Adina was panicking. Outwardly, she appeared calm and collected, as she had been taught to appear. She had to get out of here and fast.
Steve watched the girl run and quickly leapt into action.
"Capture her," he instructed his team, "Barton, do you have the power dampener?"
Clint Barton, the archer, tossed a single, thick metal band to his Captain. Meanwhile, Adina had gotten a head start on the team and was about to jump to another roof.
Wilson flew in front of her path and stopped her from leaping. He had also put together the reason why the teenager had run.
"Hey, slow down there. He's not the Winter Soldier. He doesn't do that anymore, he's with us," Wilson tried to reassure her.
The effort was lost on her. Adina had made up her mind. She wasn't going to take any risks or chances that could put her back into Hydra's hands.
She pulled out the small handgun that was tucked into the waistband of her jeans. She fired a few shots at Wilson, which he blocked with his carbon fiber wings. However, Adina had good aim. One bullet lodged itself in the man's upper left arm, causing him to let out a grunt of pain. She put her gun back in her waistband as she only had a few bullets left.
With the bird-like man demobilized and flying away to recover and put some distance between them, Adina turned her attention to the rest of her opponents. The Winter Soldier and the red-headed lady were getting closer, as Captain America closed the last few yards between him and Adina.
Adina turned and ran in the opposite direction of the Captain in order to gain momentum. She jumped into the air and a dark blue cloud seemed to absorb her. She teleported up in the air behind Steve Rogers, who was still running to where she had just previously been, and she landed both of her feet on his upper back. She pushed her feet out, causing him to fall to the ground. Still in the air, she used the rest of her momentum to leap over his crumpled form.
Before she even rose from her crouched position, an arrow pierced the back of her upper arm. Adina fully rose and spun to locate the archer who shot her. With a small glare, she mercilessly yanked the arrow shaft out of her arm and tossed the bloody arrow to the side. Pain rippled through her arm, yet she just set her jaw and continued with the fight.
During those few moments, Captain America had gotten back to his feet and began to fight Adina. She swung her fist, aiming for his face, but he caught it and hit her side with his shield.
The red-headed woman had also finally caught up with them, whereas the Winter Soldier passed them to go check on the man with the wings.
Now, Adina was fighting off two highly trained people at once. They traded punches and kicks back and forth until Adina was swept off her feet. She landed on the ground and rolled to the side to avoid the shield that struck the ground where she had just been. As she rolled out of the way, she slipped her knife out of her pocket and slashed the man's leg, and then sprung back up on her feet.
She wiped the scarlet blood that was dripping from a cut above her eyebrow, so that it wouldn't block her vision. Then, she backed up into a more defensive position with her knife out in front of her. This doesn't seem like a fair fight, but at least I got my trusty pocket knife, Adina sarcastically thought. Then, she didn't even have that because Barton knocked it out of her hands with another arrow. Great, this is just going great.
Adina decided to use her powers once again. Her teleportation had a limit, so she could only use it so many times before she had to take a break and 'recharge' it. She wanted to save some of her power for last ditch emergencies, but she had no other choice if she wanted to get out of here alive.
Rogers was running at her, again, so she teleported behind him. The red-headed woman saw this and fired a few shots at her new location. At the last moment, Adina threw up a purple force field that sparkled with undercurrents of blue energy, effectively blocking the bullets from their target. Unfortunately, she had only thrown up a force field on her left side, leaving her front open to the shield Rogers threw at her.
The red, white, and blue shield hit her right in the head, causing her to crumple to the ground. Dazed and most likely concussed, she tried to collect her thoughts and steel herself to get back up. The sun glared in her face, and she brought up her right hand to shield her blue-green eyes.
As she did so, Rogers, who had ran over, gripped her right arm. He clamped a thick, silver band on her wrist. Caught off guard, Adina wretched her arm out of his grasp and rolled to the side. She scrambled to her feet and again took a defensive posture.
She glanced at the new addition to her wrist and got a sickening feeling. It was like Hydra all over again. In a last ditch effort, she tried to teleport anywhere but here. She was only able to manifest a weak blue power that she cradled in her two hands, before dissipating it. The metal band was a power dampener, as she had guessed, and her powers had left her alone to deal with the Avengers.
The feeling of terror renewed and washed over Adina with a new strength. It swirled in her stomach, making her feel queasy, and her head pounded with a dull pain. At the same time, a feeling of resolve and determination grew in her heart. She would make it out of here, one way or another. She clenched and unclenched her fists at her side and pulled out her small handgun.
Captain America approached her from her right and the red-headed lady came to her left. Adina would get rid of the stupid blond man first as he was the one that put the dampener on her. She only had three bullets left to do this.
She fired a single bullet at his chest, which he easily blocked with his shield. He kept his shield up, crouching, and slowly took more steps towards her. She fired another shot in the same spot on the shield, which he blocked again. With her last shot, Adina steadied her arm, still aiming at the star in the middle of his shield. She slowly drew a breath in, and abruptly lurched her arm down.
She fired her last shot at Captain America's unprotected right leg, the one she had yet to damage. Her bullet found its target, of course, and the patriotic man fell to one knee as his leg gave out.
Adina had been distracted by focusing all of her attention on Captain America, and she knew that. It was a risk she had to take. The red-headed woman took advantage of it and a bullet embedded itself in Adina's leg the second after she shot the blond man.
Adina quickly processed this. The lady wasn't shooting to kill, which only reaffirmed her earlier thoughts that they were going to take her in. This wasn't a termination or hired mercenaries. They wanted her alive, whether for their own experimentation and uses or Hydra's, it was all the same. She wouldn't go anywhere with anyone.
She steeled herself and half-ran half-limped to the edge of the building. Pain shot up her injured leg every time she took another step, but she pushed through it. Before she could make it to the ledge and jump to the other building, she heard footsteps pounding against the concrete roof, coming after her. Another bullet found itself in her leg.
Adina let out a small whimper of pain, though she felt like screaming. Everything was going wrong. She made it a few feet from the edge, and quickly gauged the distance to the next roof. The closest building was a few yards away, a decent jump even if she wasn't injured.
She would never make it to the other side with the bullets in her leg. She slowly turned around to see who was approaching her. He or she had to be only a few feet away, now that Adina had taken a few precious seconds to estimate the distance.
She fully spun around to face the person. The first thing she zoned in on was his metal arm. She took a step back.
It was different now. It wasn't silver, but black with gold accents. His hair was different, too. It was cut short and no longer limply hung to his shoulders.
It was still him, though. She was certain of it. She took another step back.
He took a slow step forward and gently reached out with his nonmetal arm, as if he was trying to calm a wild animal.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. They helped me, they can help you, too," he said in a gentle tone, which seemed mismatched with his deep, rough voice.
Yet, she took another step back, her legs hitting the small ledge of the roof. She breathed in. She stumbled and lost her balance. She knew how close she had been to the edge. She breathed out, and fell backwards.
Published: 3/26/22