Reality Crisis

Piotr looked up at the building he'd exited a while ago. He knew that Kitty could take care of herself, especially in a situation like this. She was in the right place, doing the right thing. But he couldn't help the bit of worry that tugged at his heart. She was his Katya, and he had found her, and it had been finally right for the two of them. He didn't want to lose her. And he didn't want to see her get hurt.

But this. This was what X-Men did.

She was better up there, high up, getting people out of buildings. He was better down here, where he could stop the falling pieces from hitting anybody, or could pull off the parts that already had.

He had to pull down the remains of a wall while hanging onto the roof in order to free a family of three. It tore at him to break down something like this when the people already had to live with so little. They were thankful, though, appreciative, and said nothing about their home. He hoped that they would be able to feel the same way once this was over, and they didn't have to worry about their lives anymore. As carefully as he could, he wedged the two back together, and hoped that the roof wouldn't fall and crush something precious to them inside.

It was his speed that got him to the spot in time, and his height that made it so he was able to keep the debris from coming anywhere near to harming anyone, and his strength and steel that made it possible for Piotr to catch the falling debris - which to any ordinary person was half of the top side of a building, but was for him just a fly in the ointment.

Piotr smiled. "You must be more careful." He held onto the brick and mortar easily.

Piotr was a man of the people. He made friends easily. They flocked to him. He was giant, but he was gentle. A happy guy. And happy to help them with whatever they needed, pretty much whenever they needed it. He did take some time for himself so he could spend it with Kitty and the dragon. Or just Kitty. But most of the time, he was in the street, doing things that needed to be done. Big or small, there was nothing that he wouldn't do if it was within his abilities.

It just so happened that on this day, somebody had found an old letter written in funny symbols. They had brought it to Piotr not for him to translate, but to see if he had seen it before, anything like it, or if he thought that it should go to Belia. It could be spy code, after all, or alien messages. Piotr had laughed and said that it was nothing so spectacular. Just Russian.

"No, you see..." He pointed at a line on the paper, indicating it to a man who held a look on his face akin to a deer in headlights. He had not expected to get a language lesson out of this, and was suddenly thinking about regretting his choice. "It is a love letter. This line here, it says it all. Pomni, ya vsеgda ryadom, remember, I am always next to you. Vsyo pad kontrolem, everything is under control. Ya tebya lyublyu, I love you. This man was very fond of this woman, my friend. It is no spy letter or a warning of any kind."

"Oh. Uh, that's great, thanks."

"Do you mind terribly if I keep this?" Piotr didn't want to take anything from a citizen of die Festung, but it had been so long since he'd last seen his language written down anywhere. And the sentiments behind the letter were the sort that he thought Kitty would like to see. They were hopeful. Loving. Joyful.

"No, that's fine. I should go, though. I'll talk to you later."

"Da. Have a nice day!" Piotr looked at the letter again, then glanced around for a place to sit so he could read the rest.

Natasha had found out quite about New Troy from both the meeting with Eric and from Clark showing her around. She still hadn't decided how she felt about the information that had been revealed. Not that her personal feelings mattered in regards to this situation. Worse than that, she had yet to decide whether or not it required action. And if so, what that action might be.

For the first time in as long as she could remember, she didn't have orders or directives. She didn't have superiors. It should have felt like freedom. Instead, she felt trapped and lost.

Those emotions, along with the memories of the absolutely addictive, mind-blowing sex that she'd had a glimpse of-were all conspiring to drive her to understand more. It was possible that she wouldn't stop until she'd uncovered every last bit of information that was required to truly understand this world and the people in it. Or until that search for knowledge killed her.

She wasn't avoiding her roommate, per se. But she did set out on her own this time. She'd heard rumors about Sanctuary and she thought it was worth looking into the colony. Maybe she thought that the journey out there would give her the chance to clear her mind or maybe she was just retreating into herself even more in light of recent events and the nature of this world.

Her reasons didn't matter in the end. What mattered was that she made her way in the direction of the small settlement on the edge of the forest that was said to be enchanted. She was seeking knowledge that could only be discovered inside the confines of the settlement that claimed to be a Sanctuary.

Warning: Adult/sexy situations

( Morning After )

Natasha was back to putting her ear to the ground and seeing what she could learn. She still hadn't decided how to feel about the leadership over in New Troy or the arrangements with the citizens there. More importantly, she wasn't sure how to react.

She didn't like that she was working without direction, and without a clear way forward. Everything in this world was complex and nuanced. She was good at nuances, but she was still learning her way around it all. This perplexed her, not that she would let it show outwardly. It just mean that she spent that much more time and energy trying to find out what she could, trying to get a read on the people here. The locals were the best resource. They might not be in the inner circle, but their perception of how things were would speak volumes. Especially if the perception didn't match with the reality that she knew to be true.

Yet again, the redheaded spy looked to one of the taverns in die Festung for intel. She sat toward the back of the bar, blending in as much as she could and simply listening and observing.

The blind woman had been nice, but Sam couldn't stay with her. He had quickly found a way to leave her side; thankfully he had also found a way to get warmer clothes because while he was a shifter running at a higher temp than a normal human, he still could get frostbite on his bare ass if he wasn't careful. He didn't go back for his clothes, not yet. Instead he "borrowed" some from what looked to be a laundry.

Wrapped in warm clothes, followed quickly by a pair of boots, the shifter was able to step out into this new world with a little more confidence in his human shape. He got a few looks, but no one seemed to be paying attention. It felt wrong, smelled wrong. This wasn't where he should be, and it wasn't just the cold in the air. Louisiana never got this cold, not in a way that the cold lingered in the air and became a part of everything.

He couldn't help the sniffing. It wasn't too obvious, but now and then, he'd have to stop and get a good whiff. The people smelled different, too. It wasn't rot, but the potential for rot that bothered him. They were on the verge of death or had danced with it all too closely. He could smell it; it wasn't sickness, not exactly. He'd never been around a group of malnourished, but he would suppose that this was how they'd smell. They had the look to them, and it was a look he wanted to fix. Spending time around Sookie and becoming more a part of the Bon Temps community, Sam was discovering more and more that he wanted to help...damn them.

Sam didn't know whose clothes he was wearing, but the scent lingered a little, even after laundering. At least some of it. There had been more than one person wearing the shirt at least. He didn't think that anyone would recognize the shirt as he sat in the lobby of the blind woman's building. It was just a shirt, right? He had only come back because after walking around the small city, this was the only place knew, sort of. He didn't have any attachment, but he had to do something.

Tony was nowhere to be found. Natasha wasn't sure if he'd just gone into hiding in light of the zombie attack or if he was working on something. She wasn't to the point of concern just yet, though she might get there eventually. Not that the assassin would admit to concern for one of her teammates. That would be too close to attachments. Which would be dangerous.

She would never admit that her time with SHIELD had begun to change her and her time with the Avengers even more so. No, it was easier to keep her distance and keep her walls up.

Speaking of attachments that she would never admit to... she was currently seeking her sometime partner. Before the zombies had become an issue, she'd had a plan to go back to New Troy and make sure she met the leader this time. She'd gotten the tour from the superpowered kid who was a little too freshfaced and naive for someone with the powers of a demigod, but this time she wanted the chance to get the measure of the man who ran that city. And after that, she fully intended to head to Sanctuary and check out the political situation there as well. She needed to know who the players were before she figured out how to play the game here.

There were a few places that she thought she might find Clint. If not their quarters, he might be training in the sparse gym that this town had to offer. Or eating. Or in a bar somewhere, chatting up one of the local women. He did have a knack for blowing off steam that sometimes she envied. Sometimes.

There wasn't much to do in this world so far. One of the first things Clint had asked about was what the mission was here and Natasha was getting increasingly more frustrated with the fact that she hadn't found anything but a vague directive. Save the world. Or damn it, depending on who you talked to it.

But how?

She'd gathered a bit more information about the general mood of the citizens of New Troy, but she still needed to find a way to meet with their leader. And she had to check out Sanctuary. But all of the information-gathering seemed pointless without someone to report back to. Without a goal.

She would still gather intel. That was in her nature after all, but for now it was just filed away for later use.

Bars were usually pretty good places to get a feel for somewhere. Liquor tended to loosen up tongues and every so often precious information would be spilled. Of course, that was a lot more likely when there was a target.

For now, Natasha was a spy without a mission, with a plan. With just a hope of hearing something interesting. She wasn't drinking nearly as much as she was pretending to. It was better to stay sharp, just in case.

(backdated to the morning after the end of the age regression plot)

Natasha had asked around and done some digging, but she hadn't found anything helpful in regards to what had screwed up Tony's brain. The most she had discovered was that he wasn't the only one. Not by a long shot. Most of the people affected seemed to think that they were thirteen. She supposed it was no surprise that she hadn't noticed the difference in Tony right away.

She'd brought him back to her apartment after knocking him out and had left him to sleep it off on the bed in her unused spare bedroom. She didn't feel bad about hitting him because it had been the right decision at the time. All the same, she'd brought some painkillers and water and her kitchen was stocked with food. Since she didn't know how long he would be stuck in the thirteen year old mentality, she hung onto the painkillers and would give him the correct dosage whenever he woke up.

There wasn't much she could make with the food here, but she managed a breakfast. Back home, she had been able to cook after all. Spending a few months posing as a sous chef would do that for a girl. It might have been a little strange to make breakfast for someone when it wasn't a part of a mission, but this was just her way. She wouldn't apologize for hitting him, but she would take care of him until he was back to normal.

Natasha's short time in this world had not impressed her. She had thought that Russia was cold and inhospitable, but this world was so much more than that. The little pockets of hope she found were in the survivors that huddled together in the small city that she'd been brought to upon her arrival. They survived in spite of it all. Politics was still a force in this world, but it wasn't the same as back in her world. Though she got the feeling that the leader of die Festung was a little bit less dangerous to her people merely because she appreciated how short the supply of citizens was in this world. Perhaps.

Of course, the stronger differences were the sparse populations and the ruins that stretched as far as the eye could see. Natasha had heard about other little villages and had decided to check one of them out. Perhaps she should have asked Tony to go along or even Dean, but she didn't know Dean well enough to trust him and Tony was always a loose cannon. She thought that it would be better to stay subtle with this recon mission, and Tony didn't do subtle.

She managed to get just a ways past the point where the wall for die Festung was out of sight when something made it very clear that she should have brought more back-up.

The creature-whatever it was-was about fifteen feet tall and slimy. As far as she could tell, it came from the forest. Not that it mattered where it came from. What mattered was that the bullets she'd sprayed at it seemed about as bothersome as a mosquito. It advanced on her with a leer that made her curse under he breath in Russian and turn to run. She just hoped that as big as he was, he was at least slow. Though those long legs seemed to be able to take strides that were worth about ten of hers.

Natasha was still working on getting her bearings in this new place. In fact, she still found a lot of the situation hard to believe. She'd half expected to wake up anywhere but here that first morning. So far, she'd met an interim leader and been assigned housing, but that didn't mean that she'd just accepted that she was supposed to live here from now on.

In fact, she was going to find a way home. She wasn't done with her business there and she didn't have any reason to stay in this place. It was hard to completely ignore the slight tugging that she felt when she passed by people who clearly had lost it all and kept going against the odds.

They weren't her concern, she had to remind herself. They couldn't be her concern. Not when her contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. was far from over and not when her ledger was still red all over.

New York had been saved. In the end, the unlikely team of 'misfits' and hotheaded personalities had banded together and saved the day. Natasha still wasn't sure what to make of being a part of a team that was supposed to be Earth's saviors or fighting for a cause or something. As far as she was concerned, life was simpler when it wasn't about determining black and white views of reality. Life was easier when it was about missions and going after your next mark. She had seen regimes rise and fall and she didn't have feelings one way or another about the American government, except for the fact that they happened to be responsible for her paycheck at the moment.

She did have her feelings about the people she felt loyal to. She owed them a debt and she wasn't sure when she would feel that that debt was repaid. She also didn't care to dig too deeply into what other feelings might have developed in addition to the feeling of wanting to pay back what she felt she owed them. Going down that road would only lead to disappointment and failed expectations. She had had enough of that in her life. It was easier to stay detached, easier to keep people at arm's length.

When all was said and done, they all went their separate ways. Natasha was okay with that too. She would go back to her missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe even back to life before invading aliens was an actuality and not just the plot for a sci-fi movie.

What she didn't expect was to find herself in the middle of a zombie movie. She had been on a routine scouting mission, and her guns had been ready just in case. They always were, after all. She'd peeked around a corner and suddenly everything had shifted and she'd been dumped in the midst of creatures that barely resembled humans and looked more like they belonged in some late night B Movie.

Natasha tried shooting at the heads, to little avail. Finally, she just made a run for it. It seemed that there would be no returning to 'normalcy.' Not just now anyway.