I glance around the town in Lagos, keeping eye for the target man. The sun is beginning to set but the heat is still strong, making me feel uncomfortable in my cloak.
"All right, what do you see?" Steve's voice comes through the radio.
"Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target" Wanda replies and I look down the street from my view on top of a nearby rooftop. Wanda and Pietro are sat together at café outside, pretending to be normal citizens. Two tables away from them is my gorgeous red haired girlfriend, also pretending to be a normal citizen.
Steve's voice comes through again. "There's an ATM in the south corner, which means..."
"Cameras" Pietro chipped in.
"Both streets are one way."
"So, compromised escape routes" I speak, still focusing on the streets, keeping my eye out for anything out of the ordinary.
"Means our guy doesn't care about being see, he isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
"The red one?" Pietro questions.
"It's cute " Wanda adds.
"It's also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us" chimed in Natasha.
"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"
"Looking over your shoulder needs to become your second nature."
"Anybody tell you you're a little paranoid?" Came Sam's voice.
"Not all of us have little birdies patrolling around us Birdman" I joked but I truly meant it.
"Zip it gloomy" he retorts.
"Hey don't talk like that to my princessa" Pietro says and I can tell he has the smuggest smirk on his face. "OW!"
"What?"
"Your lover just flicked her spoon at me!"
"She's only one persons princess and that's mine so watch it Bleach boy" Nat replied.
"Alright guys, eyes on the target," Steve said exasperatedly, " This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him."
"If he see's us coming, that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us" inputted Sam.
As he says that, I have my eye on a garbage truck that seems to be driving particularly reckless, no care for its own or anyone else's safety.
"Cap, I have an eye on a suspicious vehicle. Sam, can you get one of your birdie friends to tag that garbage truck?
"I will get you to like Redwing Ombra. The truck is loaded for max weight and the driver is armed."
There's scarping of a chair and Nat's voice comes through. "It's a battering ram."
"Go now."
"What?" Wanda and Pietro say at the same time.
"He isn't hitting the police."
I had already set off, jumping across rooftops like it was nothing, no matter the gap. Formulating a route to the destination was easy as a few buildings away a large flame erupted into the air. Turns out the truck was targeting an institute for infectious disease which tells me immediately that whatever Rumlow is planning, it wasn't going to end well.
Reaching the last building, I start a fast descend and hit the ground just as Steve comes ruching onto the site. He immediately goes into attack mode on the soldiers and I join him, using my fists only. In no time, the guards outside are down and we see Sam fly onto the rooftop and takedown two more. Wanda arrives and uses her powers to block the fire and controls one of the soldiers in the air.
"Sam!" She shouts and Sam flies down, using his wings to knock down the soldier she had in the air. He uses one of his drones and scans the rest of the building which has smoke and gas emitting from it.
"Rumlows on the third floor" he states.
Steve nods and turns to Wanda. "Just like we practiced."
"What about the gas?"
"Get it out."
With that, Steve starts his run up and Wanda uses her red powers to lift him off the floor and into the third floor windows. While Steve is inside, Wanda now focuses on getting rid of the rest of the gas while me and Sam start fighting the rest of the soldiers.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon" Steve says through our systems.
"I'm on it" Nat eventually says. I hear the sound of a motorcycle and smirk when I see her ride in, jumping off the motorcycle making it skid and take out a soldier. While she's fighting a soldier, Rumlow comes up behind her and grabs her by the collar, dragging her onto an armoured vehicle.
My eyes widen as I realise what he was planning and I start running towards them just as Rumlow drops a grenade in the hatch, pushing Nat in along with it.
"No..." I mutter to myself, picking up the speed. People would call me a fool if they saw me running towards a grenade, but I didn't care, I had to get Nat out. Arms wrap around me and I look up to see Pietro carrying me towards the vehicle.
"Need a lift?"
He drops me and I use my strength to rip the doors off and Nat roles out, giving time for Pietro to grab both of us and drag us away, just as the van explodes into flames. He sets us down and I send him off to Wanda, since that's all he can ever concentrate in anyway.
"Can I just say that was incredibly sexy" I say with a grin, me and Nat walking towards her motorcycle.
She lets out a small laugh. "Noted. Prepared to do it with me this time?"
We get onto the bike and she rides us towards the centre where the others are, chasing the group of soldiers the split up with the biological weapon.
"We got the two on the left" I say through our radios. Nat breaks heavily and we both jump off, Nat landing and running along hoods of cars and me running along the top of the food stalls. We see the two soldiers and Nat leaps and crashes one of the to the floor. I see my chance and jump off the top of the food stall, landing on the shoulders of one of the soldiers.
One if the soldiers points his gun at Nat and Nat points it the soldier whose shoulders I'm on. She locks eyes with me, despite my mask and hood and I give her a wink. I wrap my legs around the soldiers necks and lean backwards, flipping off him and landing on my feet before sliding along the ground to get the vial he was threatening to drop. Nat uses this as a chance to get the other soldier, throwing her gun at his face and then using her knee to knock him out cold.
"Payload secure" I breathe heavily into the mic. Sliding the vial into my pocket, I make my way over to Nat and pull her into my chest, pressing a kiss onto the top of her head.
"Excellent job amore."
She pulls back and kisses me, standing on her tip toes so she can reach every part of my lips. I found it so adorable how small she was next to me. Just as I smiled into the kiss, there was a load explosion to our left and I pull away in horror. The whole level of an apartment building was on fire and I knew it wasn't fully evacuated.
"Oh my... Sam... We need Fire and Rescue on the south side of the building" Steve barely spoke into the coms.
"Sonic?"
"Yes princessa?"
"Can I have a lift?"
"Of course."
Nat looks at with a frown. "You're not going in there. No chance."
I smile and grab her hands, rubbing my thumbs over them softly. "Me and Pietro are the quickest. We can try and save as many people as we can. I'll come back to you, I promise."
Just as I said that, Pietro comes next to me and swoops me into his arms and takes us into the burning building. My mask stops me from breathing in to much smoke and I start to peel back fallen wood beams, giving access to rooms. Pietro crawls in coughing and takes a woman in his arms.
"We can't save them all. I'll get this child and mother but you stay down there. Understand?"
He looks hesitant but nods and dashes away with the unconscious woman in his arms. In the corner was a woman and her child, no older than five years old.
"Hey... hey... can you walk? I ask the mother and she looks up at me, making me gasp. She's severely hurt, bleeding heavily from her head.
"Take... take my boy... please... keep him safe."
"I- I'll come back for you" I plead, trying to ignore the raspy breaths she was taking. I pick the boy up in my arms, his eyes fluttering and a few coughs coming from him off the smoke.
"No... there's no point... just please keep him safe" she says with tears in her eyes, giving one last breath. A shudder goes down my spine despite the roaring flames next to me. Tears are in my eyes but I start a run, a run out of this building. I will keep my promise to this boy.
The building is struggling to keep its steadiness and I hear the sirens of fire engines as I reach the ground floor. I stumble out but keep the boy tightly pressed against my chest. A body comes next to me and puts a hand on my back.
"Ombra... he needs to go to hospital" Nat's husky voice says next to me and I can't find the words to speak. I see an ambulance ahead and take the boy there, giving him over to the paramedics. A sigh escapes my lips as I collapse against the side street, leaning on a building wall.
Looking up, I see all the destruction, family's who had lost there homes but also there loved ones. We are supposed to save people, keep them away from chaos and destruction but from all that I had seen today had made me question whether we were doing everything we could.
"Are you okay? asks Nat as she sits down next to me. I grab her hand after taking my glove off, relishing in the touch of her skin against mine, already calming me down.
"I watched a mother die, she gave herself up for her child. It just... reminded me off my parents a bit I guess. She wants me to look after him but I can't take care of a child, I just can't."
Natasha sighed and nods, leaning into my shoulder. "I'm sure there's someone we know who can take care of him. Come on, we need to get back, there's going to be an uproar about this with the Secretary."
She stands up and doesn't let go of my hand, walking us away and I refuse the urge to look back. One look back at all the chaos, all the loss and despair. Nat squeezes my hand and I can't help but feel even luckier to have her by my side.
HELLO!
I'M BACK OFF ONE OF MY BIGGEST WRITERS BLOCK YET.
WHO SHOULD THE LITTLE BOY GO WITH? I HAVE SOME IDEAS BUT I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO KEEP HIM AS A CHARACTER IN THE STORY SO LET ME KNOW! :)