This is the second Chapter of Hidden in the Sky. Thanks for the reviews of Chapter 1, the good and the bad, I appreciate them. I made the mistake of writing this chapter late at night, when no one was home, so I kind of freaked even myself out with it lol. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it. To answer a few questions, no, the fic will not be like, or end like, the movie in question.

To answer another question, the characters' looks in this fic vary. The guys all have their season 2 looks. Young, and decent hair. I'd say the girls were season 2 also, except Monica, who I would imagine with more of her season 3 style. I know, to some of you it doesn't matter at all, but someone asked and that is how I pictured it when I wrote this. I can't think of anything else to say other than I hope you all like it. So here's Chapter 2.

Hidden in the Sky

"What the hell is hidden in that sky?"

Joey shrugged, and moved to stand beside his friend on the balcony. "I don't know. But I don't like it." They both remained silent for a few minutes, staring out over the park, as their friends sat inside in front of the TV. Joey sighed, and scratched the hair on the back of his head. "I don't know. Maybe it's some secret government thing. Some invisible shield or something that they were just testing out."

"Maybe," Ross nodded, but didn't move his eyes off the sky.

"Maybe it's all being faked by some pranksters, ya know? Maybe it's just a big hoax." Monica joined the conversation as she walked out onto the balcony. Joey's arm slid around her as she pulled close to him.

"Maybe it's God."

Joey and Monica both looked at Ross, but his gaze didn't falter. They both knew he wasn't a very religious person, so hearing him speak about God was definitely out of character. They continued to look at him, expecting to have more of an explanation, but they got none.

The sound of Chandler's voice from the window broke up the moment. "You guys should probably see this."

The three of them followed him back into the living room, where the news was now flashing another breaking news report.

As experts pore through the limited information on the footage we just showed you, another piece of tape is being sent to us via satellite from our affiliate in Houston, where a similar accident has occurred, this time involving a small private jet. Again, we must warn you that this footage is both graphic and disturbing.

The six of them stared at the television as the footage began to roll. A small private jet plane was flying in for it's landing. Everything seemed to be going normal, when in mid air, the plane seemed to crash into something. The nose crushed into the body of the plane, and an instant later, it erupted in an explosion. The girls shrieked and the guys cringed as the reality of what just happened settled into their minds.

"Oh my god," Rachel turned her head from the screen, not bearing to watch anymore. "That's so horrible."

Our White House correspondent has reported that the US military is now looking into the possibility of a foreign weapons test occurring over the skies of America. The unexplained events of late have sent government heads into a frenzy for answers, and preliminary reports from the governor's office suggest that a state of martial law could be put into effect in New York City as soon as Eight PM tonight. We'll update you with more information as soon as we have it. We'll now return you to the Simpsons.

Phoebe looked at her husband, "What time is it?"

Ross raised his arm to check the Rolex on his wrist. "It's five. In three hours the streets could be filled national guardsman, and the city could have a curfew."

Monica shut off the TV and walked back to the chair where Joey was sitting. She sat down and made herself comfortable in his lap. "This is creepy."

Phoebe nodded her agreement, "Maybe everyone should stay here tonight. You know, just for comfort."

"Ooh a sleepover!" Rachel jumped off the couch and squealed, as did Monica. Temporarily their minds were off the weird events of late.

Chandler looked to Ross, "Does this mean we get to have pillow fights in our underwear?" Ross rolled his eyes and stood up from his seat on the couch.

He walked into the living room and opened the fridge. "You know, a couple of us should probably go out and get some junk food. We don't have anything here that can be fixed in less than two minutes. Unless one of you guys has some at your place."

Chandler shook his head negatively, "Nope. We always eat here."

Monica did the same. "I always cook here." Whenever they weren't working, everyone was crowded in Ross and Phoebe's place. Sometimes the group hung out there even when both Ross and Phoebe were gone. It was only fair, they had the biggest apartment of everyone, so they had to deal with the hosting duties.

"Alright then," Ross closed the door of the fridge and looked over his friends, "who's coming with me to the grocery?" Of course, no one volunteered. They were generally a lazy group, and the strange things happening outside didn't help Ross' quest to find some helpers. "Ok, no volunteers…" Ross suddenly felt like he was back inside his World History classroom, "Chandler, Joey, you're coming with me."

The two men groaned like students in his class, and hesitantly walked towards the door. Chandler kissed Rachel good buy and glared at Ross, "Fine, I'm going. But if I walk into something invisible and break my nose, I'm suing you."

Ross followed him out the door, "What of mine do you not use already?"

***********

The guys weren't surprised to see that all traffic had stopped outside. Crowds of people were everywhere, some simply staring at the sky over Central Park, others were engaged in conversations varying from the end of the world, to it being a big hoax, to talks of some foreign killing machine. No one was sure what was going on, but everyone was scared.

The walk to the grocery store was quiet, all three of them were too busy taking in the conversations around them to start one of their own. Ross had been a little freaked out since the whole thing had started, but he wasn't prepared for the mass hysteria that was starting to develop inside the city. Ross looked at his two friends, "I knew this was big, but I wasn't expecting this."

Chandler nodded his agreement, "It's just a phase. An excuse for everyone to get together and have conversations they usually never get to have. Everyone's just taking up the opportunity to sound intelligent and scholarly." It was almost like a scene from a movie, the way crowds of people would gather together to just talk. Chandler noticed a man on the other side of the street standing on a bench screaming bible scriptures and talking about God's return. Chandler just shook his head and thought, 'The world is going crazy.'

The grocery store was packed full of people. The craze instantly reminded Ross of the way people acted during the country's Y2K frenzy. People were busy grabbing the bare necessities such as canned goods, water, and bread, which left the snack isle, their isle of destination, wide open.

The three of them separated and started to gather the snacks they liked, and more importantly, the snacks they knew would please their significant others. After each had picked up more than they could really carry, they made their way towards the cash registers. The lines were long, people had carts and carts of goods, while the store seemed to have a major shortage of workers. Luckily for them, a new register opened up just as they approached, and they were the first in its line.

They paid in cash and bagged their own goods. Once outside, they noticed that the crowd of people had increased to even larger numbers. Wanting to avoid as much talk as possible, they stayed on the edge of the sidewalk as they walked back. Their pace was quicker than the one they had taken on their way to the store, the crowd of nervous people making them more on edge than they wanted to be. They were making good time, avoiding all the crowds when all the sudden, Chandler stopped walking.

Joey was the first to notice, and Ross was right after him. They looked back at their friend with quizzical looks on their faces. Ross furrowed his brows, "Chandler?" Chandler didn't move, he simply stared down an alleyway, a blank expression painted on his face.

Then he dropped his grocery bags.

Joey looked at Ross, and followed him towards Chandler. Ross gently placed his hand on his friends shoulder, "Chandler, what's wrong?"

Slowly, Chandler turned his head towards his two friends, who were staring intently at his face. He started to tremble, his whole body shaking slightly. His voice was a whisper, and broken from the trembling of his lips. "What…the hell…is that?"

Ross looked to Joey, who shook his head, unsure what Chandler was referring to. "What are you talking about?"

Chandler pressed his lips together, and slowly turned his trembling head back the way it was facing. Lightly, he nodded his head forward, encouraging them to look in that direction. He whispered again, "That."

Both Ross and Joey slowly turned their heads in the direction that Chandler was looking. And they saw it too.

At the end of the alleyway was a tall figure. It was as green as the leaves on a tree in spring, as tall as Chandler, with a head that looked a little too big for its body. And it was staring right back at them.

Ross didn't know what to think. His mind was running a mile a minute trying to figure out what that was standing 100 feet away from him. And then he got it. It was Spring Break. Kids were bored, and there were plenty of people outside to scare. He was convinced it was some teen looking for a good time…and Ross decided to turn the tables. "Let's find out."

Chandler and Joey both looked at Ross wide eyed, but before they could say anything to him, he was gone, running at full speed towards the figure, and the two of them didn't have any choice but to follow him. As soon as Ross had taken off, so had the figure, behind the building to their right. All three turned the corner, and ran through the narrow walkway between the building and the fence behind it. After a few paces, there no direction to go but right, into another alleyway that led back onto the street they were once on.

They turned into that second alleyway, and were surprised to find it empty. There was no sign of the figure anywhere. Until they saw slight movement in a doorway towards the end of the alley. The three of them ran as fast as they could down the small little road, only to find in that doorway, a drunken homeless man, sipping on a bottle of what had to be alcohol.

He was a short little man, dressed in clothes that seemed to be nothing more than rags. And he had a gray beard that was dirty from years of not washing or shaving. Chandler looked down to him, and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. All these things were happening in the world, and he was alone. "Excuse me sir, did you happen to see anything come running down this alley."

The man looked up at him, and simply nodded yes. He took another large drink from his beer, before throwing the empty piece of glass into a corner. "Just let it go fellas…they're all on their way…" He pushed his fragile body into the corner of the doorway, and started to lay some newspapers over his body. He glanced up at the three of them one more time before going to sleep, "And we can't stop them."

*******

The girls sat together at the small kitchen table, barely listening to report coming in over the TV in the living room. The guys had been gone for two hours, and they were all starting to lose their nerves.

They had sat at that table a million times before and talked about everything there was to talk about. Of course, their favorite thing to talk about was their men. They constantly confided in each other how lucky they all felt to have found their soulmates the way they did. They were a tight group as a whole, but they were even tighter in couples. They knew each other inside and out, backwards and forwards.

It was after seven, and it was fairly dark in New York City. They too had noticed the crowd that had developed outside, and they wondered if the guys had just gotten caught up in it. Their question was answered when they came in the door.

They all looked tired and worn out, and none of them were carrying any groceries. The girls immediately got up and ran towards them. Rachel was the first to ask, "What happened to you guys?!"

The six of them slowly walked into the living room, where the guys immediately collapsed in exhaustion on the couch. The three girls simply stared down at them, waiting on explanation, so Phoebe asked again, "Come on, tell us why you guys look so tired."

Chandler sat upright, and exhaled a deep breath. "I saw something. It was some figure…creature…thing. And I just froze. And it just stared at me. And when Joey and Ross finally saw it too, Ross got the bright idea in his head to go chasing after it. And of course, Joey and I couldn't let him go chase some figure thing all by his lonesome, so we had to follow him. So we chased that thing down the alley and then we chased it around corner, and then boom, the damn thing is gone. Completely out of sight. It had totally outrun us…and that's really not that hard to believe since none of us are in that great of shape! But no. That wasn't enough for Dr. Gellar over here. We had to go searching through the thousands of people gathered outside, to see if we could see someone in a large alien suit."

Monica cleared her throat, to stifle back a laugh. "I'm sorry, you guys think it was an alien?"

Joey spoke up next, "Yeah, I do. That thing looked real, and it outran us easy. I mean it wasn't just fast, it was quick as lightning. It was there, and then it was gone."

Ross ran his hand through his hair. "You know what, it doesn't matter if it was real or not because we're all going to lock ourselves in this apartment for the next 18 hours. So Joey and Monica, Chandler and Rachel, head back to your apartments, get whatever you might need, and hurry back here."

Rachel sighed, "Come on guys, don't you think you're overreacting a little bit? I mean, why should we get all freaked out just because you think you saw an alien? I mean aren't you being a little paranoid?"

Chandler stood from the couch, "Humor us." He gently took her hand and began leading her towards the door. Joey was quick to follow, dragging Monica along with him. "We'll just do this for tonight. Maybe we're being stupid. But I can live with that." Chandler held the door open for Rachel, Joey, and Monica.

Rachel pulled out the key to their apartment as Joey and Monica headed for the stairs. Chandler looked back at them as Rachel opened the door and headed inside. "You guys hurry…." He was interrupted by the sound of Rachel's voice.

Screaming.

Ooh. Quite the cliffhanger lol. Here's where things start to get good. The next chapter will be out within the next two days, if the website decides to cooperate. Please, please, please, drop a review. Good or bad. It's hard to improve when I don't know what you think. So leave a review or drop me a line at Exiled Sarcasm@aol.com.