Chapter Six
Vivian hadn't slept well in the new apartment, nothing serious she was eager to carry on the research with the pod, they hadn't got very far they'd hit a wall when the pod closed itself and nothing they did would reopen it.
Steve seemed to be acting as their personal chauffer to the Helicarrier not that Alice seemed to mind too much, upon reaching the SHIELD base, Alice was instructed to visit the med to check on her stitches and Steve followed Vivian in silence.
Steve was brave enough to break the ice
"So can I ask you a question?"
"Depends what" Vivian replied curtly,
"About before you met Alice."
"It's none of your business" she answered using her own key card to open the lab doors, to an empty room "Where's Dr Banner and Stark?" she asked figuring they would be here well before she was,
"Fury wanted to see them" Steve watched Vivian put her glasses on and looked at yesterday's notes while leaning on the pod "Alice said you had stolen money from someone...why?" Vivian kept her back to the Captain and blatantly ignored him, so he thought he'd ask a different question "You're British? Is England nice?"
This just tipped Vivian over the edge; she turned round still leaning on the pod "Why do you even want to know?"
Steve could tell she was a little angry
"I just wanted to get to know you if we're going to be working together"
"I don't want to get to know you Mr Rodgers. My past stays where its suppose to, in the PAST!" she snapped slamming her hand onto the pods metal shell, it flashed brightly as steam gushed out and Vivian vanished into the pod and it snapped shut behind her 'O shit' the interior of the pod was oddly cushioned on one side acting like a chair, the other lit up as several screens opened showing all different kinds of data, "HEY CAP YOU STILL YOU THERE?" she shouted at the top of her lungs, there was a muffled yes from the other side "GO GET DR BANNER OR STARK!" she ordered, calmly looking through the data before her and scribbling parts down on the back of the yesterdays work. "Who says losing my temper isn't a good thing?" looking at what Vivian assumed was a control panel saw several buttons all of the same colour and its human instinct 'if there is a button you don't know what it does you press it' and so she did pressing the first button on the small panel
An automatic voice spoke to her "activating thrusters"
"Thrusters? O dear" the whole thing shook violently as she felt the pod lift off the ground and straight into the ceiling with a thud then gravity kicked it and brought it back down with an even louder crack, the pod had rolled backwards on its way back down leaving poor Vivian dazed and upside down in a very uncomfortable position.
The sound of knocking on the pod brought her too "can you hear me? Are you alright?" Dr Banner asked
"YES" Vivian responded slowly and loudly "the bloods ran to my head though"
"What did you do?"
"Pressed a button"
"When can you not cause trouble?" Tony shouted at her,
"Shut up you fat flatulent git" she cursed back trying to scramble right way up, groaning as she checked her trusty tablet was intact.
CLANK; CLANK; BANG; BANG
it sounded like someone was trying to play the drums on the pod and the noise just resonated through the pod,
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
"Payback's a bitch and so am I!"
"ALICE!" Vivian found a lose wire under the control panel and plugged it into her tablet, scrolling through pages of data till she found was she looking for, " Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code " she hummed "Will all bystanders please step away from the space pod as it might explode"
More banging sounded from the outside
"Are you mad?" That was Cap, panicking about everything,
"We're all a little mad" she stated wisely "exploration, experimentation, exclamation, detonation" she covered her ears as the hatch to the pod flew upwards towards the ceiling, it clattered loudly more so for Vivian since she was still in the pod when the door hit the pod and ricocheted off onto the floor, "I COME IN PEACE!" she announced loudly emerging from the pod slightly dusty of the smoke.
As soon as I heard Vivian had gotten herself trapped in the pod I saw my opportunity for payback,
"Out of the way please y'all I can get her out." I picked up a large metal pipe that had become dislodged from somewhere when Vivian did the inevitable and pushed a button and hit the side of the pod so hard that it and the pipe vibrated,
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Came the distinctly British voice from inside the pod
"Payback's a bitch and so am I!" I explained hitting the pod a few more times for good measure
"ALICE!"
"How is this supposed to get her out?" Stark asked
"Simple she'll get so annoyed by the sound she'll try her very best to get out of there so she can strangle me" I explained
"Will all bystanders please step away from the space pod as it might explode"
"Are you mad?" Steve said
"We're all a little mad" Vivian said from inside the pod "exploration, experimentation, exclamation, detonation" next thing any of us knew was that the pod flew upwards towards the ceiling, it clattered loudly more so for Vivian I guessed since she was still in the pod when the door hit the pod and ricocheted off onto the floor, "I COME IN PEACE!" she announced loudly emerging from the pod slightly dusty from the smoke,
"So how many buttons did you press to get yourself out?" I asked
"A few but found a wire and hooked it up to my tablet and that's how I got out"
Stark, Steve and Dr Banner all looked at Vivian like she was mad, "uh huh well try not to break anything kay?" I said dropping my pipe and heading out of the lab. Pods from outer space weren't really my thing
"Like you say I make no promises" Vivian smiled
"Right well I think I'm gonna go see what our glorious leader knows about our visitor from outside space. Boys" I nodded curtly to Stark and Banner as I left the lab with Steve on my heels. I had the feeling Fury had told him to keep an eye on me because Viv was preoccupied with the pod I was still a bit of a liability.
I found Director Fury in his usual post surveying all around him with the aide of his screens,
"Miss Winters. What can I do for you today?"
"I need to know all you know about Apocalypse"
"I don't know much more than you" Fury said
"Well that's a big ol lie right there. For one I'd never heard of him before y'all told me so I'm willing to bet that y'all know a hell of a lot more than you're tellin mel" I said resoloutely crossing my arms over my chest
"This is why we brought you in" Fury said
"Cause I'm stubborn?"
"Because you don't back down. From the data we've collected so far and the information we already had all we know at this point is his end game. The complete enslavement of the human race"
"Yeah that's not happening" I laughed, "so how does he plan on enslaving us all"
"He takes four people of promenance and brainwashes them into his 'horsemen' and uses them to enslave or destroy humanity"
"Right well then we should probably find out who he'll go after and try to save them or something. I'm new at this 'super best friends' crap so you're gonna have to point me in the right direction here"
"No you've pretty much got it down pat. We need to find out who he'll go after and try our best to prevent his end game"
"Right well call me when you have something. In the mean time I'm going gun shopping. You coming with?" I asked Steve
"Um sure"
"Quick question. If I have one of those ID badges can I skip the three day waiting period for guns?" I asked Fury, "You know since you're the government and all"
"Unfortunately not" Fury said
"Damn what's the point of being the goverment if you can't get a gun without having to wait" I mumbled leaving the room, "Right then now to find where I can get guns illegally"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Steve said
"Of course I'm sure!" I said making my way through the base, "And since you're native you can show me all the rough places with illegal arms trades!" I said happily linking arms with Steve and dragging him out with me.
After being freed from the pod Vivian had been lectured how the boring rules of 'Health and safety' and now sat on top of the pod her legs dangling through the hatch, several screens in front of her as well as her tablet on her lap,
"It's getting late your friends already gone home"
Vivian looked up Dr Banner then back down at the clock on her tablet "o its later than I thought...o well I'll go when I've finished this"
Dr Banner inspected some of her notes on the desk, one of which was a bible "I didn't peg you as the religious type"
Vivian minimized one of the screens so she could see him "I'm not, I just remember the story of the Apocalypse from the bible "so I'd assume he's going to find his horsemen and bring round the apocalypse."
Banner leafed through a long list of names "What's this list of names?"
"Ah! I forgot about those. I should really take them to Fury. I found a file containing a lot of profiles of people on earth in the pods memory, I have a feeling Apocalypse might try and recruit them"
The doctor was impressed how diligently the young girl worked despite all the trouble and fire that followed her,
"I can take for you; I know you're not in Fury's good books."
Her face lit up
"Thank you, that's a big help. I don't do well with authority figures" she laughed,
"I've noticed" he chuckled back, "try not to stay up to late" he advised leaving her to her work.
"Access denied"
"I beg your pardon" Vivian frowned at the computer
"Access denied"
"oh bloody" she cursed, clambering back into the pod "All this modern technology and they still have reset buttons, now it should be behind this chair" Vivian tried to pry the curved chair off the pod but it didn't budge, a small red lever at the side of the chair with the words 'eicio eiectum' on the top, "What the does that mean? One way to find out" she pushed the lever down raising the chair a little and steam started to raise from underneath "O dear." Vivian clambered out of the pod rather quickly as the chair was launched out of the pod and into the ceiling, a parachute flared out of the back and it hit the floor with a loud bang "Three dints in the ceiling in one day. I have to stop wreaking the place" peering back into the pod just to make sure it was safe before climbing back in to rewire the whole device so she could access all the files and see if the systems could locate Apocalypse. This was going to be a long night.