-August, 1944-
"Guys this is Captain Jack Fury and Johnny Lightfoot." Introduces Steve as a middle age black man and a younger white man in aviator clothes walks up to the howling commandoes.
The two pilots begin to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Eddie asks in confusion.
Jack smiles at Steve, "Truth is Captain America, you outrank us. I'm a flying officer, and Johnny Lightfoot here, I don't know, the stork dropped him about a week ago."
Bucky smirks, "So when Cap, called you Captain Fury…"
Johnny Lightfoot shrugs, "Well we like a chuckle."
"How you do?" greets Monty.
Jack shakes Monty's hand before Jack is almost knock off his feet as Dugan slaps his back.
"What's the plan Cap?" asks Jones.
Cap gets everyone's attention, "Intel got word that Hydra has built the final components of a super weapon trekking through Russia."
"Isn't it colder than hell there now?" Morita says rubbing his shoulders. This gets the members laughing.
"Afraid of a bit snow, Morita?" teases Bucky.
"I grew up in California, anything lower than 70 degrees is freezing." Morita tosses back.
"Hell yeah another Californian." Cheers Lightfoot making Jack Fury roll his eyes.
"Yes, it's cold but I rather be cold for a few days than in a world owned by the Red Skull."
"Oorah!" shouts the howling commandos in agreement.
"Lieutenant Fury and his co-pilot…"
"Sergeant." Speaks up Lightfoot making the others laugh.
"Sergeant Lightfoot." Corrects Steve, "are going to be our fastest way there."
The plane shudders making Eddie almost trip as he makes his way to the cockpit.
"How is everything?" Eddie asks Fury and Lightfoot.
"We're all good private Kent." Says Lightfoot seriously.
Jack looks back seeing Eddie and asks, "Do you mind reaching into my coat pocket?" Eddie was surprised by the request but begins to go through the pockets and stops as he pulls out trading cards.
"These?" Eddie asks.
"Yeah do you think you can get Captain America to sign them?" Jack asks in embarrassment before explaining, "I have a son back home, and he won't believe I got to fly Captain America into battle." This makes Eddie smile.
"You got kids, Lightfoot?" Eddie turns to the co-pilot.
Lightfoot smiles as he's about to speak but Jack interrupts him, "Lightfoot here is the kid."
This makes Jack and Eddie laugh out, as Lightfoot pouts at Jack. "I'll have you know I got a letter that my wife just gave birth to a little girl who we named after her aunt, Margarita."
"Congrats." Eddie says patting the man on his shoulder.
"What about you, Kent?" Lightfoot tosses the question back at Eddie.
"None now, but I'm really interested in this girl, Lorraine." Eddie says sheepishly; having never really thought about kids.
"You better put a ring on it as soon as you can." Teases Jack, "before someone else does."
"Sure." Eddie says as he skims the cards, all the cards look like drawings of Steve, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos from the comics. Eddie frowns.
"Serious kid." Jack continues. "Not saying your girls gonna run off on ya, but we're never guaranteed tomorrow."
"Copy that." Agrees Lightfoot.
Eddie licked his lips. So far no one on the Howling Commandos were killed, the worst thing to happen was Monty caught near a grenade. Luckily, he was only out of action for a month but it could've been the end for him.
"How come there's not one of me?" Eddie questions changing the subject. Which only makes Jack and Lightfoot laugh though Jack seems more sheepish.
"There doesn't seem to be one of you." Admits Jack only making Eddie frown.
Eddie sighs, "Alright I'll head back and get these signed."
"Thanks Blue Eyes." Jack says sincerely; surprising when Eddie groans at the dumb nickname given by Bucky seems to have spread far and wide.
Eddie heads back thinking, 'The comics depict Captain America having a teen sidekick named Bucky because that sure as hell sounds better than Captain America and Blue Eyes.'
"Hey guys, I was hoping you could sign some trading cards." Eddie says to the Howling Commandos. Dum Dum Dugan surprises everyone when he excitedly grabs his card.
"These are pretty cool." Remarks Jones scanning his card.
"Oui." Agrees Frenchie pulling out a pen from his many pouches and passes it along.
"So guys I've been thinking." Eddie begins.
"Oh no." groans Monty with a smile.
Eddie pushes on, "Well that terrible name Blue Eyes," Eddie glares at Bucky. "So I've been working on some better names…"
Eddie waits for a beat trying to build anticipation.
"Call me Marvel Man."
"I like it." Begins Morita which makes Eddie smile, "Marvel Boy." Eddie's smile dissipates.
"Marvel Boy." Nods Frenchie as if tasting how it sounds.
"No guys…" Eddies tries to get the guys to accept his original idea, but they were having too much fun with it.
Captain America places a calming hand on Eddie's shoulder, "Sorry Marvel Boy." Eddie groans but smiles through it. 'At least it's better than Blue Eyes.'
Eddie didn't have long to sulk as the plane suddenly tilts to the left, knocking the commandos into the adjacent wall.
"What the hell." Growls Dugan as he tries to push himself off the wall.
"We're under attack!" shouts Jack from the front as he struggles with the controls, "Some type of UFO!"
Cap climbs to the nearest window to peer out and growls after confirmation, "That's no UFO but a Hydra plane." Eddie and Jones peer out the same window seeing a large black plane descend from the clouds firing blue bolts.
One of the blue bolts
Cap orders, "Morita hit the release." Morita reaches out for the red button barely tapping it. The planes hanger doors come sliding open just as the plane rocks forward before suddenly jerking back. Cap uses the momentum to launch himself out.
"Hang on!" screams Jack as the plane drops in altitude. Eddie grabs Dugan who catches Bucky which leads to a long chain of interlocking commandos holding each other for dear life. Eddie peeks out the window catching Captain America using his shield to cut through the Hydra plane. 'Cool' Eddie thinks before his world goes blue!
Eddie opens his eyes to Bucky nudging him awake, "Hey get up."
"What happened?" Eddie groans rubbing his sore back.
"We crashed." Bucky says nodding to the broken plane. Eddie looks around. Dum Dum Dugan searches for his bowler hat.
"Monty, Morita and Frenchie?" Eddie asks noticing their absence.
"They went to scout the area for any Hydra Soldiers." Bucky explains picking Eddie up. "We were lucky that we didn't get hurt. Hell, we all woke up a couple yards from the plane."
"I guess were lucky." Eddie says getting up.
Eddie stops in thought as he sees Jones and Cap surround a crying Jack. Eddie and Bucky get closer, seeing Jack holding a bloody body.
"Lightfoot?" Eddie asks.
Jack looks up his eyes red with tears, "He's…gone."
"I'm sorry for your loss, Jack." Apologizes Cap.
"What do we do now, Cap?" Eddie asks as the team finishes setting up camp.
Steve pulls off his mask, as he sits down on a stump looking a bit loss, "I'm not too sure." Eddie looks over to see that Frenchie and Morita were doing their best to console Jack.
Eddie sat down next to Steve. Steve stared at the cowl. Jack walked over to the two men with Bucky in tow.
"Captain America." Said Jack his voice attempting composure.
Steve got up his face apologetic. "Jack I wanted to say…"
"I want to join your howling commandos." Jack interrupted. Steve's face contorts into surprise, as Bucky placed an encouraging hand on Jack's shoulders.
"But…" began Steve.
"Please, cap, I-I want to help take down those Hydra bastards." Jack insisted.
Steve nodded his head. "It would be an honor to have you join us." The two men shook hands.
"Welcome to the Commandos." Grins Bucky as he slung his arm around Jack's shoulders, "Flying officer Jack Fury." This got the other commandos to shout in cheer, as Bucky pushed the new member back to the fire. Dum Dum Dugan offers Jack a drink from his exclusive flask.
"Well I guess that ended a bit better" Eddie said as he turned to Steve, "right?"
"Yeah, it did." Said Steve as he wore the cowl again, and moved to be with his soldiers. Eddie looked up into the sky relieved that not everything went to hell.
"Impossible." Says Red Skull as he looks over the data again.
"Its true Herr Skull." Says Valdo as he hands over a grainy black and white picture for his leader to pore over.
"They must have learned to harness the energy like we have." Offers Zola putting down his own copy of the information.
"nein." Argues a woman from the shadows stepping into the light, "The fool Howard and his other monkeys are nowhere close to harnessing the power of the tesseract."
"Then how would you explain this?" demands Zola as he stepped in confrontation to the woman.
The woman did not back down as she met Zola's outraged eyes, "I am not the scientist, Herr Zola, you are."
This captured Red Skull's attention as he turned toward his head scientist, "Explain this Zola!"
Zola's anger bows before Red Skull's own fury. "It is not possible for anything smaller than a tank to release the amount of energy found in this plane." Zola stutters.
Red Skull eyes burn through the picture, "and yet here it is in front of our faces, being used by the red white and blue clown!"
"I don't think they know about this either." Says the woman. Red Skull's mouth agapes for a yell, as his hands inch for his gun.
"I believe this energy comes from a person like me, Herr Skull." Offers Valdo.
Red Skull narrows his eyes, "No mortal could harness this."
"Yet they have." Valdo said.
"I want them." Red Skull growls staring at the picture.