Chapter Text
It was your average Sunday evening. You were sitting on your back porch watching the swirl of colors on the horizon as the last of the sun was dipping out of sight. It was a beautiful night, the kind of cool weather that hinted at the end of summer and fast approach of fall. You loved spending your evenings out on your patio, staring up at the sky in awe.
When all was said and done, life was actually quite amazing. You went to work like everyone else, you'd hang with friends and family on your time off, you'd relish the weekend a bit too much, proceed to begrudge the fact that you had to go to work again the next day, and then repeat it all over. The monotony of life is said to bother many, and you would be lying if you said that the life you had now was not something that would have bored you in the past. Action and adventure movies and stories were a huge part of your life and always had been. Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and many others were the foundation of your childhood...which, to be honest, might explain why you turned out the way you did. Like the thousands of people in this world who wish for an adventure, you were no different. However, it had dawned on you that fangirling, which is a hobby you delve into far too often, ultimately leads to a desire to see your favorite characters get their happy endings. Everyone secretly enjoys a good tearjerker once in a while, but that does not diminish the sadness felt at having to witness your characters go through such pain. You frequently found yourself making up happy endings and different ways the story could have played out. "If only so and so would have done this" or "I wish I could just tell so and so about such and such thing to prevent this and that from happening." And so, you were not going to scoff at your life, knowing many of your favorite characters would kill to have it.
On this particular evening you were gazing at the sky while your mind was in another place. You were daydreaming about Marvel, which you were currently binging once again.
If only they really could have what I have, you thought, though there was one character in particular that was on your mind. Loki.
Loki was by far the most tragic story of all, followed closely by Wanda.
Could he PLEASE just get a win already? Or what if everyone won? What if everyone had lived and Thanos was defeated?
You snapped out of your fantasy to find that the sun had already disappeared and the sea of colors had dwindled to the dark blue of the night sky, with a faint light blue on the very end of the horizon.
"I need to get a life," you grumbled to yourself, as you reluctantly decided to head in for the night. After an overexaggerated stretch, you grabbed your phone and drink from the table and walked up the three wooden steps to your door. Using your elbow to push the handle down, you leaned your body against the door waiting for it to give. It took a heave or two before it opened suddenly, nearly sending you face-first onto the floor of your kitchen. Luckily you caught yourself, but your coffee wasn't as fortunate, splashing all over your shirt and the floor. "Damn it!" you yelled, slamming your cup down on the counter, a rather idiotic move, as more coffee splashed onto the table.
You sighed heavily, "Great. Just frickin fantastic." I have got to get that damn door fixed.
Grabbing a rag from the drawer, you quickly worked on soaking up the coffee splattered on the floor and counter. Having accomplished that task with minimal cursing, you walked to the sink to dump the rest of your coffee. As you watched the coffee grounds gather in the drain, a Marvel quote popped in your head. "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a Bed and Breakfast for a biker gang?"
Tony's quote made you silently chuckle to yourself. You loved the idea of the Avengers living together and the little things that they would 100% do that would annoy each other. One big, happy, bickering family of superheroes. You evidently had been reading too many Marvel fanfictions. But you'd be lying if you said that seeing them in a normal living situation in between missions wasn't something you wanted to see more than any action. If only Thanos hadn't happened, then maybe they'd continue to live together and go on missions. For that matter, what if Civil War never happened, so they never broke up? Or Ragnarok never happened, so Asgard was still there as well as The Warriors Three?
You let out another sigh as you realized you were wasting time daydreaming again. It would be great if travel to the MCU was possible. If there were parallel universes, like a multiverse, where they were real. Well, where most of the stuff was real. No one likes the TVA. But who's to say that a version of the MCU exists without the TVA? You had read about investigations into shifting realities, and you fully believed in the unexplored power of the human mind, yet it was sad to think that you would never know what was out there.
For shits and giggles you closed your eyes and concentrated on what you wanted. An MCU that I can help fix. One before the worst of events. You knew nothing would come of these thoughts, but it was always fun to do it anyways, like waving your hand in front of an automatic door to make yourself feel like you have the Force. You felt a strange pain in the back of your head just before you opened your eyes, causing the sensation to disappear.
I need some sleep, you thought as you made a move to grab the dish soap, probably best I spilled most of my coffee then.
Before you could reach the soap, a pale blue light caught your eye through the window. The lights in the kitchen and above the sink were making it hard to view anything outside, so you walked over to the switch to shut them off. Believing that whatever you had seen was nothing, you casually made your way back to the window to take a look.
WHAT. THE. HELL.
A circle of glowing blue light was floating in your backyard. You never knew someone could actually "freeze" from shock or horror like they do in movies, but you were quickly proven otherwise. You didn't know what to do or how to move...or breathe for that matter. You realized you were holding your breath and quickly let it out, trying to slow your fast and chaotic breathing that ensued. Just breeeathe! you told yourself. You stood there for who knows how long, staring in continued disbelief at what you were witnessing. Eventually you calmed down, which was both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, you could finally breathe. On the other, you now had the composure to think, which was simply another rollercoaster of panic.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. What is it? What's happening? Where did it come from? What do I do? What the HELL is going on? I am NOT dying today! Oh God, I'm gonna die!
These, and many other erratic thoughts, fired across your mind in the span of a second. After a few more moments, the memory of what you had been doing right before the light appeared hit you.
NO?! No, that's crazy...but what else could it...NO. Nope. You're nuts.
Despite the battle raging in your head, and the adrenaline coursing through your veins, you felt the tug of something else in your stomach. Excitement? Hope? You weren't sure, but for the first time in the last minute you were able to move. You started by lowering your hand from your mouth, where you had apparently placed it without knowing. You tentatively stepped away from the window and towards the door.
Oh God oh God oh God oh God you repeated in your head multiple times, as you inched your way slowly to the door. You stopped when you reached it, not trusting your decision to go outside. Your fight or flight had kicked in, and, seeing as there was no one for you to punch, you had to desperately resist the urge to run out the front door and not look back.
You took a deep breath.
Don't be a coward.
You reached for the handle, pausing for a second before pulling the door...only for it to not budge. "Piece of shit!" you mumbled, tugging the door harder to yank it open, momentarily forgetting about your fear of the magic floating ring of light. You were not outside more than a second before that fear returned tenfold. The circle was bigger up close than it appeared from the window. The light seemed to have a rhythm or pulse about it, and a slight humming could be heard emanating from within.
"Shit shit shit shit shit," you whispered, taking baby steps closer. The circle was about six feet in diameter, nearly touching the ground but hovering slightly above.
"What the fuck do I do?"
You had nearly reached the circle, and the ground and air around you seemed to vibrate with the energy of the light.
Do NOT touch it! you thought.
But then also DO IT.
The conflicting orders screaming in your brain were too much, and you took a minute to actually stop and think properly.
It only appeared after I thought about what I wanted. That can't be a coincidence, can it? But then, coincidences happen all the time, and you could very well be walking into a Ring of Death that aliens or the government decided to beam into your yard. I am NOT getting fried today. But what are the odds! It just so happens to appear after I wish that it was possible?! But no way...no way is that possible! What the hell am I thinking, a circle is floating in front of you, and that alone was not supposed to be possible. 'Not a normal circle, more like a freaky circle.' SHUT UP KORG. Gosh I can't even be serious when I have to be! Ok ok ok....what do I do? It has to be here because of me. What about that pain on my head?
As if to answer your thought, the pain came back, stronger than before. You gasped and grabbed the back of your head, "Shoot, ok I get it!"
The pain stopped abruptly and you were left with yet another question.
Ok, I believe it now. I did this. But do I go?
At first you couldn't believe you had just questioned that at all. It was the MCU you were potentially about to visit...of course you should go! But what if it wasn't a portal to the MCU? What if you did something by accident, and opened the gate to the UpsideDown?
I am not facing a demogorgon.
You wanted to scream out of frustration. You pressed your palms to your head and let out a pathetic moan of anger and confusion. You heard something move in the grass next to you and nearly launched out of your skin. You had been mostly frozen the whole time, lost in your thoughts and the ever-increasing hum of energy. You quickly whipped to your left, ready to hit something, when you realized it was just a frog. You sighed in relief.
"Careful, dude, don't go that wa---"
A thought popped into your head and you almost hated yourself for thinking it. But you had to try. You quickly scooped the frog into your cupped hand, using your other one to ensure that it did not escape. You turned to face the circle once again.
I can't believe I'm this terrible.
"Sorry, Kermit," you said, before chucking the frog through the light. The circle didn't seem to react at all, and the frog merely vanished. No explosion, no visible disintegration. Lord willing he was alive, and in another world.
You quickly ran back inside and grabbed a piece of paper and pen.
Dear whoever finds this...Mom, Amy, Anyone.
Please know that I am not dead, and I am certainly not kidnapped...I'm not stupid enough to let myself get taken without putting up a good fight, so you'd probably find a messy house and some blood. But apparently I am stupid enough to go somewhere on the spur of the moment, so if you are worrying please do not. Will be home soon.
Love, Wren.
You scribbled the note as fast as possible, leaving it on the counter before returning outdoors.
"Shit...here goes nothing," you muttered, as you prepared yourself to launch into the circle. It took a few tries to get your legs onboard with the idea of moving towards the light, but eventually you were jumping into the circle, screaming the whole way. The humming grew louder until your own screams were drowned in it. You felt as if you were free-falling into the abyss, as darkness had completely surrounded you. The experience only lasted a second or two, but it felt annoyingly longer. The darkness broke to reveal grass under you. Not under your feet, of course, but instead directly in front of you. You face planted into the ground, letting out a disgruntled groan before slowly propping yourself up onto your knees.
I'm alive!
"Oh thank God," you sighed, breathing deeply for the first time in a while.
A frog hopped right in front of you at that moment and you smiled slightly. It seemed to stop and look straight at you, as if trying to make a point.
"Oh shut up, you're alive," you scoffed, dazed and not wanting to deal with something as small as a frog.
You're talking to a frog, you thought as you quickly shooed it away, still not the craziest thing I've done.
The thought that you had just jumped through a portal snapped you out of your stupor, and you quickly jumped to your feet. You were standing on a nicely kept bit of grass, with a lake right in front of you. Had you not been filled with shock, fear, adrenaline, confusion, and excitement, you would have rather enjoyed the beauty. The lake looked oddly familiar, and you had the most bizarre sense of deja vu. But you knew you had never been here before. In that case, where had you seen this lake? You looked farther down the lake to a dock on the left side.
Even the dock looks familiar.
You continued to turn your gaze, eventually doing a 180 to see what was behind you. You froze, once again in shock, but couldn't help a smile from creeping onto your face. Across the lawn behind you was the Avengers compound.