Booya, back at it again with the early post. Please leave comments- I rely on the serotonin it gives me. As always- T. Rycbar is a stupid-head and if you read their fanfics before mine, you are too. Thanks!

IDon'tOwnMarvel

Las Vegas was a hell of a place to have to meet the guy with my proof of existence on hand. Don't ask me how I managed to drag my sorry ass all the way there, but I can say it involved a lot of walking, a bit of persuasion at a truck stop and about two hours of listening to a stranger talk about the current drama with her 'cheating whore of a wife'.

Rounding the final block on foot, I patted the flash drive in my pocket with my backpack carrying my laptop all the way to some dinky coffee shop that looked a little like it belonged in a Life Magazine. The guy had wanted it to be somewhere public, so I took that as confirmation that he was just as anxious about meeting strangers on the internet as I was, though, a lot of that fear melted through the floor and was replaced with a bit of amusement when I saw him sitting at a booth by himself. The person there was not at all who I'd been expecting.

Is- Is that the computer guy from Ant Man? I almost laughed out loud and came up to Kurt with much more confidence than I had this morning. "Hi."

"Hello. You are David?" He looked up from his binder, wearing that damn heavy russian accent I remembered from the movie.

"Yep, that's me." I smiled, sitting down across from him as he held out a folder for me to take. I passed him the flash drive in exchange and he immediately plugged it into his computer. That took me by surprise since I'd figured he'd want me to prove that it wasn't a sham on my computer. "Are you...using it now?"

"Yes." He stated simply, waving me off. "Go away."

I flipped the folder open and just checked quickly that all my papers were there before nodding and getting up again. "You can find my work on Garage."

"You find mine there too." He said back, looking like he was about to dismiss me again before looking up to study my features. He just shook his head to himself after that and got back to work.

And with that, I walked right back out. I hitchhiked all the rest of the way to Mississippi with the occasional four to six mile stretch where I'd have to walk after being dropped off. It was excruciatingly slow and I did have to electrocute a guy when he got the wrong idea and grabbed my leg, but other than that, people were surprisingly laid back. Getting a normal life really was worth all this trouble. Sure, I could've saved myself a thousand bug bites and a night outside by just letting SHIELD take me, but if I was going to be stuck in another universe with any chance of not losing my mind, I needed to not be right in the middle of all that was fictional six months ago.

I stopped at random stores and one or libraries to work on commissions and make more money so I could pay rent at the apartment I'd found when I did finally manage to get there. After a little bit, I started to realize that a lot of people were asking for the same things, so I invested in a small briefcase that could hold the different flash drives with a copy of each program that I designed. This made it as easy as copying the malware off the flash drive and then sending it to whoever bought it as an encrypted packet.

This new system meant that by the time I had arrived at my place in Mississippi, I had enough money to keep me supported for a few months. The town I found myself in, Hernando, was actually relatively nice in comparison to a few of its surrounding neighbors, so I lucked out there. I settled in quickly with my limited items and made sure that I was still fully hidden from the most high-tech government agency on the planet before fancying the idea of enrolling in school for the fall with my fake emancipation papers. I got a job as a line cook in a nearby diner, signed up for self-defense classes every Wednesday and Kung-fu on Fridays, and actually felt sort of proud of how I managed to do adulting all alone like that. I loved Hernando.

That's why leaving it was so hard all those months later.

"You can't just wait and expect him to ask you to go to the party with him." I took another bite of my sandwich with a shrug. "Ask him yourself."

"Okay, but not all of us are as fearless as you." Kate rolled her eyes at me before addressing our friend again. "Lola, listen to me, if he doesn't ask you, you'll just go with me and Link."

When I didn't respond, she elbowed me in the side roughly and shot me a glare. "Right?"

"Ow!" I protested at the jab, shaking my head right after and taking another bite of my lunch. "Right."

"What're we talking about?" Jaime asked, appearing with his hot lunch and sitting down with us too.

"Nothing!" Lola replied all-to-fast, kicking Kate under the table who looked like she was about to spill with the way her lips turned up in a smirk.

I, however, was not kicked and smiled directly at Lola while I addressed Jaime. "We were just talking about the party. Are you going?"

Lola shot me a glare that Jaime must not have seen in his more flustered state. "Y-Yeah, I mean, probably. Why? Are you guys going?"

It was a little ridiculous thinking about how he and Lola had been dancing circles around both of their obvious crushes ever since we started Junior Year. The simplicity of their lives that led to such trivial things being important to them was really what drew me to this friend group in the first place. They were like your average teenagers with a boatload of romantic insecurity and about two cups of hating everything that ever exists.

"Yeah, I don't know." I admitted honestly, staring sadly at my empty sandwich bag. "I've got work that night and I don't really want to call out for it."

"Oh come on," Kate groaned, shaking my shoulder and making me stifle a chuckle. "You have to! You haven't gone to anything with us this year. At least go to this stupid party."

"Alright, alright." I shook my head with a smile. "I'll text you if I can get time off."

I really did like this school. Making friends was troublesome at first, but as soon as I did that, I blended right in with my little squad. As June passed by, we were two days from finishing Junior year.

Again, two days! They couldn't have waited until I finished my finals?

"Lincoln Patel?"

I froze in my seat at the familiar name, every bit of relaxation and calmness being replaced with panic. All my friends from the year just looked over nonchalantly at whoever was standing behind me. I could make an educated guess, of course, on who was there, but I didn't really need to. After all, they'd used my real last name, which meant that wherever they wanted me to go was not here. There was no way they were going to drag me back.

Kate didn't even bat an eye at them, despite knowing my first name and the fact that these people had to be talking to me. "Who?"

"Look, man, I don't know who you are." Jamie piped in with an insincere chuckle. "But we've got class in, like, two minutes."

I kept my eyes on the table as the people behind me didn't respond. The second a hand came down on my shoulder, I was ready. I whipped around with a grip on the hand, taking whoever it was by surprise as I flipped them onto the floor with a move I worked on for four days in Kung-fu. My eyes caught sight of the SHIELD symbol and almost made a run for it, only to be grabbed by the agent's partner and yanked backwards onto the table we'd been eating at. Luckily everyone had already jumped back at the sudden movements so no one was left sitting as pain shot up my back from the move.

The male agent tried to flip me over and pin me, but I grabbed onto his hands and sent a course of electricity strong enough to knock him out, which worked well enough. He collapsed on the floor as the lady had been given a chance to get up and make a grab for me too. I had a chance to get off the table too though, so now we stood for a full five seconds just staring at each other in anticipation. She lunged at me and I didn't react quite fast enough, getting her to manage to tackle me to the ground. I hit my back and head again hard on the ground before the lady started to flip me over like her partner.

Her only mistake- touching my hands.

Soon enough, she was out too on top of her partner while I stumbled to my feet, catching my breath and rubbing my throat where the guy had almost choked me with my own hoodie. Before any of the two hundred people in the cafeteria could say anything, I grabbed my bag and shoved out the double doors into the hallway without so much as a glance back at who I used to consider friends. That part hurt a little bit. I didn't need to see the look on their faces though as I revealed myself to be a mistake of the universe.

I shoved away the sadness as I packed up my apartment that night and arrived in a new town the following morning with one of my new illegal contacts setting me up with an apartment that takes new tenants overnight. Some of the clothes I'd bought were left behind so I could fit in some food, but regardless of what I had and what was left, I was in a new town sixty miles away by the next morning and vanished as if I'd never been in Hernando in the first place. I did have to make a mental note to buy a duffle bag though since I would've liked to keep some more of those clothes if I had the space.

The timing ended up being not terrible as I just changed my transcript to say I passed my finals when enrolling in this new school for senior year. I changed my name again too, meeting some new guy that I didn't recognize for the paperwork and license that I needed since Kurt had apparently gotten himself arrested. This all happened before I could pick up a new job as a line cook at some dumb breakfast diner. I didn't enjoy making breakfast food over burgers, but I also wasn't in a position to be picky about work.

Now, to be fair, I didn't exactly have to work as a line cook. I could just take on more commissions on Garage and make lots more money that way, but I was trying to start to keep a low profile in this new town. So, you know, that's why I turned down the job offer I got one night from one Ulysses Klaue to be his 'tech guy'. While I was very excited to see a mostly harmless villain up close, working with him did not seem like the smartest choice, especially since I knew that I would pop up real fast on SHIELD's radar by working with such a big criminal organization. Plus, I may bend the law every once in a while for some side cash, but that didn't mean I was going to ditch whatever morals I might have left in this strange world.

So, obviously I didn't take the offer.

I'm not insane.

One other thing I did as soon as I showed up was adopt a certain pet the same afternoon that Ms. Wizard decided to appear in my apartment. Luckily she was not there to drag me anywhere and just had some 'corrections to make'. Next thing I know, I have an empathic link with a Bearded Dragon.

It was the fall of 2014 when I started my Senior year, meaning that I would hopefully be able to hide out through to the end of it in 2015. I would be too busy with highschool to even bother with the killer robot that Tony makes. It wasn't like they lost that fight anyways. Sure, hundreds died, but that didn't necessarily mean that it was my fault. That was Tony's fault for making it in the first place. If anything, I was like the german citizens when the...holocaust...was happening. That's not the worst that I could be. I mean, Vision had to be created one way or another, and interfering with that could cause more problems. The conclusion after many days of debate was that spending my Senior year in Canton Mississippi was preferable over Sokovia.

Everything went well for a while now.

I had new 'friends' at the school who were very interested in my coding abilities for our soon-to-be-champion robot. They were the real engineers and I just had better codes than our competition. Outside of school and clubs, I will admit that I tried to balance my illegal activities with some vigilante work. That was always fun and made for a pretty interesting eight-ish months of school. And I say eight-ish because someone decided that late April was the best time to show up and throw a wrench in my life while I still had two months of regular school on top of summer classes to be considered 'graduated'.

"Okay, but Brew-Burg is sooo good. They've got the best cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate in the entire world." Connie continued to babble as we left class for the end of the day. She never really cared if we were listening, but looked over at us this time. "You guys are coming, right?"

Leah and I exchanged glances with a small shrug on both our ends. I spoke up first though. "I can go after boxing if you guys don't mind waiting. I'm only gonna be like half an hour today."

"Yeah," Leah nodded, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "I can go too, but only if one of you is buying. My mom cut off my allowance this week."

Ugh. I internally groaned at that. Yes, let us all just flaunt the fact that we have parents. Whoop-de-doo, Leah.

"Oh yeah," Connie waved us off. "I'll pay for both of you. Then 'little miss line cook' here doesn't have to spend her hard earned money."

"It is hard-earned." I chuckled at her jab while she smirked to herself. "Thank you for acknowledging that."

"I wasn't." She shook her head, still wearing the smile that might've made my heart melt if I wasn't so adamant on not getting close to people. "I was just acknowledging that you're a dumb ass."

"Ouch." I clicked my tongue at that before tensing a little when she tossed an arm over my shoulder.

Ah, yes. The simple insecurity of crushing hard on someone you shouldn't. I bit the inside of my cheek at that, swearing that if I turned red, I'd be fucked.

"Hey, so we did not see your dress yet, and I'm very curious." Connie looked over at me, making me try desperately not to blush as if I had control over how close her face was to mine.

"Yeah, it's just-" I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I'm actually wearing a suit. I have some dress pants and the-the jacket...thing...with a bowtie."

Connie smiled at that. "Oh, so when we go together, people will know you're my date?"

I internally froze at that, not exactly sure how I was supposed to respond while my ears turned bright red. "Um, like, us? As a- As a date? To prom?"

"Yeah, Putz." She chuckled, giving me a small bump from her hip. "So? You wanna go to prom with this dumb bisexual?"

Leah was just smiling wildly beside us like the supportive straight friend she was as they stopped to stand around and stare at me.

"Uh, yeah," I squeaked out, rubbing the back of my neck. "That'd be really cool."

"Hell yeah, it's cool!" She gave my shoulder a shove with a smile too before starting up again to walk towards the exit with Leah. "Okay, you gotta send pics of the outfit tonight though."

"Sure thing." I bit my lip and smiled with excitement, falling two steps behind them as Connie went back off again to Leah about her dress pockets.

My moment of excitement lasted maybe thirty seconds though as my heart was quick to drop through the floor at the sight of two SHIELD agents and Chris Evans coming out of a room at the end of the hallway. I choked on thin air before throwing myself into the nearest classroom and shutting the door behind myself as fast as possible.

When I peeked out the window, Connie and Leah had stopped in their place and spun in a full circle in question of where I'd disappeared to. Leah covered her mouth with a snort then and looked back at Connie. "Oh my god, you scared her so bad."

"She'll turn up." Connie waved it off with a small shake of her head and started away again with Leah. "We can just text her to make sure she didn't die later."

I switched my gaze to the Agents and Cap with the latter turning his gaze to look exactly in my direction. Ducking quickly, I spun around, just then noticing the other kid in the room as I made a beeline across it. The kid from my math class just watched me with a bit of confusion before getting on a new level of mind-your-own-business with a small shake of his head. He looked back at his homework while I crammed myself in the closet and titled my chin up to make for quieter breathing. When the classroom door opened again, Steve stepped in and looked around before noticing the kid.

"Have you seen a girl…" He motioned with his hand. "About this tall, brown hair, running around here?"

James kept his eyes on his work but pointed behind himself with a pencil. "You mean the one who just threw herself out the window?"

"Shit." Steve cursed under his breath, turning and leaving quickly. "Thank you!"

I practically fell out of the closet as soon as he was gone and stood up straight, brushing myself off.

Jaime looked over at me suspiciously. "Dude, what did you do to piss off Captain America?"

"He's just a friend of my dad's." I shook my head with the quick lie. "Pop's caught me sneaking out so he called in a favor to have the guy scare me into being a better citizen."

Jamie nodded at that. "Yeah, my parents would totally exploit that connection too. Do you have the calculus homework done?"

I stopped halfway to the door and sighed, turning back around to pull it out of it's folder from my bag and hand it to him. "It might not be 100%."

"Doesn't matter." He accepted it easily. "I'll give it back tomorrow in English."

"Thanks." I muttered, moving back to the door to look out for danger while knowing damn well that I'd never be getting that homework back.

I absolutely hated that I suddenly had to leave again and right before Prom. I'd literally scored my first date ever for the prom and none other than Captain America was here to fuck it up for me. Senior year was almost up and while I could totally just lie and pretend that I got a diploma, I was desperate for these last few months of feeling like a normal teenager. Maybe I'd be able to get in on prom in a new school, but I wouldn't be able to go with my new friends or Connie which really sucked.

When I made it out of the school, I started on the 25 minute walk back to my apartment and turned it into 15 minutes with a brisk jog. My backpack sort of weighed me down, but after all we'd been through together, I had formed an emotional attachment to the damn thing, so I carried it all the way back and up the steps past my landlord who was shoving a wad of cash in his pockets. I swear, that man and his drug deals were going to catch up with him one of these days. The only reason why I didn't book him in my Alter Ego was because I didn't want to be potentially homeless or have to go through the trouble of getting a new place. Plus, weed deals weren't exactly something I actively sought out to foil. I'd never had any problems with pot-heads.

I almost stuck my key in the lock to let myself in when I had to stop short and stare at my doormat. It was straight. I'd lived here almost a year now and not once had it ever been straightened out.

How terribly suspicious? I frowned, looking down both halls before backing up and turning towards the exit. I brought myself outside where I rounded to the alleyway and tossed my bag onto a fire escape and hopped up too. Originally this had been used by me so I could get in and out with my makeshift ninja outfit and avoid people finding out my identity. Now I was technically climbing into my apartment, but for a different reason than hidden vigilante work.

It wasn't incredibly difficult climbing up the stairs quietly since I'd done it so many times before. The only change was me opening the window inch by inch so as to not alert anyone who might be lurking inside trying to catch me by surprise. I slipped inside next with all my senses on high-alert for an attacker right as my heart shot out of my chest from the click of my lamp turning on behind me.

I'd never whipped around so fast in all my life with my hands up and building purple electricity, ready to strike whoever dared to invite themselves in.

Fury just smiled slightly in amusement while sitting comfortably at my table. "Lincoln."

"Fury." I lowered my hands slowly, knowing that striking him wouldn't stop the fact that I'd been caught. Flipping over my back, I dumped the contents out before sighing and deciding that I'd rather argue with him than a swarm of agents if I were to knock him out. "You fixed my doormat."

"Lovely accommodation." He commented, completely ignoring my quip and standing up to start inspecting my shelf of personal effects. "I'm sure your roommates, the cockroaches, treat you well."

"Yeah," I scoffed, starting to toss my and TC's food in the backpack from my kitchen. "Just gotta know, how long were you just sitting there in that chair waiting to turn on a light when I walked in? It's ridiculous to consider now, the more I think about it."

"I can't stop in on my favorite teenage runaway?" He raised his eyebrows at me while I zipped up the bag and left it by the door to go into my room next.

There, I pulled out my duffle bag and shoved in all my clothes with both clips of cash out of my dresser. I tossed in my favorite blanket and...okay, yeah, the stuffed elephant I had accidentally formed an attachment to as an almost-eighteen-year-old delinquent. TC was pulled out of his habitat too and placed on my shoulder before I walked back out into the common area.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Fury asked as I stepped back in.

I waved my hand at him, dismissing him as best I could. "Oh, I don't know- turning my perfectly normal life upside down? Dragging me back to a place I keep getting hurt at? Or is it because you lost your little prophet that's only good for telling you when shit's about to hit the fan?"

TC's soft hum of attempted comfort barely worked as he crawled down between my T-shirt and hoodie with a concerned feeling.

"We need you back on base."

"So, the last one." I muttered to myself, pushing my laptop in the bag too, being careful of the lizard now hanging onto my chest. I unscrewed the vent cover on the floor next and pulled out my malware briefcase. "Fun, fun."

"You said your knowledge won't become useful until 2015." Fury continued. "Wanna take a wild guess what the date is?"

I shrugged innocently with a frown. "God, I haven't a clue. Would not care if I did."

Pacing across the room then with my backpack on and my duffle over my shoulder, I had my hand on the door and opened it about two inches before Fury pushed it shut again. I turned an annoyed glare at him. "Let me go. Do you even remember the last time I tried to help?"

"You saved eight people." He deadpanned. "What part of that sounds bad to you?"

"Yeah," I rolled my eyes at that. "Then I did a bit of reflecting and wondered if letting Pepper get tortured or having Tony Stark of all people hate my existence had to be a big part of it. I don't need to reflect back on this event in two years and wonder if maybe one thing shoulda been done differently or maybe if I did this instead of that, someone might still be alive or the Avengers might not be out for my interdimensional skin."

Fury didn't even bat an eye at me. "This isn't about them. This is about whatever you thought might happen this year and when."

"Look, man," I ran my fingers through my too-long hair and sighed. "I can't speak for my past-self all the time, but I'm pretty sure she was full of it."

I pulled the door open again with Fury actually letting me this time and following me out into the surprisingly empty hallway. Marching away with my shit, I had TC humming in worry on my chest while soaking up heat there since these hallways were always cold. I'd have to get him a new enclosure for our apartment since there was no way I was taking the time to unassemble his current one when I was in a rush-

"How many?" Fury interrupted, making me stop in my place before I could get too far.

I drummed my fingers over my duffle bag. "How many, what?"

"How many die from this, Lincoln?"

Fuck, I mentally cursed him out, wincing at his statement. Why'd he have to play that card? He fucking knew didn't he? Stupid fucking-

"How. Many?" He asked again, annoyingly persistent.

"117." I replied, just loud enough for him to hear. "Second deadliest event actually. It has to happen though so leave me alone."

"117 people have to die?" He demanded this question, calling out what last bit of fight I had left in me on this.

I turned around back to face him in anger. "No one has to die. The event has to happen. And that's not on me."

"You can keep telling yourself that." Fury didn't flinch from my glare. "But that doesn't change the fact that you know where, when, and how 117 people die, putting it on you whether you like it or not. And you want to let them just die."

"I- ugh," I growled in annoyance. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. I can't just throw myself in the mix and risk the possibility of losing two new very important members of your super secret boy band. If this doesn't happen, they won't be here when you need them."

"So help me." He put his hands in his pockets, making me hate how much I was toying with the idea of caving. "Work around them. Find a way that can get 117 innocent people away from the event."

"I'm not-" I let out an exasperated sigh, waving a hand at him. "I'm not gonna quit my job and school just to get dragged into blame for something else."

"You mean," He pulled out a small phone device to pull up my page. "Illegally selling malware?"

I opened and shut my mouth at him, actually a little shocked at that. "How do you know about Garage?"

"You mean to tell me that you're surprised?" He shook his head. "I know everything I need to know."

"Except how to find me in a timely manner." I mumbled back, turning my gaze to the wall awkwardly before looking at the floor.

"What's the answer?" He nodded at me, crossing his arms and clearly trying to read me while I burned with spite.

"I hate you." I deadpanned, looking over at the apartment I used to reside in. "You have to send someone for our stuff, and I want to disappear again after."

"Our?"

I slipped my hand under my shirt to pull out TC and put him back on my shoulder. TC disapproved of this, of course, hissing before he scrambled back under my hoodie to cling to my chest.

Fury just stared, clearly being internally unnerved by the thing before shutting his mouth with a small huff of a sigh. "Deal."

"Why don't you shake my hand to make it official?" I dared to tease him, not cracking a smile while he looked back at me with the same deadpan stare.

"I'm not doing that."

"You don't like lizards, do you?" I challenged, raising an eyebrow and making him pass a glare my way as he walked by. I followed in tow pretty quickly. "Shake my hand."

"I don't have time for fears." He walked himself into the stairwell with me keeping up behind him.

"Oh, of course." I nodded with a small smirk growing on my face at that. "I know that."

I am sooo going to regret this. I frowned at the pang of sadness over my lost date. I really hope Connie understands...