2012

Deke is going to die. It will be painless, his death will be instantaneous. But he'll be dead. At least everyone from S.H.I.E.L.D. will be going to their time, and hopefully none of this will ever happen. Deke closes his eyes, bracing for death.

Instead, it feels like his body is being moved. And now the air seems different. He can't hear the air ventilators. Oh great, now those are broken? Deke opens his eyes and sees something drastically different from where he's lived his entire life.

The light from the sun is blinding. Deke uses his hand to cover his eyes as he looks around. He's in some sort of building with lots of windows. Most of those windows are broken now, glass shards littering the floor. The walls and floors are made of materials Deke has only seen in his virtual world. And he is surrounded by all sorts of people.

"Hi," Deke says, not knowing what to do, surrounded by all these people who had seen him appear out of normal. He doesn't even know where he is. But he hopes his question should be "when," not "where." "This is Earth, right?"

"Yeah, but Earth is closed. No more otherworldly visits," a man says, decked out in bright red armor. Looking around, Deke is surprised by what everyone is wearing. Is this what people normally wear now? There's a man in blue with red and white accents, a white star on his chest; a man with shining silver armor and a red cape, blonde hair touching his shoulders; a man wearing green and black leather, gold armor, and a green cape, his wrists chained together; and a man and a woman each in all black, wearing clothes considerably more familiar to Deke, but still not what he thought was normal for Earth ninety years ago (or in the present, since he's somehow time travelled). And there's a giant green person, probably an Inhuman, or maybe an alien. The man did say "no more" aliens. All of which are staring at Deke like he's got two heads. Well, I did show up out of nowhere.

"I'm from Earth, this is just so different," Deke says as he looks out the smashed windows. Deke can't help but be excited. There's no Kree, he can go outside, there's movies and liquor and ice cream and dogs and trees and everything he's always wished he could see. What type of food is there? What shortages are there? Could I buy oranges often, or is that a once a year thing? What does the sun feel like? What do people here do for fun? What do they do during sharknados? What's bacon? How big is the ocean? Where are the trees?! Deke looks at the view. He is standing at the top of a tall building, maybe as tall as the fortress he lived in all his life. This building is surrounded by buildings of similar heights. Everything on the ground is a mess. There are some kind of bodies everywhere, and lots of things are on fire.

"Where are the trees?" Deke asks. "Why aren't there trees?"

"How exactly did you get here?" the man in blue asks.

"I didn't accidentally travel through time just to not see any trees," Deke mutters. "I'm serious, where are the trees? Don't you need trees so you can breathe? Since you don't have ventilators for everywhere on the planet?"

"For someone 'from Earth,' you don't seem to know a lot about Earth," the woman remarks.

"I'm from Earth, just not like how you are," Deke says, not knowing what to say. If he is here, so are the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents prophesied to save Earth. And they probably don't want people knowing about them going to 2091. So Deke can't really say that he is from their future.

"Who is he?" the red cape guy quietly asks the green cape guy.

"Would you believe me if I said I don't know?" the green cape guy answers.

"Why are so many things destroyed down there? And why are there fires? Is this normal?" Deke asks.

"Congratulations," the man in black starts. "You missed the alien invasion that just happened."