Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League.
Feedback: I'd appreciate it.
AN: For those wishing a time-placement, in the Friends timeline, this is set in between 'TOW The Lottery' and 'TOW Rachel's Dream', and in the League's timeline, it's set in between my stories 'Resurrection' and 'Legacy'. By the way, if this doesn't quite seem too good at the start, I apologise; I'm not very used to writing Friends fan fiction, but this idea was such an interesting idea for a story I couldn't not write it.
The One Where They Help Save the World
"So," asked Rachel, looking very pointedly at Ross as the gang sipped at their coffee cups, "any idea where Emma picked up the word 'gleeba'?"
Ross groaned a little, as he put down his coffee and stared at the mother of his child. "Look, Rache, don't go accusing me of talking about gleeba when she's around," he said, genuinely annoyed that she wasn't prepared to let this go. "I mean, I didn't even know what it meant until you looked it up in the dictionary. How could she have heard it from me?"
"Well, who else would use a word like that around her?" Rachel pointed out, her long hair hanging down as she leaned forward.
"Ah, well, that might be me," Joey put in, rising to his friend's defence. "See, I was rehearsing for the role of a scientist in a TV show a while back, and, well, I did a bit of practice while I was looking after Emma at one time. I can't be certain, of course, but I think 'gleeba' may have been one of the words in the script."
Chandler looked over at his friend with a surprised expression on his face. "You auditioned for a role as a scientist?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, it seemed like easy money at the time," Joey said. "After all-"
Phoebe held up her hand. "Can you just stop there, Joey?" she asked. "I'm getting a definite... vibe from something, and I'm trying to work out what it is."
Ross sighed. "Pheebs, no offence intended to your beliefs, but does this really have any relevance to this situation?"
Phoebe sighed. "Say what you like, Ross, but I'm really feeling something right now. In fact..." she said, as her voice trailed off. Then she shook her head, got up, and started walking.
"'In fact' what?" Monica asked, placing a hand on her friend's arm. "Honey, what's wrong?"
Phoebe shook her head slightly and turned to face Monica. "I... I'm not sure," she said, sounding slightly confused. "But I get the definite feeling that something's going to happen soon. Something... something...."
"Something?" Chandler said, sounding rather curious by this point. "Would you care to specify, Pheebs?"
Phoebe shook her head. "I... I wish I could, Chandler, but... I can't. All I know is... I- I have to go." Then she walked out of the coffee house and turned right, vanishing from the sight of her friends in a few seconds.
The remaining five looked around at each other, until Rachel broke the silence.
"So, do we follow her, or what?" she asked.
Chandler shrugged. "Well, we've got nothing better to do," he said, as he got up. "So, let's go."
Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe got up and walked out of the coffee house, Ross leaving a few dollars on the table to pay for the coffees before he joined the others.
As soon as they were outside Central Perk, the group headed on down the street that Phoebe had walked down, moving fairly fast to keep up. It was rather late already, so the streets weren't quite as crowded as they could have been, but in New York, that was still fairly crowded.
Fortunately, Phoebe hadn't gone too far from Central Perk; she'd stopped directly in front of a dead-end alleyway, with only various trash-bags and the bottom end of a fire escape in it.
After looking over Phoebe's shoulder for a while, Monica finally broke the silence.
"Uh... honey? What are you looking at?" she asked.
Phoebe looked back, but didn't appear to even be surprised at their sudden appearance. "I don't know, Monica," she said, turning back to the alleyway. "I just know that something's going to happen here soon... something big... and we have to be here for it to achieve what it's going to pull off."
"'We'?" Joey asked, looking at Phoebe in surprise. "What's with this 'we' stuff? I don't recall any of us signing up for... for... for I don't know what!"
However, before anyone could reply to that comment, the air in the alleyway suddenly started to crackle with brilliant blue electricity, as though something had short-circuited. Before anyone could fully process that fact, a massive glowing hole appeared in mid air, deposited six figures on the ground in front of the little group watching the whole scenario, and then vanished.
After a few seconds of stunned disbelief, Chandler broke the silence.
"So, did I accidentally take some of Ross's old tranquilizers without knowing it, or did you guys see that happen as well?" he asked, as he walked forward to look at the figure lying on the ground nearest to him.
"We saw it," Ross said, as he and the others followed Chandler's example and walked forward to examine the collapsed figures.
Looking up from her figure, Phoebe grinned at the others. "See? I told you something big was going to take place here!" she said, her grin almost wide enough to split her face as she looked around at all her friends.
"Yeah, OK, you were right that something was going to happen, Pheebs," Monica said, as she crouched down to look at her figure better. (Curiously enough, out of all six of the unconscious people lying on the ground, only Monica's was a woman.) "But shouldn't we more be focusing on the issues of who, what, and why in our current situation?"
"Which are?" Joey asked, as he looked up from the figure he'd run to; a man with a remarkably white face.
"Who are these guys, what was that thing they came through, and why was Phoebe able to sense it?" Monica stated.
"Well, maybe we'll get a better idea of who they are if we turn them over?" Rachel suggested.
Nodding at that suggestion, the group turned their figures over.
Chandler's figure seemed fairly athletic, and was dressed in a long black duster, a white shirt, a black waistcoat with the buttons undone, and brown trousers and shoes. His fair hair had the hint of curls in it, but they had nearly vanished, and his face was young- he could only be in his late twenties at best.
Phoebe's chosen victim was a man, in about his mid-thirties, wearing brown trousers, black shoes, and a brown waistcoat, as well as a white shirt with rolled-up. His hair reached down to around his shoulders, and his face had several small scars on it that he appeared to have received in past fights.
Ross's figure was somehow more disturbing than the others, mainly because his chest was almost totally bare baring a few strips of cloth that made it look like his shirt had burst apart somehow. Apart from that, all he had were black trousers that were slightly tattered around the bottom of the legs. His red hair had been brushed to the right side of his head, and his face had a slightly haunted aspect about it.
Monica's person, the only woman in the entire group, was wearing along black leather coat, a black leather corset and collar, and black skin-tight leggings and boots. Her hair was dark red and reached down to below her shoulders, and was slightly curled although it almost seemed to be straightening out even at they looked at her. Her skin was milky yet flawless, and she had brilliant blue eyes.
The person Rachel was crouching beside gave all the others a run for their money regarding their odd clothes; he was wearing blue-and-white garments and black boots, along with an ornate Indian turban. He had a remarkably bushy beard, and a lined, experienced face that marked him out as the oldest of this unusual group. However, the most noteworthy feature about him was a sword that hung at his belt, with an almost ornamental hilt.
Joey's figure, however, was far more puzzling than any of the others. His completely white face and hands, coupled with his old-fashioned coat and hat, would make his stand out in a crowd anywhere by themselves, but when you looked where the rest of his body should be in the coat, there was...
"Nothing?" Monica asked, as the group abandoned their figures to look at Joey's. "How does that happen?"
"Maybe he's some kind of figurine?" Joey asked. "You know, the coat's supported by a metal frame inside it or something like that? Look, I'll just- YIKES!" he yelled, as he pulled his hand away from the middle of the coat.
"What happened?" Ross asked
Joey looked at his friend with a slight edge of panic in his voice.
"This guy's invisible!" he said to Ross, in a voice that almost seemed verging on the hysterical.
"What?" Rachel asked, leaning forward to look at the figure as she raised a hand to touch it. "Joey, be realistic, OK? Things can't just turn invisi- OH MY GOD!" she cried, yanking her hand back. "I think I just touched this guy's dick!"
Monica blinked a little at that statement. "OK, the disturbing mental image you just raised there is now gone, and I think I can better focus on my second question," she said, after a few seconds. "Namely, what do we do with these guys? Take them to the hospital or police or something?"
"On what charge? Dropping out of the sky?" Chandler asked.
"Well, being in possession of offensive weaponry seems a good place to start," Rachel pointed out. "I mean, my guy has this sword, Mon's girl has a couple of daggers, and I don't know if you've noticed it, but your guy does have a couple of pistols on him!"
"What?" Chandler asked, looking back at the young man he'd been examining earlier. Rachel was right; there were two pistols, just visible under the guy's coat. He'd been mostly examining the guy's face earlier, trying to see if he remembered seeing it anywhere, so he must have missed them.
"Well, that was... unexpected," he said, looking back up at his friends. "But it doesn't answer the question of what the hell we do with these guys."
"Take them home, of course," Phoebe said. "Well; your home, at the very least."
The rest of them looked at each other in blank astonishment at that statement. Eventually, Ross broke the silence.
"Um, Phoebe, is that really a sensible thing to do? I mean, these guys are armed, in case you hadn't noticed?" he said.
"They're not dangerous!" Phoebe smiled. "Why would I have a feeling that would lure me to people that could hurt us?"
Chandler smiled. "If she was right about her feeling- and these guys suggest that she was- she does have a good point, Ross," he said. "We might as well give these guys the benefit of the doubt. Joey and I'll drop their weapons off at his place, so they won't be able to do any serious damage to us when they get up. Then we'll pick up Emma from Rachel's mom, get back home, and then worry about what to do next."
Ross thought it over for a short while, and then sighed. "OK, you win," he said, sounding resigned to the fact. "But how do we get these guys home?"
"Oh, easy!" Joey smiled, as he picked his guy and hauled him onto his shoulders, draping the guy's left arm around his neck. "We just walk with them like this, and claim that they're drunk and we're just taking them home to sleep it off!"
"And we explain your guy being invisible and that guy not having his shirt, how?" Rachel asked, jerking her thumb and the topless red-headed man.
Joey shrugged and, reaching over, buttoned the invisible man's jacket shut. "So long as nobody looks at his legs, I'll probably be fine," he smiled. "And as for Ross's guy, well, just say he lost a game or two of strip poker or something."
Then he walked out of the alley, the invisible man draped over his shoulder, the others following on behind Joey with the other unconscious figures.