22 A Sudden Attack
The Stealth Ship that was floating on the outskirts of Hydra Research base, turned invisible again. And in an instant reached the Earth's upper atmosphere.
After leaving Earth's atmosphere, Jerry suggested they leave their seats and see outside from the viewpoint.
For his passengers, namely Pietro, Wanda, and Alice, it was their first time leaving Earth and gazing at its wonderful form from space.
And as they watched the blue planet from the viewpoint of the navigation deck, they were mesmerized.
"Mr. Caretaker, Earth's so beautiful!" Alice exclaimed excitedly.
"Science has really advanced, eh..." Pietro muttered.
They still didn't know that Jerry was an alien, at technically.
Wanda inadvertently nodded at their comments, while Jerry just smiled behind his visor.
Letting them enjoy the view, Jerry left for the cockpit to steer the ship to the dark side of the moon.
The dark side of the moon didn't mean that it was literally dark, it just meant the far side of the moon that always faced away from Earth. And despite facing away from the Earth, it sees as much sunlight as the side facing the Earth.
Landing the ship at a suitable spot, Jerry had them wear space suits and together they exited the ship.
The spacesuit that they wore wasn't like bulky, it was light and comfortable. One of the most expensive pieces in the galaxy.
Alice was really enjoying jumping and playing around in the low gravity of the moon, and for some reason, so was Pietro.
Well, this detour wasn't planned. He just wanted to do this for Alice, she reminded him of his niece. And he wanted to bring a smile to her small face.
After a while, Wanda came to him, while Pietro played with Alice.
"Why did you bring her with you? Do you want her to work for you as well?" Wanda asked indifferently from behind.
Unlike Jerry's black visor, Alice's was a seethrough one. And Wanda knew who Alice was, a fellow Sokovian who survived the human experimentation. She was aware of the girl's suffering.
"What, of course not! She's a kid!" Jerry was a bit dumbfounded, was his image that bad in her mind?
"I couldn't just leave her in the base, you know."
Plus, she reminded him of his niece.
Wanda nodded, "Hm, then what will you do with her?"
Jerry sighed, he hadn't put much thought into it.
Alice was a sweet child but he was aware that he couldn't just keep her with him. Alice needed a proper family kind of environment, a human family.
Not him.
Even right now, she thinks that he is her "Mr. Caretaker". Perhaps, the Hydra guy who was assigned as her caretaker wore a mask while with her as well, for safety measures, that's why Alice didn't suspect him.
He wondered what kind of terrified face she would make when it was revealed to her that he was an alien, an ugly one at that, and the uncles (Chittauri soldiers) who escorted her in the ship were the same aliens that attacked her planet a few months ago.
He wanted her to live a normal and safe life. But with him, it wasn't possible for her. Well, truthfully, it wasn't possible either way, since she had these powers... it really wasn't possible for her.
More than any of that, Jerry didn't have any time to take care of a child right now.
'After this, maybe I should drop her at Xavier's school...'
It wasn't the best place for her, nor really safe, but that was the only place Jerry thought would be able to take good care of her for the time being. They could even help her get accustomed to her powers as well.
'Besides, from my knowledge of this world, Charles doesn't seem like a dark variant of him.'
Suddenly, wondering Wanda's thoughts about the matter, he asked her, "I was thinking of sending her to that famous mutant school. What do you suggest?"
She hummed and told him that she would've suggested returning Alice to her parents if they were still alive, but unfortunately, Alice was an orphan, there might not be a better suggestion than sending her there. The image of X-Men and Xavier's school was good enough in this verse...
"Let's have Pietro drop Alice at their front gate and escape without drawing attention. He wouldn't mind would he?"
Wanda nodded, "That will be okay."
While talking a bit more with him about Alice's future, she noticed that Jerry seemed to deeply care about the little girl. She wondered if Jerry was a nice person underneath that black visor.
Truth be told, she was a little curious about how he looked under that mask but refrained from forcing him into revealing what he didn't like.
After all, she knew that he was highly dangerous. She had seen what he had done to the Hydra goons and he even had supernatural powers just like hers.
'At that time, when my powers flared out, he was completely unscathed even though they destroyed everything in the room...'
'Well, enough dilly-dallying. It's time we leave.' Jerry thought and asked everyone to walk back to the ship.
Alice leaked whined as she wanted to stay longer, but she wasn't stubborn about it as she had learned to always obey her caretaker.
"The moon was really exciting, Mr. Caretaker. Will we visit it again?" Alice asked while hugging his waist.
"Yes, of course." He smiled.
Arriving back at the ship, he told Wanda that he had decided to drop Alice at Xavier's school as soon as possible as it'd be harder for everyone if Alice got more attached to them than present.
Wanda agreed.
Jerry was considering Wanda's opinions in this matter because he believed her to be quite mature and she seemed to care for the girl too.
Anyway...
Even though he didn't find any mutant DNA samples in Strucker's base, he was sure to find many useful DNA samples in Stryker's base, possibly Wolverine's as well.
For the attack at Stryker's base, he needed the army at its full as that place posed a bit of a challenge when compared to Strucker's base. In the case that they have managed to enslave mutants, then it'd become even more troublesome.
Well, that's where the Scepter would come in handy. Anyway, that's for later...
He turned the ship's course back to Earth.
Reaching Xavier's School for Gifted Children, Jerry remembered that he needed to talk it out with the person in question before handing her over to strangers.
"Hey, um, Alice...", he went to her and kneeled, so that his eyes were on the same level as his. He was a bit unsure of how to approach the matter.
"Yes?", she tilted her head.
"You see Mr. Caretaker has some really important job to do. So would you be fine staying with some new nice people? They'll treat you really well and you will even get to have many friends of your age. You will even get to go to school!"
She nodded with a smile, "Okay."
Well, that was easy, maybe she wasn't that attached to this Caretaker person after all.
"And when will you pick me back?" Her question wrenched his heart a bit.
'Maybe it's me getting attached...'
Patting her head, he replied, "As soon as I am able to, okay..."
Alice nodded again, with a smile.
*Boom!!!!!*
A sudden attack shook the ship, Jerry hurriedly caught Alice to catch her from falling... a high-intensity laser blast had grazed the ship's left wing, disabling its camouflage.
An attack of this caliber was probably from Scott Summers, aka, Cyclopes. Fortunately, the ship was tough, and the attack was poorly aimed due to the stealth function.
"What happened!?" Wanda yelled from the deck.
"Calm down. I'll handle it!" Jerry manipulated his wrist terminal.
'I shouldn't have trusted ship's stealth system against mutants at all. But fuck, I didn't expect them to attack without any warning!!'
"We are not here with hostile intentions, cease the fire at once. I repeat. We are not here with hostile intentions, cease the fire."
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Thanks for reading!
Hey, guys, I heard some complaints about Jerry's name being too lame, and not being "intimidating" enough. I agree. But it is what it is. Also, he might get a new name after getting a new body which is not quite far in the future.
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