Not Until We Are Lost

Felicity couldn't help the twirling. The material begged to be twirled, even if it did earn her a few looks of disdain from the very pretty inhabitants; at least she guessed they were this place's inhabitants. They seem to be too pretty for words, and everything seemed to be something for words. She returned back to Ray after a little twirl away and sighed.

"You know, I can't tell if they just hate what I'm doing or hate me. Or us. The ones that look at us anyway." Her nose wrinkled, and in a need for a little security, she found Ray's hand.

"You don't think they'd want to hurt us? We could hurt them back, but that just doesn't seem right." Fingers tightened on his. "I think I should shut up and hope we find people we know soon. I really want to find people we know soon. I don't like sounding like some fraidy cat because I'm not. Not too much. Not really."

Roy stretched out on the bed, wondering why it felt a little less fluffy, or more a little less covered in thick...covers. He stretched a little more and found that he was not alone. There were times they weren't spooning, and he was okay with that. As long as he could reach out and touch a certain metahuman, he was happy.

He laughed softly as he rolled over in the direction of the body he'd touched. He was sleeping with a metahuman. There was something kind of sexy about that. Slowly his eyes opened to the face that made him smile. His fingers lifted to trace the curve of a cheek.

He didn't want to wake Laurel as she looked so peaceful. The room was certainly different from the one they'd gone to sleep in, as if winter had turned to spring. There was a soft breeze blowing through the opened window, and the sound of birds chirping felt right. Could this be another nice world, another happy little planet? Part of him hoped so; the more adventurous part wished for a little action.

He scooted closer, sliding an arm around his metahuman girlfriend. He'd let her wake up on her own. Or at least he'd try to be patient and do that.

"Snow! So much snow!" They'd been in the Christmas village for a while, but the snow still brought out the little boy in Roy Harper. He knew that in other places snow meant death and unhappiness, yet here it was the good stuff. The stuff that made kids happy about snow days.

He had woken up alone, in some overdone cabin, and jumped out of bed almost literally to get dressed. He had to find Laurel. She had to be here. He couldn't take another planet without her; what if something other than the cry happened? What if the aliens did something worse?

Thankfully he found her not long after he started searching, and the two settled into a bit of domestic bliss in his cabin - he didn't even have to get a job. It was nice that he could provide a place for her rather than the other way around.

"I challenge you to an angel off." His smile was boyish, and before he could explain what he meant, he fell back into a very large snow drift, thankful that it wasn't too deep or too shallow, and started making a snow angel. They both needed a little bit of play and fun, especially since they knew that their team was in this strange happy place.

It had been a few weeks since she started training with Diana and since Ray and Felicity had started their tests of her ability. And while she was still a little shaky on the whole control thing, she was making progress. She felt a lot more confident in her ability to control the scream than she had when it had first manifested. She still had an uneasy feeling about how it had come about and where she'd really been in the missing time between the resort and this university, but she tried to focus on the things she could change and accepting the things that she had no control over for the moment.

Between training, testing, and teaching classes, she hadn't had much time for rest in the last few weeks. But that wasn't much different from her normal life, and at least she had the chance to sleep next to Roy when they did get sleep.

She'd made a point to tell Diana about her team and to tell Ray, Felicity, and Roy about Diana. She finally thought it was time that everyone meet up. So she'd invited them all over for dinner. She even promised not to cook because those who knew her well enough knew better than to accept anything she'd made herself. Eventually, she settled for just ordering enough pizza for everyone. It wasn't a fancy dinner party, but the dinner wasn't really the focus of this gathering anyway.

Felicity chewed on her thumb as she stared at the screen. She wasn't sure what she was looking for. She had read the available papers on the X gene, the debate on whether or not it existed. She'd paid attention to the leading thinkers, and she'd even read what she could on those who were "changed." Gamma radiation and Super Soldier serum, there was something about toxic waste.

She'd been a little nervous about asking to test Laurel's blood; the hacker didn't want her friend to feel like a lab rat. It was one thing to have a boyfriend who didn't mind being experimented on, even if it was dangerous and exciting. It was a completely different thing to ask to experiment, or to poke and prod in this case. Experimentation with Ray, or his suit more so than him, was testing the suit, not testing him, not seeing what he was made of.

Felicity had been concerned that Roy wouldn't let anything go on, that he'd bring up the very issues that she had with all this - testing Laurel like she was something to be dissected, nothing more than a frog, worm, or shark. Some kids got to dissect sharks in school, or so Felicity had heard.

Roy sat in the corner, giving Laurel assuring glances. He looked ready to help in any way he could, even if it was simply holding his girlfriend's hand. Felicity was getting over how odd this whole situation might be, even the different reality issue. She leaned against Ray a little as they waited for the results of the blood test.

"I've tried to tell it everything we need, but this would be so much easier if the team from STAR Labs was here." Her hand rested on Ray's shoulder. "Caitlin would know what to do."

Laurel wandered for awhile after what happened with the would be mugger. She couldn't get the image of his prone figure out of her mind, nor could she wipe away the feeling of that scream bursting forth from her lungs. She wasn't sure what to make of all of this, but she knew that it was best if she wasn't around people right now. She didn't want to hurt anyone else

She knew that by now, Felicity would have worked on cleaning up the mess she'd left behind. She wouldn't put it past the hacker to have erased any street cam footage of the event, and to come up with a cover story for what had happened. She felt bad for leaving her friend behind to do all that, but there hadn't been a better option. After walking for awhile, she'd stopped to send Roy a text message. She had a feeling that Felicity would have contacted him soon too and she wanted to let him know that she was... well, 'alright' was a lie. But she wanted to let him know that she was still drawing breath and just needed to stay away for his own safety

She hadn't turned her phone off after that. Maybe she wanted the contact of a text message or a call back, or maybe she knew on some level that if Roy wanted to find her, he'd have Felicity track her phone. None of that went through her mind consciously, but the decision to keep the phone turned on was a decision all the same.

She'd found a few empty beer bottles in her wandering and eventually she cut through a corn field. The corn was high enough to conceal any sight of her from the road. And hopefully, hopefully she'd go unnoticed and unheard. She set the bottles down and tried the scream again. She didn't know if she should be trying to suppress it, but she had to know more about what she could do. She couldn't exactly get it to work on command-sometimes she tried as hard as she could and nothing but a strangled cry came out. Other times, she barely opened her mouth before the sonic scream left her lips and shattered the glass bottles in front of her.

After she'd succeeded at the scream a few times, she took a seat and just stared at the shards of glass scattered on the ground. She hugged her knees to her chest and took a few deep breaths as the fear and panic from earlier gave way to a delightful numb feeling. She'd be lying if she said that she hadn't at least wanted a full bottle to dull the worry for a little bit, but she didn't seek it out. She was stopped as much by her fear of opening her mouth and seriously injuring someone as she was by thinking about how long she'd been sober and how far she'd come. And as out of her element as she felt right now, she wasn't going to throw everything away for a temporary fix to a much bigger problem.

The last Laurel remembered, she was fighting her way through the creatures that had overwhelmed the hallway at the resort. She never did find Roy. And then... nothing. Nothing until she woke up in a tiny apartment. Further inspection produced notes for a lecture, a schedule, and an ID badge bearing her picture and 'Professor Laurel Lance.'

"This is way more disturbing than a forced vacation with monsters," she muttered to herself.

It wasn't that she had problems presenting in front of a crowd. After all, she was a lawyer. But she was more worried about the fact that she'd apparently been given a job that she didn't interview for. It didn't help that Roy was still nowhere to be seen. She took a few minutes to explore the apartment and found some of her clothes in the closet, including a certain black leather outfit and tonfa. She wasn't sure yet if that made her feel better or worse. But she had learned her lesson from the resort. She found a briefcase and made room for the weapon. Just because this place didn't seem to be currently under attack didn't mean much.

With all that done, she set out to explore. The sun was just setting and judging from her schedule, she didn't have anymore classes to teach for the day. That was a small comfort, she supposed. It gave her the whole evening to explore and see who she could find. She resisted the urge to suit up for the moment, though it was tempting. She didn't know exactly what waited for her out there.

The crisp air that greeted her once she got outside was a bit of a shock. This was no longer the balmy air from the last place. The trees were afire with reds and oranges, and there was no ocean in sight. She started to make her way around the campus, wandering by the dorms and then grabbing a paper from the news stand. There was something about 'Avengers' on the headline and a picture of people in brightly colored costumes, including a man in a metal suit. That was... new. She also ordered coffee from a nearby vending cart and then kept walking with her attention half on the newspaper and half on her surroundings.

Ray had managed against the swarm of creatures that threatened to overtake the resort, though he couldn't say how much longer he might hold out. He really could have used that suit of his, but he knew that it was about more than just the suit. If the man wearing the suit didn't know how to handle himself in a crisis, the best suit in the world would be little more than an empty shell. He was still learning and the beasts were not exactly the trial by fire that he could have chosen. But he'd done what he could.

And then he'd woken up in a strange bed, in strange clothing. He wore a white shirt with puffy sleeves, covered in a vest that looked like little more than rags, with pants held up by a sash of sorts that again looked a little worse for the wear. Was this really how it was going to be from now on? Not if he had anything to say about it. Though he would need more time to discover who their captors were and time to tinker and build before he really could have anything to say about it.

He felt a rocking sensation and looking out the porthole in the cabin showed nothing but aquamarine water stretching out to the horizon. He drew in a breath and looked again. Then he wandered out of the cabin and made his way towards what he believed would get him above deck. Once he did make it to the deck of the ship, he couldn't help but stare yet again at the view stretching out on all sides.

"Wow." There was a sort of childish awe to his voice.

What little kid hadn't dreamed of being a pirate at some point in time? This might not be a situation of his choosing, but he could still marvel at the coolness of it all.

They'd been here for about a week now and still hadn't found a way back home. It wasn't all bad, but that didn't mean she was completely at ease. She was, however, enjoying things as much as she could. She and Roy had combed just about every inch of the resort looking for answers, and they'd come up with nothing helpful. They had yet to wander outside the wall, but she didn't feel up to doing that until they found weapons to use. They would need to check it out eventually, because there was a very big chance that 'stay away, it's dangerous' was meant to dissuade them from finding the one way out of here.

For now, they found other ways to expend energy. One of those ways just happened to be sparring in the gym. Roy kept her on her toes. He'd learned a lot in his time with Team Arrow and he made a good trainer. She just hoped that she'd learned enough to keep him on his toes as well.

They were both dressed in the closest to workout clothes they could find in this place. They had plans to check out one of the fancier restaurants afterward. If she squinted, she could almost convince herself that this really was just a vacation. Almost. She put a hand on Roy's and gave it a squeeze.

"When we get home, we should think about doing this for real. Or at least we could take a weekend to head somewhere a little sunnier? What do you think?"

She tried to suppress the slight flush as she realized that it might be seen as a big step in the relationship. Going away for a weekend was kind of a big deal. She tried not to be conscious of such things, but there was a part of her that might always be a little gunshy about taking relationship steps. After all, her first serious boyfriend had run off with her sister once they'd started discussing moving in together. Not to mention that both had been thought to have died for years. So there was that. But she tried not to let that scare her away too much when it came to moving forward with someone else. Then again, all of this might be a moot point if they didn't find a way home. But she wasn't ready to quit hoping. That wasn't her style.

Laurel didn't like the idea of going to sleep in the strange hotel where she wasn't sure that she could trust her surroundings, but eventually she realized that she didn't have much choice otherwise. She'd barricaded herself in the room as best as she could and eventually sleep claimed her in the wee hours of the morning. She woke a few hours later and was a little disappointed at finding that she was still in the same place. A glance out the window confirmed that nothing had changed overnight. That this wasn't some crazy dream.

She would have to spend more time trying to talk to the people around here and trying to figure out what was going on, but she had the need to do something more physical. She was already missing training and she thought that the least she could do was swim a few laps. And then she'd resume the search for a way home. She just hoped that it didn't hold as many dead ends as yesterday. Wherever he was, Roy had to be going nuts. Or worse. She couldn't help but worry about what might have happened to Roy after she was knocked out. Staying active and trying to keep her mind off things was the way to go right now. Worrying about losing yet another man that she cared for might paralyze her and keep her from continuing to fight to get home.

She wasn't ready to take a chance on the ocean, but the hotel pool looked safe enough. She dipped a toe in the water, making absolutely certain that it was water. When nothing happened, she dove right in and started to swim around. The exercise had precisely the mind numbing effect that she'd hoped for. She lost herself in the movement as she swum the length of the pool and back a few times.

When Natasha first woke up, she figured that this was the work of the crew of the Centurus. She'd been stuck on that godforsaken ship that was little more than some sort of interstellar reality show, and she'd been at their mercy as they beamed her down to whatever planet they desired. She figured this was just another one of those planets. If so, it might have seemed better than the last few. Then again, looks could be deceiving. She was certainly evidence of that, was she not?

She looked around for her mobile device and didn't find it. That didn't bother her all that much, since posting on the network had gotten her into trouble in the last place. She did have to wonder how that had turned out. Those people caught in that revolution couldn't have fared well. She'd tried, but she was a little afraid that their group had made things worse for everyone. The only thing that bothered her was being out of touch and having no easy way to find out who was here or not. She wondered if Steve, Sam, or Clint were anywhere around. The only way to figure that out was to explore.

She didn't worry too much about her clothes. She was dressed to blend into the setting, which appeared to be a posh beachside resort. Clothes simply served as camouflage for any given environment, though she was a little more put out that her weapons seemed to be missing. She didn't need her guns or her widow bite bracelets, but they would have made things easier if there was trouble.

She set off to explore the hotel and eventually found herself out on the beach. The waves crashing against the shore was almost peaceful, if she could ignore that she hadn't come here by choice. All the same, she was capable of stopping and admiring beauty where it could be found.

They had yet to track down the vigilante wannabe. His m.o. was all over the place, but he seemed to feel the need to make sure that his presence was known in the city. She’d asked Nyssa about it, but Nyssa swore that he wasn’t one of her father’s men. Laurel still hadn’t decided if she would trust that, but she had a feeling that it was true. Nyssa might not be entirely truthful with her about everything, but she didn’t believe that the other woman had good reason to lie about this. And she trusted Nyssa, in a strange sort of way.

So the team kept taking to the streets in search of the man who was causing so much trouble for Starling City’s underworld. Laurel thought that it showed growth that Oliver recognized that killing criminals and/or beating them to a bloody pulp wasn’t the way to go about things. Though she also wondered if he just had a need to micromanage any other vigilantes in the city. It was likely a little bit of both, but she was still glad that her ex had chosen a better path to justice these days.

She was currently checking out a street near the Glades that was rumored to be a haunting grounds for a gang that was terrorizing women who dared to walk through on their own. Roy was backing her up from the rooftops. Laurel preferred those times when she had Roy watching her back. The two worked well together-and that had been true before they started seeing each other.

No matter how aware she’d been as she patrolled, she still didn’t see the hulking blond guy coming. He managed to sneak up behind her and clock her in the back of the head. Laurel reeled forward, mind racing as she tried to get her body to cooperate and turn to fight. Instead, her knees hit the ground with a thud.

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