Chapter 94: 4th of July. (Independence Day)

The smell of the salt and fish from the sea tickles the nose of the group of good-looking people. Kai, Skye, Natasha, Ava, Jessica and Trish had to ride in a car together to come to the boat. The girls saw a beautiful 70 meter long, white boat named Excelsior!. The boat is luxurious and even has a small pool/hot tub on the deck.

After getting all the luggage inside, the latecomers finally arrive. There are two mother and child pairs today. Lana and her son, Miles, and Sofia Corazon with her pair of twins, Arana and Anya. As the twin father is working, Kai invites them to celebrate the holiday together.

Jessica didn't look like she was going on a boat. She is still wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Trish, Ava and Skye are wearing a bikini but they cover it up with a shirt. If they want to go into the water and play, then they will take it off. 

Kai is wearing a flowery beach shirt that he didn't button. His abs are free for anyone to see. He is also wearing sunglasses and a Captain hat. 

Kai is giving them some instruction before they sail. Natasha, who is wearing a transparent shirt with a black, string bikini underneath is giving Kai a can of iced tea as he is at the helm. Even covered, her figure is to die for. 

"Captain, where exactly are you taking us?" Natasha asked seductively while she had to call him Captain. All of them have to. Otherwise Kai won't respond to them.

They started to sail an hour ago. They couldn't see the land any longer. Kai is just heading into the open waters of the North Pacific Ocean. 

"Glad you asked that question. Will you call everyone here?" He acted mysteriously. Natasha rolls her eyes at him before she does what he asks. The crew is gathered for Kai's announcement.

"Liberty. Freedom. That is what America is made of. Today we're going to celebrate the essence of the 4th of July. America signs the declaration of independence on this day to be free. So, we are going to be free…we're going to the International waters!"

"But Kai...you're Latverian…" Skye retorted. She is lying down on the chair by the pool, wearing only her polkadot white bikini, covering her eyes from the glaring sun to focus on Kai.

"Who is Kai? I am the Captain today," he ignored the remark from his daughter. Arana and Anya ran to him. They don't care where they are going. Today they are going to see fireworks with Kai!

"Do you want to steer?" He asks the 3 year old kids. They nod excitedly. Miles is with his mother, otherwise he too wants to play. Kai picks up Arana first and lets her hold the steering wheel. She instantly turned serious like Kai and focused on the sea. He chuckles seeing the kids mimicking him. 

Natasha sticks close to Kai and helps with the kids. She especially likes the pair of twins. From afar, Ava is staring daggers at the sight of Natasha having fun with Kai and the kids. She is laying down next to Skye in an incredible sexy swimsuit that she plans to show Kai, but it didn't even catch his interest.

"You're jealous or something? You're going to stress your eyes," Skye says to Ava. It snaps Ava back to reality.

"Are they dating or something?" Ava is prying into the matter. The closeness between Natasha and Kai is very suspicious.

"I honestly don't know. I walked-in to them hugging once. And they lived together for 2 weeks alone when Kai was in LA," Skye answered nonchalantly. 

Ava's eyes widened, "Tell me everything!" 

Jessica is sweating hard under the blaring sun. She is standing by the railing, watching the sea. Trish approaches her and asks, " Aren't you hot?" 

"I am… but I don't bring my swimsuit,"

"I have extra ones you could borrow."

Jessica looks at Trish's flat chest and her plump ones and says honestly, " It wouldn't fit me."

Her money is a little tight as she is in the process of setting up her own private investigation agency. Most of her money is used on renting an office. 

"You could at least take off the jacket," Trish said. Why did Jessica choose to suffer? She didn't know. 

"My cloth underneath is… wait what is that?" she spilled some coffee on the floor in her house where she uses a shirt to clean it up. When she woke up late today, she didn't notice the shirt she was wearing was the rag she used. The stain is still there. 

Jessica and Trish's attention is focused on a slightly bigger ship that appeared out of nowhere. Like a mirage, it is suddenly there. Anchored at sea. 

The ship is on a collision course with the 'Excelsior!' if they keep going. 

"Kai! Turn the Ship!" Jessica yelled to the Captain. Members of the ship quickly fall into chaos. However, Kai ignored it. He had another plan. 

Skye ran to the captain's place and scolds him. "Turn the ship. Don't you see the ship in front of us?" 

"Don't worry. I saw them way before any of you did," Kai smiles and gives Anya for Skye to hold. 

The engine stops and the ship is carried forward using its inertia. It stops 100 meters away from the other ship, which is too close for the passengers' comfort. 

"Ahoyyyyy!!!! " A man on the other ship calls out to them. All of Kai's family and friend is looking at the other ship. 

"Ahoyyyyy!!!! We Are Here! " Kai replied to them. He plans this after he gets the news of Shield from Ryan. A stress-free day with his loved one's. 

The members of the vacation are confused. 'Who exactly is Kai meeting?' 

Natasha walks to Kai and asks, "Who are they?" 

"My Instagram Friend." Kai said honestly. He and the other ship captain have been exchanging cat videos online since they followed each other. 

The other captain of the ship activated something. All the passengers on both ships can see the sea is bubbling. Then, a mechanism was activated. 

A huge floating platform surfaced from the sea and connected the two ships together.*Clank* Kai anchored the shop to the floating platform 

This is the true destination today. There is a foothold in the middle of the sea. It is filled with a playground, a bbq place, seats and tent, and many more items people can see in a recreational site. 

The members get off the boat into the floating platform warily. It's not that they don't trust Kai, but the other person seems to have very strong financial power to do something like this. 

Then, they realize who is on the other boat. Skye yelled excitedly when she saw the blonde man making his ways to them while waving at them, "Ryan Knight!" 

… 

It is the holidays. Ryan and Gwen are inviting Betty Ross, Khan, Aunt May and Peter Parker, also Peter's friend Ned Leeds, to a vacation on a boat for the 4th of July. He buys 2 boats. One he named it Excelsior!, and the other he named it All Day. 

Ryan is wearing a white shirt and short pants. Gwen holds his hand when they are boarding the ship. She whispers to his ears after they boarded, "You must be glad to be the only man in the ship…" A seed of jealousy starts to grow when she sees May Parker and Betty Ross in their swimsuits. She couldn't stop staring at them, and she is a girl. What about Ryan then? 

"Gwen, I am only glad when I am your man," Ryan reassures her and kisses her gently. Ned and Peter's eyes are quickly covered by Aunt May. Ryan goes to steer the ship. His fathers and his in-laws are also on vacation. Tim and George are on their way to a 5 star resort in Florida that Ryan designed. 

"Shield has found the Captain, and he has just been thawed. I want to enjoy one last peaceful moment before the Avenger comes and the world becomes more of a mess." Ryan mumbles to himself as he checks his update from ALBUS. The ships can actually move on their own, but it is fun to roleplay as a ship captain. He is not as dedicated as Kai though.

"Mr…Sir Knight, what is that thing… sir?" Peter asks excitedly, but with respectfulness.His eyes are glimmering as he watches the sea platform surfaces. The 11 year old kid is wearing glasses, and his hair is combed nearly to the side. No matter how Ryan looked at him, the kid could grow up to be a nerd. No one would have thought he would be a spider-harem king.

"That's just a sea platform. I made it for today. Let's go Peter," Ryan gently nudges at Peter. He is bringing the people on the ship to meet the others. He waved at the other group from afar.

At first he planned to invite Tony, but there is no way in hell he would let Tony land his lecherous eyes on Gwen's beautiful body. The guy is benched by Pepper anyway. He is still in a wheelchair. 

Even though Ryan has accelerated his healing and he is all right now, Pepper doesn't believe it. If Tony dares to go anyway, then she will punish him dearly. However, it is not as bad as Tony thinks. Pepper is always by his side, that he planned to fake his injury for a long time. But with the world in chaos, he couldn't stay still. He also needed to finish his new building that will be unveiled in two months. 

"Mr Knight sir, thank you very much for inviting me here. I promise that I won't tell anyone what I saw here" A chubby Asian kid said to Ryan after they stepped foot on the floating platform. 

"You're a good kid, Ned. You can post pictures if you want to. But don't post it today. Wait until we get back. Otherwise the reporter will fly here to get exclusive news."

Ned nodded. Peter is calling him when he finds something interesting on the sea platform. There is a transparent panel where they can see the engine. The nerds are focusing on the engine to figure out how it works, and how the sea platform can be still. They are so focused that the sight of the pretty young woman coming to them is ignored by them.

It is the first time the duo meet in real life. Ryan and Kai feel a little weird, like this chapter in their life is a crossover or something. 

…

Steve Rogers slowly opened his eyes.

He stared up at a ceiling fan, perplexed, with the faint chatter from a radio filling his ears. Cautiously, he sat up and swung his feet off the bed and onto the floor. He was fully dressed, right down to his shoes, but not in his uniform. Someone had brought him here, cared for him, changed his clothing. 

'They'd found me on the plane and taken me to... a hospital room?' He gazed around the room, noting the white and green walls, the neatly made bed, the white roses in a vase on the dresser. Everything was clean and pleasant, and more spacious than most hospitals he'd been in. He had the room to himself.

A car horn honked in the distance, and he turned to see a window by the bed, with a bar of sunshine streaming in. Through it he could see a tall brownstone building. 

Suddenly alert, he focused on the tabletop radio across the room from him. The announcer had just said something about the Dodgers. The Dodgers? With a start, Steve realized he must be back in America. He wondered at that, and looked down at his body. No bandages of any kind, and he felt fine, albeit a little stiff. 

Something wasn't right. He wasn't sure what it was, but his instincts were jangling, warning him about something. And he remembered the thought he'd had before drifting back to sleep… that maybe the SSR wouldn't be the first to find him. He had to find out where he was, and fast.

The door opened. A young woman came in, a pretty one with dark wavy hair, dressed in a white button-up shirt and tie over an olive-green skirt. She looked at Steve and her whole face beamed when she saw he was awake. "Good morning," she said, and then glanced at her watch, "or should I say afternoon?"

Her voice was low and pleasant, and her accent was American. That was good as far as it went, though it was no guarantee. He'd met too many spies in the field to feel secure about a detail like that.

"Where am I?" he asked her.

"You're in a recovery room in New York City," she responded promptly.

Steve flicked his eyes back over to the girl suspiciously. "Where am I, really?"

The girl gave him a puzzled smile. "I'm afraid I don't understand," she said.

"The game," Steve said, slowly becoming agitated. "It's from May, 1941. I know, 'cause I was there."

The girl said nothing, but her eyes widened ever so slightly and the smile faded from her lips. She'd been caught, and she knew it. 

Steve got to his feet. "I'm gonna ask you again," he said in a low tone, moving slowly toward her. "Where am I?"

"Captain Rogers-" she said, looking nervous. She presses a small, rectangular item that signaled the others. 

"Who are you?" he demanded.

The door burst open again, and two men dressed in black combat gear rushed in. Without hesitation, Steve grabbed them both by the shirt and threw them across the room. To his shock, they didn't crash up against the wall, though. They sailed right through, leaving a 6-foot-wide gaping hole in the side of the building. In two steps he had crossed the room and vaulted through the hole in the wall.

He was in another room, dark and spacious and mostly empty. At a glance he saw that the brownstone building outside his window was nothing more than a 15-foot-tall photograph. The "sun" was a spotlight. It was fake. The whole thing was fake. Like a movie set.

He ran. The men on the floor were too stunned to immediately follow. Steve heard the girl behind him shout: "Captain Rogers, wait!" He ignored her and burst through a pair of double doors.

The exit took him out into a wide corridor of glass and stone, filled with men in suits. They seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Further down the hall, more men in black combat gear ran toward him through the crowd. Steve ran the other way, into a lobby, shoving aside a suited man who got in his way.

Over the intercom he heard a coded alert, but it didn't matter. They couldn't stop him. In moments he was out of the building and into the street, running with all the speed he could muster between two lanes of traffic.He didn't notice it, but he was panting wildly. Like he is running before he is injected with the super-soldier serum.

A block later he found himself in a wide plaza, filled with people... and then, without ever deciding to do so, he slowed to a halt, staring at the billboards. 

' Where am I?'

Times Square? He'd been here dozens of times, delighted by the giant neon billboards that lit up the New York nights. But these advertisements were moving pictures, just like in a theater, and the images were crystal clear and brightly colored, like nothing he'd ever seen before.

Steve slowly turned around in a circle, staring and staring. His mind couldn't wrap around what he was seeing. Yes, that building there was, without a doubt, One Times Square. And yet it didn't look exactly like it should, and many of the buildings surrounding it were totally unfamiliar. Even the people in the plaza were dressed strangely.

The skyscraper towered so high that their tops disappeared into the fog. And even the cars on the street were different. Several black cars were pulling up to a stop right by him; they were incredibly sleek and shiny. He'd never seen anything like them, not even at Howard Stark's world expo.

"At ease, soldier!"

Steve instinctively turned toward the authoritative voice that rang out over the din of traffic. A tall black man with an eyepatch strapped at a rakish angle across his bald head was standing several feet away, gazing at him levelly. He was dressed all in black. Behind him, more men in combat gear spilled out of the sleek black cars and began to push back the people who were crowding around, wondering what all the commotion was about.

Steve was so bewildered that for the moment, he didn't care about the fact that he was being surrounded. If he had to get out later, he could. Right now all he wanted was answers

"Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there," the man said, coming closer, "We thought it best to break it to you slowly."

"Break what?" Steve demanded, controlling his agitation with an effort.

Nick Fury looked at him seriously. "You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years."

Steve stared at the man for a long moment, and realized that against all reason, he believed him. He didn't know why, but he did. Maybe it was because of the evidence all around him. It all fits. His instinct had whispered to him for a while, but he kept pushing it away. He won't believe in it. He didn't want to believe in it.

Seventy years...

How was he still alive?

Only yesterday he had been talking to Peggy.

[...A week next Saturday, at the Stork Club. Eight o'clock on the dot. Don't you dare be late.] The word is ringing in his ears. The voice of someone who he makes a promise to.

Realization dawned upon him. How could he forget?  That was what had been nagging at him since the moment he woke up in the dummy hospital room. It was Peggy he was supposed to meet with. He'd made a promise to her.

He had never shown up. He'd stood her up, the woman of his dreams. He had broken her heart.

He'd done it seventy years ago.

"You gonna be okay?" the man asked, scrutinizing him with his one good eye.

"Yeah," Steve answered automatically. What other answer could there be? "Yeah. I just... I had a date."