Another Chapter! Just to show you how much I love you all. It's also the longest chapter I have writen yet, so have fun!
Disclaimer: If you think it isn't mine, it probably isn't
Chapter 7: An Uncommon Storm
To be perfectly honest, Erica had no idea how she and Lilly had managed to get home. After it was decided that both of them along with Tim, Phil, and James would join Ana as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., all six of them where escorted off the base. Fury told them that he had an old friend and former consultant stationed at their High School who would make contact with them tomorrow (Ana was very angry to discover this, since apparently means that they were sent to keep an eye on her). Erica didn't really know how to respond to the sudden events. On one hand, the idea of being a top-secret superspy sounded really cool. On the other, Erica wished that she had some say in the matter. Not to mention, she had absolutely no idea what she could bring to the team. Tim and Phil obviously had their tech smarts, and with his athletic abilities James could probably be a brilliant fighter. But Erica honestly didn't think that she had any useful attributes. Yeah, she usually pretended to be confident and sure of herself, but deep down Erica knew that was just an act to cover up her lack of useful character traits.
It wasn't until she got on the subway that Erica finally thought to check her phone. Her mother had sent her a text to get ready for a stargazing night. When Erica read that text, she breathed a sigh of relief. After everything that had happened that day, she really needed a relaxing night with her mom, Uncle Selvig, and Lilly watching the stars. Erica's mother is an astrophysicist, and as such spends a lot of nights staying up late collecting data for her research. Since Erica was really little, she has joined her mother on as many of these nights as possible. Nowadays, it has become more like a dysfunctional Foster family movie night, with gigantic balls of gas billions of light-years away instead of a movie.
Erica and Lilly switched trains at the next stop and headed toward the college where Ms. Foster works. Thankfully their homework wasn't too difficult, and they ended up passing the time people watching outside the college library. They were snickering at the guy in pajama pants and a sweatshirt trying to fit a giant textbook in a backpack that was already bursting at the seams when Erica's mom came out.
"Hey, you two. Ready to go?" she asked.
"Yep," Erica replied.
"Is Dr. Selvig going to join us there?" Lilly inquired.
Erica's mom looked a little nervous. "No, he has something else to do today."
Erica was a little surprised by this. Uncle Selvig usually insisted on coming, claiming that three girls all alone in the country needed some kind of male protector (Personally, Erica highly doubts that he would be any help if there was any actual trouble. She puts more stock in the tazzer her mom always keeps in the glove compartment). Determined not to let anything else ruin this day, Erica pushed her concern aside and turned to her mom. "So, what are we looking for today?"
Ms. Foster unlocked her van so the three of them could climb in and start heading out of the city. "Oh, nothing special. I actually have an experiment I want to try with you two."
Erica was even more surprised by this, but decided not to think about it to much and just focused on the music playing from the stereo. Her all-time favorite band, Train, was playing, so it was easy to let herself be lost in Drops of Jupiter and Marry Me.
When they got to their usual spot, it was already starting to get dark. The lights of the city were still bright on the horizon, but they were still able to see the brightest stars. Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of living in New York was the constant city lights keeping the stars from being visible the way they were in New Mexico. Every summer they took a trip to Ms. Foster's old lab in New Mexico. That was the place to go stargazing.
Erica's mom started to set up the equipment to take astronomical readings while Lily and Erica laid out a blanket and the food they had brought for dinner. When all the preparations were done, the three girls sat on the blanket and ate. While they ate, Lily and Erica chatted about their day, though both of them avoided any mention of their little misadventure with S.H.I.E.L.D.. Erica figured that the fact that you and your friends had just been recruited to be superspies was NOT something you mention to your mother.
While Lily and Erica chatted, Erica's mom smiled and laughed when it was appropriate, but still seemed to be miles away. When they were done, she handed her plate to Lily and asked, "Could you please put these away, Lily?"
"Sure, Aunt Jane," Lily replied. Erica's mom had decided years ago that "Ms. Foster" was too formal for someone who was practically a second daughter to refer to her. "Aunt Jane" had stuck.
While Lily walked away with the dishes, Jane turned to look at the sky. For a few moments, there was an awkward silence between mother and daughter. Suddenly, Erica's mom spoke up.
"I first met your father on a night like this," she whispered.
Erica perked up, hanging on to every word. Her mother never spoke about her father, ever.
"I was collecting data." Ms. Foster explained, her eyes lost in her memories. "There was some kind of violent atmospheric disturbance, so I was driving away. Suddenly, I felt something hit the car. It was this big, buff, blond man."
"Dad?" Erica asked shocked.
"Yep," her mother confirmed.
"You hit dad with your car?" Erica asked.
"Twice, actually. That time, plus that time he escaped from the hospital and I was about to look all over town and backed into him. But my assistant tazed him."
Erica laughed. "And he still married you?"
Her mom smiled. "Yes, he did." Suddenly, she turned really serious. "Erica, there are a lot of things you need to know about your father and that side of the family, but I haven't been able to figure out how to tell you. If everything goes right today, it should be easier to explain everything to you."
Lily came back from putting everything away, and Erica's mom stood up. "Well, are you girls ready to try something new?"
The two girls nodded, excited to see what they were going to do. Ms. Foster led them to the van and took out an elaborate mechanism.
"Uh, mom, what is that contraption?" Erica asked.
Erica's mom smiled. "It's just something that I whipped up, using some of Selvig's old work and some technology your father showed me." She fiddled with some of the wires, and various lights lit up around the mechanism. Suddenly, the motors in the machine started whirling, and Ms. Foster backed up to view her handiwork.
"Uh, Aunt Jane, what exactly is this thing supposed to do?" Lily asked.
Erica's mom smiled. "Bring us home, to where we belong."
suddenly, the three girls heard a voice far off. "Jane!"
Erica and Lily turned to see Dr. Selvig climbing out of a taxi to run toward them. Erica started to wave, until she noticed her mother wasn't even paying attention to the physicists running toward them.
Dr. Selvig caught up to where they were, watching the mysterious contraption whirl with no visible results. "Jane, stop this. You can't harness enough energy in this world to open the portal. Besides, you may never have explained to me why exactly you had to leave, but what makes you think that it has changed? If it was safe for you to go back, they would have undoubtedly have sent someone to bring you back. Just wait, they will come."
"But I can't wait any longer!" Erica's mom suddenly shouted. She was crying. "It's been 15 years, and I haven't heard anything! And Erica…"She was sopping uncontrollably at this point, "I want to know what's happening to my daughter!"
"What's happening to me?" Erica asked. Without realizing it, she started crying as well.
Her mom turned to her, worried. "It's nothing, sweetie. I'm just paranoid. It will all make sense soon."
"It clearly is NOT nothing, if you are willing to do something Uncle Selvig doesn't want you to do, it has to be SOMETHING you are really worried about!" Erica's whole body started shaking uncontrollably. Everything that had happened that day came rushing back to her: breaking into S.H.I.E.L.D., Tim, Ana, Phil, James. Erica sobbed, "I can't deal with any more secrets today!"
"Erica?" Lily whispered. "You should calm down."
Erica wiped the tears from her eyes. Her mom and Uncle Selvig were staring at the sky above them. When she looked up, she could see a dark, ominous cloud hovering over them, blotting out all the stars.
"Great," Erica murmured. "Now, we can't even stargaze anymore."
"Lily is right," Erica's mom whispered. "You really need to calm down Erica."
"How is my temper going to change anything?" Erica shouted.
Immediately, a bolt of lightning hit the contraption, still whirling on the ground.
"NO!" Erica's mom screamed.
But the contraption didn't catch on fire of explode like it should have. Instead, it shot out a strange yellow light with blue specks scattered amid the yellow. The light collected several yards above the mechanism, and formed an oval. The light in the center of the oval moved to the edge, revealing what almost seamed to be a hole in the dark sky.
"Oh God," Selvig gasped. "It actually worked."
The hole in the sky originally appeared to be filled with more blinding light, but on closer inspection, it showed an image of a great, golden city. Within moments though, the golden city was blocked out by a horrendous creature.
"No!" Erica's mom cried. "They're still there!" She turned to Erica and Lily. "Shut it off! I don't care how, just stop them from coming!"
Erica was frozen. She couldn't even convince her legs to move. Lucky, Lily wasn't impaired as she was and dragged Erica to the contraption. Erica fell down next to the mechanism, still unable to comprehend or react to the situation.
Lily started pulling on any loose wires she could get her hands on, but nothing budged. "Damn it!" she cried, hitting the mechanism with her fist. When her hand landed, it turned blue and became covered with intricate markings. Lily's eyes grew wide, just as surprised by her hand as Erica was. A layer of frost developed over the machine, creeping out from Lily's hand, until all the motors were frozen solid and unmoving. The light stopped shooting from the contraption, and the hole in the sky started to collapse.
Erica and Lily breathed a sigh of relief. But, before the hole disappeared completely, the creature reached a long arm through the opening and reached for Erica. Before It could grab her, Ms. Foster jumped in between them. A large, disgusting hand grabbed Erica's mom and started dragging her through the portal,
"MOM!" Erica screamed.
Her mother gave her one last look. "Run, sweetheart!"
And with that, the hand pulled her back through the hole. There was a rush of gold falling to earth from the hole and what remained of the light disappeared.
Erica fell to her knees. Her mother was gone.
Unfortunately, Erica's musings were interrupted by a new, loud voice. "Come at me, you fiends!"
Erica turned. The rush of gold that had fallen when the portal disappeared turned out to be a boy, about Erica's age, clad in ancient Norse armor, wielding a beautiful, deadly sword.
"I will fight any one of you who asks for it, for I am…" the boy started jittering uncontrollably and fell on his face, revealing Lily standing behind him wielding the tazer.
Dr. Selvig put his head in his hands. "This looks so familiar, and not in a good way."
Duh duh duh! Things are finally starting to shake up.
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