A Damsel In Distress and A Hero(?) With A Shiny Gun

POV - ???

I was scared. More scared than when the experimental spacecraft we were on was hit by that solar flare. More scared than when mom died. More scared than when dad got into one of his drunken rages and tried to hit me and Johnny.

I was scared because during all those times, I felt like there was a way out. I had people there to help me. But right now, I was alone.

Ben was gone. Reed was out of the country. Johnny was lying unconscious at my feet. And worst of all, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't use my powers. So, I'd taken to hiding under a stairwell with my unconscious brother lying on my lap. I crouched over, barely holding back the tears pooling in my eyes.

I felt like I was going to die. My chest seemed weighed down with weights and I couldn't breath properly.

The aliens and their clicking language...I could hear them. They sounded like they were laughing as they gunned down innocents at random. And, as hard as I tried, my powers wouldn't work. Some sort of insidious mental block that stopped me.

Luckily, I was hidden behind plants and some spare furniture, but it only gave me a view of the people being executed.

...The situation was hopeless. For the first time in over a year, I felt like a normal woman. No, I didn't feel like a normal woman. I felt like a weak one. One that had been high off of delusions of grandeur and had been fooling herself ever since she gained powers through what could only be explained as a cosmic accident.

I caressed Johnny's pale face, blood coming from the crack on the top of his head where a piece of rubble had slammed against his head and cut deep, maybe even breaking bone.

That was when I made a mistake. A miniscule one. But a mistake nonetheless.

A whimper escaped my mouth as I looked at Johnny and thought about our chances of escaping this alive. As soon as the noise left my mouth, my eyes widened and I silently clamped a hand over my mouth, as if to stop the sound that had already escaped.

It was but a brief, nearly indiscernible noise but the aliens seemed to have more keen senses as they easily picked up on it.

As I saw that one of them was ordered over to check out the origin of the sound - the place I and Johnny were hiding - I couldn't hold it back anymore. The tears that had pooled in my eyes broke through the last hurdle and crashed down my cheeks.

The amount of tears coming from my eyes only increased the closer the lanky alien got.

Before long, it was in front of the plants and was moving them aside with it's utterly inhuman gun. My teary eyes met the unforgiving black of the alien's eyes through it's metal mask and it turned around to call out but something caught my attention.

Another barrel, the same as the barrel on the gun the alien was using to move the plants out of the way, was pointed at the alien's head.

Without the alien even knowing it's life was about to end, the barrel lit up and a blast of blue energy flew out and turned the alien's head to a bloody mist. Then, before the corpse could fall, a blur appeared and held up the bulk of the alien with a single hand as the other hand aimed the rifle and opened fire on the group of five other aliens.

I saw the first blast hit the mark and another alien dropped. The others were alerted to the enemies position and burst into action, looking for cover - yet it didn't matter for two other aliens as two rapid fires of the rifle in the man's hand caused them to drop, headless.

The person, who I could now see was a tall and lanky man of similar age to me with black hair and pale skin, dropped the alien he was using as a shield and dived to the side with practiced ease and grace I didn't think was possible in this type of situation. The blue blasts of energy sailed above my head but I couldn't find the energy to flinch - all I could do was watch the man crouching behind a leather couch that was quickly torn asunder by the energy blasts.

Yet the man didn't flinch. He didn't even look pressured as the couch he was hiding behind was being torn up by the volley of shooting by the remaining two hostiles.

He reached into a backpack on his front and pulled out a sleep piece of metal that curved toward the bottom end, whereas the top part of the metal had a button with a slightly lighter color than the rest of the metal.

The man tilted his head at the piece of metal before he pressed the button and threw it behind him and directly at the aliens.

I found myself wondering how he'd known they were there. Not once had he looked up to see their position and nor had he seen them reach that cover before he dived behind the couch for cover. And yet he knew like he'd personally instructed them to go to where they currently were. It was like he had precognition.

My attention was brought back to the situation when the piece of metal exploded into a ball of light and sound that even made my ears ring, despite how far away I was from the piece of equipment.

The man, unaffected, seemed to mutter something to himself, "So...that's what that does," he smiled a frankly frightening smile and I could a glimpse of his bright purple eyes shining as he charged over the couch. Except he wasn't taking his gun.

I nearly called out that he'd forgotten it but he pulled out a machete-sized blade, slinging the rifle over his shoulder, as his strides practically ate up the ground between him and the nearest alien.

The one thought that went through my head was:

He moved too quickly. With too much grace. His long legs blurring as he dashed.

As such, it didn't take long for him to plunge the blade through the first alien's midsection, twisting the blade in a savage display of brutality as blue blood sprayed out both the front entry wound and the back's exit wound. He slapped the weakened alien's rifle from it's hands and pulled the blade free before he thrust it upward into the neck and out the back of the head. Cybernetic enhancements it seemed to have sparkled and sizzled as they broke before the alien went completely limp.

The last alien was regaining it's sense and turned to open fire at the man who was quickly looking more and more inhuman in my eyes as he hoisted the alien up with the knife still speared through it's neck, covered in the thing's blue blood.

Despite the alien looking lanky, it was covered in wiry muscle and was taller than most humans. Even the man, who was considerably taller than either me or Johnny, was shorter than the alien. Which meant his feat of lifting the entire body of it with a single hand, without looking like he was struggling...it was quite a shocking display of strength.

The remaining alien's shots hit the corpse, blowing chunks out of it but the thickened chest armor seemed to protect the man who'd placed himself behind it for the protection. As the alien could stop the charge, the man got close enough to throw the bloodied corpse at his opponent who seemed to panic and fumbled to block the corpse with an arm as the man got to business swinging the blade down at the barrel of the gun with speed that boggled my mind.

The barrel was cut off and the gun fizzled, as if an important part was broken, before the alien finally pushed off the corpse of it's fallen brethren. However, it was only just in time to see the blade coming for it's face.

The bloodied weapon slid through the eye slit of the metal mask with inhuman precision and out the back end of the helmet with a sickeningly wet squelching sound.

...He'd done it. He'd killed them all without even taking a single injury. The only difference to how he looked as he entered...was that he was now covered in wet blue blood. I hadn't even noticed when he'd entered but his clothes were already covered in dried blue blood. He'd been fighting like this...for how long?

Just as this thought came into my head, the man's head shot in my direction and I struggled to hold back a cry of surprise as his purple eyes bore into my own eyes. The intensity of his eyes almost distracted me from the fact that he'd, in a blur, pulled the rifle from his shoulder and was no aiming it at us. On instinct, I held my arms up and in front of me, and unlike before, two barely visible shields appeared in front of us.

He had looked like he was going to shoot, yet the shots never came. "A Psyker...?" he muttered, seeming to ask himself, before shaking his head as he lowered the gun - though only slightly. "Are you okay, miss?" he asked and I nearly burst into tears again.

The way he said it made me feel like he was a soldier which didn't suit his attire of a hoodie and a pair of cargo shorts. Regardless, it made me feel like I was safe.

But then I remembered I wasn't alone, "M-my brother! He--He's unconscious and bleeding and, and, I-I don't know what to do...!" I felt the tears welling up in my eyes again and roughly wiped them, feeling a spark of self-loathing in the pit of my stomach as I looked away from the man who I was so sure would be disappointed in my weakness.

After our parents left us, I was supposed to be strong - for myself, for Johnny. I was supposed--

"Keep your head clear, kid," the man's gruff yet young voice spoke up as he lightly knocked my head with his fist, "If you ain't a soldier, what's the shame in crying in a shitty situation like this?" he asked, seeing through my mental state within a moment. Despite looking the same age as me...just hearing the way he spoke told me he'd experienced more than I could ever hope to imagine, "What's this about your brother bleeding anyway?" he asked as he stepped over the plants and into the hiding space I'd been in.

"Some rubble fell and hit his head when those aliens first broke in here...I dragged him under here and hid while doing what I could for his bleeding but he's still unconscious and the bleeding has barely slowed down..." I barely got out, my feelings of self-doubt creeping in until I remembered what the man said about keeping my head clear.

"Hm," he hummed, placing the rifle down next to him as he looked down at Johnny's injury, "Not too bad, honestly. No serious damage to the skull and the only real problem is the fact the cut on his head is so wide," he poked at the edges of the wound before pulling out some cloth, "You got any cotton or something similar you could stuff in his ears? The bleeding isn't life-threatening but we need to cut off as many of his senses as possible. He's gonna have one hell of a concussion when he wakes up and seeing bright lights and hearing loud bangs is gonna make it worse."

He gave out experienced instructions and I instantly put them into action. Reaching over, I grabbed a nearby cushion and ripped it open before taking the stuffing and plugging it delicately into Johnny's ears.

Meanwhile, the man seemed to be prodding around his head and neck looking for injuries with seasoned movements before he nodded to himself, "Your brother's lucky. The head injury is his only problem."

A flood of relief went through my body and I felt my body relax before I noticed a little dampness underneath me which made my face heat up to an incredible degree, "Um...I, uh..." I tried to come up with some sort of reason for why I needed to change my clothes but with Johnny on my lap and the 'suspicious' wetness underneath me...I doubted any reason I gave would be believed by the perceptive man.

"Hm?" he answered me with a hum before looking to me. He seemed momentarily confused by my red face and embarrassed expression before his eyes traveled downward and saw the small puddle underneath me, making me feel like I was dying on the inside. He smiled before giving me a reassuring look, "Trust me, it happens to most people during their first warzone experience. I've seen 6'6" bear-like men shit themselves in a warzone before so the fact you only let out a little urine is something you should be proud of," he joked but I couldn't find it in me to laugh as I averted my gaze, even more embarrassed that he was being so upfront about what I'd done.

He sighed and carefully moved Johnny off of me and over to where he'd laid down his rifle before looking back to me, "Do you have anything to change into?" he asked and I gave a terse nod, to which he continued, "Where?" he asked.

Pointing to a nearby suitcase, he nodded before standing up, picking up his rifle as he stood, and walked over to the suitcase that was about ten or so meters away from us. He gaze was kept on the entrance of the hotel but it did occasionally swivel to other sounds he seemed to hear in the hotel. But the lack of firing told me they weren't threats.

In the end, he kicked the suitcase over to me and got it close enough that I could open it.

Standing up, I picked up some panties and a new pair of jeans and went to leave for the nearby bathrooms. Though I was stopped by him, "Do it under the stairwell. I know it's embarrassing but I won't be looking and your brother's unconscious. If there's one of those Xen--aliens in there, will you be able to fight it off?" he asked and the fear I instantly felt made me unable to answer his question. Mainly because it would be a resounding 'No!'. When against those soldiers...my powers just wouldn't work. Whether it was because of fear or something else, I had no clue.

So, I just waited for him to stand next to the stairwell, facing away from me as he stood guard. While he stood there and as I changed, he seemed to get somewhat bored so he began some conversation.

"Name's Cain. What about you, miss?" he spoke, purely out of curiosity from his tone.

Jumping when he spoke, I calmed down when I realized he hadn't turned around and continued pulling up my fresh underwear, "...Susan. Susan Storm. Thank you for saving us and helping my brother," I thanked him, realizing I was a little late on that front.

He seemed to freeze a little at my name before he relaxed again as he spoke, "And what's your brother called?" he asked and while I found it a little weird he dodged accepting my thanks, I still answered him.

"Jonathan Storm. Though he usually goes by Johnny," I answered before reiterating what I'd said before, "He'd be just as thankful as I am for what you did. Seriously, Cain...thank you," I said, as heartfelt as I possibly could be but he just shrugged, a scoff coming from his mouth as he went to turn around before stopping himself.

"...It wasn't on purpose, so don't thank me just yet. I've been cleaning buildings of these fucking aliens and you just happened to get saved by that," he said, his tone grim, "So don't think I'm some sort of good-guy, hero-type, okay?" he asked, a no-nonsense tone to his voice.

"Sure..." I agreed, though I secretly thought to myself that I'd pay Cain back for the things he'd done for me and Johnny. Even if he didn't want the gratitude.

As I was thinking this, Cain whipped to the side and leveled is gun at a threat I couldn't see.

Even then, I froze as a voice came from the entrance of the hotel, "Now, son, why don't you lower that rifle?" a level and composed voice came from around the bend and to my surprise, Cain lowered the weapon with a wide smile on his face.

"Well, if it ain't Captain America," he laughingly said, the rifle lowered but ready to come up at any minute. Though I wasn't focused on that.

Captain America? The Super Soldier from WW2? What the hell was he doing here?!