the newspapers called me echo

“i wouldn’t miss so i assume you would’ve held it against me.” she managed a smile. kate glanced down at the coffee in maya’s hand and was immediately envious. hopefully, these nasty caffeine withdrawal headaches wouldn’t last too long. “that bad, huh?” she joked. “i am. my partner’s deaf, and i wanted to learn so i could talk to him better. you should’ve seen when i first started. it was awful. i got the sign for making coffee and making out mixed up. needless to say, it was awkward.”

“That so? Bold of you to assume my reflexes wouldn’t be faster than your arrow.” She raised her eyebrows cockily, taking another sip of the coffee that was making her far too warm. “When you say partner, do you mean a relationship or your fighting partner?” It was hard to tell the difference these days. “That’s cool though! And no, I’ve definitely seen worse. You’re just... mumble-y?” Maya was clearly questioning her own choice of words. “Like you’re doing great, I’d just work on making each sign sharper?” She laughed, “That’s quite the slip up.”

“Yeah — I live here on a normal day. It’s more Reed’s thing far as keeping the lights on. I think he’s working on it, but if you want some light I can help?” He lets his hair turn into a flame, safe enough also bright to act like a lamp in the darkness. “How’s that?” The boy asks with a smile, he doesn’t really care for darkness either really. He sits down across from her though, the fire coming off his head won’t hurt anything. “I hope they figure the power situation out — it isn’t like we can call an electrician.” Bad joke?

Maya’s eyes strained as she struggled to read his lips, but she managed to get the gist of what he was saying. Before she could respond, his hair caught fire and for a moment she completely forgot that was his superpower. “Shit.” She laughed a little, “Much better actually. Thank you.” Moving back into her hiding space with him, she relaxed against the wall, smiling at his attempt at humour. “Maybe there’s an Avenger with an electrical power.” She joked back.

kate slowly lowered her weapon and placed the arrow back in the quiver. “sorry,” she said, holding her hands up. “after the dinosaurs i saw, i was expecting another one.” she was usually pretty quick to pull her weapon out at the slightest noise. in this setting, though, who could blame her. kate noticed the signing, and cracked a smile. she’d been learning how to sign since she met clint. “you might want to drink that or leave it, then. i’m kate, by the way.” while her signing was a bit rough, she did her best to sign as she spoke. 

“Don’t worry about it.” She waved a hand, “If you had fired, maybe I would’ve held it against you, but dinosaurs do have a tendency to put a gal on edge.” Maya took a sip of the coffee, determined to persevere through the humidity. Who knew when she would be able to get another cup of coffee again? She could already feel the withdrawal setting in. “Maya.” She replied with a slightly bigger smile upon seeing her attempt at signing. “New to sign language?”

Johnny yawns as he walks around the building — his home no matter what reality he’s thrown into. Unless they’re away on some strange mission, but this was what they were dealing with. Acid rain keeping everyone inside to avoid being burned, dinosaurs running around SOMEWHERE, and his boredom. He was looking for a a snack, nothing that would be too noisy — so no food that would make a crunch sound. Johnny was also ignoring the flickering lights since he had faith that it would get back on eventually. He stops walking hearing a voice, not exactly surprised since others have found refuge here too. He heads over to the stairs, kneeling down to get a better look at who was there. “Yeah? What can ol’ Johnny do for you?”

Due to the flickering lights, Maya missed him saying his name, but she didn’t need him to say it for her to know that this was Johnny Storm. “You live here, right? Like even on a normal day? You got any idea how to get these lights to chill out?” She indicated around them before edging her way out of her hiding spot. Maybe she would be able to see him a little better if she wasn’t under a staircase. “I’m deaf, so the lights are being a real bitch right now.”

“What?” Maya’s brow furrowed, the flickering lights causing her to miss a fraction of his sentence. However, her brain managed to piece it together after she had asked the question. “Oh. I-... Well, maybe don’t go outside. That would be a start, huh?” Acid rain. Did it really have to be acid rain? “Did you get hurt out there? Maybe there’s something alkaline around here that can help if you’ve burned yourself?”

The flickering lights were doing Maya absolutely no favours. Being deaf, she relied solely on her vision for most things, including her powers, so with the light fading in and out she was struggling. In any other situation, Maya could read lips perfectly, but now, as this woman spoke to her, she was only obtaining fragments of her speech. “Sorry, what? A guts-... What?” Maya had started approaching her in an attempt to see her more clearly, but it wasn’t fast enough to stop a giant wing from knocking her to the ground. “Shit...”

“I honestly have all the exact same questions and then some,” May breathed as she managed to wade her way through this literal jungle gym in time to find her on the ground. Relieved to have found another sign of life that wasn’t straight up terrifying, May’d rushed over best she could before offering a hand to help her up. “Hey. What coffee did you get?” That wasn’t a relevant question at all. Okay, get it together May. “Sorry, that’s not- Nevermind. I mean, unless it’s… Do you think they have a Starbucks in between the vines or what? Oh! I’m May, hi. I probably should have opened up with that one but when you’re in New York one minute and then wherever the next… Anyways. Are you okay?”

“Oh, uh...” Maya’s expression changed to confusion mixed with amusement. Strange priorities, but okay. “It’s just a macchiato.” Despite the situation they were so clearly in, she laughed as she helped her up. “I highly doubt it, but keep your fingers crossed. Who knows what can happen here.” Maya nodded, “Yeah, I’m okay. Just... woozy. It is so hot here.” She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, “I’m Maya. Are you okay?”

“welcome to hell,” loki said, looking down at the woman from where he was seated on a tree branch, swinging his legs. “don’t know how, so don’t ask. where? don’t really know that either. some prehistoric jungle. yes, you heard that right – prehistoric. dinosaurs. i’ll give you a moment to wrap your head around that one.” loki hummed, relaxed in the tree he was sitting in – admittedly for no other reason than he felt like it – while sipping a mimosa.

If Maya hadn’t caught a glimpse of his legs swinging in the tree a little away from her, she would have probably missed what he had said entirely. “Never crossed my mind that Hell would be so green.” She commented, using the tree behind her as support to get back on her feet. “Wait, I’m sorry...” Maya approached him, knowing fine well she knew what he had said, but required clarification all the same. “Did you say... dinosaurs?” She signed the word for ‘dinosaur’ to really emphasise her confusion. “Are-... Is that a mimosa?”

kate was practically sweating to death in her uniform. even with her hair pulled up and out of her face, the heat was still brutal. she never expected to end up somewhere that dinosaurs still existed. she just wanted to put on her comfy clothes and drink a cup of coffee. she heard someone hit the ground behind her, and kate quickly turned with her weapon drawn. the woman was on the ground with a cup of coffee, and kate felt a bit of jealosy. “i hate to break it to you, but i can’t tell you where you are or how you got here. at least you got your coffee.”

Maya’s free hand immediately shot up, the other still gripping tight to the coffee as she tried to signal that she wasn’t a threat. “Okay, okay. Do you mind lowering the weapon? Geez...” She got to her feet, grateful that she had put on her Doc’s that morning. Now that her hand was free, she naturally began signing as she spoke. “I’m sure I’d appreciate the coffee a lot more if it wasn’t literally a hundred degrees right now.”

Crystal was already mentally kicking herself before the words came out of her mouth, “Welcome to the jungle.” The inhuman commented, physically wincing at her comment.   “And as for the what—and how… giant evil titan esq character, seems like they are just falling out of the wood works these days.” She commented, “Sorry, humor is really more of my friends things– I try though.”

“Well, yeah. Galactus. I’m pretty sure the whole world knows about him at this point, but this?” Maya indicated the surrounding jungle as she stood, being careful not to spill her coffee. “What was his plan? Send us out here to die of heat exposure and dehydration?”