Chapter 6
“Oh, wow.”
Dean murmured as he stared with wide eyes at Sydney’s office room in her house.
It was filled with high tech equipment with all kinds. It almost looked like Tony’s workshop. Almost.
“Well, that’s definitely something.” Tony muttered as he too looked around the room.
“She is genius so I didn’t expect any less.” Natasha said while making her way inside the room. “Can you hack into her system to see what we can find?” she directed her question to Tony.
“Duh.” He made his way inside and turned on the computers. A holoscreen appeared in the middle of the room and Tony started to work on it.
A few minutes passed and Tony was still working, however, his brow was furrowed and an annoyed surprise was written on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Dean asked curiously.
“I can’t get pass the defenses as easily as I thought.” He answered grimly. “It’s… strong. And familiar. Almost as if-“ he cut himself off and looked even more unsettled.
“As if what?” Natasha prompted looking at him in confusion.
“As if it was made by me.” he replied in a soft voice like he was talking to himself.
Dean and Nat shared nervous a look then turned their eyes back to Tony.
After another ten minutes, Tony whooped in victory.
“I am in.” he announced smiling smugly.
Natasha walked towards him and studied the information that started to show to them.
“What did you find?” Dean inquired, leaning against the door frame.
“Just different information about the placement of stars, the movement of earth, space projects and so on.” Natasha replied without looking up from the holoscreen.
“That’s it?”
“It’s not just regular information.” Tony said in concentration. “She was studying the movement of stars during the past fifty years.”
“Still not seeing what’s so important about that.”
“We will look through it until we figure out why she was interested in that.”
Dean left them to do their thing and started to search the house for anything that looked unusual or misplaced.
But everything looked normal. Overly normal.
It was a small house, enough for one person. And there weren’t much places to hide anything.
Regardless, Dean searched every inch tirelessly.
Until he stopped in front of an engraving above the fireplace.
The engraving looked exactly the same as its twin on the other side of the fireplace, but it looked slightly more Prominent than the other. He reached out and pressed it carefully. The engraving turned on itself revealing a red button.
“Guys, I think I found something.” Dean called out while still looking at the button curiously.
Tony and Natasha rushed to him and they also stared at the mysterious button.
“What do you think it’d do? And why would she hide it so carefully?” Tony wondered as he studied it.
“Only one way to find out.” Dean just shrugged and pressed the button.
“Dean, be careful!” Natasha exclaimed as she and Tony pulled Dean back in case something blew into his face.
They all froze for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen.
But nothing did.
Everything remained calm and settled. Nothing changed.
“Weird! Why would she hide it then?” Tony murmured in confusion.
“Maybe she had put it there to mislead whoever searches her house.” Dean shrugged again and continued his search through the house.
***
“In my time, there is the third generation of The Avengers.” Sydney started her story looking down at her hands on the table. Steve and Castiel were listening to her with rapt attention.
“Third? How far are you in the future?” Steve asked with wide eyes.
“Far enough. Anyway, most of them are your descendants. They are the Earth’s first line of defense, since the threats in the future are worse than ever.”
“You are an Avenger, aren’t you?” Castiel interjected, looking at her intently. Studying her.
“Yes.”
“Who are your grandparents?”
She looked at him for a long time, trailing her eyes between him and Steve, looking unsure how to answer.
“I can’t tell you.” She said slowly, eyes glued to his face. “I already ricked the past enough by me being here. I can’t ruin it even more. If I did, I might not be born. And you can see that would be tragic.”
Castiel nodded in understanding while Steve gestured for her to continue her story.
“A bomb was sent to Earth from another planet.” She announced grimly. “It was actually the second bomb. The first bomb was sent decades ago and it was stopped before reaching the Earth by the first Avengers; you guys. But that is yet to come. But then, another one was sent. But it was much stronger. If it reached Earth it will wipe out the whole planet. And it was unstoppable. We tried everything to stop it but nothing worked. It was the end. Then, we figured out why those aliens sent those two bombs in the first place. Someone in the past, had sent two universal messages to the entire universe saying that they were the next emperor of the universe and will come to all of them and some other crazy shit. One of the planets that received those messages took the threat seriously and decided to eliminate us before we start to act on that threat. When they received the first message, they sent the first bomb that you guys will stop in the near future, but when they received the second message they sent a second, stronger bomb. The large time between both bombs was because that planet is many light years away and the bombs took their time to reach us. So, I was assigned a mission. To take the first functioning time ship ever made, go through time and find whoever sent those messages and stop them from sending them no matter what.”
“And did you?” Steve asked carefully, absorbed in her story.
“No. I didn’t find him yet.” Her face twisted in pain. “I was the first one to try the time ship. So no one knew what to expect and be prepared for it. The time maps were still unfinished and no time to finish them. I just flew it towards the skies with speed that reached the speed of light, until I find myself in what I called ‘The Nil Zone’ where place and time don’t exist. Just a white nothingness with black holes everywhere. Each hole lead to a different era. With no way of knowing where it will take me. So, for years, I tried a hole after a hole, hoping it will take me to the era that will allow me to complete my mission. Forced to stay three days in each era so my ship could recharge for another trip, which lead me to face horrors and almost die numerous of times.” She stopped as she tried to calm herself from the painful memories. “Until I landed in your time. And decided to settle for a while, to analyze my situation and to try to find a way to finish my mission and… and a way back to my time when I do. I collected every info I could find about space and the stars that could help me, through the years.” She looked at them earnestly then. “I swear I meant no harm in anyway. I just want to save my time.”
Steve and Castiel stared at her, lost. Not sure what to do.
Because Castiel could tell that every word she said, was the truth.
***
“From base to desert patrol 7, an unknown body appeared out of nowhere at area 47. Check it out.” The base commander’s voice came through the comms, in patrol 7 jeep who were doing a patrol around the desert surrounding the base. “Be careful, advance towards it carefully. Any sign of hostile activity, fall back immediately.”
“Roger that.” The Captain of the patrol answered. Already moving the jeep towards the given coordinates.
“Unknown body? What does that supposed to mean?” one of the two privates in the jeep asked in nervous confusion.
“We are about to find out.”
The jeep made its way in the desert, when they got closer to the mentioned area, the other private furrowed his eyebrows nervously. “There is a strong signal almost ruining the radar’s signals, sir.”
“Where is it coming from?” The captain asked in worry.
“From the unknown body’s site, sir.”
The captain furrowed his eyebrows as he watched the radar’s screen which kept vibrating violently then vanished completely.
“What happened?”
“The signal increased and took over the radar’s signals!”
“Not just the radar! There is disturbance from the engine too!” the first private exclaimed as the car started to shake violently until an exploding sound from the engine happened and the car stopped completely.
For a few seconds, no one from the three men said anything as they looked at each other with pale faces.
“From patrol 7 to base, do you copy?” the captain called out through the comms. But no one answered. He called out again and again but got nothing still. “The comms are also down.”
“Is all of this because of that unknown thing?” one of the privates asked in a shaking voice.
“It is just a coincidence.” The captain answered in frustration.
“A coincidence?!”
“Yes! All just a-“
“Here it is!” the private exclaimed pointing at the northern east. “It is visible from here.”
The other two followed his line of sight, only for their eyes to widen as they stared at a circular spaceship with small wings at its sides and a short tail at its back. And it was floating in the air about a meter above the sand.
“Oh god! It’s a UFO! A spaceship!” the Captain exclaimed as he stared.
“Is it… is it another invasion?” stammered one of the other two men.
“We need to tell the base! We need to tell them now!”
“How? Are we going to jog through the desert?!”
“Yes! We must tell them! Even if it come to that.” He then jumped from the car and already started to jog, but stopped by the other private’s shout.
“Sir! Look over there!”
The captain turned back to see where the man was pointing. He saw a golden sphere, the size of a basketball, separating from the ship’s body, and was flying towards them at a horrific speed.
The captain retreated while pulling out his gun and shouted “Defend yourselves! They are attacking us!”
The two men raised their guns too.
But the sphere shot first.
Three explosions sounded in the middle of the desert. Then complete calm followed it.
Without any sound, the sphere turned around to return back to the ship.
And the countdown inside the ship continued.