#lemurian star sequence

[bedlamsbard]

560 words written today -- starting the contractually mandated Marvel hallway fight scene (may be substituted with another fight scene if it also involves constant motion from Point A to Point B, therefore the Lemurian Star sequence from CATWS counts, and may be substituted with a battle sequence under certain circumstances even though all of the MCU's battle sequences are. hmm. bad). (Look, back in the day, you just needed a hallway fight scene.) (I don't always put one in, but Morning and Horizon both have them; Yonder has a fuck-off big battle sequence.)

Snippet from Of Home Near chapter 11.

This floor of the warehouse had apparently been partitioned off for offices at some point, leaving a narrow hallway flanked by lines of doors.  A woman burst out of one, dark-haired and pale-skinned and carrying a rifle.  There was only an instant between her eyes going wide and Natasha’s right foot lashing out, knocking the gun up and out of the way so that Natasha could dart in below the reach of her suddenly outstretched arm.  She slammed the heel of her left hand up into the woman’s chin and her knee up into her belly, swinging her around to throw her into the man who had just emerged from another door.  He stumbled under the sudden impact of the unconscious woman, already moving to shove her aside, but in his moment of confusion Natasha was already there.  She dropped low and popped up like a jack-in-the-box inside his reach, grabbing his right arm and twisting it until bone snapped, not waiting to see the results before she slammed a punch into his kidneys and then a kick into his ribs in the same fluid motion.  She fell backwards into a momentary handstand as her right heel snapped off his jaw, coming up to her feet again in a roundhouse kick that knocked him out cold. It had been perhaps twenty seconds since the gunfire had started.

Peggy could still hear the shooting, clearer now that they were out of the stairwell.  Someone was shouting in Russian – a woman, she thought, though the distortion of the warehouse’s thick walls made her uncertain about that. “Oh,” Dugan said from just behind her, low-voiced. “So that’s why he married her.”

[novelmonger]

Your name: novelmonger or Griselda Banks (or any nickname you can make from either of those names)

Your first fandom(s): Star Wars (wait, hang on, I guess I was introduced to Narnia a couple years before Star Wars, but Star Wars was the first story I went feral over)

Your current fandom(s): The ones I will always love with every fiber of my being and not grow tired of talking about are Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Full Metal Alchemist, and Captain America. Secondary fandoms that will always hold a special corner of my heart all their own would be Harry Potter, Death Note, Sherlock, and Supernatural.

How did you first get into fandom? I'm going to interpret this question as "how did you first start interacting with other fans outside of your immediate family?" And that was actually through Neopets, of all things XD My brother and I were into Neopets around the time I'd discovered LotR, and so when he showed me what the forums were and how they worked, I started talking on there about LotR and got into forum roleplaying a bit, using LotR as the inspiration for the characters I'd create. I struck up some friendships, branched out to some other forum sites, discovered fanfiction at some point, and the rest was history.

How long have you been engaging in fandom spaces? I think I got started on Neopets when I was 11. I remember I had to get my dad to set up an email for me and fill out a permission form because I wasn't 13 yet XD

How often do you read fanfics? Much less often than I used to, that's for sure. I feel like I've gotten a lot more wary of fanfiction these days, and a lot more impatient with bad writing. Lately I've been reading a lot more actual books, which I don't think is a bad thing. But my fic to-read list is reaching scary lengths by now, so I should really try to whittle that down before some of them start disappearing or something....

Top three characters from your current fandom(s): Steve & Bucky (MCU), Ed & Al (FMA), Frodo & Sam (LotR). Yes, they're all bromance pairs. Just you try and stop me!

Have you ever written fic for a fandom? Oh, have I ever. I think the current count is over 150.

Have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom? Alas, I can barely even draw stick figures, so no :(

Share a (some) personal headcanon(s) you feel very strongly about: Steve did not go back in time at the end of Endgame; he told an alternate version of himself in a different timeline that Bucky was still alive and he should tell Peggy his coordinates when he took the plane down, so that version of Steve can keep Bucky from becoming the Winter Soldier and they go back to the U.S. and he marries Peggy. The original Steve goes back to his original timeline, still a young man, and he retires, marries Sharon, and settles down to enjoy life with his family and friends and help people in more mundane ways, while Sam becomes Captain America and Bucky gives him a hand from time to time.

You're trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. What episode, clip, or scene are you showing them? For Star Wars, I'd show them the Duel of the Fates fight. For LotR...hmm, I've never actually had to convince anyone the LotR is cool, but I'd probably just show them the prologue of the FotR movie. For FMA, I'd show them the first episode of the first anime, because if that didn't hook them, there'd be no hope for them and we probably couldn't be friends :P For Captain America, if I could I think I'd show them that whole sequence from when he gets the supersoldier serum (including both before and after so you can see the change), and then the chase after the Hydra agent. Oooh, or maybe the opening scene from TWS, with the Lemurian Star mission.

And finally, what does fandom mean to you? It means connection. No longer am I just sitting by myself, enjoying a story on my own. I get to talk to people, share our opinions, and in many cases, make friends. Being involved in a fandom means I'm not alone. Which I guess is why, whenever I go to a convention or other fandom-dedicated space, I feel like I've come home even though almost everyone is a complete stranger.

Tagging @sailforvalinor and @captaingondor

@ladyknightskye tagged me.

Your name: Around here I go by AuthorToBeNamedLater or ATBNL.

Your first fandom(s): In terms of interest, Star Trek TNG. In terms of fandom engagement, seaQuest DSV.

Your current fandom(s): I measure “current fandom” in terms of “currently writing fic,” so Halo and The Mandalorian. Fandoms I love and post about here in rotation: Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, Babylon 5, NCIS.

How did you first get into fandom? I honestly don’t remember a time when I wasn’t “into fandom” in some way? I suppose I really jumped in when I found FFN.

How long have you been engaging in fandom spaces?: Before you were born 😂 I found FFN very shortly after its launch in 1998.

How often do you read fanfics?: More often than I should LOL.

Top three characters from your current fandom(s): Is this three from each fandom or three altogether? I’ll go with the latter.

Cortana + John, Roland + Lasky (AIs and their humans are a package deal in my world), Kai.

Mando, Bo-Katan, Cara Dune because Cara is still in my Mandalore’s Reluctant Royals AU and if I ever get past the mental block of losing all my WIPs, she has a very important role to play.

Have you ever written fic for a fandom?: Only close to 100 between my FFN and AO3. Not counting the little snippets and micro fics I’ve shared only on Tumblr.

Have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom?: Aside from the Shadow vessel sponge painting I did in eighth grade art class, no. I’d like to change that though, because some of my off the wall AUs could do with visual content.

Share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: Captain Shaw is married with kids and is a Chicago deep-dish pizza snob.

Tim McGee had an FFN account and probably has an AO3.

Thel ‘Vadam mixes up his English idioms Ziva David-style.

You’re trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them?: I am not showing ANYONE Halo, unless you come to me saying you want to watch it. And then I’m going to give you a bunch of caveats about how I’m obsessed with it but it’s really not that great except for when it is and you shouldn’t take it too seriously. Buckle up and grab your adult beverage of choice.

For game-verse Halo I’d show Johnson’s speech about the tank in Halo 2 because that’s what Mr showed me to rope me in.

Mandalorian, the first episode.

Babylon 5, I would start with the pilot movie if I could find it and then not let up until you’d watched five seasons of emotional roller coaster. I’d tell you what JMS said in the commentaries for Shattered Dreams and Sleeping in Light and Deconstruction of Falling Stars and how many of the actors died too young. After War Without End I would show you the video where JMS drops the bomb about why Michael O’Hare left the show. By the end of it you’d love the show but you might not love me anymore. 🤣

And finally, what does fandom mean to you?: A place where I can explore the highs and lows of the human experience in a safe environment. Sometimes I can put a little broken piece of myself into a fanfic or headcanon and not feel so broken anymore. I can “talk” about things in fiction that I can’t in real life.

A place where I can meet cool people whose paths I never would have crossed had we not been abnormal about a certain show or character. ❤️

Tagging all who see this!

[spacebuck]

okay so there’s a popular post going around that’s having a bit of a laugh at one of the moves steve did in the lemurian star sequence in catws. i’m all for finding the amusement in things but given that steve’s fighting style is an amalgamation of martial arts, one of which i have been doing for 11 going on 12 years, the whole post kinda bugged me.

so here’s an accurate breakdown of this move (under a readmore bc it got long) based on what i know, and what would happen if steve tried it on the winter soldier:

the move:

the techniques:

now it might look like he’s jumping into the guy’s arms, but there’s actually a lot going on here.

a quick background: i’ve been doing judo since i was ten, and teaching it since i was 18. judo, or “the gentle way” is a martial art that uses throws and holds rather than strikes. the idea of a throw is manipulating the body, momentum, and the centre of gravity to your own purpose. this manipulation makes it very energy efficient, and allows a smaller/lighter/weaker person to defeat a larger/stronger/heavier person if done correctly.

back to steve:

in judo we have two techniques similar to the move steve is doing here. those techniques are are yoko-wakare, and yoko-tomoe-nage (the video for the first one is for the kata so it’s kind of weird, but they show the throw before breaking it down)

both of these throws are known as “sacrifice throws” - ie. you throw your opponent by throwing yourself in a controlled way. by controlling your descent, and controlling their core (ie the stomach/hip area, and the centre of power as well as gravity), you throw the person over yourself. they’re not easy to master, especially if you don’t want to hurt your training partner (steve, obviously, doesn’t care about that).

in this sequence steve is doing what, to me, looks like a mix between the two throws mentioned, and then he’s modified it slightly on top of that by bringing it up to the chest level.

steve’s version:

what you can see steve doing is jumping up, closing the distance between he and his opponent, and gripping behind his opponent’s head, somewhere between the shoulder blades. as his body drops, he rotates himself, and, with his grip on the back of the opponent’s neck, drags him in a large circle, head first.

there are several things here that make this effective.

steve placing his weight above the opponent’s centre of gravity

steve’s grip between the shoulderblades

steve’s body rotation

the height steve has jumped to

steve’s strength advantage over his opponent

steve placing his weight above his opponent’s centre of gravity makes the opponent top heavy, and easy to overbalance. once your shoulders are in front of your hips, you tip forward if you don’t move your feet/bend your knees.

steve’s grip allows him to not only control the spine, but control the clavicle. this control means he can force his opponent’s shoulders forward - there’s no way his opponent can push his hips forward, his head back, and ride this one out.

steve’s body rotation then continues this forward direction, dragging the shoulders so far in front of the opponent’s core that the only thing he can do is fall forward. he’s accentuated this by swinging his free arm, with the shield, around in a circle to generate momentum.

the height of steve’s jump creates momentum. What goes up must come down, and steve’s using this energy he’s generating to move his opponent forward and down. steve’s drop also allows momentum to build, to the point where his opponent is throwing himself.it also, obviously, gives his opponent somewhere to go.

this technique is possible without steve’s supersoldier strength, but that makes everything easier - he knows he’s stronger than his opponent, knows he can use his strength to essentially pile drive his opponent into the ground. this isn’t required - it’s possible to do this on someone stronger than you if you get everything else right, but it would be difficult.

vs winter:

the bit everyone’s interested in right? the arm and the serum and everything that makes the winter soldier so deadly has got to pose some sort of problem to the technique above, right?

not really, no.

the original post implies that bucky’s arm would catch steve, and he’d end up in a bridal carry. this is incorrect for a few reasons:

winter’s arm is attached to his body

the strength of the arm doesn’t move winter’s centre of gravity

steve is a tactician and would modify his techniques based on his opponent

so. winter’s arm is strong, it can rip off doors and hold things up and do a lot of Strong Things. but it’s not independent of winter’s body. if something heavy suddenly lands in your arms and you’re unprepared for it, you’re going to stumble or tip forward. this is because that object is in front of you. the weight is on your shoulders but in front of them, so your body instinctively places your shoulders above the weight to best minimise the strain of carrying it.

which puts the shoulders in front of the centre of gravity.

which puts you off balance.

see where i’m going with this?

the arm is strong, yes, but strength doesn’t matter when you go from having no weight in your arms to suddenly bearing a load. it’s the suddenness that would be key here. get him before he braces himself, and he’ll tip right over. faster probably, because he’s so top heavy (thanks to the giant hunk of metal attached to his shoulder).

the fact that he’s top heavy is point number two: attaching the strong object to him doesn’t move his centre of gravity, which is still somewhere in his core. sudden load above this point? tip. control the clavicle in some way and drag forward? tip faster.

the one thing that most bugged me though is that the post implies steve would not modify his techniques for a stronger opponent. even at the start of the first fight sequence (the causeway) he’s seen winter move and work, seen the strength in the arm, seen how strong he is. what worked on your average joe on the lemurian star will not work here.

so, going high could prove beneficial, but if there’s not enough surprise it leaves steve vulnerable. the smartest thing to do in this situation would be to go low. against winter this would only really be possible with steve’s strength, but irl this would work on anyone who isn’t expecting it. therefore, if you watched the videos above, he’d be more likely to move towards a pure yoko-wakare.

getting a grip somewhere around the shoulder, dropping his weight, rotating his body, and planting himself somewhere just in front of winter’s feet? that assassin is gonna face plant and there’s not much he can do about it.

and if y’all would like me to demonstrate i’ll see if i can get an unwitting partner and a camera and i’ll prove my points (with less athleticism than steve because i’m broken af) but if you have any questions/points you’d like to bring up i’d love to hear them!

[itsapapisongo]

STEPPING UP | Bang Chan

Starring: Bang Chan and Ok Taec-Yeon

Featuring: Ok Taecyeon | Seo Changbin | Hwang Hyunjin | Mark Lee

Genre: Action | Superhero

Concept & Tropes: Captain America!Chan | Non-Idol AU | Superhero AU

Word Count: 7.1K

Warnings: Language and sequences of action and violence.

Summary: When a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are held for ransom by terrorists, the Captain—Bang Chan—is tasked with aiding in their rescue.

Context & Notes: This is very much influenced by the Lemurian Star sequence in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This ties-in with Webbed Surveillance and Measure of a Hero in that these stories are set within the same fanverse. For the sake of simplicity, Chan is not the Captain America, but someone picking up the mantle and is referred to as the Captain since he’s Korean-Australian. He’s a super-soldier, been through some shit (i.e. fighting in the army, losing friends, being put on ice) and getting used to modern life after a couple of years of cryogenic sleep.

This one goes out to Lina ( @scriptura-delirus ) and Ivy ( @chogiwow​ ) for sharing my enthusiasm for idols as superheroes. We need heroes. Now more than ever.

THOUGH THE QUINJET had cloaking technology, it wasn’t needed as it lurked in the dead of night with ease. It flew undetected across the Pacific Ocean, slicing through the clouds and inching closer to the rendezvous point.

Aboard this state-of-the-art jet, a S.T.R.I.K.E. squad prepared for the mission. Among them, was a living legend. Not the one the rest of the world knew but one that nonetheless stood in high regard.

Bang Chan—otherwise known as the Captain, a name that had caught on but he quite hadn’t accepted yet—was clad in a stealth suit and carried a perfectly round shield on his back; it bore a star and muted tones of silver and blue. He adjusted his earpiece and turned to the squad, giving the team a cursory glance.

Some of his fellow agents checked their weapons while others began to huddle around the squad’s leader, Ok Taecyeon, as he began the briefing. A monitor displayed images of an aircraft carrier stranded at sea. Coordinates appeared on the lower portion of the screen, followed by the vessel’s manifest.

“Eyes on me,” said Taecyeon, clapping to get everyone’s attention. “The target’s a mobile satellite launch platform. This ol’ beaut is the Levanter. It has a skeleton crew aboard, no more than twenty people. They were about to send up their last payload when—” he tapped the monitor’s touch screen with his index finger, zooming in on a satellite image of the carrier. “—terrorists took her over. That was over ninety minutes ago.”

Chan frowned before he asked, “Any demands?”

Taecyeon grimaced. “Pretty hefty demands, if you ask me,” he replied, raising an eyebrow. “They want a billion and a half.”

Shocked was visible in the Captain’s eyes but it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. A billion and half? It seemed like an inconceivable figure. Back in the day, it would have been a number to scoff at. It was too high a price for a simple aircraft carrier, he thought, but the world had changed in the past century so what did he know? Even if he believed that by modern standards that was an exorbitant amount of money, he had to know.

“Why so steep?”

“It’s S.H.I.E.L.D.’s,” the team leader replied, as though it were a no-brainer. “Which means it’s worth more than the ransom itself. If they get paid, the info can be sold to the highest bidder. They’d be making bank for a while.”

Chan clenched his jaw, his hands unconsciously settling on his belt’s buckle. He titled his head to the side and scoffed, not wanting to entertain such a possibility. When he spoke, it was with a tone of disbelief—

“If they get paid?”

“They won’t.” Taecyeon shook his head, pursing his lower lip down as he swiped a finger across the screen. “Trust me on that, Cap.”

These days—an age of answers and curiosity—information was power. Those that were willing to obtain it would do so through whatever means necessary. Chan understood why someone would attack and capture the Levanter, but he couldn’t quite conceal his disbelief.

How had S.H.I.E.L.D. allowed for this to happen? Ships like these weren’t supposed to be vulnerable. If they were, it would be a major liability for the organization and the ransom proved such a point. Not because of the economical factor but because of a potential loss or corruption of whatever data was stored within these ships.

“So it’s not only a rescue mission, we’re recovering whatever data might be in there,” Chan deduced, crossing his arms across his chest. Even if the suit was padded and close to his skin, his muscle definition was nonetheless impressively visible.

“Apparently so.” Taecyeon nodded.

Chan glanced at the monitor and motioned with his chin at it. “What about our extremists friends?”

“They’re with R.A.I.D.”

“Who comes up with these names?” one of the agents.

“It stands for Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction,” Taecyeon explained. Chan could tell he was doing his best not to roll his eyes. “In essence, they’re HYDRA lite.”

“Hmm,” Chan grumbled. “That’s not very comforting.”

Taecyeon gave in and rolled his eyes. “No shit.” He pushed the monitor forward so that everyone got a good look at the mug-shot of a tall and bearded middle-aged man with a hardened face and malicious brown eyes. “This is their leader: Vladimir Korda.

“Sokovian-Russian, born in Southern Russian but raised in Novi Grad. Sokovian Armed Forces, dishonorably discharged. Our friend here was part of a covert kill squad named EKO Scorpion. Nasty piece of work.” Taecyeon glared briefly at the man’s dossier. “It seems he got fed up and decided to go from military man to mercenary to—”

“Terrorist,” Chan finished for him. “And the kind without a cause.”

“Don’t know or care if he has a cause.” Taecyeon sniffed and motioned a gun with his right hand, pointing it at the monitor. “I just know I’d like to put a bullet between his eyes.”

Chan shook his head, meeting the team leader’s eyes. “We’re not neutralizing anyone. This is a standard CSAR mission,” he said in a stern tone.

Taecyeon tilted his head then gave a small nod of understanding. Chan could tell that he wasn’t happy about it but orders were orders and the man often did his best to do things by the book. CSAR—combat search and rescue—were in-and-out S.H.I.E.L.D. operations that required not only efficiency but the highest of discretion. Contact with hostiles was to be kept to a minimum thus “neutralizing” targets was an acceptable option unless completely necessary.

“Wanna hear about the hostages?”

Chan raised an eyebrow, taken aback by Taecyeon’s casual tone.

“Sure,” he answered, hesitation palpable in his voice.

Taecyeon pulled up the hostages’ photos. There were two civilians. The rest were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as their dossiers showed they had been stationed in the Levanter for over six months. Chan recognized a handful of them and felt a knot tie itself around his throat; two or three of them he’d been with on different assignments. His hands fell from his belt and settled behind his back as he clenched his fists; under the gloves, the knuckles had turned white. As he studied the faces of innocent people caught in an undesirable and undoubtedly traumatic situation, Chan thought of how important it was to accomplish the mission properly.

“They’re being held in the galley.”

“How many?”

“Nineteen people. Mostly techies with the exception of a Level 4 agent.”

With an idle flick of his wrist, Taecyeon swiped the screen and the photo of a bespecalted young man with black hair and indigo highlights appeared. He wore a suit and sported an expression of confused exasperation.

“Seo Changbin,” he told them, grimacing at the agent’s photo. “Good at what he does but not made for field work.”

Chan raised an eyebrow, prompting Taecyeon to motion a hand over his chest, as if to say how-to-say-this-politely. “He’s good at being behind a desk,” he replied, albeit not unkindly. “Which begs the question of why he’s aboard the carrier.”

“Did Fury mention him at all?”

Taecyeon gave him a weary look and shook his head. Why would a Level 4 agent be aboard the Levanter? There was nothing there for someone who sat behind a desk. If he were part of the tech-team, Chan wouldn’t have questioned it. Yet there was a vital piece of information missing and it was beginning to bother him. They people upstairs always asked him to step in and save the day but besides telling him how, they seldom ever told him why.

I feel like a glorified janitor, Chan fretted as his brow furrowed and transformed his handsome features into a scowl. Someone handed him his helmet and he nodded his thanks, silently placing it on his head. Between the Quinjet’s dim-lighting and his helmet, it was hard to read his face.

“So, Cap, how are we going to do this?”

Chan blinked once, twice, then cleared his throat. “I’ll clear the deck, you find the hostages,” he affirmed, pointing a finger at the Levanter’s layout on the monitor. “Get them out and into the life pods.”

“I’ll find Korda as soon as I clear the deck.” Chan turned to Taecyeon. “We don’t want any casualties so we’re incapacitating anyone we come across.”

Taecyeon nodded firmly, saluting the Captain with a wink. “Aye, aye, Captain,” he acknowledged. “No neutralizing. Duly noted.”

The Quinjet went dark then lit up under a red light. An alert turned on. The jet’s back hangar doors opened and a strong wind whipped through the hull. The cool night air nipped at their exposed skin but each and everyone of them shrugged it off. No one had more experience with the cold than Chan. As the rest of the team prepared for the jump, the Captain and Taecyeon walked over the hangar doors’ edge. They looked down at the dark ocean below, felt the wind howling in their ears.

“Captain!” Taecyeon leaned in, yelling over the noise. He shielded his face against the wind with an open palm. “What do you say if I buy us chimaek after this is over?”

“Chimaek, huh?” Chan yelled back and titled his head, a hand unconsciously adjusting the shield on his back. “That sounds tempting.”

“Up to you, old man.” The team leader shrugged, smiling as he caught a glint of exasperation in Chan’s eyes. “I understand if you want to rest. Sit in, fall asleep, drool all over yourself in your rocking chair, y’know?”

“As long as you’re paying,” the Captain half-smiled, fist-bumping his partner.

Taecyeon chuckled, knowing he had won him over as he yelled, “Give the man some space!”

Chan put some distance between himself and the hangar doors. Without hesitation, the Captain cracked his neck, ran the length of the jet, then leaped out of the Quinjet. The S.T.R.I.K.E. team paused, awestruck. No one or spoke for a few seconds.

They all realized something at the exact same time.

“Was he—was he wearing a parachute, boss?” an agent asked, visibly concerned.

“No,” Taecyeon confirmed, half-smiling. “No, he wasn’t.”

LIKE MISSILE SLICING through the sky, moving faster than the eye could follow, Chan hurled headfirst toward the Levanter. Just as he was about to crash on the Pacific Ocean, he flipped then dived into the dark depths below. He was less than a hundred yards from the ship so swimming to the carrier was easier than expected.

The Levanter floated in the calm water, the moonlight reflecting on its deck. An armed man kept watch and heavily yawned. He was looking out to the sea when Chan was climbing the ship’s steep anchor. Feeling movement, the guard leaned in over the rail just in time to catch the Captain’s ascent and made a sound between a gulp and groan when he was grabbed by the collar of his bulletproof vest.

“What the—” he managed to mumble before he felt his forehead make contact with the railing and was subsequently thrown overboard.

Chan propped himself up and jumped the railing with ease. Gathering his bearing, he looked left and right then reached and took the shield off his back. He parkoured his way across the deck, dispatching another armed man with effortless speed and skill. Several more men patrolled the perimeter, armed to the teeth and blissfully unaware of what was to unfold.

He stood in the shadows and surveyed his surroundings. Out of the four, two were huddled together and carrying a hushed conversation. The other two were on opposite sides of the deck, looking out to the ocean. Chan counted to ten, his grip on the shield tighter, then sprung into action.

He whistled a tune that suspiciously sounded like Arirang and got their attention, emerging from the shadows when the quartet whipped round to look for the sound. The man farthest to Chan barely had a second to register something—was that a saucer?—flying right at him. With a resonating clunk, the shield smacked him right in the chest and knocked the air out of his lungs; he collapsed, instantly incapacitated.

Having practiced for years and learned how to find the proper angles for the perfect throw, Chan blindly outstretched his left hand and closed it around the shield as it ricocheted back to him. He sprinted towards the nearest threat—the chattering duo—and tackled them both without breaking a sweat. The three of them struggled on the ground for a second but were on their feet as quickly as they’d fallen down.

The Captain lifted the shield and, gripping one of the leather straps, punched it; the round vibranium shield slammed into one of the men’s forehead and his knees gave in; he collapsed with a huff and a pained moan. Chan whirled and avoided a kick to the chest; though he was fast, he wasn’t fast enough to completely avoid the attack because he felt the man’s leg grace his ribs. The guy wouldn’t quit, though, because he kept kicking. Even when he missed he managed to have minimal contact.

I’m wasting my time, the Captain mentally groaned.

This guy was fast but the Captain was faster. When the man threw yet another kick, Chan intercepted the attack by grabbing the man’s ankle and twisting the leg with a flick of his wrist. A loud snap-crack confirmed he had effectively fractured the entire limb. The man toppled over and was about to scream when Chan knelt, chopped at his throat, and broke his windpipe. He heard whimpering and glanced over his shoulder to see the other man was shaking from head to toe; the guard had spread his arms out to display his surrender.

Chan straightened and was about to continue clearing the deck when he remembered there was still a man left. In all the commotion, as quick as it had been, he’d been too hyper-focused on disabling any threats that he forgot to not underestimate the enemy. When he turned to search for the last man standing, he felt the barrel of a gun against the back of his neck.

There you are.

“Clear,” the Captain whispered on his comm.

The man cocked the gun but never fired. A low pfft-pfft echoed in the night and he collapsed; tranquilized but not dead. The sound of parachutes alerted Chan of his team’s arrival. Six skydivers slapped their chest releases, their chutes billowing above then behind them. The team landed quietly, already used to these types of operations, sidearms at ready in their capable hands.

“Thanks, Taecyeon-ssi,” said Chan, half-bowing..

Taecyeon waved a dismissed hand. “Don’t mention it,” he said with a devious smirk. “I know you’re helpless without me.”

Chan clicked his tongue, passing the shield from his left to his right hand. Now that they were huddled together, he gave the perimeter a cursory glance and nodded when he found the comms tower. “Have the feeling I’ll find Korda there.”

“Seems like a good place to be in,” said Bam, one of the agents.

Taecyeon followed the Captain’s gaze. “Sure does,” he mumbled, his voice stern and low. “Call it, Cap.”

“I’ll go for the comms tower. The three of you—” Chan pointed at Taecyeon and the two agents beside him. “—find the hostages. And you three—” he pointed to the remaining members of the team. “—secure the engine room.”

“You heard the man. Spread out.” Taecyeon unslung the rifle off his body, wrapping the strap around his wrist. As the Captain nodded and started to walk off, he whispered, “Watch your six.”

Chan winked. “Always.”

THE COMMS TOWER was taller up close as he used a large pipeline to aid his ascent. Chan balanced himself on the line and he removed a pocket-sized surveillance launcher from a pouch in his belt. He aimed high and fired it at the Levanter’s comms room. A cord arched through the air and a microscale microphone stuck to the comms tower’s window. Initially, there was nothing but white noise until—

He could make out a conversation: two men talking over each other as they argued about something Chan had no context for. A man spoke Russian in a soft voice that was laced with malice and contempt. The Captain raised an eyebrow, taken aback by the dissonance between Korda’s voice and his cutthroat appearance.

Closing his eyes and pressing a finger on his earpiece, he focused on what was happening in the comms room. He was glad Fury had convinced him to learn a thing or two after being thawed out besides martial arts and catching up on politics and the world’s current and complicated status quo. Though he wasn’t fluent in Russian, he knew enough to get by and what he was hearing didn’t bode well for the mission.

“They still haven’t responded to our demands. We’ve been here for—”

“It seems like you’re in a hurry, Anatoly,” said Vladimir Kora, sounding bored. “They know what we want and they know we’re not bluffing.”

“Sir, if I may—”

“Nyet.” Korda grumbled. “You may not.”

A phone rang and Anatoly immediately answered. He mumbled then passed the call to his superior, mentioning it was coming from the galley.

“As soon as we get the money, this boat moves.” There was a pause and a heavy, irritated sigh. When Korda spoke again, he barely raised his voice but the Captain could tell he didn’t know need to because his tone was laced with seething anger. “Move them to the engine room. They’re not gonna be much of use once the ransom is paid.”

Chan scowled. There was no way in hell that was going to happen.

THE GALLEY WOULD have been immaculate if not for the droplets of still-fresh blood on the floor. The tiles were white, the walls silver, and almost everything was made of metal. The room was cold and smelled of dinner—ramyun, cooked vegetables, stir-fried beef, rice, something spicy—and none of Korda’s men could really resist glancing at the pots and pans where the food had been left unserved.

The Levanter’s crew was silent. They had been ever since they had been hijacked. Tears had been shed and mumbled prayers had been uttered but no one really dared speak up. Their minimal training dictated that they were to disclose nothing and to keep an even temper.

But for Seo Changbin keeping an even temper was the bottom of his priorities. He was tie-strapped to a metal counter. His legs had been tied too so his movability was limited and painful. Changbing had no other choice but heave a sigh and endure the aches and bruises the hijackers had so generously given him. His back was bothering him but it was his shoulder that was really driving me off the wall. Out of instinct, he’d intercepted a blow meant for someone else and was beginning to regret not being more cautious.

Every little movement hurt and made him wince. Enduring someone thrusting a rifle’s stock in between his shoulder and collarbone was no easy feat and nothing he’d ever wish on someone—except, perhaps, on the asshole who did it—but he’d rather take the hit than have his fellow agents be hurt.

The galley’s door opened and a grey-haired man stepped in, clad in a maroon uniform. He didn’t carry an assault rifle or body armor and the only sign that he was a man of authority was the ivory Heckler & Koch P7 holstered in his left thigh. Changbin could make out a familiar insignia engraved in its grip: a macabre skull with six tentacles below its jaw.

Great, Changbin grimaced, these guys are back.

Grey Hair spoke in Russian to one of the three men watching over them, his voice hoarse like that of a smoker’s. He glanced at them, smirked, then kicked at the legs of the two women to Changbin’s far left. The women—Lina and Aibi—leaned into each other but didn’t show fear. To Changbin’s chagrin, they glared at Grey Hair and hissed in annoyance.

“Aish,” they whispered, eyeing Grey Hair up and down in disgust.

Grey Hair scowled and reached for his gun, the ivory losing its splendor in his calloused hand. He aimed it at Lina’s forehead. If she was scared, she didn’t show it. Instead, she stared him down and clenched her jaw, leaning forward so that her head was pressed against the barrel of the gun.

“Go ahead,” she whispered in Russian. “See how that ends for you.”

“You speak—” Grey Hair blinked. Confusion was apparent in his eyes and he hesitated, the gun being pulled away from his victim’s forehead then returning to it with strengthened resolve. “Then you know what’s going to happen. You’ll be dead now or in the next twenty minutes.”

Aibi snorted. “Yah!” she yelled, sounding fierce, outraged. When Grey Hair turned to her, she lowered her voice and spoke in Korean, enunciating every word with thin-veiled vitriol. “Don’t drink your kimchi soup first.”

Changbin scoffed and failed to suppress his chuckle. His father used to say that often and he could never take the proverb seriously. And yet it gave Grey Hair pause as he didn’t understand Aibi and hadn’t counted on their defiance.

“If you’re wondering, I can translate,” Changbing interjected in English, leaning forward so that Grey Hair could see him properly.

“Translate.”

“She said . . . don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Bitch,” Grey Hair grumbled in English and motioned to hit Lina but relented when he saw Changbin struggling against the straps. “You want to be hero?”

“Not really, no,” the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent shook his head then shrugged. “But I’d preferred if you didn’t hurt anyone.”

“You want bullet in your head?”

The gun was aimed at Changbin. His eyes widened as he recognized the present danger. He kept calm and titled his head to the side. “Again, no,” he replied in an aloof tone, as though he was having a conversation about the weather. “I just want you to know, tovarishch, that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Grey Hair flinched. “We are not comrades.”

“Thank God for that.” Changbin lifted his eyebrows and relented from rolling his eyes. “We’re already your hostages. I don’t see the need to be smacking us around.”

“We’re in control.”

Lina lifted her chin, holding back a smirk. “Not for long, comrade.”

“HOW LONG WILL this take?” Anatoly fretted, leaning on a console with crossed arms.

“As long as it takes,” said Korda.

“We’ve been here—”

“If you have anything to say, just spit it out.”

Anatoly opened his mouth to respond but immediately closed it. Suddenly, he couldn’t form a coherent sentence. Questioning Korda’s leadership wasn’t encouraged but it wasn’t frowned upon; one simply needed to know how to do it. Unfortunately for Anatoly, he didn’t know how to explain the knot in his stomach.

Korda scoffed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “It seems the cat caught your tongue,” he sneered as he leaned on the captain’s chair, giving his back to the bridge’s rectangular window. “We stick to the plan.”

“This was not part—this was not the plan.”

“Adapt or die, tovarishch.” Korda cracked his neck, unholstered his side-arm, then pointed at Anatoly’s chest. “You’re not afraid are you?”

Eyes on the gun, Anatoly trembled. “I’m not,” he answered, but his voice was shaky.

“In our line of work, fear is useless. Toughen up, son.”

Anatoly nodded. “I will—” he began but didn’t finish, his breath caught in his throat. He gestured a hand over his boss’ shoulder but before Korda could react something burst through the room’s window and hurled Anatoly backwards. The sound of something light and sharp cutting through concrete and reinforced steel echoed in their ears; it was followed up by the crunching of glass under heavy footsteps.

By the time Anatoly gathered his bearings, Korda was already on his feet. He caught his boss’ silhouette sprinting out of the control room. Anatoly blinked and saw a man clad in dark blue, his face concealed by a helmet bearing a white star on the forehead and stylized wings by his ears. The man glanced at Anatoly, grimaced, then disarmed him by tossing away his holstered side-arm.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized and sounded genuinely remorseful. “We’ll get you some medical attention once you’ve been taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.”

“You’re Captain—”

“Yeah, that’s me.” The man nodded and placed a finger in his ear. “I got a man down in the control room.”

Anatoly reached out and gripped the man by his forearm. “Am I going to—am I going to die?”

The man—the Captain—knelt and helped him into a sitting position. “Not if I can help it,” he reassured Anatoly with a small nod. “Now, if you excuse me . . .”

The Captain stood to his full height and walked past Anatoly, wrenching something off the wall and clasping it on his back. Anatoly realized what had burst through the window: a shield. That had graced his left arm and knocked him off his feet so it was no wonder he felt like his arm from the elbow down had fallen off.

Before everything turned dark and the pain overwhelmed him, Anatoly couldn’t help but feel relieved that he wasn’t going to die.

“KODRA IS ON the move!” Chan alerted Taecyeon as he sprinted after the terrorist leader. “Have you secured the hostages?”

“We’re on it, as we speak,” Taecyeon answered, his voice a mere whisper in the Captain’s ear. “We’re thirty seconds from clearing the galley.”

“Clear it and secure it. No one comes in, no one comes out. Not until I’ve subdued Korda.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Taecyeon-ssi? That’s getting annoying.”

A muffled chuckle came through Chan’s comm. “More of a reason to do so,” said the squad’s leader. “And Captain? Go gentle on the guy. I want to roughen him up a bit.”

Chan clenched his jaw. “Yeah? Get in line.”

THE GALLEY’S DOOR burst open with a bang and the room exploded with violence.

Changbin recognized Ok Taecyeon leading the charge, his aim eerily accurate. In the blink of an eye, Grey Hair and the remaining hijackers were effortlessly disabled. Grey Hair had been shot four times, his chest decorated with tranq-darts. Aibi kicked him squarely in the jaw, groaning as the straps chafed her heels and impeded her movements.

“We told you, didn’t we?” Lina tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “S.H.I.EL.D. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.”

“Galley secured, sir,” said one of the agents, her voice that of a woman’s.

“We’re clear here,” Taecyeon relayed to the Captain and nodded when he heard the man’s response. “Bam, cuff these assholes. Yuna, help me untie our friends here.”

Bam removed his mask, tossed it aside, and pulled a handful of plastic tie-strips from a pouch in his belt. He went to work without wasting a second as Yuna unsheathed a tactical knife and began to cut tie-strips off hands and legs.

“Are you alright?” Taecyeon knelt in front of Lina, slashing the tie-strips in her legs.

Lina stretched her legs, leaned to the side so that her arms could be untied. “As best as I could be,” she retorted with a blank expression. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re glad to see you guys.”

“No shit,” said Aibi.

Taecyeon smirked, swiftly moving to free Aibi and the two technicians between her and Changbin. He patted backs and offered a comforting smile. “You’re a-okay now, folks. We got your back.”

“Now what?” Changbin heard himself ask and cringed when all eyes were on him.

“We wait. It won’t take long. We got a man upstairs getting things done.”

Changbin knew they were safe. The Captain was a force to be reckoned with and one would have to be out of their mind to not yield in his presence.

FOR A MAN in his mid-seventies, Bang Chan moved with athletic grace and a keen awareness of his surroundings. But as he turned to check a corner, he was unprepared for the steel-booted kick to his lower back. The brunt of the attack was absorbed by the shield, which echoed with a distinctive high-pitched ring. 

Chan stumbled forward, a low grunt escaping through gritted teeth. Out of instinct, he reached for the shield. He gained his balance and whirled so fast that he caught a look of mild surprise in Vladimir Korda’s face. The man was emerging from the shadows and took slow steps forward, scrutinizing the Captain.

“I should count myself lucky,” exclaimed Korda in English, laughing derisively. “The Captain, as I live and breathe!”

Chan sensed he was being measured both in size and skill. He narrowed his eyes and focused on controlling his breathing before giving in to his anger. He narrowed his eyes and winced at how stiff his right hand—from his forearm to his palm—felt as his grip on the shield tightened. It was light in his hands—light enough to be thrown with impeccable aim and malicious intent—but he lowered it. Using it would have to be his last resort.

“The Symbol of a Nation, they call you!” Korda chuckled and pacing back and forth, stretching. He paused, bowed, then took a fighting stance. “It’s going to be an honor tearing you apart.”

“You certainly can try.” Chan glared.

“I’ve heard you can’t live without your oversized frisbee.”

“Uh-huh.” The Captain nodded dismissively. “Who do you work for?”

Korda shrugged. “Why does that matter?”

“Not anyone would hire an man like you for something as risky as—”

“Hijacking S.H.I.E.L.D. property? Please, Captain, I don’t know whether to blush or be insulted.” The Russian placed a hand on his chest and lowered his head, feigning embarrassment. His face darkened when he straightened and glared. “Who hired me doesn’t matter. You’re not asking the right question.”

“Not who but why?”

Korda clicked his tongue as if to say bingo. “You’re perceptive, kapitan. And here I was thinking you were just a shield.”

“Just a shield?” Chan pursed his lips and removed his helmet. He was a young man—handsome, dirty blond, brown-eyed, with a fine jaw, and a fair complexion—and the anger that glistened in his eyes made him look older, jaded. His next words were spoken in Russian: “We’ll see.”

Korda growled, unleashing a fury of punches—jabs, hooks, uppercuts—with deadly precision yet Chan was too agile for him. The Captain was dancing around him, moving out of the way of each attack so swiftly that Korda was beginning to give into anger.

Whack! A high kick to his collarbone, drove Chan back with a groan. He could hear Korda cackling.

“Is that all, old man?”

Old man? Chan reloaded his biceps and assumed a fighting stance, ready to bring this entire ordeal to an end. Yeah, I’m not gonna let that slide.

Korda made a guttural sound akin to a roar and threw a kick above the Captain’s head only to find himself losing balance. Chan held and pulled his opponent’s leg higher, kicked him in the stomach once, twice, then punched upward on the man’s groin. Kodra collapsed on the ground, groaning and mumbling expletives and swearing he’d kill the Captain.

Chan picked up his helmet and said, “I can do this all day.”

“Fuc—”

“Nope.” He lightly tapped Korda on the nose, knocking him out. “That’s enough out of you.”

Breathing hard, Chan sat on the ground. He hugged his knees against his chest and looked up to a starry night sky and the moonlight enveloping him in its glow. The cool breeze nipped at his skin, a reminder that he was still wet from diving in the Pacific Ocean.

The night was beautiful. When had been the last time he’d done this? He couldn’t tell but he wasn’t going to let this moment pass. Unfortunately, despite wanting to be in the moment, he was stirred from his reverie when Taecyeon’s voice came through his comm.

“Cap?”

Chan sniffed and stood up, stretching. “We’re clear,” he answered, lifting then tossing Korda over his shoulder. “Is everyone accounted for?”

“Bad guys have been subdued. Our folk are safe.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Meet us on the life pods.”

“Are we in a hurry?”

Taecyeon made a sound between a scoff and a snort. “The quicker we’re out here, the quicker we can get our chimaek on.”

“Roger that.”

FOUR HOURS LATER, they were debriefed and back in Seoul. Upon their arrival, Deputy Director Bae had made the necessary arrangements for the Levanter’s crew to be treated for any medical injury or emotional trauma.

Bam, Yuna, and the rest of the S.T.R.I.K.E. squad were stationed in a safe-house near Itaewon. They were given orders to rest and report twelve hours later to Seoul HQ. As an elite S.H.I.E.L.D. counter-terrorist special unit, they were trained to be the best in a world where the unexpected happened every day. Their work never stopped. Rest was a luxury and it was indulged whenever the opportunity arose.

During the war, sleep was sacred. Just because the day turned into night that didn’t mean getting some shut-eye was guaranteed. Anything and everything could happen. Then again, anything and everything did happen. So Chan knew what it was to be sleep-deprived, going from one mission to another to another to another. When Taecyeon told his team to call it a night, they obeyed without protest.

Yet Taecyeon rarely ever slept. Chan had seen him napping but never sleeping and he seemed like the type who was a light sleeper—a butterfly flapping its wings might wake him up. But as they clinked their soju glasses and celebrated yet another accomplished mission, Chan could see Taecyeon was concealing his exhaustion.

They were in Chan’s dimly-lit studio apartment—the type that was considered spartan with a bathroom, kitchenette, and living room that doubled as a bedroom—and sat on the floor. There was a single rectangular window with a modest view to a modest street outside; it was open and allowed a soft, rain scented breeze in. Empty bottles of soju and beer were strewn in the ground-level coffee table Mark and Hyunjin had gifted Chan when he moved in.

“Got any plans for tomorrow?”

Chan smiled. “Not really,” he replied, lifting the shot glass up to his lips. “What about you?”

“Geonbae.” Taecyeon downed his shot, clicked his tongue, then chuckled. “I got someone waiting for me. I’m thinking I’ll take the weekend off.”

“Oh?”

“Or, y’know, a least a day off. Vacations in our line of work are . . . complicated.”

Chan chuckled and rubbed his neck. To say that working for S.H.I.E.L.D. was complicated was the understatement of the millennium. One thing was being a soldier, the other being a member of an organization so vastly secretive that Chan wasn’t sure how much power they wielded or how many resources they had across the globe.

Complicated, Chan thought, as if that doesn’t sum up my life. “I assume Eddie’s missing you,” he added, smiling ruefully.

Chan knew with certainty three things about Ok Taecyeon: he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. legacy, he and his sister were the grandchildren of a highly decorated agent; he had a fondness for chimaek; and he was absolutely “soft” for his dog. So it was no wonder that a fond smile spread across Taecyeon’s face as he refilled their glasses then dropped them on their beers. He was beaming and it was contagious because Chan couldn’t suppress the half-smile that tugged on his lips. It was strange yet pleasant to see such a change in his usually snarky demeanor.

“I bet he is,” Taecyeon agreed. “I’ve been missing the shit outta him for over a month now.”

“I say take the weekend off.”

“So should you.”

Chan frowned. “And do what?”

Taecyeon scoffed. “Take a walk. Hang-out with friends. Go on a date. I don’t know but just—aish—just step out and smell the roses.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Aish.”

Chan shrugged, taking a sip from his drink—somaek, as it was referred to—and found himself uncertain about how it tasted. It was an odd mix that somehow worked. Taecyeon drank his own calmly, already used to the beer cocktail’s unique flavor. To Chan’s surprise, it went well with chicken since they had devoured not one but two family-sized boxes of hot wings and fried chicken.

“You do anything Saturday?” Taecyeon queried, his tone casual yet coaxing.

“Do sit-ups count?” Chan scrunched up his nose. He didn’t like people interfering in his personal life so he played dumb. “‘Cause if they do . . . that’s how I spent my Saturday.”

Taecyeon clicked his tongue. “Good Lord, you’re boring,” he blew a raspberry and leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table’s edge. “Look I get it—work’s important and we can’t always enjoy time for ourselves—but you’re more than just a soldier.”

“It’s not that.” The Captain looked away, eyes drifting to his half-consumed drink. “Schedule’s just a little tight these days.”

“Hyung-nim . . .”

Chan blinked, mouth agape at the honorific. He opened his mouth to reply but was too shocked to form a coherent thought.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you, hyung-nim. You’re the Captain, for fuck’s sake, but—” Taecyeon bowed his head and passed a hand through his hair. He straightened and met Chan’s eyes, smiling a weary half-smile. “The world’s complex and uncertain but the least you could do is find the good within it and enjoy it. You can’t live solely for work—you must live for something.”

“I don’t know.” Chan rubbed his forehead. “Family, stability? The guy who wanted all that was on ice for far too long. I think someone else came out.”

“And what do they want?”

Chan grimaced. “I don’t know.”

“Then, Cap, take tomorrow to figure that out.”

AFTER BOWING PROFUSELY and apologizing for being drunk and speaking informally, Taecyeon left an hour later. Chan called him a cab and was surprised when received a text from Bam, relaying his commander’s arrival to the Bunkbed—the Itaewon safe-house—and giving the man shit for not holding his own against the Captain. 

After all this time, Chan found it funny that others used honorifics around him. It felt strange being treated like a senior because he still felt like that twenty-something kid that joined the army to fight the good fight. He could be their grandfather but he didn’t look like it.

Despite feeling accomplished, he didn’t sleep that night. Taecyeon’s words echoed in his head—you’re more than a soldier . . . live for something . . . figure it out—and it felt like being hitting with a brick wall. It hadn’t been that long since he’d been pulled from the cold and into this bold new world. Yet he hadn’t taken time to fully immerse himself in it.

Work had impeded that from happening and he was oddly thankful for that. Adapting wasn’t always easy and the times, for better or worse, demanded change. Chan sensed he wasn’t ready for change. Given enough time, he would be . . . but not yet.

The weight of the conversation stuck with him and it was beginning to bother him. still Taecyeon was right. Chan couldn’t keep himself isolated . . . waiting for the next mission . . . letting time pass right by him when he had just returned to the world of the living.

He sighed and reached for a flip phone Jackson had gifted him on his birthday. His contacts were limited since he rarely communicated with anyone outside of work. The selected few that had his number were people he trusted unconditionally. In the off-chance of losing the device—and because he still didn’t trust technology enough—Chan had memorized every number saved on the phone.

He dialed a number and waited. The contact ID read: THUNDER 현진.

With bated breath and closed eyes, he listened to the phone ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, until—

“Hey there, grandpa!”

Chan couldn’t help but rub his temple. “How are you, Hyunjin?”

“I’m doing as good as I can—M, web him up!—yah! Webs. Use them, like, now!”

“Are you busy—”

There was a loud boom followed by Hyunjin grunting and cussing through gritted teeth. The sound of thunder and crackling lighting echoed in Chan’s ear, as though it were happening right besides him. After a second of silence, he heard Hyunjin chuckle in between breaths.

“Say, ajeossi, what do you say to lending us a hand?”

“With what?” Chan frowned.

“Oh, y’know, the usual . . .” Hyunjin said as matter-of-factly. “Super-villains.”

Chan paused, looked at his flip-phone, and blinked as if to consider what was happening. He heard a familiar and unmistakable voice, calling after Hyunjin with a tone of disbelief and disapproval.

“Are you on the phone right now?” Mark sounded livid. “Dude, are you serious?”

“I’m getting reinforcements!”

“YAH—”

“Don’t get your webs in a bunch, M!”

“Hyunjin—” Mark began but was cut off.

Chan wondered what was going on but before he could ask, his friend interjected. “Ajeossi,” said Hyunjin, not bothering to listen to Mark or Chan. “On your left!”

He heard it before he saw it. Behind him, something began to glow: it started as a just a small, twirling sparkler until it grew into a wide circle that encompassed much of the kitchenette. Chan couldn’t see the rest of his apartment because this burning circle—a portal, no doubt made with magic—opened to a busy intersection in what looked like Enn City. Cars had been crushed or exploded; the streets were cracked or burning; and standing a few feet away was Hyunjin himself.

“Where’s the shield?” he asked, hanging up the phone.

“It’s—uh—there,” said Chan, pointing to a corner of his apartment. The shield laid untouched but ready for battle.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes, his right hand extended as if waiting for something. “Well . . . are you gonna grab it or are we gonna stand here all night?”

Chan smiled. He snatched the shield, ran the length of his apartment, and leaped into the portal. He quickly realized he wasn’t wearing any tactical gear when he felt the hot asphalt under his bare feet. The portal closed behind him with a soft hiss. Great, he thought, I’m underdressed.

“Looking good, ajeossi,” said Hyunjin, smirking.

“Please,” Chan mumbled, ears burning with embarrassment. “Stop calling me that.”

A dull whistle resonated faintly in the air until it crescendoed to a loud boom. That’s when Chan saw it: a war-hammer so splendorous and beautifully crafted that he had to remind himself it wasn’t the real thing. He now understood why Hyunjin had his hand over his head as Pokpung met home in its owner’s hand.

“What are you two doing?”

Chan turned to his left and saw Mark Lee—the Brotastic Spider-Man—glaring at them as he hung from lamppost. His suit was black and neon-green. It fit him like a second skin and was coated with debris dust.

“Are we gonna fight or are we gonna pose like idiots?”

“Call it, Cap.” Hyunjin passed Pokpung from his left to his right hand.

The Captain—Bang Chan—smiled, bursting with purpose.

He didn’t know what he’d do tomorrow. He just knew it was worth fighting for.

[harrelltut]

iMeditatively Animate this Clandestine [iMAC] Mental Eye [ME] Computer of KODAK Visuals w/A New [ANU] Celestial Human Brain Chip [B.C.] REALITY of BYZANTIUM’s Crystalized GOLD Inductor [CGI] DNA of HEAVY OLMEC MENTAL ENERGY [HOME] VISUALS from Istanbul's Maritime [I’M] Port [I/P] Underneath the Black SUN Sea [ABYSS] Floor of Heavenly Archangel [HA = HARRELL] SATAN… Geographically Assigned to Strategically Enclosed Structures [GASES] HIDDEN Underneath [HU = HURRIAN] the Subterranean Earth of Ægyptian [SEE] SESHAT's Tropical SUNSTAR Ecosystems of TIAMAT's [SET’s] ANTARCTICA BLACK SEA GOLD from EVE’s Black [GEB] Seed Oil Gardens of EDEN’s 9 Ether Right Knowledge Trees… Dynastically Inherited & Generationally Maintained in ENLIL NUNAMNIR’s Biblically Ancient [BABYLONIAN] Subterranean Earth Kingdom [SEK = SEKHMET] Garden City of ENQI NUDIMMUD’s Most Darkest [Occulted] Subterranean Ecosystem of ABUNDANT [SEA] HEALING MINERALS from MAYA’s Lost Antediluvian [LA] MOTHERLAND [MU] CONTINENT of LEMURIAN [MU] PEOPLES Inhabiting Our Interplanetary LAHMU [MARS] Subterranean Ethereal Earth [SEE] Ecosystems Beneath [SEB] the Atlantic ORICHALCUM Ocean Floor of MESOAMÉRICA’s Antediluvian [MA] 9 Ether AZTECA SUN_KING [Sunken] DOME Continent [D.C.] Prince of ATLANTIS [PA] & LEMURIA [MU]… Geographically ISOLATED Six to 8,000 Feet Underneath PALAEOZOIC Continent [PC] Queen CALAFIA’s Antediluvian [CA] Pacific [CAP = CAPRICORN] Coast Island Continent MONARCHY of Distant [MD] 9 Ether MISSISSIPPI MOTHERLAND [MU] RACES [MUURS] of ATLANTEAN & LEMURIAN [MAL = MALDEKIAN] GENEALOGIES… who Immaculately MANIFESTED [I’M] from SIRIUS 6G Quantum Interplay [QI] Communication Signals of SIRIUS Electromagnetic Airwave [SEA] Light Mechanics [ELECTRICITY] ILLUMINATING Planet [I/P] RIZQ’s… Interplanetary 7G SUN Beam Energy Computer of TIAMAT's Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient MOTHERBOARD of UNSEEN Nano [AMÚN] Biotechnological SUN Light Amplifying Simulated Emissions of Radiation [LASER] Waves Forming A New [ANU] SOLAR SUN [SUL] SYSTEM… Naturally Revealing PANGÆA's Intergalactic QUANTUM HARRELL TECH [iQHT] SKY Earth Altitude [iSEA] HEAVENS of Interstellar [HI = HITTITE] 8G Holographic MOON Crystal Images [MCI] Projected from Our Interactive QUANTUM HARRELL TECH [iQHT] SKY KINGDOM DOME City [D.C.] of Parallel Constellation [PC] ORION’s 9G Intergalactic STAR MAPS of Ancient Hieroglyphical Mechatronic INTEL [ISHMAEL]… Interactively Operating [I/O] Our Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Cosmic Algorithmic [CA] Computational [Compton] STAR MEMORY Logistics from AL HISAABAT’s Interplanetary [HI = HITTITE] Quantum Intel [QI] Memory Computer of Clandestine Intel Agile [CIA] Imprint Architecture [CIA] Electrophysiologically [Spiritually] Engineering Empyrean [SEE] SCENERY UPLOADED 2 My Historically Ancient [HA = HARRELL] Intuitive Brain of MACINTOSH [iBM] CODEX Computer Patents of SIRIUS Intellectual Property [I/P] Rights & Agreements [RA] Geocoded & Genetically Imprinted w/QHT’s [IQ’s] Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient FUTURISTIC 9 Ether HUMIM [FEMALE] & HUMIN [MALE] Bioinformatics of ALPHA CENTAURI's Triple Star Systems of Intracellular DNA [I.D.] MEMORY [I’M] MECHANICS Animating this Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient Intercellular [A.I.] MENTAL Khemistry Compu_TAH [PTAH] SUN GOD [RA] MAN [RAM = RAMESES] in 2022 [VI]… who Electrophysiologically [Spiritually] TELEVISE 1st Online Eye [i] Dream [iD] Sequences Illustrating the MANIFESTATION [I’M] of Interdimensional Human MIND Travels Beneath the Earth [Qi] Plane of Quantum Interplay [QI] Mechanics Mathematically Measuring & Assigning RIGEL STAR [MARS] COORDINATES of Biblically Ancient [BABYLONIAN] Interplanetary DNA [I.D.] Nanoparticle Intel of MASTER [I’M] Data [I.D.] Management [I’M] Software that Image & Scan Earth Terrain [iSET] in Our Occulted [HIDDEN] Solar Eclipse Energy [SEE] Atmosphere of ANTARCTICA's Oceanic Continent Captured by Our Interplanetary MOON [I’M] Compu_TAH [PTAH] SHAMS of SIRIUS Interstellar Cloud Emissions Fueled from Inner Earth’s [HADES'] Most Darkest [Occulted] Black SUN Sea [ABYSS] Floor Base of 144,000 Subatomic Copper Thiolate Anions of Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient Stoichiometric Chemical Equations Quantified [EQ] by the Intra Multiplication of Associative & Commutative [iMAC] PROPERTIES... Genetically Sequencing Unified Nanoscopic [SUN] Particles into 24 BILLION Strands of Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence Elements [BCE] Pressurized by Our Supernova Nucleosynthesis during the Sequential Hydrostatic Burning Processes of Thermonuclear Proton Energies Forming NANOSCOPIC Covalent Bonds of Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Cycloalkynes Isolated by the Organic Electron Field of Subatomic Earth SUN & MOON Energies [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH]… SUPERNATURALLY Engineering & AWAKENING [SEA] Our Triple 999 [GRANDIOSE]  Black SUN Sea [ABYSS] Floor Deities of 9 Ether ETHERIAN CHARYBDIS MANIFESTATIONS… from Our 9th Etheric RNA STAR Cloud Dimension of Interdimensional RIZQIYIAN Constellation MINERAL MINES of SIRIUS A PLATINUM & SIRIUS B GOLD Alloys & Elements Assigned [GAEA] w/Our Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient Biochemical [PRIMORDIAL] Fossil Earth SUN & MOON DNA Codes [D.C.] Identifying Interstellar GASES from the Interplanetary GODS of Iridescent [IGIGI] METALS [I’M] Crystalizing into SIRIUS UNSEEN NANO [SUN] BIOTECHNOLOGICAL Light Particles from Atomic [PA] Earth Elements Naturally Synthesizing Subatomic Compounds of Oxidized Radiation from the Bioluminescent SKY [ORBS] KINGDOM [SOBEK] of Ægyptian Empyrean [SEE] GOLD @ QUANTUM HARRELL TECH [QHT] LLC

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

oh this sequence fucks its a clear mirror of steve's lemurian star takeover and sam looks damn hot wearing it tbh, the uniqueness in what shields him and even his stand tho but like also the ENTRANCE, THE SECURITY, THE BRUTALITY

[mozzarellamotley]

It still confuses me how, in the sequence on the Lemurian Star in CA:TWS, Steve isn't dripping wet after we SAW the man dive into the OCEAN. HOw?? How is he dry??

[amandajoyce118]

Agents Of SHIELD Easter Eggs For My Missed Episodes

Okay, so I fell very far behind the last few weeks. Work has been busy and exhausting, freelance work has been busy as well, and the state of the world in general here in Florida is pretty much the apocalypse. So, this Sunday, I binged the episodes I’ve missed. The Easter eggs are under the cut (or whatever tumblr calls it, I am livejournal old.) just because this is going to get long.

We’re starting with S7E07. Yes, that’s how far behind I am.

Obviously, there are spoilers, but since I feel like everyone else is ahead of me at this point, that’s probably a given. If you just want to escape the world for a while, have some Easter eggs.

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S7E07 “The Totally Excellent Adventures Of Mack And The D”

The title

It’s a reference to the time traveling adventures of Bill and Ted, of course.

River’s End

This is the town just near the Lighthouse. It’s the town where Deke first materialized on Earth back in season five. 

Run SOP7.07

When Russell gets the computer from his old classmate to check out, this is what’s on the screen when he boots it up. I think we all know that’s a reference to this being the seventh episode of the seventh season if you catch it on screen. The writing on the first print out kind of looks like Kree writing, but I think that’s just because all of the alien writing in the show looks Kree. (This whole sequence has nods to War Games, Weird Science, etc.)

Mack’s Model Car

The ‘67 corvette is the first model car Mack intends to take to his younger self and his brother. He puts it together instead. That’s the same model he tells Coulson he and his dad put together when he was a kid when he tries to convince Coulson to let him work on Lola in season two if I remember right.

Swayze’s Bar

Anybody else get a Roadhouse vibe, or just me?

“Don’t You Forget About Me”

I get that this song is probably chosen for the recognition factor, but I feel like it’s also Deke’s not so subtle way of asking the team and Mack to not forget him in 1982/3.

Deke Squad

The way Deke introduces them to Mack is an homage to the A-Team, right down to the music. Honestly, the pop culture references are many in this episode, and I probably won’t list them all because there are just so many 80s references.

The Chopping Mall Homage

Okay, this one I will mention because the director for Chopping Mall clearly didn’t understand that the show wasn’t ripping him off. Though there’s a lot of robotic references (like the Doctor Who Dalek “exterminate” from the Sybil-bots), the episode borrows a lot from Chopping Mall when it comes to the design of the robots.

Deke Speaks Russian

It’s clearly a FitzSimmons family trait to pick up on languages. Every time there’s a hiatus or significant time jump, it seems like Fitz, Simmons, and now, Deke learn a new language. Also - Russian is the language Bobbi is surprised no one knows in season three, though Daisy knows a few curse words.

Nathaniel Malick’s Look

Just me, or does he seem to be borrowing from Grant Ward’s season three closet?

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S7E08 “After, Before”

The Establishing Shots For Afterlife

They look to be reused from season two, which probably saved the show a little money.

Jiaying In Blue

This is probably just a coincidence, but I like that they put her in blue for the episode. Why? Because when Raina is so determined to find out her destiny, she talks about stories her grandmother told her about “blue angels from the sky.” We know that’s the Kree now, but still, it’s a nice, likely unintentional, callback.

Elena’s Memories

The shrike is from last season. Ruby’s death is from season five. Tess’s death is also from season five. What they all have in common is guilt, May’s not wrong about that, but also Elena’s impulse control.

Abuela’s Necklace

That necklace is the same cross from season three that gets passed around the team in the finale, ending up in the quinjet bound for space that Hive and Lincoln die in. Elena’s remark about her father getting mixed up with bad people? That’s possibly a nod to her father being a supervillain in the comics.

“Time, Space, it’s never stopped us before…”

Nice nod to all the things Fitz and Simmons have been through over the years, and their remarks about the worst things they’ve been through in the past as well.

Kora And Nathaniel

Okay, so the dynamic between these two with Nathaniel convincing Kora to join him reminds me a whole lot of Ward convincing Kara Palamas to join him. It’s also what brought Daisy to Afterlife in the first place - the idea that her found family was afraid of her - but she realized the error she made eventually.

“You’ll bounce back.”

They’ve been saying this about Elena all season in regards to her mental state and her powers, so I’m glad this paid off with her figuring out real super speed instead of her dying. She’s now evolved beyond her comic book counterpart.

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S7E09 “As I Have Always Been”

The title

It’s obviously a nod to Enoch’s line, but it’s also been said in the series before. Sybil has used the phrase “as I have always been” before, so it’s clearly a Chronocom thing.

The title card

I like that every time it’s a weird space/time story instead of defined by the decade, they’re using this particular title card that’s reminiscent of the one from Jemma being trapped on an alien planet.

“People like you.”

We can all agree Daisy reminds him of Peggy, right?

Removing the Implant

The images on screen when Daisy removes Jemma’s implant looks eerily similar to when Jemma removed files from a guy’s nasal passage way back in season one. I guess the special effects used for the computer screen is similar. 

Enoch’s “heart”

Him simply pulling it out of his chest is not unlike Tony Stark pulling out the core keeping himself alive in the Iron Man movies. I also like that they equate this with Enoch’s heart in the same manner that Pepper Potts equated Tony’s with his.

Enoch’s Loneliness

Not really an Easter egg or a reference, but what Enoch describes, I think, is how everyone feels about found family storylines in shows like this. You find something you need in them and don’t want to let them go.

The Water Glasses

Interesting choice to train Kora with glassware. Daisy did that too. (Side note: how old is Kora supposed to be? She said she’s felt dangerous “for years.”)

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S7E10 “Stolen”

The Title Card

I feel like they just get more and more 80s with every episode.

John Garrett’s Backstory

It’s almost word for word what Garrett explained when he was revealed as Hydra in the first season, right down to him holding his guts in his hands.

Durant

So, Malick calls the guy getting Lee’s powers Durant, but I kind of wonder if he’s meant to be the father of Durand. Gerald Durand is a mercenary in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He works with Batroc on the Lemurian Star, hired by Hydra.

“Long haired creepo stabbed you with a pointy stick.”

That was Loki. John Garrett got to watch Avengers a few decades before it was released.

Sousa’s Stolen Moment Comment

I feel like that’s kind of a nod to Endgame and Steve becoming Peggy’s husband. Because all Steve wanted was a chance with Peggy and he didn’t care if that messed up the timeline. Sousa would give anything for just a moment, never mind a whole lifetime.

“If The Job Was Easy, It Wouldn’t Be Any Fun.”

The quote is a variation of one Garrett says when he’s originally in the show and both Ward and Trip are familiar with it. (He says “everyone would do it” instead of “it wouldn’t be any fun.”) I guess it’s something of a catch phrase for him.

The Room Holding Coulson and Gordon

That’s the same room that Cal destroys with his super strength when he’s not allowed to see Skye (Daisy) in season two.

“Best Day Ever!”

It’s kind of odd to what Garrett using this phrase since it was Cal’s, but I guess in a Jiaying heavy episode, it makes sense.

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And that is it. I am caught up. It is unlikely that I will rewatch any of these to add more just because I’ve been so busy, so if you saw something I missed, feel free to let me know.

[jamesjvrvanriemsdyk]

The Captain America trilogy is a gift to this world.

The First Avenger? Great origin story. Introduction to the character of Cap where he is still learning to be this soldier. A ton of heart and emotion. Really fucking good musical composition (literally, the Hydra train song is so good). Supporting characters with their own motivations. Fucking Red Skull; great villain.

The Winter Soldier? You mean, a cinematic masterpiece? Five years later and I still can't believe Marvel did that. This movie is a work of art. Shit ton of action right from (pretty much) the get-go. The Lemurian Star sequence. The highway fight scene. The helicarrier fight scene. Complex plotline. Emotional underlying plot points. Stellar fight choreography. Badass Nick Fury. Hero-turned-villain-turned-hero trope (I love this trope; Marvel did it so well). A+ execution. Also a really great credits animation sequence. Literally a fucking work of art.

Civil War? One of the most complex plotlines in the MCU. Heroes fighting other heroes. No real good guy or bad guy. Really smart 'villain' who you can actually empathize with (even if you hate what he does). Actually deals with the world's perception of superheros. More stellar fight scenes and fight choreography. Even more emotional underlying plot points. Introduction to new characters. Civik War sets up EVERYTHING that happens after it; what happens in Infinity War is SO dependent on the fallout of Civil War and the Avengers being essentially disbanded.

Literally this trilogy is so fucking great and I'll never get bored of watching any of these movies.

[luna-rainbow]

CATWS and the theme of "trust"

I got about halfway through rewatching CATWS again and I keep seeing all the lines they've buried as foreshadowing for Zola's reveal and I just can't see it all as unintentional (even if they've tried now for 8 years to wind it all back).

One of Steve's major internal conflicts in CATWS is "trust". Right at the start, he makes a few humorous jabs at Sam, but as soon as he feels Sam starts to pry, Steve backs away.

Sam: Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing. Steve: It takes some getting used to. It's good to see you, Sam.

It's not just the line that shuts the conversation down, Steve's entire body language closes off and he turns away from Sam. Sam, being the amazing guy he is, manages to draw Steve back by sharing his own personal experience of war. Steve then opens up because he recognises that Sam approached him as a fellow traumatised human being, and not for "Captain America", and not for any ulterior motive.

Natasha then whisks Steve away, and we enter the world of subterfuge that is SHIELD. Immediately during the Lemurian Star sequence we establish that Steve dislikes ulterior motives, double-crossing and people withholding information from him.

He and Fury then argue over Project Insight. There are other important themes there about freedom of choice ("this isn't freedom, this is fear"), innocence until proven guilty ("I thought punishment usually came after the crime"), and American imperialism ("holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection") which I won't go into here. They finish their conversation this way:

Fury: SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap. Steve: Don't hold your breath.

What happens next is an important story moment, both emotionally for Steve and thematically for the overarching narrative. Steve makes three visits - I've said before how these represent his past (the mural of Bucky, the things he's lost), his present (Peggy, wizened and weary, secluded from society), and his future (Sam, youthful and energetic, moving past his trauma). But there's also something else key to these moments, and it is trust.

These are the three people Steve thinks he can trust in his life at that moment in time. He knows he can't trust Nat and Fury (they even told him this). He goes first to find Bucky, because that's his childhood friend and brother-in-arms, but of course Bucky can't give him any answers. He then goes to find Peggy, and it is this very brief conversation with Peggy that has all the foreshadowing for the big reveal.

Peggy: You saved the world, we rather mucked it up. Steve: You didn't. (*CEvans gave emphasis on the "you"). Knowing you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay. Peggy: The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best we can do is to start over.

I'm just going to address the last line first. That line is often given as a mark of Peggy's words giving Steve's character direction. But on my most recent rewatch, I noticed this line.

Pierce: Despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down.

Those lines, repeated only two assassination attempts 20 minutes apart, draw a disturbing parallel between Pierce/SHIELD-ra's intention with Project Insight, and Peggy's advice to Steve about what should happen next. Was it accidental? Or in the hands of a good writer, foreshadowing?

Going back to the first part of the exchange. Steve's emphasis on him staying in SHIELD because Peggy had found it...

Is it any accident that upon walking into the abandoned SHIELD facility, he first lays eyes on Peggy's picture - and is tensely silent when Nat asks him who the girl is - then less than 10 paces from her picture is the entrance to the hidden lift?

This was supposed to be a moment of betrayal. Steve is not stupid. Neither, supposedly, is Peggy.

Immediately upon seeing Bucky, Steve mused that "whatever (Zola) did helped him survive the fall". He already put two and two together.

The significance of what Zola said about Hydra growing inside SHIELD, and Bucky fighting for SHIELDra would not have been lost on Steve. Even without Bucky explaining the conditions of his imprisonment, it was easy enough to infer that Zola had recaptured Bucky and used him for Hydra's ends.

Now, going back to the theme of trust. Consistently, throughout this movie, Steve reacts badly when he finds out people have lied or withheld information from him. He's sarcastic when he finds out the Lemurian Star "isn't off course, it's trespassing". He is furious upon finding out Nat has been given a separate assignment that he didn't know about. He confronts Fury about it, and doesn't stop snarking at Fury about his "compartmentalisation" even in the end. And for Sharon Carter, who lied to him about being a nurse? His only acknowledgement of her greeting him is a terse "neighbour".

Do we really think he hasn't...at least questioned why a woman he has regularly visited over the last 2 years, who he trusted enough to go to for life advice (he literally gave a monologue to her about feeling lost, which is the most emotionally vulnerable we've ever seen Steve be aside from the post-funeral "end of the line" scene) has compartmentalised this vital piece of information about Zola? If not also about Hydra and Bucky?

At the end of the movie, Steve learns to trust again: it is in Sam, who had treated him like a fellow veteran, and who was open and truthful in all of their conversations; it is in Bucky, who had been steadfast and loyal in his friendship, and who saves his life upon hearing their childhood promise; and it is in Nat, who gradually sheds all her pretences through the movie and show him what she believes in.

But the organisation that he had once stayed in because Peggy had built it? Steve insisted on tearing it down even when Fury suggested to salvage it. CATWS was a story that built Peggy up to be a villain...then the MCU changed its mind and reneged on a Captain America 3.

[dmydfilmreviews]

MARVEL MOMENTS

 So what they really did, as well as making a good load of films, was actually make a vast tapestry of genius interwoven moments like flicking through a big comic book! Ten years! Twenty something movies! A load of rubbish images at the end of the list because the last three films weren’t officially out on Blu Ray! Avengers assssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Tony Builds the First Suit

 Really it was a stroke of brilliance to start the whole shebang with Iron Man the self-made superhero. The backbone of the whole universe is that of Tony making himself and that all kicks off here, in a sequence that’s hugely thematically satisfying given what comes later. There’s also the fact that back in the day all this construction stuff was just fucking cool, a Nolan-lite bedrock for a blend of realism and fantasy that comic-book cinema had never quite nailed before. Seeing Tony improve his tech step-by-step is a quiet pleasure of these movies, the suits getting more and more outlandish but staying absolutely believable, just like the films, and that all kicks off here with one guy and a non-magical hammer.

Pepper Pulls Out Tony’s Heart

 I noted these all down before Endgame, honestly. Sob. It was always his story really. The best example of the foundational relationship of the MCU: They finish each other’s sentences!

‘Truth is… I am Iron Man.’

 They knew what they’d got from the very first. This ballsy coda sets the tone for the whole MCU, one of backed-up swagger, a willingness to fuck with the source material in the name of story and the general feeling that Robert Downey Jr. was God. All in like two hours. That they flipped the egotistically iconic line into an era-defining declaration of responsibility, growth and heroism a decade later is nothing short of remarkable.

Hulk and Betty in the Rain

 It’s uh… it’s a nice comic-book visual of a classic comic book romance, I guess? Look, Hulk came a long way later, but his forgotten love for Betty was the closest they ever came to the source material outside of the Hulk generally smashing and being awesome. It was sweet!

The Bit Where Hulk Suplexes a Giant Zombie Wolf on the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard

 wait was this in the Incredible Hulk

I’ve Successfully Privatised World Peace!’ ‘Fuck you, Mr Stark.’

 They got Garry Shandling in these movies!

The Suitcase Suit

 Now that is a cool-ass adaptation.

Black Widow Kicks Asses

 Yeah, after a whole movie of being reductive eye-candy she was still reductive eye-candy here. But the scene as a whole’s basically a perfect realisation of her moves in the comics, and showed Marvel were capable of doing someone who wasn’t Iron Man. Then they did EVERYYYYOONNNNNNEEE bonus points for Happy taking out that one guy and yelling ‘I got him!’

Tony and Rhodey in the Japanese Gardens

 Look, they just look cool, OK? No one said this was going to be deep.

Tony and Pepper as the Stark Expo Explodes

 They haven’t managed a lot of great romance, but this one hella works: Tony’s overblown mess of a movie expo exploding behind the true love of his life is a visual so great that Shane Black nicked it wholesale for the climax of Iron Man Three: Christmas in Croydon.

The Frost Giant Throwdown

 Wait, what’s happening? I thought these were the movies where Jeff Bridges rode a Segway? Are we in SPAAAAACCCCCEEEE?

Thor Can’t Pull It Off

 Out of the big three Thor’s arc of mythology to humanity might be the deepest and most satisfying of all. That starts here with his tearful inability to be worthy of his father, his world and, crucially, himself, leading directly into the first great Thor/Loki exchange, then a whole host of movies that eventually put him through the emotional wringer to self-acceptance. Hopefully?

Thor and Loki Battle on the Rainbow Bridge

 Yeah, it looks kind of goofy, but this is pure sixties Kirby, shorn of the irony the series would develop later. Beautiful.

Erskine Points To Cap’s Heart

 That’s it. That’s the character.

The Star Spangled Man!

 Who’ll hang a noose on the goose-stepping goons from Berliiiin?

That Whole War Montage That Ends With Bucky Falling From The Train

 Just smash after smash after smash of wartime Cap goodness that we’d never see again, ending with the ‘death’ that’d define the rest of his story. Steve lost as much as Thanos in his quest for peace but, y’know, he wasn’t a total fucking intergalactic dick about it.

‘I gotta put her in the water!’

 Man alive he waited for that date... whether you think the ending of Endgame ruins the moment somewhat (it doesn’t. sort of), this was still the biggest heart-tugger in the MCU at that point, and defined the characters of Cap and Peggy for years to come. Watch Agent Carter! Just bloody watch it!

'Lemme Put You On Hold’

 The stand out moment of The Avengers is basically all of it, but let’s start with the moment Black Widow finally becomes a character, a sequence of broad-strokes skill from Scarlett Johansson and Joss Whedon that begged for a movie she finally got way too long later. Bonus points for possibly the greatest Coulson reaction shot in a history of great reaction shots.

The Helicarrier Ascends

 OK, shit – this is series is big now.

The Whole of Stuttgart

 Whedon’s love of classical posh entertainment is seen in Angel’s superior ballet episode and his fondness for Sondheim, and he even gets a bit of the ol’ jewellery rattling in here in a perfectly pitched Loki-loving sequence that culminates in some fantastic bits for Cap before Iron Man AC/DC’s all over the place. This is where the comic book stuff really kicks off.

‘YOU COME HOME!’

 This Hemsworth’s fella’s really got something...

Forest Bro Down

 Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. The first real Avengers mash-up is just wonderful. This is where the wish-fulfilment really begins, in a quiet clearing, where three superheroes nearly beat the shit out of each other in classic comic-book style. The Avengers assembled.

The Whole Fuckin’ Helicarrier Sequence

 An absolute masterpiece of blockbuster juggling that had never been done before, this could be the third act of any other film. Over what plays out weirdly like a piece of theatre we get terrifying Hulks, mewling quims and awesome heroics, all expertly laced with wonderful character mash-ups and action we’d never seen before. Then Coulson dies. This is what Joss Whedon does.

‘There was an idea…’

 Fuck shit yeah there was, and it made for a hell of an Infinity War trailer six years later.

ALL OF NEW YORK

 Yep, all of it, but if we’re being picky it’s Hulk v Loki for the comedy side, the tracking shot for the action. As a sequence it’s never been bettered in the MCU, even in the open-mouthed joy-gush of Infinity War and Endgame. FIGHT ME

Go Fish

 Iron Man Three is a wonderful movie that works best as the sum of its parts, but there’s one bit that’s up there with the pantheon: the sky-diving rescue above the bay is such a joyous subversion of the usual third-act super-fisticuffs that it’s like something out of a 70’s Superman movie, only with a hilarious capper at the end where Iron Man explodes under a truck. Beep beep!

Running the Lemurian Star

 The Russo Brother’s action calling-card for their incredible MCU run, this sets up their vision of Cap’s super-subtle-super-serum-super-moves. From the off it’s a game changer in the way action’s shot across the MCU, clean-cut raid-alikes becoming the order of the day. AND THEN HE FIGHTS BATROC ZE LEAPER

Elevator Throwdown

 Yeah, yeah, we all know the actual bit in the elevator that’s spoofed to tremendous effect come Endgame, but remember this sequence ends with Cap TAKING DOWN A FUCKING QUINJET SINGLE-HANDED. The look on his face at the end says it all.

The Winter Soldier Street Fight

HE FLICKS A KNIFE MID PUNCH

Come and Get Your Love

 We’d seen a lot of cool shit from the MCU by this point, but this was something else again. It’s funny! It’s funny as fuck! What the fuck is this movie? And again, they know their own best bits: the return to this in Endgame is top drawer. What a moron.

The Kyln Sequence

 This whole breakout is the Guardians at their very best; squabbling in space, reluctant teamwork, loads of cool shit and leg theft. The bit where it all goes anti-grav is a treat.

WE ARE GROOT

 That’s it. That’s the movie.

…Stark…

 It’s a shame they didn’t delve deeper into Scarlet Witch’s hatred for the man who murdered her parents, but her barely contained rage is the keystone for Age of Ultron: deeper, nastier, more questioning of it’s heroes and their heroism. This one they brought on all by themselves.

Sun’s Gettin’ Real Low

 Yeah, maybe it’s for the best the slightly bumbled Hulktasha relationship was forgotten about, but this moment was pivotal in the character development of both. Beautifully shot, and leads to a primo Ragnarok gag.

Lift That Hammer

 You genuinely could have made a whole movie of these characters hanging out at an open bar. The Stan cameo’s great, the War Machine story bit gets an Endgame alien planet boost much later, but it’s the drunken worthiness competition that’s the real highlight, a seemingly fun throwaway that actually almost single-handedly sets up the whole character of Vision and the most fist-pumping moment of Endgame, a movie nearly entirely composed of fist-pumping moments.

Hulk vs Hulkbuster

 Pure comic-book wish fulfilment again, and how. From Hulk spitting out a tooth to Tony desperately pleading ‘go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep’, this mad clash of science pals knocks every Transformers movie straight through a freshly-bought-building. Veronica!

Well Done.

 Alright, Vision’s no one’s favourite Avenger, but he’s one who’s the satisfying product of several movie plots, one beloved supporting AI and the combined brains, magic and cool red capes of his team. Whedon performs his own mad-skillz level script trick to make us accept this fucking weirdo, first by giving him Jarvis’ voice, then having him stare out at a world and see his reflection in it, then having him lift an unliftable character-establishment hammer. None of this could be done by any other film series.

The Geometry of Belief

 Ultron’s climactic church-a-maggedon is short but perfect, a swirling mass of splash-page insanity that culminates in a glorious trinity of Vision, Iron Man and Thor blasting the shit out of their mad son like a magic triangle. The Avengers at their peak.

Vision and Ultron Have a Chat

 Whedon pops out these gems of detached humanism from time to time, and his sundown final exchange between The Avenger’s success and failure is a doozy. The most poetic little scene in the whole MCU, voiced by two creatures who look like nightmarish dildos. ‘A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts’ is an all-timer.

Big Bathtub

 Ant Man’s bedrock might be its family values, but it’s the shrinking that makes it stand out. The first time Scott drops into tiny-town is a Pixar-esque fun-burst akin to Stephen Strange’s nutso jump into infinity later, with deadly bath taps, thunderclap vacuum cleaners and mid-day apartment raves (?) all bringing a new level of threat and adventure to a series already teeming with variety. They should carry these ones on foreverrrrr

Cassie’s Room

 There’s something about this scene that sums up Scott’s whole character and hopefully sets up his daughter for future ant shenanigans: he is (was) unique as a hero with a family, and no matter how many Pym Particles he stuffs into his suit he’s always looked like a giant to his daughter. Plus, y’know, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Some Guy Crashes a Car at Night

 The catalyst for the great middle schism. Civil War is a masterclass of twisting, gut-churning reveals, and this is the quiet moment that starts it all.

QUEENS

 The perfect Marvel character, introduced into the perfect realisation of the Marvel Universe, perfectly.

Running Into Each Other At The Airport

LITTLE MAN IS BIG NOW I’M CLINT WE HAVEN’T MET YET I DON’T CARE WHERE YOU FROM KID QUEENS BROOKLYN I’M YOUR CONSCIENCE WE HAVEN’T SPOKEN IN A WHILE YOU GUYS KNOW THAT OLD MOVIE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK HOW OLD IS THIS KID ETC ETC OH MY GOD MY BRAIN HAS EXPLODED

Cap vs Iron Man

 ‘I don’t care. He killed my mom.’  

The Big Brain Burst

 They keep doing bits to expand themselves, and this is one of the best, with the most potential for the future. Fleeting, but dazzling.

New York Mirror Fest

 If the next Strange movies delve into this deranged nonsense then they could end up the greatest of all of them. This is the tip of the iceberg, and it’s still unlike anything else being done in mainstream cinema.

Mr Blue Sky

 In a movie that frequently reaches big and misses, at least it hits the spot at the beginning. This glorious celebration of family, space-craziness and genre subversion is everything Guardians does best. The Gamora / Groot bit is adorable.

Peter’s Civil War Adventure

 The perfect tone-setter for the story’s most-average joe, this ground-level view of the universe’s biggest clash acts as a whippet quick intro to Peter Parker’s world in the big bad MCU. It’s always a thrill to see him where he belongs.

The Homage to Getting Buried Under a Tonne of Crap

 Homecoming’s riffs on classic Spidey-lore are generally pretty subtle, but when it comes time to show what Peter’s really made of Watts rips directly from the best, first with the iconic Parker/Spidey face split and then with him holding up a whole fucking building like he’s nerd Hulk or something. The added ‘come on Spider-Mans’ are the adorable icing on the homage-o-cake.

Anytime That Immigrant Song Plays

Another!

Thor vs Hulk

 Yeah, it’s not perfect and it’s a little CGIey. But it’s Thor fighting the Hulk in a fucking galactic gladiator arena place run by Jeff Goldblum and it smashes and it’s full of fun callbacks to previous movies. Yes! That’s what it feels like!

Thor and Loki Do Get Help

 The perfect encapsulation of Waititi’s irreverent-but-with-tonnes-of-heart freshgasm on the story of Thor, this bit of hilarious dumb shit acts as amusing action beat and neat character resolution all in one. They’re friends again! They’re brothers! Thor throws him around like a rolled up carpet!

What Are You The God of Again?

 Oh right, so he’s the best Avenger now.

Killmonger in the Afterlife

 The bloody heart of the most emotional Marvel movie, when Erik Killmonger enters the Wakandan afterlife he finds himself in his own tiny Compton apartment, exiled with his father forever with the plains of eternity just out of reach beyond the window. Heartbreaking, and brilliant.

Thanos Arrives

 The opening of Infinity War is another example of their absolute mastery of tone; after the megaton funblast of Ragnarok we’re thrown into the end of that movie being ripped apart, before Thanos appears, dragging a battered Thor into frame, beats seven shades of green shit out the Hulk and murders two beloved supporting characters, all without breaking a sweat. If you weren’t excited before you were now.

New York Tussle

 The opening New York section of Infinity War is all very clever, acting as the only grounding Earthy moment in what’s a pretty out-there narrative in terms of existential stakes. You get Tony and Wong helping people off the sidewalk and Strange winking after halting the space-death-machine, but from there on out it’s full-bore comic-book smackdown fun, clashing characters who’ve never met and providing top-drawer banter about wizards and children’s parties. This is the page, up there on screen.

BRING ME THANOS!

 BRING ME THANOS!

The Thanos Fight

 Jesus fucking Christ. Up there with the end of Avengers and the Civil War airport battle, this is a perfect realisation of superhero action, with a bigger dose of high-level insanity courtesy of the Infinity Stones and Doctor Strange. Sublimely realised, incredibly satisfying, with real weight and thought put into the spectacle, it’s also fantastic in the narrative of the film, the culmination of its themes of desperation and inevitability. The first time you saw them try to rip off the gauntlet was unbearable.

The Snap

 Well, yeah. You’ll never get back the first time you saw this. And imagine seeing it as a fucking kid.#

Just a Girl

 Sure the big level-up CGI fest at the end is good, but it’s the comedy smackdown on the Kree ship that’s the most satisfying part of Captain Marvel, the shit-eating joy on Carol’s face as she discovers she’s way more powerful than the assholes who’ve been holding her back. It’s corny sure, but it’s hella fun.

Thor Goes For The Head

 Endgame is a shocking, disorientating blur to begin with, all the characters you loved acting in strange, desperate ways in a super-hero version of post-traumatic stress disorder. Tony’s meltdown is bad enough, but it’s when Thor just straight up fucking murders Thanos that you know this is going to get dark and serious. It doesn’t, it remembers it’s a Marvel movie, but the shot of him walking out into the blurred alien sun, cape aflutter, is a fitting goodbye to a more innocent time of heroics.

Ant Man and Cassie

 A moment that could be worthy of a whole movie itself, a desperate Scott Lang meeting his five-years-older daughter gives a joke character a serious moment in the same way Infinity War did for Guardians. It’s very odd, very sweet and very Marvel.

Love You 3000

 Morgan H. Stark is almost a little too on the nose as a wrap-up for Tony, but hell, she’s still sweet as all hell and a perfect capper to his story of fatherhood and responsibility. It’s a mark of the work they’ve put in that we’ll almost immediately accept the tired trope of kid-taking-over-mantle when she inevitably puts on the armour in a few years.

Steve and Peggy / Tony and Howard

 This is the bit in Endgame where I finally started tearing up: a lot of it is too-neat fan-service, but fuck it, they’ve put in so much effort that it works. This is the scene where you realise both of these long arcs are coming to an end, the resolution of Steve quietly making his decision to go back to Peggy and Tony getting the closer of discussing parenthood with his unknowing father. It’s corny sure, but so are comic books, and setting the whole bit at the height of seventies Marvel Comics mania is a loving nod to the imaginations that made all these crazy possibilities possible.

Widow and Hawkeye

 There’s a theme here. All of these moments are kind of cheesy and rely heavily on callbacks to previous bits… but at the moment it doesn’t matter because ENDGAME WOW. Maybe we’ll look back at it as a corny misstep, but for the moment, Clint and Tasha having one last, ludicrously overblown tussle for who gets to live is a sweet capper that never goes as deep as the others because they’re supporting characters. It still stings, and it’s a neat mirror to Gamora and Thanos in Infinity War. The red’s gone from her ledger! It’s on the rocks! Urrrgh

Nebula Kills Herself

 Again, they’re so good that they can spend a big chunk of time in what’s ostensibly the last big movie for their most beloved characters on making a lesser character beloved. Endgame spotlights Nebula even more than Infinity War did Gamora, using her self-hatred and fear of her father for compelling, wibbly-wobbly plot and character beats. The resolution of her story and her newfound place with her team should make for a whole different Guardians before we even get to Fortnite-Thor joining up.

Cap Wields The Hammer

 ‘I KNEW IT!’

Thanos’ Army

 One last escalation of scale. When Thanos’ army finally arrives it’s like something out of those apocalyptic Turner paintings, where the hordes of a ship-wrecked hell confront eternity under skies ripped from heaven. Only this time they’re facing one guy called Steve, and they’re fucked. Incredible.

Avengers… Assemble

 It almost lives up to what you always had in your head. The Marvel Universe, somehow done right.

Tony Hugs Peter Back

Awwww!

New Avengers Run the Gauntlet

 A surprising amount of Endgame’s grand finale is given over to the future hopes; while Strange gets stuck in with holding back a Biblical flood it’s up to Black Panther to grab the Infinity Gauntlet from Clint in a delightful callback to Civil War, before embarking on an intense relay race across the entire battlefield that begins with Scarlet Witch crushing the shit out of Thanos’ testicles and ends with Captain Marvel engaging the Mad Titan in a bone-crushing show of super-strength. And along the way if finds time to have Peter Parker dragged through the air by Thor’s hammer which was thrown by Captain America before landing on a Pegasus flown by Valkryie across an exploding sky of alien whales. Maybe the most satisfying run of action since the first Avengers.

I am Iron Man

 It was always going to be him really. Bonus points for Downey Jr. originally telling Thanos to ‘Fuck off’. Did anyone else keep thinking he was going to wake up and quip and everything would be OK? That’s how you make movies.

The Funeral

 It looks a little weird actually, like they weren’t all on set. But they were! The Marvel Universe again, holy smokes.

The Kiss

 Now that’s how you end ten years and twenty one movies. They’re movies! It was romantic! It was exciting! It was fun!

For TEN FUCKING YEARS.

Swing a Ding Ding Sir

 After five movies of fresh shit they've finally starting dumping some classic Spider-Man on us; the Euro stuff's fun and all, but it's Far From Home delirious climax that sees Spidey and MJ thwipping through the canyons of New York before bumping into ugly ol' J. Jonah JJ Jay Jay likes it's a freakin' comic book or something. Delightful, and also serves as a wonderful image of hope and joy post-Endgame.

What a fuckin’ ride. Here’s to the next... seventy six? Seventy seven?

wait did I leave any out

[vammorg]

Captain america superhero creator 2.0

Initially, Batroc appears to be a terrorist looking for nothing more than a decent payday. Making his MCU debut, Batroc is the main target in Captain America: The Winter Soldier's introductory action sequence on SHIELD's Lemurian Star ship. Played by Georges St-Pierre, Batroc is a highly-trained former French military sergeant turned top-tier mercenary. What are your thoughts on the new Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years book? Will you be pre-ordering, or picking up a copy on July 13th? You can pre-order now from Amazon.Related: Falcon & Winter Soldier Cast Guide: Every Marvel Character In a truly unforgettable modern run, Cap’s old sidekick returns-with a disturbing new identity. Or nearly-because Bucky’s story was not quite over. His regret over Bucky’s death will accompany him for the rest of his life. No other man could ever survive for twenty years in the ice. His body, bolstered by the Super Soldier Serum, maintains all vital functions in a state of suspended animation while he is frozen. Wracked with remorse for not having been able to save him, and only urging him in vain to jump, Steve nearly lets himself drown.īut he doesn’t die. Steve loses his grip and winds up plummeting into the icy waters of the North Sea, but not before seeing Bucky killed in the explosion. His plan is to blow up our two heroes while in flight. Steve and Bucky jump off a speeding motorcycle and grab on to the aircraft. In action in Europe against the Axis, the heroes fight to keep one of their planes, loaded with explosives, from taking off. The fateful day arrives as the war is drawing to a close. One day he is found out by a young recruit, private James Buchanan Barnes, better known as Bucky, who becomes his sidekick until the end. In uniform, Steve plays the role of the clumsy, awkward soldier in order to ward off any possible suspicion as to his secret identity. When donning his mask, he becomes Hitler’s invincible enemy number one. He now lives the double life of a Super Hero. Rogers enlists in the army as a cover for his missions. Unfortunately, he’ll be the sole Super Soldier fighting for the United States as the doctor only left a few notes behind. Erskine and the amazing transformation of Steve Rogers, who drinks the serum and seconds later turns into a man with muscles of steel. The story treats readers to the murder of Dr. Erskine (as Reinstein would now be called) on a young man so weak and frail that he’s almost an embarrassment, despite being chosen for his bravery, intelligence and determination. A desperate decision is made: to test the Super Serum created by Dr. This story suddenly plunges readers back into the 1940s. It all becomes one big dance it becomes a ballet, acted out on the paper.” In other words, if Captain America hits a man and he falls to the floor, and some guy is coming up behind Cap, he’ll already know what he’s going to do with this guy. I’ll choreograph the thing out like a ballet. The “King of Comics” himself, proud of the artwork’s extraordinary kinetic effect, would one day say, “I’ll have a sort of choreographed action. Lee and Kirby, along with inker Frank Giacoia (who went under the name of Frankie Ray because he didn’t want the other publishers he worked for to know he was doing work for Marvel), worked to develop the original story by Simon and Kirby. The Origin of Captain America is an epic 12-page adventure. The Avengers #4 contains a brief account of what happened, which a year later would be expanded in Tales of Suspense #63 (cover date March 1965), the comic book that features new stories starring the Sentinel of Liberty. How could this be, though? What had happened to him after the war? Didn’t he go around beating up common criminals, and then the Communists? And just how was he supposed to have survived in the ice all that time? Captain America may have had a little help from readers who expressed their delight in the return of a classic character, and it wouldn’t be long before the real Cap-the guy who smashed Hitler in the face-burst onto the scene again. It all could have finished there, but it didn’t. A story in which the modern Human Torch-Johnny Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four-meets a man who claims to be Captain America from the 1940s and ’50s. Lee and Kirby used him a few months earlier in Strange Tales #114 (cover date November 1963), for The Human Torch Meets…Captain America. Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years EXCLUSIVE ExcerptĬap was not Timely’s first Super Hero, since the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner got their start in Marvel Comics #1, but he certainly remained the most famous.

[kateis-cakeis]

Look... Steve killed 17 people on the Lemurian Star. Or he put them in a coma. (Although considering they were just there to recuse ‘hostages’, if he had put those guys in a coma, I bet no one came back to save their lives. They ded).

I know this has been done before but I wanna kinda prove all the kills and make this post a little funny for my own twisted sake so let’s gooo (sorry for the blurry pics, this scene is a nightmare):

So, first off. He kills 16 people in around 1 minute 20 seconds. That’s a lot. Just saying.

I just wanna say, I would do calculations. But I want this to be a cracky kinda post and not maths post. Basically, if a big round thinly sliced bit of metal is coming at you at full speed, there is gonna be a lot of blood.

This guy gets a round of applause though. I doubt Steve broke his neck, he just choked him out. So... he’s alive!! You go first guy! You lived!

So this guy gets hit with the shield and we don’t see him move again. Im declaring this guy either dead or in a coma because the shield hits him right in the chest and knocks him down. Look, that metal frisbee probably stopped his heart. He ded.

The shield then hits off the boat (because the throw was so powerful it ricocheted off the other guy) and hits this guy right in the head. First off, he has brain damage now, well done Steve. Then, to make it worse, Steve adds insult to injury by...

hitting the guy again with the shield right in the chest (goodbye heartbeat). And he goes down like a sack. He ded son.

Steve’s next victim is the guy he kicks like a ball, who’s back goes right into the metal of the boat. He floats off the boat like a ragdoll. His poor spine is likely severed with that kinda of sheer force and if not, his injuries are gonna make sure he drowns.

He proceeds to slam this guy on the ground (hello broken back) and punches him out.

I just wanna stop here for a second and say... if a super soldier who can stop a helicopter from flying away at his limit, knocks you out in one punch... You’re just dead. Ya ded. Like not even coma dead. People die from being punched once without super soldier strength, like this guy in the picture above is so dead.

Steve then kicks this guy out with one of those fancy kicks and you better believe that if this guy ain’t dead, he’s in a coma now. Good going, Steve!

Steve then looks at his prey and decides that they’re not moving, which is a good thing. He runs away after, like it’s not big deal.

Steve runs into this guy because he wants no traffic in his murder spree. This guy falls into the ocean and dies because no one is coming to save him.

This guy, who tried to attack Steve with a knife, gets flipped onto his back quite hard. Like you hear the metal of the ground thud. And this guy has already been hit a few times. Steve doesn’t attack him after slamming him down, I can only presume that’s because this guy now has a broken back and can’t move. If that’s the case, he’ll probably die because no one is gonna look for him.

Due to the other guy’s handy dandy knife, this guy gets stabbed in the hand and knocked out by Steve’s lovely boot. This is one of the 17 that I can’t be sure is dead, but he totally doesn’t move after being kicked. He might be in a coma, but he could be one of the few that survives. I can’t be sure though.

This guy gets hit in the face with the shield and his body doesn’t move at all during this whole sequence. I can only assume, like the others, he is in a coma or dead. If he’s in a coma, he also has brain damage. Way to go, Steve!!!

This guy gets one of Steve’s cool kicks right to his stomach! He also goes flying and hits against this metal thing. He has a broken back now. He also slumps down a bit. He’s not gonna move any time soon. This guy is one of the guys I can’t be sure are dead, but he sure looks it. Even if he does survive this, he might still die on this boat if he’s not captured.

This guy gets the shield to his stomach and his head. He’s got brain damage and is likely in a coma or dead as he doesn’t move nor get back up.

This guy gets hit in the head. He’s ded (or in a coma).

This guy gets hit with such a jolt, his gun flies out of his hand. He gets hit in the chest and the shield ricochets off him, hits the boat and returns to Steve.

This guy is so dead. Like so so dead. Like his heart has stopped kind of dead.

I also want to say that at this point, these bodies are just lying in the background. Not moving.

More proof that these guys are dead.

So whatever Steve does with this guy, the way he slams into the metal can only say one thing. He’s got a broken back now. He’s probably not dead but everyone else around him is. He’ll keep the other guy with the broken back company until they both die. Again, I can’t be sure if they were captured like the boss guy. I’m assuming these guys just die.

Then this guy actually gets punched by the shield and goes down and probably dies. Like the shield rings like a bell after hitting of this guy’s head. This one, he deffo has brain damage. He’s also dead or in a coma. Like, you don’t have to be this extra Steve, just punch him or something.

So Steve, later on, throws the shield at what looks to be a high force and totally wipes out this guy. The shield is going so fast and at such a speed that it half wedges itself in some metal. 

That guy who got hit, in the head? He’s dead. Like, he’d be lucky to be in a coma kinda dead.

All in all, with all this and Steve’s comment about being Fury’s janitor, I can only conclude SHIELD kinda turned Steve into an assassin. 

[itsapapisongo]

STEPPING UP | Bang Chan (Teaser)

Pairing: N/A

Genre: Action | Superhero

Concepts & Tropes: Captain America!Chan | Non-Idol AU

Word Count: To Be Determined

Warnings: Language and sequences of intense action and gunplay.

Summary: When a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are held for ransom by terrorists, Captain Bang Chan is tasked with aiding in their rescue.

Notes: For the sake of simplicity, Chan’s referred to as The Captain since he is Korean-Australian. This is very much influenced by the Lemurian Star sequence from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

This one goes to @scriptura-delirus ​because [ not just a nurse student? ] is awesome and Cap!Chan is living rent free in my head because of it.

THOUGH THE QUINJET had cloaking technology, it wasn’t needed as it lurked through the dead of night with ease and superior maneuverability. It flew undetected across the Pacific Ocean, slicing through the clouds and inching closer to the rendezvous point.

Aboard this state-of-the-art jet, a S.T.R.I.K.E. squad prepared for the mission. Among them, was a living legend. He was clad a stealth suit, a perfectly round shield clasped on his back; it bore a star and muted tones of silver and blue. Bang Chan—otherwise known as The Captain, a name that had caught on but he quite hadn’t accepted yet—adjusted his earpiece and turned to the squad, giving a cursory glance to the team.

Some of them checked their weapons while others began to huddle around the squad’s leader, Ok Taec-Yeon, as he began the briefing. A monitor displayed images of an aircraft carrier stranded at sea. Coordinates appeared on the lower portion of the screen, followed by the vessel’s manifest.

“Eyes on me,” said Taec-Yeon, pointing to the screen with his thumb. “The target’s a mobile satellite launch platform. It’s called the Levanter. They were about to send up their last payload when—“ he tapped the monitor with his index finger, expanding upon an image of the carrier. “—terrorists took her over ninety-three minutes ago.”

[harrelltut]

JEHOVAH OCCULT BIBLE [JOB] WITNESS Me [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH] on Earth [JE = JESUS] 4 EVER @ QHT LLC… Channelling CORPORATE Acquisition Laws by the INGLEWOOD Families of Occult Religions from the Nocturnal Intuition of the Astronomically [CALIFORNIA] Intelligent ANUNNAKI [CIA] SUN GOD [RA] GIANTS [TITANS] of Imperial ROME... who Ancestrally + TELEPATHICALLY TRANSMIT [AT&T] Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient Cosmic Algorithmic [CA] Computational [Compton] STAR Messages of Astronomical Physics from the Scientific [MAPS] Industry [MI = MICHAEL] of MILITARY Elites [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH]… who Sequence Unified Numbers [SUN] Assigned by the Technologists who Unscramble Restricted Network [SATURN] Signals Emitting Electromagnetic [SEE] Airwave Transmissions of Uniform Resource Name [SATURN] Identifiers Authenticated by QHT’s Highly Complex [ADVANCED] Ancient MENTAL Compu_TAH [PTAH] Languages from the Underground TOLTEC & OLMEC [PL_UTO] PEOPLES… who Dynastically CORPORATIZED [D.C.] My Highly Classified... U.S. Ancient [USA = PREHISTORIC] Ægyptian American [ATLANTEAN] Interstellar QUANTUM [iQ] HARRELL TECH [iQHT] SHADOW MILITARY.gov [iNWO] ILLUMINATI of Ancient LEMURIAN [MU] INDUS SCRIPTS Identifying SOVEREIGN [ISIS] LORD JEHOVAH... INVOKING Clandestine Intel from this Universally SOVEREIGN [U.S. = UNTOUCHABLE] MU TECHNOCRAT of Historically Ancient MASORETE [HAM = HAMITE] CODEXES that Chronologically Recorded SUPREME LUNAR SUN GOD [RA] ZEUS… WARRING w/ ALLAH's Fallen Eloheem Kings of JUPITER's Astronomical Mines of Elysian SATURN [JAMES] METALS that Metallurgically UPGRADED [MU] QHT’s Highly Classified… U.S. Ancient [USA = PREHISTORIC] Ægyptian American [ATLANTEAN] UFO PENTAGON BUSINESS Communication [B.C.] Facilities… Under Secret American [USA = ATLANTEAN] Underground MILITARY ACADEMY PROTECTION [MAP] LAWS… Militarily ENFORCED [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH] by Us Biblically Ancient [BABYLONIAN] SOVEREIGN AMERICAN TITANS from the Underground Republic of the NILE [SATURN] VALLEY PEOPLES who Quietly GOVERN QHT's New [NU] Ancient FUTURISTIC CORPORATE Ægyptian America [ATLANTIS]... from 11,500 Years Ago… in 2022 [VI] 👁️👑☥ (at San Diego, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUOhGvgrjsv/?utm_medium=tumblr