It took some stops to catch up with them. I had to keep landing to give the Omnitrix a break and check my CapWatch program. But soon, I was flying over I-95. And after that, I saw them.
Captain America was driving. Black Widow was in shotgun. They were talking about something.
I swooped in above their truck, staying high so they wouldn't see me. The truck was a big, brand new one. I didn't know Captain America owned a truck. I wasn't sure if it mattered, but it seemed funny somehow.
I followed them like that for a bit, trying to figure out how to make contact. Flying was fun, but I could feel exhaustion coming in with all of the constant Omnitrix use today. I could keep going for a bit longer. But I needed a nap tonight.
With no end to their driving in sight, I followed them by leapfrogging. I would land once the Omnitrix timed out, watch their progress on CapWatch, then take off again to catch up. Like stalking taken to the next level, something I tried not to think about. I had to stay high, using my insane eyesight to see them, so I wouldn't freak them out by flying in close. A giant pterodactyl with rockets wasn't something they'd find comfort in.
Slowly, I flew. They drove. For over an hour, we went like that.
Finally, while I was just wondering if I should cut my losses and take a nap, they turned off the interstate. I sighed in relief and followed them. They drove through the city streets, then down country roads. Until they were driving on one road, an overgrown one that hadn't been used in a long time. A military base was in the distance. It was empty, rundown. After some thought, I flew ahead of Cap and Black Widow.
Once I got to the base, I dropped to land at the gate, turning human once more. I walked up to it, reading the sign hanging on the chain fence. "Camp Lehigh..." The whole fence was brown with rust. A beat up old stop sign rested on it as well. In the light of the sinking sun, I could see that the rest of the base was much the same, a relic of a bygone age. All red brick buildings and rusted railings everywhere.
I turned when the truck slowly rode up to me. I raised my hands up, smiling as best as I could. Captain America stopped the truck about twelve feet from me and stepped out with Black Widow. They'd clearly seen me and, because Cap's shield was on his arm, and Black Widow had her gun out and pointed. I took a deep breath as they came closer. I reached for my waist and turned off the music that had been with me all day.
"Hi!" I said, as brightly as I could. "My name's Mahmoud. I want to help."
The two shared a glance. Captain America walked up to me. There was an incredible grace to him. For all his size, he walked like he was half a second from simply lifting off into the air. Black Widow was different. Where he was grace, she was subtlety. As he came forward, she stepped behind him, almost hiding in his shadow. I tried not be unnerved by that.
But then, I was also trying not to geek out.
Captain America was holding his shield. THE Shield! Made of vibranium in this universe, rather than a vibranium-iron alloy, it was still able to take hit from inconceivably powerful things, including Thor.
And Captain America and Black Widow. I was looking at superheroes.
As they stopped in front of me, I couldn't stop smiling.
"How did you find us?" Black Widow asked.
"SHIELD," they stiffened. I quickly continued. "I mean because I hacked SHIELD. I used their satellites and database to find you, then kept anyone from finding you. Here, see?" I reached into my pocket.
"Ah, careful," Black Widow said in warning, pointing her gun at my face. I flinched. After a moment, I slowly pulled out my phone, raising it for them to see. I switched on the CapWatch app, then tossed it to Cap, who caught it in his right hand. He turned it look, then blinked.
"CapWatch?"
I winced. "I... like my programs to have fun names."
Black Widow's lips twitched upwards.
"And you can follow us with this?" he asked, looking up at me. "Why? What do you want?"
I spoke fast. "Back in October, I was given this," I lifted a hand up, displaying the Omnitrix. "I don't know why I was given it. But it gave me powers. So I started using those powers to help people, traveling around Manhattan and saving anyone I found. It was good work."
"Speed it up," Black Widow said. "It's cute you like playing the superhero, but we're on a timetable."
"Yeah, got it. So anyway, I hacked into Stark Industries and SHIELD," the two shared a surprised glance at that. "I was doing that to make sure the next time a Battle of New York or a Convergence happens, I'd be there to help. And when they announced that Captain America was enemy of the state out of nowhere, I wanted to do something. So I did one big hack, grabbing all the info I could so I could find you. And the next thing I know, SHIELD is tossing a grenade at my door."
"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," Captain America noted with a smirk.
"That watch," Black Widow stared at the Omnitrix. "I've seen the symbol on it. You're the guy who's been running around Manhattan the last few months. The one who can turn into all those creatures."
The fact Black Widow knew about me wasn't much of a surprise. Even with all I'd done to try and keep off the grid, there was no way someone hadn't discovered my presence in New York, especially considering the people I'd saved had a perfect view of me. I nodded towards Black Widow and she gave me a smile. More of an amused one, rather than a kind one, but still a smile. "Fury was going to send someone to try and make contact with you. You were going to be investigated soon."
"Hopefully without a grenade thrown at me," I said with a grimace.
"Well, it wouldn't have been my first choice," she said. "So you what, wanted to help us out of the goodness of your heart?"
"...yes?" I said. "I mean, I kinda destroyed a Best Buy to find you guys. Which, I gotta be honest, I'm feeling kinda guilty about."
Captain America stepped forward, motioning towards the Omnitrix. "And you said that watch lets you hack things?"
"No," I lifted my wrist to show it to him. "This isn't a watch. This is the Omnitrix. And it lets me turn into aliens."
"Asgardian?" Captain America asked.
"Not from what I've heard," Black Widow answered. "So you were a superhero in New York, found out Captain America was being chased by SHIELD, and you were such a fanboy you decided to come and help."
"Yes," I sighed in relief. "That is exactly it."
Black Widow and Captain America shared a look. After a moment, she put her gun down and Captain America came over to grab my shoulder. He smiled at me, and I found myself grinning back.
"I'm not sure I can trust you... But I'd like to."
"He's naive like that," Black Widow said. She holstered her gun and stepped towards the gate. "I'm still going to shoot you if you turn out to be working for SHIELD."
"Not likely," I said as Captain America stepped around me and used his shield to shatter the lock on the gate with one smooth strike. "Grenade's thrown at me tend to make me an enemy."
"You're really stuck on that grenade thing, aren't you?" Black Widow said.
We entered the camp together. "Yeah well, I'm sensitive like that. So uh, what exactly are you guys here for? What is this place?"
"It's where I was trained," Captain America said. "We're following a lead."
We walked through the camp, looking around the place. "Trained before or after you started punching Hitler?"
Captain America chuckled. "Actually, I never met the real Hitler. I mostly dealt with his soldiers and the Red Skull. But this was before all that," He looked around. For a moment, he looked a thousand yards away. "I was still just a skinny kid from Brooklyn, trying to be a soldier."
"And now you're Captain America," I said, watching as Black Widow moved over to look into one of the windows.
"Call me Steve," he gave me a smile, then turned to look at a nearby flagpole. Once again, it looked like he was somewhere else. When I looked at Black Widow, she was eyeing me. Even as we walked around, she was still eyeing me. She had some sort of scanner in her hand, and it was beeping as she held it up. I looked at it thoughtfully, scratching my chin.
"This is a dead end," Black Widow said. She put down her scanner and put it in her pocket. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the files must have must have used a router to throw people off." She looked over at Steve, who was staring at a bunker. "What is it?"
I looked at him as well. He seemed to have an epiphany. He started moving towards the bunker, I went to follow, and Black Widow hopped over a railing to join us.
"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks," he said as we walked up to the bunker. He gave us a look. "This building's in the wrong place."
He smashed the lock on the door to the uh, the munition bunker, I guess? I couldn't help but stare at the shield as it turned steel into scrap. That thing was seriously awesome.
We walked down a flight of stairs and found what looked like a large office space. "I'm not a soldier, but this doesn't look like munitions," I said, stepping down to the place.
"It's not," Black Widow was looking at a wall nearby. "It's SHIELD."
"Or maybe where it started," Steve added.
We were all looking at a massive symbol on the wall, the centerpiece of the room. An eagle, surrounded by the words, 'Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division'.
"That's probably your fault," I said without thinking.
Steve looked at me, surprised. "What was?"
"Uh," I chuckled, waving at his right arm, still holding the shield. "I mean, they worked really hard to make up a name that spelled SHIELD, right."
Steve looked down, surprised. He held it up. After a moment, he gave his weapon a warm smile. "Yeah. I guess they did."
"I can sense anything that might be in here if you guys let me?"
"How?" Natasha asked.
I responded by waving the Omnitrix at her. "If someone other than us has been in here in recent years, I'll be able to follow their trail."
Steve and Natasha shared another look.
"Do it," Steve told me.
" All right. Keep in mind, I won't be able to talk in this form, so just follow my lead." I opened up the Omnitrix, flipping through my menu. I needed to sense things human eyes couldn't Blitzwolfer was great because he had a good range of powers, including his senses. But when I really needed to track something or someone down even after years...
I pressed the face. And the change came in a millisecond.
I went from biped to quadruped. Orange fur sprouted across my body, covering me in a thick armored coat. My eyes sank away and disappeared, and new sensory organs grew at the nape of my neck. Fingernails became claws. A shoulder brace appeared, with the Omnitrix glowing brightly on it.
I didn't speak English in this form, but if the snarl I barked out when I finished could be translated, I knew what it would be.
"Wildmutt!"
"Well that's new," Steve said. His voice was different now. It was as though he was so much clearer. Like my human ears were only hearing him on the tiniest level. Now, I could hear every bounce and quiver in his voice.
That's just how being Wildmutt felt in general. Every scent in the air, every sound, singing to me. There was no sense of color beyond heat, and photographs would be blank rectangles to me. But I didn't feel blind. How could I, when the world was so much more vivid now? When I could hear heartbeats, smell sweat, feel the primal part of the world in my heart. Being Wildmutt was like becoming something simpler than a human. But it also felt purer somehow. As though the complications of sight was replaced by a roaring world of beautiful scents and sound.
I sniffed the air with my gills, listened to it all.
"He said he can't talk like this," Black Widow said. There was a smell coming from her mouth I had to think to recognize. Bubblegum? A lot of it, too. She had some more in her pocket. "How's he supposed to tell us anything?"
I snarled moving about the room for a moment. I smelled something else, beyond Steve, Nat, the spiders and the concrete. Someone else had been here, months back. He smelled like airline fuel. I moved over to the stairs, following his trail. He'd walked over to an office. I turned, growling at the two.
"What, over there?" Steve walked over to join me, and I pushed the door, smashing it off its hinges and into the ground. Steve cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. Strong."
"Showoff," was Black Widow's opinion.
The two followed me in as I sniffed my way up to some shelves. There were three big blank rectangles up on the wall, which I ignored to follow the scent. Captain America and Natasha walked up the rectangles behind me, talking about them in a way that made me realized they were photos. Cap apparently knew them. His heartbeat skipped a little when he saw them. Time to ask about that later. I followed the smell of the man from before to some shelves. There was a gap in between the shelves where I could smell metal and plastic beyond it, a bit of ozone to indicate electricity, and Steve noticed it as well. "If you're already working in a secret office," I gripped the gap in between the shelves, shoving them apart. Even after all the years, the right shelf easily slid on its rails. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
Just a light on the wall and a pair of doors with windows in them. We walked towards it, me sniffing at the air, and Black Widow went up to the keypad next to it. She lifted a device over the keypad, and it created a hologram over the device, showing the numbers on the pad. The hologram shuffled the numbers and quickly came up with the code, which she pressed into the pad. The elevator doors slid open, and we walked inside. As the elevator dropped, Cap looked at me.
"You uh, gonna change back?" I looked up at him. "I mean, is there a time limit, or, do you have to press a button?"
I growled in annoyance, reaching for my shoulder to tap the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, I was back in my white and black shirt and blue jeans. I sighed in disappointment. Ironically, changing from Wildmutt always made me feel blind as a human.
"What does that feel like, anyway?" Captain America asked.
"Remember the day you became a superhuman?" I said. "That sudden feeling of becoming stronger, faster, having better senses?"
Steve nodded.
"Like that, but I can change back."
"God, I wish we had time for me to interrogate you." Black Widow muttered.
I looked over at her. "I mean, you could just ask me questions."
"I prefer interrogation, lets me get the real story." She replied.
"You never talk to people over coffee?" I had no idea why I was talking the way I was. For some reason, it was really easy to talk to her. She was funny.
"I do, but not when they can suddenly turn into giant dogs."
"What, you don't like Tony Stark?" We shared a grin, and Steve chuckled.
"Any chance you guys can tell me about what's going on?" The elevator was still lowering. "I mean, why is SHIELD attacking you guys?"
"We aren't sure," Steve said. "As far as we know, the answers are here."
"What about Nick Fury?" I asked. "I mean, he's the head of SHIELD, why didn't he stop this?"
The two shared a look, then faced the doors again. Steve answered. "He was killed by the Winter Soldier."
I stared at him. Then at Black Widow. She looked back at me. And I scratched at my wrist, near the Omnitrix, trying to think.
"That look on your face," Black Widow said knowingly. "That's why I want to interrogate you."
The doors opened then. I swallowed, and we all walked out of the elevator and into a dark room. It was hard to see anything. But as we walked up lights began to turn on, revealing the space to us.
"Whoa," I looked around. Hundreds of rectangular towers surrounded us, each with reels that could be seen inside through windows. Some "What, they couldn't upgrade to a laptop? This is an inefficient use of space."
"You always talk this much?" Black Widow asked.
"Dialogue is important for relationships," I said as we followed Steve towards several monitors. "Plus, I'm nervous when I meet superheroes."
"Children," Steve said gently. "We have work to do."
When we got to the monitors, there was a desk in front of them. There were a couple of camera on top of the monitors. "Well that's new," I said when I saw a USB port station on the desk. "And I mean that literally."
Natasha took something out of her pocket and plugged it into the port. More lights turned on, clearing things up further. The reels in the towers began to spin. As we stood there, the center monitor turned on over the desk, and two words appeared as the speakers in the station spoke.
"Initiate, System." The voice was robotic.
Natasha moved over to the ancient keyboard and tapped away at it. "Y-E-S, spells yes..." She smirked as the computers hummed. "Shall we play a game?" She intoned in a deep voice. I grinned at that, and she turned to Steve. "It's from a movie-"
"I know," he cut her off, bemused. "I saw it."
"Oh yeah," I said, realizing. "You have a lot of pop culture to catch up on."
"I'm doing my best," he replied, clearly focused on the task at hand.
Suddenly the center monitor lit up. Lines of green codes went down the screen, and a voice spoke.
"Rogers, Steven." Said a voice with a German accent. "Born, 1918."
"What the..." I said in confusion. A camera on top of the monitors turned to look at Black Widow.
"Romanov, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984." The camera turned to look at me. And then it stalled. The voice spoke again. "You, I do not know. That never happens."
"What, are you an AI?" I asked.
"No, I am not, herrlein," the voice said. "I may not be the man I was when the captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." A monitor to the side showed us an image. An older man, with glasses and a rather sour look on his face.
I looked around the computers, thinking to myself. Natasha asked Steve, "Do you know this thing?"
Steve didn't speak for a moment. He stepped around the monitors, going down some stairs and circling behind it.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve said.
"Well, apparently he went all brain upload instead," I said, reaching for the Omnitrix and flipping through the menu.
"First correction," the computer, or I suppose, Armin, said. "I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive."
"Yeah, well, bet it's been a while since you had a good steak or smelled flowers," I replied.
"True," Armin admitted. "But it is better than death. When I received a terminal diagnosis in 1972, there was nothing to be done for my body. My mind, however, was saved on over two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." His voice was thick with satisfaction on the last words.
"Sorry we didn't wipe our feet," I whispered, selecting an alien, but not pressing down on the watch yet.
"How did you get here?" Steve asked once he'd circle to stand between Natasha and I once more.
"Invited," Armin said.
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."
"They thought I could help their cause," Armin said smugly. "I also helped my own."
"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Cap said firmly.
"Cut off one head," an image appeared on the screen, and I frowned at it. A skull, with tentacles coming out from it. The symbol of Hydra. "Two more shall take its place."
"Otherwise known as not knowing when you goddamn quit," I whispered to Steve. He ignored me.
"Prove it," Steve said softly to Armin.
"Accessing archive." The computer screens changed, showing us an image of a thin man wearing a Nazi uniform. Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." The imagery of the founders of SHIELD, from Peggy Carter to Howard Stark, showed on screen.
"Yeah, because I sit around all day wishing someone would take my ability to choose from me," I growled, touching the Omnitrix again. Natasha shushed me.
"The war taught us much," he continued. "Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD." I stared at the screen, dawning horror filling me as I realized the implications of what he was saying. More and more images of war, of stock prices, of Armin himself working within SHIELD, all as images of the Hydra symbol flashed throughout. "For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." The image of a man with a metal arm flashed. An arm with a red star on it. Bucky Barnes.
"And nobody found out?" I asked.
"Accidents will happen," More images appeared. A newspaper declaring the death of Howard and Maria Stark. Nicolas Fury, with the word deceased over his picture. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise." Steve's face tightened. His hand clenched into a fist as he looked at the monitor that was Armin's face. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum."
Steve lashed out, shattering the middle screen. It was quiet for a moment. Then another screen lit up.
"As I was saying..." Armin's voice was so damn smug. I was going to activate the Omnitrix and start disassembling shit, but Steve spoke again.
"What's on this drive?" He indicated the USB Natasha had plugged in. I stared at it, realizing something.
"Project Insight requires... insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Armin replied.
"What kind of algorithm, what does it do?" Natasha asked.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly, the doors behind us began to be blocked by a pair of blast doors. Steve threw his shield at it, but they slammed close. I took a moment to marvel at the sight of my first look at Captain America throwing his mighty shield, but apparently, the doors had refused to yield, and it bounced back into his hand.
The device in Natasha's pocket beeped, and she pulled it out to look at it. "Steve, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" Steve asked, shocked.
"SHIELD," Natasha answered.
"I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain," Armin said smugly.
"I wouldn't worry about that," I turned to look at Armin. "I've got something for missiles."
I activated the device on my hip. I grinned as the field enveloped me in a massive radius, and the beeping from Natasha's device stopped. Moments later, the sound of a muffled explosion came from the surface, feeling like it was coming from our right. "If I'm right, that missile will have veered off. Right?"
Natasha blinked, looking down at the device in her hand. Then she looked at me. "How...?"
I took the device on my hip and tossed it to Captain America. "I made this for my flight over here. It keeps me from getting caught by infrared, anything made for the air. And if anyone aims a heatseeker or something while I'm flying-"
"It forces it to veer away," Steve looked up at me, grinning.
"That, is impossible!" We turned to look at Armin. His green face was blinking in and out at a high speed.
"Oh yeah, it is," I said back, grinning. "Unless you got the right toy. Alien tech, baby. My alien tech. And now, we need answers from you computer man. See, I heard about Project Insight while I was hacked into SHIELD, and I know a bit. But if it's Hydra, we need more."
"I will tell you nothing!" He seethed.
I looked at Captain America. "Hey, Steve. Is it cool if I tear this guy apart and build him into something that will give us answers?"
Steve looked at me. Then he looked over at the computer. Then he smiled.
"...Scheisse," a German-accented computer said quietly.
I pressed the Omnitrix. The change came in seconds. Once again, I was a small red Gremlin, wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt and tiny blue jeans, with the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. And as I changed, the other device on my hip began to play music.
"Jury Rigg!"
"Well, that's attractive," Natasha said, still looking a bit amazed at surviving.
"I have my moments!" I squeaked. Then I looked around me. To my eyes, I wasn't standing in a weird computer room anymore. I was in heaven, a place where I could see how all the pieces separated... or were put together.
"We don't have much time," Steve said. "Can you work fa-"
"DISASSEMBLE!" With the battle cry, I leaped at the monitor Steve had broken, smashing my way through it, then digging my way into it.
"No!" Armin Zola screamed, horrified. "Get out of me you horrendous creature! No! NooooOOOOOO!"
I smashed my way out of another monitor like an alien out of a crewmembers stomach and roared with glee before diving back in, ignoring the disturbed looks Natasha and Steve gave me. I grabbed at wires, every pull of them showing me transferred power and information. I ripped out chips, and the way they broke told me what to do. Every bit of destruction gave me the delicious answer to creation.
In the end, while Armin's mind ran through thousands of feet of databanks, it all sent information to the computers I was tearing into. And if it did that, it meant I could pull all those archives to me.
"Just one more second!" I yelled, my red ears quivering with glee. "This is gonna be great!"
"Please, no!" Armin yelled. "Captain, he is causing me pain! I cannot feel, yet he is making me! Please, he is-"
I pulled out another chip, and he petered out. "Sorry! I shut off his sound now!"
"...He's writing his begging on the screens now," Natasha said from outside the computer as I dug through another section. She sounded fascinated.
"I'm letting him!" I smashed my way out from another screen and pulled in the USB port station and the keyboard. With a blur, I pulled all the pieces together. "More fun that way! HAHAHAHA!"
"Where's that music coming from?" Steve asked, coming closer.
"Take me through the centuries to supersonic years!" The device replied, playing Black Sabbath's Symptom of the Universe.
"We're running out of time," Natasha said. "We got a Quinjet coming in, we need to run."
"Done!" I leaped out of the computer. As I did, Armin Zola's program shutdown. The reels around us stopped spinning. I turned to look at the only screen I hadn't shattered as more words rolled onto the screen.
Damn you.
With that, Armin Zola died. I'd have felt more sympathy, except he was a jerk computer. If he'd been Data, or EDI, or Vision, I'd have been sorry. But he'd had his chance at life. Plus, it wasn't like I'd stabbed a man in the heart.
"Okay!" I turned to look at them. "So now we run, right!?"
"That has the answers?" He asked, staring at the X-shaped mass of wires and glass in my hand. I nodded quickly.
"Yep! Reassembled, baby!"
"Good!" Steve looked at the elevator. "Then we need to run, now!"
"Can't go up the elevator," Natasha said. "They'll be waiting up top, and as soon as the Quinjet gets here they'll start shooting."
"Then I say we dig our way out," I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. Red skin became diamond-hard crystal, and I rose up to tower over Natasha, then Steve. I grinned as I stood at my full height.
"Diamondhead!"
"You gonna run out of those anytime soon?" Steve asked me as I walked over to a nearby wall, placing the device holding Zola's memory on my waist.
"I haven't yet," I said with a smirk. "Now, hop on." Crystals grew beneath my feet, becoming a flat platform about six feet around me. Natasha stared at it as Steve walked over to hop on to the platform.
"Uh, can you break down your plan?" She said hesitantly.
"Digging our way out."
Still hesitant, but having no other bright ideas, she got on as well. I forced the crystals to surround us in walls until we were in a large tepee made of blue-green crystal. Then I had the crystal under us grow, pushing us up at an angle. The top of the 'tepee' slammed point first into the ceiling, smashing through with ease. More crystal grew beneath us, pushing at a diagonal angle. I forced more and more power through my body, and we sliced through the earth with ease.
"This is crazy," Natasha said in awe.
"I hope not," I said as we shot through the dirt, the groaning sound of dirt being pushed away by us surrounding my makeshift shovel. "If I am crazy, this would be a bad time to become sane."
"And I thought the helicarrier was the end of me being surprised," Steve muttered.
Behind us and down, the sound of explosions began to sound out. I turned to look at Natasha. She nodded. "Yeah, that would be the Quinjet destroying the base in an attempt to kill us."
I looked at Steve. He looked sad. He leaned against a wall of the tepee, sighing. "I'm sorry," he looked at me. "I know that place meant a lot to you."
We met eyes. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah. I haven't been there in a long time but... it was where I got started."
I nodded at that. "We'll make them pay," I said with a sigh. "SHIELD isn't what you thought it was. But it was made by good people. And with this," I nodded towards the junky looking device on my waist. "We can save it."
"Is it worth saving?" Steve asked.
I looked over at him. He was still staring at the ground. He was staring at his shield. I tried to think of what to say.
"Those people," I finally got out. "The ones in the pictures that you and Natasha were looking at. Who were they?"
Steve looked up at me, sighing. "Yeah, um..." Natasha sat down, looking at him. "They were the founders of SHIELD. Friends of mine. General Chester Phillips. Howard Stark. P-" Steve stopped, swallowing. Then he continued. "Peggy Carter... They'd be horrified if they saw what SHIELD became."
"Some of it was good," Natasha said weakly. She sighed. "I wouldn't have joined if I didn't think so."
We were suddenly in the open air. I opened the tepee by sliding the crystal apart. We'd popped up in a field, a long way away from Camp Lehigh's remains. It was night now and crickets buzzing in the field in the distance.
As we got out, Natasha looked back at the massive crystal jutting out of the earth. "You going to do anything about that?"
"Nope." I sighed. "I already left crystals behind. I might as well give them something insane to dig through. I like the idea of Hydra cleaning up my messes."
At that moment, the Omnitrix timed out in the classic red beeping before flashing out bright red light, turning me human again. I grimaced, looking down at my Omnitrix. "Times up. We need someplace to rest. I'm running out of steam at this point. Plus, we need to look into the data I stole."
"...I think I've got somewhere in mind." Steve said. He hefted his shield.
"What, someone you know?" Natasha asked.
"Iron Man?" I added.
"...Not exactly."
Steve knocked on the sliding glass door in front of us. When it opened, a fit man with dark skin and well-trimmed hair opened the door. He was wearing a purple shirt and looked a bit sweaty. He looked at the three of us. I was standing next to Steve, with Natasha behind me, as always, since she could shoot me in the head faster that way.
"Hey man," the man said.
"How's it going?" I replied. Steve put a hand on my shoulder, looking back at the man.
"I'm sorry about this," Steve said. "We need a place to lay low."
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha said.
The man looked at us. After a moment, he seemed to come to a decision. "Not everyone."
He stepped aside to let us in. I smiled, and the three of us walked past him.
"I'm Mahmoud Schahed, by the way," I said to the man once we'd gone inside.
He smiled, holding a hand out to me. I took it. "Sam Wilson."
I tried to hold back my shock. Holy crap. The Falcon. I looked around the room. Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon...
"Today has been... just the best." I finally said, grinning like a madman.
Steve and Sam gave me weird looks. Natasha narrowed her eyes at me. I just grinned back at them.
Guess I'm an Avenger now?
It took some stops to catch up with them. I had to keep landing to give the Omnitrix a break and check my CapWatch program. But soon, I was flying over I-95. And after that, I saw them.
Captain America was driving. Black Widow was in shotgun. They were talking about something.
I swooped in above their truck, staying high so they wouldn't see me. The truck was a big, brand new one. I didn't know Captain America owned a truck. I wasn't sure if it mattered, but it seemed funny somehow.
I followed them like that for a bit, trying to figure out how to make contact. Flying was fun, but I could feel exhaustion coming in with all of the constant Omnitrix use today. I could keep going for a bit longer. But I needed a nap tonight.
With no end to their driving in sight, I followed them by leapfrogging. I would land once the Omnitrix timed out, watch their progress on CapWatch, then take off again to catch up. Like stalking taken to the next level, something I tried not to think about. I had to stay high, using my insane eyesight to see them, so I wouldn't freak them out by flying in close. A giant pterodactyl with rockets wasn't something they'd find comfort in.
Slowly, I flew. They drove. For over an hour, we went like that.
Finally, while I was just wondering if I should cut my losses and take a nap, they turned off the interstate. I sighed in relief and followed them. They drove through the city streets, then down country roads. Until they were driving on one road, an overgrown one that hadn't been used in a long time. A military base was in the distance. It was empty, rundown. After some thought, I flew ahead of Cap and Black Widow.
Once I got to the base, I dropped to land at the gate, turning human once more. I walked up to it, reading the sign hanging on the chain fence. "Camp Lehigh..." The whole fence was brown with rust. A beat up old stop sign rested on it as well. In the light of the sinking sun, I could see that the rest of the base was much the same, a relic of a bygone age. All red brick buildings and rusted railings everywhere.
I turned when the truck slowly rode up to me. I raised my hands up, smiling as best as I could. Captain America stopped the truck about twelve feet from me and stepped out with Black Widow. They'd clearly seen me and, because Cap's shield was on his arm, and Black Widow had her gun out and pointed. I took a deep breath as they came closer. I reached for my waist and turned off the music that had been with me all day.
"Hi!" I said, as brightly as I could. "My name's Mahmoud. I want to help."
The two shared a glance. Captain America walked up to me. There was an incredible grace to him. For all his size, he walked like he was half a second from simply lifting off into the air. Black Widow was different. Where he was grace, she was subtlety. As he came forward, she stepped behind him, almost hiding in his shadow. I tried not be unnerved by that.
But then, I was also trying not to geek out.
Captain America was holding his shield. THE Shield! Made of vibranium in this universe, rather than a vibranium-iron alloy, it was still able to take hit from inconceivably powerful things, including Thor.
And Captain America and Black Widow. I was looking at superheroes.
As they stopped in front of me, I couldn't stop smiling.
"How did you find us?" Black Widow asked.
"SHIELD," they stiffened. I quickly continued. "I mean because I hacked SHIELD. I used their satellites and database to find you, then kept anyone from finding you. Here, see?" I reached into my pocket.
"Ah, careful," Black Widow said in warning, pointing her gun at my face. I flinched. After a moment, I slowly pulled out my phone, raising it for them to see. I switched on the CapWatch app, then tossed it to Cap, who caught it in his right hand. He turned it look, then blinked.
"CapWatch?"
I winced. "I... like my programs to have fun names."
Black Widow's lips twitched upwards.
"And you can follow us with this?" he asked, looking up at me. "Why? What do you want?"
I spoke fast. "Back in October, I was given this," I lifted a hand up, displaying the Omnitrix. "I don't know why I was given it. But it gave me powers. So I started using those powers to help people, traveling around Manhattan and saving anyone I found. It was good work."
"Speed it up," Black Widow said. "It's cute you like playing the superhero, but we're on a timetable."
"Yeah, got it. So anyway, I hacked into Stark Industries and SHIELD," the two shared a surprised glance at that. "I was doing that to make sure the next time a Battle of New York or a Convergence happens, I'd be there to help. And when they announced that Captain America was enemy of the state out of nowhere, I wanted to do something. So I did one big hack, grabbing all the info I could so I could find you. And the next thing I know, SHIELD is tossing a grenade at my door."
"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," Captain America noted with a smirk.
"That watch," Black Widow stared at the Omnitrix. "I've seen the symbol on it. You're the guy who's been running around Manhattan the last few months. The one who can turn into all those creatures."
The fact Black Widow knew about me wasn't much of a surprise. Even with all I'd done to try and keep off the grid, there was no way someone hadn't discovered my presence in New York, especially considering the people I'd saved had a perfect view of me. I nodded towards Black Widow and she gave me a smile. More of an amused one, rather than a kind one, but still a smile. "Fury was going to send someone to try and make contact with you. You were going to be investigated soon."
"Hopefully without a grenade thrown at me," I said with a grimace.
"Well, it wouldn't have been my first choice," she said. "So you what, wanted to help us out of the goodness of your heart?"
"...yes?" I said. "I mean, I kinda destroyed a Best Buy to find you guys. Which, I gotta be honest, I'm feeling kinda guilty about."
Captain America stepped forward, motioning towards the Omnitrix. "And you said that watch lets you hack things?"
"No," I lifted my wrist to show it to him. "This isn't a watch. This is the Omnitrix. And it lets me turn into aliens."
"Asgardian?" Captain America asked.
"Not from what I've heard," Black Widow answered. "So you were a superhero in New York, found out Captain America was being chased by SHIELD, and you were such a fanboy you decided to come and help."
"Yes," I sighed in relief. "That is exactly it."
Black Widow and Captain America shared a look. After a moment, she put her gun down and Captain America came over to grab my shoulder. He smiled at me, and I found myself grinning back.
"I'm not sure I can trust you... But I'd like to."
"He's naive like that," Black Widow said. She holstered her gun and stepped towards the gate. "I'm still going to shoot you if you turn out to be working for SHIELD."
"Not likely," I said as Captain America stepped around me and used his shield to shatter the lock on the gate with one smooth strike. "Grenade's thrown at me tend to make me an enemy."
"You're really stuck on that grenade thing, aren't you?" Black Widow said.
We entered the camp together. "Yeah well, I'm sensitive like that. So uh, what exactly are you guys here for? What is this place?"
"It's where I was trained," Captain America said. "We're following a lead."
We walked through the camp, looking around the place. "Trained before or after you started punching Hitler?"
Captain America chuckled. "Actually, I never met the real Hitler. I mostly dealt with his soldiers and the Red Skull. But this was before all that," He looked around. For a moment, he looked a thousand yards away. "I was still just a skinny kid from Brooklyn, trying to be a soldier."
"And now you're Captain America," I said, watching as Black Widow moved over to look into one of the windows.
"Call me Steve," he gave me a smile, then turned to look at a nearby flagpole. Once again, it looked like he was somewhere else. When I looked at Black Widow, she was eyeing me. Even as we walked around, she was still eyeing me. She had some sort of scanner in her hand, and it was beeping as she held it up. I looked at it thoughtfully, scratching my chin.
"This is a dead end," Black Widow said. She put down her scanner and put it in her pocket. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the files must have must have used a router to throw people off." She looked over at Steve, who was staring at a bunker. "What is it?"
I looked at him as well. He seemed to have an epiphany. He started moving towards the bunker, I went to follow, and Black Widow hopped over a railing to join us.
"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks," he said as we walked up to the bunker. He gave us a look. "This building's in the wrong place."
He smashed the lock on the door to the uh, the munition bunker, I guess? I couldn't help but stare at the shield as it turned steel into scrap. That thing was seriously awesome.
We walked down a flight of stairs and found what looked like a large office space. "I'm not a soldier, but this doesn't look like munitions," I said, stepping down to the place.
"It's not," Black Widow was looking at a wall nearby. "It's SHIELD."
"Or maybe where it started," Steve added.
We were all looking at a massive symbol on the wall, the centerpiece of the room. An eagle, surrounded by the words, 'Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division'.
"That's probably your fault," I said without thinking.
Steve looked at me, surprised. "What was?"
"Uh," I chuckled, waving at his right arm, still holding the shield. "I mean, they worked really hard to make up a name that spelled SHIELD, right."
Steve looked down, surprised. He held it up. After a moment, he gave his weapon a warm smile. "Yeah. I guess they did."
"I can sense anything that might be in here if you guys let me?"
"How?" Natasha asked.
I responded by waving the Omnitrix at her. "If someone other than us has been in here in recent years, I'll be able to follow their trail."
Steve and Natasha shared another look.
"Do it," Steve told me.
" All right. Keep in mind, I won't be able to talk in this form, so just follow my lead." I opened up the Omnitrix, flipping through my menu. I needed to sense things human eyes couldn't Blitzwolfer was great because he had a good range of powers, including his senses. But when I really needed to track something or someone down even after years...
I pressed the face. And the change came in a millisecond.
I went from biped to quadruped. Orange fur sprouted across my body, covering me in a thick armored coat. My eyes sank away and disappeared, and new sensory organs grew at the nape of my neck. Fingernails became claws. A shoulder brace appeared, with the Omnitrix glowing brightly on it.
I didn't speak English in this form, but if the snarl I barked out when I finished could be translated, I knew what it would be.
"Wildmutt!"
"Well that's new," Steve said. His voice was different now. It was as though he was so much clearer. Like my human ears were only hearing him on the tiniest level. Now, I could hear every bounce and quiver in his voice.
That's just how being Wildmutt felt in general. Every scent in the air, every sound, singing to me. There was no sense of color beyond heat, and photographs would be blank rectangles to me. But I didn't feel blind. How could I, when the world was so much more vivid now? When I could hear heartbeats, smell sweat, feel the primal part of the world in my heart. Being Wildmutt was like becoming something simpler than a human. But it also felt purer somehow. As though the complications of sight was replaced by a roaring world of beautiful scents and sound.
I sniffed the air with my gills, listened to it all.
"He said he can't talk like this," Black Widow said. There was a smell coming from her mouth I had to think to recognize. Bubblegum? A lot of it, too. She had some more in her pocket. "How's he supposed to tell us anything?"
I snarled moving about the room for a moment. I smelled something else, beyond Steve, Nat, the spiders and the concrete. Someone else had been here, months back. He smelled like airline fuel. I moved over to the stairs, following his trail. He'd walked over to an office. I turned, growling at the two.
"What, over there?" Steve walked over to join me, and I pushed the door, smashing it off its hinges and into the ground. Steve cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. Strong."
"Showoff," was Black Widow's opinion.
The two followed me in as I sniffed my way up to some shelves. There were three big blank rectangles up on the wall, which I ignored to follow the scent. Captain America and Natasha walked up the rectangles behind me, talking about them in a way that made me realized they were photos. Cap apparently knew them. His heartbeat skipped a little when he saw them. Time to ask about that later. I followed the smell of the man from before to some shelves. There was a gap in between the shelves where I could smell metal and plastic beyond it, a bit of ozone to indicate electricity, and Steve noticed it as well. "If you're already working in a secret office," I gripped the gap in between the shelves, shoving them apart. Even after all the years, the right shelf easily slid on its rails. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
Just a light on the wall and a pair of doors with windows in them. We walked towards it, me sniffing at the air, and Black Widow went up to the keypad next to it. She lifted a device over the keypad, and it created a hologram over the device, showing the numbers on the pad. The hologram shuffled the numbers and quickly came up with the code, which she pressed into the pad. The elevator doors slid open, and we walked inside. As the elevator dropped, Cap looked at me.
"You uh, gonna change back?" I looked up at him. "I mean, is there a time limit, or, do you have to press a button?"
I growled in annoyance, reaching for my shoulder to tap the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, I was back in my white and black shirt and blue jeans. I sighed in disappointment. Ironically, changing from Wildmutt always made me feel blind as a human.
"What does that feel like, anyway?" Captain America asked.
"Remember the day you became a superhuman?" I said. "That sudden feeling of becoming stronger, faster, having better senses?"
Steve nodded.
"Like that, but I can change back."
"God, I wish we had time for me to interrogate you." Black Widow muttered.
I looked over at her. "I mean, you could just ask me questions."
"I prefer interrogation, lets me get the real story." She replied.
"You never talk to people over coffee?" I had no idea why I was talking the way I was. For some reason, it was really easy to talk to her. She was funny.
"I do, but not when they can suddenly turn into giant dogs."
"What, you don't like Tony Stark?" We shared a grin, and Steve chuckled.
"Any chance you guys can tell me about what's going on?" The elevator was still lowering. "I mean, why is SHIELD attacking you guys?"
"We aren't sure," Steve said. "As far as we know, the answers are here."
"What about Nick Fury?" I asked. "I mean, he's the head of SHIELD, why didn't he stop this?"
The two shared a look, then faced the doors again. Steve answered. "He was killed by the Winter Soldier."
I stared at him. Then at Black Widow. She looked back at me. And I scratched at my wrist, near the Omnitrix, trying to think.
"That look on your face," Black Widow said knowingly. "That's why I want to interrogate you."
The doors opened then. I swallowed, and we all walked out of the elevator and into a dark room. It was hard to see anything. But as we walked up lights began to turn on, revealing the space to us.
"Whoa," I looked around. Hundreds of rectangular towers surrounded us, each with reels that could be seen inside through windows. Some "What, they couldn't upgrade to a laptop? This is an inefficient use of space."
"You always talk this much?" Black Widow asked.
"Dialogue is important for relationships," I said as we followed Steve towards several monitors. "Plus, I'm nervous when I meet superheroes."
"Children," Steve said gently. "We have work to do."
When we got to the monitors, there was a desk in front of them. There were a couple of camera on top of the monitors. "Well that's new," I said when I saw a USB port station on the desk. "And I mean that literally."
Natasha took something out of her pocket and plugged it into the port. More lights turned on, clearing things up further. The reels in the towers began to spin. As we stood there, the center monitor turned on over the desk, and two words appeared as the speakers in the station spoke.
"Initiate, System." The voice was robotic.
Natasha moved over to the ancient keyboard and tapped away at it. "Y-E-S, spells yes..." She smirked as the computers hummed. "Shall we play a game?" She intoned in a deep voice. I grinned at that, and she turned to Steve. "It's from a movie-"
"I know," he cut her off, bemused. "I saw it."
"Oh yeah," I said, realizing. "You have a lot of pop culture to catch up on."
"I'm doing my best," he replied, clearly focused on the task at hand.
Suddenly the center monitor lit up. Lines of green codes went down the screen, and a voice spoke.
"Rogers, Steven." Said a voice with a German accent. "Born, 1918."
"What the..." I said in confusion. A camera on top of the monitors turned to look at Black Widow.
"Romanov, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984." The camera turned to look at me. And then it stalled. The voice spoke again. "You, I do not know. That never happens."
"What, are you an AI?" I asked.
"No, I am not, herrlein," the voice said. "I may not be the man I was when the captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." A monitor to the side showed us an image. An older man, with glasses and a rather sour look on his face.
I looked around the computers, thinking to myself. Natasha asked Steve, "Do you know this thing?"
Steve didn't speak for a moment. He stepped around the monitors, going down some stairs and circling behind it.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve said.
"Well, apparently he went all brain upload instead," I said, reaching for the Omnitrix and flipping through the menu.
"First correction," the computer, or I suppose, Armin, said. "I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive."
"Yeah, well, bet it's been a while since you had a good steak or smelled flowers," I replied.
"True," Armin admitted. "But it is better than death. When I received a terminal diagnosis in 1972, there was nothing to be done for my body. My mind, however, was saved on over two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." His voice was thick with satisfaction on the last words.
"Sorry we didn't wipe our feet," I whispered, selecting an alien, but not pressing down on the watch yet.
"How did you get here?" Steve asked once he'd circle to stand between Natasha and I once more.
"Invited," Armin said.
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."
"They thought I could help their cause," Armin said smugly. "I also helped my own."
"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Cap said firmly.
"Cut off one head," an image appeared on the screen, and I frowned at it. A skull, with tentacles coming out from it. The symbol of Hydra. "Two more shall take its place."
"Otherwise known as not knowing when you goddamn quit," I whispered to Steve. He ignored me.
"Prove it," Steve said softly to Armin.
"Accessing archive." The computer screens changed, showing us an image of a thin man wearing a Nazi uniform. Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." The imagery of the founders of SHIELD, from Peggy Carter to Howard Stark, showed on screen.
"Yeah, because I sit around all day wishing someone would take my ability to choose from me," I growled, touching the Omnitrix again. Natasha shushed me.
"The war taught us much," he continued. "Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD." I stared at the screen, dawning horror filling me as I realized the implications of what he was saying. More and more images of war, of stock prices, of Armin himself working within SHIELD, all as images of the Hydra symbol flashed throughout. "For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." The image of a man with a metal arm flashed. An arm with a red star on it. Bucky Barnes.
"And nobody found out?" I asked.
"Accidents will happen," More images appeared. A newspaper declaring the death of Howard and Maria Stark. Nicolas Fury, with the word deceased over his picture. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise." Steve's face tightened. His hand clenched into a fist as he looked at the monitor that was Armin's face. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum."
Steve lashed out, shattering the middle screen. It was quiet for a moment. Then another screen lit up.
"As I was saying..." Armin's voice was so damn smug. I was going to activate the Omnitrix and start disassembling shit, but Steve spoke again.
"What's on this drive?" He indicated the USB Natasha had plugged in. I stared at it, realizing something.
"Project Insight requires... insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Armin replied.
"What kind of algorithm, what does it do?" Natasha asked.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly, the doors behind us began to be blocked by a pair of blast doors. Steve threw his shield at it, but they slammed close. I took a moment to marvel at the sight of my first look at Captain America throwing his mighty shield, but apparently, the doors had refused to yield, and it bounced back into his hand.
The device in Natasha's pocket beeped, and she pulled it out to look at it. "Steve, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" Steve asked, shocked.
"SHIELD," Natasha answered.
"I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain," Armin said smugly.
"I wouldn't worry about that," I turned to look at Armin. "I've got something for missiles."
I activated the device on my hip. I grinned as the field enveloped me in a massive radius, and the beeping from Natasha's device stopped. Moments later, the sound of a muffled explosion came from the surface, feeling like it was coming from our right. "If I'm right, that missile will have veered off. Right?"
Natasha blinked, looking down at the device in her hand. Then she looked at me. "How...?"
I took the device on my hip and tossed it to Captain America. "I made this for my flight over here. It keeps me from getting caught by infrared, anything made for the air. And if anyone aims a heatseeker or something while I'm flying-"
"It forces it to veer away," Steve looked up at me, grinning.
"That, is impossible!" We turned to look at Armin. His green face was blinking in and out at a high speed.
"Oh yeah, it is," I said back, grinning. "Unless you got the right toy. Alien tech, baby. My alien tech. And now, we need answers from you computer man. See, I heard about Project Insight while I was hacked into SHIELD, and I know a bit. But if it's Hydra, we need more."
"I will tell you nothing!" He seethed.
I looked at Captain America. "Hey, Steve. Is it cool if I tear this guy apart and build him into something that will give us answers?"
Steve looked at me. Then he looked over at the computer. Then he smiled.
"...Scheisse," a German-accented computer said quietly.
I pressed the Omnitrix. The change came in seconds. Once again, I was a small red Gremlin, wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt and tiny blue jeans, with the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. And as I changed, the other device on my hip began to play music.
"Jury Rigg!"
"Well, that's attractive," Natasha said, still looking a bit amazed at surviving.
"I have my moments!" I squeaked. Then I looked around me. To my eyes, I wasn't standing in a weird computer room anymore. I was in heaven, a place where I could see how all the pieces separated... or were put together.
"We don't have much time," Steve said. "Can you work fa-"
"DISASSEMBLE!" With the battle cry, I leaped at the monitor Steve had broken, smashing my way through it, then digging my way into it.
"No!" Armin Zola screamed, horrified. "Get out of me you horrendous creature! No! NooooOOOOOO!"
I smashed my way out of another monitor like an alien out of a crewmembers stomach and roared with glee before diving back in, ignoring the disturbed looks Natasha and Steve gave me. I grabbed at wires, every pull of them showing me transferred power and information. I ripped out chips, and the way they broke told me what to do. Every bit of destruction gave me the delicious answer to creation.
In the end, while Armin's mind ran through thousands of feet of databanks, it all sent information to the computers I was tearing into. And if it did that, it meant I could pull all those archives to me.
"Just one more second!" I yelled, my red ears quivering with glee. "This is gonna be great!"
"Please, no!" Armin yelled. "Captain, he is causing me pain! I cannot feel, yet he is making me! Please, he is-"
I pulled out another chip, and he petered out. "Sorry! I shut off his sound now!"
"...He's writing his begging on the screens now," Natasha said from outside the computer as I dug through another section. She sounded fascinated.
"I'm letting him!" I smashed my way out from another screen and pulled in the USB port station and the keyboard. With a blur, I pulled all the pieces together. "More fun that way! HAHAHAHA!"
"Where's that music coming from?" Steve asked, coming closer.
"Take me through the centuries to supersonic years!" The device replied, playing Black Sabbath's Symptom of the Universe.
"We're running out of time," Natasha said. "We got a Quinjet coming in, we need to run."
"Done!" I leaped out of the computer. As I did, Armin Zola's program shutdown. The reels around us stopped spinning. I turned to look at the only screen I hadn't shattered as more words rolled onto the screen.
Damn you.
With that, Armin Zola died. I'd have felt more sympathy, except he was a jerk computer. If he'd been Data, or EDI, or Vision, I'd have been sorry. But he'd had his chance at life. Plus, it wasn't like I'd stabbed a man in the heart.
"Okay!" I turned to look at them. "So now we run, right!?"
"That has the answers?" He asked, staring at the X-shaped mass of wires and glass in my hand. I nodded quickly.
"Yep! Reassembled, baby!"
"Good!" Steve looked at the elevator. "Then we need to run, now!"
"Can't go up the elevator," Natasha said. "They'll be waiting up top, and as soon as the Quinjet gets here they'll start shooting."
"Then I say we dig our way out," I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. Red skin became diamond-hard crystal, and I rose up to tower over Natasha, then Steve. I grinned as I stood at my full height.
"Diamondhead!"
"You gonna run out of those anytime soon?" Steve asked me as I walked over to a nearby wall, placing the device holding Zola's memory on my waist.
"I haven't yet," I said with a smirk. "Now, hop on." Crystals grew beneath my feet, becoming a flat platform about six feet around me. Natasha stared at it as Steve walked over to hop on to the platform.
"Uh, can you break down your plan?" She said hesitantly.
"Digging our way out."
Still hesitant, but having no other bright ideas, she got on as well. I forced the crystals to surround us in walls until we were in a large tepee made of blue-green crystal. Then I had the crystal under us grow, pushing us up at an angle. The top of the 'tepee' slammed point first into the ceiling, smashing through with ease. More crystal grew beneath us, pushing at a diagonal angle. I forced more and more power through my body, and we sliced through the earth with ease.
"This is crazy," Natasha said in awe.
"I hope not," I said as we shot through the dirt, the groaning sound of dirt being pushed away by us surrounding my makeshift shovel. "If I am crazy, this would be a bad time to become sane."
"And I thought the helicarrier was the end of me being surprised," Steve muttered.
Behind us and down, the sound of explosions began to sound out. I turned to look at Natasha. She nodded. "Yeah, that would be the Quinjet destroying the base in an attempt to kill us."
I looked at Steve. He looked sad. He leaned against a wall of the tepee, sighing. "I'm sorry," he looked at me. "I know that place meant a lot to you."
We met eyes. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah. I haven't been there in a long time but... it was where I got started."
I nodded at that. "We'll make them pay," I said with a sigh. "SHIELD isn't what you thought it was. But it was made by good people. And with this," I nodded towards the junky looking device on my waist. "We can save it."
"Is it worth saving?" Steve asked.
I looked over at him. He was still staring at the ground. He was staring at his shield. I tried to think of what to say.
"Those people," I finally got out. "The ones in the pictures that you and Natasha were looking at. Who were they?"
Steve looked up at me, sighing. "Yeah, um..." Natasha sat down, looking at him. "They were the founders of SHIELD. Friends of mine. General Chester Phillips. Howard Stark. P-" Steve stopped, swallowing. Then he continued. "Peggy Carter... They'd be horrified if they saw what SHIELD became."
"Some of it was good," Natasha said weakly. She sighed. "I wouldn't have joined if I didn't think so."
We were suddenly in the open air. I opened the tepee by sliding the crystal apart. We'd popped up in a field, a long way away from Camp Lehigh's remains. It was night now and crickets buzzing in the field in the distance.
As we got out, Natasha looked back at the massive crystal jutting out of the earth. "You going to do anything about that?"
"Nope." I sighed. "I already left crystals behind. I might as well give them something insane to dig through. I like the idea of Hydra cleaning up my messes."
At that moment, the Omnitrix timed out in the classic red beeping before flashing out bright red light, turning me human again. I grimaced, looking down at my Omnitrix. "Times up. We need someplace to rest. I'm running out of steam at this point. Plus, we need to look into the data I stole."
"...I think I've got somewhere in mind." Steve said. He hefted his shield.
"What, someone you know?" Natasha asked.
"Iron Man?" I added.
"...Not exactly."
Steve knocked on the sliding glass door in front of us. When it opened, a fit man with dark skin and well-trimmed hair opened the door. He was wearing a purple shirt and looked a bit sweaty. He looked at the three of us. I was standing next to Steve, with Natasha behind me, as always, since she could shoot me in the head faster that way.
"Hey man," the man said.
"How's it going?" I replied. Steve put a hand on my shoulder, looking back at the man.
"I'm sorry about this," Steve said. "We need a place to lay low."
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha said.
The man looked at us. After a moment, he seemed to come to a decision. "Not everyone."
He stepped aside to let us in. I smiled, and the three of us walked past him.
"I'm Mahmoud Schahed, by the way," I said to the man once we'd gone inside.
He smiled, holding a hand out to me. I took it. "Sam Wilson."
I tried to hold back my shock. Holy crap. The Falcon. I looked around the room. Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon...
"Today has been... just the best." I finally said, grinning like a madman.
Steve and Sam gave me weird looks. Natasha narrowed her eyes at me. I just grinned back at them.
Guess I'm an Avenger now?
