The Conduit

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except for Kaila Larson. Wish I did!

A/N: My first "Avengers" fiction, and I'm so excited to share it with all of you! As is almost always the case, my inspiration stems not only from the source material, but also the incredibly moving fanfics I've loved and obsessed over for the past few months. Thank you for reading and reviewing, and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: A Study Session Interrupted

I ordered another chai latte and tried to focus on the papers in front of me. The collage of study guides and stacks of notes were dizzying. For one brief moment, I brushed my light brown hair away from my face and rested my palms on my temples. Why had I chosen the English major route?

Outside the window, I caught glimpses of another drizzly afternoon in Seattle, with bursts of brilliant sunshine and rising temperatures. Scrambling for a pen, I scribbled a brief verse down in the corner of one of my notebooks. Pausing for a second, I re-read the line and smiled.

I remembered now. I did it for the poetry.

The barista set my steaming mug in front of me and I took a bite of a maple pecan scone before bringing the cup to my lips. I took a sip, brought a stack of papers closer, leaned over—

-and half the café exploded.

There was a blur as I scrambled away from the vortex of shredded papers, wood, smoking electronics, and hot tea that had, only moments ago, been my study session. Wind like a hurricane was blowing around the interior of the coffee shop and out broken windows, but the cause of the storm didn't stem from outside.

A handful of patrons inside the café dashed to safety through doors and broken windows, screaming as they left. I was about to follow them when something slammed into my side, knocking me against a wall.

When I regained my breath, coming in ragged gasps, I took a good look at the cause of my study session interruption (and subsequent destruction of my favorite café) and had to blink a couple times.

It wasn't really possible.

An epic battle was taking place right before my eyes, a physical confrontation between what could only be described as a giant slimy mud monster, and a man. At least, he looked like a man. He was tall and slender, decked out in armor which gleamed gold and green. His helmet was golden too, sloping into two horns at the top, which reminded me slightly of antlers. As he easily ducked a powerful punch by the mud monster, brown goo smearing the shredded walls and light fixtures, the man slid to the right, and a blue energy shot out of his fingertips. I gasped as the mud monster's arm was temporarily frozen, and he groaned, a gurgling howl that made me cover my ears.

The man—no, not actually a man, because real men couldn't do what he just did—suddenly noticed me, and he didn't look happy about it.

I tried to slink away.

"What are you doing here?" he shouted with the crispest English accent. "Run!"

The mud monster exchanged further blows with him, and I took the hint. There was only one problem: The swamp thing was blocking the nearest exit.

As quietly as I could, I crept towards the broken windows, trying to avoid stepping on broken glass or giving myself away. Unfortunately, I have never been a very coordinated individual, and I tripped over a broken chair leg.

The next thing I remembered, through the stinging in my shin, was the feeling of wet clay covering my mid-section. I then realized that that the monster had spattered me with mud before picking me up with one hand.

There was no point in vocalizing my terror, but I shrieked anyway. Everything was happening so fast. I felt myself moving through the air, dodging blasts of ice from the strange man as he tried to reach me.

And then the corner of the coffee shop opened up. The wind rushing around me became a hurricane's howl and it swirled around a blue circle inside the cafe, pinned like a spotlight and spinning with the force of a twister. I couldn't even cry because my eyes were stinging with the pressure of the wind. I screamed again, but the sound was gone before I heard it, sucked into the light like a spider in a vacuum cleaner.

"Hold on!" came the strange man's cry.

To what? I thought. My arms were pinned together by the force of the monster's grip, as well as the mud, which was drying quickly like glue.

"I'll be right behind you!" he shouted, dodging the monster's blows, eyes flashing with green fire.

"I don't underst—" I began, but then the slimy creature stepped into the blue light and we were gone.

The sensation was akin to being on a roller coaster, only there were no handrails, there were no safety bars, and there was no track. It was partly free-falling, partly spinning, and partly being pulled in four different directions at once. The iron grip the monster had on me crushed the air from my lungs, and I screamed, but there was no sound.

As my feet dangled, I snuck a glance below them and watched as a small circle of green and blue rushed up to meet us. I didn't comprehend until it was too late that the planet wasn't getting closer to us—we were getting closer to it.

We landed with a crash after which I was amazed that I was still conscious, and even more amazed that I hadn't broken every bone in my body. The swamp thing's grip on me loosened during the abrupt landing, and I slid through his slick fingers, as big as branches, falling to the ground below.

I was already covered in mud, so I wasn't terribly upset when I landed in a thick mix of water, clay, and moss, which oozed up to my waist. We had apparently landed in a swamp (perhaps Swampy's home base, I thought) and the area was relatively isolated. The sound of small creatures, such as insects and birds, met my ears, and thick fog floated around the area, obscuring dark trees nearby.

"Isn't this where Yoda lives?" I said out loud, and then made a dash for it when the mud monster grabbed at me again.

Unfortunately, the muck underfoot slowed my get-a-way and Swampy was less dazed by the recent teleportation experience. He easily picked me up, squeezing my ribs painfully. As he brought me closer towards his gigantic head, I suddenly wished that I had lost my sense of smell in the ordeal because the mud reeked. The odor was somewhere between post-marathon gym socks and moldy tuna.

As I wrinkled my nose, I realized that Swampy was watching me carefully. His eyes were amber-colored and surprisingly full of emotion. Following a meaningful blink, he moaned softly, the sound reminiscent of cattle lowing.

"What do you want from me?" I asked softly.

He opened his mouth as if to say something and that's when the stranger from before came catapulting through the portal and landed on top of the creature.

Swampy dropped me in the ensuing scuffle, and I found myself waist-deep in muck again, desperately trying to maneuver away from the mayhem.

In my escape, I glanced back and saw that the stranger was not doing so well. Swampy seemed to have the upper hand back on his home planet (go figure) and grabbed hold of the man in armor, tossing him about like a rag doll. As soon as the stranger wriggled free, he lost his footing in the slick terrain and the monster picked him up again, flinging him into a nearby tree, and then throwing him just past my location. I scrambled towards him, my heart beat echoing in my ears, painfully conscious of the fact that the stranger was not moving, and was slowly sinking into the bog.

"Wait!" I cried, as if he could stop himself, and I grabbed his left hand, which was just barely sticking out of the mud.

It was then that several things happened at once, and my life changed forever.

The first thing that happened was that I felt a surge of energy rush through me, as if I had just drunk ten cups of coffee in the past second. With the energy came a chill, like a cold breeze running through my veins. Confused and slightly disoriented, I pulled the stranger out of the swamp as easily as if he weighed as much as a stuffed animal, my hand firmly clenched to his.

Coughing and sputtering, the stranger woke up, saw my hand holding his hand, and his eyes widened with absolute terror.

"No," he muttered, but he was already slipping back into unconsciousness. "Please . . ."

Swampy was rapidly approaching us, so I took it upon myself to get onto solid ground, if I could find some. My hand still tightly attached to the stranger's, I pulled him along beside me, half supporting him, half dragging him in my haste to get away.

As we navigated through the swamp, I felt the energy grow inside me, the gentle glow of cold fire. It scared and invigorated me at the same time.

At last, I found relatively dry land, and I gently set the man in armor down, his head resting against the trunk of a small tree. I let go of his hand, and felt an immediate change. Like a light switching off, the flow of energy had stopped. Had the power come from him? Is that what he tried to warn me about? I scanned him quickly, searching for signs of life.

"Hey," I said, shaking his sides. "Wake up."

Then I heard a familiar grunting sound behind me, and there was the rotten smell of diapers that almost made me pass out beside the man.

I turned around slowly, acutely aware that I no longer felt helpless. I had strength now—but was I strong enough to take on a swamp monster?

"Listen," I said, looking up at the towering figure who was clenching and unclenching his enormous fists, as big as wine casks. "We could stop right now. You could go back to your swamp home and make some nice soup. I could go back to Seattle and pretend that this whole thing was a post-final exam hallucination brought on by lack of sleep and stress. Does this sound good to you? 'Cause it sounds pretty amazing to me."

With one smack, I found myself flying through the air to face plant back into the swamp. Well, at least it was a soft landing. And yet, after a fall that probably should have killed me, I sprang up as if nothing had happened, wiping mud out of my eyes. Then fear flooded through me as Swampy approached the stranger's still form.

I acted before my brain could comprehend what exactly I was doing. If I had run any faster, I would have been gliding. As the creature raised one hand to pummel the man, I grabbed him by one giant leg, the size of a tree trunk, and swung him into the air, tossing him lightly aside. Swampy fell into the bog with a thick splash, and stirred slowly, dazed. Those amber eyes were now terrified, widely looking at me as I turned around to face him.

"You. Do not. Touch. Him."

Before Swampy could even let out a low moan of panic, I picked him up again by the leg and threw him far into the forest, felling several trees as he crashed through the air and eventually lay still.

I paused for a moment, breathless and unable to comprehend what I had just done. But then I remembered the stranger, and I dashed back to where I had left him.

He was pale and unconscious, face pressed on his side into the earth. I tried to imagine that he was just asleep, that he had conveniently fallen down in the middle of a fight with a bad-ass swamp monster on purpose for a short nap. But no pleasant thoughts could fully convince me that this mysterious stranger was actually all right. I had seen the blows the monster inflicted upon him, and I could see the blood. And there was what I had done to him. What had I done?

As I had reached out to him before, I stopped my hands before they touched him, realizing that they were shaking. I had never felt such power—physical power—before. It was as if every muscle I had never used suddenly became taut and on guard, like a bow running along tight strings. I could almost hear the hum of the power surrounding me.

I dare not touch him, afraid that my contact would hurt him again. What had happened, exactly? It was as if his form had contracted, writhing and weakening as soon as I had grabbed his hand. The look in his eyes before they closed was the worst part. His expression had been a combination of confusion, fear, and absolute hate.

Although the power was completely new to me, I somehow knew precisely what I could accomplish with it. Unknown words fell off my tongue before I could stop them, and suddenly, I was surrounded by . . . myself. There must have been fifty other Kailas, all spread out in a semi-circle, ready to fight, then looking puzzled.

Dizzily, I tried to focus, taking a deep breath. There were too many figures to count. But I just needed one for my task. Just one.

Steadying my breathing, I imagined a single copy of myself. Immediately, the figures whipped sideways, combining in on themselves like single strands of a slinky, until there was only one. I merely had to think her task, and she walked over to the fallen stranger, as if she was me.

And she was me, wasn't she?

I took in a sharp breath as my copy approached his form, knelt down, and then touched the side of his face.

Nothing.

"Good," I whispered. Apparently the copy of myself didn't have the same effect on him that I did.

Standing beside the double, I studied his form and winced. Deep and bloody gashes crisscrossed his mid-section, probably from being thrown into (and shattering) the tree. I couldn't tell what other damage had been done because of the heavy armor that completely covered most of his body.

As the copy wiped away some of the mud on the stranger's face, I removed his bulky helmet, which would only weigh us down if we needed to move him anywhere. I admired its golden gleam for a few moments, and then tossed it aside.

Transport, I thought, and once again looked at the massive circular light swirling and shining several feet away. Characters marked in white stood out against the marshy forest floor, varying in boldness when light reflected off them.

"Hello?" I said loudly, leaning over the stranger once more. My copy continued ministering to him. "Can you hear me? I'm very sorry that you got hurt, but I have no idea where we are. I didn't mean to hurt you. I mean—I'm not sure what happened. If you tell me what to do, I will get us out of here."

Slowly, the mysterious figure stirred. When his eyes rolled open, he looked at me with pure contempt.

"Foolish . . ." he muttered with a raspy voice.

"Look, I didn't ask for you and your monster to interrupt my study session." I pointed towards the blue light close by. "What is that thing? It looks similar to what I got sucked into to get here. Will it take us back to Seattle . . . or—um—Earth?

The stranger's energy was faltering. He whispered, "The portal," in acknowledgment, before closing his eyes.

Wind blew my hair around me, stemming from the swirl of blue clouds around us.

The part of me that didn't understand what was going on listened to the other part of me that knew instinctively where this portal led and what it promised. Fear became the hammering of my heart and the new power surging inside me. But wait—did I feel a glimmer of weakness? I couldn't be sure.

My copy obediently dragged the stranger as gently as it could toward the blustery circle. As they reached its center, lights above, like stars, began flashing down upon them. My old self chuckled inwardly, the scene reminding me of alien abductions.

Beam us up.

Then I joined them in the circle and reached my right hand up towards the heavens. My mouth uttered words I had never heard before, and we were gone.