"No, no, I'm fine," she said, though she felt worse than she did after she'd fought Mechanon's robots. Looking down, she was glad she'd decided to wear brown, because while her suit took quite a beating, it was not down for the count yet. A few tears, dirt, and blood, but otherwise she seemed to be okay. Her head was still killing her, though. Looking up at the man near her, she was shocked to see it was the Golden Avenger, only he was a little older and had shorter hair. He also didn't seem to know her. 

Behind him was a 1996 Mustang, the driver's door open, and she could hear music coming from it. She appeared to be in a park, and from the houses around her, also on a military base. 

"You don't look fine, miss," he said, helping her to steady herself. He was wearing the tan Navy uniform, and if she remembered these things correctly, he was a captain, and a well-decorated one at that. His name tag said, "Johnson," which she knew to be the GA's real last name. 

Oh God, she thought staring into the eyes of what could only be the Golden Avenger's dead twin brother, I'm dead too and the afterlife is a naval base in Virginia. No, wait a minute - since when did the afterlife have humidty and Kate Bush? Isn't it supposed to be angels and harps? 

"Maybe I'm not doing so well after all," she said to Johnson. "I mean, if you are Lt. Alex Johnson aren't you supposed to be dead or at least MIA for the past 11 years?  Ow!" she said cradling her aching head. "Or maybe this is just a bad dream related to that nasty gun those VIPER agents hit me with.  One second," she struggled to stand up, "I'm getting blasted by some scummy VIPER agents and the next I'm waking up here. Wherever here is." 

"I don't suppose you know what's going on," she said looking at Johnson. "Oh, by the way. I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Marjorie Dellinger. And thank you for stopping to help me." 

The man sat down on the bench next to her, landing with a thud. Behind Marjorie, Kate Bush was still singing from the open car door. Captain Johnson stood, closed the door, and returned to the bench she was sitting on. He sat more carefully this time. 

When he finally spoke, his voice was heavy. She couldn't see his face, for he was looking off into the distance. "For the first five years," he began, "I just waited for someone to find me here. Anyone -- I knew it was unthinkable, that I'd be found, or that anyone else brought through the portal would be find me. But I still thought Dad or D.J. or someone would know. You know what I mean?" he looked at her. "Jesus. You really look awful, Ms. Dellinger. Are you sure I can't..." 

"No, no, I'm fine," she interrupted. "You really are Lt. Alex Johnson, then?" 

"Captain, now," he said. 

"Well, you know. But you're the brother of the Golden Avenger?" she asked. "Oops. I mean D.J. Johnson." 

Captain Johnson had a strange look on his face. "Golden Avenger? You mean that nut in tights who did public service announcements in the late 70s? He spoke to our class at the Academy." 

"Not the same nut. When he, that is, Robert Kaufman, the first Golden Avenger, died in 1994, your brother took his place." As the look he gave her grew more incredulous, she added, "He's really well liked, actually. Has his own Web page and everything." 

"Did that PRIMUS thing ever get off the ground, then? When I...came here, they were still arguing about it in Congress. Jesus. Why the hell did D.J. leave the Navy?" 

Like father, like son. She remembered that the Admiral wasn't too happy about his youngest son's choice from Christine. "Well, I'm not really sure about the details (we don't know each other all that well), but I think it had something to do with your disappearance. Like he blamed himself, or something. Anyway, that's what I understood. He became a Silver Avenger in 1984, late in 1984, I think. Anyway, he was very successful, and according to his Web page, captured a ton of supervillains." She'd gleaned information from Christine and from that printout. 

"Huh," he said. "Golden Avenger. How did Dad react to that?" 

"Er." She was not entirely sure about this one. She remembered something about them not getting along though. The term "estrangement" came to mind. Maybe better not to mention it. "I'm not sure, about it, actually." 

Captain Johnson seemed to be in shock, and rans his hand through his closely cropped hair. 

"Um. Well, you seem to be doing well, Captain," she tried again. "What happened when you arrived here?" 

For the first time since she mentioned VIPER and his identity, he seemed more alert. "Jesus," he muttered. "You should come with me if we're going to talk about this. I'd forgotten..." He quickly stood, and helped her up. "Come on," he told her, walking her to the car. 

After she sat back in the passenger's seat and they were safely on their way off base (Norfolk, she noticed), he spoke. "When I first arrived here, it was just where I'd left -- the middle of the Indian Ocean. When I noticed the rest of the squadron wasn't responding, I called the ship. Except it wasn't the Eisenhower, it was the Kennedy. And they had never heard of Lt. Alex Johnson. They let me land, and I was interrogated for three days by NIS. Not something I'd like to repeat," he added. "Anyway, I figured out what was going on, and luckily, F-14s are sufficiently different from one dimension to the next," he said with an ironic edge to his voice, "that they finally believed me, and I got to stay in the Navy." 

He looked at you. "I worked my ass off getting to Captain. I was forbidden to ever mention to anyone what the truth was, and was given a fake past." 

"What about the aircraft?" 

"What?" he asked her. 

"What did the Navy do with your Tomcat?" 

"Oh, they took it. And the next year, Grumman announced upgrades." He shrugged. "I think that was the only way they would have believed me. I think they thought I was a Russian spy or something. Apparently dimensional transportation is a rare thing here." 

"Are there other differences here?" she asked. 

He laughed quietly. "There are no superbeings, for one. No PRIMUS, no DEMON, no VIPER, no Raven, no UNTIL, no SAT..." 

"There isn't any more SAT at home, either," she informed him. 

"Really?" he asked. "Why?" 

As she explained the story of SAT, she noticed that he was driving out of city limits. "Where are we going?" 

"Out of town." He looked concerned. "I mentioned that I thought NIS thought I was a spy? They bugged my house for a decade. If they've gotten better at it, I wouldn't want them to listen to this. I'd be afraid if they came for you -- at least I had value for them as a pilot." His tone is dark, and Marjorie realized that he doesn't smile nearly as much as the Golden Avenger, who never really struck heras being a happy sort of guy in the first place. 

"Ah. So, um, are you married or anything?" she asked, wondering if his life was like his brother's. Didn't separated twins end up marrying the same types of women and naming their dogs the same thing? 

"No, no. I was involved with someone pretty seriously, but she didn't like the idea of only seeing me for a few months a year. I'm the XO on the USS Franklin," he explained. 

Having the limited knowledge of the Navy that she did, Marjorie recognized one of the most prestigious carriers. "Wow," she said. "They must have started trusting you at some point." 

He guided the car past slower traffic, then answered. "Well, I knew a lot of the Admiralty, through my father, but of course, they didn't know that I knew them. So I used that to my advantage." He shrugged. "It worked, over time. I always knew I wanted to be in a command path anyway." 

While the car was stopped at a red light, he looked at her. "But tell me, Ms. Dellinger, why did VIPER shoot you, anyway?" 

"Well," she began, and explained the long and involved story of her dealings with VIPER. 

By the time she finished, they were in the parking lot of a rib take-out place. "Stay here," the Captain told her. "Oh. Do you like ribs?" he asked as an afterthought. 

She was so famished she'd have eaten anything (upholstery was looking good right about now) and she agreed. "A Common Distaster" was now appropriately playing on the radio. About five minutes later he came back with ribs, cokes, and greasy fries. Her stomach rumbled loudly as he passed the food to her to hold. "Sorry, " she apologized weakly. 

"So you're a reporter," he said. "Huh. D.J. always hated reporters." 

This was news. "Why?" she asked. Obviously, Alex Johnson wasn't as media savvy as his brother, making that kind of announcement. 

"It's a long story, and involves something from our Annapolis days," he deflected. "Look, we're here." 

Where they were was at a park near the Virginia coast. It was balmy, and the two took the ribs, cokes, greasy fries and a whole pile of napkins to a picnic table. The air smelled salty, and she remembered the nights she'd spend on the beach as a child. The food was really good -- she was starting to feel human again, and a little sleepy. 

Captain Johnson spoke. "I still don't know what we're going to do with you." 

"What do you mean? We have to find a way back. I just got engaged!"  Not to mention that Armstrong must be thinking she betrayed him. And his poor wife... 

He gave the same low laugh he used in the car. "There's no way back. No PRIMUS, no SAT, no VIPER, no paranormals. No ultra technology, no aliens... Well, maybe aliens," he looked thoughtful for a moment. "But there's no way for us to return. Don't you think I've tried everything?" 

"Well, you can call me crazy or accuse me of deluding myself, but I am not about to just give up trying to get out of here and back to our own dimension," she said very firmly. "The man I love is back in that other dimension and all be dammed if I am going to stay here! Plus, there is no way I'm letting VIPER and Gwen Jones Owens sit there and contentedly think they've gotten rid of me." 

She paused and looked at him to see if she might be swaying him over. 

"Anyway, from what I know of your brother - and I admit that it's not a lot - I think he needs you back in our own dimension. I mean you're brothers. You don't look to happy to be here, either." 

Well he didn't. It sounded like the Navy here put him through hell and he had little choice in the matter. For whatever reason, they would never trust him totally. Even though it sounded like he had worked hard at rebuilding a life here.  

"Look, there are two of us here now. That means that whatever happened to bring you here, it wasn't a one-time event. We need to figure out if our respective trips to this dimension were connected in anyway." 

She thought back quickly over what he had told her and what she vaguely remembered from that now-crispy-fried UNTIL report. It didn't seem like there was a connection between transport to this dimension. All she remembered was a bright light from the VIPER gun. He disappeared over the Indian Ocean. They both weren't in the Bermuda triangle. 

"You know, I was pretty sure VIPER was trying to kill me with that gun, but who knows. It could have been some sort of dimensional transport. But why would it be shaped like a gun? Well, there's no really way to know now." 

"You mentioned that there are no super beings in this world at all," she said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Have you ever figured out why? It doesn't make sense. How there could be no super heroes but something or someone transported us here?" 

Actually, I'm a little worried about this, she thought to myself. About the only thing keeping me alive lately has been my powers. I get into enough trouble with them, what kind of trouble would I get in without them? Whenever I can get some time alone, I'm going to surreptitiously try to test them out and make sure my powers still work. 

"By the way, what did you mean with that statement, 'I'd be afraid if they came for you -- at least I had value for them as a pilot'? I may not know how to fly a plane, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a useless human being. I'm a pretty good reporter. And I know a little bit about computer programming and AI technology. I think I could find a job. Are you implying that someone may kill me? Why in the world would they do that? It's just a waste of resources." 

She had a ton of questions for this man, but he deflected then with the same bitter laugh. She was looking for anything that may connect or explain how they both got transported to this dimension. Was there anything similar in our transports? 

Actually, an interesting fact she kept in the back of her mind is that Alex ended up exactly where he left. If that held true for my transport, the VIPER prison I was in must have been below Norfolk's military base. Was there a tie between their transports and the lack of super heroes in this world? Were there any place of magic in this world like Stonehenge, etc.? 

Damn, I wish Olympian was here. He knows more about the physics behind this than me. Hell, all I know about dimensional travel is what I've seen watching "Sliders" on television. It seems like this world was very concerned about Alex. Doesn't he find it unusual that they would monitor him for 10 years? 

As they were sitting there over the remains of the meal, a thought suddenly occured to her. 

"Do you have a doppelganger in this world?" she suddenly asked Alex. "I mean, you said that you knew a lot of the admiralty through your father. Obviously, they have a double in this world. Do you? Does your father?  I think it would be strange if you don't have a double in this world. If you exist in one world, you should exist in another. And, I can tell you that no one replaced you on our world." 

"Actually, no, I don't.  Some of my relatives exist here, but while there's another Admiral Johnson here whose career paralleled my fathers, it's not the same man," he responded. 

Sooner or later she'd need to get a shower and take a nap. Her head was still killing her, though she felt a lot better after she got something to eat. It was probably a side effect of those VIPER telepaths or this dimensional transport. I wonder if Jones-Owens was telling the truth when she said they got nothing out of me. She didn't know why she would lie, especially when she was going to kill me. Still she was worried that they might have seen something in her head about my father, the Wild Geese, the Hudson Hawks and so many other things. Well, there was not a lot I can do about that or Armstrong and his wife now that I'm  in another dimension. It was going to have to wait until she could get back. 

If I get back. I can't think like that. It will drive me nuts. The only way I'm going to survive this is if I think positively. About the only thing I'm running on now is hope and it's going to have to see me through this.