Chapter 23
“The Seventh Fleet. Getting ready to attack. We will use plan 300-M.”
Rhodey sent his orders firmly through the speakers to his team members, through all the fighter jets. The jets moved with his orders, forming the shape of an arrowhead, as they attacked the silent ship, hiding in a new rock formation.
Rhodey had chosen to fight in a jet along with his team members. Figuring that he didn’t need his suit for this, but he kept the suit inside his jet, in case of emergency.
He was now firmly focusing on his mission. Determined to bring down that ship, if it did belong to the person who harmed his friends, he sure will destroy the shit out of it.
But then the ship detected their movements, and the formation of the jets as they got closer.
Just as fast, its machines started studying the jets, according to the archives inside it, searching for weak points.
Alarms blared inside it, as it prepared for a fight. The camouflage drops away from it, to make it appear in its original shape, then its engines blared.
Rhodey caught on to that movement from his position, so he sent a firm order to his team. “Now!”
Before he even finished the word, missiles were already being shot from each jet, all towards their one target.
Just as fast, the ship started to escape, trying to avoid all those missiles, while shooting fireballs at the same time.
One of the jets exploded, while another got hit in its right wing, and then started to fall towards the desert’s sand. The pilot seat launched from it, allowing the pilot to escape being crushed.
Meanwhile, the ship managed to somehow avoid all the missiles. All except for one, that fell a few feet away from it, the shock wave of the explosion made the ship lean dangerously towards the ground, only for it to upright itself and try to escape.
“Don’t let it get away!” Rhodey ordered firmly, determined to end this here and now. “Follow it. Third Formation!”
The fleet was divided into three sets, that started to chase down the ship while firing more missiles at it.
This time, the missiles exploded closer to the ship. The ship shook violently, losing its balance for a moment as it leaned forward. At the same time, it started to shoot fireballs again.
Another jet was lost from the fleet.
The three sets of jets separated in three different directions, left right and the middle, shooting again from their new positions all at the same time.
It was obvious that, despite the ship’s advanced technology, it wasn’t made for a violent attack like that.
Most of the missiles exploded around it, as it struggled to avoid them. then one of the missiles exploded on its top, making it lose its balance violently, and it started to spin around itself aimlessly.
“The electromagnetic missiles! Now!” Rhodey saw their chance and took it expertly, getting ready to finish this fight.
His men didn’t waste a second in following his order.
They shot the electromagnetic missiles at their target.
As the advanced missiles exploded around the ship, the fleet retreated fast to avoid the effect of those missiles.
For a second there, the ship didn’t understand the secret behind that sudden retreat.
Then it no longer understood anything. Nothing.
That’s because the electromagnetic missiles had released a strong field around it, making all its machines go haywire before the ship dropped on the ground violently.
The moment it hit the sand, Rhodey called out through the speakers. “The target is down, sir!”
“Move on to the Control Phase!” came his commander’s voice eagerly.
“Yes, sir!”
Back in the base, through the screen, The commander, Fury, and Maria watched the Seventh Fleet making a full round in the sky, before approaching the ship again, which was crawling pathetically on the sand, before hitting a group of rocks and stopping.
It caught on the Fleet’s attack and was studying their motive, their movement, preparing to defend itself.
But the Jets released their new special weapon.
From each jet, splashed a white, gooey liquid, that covered the ship completely.
For a second, the ship’s machines didn’t understand what had happened, but it checked its archives and found out what this new weapon was. It was a magnetic, isolating material. Its purpose is to isolate any body from its surroundings, stopping all its systems and machines and-
That was the last thing the ship’s machines recorded before it stopped completely.
“The target is under control!” Rhodey announced through the speaker excitedly, feeling a wonderful sense of victory.
“Amazing!” Fury exclaimed, his eye glinting in victory. “Your men really did it!”
“Let’s make sure everything is all right before we start celebrating.” The commander said firmly, still not letting himself relax just yet, as he called out to Rhodey. “Make three rounds around the target, until you make sure it has stopped.”
“Yes, sir!”
The fleet followed their orders, making rounds around the target, which was still covered with the spongy white material.
“Everything seems all right,” Rhodey reported back to the base, eyeing every single detail. “The target is stable and unmoving. Our detectors aren’t detecting any signals coming from it. We made a full round around it, we found nothing unusual. We are about to start another round and-“
Rhodey cut himself off suddenly, making a shiver run through Maria and for Fury to furrow his brows nervously as he exchanged a worried look with the commander.
“What happened, Rhodes? Why did you stop?” The commander called out through the speakers.
“We-uh, we are detecting a steady signal all of the sudden, sir.” Rhodey’s voice came back to him, sounding confused and nervous. “As if it’s coming-coming from-“
Rhodey failed to finish his sentence, making everyone in the room even more nervous and worried.
“From where, Rhodes? From where?!” Fury exclaimed, unable to withstand the suspense.
“Shit, it’s getting stronger and closer!” Rhodey announced in frustration.
“Where is it coming from? From Where?!” The commander repeated, getting more and more frustrated.
“From above!” Rhodey answered in confusion, but they didn’t get to ask him to clarify, because the sound of an explosion came back to them, then the line went silent.
The connection was lost with the Seventh Fleet.
No one in the room said a word. Their eyes just met, channeling the confusion and panic they were all feeling right now.
***
“We only found a dead agent.”
The Security Team Leader announced in frustration, waving his arm as he continued. “That person vanished completely without a trace! As if he disappeared into thin air! We searched every inch of the hospital, but we found no trace of him!”
“He did leave a trace.” Tony pointed out confidently, a sure look on his face.
“What trace?” The team leader asked curiously.
“Here it is.” Tony pointed at the blood splattered across Erik’s face and bed.
“Oh! His blood!” Bruce’s eyes gleamed excitedly when he noticed the splattered blood. “That is the best trace we can get!”
Charles squeezed Erik’s hand tightly, in a way that showed all his worry and panic for his husband, as he sat next to him on the bed, murmuring under his breath. “He tried to kill my husband. He tried to kill Erik!”
Tony placed a hand on Charles's shoulder, looking at him softly in understanding.
“Your illegal entrance had saved his life.” He stated with a small smile before he was overwhelmed by the pleasure of seeing Charles and his eyes watered a little from the strong emotion. “God, Charles, you have no idea how much I am happy to see you!”
Charles raised his eyes to meet Tony’s, before standing up and pulled Tony into a tight hug, squeezing him tightly in his arms.
“I am sorry. I am sorry, Tony, it took me this long to come.” Charles murmured earnestly, as he pulled his childhood friend closer. “I am sorry you had to go through all of this. I am here now. We will deal with this together. I promise.”
Tony buried his face into Charles’ shoulder, as he gripped the back of his shirt tightly. Allowing himself to feel the reassurance of having his childhood friend here with him. filling some of the void he was feeling, from the moment Steve had fallen, leaving him behind.
No one interrupted them. They gave them that moment, letting them feel reassured for just a moment.
Charles finally let him go, giving him a warm smile, before his eyes turned back to Erik, a worried, haunted look came over his features, as he acknowledged the situation, they were in. Tony then noticed that Charles was hurt. His arm was bandaged up, and there were bruises on his face.
“Wait, why are you hurt?!” Tony questioned with wide eyes, gripping Charles’ uninjured arm tightly.
“Long story. I will explain when Erik is not in earshot.” Charles smiled at him reassuringly, despite the pain obvious in his eyes.
“So, you already know that he can sense everything around him?” Charlie asked in surprise, eyeing Charles in awe.
“Of course. I can hear him yelling in his mind right now.” Charles pointed out with a slight, tired smile, patting Erik’s hand reassuringly. “You have no idea how much he hates his current situation. It pains me to see him like this, but I am relieved to find that he can feel me here.”
“We need to move fast, then!” Bruce turned to face Alex, who was silently gawking at Charles the entire time. “Dr. Rousseau! Quick! We need to get a blood sample from that splattered blood! I am going to analyze it myself! We need to act fast.”
But Alex remained standing there, staring at Charles, murmuring under her breath. “Charles Xavier is here! He is really here! He is here!”
Obviously, the young doctor was fangirling hard right now, at seeing another one of her role models standing in front of her.
Tony was tempted to roll his eyes, while Charles smiled at the young doctor, making her almost faint right then and there.
“I heard what you have been doing so far, Doctor.” Charles gave her a gentle smile, moving to pat her on the shoulder. “I can’t thank you enough for helping my husband and friends all this time. Thank you so much.”
“It’s-it’s-I, uh, I was just doing my-my j-job, profe-professor!” Alex squeaked out, her face bright red, as she stammered through her flustration at being thanked by Charles Xavier. “It’s-my-my pleas-pleasure! I-I-!”
Her brain short-circuited then, alarm bells ranged through her head, as she struggled to regain control of her senses.
“Great, you broke our doctor. Good job, Big Brain” Tony rolled his eyes, unable to help the small, amused smile that played on his lips. That was the first smile he managed to have for a few days now.
“No! no, I am fine! I will get the blood samples now! I am fine!” Alex scrambled to get back to work, her face still bright red, Charles chuckled a little as he watched her being flustered by his presence.
“Is anyone else surprised to see the blood’s color is red like ours?” Charlie murmured nervously, eyeing the blood splutter in question.
“Why surprised?” Bruce blinked at her, confused.
“I don’t know.” Charlie shrugged, scratching her head. “I just thought the blood of an alien would be blue or green or-“
“An alien?!” The Leader of the security team exclaimed indignantly. “That person looked very human to me!”
“That's what I thought too.” Charles pointed out with a frown, tilting his head a little. “I didn’t see anything abnormal or not human about him.”
“Did you forget that he is related to that thing that almost destroyed the hospital?!” Charlie pointed out, getting frustrated.
“Did you forget that that creature was just a robot?” Tony murmured, frowning as he thought about all this.
“No, I didn’t forget.” Charlie waved her arm in frustration, with a shake of her head. “But the entire situation is confusing and weird, that I don’t get anything anymore!”
“This just means that I need to get back to work immediately,” Tony announced firmly, a new determination filling him. “With a slight modification.”
“What modification?” Alex asked curiously, while still working on getting the blood samples.
“I will not just translate Castiel’s brain waves,” Tony answered as he pointed at Erik’s EEG device. “I will connect the EEG device of everyone’s brain to my laptop.” He turned to Charles nodding at him. “You will help with that. We seriously need a team meeting right now.”
His words seemed weird and overwhelming to everyone, and no one commented or said a word for a few seconds. Up until Alex announced that she collected enough blood to be analyzed, as she handed it over to Bruce.
“Well then, excuse me, everybody.” Bruce nodded at them, an eager look on his face. “I want to analyze that blood sample right now. I am curious about what I will find. I will have to use my own tools since the labs were destroyed, and that will take more time.”
“Wait, Bruce.” Tony stopped him firmly, turning towards the leader of security. “That person, whoever he is, knows very well that the blood he left behind will help us one way or another. The possibility of him trying to stop us from analyzing it is very high. I need full protection for Bruce as he works. You need to protect him and the results no matter what. Make sure that the room he will work in will be kept a secret. Use every possible way to protect him completely. This is very important; I will go as far as risking our lives for this. Bruce needs to finish his work no matter what. Are we clear?”
He was talking very firmly, his leadership taking over so effectively that no one objected and listened to his orders very carefully.
The leader nodded in determination, turning to his men. “Come on. We have work to do.”
Then left the room along with Bruce, who turned to Tony to give him a nod before leaving.
Tony took a deep breath, turning to face Charles, Charlie, and Alex, who were eyeing him, waiting for him to tell them what to do.
Tony tried to feel confident, despite his inner worry about where they were going from now. Things were still complicated and confusing.
He seriously needs a team meeting. Immediately.
He turned to the others.
“We have our own work to do.”