shocker
You woke up bright and early to meet the team on the loading deck for the mission. With your mission bag in hand, you stepped into the Quinjet to see Bruce and Steve by the controls, setting the path to Dresden, Germany.
“Good morning, boys!” you chirped, feeling optimistic about the assignment.
“Ahh, there’s the girl I know and love,” Steve walked over to you and gave a quick side hug. “You got everything?”
“Yes, although I’m with a literal robot for the mission so I brought less than usual today,” you joked, earning a small chuckle from Bruce. You plopped your bag into your designated drawer in the jet and stood behind Bruce in his chair, overlooking the jet controls. The rest of the team filed in eventually, saying their “good mornings” with a grumble. It was 5 am, and the team was reasonably tired. Feeling generous, you grabbed Wanda and gestured to her to follow you back into the compound. There were a couple of minutes left to take off, so you decided to get everyone a cup of coffee for the trip. As you were brewing the drinks, you saw Barnes leave his room and head straight for the elevator, not even sparing you a glance in your direction.
“What’s up with you two?” Wanda asked, holding four cups of coffee with her magic.
“Past stuff. We got into an argument last night, so I assume he’s upset with me,” you sighed, grabbing the last two cups and heading out to the jet.
“Interesting. He was kind towards me, so I guess it’s just you on the team that he dislikes.”
“Geez, thanks, Wanda,” you respond sarcastically.
“Wait, no, I didn’t mean it like that!” Wanda frantically blurted out, which made you laugh.
“I know, we just have some history we need to sort out. That’s all.” Wanda gave you a tight-lipped smile and walked into the jet, handing everyone a hot cup of coffee to energize them for the day. You gave one to Sam, who accepted it with a big thank you and an even bigger hug. You glazed around, noticing everyone with a cup except for one. Barnes. He was sitting down next to Steve, conversing about something in the distance without coffee in his hand. You must have miscounted. You saw the tiredness in his eyes, almost feeling sympathy for him. Your legs walked towards him and you extended your arm out, offering him to take your coffee. You don’t know where this act of truce came from, maybe because you realized the mission was more important than a feud. He glanced at your hand, then looked at you. He reached up, took the cup from your hand, and immediately returned to his conversation with Steve. You stood there frozen for a second. What a little bitch. He didn’t even say thank you! You thought. You scoffed quietly and walked away to sit next to Nat.
“I saw that. Good for you,” she nudged your shoulder.
“Whatever. He didn't even say thank you,” you said, putting your fingerless gloves on. As the Quinjet took off, you drifted quietly into your own world, not putting a single ounce of thought into your small interaction with the ungrateful supersoldier sitting across from you.
—-
You tightened the holster around your right thigh, ensuring it won’t slip during the mission. You were nearing the drop location, which meant you and Vision were headed down first to retrieve the Mayor. You call the team over to the debriefing table, running down the mission plan one more time before you leave the Quinjet.
“Okay, Vision and I will do recon, then go into the Mayor’s house to find and bring him to the jet. Barnes, Steve, and Clint will follow us, ensuring we have a clear escape path. Bruce will stay in the jet to meet us at the extraction point. Everyone else will be on border control. Making sure we don’t have any stray agents on our tail. We need to get to the upper rank of Nova; this will mean nothing if we can’t snuff out who’s behind all this. So stay vigilant, and watch each other’s six. Got it?”
“Got it,” everyone replied, then scattered into their corners to prepare. As you reached for your parachute, Vision’s hand grabbed yours.
“I can fly. You won’t be needing that,” he spoke.
“Right, forgot about that,” you chuckled. You instead reach for your handgun, pocket knife, and taser shots, slipping them into the hidden pockets of your suit. It was a reinforced version of your previous uniform, with more tactical bells and whistles, cushioned kneepads, and handy pockets for easy access to your weaponry. You might as well be a little useful around the humanoid that can literally phase through walls.
“Shadow, Vision, approaching drop in 3…2…1,” Bruce’s voice countdowns, and the doors to the jet open up. You see an array of green and yellow trees, with a town far in the distance. Feeling the breeze against your face, you grab Vision’s hand and leap off the jet. You hang from his grip, taking in the beautiful sunrise looming over Dresden. Vision maneuvered through the dense forest to find a place to land, dropping you and him in a small clearing.
“Thanks for the lift, Vis,” you say as you check your comms. “Alright, Vision and I are en route.”
“Got it, Shadow. The jet is landing, backup will be at the house in five minutes.” Steve communicated through your earpiece.
“Sounds good. See you there.” You and Vision begin walking over to the giant mansion standing at the end of the forest. It was a gorgeous villa-style house with burnt orange shingles that reflected the soft sunlight like a beacon. It was undoubtedly an impressive mansion, certainly fit for a politician. You quietly motion to Vision to check the right side of the building and to meet at the front door. He disappears behind the wall as you grab your gun and stalk the left side, checking for any signs of a break-in. As you turn the corner to approach the front door, you raise the weapon only to see the rest of the team conversing quietly.
“There you are,” Steve exhaled.
“Sorry, just being thorough,” you slipped your gun back into the holster.
“Could’ve been thorough faster,” Bucky muttered under his breath. You gave him a stink eye. He wasn’t worth compromising the mission.
“Vis and I will take the mayor and get out. You guys will stay by all exits, ensuring no one comes in. Nova will be here at any moment, so stay alert and stay on comms.” The team nodded in agreement as Vision phased through the door to unlock it for a quiet entry. A beautiful grand staircase met your eyes with a water fountain carved from stone. This was great real estate. You crept up the stairs to be greeted by a wide hallway that went in two directions. As if Vision read your mind, he searched the right side as you turned to the left. You saw a gold-encrusted French door and immediately ran towards it. With a swift kick, the doors busted open to an empty bed and messed up bedsheets. You held your gun up, walking into the room to search its surroundings. Suddenly, a voice popped up from behind you.
“Wer bist du? Aussteigen! (Who are you? Get out!)” A lady clad in a silk robe started throwing anything she could at you. A slipper, flowers, hand mirrors, you got it all. You realized this woman, presumably the mayor’s wife, was making a commotion that could bring attention to what was supposed to be a stealth mission. You slipped behind her and put your hand over her mouth, which, not surprisingly, did not stop the woman from attempting to scream and fight.
“Hey! You need to calm down. I’m here to protect you. Ich bin ein Avenger,” you calmly spoke to the woman writhing in your grip. Suddenly, she stopped and turned around to look at you.
“Really? Avenger?” she questioned. You nodded your head.
“Terroristen haben es auf Ihren Mann abgesehen, Frau Hilbert. Wissen Sie, wo er ist? (Terrorists are targeting your husband, Mrs. Hilbert. Do you know where he is?)” A look of horror washed over her as Steve and the other ran up the stairs to see what the commotion was.
“Oh nein. Nein, nein, nein. Normalerweise liegt er zu dieser Zeit im Bett. Ich ging einfach davon aus, dass er joggen ging, aber ich war eine Stunde auf der Toilette. Er sollte inzwischen zurück sein,” the woman frantically mumbled as she paced back and forth, clearly in distress.
“What’s going on?” Clint questioned.
“Husband’s gone. We were too late,” Barnes translated.
“Body is always found at the residence,” you recanted to yourself.
“What?” You ignored Barnes’s question and clicked your comms.
“Nat, come and get his wife. She’s a mess and needs to go on the jet for now.”
“Got it. Coming now,” she responded. You turn back to the team with confused looks on their face. No one knew this mission more than you.
“We need to search the house. The body was always found in their home, which means he’s still here.” Everyone nodded and dispersed, kicking down doors and searching every nook and cranny of the house. You turned and saw his wife sitting on the bed, crying silently to herself. You sat down next to her and placed your hand on her back, rubbing it in circles to soothe her.
“Wir werden unser Bestes tun, um ihn zu finden. Ich verspreche es. (We will do our best to find him. I promise),” you comforted her. Her sobs got more and more heart-wrenching, and all you could do at the moment was stay with her. When you looked up, you saw Bucky at the end of the hallway, taking a hardened glance at the two of you before disappearing down the stairs.
A few minutes later, you see Nat approach you with her arms outreached for his wife. Mrs. Hilbert collapsed in her embrace, resuming her sobs.
“I’m going to help with the search, Nat. Get her on the jet and make sure she’s okay,” you grabbed your gun and got ready to head out. You saw Nat's firm nod, which gave you the okay to leap down the stairs and search for the rest of the team. You were partly worried because the team was silent on comms for the last 2 minutes. This was unusual, as they were known for communicating every slight movement they made. However, you trusted the team you were with, even Barnes, and you knew they could handle themselves. While walking around the mansion looking for your team, you noticed a small corridor beside the kitchen leading to a steep basement staircase. You tightened your grip on the gun and began your descent downstairs. You heard laughing, but not the fun, comforting one. It was an evil, maniacal, hauntingly scary laugh. Then you heard the talking.
Avengers. Stupid. Dead. Helpless.
Although the words were hard to discern through the steel door, you could piece together what happened. The team had been captured. The only way they could’ve defeated Vision was if some electromagnetic device could temporarily power him down. The trap set was probably right in front of the door when they entered, explaining the lack of communication on the comms. The whole team got electrocuted. You were not getting in by yourself without being immediately overpowered.
“Sam, stay on the perimeter. Wanda, Nat, I need you guys to come to the basement. The team has been captured,” you whispered through the comms.
“Coming now. Stay where you are, Shadow.” Within a minute, they had both joined you in front of the door.
“There’s an electromagnetic shock trap as soon as you enter the room. Got any ideas on how to get past it?” you asked your teammates, desperate to get everyone back.
“I’m a telekinetic. I’ll mind control them to open the door and turn off the trap,” Wanda quipped with a wide grin across her face.
“Am I stupid for not thinking of that sooner?” Natasha laughed to herself as she knocked on the steel door. As if in sync, you and she hid quickly in the shadows as Wanda stood with her red powers glowing from her hands, waiting for someone to open the door. A buff man opened the door with a smirk, not before immediately taking out a switch device from his pocket and turning off the trap. With a flick of Wanda’s wrists, the man fell over unconscious. The mysterious men inside the room in face masks looked over at you, Natasha, and Wanda and immediately charged with their fists. Although you wanted to kill them on the spot, you knew they had valuable information about Nova, so unfortunately, you had to keep them alive for the time being. You turned your attention to the man restrained on a janky operating table with blood spilling from his head and a gag over his mouth. This was Mr. Hilbert. You saw the rise and fall of his chest as you realized the mayor was still alive.
Before you could rush over to him, a masked man came hurling towards you with a taser stick. Blocking it with your arm, you sent a quick kick to his groin, taking the taser from his hand and plummeting it into his stomach. He fell with ease behind you as you moved on to your next victim. Those taser sticks were quite effective. You took down the agents one by one, with Wanda working her magic and Natasha breaking bones. You saw three men left conscious and entrusted your friends to take care of them as you rushed over to the mayor, who was shallowly breathing at this point. You cut his leather restraints with ease and spotted some gauze nearby. You started wrapping it frantically around his head in an attempt to put pressure on the wound and stop it from bleeding. His mouth started moving as if he was trying to say something.
“Hey, hey. Your wife is okay. She’s with us. Don’t speak, just try to stay alive, okay?” You saw him give you a weak nod as he began to rise from the gurney. Nat rushed to your side to take over for you.
“I got him. Get the others,” Natasha panted. You placed the mayor’s arm around Nat’s shoulder and bolted over to your teammates, who were all sitting on the floor, restrained by vibranium cuffs. They were all currently unconscious except one. Barnes hung his head low, slowly moving it from side to side. You quickly ran over to one of the guards and searched their pockets to find the master key for all the handcuffs. Frantically, you worked your way down, uncuffing them from Clint, Steve, and finally Barnes. He lazily lifted his head to look at you, but instead, his head rolled all the way back, almost hitting the pipe behind him. You quickly stabilized him, placing your arm on the back of his neck.
“I’m okay, I think. My arm took most of the damage,” he whimpered. Right. He had a metal arm, which probably absorbed most of the shock that went through his body.
“Can you walk?” You asked, extending your hand out to help him get up.
“I’m good.” He took your hand and pushed himself off the floor to stand up. He looked down at his metal arm, which was still spasming from the shock. He clenched his hands in a fist, then jerked his arm in a circle, resetting his arm back into place.
“Help me get Steve up,” you said. You knelt down and wrapped his left arm around your shoulders, his weight resting comfortably under yours. Barnes did the same with his right arm, and soon enough, you got Steve to stand up. He was half-conscious at this point, but he could support his weight, which was what mattered. At this point, Nat had already dropped off Mr. Hilbert with his wife, left them to Bruce, and returned to the basement to help Clint, who was knocked out cold. You looked over at Wanda, who was frantically moving her magic over his head in an attempt to reboot him.
“Let’s get Steve on the jet and help them after,” you addressed Barnes, who was already looking at you. You both started walking in tandem, ensuring Steve could get his footing before moving forward after each step. Slowly but surely, you soon greeted Bruce at the entrance of the jet.
“He was heavily electrocuted. Semi-conscious,” you and Barnes drop him off in one of the gurneys that Bruce prepared. As you watched Bruce work to prepare an IV drip for Steve, you suddenly felt a metal hand on your shoulder.
“We should go back and help the others. Steve will be fine.” You turned your head around to face Barnes. You could see the concern for his best buddy in his eyes, but you also saw determination. You nod your head, and before you know it, the jet was headed towards the nearest hospital.