I look at our radio, the most advanced technology we have here. It is my family's treasure. I sit in front of it, spellbound, paying attention. „14. August", it says. The speaker is talking about how the war's going on. He is talking about a mysterious American , who seems to be a genetic experiment, and, who claims to defeat Hitler.
„Mama, hör' doch!"(„Mom, hear!"), I shout into our small, dirty apartment.
„Was ist denn schon wieder?!"(„What is it now?"), my Mother replied annoyed while drying off a plate with an old, grey towel.
„Captain America! Er kommt um uns zu helfen!"(„Captain America! He's coming in order to help us!"), I cry excited with shining eyes full of hope.
My mother rolls her eyes. „Nicht das schon wieder.."(„Not this again."), she whisperes to herself whlie sighing turns around, leaving the living room, heading to the kitchen.
I turn the radio off. „Irgendwann wird das hier vorbei sein.. Dann wird alles besser sein."(„This is going to be over. Sometime. Then, everything is going to be better."), I tell myself. But, I can't believe myself. I can feel a tear running down my cheeck.
Slowly, I stand up, heading to a battered table, on which lays a newspaper. I look at it.. I stare at it, without reading the words, without noticing any letters, just like I would try to look directly through the table.
There was a black-white picture under the bold-printed headline. Actually, everything seems to be grey in my eyes. Even my eyes turned grey and vacant again.
I manage to catch myself. Now, I was scanning the picture. It shows a man, in a costume, with a star on it, on a huge stage, in front of many dancers..
Suddenly, I read the headline, I balked, but I'm not surprised of what I read: „Amerika's Versuch eines Kriegshelden"(„America's war-hero-attempt")
But somehow, the picture gives me some warmth and security. But this feeling suddenly vanished when I witnessed a howling sound coming from the sky. Immidiately, I looked up. I know what comes next. I am sobbing, I am terrified.
The howling gets louder and louder, then there is this ear-crashing, deafening noise. My legs turn to jelly, my breath is short and fluttering, unregular. I recognize how my Mother dashes in the room, stretching her hand towards me, her eyes were full of fear.
It feels like everything is in slow-motion. I turn my head to my mother, with a tear in my eye. Then the concussion hits us.
They hit me. Over and over again. They are not like me. They don't even look like humans. They don't speek my language, but still, I understand them.
„So pathetic.", they laughed at me...
Everone kept staring at the girl. Everyone held their breath.
„S- So you do understand us?", Bruce asked with a slight tone of curiosity.
She did not react for moments, which felt like hours. Then, she awoke from her trance with a jerky movement. She tried to turn her wheelchair in Steve's direction but she was, clearly, wasn't well-experienced. But soon she found the key and turned around, her mouth and eyes still wide open, caused by her unarmed flashback.
Bruce, Tony and Steve recognized the pure terror in her eyes. They relented.
Her vision was directed at the floor. She grasped the arms of her wheelchair. She swallowed several times before breathing out slowly and she tried to form words.
Steve made a step forward, going down on one of his knees. „It's okay. What is it?", h tried to set up a smile but he knew, that this wouldn't help in any way. She saw the look in his eyes. She was sure that they thought she was weak. But she wasn't. She refused to let them think of her this way.
She closed her eyes. „Yes. That was German. And yes, now, I understand you. I now know that I can speak English.", she said with a somber voice. She again opened her eyes, looking directly into Steve's.
„And you are Captain America, right?", her voice changed. She sounded confident, unalterable.
„That's.. right..", his voice, on the other hand, was pretty unsafe, yet, he wanted to sound axiomatic, as well. He did not know in which way she had to talk to her. But it seemed like he just found the right tone.
„Yes, this is our America-loving, stars-and-stripes-wearing, shield-throwing, eagle-riding picture of a hero.", Tony smirked. He wanted to relax the oppressive atmosphere.
She seemed relaxed. She let loose of the chair's arms. „Did you save us?"
Steve was confused. Bruce and Tony, too.
„From what?", Tony's curiosity interposed before Steve could say anything else, but he thought the exact same thing.
She made an affected, sarcastic-sounding laugh but her eyes showed diarray. Slightly, she rolled her eyes. „The war, of course!", she answered.
„Uh.. which war exactly? We don't have any war in the area of around 9.000 kilometers! (5.600 miles)" Tony said cheeky and sarcastic.
„Tony! Just shut up for a second!", Steve said commanding, with an angry expression.
Tony threw his hand at his forehand, saluting, standing straight: „Yes sir-, I mean, Captain!", he answered loudly.
Steve looked at him with shrewd eyes, then looked back at the girl who now was completely withdrawn into herself. Steve saw how hardly she could believe this, how intensely she contemplated. She was shivering.
„They speak-.. englisch...america?.. great britian...- the bomb.. - safe or not, safe or not?...-kein krieg.", she whispered to herself, over and over again, almost not hearable.
Steve witnessed how her eyes got filled with uncertainty and disbelief, they were empty. He moved toward her, catiously, he layed a hand on her shoulder, knowing that she was hurt.
His hand touched her shoulder, she immidiately lookes up, screaming at him: „DO NOT TOUCH ME!", she pushed her wheelchair way, standing up. She dodged Steve, who did not make any move, and was heading the elevator.
'Ich muss hier weg, hier weg. So schnell ich kann. Er kam von hier. Das sollte mich weg bringen.. nur schnell. Ich will zurück.'('I have to get out of here, out of here. As fast as possible. He came out of this thing. This should whisk me off her.. Fastly. I want to go back!'), she thoguth upset.
She threw herself at the elevator, pushing one of the buttons on the ouside. Unfortunately, she pushed the one, which would bring her on the roof. Tony installed it in case he had to get to the roof fastly.
She leant her back at the elevator's doors. She heard the machine muttering. Her breast went up and down noxiously fast, her eyes moved among Steve, Bruce and Tony permantly, they were shocked by her unexpected reaction. Her face was pale and angst-burdened.
„Stay away from me!", she screamed.
Steve raised his arms a bit. „You don't have to be afraid of us.", he said calmly.
„Then stop lying to me!", she cried.
„We're not lying. I swear. It seems like you've lost your memory. We can figure this out. But you have to calm down."
She bit her lip. „'You have to calm down', my ass", she answered harshly, driven by her fear.
The elevator's doors opened and she fell inside it, thunderstriken. The three men were frozen, unable to move. They saw how her head hit the floor and before they could do anything the doors closed and the elevator rushed to the top.
„Shit- !", Steve said. „What now?"
„We have to follow her!", Tony answered immidiately.
„She is in shock, Tony.", Bruce replied, slightly annoyed.
„And?"
„We can't risk her getting more distressed."
„You mean like you, when you go all green and big and destroy half a city?"
Bruce eyes became small slots, looking angrily at Tony. But he was aware of Tony's humour and forgave him.
„Too bad we didn't see to which floor she rushed.", Steve whispered to himself.
Tony heard his soliloquy, „Well, we did not. But I know someone who did!", he winked at Steve and pointed to the ceiling. „Jarvis, where did the girl go?"
„I think she rode the elevator to the roof.", the computer answered.
Bruce raised one corner of his mouth: „Clever."
„You mean... Like.. Every damn time?" Tony smirked triumphantly.
„No. I mean like the very first time." Bruce laughed.
„Guys. We have way more important things to resolve right now. What should we do?", Steve interrupted. He assumed that whatever happened to this girl, that she might had shared the fate. She is thinking that there is a war right now. She speaks German and looks pretty terrified. He could only think of one reason why this might be. But he didn't figured out how.
The moment her head touched the ground, she felt a stinging pain rushing through her body and spreading out into every single cell. She was completely paralysed. She did not now why. Maybe by the jar, maybe by her confusion or by her general depletion. She did not move until it made -DING- and she had reached the tower's roof.
Although she liked the feeling of laying down and just let everything happen, she wanted to get out of the building, from which she did not realized it was such a high tower until she was on this exact roof. With only a puny amount of energy left, she stood up. Her thin legs were almost unable to carry her. She made for the wall next to the elevator and walked along it, leaning her hand on it. She was out of breath, and walked bent because going straight was too much of an effort.
Then, she spotted a chair, she headed over to it and let herself fall into it. Her eyes only half opened, she realized the amazing view she had on this city.
She was not unconcious, but also not concious, she thought.
'Wow.. das also ist Amerika? So hätte ich mir das nicht vorgestellt. Warum sieht es zu Hause nicht so aus? Alles glänzt so schön.. Wie war es möglich solch hohe Gebäude zu bauen?'('Wow.. So that's America? That's not how I imagened it. Why doesn't it look like that a home? Everything is shining so beuatifully... How was it possible to build so high buildings?') She now was completely calm, due to her exhaustion. She closed her eyes. And then she was gone...
Everything I see is either damaged or completely destroyed. My mother, who stood next to me only a fraction of a second ago, is gone.
I lay on a cold stone ground, face down. It seems like the explosion had thrown me out of the window. My vision is blurred, yet, I see the people running, desperately.
'Wohin wollt ihr denn laufen? Es sieht doch überall so aus.. Es ist zwecklos.'('Where are you running? It looks the same everywhere. It's pointless.')
Many people are sprinting away, no one's helping me, they only think for themselves. Some even step on me. I think my arms are broken, suddenly, I see a man running in my direction.First, I thought he might be a paramedic but then he didn't become slower. He went on running and then, steps on my arm. I open my eyes wide fastly, I make shrieks of pain, terrible pain, but they were useless and they drown in all the other cries I heard all around me.
It was that day, in which I recognized... The world is hell.
„I have an idea", Tony piped up „I have an other elevator, in which you end up at the other side of the roof. We go up in this elevator and talk to her. With distance."
„That is actually a pretty good idea.", Bruse said surprised.
„Thanks, doc."
„Let's do it. Bruce, you should stay here. Just in case she coming back to this floor.", Steve looked worried.
Bruce nodded.
The two avengers headed toward the other elevator, walking right in it. Tony pushed a button and the elevator started rising. Suddenly, a soft, slumbrous elevator music appeared. No one said a word.
Steve was sighing. „Tony... seriously?"
„Well, what? It somehow belongs in an elevator", he tried to defend himself.
„You are the largest-ever idiot on earth."
„Correction!", Tony called „The largest-ever idiot on earth with 100 times more money than you and a badass robot suit. Which can fly.", he smirked.
„Huh.. whatever.."
The doors popped open and the two men walked catiously out of the elevator. They did not see the girl.
„Did she hide from us?", Tony asked.
„Probably. Didn't you see the pure fear in her eyes? What aould you do?"
„Well, then. Jarvis-"
Steve ran toward Tony, keeping his mouth shut by covering it with his hand.
„Tony, no. She presumably doesn't know what Jarvis is. When there is a voice coming out of nowhere, it will fear her even more.", he said commanding but quiet.
Tony nodded, took Steve's hand and pulled it away from him. „You're the boss. I mean: You're the boss, captain."
Steve ignored his wit and made several steps forward, Tony remained where he stood.
Steve hide behind a rock, which seemed to be decoration. He peeped out and recognized a boot, which belonged to the girl. But he didn't see anything else because there was a car in the way.
He sighed, turned around to Tony: „Seriously? A car. On the roof.? What the heck is wrong with you?", he whispered angrily. Tony shruged.
Steve popped out even more until he saw, that the girl was sleeping. His tension faded. He waved at Tony, who then went to him.
„She's sleeping. That's good. I think. She's so exhausted."
„You have a keen perception, cap.", he said sarcastically.
Steve rolled his eyes.
Slowly, they went to the girl, until they were standing only a few meters away and they thought this would be a good distance.
Suddenly, she started talking, the men were startled, but they didn't wake her up.
„Where... Wo bist du... pointless..world..is..hell..darn you... Loki...i will ...not kneel", she whispered agonized.
Tony and Steve were frightened. „LOKI?", Tony said loudly. Too loudly.
„shhh! You idiot!", Steve replied. But it was too late.
She opened her eyes slowly.
So, that's Chapter number 2! Sorry for the cliffhanger, though, but otherwise the chapter would be 7000 words long. :D