A Park to the Sparrow Academy | Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

Everything involving all of this was weird, because that was just par for the course with this family, but this time around there was a lot of weirdness that was seemingly designed to make Annie uncomfortable. She got that having Stan dropped in his lap wasn't Diego's fault, and thankfully Fandom had prepared her pretty thoroughly for the idea that they lived different, separate lives in other universes, but....

But it still wasn't easy to have your husband tell you that this adolescent child was his, with a woman who was already so aggressive and confident as to make Annie vaguely uncomfortable with her.

So anyway. Annie was also lucky that it was pretty hard to miss her second-favorite Hargreeves when he was up and moving around, and when she ran into Luther on his way out for a morning run, she'd hardly hesitated before asking if she could tag along -- even if she was actually feeling a little queasy this morning. (Whatever. Probably just all the time travel and -- weirdness.)

"Does it look normal around here to you?" she asked as they made their way towards a park, Annie lengthening her stride a little more than she would normally to keep up with Luther. "Like, out here, too?"

She hadn't spent all that much time in the Unnamed City. Especially not during the daytime.

Luther	"Everything seems to be where it should be, yeah," Luther said, doing a quick 360 to assure himself of that. "Though the Umbrella Academy did not have obnoxious-ass billboards everywhere when we were active. How insecure can you be?"
Annie	"That's like my old job," Annie replied, huffing out a laugh that was half-pant because, you know, jogging with a giant. "Except it doesn't look like they airbrushed any of them too bad." Everyone had probably heard plenty about her boobs on that poster last summer thanks to Klaus, so she didn't feel the need to elaborate more than that.
Luther	"I just hate seeing their big, stupid faces everywhere," Luther grumbled. "But I had to get out of that hotel, you know? It's creepy in there. And, god, sharing a room with Klaus and Diego--no offense."
Annie	"None taken." It was probably a pretty vastly different vibe from how her own room-sharing with Diego went. "Your...dad's other kids seem like total assholes; I also don't love seeing them everywhere. Even Ben." Though there was ooooooone she bet Luther didn't mind seeing so much, and maybe she'd find a way to sneak that in here.
Luther	"Super asshole jerk-faces." Luther still wasn't too good at the whole insult thing, but he was working on it. "I thought we were bad, but those guys..." If Luther had realized there were more ravens than usual in the park he would have stopped shit-talking so much. Or maybe jog faster. "I don't know, maybe it's because we had Pogo we didn't turn out like that? And Mom--their version seemed...off."
Annie	"Well, they don't even call her Mom," Annie pointed out, also totally unaware of any birds she should be noticing. Birds were birds? She normally didn't really take much notice of birds? "That right there is kind of huge, right? And you're right, she seems -- broken." Diego was definitely the most attached to their mom of the Umbrella Hargreeves, Annie got that now, but it wasn't like the other six hadn't grown up addressing her as Mom and learning gentleness from her, too. And the fact that the Sparrows didn't even seem to care enough to maintain her said...a lot, to Annie.
Luther	To be fair to Annie, neither she or Diego had been chased by the birds back at the house, so she didn't necessarily know to look for them. But after the, oh, seventh or eighth one flew over their heads so settle on a bench shortly ahead of them that Luther slowed to a stop. "Oh, shit."
Annie	"...oh, shit," Annie echoed, finally putting together that these birds weren't all different kinds of birds -- they were all the big black kind. Like crows. Or ravens. (Weirdly, definitely not sparrows.) But she recognized them from yesterday, now, and she'd barely gotten shit of her mouth before she was turning on her heel and scrabbling out for Luther's arm to try to encourage him to turn in the opposite direction with her. They were superheroes. They could outrun birds. (Well. Luther probably could, anyway.)
Luther	Luther didn't need to be told twice. He took off in the same direction as Annie, not noticing the weird looks they were getting from other people because they were running from birds. Not just birds. Luther turned his head to see if he was being chased by birds only to find the cube dude coming after them. "Oh, shit, shit, shit!" God, he hated when Diego was right.
Annie	It was rare, but it was a bitch when it happened. Especially since it often meant that Annie had been stupidly optimistic about something. She glanced back, her eyes already illuminating as she drew power from a street lamp ahead and fired a blast back haphazardly over her shoulder. Good, Annie, piss off the cube.
Luther	"Hey, that was pretty coo--" The word 'cool' was stopped abruptly when Luther smashed right into that same street lamp, sending both himself and the lamp to the ground. Ow.
Annie	"Luther! Are you okay?" Okay, she wasn't going to just keep running and leave him there, but the cube -- and not just the cube, she could see that now -- was encroaching on them, and she was gonna have to make a call. And unfortunately for everyone, Luther had just broken her closest electrical source, so while Annie moved to put herself between Luther and the stupid cube and the trio behind said stupid cube, and while she totally had her eyes lighting up all menacingly...it might take her a minute to pull more electricity than what it took to make herself glow threateningly.
Sloane	Sloane, Ben and Fei didn't look to be all that threatened by the glowy eyes thing. Though it did look pretty cool. All they had on their team was some glowy hands action. Speaking of, one of Sloane's hands glowed as she lifted Luther off the ground, holding him upside down. "Hey, guys."
Annie	So, on the bright side: good for you, Luther, the pretty one you liked was lifting you up! This was practically how Annie and Diego's little meet-cute in that alley had happened! Just with, you know, extraneous siblings. And a lot more distance between them. Still. This could turn around! And since it was the pretty girl who Luther clearly liked who had her brother-in-law in the air, Annie chose to be polite. "Please put him down," she requested firmly, though the glowy eyes weren't going anywhere. "Maybe we can just talk about this."
Ben	"We are going to talk," Ben assured her. "Just not here." That's when Ben brought the tentacles out, not even realizing what kind of favor he was doing everyone by incapacitating Annie's hands.
Annie	Yeah, that was a real pain in the ass, considering Annie's hands were now strapped down to her sides thanks to the big tentacle hug she was getting. "Gross!" Okay, there were other reactions to have, sure, but that was what was coming out first as Annie wriggled against Ben's hold.
Ben	Christopher made some whirring noises that sounded...almost chiding? "You're right, Chris, that was rude," Ben agreed. "I think you should do something about it." Hoped you liked being zapped into unconsciousness by a sentient cube, Annie.

Annie	Weirdly enough, Annie did not enjoy that experience. Not that she was conscious to take note of how much she didn't like it until she woke up later with a screaming headache. At least this time it wasn't because a hot wizard had roofied her? In any case, when she came to, Annie found herself in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar red bed. She sat up slowly, taking in her surroundings, and froze when she heard voices and laughter just a little ways away, through the curtains separating this room from whatever was out there. She needed to find Luther. That was obviously priority number one, but -- it looked like she was going to have to go through the Sparrows (or whoever else was there?) to find him. So cue Annie carefully making her way out towards the voices, one illuminated hand out before her as she slipped through the curtains. ...and found herself in a beautiful room with clean, white architecture and modern furniture, and floor-to-ceiling windows that bathed the whole room in light. So...this was different from where she'd thought they'd taken her, right? The Hargreeves house was...you know, spooky and full of stuffed and mounted animal heads.
Alphonso	Well the kids designed this room, not their stuffy father. The room was indeed very bright and modern, and almost every Sparrow was at the long table eating breakfast. So was Luther, who was surrounded by different types of nut butter trying to pick his favorite one. "There she is!" Alphonso said cheerily.
Fei	"Please, come sit," Fei said. "Eat. Or drink--we've got smoothies if that's your breakfast of choice."
Annie	"Thank you," Annie said after a long pause, during which she hesitantly lowered her hand. Her eyes went first to Luther, who looked not only fine but downright comfortable amongst his nut butters, and then to the other Sparrows who were all...totally just eating breakfast. Okay. You know what, actually? That wasn't all that different from the Hargreeves she was used to -- knock out someone and kidnap them, act totally normal afterwards, have a bagel. Didn't mean she wasn't making a point to grab a muffin that looked just like one of the ones on the melty guy's plate as she found a seat next to Luther and his jars. Get roofied accepting refreshments from an enemy once, shame on them, but do it twice, and shame on Annie, right? (And shame on Luther, too, if that was the case, even if cashew butter was great.) "This, um, looks great. Thanks." (She wasn't even lying, and come to think of it, Annie was actually kind of starving, now. Her stomach was so weird this morning.)
Luther	"Look at all the nut butters!" Luther was never going to get over it. He didn't even know sunflowers could be butter.
Ben	"We haven't been formally introduced," Ben said with a friendly smile. He nodded at Luther. "We know you're Number One." And that was going to boggle his mind even more now that he knew how much the guy loved nut butter. "I'm Ben, Number Two," he said, looking over at Annie. "Your turn."
Annie	Annie was, perhaps understandably, a little wary still. A few short months ago, Annie would have been happily digging into sunflower butter right alongside Luther. Look at what a little therapy and examining your own prior bad judgement could do for a gal. But she also didn't see the point in not cooperating if they were captive and the Sparrows had also already done some research. And she did want to eat this muffin. "Annie," she said, glancing down the table at the other Sparrows. Ben, funnily enough, was the only one whose name she hadn't needed. "I'm actually an in-law. Married to Diego -- Number Two." She really hated referring to them by their numbers, but it seemed like a necessary evil at the moment.
Luther	"A super awesome in-law with super powers," Luther added. Just in case anybody got any funny ideas. He leaned in closer to Ben. "It's great to see you again, buddy."
Ben	Ben once again did not look amused by people acting like they knew him. "Why do you all keep looking at me like that?"
Luther	Oh man. Luther didn't want to have to be the one to bring this up. "Because you've been dead for fifteen years."
Ben	Wow, okay, that wasn't something you sprung on people. "Dead? What do you mean dead?"
Fei	"Anyway--" Fei interrupted. "I'm Fei, Number Three."
Alphonso	"Alphonso. Cuatro," he said around a mouthful of food. He nodded at Annie. "Nice to see you again."
Sloane	Sloane seemed to be the only one who had a genuine smile on her face as she waved at Annie and Luther. "Sloane, Five, hey."
Jayme	"Jayme. Six," she said, not looking up from her food.
Ben	Ben gestured at the cube floating around the table. "That's Christopher, of course. Number Seven."
Annie	"It's nice to meet you," Annie said slowly, offering out a very hesitant -- but genuine -- smile. Again, this was...kind of in line with the Hargreeves she already knew, at least back when she'd first met them. (Though this set seemed to get along pretty flawlessly, so far. Much less bickering, from what she had observed.) "Though I didn't really appreciate the zap earlier," she noted, addressing Christopher and feeling absurd for it. He was a cube? (Had he always been a cube? Had he gotten stuck like that, the way Luther and Five had gotten stuck in their respective states?)
Luther	Wait, wait. They were short a Hargreeves here. Luther took a quick look around just to make sure Marcus wasn't standing around. "What about Number One?"
Fei	Fei lifted her eyebrows. "What about him?"
Luther	"Where is he?" Luther asked with a shaky smile.
Ben	Ben slammed a knife into the table, deep enough that it stuck when he pulled his hand away. "That's what we want to know."
Annie	"Hey!" And there went all that goodwill, and Annie was even pretty used to knives! "What the fuck? We don't know!" It was only for the fact that the other five Sparrows -- well, four, because she wasn't sure how to read Christopher -- seemed calm that Annie hadn't started up with the glowy-eye business again. (Also, that never seemed to be as effective as she wanted it to be, threat-wise, but that was a personal crisis for another day.)
Ben	"Whatever game the Umbrellas are playing, you're going to lose," Ben said. "You took our Number One, so we took yours." And an in-law by the sheer fact she happened to be there at the time.
Luther	"Wait, we took Marcus?" Luther asked. He leaned in closer to Annie. "Why would we do that?"
Annie	"We didn't take Marcus!" Unless Diego had, but he'd really had his hands full with the whole Stan thing (which seemed really unimportant, right now.) Maybe Five had? This did seem like a Five move, maybe. Goddammit, she would be so mad if one of them had kidnapped Marcus and gotten her and Luther stuck. "It would be really dumb for us to have taken their Number One and kept him hostage, wouldn't it, because look what happened -- now they're pissed and going to retaliate." Annie was not subtle with the way she was looking at Ben as she said that. You'd best let them go, or you'd have hell to pay and Rumors to deal with and knives to pull out of yourselves.
Sloane	"The last time we saw him, he was with your brother," Sloane said with an apologetic look. She totally got that this wasn't cool, guys, but their brother was missing.
Luther	Okay, well, that told Luther nothing. "Which brother?"
Fei	"The little one with the big powers," Fei replied.
Annie	"Viktor," Annie supplied, glancing to Luther with a little frown. "Kidnapping's not really his...style." Especially considering that past Luther-Annie teamups had been centered around the idea of -- you know, actually subduing and capturing Viktor. Also, what she wasn't saying just yet was -- it wasn't Viktor's style on his own. If any of the others had been involved, all bets were kind of off.
Luther	"Yes, that," Luther said, pointing at Annie. "Though, that said, I'm usually the last to know about these things."
Ben	Ben genuinely looked confused by that. "You're Number One. Shouldn't you know everything?"
Luther	"I know! You'd think so Ben," Luther said, shaking his head. "Discipline has never been our strong suit. I mean, first time Annie met us all we got in a fist fight at a funeral."
Annie	"Well, it was an emotional day," Annie noted, feeling like cutting Diego a little slack through space and time, now that she understood the dynamics of the family better than she had during that funeral. More importantly, she'd caught a whiff of -- some kind of nut butter off Luther, and for whatever reason, the smell had instantly turned her stomach. Gross. Apparently we were now done with this muffin. "This has been so nice, but we really need to get out of here." Oh, god, sooner than later, because Annie needed fresh air if at all possible.
Luther	"She's right. And this seems like an easy fix," Luther said, moving to stand up. "We'll head back--I mean our family is probably worried sick about us, to be honest." Surely Diego would be worrying about his wife, at the very least! "If we have your guy I'll send him back without a scratch. No harm, no foul. How's that sound? Good? Great." Luther quickly found himself forcibly being sat down by Ben's tentacles, which had crept up under the table. Gross.
Ben	"What's the rush?" Ben asked. "Stick around until Marcus comes back."

[NFI, NFB, OOC welcome! Loosely taken from TUA 3.02, "World's Biggest Ball of Twine" and preplayed with knife_bender!]