Summer Rose's first few hours in this strange new world were quite...illuminating.
She and Carter quickly and quietly navigated the burning halls of the Groom Range facility, vaulting over fallen debris and ducking underneath open windows. They caught brief glimpses of strange-looking metallic airships blasting the compound with what seemed like focused energy weapons and miniaturized red suns, which tore through the glass and concrete like they were made of packaging foam. And all around them came the screams of soldiers being slaughtered by an enemy unknown, as well as the smell of burning ozone and freshly-baked blood.
Summer had to reign in her urge to retch with every single body they passed, as the man led her through a mess hall full of unfinished meals and flat sodas and a courtyard full of tanks and trees on fire. Carter barely even batted an eye at the horrors around him, instead keeping a laser focus on...whatever was guiding him and pushing him forward. Although she didn't trust the man fully yet, she trusted him enough to guide her through this strange hellscape. Given the expressions of the dead soldiers and their surprised screams, attacks like this were not a normal occurrence.
Eventually after what felt like an eternity, they saw another living human soul. Past the wings of a burning airplane, they saw a young man in a similar vestment as Carter firing a bolt-action rifle at some unknown force. Lasers fired back in retaliation, forcing him to double back and head inside a building, slamming the door behind him. His reprieve would not last very long however, as a pair of strange entities clambered down from the roof and started moving towards the door.
"Get down, over here!" hissed Carter, as he and Summer took cover behind one of the airplane's wings. She peered over their hiding spot, trying to get a better look at the attackers. They resembled small gray babies with enormous heads, wearing a sort of blue glowing collar and carrying a small laser in their hand. One of them turned their head towards her, casting its massive almond-shaped eyes her way. She immediately ducked back down, and the creature turned its gaze back to the door.
"What are those things?" whispered Summer.
"How the hell should I know? I've never seen them before in my life." Carter cursed under his breath. "Flying saucers and laser guns...what kind of science-fiction shit is this?"
Summer may not have understood the reference, but she understood the intent...and the threat. "On the count of three, we shoot. I take the left one, you take the right."
Carter raised an eyebrow. "First off: how do we know if these things can be killed? And second, why should I listen to you?"
"Right now we have the advantage, the element of surprise," she countered. "And in my experience, a lot of things tend to die if you shoot it in the back of the head, which should be an easy target considering the size of these things. Finally...are you really gonna start questioning me now?"
The man leaned out and gazed at the creatures, who were busy trying to reach the door handle and failing miserably. Two more of them began approaching from the right, with some kind of device in their scrawny little hands.
"...fine," growled Carter, "You go down the right and take care of the new arrivals. I'll deal with the ones by the door."
Summer nodded, keeping her back hugged against the side of the wing as she slid downrange, resting her elbow on the warm metal to steady her aim. Line up the shot and take it, she thought to herself, you've done this a hundred times. She was vaguely aware of Carter mumbling something similar under his breath, presumably to himself.
After a millisecond of tension, Summer took the first shot, planting a bullet right in the side of one of the approaching creatures and making it drop its device. The other one traveling screeched in surprise, which got the attention of the ones by the door. One of the creatures turned around only for Carter's first shot to splatter its brains against the wall, painting the building with a sickly blue fluid. The remaining creatures quickly tried to scramble to cover, but a well-placed shot from both Summer and Carter stopped them in their place. The skirmish was over in the span of a few seconds.
Summer let out a sigh of relief as she and Carter rose up from their improvised cover, making their way over to the door. With a wordless nod, Summer kept her pistol leveled while Carter pushed open the door, using his pistol to make a quick sweep as he stepped inside.
"You won't take me, you alien -! Oh, you're human. Thank Christ."
Summer and Carter went inside to meet the young man that had retreated. "Easy there, son. What's your name and rank?"
The young man with slicked-back brown hair and shining green eyes saluted. "Agent Thomas Nils, Recon Division, Specialist Rank. And you must be Agent Carter, I presume. Director Faulke ordered me to -"
"Faulke!" interjected Carter, "Is he still alive?"
"Last I heard," nodded Nils, "Grab that two-way over there and try to reach...him…"
It was only now that Nils seemed to notice the young woman standing behind Carter. "Ma'am, please identify yourself."
She did so after a thoughtful moment. "Um...Agent Summer Rose, sir. I've been assigned as Agent Carter's escort."
Nils raised an eyebrow as he looked over Summer, from her head full of reddish-black hair to her bare feet covered with scratches and marks. Carter rolled his eyes. "You had to pick that word, didn't you?"
"There a problem, sir?" She asked innocently enough.
Nils hummed thoughtfully. "First I've heard of you, is all. Usually don't assign women the role of field agents, save for Weaver...what unit are you from?"
"We can figure that out later, Specialist. For now, let's hear what Faulke has to say." Carter picked up the big bulky brick from the nearby table, and began talking into it. "Director Faulke, come in. This is Carter."
A panicky voice loud enough to be heard even from this distance replied. "This is Agent Kinney! The director and I, along with all surviving personnel, are defending the sub-level lab!"
"Do you have an escape route?" asked Carter.
A loud boom could be heard on the other side. "We're maintaining position until you and Nils report for evac!"
Carter raised an eyebrow. That didn't sound like a 'yes'. "...Right. I'm on my way."
"Get to the Advanced Materials Warehouse and take the elevator to the sub-level!" instructed Kinney from the other end, "We'll hold here as long as we can!"
As Carter let down the box, Nils took cover next to the door. "Come on," he motioned, "we can cut through here. And grab those M14's, you're gonna need something a little bigger than those little peashooters. Grab their mikes, too, in case we get separated."
Carter obliged, grabbing one of the long rifles from the two bodies laying in a puddle of their own blood. "Sorry soldier…" he muttered under his breath, "I need this more than you do right now."
Summer knelt down over the other body, kissing her fingertips before planting them on the forehead of the dead soldier. "I'm sorry we could not save you. Wherever you are now, I hope it is better than here."
She was vaguely aware of Carter and Nils watching as she pried off the soldier's boots, slipping her own feet into them. She tried not to think about whatever it was that was making that squishing noise - running around barefoot in a battlefield was just not going to work, and while her new footwear wasn't exactly a perfect fit, at least she could walk and fight in these unlike the impractical heels the lady had been wearing. After standing and testing them out, she jumped up and down a few times to make sure they fit, all while Carter and Nils just stared at her.
"So...did she say where she was from?" asked Nils in a whisper.
"She didn't say anything," muttered Carter, "so for all I know, she could be from the goddamn moon."
"...you realize we'd have to kill her if that's the case, right? She might be part of the -"
"I know. We'll sort it out with the director when we get out of here."
Summer frowned. Concluding that the boots would work, she picked up the long-barreled rifle with a stock and held it up. Hmm...standard rifle, probably full-auto. Doesn't look like it form shifts into anything, or has any dust rounds. Just standard, metal bullets. Hopefully that'll be enough.
After picking up the magazines, she gave a terse nod to her tentative allies, pulling back the bolt to chamber a new round. "Ready to go when you are," she said as she clipped a black brick onto her belt.
Nils nodded. "Right. Come on. We can cut through here."
As the new soldier led Carter and Summer up a flight of stairs and down a metal scaffolding, the endless cacophony of panicking soldiers and barrages of laser fire continued to assault them. Only now Carter's radio was loudly blaring the chatter of the losing defenders, broadcasting their last moments and orders for the small group to hear. Summer felt the knot in her stomach grow tighter with each new transmission, but Carter barely batted an eye at the exclamations and proclamations of shock, horror, and death.
"Missile impact is zero effect! Enemy craft is -AAAAIIEE!"
"Enemies incoming! We're pinned down!"
"Get those AA guns ready! Now!"
"What is that?"
"Take cover! Take cover!"
"Run! Get indoors!"
"Too late! They're here!"
The young man known as Nils seemed a bit more discomforted than his friend. "Carter, turn that damn thing down. We really don't need to hear that."
Carter blinked, as if snapping out of a trance, then turned the dial on the box on his belt. The tinny cries for help slowly quieted, replaced only by the crackle of fire and the distant sounds of gunfire and screaming.
"I don't suppose that can tune into any local music stations?" asked Summer hopefully.
The stares of both Carter and Nils gave a pretty concrete answer.
After walking a bit, they came across what looked to be a hangar with a large steel door, and a smaller door up top for regular entry. Only problem was that the metal stairs that would have let them get up to it were currently all over the courtyard in heaps of twisted scrap metal.
"Dammit," growled Nils as he looked at what remained of the scaffold ten feet above them, "they must have gotten here before we did."
"I picked up some frags on the way," said Carter as he pulled what Summer could only describe as a small metallic pineapple from his belt. "Could use them to blow a hole in the side."
"These things were built to withstand atom bombs," said Nils as he shook his head. "That won't even leave a -"
"Is there a way to open it from the inside?"
Both men looked at Summer with a raised eyebrow. "Well, yes," answered Nils, "but how are we gonna - "
"Give me a boost."
Thomas Nils just sort of scoffed. "Seriously? You'd have to be some kind of Olympic athlete just to clear that jump. We need to -"
"Cover the door, Nils."
The young man almost choked on his own words. "Excuse me?"
Carter locked his fingers together as he stood directly beneath the door. "You heard me. Get ready to go in there once the doors open." To Summer, he said, "Once you get inside, look for some kind of button. Ready?"
Summer nodded, clipping her M14 onto her back as she stood a few paces away. Nils just stared and watched as the young woman sprinted straight for Carter, planting her boot on his waiting hands and using it as a foothold to leap. Not that it really made that much of a difference how hard Carter lifted - her jump alone easily gave her at least seven feet of pure vertical height, and after clamping her fingers around the cold steel platform, she pulled herself up with a grunt of exertion.
"What the hell…" mouthed Nils as Summer rolled onto her feet, opening the door and disappearing inside. She took a look around and saw a wall of windows on her right side, with a button immediately visible...as well as about a half-dozen of those small creatures scavenging the remains of soldiers on the floor in front of her.
Summer ducked out of view and unclipped the black box from her belt and stared at it for a minute, frowning as she tried to figure out how to use it. It was quite unlike the scrolls she had used back in Remnant - instead of being sleek and transparent, this was big and heavy and had a weird antenna and a bunch of different buttons and knobs that served no apparent function. It didn't even have a screen of any kind, which made operating it all the more -
"Rose, what's the holdup? What's your status?"
"Does she know how to use these?"
"...um…"
"She can make that jump but she can't operate a mike? It's a toggle switch, for Christ's sake!"
Oh. THAT'S what that side button was for.
She clicked it and spoke quietly into what she could only presume was the speaker. "This is Rose, I'm by the windows. Hostiles are inside."
"Shit. They see you?"
"Not yet," she replied tersely, "I'm gonna open the door now. There's a bunch of crates just on the other side - keep quiet and get into position behind them. I'll flank them from the window."
"Understood, on your mark."
"I'm in position!"
Taking a deep breath, Summer drew the rifle off her back and slammed down on the largest button. The hangar doors slid open in a loud humming of motors and rattling of chains, drawing the attention of the odd creatures and making them raise their pistols in anticipation. She then pushed the window open and rested the M14 on the windowsill, firing a burst of bullets at the unexpectant enemies. With a squeal of shock, they left their exposed cover, only to have their heads cored in by accurate bursts of fire from Nils and Carter as they popped out from behind stacks of crates. The final one tried to run, only to have its chin separated from the rest of its body by a sweeping burst from Summer. The ambush went flawlessly, and soon the silence returned.
"That got 'em," said Nils breathlessly, "Let's meet up on the other side. Advanced Materials Warehouse is just up ahead, hard to miss it."
Carter nodded, sharing a glance at Summer through the window. She nodded in return, going through a set of doors that led to the main hangar, regrouping with the men as they huffed up the steps to meet her.
"Nice shots," said Summer with a nod, "You guys are good."
Nils seemed to blush under the compliment. Carter, meanwhile, just shook his head.
"I used to be," growled the man in the gray hat.
"Bullshit," protested Nils, "Faulke wouldn't be interested in you if you weren't the best."
Carter just rolled his eyes. How many times had he heard that line before? "We'll see," he said simply as the odd trio made their way through the hangar.
A few burning streets and a few uneventful firefights with the tiny creatures later, the odd trio finally came across a large freight elevator tucked away on the south wall in an emptied-out warehouse. Hastily abandoned during the attack, the workers had left a lot of boxes and crates strewn around, their contents quickly scooped up and carried off to god-knows-where. Overlooking the shipping area to the left of the freight elevator was a well-lit office, with windows that were both shattered and splattered with blood.
"Ammo check," said Carter, "How's everyone doing?"
"Got enough rounds to fill up the old Springfield one more time after this," said Nils as he loaded a few long bullets into an open slot on top of his rifle. "Colt's spent, though."
"We'll work with that. Rose?"
Summer sighed. "Rifle's completely out. Still got my pistol, though it only has a few rounds left. What about you?"
Carter quickly checked his pockets. "Still got a full M14 mag and a couple of frags. Should last us long enough to meet up with the team protecting Faulke. Now, let's - "
BOOM.
The earth beneath them shuddered and shook for a moment, as something crashed through the ceiling above them and slammed into the concrete floor. All three operatives pointed their weapons at the strange metallic sphere that now occupied the middle of the room, leaving a sizable crater in its wake.
"Goddamn, that was close…" muttered Nils, "They have artillery...great. Was...was it a dud?"
Carter shook his head. "Whatever that thing is, it wasn't meant to explode."
Summer furrowed her brow. "Then...what is it?"
"Let's not stick around to find out." Carter pulled himself away from the strange sphere. "Nils, I want you up there in that office in sniping position. Rose, cover the right flank. I'll take point."
Nils head up the steps without question. Summer, however, raised an eyebrow, following Carter to the control panel next to the elevator. "You seriously expect that we'll be attacked in the five seconds it takes an elevator to arrive?"
Carter shook his head. "More like five minutes, lady. These things aren't exactly known for their speed, especially not the ones that are designed to lift up to hundreds of tons. Besides, you've seen the rest of the base. No way that those little gray freaks we've fought so far could do that. They've gotta have bigger guns somewhere, and as soon as this thing starts moving, it'd be like ringing a goddamn dinner bell across the whole compound."
He punched a button on the control panel, which blinked faintly with a green light. A few seconds later, a low rumbling could be heard (and felt) by the soldiers. Summer felt her teeth rattle and her stomach shake in her ribs, while Carter just quietly observed while straightening out his black tie and gray hat.
"So yes, I am expecting an attack. And I also expect the troops under my command to obey my orders the first time they're given. So get in position, now."
"Got eyes on movement outside the warehouse, Carter. About a hundred yards away. Observing for now."
The agent gave Summer a look that practically screamed "I told you so." With a quiet scowl, Summer went and hid behind a stack of boxes, drawing her pistol in anticipation.
"What do you see, Nils?" said Carter over the radios.
"It's another one of those gray things...but...huh."
"What is it?"
"It…looks like it's on a leash."
"...you're kidding me."
"I wish. Looks like some kind of humanoid figure on the other end of it. Tall, broad-shouldered, covered in some kind of weird armor."
"One of ours?"
"Doesn't look like it. Can't get a good look at it's face to...oh no."
"Nils, report."
"I think it saw me! It just looked at me through my scope!"
"From a hundred yards? How is that possible?"
"I don't know! It just turned around and glared at me! Oh, God, it's face...its eyes...it's not human! And it SAW ME!"
"Drop it now, Nils!"
A sniper shot rang out through the silence, punching through the open doors and flying off into the night.
"...it just blocked my shot."
"It what?"
"It just blocked my shot! And now it knows where we are! It's heading this way!"
Sure enough, Summer peeked over her cover to see a tall humanoid-looking figure with a spherical helmet, an odd disc on its back, and a flowing regal-looking cape step into the warehouse. The gray creature on the leash chittered in excitement, but with one swift tug on the leash the figure snapped its neck and cast it aside. Glowing with blue energy, the mysterious assailant pointed at Carter, and snarled.
"Draa zaaik kiel! Eldik kraksad!"
Before anyone could ask for a translation, a blue lance of light flew from the figure's hands, crashing through Carter's cover and slamming him into the wall behind him. Another four or five figures poured through the open doors, filing behind cover and firing red beams of pure energy from their metallic-looking rifles. Summer hunkered down behind her stack of crates while Nils took carefully-aimed shots at the new arrivals. One shot sent orange blood splatter from a shoulder, but the wounded soldier just snarled and popped the shattered bone back in place.
"These things definitely aren't human! The fuck are they?"
"Hell if I know," growled Carter as he rose to his feet. "But it looks like the new ones can't block the shots like the big one can! Nils, wait for a chance to go for the head and put one between their eyes! Rose, get behind the big one and try to shoot that thing on its back!"
"Copy that! Steadying aim."
"I'm going in!" shouted Summer, vaulting over her stack of crates and sprinting as fast as she could to the north end of the room. A few of the new arrivals scowled and tried to shoot her, but a barrage of fire from Carter's rifle forced them back into their own makeshift cover. With a flying kick, Summer knocked a strange soldier out from behind another large shipping container, putting a few pistol rounds into its head and torso to make sure it stayed down. A nearby enemy popped out from behind cover to avenge its fallen ally, but a well-placed shot from above cored its head and made it burst like a balloon.
"Thanks for the assist, Nils!"
"You got it!"
With most of the new contacts either occupied or bleeding on the floor, Summer decided now was as good a time as any to take a shot at the big guy with the cape. She stepped out from behind the container, aimed her pistol…
Click! Click! Click!
Dammit.
"Rose! What's the holdup?"
"Gun's empty! THAT'S the holdup!"
"What? I thought you said - AAAAUGH!"
"NILS!"
Summer watched as the glowing blue figure raised its hand again, sending another blue beam of energy from its palm. This time it targeted the upper west office, heading straight for the Recon agent. Unlike the first blast, this one seemed to ensnare him in a web of azure rather than send him flying, pulling him through the window instead of pushing him through the wall. The effect was just as deadly, though, as Nils smashed through a pane of glass and hovered in mid-air for a moment, before falling a good fifteen feet and hitting the ground with a sickening crack.
Infuriated, Summer threw her now-empty gun at the powerful commander, before charging headlong at it with nothing but her bare hands. The pistol spun end over end before bouncing off the armored helmet, which didn't do too much to damage it but it definitely got its attention. Spinning on its heel the humanoid figure held out its hand at Summer, before closing it into a fist and pulling downward. Instantly the woman felt a force drag her down into the ground, her bones becoming as heavy as stones and about as easy to lift.
The pain was unbearable, and it took every bit of concentration in her mind to keep herself from screaming out. Carter fired every bullet he had in his rifle at the backside of the superpowered adversary, but the bullets just rippled across an invisible screen that enveloped it. Summer's eyes darted left and right as the other troops took advantage of the opening their leader had created, some of them firing on Carter while the others flanked the vulnerable woman and prepared to fire.
That's when something clicked in Summer's mind.
The bullets bounced off that thing's shield, but my gun didn't! So it must be configured to repel stuff above a certain velocity - but if we could get something that's meant to be thrown inside it..
"Carter!" she growled out, "Grenade! Now!"
The man in the gray hat seemed to get the same idea. Unclipping one of the metallic pineapples from his belt, he pulled out a pin, held it in his hand for a second, then hurled it over his cover. Summer's eyes tracked the grenade as it bounced across the concrete floor, before rolling to a stop just between the armored soldier's feet.
It had just enough time to look down and let out half a scream before a storm of shrapnel tore it apart. Summer instantly felt the pressure on her body release, and she wasted no time scrambling to her feet and charging at the nearest remaining trooper. She ducked and wove around behind it before pinning its arm against its back, using it as a meat shield as she forced the soldier to fire on its ally, causing them both to cut each other down in a haze of red lasers. Another explosion and a cry of pain signaled the end of the encounter as Carter grenaded the last newcomer, leaving the battlefield with the smell of burning ozone and the sound of bloodied breathing.
Summer took a moment to catch her breath before her eyes widened in realization. "Nils!"
She and Carter took off running towards the fallen man. Her heart beat furiously as she ran, then skipped a few beats when she saw the young man's chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. By pure miracle, he had survived his fall. But unless he got healing right now, he wouldn't have much time to savor his newfound lease on life.
"Nils…" groaned Carter, putting a hand on the young man's shoulder.
"...d-...did we get them? Did we…"
Summer held his hands as he descended into a bloodied coughing fit. "Shh...it's okay. We won. We're safe."
"That's...all that matters…" whispered Nils weakly, his eyelids fluttering closed.
What happened next, neither Carter nor Summer could describe. At least, not for a long while later.
A pale blue light suddenly shone from Carter's hands, illuminating the veins in his forearm as trails of energy traced out from where he touched the Recon operative's shoulder. They spiraled out from their point of origin and flooded through his entire body, flowing over gaps of exposed flesh and guiding broken bones back into proper place. After a loud cracking sound, Thomas Nils took a deep breath with newly-inflated lungs - his skin as smooth as the day he had come out of his mother.
"What the hell…" muttered Carter as he stepped back, staring at his own hands in bewilderment.
Summer, meanwhile, furrowed her brow. "Just like back in the bedroom…"
"What?"
In answer to Carter's questioning glare, Summer explained, "I saw something similar happen to your wounds after I killed that officer. Your body glowed, and the gunshot wound just...healed back up. Almost like…"
Summer had to clamp her mouth shut.
Almost like Aura.
A groan from Nils as he got back to his feet snapped them both out of their thoughts. "I don't know how you did that, Carter…" he said as he rolled his shoulders, "but thanks. I owe you a beer after this. Hell, I'll buy you a goddamn case after we get out of here. But let's actually leave first."
A soft chime signaled the arrival of the elevator at long last. As if nothing had happened, Nils went over to the now-unlocked door and slid it open, looking back at Summer with a glance. She looked at Carter, who still seemed puzzled at his unusual ability.
"It just doesn't make sense…" he mumbled, "It just doesn't make any goddamn sense."
Summer risked reaching out and putting a hand on Carter's shoulder, which made him flinch. Still, that was the most reaction she got out of him, aside from having him stare at her.
"None of this makes sense," said the displaced Huntress. "Especially not to me. But the way I see it, we've got two choices. Sit around and try to figure out what's going on and die here, or keep moving forward and live. It sounds like we have a chance to do the latter. Are you going to take it? Or did all these people die for nothing?"
Carter glared at her for a long, hard moment, before letting out a sigh. He took off his hat, readjusted it a bit, then put it back on. "Right...let's move."
As they approached the elevator, Nils suddenly had a thought. "Hey. Those things...think we should grab some of their gear? It looks leagues above what we're using, and I'm sure Faulke will want to take a good look at some of the stuff they've brought. Like those shields and...lasers."
With a shrug, Carter and Summer went back and picked up a few burnt-out metallic pistols and scraps of shredded armor. Summer found an oddly-shaped rifle that felt as light as a cloud made out of foam, while Carter pried the strange harness off what was left of the shielded humanoid. After a moment of scavenging what they could, the three of them stepped into the elevator and began the slow descent into the darkness.
Summer wasn't sure what would be waiting for them…
But it couldn't be any worse than her first few hours on this new world.
