Rise || Marvel

《46》Identity Crisis

《 Tia's POV 》

My eyes flew open. I was greeted with an expanse of azure sky, with light-ish grey clouds edging along in small clusters.

"Heyooo, this isn't New York," I remarked breezily, "Isn't it fun when you're somehow knocked out by a random butthole portal and transported to a random place that may or may not be on a different planet? I mean, it's better than Maths, but still!"

I tilted my head to the side so I could see the landscape to my right, "Yup. Not New York."

Sitting up groggily, I winced as my head gave a painful throb. Now for admiring the view while gaping like a dumbfounded goldfish instead of freaking out. That method always tended to work for me. Distraction, am I right?

Go home anxiety. You're drunk.

From my vantage point (which was apparently on a hill of some sort), I had an excellent view of... well... wherever the hell I was. There was a massive city stretching as far as the eye could see. The buildings seemed to closely resemble structure of ancient Greek architecture I'd seen in my history textbook, with elegant, mostly white and beige designs. Throughout the city, I could spot what looked like humanoid statues in most places where roads converged. Over near large stadium, the road seemed to be crowded with market-goers, browsing through a myriad of different stalls. Bordering the far left side edge of the city, I could just make out the sharp drop of a cliff.

DAMN, I have literally no idea where the heck I am. That makes things considerably more difficult.

Still... This city. Something was... strange.

Unfortunately, not STEPHEN Strange. Haha. No, stop it. I need to use my three remaining brain cells to figure out what's going on, not make bad puns!

I focussed on the largest and one of the most magnificent buildings. A hazy memory drifted to the forefront of my mind- an image of my nightly trip to the crumbling city with Temi. The mental image showcased a large, intricately designed structure, already mostly caved in and still belching acrid smoke into the darkened sky.
Something in my brain seemed to click as I peered down at the main building and I felt like the blood had drained from my face. It was the same building.

"I am CONFUSION," I announced loudly, pushing away the memory that I had said the exact same thing while working on homework last night. I scanned over the city again, now recognising other features of the city, "This is my weird dreamscape... Except it's not on fire, which is always a bonus."

I sternly told myself to keep on guard, but ended up quickly getting lost in my own thoughts anyway.

Gradually, I became aware of someone's voice calling out from somewhere behind me, sounding rather exasperated.

"Wow, so much for staying on guard!" I scoffed quietly.

The voice kept calling irritably, "Hey, are you ignoring me?"

"Hang on, that sounds like..." I mused, then whipped around excitedly, "Temi!"

Several feet away, a lean woman with beautiful, coppery skin was approaching. She was probably a head or so taller than me and had long, curly, (extremely) pale blonde hair- so blonde it was almost white. Her sharp eyes seemed to pick up every movement, gleaming a radiant silver colour. She wore a simple Greek toga-like ensemble, except the hem of the dress cut off just above her kneecaps, clearly showing the dark-coloured sandals underneath. Both of her wrists were encased in worn, leather arm guards. An elegantly carved bow and quiver full of arrows were strapped securely across her back.

She came to a halt in front of me, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that nickname?" She exhaled, "It's Artemis, not 'Temi'."

Whhhaaaaaa... Hold on a damn second. It was YOUR spirit-y thing that told me to call you 'Temi'! What the fu-

"Hestia? Hello...? You okay there? You're just staring off into space. What's wrong?" Temi- or rather, Artemis, waved her hand in front of my face.

I was taken aback, "Wait, who?"

Artemis frowned at me suspiciously, "Uhm, you... Hestia... Would you like me to spell it out for you?"

Pfft, identity crisis! ...I shouldn't be laughing right now, should I?

The pale-haired huntress raised an eyebrow, silver eyes lingering on my hoodie, "What on Earth are you wearing?"

"Huh?" Surprised at the semi-normal sort of question, I glanced down to remind myself of what I was actually wearing, "Oh, my Game of Thrones hoodie- House Stark! Fitting, now that I think about it... Haha... um."

Artemis regarded the fabric wearily, looking not at all impressed. She probably wasn't a fan of Game of Thrones.

"Hey, so, weird question," I tried again, pointing towards the sharp cliff drop bordering the city, "What's past the cliff?"

"That's right, I forgot to tell you," Artemis's broke into a tense grin, "It took a while to get into the records. Basically, I found out that the cliff acts as our doorways to other worlds. All those clouds? Yeah, they obscure the entrances. The clouds are more of a defensive mechanism more than anything..."

"That's pretty cool," I admitted, "Kinda want to try it... But don't want to get stuck on Xandar by accident..."

There was a brief, awkward silence, then Artemis glanced over towards the city, "We should reconvene with the others. They wanted to do group training..."

"Oh... Right... Yeah..." I agreed feebly.