"What the hell?! Get up!" Steve said as for the umpteenth time, he attempted to rouse Erica from her slumber. The girl only responded as the usual.
"Fifty... more... minutes... dad..." Erica mumbled in her sleep. Everything about the bed just made her want to continue to lie down within it's comfort and warmth. While it's softness would have made Captain America feel like he was trying to sleep on water, to Erica, it was perfect as she fell asleep in no time flat, while the Captain felt as though he was sleeping on air. Almost with disbelief, the old soldier looked at the sleeping girl.
"Kid... I... you know... for a bunch of soldiers... you don't seem to act like soldiers! Well... at least you don't. Trude does."
"What...ever... Trude... just seventy more minutes..." Erica said in her sleep, partially oblivious to what was going on.
"You know... zis much sleep is not gud for your health..." Medic reasoned as he walked over. "Besides... Herr Rogers can't do all ze heavy lifting."
"Good thing we got someone with strength along those lines... only thing is... that someone is too lazy to get up in the morning..." Steve grumbled. You see... Erica had shot down four Quinjets. The closest one had been wrecked in a nearby field to which they could easily salvage anything from it though. Steve had gotten most of the work done early this morning, only to find out he had hit jackpot. Not being really a man of the modern era, he didn't have much of a clue to what he was looking at in the back of the whole jet, until it had slowly come to him. That quinjet... HAD AN ENTIRE SERVER IN THE BACK. What only made it better was that the server was hardly even scratched. If someone could manage to get in it, (Slade probably could) then they could easily find out what HYDRA was up to. Only problem was... moving the server.
You see... he had superhuman strength and all, but even HE found it to be a terribly difficult task. Naturally, Medic had followed him to the site of the crash and offered to help. Problem was, while Medic being physically powerful in his own regard, was still only human at the end of the day. This meant that they needed another person with superhuman strength. Naturally, they would have asked Bucky, Slade or preferably Trude. Unfortunately, all of them were gone. Which left a certain someone who was still sleeping back at Twilight's library to be able to do the job...
Erica. Who was currently out cold as though she was a college girl having a hangover...
And this annoyed the hell out of both Medic and Steve. That was just when the inner drill sergeant within a soldier just stepped into Steve...
You see... he wouldn't exactly hit a girl. Or drag her out of a bed. Or even touch her if she didn't want to be.
But there was this thing drill sergeants did... that didn't involve them beating any snoozer into bloody ribbons. No sir... he was going to like this a lot better.
Good thing they got working pumps here.... there were few times when Captain America decided to play a joke to get laughs out, but this was going to be one of them as he filled up the bucket of water and entered the basement. Medic crouching on the top, sniggering. He couldn't wait for the reaction. It did take a while.... voices... and a....
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A distinctively male voice called out.
Wait... wat?
Did Steve somehow manage to drop it on himself... or did he just stub his toe?
In any event, the German was curious to see what had gone on. Going downstairs... he looked at the sight of the bucket on the ground, the water just forming a small pool. Steve was a few steps back blushing to the point of becoming beet red. Taking a look at what he saw... Medic decided to awkwardly backpedal up the stairs, pretending he saw nothing but he could hear Steve's voice loud and clear.
"Why...why... why aren't you wearing any pants?!" The soldier asked as he tried not to look "down there". The term "pants" could be used VERY loosely in this regard... but jokes aside... Steve couldn't have felt more awkward as he felt everything possibly wrong was happening in this situation as he did his best to keep his head up. It was actually a pretty easy thing to do, considering the fact he was over a foot higher than Erica.
"What... I am not wearing pants?" Erica asked obliviously to the situation. The fact that Steve was 96 years old didn't really seem to bother her, or the fact that he was a man... "Oh... well..."
Putting on her "pants" the girl looked back to Steve, who was actually rather quite furious for reasons that was somewhat of a mystery to her. If she'd been a man (and maybe slightly older) Steve would have slapped her across the face.
"I hope you do realize... there are OTHER people here..." Steve said angrily. "And you do..."
"Has anyone told you how much you sound like Trudy when she's upset?" Erica asked dismissively, "Okay... okay... I am coming... sheesh... Shirley doesn't act like a bunch of grumpy old men... oh wait..."
"I am not that old... physically..." Rogers grumbled as Erica made her way up the stairs. Now then... to get that server... One of these days, he really needed to have a chat with whomever though that having girls run around in their underpants was a good idea...
"Training is mediocre..." Slade commented as he looked over the unconscious forms of the Canterlot royal guard. "Tactics share the same genius of a potato. Nothing changed really from last time I was here huh?"
"Well... you think you can do better than?!" The angry royal guard commander asked after watching Slade turn a company of his best horses into jello.
"That's why I am here." Slade replied curtly as he looked to Trude and Bucky, both of which looked bored out of their minds. Watching Slade turning about a hundred ponies into unconscious bodies really wasn't anything too exciting...
"Hey kid..." Slade looked up. "Come down here. Show these ponies how they do it in Karlsland."
"With pleasure..." Trude began as she readied her fists and jumped down. The canine ears manifesting upon her head as she readied herself before circling Slade for a bit. Granted... he was pretty old... but that didn't mean anything about his skill...
She learned the moment when the ballistic staff swung at her, reaching up to catch the staff, she did to avoid getting hit by one end. The other end was promptly thrown at her which resulted in her catching it with her other hand. Big mistake as Slade's head came forward, butting his shorter opponent back.
She could taste blood trickling down from her teeth as she growled a bit... almost like a dog..... would have freaked most people out... though Bucky couldn't help from smiling as she saw Barkhorn swing a heavy blow at Slade, only to be countered and kicked right in the gut. This happened probably three times over, only ending with different ways to how Barkhorn got the worse end of things. If Bucky was right about this... Slade wouldn't even be as much as touched.
He would be proved correct, as he watched Barkhorn, dazed beyond belief attempt to swing at Slade. He merely grabbed her arm, and twisted it back. Of course... he wouldn't break it. But he would do it enough so it hurt.... a lot.
If you couldn't tell... the way Barkhorn was screeching like a scorched puppy should give you an idea on how.
"Kid... we got a lot to work on..." Slade said as he pushed Trude aside who shot him a look that was 30% pissed off, 10% terrified, 20%amazed and 20% Gertrud Barkhorn. "Hey... Bucky... wanna give it a go?"
"You're on. You won't be holding back?"
"You're a big guy." Slade commented as he scrutinized Bucky. Slade was a bit taller... but not by much. Maybe by a single inch, which was hardly noticeable considering how big Slade and Bucky actually were, both of which who commonly find themselves towering over the average person.
"Good." Bucky said as he readied his cybernetic arm, watching as Trude got out of the way, gingerly licking her wounds. "You okay?"
"What's it to you? You'd probably be breaking my arm."
"Nothing... nothing... just checking." Bucky grumbled. Right now... one thing was on his mind. There's a certain word that rhymes with witch which Bucky would be describing her... it could be taking literally when considering those dog ears...
[Meanwhile]
"Okay... we tested it sir." The radioed voice of Rumlow crackled to the Red Skull as he sat within his headquarters, the massive underwater submarine.
"Good job." Schmidt commented. "Tell them I send our faithful doctors my thank you."
"Any chance on field testing it sir?"
"Strucker is on that... right?"
"It is my verk..." Strucker's voice called a bit indignantly.
"Gud work nevertheless." Skull commented as he put his mask on. "We'll test it soon... for now, I got other duties to attend to."
He left his room, and entered the labratory downstairs to take a look at the young girl strapped into the medical chair. Good thing that mere drops of her blood could stabilize enough magic to make dozens of vaporizer rifles or she would have been dead long ago... it was amazing that even after all this blood loss, she seemed to have actually Regained consciousness if anything. Then again... the handlers were extra careful in making sure she didn't bleed out.
"Why are you doing this? She asked weakly.
"Hush." The skull replied as he looked over her. "I promise... someone you love with all your heart will be coming for you, my dear.
She fell back, weak from the constant blood loss that HYDRA put her through. Christiane's eyes never left the Skull as he stayed in the room.
"Ze Neuroi... we can test to see if it works." The skull said with a wolfish grin. The factory would be getting to work now.