A dream come true

extraction

Hawkeye and his target set, he just needed to shoot the target while Hulk was tightening his fist to smash.

Suddenly,

Everyone heard a faint noise coming from far away which felt like a scream, it didn't take long until they all felt the ground shaking, it felt like a mild earthquake, everyone's attention was shifted, it felt unsettling but couldn't see what it was. Yet.

Everyone heard blasts and crashes coming from the north side of the facility, the view they saw was not what anyone expected, giant spikes were rising from the ground that were demolishing the facility, everyone stopped what they were doing to gawk at the sight, the spikes that looked to be made of crystals kept expending and consuming more and more area and it was coming their way.

"oh shit." Hawkeye said.

Hulk ran towards him and grabbed him before jumping ahead on opposite direction, the solider on the other hand were running for their life screaming,

Black widow and Captain were running away as fast as possible to get out of the area and so was Winter soldier who was separated from them,

Thor and the scientist were shocked by the horrifying sight and forgot about their own fight, Thor was confused because he had never seen anything like this, but the scientists knew what was that about, specially Strucker. At the moment they only had one job. run. But Thor was determined to take the cube back, he swung his hammer to hit Brandon but got hit by a blue beam from the sky,

In the sky there was a chopper which came down to take the HYDRA scientist, Brandon quickly climbed inside and took off.

Thor was trying to follow them by flying but saw Captain and Black widow running down on the ground who were close to the spikes, he couldn't leave them behind, he glanced at the chopper one last time before going down to help them escape.

Hulk landed on the ground and threw Hawkeye away, he crashed harshly but got up grunting nonetheless,

"ughh, my back."

Thor also landed near them with Captain and Widow.

They all took a breath and looked at the area behind them, everything was destroyed, the whole facility was down, there was nothing left, nothing but those spikes that caused it all, everyone were equally confused,

What happened?

The cube and scepter were gone, facility destroyed, the people to blame had escaped. The mission wasn't 100% successful, but they still had the girl they were looking for at least. Well, not in a state they were expecting.

Coulson was piloting the quinjet, Thor was sitting around the corner not saying much, Steve, Clint and Bruce were standing nearby while Natasha was treating Diya's injuries, which were more than enough to raise concerns, Tony didn't leave her side this whole time,

He was just as shocked as everyone else but more angrier too for obvious reason, he was feeling guilty and responsible, maybe if he made different decisions they wouldn't be in this situation, if he didn't let her go that day, if only he stayed with her, he should've been faster to locate that base.

"is she alright?" Michael asked who was handcuffed at the corner.

"no, thanks to your people." Tony answered.

"I'm sorry I'm confused why is he here?"

"he's the only one we were able to capture." Steve answered.

"correction, I stay behind on purpose." Michael asked defending himself.

"and why would that be?"

"I don't want to work for them anymore."

"what makes you think we would believe you that easily?" Clint jumped in their conversation.

"then don't believe me, but remember that I'm your only insider intel so far."

"Nick Fury wants to interrogate him personally as soon as we land." Agent Coulson informed everyone.

"nothing new, he always wants the first bite of the cake." Tony remarked.

Thor got up from his place before he could overthink the situation and worry more than he already does because the war threat still stands and he had to keep his calm and make a wise decision. For now there are other problems at their hands,

"how is the little one holding?" he asked approaching the group.

"not so good, I've treated all the bruises but her fever is getting worse."

"once we get back at the tower we can give her proper treatment." Banner told them.

"so are we just going to talk about that thing or not? I know we all saw that, it almost killed us and destroyed the facility in matter of seconds...." Captain America said and turned to Michael once again, everyone's attention was shifted to him now, they all knew what captain was talking about, it left them all terrified to say the least, "...what was that? Another HYDRA weapon?"

Tony sunk deeper in his seat and looked away before glancing at the brunette, "it wasn't them."

"then who was it?"

"Loki's scepter?" Black widow suggested.

"...it was her...." Michael answered before Tony could. Everyone frowned and turned their head towards the girl in shock, that was the last answer they were expecting to hear, "they did something to her."

"what?"Black widow asked glaring daggers at him,

"I don't know....they were trying some human enhancing experiments with help of that scepter....and it worked."

Both Captain and Widow's eyes got wide hearing that, they slowly looked back at her,

When Natasha joined SHIELD, she did it because she had a second chance at life and to redeem her deeds and wash the red, to make sure no more kids could have the same fate as her, yet this happened again, to someone she knew personally, by someone who she thought existed to help the world not destroy it, This was something that hurt her on a personal level.

Steve took part in human enhancing but it was his choice, he volunteered willingly because he wanted to help his country, he joined SHIELD because of Peggy, it was like a part of her would stay with him forever if he worked there, but from past few days he is rethinking his decisions, this isn't what he signed up for, this is everything against what he believed in. maybe if he stayed with her a little longer that night, maybe if he sensed something was wrong, just maybe.

The rest of the flight was mostly silent, half of them were tired and the rest were just not in the mood to talk, not to mention their mission was left incomplete with the cube and scepter still out in enemy's hand. This case would take longer than they thought.