Not Until We Are Lost

Logan hadn't killed anybody. Yet.

He heard the idiot who barged into Mary's room was being watched night and day by doctors. Something about them thinking he'd been hit too hard. Well, that'd teach him to knock, wouldn't it?

It'd only been a few hours since he'd arrived, and since he'd parted ways with Mary. She seemed like she wanted to be on her own to find her family. Logan didn't push. He wasn't a people person, and he liked Mary--a lot--but the idea of meeting her dad was a bit much.

Everyone gave him a wide berth, which was good, because Logan was a heartbeat away from snapping at almost every moment. He busied himself looking for these aliens that Mary mentioned, and all he succeeded in finding were people who looked like mutants.

One guy had blue skin. Things like that.

When the sun started to set, he had to think about where he'd stay, or at least hole up. The inn was out after what he'd done this morning, but there had to be somewhere else. The place wasn't that big, but there were houses, there were shops, and he'd heard somebody saying there was a new girl living above the general store so there had to be apartments, and he'd bet that was one of the "us" Mary talked about. Around the time Logan considered getting a tent together and living outside the actual town limits, he noticed there was a girl staring at him.

Actively staring. She was about ten feet away.

Logan turned his head toward her and flared his nostrils.

"What?" he asked. The word was partially growled.

Her suit was gone. That was the very first thing that Eleni registered upon waking up. She'd been in her suit a lot over the last week or so. The breakout from the prison had been the rallying cry for a rebellion and she'd done what she could to help. She still just hoped that she'd picked the right side. Though seeing the tactics that the government used to try to discourage the rebels made her fairy certain that she had been on the right side of the conflict.

But now? Now she was dressed in a burgundy corset, a frilly skirt and boots that she could barely walk in. Music played somewhere near by and she heard shouts coming mostly from a table of men hunched over what looked like a card game.

It was a mark of how weird things had been since her abduction that she barely batted an eyelash. She merely sighed to herself.

"Another day, another planet," she murmured.

A second look around the room confirmed that it was some sort of Wild West-style saloon. But... there were a few brightly colored hues of skin tones that she was sure weren't human. So at least the aliens on this planet actually looked like aliens. Some of them, anyway. There were still plenty who looked perfectly human. She did her best to move to the side of the room so she could spend a little more time observing and figuring out as much as she could about where she was. Her eyes also swept the faces of the patrons for anyone familiar.

Another new planet, only this one had technology that was advanced even for her. The aliens had left a key in her room that led to an entire workshop of her own. Eleni didn't know what to make of it, but it seemed as though they wanted her to have the means to finish her suit. She really didn't know what that meant, but she'd disappeared into that lab for the first week on the new planet and had gotten to work. Isaac wasn't in her phone list which meant that this was the second planet he was missing from. The prospect of losing her brother hurt enough that it was just easier to bury herself in her work. Even if she knew that she had a guy out there who probably would like to see her. She'd emerge eventually and find him. She would.

She had maybe another two days' work left when she finally tore herself away from the suit. She hated to leave it when she was this close, but she really did need to shower, get something to eat, and find Max. She certainly hadn't meant to let this much time pass, but she had her dad's 'gift' for getting wrapped up in projects and forgetting about everything and everyone else in her focus.

She hadn't had much time out on the streets to get a feel for this place, but it was spotless. There wasn't a hint of graffiti or even the noise that was usually found in cities. Even the locals seemed... cowed, somehow. They didn't make eye contact and there was no one catcalling women or muscling others out of the way for cabs. It set her on edge a bit, and she was still that way when she made it back to the hotel that seemed to be housing everyone. She pulled out her phone and sent a text message to Max: Are you around?

Simple, but she didn't want to come across as overly clingy or demanding. Whatever was going on with them was still very new and would probably continue to be strange considering that everything about this alien abduction and the planets they kept landing on was strange.

The doors of the palace were thrown open. The grand ballroom was decked out with silver and blue decorations, crystal snowflakes hung from the ceiling and the palace entertainers played merry tunes to greet the guests. The aromas of the feast wafted out the door and down the street. The Queen herself sat at the head table with the princess at her side. The princess didn't look entirely happy at the moment, though there was speculation that she wasn't the sort to settle down and the Queen had been the one to decide that now was the time for the princess to narrow her sights to one single suitor.

Most of the kingdom turned up in their finery. From lords and ladies to peasants, all could be seen dining and drinking and after dinner, dancing.

Those that were the abductees had been invited as well. The Queen had even arranged with the aliens to keep one, should the princess decide that she fancied one of the group that had come to temporary fill the open job positions. Oh, it had taken some diplomatic posturing, but it was her hope that those from other worlds might hold her princess' attention more than those native to this one.

After dinner, the princess stood at the edge of the dance floor as a line of gentlemen were introduced to her. Those who attended had more than the princess to focus on, however. The minstrel strolled through the crowd as he played, and various other entertainers were stationed throughout the ballroom. Wine flowed generously, which resulted in some of the guests sliding towards entertainment themselves.

Eleni didn't have the suit that she'd been working on back home. What she did have, however, was a whole shop filled with silver. Actual, old-fashioned silver, tools and all. She was frustrated at the idea of starting over again, though she couldn't help tinkering a bit with a few potential attachments to her suit. By now, she was beginning to take it for granted that the things she created would end up either back in her room on the spaceship or would be with her whenever they landed on a planet with compatible technology. It seemed to her as though the aliens didn't want to dilute time streams by bringing technology that was ahead of its time into planets that might not have it.

As irritated as that might have made her, she could respect the logic. She wasn't sure what to make of the fact that some things that aliens did made sense to her, but she wrote it off as a byproduct of growing up in a household filled with science enthusiasts. She just couldn't help but wonder what they were testing everyone for. If she had to wager a guess, she would guess that at least some of the tests were psychological. Though that could be her own bias in relation to her field of study showing. Possibly.

Today, she had a rare day with no work to be done and an entire town to explore. She still hadn't found Isaac or Max, though she was relatively sure that they were here as well. Mostly, she was curious about the buildings. It wasn't every day that one saw a medieval village that hadn't been ravaged by the passage of time.

She could be found on the outskirts of the city, wandering along the wall and looking up at the buildings as she did so. Every so often, she'd stop to just absorb the details. She couldn't be the only one curious about the places they were dropped in, could she?

All of her things were in her room on the spaceship. In fact, there was an actual workspace. If she wasn't an alien abductee, Eleni might have been in Heaven. As it was, she went to work. She shook off the uncomfortable feeling that this was what they wanted her to do. If she could make an Ironman-or Ironwoman, maybe? She hadn't really figured out a codename... anyway, if she could make a suit, it wold be useful. Assuming that she was allowed to take it to whatever planet they went to next.

She already had the hand repulsor that she'd built back on the vampire bunny planet and she thought she had everything she needed to build something. She might not have had Jarvis, but she still had quite a bit to work with.

She spent days in her room punctuated by breaks to eat and sleep, when she remembered of course. She was just as singleminded as anyone else in her family once she got onto a project. And working on this meant that she didn't have the time to miss home or to worry about what the aliens had planned next.

She wasn't done by any means but she hit a point where her concentration was waning enough that she needed to stop and get a bite to eat. Her dad would have been done by now, wouldn't he? She tried not to think about that. There was a part of her that would always be trying to get out from under his shadow. In some ways, she envied Isaac for the fact that he'd chosen a different route. Of course, she knew that he cared just as much as she did about impressing their father and living up to him, even if Isaac wouldn't admit to it. They'd both spent their entire lives under big expectations and Isaac had probably gotten the worst of it, being the only male Stark heir.

Eleni filed those thoughts away and ventured out to the common area for some food. She still hadn't gotten over her interest in the replicator which meant that she kept ordering more and more complicated dishes just to see what the limit was. Just to see if she could stump the aliens running the device. She took a bite of her Galantine and let out a little exclamation of surprise. There was a second plate beside it with Baked Alaska which at least looked flawless. Yeah, she really didn't know how the aliens managed all of this.

This newest change of scenery appeared to be an actual spaceship. Eleni ran her hands along the metal as she explored the ship, fascinated by the fact that it was the exact temperature no matter where she touched and no matter what might be hidden behind those walls. She eventually made her way down to the common area and found the window. She stood in front of the transparent metal and simply stared.

Space. Actual space. Stars and planets that she'd never heard of.

There were people that she needed to look for. People that she'd missed dearly. They were important too, but she did have her dad's sense of curiosity when it came to things and she couldn't just ignore the sight in front of her eyes. Astronomy had always been an interest. What kid didn't look to the stars growing up and wonder?

Or maybe that was just her. Possibly.

She tried to remember some of the star charts and photos taken from telescopes as she stared out, tried to see if any of it matched any galaxy she'd learned about. It didn't. That was both awe-inspiring to think that she was seeing a corner of the universe that possibly no human had ever seen and it was a little sad at the same time. If she was this far from home, how could she possibly hope to find her way back?

Isaac didn't like this place much, but he had to admit he was relieved that there was color here. The clothing could have been better, too, but his technology wasn't acting up and his heart rate was mostly regular, so he was productive.

Eleni wasn't around either, the group seemed to be halved, even though it was always growing. He could see the other island, though, and though he hadn't heard of anybody making it there he did plan on setting up some smoke signals to see if there was life there. If his sister was alright and saw the signals she'd be able to send some up as well, and they could work from there.

He set up the signal near the beach facing the other island, stacking wood and leaves and building a sizeable pile. In his work he removed all of his clothing except for his pants, putting it off to the side. Taking some sticks he set about making fire. He'd avoided the other people on the island so far, none of them seemed to have anything more than he had, so there was no benefit to playing nice. He would make the fire, and if there was another on the other island he could work out a net of leaves to block the fire's light at will. Morris code was something both Stark children knew, and would facilitate an update on how Eleni was doing. And then... well, he supposed they would wait to be sent somewhere new, or for something to happen.

It took some time for him to get the wood to create flame, and he took breaks to find water and gather a few of the wild carrots, but eventually he got a good fire going, creating a satisfactory bonfire that he loaded with leaves to make as smokey as possible. The column of smoke heading up was thick and very visible, and work done the inventor retreated to the shade.

He watched the other island for some time, still chewing on carrots, until his usual lack of boredom tolerance set in. He figured it would be a while till somebody made a bonfire over there anyway, it had taken him the better part of the morning.

He turned and walked into the woods, looking around, picking a few of the fruits and examining the plants. It was hard to tell what could be poisoness here, but he didn't think the aliens would poison them all immediately. There had to be more informative ways of killing them all for their experiment.

All in all this place seemed to be a paradise. Similar to several of Isaac's favorite holiday vacation spots.

"Only one thing missing, really," the kid said, squinting at a fruit he didn't recognize, picking it and taking a bite. He made a face and spat it out, tossing the rejected fruit over his shoulder. "C'mon. Something here has to be boozeable."

He still had priorities, after all.

The first thing Eleni noticed when she opened her eyes were the colors. They were everywhere. Lush greens and candy colored flowers. Bright sun warmed everything and she could already feel the beginnings of a sunburn. She sighed and got to her feet to explore more. She wasn't alone on the island, but the two faces that she wanted to see most were both missing. Isaac and Max were nowhere to be found on this beach. That didn't mean that they weren't here, but she couldn't help the little jolt of panic at their absence.

She wandered along the shoreline, trying to see what else she could see. She spotted a second island in the distance and there was another group of people on that island. Her eyes searched the far off figures for anyone familiar, hoping, holding her breath.

It might say something about how strange her situation was that she was no longer panicking at the planet jumps. It was just business as usual. That didn't sit all that well with her either, but she hadn't been in one place long enough to find a solution yet. And judging from the looks of this place, she had a feeling that she wasn't going to have access to any sort of lab or resources that she might have used to try to get answers and get home. That was frustrating too and she couldn't help the small voice in her head that pointed out that her dad had built his first Iron Man suit while held captive in a cave with limited resources. No matter what she did, there was always the fear that she wouldn't live up to her dad. She secretly thought that was why Isaac pushed his experiments so far-he wanted to prove that he was better than their dad, and he was risking his own health to do so. She might not take it that far, but that didn't stop her from trying to live up to the legend that came with her last name.

Frank had stepped out a few nights ago and hadn't been to the office since. Eleni was worried, but she kept trying to convince herself that the older p.i. had just gotten a lead that panned out. That he was busy somewhere, working.

She didn't know what was normal and what was not in this business. She assumed that someone who had worked on his own for who knew how long might not think to check in.

She hoped that was all.

So when she arrived at work early enough to sit down with the paper and look over the news of the day, she wasn't expecting the little blurb of an article that didn't show nearly enough regard for the staggering loss of her new boss.

Her coffee cup sat on the desk, now forgotten. Tears glistened in her eyes as she read and reread the too-short, too-vague blurb. She even thumbed through the rest of the paper, searching for more. More... something.

She supposed that the police would be by soon enough to talk to both herself and Max to see if they had any insight. Eleni didn't yet, but she was certainly going to see what she could dig up on her own.

She hadn't known Frank for very long, but she'd liked him. He'd given her a job when almost no one else would and underneath the gruff 'just the facts ma'am' exterior,' it was clear that he'd been in this particular line of work because he wanted to help people.

Something about this was very fishy. She knew darn well that he'd been closing in on the serial killer. What were the odds that someone else would murder him while he was working that particular case and getting closer to the truth?

She stood and moved over to Frank's desk. There was a momentary hesitation as she felt a flash of guilt at invading the privacy of a dead man, but that was disregarded in her need to search for the truth and she started to look through the haphazard piles of papers for anything that might be of use.

Max had been looking. Not too deeply, but he was looking all the same. Frank had warned him away from it, which only seemed to increase his interest in it all. He hadn't focused all of his attention on the murders and missing women. No, he actually had time to look into a few other cases. They were quick and easy things, just a little information was all he needed.

Max sat quietly pondering the article that Frank had been looking at the day he'd come in. There were girls missing. There were dead girls found. There were people who were scared, and he supposed he didn't blame thing. Life was crazy after all.

They'd left the "Help Wanted" in the window. He hadn't had a cute little broad tucked away in his trench coat, which was unfortunate. Then again, maybe having a young woman come in might not be a good thing. She could be in trouble. He sighed softly, picking up the mug to have a sip of coffee. Alcohol was in a drawer somewhere, but he wasn't jumping for it. Not yet anyway.

There was a cup of coffee on the counter by The Doctor's hands.

He arched an eyebrow; last he knew, last he remembered, he'd been speaking to an alien being in the middle of a room full of other people. He'd been asking it questions, and then...

... And then coffee.

He narrowed his eyes at his hands, too. The wrists didn't have a leather jacket on them anymore. There was instead a deep brown suit, and a crisp white shirt. There were silver cufflinks poking out, and they were shaped--hilariously--like tiny TARDISes. The Doctor felt for his neck, and found the knot of silk there that indicated a tie. There was a vest under the suit jacket, too. And a fedora hat on the counter next to him.

He thought quickly and reached inside his suit jacket, happy to find the psychic paper, TARDIS key, and sonic screwdriver inside. He sighed in relief, and looked around.

The music playing in here indicated a real record player, and everyone--EVERYONE--was dressed like he'd just travelled back in time.

To the 1940s.

Eventually, Piotr decided that enough socializing had gone on. People knew that their friends and loved ones were here with them, and that was a good thing. They could catch up further later, however. If he didn't interrupt, the meeting would go on far longer than anybody wanted it to. He'd provided some snacks, but no actual food. There would be a need for actual food at some point.

He cleared his throat to get the attention of everybody present.

"We are all here right now for the same purpose." Piotr's voice wasn't loud, but it was demanding. His accent cut through everything else easily. The edges of it were sharp, the middles heavy. He wouldn't, couldn't be ignored. "All of us were brought to this place, world or dimension, and we have all been seeking answers since we woke up. It is time to share what we have found."

He smiled a little at Mary, at Cas, then at Rob, still not giving up his position.

"I will do this in the most orderly manner that I can, so we can get the information and compare notes as needed."

Piotr turned to Castiel, who had spoken up first.

Isaac was currently lying low at the house he'd woken up in. Eleni had practically moved in there and had spent most of her days making sure that her brother was recovering and helping out aroudn the house.

She was also sticking close to her twin because there was a fear that she'd wake up somewhere else and he would be gone. Or vice versa. She didn't like the uncertainty of the situation they were currently in and she missed her parents like crazy, but at least she had her twin. And if she had her way, that wouldn't change.

Today, she knocked on the door, arms full of grocery bags. She wanted to make sure that he was eating well. Plus, she needed to eat too.

It was still broad daylight because she'd learned her lesson about going out at night. She didn't do that if she could help it.

Annabelle blinked.

The wall in front of her wasn't the wall that'd been there when she fell asleep in the arm chair. That wall, in her dorm room, had a big poster on it. Van Gogh's Sunflowers. This wall had some strange painting of what looked like a chocolate zombie Jesus.

Not the cliche kind of zombie Jesus. Not the standard joke. No. the thing had bites out of it, and at His feet, there were.. were those vampire ducks?

She sat up straighter in the chair, looking around for a suite mate who might've picked her lock and changed stuff around on her. Nobody was here. She got her feet under her, pulled on her red cardigan, grabbed her messenger bag, and opened the door.

This was most definitely not her hallway, either.

Annabelle began to get slightly panicky. She was trying not to get upset. She knew what would happen if she did. The last thing that would help the situation of not knowing where she was would be flying objects and flickering lights. She took big, deep breaths and headed for the end of the hall, where she could see daylight. She opened the door and stepped outside.

This was not New Orleans.

The trees were wrong. There was an absence of sweetness to the air from the Bougainvillea.

Those deep breaths were getting harder.

Annabelle took her cell phone out of her bag, fumbling with it. She found the recent calls, hit DAD, and send. Nothing happened. She tried one more time.

With the phone held to her ear, she shut her eyes. She was going to have to find her way home, or at least to other people, on her own and without hurting anybody. She felt like a child for thinking that way, but it was true. She raced down the front steps of the building she'd woken up in and toward the street, phone still to her ear, looking one way and another, trying to decide which way to go.

Max had stayed the night, and he had settled in to watch some strange movie that was a mix of Freddie, Jason, and Easter Bunny Charlie Brown. He wasn't sure if it worked, but it had managed to knock Eleni out. Rather than move her too much, he'd pulled the trench coat, that he'd taken off earlier, and covered her with it. He'd even wrapped an arm around her and snuggled in to the couch himself.

The p.i. didn't go to sleep immediately, his ears ever listening for the imminent vampduck attack. Mallard with fangs? Count Duckula? He smirked to himself as he came up with weird names and phrases. The zombunnies hadn't shown up, but he wasn't doubting the Stark kid that she had seen those. Ducks with fangs would take care of that bit of disbelief.

He was also further along in believing her about her parentage. The weapon she'd just thrown together in her basement or wherever she'd done it was a good sign. She was wicked smart as some might say, and he didn't think a Stark would be known for idiocy. Not a normal one anyway.

So, there Max dozed, wondering if he'd ever get to sleep comfortable in a bed again. He would have continued to do so if something, movement near by perhaps, hadn't woken him. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but something or someone was in the house. It was too dark to see, but that didn't give him any hint to the time. Nothing close by was helpful, not without him signalling that he was awake. He just hoped that the vampducks didn't know a few undead monkeys who could open doors.

Eleni drifted off to sleep a few times during the first night in the house. She didn’t relax even after morning came and the first strains of sunlight chased the zombie rabbits away. It was only after that that she and Kai explored the house. It was a little unnerving to find clothing that belonged to her in one of the bedrooms. Though Eleni would have to say that the pastel colored pumpkin wallpaper, the black and orange bunny paper, and some of the bizarre clothing that was mixed in with her own, was even stranger.

After taking a short nap, Eleni wandered into the basement of the home that seemed to be meant for the two of them. She wasn’t sure what she would find, but tools and materials that would be more at home in her dad’s lab was probably last on the list. all the same, since she had it available, she took advantage.

It took a few hours to build a crude repulsor, but she felt safer leaving the house with that in hand. Just in case any other creatures showed up.

Once outside the house, things just got stranger. There were lawns with wooden faux graveyard displays, peppered with brightly colored easter eggs. The air had a cool bite to it and the scent of apple cider wafted down the street, but there were brightly colored flowers in full bloom dotting the yards.

She had to find Isaac. He had to be here too somewhere... didn’t he? With her brother in mind, Eleni set down the street, keeping her eyes out for any sign of either her brother or something dangerous.

( Quack, quack! )

Eleni had fallen asleep in a chair beside Isaac's bed in the hospital, so it wasn't a surprise when she woke up somewhere uncomfortable. What was a surprise was the cool breeze playing across her face. Once her eyes were open, it was a whole lot harder to mistake the moonlight for the hospital's fluorescent lights. She sat up, trying to get her bearings on the second time in as many days that she'd woken up somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. She seemed to be curled up on a bench which was sitting on a patio outside of a moderately sized house that she didn't recognize in the slightest.

She didn't know what was going on, but she knew that this was already getting old. There was an edge of panic when she looked around and realized that Isaac wasn't anywhere to be seen. As soon as she found him again, she wasn't going back to sleep until she passed out from exhaustion.

There was no room for 'if.' She would find him. She had to.

The redheaded Stark was just starting to notice the Jack O'Lanterns glittering on the patio when she spotted the glimmer of tiny eyes off the side of the patio. She could just barely make out the white shape of what looked to be a small family of bunnies peering at her from the side of the patio. She shifted forward in her seat to get a better look, moving slowly so she didn't scare them away. She couldn't see them very well, but bunnies were harmless, weren't they? Why strike terror into their hearts if she didn't have to?

Eleni had long since walked off her anger. She still hadn't found a place to make a call and her phone still wasn't working. She'd tinkered around with the settings and something about the frequency in this city was just off enough that her phone couldn't connect with a tower. She didn't get what was going on and it was starting to piss her off. Worse than that, the whole town seemed to be stuck in fashion from around just after the turn of the century. What was that about?

It was starting to get dark and she still hadn't found anything useful at all. She'd even stopped in at a hotel to check in for the night. Hey, at least they would have a phone she could use, right? For some reason, her credit card was declined. And cut up. Worse than that, they laughed when they looked at the expiration date.

So now she had no money, no phone, and she was stuck in a strange city. She almost-almost-regretted the fact that she hadn't taken that PI up on his offer of help. At the very least, she could have borrowed a phone from him.

It would seem that the night was only going to get worse when she took a wrong turn down a side street and heard two sets of footsteps behind herself. She whirled around as she heard a low chuckle and found herself facing down the barrel of a gun.

"Hand over the purse," one of the thugs growled at her.

Max knew something was different, and he knew how. He just didn’t know why. These people were not the ones he knew; they looked, talked, and walked like them, but there was something very different. The eyes. It was always in the eyes, and in this case, it was the extra pupil that did. He had considered making a few calls, but he soon realized that this wasn’t something he could just call his friend at the morgue, or the other one in the local ER. Not even that cute little biologist at the university.

He couldn’t make the call because he didn’t know who was on the other end. The real thing or the look-a-likes. He’d watched a few people he’d known, and discovered that they were not at all who they silently claimed to be. The only person in Electric City so far that seemed at all on the level was the guy with more than a little bit dislike for one particular artifact hunter. Evan would be his fall back, for now, he’d look into a few things on his own.

His first stop? More his second or third, the first two were a bar he frequented and a pub that was the main hangout for the local boys in blue. He got better reception at the bar, but no one gave him too much guff at the pub. He was about open up with some questions when he noticed that some of his favorite pigs were sporting the additional pupil, so that left his third stop.

The bus station. People came in and out of Electric City everyday. He’d heard there was a slight population increase in the strange department, so why not the bus station?

( ---- )