Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Steve jerked the control to the left, just in time to get the Harrier jet out of the way of weapons fire shot from the ground. Beneath him, the Hulk bounded to a rooftop like King Kong dangling off the Empire State Building, a shattered glider dangling from one hand like Fay Wray as he reached for a second with the other hand. The Hulk leaped in his direction as though to do the same to him, but pulled his punch at the last moment, opting to take out a glider moving into position behind him. Steve breathed a sigh of relief. The Hulk was coming to view the Avengers as a form of 'pack mate,' but relying on the mindless brute to make more subtle distinctions between friend and foe was a mistake.

"Hawkeye," Steve called into the intercom. "What's your twenty?"

"I've kept them off of her so far," Hawkeye called, his voice still having that panicked edge Steve wasn't used to hearing in the normally reserved archers voice. "But I haven't been able to get any closer. They've ducked back into the boat and left her on the dock."

"That's good," Steve said. "It will keep her from becoming a friendly fire incident. Is she moving?"

"No."

Not good. Natasha was more valuable to them as a hostage. If they'd left her behind, chances were she was already dead. He kept the thought to himself, unwilling to upset the equilibrium of their archer any further than he already was by the loss of his … girlfriend?

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god," Tony Stark shouted into the radio in horror from somewhere over the ocean. "It's … oh!"

An explosion detonated over the Pacific, light from the conflagration highlighting a black mushroom cloud rising into the night sky as the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy ignited upon impact with the ocean. Sound reached the tiny Micronesian island several seconds after the pyroclastic display of fireworks had reached its apex and begun to recede, knocking Steve's Harrier jet back and causing it to yaw wildly from side to side. Steve fought with the controls until certain the engines would not stall, watching in horror as explosion after explosion gave the illusion the ocean was on fire as the helicarrier slipped beneath the waves.

"Command," Steve called. "Command? Is anybody there?"

No answer. If Fury had gotten out alive, he'd be on one of the fighter planes or one of the smaller ships used for shuttling supplies back and forth from port when the helicarrier was not airborne. The lack of response didn't necessarily mean Fury was dead. But it did mean nobody was in charge of this clusterfuck at the moment except for him.

"What is your command, Captain Rogers?" Thor called over the intercom. "Provide cover for the lifeboats? Or smite the two remaining Leviathans?"

Two men against two Leviathans. The rest of the Avengers were too far away to be effective. They'd battled this enemy before. Stark destroying the mothership had allowed them to prevail the last time they went head-to-head against the Chitauri. Not one man against a machine. They had no idea where the mothership was. Sacrificing two of his men when the battle had already been lost made no sense.

"Provide cover for the people in the water," Steve ordered. "I want anyone who goes near them to be shot out of the sky."

"By your command," Thor said.

"Stark," Steve called out. "Get that fancy AI of yours to call in the cavalry. Get whatever ships are in the area out here stat to pull those men from the water."

"Already on it," Stark said. "The USNS Able and HMAS Melbourne are both within an hour of responding. Several small fishing vessels have answered our hails, but are hesitant to get involved until we clear the gliders. The USS Enterprise has also responded and should be in the area within seven hours."