บท 24: TGS - #23
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SHIELD Helicarrier, [May 4, 2012]
–Jack Sullivan–
Hmm. THis was interesting.
He was currently floating cross legged at one corner of the lab where Tony and Banner were working furiously on their screens. Tony was probably trying to accelerate the hacking of SHIELD databases and Banner was actually trying to find the Tesseract so he could get out of this place as soon as possible.
This must have been so out of his comfort zone, it was not even funny. The man was happy treating patients in a remote corner of the world and SHIELD had pulled him in, that too with a proposition that would have been impossible to ignore for someone with his morals.
He was currently sensing the mystical undercurrents in the room and somehow, the moment he tried to expand his senses, he could find traces of the sceptre's influence, minor as it was, on both Bruce and Tony. Strangely, he could not find any deviation in their behaviour but that must have been due to most of the sceptre's powers being confined in his barriers.
Once Dr.Banner had taken the necessary readings, he had swiftly contained the sceptre in one of his barriers and had him float right beside him, making it clear to anyone watching that he did not trust anyone with that sceptre. In the minutes it had been out of his barriers, it had already taken its poisonous roots in the minds of both Banner and Stark.
He did not want anybody else to get influenced by it, however minuscule the chance may be. He was already taking an immense risk being so close to the sceptre itself but he had no choice. He had to make it very clear to the people in the know about the dangers associated with the sceptre and without him being around on the Helicarrier, who knows how many lives the Hulk would claim before he was thrown off the Helicarrier, not to mention the damage done and the sceptre itself being stolen.
"Green Guardian," The sound of the doors opening brought his attention to Maria Hill, who was standing at the door and looking straight at him.
He willed for the two flaming eyes to open, signalling that he was looking at her.
"Director Fury would like a word," She said, as her gaze slid to the sceptre almost automatically. Huh, so even this wasn't able to completely stop its insidious abilities. Makes sense since it is powered by an Infinity Stone.
"Very well," His form unfurled as his head almost touched the ceiling due to the height of this avatar.
"Lead the way," He made to follow her when Stark called out, making both of them stop in their tracks.
"Wait! We need the sceptre for more readings. You can take the Green Gundam but leave the sceptre behind," Banner nodded alongside Stark, giving credibility to his statement.
Sigh, so this was the universe's way of making things happen the same way? He could try and force the issue but no point stopping things from happening when he was but a portal away. Besides, he had to stop the Helicarrier from just tipping over once the engines gave out and he was not sure if he could get enough time to start one of the engines as well as throw Hulk out of the ship.
Huh, who was he kidding? He could and would totally do both with ease. After all, he had yet to find something that could easily break up his barriers and he was not expecting someone to just magically pop up who could do that now.
....He just tempted Murphy, didn't he?
"Fine," He willed the barrier to drop the sceptre on one of the tables, where it rested with a clanging sound. He could almost feel the immediate change in the air as the sceptre was now free to do its bidding as it pleased.
Both of them maintained silence as they walked back to the bridge. He did not have much to speak of anyway.
As they reached the bridge, he could see the whirlwind of activity, along with someone playing Galaga on their primary screen, which seemed to go unnoticed by everyone involved or the more likely scenario being they knew but they tolerated it for some reason. Something to figure out later on.
The more important thing was…
"Where's Fury?"
He looked around the entire bridge and failed to spot that walking talking mass of paranoia.
"Uh, he was just here. I do not–"
"Agent Hill, Director Fury, and Agent Romanoff just departed from the bridge," One of the no-name agents came close and whispered to her, even though he could totally hear everything. So, Romanoff had figured something out from Loki then. They were probably on their way there to isolate Banner from the rest which would go sooo well now that everybody in that room was dosed with mind-tampering energy from the sceptre.
"Hill, look for any anomalies. I will go and see what has happened," He said and began floating to the lab when, as if the universe had time it exactly, an explosion occurred as the entire Helicarrier groaned.
Showtime!
He smirked as his form glowed as he breached the walls like they were wet tissue to reach the lab to find the lab to be nothing but a giant smoking crater. He looked at Tony who was just getting up from the ground and gave him a little boost, nudging him towards the place where his suit was kept. He didn't even know if it had any flight capabilities left or not.
"Fury, go, I'll handle him. But just in case, send Thor,"
Fury nodded and after taking a deep look at him and the departing back of Stark, ran back to the bridge, barking out orders after orders into his comms. He looked at the hole and slowly dropped down into it to see the same scenario from the movies.
Romanoff was trapped under a ton of rubble and Banner was on the verge of Hulking out. His neck had already turned green as Romanoff tried to say something to him. Apparently, she said the wrong thing because Banner's neck suddenly snapped out as his entire body started hulking out.
So much for the "sun's getting real low" talk.
He waved his arms and cast ultra-thin small barriers that entered the small crevices around Romanoff and then lifted the rubble off her leg. She looked at him as a barrier covered her form and flicked her off to the upper floor. He was confident in her ability to stop Hawkeye.
He would have to handle Banner before he ended up destroying the rest of the engines. He looked at the raging snarling Hulk who jumped out and tried to punch him right in the face.
The keyword here being "tried". A barrier stopped his fist as a huge shockwave wrecked what was left of their surroundings. He looked wide-eyed at the fist that had breached almost all of his barriers before it was stopped.
He looked at the raging Hulk as he once again tried to jump him but this time, he was ready. He summoned two barriers around his ankles and then snapped them together and then…pulled.
Hulk's face was one of surprise as he was pulled straight into the floor, into the lower levels which he knew were evacuated. Those were the floors where the jets and the military vehicles were kept in storage, making it mostly empty at most times let alone now when there was an evacuation order in place.
He jumped down in the level to see the Hulk's face set in a rictus of grimace as he pulled at his bonds and to his surprise, managed to break them apart with a roar that seemingly shook the entirety of the Helicarrier.
No, it was not his roar that shook the Helicarrier, he thought to himself as he watched everything begin tilting to one side. The engine had shut down, most probably due to Hawkeye's intervention.
He had no time for this, he immediately "Hulked Out" as well, assuming a much larger frame, and just tackled Hulk through wall after wall, his back barriers breaking with the Hulk's punches only for another to take its place. Even through the barriers, along with their capability to absorb part of the blow, he could feel the shockwaves of his punches.
Man, he really was the strongest there was.
Fortunately, strong he might be but he was no strategy expert. He was able to push him through a dozen walls before they exited the Helicarrier. The Hulk continued to punch and break his barriers as they exited the lower levels of the carrier. He looked towards the Helicarrier, pushing away Hulk from him by disengaging most of his barriers and slipping through the underneath of his avatar and his eyes widened to saucer-like proportions as he saw that the Helicarrier was tilting dangerously to one side.
No, he thought to himself as hundreds of barriers immediately covered his form, as he rocketed to the top of the Helicarrier to check on the situation. He froze in shock to see two engines down from the four but the situation now was different, he thought to himself as he gulped, his throat turning dry from the stress of the situation.
Both of the failed engines were now on the same side, ensuring that the Helicarrier and everyone on it were now headed to a fiery death. He waved his hands and as if swatting away annoying flies, he destroyed two Quinjets which were firing at him.
He had no time to worry about them as they most probably fell to their deaths. He flew underneath the Heliacrrier and once again, cursed himself for not having one of their comms. Stupid rookie mistake!
He could not spot Stark anywhere near the engine. He must be down here by now, working to force start the engine to make sure that the Helicarrier could make at least a controlled landing.
"Fuck this!" He exclaimed as he spread both his arms apart, creating the densest, strongest layer of barriers he had ever made.
"More!" He cursed himself as thousands of large barriers layered on top of each other, attached themselves to the underside of the Helicarrier.
"Bleurgh," He puked out blood as the barriers began breaking apart one by one as the weight of the Helicarrier settled on top of his barriers.
"Come on, Stark. Anytime now," He just needed one of those two engines online and he would be free to kick those bastard's asses to hell. Fuck the plan, he would bitch slap Loki and Hawkeye the moment he got out of this fucking situation. He was stretched so thin that he could not even focus on the senses granted to him through his barriers, so great was the pain from maintaining all these barriers. He had to constantly make newer ones to replace the ones breaking down from all the weight. The situation had come to the point where the sole protection he had for his body was the standard second skin which was his powers' automatic defense protocol and nothing more. He had not been this vulnerable in months. He made sure to keep the size the same as his Gundam to hide his identity but at this point, it would not take much for his identity to be revealed.
He kept looking at the undersides of the engines to see if he could spot any Red or Gold.
Unfortunately, he did not find Iron Man but…..
"NO!" He screamed with all his being as a jet, seemingly on a suicide mission, rammed itself into the housing of one of the engines, lighting up the entire thing as the ensuing explosion, broke that part away from the entire Helicarrier.
His neck snapped to the other side as he saw another jet about to do the same to the other engine, "NO!"
He screamed as he willed for one of his barriers to stop the jet. A single tiny barrier was all he could build, in the middle of building and rebuilding thousands of large barriers as they broke down from all the weight.
He watched as the small barrier, seemingly tiny in front of the huge expanse of green behind it, was about to breach the jet's nose when his entire form jerked forward because of another explosion that happened right behind him, as another large part of debris hit his head and tumbled down from the sky.
He looked behind to see a hangar with jets exploding one after the other. The lapse in concentration cost him as the jet successfully rammed itself into the other engine as well, destroying any chance of him getting free from the Helicarrier.
"Holy Shit!" He heard someone exclaim behind him. He turned to see only to freeze in shock as something went right through his chest. His barriers were bypassed entirely as a knife was now poking out of his stomach.
He slowly looked behind him to see a mass of brunette hair and blue eyes looking menacingly before they were blasted apart by the telltale sign of a repulsor array.
The person was grinning maniacally at him before another repulsor blasted him at center mass. He watched, transfixed, his injury temporarily forgotten, as the man's chest turned into fog and the repulsor blast passed straight through, his chest turning to normal later on.
"Jack!" The worry and fear in Tony's voice was clear to hear. He kept on looking at the person though, making sure to memorise their features in his mind. The person took one look at Tony and him, mockingly saluted him, and just phased into the ground, his body once again turning into fog as he escaped them.
He coughed out even more blood as the added strain of the stab wound, combined with the ever-increasing weight of the Helicarrier meant that he was currently in his worst-ever shape.
"Shit!" Stark cursed out as he spoke something in his comms.
"Not looking too good, is it?" He spoke in between coughing fits, some of the blood staining the insides of his barrier. He was finding it harder and harder to breathe and sooner or later, he would lose too much blood to continue functioning.
"No! No, this can't be happening. SOMEBODY HELP!" Stark shouted into his comms as he tried to steady his body.
"It is useless," He said as he looked at his stomach wound. The bleeding had stopped and thankfully, the blade was not enhanced or some shit, otherwise he would have been really mad.
"By the All-Father!" Thor exclaimed as he stood on the edge of the hole behind him.
"Loki," He mumbled to Tony, who understood the question and shouted at Thor, "Thor! Look for Loki. I'll do something here,"
Thor nodded hesitantly and immediately ran away.
In the meanwhile, he tried to take stock of his situation and found himself woefully lacking. He was low on…basically everything.
"Stark, is there any other way? Are we above the ocean, at least?" He asked Tony as his mind ran a mile a minute, trying to see if he could figure out a way out of this situation.
Tony paused a bit, clearly trying to figure out the answer which came a moment later, "About 4000, and yes, we are above the ocean. What do you have in mind?"
"Functioning evacuation capacity? From the Quinjets and the other jets?" He asked as he focused on rebuilding the broken barriers as they continued to lose altitude, in a controlled manner.
"It would never work. There is little time until we hit the ocean and even if we did have all the jets active, it would take multiple trips. Fury says that only two Quinjets and two F-22s are operational at the moment.
His heart sank as he realised that he would have to see it all the way.
"Stark, make sure that everybody makes it out alive. OK?" He asked Stark as his form melded back into the line of barriers, encasing him into protective layers.
He could see Stark staying there for a moment before he rocketed away. He looked down as the clouds parted, revealing a blue expanse as far as his eyes could see.
"Goddamn, this was going to hurt," He muttered to himself as he realised the extent of the situation.
Bruce was out of commission, and so was he, if he was lucky enough to make it out of here in one piece. All that was left were the decidedly human members of the team.
"Huh, so much for taking it easy," He smiled wryly, blood spilling from his lips as the entire lineup of barriers, the most he could squeeze out from his depleted stamina, crashed into the ocean. Water that felt more like solid concrete slammed into his barriers as they broke apart like fragile glass but as he drowned into the ocean, he could see that the Helicarrier was stable on the ocean.
His thoughts finally came to a halt as his vision turned blurry, the last of his protection, the second green skin, disappearing from his skin as well, finally revealing his true form to the world.
Unknown to him, as soon as the Helicarrier had crash landed, Stark had dived into the water, hell-bent on finding the kid who had just saved thousands of lives when he could have bailed at any moment, only to see that his energy signature, that Jarvis was tracking just blipped out of his radar.
"No no no no NO! Find him, JARVIS!" He shouted as his suit swam around in the vast darkness of the ocean, even when it was clear that Jack was nowhere to be found and his suit was also nearing its limits. In the end, JARVIS had to take control and bring his creator back to the surface where multiple jets were already converging, followed by warships of all sizes and shapes as the Helicarrier had made safe landing in international waters.
Word Count - 3064
A/N - Uh-oh.
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I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.
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