Death Was Arrested - Chapter 12
The group arrived back at the base, both with confidence and confusion. They had been successful in defeating Red Skull's first wave. It was the second battle that they faced together, and their forces kept growing. Tony Stark had been able to use his own technology from the future, and was able to engineer it to craft suits that could harness the power of both the zeo crystal and the infinity stones. However, their easy victory against Red Skull felt too good to be true. Scott Lang had said this was the same group that made the future a desolate wasteland. This couldn't be the same group, could it? That's what Captain Rogers, Coulson, Tony Stark, Tommy, and Kimberly were discussing in the main meeting room.
"I just don't get it," Steve thought aloud. "Lang said that in the future, the Avengers had to go into hiding. They had no way of defeating the threat of Schmidt, and that led to our destruction."
"But that was after Thor left earth, right?" Kimberly asked. "We weren't in the picture, Tony didn't return to the team until much later."
"It's possible that with Dr. Strange's intervention in the past, along with Scott's intervention in the future, we might be changing everything," Tommy replied.
"Or he's just biding his time," Stark countered, leading to the others looking at him intently. "Look, one thing we are overlooking here is that, at some point or another, we'll need to have part of our team leave to find Thanos and get the stones. If Thor, Loki, and our two lovebirds here leave with the rest of the ranger team, that leaves us fairly thin on resources."
"Even without Thor, you still have most of the original team that defended New York," Coulson replied.
"Not exactly," Tony replied sullenly. "Hulk won't come out."
"Won't come out?" Coulson asked. "What does that even mean?"
"Right now, it means we can only count on the brains of Bruce, not his braun," Rogers replied. "Look, it's becoming increasingly clear that we'll need to split up. The lives of billions, maybe even trillions, are in the balance. We need to go on the offensive."
"How exactly are we going to do that?" Tommy asked. "We don't even know where Thanos is." Suddenly the doors were thrust open, and Rocket scurried in and climbed onto the center table, Bruce Banner followed him in.
"I'm sorry, this is a no raccoon zone," Stark quipped.
"As much as I'd like to just slap the taste out of your frickin mouth, I have important information for you idiots," Rocket shot back. "When the not so jolly green giant over here traced the signature of your suit, it gave me an idea. I plugged in the frequency of the ravager ship that Nebula used after she separated from us, and I got a location."
"Is she ok?" Stark asked, desperation evident in his voice.
"Well, judging from ship diagnostics, it's damaged and inoperable," Rocket replied. "But, it's also on a planet."
"Hope it's not the planet of those gold fighters," Stark sighed.
"That's the thing, if you're sure that they were gold fighters, I'd bet a hundred credits that they were from Ayesha and her large assortment of morons. And if that's the case, I know the planet they live on, and it's a different planet from the one where Nebula's ship is at now."
"I don't understand why that would matter," Rogers said.
"Nebula was an adopted daughter of Thanos," Stark explained. "She hated him, and I don't get the sense that he was too fond of her either. While I'm not sure it's likely, there's a small chance that she was delivered to him."
"That doesn't exactly seem certain," Coulson replied.
"But it's the only lead we have," Tommy replied.
"How long do you think it would take for us to travel there?" Kim asked.
"With the modifications I've been making to your quin-jet, about 18 months," Rocket replied. "I keep trying to tell you, your technology stinks. You have no access to a hyper drive that can help you make jumps through space, no lightspeed drive, and there's no way to power one of those with any of the energy sources you have on this trash heap of a planet."
"What about the zeo crystal?" Tommy asked.
"Look, I get that the crystal is powerful, but it's not like it can fix every problem," Rocket quipped.
"I think I might have a solution," Coulson smiled. "But I'll need to take you across the country. It's where we housed project Pegasus."
"Let us go then," Thor appeared. "I will open the bifrost to transport us there at once."
Thor and Coulson were quick in their travels, gone for no more than thirty minutes. As they returned, the rest of the team noticed the massive engine that had landed with them outside as they transported back.
"What is that?" Rocky asked.
"It's a tesseract-powered rocket engine, designed to power a ship close to the speed of light," Coulson replied as the pair walked inside, the rest of the team gawking as they looked through the picture windows of the facility. "I thought if we could somehow hook it up to one of the quinjets, we would be able to get you guys out to Thanos pretty quickly."
"Was this designed during the development of phase two?" Steve asked.
"What's phase two?" Rocky asked.
"The development of weapons using the space stone," Coulson admitted.
"That sounds like something we could have used," Rocket quipped.
"Rabbit, do you think we could..."
"He's a damn raccoon, man," Rhodey interrupted, which illicited a much needed chuckle from the group. "Sorry... I just, you keep calling him rabbit..."
"I knew long ago that he wasn't a rabbit," Thor smirked. "I just kind of wondered how long you'd let me keep calling him that."
"Sometimes I don't know why I bother," Rocket sighed.
"Rocket," Thor continued. "Could you reconfigure the jet, allow it to use the power source we just brought?" He nodded and scurried off to work on the plane, while the others broke for a much needed break.
Steve wandered down to the holding cells where they had been holding Helmut Zemo. He peered behind the bars to find him sitting on the concrete with his back against the wall.
"I wondered when the great Captain America would show up at my cell," he smirked. "Others came to bring me food, keep me healthy. Did you draw the short straw this time?"
"I don't have any food for you," Rogers replied. "Only a question. Why the angry mob? Why the attack?"
"Why shouldn't I steal when I want. The world is ending, why should anyone care?"
"What would your wife think about that? Your child?" The question didn't phase Zemo. He merely smirked.
"You need something from me, don't you Captain?" Zemo's question frustrated the good Captain.
"You snuck into HYDRA's mission reports, do you know anything about Red Skull that would help?"
"I have nothing to tell you." They stared coolly into each others eyes, and without a word, Steve went upstairs.
In the other meeting room, Tommy and Kim were sitting on opposite ends of the couch. They had kissed, but had yet to talk about what that meant. It was hard to talk about a relationship when the fate of the universe was at stake. Yet, for some reason, as they had downtime, it was difficult for them to speak up.
"Lovebirds?" A voice asked from behind them. Without looking they knew it was Katherine, due to the accent. They turned to find a surprising grin on her face. "Don't think I missed that little quip by Tony back there."
"I don't know if I would call it..."
"Don't even try to explain this away, Dr. Oliver," Kat chided. "Look, it's been hard seeing you both. It's even harder seeing you both together. But I also know that the two of you together makes sense, and I don't hold anything against either of you."
"Kat..." Kimberly started.
"Look... I know you're just figuring things out again," Kat interrupted. "You don't know what to call it, you're afraid of who it might hurt, is it real or just a matter of circumstances. You don't have to explain. Just... I ask that when we go on our mission to do whatever the hell it is we're doing, please remember that I'm for you, but it might be painful for me."
"Thanks for telling us Kat," Kim replied. "We don't know what this is, but we'll be careful."
"We'll be focused on the mission," Tommy added. "The fate of the universe depends on it."
"That's all I needed to know," Kat replied. She left the two of them, who continued to sit in silence at opposite ends of the couch.
"We're really doing this, aren't we?" Kim asked.
"I mean, we said we would talk about us..."
"I mean going into space," she interrupted with a light chuckle. She paused and looked down at the ground for a minute, and then looked back at Tommy. "Of all the things I thought I would do with my life, coming out of retirement to save the universe wasn't one of them." She paused for a moment, before a tear began to form in her eye. "I miss them."
Tommy consoled her, but not without his own sadness beginning to manifest itself. The pair sat together, tears streaming down their faces for a long time, as the weight of emotions bore down on their souls.
To Be Continued...
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- Googz333