current thought processes shut down in favor of exploring Svetlana Sergeyeva Morozova's life. The other side of the rip, Stalker's rendezvous, but even more. He chased down the vigilantism angle, since he'd been thinking X-men and most importantly... the power. Nolan swallowed his suddenly dry throat. They had a booster on staff. Their booster looked like he was run on batteries compared to Svetlana.

"Iota." Nolan felt the first trickle of blood run from his nose for the sheer bulk of information he'd stolen in such a short amount of time. He wiped his nose on the back of his hand and flipped his phone around to fire off a quick text.

"From now on, you'll be an Iota. Like Stalker." In those words, Nolan put as much of his typical brainwashing package as he dared. Memories of alone-ness. Having no one to turn to... except SUPER. The government was always there and willing to help.

In fact, here were two helpful SUPER enforcers to help her now.

"It was lovely meeting you, Svetlana." Nolan smiled as he put his gloves back on and put them behind his back to hide their shaking. "I have a feeling we'll be getting to know one another pretty well over the course of your near future."

>>"MRC, huh? In this world the X-men are a black-hat group of vigilantes. They're organized and dangerous criminals. Not an honorary arm of the police or whatever. Wow. That's nuts."

In retrospect, that should have been a red flag. Calling the X-men vigilantes with that much spite in one's voice was not a good sign, especially if that certain someone worked for the government. Of course there was always the chance that the X-men were actual hardened villains, but somehow, even in another universe, that was a lot less likely than an anti-mutant government....

>>"Do you mind? We like to recycle on this side of the..."

Sveta watched the guy freeze, and then stay frozen until he started bleeding from the nose. If he had mutant powers of any kind, he was definitely using them now.

"What the..."

>>"Iota. From now on, you'll be an Iota. Like Stalker."

"Excuse me?" Sveta snapped, with a sinking feeling of dread in her stomach, something akin to déja vu, at the look in his eyes "A what now?"

>>"It was lovely meeting you, Svetlana. I have a feeling we'll be getting to know one another pretty well over the course of your near future."

And there it went. She was being collected, again. Kidnapped. Whatever. Sveta's eyes flashed as she swore in Russian as she kicked her chair back, taking on a stance ready to fight whoever tried to make her stay by force. In fact, since she was very pissed at suit guy now, she also kicked the table at him, from sheer fury, and also to barricade herself from at least some of the people trying to grab her...

Nolan raised a leg to avoid getting hit with the overturned table. The human security members he'd asked for were definitely on his side on this one now that she'd gone supernova. She could flip tables all she wanted. She was outweighed and outgunned. There were too many of them and no where to for her to go from the back of their most secure enclosure.

The memory man affected his most disappointed look as he pulled his phone out. He had arrangements to make and memories to modify. Once Sveta's memories had been changed in his head, he could put them right back.

On the fourth ring, Nolan's superior answered. "It's a lovely day here at the tear between universes." He began in a flight attendant's tone. "We've got Iota 1 back and I'll catch you up back at the roost. Grab Jonah for a quick— Huh? Oh. No, no. It's not Iota 1. He's out for the count. That beautiful man came back with... a present." Nolan smiled and waved his gloved fingers to Sveta as he walking away while listening to the other end of the conversation.

Security did their best to merely contain, but when Svetlana turned out to be more than a handful, they resorted to knockout tactics. A choke hold was preferable, but they were instructed to keep her alive.