Chapter 5
ROYAL AIR FORCE FIELD - GLASTONBURY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH 1943
1802 (6:02PM)
Athena was helped up by Bucky once the plane had landed and was met by Peggy who lifted the bandage on one side of her gunshot wound and looked at it with a bit of a grimace. “Mother is going to need to look at that, it looks like my cauterizing the wound stopped the bleeding but I’d rather you have her check it out to be sure.”
“As if I could stop her from fussing over me, especially once she sees this,” Athena said, rolling her eyes. She followed Peggy out of the plane as the men gathered behind them. Once they were down on the tarmac Athena watched as three cars came from the control area of the field towards them.
“Five pounds says that’s your parents,” Howard said, earning a look from Peggy as he, Steve and Bucky joined them.
“That’s a fool's bet, the question is if any of the rest of the family is with them” Athena questioned out loud.
“Depends if they were nearby but my guess is they will either be at the manor or be there shortly since you sent Zulu 99” Peggy answered and Athena wondered if her sister realized that Howard and Steve had moved to be directly behind her with Steve on her right and Howard on her left so he could also be snarky in Athena’s ear.
They watched as the back doors of the middle car opened before it fully stopped in front of them and a man wearing a general’s uniform and a woman wearing a major’s uniform got out of the car and headed directly for them. Behind her Athena could hear the men that were out of the plane including Steve and Bucky snap to attention and salute but the general and major didn’t notice.
Athena felt Peggy push her forward and seconds later she was being embraced by her parents and that is when she lost the battle inside with her emotions. Especially when she could feel the tears her father was crying on top of her forehead as he held her in his tall six foot frame and could hear her mother thanking a lot of the old gods her family still worshiped for her safe return.
It was only a few moments but it felt like heaven to Athena but soon her father cleared his throat and loosened his grip on her and took a step back looking into her eyes. “Don’t you dare do that to me again Athena” her father told her in a stern voice but she could see the tears in his eyes and that this war had really aged him again from the last time she saw him.
“I’ll try not to dad, promise” Athena answered honestly as she felt her mother squeeze her one last time as well and take a step back before turning towards Peggy and hugging her tightly as well.
“You seem to have arrived with more than what we were expecting” her father said, nodding after her promise. Athena went to answer but was stopped by her mother coming up to her again with Peggy at her side moving her shirt aside to look at her right shoulder. Sighing Athena shot Peggy a dirty look as their mom began poking and prodding around the wound after moving the bandage to the side.
“Don’t you huff at me Athena Maria Mary Carter! I’d like it if you girls can come home just once not injured and don't you snicker Howard Anthony Stark, you are just as bad as these two” their mother scolded without having to look away from Athena’s wound.
“Yes Ma’am” Howard answered from a few steps back, still trying to give the family space.
“Well, I’m not injured mother so you should be at least partially pleased,” Peggy said, trying to distract their mother.
“Not obviously like your sister but don’t think I don’t see how you were walking just now. You and I will be having an interesting conversation since it seems you have become sexually active finally” their mother said shooting Peggy a look before taping the bandage back down to Athena’s skin at least partially pleased by what she found when examining the wound.
Athena snickered at her sisters blushing at their mother’s words and the raised eyebrow their father was giving her as well but neither the words or looks were judgmental. Despite societal taboos of sex before marriage or meeting your soulmate her mother had raised all of them in the old ways of the Celtic people.
Where if soulmates meet then it was a great blessing but sex was a natural part of life and there was no shame in taking part in it. Of the three siblings, it was only Peggy who would blush whenever the topic of sex would come up and Athena knew their mother worried about her. Their shared gift of being Fire Elementals was tied to their emotions meaning they could either burn with an intense temper or a fiery passion if there wasn’t balance in their lives.
Maybe it was Peggy’s inner Fire Elemental that was pulling both Howard and Steve towards her because one thing Athena knew from sitting in on their mother teaching Peggy about their ability is that their inner Fire Elemental was a living breathing thing within them. It was that lesson that had kept Athena from freaking out when she realized there was now a bundle of primal emotions in her mind that seemed to be its own sentient being within her.
“My Lord, I have arranged for a truck to come since there is not enough room for everyone and the gear in the cars” Agent Gawain Wilson said after coming up to the small group. It was weird to hear Gawain call her father My Lord but then she realized that Steve and Bucky had moved up to the small group and all the guardsmen and guardswomen of her parents personal guard were sticklers for protocol when anyone not deemed family were within hearing range.
“Thank you Gawain. My daughters were about to tell me exactly what is going on” he answered before looking at the two of them. Athena saw Peggy nod to her letting her know that this was Athena’s show.
“It’s bigger and worse than we were expecting. We will need to read them all in and probably recruit more men for a very specialized Commando unit” Athena answered her father in a low voice. “For now we need Colonel Phillips, Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes with us. We do have one turned German Lieutenant with us that has risked his life to get us valuable intel on Hydra but I’d suggest he bunks with the rest of the men till we can question him and assess the intel.”
“How bad are we looking at?” her father asked and Athena could see the weight of his position again settle on her father’s shoulder and in his eyes.
“Zulu level confirmed. The Tesseract was real and Hydra has figured out a way to weaponize it. There was talk of a second artifact but I only have a bare description that I overheard from my guards” Athena answered watching her father wince when she mentioned her guards and reached out to squeeze his hand for a moment. “I’m here Dad and I survived.”
“Yes but it aged and changed you, my little surprise” he responded back with the pet name he had always called her since she was a baby before giving her hand a last squeeze.
She watched as her father took a breath before fully stepping back and turned to walk over and greet Colonel Phillips. “I’m sorry about that Colonel Phillips. I’d like to welcome you and your men to Royal Air Force Field Glastonbury.”
“Think nothing of it Sir. If it was my daughter, I’d be doing the same thing” Colonel Phillips answered before taking the offered hand of her father.
“I need you, Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes to join us for a discussion. The rest of your men will be brought along shortly to where all of you will be staying for now” her father explained before turning towards Lieutenant Koenig in his pressed German uniform that stuck out like a sore thumb among the other men they had brought.
“Lieutenant Koenig, I understand you have some valuable information and that you risked your life to bring it. At this time if you agree to stay with one of the other men that arrived with you at all times and not to go wandering off alone I believe you can stay with them for now.” her father offered.
“That is more than agreeable General” the young Lieutenant Koenig answered in highly accented English.
“Very well. Captain Wilson will be arranging transport for these men and show them where they will be staying at Glastonbury Manor and get them settled with warm showers, fresh uniforms and a meal. The rest of us will be heading directly to Glastonbury Manor for a discussion” her father said, leaving one of her mother’s guardsmen to watch over the rest of the men.
GLASTONBURY MANOR
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16TH 1943
0508 (5:08AM)
She ran through the woods with the sound of snapping branches and the crunching of dead leaves announcing her presence to everything in the woods but she didn’t care about if anyone or anything heard her. This run wasn’t the run of the hunt, it was the run of needing to feel the pull of muscles and the burning in her lungs. To feel the cold wind across her face as she pushed her body harder, faster, farther than before trying to run away from her ever shifting emotions and thoughts since she had come back home almost a month ago.
It had been good to come home, to be with her family, her pack but with it brought time to think and really start to process the last year. Her godmother Maria had helped her with her water elemental powers but it had been surprisingly Sergeant James Howlett one of the men they brought back from Switzerland that had helped her with the primal part of her brain. Though Howlett couldn’t transform like she could, he understood the primal drive that she now had to make sure she didn’t lose herself to.
Howlett was actually a bit jealous that she could transform her body the way she could because she was now able to give a form to the primal part of her body. Of course Athena didn’t realize that she could do that until a week ago when she woke up from a nightmare and felt the need to run. Once she had been outside she had felt the pull to run towards the woods and as she ran through the woods she had gone to jump over a fallen tree and transformed mid jump into a very large wolf.
At first it had been a momentary shock to transform into a four legged, black fur covered beast with a tail but as she landed and felt the connection to the earth and everything around her it just felt right. It felt like this was how it always should have been, like her transformation and her ability to just know things about this part of her was like waking from a long dream. Her parents' theory was that she might have had the ability to do this from her life before they found her and it had been suppressed somehow till what Zola gave her unlocked it again.
She knew what had triggered last night’s nightmare, they were due to begin training the next day. They were still going to be staying at Glastonbury Manor mainly during the training but they only had a few months to become a cohesive unit to take the fight directly to Hydra. It was winter now and the war was at a bit of a stalemate again due to the weather. They would have to use that time to train because once it became spring again they would need to be ready. It was that last word that was haunting Athena at the moment because she wasn’t sure if she was ready or ever would be ready again to face the darkness.
Huffing Athena pushed her wolf form’s body faster as she reached the edge of her family's land and began to run along the border for another few hours just losing herself in the run. She had to be ready, self doubt had no place in her mind.
ROYAL AIR FORCE FIELD - GLASTONBURY
TUESDAY, JUNE 6TH 1944
0007 (12:07AM)
Athena felt a hand slide into her own as the plane piloted by two pilots specifically chosen for this mission began to taxi the plane down the runway. Looking to her left she saw Peggy with her face covered in black boot polish looking stoically ahead with her other hand in Steve’s oversized hand. It had taken some convincing but finally both of them made their case to be in the field with the unit on missions, especially this one.
The Howling Commandos as they got nicknamed much to Athena’s embarrassment because it was the men mimicking her wolf howl one night during a training mission that got them the name in the first place. However hard she fought the name the guys would laugh and begin howling just to take the mickey out of her. Eventually after a conversation with Steve and Bucky she stopped threatening to bite everyone in her wolf form to see what happened every time they started to bloody howl….well at least she wasn’t using the threat for that anymore at least. She still had to threaten the guys in some shape or form at least once a week since she worked and lived with a group of practical jokers.
Prank wars at Glastonbury Manor had taken a whole new meaning from the easy days of her childhood with Michael and Peggy, with the introduction of the Commandos and Howard now into the mix. There were days she wasn’t sure if her father regretted hosting the eclectic group they had assembled over the last six months from all allied branches of the military and intelligence services in order to create the unit.
Athena knew there was a time or two that her mother and godmother had gotten caught in the middle of a prank gone wrong only to have the men that did it running as fireballs and snowballs chased them around the grounds. There was even one time King George or as she called him Uncle Bertie, her godfather got caught in one spectacular prank involving glue and pink and purple confetti when he had arrived unannounced one morning to visit with the unit.
She remembered as the two culprits Juniper and Wilson's faces paled as if they could hear the King order them off with their heads in their minds but then his wife Elizabeth had walked in moments later with their daughters who all started laughing at Bertie’s predicament. Soon everyone was laughing including her uncle the King as he joked that pink and purple really weren’t his colors.
Distant explosions pulled Athena out of her trip down memory lane as she squeezed her sister’s hand one more time before once again checking the gear she had strapped and tied down across her body. She watched as Steve stood up and went to speak with the pilots as they got closer to the explosions. They were one plane in a group of many planes but they were the only one of the group actually fully manned.
The rest of the planes were carrying dummy units or nicknamed “Rupert” that they were to use to mimic actual airborne units landing in the area they were heading for. The “Rupert” were supposed to sow confusion and chaos in the German units in France causing them to chase one way while the rest of the airborne and sea landings were in the opposite direction. Only their one plane was going to be jumping in the middle of that chaos because they needed to take out the Hydra base in the area before the landings. The last thing they needed was Hydra units deploying to counter the invasion with the Tesseract fueled weapons or anything else that they might have cooking.
The anti aircraft explosions got closer and closer and soon began to rock their plane around as if they were on the roller coaster Steve and Bucky had told them about a few times from when they were kids. They had joked around that after the war all of the Commandos needed to join them at Coney Island to celebrate but with the plane being thrown around Athena looked around and saw the grim look in all the men's eyes as they once again were facing their mortality.
“Five minutes from jump point” Steve yelled out as everyone began to stand up and hold up onto the grab bar. They weren’t jumping with the standard airborne parachute but the one given to pilots in case they have to bail out of their plane. Instead of the manual ripcord it was a manual ripcord that they each had to pull once they were clear of the plane. It had taken some training to get used to the parachutes and Howard had tweaked the design a bit to give them a little more control of their maneuverability in the air.
A particular close blast of an anti aircraft shell knocked almost all of them on their asses with only Steve, Peggy and Bucky staying upright while her and the rest of the commandos had to pick themselves up. Peggy had only stayed upright because Athena had pushed her towards Steve making sure he kept her sister from getting hurt. Athena rolled her eyes as she watched while getting up as her sister kissed Steve earning her a wolf whistle from Bucky. Peggy had given the man a two finger salute all the while still kissing Steve.
“Get a room you two!” Athena yelled, throwing a snowball at the two she had just created to break them up as the light turned from red to yellow. Everyone laughed as Peggy gave her a disgruntled look before sighing and stepping back from Steve as the light turned from yellow to green.
“Let’s go Howlies!” Steve yelled out but then howled as he jumped out the door.
“I’m biting him in the ass!” Athena called out as Peggy went to follow but all she got as a response was a two finger salute of her own and a howl from her sister. Athena ran for the door and jumped and once she had counted down she pulled her ripcord on her chute grunting at the force of it opening. Around her she could see the other Howlies chutes around her just barely in the dim light of the anti aircraft tracer rounds that lit up the sky but also grinned as the French Resistance attacks seemed to have struck on schedule and with success. As three large fires burning just below them formed a triangle with the farthest point being where they were aiming for.
Taking a deep breath Athena got ready to tuck and roll as she landed onto the ground not off where they are supposed to assemble for the mission. Tucking and rolling onto the ground she continued the roll to dig her feet into the ground so she could stop the parachute from dragging her and get it off quickly. Around her she could hear a few more of the commandos working to get their chutes off as well.
Within seconds Athena was free and unstrapped her rifle and brought it up to a ready position as she took a deep breath through her nose and let her senses take in the smells around her. To her right was Dum Dum Dugan cursing his pack as she could hear him getting his trademark bowler hat out of it. Athena wanted to roll her eyes at the brawler mountain of a man but he wasn’t the most eccentric of their rag tag group.
Giving a low long whistle she was answered by two short whistles before she moved over towards Dugan. Meeting the man’s eyes he nodded to her as she took another deep sniff of the hair and began moving them to the next Howlie closest to them which was Dino Manelli. Manelli was their second chameleon of the unit while she was the first. He was fluent in Italian and German and acting skills that made him a big name star in Hollywood before the war but gave it up when the war broke out enlisting under his birth name instead of his screen name which could have gotten him a cushy position selling war bonds or some such nonsense.
Athena had mad respect for the man and once she gathered him up she took another sniff heading to the next Commando who was Jerry Larkin, Manelli’s best friend in Hollywood who had followed his friend with enlisting and where one went the other followed. Hearing cursing coming from above them Athena and the other Howlies looked up and had to fight their laughter as they spied Jonathan "Junior" Juniper the youngest Howlie hanging upside down from his chute about fifteen feet above the ground. At twenty one years of age, he was still baby faced and so innocent when it came to somethings but his brother Howlies were slowly corrupting him.
“Damn it Junior, how do you always end up in these weird situations?” Athena whispered as she looked for a way to get the young-man down, hopefully without blowing up the explosives that he was carrying in his back as one of their demolition specialists.
“I somehow ran into an owl coming down and it got caught in my lines. Luckily the little guy was able to escape but I ended up landing this way” whispered Junior as Bucky came up finding them under the tree then facepalmed when he spotted Junior. Behind him were Fury, Pinky, Izzy and Happy.
“Only you kid” Bucky sighed only to have his statement punctuated by the hoot of an owl that came from further up in the tree. “I’ll catch him if you want to cut him down, Athena.”
NORMANDY, FRANCE
TUESDAY, JUNE 6TH 1944
0123 (1:23AM)
Captain Steve Rogers crouched down low with the Howling Commandos that have made their way to the assembly area. He decided they would wait seven more minutes before moving on their objective with who they had at the moment. Hopefully the rest of the unit were just either lost or delayed instead of possibly dead or captured. A sound to his right had him bring up his hand gun with Peggy who was next to him bringing up her Thompson.
He sighed and whistled two low short blasts answering the challenge as Bucky and Athena brought the rest of the Howling Commandos into the small clearing. The men greeted each other as Steve looked over those that just arrived to see if any of them were injured. Looking towards Bucky and Athena he could see Athena had a few cuts on her arms.
“Don’t ask” Athena growled, shooting Junior a look that made the young man hide behind Dugan. Steve looked at Bucky who had a smirk on his face that meant he wasn’t going to keep this story to himself.
“Junior pulled a Junior and got stuck in a tree upside down because he got tangled with an owl on the way down. Athena went up the tree to cut him down and the owl attacked her” Bucky finished laughing as Athena knocked him down onto the ground.
“Bloody bird. It will heal in an hour or so, just freaking annoying” Athena said, taking her arm back from Peggy’s grip as she inspected the cuts. Steve placed a hand on Peggy’s shoulder to stop her from getting in a tussle with her sister over some cuts. Athena was in a bit of a mood and he knew this was her first time back in the field with her new abilities and after spending nearly a year as a prisoner of war. Steve didn’t know exactly what Athena had gone through in that year but he knew it changed her from what Peggy and Howard had told him how she used to be.
“Think you are up to take Shadow for a stroll” Steve asked, getting them on track to begin the mission and to get Athena out scouting. Athena’s answer was a thankful grin before she slowly morphed gear and all into her wolf form that they had named Shadow because it was pure black with only her bright blue eyes looking back at you. Steve watched Shadow stand up on all fours quickly giving Peggy a long sloppy wet kiss on her cheek before disappearing into the night.
NORMANDY, FRANCE
TUESDAY, JUNE 6TH 1944
0204 (2:04AM)
Shadow trotted back into the clearing full of the Howlies and within one step to the next Shadow morphed back into Athena and she moved towards Steve to give her scouting report. Her scouting trip showed that some things had changed from their latest intelligence report from the French Resistance just a few weeks ago.
“How does it look?” Steve asked her, handing her half of a candy bar. All the Howlies knew by now to always have something ready for Athena to munch on when she got back from scouting as Shadow since her wolf form always left her feeling hungry.
“About what we were told” Athena said before crouching down and drawing in the dirt available what they were looking at as all the men gathered around and heard what she had found. “The facility has some more activity than we were expecting with a new guard tower here on the northeast corner of the building. Looks like it might be a machine gun position but it is pointed towards the facility so the intelligence we have of PoWs being held inside there is likely. Other than that there are only foot patrols on the fence line.”
“Okay we go in as planned. Dugan you will take the majority of the Howlies and hit the northeast guard position drawing the majority of the troops towards you. Myself, Bucky, Peggy, Athena and Junior will go inside and rescue any PoWs and planting charges as we go. If we can capture the facility then blow it great. If not we will lead the prisoners out the front door pinching any resistance between us on the way out” Steve ordered as Athena looked up and watched as he looked everyone in the eye before continuing.
“The mission is to rescue any PoWs and blow up the facility before we make our way towards the beach to help with the landings. Trust your training, trust each other and give them hell!”
HYDRA FACILITY - NORMANDY, FRANCE
TUESDAY, JUNE 6TH 1944
0324 (3:24AM)
Bucky waited for the signal from Dugan’s unit as he followed the guard with his rifle. Once Dugan’s unit began their attack Bucky was to pick off this guard while Athena took the other one. An explosion that shook the ground was the signal and with an exhale he pulled the trigger dropping his guard just as Athena drops hers. Jumping up from their position, Bucky and Athena begin to cover their rear as Steve, Peggy and Junior run for the fence line. Junior tossed Steve a set of bolt cutters which were quickly caught before making quick work of the fence.
Athena moves to hold one side of the fence open while Steve, Peggy, Junior and himself move through the hole and run for the back door. Steve tested the door but it was locked so tossed the bolt cutters to Junior while catching a breaching tool and making quick work of the door.
Bucky pushes in first going right with Athena following behind going left, their twin shots down the hallway taking out two guards each. “We are going right” Steve orders tapping Bucky on the shoulder to take point down the hallway. They stop to check the dead guards for keys and any intelligence while Junior places his first charge of many using one of the bodies to hide the charge.
Bucky feels another tap on his shoulder and turns fully into the new hallway he had been watching as the others completed their tasks. Moving forward he begins to leapfrog with Steve passing doorways and hallways. Counting the hallways because they are looking for the sixth hallway down to reach the control room. Reaching the sixth hallway is when they finally start taking fire as the guards outside the control room are on alert and scream inside the room in German.
Bucky shoots the two guards quickly while Steve throws his shield stopping the blast doors from closing fully. They move forward and Bucky tosses a grenade into the room to kill as many as he can before they make entry. Bucky ducks low under the shield with Athena following closely behind him. A couple shots later the enemy is dead and Athena has disengaged the blast door so Steve can take his shield back from the door.
Bucky points Steve to the cameras showing the front of the facility and they see that the rest of the Howlies are further inside the facility than they expected. It’s Dugan’s team that finds the prisoners and Steve goes over the intercom system and says the code word letting Dugan know they have the control room. Dugan nods to one of the cameras near him and splits the Howlies with him in half. One half to remain with Fury to guard the rescued prisoners while himself and the other half push forward to clear out and search the rest of the facility.
“Hey Cap, I can save our charges and just trigger the facility's self-destruct on our own timer” Junior says while looking at wires that are near a very large red button. Junior is a genius with explosives. It is frightening when you realize he also has the penchant of finding himself in the stupidest of situations and that is a big red button. Bucky reaches down pulling a helmet off a dead guard and puts it over the big red button. Getting his chute lines tangled up with an owl as he was landing and ending upside down in a tree is only the latest in a long line of what the unit has called Junior moments.
“Do it. We can use those charges to help with the landings” Steve orders as he shoots Bucky a nod for the helmet over the big red button, Bucky watches as he moves towards the door of the control room and takes a guard position as they hear fighting getting closer to their position. They hear a loud scream as a Hydra guard goes flying towards them after being tossed by Howlett and Bucky quickly shoots the squid bastard in the head.
“We should try capturing one or two of them so intelligence can interrogate them later on” Steve says, giving Bucky a look.
“What are we going to do with prisoners we have to guard while helping, however many PoWs escape and still making our way towards the beach to help with the landings?” Athena asks from behind them as Howlett and Dugan meet up with them in the hallway outside of the control room.
“Athena is right and we have already taken casualties” Dugan stated and with that sentence Bucky feels the reality that not all of them were going to get out of this war weigh down on his shoulders and sees the realization hit Steve as well.