| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Captain America and C.A.T had been on a mission against Hydra in a secret base off the coast of Antarctica. The mission was successful. The pair had made there extraction point and were passengers in a super sonic stealth jet provided by SHIELD. The flight path had required them to skirt along the Savage Land, but a last minute storm blew in and was forcing the jet to flying directly through the Savage Land. The tropical paradise visible below in miniature. Captain America sit in the passenger area of the ship away from the crew sipping on water and looking tired.
C.A.T. has been skittish lately in combat situations, more withdrawn and afraid of conflict. He usually took them as they came while being catty. But in the plane, she is more relaxed and chatful, and back to her normal self that she is at home. But when the storm moved in, she fell silent like something was bothering her again. Her mouth is pressed into a thin line and she rubs the back of her neck as if in pain.
Captain America looks to C.A.T and raises an eyebrow, "You alright? Look the jets flying fine now, we're out of the path of the storm. We're flying over the Savage Land." He takes a drink of his water and looks at her with a bit of concern. That's when there's a slight bump.
C.A.T. frowns at Roger's words rather than feeling comforted, and at that bump, she hisses like a true feline! Her heart is in her throat, or is that her stomach? Right, stomach, her heart is pounding really hard in her chest and about to rip out of her rib cage! She moves her hands to her head, both of them to cover it. "Hurts...," she says, finding it hard to breathe. "Can't...get out..." She actually sobs softly, truly frightened. How...strange.
Cap sits up, "You alright?" He moves to go toward her, "You're fine, we're en-route to get home. I didn't see anyone hurt you." He really getting concerned. There's another bump and another. He's moving to sit nest to her and stroking her back. He hits the inter com button, "Guys, Agent C.A.T. isn't feeling well. I think we might have a situation here." The co-pilot calls back, "Sorry Cap, we got a situation up here. Everything ..." *Psst* and then the jet goes dead in mid air.
And C.A.T. is screaming right before the jet goes dead in mid-air...as if she KNOWS. There isn't anything further for her to do, she's frozen. Jumping out of the plane is danger, staying in the plane is danger, this...entire AREA is danger. She has been using her powers so much this last half a year, even her techno powers. She has been approaching burnout for a while and an 'episode', but having Rogers in her personal space has postponed it...apparently, it's not about to be postponed as Death rears its head to the plane.
Steve looks at C.A.T. "Strap yourself in." He says moving to make sure she's strapped in. Then he's on the move toward the cockpit as the ship starts momentum begins to change and fall out of the sky. The door opens and the two pilots are working frantically. The ground beginning to come up quickly. Luckily or perhaps not the storm had forced them to fly at a lot lower altitude than normal. They were just above the tree tops and not quite above falling like a brick from the sky.
C.A.T. straps in tightly as the plan starts to dip? C.A.T. does not look toward the cockpit, and considering how tall the trees are in the Savage Land, they are going to be lucky to survive. Terror fills her mind, and she has stopped screaming cause she can't breathe. Hey, saves it from being knocked out of her, right? Her eyes are insanely wide, and she cannot even force them shut. For C.A.T., it's almost like it is in slow motion as her precognition takes her brain where it does not wish to be.
For Cap it goes on for seconds and quicker. The ground and trees coming up quickly. He grabs the door and slams it shut. The ship shaking and jostling him around. He's running towards C.A.T. with his shield out. He gets to her strapping in at the last moment. An arm around her and his shield brought up to protect them both. That's when the real shaking begins as the jet hits its first tree top. Then continues to go lower and lower the jet hitting the ground and it feels like the whole craft is about to fall apart. The next 20 seconds are hectic and crazy.
And seems to last an eternity for C.A.T. You are nearby, she can almost smell Steve. He's protecting her, but her head is painful and buzzing. There is pain as her belt strapping tighten hard, and she's worried about Cap going flying but she doesn't have the strength to reach for him with the force of the impact. And it's only then she finally thinks: 'I don't want to die...I don't want to leave Steve.' And then the sound of rending metal and breaking trees reachings her ears and she thinks hell has opened.
As soon as it began it's over. The tropical sounds of the jungle outside filling the cabin of the ship. The warm sun streaming in. The smell of jet wreckage mixed with the overly sweet smell of the Jungle. Captain America looks himself over for a moment. Take a few deep breaths. Then he ask C.A.T., "Are you alright?"
C.A.T. isn't as banged up as she would have been thanks to Cap, but she's shivering and snifferling which is very much not like her unless she's playing at being scared and mad, or maybe that's how she normally expresses it. But this is uncontrolled. "Baaaad...bad stuff is...going to happen," she gasps out, the belt strapping across her chest and lap having left bruises that are currently hidden. Her eyes search for the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
The Shield pilots aren't going to be much use the cockpit is pretty damaged. Steve's out of the seat and moving slowly, "I'll check on the pilots. There should be survival equipment in here." He looks at C.A.T. "Why do you think bad things are going to happen?" Somebody didn't tell him about her powers.
They don't know about her powers other than her ability to manipulate technology, and C.A.T.'s eyes are insanely wide. "Run," her breaths coming fast. She's shaking and moves to grab onto Steve's run, "RUN!" And she's pulling to Steve toward the exit. There is a sudden roar of rage from one very unhappily, meat eating lizard nearby! C.A.T. is in survival gear, she forgets about the pilots, she forgets about everything except escaping to live another day.
Captain America is about to slip out of her grip. "Look don't pan..." Then he hears the roar, and then he says, "Run." He wasn't prepared to fight a T-Rex. The pilots were already dead when the T-Rex starts ripping into the remains of the jet. Captain America is quick on C.A.T.'s heels. He moves to help her with the supplies she grabbed. "Quick keep running and look for high ground or a cave where it can't get to us!"
C.A.T. doesn't even realize she grabbed anything up, it was only on instict that she did. Some pack that was flung about, who knows what is in it or if it was original hers as things shifted about. She is running hard, but soon lets go of Captain America so she can run even harder, keeping close to the trees, pressed up against them finally as she gasps for breaths. They are only a quarter mile away as she crumbles to her rump shaking badly. Her gloved hands raise to cover her mouth as she actually has tears slip out from beneath her mask. The bag hanging from her hand earlier has since been dropped with a light thump to the ground.
Captain America looks at C.A.T. "We got to keep going. we can only out distance a T-Rex for so long. But if you're not moving it's growing closer." Then something draws his attention and he opens the bag. "Only an agency ran by Fury would have Flash bangs in emergency supplies. He gestures to one of the tall trees. "Quick C.A.T. get up it. I got a plan." The thump thump of the T-Rex closing on them can be heard in the distance as Cap goes to work for setting a trap for the dino.
C.A.T. is shaking badly still, but nods. She starts to move. She doesn't bother with climbing the tree, rather she shoots one of her little wrist grapple shooters and when it wraps about a limb, she has it pull her up quickly. There is a quiet 'zip' as it does so. She then grabs the branch when she reaches it and with two swings of her legs she is flipped up and onto the thick limb. She unwraps her grapple and lets it retract fully. She then looks worriedly down at Captain America.
Captain America goes to work setting up a trip line between two trees far from C.A.T. but in the path of the T-Rex. The Flash Bang was about T-Rex head level. The thump thump of the beast drawing closer as Steve slides down the tree. He takes his shield in hand and throws it at the dino making it chase Cap for sure. he Dino roars and starts to chase him. That's right until the thing hits the Trip line and Boom! The T-Rex gets hit by a Flash Bang.
C.A.T. swallows her cry of terror, worried that the trip-line wouldn't work, the T-Rex would keep charging through! But she gets the flash bang now, her mind having difficulty working in its constantly panicking state. Essentially, part of her is worried her precognition just got shot to hell and back again, because there is a low steady humm almost she can't get rid of.
The T-Rex roars and is lost in the confusion looks around and then wonders away blindly. Captain America comes to a stop beneath C.A.T's tree. "It's gone. Are you alright?" Hes a bit worried about her not just cause they were trapped in the savage land but the way she's been acting.
C.A.T. soon - though shakily - catches her grapple line at the tree branch and drops down. With a shake, it dislodges once she lands and zips quickly back in. She nods, but she doesn't mean it. She's looking around, breathing unsteadily. Her mask is damaged, must have happened during the crash.
Captain America nods and looks around, "I don't hear anything for the moment. We should probably move in a bit. But we need to figure out where we're at and if theirs anyway out. I remember reading in the mission briefing about a Savage Land Shield Station." It was basically an antenna and transmitter. He looks at her, "Look there's a stream nearby. Lets go check it out, if it's safe take a few minutes to wash off and cool down?"
C.A.T. nods nervously and starts to move with Captain America, keeping close. She licks her lips. "This...this place is bad Steve," she says softly. "It's...screaming at me." She winces at her own words now, realizing what she sounds like. "It..I mean..," she bites her lower lip then.
Captain America nods, " I know what you're saying. It's the savage land for a reason. I know you think you got a sixth sense for danger or something. But we're here and we're not going to get out of here if we sit still. There's danger around every corner but the same can be said of New York City. So push all the danger out of your head if it's not attacking us. Then don't worry."
A hard swallow at that, "I...I don't have control over it," C.A.T. finally admits. "And sometimes it gets glitchy if over...used, and becomes more unpredictable and less accurate." She jumps closer to you suddenly when an insanely long snake drops of a tree and she is more than ready to run some more!
The snake turns and goes the other direction as it slithers away. Captain America takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. "It's going the other way. Take a deep breath we're fine. Come on.. Lets get away from here. See if we can find some secure shelter. Give you a chance to relax."
C.A.T. nods in agreement, knowing something needs done before she snaps and reallllly loses it! Yes, dying out here would really suck. She moves to squeeze Captain America's hand back. Actually, she doesn't just squeeze, she keeps squeezing and holding on tight, as if she never wants to let go.
The stream is a nice clear and probably the purest stream CAT or Cap has ever seen. Captain America looks this way and that. Then in the stream itself. "Looks clear to me." He even drops a pebble in to make sure its not Acid. Nope just a stream. "If you want to clean up go for it. Just don't wash your face or drink it." He starts to go through the emergency equipment they have.
Yes, that makes her feel soooo safe! But C.A.T. will clean up some, get the dirt off her uniform as well. She adjusts her mask from the reflection in the mirror and does clean that off a little bit though. She then finds a shady spot by Rogers, and sits, resting her forehead against her crossed arms which rest upon her knees. She only needs a few minutes...