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CHAPTER TWO
Captain America
Author's Note: Events in this chapter occur prior to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
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The Avengers landed in the center of the quarry halfway up the east side of Mont Cabot, last peak of the Pyrenees on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula, now a base of operations for Couer du Lion. After four days of false alarms from their security systems — compliments of some electronic trickery, a few localized electromagnetic pulses, and a couple of close passes by private jets chartered for the operation — response times at the mercenary enclave were abysmal. None of the five large tunnels cut into the semicircular wall of the open-air excavation were open; not the loading dock on the north side, not the sliding hangar-size doors on the south and southwest, not the swinging blast doors on the west and northwest.
Three of Earth's mightiest heroes hit the ground wearing High Altitude Low Opening parachutes. Black Widow and Hawkeye shed their harnesses quickly, ran for the loading dock where standard double fire doors and a roll-up garage door might grant easy access to the base interior. Captain America gathered up all three chutes, rolled them into a tight bundle he tossed under a piece of digging equipment left out for show. Hawkeye fired two acid arrows, took out the hinges on one of the fire doors. Black Widow used a magnetic grapple to wrench it open, slipped inside — a trio of red flashes indicated she'd knocked out three people with her wrist-mounted "widow's bites". Hawkeye removed the grapple, squeezed through the gap, used the magnet to pull the door back into place. Captain America tapped his earpiece twice, initiating Phase Two, when alarm klaxons sounded and yellow emergency lights flashed in the early morning sun.
Iron Man and Thor made twin three-point landings just as perimeter weapon emplacements stirred to life, both sliding hangar doors began to open, and one of the blast doors began to swing outward. Thor spun Mjolnir, prepared to strike. Iron Man's armor whined as more systems came online.
Black Widow addressed the team on comms, audible only in their earpieces. "This is worse than we thought. The computer logs over four hundred combat troops, two hundred support personnel, and serious next-generation weaponry."
"And a damn platoon mustering in the loading dock," Hawkeye muttered. Smart sound technology automatically adjusted the volume of everyone's voice so even whispers could be heard, but shouts didn't deafen.
Captain America started walking north. "I'm calling a Code Green. Code Green. Hawkeye, are you exposed?"
"No. Got to the rafters before they came in. But I wouldn't mind an assist."
Captain America heard a bestial roar, maybe half a mile away and approaching fast, over the sudden din as Thor and Iron Man engaged the mercenary forces in the quarry. "I've got this."
Iron Man, ever the wit, spared enough concentration to ask, "How have you got this?"
"I don't know." He jumped five feet up onto the loading dock ramp, stopped in front of the still closed garage door. "Maybe I'll try Thor's thing."
"Thor's… thing? Thor has a thing? What thing? Why don't I know about Thor's thing?" He only stopped when flying tactical drones poured out of the southwest hangar door, catching his highly… adaptable… attention.
Captain America kicked the large door, not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to make it shake on its rails, get the attention of those inside. Ten seconds later it rolled up fast to reveal five rows of eight troopers behind a pair of officers. Forty soldats leveled a variety of weapons — most of them unfamiliar — at him. The two men in front fumbled a bit drawing more conventional pistols, but only one of them had the good sense to step out of the way of the heavily armed platoon behind them. Captain America assumed that was the lieutenant, which made the damn fool standing in his own men's line of fire the commandant. Confirmed when he barked out, "SURRENDER!"
He couldn't help but give the commandant an exasperated look. "You may have enough hired troops and fancy hardware in this mountain to take over a small country—"
Black Widow chimed in, "A small country with a token military that's half ceremonial guard."
"And half civic works department," Hawkeye agreed, all still on their team comms.
"—but this small country found out what you're doing up here." It was true. For a small nation without much in the way of a military, its domestic intelligence service was top notch. "The parliament is a little slow to act, but the king is smart enough to ask for assistance."
"And wise enough to ask for ours," Thor boasted through the earpieces, although there really wasn't much of a choice in the matter. Military intervention from either bordering nation would negate the country's independence, contingent on maintaining peaceful self-rule for three hundred thirty-three years — of which twenty-six remained. The Avengers were not considered a military or political entity. (Yet.) Any potential insurgents on Mont Cabot could be classified as terrorists until such time as they actually held territory by armed force. Bringing in the victors of the Battle of New York was practically the only way the country would survive.
"Before we get started, you might want to consider what you're up against." The platoon's weapons did not waver, but they also did not fire.
"King Kong's angry green cousin." Three large mobile artillery platforms — hexapod spider tanks with short barreled main guns, rotary cannons on either side — went tumbling across the quarry floor. One seemed to be missing its turret, but that piece quickly followed at high velocity.
"An alien powerhouse with a ten-ton electric hammer." Along the rim of the quarry blue lightning arced from one plasma auto-cannon position to the next, each exploding in turn. Violet ribbons of energy leapt a hundred feet in the air to form a short-lived aurora.
"A lunatic wearing a Sherman tank that flies." A blur of red and gold streaked past, releasing what looked like spiraling blue flares behind it. When a pursuing flight of tactical drones passed through the dancing lights, each one suddenly darted at the nearest drone. High yield piezoelectrics sparked as they struck, the machines falling to the ground inert.
"Hey!" the lunatic in question objected.
"A couple of SHIELD agents who make Sidney Reilly look like Lou Costello." The troopers in the back two rows started shuffling nervously, reacting to the sudden appearance of red dots on the necks of every second trooper in the row ahead of them. Somebody was in the rafters, in the shadows above the lights, commanding the high ground.
"Sidney who?" Hawkeye asked, arrow drawn and aimed at the commandant's neck.
"Tell you later," Black Widow answered, keeping laser dots trained on eight soldats from her position on top of a stack of cargo containers. She didn't actually have a weapon that could strike that many at once, but the growing disarray in the back rows was gratifying. Possibly even useful.
"And me—"
"And you," the commandant sneered, "America's most photogenic enforcer."
"I'm just a guy from Brooklyn. Who doesn't like bullies. And my team," Thor and Iron Man landed on the platform, flanking him, "just took out your front line defenses in a minute flat." Somewhere across the quarry, Hulk bellowed, followed by the scream of a steel blast door being torn apart like cardboard. "So if you want take us on, I suggest you...
"Get help."
Lieutenant Sense stepped forward. "We'll just be leaving." He handed his pistol to Thor, who spared it a cursory glance before he closed his hand, crushing it beyond repair.
Commandant Surrender's face clouded, turned red. He shouted, "WE WILL—!" The color and expression drained from his face when three esoteric weapons were pressed to his head from behind and both sides. "—just," he gritted out between clenched teeth, "be leaving." A small red bolt of energy from above and behind hit him on the shoulder, rendering him unconscious.
Forty soldats lay their weapons on the floor, raised their hands to shoulder level, then followed their sensible lieutenant. They edged past the Avengers on the loading dock, jumped down, ran east toward the quarry's access road. They wouldn't get far. The nation's token military — accompanied by a great many SHIELD "observers" — waited down the road and on the mountain slopes to take any retreating or escaping terrorists into custody.
Iron Man watched them go. "Nice."
Thor tapped Mjolnir in his palm, feeling oddly dissatisfied.
Hawkeye slid down an access ladder. "Do that ten more times and we can call it a day."
Black Widow joined him. "Let's see if we can find a control center, maybe lock down some doors and turn off some lights." She led Hawkeye further into the complex, the pair clearing corners for each other as they went.
Captain America turned to look at the battle debris in the quarry, the open tunnels beyond. "Well, gentlemen, pick a door."
"Time to make the donuts!" Iron Man took flight, did a barrel roll on his way into the southern tunnel.
Thor clapped Captain America on the shoulder. "That's not how you do 'Get Help'."