Welcome to the Jungle (Open)
Sam's first thought was that she crashed. She woke up to feeling mild vertigo, her feet dangling a dozen or so feet above the air. As she moved to steady herself a piece of Project Aragorn fell to the ground from where it was once precariously positioned next to her on the branches of trees.
"Shit."
Sam looked up at the sky. Her second thought was confusion. What was a jungle doing in New York? It had no business being there except to perhaps conveniently break her fall. Sam wasn't an entirely ungrateful person. It finally occurred to her that she might be nowhere near New York and that she was not wearing her suit.
Valkyrie wasn't naked, which was good. But she was in civilian clothing, which was bad. It took her a few more moments of staring at herself and her surroundings to realize that the clothes she was wearing came from Project Aragon's emergency kit. Sam frowned. If she were in a jungle, the flip flops would not last long. She needed to find her suit.
Sam slowly climbed down from the tree. She turned in a circle, looking around. Samantha slapped a mosquito on her arm.
Over the course of the next few hours, Sam found most of Aragorn, the robotic flying horse the government commissioned from Stark Enterprises, her boots which she gratefully replaced her flip flops with, most of the Valkyrie uniform which she changed into and the communications helm which she fit back over her head. The uniform did not have the exo-suit interior which gave the heroine her strength. Sam also found the sword, which was much heavier without the suit's help.
And while Valkyrie was not the smartest member of The Ultimates, she was not a scientist or a doctor or even a very successful entrepreneur, it was obvious that the pieces had been arranged to look like a crash. The pieces were too even and intact, and there were no broken branches or other debris to suggest there had been an impact. Valkyrie recited her findings into a recording device in her helm.
"This is Valkyrie reporting, do you read me? Over."
The heroine touched her hand to the helm to change channels.
"This is Valkyrie reporting, do you read me? Over."
It occurred to Valkyrie that she was not actually important enough to be kidnapped. No one had really heard of her, she hadn't done anything particularly heroic. If anyone had put her here, it was most likely her own team. This was a test, she decided. She merely had to find out the objective(s) of the training mission and win.
Another mosquito landed on her and Valkyrie swatted it. She changed communication channels again. She was hot, sweaty and tired. Piling up the pieces of Aragorn she had no hope of putting back together, she covered it with branches. No use in advertising a still classified military project.
"This is Valkyrie reporting, do you read me? Over."
She paused.
"FURY IS AN ASSHOLE."
If nothing else, that would get the boys back home laughing, maybe even General Baldy himself. Valkyrie still heard no response.