Chapter 5:
[Spartan POV]
[SHIELD Helicarrier]
I slowly get to my feet. Feels like all the air was knocked out of me. "Sound off!" I hear Cap call out. "I'm good," I say. "Still alive," Karai says. Cap turns to Tony, "Put on the suit." He helps Tony to his feet and guides the man out of the room. Karai and I look out the broken window where we saw Nat and Banner were thrown out of. Both are down. Nat's leg is pinned under a support beam. I turn to Banner. Behind me, I hear Fury asking Hill for a status report. Hill's voice echoes through the comlink, "External detonation. Number three engine is down." "Can we keep it running?" Fury asks, shaking off the blast effect. "Turbine looks mostly intact. But it's impossible to make repairs while still in the air," Hill tells him. "Stark, did you get that? Fury calls out. "Yeah, I'm on it," Stark says over the comlink. "Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section, then get to the armory," Fury orders. "Copy," Coulson says. The director of SHIELD looks around, "Where's Romanoff." "Lower level with Banner. They were blown out the window," I say, "She looks okay, but she's pinned."
I look back to the two in question. Natasha starts to regain consciousness, "We're okay." Banner is a different story. The man looks like he's struggling. And I don't think it's because of any injuries he might have sustained. 'Oh, shit.' Nat notices, "We're okay, right? Brue? You have to fight it. This is what Loki wants. We're going to be okay. Listen to me." Two engineers come around the corner. Karai and I signal them to get back. We already have our weapon out, ready to take out Banner if we need to. Nat continues to reassure Banner, "I swear on my life, I will get you out of this."
Banner, or the Hulk, snaps his head to Nat, "YOUR LIFE!" Banner starts to turn into his other-self. I quickly jump down, pistol train on Banner, lift the support beam off Nat's leg, "Can you walk?" "Yeah," she tells me. There's an ear-piercing animalistic roar. Both of us turn to see Banner is now gone. In his place is a giant green hulking rage monster. 'Oh, fuck.' "Run!" I shout, "Go, go, go, go." We dash down a narrow path with the Hulk right on our tale. I turn to face him and open fire. The shots have little effect on the rage monster. The Hulk tries to rush me like a bull, but I jump out the way, causing him to ram straight to a wall. Rolling to my feet, I throw a few sticky grenades at him. That at least knocks him back a few steps. Unfortunately, it also pissed him off even more. He charges with murderous intent. Just as he's right over me, Thor comes flying in, knocking the Hulk through a wall.
Thor and Hulk both get to their feet, staring each other down. Hulk strikes first. Thor holds the attack back, struggling, "We are not your enemy, Banner. Try to think! Loki is using you." With his free hand, Hulk punches Thor, sending him flying. "Hey, ugly!" I yell. Hulk turns. I slam my fist across his face with an energy knuckle. The green monster staggers, stunned, caught completely by surprise. He swings a few punches. I dodge the attempted onslaught, land a blow to his body and face, careful to keep out of his reach. The Hulk is definitely stronger and fast, but unlike him, I'm a skilled soldier. The green monster claps his hands together, hitting me with a shockwave, sending me slamming to a nearby cargo crate. The Hulk stalks to me, readying to finish me off. He stops his advancement as he is hit by a small explosive. It's Karai, shooting the Hulk with a grenade launcher, firing a shot with each step. Once she runs out of ammo, the Hulk bolts at her. From out of nowhere, Thor smashes Hulk with his hammer, knocking him to a jet fighter. Recovering, Hulk rips the wing off and hurls it at us. "Incoming!" I yell. We all leap out of the way. Thor throws his hammer. Hulk tries to catch it in midair; instead, the hammer knocks back down. Hulk jumps to his feet, tries to pick up the hammer, but couldn't. Flanking the Hulk, I leap onto his back, plant two explosive charges on his head, and jump off. The charges go off, and the Hulk goes down. For a moment, I thought that I killed him. Not an outcome I wanted but necessary. I stride closer to the down Hulk. The smoke clears, a large green hand reaches out and takes hold of me. The Hulk puts me a bone-crushing bearhug. "HULK CRUSH, LITTLE MAN! HULK BREAK LITTLE MAN IN TWO!" Hulk roars. "AARRRRRRR!" I yell out in pain. "Spartan!" Karai screams in panic. "BANNER, NO!" Thor shouts.
A familiar circular red, white, and blue disk strike Hulk over the head hard, forcing him to break his hold. Karai quickly rushes over and drags me to the side. The shield goes back to the hand of its owner. Steve Rogers. Captain America. "You want to fight someone, Hulk, fight me," Cap challenges. The Hulk goes after Cap. Cap leaps over the Hulk; slam the shield down onto the back of the monster's neck. Hulk staggers, but Cap stays on the offense. He punches the Hulk in the nose, kicks him in the balls, strikes the shield across Hulk's face again, and sweeps his leg out from under him. That moment, a fighter jet flies into view, "CLEAR THE ZONE!" Knowing what the pilot meant. All four of us rapidly clear the area. Once out of the way, the fighter jet starts to open fire on the Hulk. With a roar, the Hulk jumps onto the fighter jet. It pulls away fast. I realize it's a tactic to get the Hulk off the Helicarrier because he is the most significant threat. Each of us split up to deal with the enemy strike force attacking the Helicarrier.
[Steve Rogers POV]
I get to Engine-3 just as Tony is clearing out the last piece of debris. "Stark, I'm here," I call out. "Good. Let's see what we're dealing with," Tony says, "I got to get the Superconducting coolant system back online before I could access the rotors; I need to work on dislodging the debris that's caught in a rotor. Cap, I need you to get to the engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." I jump over to the next platform to the control panel. Sliding the panel open, I immediately realized I was extremely ill-equipped for the task.
'Should've had Karai do this.' "What does it look like in there?" Tony asks through the comlink. I drop my head down, "It seems to run on some form of electricity." "Well, you're not wrong," Tony says. It took me a moment, but I figured it out and did the task. "Okay, the relays are intact. What's the next move?" I shout out to Tony. "Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump-start," Tony says, "I'm going to have to get in there and push." "If that thing picks up speed, you'll get shredded," I warn. "On the opposite side of you, there's a red lever. It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it. Wait for my word." I leap to the lever Tony was talking about.
Two enemy soldiers barge in. The one in front tosses a grenade to engine-3. Acting fast, I jump in the air, smack the projectile into the open air. Landing near them, I hit the lead with a right-hook-punch, knocking him out. The second guy, I quickly disarm, then throw him off the Helicarrier. A third soldier intrudes in, firing his assault rifle. I hold up my shield, blocking the oncoming bullets. Drawing my pistol, I double tap the man, killing him. "Cap, now! Hit the lever now!" Tony calls. "I'm on it," I say, pulling the lever. Tony escapes the rotors, flies over to my location.
[Karai POV]
Spartan goes to help a group of trap engineers on the lower level. I dash to the detention section where Loki's located. When I come around the corner, my blood turns ice cold. Thor is trapped in Loki's cell. I scan the area, gun aim. Coulson's there. Just as I was going to call out to him. Loki appears from behind and impales Coulson through the back with the spear. My whole body goes rigid. I couldn't move. Time itself felt like it stopped. Loki tosses Coulson's body to the side like a piece of meat. No care at all. Loki walks to the control panel. He punches the switch, sending the prison cell falling. Throughout the whole thing, my eyes are focused on Coulson's lifeless body. 'MOVE, DAMN IT MOVE!' I yell to myself internally. Loki spots me, surprised and concerned, more for himself than anything. I train my pistol on him and fire everything I had. Loki is hurting but still standing. I drop to grab Coulson's BFG and shot him with a massive plasma blast. The shot sends Loki flying through an iron wall. Loki takes the opportunity to make a run for it. For a swift moment, I debate whether to go after Loki, but he wasn't my central priority. I dart back to Coulson. Gently I turned a man over. His white shirt is crimson red. 'Oh, god, oh, god.' "It's going to be okay, Coulson. We're going to patch you right up," I say, more in the attempt to convince myself,
I place my hands over his wound to slow the bleeding. "I NEED HELP! MEDIC!" I yell into the comlink, "Keep your eyes open, Coulson! Stay with me! Don't you dare die on me!" Coulson smiles sadly, "It's okay, kid. It's okay. I'm clocking out here." "No! Old man, open your eyes. You're still in this fight, soldier!" I yell. My words fell on deaf ears. The light in Coulson's eyes fades out. That moment, Fury rushes in with a medical team. Despite his stoic expression, I can see the emotional storm he's going through. Slowly, I get to my feet. My eyes burn with tears; I force myself to hold it back but barely succeeding. Found myself rubbing my hands on my pants, desperately trying to clean them of Coulson's blood. The word about what happened to Coulson quickly spread. Everyone who knew him is taking the hit hard. But for the time being, we had to soldier on. Loki was still out there, and we had a mission to finish.
[Steve Rogers POV]
[Mission-room.] Everyone is gathered. Well, almost everyone. Fury is fondling with a deck of cards in his hand, "These were in Coulson's jacket." He places the bloodstain cards on the table, "Guess he didn't have a chance to ask you to sign them." I reach for one of the cards. The card has an image of me in my old uniform during my show days in the 40s. Spartan and Karai both smile sadly at a distant memory, but it's gone as quickly as it came. "We're dead in the air. Our communication, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming," Fury says. The man sighs, "We were going to use a tesseract to build an arsenal. That much is true. Like I said earlier, we need an equalizer in this new form of war. Did I feel the need to share that information? No, I did not. And I'm not sorry for it. But I never put all my chips on that number, though. Truth be told, phase-2 was a last resort. An option I hope never to use. I was playing something riskier. There was an idea. Bring together a group of individuals, unite them to become something more, fight the battles no one else could, to protect and defend the world against all threats. Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony gets up from his seat and walks out. Spartan and Karai glare after him but say nothing. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury says, clipping his hands behind his back.
Found Tony in the detention section. The PARAGADES follow behind me. Crossing my arms, I sit on the stair handle, "Was he married." "No. There was a cellist he was dating for a while," Spartan says, "I don't think it was anything serious." Despite the stoic exterior, I could see Spartan is battling with his emotions internally; the same goes for Karai. "He was an idiot," Tony murmurs. Both Karai and Spartan snap their heads to the billionaire, glaring at the man hatefully, hands clenched into tight fists. They look ready to beat the man to death. 'Damn it, Tony! Are you serious, right now!' Acting fast, I step in front of them, silently telling them to stand down. They did. I turn to Tony, "Why would you say that about the man?" Tony sighs, regretfully, "Coulson should've waited for back up. He was no match for Loki." "The man was doing his job," I say, "Like any other soldier, he knew the risk. For some people, it's better to do something than nothing at all. The first time you lost a soldier?" "We're not soldiers," Tony snaps. "Correction. You're not. We are," Spartan growls, rolling his eyes. "Either way, I'm not marching in Fury's fight," Tony tells us. "Fine. Don't. You know where the exit is. Get your suit and GTFO," Karai snaps, stomping out the room. Spartan scoffs, "I may not like you, but I'm willing to work with you if it helps complete the op. You want off this boat? Fine. Help find Loki; we'll handle the rest, and you can go back stroking your ego." He follows his partner out of the room.
"They don't like me very much," Tony says, once the PARAGADES are gone. I shake my head, "No, they don't. In their defense, you did insult their mentor and friend. Considering how things could have gone, you got off easy. Putting that to the side, Loki's still out there, and we need to find him. We know he needs a power source for the tesseract. If we put a list together, we might be able to narrow it down." "He made it personal," Tony says, abrupt. "Yeah. It's personal now for everyone," I say, a little confused at what he was getting at. "No. That's Loki's point. He could've hit us at any point. He had a better chance to take us out divided. No. Loki wants to beat us, but he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience. Loki's a full-tilt diva- Son of a bitch. He's going to New York City. Stark Tower," Tony says, running off.
[Spartan POV]
I follow Karai to her living-quarter. She sits down on her bed, head cast down. I park myself on a chair opposite her. There's a long silence. It's nearly deafening. Karai takes a long breath. "We're going to get Loki, and we're going to make him pay," I say to my partner. Karai lays her head in her hands. Absently she takes my hand in hers. She hates feeling vulnerable. Hates the lack of control. She's hurting, same as me. Coulson wasn't just our mentor and friend. After Fury, he was- is the closest thing we had to a father figure. On Karai's dresser counter, there's a photo. It was of me, Karai, and Coulson. Karai and I were posing jokingly. Coulson remained collected and calm but still smiled. I smile at the memory. 'We weren't going to have that anymore…' There's a knock on the door. Cap steps in. Clint and Nat are right behind him. Both of us get to our feet. "Gear up. We got Loki's location."
[Armory.] Cap grabs his shield and places it on his back. Clint readies his bow and arrows. Nat puts on her stingers, settles two Glock pistols in her leg holster. Karai sets her custom assault/sniper rifle. I prepare my repulsor pistol, grab the assault rifle, smack a new ammo meg in. Following Cap, we make our way to the hangar bay to a parked quinjet. The technician inside goes over to us, "Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be here." "Son, don't," Cap says authoritatively. The technician glances at all five of us nervously. He seems like he's about to piss himself. The man quickly steps to the side. Nat jumps into the pilot seat and starts up the quinjet. The craft takes off at high speed. Ironman goes on ahead of us.