Revamped!
Chapter 50: Symbiosis Part Three
Above Birdsville, Australia - 6:55 AM
"I have an idea but you have to promise to be back," Xavier tells her.
"Of course," Angela replies.
"I won't have time to repeat this so listen."
Angela listens to what Xavier's orders and, although she doesn't like it, she listens since he's in charge and they're running out of time. She flies above Sergei's jet and opens the hangar door. Xavier jumps out without a parachute and lands on Sergei's jet. Angela takes a shaky breath as she closes the door and is left alone with the controls system telling her to get out of the air and fix the problem. She says a silent prayer to whoever is listening to keep Xavier safe from this plan that seems as if it has more problems than solutions.
Xavier, from the exterior of Sergei's jet, watches Angela's quinjet fly off until he can't see it anymore. Then he feels a hand yank his wrist and he groans, thrashing his feet as his back hits the jet. He feels himself being hauled up and he struggles for any traction. Before he could strike a punch, he feels himself getting thrown inside the jet.
At least someone brought him inside the jet.
"How far are you?" Xavier whispers to Angela in his earpiece, lowering his head so Sergei doesn't see him speaking.
Angela: Still pretty far! I can't make any repairs in the air nor in the time the quinjet gave me before it automatically lands. I have to set her down.
Before Xavier could respond, someone grabs him from behind. As he staggers back, Xavier kicks back, making the man let him go. Xavier turns around and ducks back from an attempted punch. Xavier runs forwards, grabbing the man's shoulders. He leaps up to get a stance on the jet's walls. Xavier spins around the man's body, slamming him to the ground.
"That's enough!"
Xavier looks up from the ground and sees Sergei coming down from the staircase.
Xavier lets go of the other man and stands up. He tries to think of a way to get Sergei to surrender on his plane while Angela is still somewhere unknown. Sergei has the upper hand but Xavier plans to just keep him talking and buy himself more time. He just needs to play his cards right.
What Xavier doesn't see is more men. The only one he ran into was the one who pulled him inside and whom he knocked out. Maybe they're somewhere else on the jet or he just didn't have any more to spare.
"Hello," Xavier says to Sergei.
"Captain America's son!" Sergei exclaims in a welcoming manner which Xavier didn't expect. "It's an honour to meet you, it really is. I mean, you're a replica of your father, even without the shield. I see that the super-soldier serum has been passed on to you. Does that mean your offspring will be enhanced as well or is that a question too personal for you?"
Sergei waits for a response which Xavier doesn't have because he expected to talk about being taken in, not about his future children. Forget about having a strategy because Xavier doesn't know how to respond to that weird question which made him a bit uncomfortable. Maybe Sergei will keep talking and help Xavier pass the time until Angela's return.
"Surrender now," Xavier states, getting straight to the point.
"Please, come in and take the jet."
-o-
Xavier followed Sergei through his lavish jet. All the seats were leather-bound, scratch-free. The floors were carpeted and the tiles were crystal-clean porcelain. All in all, this was a beautiful jet. While Xavier observes those decorative features, he doesn't spot any other men. From what he gathered, the jet only had Sergei and that one guard. This isn't right… Xavier's gut is telling him to get off the jet but there's no viable way out.
Sergei opens the door to the pilot's cabin, walking in first. There's not even a pilot on board. Xavier doesn't close the door behind him but stands at the doorway as Sergei takes a seat behind the controls.
"Welcome aboard, Agent Rogers, or is it Captain Rogers?" Sergei asks, looking back at Xavier for an answer.
"Your choice."
Sergei shakes his head with a growing grin on his face. "This is my plane so I'll save you the time. Show yourself out and try to survive the fall. Your twin isn't here to give you a ride back."
"You're right, you really are. I wouldn't survive the fall. Even my old man wouldn't and we're talking about the man who jumps from planes without parachutes for fun. My team will always have my back."
"That is where you are wrong, Xavier." Sergei takes a step closer. "You are being betrayed. You all are. Daniel is just the first one to go. Which one of you will be next?"
Xavier is about to attack Sergei but stops when Sergei pulls the control's back, shooting the plane upwards. Xavier falls back, grabbing the doorway and the plane positions itself straight ahead like a rocket. Xavier tries to pull himself up, at least get himself over the doorway. He notices Sergei pull a flying oxygen mask over his head and that's when Xavier remembers that their altitude is increasing which means his oxygen is decreasing.
Hypoxia. Xavier's head starts spinning, vision blurring.
He can barely make out what Sergei's doing. Strategies in his mind start swirling. When he sees Sergei pull out a grenade and take the key out, Xavier laughs as if it's a joke. A grenade? Hilarious.
Xavier's mind snaps back at the last second and he lets go of the doorframe. He whips out his shield and curls up behind it as the grenade explodes. Xavier suddenly feels a gigantic force blow him back, blurring his vision. Hypoxia and whiplash at once, how great. He feels himself spinning in the air due to the impact of the explosion but he keeps hold of his shield. His ears are ringing and his teeth clench down on themselves. He sees the plane in flames as debris falls, slowly getting smaller and smaller in his eyes.
Then he realizes that he's free-falling with no parachute or Angela in sight.
-o-
Angela looks at the sky ahead of her from the pilot's seat of her quinjet. Memories of her field test flash in her mind but she pushes them to the back. Not in the mood to deal with those. She has a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that Xavier is in trouble because it's been too long. It's been there since she flew off but now it's worse than ever. She takes a breath before making the choice to force her troubled vehicle down as her father did during the war, abandon the quinjet completely, and go save Xavier. Lucky for her she's flying over the middle of nowhere.
Angela unbuckles her seatbelt and gets up. She straps on a jetpack and kicks open the passenger window with all her might. The overwhelming wind pressure entering the quinjet blows her back but as she flies, she props herself on the wall with her knees bent and starts her jetpack. Air is notoriously uncooperative when it comes to breaking through the airlock of the quinjet. Angela soars out the window and hears her quinjet crash and explode behind her. She quickly makes a mental reminder to get a SHIELD team to take care of that if nobody picks up its emergency crash signal.
Angela flies higher in the sky and increases her speed. She looks up and sees her brother falling from above. Angela holds out her hands and grasps Xavier's arms. The impact of catching him causes the two of them to spin mid-air. Once they've stopped spinning, Angela hears Xavier speak which brings her a relieved smile.
"That was close," Xavier says relieved.
"How'd you know I'd make it in time?" Angela asks.
"Twin telepathy."
"What happened with Sergei?"
Xavier sighs disappointedly. "Blew up his jet and took himself with it. I don't know why he did it."
Angela says nothing and neither does Xavier. If there was one person whom they could interrogate about the experiment and laboratory in Antarctica, even if he was only the financier. He would've had to have at least the most basic idea of what was going on because as of right now, they're left in the dark.
"Angela," Xavier starts, "Sergei said that we were being betrayed and Daniel is just the first one to go."
"He was probably just getting in your head as a part of those famous last words."
Xavier shrugs, remembering his other teammates and needing a ride back since he doesn't want Angela carrying him across the world. He honours loyalty so any betrayal will feel worse than getting blown out of that plane.
"Barton," Xavier says in his earpiece, "where are you?"
