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The TV in the common room seemed a million times louder than normal. Sam and Bucky sat, each with their arms crossed over their chests, watching Secretary Ross and a political commentator talk.
“It’s pandering, plain and simple. “
“How do you mean?”
“Sam Wilson has done nothing that would earn him the right to call himself Captain America. He’s not even a super soldier. It’s a political stunt, giving the shield to a black man.”
“So are you saying that the Shield should have gone to James Barnes?”
“Of course not. James Barnes is a traitor and a murderer.”
“He was a prisoner of war…”
“Neither of those men are worthy of the title of Captain America!”
“What are you two watching? Turn that shit off.” Darcy stormed up to the television, grabbed the remote and turned it off herself. “Now look here, you are both paragons of…awesomesauce. So don’t believe any of that.”
“Darcy…” Bucky began.
“I love you both. Very very much. And I don’t want those people making you feel like you are anything other than amazing. You save people. You’re role models. You are amazing. Okay?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“You want me to bomb the shit out of them? That will keep them from talking shit about Wilson and Barnes,” Rocket took the screwdriver that Jane handed him and crawled back under the hodge podge of machinery that Jane had been assembling.
“That’s not helpful,” Darcy muttered. “I just wish there was a way we could show them both how special they are. How….worthy.”
Nebula scowled, like she always did, but offered, “You could bake them a cake. I like cake.”
Darcy sighed. She was glad the Guardians had stopped by Earth on their adventures. But their suggestions were less than helpful. “I’ll figure something out.”
“Please don’t say you have a mission,” Jane begged.
“Janey, if ever there was a worthy mission, this is it.”
“Why do we keep watching this shit?” Sam asked.
“Because we’re masochists, Sam.”
“Darcy is right. Let’s turn it off.”
“Turn it off then…”
Alarms started to blare suddenly, jolting them both out of their self-imposed misery.
Friday announced overhead, “There has been an incident in Dr. Foster’s lab.”
“Darcy…” Bucky breathed out as the two men ran towards the lab.
“Jane! Shut it down!”
“I’m trying!”
Nebula assessed, “You don’t seem to be effective.”
Rocket laughed out loud, “Opening a rift across space is one thing. But time, space, and dimensions? That’s a whole ‘nother level of mayhem.”
“I didn’t mean to!”
Dr. Stephen Strange’s Cloak of Levitation floated around the room, aimlessly. Other exotic artifacts were scattered around, pulled through the portal to land in the lab.
Darcy’s phone began to ring and she answered with a curt, “What?”
“Miss Lewis, I take it Dr. Foster has been experimenting with portals?” The cloak’s owner calmly asked.
“We’re trying to shut it down!” Jane yelled, as if she had heard his voice herself.
“My cloak is….?”
“Yeah, it’s here,” Darcy assured him. “Petting Rocket. You coming to give us a hand, or what?”
Bucky burst into the room just as another object flew out of the portal.
“Mew Mew!” Darcy noted with delight.
Mjolnir flew past Bucky and landed in Sam’s outstretched hand. “What the….” Sam muttered. He promptly set it down and frowned at it.
“I thought that was destroyed,” Nebula mused as she calmly sat on Darcy’s desk.
“Could be from another time, or another dimension,” Rocket explained as he shooed away the Cloak of Levitation.
Bucky had pulled Darcy away from the portal and was attempting to shield her from the objects that kept appearing in the room. He turned her again to shield her from the golden sparks that were forming on the other side of the room.
“S’okay,” she told him, “it’s just Strange.”
The next thing that came out of the portal was a costumed girl. She was in black and white with pink spider webs under her hood. The girl landed hard on her butt.
“Owww,” the girl complained.
“Jane! You’re making people! Turn it off!” Darcy yelled.
“I’m trying!”
Rocket turned on a blow torch and threatened the Cloak of Levitation with it.
Meanwhile, Strange stepped through his sling ring and surveyed the mayhem, “Well, we’ve made a bit of a mess, haven’t we?”
Jane yelled, “Could you cut the condescension and help me?”
He let out a little hum of disapproval.
Rocket held up an artifact and called out, “Hey Doc, what’s this?”
“Put that down right now!” Was Strange’s response.
Darcy extended her hand to the girl sitting on the floor in a Spider costume. “Are you all right?”
“Yep, not the first time I’ve been yanked into an alternate dimension. Is everyone here always this….” she poked at her stomach and then her thighs, “squishy?”
Darcy pulled the girl to her feet and she came face to face with Bucky. “Or not. You’re pretty…solid, aren’t you?”
“He’s also spoken for,” Darcy informed her, “I’m Darcy, this is Bucky, DUCK!”
All three ducked their heads to avoid another artifact coming out of the portal.
“Gwen,” she introduced herself nonchalantly, “And he’s waaay too old for me, so no worries.”
Nebula asked rather casually, “Is that the Heart of the Universe?”
Rocket leaped towards the artifact, “Mine!”
“No!” Jane and Strange shouted simultaneously.
Gwen let out a little laugh. Then she glanced to the door and gestured, “Is your friend okay?”
Darcy looked over to Sam who kept picking up and putting down Mjolnir.
“Sam?” Bucky asked.
“Is this really…?”
Jane was under the machine when she commented, “Yeah, yeah, you’re worthy. Can you hand me a spanner please?”
“You wanna give it a try, Babe?” Darcy asked Bucky.
He gave her an adoring look and shook his head, with a caress of her cheek he said, “Only measure of worthiness I need is right here.”
Strange listed off the artifacts as he sent them through the reversed portal.
“The Siege Perilous, the Gem of Cyttorak, the Casket of Ancient Winters, Godkiller, Dragonfang…”
Strange looked at the sword longingly.
“You’re looking a little covetous, there Doc,” Rocket accused.
“It will come to me when it's ready,” Strange answered. “Miss Stacy, I believe this is your stop.”
“Okay, you guys know how to reach me if you ever need me.” She reached down and petted Rocket on the head. He closed his eyes briefly in bliss before he swatted at her hand.
Gwen waved bye as she fell through the portal.
“Mr. Wilson, time to let Mjolnir return to its rightful time,” Strange commanded.
Sam tossed the enchanted hammer into the portal.
“Let’s see, the Ka stone, the Bloodgem…” Strange picked up a book and tossed in, “The Darkhold… the six wands of Watoomb.”
“That looks like five,” Darcy commented.
“Rocket!” they all scolded.
Darcy watched quietly from the armchair in the common room. Rocket was curled up next to her. He’d fallen asleep while she stroked his fur.
On the floor, Jane and Nebula sat at each end of the coffee table, playing paper football. Jane was terrible.
On the couch, Bucky and Sam watched actual football. Occasionally they’d cheer and high five.
The incident today hadn’t really solved all of the world’s problems or cleansed them of their demons. But for right now, they were content.
Happy.
Worthy.