Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 81

Chapter 81

"They're coming!"

Steve glanced up from where he was moving through the ranks of former enemy grey-skinned drones with Jacquie and Count Rugen, trying to explain to the confused creatures how they had been enslaved on one planet and awoken on a totally different one, lord only knew how many years later, surrounded by what was to them pink-skinned aliens. And they had woken up, of all days, on Christmas morning. What a Christmas present! And what an unusual 'sleigh' they had taken to end up here!

"Bernice?" That anxious sensation he had been feeling ever since he had learned Bernice had taken on not one, or two, or three motherships, but no less than seven caused his heart to flutter in his chest. If he had surprised everyone by turning out to be a passably decent soldier once Doctor Erskine had improved his physique to match his heart, Bernice had surprised even him by how aggressively she had gone after the Other's remaining minions and methodically taken them out one mothership at a time.

"Yes." Jacquie still wore the helmet Tony Stark had rigged to enable her to use the uplink to the mothership, but thankfully they had been able to disconnect her from the command chair.

"Where is she going to land?" Steve asked.

"La Guardia airport," Jacquie said. "There are too many of them to land in Central Park."

"Too many?"

"The entire earthbound Chitauri fleet is flying in to parley with the President," Jacquie frowned. "She promised them amnesty if they helped us save earth, but she is worried that the President won't go for it. Some of them are war criminals who participated in the World War II genocide."

Steve grimaced. He was one of the few people still left alive who had witnessed what the Nazi's had done to the Jewish people first-hand. But this was a different century and few were still alive who had witnessed the holocaust first-hand. A few faded photographs was not going to be enough to convince a grateful planet to alienate the very species who had just pulled their bacon out of the fire.

"Maria?" Maria Hil had been placed in charge of the New York City mop-up while Nick Fury was off mopping up someplace else. Her arm was out of the sling, but she still grimaced whenever she bent a certain way, reminding him it had only been a month since she had taken a bullet to the abdomen.

"Go!" Maria pointed to where Tony Stark and Thor were taking turns bragging about which one of them had taken out the biggest targets during Battle Earth. Colonel Rhodes watched the exchange with bemusement, his silver War Machine helmet tucked neatly under his arm. "And take them with you."

"For security?"

"To get them out of my hair before their bickering drives me insane," Maria Hill snapped. "That's an order, Cap!"

Steve shot her a grin. Jacquie and Count Rugen were needed here, while Bruce Banner was still sleeping off his most recent adventure as the Hulk. The big green man had stumbled in carrying a woman who had just given birth and a newborn, placing them down as gently as a leaf before mumbling 'night-night' and promptly going to sleep. It was a frigid Christmas morning and his feet were freezing inside his boots. He decided to take the police helicopter instead of a glider.

"Clint?" Steve's voice was filled with elation. "Do you want a lift?"

His grin died as he recognized that shadow that had been in Clint's eyes ever since the archer had shot Herr Kleiser. Steve had hoped Natasha or his own father would be found amongst the human computer drones imprisoned upon the Other's ship, but neither one of them had been there. He did not dare tell Clint what the Other had told him about his own father's manner of death. Back in 1945, traumatized French villagers had whispered tales of brain suckingshape shifting aliens. The Other had only confirmed his worst fears. But Clint didn't need to know that. Let him continue believing Natasha had been killed outright in battle. It was the way she would have wanted to die.