A new friend...or something like that (4)
anonymous
August 24 2013, 07:06:50 UTC
Tony is more than happy to save the day, calling in favours, making threats and restricting what the media got to say about the incident. He posts bail for the girl, and it only takes a brief meeting of eyes for him to know to back off from this one. Quorra’s eyes have an intensity matched only by the color.
“You are the Iron Man,” she states.
“And you are not completely human,” Tony replies with his usual lack of tact.
He knew Quorra was more than a pretty face, but even he is surprised at her combat skills. She waits until they are out of the police station before making her escape and neutralizing everyone who stood in her way. Tony feels like watching another Black Widow on a mission, Quorra was just more cautious about the harm she could potentially inflict.
Steve recognizes the traits of a soldier. A soldier was one with responsibilities, and he could take a guess where Quorra had run to. He goes to the hospital where the Flynns are, and managed to intercept Quorra before she could enter.
“The soldier out of time,” Quorra’s mind is practically photographic, she only needs to see one news reel of the Avengers to recognize them at a glance.
“We won’t hurt you,” Steve promises.
Meanwhile, Tony waltzes straight in the hospital and introduces himself to a surprised Sam Flynn, bypassing the security the ENCOM CEO Alan Bradley had placed around the boy. Tony knows of the boy’s own reckless attitude and annual prank on his own company before his father’s return, it said a lot that the boy was now allowing Alan to surround him with guards.
But neither Tony nor Steve could get their new acquaintance to talk about what happened. It was obvious Clu had something to do with Kevin Flynn’s hospital visit, and like most guilty parties had fled the scene. Sam is staying in the hospital to wait for any news about his father’s condition, but wants Clu found. Quorra tells Steve the same thing, and Steve accompanies her to reconvene with Sam.
Sam and Quorra exchange significant looks and vague words, clearly unwilling to speak too much in front of the Avengers. Steve is miffed that Tony would just get Sam involved, but Tony is confident Sam wasn’t left in the dark about the genetics Clu and Quorra carried. He tells Sam that he’ll find Clu, he just didn’t say a super secret spy agency was also going to be involved.
Clu is a megalomaniac with a fondness for motorcycle racing. He leads them on a merry chase causing so much damage Clint seriously considers just shooting the target. Clu escaped three of Steve’s attempts to coordinate a plan to capture him, and Tony’s attempts to simply pluck him into the air all fail. The fugitive might have successfully escaped, if Bruce had not been summoned to the operation and the Other Guy basically jumps in front of the motorcycle. The spectacular crash and explosion ended with Clu’s capture.
Unfortunately Tony could not control social media, and the sight of one lone motorcycle escaping police cruisers and mysterious government black vans are great viral material. Social media meant videos of the chase and arrest are posted quickly, and Sam knew that Tony Stark had twisted his promise. Tony tells the younger billionaire Clu’s capture was out of his hands and that he didn’t really have too much information. He doesn’t tell the ENCOM shareholder he was hacking into SHIELD files to find out.
They should have known Sam was just as brilliant, and had his own resources. He’s similar enough to Tony, and SHIELD finds out that the Clu file had been illegally copied twice: the first time was all but signed with ‘work of Tony Stark’ and the second more discreet download was traced to a hotel that coincidently the Flynns had been staying in. The information illegally copied included mentions of the other safehouse occupants.
Clu had not been relocated to there, but he was in the lab next door. The safehouse and the lab were actually in the same building.
Dastan had attempted to break out, Sam had attempted to break in.
A new friend...or something like that (5)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:22:47 UTC
Tony and Bruce are in the middle of a conversation about possible updates to Hawkeye’s arrows when SHIELD calls them and tells Tony to stop messing around their security systems because it really isn’t funny.
Few things are more alarming when Tony tells them he wasn’t hacking in their system.
At least not currently.
SHIELD defenses fail and the main lights go off, the precious few seconds before the emergency lights came on was enough for the trespassers to enter the building. The main attempt was actually a distraction, Sam had broken into high security buildings before but a government building would have been a whole new level altogether.
So while SHIELD are distracted combating and then rebuilding their building security, Sam and Quorra went deeper inside. Even behind a helmet, Quorra’s sharp eyes guide them around cameras and avoid motion sensors, Sam disabling those they couldn’t get around. The skeleton crew left behind to guard the hallways didn’t stand a chance.
“Get back!”
“Where are you keeping Clu?”
“Get back or I’ll shoot!”
“Of course you will,” Sam holds his hands up in the air even as he continues walking forward. The agent points a gun at him, but had no chance to fire before Quorra jumps across the hallway and knocks him down. Sam strides pass the fallen agent to meet the rest, none of them stood a chance against Quorra’s skills.
They were skills Quorra had learned to fight against Clu and his Black Guard, and Sam had used his own against Clu’s game opponents. Some of the agents would hear the helmet-wearing trespasser muttering about Clu better appreciating what they were doing for him.
In the safehouse, Lucy was describing the world she came from to an attentive audience before they heard the shouting and scrambling footsteps. Agents suddenly barge in, telling them to stay inside as a threat had gone inside the building. Dastan leaps to his feet, ready to do battle, and Peter tells the agents that they were not going to hide while the agents risk their lives. There’s yelling and arguing before Timothy announces that one of the trespassers isn’t human and was trying to find her kin in the building.
By now, everyone knew Timothy had an uncanny ability to know such things.
Ben asks the agents why there would be another “special” one in the building who isn’t with them in the safehouse.
One of the agents protests Clu wasn’t safe.
Susan asks them why in the world they would keep a threat and enemy so close to the safehouse then.
Another agent says the building was better equipped to contain Clu.
Edmund face palms and tells them that they might as well have said the safehouse was also a prison to hold them then.
Tamina tells him that the agent who answered was not in politics for a reason.
And then a woman wearing a face-covering helmet jumps in the midst of agents and proceed to send them all flying into the walls. Those that managed to avoid her attacks are quickly dealt with by a male wearing a similar helmet. Dastan jumps in to battle them, and it is the woman who meets him in combat. It was clear that as skilled as the male trespasser was, the woman was actually trained in combat. Peter ordered the Gates and Greens to hide before drawing out the sword Thor had given him, and it was then the male raised a hand.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no need for that, we are not here to hurt you.”
Dastan jumped back from the female stranger’s attack, landing besides Peter, but did not resume fighting. Seeing that the Persian was giving them a speaking opportunity, the male continued, “I’m actually here to look for someone, a man named Clu. Our sources say he’s here, and if you point him out we’ll be out of your building right away. If you’re friends with him, I assure you that we won’t hurt him.”
“You’ve come a long way for nothing, stranger,” Susan answers. “Clu isn’t with us, we’ve never met him. You could have asked the agents, they were probably the only ones who knew.”
“We still could, none of them are bleeding,” the female says to her companion. She reaches down for one of them, but Timothy speaks up.
A new friend...or something like that (6)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:26:35 UTC
“I’ll take you to find him.” This draws many stunned stares, Abigail looks like she would object, but he continues, “I know where to find him, and I know he doesn’t belong here. He would exploit all our imperfections.” Both helmet-wearing strangers shuddered, although no one knew why.
“Timothy,” Cindy begins when her son walks forward to the strangers, but he turns and smiles at her.
“I’ll be fine, mom, they won’t hurt me.”
Edmund had been kneeling by one of the agents, checking his condition, but at those words he stands up. “I’ll come with you.”
“I don’t mind if you want to play bodyguard, but if you don’t want us to stay and cause further trouble, please hurry and lead us to Clu. Yes, I trust them,” the last sentence was directed to the disguised female, who even with her helmet on managed to convey a disbelieving look for her partner.
Edmund doesn’t let anyone else object. “Lucy, can you stay and look after the agents?” At her nod, the boys were moving away, led by Timothy and followed by the two helmet wearing strangers. The remaining occupants of the room were quickly checking the agents, relieved to find that there were no serious injuries. They also realize that the agent that Edmund had been checking on earlier is missing his tracking pen.
- Sleep -
There are several floors of SHIELD labs, on one of the floors there is a smaller room set aside for Clu. As cells went it is comfortable, if not for the fact that Clu is strapped with his arms around himself.
“What have you done that your behaviour warrants being treated like a lunatic?” Is the helmeted male’s greeting. Edmund’s mind stops calling him that when Clu responds.
“As I once did for you, Sam, I over rode their programs and read all their reports.”
“So they couldn’t trust you not to escape and get into their computers again,” the male stranger, Sam, notes. “Unless you like it here, you better not cause me trouble when I release you.”
Edmund stares at the face of SHIELD’s new lab rate before speaking, “Clu? Clu Flynn? That means…” he looks at Sam as realization dawns, “why didn’t you just hire someone to do this?”
“Clu probably won’t be as cooperative with anyone else,” the woman that Edmund correctly deduces is Quorra answers. Clu gives the boy a malicious smirk, and Edmund’s instincts scream Threat and Eliminate Now.
“If I lead you to escape, you won’t hurt anyone else?” Timothy asks.
“We don’t like hurting people, if you can lead us to a path of escape with the least resistance, you can forget this ever happened.” Quorra responds.
Timothy never told the safehouse occupants his origins, something Edmund thought was distinctively unfair since almost everyone else did, but he trusts Timothy’s abilities and good intentions. Sure enough, the boy with the plant leaves leads them out of the building with few agent encounters along the way, the older group easily disabling the technology that should have hindered them.
But enough time has passed for SHEILD to regroup and track the signal from the pen Edmund had taken from the agent. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had also arrived to see about a non-human escaping SHIELD facility. Sam had always treated his encounters with law enforcement as fun exercises and the police had never given him too much trouble as his antics rarely caused too much damage, but this time with children and superheroes involved he grew alarmed. Clu took advantage of this to extract an agreement that they needed to get out using whatever means necessary.
SHIELD again found all their security systems overridden.
Tony found that it was less fun when someone else was hacking into his system.
Bruce turned into the Other Guy when the weapons equipped in the building began targeting them.
And then there’s explosions and chaos and destruction as the fighting began and Quorra asked Sam what the heck he had been thinking when he allowed Clu access to a computer when they were already cornered. The ENCOM group split from the children, unwilling to get them hurt in the chaos. Edmund slips the pen into Sam’s pocket, and protects Timothy from the flying debris as they flee from the destruction.
A new friend...or something like that (7)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:28:45 UTC
The Hulk finds them, and Edmund’s mind almost jumps back to his days of fighting monsters before that part of his mind is reminded that this was a friend and ally. Timothy certainly didn’t seem afraid, eagerly running to the Hulk’s side and the protection he provided against the chaos. Iron Man flies forward, and Timothy tells him that it’s Sam Flynn who had broken inside the building and potentially overrode all the systems.
“That kid’s like a younger version of me!”
The Hulk gave the playboy a disapproving roar, and Tony’s eyes of child-in-a-candy-store quickly change. “I mean, that is highly irresponsible and reckless of him! I shall have to impart my wisdom and teach him better methods!”
Fury’s voice on the communicator snapped something along the lines of no corrupting more genius billionaires.
No one believed Tony would listen, and Fury doesn’t waste any more breath, simply sending him the tracking signal of the pen Edmund had sneaked onto the ENCOM billionaire. A pen, Tony rolled his eyes at the cliché.
Everyone else was ordered to retrieve the fallen agents and the people in the safehouse, they would have to relocate or the building would collapse on them. Timothy and Edmund are ordered to stay with some of the SHEILD agents, and Edmund pitches a fit. Timothy does not.
“I can’t go back in there, yes I want to help my parents, but I can’t in this state.”
Edmund would have argued, but he looks at the fire slowly consuming the building, at the other boy’s frail form and the leaves that had been growing out of him, and reluctantly agrees to stay and protect him. It had been what he had silently promised, and he trusts his siblings to get Timothy’s parents out.
Inside the crumbling safe house Peter managed to lead Timothy’s parents, the Gates, and Tamina out to the hallways. They all tried to support an agent along, but Quorra had knocked too many unconscious and it broke Peter’s heart to leave the agents lying about as they hurried along shifting corridors. Then he saw a girl, sleeping in a bed with various machines around her getting crushed by the walls. Without thought he rushed forward to help the girl out, ignoring all the others’ calls, and when he got too close a section of the wall smashed a machine that must have contained sleeping gas, because next thing Peter knows he’s falling down heights impossible even for the SHIELD building and his surroundings are earth and dirt instead of charred metal and broken glass. He thinks he heard his new friends shouting for him.
The landing is strangely soft for floors that look hard. There’s a table too high and a door too wide and Peter’s alarmed that he has fallen into some world of giants before he sees another door that happens to be too small.
Tamina is suddenly dropping down besides him, “what did you do?”
“Where have you taken us?” Jim adds.
“This,” Peter feels the need to defend, “Is not my fault.”
Ben circles about trying every door, “you’ve thrown us into a prison!”
“And either our warden is stupid or taunting us, because they key is right there,” Abigail points to the old fashion trinket resting atop the table.
“This is vaguely familiar,” Cindy mutters, and finds the piece of cake.
There are several minds and many of them are cautious, so they make their exit with the cake and key in hand. The world outside is both familiar and strange to Peter, for one he doesn’t give much reaction to the blue doodoo bird talking to him.
“I’m looking for a way out,” he begins.
“Out of where?”
“Here.”
“What is Here?”
“Somewhere…not like this.”
“How do you know when you’ve left Here?”
That doesn’t mean Peter isn’t as confused as the adults of his group Several more talking animals - creatures - answer his inquiries in a similar matter. Nothing makes sense and Tamina sighs.
“This world is mad.”
“That sounds like something Alice will say,” the cat with a grin says.
“Alice?” Cindy seizes onto the first human name they’ve heard in this place, “Who and where is Alice?”
“She’s in the Palace of the Red Queen, trying to save a hatter and an archer.”
A new friend...or something like that (8)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:34:13 UTC
Cindy recognizes the significance of a hatter, not so much the archer. They are led to the palace, but just when the fortress is in sight the cat vaporizes because monsters and soldiers resembling red playing card ambush them. Tamina curses the cat for leading them to an ambush, and Peter yells coward even as he strikes down the guards.
They crash into the palace and sees their first distinctive humans in the court of the red queen. Most of them have certain body proportions grossly enlarged, the most human looking is a man in an armor almost similar to the red cards, a prisoner with a top hat and fluorescent eyes, and a third man breaking the chains off the prisoner - one who the group recognizes by now.
“Hawkeye? How did you get in here?”
“I should be asking how you got into this lab of SHIELD!”
“Wait, we’re still in a lab? Seriously?”
“We’re either dream sharing or all of us had been teleported to another world, SHIELD is still trying to figure out what’s happening here!”
They fight the forces commanded by the Knave of Hearts, Jim bemoaning how he was a pencil maker ill equipped for these types of events, while the Knave himself battles the Hatter. As those two potential dream projections banter with each other, Clint explains through short bursts that SHIELD had been monitoring Patient Alice's condition and trying to find out whether she was simply having very lucid dreams or if it was something else. They were actually confident it was something else, just not quite sure what it was yet. Naturally when the lab was compromised, Fury had ordered some of his agents to rescue the project.
Ben was already shouting that there was some technology that really was pushing it, because hadn’t anyone in the group seen Inception?
And that’s when the girl Peter had seen sleeping and Clint aimed at retrieving, Alice, appeared beside them looking like a young giantess and carrying a sword that loudly stated magical properties. In as dry a tone as one could managed when being chased by monsters, Abigail pointed out being able to dream that you were capable of saving a fantastical world was a tempting hobby for some of the younger and more powerless population.
Ben decided to test the boundaries of the dream.
He found out that yes wounds could be created and pain felt.
Abigail pointed out even the movie had said the brain could feel pain.
Ben decided to try to control his dream.
Alice told him it was her dream and she as the dreamer controlled it.
Abigail said the movie had stated that too.
Clint jinxed them all by declaring that at least Alice wasn’t having a particularly nasty nightmare. As soon as the words left his lips the world around them faded away and they are suddenly in a building very similar to the one they had just escaped, except there are no fires and the air is cold and everything is in a shade of blue.
Alice frowns and says her dreams had never taken her to this before.
Peter wonders whether they had returned to the real world.
The Greens asks if something has gone wrong with their eye sight.
Clint almost starts hyperventilating.
Because Thor promised the Avengers, promised Earth, promised him that He should not be able to escape. Thor guaranteed that He could not return to Earth without setting off alarms in Asgard. Thor was supposed to be good and powerful and able to keep his promises and it’s too soon because Clint still has nightmares…
Alice is the only one not to recoil with horror when a tall man dressed in greens and golds appear in front of them. She only stares in interest at this distinctively different part of her dream. Everyone else watches the news and even though New York cameras did not capture his face they did in Germany and the media had posted the photo for everyone to know the one responsible for an alien invasion. It’s young Peter who steps up front to challenge the wannable regent, Peter who had been king and fought to protect his realm.
Jim is partially in denial, “Hawkeye, give control of the dream back to Alice.”
Despite her interest, Alice adds, “It’s very rude to change my dream like that.”
“You’re welcome to make whatever changes you want,” Clint’s voice is steady as he prepares - hopes - for Loki to simply vanish.
A new friend...or something like that (9)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:37:01 UTC
Loki’s eyes are dancing with mirth, they watch him as he watches them back, watches Clint back, and nothing happens.
Alice frowns, “that’s odd, something usually interrupts us by now.”
Loki smiles coldly, “Something actually is happening you careless mortal. You put yourselves to sleep and your bodies at risk in a crumbling building. Your human bodies are in danger of being crushed like eggshells as we speak.”
“We’re going to die?” Ben blurts out.
“Unfortunately the incompetent apes you call kin are unable to reach you or distracted by the even more useless.” Loki answers.
“We’re going to die,” Clint hisses, “and you had to come in to get a last laugh, I can’t believe Thor would let you.”
“The fool has gone after some other visitor to Earth, without him few in Asgard could hold me back.” Loki’s tone is as contemptuous as when he was describing Migardians. “You are also a fool, unable to learn your limits and always suffering from your mistakes.”
“Spare me the speech about having to lead us because you know better, I never wanted to hear it then and I certainly don’t want to heat them as my last words.”
“I decide whether my servants live or die,” Loki’s eyes glittered at Clint’s snarl of rage. Before Clint could put an arrow to the demi-god’s eye they all felt the world lurch and suddenly they are all back in the crumbling SHIELD building.
As they scramble to regain their footing and help the now awake Alice out of the machines around her bed, Tamina, silent through the short conversation with Loki, spoke “He would have made his kingdom a ruin, and laughed.”
“He threw me out of my world,” Alice is perturbed, “Just when I thought I could try to save it.”
- Balloon -
While ducking and dodging falling debris Dastan and the Pevensie sisters run into Black Widow, who tells them it’s too dangerous to spend anymore time inside the building. They run to the ledge and burst out the window and somehow a storm has gathered around the building but what’s even more amazing is that they land in a hot air balloon of all things.
Natasha had thought that the storm had to do with Thor or one of his friends. The man clinging tightly to the ropes and fearing for his life certainly was no Asgardian, at least he didn’t seem like an enemy of Earth either. Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, or “Oz” as he called himself, was just as out of his depth as Thor had been but like Thor was able to just roll with things.
“I just don’t want to die by strangers so I thought I’ll introduce myself!” The man yelled as he was flung back and forth in the basket.
“We are not going to die in a thunderstorm of all things!” Susan shouted back.
The thunderstorm was surprisingly brief, and Black Widow’s initial guess had been correct, Thor had been partially responsible for it. As Loki had told Clint, Thor was on track of a dangerous alien who had gone into Earth. He’d arrived to let SHIELD know and possible drop by where Dastan was staying, and somewhere along the way picked up another humanoid from another world.
Oz took this in stride, “I’ve actually had experience being tossed into another world via air balloon.”
The reunion between the Green parents and their son was one of much relief and hugging. The Pevensie siblings are more controlled in their expressions, but their smiles say everything. Dastan and Tamina share a kiss, but Natasha’s eyes narrowed when she sees her partner. She could tell something had affected him.
Hawkeye presents Alice to the others, Fury can at least be assured she was still alive. Alice was never part of the Avengers initiative, but if they can somehow replicate how Alice’s dreams could affect her real body, they could maybe weaponize it, or use it for training purposes, or use it to draw an enemy into a battle with a field disadvantage, or to influence the conscious mind - “I’m telling you, that technology…!” “Yes Ben, we have considered the options of extraction and inception in dreams.” - Alice could be their lead to something that could further revolutionize their world.
A new friend...or something like that (10)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 11:41:38 UTC
“Whatever happened while the building was falling apart enabled us to share the same dream, and Loki appeared in there. Thor, is Loki…”
“Secured,” Thor answered firmly. “He won’t be able to touch any of you.”
“Does he even need to touch us to get inside our minds?” Alice asked. Thor’s silence is ominous.
“If Loki can reach into your minds we probably need to look closer at dreams and other mind related technology,” Fury is imagining the horror of Tony getting into that field, no doubt the billionaire would cause more havoc. Of course the lack of privacy is a small price to pay for safety…
“Loki cannot read minds, no Asgardian can, likely it is his scepter that gave him that power.”
“I thought you said the scepter had been destroyed,” Bruce had only caught the last part of the conversation as he approached the group.
Thor spared a glance at Clint, “The scepter, and the fact that he had once been able to use it on your mind.”
“You’re saying Loki still has access to his mind,” Natasha could see the clench of Clint’s jaw.
“There are mind readers in this world? That’s it, I’ll be making another hot air balloon soon.”
“Stranger Oz, I regret to inform you that is likely not the only requirement for a trip back to your homeland.”
“I know, just wishful thinking,” Oz sighed. He still had not completely rid himself of his conman habits.
After some more assurances, Thor had to leave after informing SHIELD to watch out for an alien assassin, Oz stayed behind to help SHIELD clean up the mess. He was kind to Lucy, and his flirtations amused Susan who was mentally much older than he was. Natasha gave him a deadpan look and Oz knew to steer clear. He’d learned that women could be scary, scary people.
Dastan instantly connected with the self-styled wizard. The two of them had been suddenly placed in positions of power even though their personality didn’t quite fit the role until they learned to change. They were much less serious than the Pevensie brothers, and did their best to try the ease the mood as they cleared the wreckage.
Fury swore there would be hell to pay.
- Drive -
Clu was laughing.
He knew behind their helmets that Sam and Quorra were tearing themselves with guilt, and Clu thought it highly amusing. To him, destroying an old and imperfect building made sense, the space could be used for bigger and better things. That Sam and Quorra did it for him was even more amusing because it made him feel like he was still able to control those around him, and that he could still be a dictator again.
He was in a good enough mood to allow the two to rush him inside the car they had planned as their getaway vehicle. Both him and Sam would have preferred motorcycles, but they had correctly guessed that giving Clu his own motorcycle was just tempting him to make a break for it.
Of course, they couldn’t escape Iron Man and all the tracking technology the man possessed. Not long after Quorra had started the car, the iconic metal figure suddenly swooped down behind them.
“Attention, idiots! This means you! Yes, you in the wannable super secret black van!”
Sam and Quorra exchange horrified looks, Clu just laughs louder.
“Pull over immediately! As in right now!”
“What do we do?” Quorra asks, back on the Grid she would have no problem flooring it but she had learned that type of behavior had consequences in the User world.
“Do you not hear me? Pull over now!”
“I really don’t want to risk the Iron Man opening fire at us because we broke out someone he considers the equivalent of a villain.” Considering Clu’s history Sam actually considers him worse than most villains, genocide-enacting dictators usually get labels like war criminals. Unfortunately in the real world Clu’s resemblance to Kevin Flynn would raise too many questions, they couldn’t just let him be and Sam practically taken responsibility for Clu.
After all, his father saw Clu as the reason he had been trapped from the outside world, and Clu had admitted that he may not be able to control the murderous rage that sometimes consumed him when he saw his creator.
“Sam,” Clu all but purrs, “if you would just let me…”
“We’ve gone over this, Clu, you may not de-razz anyone who upsets you.”
“Iron Man is not upsetting me, he’s upsetting you.”
A new friend...or something like that (11)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 12:12:56 UTC
“Oh for…Quorra, pull over. Let’s try to blend into the crowds, he won’t shoot indiscriminately.”
It’s a risk that might have worked if Edmund had not slipped the tracking pen into Sam’s pocket. As it was, Tony was able to follow the ENCOM associates as they pulled over, left their helmets behind - because even if it disguised their faces, it would not help them blend into the sea of crowd - ran out of their car, slipped into the streets, and jumped inside a taxi.
The taxi Sam had chosen already had two passengers, a pair of siblings. The driver looked annoyed when three more customers suddenly dropped in, and Sam was already speaking.
“Wherever they’re going, we’ll go too, just hurry.”
Sam noticed the two children focusing intently on Clu, as if they knew the man was not completely human. It would be just his luck to run into a taxi carrying unusual people as well.
The children had asked to be taken to the outskirts of the city, and carried a thick wad of cash with them. Sam and the driver, Bruno, suspected they were runaways.
Or maybe they were important people after all. Sam had escaped being chased by Iron Man to being pursued by Men in Black. For a split second he panicked, worried that Clu’s captors had caught up with them. They were particularly vicious when they started rear-ending the taxi.
“Unbelievable,” Bruno snarled. After pulling some driving stunts that made Sam seriously doubt the man was just a taxi driver, the pursuing vehicles were all crunched together. Bruno stepped out to yell at their pursuers, informing them not-so-politely he was out of the business before racing off.
Yea, if Alan insisted on Sam getting a proper chauffer the boy knew who he may hire. He might have to do a background check first, and Bruno might fail it, but Sam thought the guy was probably good enough to have that ignored.
He knew Clu was probably thinking of all the games they could have gotten in with a guy like Bruno as an ally and opponent.
So Sam made no job offers, because who knows what kind of ideas or inspiration they would give.
From a distance Tony knew that the pursuing black vans were not mob cars based on the sheer number of technology tucked inside, they had to be science or government related vans. He had JARVIS contact Fury and hacked into a few more databases before getting his answers.
“Fury, who exactly is Major Henry Burke?”
“Where did you hear that name, Stark?”
“Well, it appears that he’s pursuing our escaped fugitive and ENCOM friends.”
Even without seeing the master spy in front of him Tony knew the man was irritated. Fury’s words are clipped and short, “he belongs in a department that manages the research and development of extraterrestrial affairs. How he found about Clu will be something that warrants immediate investigating.”
As Sam still has the pen on him, Tony takes a brief moment to watch Burke for a while, “I’m not sure our ENCOM friends are what caught his interest.”
Tony’s interested too, he asks JARVIS to secretly contact Bruce for him, and asks Bruce to run the tests that had first pinged Clu and Quorra. Bruce confirms what Tony suspected, the taxi is showing more then two beings with non-human DNA.
“Shouldn’t you tell Fury this?”
“Doctor, do we really need to bring more children in a safe house that doesn’t really exist anymore? I thought only our master assassins believed in the child soldier thing.”
“Fury’s going to have to relocate them all somewhere, would you object if they stayed at the tower?”
“Our super secret and elite Avengers tower?”
“It isn’t exactly super secret.”
“I’m sure SHIELD has plenty of other properties to host another ragtag group of misfits that are a potential time bomb.”
“They’re children, Tony.”
“They already have a megalomaniac among them, the megalomaniac is also not a child, and said megalomaniac already has a personal relationship with one of them.”
“One of them? You think Flynn Junior will become part of this second initiative attempt?”
“After what he’s done? If he doesn’t do it out of guilt himself, Fury might just blackmail him into it. It’s clear the boy has sway over Clu and Quorra. Unless the boy has something he can bargain with, SHIELD is going to sink their claws into him and not let go.”
Re: A new friend...or something like that (11)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 14:48:18 UTC
I recognized Oz The Great and Powerful (though I haven't seen the film) and Alice in Wonderland (I've had exposure/kinda seen the animated one, haven't seen the live action one), and I'm not sure about the third.
This is certainly very interesting! And hey, cameo-dream appearance by Loki!
Thank you for continuing this! I look forward to reading more!
A new friend...or something like that (12)
anonymous
August 28 2013, 07:59:33 UTC
Bruce was a kinder soul with better belief in people, “Flynn might pull something like you did.”
“The kid is new to actually being in power, he was out of the company’s affairs for years, Fury’s going to destroy him.”
The kid also had an uncle figure that seemed quite capable of being a villain and hurting him. Tony wasn’t sure anyone deserved that, especially since Sam seemed to care enough to risk arrest just to rescue Clu.
Initially he planned to wait until his target and his non-human associates left the taxi before retrieving them. He’ll get Fury to send other associates to get the original taxi occupants. Unfortunately for SHIELD, Sam seemed inclined to stay in the taxi, and neither Clu nor Quorra made a break for it.
“Stark, what is going on?”
“Ah, Fury, it seems like Burke is still chasing after the merry group, but he’s after the children in the taxi.”
“You know this?”
“I hacked into their communications and listened to some conversations.”
“Stark…”
“Ah, our elusive captain joins us at last. What’s up, cap?”
“I’ll tell Burke’s higher ups to back off,” Fury interrupts. “Rogers, with me.”
“I’m guessing the captain will probably help smooth over any petty squabbles about jurisdiction and authority?” Tony crowed. No one dignifies that with a response.
Inside the taxi, Jack apologizes to his customers and promises the kids that he would take them to wherever they want. Sara and Seth, as the kids introduced themselves, are in a hurry to get to their destination. Sam was planning to borrow their phone to give Alan a call, he had not intended to bring something that could be so easily traced back to him when he broke into SHIELD, but then he saw the kids’ destination. The house was broken down, seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
“This place needs to be rebuilt,” Clu announced.
“You just want an excuse to destroy it first,” Quorra counters.
Seth and Sara took that as a cue to run out the car and into the building. Jack and Sam frowned as they watched, and before Sam could commandeer the taxi driver back to the city Jack was out and following the children in.
Quorra gave the empty driver seat a significant look, Sam sighed, “No, we are not stealing this car.”
“Not even to escape that?” Clu pointed, and Sam noticed a green armor-wearing figure heading towards them. Quorra froze, Sam tensed, but the figure ignored them and strode inside the abandoned house instead.
Only a few seconds passed before the gunshots began.
Quorra is jumping into the driver seat and starting the taxi, just in time as Sam shouts for her to stop because Jack is leading the kids running out the house. Sam flings open the door and they’re all scrambling inside before Quorra steps on the gas pedal. Clu is the only one unaffected as they are all thrown backwards and speeding down the trails. Jack lets Quorra drive before they spot the space ship flying after them.
“The Siphon!” Sara shouts.
“What the heck is a Siphon?’ Jack shouts back.
“Another alien attack?” Quorra asks.
“You’ve already had experience?” Seth asks.
“Not personal experience but in New York…” Sam begins before something in front of them fires. Their eyes widened in horror, but the mini rockets zip past them to hit the spaceship instead. The taxi screeches to a stop in front of another armor wearing figure, only one that the Sara and Seth did not recognize.
“A new Siphon?” Seth and Sara look at each other in alarm.
Sam buries his face in his hands, “oh no…”
“The Iron Man?” Jack could not believe what his night was becoming.
The iconic metal man steps up besides their car and knocks sharply on the glass Sam is closest to. Clu oh-so-happily lowers the window, and the metal face plates pull back to reveal Tony Stark’s face.
“Sam Flynn, are you trying to get into the Avengers’ affairs?”
“Sam Flynn,” Jack turns to look at the teenager in the car, “you are Sam Flynn.”
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Sam almost sulks, between his word and Iron Man Tony Stark’s, he doesn’t have any delusions about who seemed more credible.
A new friend...or something like that (13)
anonymous
August 28 2013, 08:08:19 UTC
Gunfire erupts around them again. From the smoke and fog the Siphon is emerging, weapons drawn. It stops, raises an arm, Tony is ready to fight the new alien invader…
And the Siphon goes flying back when something suddenly smashes against it. Several trees are blown aside and there’s a loud crack of thunder.
“Ah, so Point Blank is now here.” The iron mask slides forward to protect Tony’s face as he watches Thor arrive and proceed to fight his fellow alien. Turning back to the taxi, he points at Sam, “you’re coming with me.”
Sam raises his hands in surrender, “Okay.”
“Not just you.”
Quorra looks at Sam, “Is this where the phase I want to speak to my lawyer comes in?”
“I’m not talking to just your little group, I mean all of you, including you two passengers with alien DNA and you, Mr. Jack Bruno.” Behind Tony, helicopters were emerging into the sky, whirling and rumbling, contributing to the noise of battle between Thor and the Siphon. The multiple spotlights landed on the taxi and almost blinded the occupants.
Many of the local hotels have been booked for the annual science-fiction convention. It used to an annual UFO convention but had been renamed since the alien invasion. The other SHIELD buildings in the area are not equipped to deal with so many, and so Rogers and Fury show up at Burke’s mountain hideout and ask him for some rooms.
Burke would normally be annoyed, but he’s somewhat in awe of Captain America, and he is smart enough not to cross Fury.
There were other things to argue about.
Sara and Seth want to board the ship that Burke had seized and leave the Earth. If they were to be believed, if they don’t bring their research back home Earth would be looking at a second alien invasion. Unfortunately not many believe them, concerned that the children might instead be scouts for another invasion. A few agents were also intent on replicating the technology of the ship or even putting the children through vivisection, they certainly seemed different from the Chitauri.
SHIELD was also trying to borrow some technology from Burke's men to replicate the dream technology they had been using for Alice. After all, SHIELD was more concerned about the leader of the first alien invasion potentially showing up on Earth again - even if Loki was just in their dreams.
Clint was potentially compromised because it was likely his dream that brought Loki forward. So he had to be sent to another room in case he showed any signs of hostility or blue eyes.
The remaining Avengers were watching the new group.
They were all wondering if they should have maybe locked Clu away, but Sam refused to let the older man out of his sight.
So now, everyone was sitting around in one of Witch Mountain’s many secret rooms, told to wait while SHIELD and Project Moon argue it out, because there’s still a Siphon running about, and no one the safehouse occuprants.
“I didn’t choose to get thrown here,” Oz complained “I’ve never been good at dealing with power and responsibility.”
“But you’re not a novice,” Susan observed, “You’ve run a kingdom before.”
“I told them that their land should forever be free and made only the really big decisions, I was more consultative than anything.”
“You had a kingdom in your grasp and you didn’t think of improving it?” Clu sounds genuinely offended.
Dastan recognizes power-hungry coup-planning characters very easily now, “Improvements are never supposed to just benefit one person.”
“And that’s why we are now here caught up in Avengers business and surrounded by men in black,” Edmund drawls. “I get that they want to expand their army, we’re protecting not just some VIP but Earth itself, and I’m glad they do not discriminate based on age, but right now?”
“We should be out doing something,” Peter scowls. “Helping with the wreckage, training, if we’re to be stuck inside we should be told of what’s happening. All we know right now is that you,” he pointed at Clu, “was labeled as an enemy at one point and you,” he pointed to Sam and Quorra, “destroyed the safe house to get him out, but somehow you’re considered safe enough to be kept here with us.”
“Sam won’t hurt anyone,” Quorra sensed an upcoming interruption and snapped at Clu, “your minions don’t count, it was self-defense.”
“You are the Iron Man,” she states.
“And you are not completely human,” Tony replies with his usual lack of tact.
He knew Quorra was more than a pretty face, but even he is surprised at her combat skills. She waits until they are out of the police station before making her escape and neutralizing everyone who stood in her way. Tony feels like watching another Black Widow on a mission, Quorra was just more cautious about the harm she could potentially inflict.
Steve recognizes the traits of a soldier. A soldier was one with responsibilities, and he could take a guess where Quorra had run to. He goes to the hospital where the Flynns are, and managed to intercept Quorra before she could enter.
“The soldier out of time,” Quorra’s mind is practically photographic, she only needs to see one news reel of the Avengers to recognize them at a glance.
“We won’t hurt you,” Steve promises.
Meanwhile, Tony waltzes straight in the hospital and introduces himself to a surprised Sam Flynn, bypassing the security the ENCOM CEO Alan Bradley had placed around the boy. Tony knows of the boy’s own reckless attitude and annual prank on his own company before his father’s return, it said a lot that the boy was now allowing Alan to surround him with guards.
But neither Tony nor Steve could get their new acquaintance to talk about what happened. It was obvious Clu had something to do with Kevin Flynn’s hospital visit, and like most guilty parties had fled the scene. Sam is staying in the hospital to wait for any news about his father’s condition, but wants Clu found. Quorra tells Steve the same thing, and Steve accompanies her to reconvene with Sam.
Sam and Quorra exchange significant looks and vague words, clearly unwilling to speak too much in front of the Avengers. Steve is miffed that Tony would just get Sam involved, but Tony is confident Sam wasn’t left in the dark about the genetics Clu and Quorra carried. He tells Sam that he’ll find Clu, he just didn’t say a super secret spy agency was also going to be involved.
Clu is a megalomaniac with a fondness for motorcycle racing. He leads them on a merry chase causing so much damage Clint seriously considers just shooting the target. Clu escaped three of Steve’s attempts to coordinate a plan to capture him, and Tony’s attempts to simply pluck him into the air all fail. The fugitive might have successfully escaped, if Bruce had not been summoned to the operation and the Other Guy basically jumps in front of the motorcycle. The spectacular crash and explosion ended with Clu’s capture.
Unfortunately Tony could not control social media, and the sight of one lone motorcycle escaping police cruisers and mysterious government black vans are great viral material. Social media meant videos of the chase and arrest are posted quickly, and Sam knew that Tony Stark had twisted his promise. Tony tells the younger billionaire Clu’s capture was out of his hands and that he didn’t really have too much information. He doesn’t tell the ENCOM shareholder he was hacking into SHIELD files to find out.
They should have known Sam was just as brilliant, and had his own resources. He’s similar enough to Tony, and SHIELD finds out that the Clu file had been illegally copied twice: the first time was all but signed with ‘work of Tony Stark’ and the second more discreet download was traced to a hotel that coincidently the Flynns had been staying in. The information illegally copied included mentions of the other safehouse occupants.
Clu had not been relocated to there, but he was in the lab next door. The safehouse and the lab were actually in the same building.
Dastan had attempted to break out, Sam had attempted to break in.
The Pevensie children were not impressed.
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Cap! And Bruce! <3
And I love that last line: "The Pevensie children were not impressed."
Yes, keep the bad guy nearby, SHIELD. Oh SHIELD.
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Here, let's try two more popular Disney movies, and one classic one that you may or may not recognize
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Few things are more alarming when Tony tells them he wasn’t hacking in their system.
At least not currently.
SHIELD defenses fail and the main lights go off, the precious few seconds before the emergency lights came on was enough for the trespassers to enter the building. The main attempt was actually a distraction, Sam had broken into high security buildings before but a government building would have been a whole new level altogether.
So while SHIELD are distracted combating and then rebuilding their building security, Sam and Quorra went deeper inside. Even behind a helmet, Quorra’s sharp eyes guide them around cameras and avoid motion sensors, Sam disabling those they couldn’t get around. The skeleton crew left behind to guard the hallways didn’t stand a chance.
“Get back!”
“Where are you keeping Clu?”
“Get back or I’ll shoot!”
“Of course you will,” Sam holds his hands up in the air even as he continues walking forward. The agent points a gun at him, but had no chance to fire before Quorra jumps across the hallway and knocks him down. Sam strides pass the fallen agent to meet the rest, none of them stood a chance against Quorra’s skills.
They were skills Quorra had learned to fight against Clu and his Black Guard, and Sam had used his own against Clu’s game opponents. Some of the agents would hear the helmet-wearing trespasser muttering about Clu better appreciating what they were doing for him.
In the safehouse, Lucy was describing the world she came from to an attentive audience before they heard the shouting and scrambling footsteps. Agents suddenly barge in, telling them to stay inside as a threat had gone inside the building. Dastan leaps to his feet, ready to do battle, and Peter tells the agents that they were not going to hide while the agents risk their lives. There’s yelling and arguing before Timothy announces that one of the trespassers isn’t human and was trying to find her kin in the building.
By now, everyone knew Timothy had an uncanny ability to know such things.
Ben asks the agents why there would be another “special” one in the building who isn’t with them in the safehouse.
One of the agents protests Clu wasn’t safe.
Susan asks them why in the world they would keep a threat and enemy so close to the safehouse then.
Another agent says the building was better equipped to contain Clu.
Edmund face palms and tells them that they might as well have said the safehouse was also a prison to hold them then.
Tamina tells him that the agent who answered was not in politics for a reason.
And then a woman wearing a face-covering helmet jumps in the midst of agents and proceed to send them all flying into the walls. Those that managed to avoid her attacks are quickly dealt with by a male wearing a similar helmet. Dastan jumps in to battle them, and it is the woman who meets him in combat. It was clear that as skilled as the male trespasser was, the woman was actually trained in combat. Peter ordered the Gates and Greens to hide before drawing out the sword Thor had given him, and it was then the male raised a hand.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no need for that, we are not here to hurt you.”
Dastan jumped back from the female stranger’s attack, landing besides Peter, but did not resume fighting. Seeing that the Persian was giving them a speaking opportunity, the male continued, “I’m actually here to look for someone, a man named Clu. Our sources say he’s here, and if you point him out we’ll be out of your building right away. If you’re friends with him, I assure you that we won’t hurt him.”
“You’ve come a long way for nothing, stranger,” Susan answers. “Clu isn’t with us, we’ve never met him. You could have asked the agents, they were probably the only ones who knew.”
“We still could, none of them are bleeding,” the female says to her companion. She reaches down for one of them, but Timothy speaks up.
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“Timothy,” Cindy begins when her son walks forward to the strangers, but he turns and smiles at her.
“I’ll be fine, mom, they won’t hurt me.”
Edmund had been kneeling by one of the agents, checking his condition, but at those words he stands up. “I’ll come with you.”
“I don’t mind if you want to play bodyguard, but if you don’t want us to stay and cause further trouble, please hurry and lead us to Clu. Yes, I trust them,” the last sentence was directed to the disguised female, who even with her helmet on managed to convey a disbelieving look for her partner.
Edmund doesn’t let anyone else object. “Lucy, can you stay and look after the agents?” At her nod, the boys were moving away, led by Timothy and followed by the two helmet wearing strangers. The remaining occupants of the room were quickly checking the agents, relieved to find that there were no serious injuries. They also realize that the agent that Edmund had been checking on earlier is missing his tracking pen.
- Sleep -
There are several floors of SHIELD labs, on one of the floors there is a smaller room set aside for Clu. As cells went it is comfortable, if not for the fact that Clu is strapped with his arms around himself.
“What have you done that your behaviour warrants being treated like a lunatic?” Is the helmeted male’s greeting. Edmund’s mind stops calling him that when Clu responds.
“As I once did for you, Sam, I over rode their programs and read all their reports.”
“So they couldn’t trust you not to escape and get into their computers again,” the male stranger, Sam, notes. “Unless you like it here, you better not cause me trouble when I release you.”
Edmund stares at the face of SHIELD’s new lab rate before speaking, “Clu? Clu Flynn? That means…” he looks at Sam as realization dawns, “why didn’t you just hire someone to do this?”
“Clu probably won’t be as cooperative with anyone else,” the woman that Edmund correctly deduces is Quorra answers. Clu gives the boy a malicious smirk, and Edmund’s instincts scream Threat and Eliminate Now.
“If I lead you to escape, you won’t hurt anyone else?” Timothy asks.
“We don’t like hurting people, if you can lead us to a path of escape with the least resistance, you can forget this ever happened.” Quorra responds.
Timothy never told the safehouse occupants his origins, something Edmund thought was distinctively unfair since almost everyone else did, but he trusts Timothy’s abilities and good intentions. Sure enough, the boy with the plant leaves leads them out of the building with few agent encounters along the way, the older group easily disabling the technology that should have hindered them.
But enough time has passed for SHEILD to regroup and track the signal from the pen Edmund had taken from the agent. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had also arrived to see about a non-human escaping SHIELD facility. Sam had always treated his encounters with law enforcement as fun exercises and the police had never given him too much trouble as his antics rarely caused too much damage, but this time with children and superheroes involved he grew alarmed. Clu took advantage of this to extract an agreement that they needed to get out using whatever means necessary.
SHIELD again found all their security systems overridden.
Tony found that it was less fun when someone else was hacking into his system.
Bruce turned into the Other Guy when the weapons equipped in the building began targeting them.
And then there’s explosions and chaos and destruction as the fighting began and Quorra asked Sam what the heck he had been thinking when he allowed Clu access to a computer when they were already cornered. The ENCOM group split from the children, unwilling to get them hurt in the chaos. Edmund slips the pen into Sam’s pocket, and protects Timothy from the flying debris as they flee from the destruction.
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“That kid’s like a younger version of me!”
The Hulk gave the playboy a disapproving roar, and Tony’s eyes of child-in-a-candy-store quickly change. “I mean, that is highly irresponsible and reckless of him! I shall have to impart my wisdom and teach him better methods!”
Fury’s voice on the communicator snapped something along the lines of no corrupting more genius billionaires.
No one believed Tony would listen, and Fury doesn’t waste any more breath, simply sending him the tracking signal of the pen Edmund had sneaked onto the ENCOM billionaire. A pen, Tony rolled his eyes at the cliché.
Everyone else was ordered to retrieve the fallen agents and the people in the safehouse, they would have to relocate or the building would collapse on them. Timothy and Edmund are ordered to stay with some of the SHEILD agents, and Edmund pitches a fit. Timothy does not.
“I can’t go back in there, yes I want to help my parents, but I can’t in this state.”
Edmund would have argued, but he looks at the fire slowly consuming the building, at the other boy’s frail form and the leaves that had been growing out of him, and reluctantly agrees to stay and protect him. It had been what he had silently promised, and he trusts his siblings to get Timothy’s parents out.
Inside the crumbling safe house Peter managed to lead Timothy’s parents, the Gates, and Tamina out to the hallways. They all tried to support an agent along, but Quorra had knocked too many unconscious and it broke Peter’s heart to leave the agents lying about as they hurried along shifting corridors. Then he saw a girl, sleeping in a bed with various machines around her getting crushed by the walls. Without thought he rushed forward to help the girl out, ignoring all the others’ calls, and when he got too close a section of the wall smashed a machine that must have contained sleeping gas, because next thing Peter knows he’s falling down heights impossible even for the SHIELD building and his surroundings are earth and dirt instead of charred metal and broken glass. He thinks he heard his new friends shouting for him.
The landing is strangely soft for floors that look hard. There’s a table too high and a door too wide and Peter’s alarmed that he has fallen into some world of giants before he sees another door that happens to be too small.
Tamina is suddenly dropping down besides him, “what did you do?”
“Where have you taken us?” Jim adds.
“This,” Peter feels the need to defend, “Is not my fault.”
Ben circles about trying every door, “you’ve thrown us into a prison!”
“And either our warden is stupid or taunting us, because they key is right there,” Abigail points to the old fashion trinket resting atop the table.
“This is vaguely familiar,” Cindy mutters, and finds the piece of cake.
There are several minds and many of them are cautious, so they make their exit with the cake and key in hand. The world outside is both familiar and strange to Peter, for one he doesn’t give much reaction to the blue doodoo bird talking to him.
“I’m looking for a way out,” he begins.
“Out of where?”
“Here.”
“What is Here?”
“Somewhere…not like this.”
“How do you know when you’ve left Here?”
That doesn’t mean Peter isn’t as confused as the adults of his group Several more talking animals - creatures - answer his inquiries in a similar matter. Nothing makes sense and Tamina sighs.
“This world is mad.”
“That sounds like something Alice will say,” the cat with a grin says.
“Alice?” Cindy seizes onto the first human name they’ve heard in this place, “Who and where is Alice?”
“She’s in the Palace of the Red Queen, trying to save a hatter and an archer.”
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They crash into the palace and sees their first distinctive humans in the court of the red queen. Most of them have certain body proportions grossly enlarged, the most human looking is a man in an armor almost similar to the red cards, a prisoner with a top hat and fluorescent eyes, and a third man breaking the chains off the prisoner - one who the group recognizes by now.
“Hawkeye? How did you get in here?”
“I should be asking how you got into this lab of SHIELD!”
“Wait, we’re still in a lab? Seriously?”
“We’re either dream sharing or all of us had been teleported to another world, SHIELD is still trying to figure out what’s happening here!”
They fight the forces commanded by the Knave of Hearts, Jim bemoaning how he was a pencil maker ill equipped for these types of events, while the Knave himself battles the Hatter. As those two potential dream projections banter with each other, Clint explains through short bursts that SHIELD had been monitoring Patient Alice's condition and trying to find out whether she was simply having very lucid dreams or if it was something else. They were actually confident it was something else, just not quite sure what it was yet. Naturally when the lab was compromised, Fury had ordered some of his agents to rescue the project.
Ben was already shouting that there was some technology that really was pushing it, because hadn’t anyone in the group seen Inception?
And that’s when the girl Peter had seen sleeping and Clint aimed at retrieving, Alice, appeared beside them looking like a young giantess and carrying a sword that loudly stated magical properties. In as dry a tone as one could managed when being chased by monsters, Abigail pointed out being able to dream that you were capable of saving a fantastical world was a tempting hobby for some of the younger and more powerless population.
Ben decided to test the boundaries of the dream.
He found out that yes wounds could be created and pain felt.
Abigail pointed out even the movie had said the brain could feel pain.
Ben decided to try to control his dream.
Alice told him it was her dream and she as the dreamer controlled it.
Abigail said the movie had stated that too.
Clint jinxed them all by declaring that at least Alice wasn’t having a particularly nasty nightmare. As soon as the words left his lips the world around them faded away and they are suddenly in a building very similar to the one they had just escaped, except there are no fires and the air is cold and everything is in a shade of blue.
Alice frowns and says her dreams had never taken her to this before.
Peter wonders whether they had returned to the real world.
The Greens asks if something has gone wrong with their eye sight.
Clint almost starts hyperventilating.
Because Thor promised the Avengers, promised Earth, promised him that He should not be able to escape. Thor guaranteed that He could not return to Earth without setting off alarms in Asgard. Thor was supposed to be good and powerful and able to keep his promises and it’s too soon because Clint still has nightmares…
Alice is the only one not to recoil with horror when a tall man dressed in greens and golds appear in front of them. She only stares in interest at this distinctively different part of her dream. Everyone else watches the news and even though New York cameras did not capture his face they did in Germany and the media had posted the photo for everyone to know the one responsible for an alien invasion. It’s young Peter who steps up front to challenge the wannable regent, Peter who had been king and fought to protect his realm.
Jim is partially in denial, “Hawkeye, give control of the dream back to Alice.”
Despite her interest, Alice adds, “It’s very rude to change my dream like that.”
“You’re welcome to make whatever changes you want,” Clint’s voice is steady as he prepares - hopes - for Loki to simply vanish.
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Alice frowns, “that’s odd, something usually interrupts us by now.”
Loki smiles coldly, “Something actually is happening you careless mortal. You put yourselves to sleep and your bodies at risk in a crumbling building. Your human bodies are in danger of being crushed like eggshells as we speak.”
“We’re going to die?” Ben blurts out.
“Unfortunately the incompetent apes you call kin are unable to reach you or distracted by the even more useless.” Loki answers.
“We’re going to die,” Clint hisses, “and you had to come in to get a last laugh, I can’t believe Thor would let you.”
“The fool has gone after some other visitor to Earth, without him few in Asgard could hold me back.” Loki’s tone is as contemptuous as when he was describing Migardians. “You are also a fool, unable to learn your limits and always suffering from your mistakes.”
“Spare me the speech about having to lead us because you know better, I never wanted to hear it then and I certainly don’t want to heat them as my last words.”
“I decide whether my servants live or die,” Loki’s eyes glittered at Clint’s snarl of rage. Before Clint could put an arrow to the demi-god’s eye they all felt the world lurch and suddenly they are all back in the crumbling SHIELD building.
As they scramble to regain their footing and help the now awake Alice out of the machines around her bed, Tamina, silent through the short conversation with Loki, spoke “He would have made his kingdom a ruin, and laughed.”
“He didn’t kill us,” Cindy is optimistic. “He saved our lives.”
“He threw me out of my world,” Alice is perturbed, “Just when I thought I could try to save it.”
- Balloon -
While ducking and dodging falling debris Dastan and the Pevensie sisters run into Black Widow, who tells them it’s too dangerous to spend anymore time inside the building. They run to the ledge and burst out the window and somehow a storm has gathered around the building but what’s even more amazing is that they land in a hot air balloon of all things.
Natasha had thought that the storm had to do with Thor or one of his friends. The man clinging tightly to the ropes and fearing for his life certainly was no Asgardian, at least he didn’t seem like an enemy of Earth either. Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, or “Oz” as he called himself, was just as out of his depth as Thor had been but like Thor was able to just roll with things.
“I just don’t want to die by strangers so I thought I’ll introduce myself!” The man yelled as he was flung back and forth in the basket.
“We are not going to die in a thunderstorm of all things!” Susan shouted back.
The thunderstorm was surprisingly brief, and Black Widow’s initial guess had been correct, Thor had been partially responsible for it. As Loki had told Clint, Thor was on track of a dangerous alien who had gone into Earth. He’d arrived to let SHIELD know and possible drop by where Dastan was staying, and somewhere along the way picked up another humanoid from another world.
Oz took this in stride, “I’ve actually had experience being tossed into another world via air balloon.”
The reunion between the Green parents and their son was one of much relief and hugging. The Pevensie siblings are more controlled in their expressions, but their smiles say everything. Dastan and Tamina share a kiss, but Natasha’s eyes narrowed when she sees her partner. She could tell something had affected him.
Hawkeye presents Alice to the others, Fury can at least be assured she was still alive. Alice was never part of the Avengers initiative, but if they can somehow replicate how Alice’s dreams could affect her real body, they could maybe weaponize it, or use it for training purposes, or use it to draw an enemy into a battle with a field disadvantage, or to influence the conscious mind - “I’m telling you, that technology…!” “Yes Ben, we have considered the options of extraction and inception in dreams.” - Alice could be their lead to something that could further revolutionize their world.
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“Secured,” Thor answered firmly. “He won’t be able to touch any of you.”
“Does he even need to touch us to get inside our minds?” Alice asked. Thor’s silence is ominous.
“If Loki can reach into your minds we probably need to look closer at dreams and other mind related technology,” Fury is imagining the horror of Tony getting into that field, no doubt the billionaire would cause more havoc. Of course the lack of privacy is a small price to pay for safety…
“Loki cannot read minds, no Asgardian can, likely it is his scepter that gave him that power.”
“I thought you said the scepter had been destroyed,” Bruce had only caught the last part of the conversation as he approached the group.
Thor spared a glance at Clint, “The scepter, and the fact that he had once been able to use it on your mind.”
“You’re saying Loki still has access to his mind,” Natasha could see the clench of Clint’s jaw.
“There are mind readers in this world? That’s it, I’ll be making another hot air balloon soon.”
“Stranger Oz, I regret to inform you that is likely not the only requirement for a trip back to your homeland.”
“I know, just wishful thinking,” Oz sighed. He still had not completely rid himself of his conman habits.
After some more assurances, Thor had to leave after informing SHIELD to watch out for an alien assassin, Oz stayed behind to help SHIELD clean up the mess. He was kind to Lucy, and his flirtations amused Susan who was mentally much older than he was. Natasha gave him a deadpan look and Oz knew to steer clear. He’d learned that women could be scary, scary people.
Dastan instantly connected with the self-styled wizard. The two of them had been suddenly placed in positions of power even though their personality didn’t quite fit the role until they learned to change. They were much less serious than the Pevensie brothers, and did their best to try the ease the mood as they cleared the wreckage.
Fury swore there would be hell to pay.
- Drive -
Clu was laughing.
He knew behind their helmets that Sam and Quorra were tearing themselves with guilt, and Clu thought it highly amusing. To him, destroying an old and imperfect building made sense, the space could be used for bigger and better things. That Sam and Quorra did it for him was even more amusing because it made him feel like he was still able to control those around him, and that he could still be a dictator again.
He was in a good enough mood to allow the two to rush him inside the car they had planned as their getaway vehicle. Both him and Sam would have preferred motorcycles, but they had correctly guessed that giving Clu his own motorcycle was just tempting him to make a break for it.
Of course, they couldn’t escape Iron Man and all the tracking technology the man possessed. Not long after Quorra had started the car, the iconic metal figure suddenly swooped down behind them.
“Attention, idiots! This means you! Yes, you in the wannable super secret black van!”
Sam and Quorra exchange horrified looks, Clu just laughs louder.
“Pull over immediately! As in right now!”
“What do we do?” Quorra asks, back on the Grid she would have no problem flooring it but she had learned that type of behavior had consequences in the User world.
“Do you not hear me? Pull over now!”
“I really don’t want to risk the Iron Man opening fire at us because we broke out someone he considers the equivalent of a villain.” Considering Clu’s history Sam actually considers him worse than most villains, genocide-enacting dictators usually get labels like war criminals. Unfortunately in the real world Clu’s resemblance to Kevin Flynn would raise too many questions, they couldn’t just let him be and Sam practically taken responsibility for Clu.
After all, his father saw Clu as the reason he had been trapped from the outside world, and Clu had admitted that he may not be able to control the murderous rage that sometimes consumed him when he saw his creator.
“Sam,” Clu all but purrs, “if you would just let me…”
“We’ve gone over this, Clu, you may not de-razz anyone who upsets you.”
“Iron Man is not upsetting me, he’s upsetting you.”
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It’s a risk that might have worked if Edmund had not slipped the tracking pen into Sam’s pocket. As it was, Tony was able to follow the ENCOM associates as they pulled over, left their helmets behind - because even if it disguised their faces, it would not help them blend into the sea of crowd - ran out of their car, slipped into the streets, and jumped inside a taxi.
The taxi Sam had chosen already had two passengers, a pair of siblings. The driver looked annoyed when three more customers suddenly dropped in, and Sam was already speaking.
“Wherever they’re going, we’ll go too, just hurry.”
Sam noticed the two children focusing intently on Clu, as if they knew the man was not completely human. It would be just his luck to run into a taxi carrying unusual people as well.
The children had asked to be taken to the outskirts of the city, and carried a thick wad of cash with them. Sam and the driver, Bruno, suspected they were runaways.
Or maybe they were important people after all. Sam had escaped being chased by Iron Man to being pursued by Men in Black. For a split second he panicked, worried that Clu’s captors had caught up with them. They were particularly vicious when they started rear-ending the taxi.
“Unbelievable,” Bruno snarled. After pulling some driving stunts that made Sam seriously doubt the man was just a taxi driver, the pursuing vehicles were all crunched together. Bruno stepped out to yell at their pursuers, informing them not-so-politely he was out of the business before racing off.
Yea, if Alan insisted on Sam getting a proper chauffer the boy knew who he may hire. He might have to do a background check first, and Bruno might fail it, but Sam thought the guy was probably good enough to have that ignored.
He knew Clu was probably thinking of all the games they could have gotten in with a guy like Bruno as an ally and opponent.
So Sam made no job offers, because who knows what kind of ideas or inspiration they would give.
From a distance Tony knew that the pursuing black vans were not mob cars based on the sheer number of technology tucked inside, they had to be science or government related vans. He had JARVIS contact Fury and hacked into a few more databases before getting his answers.
“Fury, who exactly is Major Henry Burke?”
“Where did you hear that name, Stark?”
“Well, it appears that he’s pursuing our escaped fugitive and ENCOM friends.”
Even without seeing the master spy in front of him Tony knew the man was irritated. Fury’s words are clipped and short, “he belongs in a department that manages the research and development of extraterrestrial affairs. How he found about Clu will be something that warrants immediate investigating.”
As Sam still has the pen on him, Tony takes a brief moment to watch Burke for a while, “I’m not sure our ENCOM friends are what caught his interest.”
Tony’s interested too, he asks JARVIS to secretly contact Bruce for him, and asks Bruce to run the tests that had first pinged Clu and Quorra. Bruce confirms what Tony suspected, the taxi is showing more then two beings with non-human DNA.
“Shouldn’t you tell Fury this?”
“Doctor, do we really need to bring more children in a safe house that doesn’t really exist anymore? I thought only our master assassins believed in the child soldier thing.”
“Fury’s going to have to relocate them all somewhere, would you object if they stayed at the tower?”
“Our super secret and elite Avengers tower?”
“It isn’t exactly super secret.”
“I’m sure SHIELD has plenty of other properties to host another ragtag group of misfits that are a potential time bomb.”
“They’re children, Tony.”
“They already have a megalomaniac among them, the megalomaniac is also not a child, and said megalomaniac already has a personal relationship with one of them.”
“One of them? You think Flynn Junior will become part of this second initiative attempt?”
“After what he’s done? If he doesn’t do it out of guilt himself, Fury might just blackmail him into it. It’s clear the boy has sway over Clu and Quorra. Unless the boy has something he can bargain with, SHIELD is going to sink their claws into him and not let go.”
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This is certainly very interesting! And hey, cameo-dream appearance by Loki!
Thank you for continuing this! I look forward to reading more!
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“The kid is new to actually being in power, he was out of the company’s affairs for years, Fury’s going to destroy him.”
The kid also had an uncle figure that seemed quite capable of being a villain and hurting him. Tony wasn’t sure anyone deserved that, especially since Sam seemed to care enough to risk arrest just to rescue Clu.
Initially he planned to wait until his target and his non-human associates left the taxi before retrieving them. He’ll get Fury to send other associates to get the original taxi occupants. Unfortunately for SHIELD, Sam seemed inclined to stay in the taxi, and neither Clu nor Quorra made a break for it.
“Stark, what is going on?”
“Ah, Fury, it seems like Burke is still chasing after the merry group, but he’s after the children in the taxi.”
“You know this?”
“I hacked into their communications and listened to some conversations.”
“Stark…”
“Ah, our elusive captain joins us at last. What’s up, cap?”
“I’ll tell Burke’s higher ups to back off,” Fury interrupts. “Rogers, with me.”
“I’m guessing the captain will probably help smooth over any petty squabbles about jurisdiction and authority?” Tony crowed. No one dignifies that with a response.
Inside the taxi, Jack apologizes to his customers and promises the kids that he would take them to wherever they want. Sara and Seth, as the kids introduced themselves, are in a hurry to get to their destination. Sam was planning to borrow their phone to give Alan a call, he had not intended to bring something that could be so easily traced back to him when he broke into SHIELD, but then he saw the kids’ destination. The house was broken down, seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
“This place needs to be rebuilt,” Clu announced.
“You just want an excuse to destroy it first,” Quorra counters.
Seth and Sara took that as a cue to run out the car and into the building. Jack and Sam frowned as they watched, and before Sam could commandeer the taxi driver back to the city Jack was out and following the children in.
Quorra gave the empty driver seat a significant look, Sam sighed, “No, we are not stealing this car.”
“Not even to escape that?” Clu pointed, and Sam noticed a green armor-wearing figure heading towards them. Quorra froze, Sam tensed, but the figure ignored them and strode inside the abandoned house instead.
Only a few seconds passed before the gunshots began.
Quorra is jumping into the driver seat and starting the taxi, just in time as Sam shouts for her to stop because Jack is leading the kids running out the house. Sam flings open the door and they’re all scrambling inside before Quorra steps on the gas pedal. Clu is the only one unaffected as they are all thrown backwards and speeding down the trails. Jack lets Quorra drive before they spot the space ship flying after them.
“The Siphon!” Sara shouts.
“What the heck is a Siphon?’ Jack shouts back.
“Another alien attack?” Quorra asks.
“You’ve already had experience?” Seth asks.
“Not personal experience but in New York…” Sam begins before something in front of them fires. Their eyes widened in horror, but the mini rockets zip past them to hit the spaceship instead. The taxi screeches to a stop in front of another armor wearing figure, only one that the Sara and Seth did not recognize.
“A new Siphon?” Seth and Sara look at each other in alarm.
Sam buries his face in his hands, “oh no…”
“The Iron Man?” Jack could not believe what his night was becoming.
The iconic metal man steps up besides their car and knocks sharply on the glass Sam is closest to. Clu oh-so-happily lowers the window, and the metal face plates pull back to reveal Tony Stark’s face.
“Sam Flynn, are you trying to get into the Avengers’ affairs?”
“Sam Flynn,” Jack turns to look at the teenager in the car, “you are Sam Flynn.”
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Sam almost sulks, between his word and Iron Man Tony Stark’s, he doesn’t have any delusions about who seemed more credible.
Tony glanced over Sam’s shoulder, “Get down.”
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And the Siphon goes flying back when something suddenly smashes against it. Several trees are blown aside and there’s a loud crack of thunder.
“Ah, so Point Blank is now here.” The iron mask slides forward to protect Tony’s face as he watches Thor arrive and proceed to fight his fellow alien. Turning back to the taxi, he points at Sam, “you’re coming with me.”
Sam raises his hands in surrender, “Okay.”
“Not just you.”
Quorra looks at Sam, “Is this where the phase I want to speak to my lawyer comes in?”
“I’m not talking to just your little group, I mean all of you, including you two passengers with alien DNA and you, Mr. Jack Bruno.” Behind Tony, helicopters were emerging into the sky, whirling and rumbling, contributing to the noise of battle between Thor and the Siphon. The multiple spotlights landed on the taxi and almost blinded the occupants.
Many of the local hotels have been booked for the annual science-fiction convention. It used to an annual UFO convention but had been renamed since the alien invasion. The other SHIELD buildings in the area are not equipped to deal with so many, and so Rogers and Fury show up at Burke’s mountain hideout and ask him for some rooms.
Burke would normally be annoyed, but he’s somewhat in awe of Captain America, and he is smart enough not to cross Fury.
There were other things to argue about.
Sara and Seth want to board the ship that Burke had seized and leave the Earth. If they were to be believed, if they don’t bring their research back home Earth would be looking at a second alien invasion. Unfortunately not many believe them, concerned that the children might instead be scouts for another invasion. A few agents were also intent on replicating the technology of the ship or even putting the children through vivisection, they certainly seemed different from the Chitauri.
SHIELD was also trying to borrow some technology from Burke's men to replicate the dream technology they had been using for Alice. After all, SHIELD was more concerned about the leader of the first alien invasion potentially showing up on Earth again - even if Loki was just in their dreams.
Clint was potentially compromised because it was likely his dream that brought Loki forward. So he had to be sent to another room in case he showed any signs of hostility or blue eyes.
The remaining Avengers were watching the new group.
They were all wondering if they should have maybe locked Clu away, but Sam refused to let the older man out of his sight.
So now, everyone was sitting around in one of Witch Mountain’s many secret rooms, told to wait while SHIELD and Project Moon argue it out, because there’s still a Siphon running about, and no one the safehouse occuprants.
“I didn’t choose to get thrown here,” Oz complained “I’ve never been good at dealing with power and responsibility.”
“But you’re not a novice,” Susan observed, “You’ve run a kingdom before.”
“I told them that their land should forever be free and made only the really big decisions, I was more consultative than anything.”
“You had a kingdom in your grasp and you didn’t think of improving it?” Clu sounds genuinely offended.
Dastan recognizes power-hungry coup-planning characters very easily now, “Improvements are never supposed to just benefit one person.”
“And that’s why we are now here caught up in Avengers business and surrounded by men in black,” Edmund drawls. “I get that they want to expand their army, we’re protecting not just some VIP but Earth itself, and I’m glad they do not discriminate based on age, but right now?”
“We should be out doing something,” Peter scowls. “Helping with the wreckage, training, if we’re to be stuck inside we should be told of what’s happening. All we know right now is that you,” he pointed at Clu, “was labeled as an enemy at one point and you,” he pointed to Sam and Quorra, “destroyed the safe house to get him out, but somehow you’re considered safe enough to be kept here with us.”
“Sam won’t hurt anyone,” Quorra sensed an upcoming interruption and snapped at Clu, “your minions don’t count, it was self-defense.”
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