(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Steve and Bucky came up with this plan, they can unfuck it.

-x-X-x-

Neither option available to him is the best. Perhaps then, it was time to try for a third route. Tilting his head to the side, Myk-Zod offers Peggy a tight-lipped smile.

“I think I would prefer to wait for Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes to be available before talking more about this, Agent Carter.”

Its as much a true statement as it is a test to be fair. On the one hand, he’s curious to see how Peggy will react and if she’ll try to push the issue or back off. On the other hand, he really does need to get Steve and Bucky’s input because it seems like their plan for obfuscating his true nature from their superiors has already run into multiple problems.

Fortunately, Peggy Carter just pauses for a moment… before slowly nodding.

“Alright then. So long as you don’t disappear on me, I can accommodate that. Just don’t go anywhere please Mr. Zod. Otherwise, I can’t help you, understood?”

Letting a slightly more genuine smile spread across his face, Myk-Zod bobs his head.

“Understood.”

She gives him one more look, as though she’s hoping he’ll actually just tell her everything she wants to know after all. Or maybe it’s a look that is meant to convey how ridiculous she truly finds the cover that Bucky and Steve came up with for him. Either way, in the end she just shakes her head and stalks off, leaving Myk-Zod to stand there watching her go.

… She’s quite the woman; he has to admit. The Agent reminds him of Allura in some ways but is quite different in others. And yet, he likes the way she carries herself. The confidence she has to walk around this male-dominated area is… well, it’s impressive to say the least.

Hopefully Bucky would be up and on his feet sooner rather than later and they could get this mess sorted out. For now though, Myk-Zod is hungry so he goes in search of food… and once he finds it, he makes sure to eat out in the open, under the light of the Yellow Sun still beating down overhead.

Sure, he might no longer be a prisoner of Hydra and its scientists… but they still had his blood and even this new faction he found himself with did not seem to be without its pitfalls. Myk-Zod suspected he was going to need all of the help he could get.

-x-X-x-

To his surprise, Bucky is out of the medical tent by early evening and that conversation he’d wanted to wait for the Sergeant and Rogers to be available for is able to happen a lot sooner than he or Agent Carter expected. Indeed, Myk-Zod can see the way Peggy looks at Bucky as the four of them group in her own personal tent for a somewhat clandestine meeting.

“… You’re looking strikingly healthy for a man who was suffering from pneumonia just this morning, Sergeant Barnes. I didn’t know our antibiotics were that good.”

Bucky offers a crooked, albeit guarded smirk at that, even as he stands with his arms crossed over his chest and speaks in a casual drawl.

“I certainly can’t complain, Agent Carter. I’m far from a hundred percent though… would be getting some much needed shut eye right now if it wasn’t for you being nosy.”

Peggy bristles as Myk-Zod arches a brow. On the one hand, he understood where Bucky was coming from. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but feel like maybe Peggy was just doing her job… and if she could help them, well that wouldn’t be a bad thing now would it?

Before the human woman can respond, Steve steps in and clears his throat.

“Alright you two, settle down. Bucky, Peggy is on our side. And Peggy… Bucky has been through a lot, just keep that in mind please.”

There’s a presence to Steve Rogers that was obvious to the Kryptonian back in the Hydra Base but is even more obvious outside of conflict. He exudes this sort of… charisma that Myk-Zod has yet to see any other human being exude. The closest would probably be Johann Schmidt’s incredible sense of malice and danger, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Steve’s simple effect.

Bucky’s shoulders slump and he uncrosses his arms with a sigh, and even Peggy looks a little disarmed as she slowly nods. But just as quickly as she relaxes, she sharpens up again, looking at all three of them.

“We need to talk about Michael here. Or should it be Mikkel, seeing as he’s supposed to be Danish?”

Bucky and Steve both straighten up at that, the looks on their faces making it clear they know they’ve been caught out. Of course, Bucky isn’t willing to give up without a fight.

“Maybe it is Mikkel. Maybe I just made it Michael because us New Yorkers tend to Americanize things.”

Peggy gives Bucky an exasperated look for a moment before turning to Myk-Zod and speaking in… well, in an entirely new language. Myk-Zod blinks as he misses what she’s saying at first, but then the universal translator catches up and her words start to make sense again.

“-and you don’t even know what I’m saying do you? So how in the world am I supposed to think you’re Danish when you can’t even speak Danish?”

Judging by the pale looks on Bucky and Steve’s faces, they fully believe Peggy has caught them dead to rights. Myk-Zod, meanwhile… just shrugs and responds in this new language called ‘Danish’.

“Apologies, it merely took me a moment to appreciate your grasp of the language. But as you can see, I very much speak and understand Danish.”

Now Peggy is just as wide-eyed as Bucky and Steve, staring at Myk-Zod as though he’s grown a second head. Her striking red lips purse and her brow furrows for a moment in consternation. Myk-Zod, meanwhile, looks to Steve and Bucky, switching back to English.

“She is right though. The cover you came up with for me seems to have holes. And you seem to be on good terms with her, so perhaps she can help us. I will leave it up to you though to decide.”

That last part is a partial truth. He’s happy to go along with whatever Steve and Bucky decide for now, but if he stops agreeing with their decisions… well, he’ll just leave. He probably won’t leave this universe altogether, not before getting his blood out of Hydra’s hands, but with the Yellow Sun slowly but steadily empowering him, he could easily flee from this military camp and survive in the wilderness while making a plan for his next steps. It would be frustrating but doable… he just would prefer to not have to do it.

Steve and Bucky share a long look in the face of his trust, with Bucky frowning and Steve shrugging.

“I do trust her Buck. I wouldn’t have gotten close enough to get you all out without her help. She risked everything so I could save you.”

Bucky grimaces… but finally nods.

“Alright yeah. Maybe she can help out. Look, Mike… he ain’t from around here, Agent.”

Peggy raises a brow.

“And what exactly does that mean?”

Myk-Zod sighs and speaks up.

“It means I am not from your planet, Agent Carter. I am not human; I am what you would call an ‘alien’.”

This, of course, results in a lot of staring from the only female in the room. Peggy just looks at him blankly for a long moment. Then, she looks at Steve and Bucky. It’s almost like she thinks staring at them will make one of them break and admit it’s all some stupid joke.

But of course, that doesn’t happen. To her credit though, Peggy also doesn’t immediately call him a liar. Instead, her brow furrowing and her lips pursing once more, she looks directly at Steve.

“And you believe this?”

Steve grimaces and glances from Bucky to Myk-Zod.

“Ah, well… yes? It…”

He trails off, clearly not having a good explanation. So Bucky tries instead.

“Look Agent, Mike and I were lab rats together for at least a week back in that Hydra Base. Obviously, Mike being a defecting Hydra Scientist was a lie. No, he was already their prisoner when I got there. They’d captured him but unlike me, who they did a whole bunch of experiments on and injected with who fucking knows what, they didn’t inject him with anything. Instead they took things. Blood and all that shit.”

Bucky’s eyes dart down to Myk-Zod’s covered armband for only a moment before he continues on with a tight grimace.

“Right before Steve showed up and saved our asses, the head honcho of Hydra himself was about to start dissecting him right then and there because he wasn’t cooperating. So ya know, when he says he’s from outer space, I can believe it. Because Hydra certainly treated him like he was something really special.”

There’s another long pause as Peggy processes this. When she finally responds again, it’s a simple word.

“Vivisection.”

Bucky’s face screws up in confusion.

“Bless you?”

Rolling her eyes, Peggy huffs.

“If they were going to do it while he was still alive, it would have been vivisection, not dissection. Just so we’re clear.”

Then, she turns back to him again, looking at him far more assessingly.

“Do you have any way to prove this crazy story of yours, exactly?”

Myk-Zod tilts his head to the side, considering that for a moment. In the end, he shrugs and pulls down the collar of his shirt, showing off the shimmer of the Kryptonian Jumpsuit he has on underneath. Admittedly, it doesn’t look like anything he’s seen humans wear so far, so he hopes its appearance is alien to Peggy.

When she eyes it but doesn’t seem overly impressed, he gestures to her next.

“That language Danish that you just spoke… I did not actually know it before you started talking. I learned it in moments because of a universal translator I developed, one that allows me to learn any language anywhere I wind up among the stars.”

That brings her pause for a brief moment before she begins to speak another language in rapid fire. Myk-Zod quickly learns it, as well as learning that its called ‘French’ and quickly starts to carry a short conversation with her.

From there, Peggy jumps to another language called Russian, which Myk-Zod also learns. After that its Italian. Then Portuguese. Then Norwegian. Finally, Spanish. Each language, he learns within moments without issue and he’s glad to see that none of them give the universal translator any trouble.

From there, things get a little bit more complex as Peggy breaks out a couple other languages that she herself is not actually fluent in. These, she informs him are called ‘Mandarin’ and ‘Japanese’ and belong to far away locations to the East.

The funny thing is, once his universal translator hears the handful of sentences that she knows in each language, Myk-Zod becomes more fluent in both dialects than she is, able to easily speak these ‘Eastern’ languages without issue.

That more than anything seems to convince Peggy of the veracity of his claim. Though she still has plenty of questions.

“Why in the world do you look so damn human then? Is it some sort of shapeshifting or chameleon effect?”

“I wish I could say it was. No, this is how I’ve always looked and how my people look too. If anything, you humans surprise me with how close you look to my species.”

“How did you arrive on the planet? Do you have a spaceship tucked away somewhere or is it in Hydra’s hands?”

“I do not. My method of travel is teleportation, not spaceflight. The only thing Hydra has at this point is my blood, which admittedly I would not like to leave in their hands for too long for fear of what they might do with it.”

That idea certainly brings a grimace to Peggy’s face, even as the questioning continues.

“… What if you’ve brought some sort of pathogen with you that will prove to be lethal to humans?”

“If I had, I imagine it would already have begun to show its effects. But I assure you that I have not, I traveled light and brought very little from my old world with me. Certainly nothing like a sickness your species is unprepared for.”

“But what about our own illnesses? You can’t possibly be immune to our plagues and diseases.”

“I suspect I am… or at least, I’m highly resistant to anything you’re thinking of. If I’m not, I’ll handle it myself. I am a scientist after all.”

Eventually, Peggy runs out of questions… at least for the moment. Which is good because Bucky has sat down and is quite literally passed out in a chair and Steve looks like most of what Myk-Zod and the female agent have talked about has gone right over his head.

Finally, Peggy just lets out a slow breath.

“Alright… alright, so your main goal is to get your blood back from Hydra. We can work with that. I can work with that. You said you were a scientist. That part wasn’t a lie then? Only the part about being Danish?”

Myk-Zod hums as he nods. Peggy straightens up, getting livelier by the moment.

“An alien scientist… you know, Stark would probably love to meet you.”

Steve gives a disapproving grunt at that, but Peggy just smirks at the big blond man.

“I’m not saying we tell Stark the truth about Michael here. I’m just saying we… team them up. They’re going to want to capitalize on your success, Steve. Probably even give you a promotion, a proper rank, and a special forces unit. You’ve shown that you’re more than just a prop at this point… and that you won’t just sit quietly while there’s a war going on.”

Peggy looks more and more sure of herself as she goes on.

“We can get Howard Stark signed on as your equipment provider easily enough… and Michael here can be partnered with him. Keeps him out of harms way but close enough to the action to still get constant reports about Hydra movements and whatever might be done with his blood.”

Looking to him expectantly and perhaps a little hopefully, Peggy arches a brow.

“What do you think? Sound good to you? I mean, I can’t imagine you wanting to be on the frontlines with Steve and Sergeant Barnes here, so this really is the next best thing.”

… She wasn’t wrong, even if Myk-Zod was a little perturbed at how easily she’d pegged him as neither a soldier nor a fighter. On the one hand, Peggy’s idea has a lot of merit and is probably the safest choice for him all things considered.

On the other hand, if he DID step out of his comfort zone and choose to be on the ‘frontlines’, he might be able to join Captain Rogers’ special forces unit and rush down his missing blood all the faster. Maybe. Potentially. Or, more likely, he’d only out himself as non-human all the faster given the longer he spent under the Yellow Sun, the stronger he’d become.

Truthfully, Myk-Zod didn’t know what the upper limits of a Kryptonian exposed to a Yellow Sun were. But he certainly wouldn’t be vulnerable to the humans’ firearms for much longer, if he even still was now…

Hm…

-x-X-x-

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