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Steve nearly gagged at the mortal remains of the once beautiful agent. Marmalade's thrusting dagger stuck out of her heart. Her dark brown eyes were clouded over from death. All over her body were nasty slashes bestowed upon by her own broadsword. Her shoulder was obviously dislocated, and her ankle was tilted at an abnormal angle.
Tony gapped at the sight, speechless, as he fell to his knees. The once strong, independent man felt weak as he pulled her limp body close to his. It was cold under the touch of his free right hand. He didn't even have the strength to cry.
Blinded with rage, Captain America snatched the hilt of the sword and swung it like it was his shield. Wormwood wheezed when the blade lanced his abdomen. He let out a final cry before falling over the edge of the platform, slain. The dark elves heard the cry of their fallen leader and charged. But the Avengers were prepared. They fought like madmen. Aside from Tony. He was oblivious to the entire scene unfolding around him. The only thing running through his mind was Marmalade. The fallen agent. The daughter he never had that he wished he had spent more time with. Thousands of things he regretted. Thousands of things that kept him from being like the father he should have been.
Natasha had run out of bullets. She attached hand-to-hand with a dark elf after disabling the Tesseweapon by kicking it out of his hands. Clint whacked and thwacked with his bow, making blows to their necks and heads. Thor hammered his way through the elves with Mjolnir. Rhodey didn't have enough space to use his lasers. Instead, punched the faces of his targets.
Steve, however, was like a furious beast. His shield lied in a corner, temporarily forgotten. He attacked with fists and elbows and feet and knees. An unfortunate elf had his neck snapped like a twig before he snatched the hood of another and brought his head to his knee. Steve ignored the elf's blood that splattered onto his knee as he continued to assault the hooded elves.
The last elf was by far the largest of them all. He glared at Captain America who was charging him without hesitation.
"Rogers," Natasha warned loudly.
The Captain was deafened from battle. All he could see or hear was the brutish dark elf's taunts.
"Steve!" Natasha cried.
Steve lunged at the elf. They wrestled, punched, and kicked at each other mercilessly. The dark elf swiped a blow to Steve's head, leaving a bleeding cut. Like the voices behind him, he ignored it.
Eventually, Steve came out on top. His hands gripped the elf's throat tightly. He gurgled and thrashed beneath him. The dark elf's eyes began to roll into the back of his head. The last thing Steve remembered was hearing the Mjolnir's soft melody before pain erupted on the side of his head. Blackness fogged over his sight.
The battle was over.
Marmalade was immediately taken to the sickbay of the Helicarrier. Banner had been busy tweaking his latest project. The project he had kept from everyone. Alas, it wasn't complete, but it would be able to work once. It was a machine that could bring people back from death. Marmalade was the first test subject. Everyone sat around Marmalade's corpse. Her shoulder and ankle were fixed, her deepest scars were stitched. She had died only a few hours before their arrival. The blonde brunette still had a chance at survival.
Steve entered the room with medical tape wrapped around his head. Thor had whacked him with Mjolnir in order to pull him out of his mad and insane rush of battle. In his hand was a cylinder cask of crimson red liquid.
Natasha blinked at it before asking, "What's that?"
Banner answered for him as he looked at a few things on his machine, "His blood. It should help bring Marmalade back since it has the super soldier serum. This is his one and only blood donation." He chuckled to himself as he took the cask from Steve and injected it into the machine. Needles connected to the machine were sticking out of Marmalade's body on her chest, arms, abdomen, and one on her forehead. "You kids ready?" Bruce asked as he looked at Tony, Rhodey, Thor, Natasha, Clint, Fury, Coulson, Hill, and Steve. No one responded. They were all too busy looked at Marmalade. Bruce muttered, "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
With a push of a button and the flip of a switch, the machine began to run. In a glass, a flame flickered with electric sparks spiking here and there. Steve's blood was drained from the cask. It was divided into the tubes that went to the needles on Marmalade's body. The blood entered her own blood stream. Once the cask was empty, the flame flickered off, and the machine powered down. That was all it could do. Bruce took out the needles and placed them on the counter. Everyone stared at the heart monitor.
Nothing but a horizontal green line.
Tony shook his head, "No. No. No. No. Marmalade, it's time to wake up." He stood up and walked to his daughter's bedside and gripped her hand tightly. "Come on, baby girl. You haven't failed once. You're not gonna fail like this, I swear to God you won't." He sniffled as he ran his fingers through her combed hair. "Don't leave Daddy."
Natasha choked back a tear as she looked down. Frowns appeared on all the faces in the room. Even Maria Hill's.
"Marmalade!" Tony screamed as his face fell onto her chest. He gripped the bed's sheets as he sobbed weakly.
Beep!
Everyone jumped at the sound and looked at the heart monitor. A moment later, there was another bump and the line jumped. As the beeping increased, Marmalade's chest heaved. Tony's gaze returned to her. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open as a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. She croaked, "Hi, Daddy."
Tony broke into a grin as he wrapped his arms tightly around Marmalade's petite frame. Smiles and cheers filled the room.
Marmalade frowned softly at the tear cascading Tony's face. Weakly, she rose a trembling arm and caught it with her finger. "What did I miss?"
Tony laughed softly as he cupped her cheeks with his hands and kissed her forehead, "I'll tell you after you have a nice sleep."
She whined, "I feel like I've been sleeping for ages."
Two weeks later, Marmalade was throwing a tantrum. She was sick of being at the sickbay. A nurse was trying to calm her down.
"I want to get the hell outta here, Jepson," Marmalade spat. "I'm fine! I'm better now! Bruce said so himself! Now let—me—GO!" Marmalade thrashed her arm on the nearest table. It collapsed into pieces. The agent gasped while the nurse screamed in fright. She ran out the hallway calling for Banner. Marmalade breathed quickly as she looked at her hand, mystified. The agent just destroyed a metal side table. Her pulse quickened with fright as Banner rushed into the room. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Marmalade, just relax. Calm down. In. Out. In. Out."
Eventually, her quick, raspy breaths slowed and softened. Marmalade shut her eyes for a moment to recollect herself. "What the hell did I just do?"
"It's a side affect. There was a low chance of this happening, but . . ."
"God, do you have to keep me waiting like this, Bruce? Suspense is only good in the movies."
Bruce chuckled softly before he became serious again, "We had injected you with some of Steve's blood. The super soldier serum, you read about that, right?"
Marmalade frowned as she she leaned back into the bed, "I've got super strength now? Will I be faster and more durable? Stuff like that?"
"Stuff like that, yes. Let me have a quick scan of your brain and muscles." He pulled out a large scanner that resembled a metal detector. Slowly, he trailed it down her body to her feet. Bruce studied a monitor for a good couple of minutes. "Well, you're not really fast. Probably because it wasn't injected around your legs. But strength, yes, and not just because you completely disabled that table. Um . . . I'm not sure about durability . . . but there's something like it on here. But we can test that later. And something else that it isn't really recognized."
"Well can you make it recognized?"
"Maybe. After a few tests." Then he turned to face her and folded his arms across his chest. "A little birdie told me you wanna 'get the hell outta here'."
Marmalade smiled sheepishly. "I've been here for weeks, and the super soldier serum healed my wounds faster than you even thought it would. So can I please go now?"
"Fine, shoo. I don't need your carcass taking up an entire bed."
Marmalade gaped before grinning, "Rude!"
Yep, Marmalade can't be just a normal Shield agent. She's too awesome. The next chapter will be last of this story, but don't worry! There will be plenty of more Marmalade stories to come. Honest.
And I know there wasn't much action from Bruce, but I couldn't really get him a part in the story. There wasn't enough bad guys for him. Plus, I needed him working on the machine that would end up 'resurrecting' Marmalade.
Comments are highly appreciated!
X Noir loup