Avengers: Liberation

Chapter 17- Guilt Ridden Spy

"Get ready to catch me Clint." I said as I looked back at the window I once stood in to see flames licking at the wooden frame. I took a deep breath, and dropped from the ledge. The girl screamed loudly as the wire tore through my skin and gnawed against my bones as we hurtled toward the ground.

"Don't worry I will." Was the last thing Clint thought of, as I slammed into his body. He stumbled back taking in the impact of my body against his. His arms were tightly wrapped around me and the child, as we stood there for a few second, making sure everything was ok. I could feel the soft breath of the little girl against my neck, and I felt her shake from the shock in my arms. I pulled myself away from Clint to see the child's mother run toward me.

Her eyes were blood shot and her ash covered skin showed the trails of tears that carved through it. She gently took her little girl from my eyes, and rather than tears of helplessness and desperation they were now tears of hope and gratitude.

"Thank you." She mouthed with shaking lips as the mother hugged daughter and daughter hugged mother. I looked down at my mangled hand to see bone still standing out from the bloody and torn flesh. I wrapped my good hand around it and watched as a piece of black cloth knotted itself around my injured hand.

I watched as paramedics crowded around the mother and child making sure both were safe. I stood away from them and smiled down at the grinning child who now had her mother to comfort her. I looked over my shoulder to see Clint looking down at me.

"You didn't have to do that you know." I nodded and watched the happy mother and child.

"I know I didn't, but I would never want anyone to go through a pain that not even I can imagine." He nodded and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Are you ok Liberty?" I looked up at him looking down at my cloth wrapped hand. I nodded and flexed my fingers causing the muscle less part of my hand to spasm and twitch. I hissed and balled my hand back up into a loose fist.

"I'm fine, it'll heal soon enough." Clint nodded as we walked away from the fortunate scene, the suddenly I heard it.

"Thank you Liberty." I twisted out of Clint's arms to see the small girl wrapped in her mother's arms, looking over her own mothers shoulder and waving at me with joy in her eyes. I looked shocked at the child, but soon shocked facial features slowly morphed into a gleeful looks as I waved back at the small child.

"Liberty what's wrong?" I looked at Clint and smiled at him, as I pulled my hand up to my chest as the raw healing muscle twitched and contracted. I hissed, and looked up at Clint, who looked down at me with saddened eyes.

"Nothing is wrong Clint..." he quickly broke off my sentence before I could finish.

"There is something wrong, I'm calling Natasha now." He pressed his index finger into his ear and quickly began to talk.

"Hi Tasha, I have Liberty here with me... were both fine, we need a ride...see you soon." The conversation was fluid and quickly no pauses or breaks as if it had been rehearsed. He smiled down at me meekly and ran a hand through his dirty blond hair.

"Yeah she saw us on the news, back at stark tower and here." He pointed without looking to a freelance video crew pointing the cameras directly at us. I waved my hand in their direction, magnetizing any piece of metal inside the camera, causing pieces to crumple inwards and other pieces to completely malfunction.

"Problem solved." I said with a sigh. I was not impressed by the antics of the freelancers making money from those who could have lost so much, in such a precise and deadly attack. I sighed as I lowered myself to the warm tarmac road and sat there, the tarmac was scattered about in chunks due to the shockwaves that came from the bomb.