What's up FanFiction Nation?! Sorry for such a long break between chapters, I had midterms and a wedding to organize/be a part of these last couple of weeks so I apologize for keeping myself away from the story so long. I'll try to shoot out a couple of chapters this holiday break to make up for it.
Here are some review responses and shoutouts for you today!
A very happy and hardy welcome to Andy Andrews for reviewing and jumping into this little story of ours! Thanks for the review! One of my favorite sections of Fanfiction is LoTR! I'm actually about three chapters ahead in writing right now where Lor and Steve finally meet. I'm still working on the dynamics of the conversations but I think it's going to be a really sweet treat!
To Cara and Kashi – I'm kind of playing around story board wise with what will happen on the flipside with Andrea. I'm working with some of my friends on theories on what exactly happened to toss Lor from our world to theirs and once I get a solid plan on that is when I'll decide which side Andrea gets to reunite with Lor on.
Also thanks to everyone else who follows and favorites! It's much appreciated!
Give Em Hell Kid
Lorena knew she didn't have much time before they came for her. Her bare feet padded the clean tile as she ran down the hall looking for a floor plan or someone to guide her to the nearest phone. Her heart ran purely on adrenaline as she slipped around a corner, almost losing her footing from the slick tile under her sweaty bare feet. She heard a door slide open and ducked in an adjacent hallway until she heard footsteps getting closer. She kept her gun close to her and watched an Indian man whom she could only assume was the doctor Scott was talking about. He walked past her down the hallway and decided it was now or never to make a move. She followed the man down the hall until she was right on his heels. She pushed him with all her might against the wall, the muzzle of the gun under his chin and her hand over his mouth.
"Please don't scream okay?" She whispered frantically. Her eyes full of fear and panic. "I'm going to let you go, and you're going to direct me to your office. You're going to be quiet and you're not going to alarm anyone okay? I don't want to hurt you, and I definitely don't want to kill you." She looked in the doctors eyes as he nodded, fear overtaking his senses as well. Lorena breathed a sigh of relief and let her hand drop from the doctor's mouth and the gun to her side. The security breech alarm rang throughout Stark Tower, and both parties looked up at the flashing lights and Lorena instantly tensed up, putting her hand over the doctor's mouth before he let out a scream. Lorena put the gun back under his chin and shushed him.
"Don't be stupid. I don't want to hurt you unless I have to." Lorena added to make sure the point was across. The doctor nodded again and a muffled agreement confirmed it. She pushed the doctor forward and they slid into the elevator, Lorena shooting the security camera out as they walked in.
"They'll stop you. Whatever you're doing. They'll get you." The doctor breathed out as the doors to the elevator shut and Lorena stood behind him, gun pointed at his back.
"How can you follow these lunatics? Just because they have money?" Lorena shot back. "I'm not afraid to fight back. You shouldn't be either."
"Look who's talking crazy now? Fight back against the Avengers? You're mad!" The doctor turned and argued with her.
"They're not The Avengers!" Lorena screamed.
"What are you talking about?" The doctor almost was unfazed by the gun now, just trying to reason with Lorena. "They saved the world not two months ago! And now they are trying to save you! What world are you living in?" Lorena just stared at the man, purely shocked at his answers.
"I… I don't know." Ding! Lorena and the doctor faltered as they heard the elevator bell. Lorena realized that she had lowered her gun a fair amount in the screaming match, and the doctor was looking like he was gaining confidence. She quickly lifted the gun and motioned for him to exit out of the elevator first. She had a mission, and she was not going to back down.
FxL
"Mister Stark, I believe Miss Day took out the security camera in the employee elevator." JARVIS notified via announcement system to the group as they were checking the rehabilitation room on the medical floor of Stark Tower. Steve was already half way out the room when JARVIS continued. "She has taken one of the medical staff hostage and they are headed to the recreation floor, shall I stop the elevator sir?"
"No, don't!" Steve said, stopped mid-step.
"Yes, JARVIS. Shut it down."
"No! Stark, why would she be going up there?" Steve questioned. "If she really wanted after our information, why would she go to the rec center?"
"Maybe she wants a biscuit and tea before she steals all our information?" Stark remarked. Pepper racked her brain for an answer why the doctor would be leading her there, she recognized the Indian man as Howard Malhotra.
"Office!" Pepper shouted. "Howards office!"
"Not following Pepper." Stark noted.
"Uh…H-Howard has his personal office where his phone line can call internationally, cause his family is overseas…" She looked from her tablet watching the security feed. "She needs a phone!"
"To call her parents." Steve concluded. The group ran to the public elevator and piled in.
"She still doesn't believe she's in a different universe." Bruce finished everyone's thought.
"She's just trying to call her family. Oh God Tony, we should've seen this." Pepper put her hand to her forehead. "She just wants to go home." She leant against the back of the elevator wall, her hand holding onto the back railing. Tony took her by the shoulders and looked at her sympathetically.
"Look, this girl is…" Pepper gave him a look, Tony swallowed, threading carefully. "Lost, and we're just going to put her back in her room and get back to figuring out how to get her back home alright?" Pepper kept her look steadfast. Tony stared right back.
"Don't hurt her Tony, she's not well." Pepper answered his gaze sternly.
"I promise I won't hurt her… bad." Was the response, Pepper was about to open her mouth to protest when she heard the doors open, and a door bursting open and a mangled cry of Doctor Malhotra.
"Oh God." Pepper gasped, looking out from behind Tony and into the hall way of the rec center. Tony looked over his shoulder while Steve and Bruce piled out of the elevator and to Howard's office. Tony looked back at Pepper and gave her a determined stare.
"Stay here. I'll handle it." Tony commanded and followed right behind Steve as he rushed into the scene. It was a hell of a mess is what it was. Natasha as well as two other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents aiming guns at Lorena who was holding the poor doctor in front of her as a body shield, a gun in his back while he held onto his office phone.
"Looks like you know a lot about escaping protective custody." Natasha aimed her gun in Lorena's general direction. "Know how to handle a weapon as well."
"Lot more than you think." Lorena retorted.
"How about you let the doctor go, and I don't have to waste that kind of talent." Natasha gave her warning. Lorena just remained resigned.
"Just let me make my phone call and no one has to get hurt." Lorena warned. She moved the gun from aiming at the agents to the doctor's temple. "I'm not afraid to shoot!"
"Drop the gun Lorena!" Natasha barked back.
"Let me make my fucking phone call!" Lorena screamed again.
Steve pushed past the guards and grabbed a hold of Natasha's arm and pulled it down.
"Jesus Nat, let her make the call." Steve gave Natasha a hard look. "She needs this. She needs to know we're on her side."
"I'm on the side of protecting our people, not her. You don't have the authorization Rogers, back off." The assassin spat. Steve looked back at Lorena as she stared at him, mouth slightly agape. Steve wondered what emotion was behind the girls stunning green-hazel eyes as she gazed. Natasha's two agents grabbed a hold of Steve as he let them take him back behind the doorway with Banner and Stark. Steve wanted to push against them, but he knew that it would take an altercation with Natasha for him to really help Lorena, and it would question his loyalty with the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative later on. Sympathy was in his eyes and he removed himself from the situation and hoped that Lorena would make it out alright.
"Nothings gonna get better Romanoff, it's just going to get worse if she doesn't make the call." Banner called from behind the agents.
"Please!" Doctor Malhotra pleaded. "I don't want to die!" He screamed. Natasha put her gun up again.
"Drop it Lorena!"
"I want to make my phone call!" Lorena yelled, her voice full of hysteria and growing horse from the lump growing in her throat. So close to her goal, choking back the sobs from wanting, longing, missing her home, Lorena was going to end it here and now. Either successful, or die trying. Steve was ready for action when a wave of blonde drove past all of them in front of Natasha's gun.
"Wait, wait, wait." Pepper stepped in between Lorena and Natasha firing paths, her hands up and glancing between the two weapons. Her eyes we're wide as saucers, and anyone could tell she was out of her league. However her resolve and overwhelming desire to help Lorena and save her colleague caused her to get out of that elevator and clack her heels down the hall into Howard's office.
"Pepper, uh, what are you doing dear?" Tony put on a stern face, even though he was speaking in a comedic and desperate tone.
"Trying to not get blood on the carpet honey!" Pepper replied in the same manner. Tony's eyes shifted between the two guns and their owners back to Pepper.
"I told you to stay in the elevator." Tony's voice becoming a bit more serious, Pepper remained steadfast in-between the two women.
"Get out of the way Pepper." Natasha warned.
"And let her get shot up like some criminal?" Pepper retorted. "She's just a girl Natasha; I won't let this happen, not in my house."
"That's not up to you, now step away from the girl." Natasha snapped.
"No, you step away from my employee's office!" Pepper shouted at Natasha. "This is my building and we're doing this my way." She looked back between the two women. "You're all going to leave this office, and I'm going to shut the door and Lorena is going to have her phone calls. Before I shut the door, Lorena is going to give me her gun and let the doctor go. Seem fair?" Pepper looked towards Lorena. The younger woman looked back between Natasha and Pepper what seemed like an eternity.
"I want them to stand down first." She finally said. Pepper turned to Natasha, and begrudgingly, after another eternity, she lowered her weapon and so did the other agents. Pepper turned back to Lorena who still held the doctor captive.
"Lorena, you can let him go now. I promise you can make your calls okay? We held up our end of the bargain, time for you to do the same." Lorena hesitantly but eventually let the doctor go. Doctor Malhotra sputtered thanks to Pepper and ran out of the room into the depths of the hallway. Pepper looked again at Lorena, then her gun. After another long pause, Lorena put the gun on the desk. Peppers picked the gun up with her index finger and thumb and haphazardly handed it to Romanoff. Another long pause between the three women as Natasha looked between Pepper and Lorena.
"You got five minutes." Natasha moved back to let Pepper shut the door. Once behind it, she turned around and looked at the exhausted young woman before her.
"Are you okay?" Pepper looked at Lorena. She was about average height, soft black hair with tried green-hazel eyes. Her skin was a slight pale, like she had spent a few seasons away from the sun, and her body was thin, not as thin as Pepper was, but thinner than Natasha. She looked like she was dehydrated, starving, and on the edge of breaking down, sending a pang through Pepper's heart. It was Pepper's first meeting Lorena, and it wasn't under the best circumstances, but hopefully some kind of trust would be established through this time they had together. Lorena looked stunned to see Pepper, but gave a silent nod in response to her question. Pepper took a deep breath and moved to the desk where the phone was dropped to the floor. Picking it up and gliding over to turn the computer on, Pepper looked towards the young woman again and tried to conjure a smile.
"Okay, let's make those calls."
Alrighty Fanfiction Nation! Make sure you clickity clack that follow button if you liked the story and hey, maybe even leave a review… especially if you have your own playlist/addition/picture to the story that you'd like myself and this community to see. I just made a tumblr for this story as I was writing the final touches so yeah, if you'd like to follow the url is unchartedfanfic dot tumblr dot com.
And with that Fanfiction Nation, my name is JanFL, you've just been updated and I will see you next time!
