3 Chapter 3 (1/2)

January 10th, 2014

For a crazy moment, I felt under-dressed in my blue shirt. I stared at my computer screen, trying to understand what was going. The message was from SHIELD, being sent to all agents through priority channels. Every agent on the planet was getting this. And it was insane.

STEVEN ROGERS IS NOW A WANTED FUGITIVE OF SHIELD. ALL SHIELD AGENTS ARE TO REPORT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT HIS WHEREABOUTS AND BRING HIM IN FOR QUESTIONING.

I ran through every bit of comic book knowledge I had, some of it mere scraps I'd overheard. What was going on? Why was SHIELD hunting Captain America?

Captain America going rogue was actually pretty common when I thought about it. It was true for all superheroes, a moment when the people who were supposed to support them started to think of them as criminals. But in this case, what was happening? Was he being mind controlled? Framed? Did someone trick SHIELD somehow?

Hail Hydra. Said a soft voice in my mind. An image that had actually in the news for a while in my world. Captain America, suddenly saying those two disgusting words. Was it something like that? Some weird pseudo body switch thing?

I needed answers. I needed to find out who were the bad guys.

My feet didn't move. I licked my lips. For all my power, I'd spent months fighting thugs, gangsters, and rapists, all for the sake of practice. To git gud with my powers, to establish a rhythm, to know when my watch would turn off and reset (Though that was still up in the air). All for the day I'd actually fight as an Avenger, to save people from monsters, to do the work I did on patrol of Manhattan on a larger scale. With the Omnitrix, I could save a lot of people.

I'd thought about going home a couple of times. Of making a device to make a portal back somehow. But nothing I tried let me do it. For some reason, I was locked in this universe, or at least, my tech couldn't make the calculations to find my home universe so I could actually make a device that would get me there. So while I was here, I wanted to do some good. To use this gift that was forced/given to me to be a good guy.

At that moment, I thought of Ben. I thought of how much he'd gone through. I thought of Marvel's famous characters. Of what made those heroes. And it was funny. But I found my inspiration from a boy who, in this universe, was only twelve years old.

With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility.

That thought made me step forward. I turned off the blinking message and switched over to my SHIELD link. I didn't hesitate anymore. I needed information. And only one man would tell me the truth, or at least his version of it.

There was a button on my computer, dedicated to one purpose. It was made from the head of a Hulk doll, something of a joke. Some of my forms had their own sense of humor. I wasn't laughing.

I pushed down on the Hulk's head slightlly, but not enough to actually activate it.. Then I stopped to think before pulling my hand away. Not the time to be impulsive. I walked over to another corner of my home and grabbed the pack I had set aside. It was made from tough leather, filled with clothes, some granola bars, a tough canteen of water, a first aid kit, and knives. With a final thought, I threw off my blue shirt and grabbed one I'd saved. A white one, with a black stripe straight through the center. It felt appropriate. Made for anything, up to getting teleported into outer speed. A bug-out bag. I checked the Omnitrix, flipped through my aliens for a moment. Not to transform, just to make sure of what was happening.

The plan had always been this, on some level. I was always waiting for a call to action. I'd spent weeks preparing for the day I would need to step into battle, to join the Avengers or help one of the street level superheroes like me.

I looked around my small home, shrugging my backpack slightly. ”I guess... I guess this is goodbye.” I'd been planning to leave in a hurry at any time. That's why there were no posters, no movies or video games in my house. But still... Leaving was gonna suck.

Then I sat down at my computer and pressed down on the Hulk's head. It wiggled slightly, his angry snarl bouncing around.

”HULK SMASH!” My computer speakers cried out.

My screen flickered. That was it. Sadly, computer's aren't exactly dramatic when it came to this sort of thing. But in my homemade supercomputer, a program ripped through every firewall in SHIELD. My passive intrusion became an invasion as I pulled every secret they had into my PC. On any other day, this would have been an insane move. No one human can look into the thousands of files belonging to SHIELD without hundreds of hours of time to read through the sort of dark crap no one should read.

I ignored all of it, switching over to the most relevant file. All the work being done in finding one Steven Rogers.

Satellite surveillance, security camera, social network tracking, word of mouth. Everything on the East Coast was trying to find him.

Which meant I was too.

You know the great thing about technology? With a good enough interface, you don't need to be smart. You just let the tech do the job for you. Not many can build smartphones. Almost anyone can use them. And my supercomputer could do the work of teams of hackers and technicians by itself. It separated out data and started using SHIELD's resources for me. I needed to find Captain America, and my computer started tracking him. Simple as a couple of button presses. I called the program 'CapWatch' and left it running. I pulled out my smartphone and connected it to my computer with a cable. I connected the program to my cell phone. With it on, I could keep a watch on Captain Rogers while on the move. The program would work within SHIELD, hidden by alien programming and keeping me informed.

And then my computer beeped. The cameras had found him, at a mall in D.C. I made sure my phone was connected to the CapWatch program, then turned back to the moniter.

”Huh,” I leaned towards the screen, squinting. ”He really does look like Chris Evans. But giant.”

It was something I'd always known from the footage, but now it was obvious. When he stood next to Thor and the Hulk, he wasn't that big. On his own? Dude had to be over six feet. He was trying to be low-key, but it's hard for a truck made of super-soldier enhanced and sculpted muscle to hid with a hat and a pair of glasses. He was standing with a woman, in the middle of an Apple computer store. They were tapping away at something. Well, the woman in the hoodie was at least. She was shorter than he was and hiding better. I'd barely half-noticed her. Something about how she was standing just... made her hard to notice. As though she was hiding even as she stood there. It took me a bit to recognize Natasha Romanov. So Captain America was innocent? Or, wait, was Black Widow evil in this universe, just like in the Ultimates? Damnit all, more questions.

As she typed, another alert came through. I checked it.

”Ah... shit.”

The alert was actually two. First, whatever Black Widow had done, it put a level six homing program onto them, which meant SHIELD now knew where they were.

Second, someone had triggered one of the motion sensors around my home.

I ran to the computer and triggered the outer cameras, made from printer and smartphone parts. Eight screens showing everything around the building showed me what was happening.

Men were pouring from black SUV's, guns out. They wore all black uniforms, with bulletproof armor, helmets, and combat boots. They were going down the alley near my home. All with assault rifles out.

”How the hell did they get here so fast?” I grumbled. I knew they would track me once I slammed through their firewalls with the rudeness of a knife to the testes. But I hadn't expected them to be so quick. Or to come with an army. SHIELD may have been under high alert, but I didn't think they would send assault rifles against a hacker.

I made sure my bag was slightly loose on my back. Then I pressed a self-destruct on my computer. It linked with my fridge, stove, and security system. In three minutes, it would explode everything, leaving no trace of who'd lived there.

It sucked ass. I'd made a home in Manhattan. My crappy rundown home, with tech that barely worked, a fridge that burned food, and a supercomputer that played Japanese TV on Wednesday no matter what I did. I pushed the thought away.

I needed to get to Captain America and Black Widow. I was going to help, and I couldn't let SHIELD stop me. Whatever was happening, he was the key.

Then I looked at the computer. The camera outside my door showed the SHIELD agents throwing something. At first, I thought it was a smoke grenade, but why throw that at a closed door. The computer helpfully identified it for me with the use of StarkTech accelerated reality, zooming in and naming the object. I didn't read the whole description. Two words were enough.

Fragmentation Grenade.

My right arm lifted. I twisted the face of the Omnitrix. I didn't look at the watch. No time to choose, any alien was more durable than I was. I just slammed my hand onto the watch, roaring as my palm hit my wrist.

”IT'S HERO TIME!”