"Christmas"

by Matthew Turnage

Sharon Carter stands in the living room of Steve Rogers' Chelsea apartment. Steve is somewhat taken aback by her sudden entrance and the question she poses to him now.

"What do you know about the Q-Ray?"

Steve sits down in a chair. "The Q-Ray? Why do you ask?"

"HYDRA's about to develop a new Q-Ray based on Heinrich Zemo's original research," Sharon explains. "The files I came across mentioned that he had planned to use it during the war, but you stopped him."

"Yes, I remember it very well," Steve answers. "And now HYDRA thinks they can duplicate it?"

"That's right. And that's why it's important that you tell me everything you know about it, so we can stop it."

Steve leans back in his chair, as focuses his thoughts on that day, decades ago....

Christmas is a holiday that should be spent with family and friends - a day of peace and love. But Christmas in wartime often didn't mean much. The war meant there would be no tidings of comfort an joy. One Christmas in particular offered no respite. It was Christmas 1944 - the Battle of the Bulge.

I'm sure you're familiar with the basics of the battle - the Germans had launched their final offensive of the war on December 16. Two days later, they began an assault on Bastogne. American troops were there, holding the Germans off, but they were trapped, and the wounded men couldn't get the care they needed. General Patton had begun sending troops there on the 20th, but by the 22nd the Germans had Bastogne totally cut off and demanded the surrender of the American forces - that's when General McAuliffe made his famous reply: "Nuts." Things were looking grim until the weather cleared the next day, allowing our air support to move in.

Anyway, the Liberators were being deployed for the battle, and I expected Bucky and myself, as well as some of the others, to be sent straight to Bastogne. However, we were briefed that intelligence had learned of a secret operation being carried out by an elite German squad being led by none other than my old foe Baron Zemo. He had apparently developed some new weapon and was personally in charge of the field testing. With the clear weather and the swiftness Patton was moving, the Germans realized they wouldn't be able to hold their position at Bastogne unless something was done. And apparently Zemo's new weapon had the capability of disabling Third Army - meaning that Patton's arrival at Bastogne would be delayed, or even prevented.

The problem, we were told, was that the intelligence reports weren't 100% reliable. After all, other reports placed Zemo in Berlin. The brass needed as many Liberators as possible available for front-line action, and this mission would rely heavily on covert and recon activities. Because of our experience with Zemo, Bucky and I were assigned the mission. We rendevouzed with Gen. Patton on Christmas Eve. Several of his men were almost ecstatic to see us when we arrived. Gen. Patton seemed pleased as well, but he realized the gravity of the situation.

"Great to see you, men," he said when we met him. "I'm glad you're boosting morale for the troops. God knows I've been pushing these men hard the last few days, but I can't afford not to. We've got to get to Bastogne and give those German sons of bitches a swift kick in the ass before they start to turn this whole damn war around. Now I've been told that the Germans supposedly have some experimental weapon they want to test on Third Army?"

"Yes sir," I explained. "We have reports that Baron Zemo, one of their top scientists, is personally going to test his latest weapon on Third Army forces."

"Well," Patton laughed, "that's a hell of an honor, isn't it? Any word on what this weapon's supposed to do?"

"No sir," I answered. "That's what Bucky and I are here for. Discover the nature of the weapon and disable it."

"Anything special you'll require from us?" Patton asked.

"No, sir," I assured him, "you just keep moving as planned. Bucky and I will be patrolling the areas near where Third Army is moving. If Zemo is in the general area we believe him to be, he'll strike sometime tomorrow."

"Alright, Captain," Gen. Patton said as he shook my hand, "You men do your job and I'll make sure my men do theirs. We'll make Bastogne within 48 hours and give those brave men the relief they need."

"Yes, sir," I said, and saluted as Bucky and I left.

"I don't know about this mission," Bucky confided when we were alone. "It seems like the entire safety of the Third Army is on our shoulders."

"Don't worry, Bucky," I said. "We've had big responsibilities in this war before. It's not really that different than what these soldiers have to do. We have to make sure that the men at Bastogne get the help they need. We can't let Gen. McAuliffe and his men down."

"You're right, Cap," Bucky agreed. "We've foiled Zemo's plans before. This is no different."

"That's the spirit," I said with a smile, even though in my heart I didn't feel the same sense of security. This was different, perhaps the most critical mission we had ever been on. But at the same time, I knew if anyone had a chance of stopping Zemo in time, it was Bucky and me.

The next day, Bucky and I were moving with Third Army's Fourth Armored Division. Although we didn't know it at the time, that day - Christmas - would become the most critical day of the entire battle.

Bucky and I were conducting a sweep of the area east of the Fourth Armored Division that afternoon. As much as we wanted to get in on the action ourselves, we knew our mission was much more important. We could only hope that Zemo would realize that the Fourth Armored Division was about to break out towards Bastogne, and would direct his attack at them. If Zemo decided to attack another division our mission would be a total failure.

As it turned out, Zemo didn't let us down. Bucky and I were making our way through the snow, hoping to stay hidden amongst the trees, when suddenly we heard the familiar discharge of an MP 38 submachine gun. We took cover behind a fallen tree. Bucky spotted their position first.

"Look, Cap," Bucky said, "just through those trees! They're coming right at us!"

There were only a handful of soldiers coming through the trees, charging at us. I knew we could handle them easily, but I was a bit concerned over Panzer I could hear following behind them. I leaped out from our position to attack when the soldiers were only a few yards away. Bucky opened fire with his pistol, and the soldiers were defeated in a few seconds. But by that time the rumble of the Panzer was growing louder. We barely had time to catch our breaths before the Panzer rolled into view. Bucky and I knew exactly what to do - we ran for the Panzer as fast as we could, staying low to avoid the cannon. And that's when I noticed that this was no ordinary Panzer. The cannon had been modified. It was one of the strangest, most sophisticated looking pieces of technology I had seen - like something I would have expected Doc Savage to have designed for our side. Today, I wouldn't even blink at a cannon like that - it's exactly the type of thing you'd see from SHIELD, or AIM, or HYDRA.

Bucky was caught off-guard too, but we were nothing if not well trained. We kept low and made our way to the Panzer as quickly as we could. We jumped on top of the tank, and as we were getting ready to force the hatch open, Bucky heard more Panzers. We knew we had to hurry, before the second Panzer got close enough to use their small arms to kill us while we attempted to take the modified Panzer.

Using my shield as a wedge, I pried the top hatch open only to be greeted by a Walther P 38. Bucky was crouching behind the turret, and I slid off the top to join him. I hear Zemo's voice from inside the tank, ordering the tank driver to come out after us. The driver emerged a few seconds later, firing at us with his pistol. I blocked his shots with my shield, and the ricochet caught him right in the face. Bucky lept up, pulled the dead driver out of the hatch and threw him off the Panzer. I looked down the hatch, and could see Zemo driving the Panzer, desperately trying reach the Fourth Armored Division's position. The interior was rather cramped, due to the extra machinery needed to operate Zemo's cannon. I told Bucky to get to cover while I disabled the tank and Zemo.

I didn't waste any more time - I leapt into the tank. Zemo turned and cursed at me, but he seemed torn. He couldn't just sit there and shoot at me with his pistol, because he knew my shield would deflect it and send the ammo ricocheting through the tank. He also didn't want to engage me in hand- to-hand combat because that meant he couldn't drive the tank, and he'd lose precious time he needed to reach the Fourth Armored Division. Of course, I made his decision for him by grabbing his collar and pulling him towards me.

The tank lurched violently - Zemo managed to jam the accelerator so we'd continue rolling, but with no one to steer there was no telling where the tank would go. I punched Zemo as hard as I could in the cramped space, but he managed to roll with it, and wasn't seriously hurt. He delivered a swift kick to my shin, which I wasn't expecting. With the pain in my leg serving as a distraction, he managed to get a few more punches in before I pushed him against the side of the tank.

That's when I made another mistake. I grabbed his pistol from his holster and took a step back. Zemo rushed me, slamming me against the other side of the tank. Then he started scrambling out of the top hatch. He kept kicking his legs in order to prevent me from pulling him back into the tank. I pulled myself up to the hatch cautiously, expecting Zemo to attack as soon as my head was exposed. However, Zemo had lept off the tank and was running towards the second Panzer. Then I heard something I had almost expected, but hoped not to hear.

"Look at him run, Cap!" Bucky yelled exultantly as he stood behind me on top of the tank.

"Bucky, I told you to run for cover," I chastised.

"Come on, you didn't expect me to abandon my partner, did you?" Bucky grinned. I just lowered myself back into the tank, and Bucky followed.

"Okay, Cap, we've captured the enemy weapon," Bucky said. "So now we use on them, right?"

"Right, Buck," I said as I took control of the tank and turned it toward the second Panzer, "as soon as we figure out what it is and how to work it!"

"Just leave that to me," Bucky said confidently. You know, looking back it almost seems ridiculous how much I trusted a teenager in the most fantastic situations, but it seemed so natural at the time.

"They're firing around us," I said as I saw and felt the shells from the second Panzer. "They want to disable us without messing up their new weapon."

"Well, I think I've figured out how to work it - it seems fairly simple," Bucky said. "What say we test it for them?"

"Fire away," I said as I made sure the second Panzer was in our line of fire.

Bucky activated the weapon, which our lab boys would later code-name the Q-Ray. I saw a bolt of electricity emerge from the cannon and envelope the Panzer Zemo was now riding it. The tank began to shimmer as it slowed to a near halt. Zemo and the Germans leapt out, but were moving in slow motion until they got out of the field. As soon as they had left the field, the started moving at normal speed again and raced for cover. Since Zemo obviously knew what his weapon was capable of, I followed his lead and backed our tank up. Seconds after Zemo and his men had left the field surrounding the tank, the tank exploded. Bucky and I shared a look of astonishment, when suddenly I noticed that the control panel behind Bucky were sparking.

"Let's go Buck!" I yelled. We got out just in time, as the experimental Panzer went up as well. I was very disappointed that we didn't bring the weapon back with us, but we accomplished our mission - we kept Zemo from attacking Third Army, which turned out to be crucial to the battle. That was the day Allied forces halted the German advance, and the following day the Fourth Armored Division's 37th Tank Battalion breached the German lines to reach Bastogne.

It took our scientists years to figure out what the Q-Ray actually did. In fact, I didn't find out until a few months after the Avengers rescued me, when I was sitting around reminiscing about old times with Nick Fury. The Q-Ray created a quantum field around an object, slowing the relative time within the field down to a crawl. Then the field reversed, hyperaccelerating the molecules of the object in the field and causing it to explode. Nick said SHIELD had tried to duplicate the device and correct the error that causes the Q-Ray itself to blow up seconds after use, but even after all those years they hadn't figured it out.

Steve looks at Sharon intently. "That's what I know about the Q-Ray. Now how did you find out about HYDRA's plans?"

"We'll save that for the next storytime," Sharon says as she gets up from her seat. "HYDRA's figured out the problem SHIELD couldn't. They can make a Q-Ray that won't self-destruct when used. They only need one more component, and I know when they're going after it. I'll need your help to stop them."

"You've got it, of course," Steve answers. "Now tell me how you found out about this. The last time I saw you you were intent on finding out why you were cut loose - does HYDRA figure into that?"

"Like I said," Sharon replies with a steely glance, "Next time. HYDRA strikes tomorrow night. I'll pick you up, say, eight?"

"Is that a date?"

"Don't even joke about that, Rogers," Sharon snaps. "See you tomorrow."

Sharon walks back into the bathroom and leaps up through Steve's skylight. Steve watches her go, and wonders if she'll ever open up to him again....

Next Issue: Cap and Sharon take on the forces of HYDRA! Plus, we'll reveal (finally!) the full story behind Sharon's disappearance and supposed death! Don't miss it!

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