"Class of 2018 baby!" The sound of glasses clicking and cheers filled the open air. The sun reflected off the water as it started to set below the horizon, creating a backdrop of pinks and oranges and blues behind the beach-side bar, where a small crowd was huddled as the string lights above them flickered to life. The group drank happily, continuing to whoop and holler as they slammed their glasses down. The barkeep just shook his head, rubbing a glass clean with a small dish rag.

"So," he drawled, looking over at the group with a humored, knowing gaze, "what is it you all are celebrating?" One of the people sitting on the bar stool ― a young woman, her strawberry-blonde hair almost copper in the light of the sunset ― grinned up at him as he re-filled her shot glass.

"Graduation, baby!" The group cheered even louder at this, and she tossed back her drink again, "Celebrating being real adults, with degrees and everything!" The bartender smiled, and started to refill the others' drinks as well. The woman laughed with her friends and smiled back at him, gasping lightly when she saw his shirt.

"I LOVE your shirt, by the way!" she exclaimed, pointing at it wildly; it was a simple, airbrushed t-shirt ― the kind often sold along the beach boardwalk or at an amusement park ― except it showed what looked like purple and black claw marks, with "Wakanda Forever" etched in the middle. The bartender chuckled, rubbing his neck a little awkwardly as her outburst gained the attention of the rest of the group.

"Heh, thanks," he replied, "You a Marvel fan, then?" The figure beside the woman snorted, turning around to face him ― another young woman, a brunette ― with an almost tired smirk.

"'Fan' isn't a strong enough word for her obsession," she said, elbowing her friend in the ribs as she did. The first woman just laughed it off, re-adjusting herself on top of the stool.

"Oh really?" the bartender drawled, smirking back at the blonde, "So I guess you've seen Infinity War already, right?" His answer came in the form of a blonde head smacking down on the bar counter, a whining groan emitting from beneath the curtain of hair. "I'll take that as a yes." The blonde woman looked back up to him, green eyes a little glassy but a smile still spread on her face.

"I'm Laurie," she said, holding out a hand to him. He took her hand and shook it gently.

"Joseph," he replied. His darker hair fell forward a bit into his face, just starting to obscure his even darker eyes. Laurie giggled, unsure if it was the booze or his smile that caused it. The brunette beside her shoved in their handshake stiffly, grinning a bit wider at Joseph when he jumped at the sudden sight of her hand in his face.

"I'm Janet, by the way," she said with a smirk, "Not that you care, or anything." Janet winked at Laurie again really quickly, before turning back to the group behind them, "Hey guys, this guy's a Marvel fan!" Immediately, the conversation turned, with all of the tipsy (and some well past tipsy) recent graduates swarming around the counter to discuss the movies with him. Laurie mostly just watched, sipping her new drink as her friends clamoured around them, shouting out theories and obscenities at any mention of what they had dubbed "The Dusting". The final scenes of the film they had all waited for had shaken them all up beyond what they had expected, though for all her grief, Laurie stayed optimistic. She read the comics, back when the "Infinity Gauntlet" run had first come out; she was expecting most of them to return in the next film.

"I'll bet you anything they call it 'Avengers: Forever'," one exclaimed to the group, gaining a chorus of rebuttals.

"No way, man! 'Avengers: Assemble'!" Another added.

"How about 'Avengers: Legacy'?"

"'The Last Avengers'!"

"'Another One Bites the Dust'!" Janet cheered, downing another shot. The group quieted a bit, staring at her in concern and mild horror as she smirked up at them. Laurie just shook her head, sipping again at her drink.

"That's fucked up, man," Joseph said with a laugh, before turning back to an old boombox on one of the shelves behind him, "Not as much as this, though." He turned back to Laurie, giving her a wink before clicking the play button with his thumb. A steady drum beat filled the air around them, the all-too familiar tune surrounding them as Joseph begin moving over to the register to print the bills for the group.

"Steve walks warily down the street, with the brim pulled way down low…" Freddie Mercury's voice echoed around them, and Laurie laughed as her friends began singing along. Almost none of them could remember the lyrics outside of the chorus, and the loud, intoxicated mumbling was almost as ridiculous as the song itself was to them now. Joseph passed her her bill with a smirk, pointing at the small crowd of drunken graduates.

"Interesting friends you got there, I gotta say." Laurie nodded.

"You should've seen them during finals week," she responded, pulling out her card from the money clip in her pocket and handed it to him to swipe, "Two straight weeks of no sleep and endless crying, and half of these guys spend the last day bar-hopping after their last final. The locals back home still haven't recovered." They both laughed, and Joseph handed her card and receipt back to her with a pen.

"Well, if y'all plan on sticking around a while, I can promise the locals here can handle it." Laurie smiled up at him again, then quickly signed the top receipt, scribbling her number at the bottom before handing it back.

"Well, if they're all as cute as you, I could definitely be convinced," she said softly, cheeks slightly flushed, though from Joseph's smile or from the alcohol, she could no longer tell. Joseph chuckled at her, then turned to look behind him for a moment at the door inside.

"You know," he said, "I'm off shift in five minutes..." Laurie's brow raised at this, and she glanced quickly around at her friends before turning back to him. "If you'd maybe like to continue this after I clock out…?"

"Meet you in ten in the parking lot?" Laurie bit at the edge of her lip as she blinked up at Joseph, who smiled at her with a wink before heading inside the main bar, another man coming out shortly after to take over at the bar. Laurie quickly downed the rest of her drink, then shuffled over to Janet where she had jumped into the middle of their group, singing at the tops of their lungs.

"Jan!" she called, the brunette leaning backwards to look at her upside-down, "Don't wait up tonight, okay? I'm gonna be late!" Janet rolled her eyes before righting herself as Laurie began heading inside to the restroom.

"Be safe!" Janet called over her shoulder, "And call me before you get murdered!" Any other sound advice was drowned out by the sounds of inside as Laurie stepped through the door. Most of the patrons inside the building were less exuberant than her friends outside, mostly sticking to simply drinking in some of the booths or playing at one of the pool tables. No one paid much mind to her as she slipped through the crowd and started heading to the bathrooms in the back. She was just squeezing between one of the bar stools and a rather bulky pool player when a hooded figure shouldered past her roughly, shoving her into the man's back.

"Watch it, blondie," he growled, realigning his shot. Laurie stumbled up, muttering a "sorry" under her breath and not even bothering to pick up her purse off the floor as she looked for the person who pushed her.

"Super rude, pal…" Her eyes scanned the darkened room, catching sight of the hooded person right as they disappeared past the bathrooms and towards the back exit, "Hey, wait a second!" She started after the stranger, more than a little miffed at such blatant disregard for even just a little bit of common courtesy. Where did this person get off, not even apologizing for that?! She pushed more forcefully after them, walking right past the bathroom and turning the same corner as the door swung closed.

"Oh no, you don't." Stomping down the short hall, she flung the door open and stepped through the threshold into what she supposed was the side alley near the street.

Immediately, her vision swam and her head began to pound. It was like the hangover she was supposed to get over the course of the next morning had decided to hit all at once, knocking her backwards and pushing her stomach contents further up her throat. She thought she could hear the waves crashing against the beach, but she couldn't be that close to the water, and it was much too violent to be waves. Did Joseph slip something in her drink while she wasn't looking? Where was Janet when she needed her? She listed from side to side, just barely catching herself against the brick walls of the alley. Wait, brick? Wasn't the bar made with stucco?

"Wha-at the hell…" she mumbled, eyes closed and clutching her head as she stumbled through the alley, "...happened to me?" The roaring in her ears slowly died down the further she went, the sounds of waves being replaced by horns and what seemed like loud chatter. How close was she to the street now? Why was it so busy?

"Hey buddy, you there?" she called out as she reached the edge of the alley, "I just wanna ta―"

HOOOONNNK! The sudden noise shook her from her stupor, shocking her off balance as she fell backward and hit what definitely wasn't the sugar sands of the Gulf coast. Blinking slowly, she squinted upwards in the sudden bright light. When her vision restored, her brain stop functioning almost completely.

When she walked out of the bar, it had been nearing midnight on a beach in Florida, away from any major city. Now, she definitely wasn't on any beach ― especially not in Florida ― and the bright sun in her eyes was too painful to ignore. Tall buildings lined both sides of the street as far as she could see, with hundreds or maybe even thousands of people walking along the wide sidewalks, and the roads themselves were seemingly blocked by yellow taxis in perhaps the most extreme stop-and-go traffic she had ever laid eyes on.

"Where… am I?" She continued to stare in shock for a moment, before rapidly shaking her head and turning back, her heart racing as she checked all over the alley for some kind of door back to the bar.

"This can't be happening," she whispered in a panic, "This just can't be happening…" The alley was dark and shallow, however, without so much as a window to excuse or explain her sudden arrival. Maybe her friends were pranking her? No, no place to hide a camera anywhere, either. She thought back to the hooded figure she followed out of the bar, and turned towards the busy street once more. Fear clutched in her gut, but she pushed on, and headed back out into the light.

"At least the weather hasn't really changed," she muttered to herself, thankful she had grabbed an overshirt for her one-piece suit and daisy dukes, though it did little to protect from the wind tunnel. Sandals smacked lightly against the hot pavement as she walked down the street a ways, eyes wide and searching for any sign of familiarity. For all the people within the city, it seemed quite a few of them had decided to crowd around a storefront just a couple blocks down the road to her right, including a familiar hood disappearing into the throng of people.

"There you are." Laurie picked up the pace, trying her best to keep an eye on the familiar stranger. She began to hear a familiar voice, as well, the closer she got, and it pushed her to move faster until she was finally standing on the edge of the crowd, peering around and over the various people to see what had gathered so much interest.

"...not the hero type, clearly…" She froze, staring at the direction of the storefront where the voice had come from, "...long list of character defects and all the mistakes I've made…" Her mind wandered, jumping from worst-case to worst-case as she shoved through the crowd. Her heart jumped up to her throat, but she choked it down forcefully.

They could just be watching the movie, she reasoned, no reason to start thinking up crazy scenarios. Short as she was, she managed to slip through most of the people until she could see the front window, only to find five or six televisions displaying the scene, two from different angles and all sporting a news banner along the bottom. Center screen on each, however, was a face entirely-too-familiar to Laurie, who stared up in shock and horror as he spoke into the mic.

"...I am Iron Man…" Almost immediately, a sense of nausea washed over her as the people around her all began loudly reacting to what to them seemed to be a new revelation. She watched as some of the screens continued to show the man she now knew to be none other than Tony Stark as he left the podium, while others cut to a reporter near the scene. The man next to Stark ― Colonel Rhodes, she recalled ― took the stand to address the reporters after him, looking far more like Don Cheadle's interpretation than the actor from the first film's.

No credits rolled, no rocking music played as celebrity names flashed across the screen, and no clip showing Nick Fury cornering Stark to tease the start the franchise at the very end; just a rich man with a metal suit.

Not in a movie, but for real.

"Hey, watch it buddy!" Laurie turned to her left, watching a taller, balding man in a cheap suit wave his fist at the hooded stranger as they retreated further along the road and turned a corner up ahead. Feeling her spine stiffen, she briskly followed behind, ignoring the rest of the crowd and starting to run after them. If anyone would have the answers, after all, it would be them.

She lost track of how many street signs she passed as she pursued her target, desperate to keep sight of the one she figured was responsible for… whatever this was. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she finally caught them, but she had too many questions now. She had to know, and she wasn't going to stop until she got some answers. Several blocks later, however, it seemed she had finally cornered them: they'd turned down a narrow, dead-end brick alley, standing almost perfectly still as she drew nearer,back to her the entire time. She put on as tough a face she could manage, holding her head a little higher, and prepared for the worst.

"Hey, punk," she grumbled, her voice a little too shaky to maintain the growl she had aimed for, "Just where the hell do you get off? What kind of sick joke is this?" The figure didn't move at first, then slowly rotated their head to look over their shoulder, most of their face remaining masked under the shadows of the hood. A cold smirk shifted onto the only visible part of their face, however, and Laurie stopped in her tracks. Something was wrong.

"Hey, wait a―" a blinding flash of orange and green appeared in wall in front of them, the same roaring sound as before pounding in her skull. She cried out, slamming her hands over ears as she collapsed to her knees. What was this? What was happening to her? The sound faded out as the light did, and she hoped to catch them as she opened her eyes again, but this time, they were gone without a trace.

"Well…" she whispered, holding back her tears of frustration as she stared at the ― now empty ― alley, "...that's not exactly ideal..." Now what would she do? She thought about her options, trying to decide on her next course of action. She was in New York ― that much she could tell, now, having walked through a decent chunk of it just a moment ago. What was there in New York that could help her out.

It could have been magic, she pondered, pushing herself to a standing position once more. Magic did exist in the Marvel multiverse, after all, if that was where she had truly ended up. She had little else to go on, and with her purse being left back in the bar, she had no phone and little money to help her survive for any length of time beyond the immediate future. But magic? That could get her back home in no time.

"And where there's magic…" she whispered, moving back out onto the sidewalk and looking around for the nearest street sign ― East 52nd and 2nd Avenue ― "...there are sorcerers…"

A/N: Hello! For those that follow my other writings, sorry I haven't been very active lately! In my final semester of university and trying to do my student teaching, so life is pretty hectic right now. BUT! I've had this story in my head for nearly a year now, and I've finally managed to write up a chapter for you guys. Please let me know what you guys think of it, I love seeing people reacting to my work. This is a bit different from my usual writing style, but I wanted to get some practice in writing with third-person limited POV for some of the original works I'm working on in the background, so I figured now was as good a time as any.

I hope you all enjoy, and I wish for all of your safety and happiness every day. Until next time!

-H. E. Vaughn (Lunarity2013)