Morgan was standing in front of the portal, with a vibranium weapon in her hand. She was about to activate the portal and she figured that throwing in the strongest metal would give her the strongest metal from the other side. This could help her in her research. There, on the top of the tower, she was all alone. No one was there to save her. No help could be called. It was a normal day in New York, but it was a very important day in Morgan’s life. She tightened her grip on the weapon, and then realized that it was a knife, an unsheathed, razor-sharp knife. Moreover, she had been holding it by its blade, the sharp side. Then it occurred to her that her hands weren’t covered and then it dawned on her: her suit was broken and she was wearing pieces of it. By the looks of it, it seemed that Meg had tried her best to mend the suit, but she had failed. Slowly and slowly she realized that her hands, in fact her whole body was soaked in…blood.
Morgan’s eyes shot open. She sat up straight, breathing heavily. As soon as she came to her senses, she frantically searched for any cuts or blood. “Nothing, it’s nothing. How can it be nothing? The dream seemed so real. Ugh! I hate nightmares!” Morgan said to herself. She calmed herself down by reminding herself that she was safe. With that suit, she can stay safe anywhere. “No, no, no, don’t depend on the suit. It can be destroyed, beyond repair, someday,” she said out loud. Her mind was racing with thoughts. How her dad too, once became too dependent on his suits. How often her mom had told her that even if the world outside the barriers gets destroyed, they will be safe. But here, there is no guarantee. She started pacing in her room. When her legs got bored, she sat down. A sudden memory hit her.
2:30 am. That’s what the clock showed. An 8-year old Morgan was sitting in her bed, breathing heavily. After a few moments she cried, “Mom!”
In a few minutes, Pepper came running into the room. “What happened?” she asked. Morgan started crying. “Mom……they are……coming,” Morgan managed to say between sobs. “Who is coming?” peeper asked, hugging Morgan. Pepper repeated her question but Morgan chanted the same thing over-and-over again. When Morgan had stopped crying, Pepper asked again, “Who is coming, darling?” “Mom, we are not safe, not safe at all,” Morgan said and started to sob again. “No, no, no, no, we are safe here, nothing will harm us,” Pepper told Morgan, but it felt like she was trying to assure herself. “Now will you tell me who is coming?” Pepper asked. “I don’t know, but…but they were heavily armed, in my dream. I did not see their faces. Maybe…maybe they are d-dad’s friends?” Morgan squeaked. At this, Pepper’s gaze hardened. “Go back to sleep Morgan,” Pepper said, getting up. “Mom, whenever I mention them, you change the topic or shush me, why?” Morgan asked. “I thought you’ll get it, you are not supposed to mention them,” Pepper said, going out of the room. Morgan knew that this was the last time she’d be mentioning them.
“Gosh! Thinking about this place gave me nightmares, and now that I’m here, my nightmares will possibly come true,” Morgan said, snapping out of her thoughts.
Morgan then brushed her teeth, took a shower and then wore her favorite T-shirt. It was purple and jet-black: her two most favorite colors. Then she wore the most important accessory: her necklace. Morgan found herself gazing at the heart pendant. Then she reminded herself, “Don’t depend on it.”
As usual, Morgan went inside her lab. As she was used to not to find anyone there, she didn’t pay a lot of attention to her surroundings and sat down to work. “Hey, you are awake,” A familiar voice cut through the silence. Morgan was already very jumpy, so this made her jump right out of her chair. Morgan turned around to find Shuri. “Oh, it’s you. What’s going on,” Morgan said, and tried not to look offended as Shuri had literally trespassed her property (or lab). Somehow Shuri got that and said, “Hey, labs are my idea of fun, so don’t mind me.” Morgan nodded. “By the way, did you sleep well?” Morgan asked. “If you count two hours as a good sleep, then yes,” Shuri said. Morgan smirked. She too had done that, sometimes. “Alright, we’ve got a problem on our hands and we have to fix it, what are your ideas?” Shuri asked. “Uhh...not much...” Morgan said, gesturing Shuri to look towards her left.
“As you already know, this portal, cannot be closed unless it is activated. So, the first step in our plan is to activate the portal. And to do that, I think a vibranium weapon would be best,” Morgan began. “Wait, why do you think that?” Shuri questioned. Morgan had this feeling that Shuri was a mind reader. But Morgan too, held her ground and said normally, “You see, vibranium is the strongest metal over here, so when we throw that in...The strongest metal from that side will return, and it would be a plus if we throw in a weapon.” At first, Shuri looked unimpressed, and then she said, “Good thinking. And what’s your plan about sealing this portal?” Morgan knew that she had a close call: if this girl, Shuri can read minds then she had to stay clear of her. She didn’t want people reading her mind and intercepting her dreams. “Um...Morgan?” Shuri said, snapping in Morgan’s face. Morgan blinked. “Yeah, Yeah. Uh, so, where were we?” Morgan stammered. Shuri repeated her question. “See, I have a blueprint of a device that, when placed on two centralised locations in both universes, will shut the portal close. But the tricky part is finding the center,” Morgan said, showing her the blueprint. Shuri studied it and then said, “This, is gonna take time.” Morgan agreed. “Wait, I have loads of questions, first, where is the center of our universe?” Shuri asked, her gaze shifting from the blueprint to Morgan. “Are you kidding? You seriously don’t know? Well, it is in Tulsa, a city in Oklahoma, it is quite a good tourist spot, you know,” Morgan said, and the screen behind her showed the image of Tulsa. “Okay. Now, as you said, this portal opens up to a parallel universe, how do you know that? And how are you sure that the portal, once activated will not open in the middle of space and on a planet that is habited and will have the center of that universe?” Shuri asked. “Hmmm, you see, I don’t exactly know that the other side is a parallel universe, it is just a...feeling? Something like that. But you can have my word on that one. And as for the portal opening in the middle of space, no, that won’t happen, because portals are sort of alive. They connect two mirror worlds; well, most of the time they do. And as for the planet being inhabited or not, I think it would be good if it is not, but my luck is cruddy. Your last question is tricky; there are zero guarantees on the center of that universe being on that planet,” Morgan explained. “Oh good, that is double work,” Shuri muttered. “That was why, I asked for a large team, you know,” Morgan said winking. Like this they talked and worked for a long time.
“Oh-kay, two intelligent girls in a lab, something is cooking,” Peter said, coming inside. “Why are you here?” Morgan asked. “You know, this room was radiating knowledge, so it attracted a genius,” Peter said, smirking. “Oh, shut up. You won’t recognise knowledge if it danced naked in front of you,” Shuri said. Morgan and Shuri did a hi-five. “That hurt. By the way, what were you discussing?” Peter asked. “How to make a cupcake,” Morgan said. “Are you serious?” Peter asked, looking confused. “I should have asked that, what do you think we’d be discussing,” Morgan asked. Peter shrugged. Shuri shook her head and then said, “We were talking about the portal.” “Don’t stress yourself out! And we haven’t even figured out that we would be activating the portal or not,” Peter said. “In order to seal the portal shut, we have to activate it, duh,” Morgan said. “Is it causing any trouble? No. So maybe we don’t close the portal at all,” Peter said. “I lectured you guys for hours on end yesterday, and you understood nothing? Why do you want to wait till the last minute?” Morgan said, advancing on Peter, her anger rising. Peter simply said, “Worrying about the future will simply give you headaches, and sometimes, planning in advance backfires.” And then he moved out.

“You got yourself an enemy, Parker,” Morgan muttered under her breath.