Stranger Who Knows All My Secrets [A Marvel FanFic]

Chapter 16: Rice Pudding

★ TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of child molestation. ★

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When the team arrived back at the compound after three weeks of much-needed rest and relaxation, Rhodey informed them all that they were never, ever allowed to go on vacation again. Rhodey admittedly made a terrible miscalculation and didn't keep enough super-powered people on standby which left him scrambling to put together a team to deal with a rather cosmic event that happened while they were all away. 

There was no internet or cell service at the beach house and absolutely no cable, just a local newspaper that didn't cover anything outside the county and a lot of DVDs which was why Natasha had picked it in the first place. Had there been any kind of connection with the rest of the world, they may have seen the frenzy of reports about the earthquakes, weird monsters, and a giant hand coming out of the ocean and they definitely would have known about the equally giant being appearing in the sky and rushed right home.

Eternals, as Rhodey explained to them, were some sort of ancient race of organic robots sent to guide humanity until there were enough humans to feed to some kind of cosmic being named Tiamut that had been growing in the core of the Earth. It was a little hard for Bucky to understand but while Steve and Sam were jogging on the beach, Natasha was throwing together a few hoagies and Bucky was attempting to teach Elena how to play piano, the Eternals had some kind of internal conflict surrounding the entity's emergence but eventually stopped the process and the planet from being destroyed. 

It was a close call and Rhodey admitted that War Machine, along with Scott Lang and the crew that dude in Hell's Kitchen put together had barely made a difference in the conflict. He was very exasperated and Pepper rubbed Rhodey's back as he ran through about fifty emotions in a single minute which included laughing and then crying. Bucky didn't envy his job.

Lang was also a mess and he either had a very dramatic recollection of the events or had seen some seriously crazy shit because apparently, one Eternal had magical sonic blasts coming from his hands, yet another could conjure a light sword, and there was some dude who could shoot lasers out his eyes that eventually decided to fly into the sun which they all assumed was a metaphor but no, the guy actually flew directly into the sun and presumably died. No matter what the hell went down, the events left a trail of cosmic trash and chaos across the planet which the Avengers now had to clean up. 

Sam and Natasha went to London to do damage control for both the Eternals and Peter Parker, who almost simultaneously fucked up the city while on a school trip. Steve meanwhile went looking for the remaining Eternals in an effort to organize some kind of working deal with them for defending the Earth. Rhodey even recalled the Guardians of the Galaxy who had left with Thor and Valkyrie around the same time the rest of them had gone to Maine. Nonetheless, they were tasked with collecting the alien crap that had popped up everywhere and it was that kind of mission that Bucky and Elena found themselves on as well.

One of Stark's many satellites picked up a massive radiation spike in the rainforest of Puerto Rico which was assumed to be alien in origin, all Bucky and Elena had to do was hike out to the coordinates, neutralize and secure the item then haul it back out. Bucky was actually pretty damn excited about that mission, mainly because he had fond memories of Puerto Rico from when he'd gone on a business trip with his dad to the island. He was only eleven and they had gone just a year before the Great Depression started. 

Bucky remembered the palm trees, the beautiful beaches, rainforests, and farms along with the colorfully painted buildings in San Juan. He remembered the music, and the blend of African and Spanish customs but especially the local boy he made friends with. They rode bikes together that entire summer, and went horseback riding and fishing, Bucky had lunch with the boy and his brothers every day and their grandmother kick-started his obsession with coffee while his uncle told Bucky all about the frogs you could hear at night; the ones who sang their own name. He had never gone back to the island after that trip with his dad but it left an impression that he always carried with him, there was just something so magical about it.