Chapter Text
It was a Saturday, every week on Saturday Steve tried out something new that he had missed whilst on ice. Today was a drive through, why am I so nervous? I thought to myself before reasoning that ever since tony told me about drive throughs something just didn’t sit right. I took a deep breath, braced my hands on the steering wheel and started the engine. I drove round to the drive through lane and had to stop immediately because there was already a big black SUV in the drive through. Then I finally took in my surroundings, after being so caught up in my nerves. There must’ve been at least 200 sleek, black SUVs with tinted windows all around. Mixed in every now and then was a normal car with a confused looking driver I noted.
As I managed to place my order (Go me a small part of my mind thought) I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something strange about these cars and so for once being impulsive I made the executive decision to follow the massive fleet of equally massive SUVs wherever they went. I pulled up to the collection window, paid and took my food which I quickly discarded on the passenger seat in favour of following the cars. I waited around 10 minutes in the car park just waiting for the cars to move before I finally realised that all that food would take a while so I settled in to eat and wait.
Finally after around forty minutes the cars all pulled away and I followed. We drove for around an hour from the outskirts of New York (there were no drive throughs in Brooklyn) to Long Island. Every time I thought we must be nearly there the SUV fleet just kept driving until we had entered the more rural part where there was nothing but rolling hills, cows, sheep and the occasional farm house. I realised that the fact that I was also in a sleek black SUV identical to the others was on my side because otherwise they definitely would’ve noticed me following along at the back. The whole drive I had been trying to figure out why I felt so compelled to follow but all I knew was that it just felt right and no matter what I couldn’t turn back and leave these people to do whatever crazy stuff it was they were doing. Sometimes I would stare really intently at the boot of the car and I could swear I saw the letter SPQR emblazoned across the glass but every time I blinked it was gone, maybe I really am going mad I thought to myself. We had been driving for well over an hour now and I really wanted to ask if we were nearly there yet but unfortunately I was stalking them so this might be a bad idea. Then finally after what not only seemed like but definitely was an eternity we turned off onto a gravel track and I began to wonder if I was about to crash a family reunion but I just watched as the cars turned off into a field at the base of a hill and watched incredulously as teenagers filed out of the cars and began to set up camp.
I reversed back down the track so as not to be spotted and watched. I just sat there and watched for an hour until suddenly there was what looked like a war camp in the middle of a field, at the base of a hill in Long Island. Then I noticed the weapons, there were lines of catapults being erected on a flat patch around half way up the hill and near every tent there were racks of polished armour, gleaming in the late afternoon sun, swords, shields and helmets all neatly placed by the entrance as if they were meant for easy access at a moment notice. The whole set up sent a shiver down my spine and my gut feeling that something was wrong here only intensified and I knew I had to do something. I silently got out of my car and popped the boot open to grab the shield that Fury had returned to me upon my waking from the ice, then got back in to wait for nightfall before I would go to investigate.
Once the evening sun had given way to the light of a waning moon I jumped out of the car and started along the road hoping to find a way to get to those catapults and disable them. I really couldn’t explain my need to do this in any way other than it felt like fate was pushing me with every step I took towards the hill and subsequent catapults. As luck would have it I found a break in the bush right at the base of the hill so I pushed through and, staying close to the hedge, began my accent upwards.
Finally I reached the line of catapults and could immediately make out guards pacing up and down the line of weapons. Their golden armour glowed in the darkness making them look like huge teenage fireflies. That's when it hit me: for roughly 8 hours now I had been stalking and watching a group of teenagers - a group of possibly very dangerous teens I reasoned with myself before I once again let my gut feeling take over. After watching for a few minutes I deduced that there was a 1:2 guard to catapult ratio which would work in my favour if I was going to succeed. As the guard turned away I ran over to the closest catapult before I finally realised I had no plan from here.