Short but necessary. One week in and I'm already swimming in exams. :) Don't worry, I know plot stuff is boring, so I promise one Avenger will return next chapter with cameos from at least two two other (including one Sargent Barnes)!
The sea breeze was too contaminated with water for my taste. It sprayed up from the boat I rode in, the one a cranky old fishing geezer had reluctantly rented out to Hugh after the displaying of a pouch stocked with coinage that may or may not have been swiped from a local retail shop that looked like they could hardly spare it. Hugh, however, was not in a mood to care. He was in no mood at all from what I could tell. He kept muttering nonsense under his breath, fidgeting every so often like he might take a swing at me, though I was the one leading us to what remained of his family.
"Little father daughter fishing trip?" the fisherman who had identified himself as Fernando asked.
"Sure," I muttered, eyes fixed on the steady horizon.
"I've got two girls myself. Right joys they are. I was out fishing all night with not a bite. Promised them I'd be back at sunrise so I could see them off to school…but helping you folks out is just as important. I can't believe your mom is stranded all the way out here."
Hugh had basically strong-armed this man into taking us out on the too still water and here he was completely unphased by the unstable monster of a man he had accepted onto his vessel.
The whole conversation flew clear over Hugh's head because the man not only spoke in Spanish, but with an accent so thick even I stumbled over a few words. Hugh threw a glance in my direction, helpless confusion scrunching his freckled features into one big glob. "How much longer, do you think?" He asked in a small voice that reminded me too much of a child. I did not answer him, because if I did, if I thought too hard about his motives and not his means, then I might just feel a shard of pity for the pitiful excuse for a human. And shards of glass tended to cut deeper and more unseen than their more intimidating counterparts.
"I don't remember that dingy," Fernando commented. It was a stark black against a horizon of melodramatic blues as opposed to the typical red buoys boasted.
Hugh was on the feet, pitching the boat so far towards my side that we took on a sip of water. Fernando barked at him with words that had me grimacing from second-hand embarrassment. "Joy?" Hugh spoke aloud. He whipped to face me. "I heard her. She's here. You were right!"
He was hugging me, lifting me clear off the ground and grinning so wide it threatened to split his face into two equally disturbing halves. With begrudging finality, I was set down and Hugh spun in a circle to orient himself. "I have to go get her. I…Where is she? It should be right here."
I paused, breathing in the sharp ocean air, tracing the peculiar pockets of pure air to their source—the buoy. I could trace the vents down, down, all the fucking way down hundreds of feet below us to where they ended in a big open space that could only be The Raft. "I'll go," I muttered, reaching to anchor us to the dingy with my hand as we drifted by.
"I need to see her," Hugh argued.
"You will. I can get her out without raising alarms or killing anyone, though. So, you and Fernando keep each other company and I'll be right back."
Fernando perked up at his name and I translated the major points to him. He smiled, patting Hugh between the shoulders with a friendly manner that made the mammoth of a man relax if only by a hair.
I manipulated the air around the opening, pushing against the lever that had the hidden door giving way and granting me entrance. I swung from the boat, landing on the solid metal floor with a thud. Fernando had begun praying and Hugh was bouncing his legs anxiously.
It was unsettling how quiet the compound was. No alarms, no activity, no inmates demanding TV or food. My hand pressed the descent button and the roof was sealed, cutting off my access to immediate clean air. A swallow banished the panic successfully to my stomach as the floor literally dropped out, taking me along with it. My ears popped at least three times before doors swooshed open, leading into a control room. Full of sleeping people?
The laser form a gun met her chest and she followed it back to the one person still standing. Menzel was in a blue jumpsuit with her golden hair sheered and feet bare. Her eyes jumped about like a dazed animal, fingers itching to put someone else down.
"How did you open that door?" Menzel demanded.
"I pressed the button? How did you get out? I thought this place was supposed to neutralize your abilities."
"Earth technology can only control me for so long."
"Seems the door stumped you. How long have you been free?"
"An hour. A few days. There's no bloody way to tell. I don't know how Rogers did this the first time the damned door only opens from the outside."
"Maybe he propped it open. Guy is resourceful. Anywho, your husband has gone absolutely ape shit crazy and dragged me out here to save you. Consider yourself saved, by the way. He's also gotten me stabbed and shot and done both to the Avengers who I only just made nice with. Then he kidnapped me, twice. So, I've decided I like you better than him."
Her gun hit the floor, firing off at the far wall. She did not even flinch as it ricocheted about the room. Exhaustion already drained her youthful features, but now something new set in, something I recognized because it had been drowning me these past few days. "Hugh is loose?" she whispered through a tight voice.
"Loose as in he was caged? I mean that's smart and all, but isn't he your husband?"
"My husband is dead. That thing is what I created in trying to bring him back. What I created before you. You were me trying to make modifications to the formula. When that still did not stabilize him, I began working on another. Something to return him to his state of peace."
"You mean something to un-zombie him. Were you going to use it on me as well?"
"Yes. And I needed your blood to create it. If there was equipment I would seal us in here. I would fashion it right now so that the earth was not punished with another day of him. But I have nothing I need, except you."
"So sweet. How about a deal?"
Her head lulled without amusement.
"I hold this door open long enough for you to get out. You put down crazy pants and let me continue on."
"You're a threat. My responsibility."
"I've got a handle on it," I snapped.
"I will evaluate the situation later. After we deal with the monster. Right now we must go placate him."
"And then what?"
"And then you get to go home."
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