Forum Block
Stacked With: MC4A; Hogwarts; Shipping War
Individual Challenges: In a Flash; Yellow Ribbonl Yellow Ribbon Redux; SHIELD MC (x2)
Prompts: "You feeling lucky?" / "After last time, not particularly." (auction);
Word count: 616


Phil grabbed his gear as he was alerted to the presence of a glowing 0-8-4 being discovered in a nearby town. As he strode down one of the many corridors in SHIELD HQ, Clint fell into step beside him. The archer handed over a cup of coffee and Phil had to resist the urge to kiss the living daylights out of him. Instead, he settled for walking a bit closer to Clint and brushing shoulders while he guzzled down the divine drink.

"You feeling lucky?" Clint asked as they boarded the quinjet.

Phil chucked the now-empty coffee cup in the nearby bin and replied with a dry tone. "After last time, not particularly."

Last time they had encountered a glowing 0-8-4, the two of them had been sent into an alternate dimension where there were not SHIELD agents, but rock stars. The time before that, Phil had become a werewolf, and before that there had been a time loop. Their luck with 0-8-4s was rubbish; the device always managed to drag both Phil and Clint into some sort of adventure.

"At least this one doesn't seem to be causing any problems so far," Clint said as they sat down and buckled in.

Phil grunted. "Neither did any of the other ones. It would be nice if this one was simple, but we shouldn't expect anything to be easy."

"Never do, Phil. I'm part of SHIELD, after all, and there's this guy who likes poking me about paperwork that needs to be filled out in triplicate—"

Clint cut off when Phil sagged into him, the coffee barely keeping his spirits up as he prepared to face yet another 0-8-4. How many more of these strange glowing objects could he handle? This would be the fourth one in a relatively short amount of time. 0-8-4s were not common and now this? He had to wonder if someone had it out for him.

"Hey, you okay?" Clint asked.

Phil hummed in agreement. He was okay. He wasn't great, but he was okay. "Just tired."

"Grab some sleep while we're flying, I'll wake you when we're about to land."

Phil was already feeling the pull of sleep and spent the rest of the trip in the space that lay between sleep and wakefulness. He wasn't really sleepy; he was just exhausted and the thought of dealing with another ridiculous situation drained his energy.

He woke up fully when Clint patted his shoulder and sat up. They had arrived at the town. It was time to deal with whatever the 0-8-4 would throw at them.

"Any better?" Clint asked, peering at Phil in concern.

Phil smiled at him. "I'll be fine, Clint."

"You better be."


A blast of yellow light burst out of the small rotund object and enveloped Phil and Clint. As the colour washed over him, Phil could feel his memories fading in a similar manner to how they had when he had been in the alternate universe. His life was being rewritten in his mind, memories disappearing and appearing at an alarming rate.

His days as a Ranger were replaced with days trapped in a kitchen. Lola became a dog named Lucky. He didn't hear rumours about how he had knocked out several bad guys with a packet of donuts and a hot cup of coffee, instead it was how his own donuts and coffee were good enough to die for. When the yellow faded, Phil straightened his jacket and headed into the nearby coffee shop.

After his day, he needed more coffee, he thought. And where better to get some than a place where he knew the owner and could have a coffee on the house?