Chapter 19
The hot air of Lagos tapped into the heat in their mission suits. Even with Tony's high-tech designs, nothing can beat the overriding heat. Daisy was positioned next to Steves's bulky physique. It seemed almost impossible that he was the same guy from the early photos she had seen of the Captain.
The only thing connecting them was the blonde hair and blue eyes sodden with kindness and warmth that was like a soft blanket on a cold day. Even so, he was oddly silent for his weight and height. That is how they managed to get up here in the first place.
Steve had cleared a path with her body that she might have left if she was given his task. Now they waited and listened while boiling in the midday sun.
"Are you not hot. Even though I'm part alien and I don't sweat much but still. You're wrapped up in a thick skin tight suit with a helmet that looks like it's crushing in your facial features." She Chuckled at his joke as Steve looked nonplussed as he looked out the window for anything or anyone that seemed out of place.
“Alright what do you see?” Steve casked through the network of comms to the rest of the team hoping that had more to go on than a normal-looking street market.
“Standard beat cops, small station and a quiet street. It makes a good target.” Wanda's replayed as she looked around from her seat at a closed cafe. The clink of a metal spoon echoed through the comms indicating a drink was brought.
“There's an ATM on the south corner which means?” Steve asked to test Wanda's training even if he already knew the answers before.
“Camara, comprised escape routes.” Seemed like she had picked up fast.
“Rumlow doesn't care about being seen, he will make a mess on the way out.” Daisy replayed as she picked up one of the newspaper articles that lay spread on a small bed that talked about their guy.
“The range rover up the block,” Steve asked as the period through the floral laced curtains to the stress below.
“The red one, it's cute.”
Daisy let out a small suppressed chuckle as Steve sent her a glare, Wanda always had a thing with the colour red.
“It's also bulletproof, and in which means private security there for more guns.” Nat joined in as she also sat at the same cafe looking at every possible way the situation could play out. “In turn, it means more headaches for us.”
“You guys know I can move things with my mind, right.” Wanda’s primary source of fighting will always be her power as hand-to-hand combat didn’t come naturally to her, unlike her teammates. Even if she was undoubtedly one of the most powerful among them.
“You know, looking over your shoulder needs to become a second nature.”
Daisy from her place in the building could almost imagine in full picture Wanda rolling her eyes at Natasha and the spy’s intent of training her to be like them.
“Anyone ever tells you you're a little paranoid.” Sam took his turn to join in on the conversation as he scaled the routes from up above from a nearby building.
“Not to my face, why, you hear anyone say anything. Give me their name.”
“Rather not.”
Knowing Natasha, even if it was a joke, would give them a piece of her mind as well as her fist. At least the banter was better than Steve’s seriousness of the mission on hand.
“Eyes on the target, Folks. The best lead we’ve had on Rumlow in six months I don’t want to mess it up.”
Steve made it his duty to get rid of every last Hydra member, Daisy was glad she wasn’t on that list. It was what he was made for tho and she couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the guy that seemed to think he has only one purpose in life.
“If he sees us, it wouldn’t be a problem. He kinda hates us.” Sam scoffed yet listened to their rules Steve and continued to etch out the streets below him. It seemed the action had started as cars began to honk and people yelled angrily.
Daisy along with Steve looked out the window to see a large dump trunk rudely pushing through the streets with no care as it crashed into anything. People yelled and one even frowned a bit at their trash as it moved too close to them.
“Sam, see the garbage truck I want you to tag it,” Daisy asked Sam from her place with her eye lates flatly on the ignorant truck.
“On it.” Sam from his place realised redwing, from him and directly set it to go underneath the truck. Its low humming was masked by the hubbub from its surroundings making it unable to be spotted.
“The trucks loaded from max weight, the driver is armed.”
All four of the team stilled, “it’s a battering ram.” Natasha read all their thoughts out loud. Time for action. Even if it was potentially dangerous, and with Hydra, it will most likely be. Daisy couldn’t help but be fulling of adrenaline she could use a proper fight once in a while.
“Go now.” Steve urgently ordered through the comms. Everything seemed to move faster now. As she stopped Sam in the distance jumping from his place.
“What?” Wanda asked still hadn’t picked up what was happening.
“He’s not hitting the Police,” Daisy answered her question.
From the place in the hotel, Daisy and Steve spotted the large truck crash into the heavy concrete of the institute flipping over doing so spilling its contents over the area. Filling the air with unwanted dust particles and debris. Just then two old-looking trucks pull straight into the mess. Soldiers clad in the heavy tac gear pulled out armed with large guns and gas masks.
The sounds of bullets being fired rattled the streets as people screamed and rushed away from the crash site. From the position, she and Steve were in the soldiers had taken to gassing the building to fit their needs.
Just then Steve came crashing down from above with the help of Sam deflecting the bullets of his shield. Daisy sent a conjunctive shockwave to a car that flipped onto two out of the many soldiers.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Steve kicked one of the men out of a car and into the side of the building then fell with a pound thump.
“Body armour, AR-15s, I make seven hostiles,” Steve told the team as he stood on top of a car looking over the mess. Above Sam came in and landed on the building to take from above but looked away as she felt a heavy punch hit her nose.
She turned her head to face the guy who had punched her and kicked the gun out of his hand. Leaving them to fight hand to hand. It was clear the guy was trained to do one thing and one thing only and that was to look scary and shoot a gun. Which landed her an easy target.
A loud crash came from next to her as a body fell off the roof and landed on the car with the glass spilling like snow onto the concrete.
“Make that five.” Sam proudly said over the comms.
Wanda had finally arrived flying over the building to produce a shield made out of the red magic she produced. Once the bullets were gone she used her power to wrap the man up and pass him to Sam then slammed him on the floor.
“Four” Sam counted down. Wanda sent Daisy a look which she returned. They can’t get distracted this mission was important and would speak when they get back.
Redwing scanned the building looking for Rumlow and his team.
“Rumlows on the third floor.” He reported. Daisy used her ability to count how many people were in the building to know exactly where to contain the fighting.
“Twenty-three. All unconscious and away from the third floor.” Daisy told them as they gathered around. No one looked out of it yet because if they had then that wouldn’t be great as the fight had only just begun.
“Wanda just like we practised, alright. Once I’m in get the gas out.” Steve told the witch as he neared the complex fast, using Wanda’s powers he was propelled through the third-floor window. All they had to do was wait until Steve finished.
Daisy walked around with her palms out ready. On Fury’s orders, she made sure anyone opposite to them was cuffed and rounded up ready to be sent to the raft that’s if they hadn’t died yet. A few small grunts could be heated from Steve’s direction as he was doing his job right. A few shots were later silenced.
Daisy watched as Wanda manipulate her magic to get a grip on the smoke and pulled it out of the building and let it free into the air.
“That can’t be good, right,” Daisy asked as they watched the green disperse while Sam let two small missiles on the few men left alive behind them.
“Rumlow has the biological weapon.”
“I’m on it.” Natasha came in on a motorbike at full speed to then be flung at two men witch toppled at the weight. She moved quickly towards the back up taking two more down without any weapons.
Daisy had found herself in a fight between two men. It was easy enough to manage to hook her leg around one as she rounded to his back. Getting a grip she with mercy snaps his neck now leaving one left. The guy seemed almost hesitant to fight her after witnessing the death of his mate. And after being Hydra herself she knows how stubborn they could be.
This time though the guy was taller and wore a more padded uniform leaving no exposed skin for her. She had two options fight or use her powers, the powers would cut the fun short but then Fury wanted it to be over and done with.
She took the ‘fun’ way as she launched into a fight with the guy. Spinning around on one leg she used the over-the-land kick to his helmeted head. Using the seconds of the daze she placed a knee hard into his crotch. Before flipping him over her shoulder and roughly on the floor.
“Always so boring.” She told herself before sending a small shockwave to his head that was bound to leave him with a massive headache in a few hours.
From her position she watched as Natasha got blown out of the back of a tank. Running over she offed the woman a hand. Despite having a small coughing fit and definitely in pain the Widow took the offer to stand. Knowing what it feels like first-hand getting hit with a shockwave from a grande wasn’t fun. Natasha swayed from the backlash before regaining herself.
They watch as The Cap was thrown from the institute and hard on the floor.
“It looks like we’re losing, right now.” Daisy laughter at Natasha.
“Sam, he’s in an AFV heading north.”
So that’s where the rest of the team headed. Daisy used her power to feel the vibrations of the vehicles around them and sure enough, he was headed to the more populated area. It’s what Avengers do best to protect the civilians so heading into a populated place would be meaning to be more careful giving him more time to escape.
They were greeted by an empty armoured truck and angry people surrounding it shouting curse words in every direction.
“Great, they’re split up. Nat left, I’m right and Sam from above.” They wasted no time waiting for Wanda and Steve before heading into the market area.
Daisy was trying but failing in avoiding the stalls of creation the chase the men. Entering a clearing a bulletproof vest laying in the middle.
“They ditch the gear, one has the weapon.” She told the group through the comms. Before she could plan her next move a well-placed bomb landed with precision on the right gauntlet. She hastily pulled it off as the beeping began to quicken. She thought it was in the air as she watched it explode.
Just then a sharp pain erupted in her back then the next thing she was being thrown across the stalls. Wood flew everywhere as she landed in the sand.
“There you are, Traitor.” She looked up to see Rumlow closing in. Abandoning the last gauntlet she waited.
“I have been waiting for this.” Yet once again she was hit on the side of the jaw and was flung into a table. People around them erupted into shouts and screams of horror as they ran away from the fight unwilling to get hurt.
From her position, before Rumlow struck again she place her palm flat on the ground and sent a small quake and watched as Rumlow stumbled and tripped from the shake of the ground. Behind the mask, she could see his horrible eyes staring back at her.
Now the two circled each over as people began to watch but now at a safer distance.
“Payload secured.” Natasha’s voice range through the comms.
Yet she couldn’t focus as the mission was also to capture Rumlow. They traded punches each one ever so slightly weaker than the last. As the stamina wore off. But Daisy could still keep going glad to have the stamina boost from being inhuman and the experiments that were used on her.
They kept fighting until Daisy was backed up against a walls
“This is for your betrayal.” His glove or gauntlet weapon produced a sharp knife almost like a claw. Dodging it as it went straight into the blue brick like butter.
Taking this as an opportunity to twist the stuck arm and quaked the gauntlet off. She her a sharp intake of air from Rumlow, she might have also shattered his Ulna and radius in biological terms.
That didn’t seem to stop him, Rumlow was on a full rampage. She took a hit in the stomach as he got a fist to the side. She ended it by kicking him in the head and into a cluster of tables. A few people nearby huddled in on each other’s as they watched.
Rumlow got to his knees as he took off his mask, panting. He looked up at her as she grabbed each side of his chest piece ignoring his yelp of pain.
“I think I looked pretty good Al things considered since your Captain dropped a building on me.”
She resisted the urge to knee him in the chest just to make him shut up. Taking a deep breath to control her anger she looked back at him with controlled emotions.
“Who’s your buyer.” She asked pulling him close. He looked at his with his disgusting smirk and over to Steve who had entered the clearing. Looking at how she felt, grimy and disgusted.
“You know, the weapon the Hydra heads all knew about. Your pall, your buddy, your Bucky. He remembered you got all weepy until his mind was back in the blender.” That was aimed at Steve she saw the start of water growing behind the mask and into Steve’s blue eyes.
Rumlow looked back up to her, “He wanted me to tell you something. ‘When you gotta go you gotta go’ And you're coming with me.” His manic smile pulled at his burned scares as his brown eyes stared into her and before she even reacted he pressed a button on his side.
Yet the heat of the explosion never came instead it was encased by an all too familiar red source. To her side, Wanda had protected her and everyone else. She looked to be struggling to keep the blast contained. So she did the best thing and throw him.
But it hit an apartment building burning a massive hole through it. Fire already wisps around the opening as smoke, debris and dust littered the air as people screamed for help inside and out.
Wanda fell to her knees and a ringed hand covered her mouth as tears brimmed in her green eyes. Daisy rushed to her looking up at the destruction. She fell next to Wanda comforting her. Drowning out the cries of the civilian and on to Wanda’s soft sobs.
“Sam…We-We need fire and rescue. On the south side of the building.” Steve brought out as he rushed towards to help as much as he can. Wanda looked heartbroken at the thing she had made. This was exactly the thing she was worried about and it happened.
“Hey, It’s gonna be alright, Wanda. We can still help do you want to do that?” Wanda shills her head at the offer.
“What-What if I cause more harm. This is why I didn’t want to go. Look what I did Daisy. I did that. I killed people.” She sobbed, this time into Daisy's chest. In weak attempts to support her Daisy ran her hands through Wanda’s hair whispering sweet nothings into her ear.
“Gonna be alright, how about we go to the jet. Can you do that, Ljubav?” She felt Wanda’s nod of approval in her chest as they made their way to the jet. Daisy knew Wanda was going to take it hard so she made herself a deal to be there with her no matter what.