#do you think it just barreled through the walls of his superstructure to get to his puppet... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

imjustthemechanic · 5 years

Photo

Natalie Jones and the Golden Ship

Part 1/? - A Meeting at the Palace Part 2/? - Curry Talk Part 3/? - Princess Sitamun Part 4/? - Not At Rest Part 5/? - Dead Men Tell no Tales Part 6/? - Sitamun Rises Again Part 7/? - The Curse of Madame Desrosiers Part 8/? - Sabotage at Guedelon Part 9/? - A Miracle Part 10/? - Desrosiers’ Elixir Part 11/? - Athens in October Part 12/? - The Man in Black Part 13/? - Mr. Neustadt Part 14/? - The Other Side of the Story Part 15/? - A Favour Part 16/? - A Knock on the Window Part 17/? - Sir Stephen and Buckeye Part 18/? - Books of Alchemy Part 19/? - The Answers Part 20/? - A Gift Left Behind Part 21/? - Santorini Part 22/? - What the Doves Found Part 23/? - A Thief in the Night Part 24/? - Healing Part 25/? - Newton’s Code Part 26/? - Montenegro Part 27/? - The Lost Relic Part 28/? - The Homunculinus Part 29/? - The End is Near Part 30/? - The Face of Evil Part 31/? - The Morning After Part 32/? - Next Stop Part 33/? - A Sighting in Messina Part 34/? - Taormina Part 35/? - Burning Part 36/? - Recovery Part 37/? - Pilgrimage to Vesuvius Part 38/? - The Scent of Hell Part 39/? - She’ll be Coming Down the Mountain Part 40/? - Stowaways Part 41/? - Bon Voyage Part 42/? - Turnabout Part 43/? - The Apple Part 44/? - Vesuvius Wakes Part 45/? - Fire At Sea Part 46/? - The Real Jim Part 47/? - Return to Naples Part 48/? - La Mela Part 49/? - A Demonstration Part 50/? - Out of the Frying Pan Part 51/? - Into the Fire Part 52/? - The Last Homunculus Part 53/? - Transmission Part 54/? - Metamorphosis Part 55/? - Jones and the Cat

The ship had some passengers we’d forgotten about...

Nat watched him vanish indoors, and then heard a groan under her feet. High above her on the ship’s superstructure was the Galaxy Lounge – the tower supporting it was starting to tilt dangerously. Beyond, shining in the first glow of sunrise, the bridge began to gleam golden. She had to go.

And god damn it, so did Jim. Never mind being drowned, he was going to be crushed when the ship fell apart. It wouldn’t matter if he managed to transmute himself or not. To hell with free will, she had to stop him.

“Jim!” she shouted, running back towards the stairs.

There was no response. He was already a flight or two down. He couldn’t hear her.

“Jim!” she said, and burst through the doors to the stairway. It was a stupid thing to do, and she knew it – it was far more likely to get her killed than to save him… but in a way, that was the point. Natasha had been trained in her youth to leave people behind if she had to. The important thing was to complete the mission and get out, and if somebody else had to be sacrificed, well, better them than her. But she was trying to be better than that, and that meant she couldn’t leave him.

Two flights down, the rugs were glittering under her feet. When she stepped off onto the tile, the slick metal was difficult to keep her footing on – there was a reason kinds and emperors preferred golden carpets to golden floors. “Jim!” she shouted down the stairs. “Jim! Come back!”

Somewhere not far away, a tremendous metallic thud echoed through the structure as something fell. The light coming down the stairs from the brightening sky dimmed a little. Was her way out blocked.

One more try, she decided. One more try and if he didn’t answer, she was leaving without him.

“Jim!” She tried to start down the next flight.

Her foot slipped on the gold, and she had to grab the railing. It, too, was soft metal that bent under her weight, and came away from the wall, tossing her down the steps to land in seawater at the bottom. Golden foam was floating on the surface of it. If Jim were down here, he was probably already dead. Nat splashed back to the stairs to start climbing them again on all floors.

“Jim!” she shouted again. “Please answer me!”

Then she did hear an answer, but it wasn’t a human voice. Instead, it was a distant animal caterwaul. Nat sucked in her breath between her teeth. The Contessa’s menagerie… she wouldn’t have been allowed to take them with her while evacuating the ship. Jim might be about to die, but he was a human being, aware of the danger and able to take steps to save himself if he decided. These animals, shut up in a room by their selfish mistress, were helpless.

“God damn it,” said Natasha out loud. If she were really trying to be a better person, there was only one thing she could now do.

She splashed through the water towards the back of the ship, which was fortunately uphill – the prop of the ship was transmuting faster, leaving the stern up in the air like the back of the Titanic. That also meant there was less gold here, and Nat was able to use the handrails installed for use of disabled passengers to haul herself up the slope towards the best suites at the rear. There was the sign – Bellatrix Suite. Below it, the card reading Lady Andretti’s Family was still there, if damp.

Nat opened a fire cabinet, pulled out the extinguisher, and broke the door open.

The Samoyed, the largest of the dogs, was just inside, and barreled out on top of her. It was all Nat could do not to roll the entire way back down the hallway to the water. She grabbed a railing in one hand and the dog’s collar in the other, and then had to wrestle the animal back into the room while using her legs and feet to try to control the yorkie, the bichon, and the rottweiler, which were trying to follow it out.

“Sit! All of you! Sit!” she ordered. “Arresta! Sedersi! Sedersi!”

“I shall fall like a bright exhalation in the evening!” proclaimed the parrot.

“No soliloquies,” Natasha ordered.

“And no man see me more!” it continued.

Ignoring it this time, Natasha dragged the struggling Samoyed to the balcony door, and then wrestled it open with one hand. When she looked out, the sun was just starting to come up over Vesuvius, and she could see a little boat coming out from the harbor towards the ship. Was that the others coming to look for her? The coast guard or the port authority? Didn’t matter – it was somebody who could save the animals.

“Up we go!” said Nat, and heaved the dog over the balcony edge. It slid down the stern on all fours and she heard the splash as it hit the water.

The yorkie and the bichon were easy – she could pick them up and hurl them off. The parrot she let out of its cage, and it immediately flew to the balcony itself and was gone. The rottweiler was terrified, and had to be dragged by the collar as the ship tilted more and more, leaning to the side as well as to the front.

She almost had the dog to the door when there was a horrible screech of bending metal. Everything shook again, and the ship must have broken in two – the stern section swung back down to horizontal, and then immediately tipped over on its side. Natasha, the remaining animals, and what little furniture was still in the room were all thrown against the side wall in a heap. The serval’s enormous litter box slammed into the wall right beside her, showering her in both litter and cat shit. The room’s chandelier came free and smashed not far away, spraying glass from the bulbs. Nat threw an arm over her eyes, and could feel pinpricks as some of the shards pierced her skin.

The remains of the ship were sinking fast now. She had to keep going. Nat knew she had it in her to do so. If they’d been expecting her back at the Red Room with these animals in hand, perhaps for a ransom or something, she would have picked herself up and kept going. If they’d been expecting her to bring back Jim, she would have gone into the bowels of the ship and retrieved him or died trying. But right now the only person expecting anything of Natasha was herself. The urge to just sit there, to just shut her eyes and give up and let it happen, was surprisingly powerful. She could. The others would assume she’d done everything she could. She’d saved most of the animals and maybe Jim and Perenelle could make it on her own.

“No,” she said out loud, and picked herself up again. Glass on the floor bit into her stocking feet. “No, you’re better than that.”

She grabbed the rottweiler again. With the ship on its side, the balcony door she’d been using was now six feet up on a vertical wall. Knowing it would hurt the animal but unable to think of a better idea, Nat swung it through the opening by the collar. It yelped and disappeared. Then she went for the cat.

The serval was a slender beast, but had it stood upright it would have been as tall as Natasha. It was, furthermore, angry and frightened. She approached it with a hand held out.

“Kitty kitty?” she ventured.

The cat arched its back and flattened its ears.

“Good kitty,” said Nat. She reached for it.

It hissed and lashed out with a paw. Nat closed her eyes and put up an arm to defend herself, and felt the claws go in. When she looked, there were three bleeding slices down the back of her lower arm.

“Stupid cat, I am trying to help you,” she informed it.

The serval bared its teeth and hissed again.

Nat just jumped on it. The cat squirmed and clawed, and sank its teeth into her hand. Nat hissed through her own teeth but held on, and dragged the struggling animal to the balcony. Water began to come in through the open stateroom door as she did, spilling over in a little waterfall. The threat of getting its feet wet didn’t make the serval any happier, and as Nat got closer to the balcony it realized that was a way out, and clawed at her chest and face. Using her as a climbing post, it made it to the edge and jumped.

That just left Natasha herself. Not only was water coming in fast, the remains of the ship were turning to gold. The walls were starting to glitter. Nat’s pantyhose felt heavy. She grabbed the edge of the balcony doorway with bleeding hands and dragged herself up, then looked down.

Below was a boat with Allen and Sir Stephen in it, along with the contessa’s four dogs. The serval was in the water, swimming to join them.

“Natalie!” Allen waved his arms. “Jump!”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Nat heaved herself over and hit the water with a splash. By the time she got to the surface, her cuts stinging from the salt water, Sir Stephen was already grabbing her to pull her up. The serval, so desperate to escape a moment ago, climbed aboard all by itself and shook, spraying Allen with water as he fired up the little outboard motor.

They headed back for shore. Nat brushed her wet hair out of her face – it seemed unnaturally heavy, and when she looked she found that the tips, as well as the ends of her fingernails, had turned to gold – and moved to look. The very stern of the Scorpio II reflected the rising some for a moment, brilliant gold in the light, and then slipped under. A few golden bubbles came up, and then just floated there, thin hollow spheres of metal.

It was over. Except that it couldn’t possibly be, because two members of their party were still missing.

“Perenelle!” she cupped her hands around her mouth. “Jim!”

“Over here!” a voice exclaimed.

Nat’s hopes rose only to come crashing down a second later when she recognized the voice. It was Perenelle – she was clinging to a buoyant plastic deck chair, waving frantically at them, from what would have been the far side of the Scorpio II had it still been afloat.

Allen turned the boat and motored over, and they pulled her out of the water. She was bruised and bloodied, but alive and whole.

“What happened to you?” she asked Natasha.

“I got in a fight with the cat,” said Nat, glaring at the animal. It was now sitting as far forward in the crowded little boat as it could, rearranging its dripping fur. It ignored her. “Did you see Jim?”

“No,” said Perenelle. “I didn’t look back. I had to get as far away from the ship as possible so I wouldn’t be sucked down or transmuted with it. Where was Jim?”

Nat swallowed. “He stayed on board. He wanted to see if he could transmute himself into flesh.”

They both turned and looked at the golden bubbles. A few odd items were bobbing to the surface now… more bubbles and things like plastic toys, some of them partially golden, that were buoyant enough to float. The vast majority of the ship and the things on board it, however, had turned to gold and were heading for the bottom out of reach.

“He could have got out,” said Allen, putting a hand on Nat’s shoulder. “We’ll wait a while.”

“Of course we’ll wait,” said Sir Stephen. “Buckeye was not one to give up so easily, and I do not believe Jim was, either. It was in his blood… in his DNA. I will not leave him behind a second time.”

Nat nodded, but she hung her head. Jim had already been left behind. She’d had a chance to stop him by force, and she hadn’t taken it. That wasn’t like her. Why had she been such a romantic fool?

#fanfic #natasha romanov #steve rogers #bucky barnes #clint barton #sharon carter #sam wilson

3 notes · View notes