Chapter 26
The Seventh Fleet retreated carefully, watching the ship as it lifted off the ground slowly, glowing with a blue light.
Each one pulled out their guns, and one of them asked Rhodey nervously “Sir, what’s happening?!”
Rhodey raised his own gun, pointing at the ship, at the same time, he tried to send a signal to his suit inside his jet but got no response. His signal device must have malfunctioned as well, so now he had to get to his suit himself manually. He didn’t think he had time to do that right now. He doubts that it will work because of the goddamn bomb.
“That orange-sized bomb, that stopped our machines, must have had an opposite effect on the ship. It made its machines to work again one way or another.” Rhodey answered the earlier question, frowning hard as he watched the ship carefully.
“But that foam was supposed to stop it from working!” Another pilot exclaimed in frustration.
“I don’t know.” Rhodey shrugged in confusion, a trickle of sweat trailed down the side of his face. He really wished the Avengers were here. At least one of them with him would have made him feel more confident. “It should have, but-“
Before he could finish the sentence, the ship turned on its center slowly, facing the Seventh Fleet with its front.
“Shit, it is preparing to attack!” One of the pilots exclaimed, aiming his gun at the ship.
Rhodey furrowed his brows, his brain working to study the situation.
The movement of the ship really did indicate that it was about to hunt them down.
The desert was wide and endless around them. they had nowhere to hide or run. Except for their jets, an exploding jet is more destructive than a fireball.
There was no escape. Only death.
“Seventh Fleet.” He called out in a firm, strong voice. The voice of a man who accepted his fate with determination. A man who was ready to go down fighting. He aimed his gun at the ship. “Make the price of your blood precious.”
Everyone understood what he meant. They all steeled their faces and accepted their fates. Determined to fight until their last man stood, they all followed their leader’s lead aiming the guns at the ship.
The ship made its full turn. Now facing them completely.
“Now!”
Rhodey’s shout was strong and sharp, its echo spread out around them in the wide desert.
With his shout, the guns were shot. Bullets showering at the ship relentlessly.
A part of the foam surrounding the ship exploded, letting out a fireball, that hit one of the pilots in the chest, throwing him back violently, to fall back on the desert’s sand, ten feet away.
The rest never stopped shooting. The ship answered with another fireball. Another victim fell.
Despite the hopeless situation, Rhodey and his men never backed down. They kept shooting relentlessly. Raining their bullets on the ship. Even with how hopeless they all feel.
Rhodey wished he could see his friends and family one more time. He wished he could be with them in the Tower one more time. To feel their warmth and hear their loud, obnoxious voices again.
“I am sorry, Tony. Everyone.” Rhodey murmured under his breath bitterly as he kept shooting, and another one of his men got hit next to him. resisting the witness in his eyes. “I don’t think I can come home, guys.”
Just when everything seemed hopeless, they heard something coming from the sky, making them look up with wide eyes.
SHIELD Quinjets appeared in the sky, making their way towards the ship with no hesitation.
The moment Rhodey noticed the giant metal net that was connected to all the Quinjets, he understood what was happening.
“Fall back! Quickly!” He shouted at his men, as they all turned and ran away as fast as they could.
The ship stopped shooting its fireballs, its machines focusing on the Quinjets instead.
But the Quinjets didn’t give it a chance to act, as they dropped the giant net over it.
The net covered the ship completely, then electric sparks passed through it violently. Hundreds of sparks spread through the net and into the ship’s body.
The ship jerked again and again until it stopped completely. Then, just then, it dropped to the ground completely unmoving.
Declaring its utter defeat this time.
***
“From the future?!”
Charles repeated Castiel’s words indignantly, staring at the laptop’s screen with wide eyes, watching Castiel’s picture blinking back at him innocently as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on their heads.
“That’s just a strange explanation, Castiel.” He continued, brows furrowing in frustration, still unable to comprehend what Castiel just said. “I would believe that he is an alien, that would explain his actions and motives, but being from the future? That just makes things more complicated and confusing.”
“On the contrary, Charles. That explanation makes things more sensible and understandable, despite how strange it is,” Erik answered instead of Castiel, already on the same wavelength as the angel. “Everything that person uses, is just an advanced version of things we already have now. If we kept improving those things for another ten years, it would be even better than what he has. The DNA targeted weapons. The clear crystal that filled with nerve chemicals, even the electromagnetic invisibility shield. Trust me, what Castiel just said, makes perfect sense.”
“What about that cyborg?” Bruce pointed out, still not convinced and getting a little nervous.
“An update to an already existing project, Bruce, that still had not much success so far.” Steve was the one to answer this time.
“The unknown elements?” Tony asked quietly, his face still a little pale and looked unnerved.
“That was the point that made me confused and unsure from the start.” Castiel finally started to talk and explain his point. “I was wondering, how can a human from the future get his hands on two unknown elements?”
“I am still wondering about that here,” Charles muttered with a frown.
“The answer is still the same, Charles. The future. Only the future can reveal new elements that we still don’t know anything about in the present. The space travels, the universal discoveries, the geological analysis of meteors that fall on the Earth and the moon. All that will certainly reveal new elements that we still can’t detect or find right now.” Castiel explained patiently, willing to convince them with his theory for as long as they needed.
“That’s not valid though.” Bruce objected.
“And there is nothing that says otherwise, either.” Castiel countered back without missing a beat.
Bruce frowned, thinking about all this deeply before he turned to Tony, who was strangely quiet the entire time. “What words are written on the screw, Tony?”
Tony was quiet for a few seconds, a hesitant look on his face, before waving the screw in his hand, answering shortly. “Stark Industries. It has my company’s name on it. My company made that robot.”
Bruce and Charles’ eyes widened, their eyebrows jumping so high, it almost reached their hairlines. It would have looked comical to Tony at any other time, but he didn’t feel like laughing right now.
His company will make that robot in the future. It could have been him who made it. It could have been Sydney’s father. His kid that he will have one day with Steve somehow.
The idea was so overwhelming to him, he felt the floor swimming under his feet and it was becoming very hard to breathe.
“Maybe-maybe you are right after all, Castiel,” Bruce murmured, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat, before turning and leaving the room without another word sharply.
“What’s with him?” Tony blinked in confusion, not understanding Bruce’s reaction.
“He is just overwhelmed and confused. Unable to comprehend all this.” Charles explained with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, fending off a headache. “It is making him frustrated, that he decided to escape the situation for now.”
“That makes two of us, but I can’t storm out and escape the situation too right now in my current state,” Dean announced, his own frustration was evident, despite the monotone voice. “Lucky bastard.”
“I just don’t understand. I can’t imagine a person coming specifically from the future just to attack us.” Charles shook his head, still feeling a headache threatening his head. “Especially with some points that still don’t make sense.”
“Like what?” Tony tilted his head, looking at him curiously.
“The things that we found out from SHIELD.” Charles gestured with his hands in frustration, “That mysterious ship that Rhodey is currently fighting. The reflected space message that we interjected. All that says Alien invasion more to me.”
“That’s the whole point of that ship and message, Charles.” Castiel immediately explained wasting no time. “To confuse us. Make everything look like an alien invasion, to steer us away from the truth. If you think about it, those points were made to be detected easily. To be discovered. That is the doing of someone who wants us to notice those things, not hide them.”
“But that ship was detected as it entered from space, remember?” Tony reminded him helpfully, feeling like he was missing an important point, that his brain wasn’t focusing on.
“If you want my opinion, that ship is definitely a Time Machine,” Dean announced, his words seeming a lot calmer now as if he made peace with the whole idea. “That guy launched it from the future, out of the atmosphere, and right towards the Nil zone then went through one of the Time Holes to come to our time. Remember that, Tony?”
“What Sydney did. What we also did with her!” Tony exclaimed with gleaming eyes, as he finally remembered the thought that was tingling in his brain all that time.
“Exactly.”
A silence fell in the room as everyone thought about Dean’s point, finding it very convincing, and couldn’t believe it passed by all their heads.
“Nice thinking, Dean. The paralysis did wonders to your perception.” Castiel complimented his husband, his monotone voice made him sound deadpan, which made it funnier.
“I kinda can’t do anything right now except thinking, Cas. It’s exhausting but better than doing nothing.” Dean snarked back without missing a beat.
“I am sorry everyone, I still can’t wrap my mind around all this.” Charles exhaled hard. Probably because he had never met Sydney, it was hard for him to accept all this just as easily.
“Do you agree with the idea of the fireballs following our DNA?” Castiel questioned him, willing to convince him even more, he had nothing better to do right then anyway.
“Of course, even though I didn’t witness this myself, I believe it is the most reasonable explanation.”
“All right, then ask yourself this. How did that man get his hands on our DNA?”
The question surprised both Charles and Tony at the same time, making their eyes widen, before they frowned as they did ask themselves that question.
Yes, how did that man get their DNA?
The only place that held their DNA and their genetic code was SHIELD, for security reasons and identity confirmation.
That man didn’t infiltrate SHIELD. His robot did, but he himself didn’t.
Besides, their profiles, which contained their DNA and all their other important information were kept very safe, in a classified place, that only Fury knew about. Fury told them that he wouldn’t misplace important stuff like that for anyone to find.
Then how did he do it? How did he get their DNA?
“He got it from our future.” Castiel, as if reading their minds, answered the question himself. “A future that we are no longer in. A future where we became just a memory. History. He probably got it from a museum that held the profiles of past heroes or something. It would have been very easy for him to get his hands on our DNA like that.”
His explanation made sense. So much, that a shiver ran through Tony and Charles’ bodies. They felt shaken. Overwhelmed. The thought scared them, but they couldn’t deny it anymore.
“Yes. That is really the only explanation.” Charles relented, hands clenching into fists, as he felt overwhelmed and so small suddenly, while Tony remained silent, dazed.
“We are glad you guys are convinced because you are our only hope to be out of this paralyzed state,” Steve announced after a while, giving them time to swallow the idea fully.
“I wish I could.” Tony bit his lower lip bitterly, his shoulders falling in defeat and bitterness. “I wish I could remember the components of the substance you and Erik were injected with, that pulled you out of that state temporarily. He destroyed every result we got. I don’t know what to do.”
“Wait, you saw the results, right?” Charles turned to him, straightening up suddenly as he stared hard at Tony. “You saw the components with your eyes?”
“Yes, I did.” Tony frowned at him, not sure what is he getting at. “Why are you asking?”
“You have a telepath with you, Tony.” Charles grinned at him, his face glowing with renewed hope and excitement. “You know what that means right?”
Tony blinked at him for a second, before his eyes widened, a grin forming on his face to match Charles.
“Yes, that’s right.” Charles’ smile turned a little manic, thrilled to be finally useful in this situation. “I can get the substance’s components from your mind.”