Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 79

Chapter 79

"Fire!" Pepper Potts shouted.

Huojin pulled the handle on the Stark Industries end-of-year company picnic 'Engineering For Dummies' trebuchet the Advanced Weapons Research Department had submitted for their annual Geek Hurl contest. The counterweight swung down, the throwing arm flew up, and at the end of it, the sling Doctor Nyi had loaded with an experimental Electromagnetic Pulse generator flew through the air towards the hovering 'boxcar' sent to gather up the people in central park.

"Do you think it will get high enough?" Ralph asked.

"It had better," Huojin said.

The rounded EM Pulse generator flew up, up, up, and then began its arc back down. It had been turned on even before it had been hurled. No modern machinery could carry the weapon. Jets would fall out of the air. Car engines would stall. Even gliders shorted out whenever the thing was turned on. But the trebuchet used gravity and physics, not electricity. The gliders which had been buzzing towards them suddenly faltered and began to drop out of the air like flies.

"Kind of reminds me of that horror movie where the birds all fell out of the sky," Ralph said. "What was it?"

"The Core," Huojin said. He pointed towards the square, black transport vehicle they had shot at. The ship faltered and began to descend, one corner headed towards the nearest building. "That had to do with an electromagnetic shift, too. Only it was the Earth itself that sucked the little birdies to the ground. Not one of these puppies!" He pointed to the basket full of experimental EMPulse generators.

"Everybody back underground!" Pepper ordered. "Go through the tunnels. Let's hope the Arc Reactor Research and Development Department didn't dismantle theirs yet, either. It's six blocks over."

The engineers followed Pepper back into the nondescript side-door to an unmarked Stark Industries building in midtown, most connected via underground tunnels. Doctor Nyi grabbed the basket back full of shiny white EMPulse generating cylinders which looked amazingly like his own bald head. He glanced up just in time to see the black boxcar full of drones crash to the ground.

"Who says geeks can't fight?" Doctor Nyi muttered to himself. Clucking like an anxious broody hen, he herded Miss Potts to safety before Mr. Stark caught wind that that his CEO had rallied the geek squad and put them to work taking out alien transport vehicles using a combination of experimental technology and medieval war machines.

X

Steve ducked. The drone snarled at him, saliva dripping from its fangs, and clawed at him with six-fingered hands. Steve gave the creature an uppercut to the sternum and then grabbed the creatures head, ramming it down onto his knee. With a grunt of pain, the creature collapsed to the ground.

A terrified civilian in a grey business suit broke out from behind the paltry wall the combined soldiers and NYPD was trying to form to shield the civilians from the grey-skinned drones and make a run for it. The drones parted to allow him into their midst just far enough that there was no way out, and then subdued the man with some kind of tranquilizer. The man's grey suit faded into the grey, lifeless drones as they herded him towards the boxcar ships along with the thousands of other civilians the aliens had already culled from their pathetic little last stand in front of New York City Hall.

Another drone lunged at Steve's throat, knocking him backwards. The small hole created in the line of defenders allowed three drones to break through into the terrified civilians. With shouts of terror and rage, some of the civilians tried to rush away from the aliens, while others leaped forward, tearing at the larger, stronger creatures even though they were outclassed. Steve was too busy fighting for his own life to help them and their ammunition had run out twenty minutes ago. The drone who had attacked him pounded at his shield.