#(events of pla look nervously at the two)

[shak3speara-shak3speara]

Error Sans! Reader X Transformers: Animated AU Part 3:

You wake up a few days later in a darkened room on a neat and comfortable bed. Your cranium aches severely, as do your ribs and abdominal region. Deciding to play it calm, you check your stats.

Semi-low HP and a few broken ribs, but more importantly, you're starving. No wonder you passed out.

You display a grumpy frown in irritation, before selecting a chocolate bar from your inventory and devouring it with your two ecto-tongues.

"Woah...!"

You snap your skull to the doorway of the room, allowing light to seep into the area. You are also now capable of seeing a window with dark turquoise curtains. The curtains shutter aside as the light burgundy haired child from your extraterrestrial encounter flicks a switch near the door. The room now overflows with light and you hiss, disgruntled by the severe tonation change.

The little girl bounces over to you excitedly with eyes of intrigue and animosity. "Was that your tongue? You looked like you had two! Why were they blue and glowy? Are you a skeleton? Why are you black-"

"K1d," you manage to spit out as you finish dissolving the melty bitter treat. "SHU-u-ut uP."

You're about to stand up from the bed when the girl waves her hands in front of you with protest, much closer then to your liking.

Your glitches flare up in a second of panic. You use your strings to push her at least six feet away to disregard her warnings. Getting back onto your feet, you stumble disoriented. Your nasal cavity heaves in a heavy gust of air, and you release the child. You reassign your strings to under your hoodie, making sure they wrap around the ribs that need straightening to be realigned and extensively healed.

You exhale with a few shaky wavers, skull tilting towards the ground as you digest the most recent events.

"Whe-E-3re aM 1?" You flatly ask the child as they slowly rise up from their unflattering fall onto their butt on the metal-coated floor.

"Um. You're in Sumdac Tower. In Detroit, Michigan." The girl replies, rubbing her butt with a slightly pained yet wary look. She plays with her own fingers as she says, "I'm Sari Sumdac. I wanted to thank you for saving my friend..." She looks away with pitiful guilty eyes and a sheepish frown.

You stare at her blanly before you sigh, retracting your strings with depleted energy. You walk over to the girl, twirling part of your scarf between your phalanges. You crouch down to be on eye level with her. "So-0-()-rry, SaRi." You say with a half genuine apologetic tone. "I ge-3-Et a b-1-it raTTled wh3n 1 w5ke \/p in plA-5-aces I don't kn)-()-ow well."

Sari perks up in small phases. She tells you she understands with a cheerful smile and optimistic attitude. She pauses, letting awkward silence flow around the room. A few more seconds later she nervously invites you to have breakfast with her and her dad.

You accept, although with some hesitance wondering if they wanted to try something on you. You're not going to be a lab rat to anyone. ...You also can't handle many foods without some other catalyst to help dissolve it, so you contemplate telling the thin child about it while she leads you throughout the halls of an enormous establishment.

You enter the kitchen and Sari tells you to stay put as she steals a cup of coffee being handled by a culinary-programmed robot. You shuffle on your seat, all while eyeing the robot with an unfriendly glare. You decide it wouldn't hurt to check it's code, and you restrain the thing after it sets down a plate of maple syrup-doused pancakes in front of you.

It has relatively simple coding, nothing you wouldn't be able to find in the original Underground. You huff with annoyance as you bite into the sugary morning food placed before you, wanting to choke at the sweetness, but having enough will to swallow it so you recover your energy.

Once you put release the robot from its binds, it offers to turn on the TV attached to a surface a few feet above its height. You nod, giving it an unimpressed stare as it stiffly walks over to a mini console and presses a button, rendering the TV online.

The robot goes back to preparing more breakfast. You watch the TV with steady sockets and a blank face as it displays a news channel. The red and blue robot... What was his name...? Optimus? You scoff at the replay of his proud heroics, rolling your eyes at him finally detaining the weird robin hood rip-off.

Suddenly, your glitches act up in a shivering intensity. What was that...? You open a screen to hack into the place's network. You note there has just been a spike in energy flowing into a certain secluded section of the tower.

You alter some of the internal system's protocols and erase your appearances on its security cameras before checking the cameras placed in what appears to be a personal labratory.

You interest has been piqued as you keep a solid gaze on the image of a robot head and a single unattached hand prodding up from its place stuck in the ground. The head is partly taken apart with one 'eye' seeming to be a monacle, but mimics the structure of the other robot, Optimus. Both eyes glow red.

Wow, so creepy. You internally sass as his eyes focus on a computer screen positioned in front of his view. You are delightfully surprised to see he has the ability to hack the piece of equipment.

It may serve as a good puppet~

The gun metal grey head turns the computer on to show a video of the several robots you've seen prior, and another one.

The other robot appears to have aerial capabilities, and one ginormous ego as well. He even boasts about killing someone named Megatron. You don't need to take a hint to figure out that the robot hauled up inside the restricted area is the one the magenta flier was so giddy about exterminating. Especially after the robot emits an electrical charge that raises to the ceiling and disrupts the connection of several cameras, including yours.

You flinch with a twitching socket. Nonetheless, you don a toothy intrigued grin with your yellow teeth exposed. You finish your meal and boredly wait for Sari and her dad to eat theirs after they arrive.

You refuse to answer most questions Sari's dad, 'Professor Isaac Sumdac' asks you, instead either deflecting the entire conversation or switching it to be a discussion about his accomplishments and robotic empire.

Despite your want to ditch the place entirely, you know Sari has a connection with the giant robots. You know you can exploit that connection to get yourself home. You just need to exhibit... Patience.

You put on a sickeningly sad expression and do your best to pretend to be a nice person. You act as if you were recently involved in some science experiment. Unfortunately, you ended up being stripped into a skeleton through some unforeseen circumstance. You also ended up being kicked out of your apartment once your landlord saw a glimpse of you, meaning you don't have anywhere to stay.

Just like you suspected, Isaac and Sari take disgusting pity on you and offer to accommodate you as long as you need. Of course, you accept. It's not like you'll be staying around for very long anyways. You just need to have a chat with Sari's alien robot friends, steal some Sumdac technology, and rebuild the machine that got you here from scrap.

Some times passes and you find yourself laying in a blanket you crocheted, playing solo cat's cradle as Sari receives schooling from a tutorbot. The robot is talking about a quadratic formula when Sari interrupts it, seemingly conversing with someone on her phone. You note with squinting eyes the tutorbot tries to confiscate the key hung around her neck. It ultimately fails, resulting in Sari thrusting the key into the tutorbot and making it fizzle out of programmed control.

You use your strings to tie up the robot, sending Sari a questioning look as your sockets flicker to her key. You felt the same energy as the past three incidents exude from the key. It has this... Ethereal aura to it as well. You figure this isn't some normal key... Maybe it brought the robot in the secret lab to life?

Isaac makes a video call to check on Sari, asking whether she's tinkered with his stuff. She denies this, with tutorbot comedically stating a few greeting and dismissing class lines. She tries to hide her mischievous doings by giving her dad the excuse she's been helping her friends, 'The Autobots' settle into their secret base. You grip above your nasal cavity with your knuckles, shaking your skull at the pinging thought of how Alphys and Undyne would have a smooch session to see these giant anime-esque robots.

Sari soon shuts off the FaceTime and grabs her backpack in the corner of the room, bringing it to near the table. You open a processing screen and hack the tutorbot's internal functions and revert it back to its proper programming, then switch it off and set it down haphazardly on a swivel chair.

Sari shows you an amazed expression and resumes asking rapid fire questions about what you can do from earlier. You sarcastically remark that she has a sleepover to get to and she brushes it off, asking you to attend too. She tells you the bots would love to meet you. You dryly laugh at her enthusiastic proposition, though consider it and accept it. You know you're not the most pleasant skeleton, nor the kindest person in your multiverse. It would be simply stupid to see you as such. But you want answers about the strange energy that all but surrounds the group of robots and the little girl, so you barely have a genuine choice.

You wait for Sari to pack one last thing into her bag and then leave the tower, walking towards a... Rundown warehouse? This is seriously their base of operations?

Isaac Sumdac is letting his child stay in this crumbling structure of shady businessman filth?

You suck in a sharp breath of air and let it flow through the spaces between your clenched teeth. Sari rushes inside the building while you stroll inside at a leisurely pace, once again tugging your scarf over your skull as far as it can go.

You follow Sari as she skips forward confidently, in contrast, you moderately creep forward with your skull lowered downwards.

Your glitches glare around your body as you listen to a nature documentary click into obnoxiously loud rock music.

The metallic vibrating high-pitched voice of the yellow car robot mockingly rings out,

"Why don't we watch something that won't bore us into stasis lock?"

Part 4 coming soon!

Error Sans was created by loverofpiggies

Transformers: Animated is owned by Hasbro

#transformers #undertale #errorsans #underverse #isekai #sumdactower #sari #professorisaac #optimusprime #bumblebee #starscream #megatron #tutorbot #character! reader

[abbyilr1967]

Out of Time - Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Summary: Peter and Y/n have been together since the events of Spiderman Home Coming. One day while on a field trip Y/n and Peter are called into action as strange aliens claiming the be the “Children of Thanos' ' begin invading New York.

A/n: Finally finished the first rewrite, and am quite proud of it. If you were a fan of this mini-series a year again, I’m sure you will like this as well. As per usual, if you are new here, here is a link to my Masterlist, as well as a link to the Out of Time (Rewrite) Masterlist.

Warnings: Violence, swearing, some fluff if you squint, and ANGST.  

WordCount: 2.7k

The morning had begun the same as usual that day. When you roll over to turn off your alarm you see that you have a text waiting from Peter. He was always up before you and always sends you a text or cute gif to wait up to in the morning. Today you and Peter were going on a school trip, so you were going to meet him at his place and walk to school together. 

~

You and Peter were sitting together on the bus riding to the destination of the trip. Peter was against the window staring out over the water as the bus crosses the bridge, while you were facing the aisle talking to MJ and Ned. As you’re listening to Ned ramble on about his new Lego set, you feel Peter tap your shoulder 

“Y/n,” You turn to Peter and find his gaze is still glued to the window. “Over there,” he says pointing at the giant ring-shaped ship floating above New York. 

“Oh god,” you reply. You turn to Ned and start tapping him to get his attention. “Ned, we need you to cause a distraction.” Ned can see the panic in your eyes as you and Peter try your best to be as quick and discreet as possible. 

“I’m on it.” Ned stands in his seat and points towards the floating ring in the sky. “Hey everyone, look! We’re all gonna die!” he shouts. 

As everyone moves to the back of the bus to get a look at the strange-looking spaceship, Peter flings himself off the bus to put his suit on. You monitor the situation on the bus while Peter suits up. 

“I’m ready.” he leans his head back in the bus window. You take the opportunity to engage the jet boosters your father had built into your shoes in case of emergency. Once you are safely floating outside of the bus you engage reconstruction of the ironman suit you and your father had built together. As the helmet finally closes over your head you lower yourself so Peter can hop onto your back. 

“It’s headed downtown!” Peter says through the earpiece your father had connected to both your suits. Using your now iron-plated jet boosters your fly after the ring-shaped spaceship 

~

As you and Peter arrive downtown you see your dad and bruce trying to fight off this massive alien that looks like it came straight out of a sci-fi novel. The creature backhands your Dad into next week and before you can react, Peter is already there to block the next blow. Next thing you know, a flash of blue and red flies past you. 

“Y/n!” your Dad calls to you. “I thought you were on a field trip?” he shouts. 

“I don’t think now is the time to be asking those kinds of questions Dad, Woah!” As your father distracts you from the literal aliens in front of you, you’re almost knocked on your ass by a large piece of rubble the thing had decided to throw in your direction.

“We’re here now. You can’t change that. How can we help?” 

“That guy, floating wizard in the sky, he’s got something important.” Tony points towards the strange-looking man wrapped in a cape and some oddly bent metal. “We can’t let these guys take him, go get him.” 

“We’re on it.” Peter responds as he flings himself past you once more. 

You catch up to the wizard and latch onto the metal bars that are tied around him, and use your jet boosters to keep him from being sucked into the space ships tractor beam. Peter uses his webs to latch on as well, but the beam was too strong and begins pulling both you and Peter towards the ship. 

“Uh… Dad.” You struggle to fight the force of the tractor beam. 

“Mr. Stark, I think we’re being beamed up!” Peter shouts as the webs connecting to the closest buildings snap. 

“Now is not the time for jokes Peter.” Your father’s tone in your earpiece tells you that he’s not impressed with the young hero right now. “Get out of there.” 

“Dad, we’re losing him.” your voice strains as you try your best to keep a hold on the wizard.

A bit of the metal snaps, and the force is enough to pull the man into the ship. Peter’s web is cut off by the door closing before he has a chance to enter. He’s landed on the side of the ship, and it looking to you for any ideas. 

“We need to find a way inside.” Peter gives you a quick nod before you both separate to look for an entrance. 

You use your suit you fly around the exterior of the ship, while Peter starts searching along the inside of the ring. 

“Peter we’re too high, you’re running out of air!” you exclaim through your earpiece. Flying back around towards him.

“We need to save the wizard,” he replies sounding short of breath. You stop and anchor yourself to the ship. 

You watch as Peter pulls his mask off, attempting to get more oxygen. Only to watch his eyes roll into the back of his head as he lets go of the side of the ship. 

“Peter!” You push on the side of the ship immediately, readying to chase after him. 

“I gotcha Pete.” your father’s voice rings clear in your ears, as you watch a piece of his tech launch towards Peter. His body jerks as the small rocket makes impact along his back, and watch as a suit very similar to yours starts to wrap around him. 

You listen carefully through your earpiece for any sign of breathing from Peter. His sudden deep inhale is enough to let you know that he’s going to be ok. 

“Woah, Mr. Stark these are some cool upgrades.” he sounds ecstatic through the earpiece, even considering he almost plummeted to his death. “It smells like a new car in here.” 

“Alright great, F.R.I.D.A.Y. take them home,” 

“What?” the map in the corner of your vision, showing the route it plans to use to fly you and Peter home, and just like that both you and Peter are swept away. In the haste of everything that is going on, Tony failed to make sure that Peter didn’t attach himself and you to the side of the ship before he went after the wizard.  

~

“What are you two doing here?” Tony asks in his angry Dad voice. He found the two of you when you were attempting to listen in on the conversation your father was having with the wizard.

“We were just trying to he—” 

Tony cuts Peter off. “Nope. Your mother,” Tony says pointing to you. “And your Aunt,” He says pointing to Peter. “Are going to kill me if they knew you were in space. This is too big of a fight for you two to be a part of, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if one of you got hurt,” he says, concerned.

“How can we be friendly neighbourhood heroes, if there’s no neighbourhood?” Peter asks. 

You and your Dad both look at him weirdly. 

“Ok that was bad, but you get what I mean,” he said. 

“Peter’s right Dad,” you say as your masks retracted from your face. You look straight into your Dad’s eyes. “Fine,” he starts, knowing that you’re stubborn just like your mother. Your dad motions to knight both you and Peter. “There, you’re Avengers now.” 

You and Peter both look at each other and smile. He wraps his arms around you and lifts you into the air, planting a kiss on your lips after setting you back down. 

“Alright, keep the public displays of affection to a minimum, we need a game plan.” the wizard said. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Y/n, and this is Peter.” you say extending your hand out to him. 

“Dr. Strange,” he says coldly. 

Peter leans over to whisper in your ear, “We’re using our made-up names?” “I guess so,” you say jokingly. 

“I’m Spiderman,” he says. You snort as you see the confused expression from Dr. Strange. Peter sees you laughing and shoves your shoulder. 

You look over to see your Dad fidget with the control panel of the ship. 

“We need to turn this ship around,” Dr. Strange said.

“Whelp, it’s on auto-pilot, so we are on our way right to Thanos,” Tony says to Dr. Strange. You remember them mentioning a man named Thanos during their conversation before you and Peter were caught by your dad. You pull Peter off to the side as the realization of what you’re about to go through sets in. He could see the distressed look on your face.

“Hey, what's wrong?” he asks. 

“I’ve never seen my Dad so worried like this before,” you say nervously. “I think we might be biting off more than we can chew.” 

“Hey hey hey hey hey,” he says pulling you into his chest” We’re gonna be fine, when having we ever given up.” Peter’s hand runs up and down your back in an attempt to calm you down.

“You’re right,” you say leaning into his touch. “You always know what to say,” 

“I mean… I try.” You both chuckle softly at Peter’s attempt to lift your spirits. 

“C’mon, let’s go back.” He gestures 

He gives you a forehead kiss and one last tight squeeze before leaving to talk strategy.  

~ 

You had crashed onto a planet known as Titan after a “flawless” landing by Peter and your father. You were waiting for the arrival of Thanos when you were ambushed by a group of travellers. They immediately attacked, and in the haste of it all, they grabbed Peter and threatened his life. That only caused your father, the ever impulsive man he is, to threaten the life of one of their own in return. 

“We are the Avengers!” you shout over all the testosterone. 

“Wait, so you’re not with Thanos?” The man holding the gun to Peter’s temple looked as confused as ever, which prompted you to explain to him that you were there to kill Thanos.

After some brief introductions and explanations, you learned that the group refers to themselves as the Guardian’s of the Galaxy, and their names are Starlord, Drax, and Mantis. They explained to you that they were here looking for Thanos because they are trying to rescue their valued member of the team.  Your father gathered everyone together to try to work out a plan, to which newbies were skeptical. With the introduction of these Guardian’s of the Galaxy to the initial plan, you were confident in your ability to take down Thanos here and now. Once a plan was in place, everyone went to their places, ready to ambush him when he arrived. 

That’s when we heard it. The sound of heavy boots stomping onto the planet. 

You look over and can see Peter, he locks eyes with you. 

“I love you,” you mouth to him. 

“I love you too,” he mouths back. You nod, eyes lingering on your boyfriend. If things go sideways you want to make sure you’ve memories every detail of him. 

You are waiting for your cue from Dr. Strange who has been talking to Thanos to distract him. 

“I’m sure you will find our will much stronger,” and with that you attack. 

Your father came rushing in, crashing a building down on top of him. All of you stood around thinking that he was dead, little did you know, it only made him angrier. He burst out from under the rubble and Peter tries to use his webs to hold him down, but he only used it against him. He pulled Peter towards him and caught him by the throat. Only to them slam him into the ground. 

“Tiny insect,” you could he Peter struggling under the weight of Thanos. 

“Let him go!’ you shout as you rush toward him with your iron hammer fist ready to punch him. 

You go in for the punch. Your fist almost makes contact with his jaw, but not before he let Peter go, and grabbed your arm instead. Hurdling you across the battlefield. 

You are thrown into a pile of space rubble, the wind knocked from your lungs. Your vision had gone blurry, and you struggle to regain your balance but you could see your father in all his rage, fighting Thanos. You got up and could see that Mantis was up on Thanos’ shoulders, keeping him in a headlock while she put him in a trance.

“Y/n!” your Dad called. “We almost got it off, hurry!.” 

In an instant, you were right by Peter trying your hardest to pull off his gauntlet.

“So close.” You groan, struggling to get the tight-fitting gauntlet off the last bit of his hand that was still inside.

That’s when he took control of his mind back, waking up from the trance Mantis had put him under. He shakes you all off, but not before Thanos grabbed you by the throat. 

“No!” you could hear Peter shouting. 

“So small,” he said. “Barely lived a life, and yet so ready to give everything up to save everyone,” you spit in his face. 

“I’d rather die fighting you than sit home doing nothing,” you croak. 

“Your wish is my command,” and he squeezed harder. The corners of your vision started to become blurry, and your lungs begin to burn. 

“Stop!” you hear Dr. Strange. “I will give you the time stone if you let the girl go,” 

“No, don’t.” you struggle. “Don’t do it.” 

He took a minute to contemplate. “Fine,” he says chucking you to your father’s feet. Peter comes running over. 

“Y/n, your gonna be fine,” he says as he holds you. 

You open your eyes and can see just as Dr. Strange is giving the stone to Thanos. 

“No,” you sigh. Peter holds you tighter as you try to wriggle out of his arms. 

Just then a wave of power shook the ground, and you saw it. The sheer power that the gauntlet holds. And before any of you could do anything, he snapped. 

The world shook, and he was gone. And you had a sick feeling in your stomach. 

“He’s gone,” your father said quietly. 

“It’s my fault,” you said, moving into an upright position and out of Peter’s lap. “I should have done more.”  

“You did enough.” Your father reassures you. 

“You should’ve let me die if it meant saving everyone.” You glare at Dr. Strange, storming over to him. “You said that if it came down to it you’d let us die. So why didn’t you keep your promise!”  Your face is just inches from his. 

“There are fourteen-million, six-hundred-and-five realities in which Thanos wins, and only one in which we win.” he states. 

“I realized I couldn’t risk letting any of you die, because I’m not sure who saves us all.” His lip trembles, you can tell he’s just as infuriated with this situation as you are.

“Guys?” You turn around and find your father and Peter looking over towards where Drax, Starlord, and Mantis are. They’re turning to dust. This prompted you and Peter to both look over to Dr. Strange, just in time to see him turn to dust as well. 

“Dad?” you ask, panicked. 

“You’re going to be fine-,” you Dad started to say, rushing over to you. “Peter?” 

“I-I-I don’t feel so good,” Peter said. “Y/n, I-I-,” he stumbled into you. You held him tight, you can feel him become lighter and lighter. 

“I love you,” is the last thing you hear from him before he turns into dust.  

“Dad! He’s g-gone,” you tried to hold back a sob. Remnants of Peter lay in small flakes of dust on your palms. 

That’s when you felt. It started in your hands. You looked down with tears in your eyes as you see your hand start to crumble. You look back to your dad.

“Daddy.” you whimper. 

And the last thing you saw was the look on your father’s face as his heart broke, and your vision went black.

#peter parker #marvel #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #avengers infinity war #MARVEL FANDOM #spider man #spider man x reader #spider man x you #spider man x y/n #peter parker x stark!reader #peter parker x stark!you #peter parker x stark!y/n #tony stark #tony x daughter!reader #tony stark x daughter!you #tony stark x daughter!y/n

[ickle-ronniekins]

silent confessions

request from nonnie! “Hey erica! I have a request for you, it's a bit challenging i think but I'm sure you'll do perfectly. Imagine like, the fake dating trope with fred, BUT at the end it's a george x reader? Like, imagine george feeling uncomfortable and jealous seeing the reader and fred acting like a couple even though he knows its not real and stuff anyway im obsessed with your writing love you bye”

pairing: fred x reader, george x reader

word count: 3.8k

A/N: wait, i loved this request. so different from the normal fake dating tropes! i hope this lived up to expectations.. idk why i just feel like my writing sort of sucks in this?? wah, idk, sad, feedback pls? also we’ve got some POV changes in this but they’re pointed out ayyyee, thanks for enduring the fluffiest fluff ever bc that’s all i have to give you hooligans

tag list: @mintlibri @georgeweasleyx @seppys-return-to-madness @fopdoodledane @fredd-weasley @iprobablyshipit91 @darling-details @laneygthememequeen @lupinsx @keoghans @helloallthethingsilove @bobduncanlover @dreamer821 @feffffffy @the-hufflepuff-of-221b @62442-am @wtfweasleyy @obsessedwithrandomthings @thoseofgreatambition @sleep-i-ness @shadowsinger11 @shadychaoticcollection @haphazardhufflepuff @afriendlyneighborhoodhufflepuff @hood-and-horan

You

You could practically hear the smirk that grew on his face — he wasn’t exactly being subtle. He took his place next to you in the Great Hall, ignored the fact that you were removing spellbooks and quills from your bag to begin your work, and didn’t bother to heed Snape’s warning glance.

“Hey, Y/N?”

Fred’s voice was a little too sweet for your liking; sweet as sugar, in fact. You knew this voice. It’s the voice he always put on whenever he needed a favor — whenever he wanted something from you. You didn’t look up from the table.

“Whatever it is, I think I’m going to pass.”

He scoffed and closed your spellbook. You grunted in annoyance; you were positive he wasn’t going down without a fight, but you supposed you still needed to try, even though you knew in your heart that this was a fight you wouldn’t win. You turned toward him and he batted his eyelashes at you.

“Dear, dear Y/N — you won’t pass when I tell you what’s in it for you.”

“What type of chaotic mischief that you have planned could possibly be beneficial to me?”

He digested this; you were right, and he knew it. He just shrugged, though, took in your rejection and tried to use it to his advantage.

He nodded across to the other end of the Gryffindor table; there sat Angelina Johnson — fellow Gryffindor, member of the DA, Quidditch captain and, to your most recent knowledge, Fred Weasley’s crush. Again. Boy was crazy about her.

“Thought we already tried this, Freddie?” you sighed, stealing your spellbook back from his very tight grasp and opening it to your desired page. He huffed a bit, and you were quite sure he was remembering the disaster that was the Yule Ball, just a year ago.

You noticed a small grin lift his cheeks; he looked rather smug now, which made you worried. What was it, exactly, that he had planned? “I know last year didn’t go exactly as I’d hoped.” Right. Fred had gotten a little too sloppy on his date with Angelina. She’d been a bit turned off. The night ended and she never pursued anything else; he was so embarrassed, neither did he. Fred Weasley? Embarrassed? The word wasn’t even in his day to day vernacular. But boy, was he shook.

“But it was a long time ago — besides, she’s been sending me all types of signals.”

“I don’t think her eye rolls mean she fancies you, Fred.”

He jabbed you playfully in the ribs. “Don’t be rude, Y/N. I know she fancies me. I just know it. You don’t go on just one date with Fred Weasley.”

You scoffed at his air of egotistical confidence; you shut your eyes at the prospect of him maybe going to someone else for help. Much to your dismay, it didn’t happen. He just stayed where he was, resting his chin on his hand, peering at you longingly as if his staring alone would convince you to say yes to whatever he had up his sleeve. After a few minutes, you said, “If I agree to help you, you prat, will you leave me alone?”

“Can’t say leaving you alone would exactly work with what I’ve got planned,” he replied, relaxing now, tapping his foot underneath the table and not taking his eyes off of Angelina. “I need you to pretend to date me.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Relax, Y/N, I’m not going to pin you against the wall and snog you, if that’s what you’re so worried about,” he laughed, running a hand through his hair. You felt as though your throat was closing up at the mere thought of it. “Just some hand holding, things of the like. Need to make her jealous. Need to make her realize what she’s missing.”

You groaned in frustration. “Can I take back what I said?”

“Nope,” he answered brightly. “You can’t. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Don’t get in too deep, though. No falling in love with me, alright?”

You felt a pang in your chest; you weren’t in love with him and you never would be. He was your best friend and nothing would change that. You knew it and so did he. You felt worried, though. What would others think? What if Angelina did get jealous — but in a bad way? Or worse — what would George say?

His was the only opinion that mattered to you, truthfully.

So that’s how you came to be Fred Weasley’s “girlfriend”, and when you both finally told George what Fred had strategically planned, you were relieved and also a bit upset at how nonchalant he seemed; a small grin tugged at the edges of his lips which sent you into a tizzy. You tried your very hardest to hide your disappointment; you didn’t want to let on how absolutely mad you were for him. So, you supposed, when you thought about this ridiculous stunt one night in your four poster, fake dating Fred would certainly squash any and all suspicions George had (if he did) about you fancying him.

“How’s my favorite couple?” he’d asked teasingly one day in the middle of the common room, sinking into the couch on the other side of you. Angelina then popped in through the portrait hole, and Fred placed his hand on your knee, stroking it absentmindedly. You felt a dull ache in your heart when you saw George’s eyes dart toward Fred’s hand.

Angelina had done the exact same thing; you were able to see a very faint shade of pink flush her cheeks before she stormed upstairs to her dormitory without a word to any of you. Fred immediately dropped his hand and you felt your muscles relax, but not without a quick squeeze to your knee and a cheeky grin. “Brilliant, Y/N,” he said, earning himself a dull grunt from you. Not that you’d done much, or anything, for that matter. But still, your heart felt sore at the thought: you wanted, more than anything, for George to reach over and gently graze your knee, pull you into him, kiss your temple as Fred had been doing the last few weeks.

The dull ache in your heart just seemed to grow stronger.

George

“Help me!”

You frowned. “I’m already in the middle of the other favor your lovely brother asked me to do,” you told him with a slight twinge of annoyance to your voice; however, it wasn’t difficult for him to detect a bit of cheekiness, too — especially when he saw the slight grin that spread itself across your lips.

“I just need some help with this stupid Potions essay.”

George noticed you soften at his request; he supposed it wasn’t as time-consuming as pretending to be someone’s girlfriend, and was rather elated when you agreed. You pulled out your desired books from the shelves in front of you and pointed at an empty table in one of the rows. “Let’s get started then, Georgie.”

But the truth was, he didn’t really need help. He was actually doing surprisingly well in Potions, for the first time since he began at Hogwarts. He didn’t want to let it get to his head, though. He figured there wasn’t anything wrong with getting some extra assistance.

It wasn’t assistance that he yearned for, though — it was you. More importantly, time spent with you. Any time — which he found himself getting hardly any now that you were “dating” his brother. He was first impressed at the idea that you’d decided to help Fred with his ridiculous request, and spent most of the time hanging around you teasing you and taunting you mercilessly for it, earning himself adorable laughs and flustered looks in return. But now, as he watched Fred press featherlight kisses to your temple and snake his arm around your waist at every given moment, all he felt was resentment. Jealousy. Hurt.

He felt himself feeling guilty; he shouldn’t be allowed to feel any of those things, because Fred didn’t know. Nobody knew. Nobody knew how he felt about you. Also, this whole stupid thing was just a ploy, anyway. So he suppressed those feelings everyday until he ended up alone in his dorm room, where he’d kick his trunk and scream into a muffled pillow while he let his brain unwind and digest the day's events.

“Ah — work here is finished,” he said after a few hours in the library. Much needed hours, in fact. He watched as you slowly placed your spellbooks back into your bag. “Thanks for your help.”

And in between those bouts of jealousy and resentment came moments of clarity, moments of affection, overwhelming feelings of admiration toward you. “For you?” you started, a gentle smile on your lips as you placed a hand to his knee, “Anything.”

You

You woke up before the sun and groaned; it was Saturday. Four Saturdays, in fact, since Fred had asked you to embark on this silly endeavor with him. Three Saturdays since you’d begun wondering when this would finally be over. Two Saturdays since Fred had told you sooner rather than later. One Saturday since George had noticeably become off balance.

You felt a pull at your heart when you popped through the portrait hole with Fred and Ginny later that evening after a much needed trip into Hogsmeade; you chewed nervously on the sugar quill you’d purchased as you placed yourself next to the roaring fire, Fred taking a seat next to you on the couch when Ginny made her way to the girls dormitory.

You didn’t know where George was; he hadn’t come to Hogsmeade. Or maybe he did, and he’d just very successfully avoided you both as you ended up, hand-in-hand, wherever Angelina was. With the exception of a few measly youngins on the other end of the common room, you and Fred were alone.

“Freddie?”

“Hm?”

“I really need to talk with you.”

He looked up from his copy of the Daily Prophet he had clutched in his hands. He furrowed his brow and placed the paper on the table in front of him, criss-crossing his legs and peering at you longingly. Then he turned cheeky and wiggled his eyebrows at you. “Must be important,”

You cleared your throat and felt your heart thundering against your ribcage.

You opened your mouth to speak and closed it just the same. You didn’t really know how to ask what you wanted to — to tell him what you wanted to. So instead, you opted for, “How much longer d’you think this is going to last?”

“I dunno — a few days, or so. Why?” He raised his eyebrows. “Sick of me already?”

“Ha-ha,” you replied sarcastically, jabbing him in the chest. “I just — I’m a bit worried —” you broke off and let your mind wander for a moment. You thought about truthfully telling Fred how you felt. Guilty. Upset. Lonely. In love with someone who didn’t seem to notice. Worried he’d find someone else. “I just hope Angelina isn’t getting the wrong idea.”

Fred digested this. “How d’you mean?”

“Well, you want her to run to you in a fit of jealous fury, right?” he nodded curtly, taking this in. “I just hope she doesn’t see us together and instead, turns the other cheek. Looks the other way. Finds somebody else. You know?” But it wasn’t Angelina you were worried about.

Fred thought about this for a moment. You watched as his cheeky expression turned rather stoic, and then a bit grim. “I never thought of it that way.”

Suddenly, you felt extremely worried. You started, “No, no, you know what? I’m being silly — she wouldn’t, because she’s absolutely mad for you, too. Just forget I said anything, okay? I reckon she’ll be round to snatch you right out of my hands this week.” You laughed, but it felt foreign in your mouth. Fred noticed.

“Y/N,” his voice suddenly sounded a lot less like his own — more concerned. “What’s going on?”

Just then, George popped through the portrait hole with Ron, Harry, and Neville. You met his gaze and let it linger for a few long moments. He then smiled brightly, as if he hadn’t been acting strange this entire past week. With a quick wave to you both, ignoring Fred’s motion to come and sit down, he made his way straight up to the boys dormitory. Fred shot you a glance, and you answered his previous question.

“Nothing, Fred,” you sighed, silencing him before he could ask you if you knew what was up with his twin. You hated how painfully true your next words were. “There’s absolutely nothing going on.”

George

George was outside in the courtyard with Ron, Harry, and Ginny. He’d been doing his best to avoid you and Fred at all costs, which was pretty hard when you were his best friend and Fred was his twin. But he tried.

He found himself growing incredibly uncomfortable around you both; the sheer sight of Fred slinging an arm around your waist, intertwining his fingers with yours, calling you his “love” — it sent George spiraling. He didn’t want Fred doing those things. In fact, he didn’t want anyone doing those things. Only him. He wanted you to be his love.

“Georgie?”

You took him by surprise in the courtyard; the others were immersed in a conversation about bets, or something. He, though, was peering up at you, doing his very best to not look as bloody nervous as he felt.

“Can we talk?”

You didn’t give him a chance to answer; you pulled him to his feet and immediately brought him back into the castle. You found an empty classroom and sat yourself down on a desk across from him. He had to resist the urge to spill his guts, tell you everything, grab your face in his hands and confess his unwavering love for you.

So instead, he opted for a generic, “What’s up?”

“I’m not sure..” you started timidly. He could see the shyness in your eyes and he didn’t like it one bit. You? Shy around him? You’d never been. He hated that this is where it had gotten too. “Are you mad at me?”

He was very much taken aback at your forward question; way to cushion the blow. He swallowed a few times, trying very desperately to dislodge the lump that appeared in his throat and hoped to Merlin that he could fool you. “Mad? Of course not. Why would I be?”

You crossed your arms, now looking a bit angered. George felt his insides constrict. “We haven’t spoken in days.”

“I’ve just — been busy,” George lied. His jaw tightened. “Assignments, and things. Detention. You know,” he winked, trying to lighten the mood, “the usual.”

You smiled back, though it was a broken sort of smile. Lonely. It took everything in him not to lean over and kiss it right off of your mouth. “Are you sure? You’d tell me if anything was wrong, right?” He swore he heard more than yearning in your voice; he scolded himself silently for being dishonest. Was your voice breaking? “You’re my best friend.”

Inside his pockets, he clenched his fists. He was going to go for it. Who cared about Angelina? Fred could get her without this ridiculous bloody stunt of his. And George needed to tell you before you fell for his twin, for real, and the both of you ended up heartbroken. He stepped forward, but before he could do or say anything, you slung your arms around his shoulders and squeezed him tight. He felt revitalized at your embrace, like he was reentering his body after having been off balance for months. His fingertips found your hips and he focused solely on the smell of your shampoo, the feeling of your body pressed tightly against him. When you both parted, he took your hands in his. He wet his lips and took a steady deep breath. “Honestly?”

“Darling!”

Fred’s voice, much to George’s dismay, came from the classroom door. Damnit. How had he found you both? The door was closed! Frustration, anger, and gloom raced through George’s body; he was about two bloody seconds away from decking his brother for interrupting. But he couldn’t. Of course he couldn’t. Fred didn’t know. George sighed through gritted teeth, let your hands fall out of his, and backed away slowly.

“”C’mon, love, we’ve got dinner,” Fred called, sounding much happier than George would’ve liked. To him, Fred said, “you coming, mate?”

“Be there in a minute, Freddie.”

Fred grinned brightly and left you both standing in the middle of the classroom, the tension still hanging in the air. You turned back from the door, a solemn sort of look on your face, and asked him, “What were you going to say?”

“Oh,” George’s voice got caught in his throat, “just — been a little stressed. Knackered from class more often than not. Reckon I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

You frowned. He knew that you were aware not to press on; that was all the information he was going to give. You took a deep breath. “As long as we’re okay?”

“Of course we are.”

“Okay,” you said. You grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I’m famished. Let’s go eat.”

You

“Did I do something wrong?”

Fred was standing across from you in the common room, arms crossed, shoulders back, and a smirk growing on his face. He laughed at your nervousness. He’d just told you that things were over between you both. You’d asked, of course, just to be courteous. But you were actually pretty bloody excited. “Of course not, Y/N. You’ve done quite the opposite, actually.”

“Meaning?”

Fred walked over to you and placed his hands on both of your shoulders. He wet his lips before a huge, cheeky grin swept itself across his face. He squeezed you. “Angelina cornered me this morning.”

You raised your eyebrows. You were suddenly feeling much more invigorated. You grabbed his face out of pure excitement and shook him. “And? Keep bloody on, would you?!”

He threw his head back and laughed haughtily now. “Haven’t seen you this excited since before we began this,”

“Sorry,” you calmed down and frowned a bit. “Reckon I haven’t been the greatest “girlfriend”...”

A soft smile found its way across Fred’s cheeks. You furrowed your brows in confusion, hoping that he was going to tell you that he and Angelina were finally, wonderfully, officially together, which meant that you and Fred didn’t need to be. But he caught you completely off guard and said, “Don’t blame yourself too much. I reckon it’d be difficult to pretend to date me, especially when you’re in love with someone else.”

You were certain that your heart had jumped directly into your throat; your entire body went rigid at his words. He knew? Who else knew? Did George? Did everyone?  “I don’t.. know what you’re on about, Freddie.”

“Merlin, you are being thick today,” he teased, pulling at your hair and shaking his head. “C’mon. You think I didn’t notice? Each time I’d drop your hand, or unwind my arm from your waist, I saw you steal glances at him.” Fred leaned in to get closer to you and you noticed a light shade of pink wash over his cheeks. Had you been silently confessing your love for George this entire time? “He was stealing them right back, you know.”

You swallowed thickly. Did Fred know more than he was letting on? Where was George? “He was?”

“He’s in the Great Hall.” It was evident to you that Angelina was watching from the other end of the common room, and she was smiling brightly. No doubt, Fred had told her everything. You turned back toward Fred and grinned nervously. He took your hands in his and squeezed them. He simply said, “Go get him already, would you?”

And as quickly as your feet could carry you, you ran swiftly down the staircases, through the corridors, into the Great Hall and all the way to the front, where George was sitting, pouring over a bit of parchment, looking positively ghastly. Adrenaline was coursing through your veins like fire; your cheeks felt hot and flushed and each and every muscle in your body ached from running so bloody fast. “Ah,” he said brightly at the sight of you. “Come here to help me, have you? This assignment is a right load —”

You cut him off, ignored this completely and pulled him to his feet; he peered down at you with a confused expression and opened his mouth to speak, but you cupped his face in your hands, pulled him forward, and kissed him. The muffled moan that escaped his lips gave you your answer — he was certainly shocked. However, it didn’t take him long to melt into it; he was kissing you as though he’d never kissed anyone in his life, like the pure feeling of your lips moulding together with his was the very oxygen pumping through his lungs at that very moment. His hands were tangled in your robes, but he eventually found himself stroking your spine delicately with his fingers, earning himself slight whines from you as he laughed cheekily against your lips. From behind you somewhere, someone said, “Hey Y/N, you do know that’s the wrong twin you’re snogging, right?”

“Oi, shove off, Finnegan!” you called, parting from George only for a moment. “I know which twin it is!”

You turned back toward George and the two of you let out a bit of relieved laughter, limbs still entangled together. “I’ve got a confession to make,” he began, biting down on his bottom lip to keep himself from pouncing on you, “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”

“Yeah?” you asked, wiggling your eyebrows at him.

“Pretty difficult to do anything about it when you’ve been dating my brother the last month or so,”

“You’re right,” you told him, pulling a bit on his tie, “but I’m pretty sure he broke down and told Angelina everything.”

George raised his eyebrows at you in surprise. You continued, “Pretty sure he got sick of me being a mopey “girlfriend” because all I wanted to do was be with you instead.”

His sweet smile turned rather sensual. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, that’s so,” you told him straightforwardly, running your hands through his very messy red hair.

Somewhere in the distance, over the sea of people watching you both, Seamus Finnegan shouted, “Wait, has it always been George?”

George actually snorted a bit at this; then he bit down on his lip again, wiggled his eyebrows at you, and asked, “Well — has it?”

You didn’t break your gaze, though; instead, you let your eyes linger on George’s for much longer than you normally would. You were pretty sure that you could hear the steady thumping of his heart against his ribcage, and his eyes washing over you like a cool tide completely sent you into overdrive. Suddenly, you were feeling much more confident than normal. Perhaps it was the way he was looking at you. “Yeah,” you said to George, pressing your lips to his once more, “it’s always been you.”

reblogs, comments, feedback, and all of the above are always appreciated!

#george weasley #fred weasley #fred and george weasley #weasley twins #weasley twins imagine #george weasley x reader #fred weasley x reader #george weasley imagine #fred weasley imagine #george weasley fanfiction #george weasley fanfic #fred weasley fanfiction #fred weasley fanfic #hp imagine #hp fanfic #hp fanfiction #my writing

[after-skies-ananthology]

I'm an astronaut in the President's new space force, something isn't right

BLACK SKY WARS

the first part

approximately 5 years After Skies Event

You’ve probably read the description of a guy like me before. I graduated from the Air Force Academy top of my class. Got my choice of slots for undergrad pilot training. Ran track and field at the Academy. Boxed. 4.0 GPA. AM-490 course. Father was VCSAF. Uncle and grandpa were both MAJCOM commanders. President’s Hundred. Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera. Long story short, after flying Strike Eagles and Raptors for seven years, I was selected to become an American astronaut. But before my training was over, things began to change.

About half a decade ago, a Homelander-controlled Congress passed the New Space National Security Act in the face of severe disapproval from the Department of the Air Force, the Alliancers, YPP, and FPML. The Space Corps created by the bill was from the outset designed to have a Marine Corps-like relationship with the Air Force. It would be formed over a five year period as a staggered merger between the Army’s SMDC, Air Force Space Command, and the Navy’s SPAWAR while eventually absorbing the Naval Satellite Operations Center, the U.S. Reconnaissance Office (which in turn pissed off the Alliancers even more), and NASA’s Astronaut Corps. This is where I come in.

It was no secret among my class of prospective astronauts that the final neutering of the nation’s storied space agency was just around the corner, creeping like a wild fox in a house of sleeping hens. The expectation was that we would be rolled into the Space Corps either after graduation from training or just before its completion. Even after the Homeland Party lost control of both houses to a coalition of its rivals, the constant inability of that coalition to agree on terms when it came to most issues meant that they would be no threat to the space service’s existence. The fact that, at the same time, the Homeland Party was able to secure the presidency cemented the inevitability of its ascendance. Our new commander-in-chief - “Mad” Frank Monterrey, the man famous for his fierce public championing of loathed defense projects like the F-35, ASAT development, absolute national missile defense, and countless others, had been a major investor in NASA’s 21st century rival. Expanded Resources and Aerospace Services, also known as ERAS. The company responsible for initial human moon basing efforts, hand in hand in “coopetition”  with the China National Space Administration.

The establishment of the Armstrong and Sea of Tranquility settlements was a source of renewed hope and lust for the future on the planet’s surface. Although things were certainly tense at times, and while both nations were most definitely not friends, the Sino-American rivalry was seen by most in the middle at the time as fundamentally different from the Cold War. Monterrey couldn’t have disagreed with this sentiment more. Although he hated them, and even campaigned on anti-Chinese sentiment, he understood what the initial partnership ERAS had created with the Chinese meant for the future of America in space.

     He also knew, when the time was right, that he would crush the proverbial throat of the Chinese space presence. As our class completed our required training, me and a few of my peers had been invited to a seminar held in wine country put on by the International Air Combat Study that would cover the future of space development and militarization. Attendees would include NASA officials, their Chinese and Japanese counterparts, senior officers and NCOs from the U.S. Air Force, Space Corps, and Navy, representatives of the People’s Liberation Army, and most significantly - the President of the United States. It would be here that President Monterrey would attempt to humiliate and infuriate the Chinese delegation by announcing the American policy primer on Astropolitik on the last day of the seminar.

In his closed door statement, with PLA officers watching on in steely anger, the President made clear that the United States viewed itself as the arbiter of space and would only be at peace with purely civilian developments and endeavors by foreign nations. The message was now clear, the United States would no longer accept or tolerate the militarization of space by any nation other than itself. “A Monroe Doctrine in orbit.” One headline called it that same evening. The anger felt by this announcement within China, and even in Japan which hadn’t expected such an announcement, was compounded by the events of the day before.

The chief executive of ERAS, and good friend of the President, had announced in an interview with Slice Weekly World the successful completion of humanity’s first asteroid mining operation. About an hour later, a different ERAS spokesperson would quietly confirm over email with a reporter that the company would begin to gradually limit its cooperation with the CNSA with the eventual goal of cutting them off completely. This would most assuredly put the future of the Sea of Tranquility into question. A month before, the Chinese had openly condemned being abruptly left out of the New America habitation project (the colonization of the Kordylewski Dust Satellites via the relocation of hollowed out/previously mined asteroids to Lagrange point 5). The entire situation, when taking Earthly geopolitics into account, was like throwing salt onto an open wound. In an acid shower.

The seminar was over. The damage, or progress made, was done. I stepped out of the back of my ride and into the hotel entrance where I was staying, giving the driver an extra tip before he left. The hotel was a nice one by government travel card standards. All rooms featured a view of one of the two courtyards, one sporting a fire pit, a picturesque grassy couple of acres in the back adjacent to the pool (presumably for weddings), a small creek further back from that with numerous sidewalks for strolls and even a bridge over the stream to a small park. Plenty of statues as well, the attempted style of which I couldn’t discern. Perhaps they were going for an ancient Greek, sophisticated style to everything but I don’t possess the class or taste to reliably provide an answer.

Behind the reception desk sat a young girl, likely in her early 20s. Raven hair, brown eyes. Some of the most doe-like I’ve ever seen. She was quite distracting, actually. Those porcelain legs of hers crossed and presented so minxily to those passing by her workspace didn’t help either. She looked up from her desktop monitor, saw me through her bespectacled gaze, smiled slightly and called out to me. “Mr. Connolley?” I looked behind and around me for a second, I knew she was talking to me but for some reason this little girl managed to slightly intimidate me. “M-Mr. Connolley? Right?” She asked again.

“Yes!” I responded happily. She smiled brighter now, comforting me somewhat, as if she melted my insides with her grin. My guard was down now, and I somehow detected hers was too as I smiled back. “Sorry I have real bad hearing sometimes, being around jet engines all the time can do that.”

“No problem sir! I apologize for calling you out like that.” She said sheepishly.

“Not at all gorgeous.“ I complimented her, the girl’s cheeks turning red. “...did you have something for me?” I asked.

“Yes sir, some of your friends wanted me to notify you that the briefing will be within the next hour in room 241.”

I looked at her, puzzled. “Briefing? Friends? What, was it Lt. Jacob or Lt. Giser? Why wouldn’t they just tell me?”

Now she was confused. “No sir, not those two, umm...“ The lovely girl fiddled with her post-it notes. “...A Sergeant Horace and a Petty Officer Gregory. Two women.” She stated to me.

“Two women? I don’t... Hmm, alright then. Thank you.”

She smiled again, “Of course, I hope all goes well.”

I turned as if to walk away, but caught myself and asked - “Mind if I know your name? Don’t mean to impose or anything, but I leave tomorrow and I’d regret never learning it considering how gorgeous you are.”

Now her face was completely flushed, and her smile now nervous. “… Poinsettia.” She said quietly at first, but then clearing her throat and stating it again. “Poinsettia.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Poinsettia? That’s definitely unique. But lovely all the same, as you are.”

She laughed. “Thank you. You can call me Setty though, that’s what my friends call me. My mom was a florist and loves Christmas, so to her it made sense. I always thought it was kind of a gyp though, my sister got a normal name like Constance.” I noticed the nervousness in her laugh as she said that.

I reassured her, “Well, I’d rather be talking to a Poinsettia than a Constance right now.”

She looked down, flattered. “Thank you.“ And looked back up. “Hope we see each other again.”

I responded back, “Maybe we will. Have a good night. Setty.” And let her be. 

A little bit later I had finally gotten out of my Blues and had a few drinks, and asked Jakey and Giser if they had heard about this ‘briefing’. They said they had, but were told it wasn’t until tomorrow. Also, the people who were going to be briefing them were two other females with completely different names. Zero warning. Zero explanation. Something bizarre was going on, which put me on edge for the rest of the hour. The both of them came with me to 241, just to be safe due to how weird it was. I knocked on the door. No answer. Knocked once more. No answer again. Just as we were about to turn to the left and back down the hall, a smokey but soothing feminine voice interrupted us from our right. “Lieutenant.” I looked. Two tall women in what seemed to be Class B uniforms, both in skirts, which was becoming a rare sight in the military these days. The one in front was Navy with Petty Officer 1st Class rank. The one behind her was wearing the new preliminary uniform of the Space Corps.

The Navy girl stuck her hand out, “I’m Petty Officer Gregory, this is Space Systems Sergeant Horace. We were sent by the Strike Division to brief you.“ I looked at her with a thousand yard stare for a minute.

She persisted. “This is about the transition. And other issues.”

She looked at Jakey and Giser. “You two don’t need to be here sirs. This is just for Lt. Connolley.”

They looked at each other, and looked at me. “We’ll see you Mike.” They said hesitantly.

“A-...alright.” I said back, uncomfortable.

The room wasn’t very well lit. Just a single lamp in the far left corner providing the space with orange tinted illumination. The redhead, Sergeant Horace, turned another one on near the table next to the bed. The Petty Officer motioned me to sit down as the Sergeant collected some vanilla folders. The Petty Officer kicked her heels off by the corner of the bed and sat down next to me.

She said to her companion, “Jess you mind stirring us up something?”

“Yes ma’am. Don’t mind if I do.” The Sergeant affirmed.

“Get the Lieutenant something as well.” She further instructed. “He’ll need it.”

I loosened my shoulders up a bit, staring at the documents enclosed on the table top. “Just what is this about exactly? If it’s about the transition, where are the Space Corps people I usually talk to? And why a ‘briefing’?” I demanded.

She rolled her eyes slightly and drew some breath in. “Look sir. Let me ask you this. Did your OIC over at the 50th give you any idea what this may be about?”

“No, not at all. He just said we had been invited to this seminar.” The Sergeant placed a drink in front of me along with the Sodaco can she used to make it.

“In case you need a chaser.” I became somewhat offended at that implication. She laughed, “Sorry sir, it’s not like I know if you’re a lightweight or not.” I groaned at her.

“He hasn’t told me jack shit.” I reiterated.

“I see. I knew he’d puss out of telling you.“ This just keeps getting more and more curious, I thought.

“Jess, you mind?” She pointed at the stacks of folders on the table.

“Mmhmm” the redhead replied.

She began to open them, carefully taking out what they wanted me to see and nothing more. Schematics, technical information, old Polaroid photographs, engineer’s notes, performance evaluations, all referencing Detachment 3 of the Air Force Flight Test Center. “Dreamland.” I said under my breath as my eyes were allowed to soak these images into my brain. All of them featuring a spade-like spacecraft (or what I assumed to be a spacecraft) and its mothership, which noticeably resembled the ill-fated XB-70 as if it were its forgotten love child from another continent. The former was referred to in these documents as the “Blackstar, Experimental Orbital Vehicle”, while the latter was labeled as “Brilliant Buzzard, SR-3”. I felt like a little kid who found his dad’s Playboys under the bed. I had to forcefully break my gaze from it in order to ask her, “Why are you showing me this, and why are you showing me this here of all places? Shouldn’t we be in a SCIF right now?”

She took one of the photos out of my hand. “Sir, if you even tried to think about this vehicle outside of this location without permission, you’d be halfway to Guantanamo before the neurons and synapses in your brain even knew what happened.”

The redhead piped in, “You’ve been under careful watch since you left Cape Canaveral. We’re both assigned to the Air Force Special Activities Center as its token Space Corpsmen. Same goes for certain people at the seminar, waiters and baristas you’ve interacted with, drivers...”

Petty Officer Gregory finished her sentence, “Cute hotel receptionists with long legs and funny names. This situation is under our control Sir.”

This was a startling implication to say the least. I felt like something was crawling beneath my skin.

She put her hand on my forearm to reassure me and said “It’s nothing to worry about sir. We don’t suspect you of anything. What we’re about to ask of you is of grave importance to the national security and power of the United States going forward.”

I asked  her, “Then just explain to me what the hell it is you want me to do. I take it you want me to fly this thing?”

She pulled back and took a swig of her mix as I spoke - “Essentially. You and the other two are getting rolled into the Corps sooner than the rest of your class for the mission you’ll be undertaking. I’m sure you’re already familiar with the upgraded, manned version of the Mystery already?” She asked.

I said, “Yes, the MS-1B. The OIC has been quite excited about what we’re going to be able to do with it once me and the guys are assigned to the Leopards.”

She cut me off before I could finish saying the name of the squadron. “Lt. Jacob and Lt. Giser will be going to the 54th, where they’ll be working with the B. You however, will be going to the 7th Orbital Operations Squadron in order to directly cooperate with the Special Projects Division in the employment of the XOV.”

She took another sip of her drink as her compatriot finished her sentence for her with the word - “Major.”

“Excuse me? I just made the list for Captain barely a few weeks ago.” I explained, the Sergeant shook her head and reiterated.

“And you’ll be a Major when you enter the Corps. Similarly, Jacob and Giser will be promoted early to Captain as well. Consider it a compensation bonus for all three of you, in light of the risk you’ll be undertaking when you’re up there.”

“Risk? I mean other than the usual considerations, what’s so uniquely risky about flying this thing.” I asked, unsettled again. Things were simply getting more and more bizarre.

“Nothing in particular”, the Petty Officer added, “It’s actually quite old, never went into full production, just a curious Blackbird replacement the Groom Lake people didn’t get much utility out of. They got tired of fucking around with it, so as one of our first hurrahs into orbit, our young service is going to get to decommission it. Under fire. That’s why we’re promoting you, as incentive to take on the mission. We weren’t considering it before the last couple of days, but due to exigent circumstances it was found to be the most prudent option to offer it to you.”

“What the fuck do you mean under fire? Are you talking about combat? We’ve only simulated space-to-space so far. Hell we’ve only simulated counterspace for that matter.” I was beginning to raise my voice.

She flattened her hand and gestured for me to calm down. “Well, yes and no.“ She said softly, beginning to sound a bit more raspy in her voice. She tossed a few photographs of a Chinese spaceplane my way. These were taken more recently, as I inferred that they must have been shot with a digital camera. However, they were still incredibly grainy. I could make out a small spaceplane in the middle of a flurry of space debris and large rocky objects. The craft resembled the MS-1A but it was too hard to tell.

Sergeant Horace interrupted my concentration, “That’s a PLA Shenlong about 30 hours ago.”

“What’s wrong with it? Did we shoot at it or something?” I asked.

“Yes,” PO Gregory informed me, “the 668th was directing a pair of F-15s out of California on a short notice ASAT mission.“

My mind began racing, were we trying to go to war already? “So... you guys shot at it? Why before the President announced his new policy?” I asked.

She shook her head again, implying my assumption was wrong. “We weren’t trying to shoot at it. We were shooting at something else entirely.” She tapped on an amorphous object barely visible in the background of one of the photos. I looked up from the enigma, my eyes meeting her piercing gaze as she spoke as if she were a cold-blooded python consuming a small mammal.

“Sir, let’s just cut to the chase - you’re going to take this promotion, you’re going to escort Jacob and Giser to New America, and you three are going to kill the sole survivor stuck on that Shenlong - and, you’re going to do it all before that ‘thing’ decides to kill you.”

I'm an astronaut in the President's new space force, something isn't right

#black sky wars #after skies

[ghosthatesyou]

Specific Events Pt. 2

I walk out of the Avengers Headquarters going wherever my feet take me. I stop abruptly, "Oh geez, this is gonna take forever," I quickly teleport into a random alley in New York City.

I feel that weird feeling like whenever Azraelle (the goddess of life) is leaving my body and panic.

"No, no, no, don't do this right now Azraelle! I need to leave this pla..." I quiet myself noticing a car drive by. It was a really old car from like the 40's?  I slowly walk out of the alleyway and realize that I hadn't just teleported, but I had in fact time traveled.

I start breathing rapidly, starting to have a panic attack. "Miss... Are you alright?" What I had assumed to be a random pedestrian asked me ever so politely in his calming British accent. "Y-yeah I'm-" I look up at the man and froze in disbelief, it was Vision.

The Vision that was married to my best friend Wanda! "Do you need any assistance? You seem rather frightened." I stumble over my words, trying my best to make a proper sentence. "I- Y-you... You're V-Vision?" I ask quite obviously knowing the answer to my own question.

Vision quickly turned his head, looking behind him seeing if anyone was around then looked back at me concerned "... Have we met before?" I stare at him with wide eyes, blinking a few times "Uh... Honestly, I have no idea who you are." "Then how do you know my name?" He stares back at me sternly.

She laughs nervously, "I don't know your name, I was just guessing..." He grabs my shoulders and looks me dead in the eyes "Who are you? And... Why do you seem so familiar?" He looked down at the ground thinking. "Hey! Let her go!" A random boy said, running across the street holding a broken beer bottle.

Both me and Vision look at the boy about to attack Vision.  "Wait no!" I say, moving out of Visions grip in front of him putting my hand out to stop the boy.

"I'm okay, we were just talking..." I trace off, noticing who the boy was. "You sure miss? He looked like he was about to hurt you." The boy asked curiously. I stare at him, dumbfounded, "Yeah.." I make my way over to the boy, putting my hands on his cheeks and rubbing them gently with my thumbs looking him over.

"Um miss... What are you doing?" "Come with me," I then grab the boys hand and start walking to another alley with him. "Hey wait a minute, if you think I'm just gonna follow you somewhere just because you say so, well you've got the wrong guy becau-"

"Listen to me, I know exactly who you are and I know practically everything about you." He looks at me confused, "Well, who am I then?" He looked at her confused.

"Well, who am I then?"

"Your full name is Steven Grant Rogers but you like going by Steve. Your best friend's name is James Buchanan Barnes that you've been best friends with since you were 4. James' nickname is Bucky, short for Buchanan. Your mothers name was Sarah but she died from the pledge... Shall I go on?" Roxanne questioned.

Steve backs up a little and looks at her horrified "How do you know all of this? Are you my stalker..?" I look down trying to calm my shaking hands, "If I tell you will you promise me you won't freak out and that you might be able to help me?" He looks out of the alley making sure no one was out there possibly listening to them talking.

"Urm- .. Maybe?" I look back up at him taking a deep breath "I'm not supposed to be here.."  "What do ya mean? Like, you're not supposed to be in Brooklyn or...?" He asked even more confused then before. "Wait I'm in Brooklyn?" I sigh thinking of how I should word my next sentence.

"Ye-" "Okay you know what? Don't answer that. I just..." I furrow my eyebrows trying to come up with words to say. "What year is it Steve?" "1937, why?" I gasp quietly, mumbling "The war hasn't even started yet,"  "Okay seriously, I'm gonna need you to start giving me some answers as to why you're asking all these bizarre questions" Steve says getting a little irritated.

I grab his shoulders, "Steve, I'm not supposed to be here." "Yes I know, you already told me this-" "No I mean... I'm not supposed to be in this decade. I'm not even supposed to be in this century Steve. I've come from the year 2027 and I don't know how I'm gonna get back!" I shout the last part a little too loud and lets go of his shoulders sinking down onto the ground tearing up.

"So you're telling me... That you're a time traveler?" "Ye- No! Just- ... Where the hell is Howard Stark at??" I ask standing up, getting frustrated. He shrugged. "I've never even met Howard Stark, how would I know where he is?"

"What do you mean you haven't me-" I stop and thought for a moment then mumbled again "Oh wait, he hasn't met him yet..." "Okay look," I move closer to him, "Would it be okay if I stayed at your place for a while... Just until I'm able to get back to my timeline?" Steve backed up to the wall this time, trying to get as far from me as possible.

"I don't even know your name and you're telling me t-that you're some kind of time traveling thing and you expect me to let you stay at my place? Your insane." With that, he turned around and started walking out of the alley. I ball my fists up tightly and teleport in front of Steve, making him fall to the ground in pure shock. "H-h-how did you do that?!" He stuttered scooting backwards away from me.

"I'll explain it to you when we get home, I just need you to bring me there first!" He stands up quickly turning around and running away from me yelling "I don't live with you and I never wi-" I teleport in front of him again this time pushing him to the ground yelling back "Steven Grant Rogers, if it were you in this situation I would have gladly helped you so why won't you help me?!"

"Because I don't know you! And my middle name isn't Grant it's Dean!" "But you- Wait your middle names Dean?" "Yes, now please, leave me alone. I just wanna go home." I got an idea as soon as he said that. "Say that again."

"Say what again? That I wanna go home?" "Yes, just keep saying that," I say, moving to put my thumbs on his temple's. "I wanna go ho- What are you doing??" I smile

"569 Leaman Place." He gasped pushing my hands away from his face "How are you doing all of this..?" I put my hands in his face, wiggling my fingers and say quietly "Maaagiic"

"This isn't funny anymor-" Before he can finish his sentence I put my palm on his forehead knocking him unconscious with my powers. I pick him up and stand, teleporting inside of his tiny apartment.

I lay him down on the couch in front of her trying not to wake him. "Who are you, and why are you in my apartment?" I knew that voice, it seemed too familiar. "Hello Bucky." I turn around slowly, facing the man that was once the love of my life. "I'm not gonna ask again," he said, holding an obviously fake gun behind the jacket he was wearing.

"Who are you, and why are you in my apartment?" "Well first of all, you did ask again." I chuckle  at his error, "Second of all, that gun behind your jacket looks totally fake, dude" "It's real and I will use it if I have to." He said pointing it higher.

I look at him with a bored expression and swiftly pull his jacket revealing his hand pretending to act as a weapon. "Nice gun, Buck." I smirk at him knowingly.

He looked at me defeated, "How do you know my name?" "It's a long story, I'll explain it to the both of you when he wakes up" I say walking away to their tiny kitchen.

Bucky glances over at a sleeping Steve feeling a little concerned as to what happened to him. I go through the cabinets looking for a mug and packets of tea quietly, glancing over at Bucky examining Steve.

"So uh... Are you Steve's friend?" I find a mug and grab it, "Shorta..." I say closing the cabinet, "Where's your tea at?" I look over at him fully facing hom this time. "We don't have any." "Got coffee?" I question already starting to look for it. He shook his head.

"What the hell do you two drink? Sink water?" Bucky sighs, "Yeah actually, it's the only thing we can afford..." I look at him sadly, "The Great Depression is still going on isn't it?" He looked right back at me with the same sad expression, nodding.

Steve abruptly sat up yelling "I wanna go home!-" We both look at him surprised. I put the mug down and go to him, Bucky following behind me. "Hey pal, you okay?" Steve looks at Bucky with a scared expression but immediately became relieved once he realized he wasn't with that crazy girl that wouldn't leave him alone.

"Yeah I'm... " His sentence trails off once he saw me standing behind Bucky and panics. Bucky had a confused expression on his face turning back to look at the the mystery girl in his shared apartment, "What did you do to him??" I roll my eyes, "Move outta the way."

I shoved him gently, moving to where he once was and put my hands on Steve's temple's, using my powers to calm him down. "Holy cow..." Bucky starred at my hands in amazement, they were glowing green! And I was somehow calming Steve down. Steve closed his eyes slowly, sighing and slumping back on the couch.

i made this, don't steal it.