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America, the Colonies?

Chapter 6: Attack on the Helicarrier

Jack let out a huge yawn in his spot on a chair with his legs on a table in front of him and his hands behind his head. He, among the other members of Avengers minus Tony, was listening as Fury was confronting their prisoner… Loki, was it? The conversation involved things he didn't understand, making it harder for him to follow, thus his boredom. The others were listening closely to what the two talked about. When the conversation ended, another began among the Avengers. Or would've, if Jack hadn't risen from his seat.

"Ye know, I could use a bottle o' rum right about now", he said and stretched his limbs. The others looked at him weirdly, making Jack snort. "What? A man needs 'is daily rum", he said, making the others look somewhat exasperated. Jack just shrugged and wobbled out of the room to go search for a place to get some. However, he was stopped as Tony and agent Coulson came across him on their way to the room he had just left.

"Hey, Jack! Where are you going? The party's about to start", Tony asked, making Jack stop and look at the man for a second.

"To get rum", he answered, making Tony smirk and Coulson stare at him.

"Do you even know where to get some?" Tony asked in amusement, making Jack think. After a while Jack just turned back to the room he had just left and walked in with an amused Tony and Coulson right behind him. Jack sat back on the chair he had just left and put his legs back on the table. Their entrance stopped an argument that had started when Jack had left and Tony started his monologue the moment he entered, forcing the others to listen. Jack, once again, didn't understand everything, making him bored.

When the conversation ended, Tony and Banner left for the lab. Jack rose from his chair again and looked at Fury seriously. The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. met his gaze in expectation.

"Where's th' rum at?" Jack asked, making Fury sigh. The pirate had been useful during the capture of Loki, but the Director sometimes wondered if keeping him around was worth it. Even though Tony had taught Jack about the modern world, Jack still couldn't understand everything, even some of the simplest things.

"Agent Coulson, show Mr. Sparrow where to find rum", he ordered, making the said man nod and walk out of the room with Jack following behind.

"Why do we even keep him around?" Natasha asked Fury, who just sighed.

"We need to figure out how he got to this period of time in the first place and the only way to accomplish that is by keeping him around", Fury answered, making Natasha nod in understanding, before leaving Nick Fury to his thoughts.

"Hey, Coulson, why don' ye have some rum?" Jack asked and took a swig of the rum he now had. Coulson just sighed, before deciding to leave the pirate only to be stopped as Jack fell to the ground from his seat, creating a huge noise. Coulson stared at the pirate on the ground.

"You okay?" he asked with a little concern for some reason but didn't get an answer as a huge explosion went off somewhere on the ship. Alarms started going off around them and red lights started blinking.

Jack just looked around in confusion, but Coulson knew what was going on.

"Coulson?" a voice asked in the said man's earpiece.

"I copy", Coulson replied, already moving towards the armory to get some weapons for himself. Jack followed after the man as he didn't know what else to do.

"Tell Jack to go to the lab to help the others and go to the armory yourself", Fury ordered seriously, before shutting the connection after getting confirmation from the agent.

Coulson turned to look at Jack, who still had the rum, before ordering: "Go to the lab and help anyone in there, got it?" Jack nodded a little hesitantly, but Coulson was already on his way and out of the Captain's line of sight.

"Where's th' lab at?" Jack asked no one and waited for a few seconds, before taking out his compass. The arrow just spun around aimlessly. Jack concentrated on the lab and soon enough, the compass gave him a direction. With a smirk, Jack took one final swig of the rum and threw the bottle away, before starting running towards that direction.

He didn't get far when he saw someone armored with a gun coming towards him in the hallway. The person didn't look like anyone he'd seen during his stay with the S.H.I.E.L.D., so Jack quickly took cover before the person had a chance to notice him. The pirate pressed himself against the wall of the hallway and stayed as still as he could. He watched as the person slowly walked through the hallway, seemingly scanning everything for hostilities. When the person was right next to where Jack was, the pirate held his breath and stared straight at the person. The man scanned the other side of the wall before the side where Jack was on and that's when Jack acted.

Jack drew his sword and shoulder tackled the man, taking him by surprise. He then pressed the tip of his sword to the man's neck while the man was still recovering, taking his pistol from his belt and pointing it at the man. The pirate Captain then grinned in victory.

"Sorry, mate. Yer too slow", Jack said and pulled the trigger of his pistol, only for the bullet to bounce off the man's helmet harmlessly.

Jack stared at the pistol for a second, before taking off towards the way the compass had showed earlier. He heard the man get to his feet behind him and soon enough the man started shooting after Jack, but the pirate was quick enough to get to a crossroad of hallways and slip away.

Jack shut himself in a room he had never seen before and sighed in relief. He smirked in victory again, before sheathing his sword and putting his pistol back to its holster, before turning to face the room. There was a staircase that led to one level further down on the ship. Deciding it was the best shot he had, Jack walked them down, only to come face to face with a big green monster, who roared at Jack.

Jack and the monster stared at each other for awhile, the pirate Captain just about to run, when a voice he recognized called out:

"Sparrow?"

Jack turned to look at the source of the voice and saw Natasha Romanoff lying down on the floor with her legs trapped under a pipe.

"Natasha? What're ye doin' there?" Jack asked with confusion evident in his voice.

He didn't get his answer as the green monster roared again and rushed at the two. Natasha managed to free herself and grabbed Jack by the arm before rushing up the stairs Jack had just descended. However, they were too slow as the monster managed to reach the stairs and break them before they'd fully ascended them. Natasha just about managed to jump to the upper level before then, but Jack decided to play a hero and instead jumped on top of the monster. He brought out his sword and was about to stab the monster, when Natasha stopped him:

"DON'T! IT'S BRUCE!"

Jack looked at her as if she was mental, which gave the monster enough time to throw Jack off his back, making the pirate crash to a wall and land painfully on his arm. Hulk roared and rushed at the fallen pirate, when a bullet landed right next to him. The monster turned to Natasha, who was the one behind the shot. With another roar, Hulk changed direction and rushed after Natasha, who evaded the monster smoothly due to her agility. She then rushed away from the direction where Jack had fallen to lure Hulk away from him.

Natasha ran through a narrow glass hallway, only for the said monster to follow and break right through the hallway. Shards of all kinds were flying around the Black Widow, but she only cared about escaping at that point. However, she wasn't fast enough as the Hulk reached her and smacked her to a wall in a similar way he'd done to Jack moments ago. Natasha crash-landed on the floor and tried to back away from the beast, only for her back to hit a wall. The Hulk smirked when he realized his pray was trapped and raised his hand to finish her, only to be halted by a clicking sound from a safety being taken off a flintlock pistol.

The Hulk turned to look at the source of the sound and saw Jack with his pistol pointed at him. Jack smirked and said one of the lines he had learnt from a movie Tony had forced him to watch back at the Stark Tower:

"Hasta la vista, baby!" Jack pulled the trigger and the bullet soared through the air, before hitting the green monster straight to the head. Much to Jack's surprise, instead of killing the beast, it bounced off harmlessly.

Jack stared at the beast with wide eyes as it approached him, knowing there was no escape. When the Hulk was an arm's length away from him, he let out a roar that made Jack's hat fall off. The Hulk raised his arm to strike the pirate, when the wall next to them broke and something smashed into the monster and sent him flying straight through another wall.

The something turned out to be Thor, who proceeded to follow Hulk through the hole he had made to fight the beast.

Jack stared at the hole the two had made before turning to look at his fallen hat on the floor. He picked it up and wiped the dust off it, before placing it back on his head. Somehow every time he fought monsters his hat managed to fall off.

Then the Captain turned to look at Natasha, who was breathing heavily in exhaustion. He was puzzled by the fact she had stopped him from what in his mind would have been a killing blow.

"Aye, Natasha!" he called out, getting the attention of the woman, "What were ye doin' back there? I had th' chance to take 'im out."

Natasha frowned. "I already told you! It's Bruce. Or, well... It's the Hulk, but you know what I mean."

Jack had no idea and it showed.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Weren't you listening? When Bruce gets angry, he turns into this monster called the Hulk."

Jack smiled awkwardly and scratched his head, making Natasha sigh.

"Men", she muttered and turned to look at the battle between Thor and the Hulk, only to see the two going through the roof.

"What shall we do now?" Jack asked, and Natasha had no answer for that. The answer came in form of Nick Fury, who sent a message to everyone, except Jack, who didn't have an earpiece for some reason.

"It's Barton! He took out our systems! He's heading for the detention! Anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanoff, I copy", Natasha said to the earpiece and got up to go and stop Barton, only for Jack to call out:

"Where ye goin'?"

Natasha sighed, knowing she'd have to take the pirate with her. He had shown his usefulness against the Hulk, though.

"Let's go, we have invaders to stop", she said and rushed towards the detention level with Jack in tow.

The two arrived at the detention level and Natasha almost instantly noticed Barton, who was walking to the same direction they were. Natasha walked after him and when she reached him, Barton turned around and fired an arrow, only for Natasha to grab the bow and make the arrow go past her. The two then proceeded to engage in combat while Jack watched their agile moves, seemingly impressed. He just stared at the two for a few seconds, before realizing he had to help Natasha.

He sneaked near the two and looked for an opening for him to attack. When the two pulled knives, Jack rushed at Barton in hopes of catching him off guard. When he was only inches away, the man turned towards him and brought his knife to stab Jack with it, only for Jack to draw his sword and block the attack. Jack quickly countered and hit Barton's face with his elbow, only for Barton to lean backwards. Natasha quickly took advantage of the situation and took a hold of Barton's arm that was holding the knife. She twisted it to make him drop his knife. Barton swept Natasha's legs, making her fall, before punching Jack in the face, only for the pirate to duck under it and slash at the man with his sword. The sword cut through the fabric of Barton's armored vest but dealt no damage to Barton. Jack frowned in confusion which earned him a punch to the face, making the pirate drop his sword. Jack fell to the ground and Barton went for the sword, only for Natasha to grab him from behind and deal a swift strike to the back of his head. Barton was knocked-out cold.

Jack felt his nose and to his delight it wasn't broken, even with the flow of blood it was producing. Jack saw the fallen Barton and swiftly grabbed his sword and leaped to his feet, before proceeding to stab the man, only for Natasha to grab his sword arm, making him look at her.

"No, Sparrow. He's a friend", she said, making Jack once again look at her as if she was mental.

"What? The lad attacked us, savvy?" Jack asked, confused, making Natasha roll her eyes. Great, the pirate hadn't listened at all.

"You weren't listening, I take it? He wasn't himself just now. He was being controlled by Loki", she explained, making Jack frown.

"But-"

"No buts, I'm not letting you kill him. Understand?" she basically ordered, making Jack furrow his brows. She held her intense gaze and Jack finally gave up.

"Fine, but it's yer idea", he said and sat on a rail, "And it's Captain to y-", he continued, only for the rail to not be able to hold the weight after the beating it took, making Jack fall with a scream.

Natasha stared at the spot where the pirate was a moment ago, before letting out a slight chuckle. Then she remembered Barton and in alarm turned towards the spot where the man had been a moment earlier, only to sigh in relief as the man hadn't moved from the spot.

Jack grumbled as he got up from the ground and wiped the dust off his hat for what felt like a millionth time, before placing it back on his head as it had fallen off. He climbed up to where he fell down from and sat down next to Natasha, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Natash-", he started, only for the Black Widow to silence him with a raised hand.

It didn't take long before someone came and took the knocked out Barton away. The person asked Jack if he needed any medical attention, only to receive a negative response, with Jack saying he could tend to his own wounds.

The battle of the Helicarrier had ended.