[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

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.

[unseenstorm.livejournal.com]

Although Sue wondered where the man had got the arrow to begin with, that didn't really matter at the moment. Her only concern was the matter of getting him out of the line of fire. Well, that and the thousands of alien invaders, but this came first.

"I'm going to help you get out of here, alright?" She kept her voice as calm as she could, despite the need to turn and hurl one of her invisible discs at an oncoming Skrull. "You're safe inside that force field. Just follow me this way."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Force field?!" Felix exclaimed, panic slowly creeping back to him through his adrenaline rush as he ran his hands along what appeared to be absolutely nothing. "Is it safe? Is there enough air?" He could be following her right to his doom!

[unseenstorm.livejournal.com]

"It's a lot safer than being outside of it," Sue assured him. Simply rendering him invisible would have helped with the suggested claustrophobia, but it didn't seem as safe in the midst of such chaos. "Just stay calm and breathe normally. My name's Susan. How'd you get in the middle of all this?" Maybe distracting him would help.

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"My name is Felix, I'm very pleased to meet you, Susan!" he yelled back pleasantly. Being in the midst of a warzone was no reason not be polite, after all, especially to such lovely help as Susan seemed to be. "I'm not entirely sure how I got in the middle of all this, to be honest. I just went to bed last night as usual and woke up here. I didn't even bring my sleep mask with me!" As he spoke, he took a few tentative steps, pleased to find that the strange force bubble seemed to move along with him.

[unseenstorm.livejournal.com]

It wasn't really what Sue had expected, but after everything she and her family had been through, it really wasn't that weird either. At least, not apart from his concern for his sleep mask. He was moving and that was the important part, so long as she kept her attention half on him and half on warding off attacks. "Well, it's going to be just fine, Felix," she said, using a tone of voice generally reserved for Franklin and Valeria. "We'll get you out of here and on home to, uh, your sleep mask."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but my home isn't here," Felix said, cringing back as some sort of beam smashed into the air in front of him, but no further. "Or rather, it is, but the year is all wrong and there were far less aliens in the New York I'm from!" Although now that she mentioned it, why couldn't he head over to Park Avenue to check in on the old place? What if Leonard and Edna were out there somewhere, all grown up? Boy, wouldn't they be surprised to see their old pop now!

Of course, that all depended on his making it through the next few minutes, which still seemed up in the air.

[unseenstorm.livejournal.com]

"There aren't usually quite this many here either." Turning up in the wrong time was daunting enough without aliens to contend with, that was certain, though Sue wondered what Felix was doing moving through time to begin with. Questions would have to wait, though. Sue was focused more on a large section of uprooted pavement hurtled through the air toward her, intent on shielding herself from it. "You just woke up in the wrong year?"

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Oh no," Felix quickly amended, eyes wide as he watched her do... whatever it was that she was all doing. She was like some serial film superheroine come to life, it was amazing!

"I was on an Island for a while, first!"

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."

Re: Divide and Conquer

[alas-yorick.livejournal.com]

"They're probably doing what they can. Y'know, amidst the fucking Skrull invasion and everything," Yorick replied, sizing him up as much as a guy could while crammed under a car.

"Who are you?"

Re: Divide and Conquer

[throw-it-off.livejournal.com]

Nate hadn't missed the invasion part. But Kate had a plan and if things weren't going to plan, that meant things were worse. If that was possible.

He frowned slightly and gave the guy a once-over too. "Nate. Who are you?" Other than a Ryan Reynolds clone.

Re: Divide and Conquer

[alas-yorick.livejournal.com]

Yorick blinked.

"Whoa, hey. Kate's boyfriend Nate, or some other Nate?" he asked, though he was betting on the first.

Re: Divide and Conquer

[throw-it-off.livejournal.com]

"No, Kate's boyfriend Nate," he confirmed with a scant nod of his head. "The non-superhero one."