Crazy, running wild
🎶You were drivin’ the getaway car
We were flyin', but we'd never get far🎶
Great. Just wonderful.
"Gagi, anyare?" I mutter.
《"Fuck, what happened?"》
🎶Don't pretend it's such a mystery
Think about the place where you first met me🎶
Bringing my gaze to the source of the screams, I see people running out from the big fancy old building. Most of them are either wearing tuxedos or glamorous dresses.
🎶Ridin' in a getaway car
There were sirens in the beat of your heart🎶
Mukhang may nangyari sa event. Mukhang guests yung mga tumatakbo, eh.
《Looks like something happened during the event. The people running look like guests.》
🎶Shoulda known I'd be the first to leave
Think about the place where you first met me🎶
Most of the guests are running towards the open space of the park, still screaming. None of them look like they’re stopping anytime soon.
🎶In a getaway car (Oh-oh-oh)
No, they never get far (Oh-oh-ah)
No, nothin' good starts in a getaway car🎶
I immediately stop the music, pack away my earphones, and stand up from my seat.
"Nope." I say to myself, "Not today."
The sound of sirens is near, getting closer by the second as I run towards the edge of the park. Then, I hear a crash.
Shet, police car ba 'yon? Tangina, kung kailan nasa ibang bansa ako na wala dalang passport, visa, at ID, tsaka nagkaroon ng terrorist attack! Putangina, baka ma-interrogate ako ng mga pulis pagkatapos nito tas mamaya ma-arrest nila ako kasi wala ako dalang official documents. Assuming that I would make it out of this alive. Sana patayin na lang ako ng mga terrorist para hindi ako ma-arrest ng mga pulis mamaya. Eme lang. Gusto ko pa po mabuhay. Not claiming the negative energy.
《Shit, was that a police car? Fuck, just when I happen to be in another country with no passport, visa, and ID, there just so happens to be a terrorist attack as well! Motherfucker, the police might interrogate me after this and they might arrest me later on because I didn’t bring any official documents with me. Assuming that I would make it out of this alive. I hope the terrorists just kill me so that the police wouldn't be able to arrest me later. Just kidding. I still want to live. Not claiming the negative energy.》
Teka, bat wala akong naririnig na gunshot o kaya explosions? Hindi sila gumagamit ng mga baril o mga bomb? How were they able to crash the police car? With another car? Ano toh? Fast and the Furious 11?!
《Wait, why am I not hearing any gunshots or explosions? Are they not using guns or bombs? How were they able to crash the police car? With another car? What is this? Fast and the Furious 11?!》
Suddenly, a figure appears just before the edge of the park. My feet screech to a halt and I stand still, confusion creeping into my features.
I blink.
Twice.
I can't believe what I’m seeing.
I must be dreaming.
There's no way that the person in front of me is Tom Hiddleston. Not only that, he’s wearing his Loki getup from The Avengers. From the iconic golden horned helmet to the scepter, in which the Mind Stone is currently being stored. Seeing him now, up close and personal, his hair does indeed look like a Christmas tree.
Then, I hear his voice, assuring me that it is really him and that this is real.
"Kneel before me." Tom says.
I turn around as the crowd starts to run towards the opposite direction of the Tom Hiddleston figures that are circulating the perimeter of the crowd.
"I said," Tom bangs the end of the scepter to the ground, "KNEEL!"
The crowd slowly kneels to Tom, until I’m the only one left standing. I’m still in shock and a part of me is still being skeptical about all of this being real.
"You, there." Tom points the scepter towards my direction. "Kneel."
A man to my left is gently tugging the end of my left pant, gesturing me to kneel. I don't. Instead, I stare at Tom with confusion. Inside, I can feel my annoyance creeping in.
Excuse me? Me? Kneel to you? Bitch, I just got transported to the other side of the world by a portal that appeared out of nowhere, with no passport, no visa, and no ID. Not even a plane ticket to get me home. I don't have time for this. I don't have time for you! What I NEED to do is to find a way to get back home without getting myself arrested and possibly banned from ever entering the country again! Shit, the possibility of getting banned from entering Germany just surfaced in my mind.
"I won't repeat myself." Tom speaks again, this time the scepter is starting to glow.
Listen, you-
The man grabs my wrist and tugs me down, hard. I let out a small yelp as I drop down to the ground but I catch myself before my face makes contact with the brick floor. I look to the left and glare at the man. At this point, I’m done with all this shit.
"Good." Tom says as he puts the scepter down and slowly walks into the crowd, "Is not this simpler?"
Sweet Mother Mary, he's giving the "In-the-end-you-will-always-kneel" speech. Rolling my eyes internally, I bring my focus to the man that pulled me down to the ground.
He’s whispering something to me in German. I don't understand it, of course. Even if I did, I would still simply ignore it. I just give the man a blank stare.
He seems to have gotten the message that I didn't understand German since he then whispers, "Put one leg front and one leg down."
He gestures to his knelt position as subtly as possible as Tom continues on with his speech.
Yeah, fuck that. Not happening. I already know that I’m supposed to kneel but somehow I gave the impression that I didn't understand English or German. I decide to go along with it. I put myself in a crouching position with my right leg a little in front of the left one to somewhat give the illusion that I’m kneeling. Slowly looking around, I notice that some people brought their beers with them—like actual beers in a beer glass, placed in front of them. A small smile tugs at the corners of my lips as I tune back into what Tom was saying.
"In the end," He says, "You will always kneel."
Then, I see an old man stand up. I quickly realize that he’s the same old man that I saw earlier.
"Not to men like you." The old German man says.
Holy shit. It is actually him! So, that means Tom Hiddleston is actually Loki?! Am I really living through The Avengers movie?! This must be a dream!
Loki grins. "There are no men like me."
"There are always men like you."
I clench my fists as I hold my breath. I know Captain America is going to save the old man soon but I can't help but overthink that this could be an alternate universe where Cap was too late to save the old man from Loki's blast.
"Look to your elder, people." Loki points the scepter towards the old man, "Let him be an example."
Cap, please save the old German man. Please don't be the universe where Cap might not save the old German man in time. I pray in my mind.
My eyes widen as the scepter glows and Loki shoots a blast towards the old man.
A man in blue jumps in front of the old man with a shield protecting the both of them from the blast.
I exhale in relief and slowly unclench my fists.
The blast ricocheted and hit Loki, knocking him down to the ground. Loki raises his head and glares at the man in blue. Captain fricking America stands up and slowly walks towards Loki.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else." Cap says, "We ended up disagreeing."
One by one, people in the crowd slowly get up from their kneeling positions. I do too. I don't wanna miss this.
"The soldier." Loki lets out a hollow laugh as he stands up, "The man out of time."
"I'm not the one who's out of time." Cap replies.
I turn around as I hear the sound of jet engines nearing the park. Up in the sky, meters above from the park, is the Quinjet.
"Loki," Natasha Romanoff's voice rings out as a huge gun is brought down from the belly of the Quinjet, "Drop the weapon and stand down."
"Holy shit." I whisper, in awe of my current reality.
A blue blast flies towards the quinjet but misses as the Quinjet dodges before the blast makes a hit. I turn around and I see Cap throw his shield at Loki, commencing the fight. The whole crowd quickly stands up and runs away from the fight as far as possible. I even notice a couple of the people that brought their beers with them, still carrying their own glass mug while running away. I gotta say, I love their priorities.
“Yeahhhhh,” I shoot a quick thumbs up in their direction, “Priorities. Nice.”
In the movie, the crowd running away looked like it happened in less than a minute with no problems. In reality, it’s not that smooth at all. People are pushing each other, each person trying to get as far away as possible. I can't really blame them. I mean, it's the natural state of humans. Although, it would've been nice if they were gentler with the pushing.
I don't try to run away as a part of me wants to watch. Seeing it up close is something beyond my wildest dreams and I am NOT going to miss it. That means I’m standing in the way of a few people trying to make a run for it. Naturally, they bump into me.
Well… more like push into me. The pushes knocked me down to the ground. I try to get up but people are still running and pushing each other, so every attempt ended up with me falling down to the ground again. Each push made my body slightly sore.
“Putangina,” I mutter, “Grabe naman, mga 'te. Ang sakit nun, ah.”
《”Motherfucker, that's too much, people. That really hurt.”》
I wait for the crowd to disappear and as soon as everyone else leaves, I slowly start to get up.
"Watch out!" A man’s voice yells out.
I turn my head towards the direction of the voice and that's when I see it. A blue blast heading straight towards me. I drop myself to the ground again as an attempt to dodge it but then a body collides with mine on my side. The impact making us both roll over on the ground.
Ang bigat mo naman, Kuya.
《Sir, you're too heavy.》
"Are you alright?" The man asks.
It takes me a couple of seconds to register what they are saying and whose voice it belongs to.
"Get yourself out of here, alright?" The person continues and I realize that the voice belongs to Captain America, "It's not safe."
Before giving him a proper answer, Cap lifts himself off of me and quickly runs back to fight Loki.
"Yep. Definitely a-okay." I mumble to myself sarcastically as I lift myself off the ground. Standing up, I see Loki throw Cap onto the ground.
Wow. This is really happening. Scene by scene. That means Tony Stark should be here any moment now. I stare at the scene in front of me. Loki notices me and grins. Instinctively, I take a couple steps back.
Bobo, dapat tumakbo ka na kanina pa. I chastise myself in my mind.
《Idiot, you should've ran away earlier.》
Ayan kasi, nood pa more. Tuloy, dahil sa kabobohan mo, papatayin ka na ni Tom Hiddleston.
《By all means, keep on watching. There you go, because of your idiocy, Tom Hiddleston is now going to kill you.》
Suddenly, rock music starts to play. It immediately dawns on me that it’s not just any rock music. It’s the song for Iron Man's entrance in this scene of the movie.
Putangina, yes! He's here!
《Motherfucker, yes! He's here!》
I look up to the sky, searching for any signs of a flying metal suit nearby. Then, I see it. The Iron Man suit flies underneath the Quinjet and blasts at Loki, knocking him down. I stand there with my mouth agape as I watch the Iron Man suit land to the ground, stand into the iconic Iron Man pose and show off the weapons in the suit.
"Make your move, Reindeer Games." Tony Stark's voice comes out from the suit. Cap quickly picks up his shield and goes to Tony's side, giving Loki a hard stare.
Loki transforms out of his armor and raises his hands in surrender. The weapons retract back into the Iron Man suit as Tony eases his stance out of a fighting pose.
"Good move." Tony says.
I begin to scream. Internally.
Oh. My. Gosh. OH. MY. FRICKING. GOSH. HOLY SHIT. IT'S TONY STARK. AND STEVE ROGERS. AND LOKI. AND FUCKING HELL THAT WAS NATASHA ROMANOFF'S VOICE COMING FROM THE SPEAKER EARLIER. THIS CAN'T BE REAL.
I must be dreaming! There's no way that this is real! I mean, the U.S. government did confirm that the multiverse is real, even though I already believed it was real before thanks to Marvel. Even though I did wish to be in the MCU multiple times, I didn't think my wish would actually be granted! Maybe my fall earlier knocked me unconscious and I had to be taken to a hospital and this is just the drugs talking. Or maybe I've finally lost my sanity. So much that I had to be taken to a mental hospital to be treated. Or perhaps, I'm in a psych ward because the damage is too much and it's beyond curable. Maybe I have schizophrenia. Is this what being schizophrenic feels like?
My thoughts are all over the place as I stand there, breathing harder by the minute. Turning around as I hear the sound of jet engines coming closer, I watch the Quinjet land close to the scene of the fight. My heart is racing and I’m breathing fast. My mind doubting that this is real but it all just feels so... real. I can't move.
A hand places on my shoulder. I flinch as I turn around to see that the hand belongs to Cap. Standing close to him makes me realize how short I am compared to him. To my right, I see the Iron Man suit leading Loki to the entrance of the Quinjet. Bringing back my attention to Cap, I can see it in his face that he notices my panicked state. He withdraws his hand from my shoulder and looks at me with concern.
"Are you alright, kid?" He asks.
ALRIGHT?! NO, I'M NOT ALRIGHT! I'M SOMEHOW LIVING THROUGH THE AVENGERS MOVIE, WATCHING EVERY SCENE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL! I'M IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, WITH NO PASSPORT, NO VISA, AND NO ID!
I could just be mentally insane and this is just all in my head so there's THAT POSSIBILITY!
Instead of voicing these thoughts out, I say, "Yeah. Kind of."
My voice came out a pitch higher than I intended it to be.
Cap raises his eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe not." I admit to him. "Honestly, I'm still having a hard time processing..." I gesture to the park. "All of this."
"I know it's hard." Cap nods. "It's gonna be okay, kid. There are people who are gonna help you through this. You should go back to your family first, they're probably worried sick looking for you."
At the mention of family, it hits me. If I really ended up here, in the MCU, that means I disappeared in my home universe. My parents would probably think I was kidnapped, or worse, killed. I assured them that I was on my way home before I ended up here. They must be panicking more than I am.
If I really am in the MCU, then I have no way of going back home. This universe does not have the technology for multiversal travel yet. Even if I convince Stark and Dr. Banner to make a machine that could get me back home, it would take years to do it. There's barely any research available about traveling across universes.
Overwhelmed by the new realizations, my eyes start to water. I notice that Cap is still looking at me. He obviously saw my sudden distress.
"I- um." I struggle to find the words to explain my situation.
"Hey," Tony's voice calls from behind. Cap and I turn our heads towards the direction of Tony's voice.
"We better get a move on if we wanna find this magical space cube. Time to say goodbye to your fan." He continues.
My eyes widen and I frantically look back at Cap.
Cap gives him a curt nod and calls out, "I'll be right there."
He brings his gaze back to me. "Take care of yourself, kid. Sorry you got into all of this. Try not to get into any trouble."
He starts to take a step past me. Panicking, I take a step in front of him, holding my hands out in front of me.
"Wait!"
Cap stops and looks back at me, confused. I take a deep breath.
It's now or never. This is my only chance back home. Might as well tell him everything… well, maybe not everything.
"I don't know how to get back home." I blurt out.
"Kid-" He begins but I interrupt him.
"No, I mean my home is on the other side of the world." I bring my hand in front of his face to stop him from saying anything. "Less than an hour ago, I was on my way home and then I tripped and fell. I fell into this glowing blue hole. Maybe it was a portal. I'm not sure. Anyway, it dropped me off in a dark alleyway from that street." I point towards the direction of the street I came from before entering the park.
"I got up and looked around. And I found out that I'm now in Germany, hundreds of miles away from home, which shouldn't even be possible! But now, I'm here. I can't go to the authorities because I don't have my passport with me, or a visa, or even an ID. I could get arrested for it. I honestly don't know what to do and you seem to be like the only person who could help me here. So please, let me come with you. I don't know where else to go."
I ramble on about all the thoughts that are going in my head with my voice starting to break.
"Hey, kid." Cap gently places his hand on my shoulder and crouches down to my level. "Breathe."
He takes a deep breath and I do the same. I continue to do so until my shoulders start to relax. Cap withdraws his hand from my shoulder but still crouches to my level.
"Look," He says, "I didn't get much of what you said just now but you can't come with us. It's too dangerous. The man that attacked earlier is going to be on that plane and we can't risk a civilian getting hurt.
If what you said is true, then I'll ask someone to come and get you here and bring you to us. Maybe you could help us with something. After that, I'll help you get back home safely. I promise. You just can't come with us. Deal?"
That's a shit deal.
I nod. "Okay."
Cap nods as well and stands up. "Alright, just stay here and I'll have someone to get you. Stay safe."
He quickly walks towards the Quinjet. As he walks, I quickly put my phone in airplane mode and wait for Cap to be inside the jet. The rear hatch starts to close up and that's when I make my move. I run as fast as I can to get to the hatch. The Quinjet starts to lift off of the ground as the hatch is closing so I pick up the pace. Jumping, I reach for the edge of the hatch. It seems I was able to get half of my body on the other side as I hold on to the nearest ridge that’s on the surface of the hatch.
I hear Tony's voice. "Woah!"
"Kid!" Cap calls out.
I don't care if this is gonna get me killed. I am getting on this Quinjet, one way or another.