the strongest avenger

fifteen

"Hey Steve."

"Yes Tal?"

"Can you help me out here? You're heavy."

Talia continues to use the air to help lift him, but it's a slow process. Her head pounds and she can feel blood trickle down the side of her temple from when the desk hit her.

She hears Steve grunt, and assumes that he's starting to pull himself up. She sees his hand come over the edge, and Talia rushes forward. She reaches over and pulls on his arms to help him onto the ground.

They lay there for a second, catching their breath.

"You good?" Steve asks, gesturing towards her head.

"I'm amazing Steven. Come on let's go."

The two push off the ground and start running up the stairs. They come up to the main floor and frantically look around.

"I'll go out the front, you go up to the roof. Maybe you can find him with a better view."

"Sounds good, stay safe."

Talia waits a second and watches her friend as he starts making his way up. She then turns around and runs outside, frantically trying to look for Bucky or Sam over the people crazily running around.

She spots Sam and runs over to him.

"Where's Bucky?"

"I don't know."

"The doctor?"

"I lost him."

Talia looks around. "Sam we can't stay here, let's go around the back. There's too many people."

He nods and follows Talia as she leads them around the building, towards the river. As they get there, a screeching sound comes from above. Talia looks up and sees a helicopter falling overside the building.

She's shocked, frozen on sight as the helicopter comes crashing down. Sam tugs on her arm and pulls her flush against his body. He leans over Talia, her back against the building wall, shielding her, as the helicopter crashes into the river. The water rushes up, but Talia holds out her hands, stopping it from getting her and Sam wet.

"Thanks." Sam mumbles as he turns away from her and towards the river.

"Thank you."

The two look at the river, at the sinking helicopter.

Sam runs a hand through his hair. "How are we going to find—"

At that moment, a blonde head bursts from below the water. Steve gasps for air as he hauls a body towards the shore. Talia and Sam rush over, Sam taking Bucky from Steve's arms while Talia hauls Steve out.

"Well, I'm glad to see you two are alive. Would've been annoying if you died." Tal says as she kneels closer to the river.

She takes water in her hands and rubs her face, cleaning off the dried blood. She sits there a minute, taking in all that had happened in the last couple of hours.

"Come on, we can't stay here."

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️

Steve had hauled Bucky over to an abandoned warehouse. Talia and Sam following close behind. The girl had watched as the blonde had placed a large machine over top his metal arm.

She sits against a pillar, not too far from Bucky, while Steve watches the outside from a crack in the wall.

She closes her eyes, leaning her head back against the pillar. Talia jerks her eyes opened when Bucky groans. She watches him as he looks over at his arm.