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America, the Colonies?
Chapter 8: The One-Above-All
In one of the deserted skyscrapers in New York, a man was watching as the Avengers assembled for the first time and fought against the invading forces of the attacking alien race. One member of the team, a pirate from the 18th century, was what he was mostly focused on.
Captain Jack Sparrow.
The man watched the raging battle for a few moments longer, before vanishing into the wind.
Jack wasn't having a fun time. He had reluctantly agreed to Steve's plan, which saw the pirate fighting with the Captain and Natasha against the Chitauris on the ground. At first, it had seemed like something that would be bearable, but now... not so much.
Jack dodged another plasma attack from the Chitauris by jumping behind a car. He carefully peeked from his cover to see five Chitauris advancing towards his position. Now, if he had been in this situation in his own time, Jack would have probably bailed. But, this time people were depending on him. Swallowing his nerves, he sprung to action.
He ran from his cover, surprising the Chitauris as he aimed with his new pistols and fired at the aliens, who were now preparing to engage him. Two of them fell to his bullets, before he leaped behind another cover just as the remaining three fired at him again. Jack took a few deep breaths, before aiming and firing at the Chitauris from behind the cover, this time managing to get two more. One more remained.
Jack grinned as he took aim, not really alarmed as the alien jumped towards him. The grin disappeared, though, as when he pulled the trigger, the only thing that happened was an empty "click" sound. He'd ran out of ammo. With the Chitauri advancing at fast pace, the Captain was left with little to no time to dodge as he rolled out of the way in the nick of time. With no time to reload, Jack drew his new sword and pointed it at the alien, who screeched at him, before dashing towards him, holding his gun like a club. The alien swung down and Jack parried it with his sword, sparks flying from the connection. The Chitauri was clearly stronger than him, so the pirate broke the stalemate by rolling to left, managing to take his enemy by surprise. Before the alien recovered, Jack stabbed the katana through the Chitauri's side, eliciting a pained cry from the alien. Jack pulled the sword from the dying alien, before kicking the said Chitauri to the ground as it took its final breath.
Jack wiped the sweat that had formed on his brow and sighed in relief; it had been more difficult than expected. He then looked at his sword that was covered in an odd substance that was evidently the creature's blood. Frowning in disgust, Jack grabbed a piece of cloth from his pocket and wiped the sword clean, before throwing the cloth away.
Suddenly, he heard an explosion and looked up to a building just in time to see Captain America dropping on a car from the explosion. Jack looked at the man oddly, before making his way to him.
"Need some help, Captain?" Jack asked in jest with a grin, getting a groan from the man.
"This isn't a good time for this", Steve replied, lifting himself from the car and looking at the carnage around them. There were firemen helping civilians evacuate all around them among the destroyed buildings.
Jack stayed silent, deciding to use the time to reload his pistols.
Steve then looked at him. "Come on, let's keep going", he said, picking up his shield and flexing his muscles.
Jack nodded in response, before spinning his pistols between his fingers, only for them to drop to the floor. Steve stared at him, as he just frowned.
"I saw it in a movie", Jack said in disappointment, before picking the fallen guns up as Steve just sighed tiredly, shaking his head.
The two of them were then joined by Thor and they fought the Chitauris together. Not long after that, Tony Stark informed them of a missile that was heading for New York.
Once more, Jack was left confused from what the others were talking about, so he just focused on the Chitauris still attacking them. As such, he was able to see one of them aiming at Captain America with its weapon. With Steve distracted and no time to warn him, Jack dashed towards the man just as the plasma ammo was fired. Just before it hit Steve, Jack pushed him out of the way and took the hit. The others looked on in surprise as Jack flew through the air and connected with the street a small distance away from them.
"JACK!" Steve shouted, but Jack couldn't hear anything as he had fallen unconscious.
Jack found himself in an empty dark room with no apparent way of leaving. He looked around him, not able to comprehend what had occurred.
"Captain Jack Sparrow. We finally meet", an unknown voice said from apparently nowhere, as a man appeared before the pirate, startling him.
"What sorcery is this?" Jack asked in alarm, taking a step back from the man.
Ignoring the question, the man continued: "You, aren't supposed to be here. I don't know how, but somehow you have managed to slip into this universe from a universe previously unknown to me..." The man then saw the confused expression on Jack's face and sighed. "...You have no idea what I'm saying, do you? Of course not, your universe is so far behind..."
The man collected his thoughts, before speaking again: "I am the one who watches over the multiverse, a collection of worlds. A God if you will."
Jack looked taken aback by this: "Yer th' God?"
"Yes. But for some reason, I didn't know your world", the man said, simplifying things for Jack to understand, "You know you aren't from this world, but not why you're here."
"Ye know why I'm here?"
"Yes, or rather how you got here. From what I understand, when you fell over your world's end, it opened a door to this world and took you here. However, as this world doesn't have an end and there is no other connection to your world from here, I can't take you back."
Jack seemed to understand. "So, I can't return to my world?"
The man nodded. "I'll look into it, but for now, you'll need to stay here. It's time for you to wake up. Your friends are worried."
Before Jack could say anything else, the empty room disappeared.
Jack opened his eyes to see Steve, Thor and Hulk looking at him. Groaning as he felt the pain on his side, Jack sat up from the ground.
"How are you feeling?" Steve asked, offering a hand for Jack to take, which he did. Steve then pulled Jack to his feet.
"Not good", Jack replied, hissing as he felt a strike of pain again.
Steve then returned to communicating with Natasha and Tony, the latter of which had reached the missile. The group watched as the Iron Man redirected the missile to the portal and disappeared from view. They waited in tense silence as the missile impacted with the main Chitauri ship.
When Jack saw it, he finally realized how outmatched he really was in this world.
"Shut it down", Steve said sadly, as Tony had yet to fall through the portal again.
Just as the portal closed, they saw Tony falling through it.
"Son of a guy", Steve commented in relief, while Thor looked on in worry.
"He's not slowing down", Thor commented, starting to spin his hammer.
Just then, Hulk grabbed the falling Iron Man and brought him down to the ground where Steve removed the man's helmet. The four of them looked down at the man like they had at Jack previously.
Jack felt sadness as he saw the person who had introduced him to the new things in this world lying motionless. It felt like he had lost a good crew member. A friend.
The Hulk then roared, and Tony woke up with a start.
"What the hell? What just happened?" Tony asked, before adding: "Please tell me nobody kissed me."
"We won", Steve told him, getting a relieved sigh from Tony.
"Alright, hey hurray, good job guys. Let's not come in tomorrow, let's just take a day", Tony jokingly celebrated.
While this was happening, Jack was deep in thought, thinking about what the man had told him earlier. He could possibly go back to his own world, like he'd wanted in the beginning. But now, he wasn't sure if he wanted to anymore. He had friends here now and for all he knew everyone back home though him dead...
After that, they went to Stark tower, where Loki was located at. The God of Deception had managed to drag himself some distance from where Hulk had smashed him but seemed to be in too bad a shape to escape.
Following the capture, The Avengers, as they were called now, took Loki and the Tesseract and let Thor take them back to Asgard. They all were there to see him go.
Just before leaving, Thor looked at Jack. "You know, your time travelling interests us Asgardians, so you could come with me. I'm sure you'd like to know more about the reasons behind it", Thor offered, making everyone look at Jack.
Jack on the other hand, wasn't of the same mind. He still didn't know whether he wanted to stay or not, and the man from earlier, God, had offered to look into the matter. So, he'd rather stay on Earth for the remaining time he had here before leaving.
"No thanks. I'd rather stay here for now", he said, getting an understanding look and a nod from Thor.
"I understand, Earth is a beautiful place, and your home. Till we meet again, Captain", Thor said as a farewell, before looking at the rest of the Avengers for one final time and ordering for the Bifrost to be activated.
When Thor was gone, Natasha looked at Jack. "Why didn't you go with him? Surely, you'll have easier time figuring this all out with the help of Asgardian technology", she asked, getting a smirk from Jack.
"Nah, I'd rather stay 'ere with ye lot. Besides, what's the 'urry anyway?" he replied, getting a smile in return from Natasha.
"Are you coming with us, Captain?" Tony asked him, gesturing to him and Barton, getting a shake of head from the pirate.
It was Natasha who replied: "S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to keep him close to monitor him. They want to find out more about the time travelling."
Tony nodded, before shaking Jack's hand. "I'll see you later then, Captain." He then turned to Steve, before nodding: "Captain."
Jack followed Natasha and Clint to their S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle.
The Avengers had scattered.
In another world, a group of people sat in a small shack in Cuba. The group consisted of those who once were part of the crew on the legendary ship Black Pearl. They had come to mourn their fallen Captain.
"If there was anything to be done to bring him back", William Turner said as a reassurance to Elizabeth.
"Would you do it?" Tia Dalma cut in, looking at the crew in her shack.
The answer was clear.