The skies filled with darkness as the light of sun quickly vanished, leaving only the shadows to rain down upon the now destroyed Champions Tower, and upon the young hero known as War Killer as he found himself lying within the rubble of the building. His eyes grew wider as they moved from left to right, looking around, seeing as he was surrounded by fire and destruction on all sides, as his world literally fell apart around him. “Why?” A low voice called out from the darkness. Looking up, Charles found Nightstorm standing over him, her eyes blood red as she held his shield in her hands, “Why? Why couldn’t you do it?” She asked him again. He wanted to ask her what she was talking about, to ask her what it was that he didn’t do, but for whatever reason, whether it was the fear and terror rushing over him or something else entirely, his mouth simply wouldn’t utter a sound.
“Why couldn’t you do it, Charlie? Why?!” Her voice filled with anger as her hands gripped his shield, as she raised it back a bit more as she was prepared to bring the metallic disc down upon the defenseless hero. His eyes filled with fear as lightning began to flash behind her, the darkness beginning to break apart, revealing now not a blue sky, but a red sky, as if the heavens themselves were in a blaze. “Do What?!” Finally he managed to break through the silence that had overtaken him. “What Did I Not Do?!” He demanded of her to answer once more. But suddenly, his attention was turned away from her as he noticed a drop of blood landing upon his chest. Looking up, he was shocked to see as the red of his shield began to melt away, like rain, pouring down from it in the form of blood, running down over Nightstorm as a wicked smile grew across her now green face as her true Skrull form revealed itself.
But blood quickly ran down her body, dripping both off of her and off of the shield, pouring down upon Charles himself, causing him to turn his way as blood began to rain down over him. “WHY COULDN’T YOU SAVE ME!?!?!?!” Charles eyes shot back at her, but only to be filled with even more fear and shock as he now found himself not looking at Nightstorm, but now at Talon, blood running down over, her face filled with more rage then he had ever seen in her as she held his shield in her hands. Charles’ eyes then fell upon her neck, seeing as the scar, the scar she received by saving him, as the scar itself began to bleed. “Laura…I…I--” His voice filled with guilt and shame, no matter how much he wanted to answer, what could be possibly say that would be anything other than the truth? The truth that he could never let himself believe; “WHY!?!?!” She screech once last time, her voice screaming with the sound of both of both pain and hatred, as she brought the blood soaked shield down onto the hero! Charles eyes closed shut, letting out one finally scream of agony, “AAAAHHH--!”
“--AH!” A scream of fear yelled out of the young hero’s mouth as his eyes quickly opened. Quickly lifting his head up, his body trembling in complete fear, finding himself in the Champions Tower’s medical facility; “Sir--! Are you alright?!” One of the nurses shouted as she ran up beside Charles as he sat back in his chair. “Y--yeah, I’m fine….just a bad dream.” He said back to her as he ran his hands through his blondish brown hair, his face slightly dripping with sweat. Slowing turning his attention forward, his eyes looked at Talon as she was resting in the hospital bed, “Um….h--how is she doing?” He asked with bit shakiness in his voice. The nurse gave him a smile as she placed her hand on his shoulder, “She’s doing fine. Why don’t you go home and get some rest, Mr. Barnes?” Charles didn’t look up at the nurse, his eyes focused on Laura, whom was sound asleep. “No, no…I’m fine; I’d rather be here anyways.” The nurse patted him on the shoulder, “Okay. Well, is there anything I could get you then?” Letting out a slight yawn, Charles arms stretched forward as his body began to fully wake now, “Eh….if you wouldn’t mind, I could really use a Dr. Pepper right now?” The nurse gave him another smile as she turned to walk away, “Okay then, I’ll be right back.”
After the Skrull attack, Charles had brought Talon to the tower’s medical bay. The doctors told him that her healing factor was doing most of the work, but her body was literally exhausted, and after MR stopped by to check on her once and told him what they had been through, Charles understood perfectly well why Laura was so worn out. He had no idea that she had been captured by the Skrull’s or even worse what they had put her through. Charles placed his hand over hers as it laid next the rest of her body as he thought about all of what she must had gone through, his hand rubbing his cheek as he remembered her slapping him…which to this day he still had no idea why? He was probably missing something obvious, but at this point it didn’t matter to him, all that mattered was that she was okay. A smile grew upon his face as his eyes moved up to see her face, seeing as she rest so peacefully, it was hard to believe that this was the same girl that could cut your head off in cold blood and not think twice about it, only reminding him of who she truly was, not a monster or a weapon, but a beautiful girl trying to do the right thing.
“Um….Mr. Barnes?” His mind quickly snapped back into reality as he turned to look back towards the voice of the nurse whom had been taking care of Talon since Charles brought her in. Charles was thankful for her, at how kind she was…even dealing with someone as impatient as himself. “Yes, ma’am?” He answered back as his smile remained upon his face. “Here’s your soda you asked for….but, one of those government agents stopped me in the hall and asked me to tell you that their ready for you in the interrogation room.” She said to him as she handed him his Dr. Pepper. “Ugh!” Charles quickly let out a deep sigh as he sat back in his chair, his hands running down his face as he realized that he had completely forgotten about the interrogation thing. His hands slowly slid down his face as frustration slowly moved in, his eyes now looking back at Laura as she continued to rest.
He wasn’t just about to leave her, he couldn’t…wouldn’t just leave her, he wanted to wait, to at least wait until she woke up, to get a chance to talk to her since he hadn’t seen her since….but his thoughts were once again cut off as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking to the hand, his head looked up to see the nurse smiling down at him, her hand on his shoulder as she gave him a smile that literally made Charles’ worries and frustrations disappear, “Go. She will be fine without you for an hour, I promise. Now go so you can get back here sooner.” She said to him. He knew he had to go, MR had asked the whole team to corporate with whoever was to interrogate them with respect and to get things done and over with as quickly as possible, and even though he’d rather stay here, stay with Laura, as much as it annoyed him, he knew he had to go, he owed to MR for all of the work she has done with this team.
“Do you have a pen?” Charles asked the nurse randomly. She gave him a slight look of confusing upon hearing his question, but happily handing him one of her pens that she had in her pocket of her white nurse uniform. Finding a small piece of paper, Charles quickly wrote something down as he then stood over Laura’s bed, then folding it in two, placing it in Talon’s hand as he then placed his hand over hers, causing her fingers to tighten around it so that she would have it when she awoke. “Can you please make sure she reads that note if I’m not back before she wakes up?” Charles asked the nurse, his back turned to her as he looked at Laura she continued to rest peacefully. “Of course.” She answered him. Still looking upon Laura’s face, he slowly slid his hand upon her soft cheek, calmly brushing her blue her out of her face, allowing the sun light that was shinning in through the window to shine upon her gorgeous face. “Mr. Barnes--!” the nurse shouted as she pulled him by the arm, literally dragging him towards the door and away from the bed, “--if you don’t go now, I will kick you out personally, she will be fine without you for a few hours, I promise!” The nurse said as she pushed him out the door. “Okay, okay, I’m going! Dang! Oh and hey…” Charles stopped at the door as he turned back to the nurse s she crossed her arms and glared at him, obviously getting annoyed at him, “Yes, Mr. Barnes?” Charles turned to her and smiled, “…thank you.” And with that, he turned and made his way down the hallway towards the elevators.
Turning back towards Talon, the nurse began to smile as she shook her head with frustration, “Stubborn boy….I should have diagnosed him with ‘love sickness’.”
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Standing in the elevator as it rose to the higher floors, Charles waited as the elevator music played. He wasn’t in his normal uniform since the one pretty much in pieces from the Skrull battle and his new one wouldn’t be ready until a few days, now he was simply wearing regular clothing, looking down at his blue t-shoes, along with dark blue jeans and a slightly tight blue shirt which had two small, single white stars on each of the his shoulders, still keeping his patriot look even out of uniform. The elevator dinged as the doors opened, he quickly made his way down the hallway, walking past one of the team’s newest members, Glory Nights, who didn’t seem happy at all.
Walking up t the door, he slowly entered the room, at first wondering if he should have knocked, “Um…hi?” He said awkwardly as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He found himself looking at a young, black haired, Asian woman who sat at a table with a briefcase, full of what appeared to be some short of equipment, setting on the next by her. “Sit down” She ordered him, not even looking up to see who he was. Making his way to his seat, he took a short glance at the man who was in one of the corners, just simply standing there. Not giving the man a second thought, he sat down, “State you name for the record, including if you are registered or not.” She said plainly. Charles could tell she has done this a lot, noticing how she doesn’t even look up at him when asks the question, keeping her eyes on whatever is in the folder she is holding in her hand, which he most likely assumed was about him. “Charles Allen Barnes….” he said calmly, he hadn’t been interrogated a lot, but he was use to answering simple questions, especially when he had nothing to hide, “…not registered.” The woman’s looked up from the folder she was holder, not giving him any type of emotional response, not even simple facial expressions, “Not registered?” Charles looked at her as he become a bit concerned with her reply to his answer. “Yes, I’m not registered, I’ve never even been asked to register…is that a problem?” He asked plainly, ever since he arrived in this universe, not once had he ever been asked to registered, in truth he just recently only found out they even had registration.
“What is your source of income?” She instantly moved on to the next question, completely ignoring him. “Currently? I don’t have any type of income, at the moment I am living here in Champions City, everything I need: food, water, shelter, and such are all being provided. If you’re referring to my inclusion with the military, that’s all on voluntary basis, as in I don’t get paid for it; I’m only doing it as a way of giving something back to my country.” He replied to her answer as he sat back in his chair, trying to make himself comfortable in any way possible.
She took a minute after hearing his answer, making some type of notes on a note pad she was holding, while also doing some kind of adjustments to the recorder she had recording the whole conversation…if you could even call it that. “What is your place of birth?” She asked as she started looking through her folder once more. Rubbing his hands over his arms as gooses-bumps appeared, making him wish he hadn’t of worn a shirtsleeve shirt today, “New York City.” He said with a bit of chilliness in his voice, as his teeth slowly began to chatter a bit. Flipping through the papers she was holding, “But you are from another dimension, another universe than our own, correct?” She asked, not even making any type of eye contact with him, acting as if he wasn’t even there to begin with and that she was asking these questions to thin air. “Uh…Yeah…Yes, I come from a universe similar to this one, a world full of heroes and villains, but both have their differences that go along with the things they have in common. But to answer the question, yes, I do come from another dimension.” Heanswered with a bit of confusion in his voice, he couldn’t help but to find it weird that she would be asking that question, for someone who seems to have all the answers, she sure seemed to not know a lot.
“Then why have you not shared this with the government?” Her voice was a bit more questioning than before with the others as she placed the folder of papers down upon the desk, giving him what appeared to be her undying attention….well, at least it appeared to be. “What? I have….where are you getting your info from lady? Call up General Manson, he works at the Pentagon in the Super-Humans Department, he has everything you need to know about who I am and where I come from, they don’t just let random people join the army, y’know?” She didn’t give him any real feedback to his reply, no real form of emotion, which was getting annoying to Charles. “Yes, we know about…um, General Manson, is it? We have those files pulled and have looked over them.”
He let a deep sigh as he leaned back in his chair, “Then why did you ask?” He wondered out of frustration.
“So then….” she said as she sat back up in her chair, her elbows propped up on the table as he head rested upon her arms, “….since you are from another world, what are your intentions on this earth?” She asked him, more suspiciously than before. He took longer to respond to her question then he did with the other, taking a moment as he looked her in the eye, wondering what it was that she was trying to get him to say, “My intentions? My intentions here are what my intentions were back on my own world: To protect the world from those who would try and destroy it. I may not have been placed on this earth on purpose, but my parents were soldiers, and they thought me that no matter what happens, ‘always keep fighting the good fight,’ and that’s what I’ve been doing. Sure it was hard to adjust at first, I mean come on, have you ever been dropped into a totally different universe before? But no matter what, my intentions have never changed or been altered, I’m a hero to the world, born and raised to be one, and I’ll be one till the day I die.” He answered her with confidence in his voice, putting his arms up, resting them behind his head as he sat back in his chair.
He could tell what she was doing now, trying to make him question his reasons for being a hero, and most likely, where he stands when it comes with working with the Champions, make him question himself altogether.
She then began looking through briefcase again, pulling out another folder, flipping through the pages as she waited before asking her next question. While also making notes as she was probably revising everything he had said to her already, and it only made Charles wonder what she was going to try and pull next over his head. “Your ‘girlfriend’ is it…Talon, she is a known killer… your parents are heroes, how do you resolve that to be with her?” She asked as she looked up from the folder she had been reading, looking him dead in the eye as she asked the question. Clinching his fist, Charles’s eyes narrowed as he heard her, now she was making him angry…and worse, he knew that she just found the one thing that she could use to get under his skin. “First off, in case you haven’t noticed, my name has the word ‘Killer’ in it, so before you go off judging other people, people you obviously don’t know very well, remember that just because you kill people, that doesn’t make you the bad guy.” She could feel the angry building inside of him as he answered, making all too easy for her to start pushing his buttons. “But still….she’s killed plenty more people than you have, so still, how do you resolve that? I mean from your records, your parents were great heroes in your world, were they not?” She continued to irritate him with the question, as she could tell that it was getting to him, talking about Talon. “My parents WERE the greatest heroes on my world, two of the best, but that doesn’t make them perfect. My mother was a Russian spy who defected to the U.S., my father was a soldier during World War Two, they have both killed their share of people, but even then, they were not judged for what they did, because what they did was for the right reasons, sure they’ve made mistakes, but no one is perfect, and holding them to their mistakes, holding anyone, without even giving them a chance, well then….all you’re doing is simply setting them up to fail. I’ve killed, and I’ve made my share of mistakes, still do…on both terms, but the world doesn’t hold that against me, and even if it does, I’m not going to let that stop me from doing what I know is right, even if it may be the wrong thing in someone else’s eyes….even in the eyes of the people I have sworn to protect.”
With a slight grin growing upon her face, she could tell that she had hit a nerve in the young boy as she heard his answer. Leaning back in her chair, she continued to grin deviously as she played with her pen, making another note on her paper before leaning forward once more, as her grin transformed into a wicked smile. “Well okay then, Mr. Boy Scout. Let me ask you this….would you have killed, let’s say, Talon if the cause was needed?” Charles eyes filled with rage as he heard this, quickly getting to his feet, he slammed his hands down on the desk as he put his face right in her own, his eyes glaring at hers as he could feel the rage about to explode inside of him. “SHUT THE HECK UP!” He shouted, his voice overflowing with rage as he quickly turned and walked towards the door. “That’s it! Screw you people, I’m done here.”
“Sit down, Mr. Barnes.” The woman ordered him as he stopped his hand on the door knob as the door was now partly opened. “I still have a few more questions to ask you, and whether you like it or not, you are going to answer them.” Charles looked over at the guard in the corner, the man staring right at him as the agent spoke with an iron fist, Charles could take the guard, but he knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere, and instead only cause more trouble for him….not to mention how it would make the rest of the team look, which is exactly what this witch wanted. So whether he DID like it or not, he knew he had no choice but to follow her orders.
Throwing himself back into the chair, he crossed his arms as he glared at the agent, whom simply looked at him with a sickening smile upon her face as she knew she had gotten him to go off, no doubt already thinking of a way to use what he had said against him one day. “Good, solder. I’m glad you’re still willing to corpora--” But before she could finish, Charles cut her off as he was done with her comments, “Just shut up and ask the next question.” He hated this, he more than hated this, he loath this, he hated the fact that she knew exactly what could set him off, but even worse, she got him to go off and had it freakin’ recorded! He knew MR was going to kill him for that which only frustrated him even more. “Now, now…be a good boy. But okay, moving on…what was your involvement in the Skrull Invasion?” Thankfully this was a simply question, causing Charles to slightly sigh in relief as he heard it. “After Kurrent left for personal reasons, Eclipse took his place in the Trinity alongside Mistress Redhead and Nighthunter. After that, I was promoted to leader of the main Champion squad as I was Eclipse’s second-in-command. Before the actual attack by the Skrull’s, we learned of an unknown crashed spaceship that had crashed landed in Alaska--” Swiftly cutting him off, the agent began to speak, “But this was a trap, correct?” Glaring at her once more, he continued, “--Well as I was saying…we learned of a crashed spaceship and my team was dispatched to investigate in the case that the ship may have posed a threat to surrounding areas, more importantly, the towns that were nearby. Upon arriving, I ordered my team to split into groups since the ship had broken into two when it crashed….but to make long story short, like the rest of the teams, we quickly learned it was a trap set by the Skrull’s and that we had walked right into it.” Switching to a new sheet of paper for her notes, the agent continued to write things down as the young hero spoke, annoying Charles even more now that he knew that anything stupid or outline he could say, she would be there to make sure she wrote it down. “So you lead your team into a trap?” Charles sighed out of full annoyance now as she asked him this. “Technically? Yes. Intentionally? No. And I won’t go on about how I was new to the whole leader thing, even though I was, I knew that going in, so anything that you want to blame about the main team during the invasion, I’ll take full responsibility for it. But to be perfectly fair, no one could see this coming, it caught the whole world off guard…we were just lucky enough to stop it in time, that was a miracle all to itself.”
Putting her notes away, the agent sat back in her chair as she began to stretch slightly, the bright light from the ceiling glaring down off her glasses as her face now appeared a bit more emotional, probably due to her getting a kick out of annoying the young patriot. Leaning back onto the table, she looked back at Charles as he simply sat in his chair, still glaring at her, wishing that he could go and leave the internal torment that was her, “Final question: What can you tell us about your teammates, is there anything….or anyone among them that you feel is a threat to the government?” Charles couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of her question, as he found it humorous that someone with so much information would ask something so stupid, sure he knew she was probably trying to see who he’d rat out on, but he didn’t care, he just found it funny at how someone with so much power could have no idea what they were really dealing with. “Oh, you really want to know who’s a threat?” Charles repeated the question as he stood up from his chair to his feet, placing his hands on the table as he looked her dead in the eye one again, seriousness covering his face, “Every single last one of us, but hey, the good news is that we’re the good guys….” He slowly began to move from the table, making his way from the door, turning the knob slightly as he looked back at the agent, “…but that doesn’t mean we won’t fight back when someone like YOU tries to threaten what we’re fighting for. Just remember that, Miss…Callisto, right? Just remember to tell your boys that if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. The Champions are here to stay, Ms. Callisto, now you can either live with that or don’t, it’s your choice.”
“Oh, and one more thing…” Charles said as he opened the door, his back now turned to Callisto, “…you know that thing you asked me about killing? When Talon comes in here, watch yourself, Callisto, or I will be back, you understand me?” Charles said as he looked at her, his eyes filled with seriousness. The agent didn’t even look up at him as he said this; she just continued to get another folder for her next interrogation, “Verily, Mr. Barnes. Send, um…Dark Huntress in next, and make sure the door doesn’t hit you on the way out.” She said back at him, acting as if he wasn’t even there anymore.
And with that, Charles slammed the door shut as he made his way down the hallway, not saying another word. All he cared about now, was getting as far away from that woman as possible, and back down to the medical bay, where he would have rather been the whole time.
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