The Curse of Dr. Zola

Chapter 25

Bucky came to Steve's rescue, just like in the old days, but this time it wasn't a bully, it was an alien. Bucky sent him flying over Steve's head, causing him to spin around, just barely stopping himself from clocking Bucky in the head.

"Where'd you come from?" Steve asked, startled.

Bucky swung at another alien. "Steve, I thought you'd at least know by now where babies come from."

Steve got red in the face.

Bucky grabbed Steve and spun him around just in time to deflect a bolt of energy from an alien weapon. It glanced off the shield and took out another alien trying to sneak up on them.

"So, what are we up against, besides aliens?"

"Those!" Steve pointed.

Bucky turned around. "Holy Cow!"

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

"No. Look!" Bucky's blood ran cold in his veins. In the sky alongside Iron Man, Mary flew in a zig-zag pattern, trying to confuse the creature while Tony blasted it.

"I told her to get out of here!"

"Well, she didn't listen."

They swung at more aliens.

Steve spoke into his communication unit. "Hey, if anybody sees a woman flying around that looks like the Wicked Witch of the West, don't shoot her, ok? She's on our side."

Thor broke in. "Who would this woman be?"

"She's a friend of mine, so do me a favor and don't blast her out of the sky."

Nat jumped in. "Well, if she's the one who just passed me, I got her back."

"How many flying women do we have on the team?" Steve retorted.

On the Heli carrier, Fury was monitoring the battle.

"What's going on over there?" He asked the bridge crew to give him a report.

A bewildered officer reported back that there seemed to be extra people in the battle.

Fury tagged his comm. "Stark, just what the hell is going on over there? Who are these people?"

"Just a couple of friends we picked up along the way."

"Just a couple of friends?" Fury was at a loss. He didn't know about Bucky and Mary being enhanced.

"Sir. The council wishes to speak with you."

Fury was mad at being diverted from his task at hand, and was even madder when they told him they wanted him to deploy a nuke.

"That is the island of Manhattan. I will not send a nuke."

The council figured that and authorized it anyway, utilizing their agent on the carrier.

Fury contacted Stark and notified him about incoming.

"I know just where to put it."

On the ground, Steve and Thor watched as Tony intercepted the missile and diverted it up to the hole in the sky, disappearing from view.

He had flown right by Mary, who nearly tumbled off the broom she had stolen from a street level restaurant. Bucky's heart nearly lurched out of his ribcage when he saw her spin.

The nuke exploded, taking down the Chitauri. They waited, but no Stark. Steve had no choice and ordered the portal closed. Nat plunged the scepter into the mechanism that enabled the Tesseract.

They all watched as the beam ceased, and the portal began to close.

Tony fell from the sky just before the portal vanished into nothingness.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor began spinning his hammer.

Mary executed a dive, but Banner got there first and got Tony to the ground safely.

Thor flipped off the face mask, but Tony wasn't breathing. Steve and Bucky thought he was dead.

Mary landed and ran over, but again Banner beat her to the punch. He let out a deafening roar and it jump-started Tony's heart.

"What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me!" Spotting Mary, he amended his statement. "She's okay."

"Hey!" Bucky frowned at him. "She's my girl, get your own."

"Let's just not come in tomorrow, alright? Everybody take the day off. There's a schwarma place two blocks down. I don't know what it is, but I'd like to try it."

Thor looked grim. "We're not done yet."

"Ok, and then schwarma after."

The Avengers convened at the schwarma joint, where Steve introduced Bucky and Mary.

"How do you keep your balance on the broom?" Nat wanted to know.

Mary chuckled. "I have a custom one at home that is much easier, but I had to improvise as I had to leave it home."

"How did you get here?" Steve asked.

"You don't want to know." Mary shook her head, as she remembered the harrowing flight.

"I thought we were going to miss the fight, but Mary got us here on time for some of it."

"I still can't figure out how you did it." Steve looked from Bucky to Mary.

"I flew us, but navigating isn't my strong suit, so Bucky suggested following the Hudson, and then pointed to where we needed to go."

"I told you go get somewhere safe. Why didn't you listen to me?"

"If those things got a foothold on earth, where exactly would safe be? Besides, I couldn't just stand by and not help people get to safety."

"She's crazy on that broom; you'd better watch her." Tony tilted his head.

"Any luck on the blue light project?" Mary asked.

"Oh, you guys weren't there for that part of our operation. Apparently, Loki had the Tesseract and the scepter thing. Both bear a striking resemblance to the generator you have. I'm going to be studying the scepter in depth, so I'll let you know if I find out anything."

"Who is Loki?" Mary asked.

"He is my brother, from Asgard."

"So, you really come from another planet?"

"Yes."

"What relation do you have to earth? Weren't there mythical Norse gods called Loki and Thor?"

"That was us."

"Huh?" Mary was confused.

Steve took over the explanation before anyone else could interject another word and made it as simple as possible.

Bucky shook his head while trying to comprehend all this. Mary seemed genuinely fascinated and struck up a conversation with Thor. Bucky didn't like it and sat there and stewed.

After the meal, everyone went their separate ways, until Steve was left with Bucky and Mary.

"How are you guys getting home?"

Mary shook her head. "Honestly, Bucky, I'd rather not repeat the flight down here."

"Well, we can't walk."

"Hold on." Steve idly walked around and spoke into his communication unit, and then returned. "Fury is going to send a quin-jet to pick us up. You were going to be coming on board anyway, and he'll arrange for you to be dropped off at home. Sound okay?"

They looked at each other and nodded.

Bucky endured another vial of blood being drawn. "How many more?"

"Just one more sir." The tech removed one and put on another.

Bucky scowled while Mary and Steve stood in the doorway. They turned around at a familiar voice.

"How is he doing?"

"He's about as impatient as I was after Dr. Erskine was assassinated. The only clues left were in my blood. Peggy stayed with me, uh, Agent Carter, that is."

Fury nodded. "So, I take it that you decided against the apartment we found for you?"

"Mary is having a cottage built adjacent to hers and Bucky's."

"Mmmmm…" Fury chewed this over. It would make it more difficult to keep an eye on him, but he had good agents.

Bucky came over and sighed. "I was told I have to go for my physical now. The last time I had one your grandmother's doctor stabbed me in both sides of my behind with needles! Then he needed a stool sample. I couldn't sit for two days!"

Mary burst out laughing. Between snorts of raucous laughter she apologized repeatedly. Bucky turned uncharacteristically red in the face, as her apology got lost in the unrestrained hilarity. Steve began laughing, and even Fury had to hide his grin.

"Great! I can see I'm not getting any sympathy with this crowd. I might as well get it over with."

Mary and Steve waited outside of the exam room, while they put Bucky thru a thorough exam. She followed him as they escorted him to the gym, where he tested his abilities against Steve.

Fury was the first person who was told about the results, and he raised an eyebrow at the report. It was confirmed that the serums given to both men were similar in formula, but not exact.

Fury joined them when they met with the doctor to discuss the results.

"Apparently, even if the formula was identical, results would be mixed due to the individual it was introduced into. We have no conclusive evidence, as there was only one subject used in each case. Everything else is in my report."

Steve glanced down momentarily at the one page report in front of him.

The doctor then opened a laptop and cued up a video report.

Mary and Bucky watched in horror, as images of Dr. Banner sped past, documenting his tinkering with the formula and unsuccessfully trying it on himself.

Bucky looked at Steve. "We're not going to turn green, are we Steve?"

Steve shook his head.

"In each of your cases, the formula picked up the slack, if you will, in your own bodies."

"Dr. Erskine told me the night before my procedure that the formula enhances what you already have; good becomes great, bad becomes worse."

"That's really not far from the truth. We don't understand exactly how it knows what to do, just that it does it."

"So, if somebody were to recreate the formula and inject themselves, and they wanted to kill people…" Mary left the sentence hanging.

"Yes, it would fuel the evil within them."

The quin jet landed safely on Mary's property, dropping off the threesome.

As it rose, the three newest members of SHIELD, watched it depart. Steve clapped Bucky on the back. "It's good to be a team again."

"Yeah, but at least now I don't have to worry so much about you getting beaten up. I have to admit, you were giving it out pretty good back there."

They joined Mary in the living room. She was just standing there, motionless.

They walked past her before Bucky realized something was wrong. When he turned around, Mary was white as a sheet.

"What's wrong, Mary?"

She looked up at him blankly. "Someone's been in the house."