ALINA
"We have eyes on the targets, over." Steve said into a radio beside me.
"Roger that." Came the crackly voice of Sam.
I peeked out from behind the bush. They were all under a large fabric canopy, set up specially for the prison opening event. Cog and Wheel were lounging around on chairs, drinks in their hands, with some official looking men and Roderick Penny in an expensive looking suit. He was quite short in real life, with grey hair that was almost white.
"Bucky." I hissed. "Stop moving around so much."
"I'm not doing anything." He replied from behind me.
"I can hear you moving."
Steve sighed. "Guys, please. Don't argue. We need to do this right for Ro."
I groaned quietly. He was right. We couldn't afford to fight right now, as much as I disliked Bucky, I couldn't do that to Roara.
I put my hand out behind me, and Steve placed the radio into my hands. While radios were very easy to interfere with we figured Wheel wouldn't be looking out for that sort of technology, but instead she'd be keeping an eye out for far more advanced technology. The radios we had wouldn't be distinguishable from the ones the security around the prison opening event would have.
I pressed the button on my radio. "Is everyone in position? Over."
"Everyone in position, over." Came the reply from Natasha.
I sighed. All we could do now was wait. We needed to be able to isolate them, and not get any civilians or government members in the crossfire.
"There!" I whispered. Cog and Wheel had walked over to one side, chatting between themselves. Anton and Alissa Albright were going down.
"Targets have separated from group, I repeat, targets have separated, over." I clicked off and put the radio in my belt.
I turned round to Steve. "Steve, if anything happens to me-"
"I'll look after her." He replied. "I promise."
I nodded. I looked back. The rest of the party had begun to go into the prison, led by a lady in a suit. The only person who remained was Roderick Penny, who had gone up to the couple and was now having a word with him.
"Jesus, just go inside already!" I heard Bucky mutter from behind me.
"Fuck this." I cocked my gun.
"Alina, no." Steve said. I heard another gun click, this one much heavier than my handgun. "Bucky, no!"
"Alina, are you ready?" He asked me, coming to crouch beside me.
"I was born ready Barnes."
"Guys!" Steve grabbed both of our shoulders and pulled us backwards. "No. That's what got Roara captured before. We work as a team."
"Then send the order." I hissed to Steve. "It's now or never, we want them out in the open."
Steve put his shield on his back and rubbed his face. He looked up at the three people in the wide space in front of us. They were beginning to walk towards the building.
"Fuck." Steve muttered, grabbing the radio from my belt. "Go, go, go!" He said into the radio before throwing it back to me and beginning to run forward.
I looked at Bucky who shrugged. We ran after him.
"Damn Cap," I said running next to him, "can you do anything else with that dirty mouth of yours?"
"Shut up." He muttered. I could see everyone else running in from all sides. Rhodey, Tony, and Sam were flying in over the the tree-line of the forest. Thor landed hard on the ground, electricity crackling around him. Peter and Aditi were running together, side by side. I'd never seen her in a suit before. It was made out a thick material and unlike Roara and Nat's it wasn't too figure hugging. It was made for combat. It had streaks of blue and purple running down it, and a mask covered most of her face except her eyes. She had not only guns strapped to her but also a bow on her back.
Cog and Wheel saw us coming. They didn't run. They nodded to Penny, who left them and went inside.
We had them surrounded, the two of them encircled by us. Cog had her hair up in her signature bun, and was wearing her usual combat trousers and dark t-shirt. Wheel was dressed in the same way.
"Well done." Cog said, crossing her arms. "We genuinely weren't expecting you. But we do have some back up." As she said this, five helicopters flew overhead, and dozens of Ascendency soldiers jumped out of them, forming a ring around us. I noticed Peter take a protective step behind Aditi, just in case the agents to our rear us attacked. I also noticed Clint keeping an eye on her, glancing in her direction every few moments. We all remembered last time, when our youngest and newest member had been the only casualty and we weren't going to let it happen again. That being said Peter was a year younger than her, but still. He had more practice and his powers were better for combat, as Aditi didn't like to use her pain infliction. I guessed she might have to use it now.
"Just come with us," Steve said, "and this doesn't have to get nasty."
In response Wheel pulled out a small pen from his trouser pocket. He flicked it. Before my eyes the pen grew longer and wider until finally it was his staff, the small blue sphere at one end, a sharp spike at the other.
"Will you look at that," I heard Tony say, "he brought his walking stick."
In a blur of movement Wheel had turned and blasted off a ball of energy towards Tony. Tony flew up and managed to avoid it, but the where the ball hit the ground the grass began to wither and melt into the dirt.
"Okay guys," I said, shaking out my sleeves and pulling my visor down, "let's play dodgeball."
I don't think I've ever been so out of breath in my life. We were outnumbered, about 6 to one. There were fourteen of us in total. The only issue was, we also had the Albrights to contend with. Everyone who relied heavily on technology had to stay out of the eyesight of Cog, who was able to shut down software and corrupt hardware with certain hand movements, or by touching it. Wheel on the other hand was the one who was actually going to kill you. Not only was that staff of his able to shoot out balls of different energy, but he was lightning on his feet and as I and Steve found out the hard way, brutal in hand to hand combat. The fight had begun in the open space like we'd intended, but we'd been moved into the forest which I was pretty thankful for as it meant hiding places.
"SHIELD!" I shouted. Cap threw me his shield and I held it up, the ball of energy from Wheel's staff bouncing off it and rebounding towards him. I threw Cap's shield back at him and ran, throwing balls of light as I went. I slid down beside Steve, who was behind a massive rock.
"It's not a frisbee Ali." He muttered, swiping dirt of his shield.
"Sorry." I panted, looking round behind me. Wheel had become occupied with Wanda, or more Wanda had begun to chuck him around and bash him into trees by levitating him.
"They work well as a team, huh." I rested my back against the cold stone. "Cog leaves you defenceless and Wheel takes you down."
"Passive and aggressive, I'm sure they have a great marriage." Steve joked, as a blast hit the rock behind our heads.
We rolled out just in time as the boulder we'd been hiding behind exploded. Instinctively I held my hands above my head, my eyes squeezing shut as I crouched down to make myself as small as possible. When nothing hit me I opened my eyes. Steve was behind me, his arm around me with his shield protecting the both of us.
"Oh Jesus." I got up with shaking legs that felt like jelly from the shock of nearly being impaled by chunks of rock.
"Come on Ali!" Steve shouted, dragging my arm behind him.
"Wh- Oh shit." Behind me was Wheel, his staff ready to shoot. Without thinking I cast my hands in an arc around me and threw them forwards, hitting his blast of energy head on with one of my own.
It was like a shield of swirling darkness, not allowing any of his energy in.
"STEVE!" I screamed. "DO SOMETHING!"
I heard a small whizzing noise. And then another. An arrow hit Wheel squarely in the upper thigh. I looked around, beads of sweat forming on my forehead as I held the staff's energy at bay.
"Up here!" Peter called and I craned my neck to see Aditi and Peter in one of the trees, Aditi's bow already with another arrow in it. Peter had one arm around Aditi's waist, the other holding onto a web. It was like our very own flying cupid club.
Another arrow came in from the opposite direction. I recognised what it was.
"Steve," I grunted, "I can't hold this much longer so we have about 4 seconds to run, so as soon as I end this forcefield, it's Forest Gump time."
"Who's-" Steve began.
"NOW!" I cried, dropping my hands and pivoting into the other direction, pushing my legs to run as fast as they could take me, with Steve in front. The explosion of Hawkeye's arrow only threw us off our feet a little bit, but it was enough to wind me.
"Ali." Steve said, pulling me up. "Get your first aid out."
"Why, are you hurt?" I asked, checking him over.
"No, you are!" He pointed to my right arm. Sure enough a piece of rock was sticking out of me.
"Wow, I didn't even feel it. Do you want to do the honours?" I heard a crunch behind me and saw on Steve's face that it couldn't be good.
I whipped around and let off three bullets. The agent fell to the floor, assault rifle in hand.
"We have to get somewhere safer to do this." Steve said gruffly.
"No shit Sherlock." I muttered, holstering my gun.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out a few owl coos. Sam landed in front of me, his wings folding away.
"Sam, I need to get somewhere semi-safe to deal with this," I gestured towards my upper arm and Sam gave me a tired look, "I know, it's early on in the battle, a boulder exploded."
"You got a couple of areas where Thor and Vision are, Thor just whams down the hammer and the guys go flying, Vision beams them, they're over that way," he pointed to the other side of the forest, "quickest would be if you go straight through the middle of the clearing, past the prison. I would carry you but if Wheel catches me and fucks my wings, we're both screwed."
I nodded. "Steve, stay here."
"I'm coming with you." He replied. "And I'm not taking no for an answer."
"Alright then." I muttered, checking my bullets. "Let's go kick some ass on our way."