𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{2⁹} {LOOK THEM IN THE EYES}

"And, I know I'm asking a lot.. But the price of freedom is high, it always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay.  And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet that I'm not." He finished his speech just as Roxi opened her eyes, her mind feeling much more at rest than it had a few minutes ago, walking into the room. 

"Did you write that down first? Or was that off the top of your head?" Sam asked, smiling slightly, and for the first time in a while, Roxi allowed herself to begin to smile along with him, the corners of her mouth tilting up in slight amusement. Cap really knew how to get people emotional and empathetic. Those things weren't exactly her forte. Hill had split off into another room, watching the cameras, being the 'guy in the chair'.

"They're initiating launch," she informed through the comms. Roxi wasn't joining Sam and Steve in sprinting towards the  helicarriers that'd come out of S.H.I.E.L.D's fancy equivalent underground car park, instead, she was holding off any HYDRA Agents from reaching Hill in security. Although no-one had any doubt that the second in command could handle herself, Fury felt a bit better having Roxi with her. For a few short minutes, there was relative silence as the fight began around them, but it didn't last long. Shouts and the thumping of soldier's boots began to carry along the corridor that she was standing in, and she took another deep breath before she pulled out her new quarterstaff, the cold metal helping her focus. This would be the first time she fought with it. She extended it fully as  the first men rounded the corner.

She moved quickly, slamming the point of the quarterstaff into the first person's throat, pulling it out quickly and slamming the staff into the next person's face. They crumpled to the floor as the next set came round. To her surprise, but slight relief, one of the next men tripped over the people on the floor and tumbled down. Roxi lifted her quarterstaff between the heads of two men and pulled the right end of the quarterstaff towards her, so that that end hit the back of the agent on the left's head and the other side hit the other one's forehead, effectively bringing both to the ground. The agent who'd tripped stumbled up as the next set rounded the corner, no doubt red-faced under their helmet. One of the three who'd just entered the fight had a RPG launcher, and they fired a grenade at her. Roxi had a split-second of consideration, before she batted the explosive back towards the other four, being thrown back as it exploded, and hitting the metal floor hard. Her head started to pound angrily as her shoulder gave a strong twinge of pain. A couple of people managed to run past her as she got her sense of direction back and used the wall to help pull herself up.

"Eight minutes Cap," Hill informed him.

"Working on it," he told her, a slight clang filtering in as he no doubt picked up his shield from where he'd hurled it at someone. In the swirling that seemed to be determined not to stop in her head, a quiet voice reminded Roxi that if the procedure went as planned, both S.H.I.E.L.D's and HYDRA's secrets would be released to the public and the world at large. That was, if you knew how to figure out the code. Roxi was luckier than Natasha with the fact that her files were relatively bare; there was next to nothing in the system about her. Still, criminals and others would be able to identify her with ease, and that wasn't good. But then, she reminded herself that they had to do this to ensure millions of people didn't die. She had to do this, because if she did, it would ease her conscience. It was selfish, sure, but if it was the thing to get her through this, then, so be it.

"Alpha lock," Steve's voice came through again, as Roxi faced the next pair of HDYRA Agents.

"Falcon, where are you now?" The chatter over the comms was pretty much irrelevant to Roxi at the moment, but she needed to keep their progress in the back of her mind while she fought. She couldn't hear anything outside of the garbled voices through the comms, due to a whining noise that was likely caused by the explosion that deafened everything else.

"Had to take a detour!" Roxi ducked some bullets and threw the quarterstaff through the air like a javelin - or at least, as  best as she could. The quarterstaff wasn't exactly designed for that, which was why she was surprised when it actually worked, and planted itself in the chest plate of one of the men, presumably piercing it by the way the man let out a gasp of pain. She guessed Fury had made the blades sharper.

"Oh yeah!" Sam yelled. Duck the bullets.

"I'm in." Grab the quarterstaff.

"Bravo lock." Dodge.

"Two down, one to go." Hill this time. Slam the staff against their head.

"Charlie carrier's 45 degrees off the port bow." Twist their arm so they drop the gun.

 A few gunshots echoing from behind her told her that Hill had dealt with the rogue HYDRA Agents easily. 

"Six minutes." Stab.

"Hey Sam, gonna need a ride!" Repeat.

"Rogers, let me know when you're ready!" Roxi continued the actions in a cycle, driving through the motions as smoothly as she could. A couple of times she had to improvise, but it mostly stayed the same. It was at that moment that Roxi realised that she was too used to fighting like this, completely on instinct and on autopilot. She needed to be more aware, to be able to react to anything that could come up. She needed to be alert. 

"I just did!" Her hearing had returned enough that she heard the loud bang from above, no doubt an explosion that Steve set up on one of the helicarriers. Roxi wasn't sure how many people she'd taken down, but it was starting to get hard to move with the unconscious or dead bodies that littered the floor, and more were still coming. She had to do something that would stop them from advancing any further. She took a couple of careful steps back before she retracted her quarterstaff and put it back in her belt. She closed her eyes again and held out her hand to the corridor in front of her.

"Ryder?" Hill asked, who was watching her on the cameras. Roxi ignored the other woman as she calmed herself down again. And then she started. At first nothing happened, and Roxi pushed herself harder. The metal walls began to groan slightly in protest, the sound growing as Roxi pulled her, her head beginning to ache slightly with the use of her powers. She faintly heard Hill repeat her name, but didn't really register it. The walls began to cave in slowly and she heard the HYDRA Agents begin to yell out. The lights above them flickered and sparked before blinking out with an angry buzz as the ceiling creaked ominously. Plunged into darkness, Roxi suddenly felt a lot colder as her head began to swim with the effort as there was a clash and crash as the metal walls and ceilings folded in on themselves. Roxi felt the floor shake as the HYDRA Agents let out yells and screams. Radio silence from Hill made Roxi guess that Hill wasn't sure what to say. She slumped against the wall a few feet back and slid down it and sat down, the cool surface helping her head slightly. She felt so much and so little at the same time. Sweat and blood trickled down her face as the world brightened and faded before her eyes. She was sure somebody was saying something to her, but she couldn't hear it. 

Roxi was numb. She had exposed her powers both in front of people she almost trusted, and people she would never trust. But it was for the people who would loose their lives, she reminded herself again, and she had to look her problems dead in the eyes, for the good of people around the world. It was her responsibility, and she was going to fulfil it.

{A/N:} Sorry this chapter came out so late today, but I once again didn't write anything during the week and I wrote all of this today. I also have a ton of homework so sorry if this seems rushed or low-quality today. I also am starting to publish my new Natasha fic, called Point Blank, and the first chapter will be up on Monday. It's quite different to this book if you're interested. Any thoughts for the call signs? I'm still struggling xD. Thanks for reading

JabberJay_011

2250 Words

Written: 10 / 10 / 2020

Published: 10 / 10 / 2020