[Homeplot 2009] Secret Invasion

[forhawkeye]

Have you ever have a dream that was so vivid, so extraordinarily detailed that, despite the fact it was also so utterly absurd, it somehow didn't make it seem any less real? That's what Tabula Rasa was for me. Months of memories and experiences...all of it the result of a knock to the head.

I never left the invasion.

All around me is chaos. Skrulls and heroes and villains alike, all fighting for control of the planet, and the sound -- oh my God, the sound -- is deafening. I wince as I pull myself up from the ground, absently noting that I'm in full uniform. And why shouldn't I be? I never left the invasion. And so all those people I knew...they were all figments of my imagination. Nate, Serena, Alice, Mikal, Yorick, Remy... I always assumed Felix wasn't real, anyway, so he doesn't come as much of a surprise, but it makes perfect sense, now, how there could possibly be a Tony Stark who hadn't betrayed everyo--

"HAWKEYE, LOOK OUT!" yells Patriot -- Eli -- and he's already running towards me before I have a chance to react. In what feels like slow motion, I turn to see what I'm supposed to be looking out for, but I don't register what it is until after he's shoved me out of the way, and the ground behind us is engulfed in fire, courtesy of a Skrull Human Torch. "What the hell's wrong with you?!" he asks, though the edge of panic in his voice is all too clear, and he grabs me by the shoulders. "Now's not the time to get PTSD -- we haven't even gotten to the 'post' part yet!"

I nod mutely. A few seconds pass before I find my voice again. "I'm fine."

"You don't look it," he says.

A Skrull falls dead beside us. We both turn to see who's responsible, and we're greeted with a loud whoop as a grinning Bullseye pumps his fist in the air and dives back into the fray. I feel like I'm going to be sick. Instead I clear my throat and stand up straight, shoulders back. "I'm fine."

The corners of his mouth quirk upwards in a smile, and he nods approvingly. Well, at least one of us is convinced. I guess that's better than nothing, right? Giving my shoulders one last squeeze, he then takes a step back and nods towards the fight. "Let's get to work."

"Yeah," I say, reaching into my quiver to draw an arrow. "Let's."

Comments

Determining Who's All Here

[forhawkeye]

Although the Earth belongs to them as much as it does the heroes and villains, ground zero of the invasion isn't meant for civilians. Bedlam reigns supreme, and the fighting is an assault on the senses. The smell of burnt flesh. The flash of bright lights. The irregular percussion of weapons fire. And yet, there, amongst some of the most powerful beings in the whole of creation, a small but substantial group of people have suddenly found themselves in the midst of a battle, a battle with stakes so high as to defy exaggeration. Some of them are experienced in situations such as this, most of them are not. What they all share in common, however, is important but irrelevant -- none of them were there the second before.

[stanleepresents.livejournal.com]

In which our heroes arrive: (http://community.livejournal.com/make_mine_tr/2726.html?thread=20134#t20134) Kate "HAWKEYE" Bishop, Nico "SISTER GRIMM" Minoru, Felix "THE ROCK WITH A HEART" Unger, Nathan "CABLE" Summers, Alice "THE SPARKLING VAMPIRE" Cullen, Yorick "THE INCREDIBLE ORTHODASH" Brown, Nate "PERFECTION" Archibald, Chase "TALKBALK" Stein, Karolina "LUCY IN THE SKY" Dean, and Mikal "WAS ONCE DEAD" Nonexistent-Surname.

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

So maybe things haven't exactly been great lately. That doesn't mean Mikal is expecting to wake up anywhere other than curled up in bed with her boyfriend. Instead, she finds herself anywhere but. She's never been to New York, but it's easy enough to recognize, even if everything else isn't. Given that there's pretty quickly some kind of fucking war going on, she's on the verge of panicking until she realizes who all is there.

If this is what getting sent back is like, she definitely wishes she were back on the island.

[forhawkeye]

I've been running around like a headless chicken, trying to see if there's anyone else who's made the trip with me back to the real world, and I'm just about to say there isn't anyone else when I spot Mikal.

Rushing towards her, I grab her roughly by the arm. Manners will have to wait until this is all over; "Well, don't just stand there, come on!"

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

"Kate," Mikal says, catching sight of her just in time to be dragged away. She still doesn't know what all of this is, but Kate seems to, so she can't exactly protest. She's still too disoriented for that, anyway, for which she doesn't think she can be blamed. "What the hell is this? What's going on?"

Failed Evacuation

[forhawkeye]

I don't know why they're here, and I definitely don't know how, but there's a part of me that's relieved to see people from the island, if only because it means the past seven months have been real. Admittedly, the circumstances for my homecoming could have been a lot better -- this isn't exactly the most welcome of introductions to my universe -- but it seems like it's been nothing but wars since M-Day happened. Realistically, this is probably about as good as it's going to get.

And besides, Wiccan's about to get them all out of here, anyway. Turning towards him, I ask, "Are you ready?"

Re: Failed Evacuation

[halfscarlet]

Whatever madness and carnage was going on, Billy knew the most important thing was getting civilians off the battle field. He just had to put everything else aside for a minute, long enough to get them gone and get back into the fight. Kate would watch his back as he cast his spell, he was confident in that.

Not watching Teddy's back for even that long made him anxious, though, and Billy wasted no time getting to it.

"I want them safe," he started, then realized he sounded tired. That wasn't going to work.

"I want them safe, I want them safe I wantthemsafeIWANTTHEMSAFEIWANTTHEMSAFE--"

[forhawkeye]

Put this many defenseless people in one spot, and that's where the Skrulls are going to come running. I'm firing off arrows left and right, but they're starting to get a little too close for comfort. One comes out of nowhere, and lands a kick to my stomach, stumbling back into Billy.

"You need to speed this up a bit, Wiccan," I say, an edge of panic creeping into my voice.

Re: Determining Who's All Here

[alas-yorick.livejournal.com]

Yorick knows it's real, really knows it's real, when shrapnel or something beams him right up-fucking-side the head.

"Ow! Fuck! What the fuck!?"

He looks around for a weapon or cover, or both, because seriously, he is no match for the Skrull. Fuck, he barely lived through some crazy chicks with one tit and homemade shivs.

"Fuck this," he exclaims, and runs toward a building ...is that a spaceship?... for cover.

Divide and Conquer

[stanleepresents.livejournal.com]

For all that they hide behind their religion, the Skrulls lack mercy. Whether or not these strangers were there before is of no concern to them. All that matters is that they're an easy target. Without warning, the ground around our heroes explodes, and it rains down rubble, creating a thick cloud of smoke and dust and debris. Scattered and disoriented, the question remains: will these intrepid travelers live to tell the tale?

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

Through it all, Felix had been holding together admirably. Sure, there was madness all about him, but Kate had done a positively bang-up job of putting his little corner of the chaos into at least some semblance of order. 'Run over here.' 'Stay put.' 'Wait while I get you teleported to safety.' Nice, orderly tasks, all. The one thing that never failed to strengthen his sometimes-tenuous grasp on sanity.

However, he wasn't dealing with Oscar dropping his jackets on the living room floor, anymore. He wasn't even dealing with a magic island throwing some new crisis at him every other week. He was in the middle of an alien invasion, which made that need for order all the more crucial. And with this recent explosive development throwing that out the window, something inside Felix snapped.

Dragging himself to his feet, he didn't even notice that he was covered from head to toe in dust and dirt from the explosion, not to mention banged up a fair bit as well. Instead, he just glanced around with a wild look in his eyes, seeing no familiar faces whatsoever, only a pair of those green abominations suddenly coming at him at a worrisome pace. The arrow Kate had given him was miraculously still clutched in one hand, and without even pausing to think, he gave a savage cry of "Enough! Is! ENOUGH!" and hurled it at one of the monsters with surprising accuracy.

"I have had it with these monkey fighting Skrulls in my Monday to Friday CITY!"

[unseenstorm.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a bad throw for a civilian, but no matter how worn and wild the man looked, there was no doubt in Sue's mind he wasn't supposed to be here. He certainly wasn't equipped to handle the Skrulls closing in on him, whatever his ridiculous battle cry.

Cutting through the people between them, she rushed over toward him, throwing a shield around the guy. "Unless your mutant power's not dying," she said, "I really wouldn't do that again."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

Felix was so crazed, so focused on surviving all of the bloodshed, it took him a few moments to notice that his forward momentum had been interrupted. Interrupted by something solid, and encompassing, and... completely invisible. "Unless I- what? What?" he asked, vigorously shaking his head to come to his senses somewhat and finally noticing the blue-clad woman who was talking to him. "I can't, I don't have any more arrows!" he called to her, unsure if sound could permeate whatever was blocking him despite the fact that he could hear perfectly well.

Re: Divide and Conquer

[throw-it-off.livejournal.com]

He hadn't moved from the alleyway Kate had put him in. He'd promised her he wouldn't, and he was going to stay put until someone got him or something blew up.

And then something blew up.

The building at his back didn't look like it was long for this world and, still coughing smoke out of his lungs, Nate watched the wall crumble down and leave him with practically no cover. He didn't have half a minute to think before somebody was firing at him.

And then he ran, searching desperately for cover.

Re: Divide and Conquer

[alas-yorick.livejournal.com]

Yorick saw some guy running his way that looked about as fucked as he was.

"Hey!" he called, dragging himself along the pavement by his elbows until his head was poking out from under the taxi. "Hey! Get the fuck out of the street unless you wanna be some bastard Skrull's shish-kabob!"

Re: Divide and Conquer

[throw-it-off.livejournal.com]

Right about then, anybody who wasn't green looked good to Nate. He skidded and pivoted, nearly falling on his face as he dove under the taxi without even thinking. It was only by luck that he still had the arrow Kate'd given him in one hand, and it hadn't gone off yet accidentally.

"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered to himself. "I thought they were getting us out of here."

Downgrading to Clooney

[forhawkeye]

It needs to be Iron Man. Knowing how this all pans out, with Norman Osborn practically crowned king of the castle, it needs to be Iron Man who makes the shot, and kills the Skrull Queen. It's not a perfect solution -- I know it's not a perfect solution -- but the status is definitely not quo if Osborn's in charge of the Avengers, and I'll take the evil I know any day of the week. Which brings me to my big problem: how do I go about making this happen? The others are, if not safe, then taken care of, so at the very least I can save my worry and WTFery for later but that doesn't answer my question.

The logical thing to do, I guess, is to get rid of Osborn before he can kill the Queen. Now, I'm arrogant but I'm not stupid -- there's not a chance in hell I can distract him and get to Clooney. It's time to delegate. Thing is, the YA are already plenty occupied. And even if they weren't, the Green Goblin's not exactly a Nazi made of bees. He's an A-Lister. Seriously, the guy's like Voldemort or something. He always comes back. So who can I g--

Spider-Man suddenly swings past me with a Skrull tucked under his arm, and inspiration strikes. I mean, if anyone has experience with Osborn, it's Spider-Man, right? Dodging a few skirmishes as I run in the direction he's heading, I call out to him before I realize there's no way he'll be able to hear me over all this noise. So I do the only thing I can do to get his attention: I shoot an arrow at him.

"Dude! Do I look like a Skrull?!" he asks, easily dodging the arrow, and he turns on a dime, heading back towards me. He lands on all fours a few feet away, and he’s probably the only guy around here who could make that look even remotely graceful. "I thought you were supposed to be a good shot!"

"I am," I reply quickly, waving him off. "Look, you’ve gotta listen to me. You need to distract Norman Osborn."

He cocks his head to the side. "I can’t believe I’m asking this, but...why?"

"It’s a time-travel thing," I lie, figuring that’s easier to explain than the truth right now. "If you don’t distract him--"

"--what, we’ll all disappear?"

"No!" God he’s annoying. "Can you please just trust me on this?!"

It's hard to gauge his reaction thanks to his mask, but I don’t have to wait long before he says, "Fine, I’ll do it." He mutters something else, too, but I don’t quite catch it. Not that it matters, I guess, seeing as he’s already off and swinging in what I can only assume is Osborn’s direction. I only hope I can contact Clooney before it’s too --

"Is everything alright?" a familiar voice asks, and I spin around to see Vision standing behind me, looking like, well, a vision. "I only just got your signal--"

"Can you patch me through to Iron Man?" I ask, speaking over him.

"The armor he’s wearing isn’t connected to the rest of StarkTech. I’m unsure if I can--"

"Not what I asked. Can you or can you not get me through to Iron Man? I need a yes or a no, here."

He hesitates. Then: "...yes."

"Well, what are you waiting for?!"

"I’m not a cellphone, Kate."

"Thanks for the clarifi--" He holds up a hand, cutting me off, and I’m annoyed for all of a second until I realize why he did. "You got him?"

He nods.

"Hi, Iron Man? This is Hawkeye. I know you tried to arrest me that one time, but I really need you to listen right now, or we’re in a whole lot of trouble. Do you copy?"

The Immediate Aftermath

[stanleepresents.livejournal.com]

The battle in New York was fierce. The Skrull Empire had so many tricks up their sleeve. So many plans and contingency plans...they’d more than halfway won before it had even started. You can’t help but admire them. The plans. The execution. But for all their planning, it’s unclear if the Skrulls truly understand us. As humans. Because if they did, they’d know that whether or not a stunt like the invasion would have worked...whoever survived...whoever was left...would be insanely ticked off.

But only one person got the killshot. Tony Stark. All the networks were covering it live. Everyone on the planet saw it. He had another suit of armor, not tied to the StarkTech mainframe. It was enough to keep him going.

And those who could fly took to the sky. Ares took the warship that was hovering over the city proper all by himself. He dropped it right into the Atlantic. What was left of the armada was attempting to retreat. But without a proper leadership chain they were caught spinning their wheels when Thor whipped out the hammer. Whatever Stark had left...it was enough for him to scan the Skrull warships for other Doomsday devices. He overrode their tech with his tech, just enough to get into one ship and take control of it.

Stark is the one who stood on the mountaintop and decided he was in charge of the world. He’s the one who said he could protect us all. And though he stumbled, though he fell, in the end, he held true to his word.*

And so it is that our heroes can regroup amidst the carnage, tired and injured, but whole.

*Adapted and abridged from dialogue featured in Secret Invasion #8 by Brian Michael Bendis.

[forhawkeye]

The dinosaurs don't look so bad in comparison. As strange as it sounds, that's the first thing that comes to mind once the battle comes to a close. The rest of it -- the scrapes and the bruises and the fact that my arm is $*!(ing killing me -- doesn't even faze me as I pick my way through the debris, trying (and hoping) to find everyone in one piece, but the fact that my first thought after all that is dinosaurs is enough to draw out a quiet, disbelieving laugh.

I really must be tired.

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Kate?" Felix called weakly from where he was lying against a small pile of rubble. Miraculously, he'd survived long enough to see the end, to see New York, the city he loved so very much, safe once more. Maybe it was a small thing, but he was glad he'd gotten to see it again before he died.

"Kate, is that you? Please come here, I want to see you one last time," he croaked out, every breath a struggle.

Alright, so technically, he didn't actually feel all that bad beyond being a little banged up, but that had to have just been the shock setting in. There was no way he'd made it through that fracas unscathed, even with assistance. No, this was surely the end.

[forhawkeye]

At first I'm not sure if I actually heard something or not, but then I see Felix looking like he's on his last legs. Rushing towards him, I drop into a crouch by his side, quickly looking him over for any visible damage and coming up with...well, nothing much, actually.

"What's wrong?" I ask quickly, looking over him again in case I missed something small, but not necessarily less lethal. "I don't...I don't see anything."

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

Cable had come through the battle mostly unscathed but he was somewhat annoyed that he hadn't manged to seize a ship for himself.

He had tried to make up for it by grabbing some pieces of destroyed technology but he wasn't sure they were intact enough to do any good.

That done, he went looking for Kate.

"Tony Stark?" he said in place of any greeting when he spotted her.

[forhawkeye]

"Better than Osborn," I reply, eyebrows raised. For as exhausted as I am right now, it's not a choice I regret by any means, and that's entirely reflected in my posture.

[throw-it-off.livejournal.com]

A part of him didn't want to see Kate, only because he figured the burn on his arm would earn him some undesirable harassment. The pain of it was harassment enough in Nate's mind. But when he caught sight of purple and black, he didn't hesitate to scramble to her side and grab her in a one-armed hug, a little loose for both their sakes. "You're okay," Nate sighed in relief. "Thank God you're okay."

[forhawkeye]

I don't notice Nate until he's suddenly right there, and it takes about a second's worth of juggling weapons around until I can turn into him and return the hug.

"Of course I'm okay," I say, but I can't muster up my usual bravado because I'm distracted by the state of his arm. Never mind that I'm a lot worse for wear than he is. I mean, I put myself in the line of fire because that's sort of my job. Nate doesn't have that excuse. Backing away slightly, I catch his wrist, and look up at him with wide eyes. "What the hell happened?"