Chapter 1:The Ghost of a World I Once Knew.
All I had wanted was a simple vacation. Just a few weeks to myself, treat from me to me if you will. I think I deserved one after all that time I put into the office I was working for. So I cashed in my vacation days and booked a ticket for Germany. The flight there was uneventful, even peaceful really as I got to watch my Avengers movie on my laptop. I was probably the most childish twenty-one year old the people by me had ever met, but I didn't mind. I just loved the Avengers and was an especially big fan of Captain America. Once we landed in Stuttgart and loaded my one piece of luggage into the cab, I had the cabbie drop me off near my hotel. The square was crowded with people still, so it made getting to my destination much more difficult. As I weaved my way through the throng, a scream rose up from somewhere behind me, and I turned to see the strangest sight of my life.
Either someone was doing a very good remake of the scene from Avengers when Loki attacks, or I had just gone crazy, because there was "Loki" adorned in his Asgaurdian armor and scepter, shouting "Kneel!" People were screaming and running still, and while the panic seemed to please him, he became angry and shouted once again "KNEEL!" and slammed his scepter down. At this people stopped and kneeled, as they were trapped by his projections. As I looked around at the people by me, I could see genuine fear in their eyes. What is going on? "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power… for identity." His voice, so calm and deadly was almost mesmerizing, but this had to be some sick joke. "You were made to be ruled. In the end you will always kneel." The smile on his face was cruel and full of humor, like he was in on a joke none of us knew. Someone stood up, an older gentleman, and bravely said "Not to men like you." Loki chuckled at this "There are no men like me." The older man simply replied "There are always men like you." Smile still plastered on his face, Loki slowly lowered his scepter towards the man. "Look to your elder people. Let him be an example…" As the scepter began lighting at its tip I decided I had enough of this.
"Alright people, shows over, great job. Really impressed by the acting, I mean really, you all actually look like you're scared…" I hadn't realized I too had kneeled, and stood to brush off the knees of my jeans and applaud everyone, but as I looked around everyone was still kneeling and afraid. I turned towards the Loki character who seemed amused by my confusion. "What kind of a sick joke is this? Am I being punked? What's going o-". I choked as one minute Loki was a crowd away and the next had appeared immediately in-front of me, staring inquisitively at me. There was no makeup on his skin, no line of a wig, and there was no possible way any normal mans eyes could be that green. His eyes seemed to laugh at me as his smirk grew "You have heart. You could be very useful to me strange girl…" He lowered the scepter to my chest, just above my heart, and I gasped as what felt like a shockwave go through me. I could feel my mind going numb, my body growing complacent. No you don't stupid, stop this now. I. Said. STOP! Like a cold bucket of water, I wrenched myself both out of that trance like state and slightly away from the very real Loki. Gasping for air, I looked into his eyes and saw shock and intense amounts of anger in both his eyes and face by my rebellious action. As he glared and the tip of the scepter lit up once more, I shut my eyes and prayed for a miracle. I heard the zap of energy leaving the scepter, then the clang of it bouncing off of something else. Looking up, I met the gaze of one of the most fantastic fictional men ever. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, was standing before me in all his star-spangled glory. He chanced a glance at me, and then went forward to confront Loki. "You know the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." Loki, now truly incensed, stood with the remark "The Soldier. The man out of time." In true Marvel superhero form, Captain America came back with the witty remark of "I'm not the one who's out of time." In dropped Natasha in her Shield jet and ordered Loki to drop his weapon. He shot a ball of energy at her, and so began the fight to take down Loki. I ran back a bit and watched as the Captain and Loki went at it, Steve beginning to lose the battle to the much more powerful demi-god. Just when it seemed someone might have to step in, Iron man came crashing in blaring Shoot to Thrill and hitting Loki square in the chest before aiming his hidden artillery at him and baiting him. "Make a move reindeer games." Loki immediately surrendered, dropping his armor and raising his hands in defeat. After a curt acknowledgement by Tony and Steve, Natasha landed the jet so they could haul in Loki and take him back to the heli-carrier. I didn't even register Natasha striding up to me until she was right in-front of me looking expectantly. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" She sighed slightly then said again "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me back to our base of command for questioning." Knowing I wasn't exactly going to get out of this situation Id somehow found myself in, I nodded and followed her to the jet, dragging my suitcase behind me.
Which brings us somewhat to my current situation in an interrogation room on the heli-carrier. "Alright, let's try this again. So your name is…?" Irritated since this had to be the fifth time this bozo had asked me this set of questions, I snapped "My name is Stacy Shreeve. I'm twenty one years old, five feet four inches, blonde haired, blue eyed, and have no frickin idea why or how I'm here as YOU, Shield and the rest of the gang behind that reflective glass shouldn't exist! What the hell is your name Agent? Let me guess, its Anderson right? Dropping the IQ of the whole floor right now, I can feel it!" I huffed and slumped back into my chair as Agent whoever walked out to confer with someone else. I picked at the hole in the knee of my jeans and pulled at the hem of my Beatles shirt waiting for someone to come back in. I heard the door open and shut, then someone approach the table and sit down across from me. I glanced up to find Director Fury staring intently at me. "Miss Shreeve?" I nodded. "You told my agent that you booked a flight from California to Germany, and found yourself in the middle of an attack. One that you were almost recruited into but somehow resisted." I nodded once more. "You say that you don't know why or how you got here, that my team and company are 'fake' yes?" Not liking where this conversation was headed, I nodded slowly. "Well, Miss Shreeve, we've been doing a background check and… It's not us who don't exist." He pushed an open file forward that held my picture and a blank sheet of paper with just my name and no other information on it. "It's you who doesn't exist."
I stared blankly at the file in front of me, my mind blank and void of all thought. The words You don't exist running on an ever increasing loop in my head. How could this be? How did this happen? Why me? I felt the wet streaks on my face of tears, but I didn't bother to hide them. I didn't exist, so why should my pain exist? "D-Does my family even exist here? My friends?" Fury actually looked sympathetically at me as he softly replied "We're not sure, but we can do a check if you like. You realize that you cannot leave this carrier, knowing what you know. We'd also like to keep you here to run some tests to find out why exactly you didn't fall prey to Loki's power." I nodded dumbly, now thinking What am I going to do? I don't have a record, no job history, no education history, nothing… Not even a bank account or Social Security Number… "… That's all I can offer you Miss Shreeve." Startled, I asked him to repeat what he'd just said. "I said we can have you fill out some forms for file purposes, set you up with some rooms on board, and provide you with free access to the ship. Once we've run our tests we'll make a decision on what to do next about your predicament. That's all I can offer you." I quietly thanked him and rubbed the heel of my hand over my eyes and used my other hand to brush my long wavy hair out of my face. I was stuck in this ghost of a world I once knew.