Chapter Text
Everything was spinning. You blinked hard, squeezing your eyes and opening your mouth in shock and, what you think might be, pain. You shook your head. Car horns screaming, people murmuring, everything muffled. Your vision started coming to. Objects appearing to be cars flew above and around you, and there was a ring of people surrounding you. They all wore such strange clothes that were interesting and futuristic for the most part. Some appeared to wear metal masks with matching metal clothing. Your eyebrows furrowed together, blinking again to try to take in that they weren’t masks, and those weren’t clothes.
A few people ran up to you, their voices muffled. They looked worried and concerned. You looked up at them with confused eyes as one woman pulled out something from her pocket and brought it to her ear. Their voices were going in and out.
“Miss, are you oka—”
“—she just appeared out of nowhere, it was a blue light bursting and she just—“
“—you hurt?”
“—did you come fro—“
“—a blue light and she just appeared! We need an ambula—”
Your mind and senses were catching up, and things were falling into place. Your eyes finally understood that those metal masked people were not people. You realized that you weren’t waking up from a roofie or long night of drinking. Cars were flying, and their horns were just so loud. You squeezed your eyes shut from the sounds and opened them back up in bewilderment. Your mind went a mile a minute as you struggled to stand, voices finally registering and clearing.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” A young man begged, helping you up as another did the same. A woman clicked this strange glass screen that she had called someone on, and you surmised that it was a phone.
“Miss, I called the police and an ambulance and they’re on their way. Are you okay?” She looked at you and stared into your both terrified and empty eyes. You shuffled around slightly, the men letting you go knowing that you can walk.
You looked around.
Your heart began to race.
Your body breaking out in a chilling cold sweat.
Where the fuck were you?
You turned back to them, mouth agape, struggling to find words that could properly express the fear and confusion that was starting to beset on you in this moment. This feeling was worse than when you were caught cheating in school, your parents finding out about that one horrendous thing you’ve done out of the many; this deep-setting fear was so real and blew everything you have ever felt out of comparison.
“Where am I.” Your question was more of a statement to the three people. They stared at you blankly.
“Where the fuck am I?” You started to yell, feeling your body tremble, feeling your voice lose control as you realized you had none.
Everyone had flinched, taking a step back. They all teetered uneasily, and you very much felt the same. You looked frantically around at all of the people as they whispered, worried.
“Miss, you’re going to have to calm—“
“I am not going to calm down because I don’t know where the fuck I am!” You were yelling, spit flying, fury flaring.
You ran your hands over your head, eyes wild like a trapped animal. You looked around and realized you weren’t breathing, and that you had to get out as fast as possible. You heard sirens and realized that you needed to get away as fast as possible. You broke out in a sprint towards the crowd and they hollered, scared you were crazed and attacking. They parted like the red sea, making way for you to get through as you ran down the nearest alley, never stopping.
They were going to tell the police where you went, so you decided to hop fences and slink as far throughout this bizarre city as you could. You ran through the first narrow alley, seeing a tall chain link fence and climbed it efficiently, though your landing was poor and jarring yourself slightly. Keeping up with the idea that police were coming after you and you didn’t know what was going to happen, you kept running.
You made it onto a smaller street, people walking past you and giving you strange looks which was probably due to your disheveled appearance. You looked both ways down the street to make sure no flying cars were coming your way and you quickly jogged across and to another alley.
You picked up the pace again, seeing a wooden fence. You stopped and looked around for a trash can and easily found one, dragging it to the fence so you could clamber over the fence and continue on your merry way.
This continued for about ten minutes, until you thought you were safe and free, finding a small staircase in an alleyway and hiding underneath it next to a dumpster. It had been the home for a homeless person for a while, seeing a stained sleeping bag still there. They probably had to relocate rather quickly. You slipped down onto the bag on your side, catching your breath.
You brought your legs to your chest, resting your forehead on your knees, gripping your hair, and crying.
Where were you?
What was going on?
How did you get there?
Questions jabbed at you, giving you a headache. You lied underneath the rusty metal staircase, next to a sour-smelling dumpster in a damp alleyway that was shadowed. It was still daytime, but the sun would be setting soon. You sniffed heavily, your chest bouncing from the sobs that had wracked your already trembling body. You closed your heavy lids, and even though you were fearful to sleep, you had no other choice.
You woke up as the sun licked at your skin. You groaned, turning over. Who opened the curtains? Was it your cat again? Your cute little Tuxedo Cat, Cherry Pie. You smiled at the thought of your sweet, fat, little cat. She always sat at the foot of your bed at night, but when it was becoming daytime she would sleep up above your head on your pillow. Cherry didn’t meow much, but would pat her soft little paw on your face until you woke up to feed her. Where was she right now? What was she doing? You hoped she was eating her hard foot and not begging for wet food, and you realized how considerate she was! She knew you needed sleep. Wow. What an amazing cat you have!
Did she throw up though? It was smelling a little . . . sour?
A little tangy.
Actually.
It was really tangy.
Your eyes opened and you saw yourself staring at a brick wall. Your heart burst into a quick race and you gasped, jolting upwards and looking around, realizing you weren’t in your bed. The curtains weren’t open, because it was the sun rising over the buildings and waking you up from your first homeless slumber.
You looked around and realized you were alone, and you didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing right now. You crawled out from underneath your hovel, looking both ways to see if people were looking for you.
You stood up, yawning for what felt like five minutes as your joints popped and cracked in various places. After getting out of your real bed, you would look at yourself in your floor length mirror, admiring how interesting your bedhead would be for the day; instead, you looked down at your clothes. You wore ripped jeans, black Doc Martens, and a wrinkled Smiths shirt. You didn’t even listen to the Smiths, you just thought the shirt was cool.
As you walked out onto the bustling sidewalk, you were hoping you didn’t stand out too much. Upon looking at other people, their clothes really weren’t all that eclectic. You shook your head slightly, a proud smile tugging at the sides of your mouth. Maybe you could make it homeless. Was there a center nearby at all for the homeless? You could really use a meal.You choked back a gasp, but still jumped, upon seeing a group of robots pass by. Your eyes wide as you stared at them. Their bodies were silver and so shiny with beady blue LED’s for eyes. You wondered if people were just cosplaying robots to be cool, like it was a fad now. You had turned your head to continue watching them walk, but noticed more were walking by. Your eyes were dinner plates. What the hell was going on? Where were you that had a population of robots? Cherry Pie was getting hungry.
You were desperate to get home, but at the same time, terrified to ask somebody. What if they don’t answer seriously, or answer at all? What if they judge you and think you’re crazy, or turn you into the police? You have never experienced social anxiety to this level before.
You continued to walk down the sidewalk, taking in the images around you; flying cars, robots, and sometimes bizarre clothing trends. You looked at the windows you passed by. You saw jewelry stores, clothing stores, office buildings, and finally, your reflection. You realized how absolutely horrific you looked. Mascara and eyeliner smudged under your eyes with heavy circles. Your skin was washed out, and no one could begin to describe how ghostly you appeared.
“Excuse me, miss?” You heard a deep voice, not knowing if it was for you or not. Either way, you were not in the mood for human interaction, so you continued your walk.
“Miss?” The voice persisted, but you refused to acknowledge it was to you. There was a momentary period of silence before he spoke again. “Ma’am?” His tone became a bit more stern. You peered into the window coming up and saw your reflection, noticing a group of four suited men following you. You felt your skin prickle and crawl, your fingers twitching as the cold feeling swept over you. Your breathing hitched as your pace picked up slightly.
You were suddenly stopped because of a stopped crowd, and you realized you were at a stop light. You weaved in between people and robots to the front, standing at the street. You bounced on your feet as “Miss” kept ringing out to you. You shook your hands. You stood at the edge of the sidewalk as if it were a cliff. You stared at the asphalted street, seeing it as a deep chasm. You teetered forward, knowing now that you would rather jump than to be pushed. With that knowledge in tow, you burst into a full sprint.
“Hey! Stop!” The suited men yelled as they pushed through the shocked and confused crowd. Car horns blared as you furthered into the street. Vehicles slammed on breaks, trying their hardest to avoid hitting you. Adrenaline surged through your blood like it was a drug. A car stopped immediately before you, causing you to roll over the hood and land heavily with a yelp on the other side, continuing your frontier until you made it to the opposite side of the street.
You weaved through the crowd on the opposing sidewalk, running down at full speed. You don’t think you’ve ever ran this fast before in your life. You glanced over your shoulder to see the men pushing through the people. You Tokyo drifted into an alley, gasping for breath. Cramps exploding in your body as you let out a drawled groan. You ran down the alley and hopped the fence as quickly as possible, panting heavily, sweat already flowing. You heard them running after you. Your feet pounded the pavement, your heartbeat screaming in your ears, defeanening. Your pants were loud and heavy, raspy even.
Why were you even running? Was it because you were wary of the suited men and saw too many movies? Maybe it was because if they were not suits, then they would’ve stopped persisting when you hadn’t had answered to their Miss’s and Ma’am’s from earlier. Maybe it was because of the lack of police coming after you, and ambulance. Those sirens from yesterday must have been for something or somebody else. No. No, this was much deeper if suited men with the government were chasing a young woman. A young woman who appeared out of nowhere, and apparently burst in through a flash of blue light. This was much deeper than the basic police, and you were head deep in it.
You yelled as you slipped in a slimy puddle you didn’t realize would do that. Your body came into hard contact with the asphalt, slamming on your ribs and arm.
“Fuck!” You growled, struggling to get up. Your body shook from pain and fear. Weren’t Doc Martens supposed to be better at this? You looked over your shoulder and they were closing in on you, and fast. You jumped up and tried running, but was instantly body slammed onto the ground. The impact was heavy and extremely painful, making you yell in pain.
Your body was moving quickly and shakily, trying to wiggle out of a grip one of the men had you in. He jerked you up off of the ground, holding your arms easily behind your back with a death grip. Legs flailed and kicked into the air with you yelling at them to let you go, but they didn’t say a word. They wouldn’t say anything. The last thing you knew to do was to scream as tears brimmed the edge.
You were too jaded to make note of what was happening as your screams kept you preoccupied, eyes shut tight, tears spilling at the corners. There were gunshots, grunts, growls, bodies slamming onto the pavement, but also giggling? You felt the grip around your arms disappear quickly. You whipped your head around and the first thing you saw was a bright, red light.
A man, seemingly twice the size of the suited man that once had your grip, took the back of his massive rifle and knock out the suit. Your breath was immediately cut short at your throat as you struggled for air like a fish out of water. You fell backwards, pushing yourself against the wall next to a dumpster. The man was too preoccupied with the other suits. His hair was white and receding with deep creases on his forehead from angry brows, a scar sharply darting from the side of his head and through the front of his right brow. He wore a red, white, and blue jacket with black pants, and god damn was he tall. He emitted this aura of intimidation, dominance, and every intent of winning.
Air made its way into your lungs as you gasped loudly, breathing heavily. A blue light had dashed past him and stopped in front of you, making you realize it had manifested itself into a human. You yelled, backing up farther into the corner between the dumpster and wall. She had orange tights and a brown jacket. There was this bizarre contraption on her jacket that was silver with a blue circular light, much like the blue light she had come from. You looked up at her. She was a brunette with spiked hair and goggles, her expression was soft, and sweet, as if she were dealing with a toddler.
“Oh, love, don’t worry. It’s alright!” She reassured, kneeling down to you. Her voice was higher pitched, but so sweet like candy.
She placed her guns down besides her, showing you that she was unarming herself. She made herself vulnerable just so you could feel safe. Your eyes were wide, begging for help, for an answer. You also didn’t know if you could trust her, or the man that looked like Cyclops from X-Men. What made them different than the suits? What reassurance did you have knowing that they weren’t just another organization trying to get to you, the girl that came from a blue light? She held out her hand to you.
“Cheers, love. The calvary’s here!”