Chapter Text
At no point in American history did a child dream of being a teacher for the money. I’m damn good at what I do and I love it, don’t get me wrong, but I am far from working just for the fun of it. A full teaching load at a nearby college, adjunct work, and the occasional piece of writing got me a small one bedroom apartment with an alcove I pretend is a library. On nice days I walk to work. On rainy days, the humid press of the subway is killer, but still a better option than showing up in front of my students like a drowned rat. Long taxi rides were for sex columnists, tourists, and billionaires with their names on buildings. Or they could use their jet packs, I guess. The world is weird.
Thus, in the eternal search for funding for exciting things like rent, a new laptop, and enough to maybe squirrel some away for a wrinklier version of myself, I found myself standing outside one of the many, many sleek conference rooms in Stark Tower. Sure, they have a corporate history already, but not a good one. I could do better. I just had to convince them that a new one was not only needed, but something they should pay me for. Writing samples had already been submitted, CV reviewed, initial interviews completed. Today was the day. Today was the final interview with the higher ups in Marketing and PR. I was one of three candidates at this point. I think I did pretty well, assuming they don’t go with the flashy presentation from the razzle-dazzle marketing firm.
New York-slick I am not. Not that there’s anything wrong with that level of polish. I have two good suits and was wearing the black pant one. It was tailored and then re-tailored and still managed to look presentable. Small drop earrings and my necklace tucked into my dark red shirt. Stupid, patriarchal, uncomfortable, and once sexy-as-hell black leather heels that I’d buffed within an inch of their lives hugged my feet. I felt pretty good. Confident in a completely nerve-wracked kind of way.
It turns out that today was also the day that aliens descended upon New York.
General office buzz died down and one by one people in the office stood and went to the windows. After 9/11 and the introduction of the Hulk and Iron Man and various other powered people, New Yorkers were on high alert for the non-standard. Seeing cranky-looking giant armored space centipedes made us all stop and stare. Well that was certainly… non-standard.
One by one then all at once, as if there was a mental signal, we began running to the stairs. No thank you, no thank you. Not getting stuck here. The hallways were full of scared but impressively determined people. Stark obviously hired well. To help keep the crowds calm as the building occasionally shook, the security guards guiding us down the stairways repeated that the call had gone out to evacuate through the basements to the subway tunnels and away from the city.
Here’s the problem of being me. I’m nosy. OK. I’m nosy and stubborn. I’m nosy, stubborn, and have an admittedly overdeveloped sense of responsibility. What? Everyone has their issues.
“Is anyone hurt? I’m a First Responder. I can help!” I yelled at a security guard above the din of escaping people. “Can you hear me?”
Touching what I assumed to be an earpiece, he responded with, “Ma’am. Everything is under control. I need you to head downstairs.”
I laughed, not at all semi-hysterically. Oh sure. Angry alien-spewing death robots are flying by and occasionally colliding with the building, but we’re cool. Security Guy was jostled and swept along down the stairs with the crowd. Jostled right out of his earpiece.
Damnit. I had to know. Someone could be hurt.
Picking up the small device, I pressed it into my ear, wincing at the volume. “Get ‘em down the stairs and out. Levels 1-40 almost clear and 40+ headed south.”
I sighed, momentarily boneless with relief. Thank God.
“Negative. One civilian sighted on the roof. In need of evac and medical.” “Get as many out as we can. Count the negs later.”
The roof?! What in all that is holy is someone doing on this roof?! This roof that is so very many stories up? They couldn’t just leave him there, not injured and alone.
With legs pumping, I was two floors up before the shoes had to go into my jacket pockets. What? Once upon a time they were expensive and I wasn’t about to leave them behind. On one floor, I ran in and found an office-worthy med kit near the break area. No real bandages, but some alcohol, gauze, and plastic stitches. Better than nothing. Being thrown against the cabinets with another building tremor was super fun. That is going to bruise for sure.
Up up up. I mean, I’m in decent shape from walking all over the city, but this kind of climb was not my thing. Dear God, I was going to die of asphyxiation before I got to the top.
“Damn aliens. Damn freaking tall buildings.” Wheeze. Is the oxygen thinner up here?
One more level to go. I stopped for just a minute to breathe and heard the building's security alarm while searching for my phone. My bag and all my notes, presentation materials, and laptop had been abandoned below.
“This is not a test. The Emergency Broadcast System has been activated. If you are within broadcast distance of this signal, proceed to your nearest subway station and begin an orderly evacuation to the outer boroughs. Tune in to local news and radio stations for more information. This is not a test.”
Cool. Thanks Emergency Overlords. That doesn’t help me at all.
Taking a deep breath, I ran up the last flight of stairs, opened the door, and pushed out into the sunshine.
***
So many questions. What is the world is that machine doing? Why is there more than one person up here? Why did it feel like I’d interrupted? Why is that woman wearing a black onesie? Where is the guy in need of med- ah, he’s there near the… spinning blue light machine thing opening up a hole in the sky. Whoa. Holy shit. Look at all those… aliens? Monsters? Dehydrated space demons?
Oh. Oh look. They’re staring at me now. Apparently, I just busted in and was standing there like an idiot. “Um, hi. We have to get out of here! If they hit the building any more, it could fall. And that is not how I choose to die.”
Ignoring the stares of the redhead, I moved to the older man sprawled on the floor and tried to assess his condition. Not looking at the edge, not thinking about how far down it goes. Not doing it. “Sir, can you stand?”
He frantically waved me away. “Go! Get back! There’s nothing you can do here.”
I heard the woman talking but it didn’t seem aimed at us. “Sir, I’ve just climbed more stairs than any sane person is supposed to climb in a day. At least let me help you.” He seemed to deflate a little and let me approach him. He had a pretty good bump on his head that was bleeding a little and maybe a few bruised ribs, but nothing life threatening.
We worked together to get him standing and I tried to move him over to the doorway, but he redirected us to a laptop stand in front of the machine.
“I think I fan fix this! We can close the portal.” He turned to the other woman, “Take the sceptre and push it through the energy barrier to the Tesseract. The beam will be disrupted and the portal should close.”
Ah, the beam. I’d been so focused on my patient that I hadn’t allowed myself to really see what I’d walked into. It was oddly beautiful. The beam was a brilliant clear blue that pushed up up up into a sight that absolutely took my breath away. On a roof at the top of the city, surrounded by strangers and aliens, I saw space. Actual black, starry space. It took me over. The pushing winds and screaming alien gliders and beam fell away to silence and stars.
A hand on my shoulder brought me back with a gasp. Turning to its owner, I discovered that she was right behind me. To the end of my days, I’ll be proud that I didn’t step back. This was one intimidating woman. We were almost the same height, but she seemed to tower over me. Unblinking and unflinching.
“Who are you?” She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head a little, making her look somehow even more predatory.
With a bright flash of light, the blue beam pulsed brighter. “We have to do this now! There’s no time!”
The woman picked up the large sword… ax… sceptre... thing and tried pushing into the force field surrounding the spinning cube. This was a Tesseract? What was it? More questions, no time for answers. This entire situation felt like a pop quiz that I’d forgotten to study for. Only with scary aliens and weighing stares.
She strained, trying to break through the energy barrier. Her feet slipped a little on the concrete flooring with the effort. I didn’t have to look up to see death pouring through the hole in the sky. I could feel it. Everyone left in Manhattan could probably feel it.
And just like that, I put my hands on the end of the scepter and pushed too.
Surprised eyes meet mine. “Like I said. This is not how I’m going to die.”
Under her breath, she said, “I don’t know. Could be worse. There could be meetings. And forms.”
“And Powerpoints!” I met her smirk for smirk.
Slowly, inch by maddening inch, the tip of sceptre pierced the barrier. It was like we were trying to push the damn thing through concrete.
“We can close it! Can anybody hear me? We can shut the portal down,” the redhead yelled so that those on her comms could hear. We were close enough together that I could occasionally make out someone speaking on the other end.
“A NUKE?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S A NUKE COMING?!” Astonishment made my feet slip too. The sceptre retreated a few inches.
The woman next to me growled, “Don’t stop pushing! We’ve only got three minutes. Stark has a plan.”
“Stark? Tony Stark?” I pushed harder. “What is even happening today?!”
Laughing a little, she said, “Oh, you’ve got no idea.”
With just under three minutes to destruction, we edged ever closer to our goal.
***
I almost missed the red blur that shot by us when she demanded, “WAIT! Stop pushing. He needs more time!” I thought pushing was hard but not pushing but not losing ground was agony. I don’t think I’ve ever felt every single muscle in my arms before. She began murmuring something to herself that sounded a lot like angry Russian. Within seconds, we were both shaking with the effort of almost but not touching the square.
“NOW!” We leaned and ground our teeth for the final effort.
Plink.
The blue corona that exploded from the square was a physical blow that knocked all three of us down and back. I lost track of the others when the back of my head hit the roof and the world twisted and roared. A few feet away, the sceptre teetered on the building’s edge, undecided if it would fall or stay. It took me two fast tries to stand before I wobbled forward to try to save it.
I tripped over something in my drunken path and missed the handle, pushing it so that it spun like fan blade. Shit! It was going over the edge! If it touching the Tesseract was explosive, what would happen when it shatters on the sidewalks below?!
Scrambling faster on hands and knees, I watched it tip over and start to fall. With a final, deeply uncoordinated lurch, I actually grabbed it!
Heat and shock and pain, so much pain. I heard myself cry out and felt muscles spasm. Before the world went black, it seared through me in blinding blue.