Chapter 1: Reality is Merely an Illusion
A/N This is my first fan fiction. I have read yours for a while now and thought to myself, "What the heck?" So I wrote the first chapter of a little story floating around. I will explain more backstory in late chapters, that is if you want me to continue. I also saw that some people post a quote at the beginning, and I think that is a great idea so I did too. Not beta'd. I don't own Chuck or NBC. Enjoy.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
-Albert Einstein
"This is torture!" exclaimed a short man, who simultaneously plopped himself face first onto a bed. A taller man looks on and chuckles quietly to himself as if he doesn't want to upset the little man.
"Morgan it's not that bad. The party will be over in an hour and besides, you're not even the one being set up with dates," The taller man explains to the man now known as Morgan as he walks up closer to the bed. Morgan flips over onto his back and stares at the ceiling and sighs to himself.
"But Chuck, they're doctors!" Morgan replies as if that explains everything, "They're all sophisticated robots with no sens of humor! Chuck, their idea of a good time is being elbow deep in somebody's blood and guts!" This statement causes Chuck to once again chuckle as he steps closer to the edge of the bed and looks at his friend.
"Morgan, I think you're exaggerating a bit. They are normal people with normal lives and they are-" he stops and turns around quickly to a doorknob turning and opening to reveal a tall women with long brunette hair looking more than a little angry.
"Chuck," she says slowly as if warning him.
"Yes Ellie," he replies while shrinking back into his room not that anything could save him by the look on Ellie's face.
"Why are you not at the party Chuck? You know, YOUR birthday party. I have invited real, live women, for you."
"Well you see, El-"
"I don't care. Let's go Chuck, Morgan you stay here," she says showing her obvious distaste for the little bearded man.
"Sorry buddy," and with that he walks out the door leaving Morgan locked away in Chuck's room like some sort of pet in a cage. Morgan gets off of the bed, brushes himself off and goes to the window deemed the "Morgan Door" for more reasons than one. He cranes his neck to get a better view. He sees his best friend being fawned over by multiple women. After seeing this image he sighs to himself, and proceeds to land face first on the bed again.
"God help us all," he mumbles into the pillows.
Okay we're in, the young classically handsome man who just dropped from the ceiling thinks to himself. He looks around the room which is pretty empty besides a single computer console. The walls are a bright white color because of the many computer screens it is made up of. He turns into the center of the empty room and walks up to the computer console. He pulls out a handheld device and a cord. He looks back after hearing pounding coming from the door behind him, since they're obviously having problems opening said door.
That's why I didn't use the door. I mean where's the fun that, he thinks to himself as a small smile spreads across his face as he plugs the device and pulls out some sunglasses.
"It's hard to say goodbye," he says aloud thinking he's going to die. He stands up straight as he runs the program, and we can now see that he has multiple blood spots on his chest. Most likely they are from head wounds or bullets grazing him. His dark brown hair is clinging to his forehead, and his face is shining from sweat. The room lights up with thousands of pictures, changing so quickly you can barely remember what picture was there last. The pictures stop but the banging on the door continues. He quickly grabs the device and places a small bomb he got from some not-so nice friends of his. He runs to seek shelter as the door is blown open.
"Larkin," one of the men on the ground bleeding from the explosion says.
"Call me Bryce," says Bryce with a cocky smile. Bryce proceeds to run down the hallway easily getting past any obstacle that comes in his way. As he comes down the staircase he is trying to send the file he just downloaded. He attaches the file to the email and is scrolling through the names looking for the right person to sent it to. A small army of men running down the staircase interrupts him.
"Time to move," he says while running down the staircase as fast as he can. Bryce makes it out onto a roof of an adjoining part of the building. He continues to scroll through his contacts list obviously frustrated that he can't find the name. He is again interrupted when he hears footsteps coming from behind him and he starts running full speed now. Don't look back. Keep running. Don't look Back. Bryce slowly looks over his shoulder and sees a dozen men in full tactical gear with some big ass guns.
Shit, why did I look back? Finding another building adjacent to the one he is on he is happy to see that there is only about a five foot gap between that building and his. Piece of cake. Bryce takes the leap, catching the edge of the building and pulling himself up. Looking back again he is now even more optimistic about this mission because the small army is having problems crossing the gap.
"Now just a little more distance and we'll be good to go," he remarks. He follows through with his ideas by jumping down onto yet another roof about 30 feet down landing with expert skill. He scrolls through his contacts list and finally finds the name, "Chuck Bartowski," he clicks on it and presses send. He sighs in relief which is short lived as it is immediately followed by a single gunshot and a sharp pain in his shoulder. Another bloodstain blossoms onto his shirt.
"Don't move." says a gruff voice as a man holding a smoking gun moves closer to Bryce.
"You know Casey, this was my favorite shirt," Bryce says sarcastically about his was white now read shirt.
"Shut up," commands Casey as he kicks the small handheld device out of Bryce's hand. The screen says, "Sending to Chuck," before the device is destroyed.
"I'm sorry Chuck," Bryce says as he passes out.
Chuck is sitting on his bed playing video games with Morgan
"You know Morgan, I think you were right. Some of those doctors were so boring, or just plain creepy. I mean, honestly, I don't want to know every single detail in a kidney transplant," says Chuck dejectedly
"Cheer up, Chuck. There has got to be atleast one women out there who isn't obsessed with blood, guts, and gore," Chuck smiles at his bearded friend.
"Hey well there's always the ones in the CIA who are constantly trying to kill me." Morgan laughs out loud.
"I'm sure if they got to meet you they would realize that you are a very nice person and not some government terrorist set on world destruction."
"Well you take all of the fun of being on a government watch list."
"You know, one day you could take me on one of these missions."
"Yeah, Morgan, that's not happening. I've told you that before. The only reason I do this is for my dad and Bryce and the rest of the team, and you know that." Morgan is a bit quiet after that but regains his voice after getting killed multiple times on Halo.
"Dude, did you see that? Oh my god, I can't believe he just did that I mean seriously, dude," he stops as Chuck's computer lights up with an e-mail, "Hey Chuck," he continues, "I thought Bryce wasn't going on the mission until tomorrow night," At this Chuck stands up and walks up to his computer.
"I don't know Morgan," Chuck explains, "maybe he thought that the CIA was onto him."
"Well don't worry too much I'm sure everything is fine, maybe he just wanted to wish you a happy birthday," Morgan says while grabbing his coat, "but it's getting late and I should go home, and you should send that to your dad," Morgan finishes as he heads out the window.
"Pedal safe," Chuck yells to his friend's retreating form through the window.
"I will," replies Morgan as he grabs his bike and heads home.
"Well I better send this to Orion," Chuck says to himself. He sends the email using his secured account and then starts to get ready for bed.
Bryce I hope you know what you're doing, he thinks before drifting off to sleep.
Chuck wakes up in the morning to his beeping alarm clock. He opens his eyes slowly ready to get ready for another day at the Buy More. Yeah, sometimes being normal just sucks. He rubs the palms of his hands over his eyes trying to clear his mind. He groggily gets ready for yet another day at work. Chuck turns on the shower and strips down until he is butt naked. He steps in and turns on the in shower radio and listens to the news while going about his business. The broadcaster then proceeds to tell about traffic problems, and Chuck nearly collapses as his eyes flutter. I'm never going to get used to that. Although hopefully it won't happen in the shower like that.
Once Chuck is finally ready he gets his Buy More windbreaker and pockets his keys when Ellie comes out in her Pjs.
"Have fun at the Buy More," Ellie says sarcastically as she does every morning.
"Oh I will," says Chuck with mock seriousness until he heads towards the door with a smile on his face. "Maybe today will be different," he finishes as if trying to convince himself more than Ellie.
Sarah Walker sits in her Porsche and surveys the Buy More. As far as she can tell nobody has any surviellence so she walks inside while dialing the familiar number that is Langston Graham of the CIA. He tells her about the mission details as she pretends to check out some music at the front of the store. She surveys the store and tries to decide which of these idiots would be her mark. Hopefully not the one with the creepy hair who keeps eyeing her, or his friend who is eyeing somebody else. She isn't paying much attention to her boss besides the occasional, "Yes Sir,"
Her boss then says, "I'm uploading his picture to your phone. Good luck on this one, Sarah,"and as she is about to look at the photo she is temporarily distracted as an older man and a little girl briskly walk past her towards the center of the store where the Nerd Herd help desk was located.
Sarah looks on with interest as she sees two men standing at the help desk. The father is definitely fretting over something, she can tell, as he hands over his camcorder to the taller man. He is not drop dead gorgeous like some California types around here, but he's cute in a nerdy sort of way. He is tall, about 6'3 with bad posture, and he's not muscular looking but she has a feeling the white shirt he is wearing hides that. The long, brown, unkept curls really brings the look together.
The man says something to the shorter man who looks especially short compared to the tall one. He definitely isn't her type at all, but he seems nice enough as he obeys his friend's commands. The girl dressed as a ballerina walks over in front of the tvs mounted on the wall and stands in front of the father's camera. She looks nervous, and Sarah moves to get a better view. The tall man walks up to her and kneels down so he is eye to eye with the young girl. He says something to her and smiles, and she sheepishly smiles back. The man then stands up and jogs off where he won't be on film. The ballerina then begins to dance to some music playing and at the end of the makeshift performance everyone cheers. She can't help but smile. These are the people I try to protect. She finally looks at the picture and is shocked to see the same man who was just helping the ballerina look up at her with a goofy smile on his face. She pushes away her feelings and gets her feelings in order. She has to find out if he was working with Bryce. She has to find out why Bryce did this. Why he betrayed her.
She aproaches she hears the shorter man with a beard say.
"Who is that? Vicki Vale."
Who the hell is Vicki Vale? She thinks to herself as she continues to get closer. She can now hear her mark, the taller of the two rap.
"Vicki Vale, Vick-a, Vicki Vale" and he stops abruptly as he sees her. He even dropped the phone and whatever else he was holding and he tries to cover up the shock on his face but fails miserably.
"That's, uh, that's from Batman," he stutters as he tries to speak correctly.
"Cause that makes it better?" She says giving him a tough time because he looks so adorable when he babbles. Stop it Walker! You're here to get information on Bryce. She shakes her head to clear her thoughts and listens intently to what the brown haired nerd is saying.
"I'm, uh, Chuck, and this is Morgan," he says still worried over something.
"I didn't know people still named their kids or, uh, Morgan for that matter."
"Well my parents are sadists, and carnival freaks found him in a dumpster," he replies after finding his voice.
"But they raised me as one of their own," Sarah's eyes snap to the shorter of the two as he finishes his friend's comment.
"How can I help you, uh," he says searching for a name.
"Sarah," she says giving her cover name. She continues, "I need help with this," and she pulls out an old cell phone which has been sitting in the CIA junkyard for a while now.
"Oh, yeah, the Intel-a-Cell," he says with recognition in his voice. He waves the phone around slightly in his hand until he realizes what he's doing and stops. "Actually there is a quick fix to this," he continues while moving out of the Nerd Herd desk. "There just needs to have an extra part to be added and we actually have some in the back if you want to come back I can fix it right now," he babbles on.
No, Sarah, this is not protical, says the rational part of her brain while the other half is saying, Come on, Sarah, he was just babbling he couldn't hurt a fly.
"Sure," she says with a small smile as she follows him to the back. She keeps a careful eye on him and her surroundings as he leads her down several corridors.
"Here we are," he says as they step into a room with a cage in it. All of her instincts are telling her to run but when he steps into the cage and his eyes plead her to follow she can't help but move herself forward. That's when all hell breaks loose. He drops the phone and lunges toward her. She doesn't even have time to react as he slams her against the cage and grabs the gun out from behind her jeans. She recovers quickly and twists her arm getting out of his grasp and knocks the gun away. He jumps back and she charges going in for a side kick. He ducks and takes out her leg causing her to fall on her back. He grabs her and holds her in a more secure lock against the cage.
"How did you find out? How did you find me? Who else knows about this? Why are you here?" He rattles off questions so fast she doesn't even have time to process them. He obviously doesn't expect an answer as the gun as somehow appeared in his hand. She closes her eyes as she can't get out of the lock and prepares for him to shoot her.
"I'm sorry," he says sorrowfully as he slams the butt of the pistol against her head and runs out the door. Her last conscious thought expressing all of her emotions was, Damn it.
A/N Yes? No? Maybe so? Should I write more? I would really appreciate to hear from you. Obviously this is an AU, and that will become very apparent as I write the next chapters and steer away from the cannon. That is, if you want more chapters. I think the chapters will probably stay this length. They might get longer, and I'll try to not make them shorter. Read and Review please.