[Dreams: Young Avengers Side Story] Hero
you're all going to hate me. and i'm going to love it <3
a little bonus challenge to all you artists out there: imagine what sort of gleefully evil plotting i went through, and what sort of happy sadistic faces i must be making at your collective reactions of dismay.
warnings: some Young Avengers, Earth-339. stupid people. world-go-boom. character death. mild violence, mild gore. language: pg-13 (for g**damn).
pairing: none/gen. a brief bit of Tommy/Kate humor.
timeline: 2019, the day of the Big One. let's call it...late September?
disclaimer: i doesn't owns the movies, comics, or characters. or the assorted objects of pop culture reference.
notes: 1) for my purposes, there are seven full-sized helicarriers that have been refitted for Project Ark. since this is an AU, i can make decisions like that. 2) MSD = minimum safe distance. the shortest distance from an explosion at which you can survive without special precautions (like bunkers or radiation suits). for a 1-megaton bomb, the typical assumed MSD is 10 miles (but note that a 1-megaton bomb is pretty big, and most nuclear bombs are much lower-yield). 3) i said to myself "SELF, it's been too long since you killed off a character. can't have your readers getting complacent. TIME FOR A GOOD GUY TO KICK OFF! *rubs hands in anticipation*"
Hero
Kate wanted to scream.
No, really. Any second now.
“Shouldn’t you be-I dunno, taking a census of some kind? You should. You should be writing down all our names, and our jobs. I mean, it can only be beneficial to know what kinda resources you’ve got aboard these things. Y’know, how many doctors, how many teachers, how many…”
“At this point, it’s too close to the deadline to worry about that, ma’am,” Kate said with a forced smile. “Our priority right now is to get as many people onto the carrier as possible.”
“Well, why?” the irritatingly officious woman prodded. “I mean, we all had plenty of warning, lots of time to get in line…why just start shoving them all in like sardines when they could have an actual function, and be useful, and-”
Kate helped an old woman up the last step into the airlock. “Ma’am, we have fewer than five minutes left until the deadline, these people will start to trample you if you don’t get out of the way.”
“You hero types are supposed to be helping,” the nosy woman huffed. “This is all your responsibility. If you’re going to do something like this, shouldn’t you do it right?”
The idea of a right and a wrong way to save lives made Kate sick.
She pushed the woman out of the doorway. “People like you are the reason kids wearing the wrong clothes are left to bleed to death on crowded streets. Get out of my sight before I have you ejected from the carrier.”
“Well, I never!” the woman exclaimed.
“Then it’s about goddamn time,” Kate hissed, and glared until the woman stomped off. Then she pressed her finger to the communicator in her ear. “This is Hawkeye. We’re lifting in three, it’s gonna start getting nasty. Everybody report in.”
~“Patriot. Northeast airlock is nice and quiet.”~
~“Stature. Ditto the southeast. They’re all playing nice over here.”~
~“Vision. The northwest airlock is also tranquil.”~
Kate leaned down to give a small boy a hand up and counted to five in her head. “Speed, what about the main ramp?”
Far overhead, she could hear the engines start to power up. Out in the crowd, she saw the ripples. Confusion. Realization. Panic.
In the sudden surge and press, people started to go down, and it took every ounce of strength Kate had not to leave her post and help them.
It was good that Billy wasn’t with them; he might do any number of stupid things at a time like this.
And then she knew why Tommy wasn’t reporting in. “Speed, you cannot help them all. Get back to your post.”
The lift alarms were going off. The side airlocks were auxiliaries-backups. Little more than emergency exits. They would close first.
~“The northwest airlock is clear.”~
~“Northeast, clear.”~
Kate’s watch beeped a two-minute-warning. She closed her eyes, steeled herself. “I’m sorry,” she said to the people still shoving their way up the loading steps, and hit the button to close the interior door of the airlock.
Then the screaming started. Another ripple, a mad press of human bodies, people reaching for the door.
~“S-southeast airlock, clear,”~ Cassie sobbed.
She clenched her jaw and kicked the nearest man in the chest to knock them all back before the exterior door slid closed. Then she took a deep breath and let herself into the carrier to move for the central ramp.
“Southwest airlock clear. We’re out of time-Speed, get your ass back on the carrier and clear that ramp!”
The floor jerked just a little, the only inward sign that they were lifting off.
Kate moved faster, ducking between confused and frightened people, shoving several of them out of her way. “Goddammit, Tommy, say something!”
~“Get over here and take this kid, willya?”~ came the nonchalant reply over the comm.
She had to start incapacitating people to make it through the crowd as she got closer to the main cargo bay and the central ramp.
Looking out, she could see that they were already six feet off the ground and steadily climbing. Some people were jumping. Some were grasping the edge of the ramp and trying to pull themselves up. About half a dozen were holding crying children aloft, hoping to pass them aboard.
Among them, she saw a flash of white hair and a cocky grin.
Kate unrepentantly kicked a businessman over the side and dropped stomach-down with both arms outstretched. “Tommy, give me your hand!”
They were too high. Eight feet and still going.
She felt his hand for a moment, pushing a shrieking toddler into her grasp. “You bastard!” she shouted as the timer on her watch hit zero.
It beeped again, and she could hear familiar voices on the ship-to-ship comm that’d been installed in her watch.
~“Skybird Four away, crew intact.”~
~“Skybird Five away, all crew aboard.”~
~“Skybird Two away, crew intact.”~
The pressure alarm started blaring over the liftoff alarm.
~“Hawkeye, Speed, what’s up with the central ramp?”~ Eli demanded. ~“The pressure alarm’s going-we need that ramp closed now, or we can’t make MSD!”~
All Kate could see was the tear-streaked face of the little girl in her arms. She jerked upright, tucked the child against her shoulder, fought her way back up the ramp to the controls. She hit close, keyed the override when the panel warned of obstructions. “I’ve got it,” she said. “The ramp’s closing.”
There was a hiss of air as the last slivers of daylight vanished, cutting out the noise of the doomed people below and shutting in the cries of people nearby noticing things like blood and severed fingers.
Inside the cargo bay, there was a sudden ominous hush of anticipation.
Over the carrier’s intercom, someone told them to look away from the flash and brace for impact.
And damn him, but Tommy sounded as casual and boisterous as ever when he spoke again.
~“Tell Bill I’m sorry, and not to cry too much. It’s been real, you guys. You weren’t always cool-okay, mostly you were pretty lame-but you were the best family a guy could ask for. And Katie?”~
“Yeah?” she said, and she heard her voice tremble.
~“It would never have worked between us, sweetheart. You’re too possessive, and I should be shared with all womankind.”~
She laughed in spite of herself, but choked on it when the carrier shook and she nearly lost her footing.
The ship-to-ship comm beeped again.
~“Skybird Seven is away, all support staff aboard.”~
~“Skybird Six away. Ms. Marvel and the Human Torch are presently missing in action.”~
~“Skybird One. Heavy civilian casualties, crew intact. Sorta.”~
It was funny.
Well, not funny…ironic.
Now that she had a real reason to scream, she couldn’t find her voice.
Kate swallowed, took a deep breath, cleared her throat, set the little girl down so she could hold the transmit button on her watch. “Skybird Three away,” she said. “One casualty. Tom Shepherd is dead.”
Before she could start to feel sorry for herself, or do something pathetic and soppy and useless like cry, she bent down and picked up the girl again-the girl Tommy had given his life to save.
“Hi, sweetie,” she said. “What’s your name?”
The kid didn’t say anything right away, and Kate wondered for a moment if she was old enough to be talking yet.
“Katie,” the girl finally mumbled.
She flinched. “And where’s your mommy?”
“She hurt her leg, so she made me go wif da man, but I didn’t wanna go.”
She hitched the toddler higher. “Well, I’m gonna make sure you’re taken care of, okay? I promise.”
Katie rubbed a grubby hand over her little nose. “The man had funny clothes. Was he a hero, like on TV?”
Kate forced another smile. “Yes,” she managed. “Yes, he was.”
.End.
merianmoriarty has my formal permission to pimp my fics on various comms (if/when i ever abandon deviantART, i'll go ahead and join the comms myself and take care of getting things posted in the right places). no one has permission to re-post this ANYWHERE, but feel free to share or link.
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