Chapter 9
Natasha drove way too fast for anybody’s comfort. She weaved through traffic, and once on the interstate ignored all speed limits as she maneuvered along. Wanda was certain they’d be pulled over, but it never happened as they headed north. How they avoided detection was anybody’s guess, but they made good time.
Steve went over the plan with a better idea once he had a satellite image of the base and the terrain around it.
All in all, it seemed like a simple mission that, if executed right, wouldn’t be any trouble. At least, one could only hope.
The drive should have taken them all afternoon, but before evening hit Natasha was pulling the SUV over by a small lake. “It’s about a mile from here.”
They got out, each stretching and grabbing their gear. Sam didn’t say anything, but Wanda could feel even without her powers his gratitude to be out of the speeding car. It reminded her a bit of when she had first gotten off the quinjet that had brought her to New York.
“Red Wing is up.” Sam dropped his goggles while a small drone shot off in the direction of the base.
“What do you see?”
“Small post, infrared shows a large structure underground. I only make about a dozen hostiles but the place has at least three more levels I’m not seeing.”
“When we get closer I might be able to pick up on more,” Wanda offered.
“Upper level will probably be tech guys in hiding,” Natasha was thoughtful as she considered the situation, “we have to be careful though. If they even get a whiff of us they will fry those computers and all of the info will be gone. Hostiles on the lower levels will be easy to take out.”
“Let’s go.”
Wanda knew she had to stay close to Steve. That had been the deal. But as they got closer to the base, she began to pick up on all sorts of people inside, most of whom didn’t seem particularly trained or ready for what was coming. If she felt more confident about her abilities to influence, as she had with Sam earlier, she might have tried to use that for everybody inside.
“Do you have a head count?” Steve was quiet beside her once they were in eyesight of the entrance. There were two guards by the door, but they were playing cards and didn’t seem very attentive.
She reached out, deep below their feet to the structure that housed so many secrets. “The twelve Sam saw and on the lower levels… at least twenty trained men.”
“Okay. Now stay close.”
“Got it.”
“Natasha, take out the guards. Sam and I will breach the door. You and Wanda follow in after.”
As soon as Steve gave the signal, they sprung into action. Natasha was so fast that all Wanda could see was one man go down and then a black clad leg swing around and take the other one down. She’d done all despite the twenty feet of open space she’d had to get through before she even made contact. No alarms went off once they made it inside. A small room with little more than stairs that went below was in the cemented post. Steve took the lead, but the space was so narrow that Wanda ended up staying close despite how much further ahead he seemed at first.
“Computer servers this way, cover me!” Natasha called over her shoulder, but she had already disappeared into a large room that made up most of the first floor. The door looked like it would have been formidable and was easily six inches thick, but it had been left propped open for those who came and went. Inside, there were bundles of wires lining almost every surface and connecting each server to each other. Sam, Natasha, and Steve all did fast work of taking down everybody around them. There was only one for Wanda and she threw him against the ceiling and let him fall to the ground where he landed out cold. The alarms started then, though who triggered it was a mystery.
“This will take a few minutes.” Natasha pulled out a flash drive and began to bypass encryptions.
“Sam, take the left stairs. Wanda, we’ll take the right.”
“On it!” Sam yelled, already running down to the next level.
Steve used his shield like an extension of himself and bulldozed everybody ahead of them. Only one got through, but she slammed him against the wall and jumped over him to keep up with Steve.
“You good?” He called over his shoulder.
“Yeah. Up ahead there’s six coming up from the next level.”
Wanda was feeling more confident, and when Steve charged after their next threat, she reached out and shoved three down the steps they’d just come up.
They tried to stay close to the first level where Natasha was, but as more spilled out they had to meet them head on the subsequent level below.
It was three floors from the surface that the walls opened just as they finished off the last of the men.
Panels moved away and in their place were barrels of some heavy-duty guns. They began to fire almost immediately and she just had seconds to bring up her own shield, as unpracticed as it was. The spray of bullets seemed to be hitting everything around them, destroying the walls and killing the unconscious men on the ground. She saw Sam make it back up the stairs, but Steve grabbed her and hurled both of them down the fourth level.
His shield absorbed his fall and he absorbed hers, as his arms kept them together. They scrambled up to assess for any more incoming men. The sound of the guns going off continued, a little too loud for her and she tried to get her bearings. Cement began to fall, and Wanda felt her entire body seize.
Can’t…. this building can’t collapse… we’ll be trapped… not again, God please don’t let me live that again!
“The wall’s going to come down,” Steve pointed to where the machine guns fired at the wall above them.
“We’ll be trapped! This whole building will come down and we’ll be buried!”
Steve looked at her, and despite all of the chaos around them she thought she could pick up on his memory of her in the car just weeks ago. All I could taste was dust and thought the dehydration might kill us before the bomb did.
“Wanda, it’s not going to collapse. There’s a lot of support beams around us, that wall is just the only thing stopping those bullets right now.
She nodded, but still felt sick when she looked up and saw more cement.
“What do we do? Those guns can’t go much longer, can they?”
“No, they can’t, but we need to get out of the way until they run out of ammo.”
“There’s a secret passage right there.” She pointed to an unassuming section of the wall.
He grabbed her arm and got the hidden door to open just as the machine guns took down the section of wall between them and the next floor. The cement crumbled in large chunks as bullets began to spray at eye level of where they had just been standing.
Wanda tripped when Steve pulled her inside. He got the door shut and was able to speak without yelling now that they were out of the immediate shooting range. “Shouldn’t be much longer.”
“Let’s hope so.” She eyed the corridor that bent out of sight. When she reached out, she found a small room that wasn’t anything special. Storage, maybe even a panic room.
Wanda released her breath. Her palms went flat against the wall to feel even the slightest signs of collapse starting.
Steve was breathing hard but was getting it under control far faster than she was.
Their shoulder brushed together just when their ear pieces went off and Natasha’s husky voice came in, “I’m out and on my way back to the rendezvous with the package.”
Sam followed seconds later, “my exit was blocked. Almost out on an alternative route. Will meet at the rendezvous.”
Steve buzzed in next, “Wanda and I are held up. We’re on our way as soon as we can.”
“You okay Cap? Need back up?”
“No, just meet Natasha, we’ll be up shortly.”
It was silent on the channel after that, but the guns kept shooting like they had an unlimited supply of bullets.
“They must know we’re still inside the compound. They’ll be gathering up the rest of their forces while the guns are still going. Either expecting our bodies or a fight.” Steve decided.
“What should we do?”
“Can you feel where they’re at?”
“Let me try.” She pressed her palms harder against the wall and tried to find the rest of the HYDRA soldiers. “Two levels below. There’s only eight.”
One of the guns finally ran out of bullets, the others followed not long after. Her ears were ringing but she could make out the heavy bootsteps as the last eight started combing each floor. Steve grabbed his shield and was preparing for the fight but Wanda reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Wait,” she whispered.
He came back and looked at her curiously. “Your eyes are red again.”
“I’m trying to get into their heads and see if they know anything.”
“Wanda, the last time you did this it knocked you out for nearly a day.” He hissed.
“Just let me try. I won’t push it.”
He didn’t argue, but he did keep his eyes on her the entire time.
Each man was so focused on their search to not be taken by surprise, that Wanda was able to climb into their minds. They were alert, but only for the physical threats that could be around any corner. She had to pull away when one of them got to close to their hiding place. Steve readied for an attack but Wanda reached out and held the top of the shield.
“Simmons, that storage clear?” Somebody further out yelled.
Simmons didn’t notice the red haze around him or the fact that he never bothered to open the hidden door when he called back, “clear!”
While he was so close, Wanda took a peak into his memories as well.
She was disappointed when she found nothing in his memories, either. All of them had been here for a while and kept out of the HYDRA loop. They probably didn’t know Strucker let alone her or Pietro. Barnes wasn’t somebody they knew personally, that much she picked up on after a few more minutes of digging.
Wanda slumped against the wall, tired from her intruding and saddened to have nothing to show for it this time. “They don’t know anything.”
“It was worth a shot.”
“Yeah,” she lied, feeling the pulsating behind her eyes and how the thought of going up all the stairs to get back to the surface just seemed so impossible right then. She slid down the wall and rubbed her temples, “I just need a second.”
Steve joined her, “we have time. Sounds like they’re going to fry the computers and get out of here.”
“Should we stop them?”
“We’ll incapacitate them and then have cleared SHIELD agents come in and clean up.”
“Shouldn’t we stop them before they get the computers? Natasha might not have gotten all of it.”
“I’m sure she got the important stuff.”
Steve stopped before he could say more and when she finally opened her eyes and looked up at him she already knew the answer. “You don’t trust your own people?”
“I trust Natasha and Sam. Most of the time, I trust Fury even if I think I shouldn’t. Then of course there’s you, and I do trust you, Wanda. There are a few others, but SHIELD as a whole? I have my doubts.”
Not trusting an organization, that she could understand. Strucker had put up a good act, but she’d known him for years and always thought their goals were aligned. Now she wondered what he really intended to use her for, assuming she was able to kill the Avengers he musts have had plans for what came after.
But Steve trusted her and she was touched that he actually had some faith in her. She had always hoped that he didn’t consider her a nuisance, and she’d wanted to be of use to him in his search for Barnes just as she wanted his help finding Pietro. Of course, she trusted him. He was one of the few people she’d trusted in a long time. Their shoulders were pressed together and when she turned to look at him she just began to realize how close they really were.
The footsteps outside were only just now moving up to the next level. From the sound of it, they were kicking the cement chunks out of their way as they went.
Steve turned to look down at her, whatever he was about to say died before he could get the words out.
Wanda knew she needed to turn away right then. She could think of a lot of reasons why she shouldn’t dig the soft skin of her palms to the concrete floor and brace herself. Why she shouldn’t let her eyes close almost completely. She’d long grown accustomed to the power that lingered at her fingertips or the way other people’s thoughts and feeling were just there like they were her own. But right then, at that moment, there was nothing. It was only her in her own mind and in her own body that felt very human despite what it was capable of.
Wanda had no idea who moved first or if it was both of them at the same time, but she was actually kissing him. She was frozen once she realized this fact, her lips still against his, just as his were unmoving against her. She trembled but didn’t let herself think of what this meant. She let herself enjoy it.
She pressed a little more firmly against him and felt a shiver run down the length of her body when he reciprocated.
Light, gentle, and so very chaste they kissed long enough for her to smell the faintest traces of leather and the spicy soap he must have used.
Despite the, well, innocence of their connection, the fact that it was Steve made her whimper without meaning to. He stopped everything then and Wanda was just about to pull away and begin to apologize for letting it get this far. She really was, when Steve suddenly reached up and cupped either side of her face, his hands tangling up in her hair when he pulled her back into it with a little more force.
She was tentative when she slid her tongue out and brushed it against his lips. Steve made a little noise, maybe a moan but she had her suspicions it was also a whimper. She reached out and held onto his shoulders, her fingernails digging into the material of his suit when their tongues slid against each other.
“Wanda,” he groaned when he slowed down, taking a deep inhale.
It was over, she knew that much. Whatever that had been…
His hands were still in her hair but she took hers off of him. She opened her eyes and realized how far over the line she had gone.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered.
“Oh God Wanda, no I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Really, it’s fine. Let’s just forget it.”
He didn’t look so sure, but she was too shaken to reach out with her powers and see how he felt.
“They’re leaving now if you’re ready to go.” She told him once she got her breath back.
“Right,” he pressed ear, “Sam, tag the cars leaving and send the tracking to the new SHIELD headquarters.”
“On it.”
They sat in silence just long enough for it to be awkward, though neither of them did anything to end it. Steve was the first to get up and offered his hand to help her up. She hesitated before she accepted. She distracted herself when she was up by dusting her clothes off and discreetly running her hands through her hair to smooth down the dishevelment.
They said nothing as they made their way back to the car.