My Super-Story

39- Letters to Howard

They came back with the same amount of people they left with except this time; Bucky wasn't with them.
Colonel Philips was the interrogator for Dr Zola, I stood behind the two way mirror.
      I watched throughout the interrogation, I have hated this man for a long time and he was just increasing my anger towards him.
    After the incident Steve became more ruthless in the raids he did.
    Finally we had reached the last Hydra base. The only problem was, it was in the middle of nowhere, top notch security and the largest. I knew we were reaching the end of the line for Steve here but I had to keep it to myself.
     I listened in on the plans, Steve's grand idea was to give himself up and then execute a raid with him on the inside and the commandoes ambushing.
    "He'll never believe it." I spoke up from the back of the room.
       Everyone turned to me not realizing I had been present during the entire meeting. This also wasn't the only war strategy they had talked up. I came out of the shadowy corner where I had stayed quietly observing.
    "Steve, you may be a good distraction. But, you will not be a good enough distraction for Schmidt to let his guard down completely." I say again as high ranked officers move out of the way so I can approach the table where the commandoes sat around.
      "So what do you propose oh wise little girl?" Asked one of the captains standing to my left.
      "I'm glad you asked, Sir," I acknowledged the captain, "I propose we not only give Schmidt Captain America, his sworn enemy but also what he wants most that we have possession of." I say with a sly smile crossing my lips.
  Immediately the commandoes begin protesting knowing what my idea pertains to. Over the ruckus Colonel Philips calls them all back to the situation. He looks at me from the other side of the table an exasperated but defeated look upon his face.
   "And what exactly would that entail Ms 'Snow'," he uses my nickname knowing what I am planning.
    I know that I have every high ranking officer in this room hooked onto my every word.
    "Why, I go along of course." This being said they started to protest but my voice rose above theirs. "We all know that Schmidt would do anything to get his hands on a higher, more divine, power. He thinks I am the Norse goddess of winter Skadi. He has shown deep interest in me before. If I go along, Schmidt will snatch the chance to have me back under his jurisdiction. He'll be so caught up in my return that he will fail to notice the obvious things. Such as: Steve being easy to capture, and no backup. It will all meld perfectly together but, I leave that up to you gentlemen. I am sure your battle strategies are much better than my own." I finish walking out of the room.
    I stroked their egos so I'm almost certain to win against the boys and their stupid morals. I knew I shouldn't of formed bonds with them but it was hard when you're stuck in tiny cells with them. A hand upon my shoulders startled me out of my thoughts.
    " You know you're putting yourself at risk by sticking you're neck out to those officers. At this rate they'll even agree to you." Howard continues.
       "That would be the point." I reply bluntly.
"Listen kid, I can't just watch you sacrifice yourself because you're from the future." Howard whispers harshly.
"I'm not sacrificing myself. In fact I think this is the only way for me to get back home." I respond indignantly.
     Howard looks down at me quietly. He knows almost everything about me now, hours in the lab together really gave him all the time he needed to get to know me. He knows I'm not even from this world.
"Will you ever come back?" He asks quietly.
"If I do, I don't think it will be in this lifetime." I say sullenly.
Howard nods, mute acceptance of the inevitable. I don't want to leave either, but there are matters that need to be tended to back home. I am called back into the war room, I assume to inform me that I will be going on this mission. What I hear once inside surprises me. All of the commandoes are for some reason agreeing with my going. I thought only half would but maybe Jim helped them understand why I need to do this, he knows some of my story.
"So young Ms Skadi, what are you waiting for?" One of the officers says slapping my shoulder. "Go gear up you're leaving in an hour."
My eyes widen this is actually happening, I smile wide and rush out the door. Time to pack all the stuff I've gathered since being in the 40s MCU.
The hour passed quickly and soon enough I'm stepping onto a personnel carrier, Steve and his bike are inside as well. I take a seat waiting for the long journey until we'll be able to put the plan in motion.
Steve is quiet for most of the drive, up until recently he started fidgeting and looking towards me.
"Yes?" I say, startling him out of his thoughts.
He turns to me, "Why?" he asks me, "Why would you offer yourself up. You have every reason to stay at the base safe, people care for you, you have a family." He asks genuinely perplexed.
"I'm not from around here, Steve." I answer truthfully. "You know how Schmidt keeps claiming I'm the goddess of winter blah blah not front this world blah blah?"
"You mean you're actually a Norse goddess?" Steve asks incredulously.
"No," I giggle, "I'm not from this world. I'm from somewhere else where the year is 3015 and there's aliens and whole bunch of cool stuff, and you're kind of just part of a comic book." I reply hesitantly.
He's face goes slack in shock.
"Probably shouldn't have told you that. Should not have told you that." I mutter.
Steve just shakes off his shock. "Let's stay on task. We have a hydra base to take down."
We then fall into an awkward silence due to the random soldiers being there too.
The truck begins to slow down. Steve stands up, starting to organize his gear. Just as I stand up, the vehicle jerks to a stop, and I am thrown out the back.
"Ow" I groan on my back.
A shiver runs down my spine, the snow is still cold no matter how warm my clothes. Steve's head pops out from behind the canvas looking around frantically.
"Down here!"
He looks down at me a sign of relief passing his lips. I giggle starting to make a snow angel.
"Join me! The weather's great down here!"
He laughs, jumping down from the ledge. His boots making a satisfying crunch in the newly fallen snow. He kicks some snow into my face lightly.
"Plurgh! Uh! Really?"
I sit up sputtering, wiping my face off. Steve helps the other men get his bike down from the carrier. He mounts the Harley Davidson, his shield in hand, and motions for me to join him. I stand up and brush the snow off my clothes. Sauntering up to the bike, I swing my leg over and sit directly behind him. I grab the shield from his arm and sling it over my shoulders. The shield clicks into place on my leather jacket, I wrap my arms around Steve's waist as he revs the engine. We pull away kicking up snow in our wake.
"Alright; show time"
_____________________

"Incoming Fire!" Steve shouts back to me, hard to hear over the rain of bullets.
"Really? I couldn't tell!" I shout back sarcastically.
He rolls his eyes and flips a switch at the front. Suddenly there's fire coming out the back and we're going a lot faster then before.
"Holy mother of Loki!" I exclaim gripping onto Steve tighter. His torso vibrates with laughter, "Hey!" I hit him.
Steve then turns serious, I look up. We're getting closer to the compound, I can tell because now there are look outs. I snatch the shield off my back and hurtle it with practiced accuracy. It knocks all four sentries, out and off their perches. The shield then tumbles to the ground in front of the bike. Steve leans down so I can reach out and grab the shield. Once we are upright again I reach forward, placing the shield in front of the handlebars.
I peek around Steve's broad shoulders seeing the gates closing in front of us. I trust Steve, but inside I'm screaming, he's known to be reckless.
"Steve? Steve! Steeevvveeee." I shove my head into Steve's back.
The gates had closed and now we were taking a very unsafe way in. There was a support beam to the cement fence that Steve took as his personal in ramp... presently I was experiencing what it feels like to fly.
"Let go" Steve called back to me.
"You're insane!"
But, I still let go. The bike went flying ahead of us and knocked out a few baddies with explosive finesse.
Steve somehow didn't land well, he landed and then the force pushed him into barrel rolling then he got himself into an upright position. Myself, I knew that the force would push me, so I made it so that I could do a layout landing finally in an upright position.
"Ahh gymnastics" I state airily.
"Not the time Snow!"
Steve has already started beating up any hydra agents who came near. Then a few decided they could come and fight me. I sighed in frustration,
"Uh, work"
How boring, these guys were easy to take down. But then again it was just physical combat, none of them had guns, at least my guys didn't.
As I wasn't paying attention, I ended up being back to back with good ol' Captain America. Then a bright light appeared as we were winning.
"Seriously? They have flamethrowers"
I mutter annoyed as we had been cornered. That gave Hydra enough time to detain us.
We were walking the hallways in hand cuffs. A large detail of hydra agents surrounding us dissuading any escape attempts. We finally arrived to the main area, facing my old friend, the Red Skull.
"Ahh Skadi! You have finally decided to come back and you brought a gift!" Schmidt cried in his dramatic way as always. He then went and stared dramatically out the window. Steve leaned over to me.
"He does know that's not your name? Right"
"I've tried to tell him a hundred times. He just doesn't listen."
Schmidt had started in the mean time, his speech was getting to be dull and annoying. Then came the perfect intrusion.
Yelling was heard from outside. Schmidt turned around just to see the Commandoes zipping down the lines they had attached and breaking into the base. The final raid had begun.
Schmidt hurried to leave the room. Snagging my arm in the process, this was starting to become annoying. Repetitively dragging me because I'm small, is not fair. We were going down the hallways at a fast pace despite my feet dragging across the floor.
Note to self: get non slip shoes for missions.
I could hear Steve behind us, Schmidt was desperately trying to outrun him but Steve just learnt what it's like to run freely and he's not stopping anytime soon.
I heard Peggy behind us; helping Steve out of a sticky situation. Sadly I was now joining Schmidt on a jet, looking around I see nukes for every major city. My fear increases; then the tesseract is placed in its holding case at the center of the cockpit.
Schmidt starts up the engine and begins the preparations for takeoff. I clench my fists and my bonds are broken. I had frozen them then exerted strength snapping them in half. I had concealed some weapons for just this opportunity, so I reached for the small dagger in my boot. I had it positioned perfectly for his neck.

My plans failed once again this time we went right up pulling into the air, knocking me back into the tesseract. I seated myself on the floor, planning my exit from this world. When the fight took place, and the Red Skull was pulled through the gateway, I saw my chance.

    Waving to Steve as I collected my powers at the base of my feet, "Farewell for now, Steve" waving I sunk through the floor with the tesseract reentering my meditation.

I stood up to leave, "What are you doing I told you to Meditate!" Surprised I sat back down. It seems, I'm more powerful than they thought...