As always, my duty was transportation. I sent Steve, Sam, and Maria through a portal to the emergency staircase at the Triskeleon. I was then required to aid Natasha. Doing so meant kidnapping the council woman she was supposed to pose as.
I walked outside of the Triskeleon entrance. A baseball cap on my head and sunglasses over my eyes, I handed out newspapers to passing workers while I waited for my target.
"Any luck?" asked Natasha eagerly through the earpiece. "We're running out of time here, Blake."
"Patience is a virtue," I mumbled.
"Save the positive attitude for later."
At the curb, a S.H.I.E.L.D issued SUV pulled up. From the car exited the council woman and a single guard. She was led towards the entrance.
Standing near the door, I paced casually. I handed out a newspaper within the guards view, eliminating myself from his list of potential threats. His head turned the opposite way, searching for suspicious people, which left me free to make my move.
I dropped the satchel of newspapers behind a potted plant. Hearing the thud, the council woman's head turned my way, as I was walking for her. My pace quickened. I slapped my hand over her mouth, halting her scream, then before she could struggle and make a scene, I fell on top of her, throwing us through a portal. We made a rough landing on the damn floor. Automatically, she started screaming for her life.
"You're not in danger," I said.
"How do I know that?!" she yelled.
A knock on the door silenced her. Nick Fury entered. At once, the woman relaxed.
Fury looked to me. "I'd get going, if I were you," he said.
I sent my apologies to the woman. She accepted. I left them the room.
I found an eager Natasha in the hallway, dressed in the same clothes as the council woman. She waved a hand over her face, activating the projection. I sent her through a portal into the lobby of the Triskeleon once she was ready.
Soon after I changed to my S.T.R.I.K.E. team gear, I hopped through a portal to the roof of the Triskeleon. I adjusted the station on my earpiece until I heard Sam speaking.
"Hey, guys," I said, which drew a frightened noise from both men. I giggled. "This is Agent Blake. My prep missions were completed. I'm ready for the final act."
"Same goes for Cap and I," said Sam, "You missed a kick ass speech."
"You did a speech without me?" I asked Steve, my tone offended.
"Next time, I'll make sure you're able to hear it," he promised.
"You better," I said, "Who's ready to get this show on the road?"
"Hold your position until you see the signal," ordered Steve.
"What's the signal?"
"Believe me, you'll know.."
I peered over the edge of the roof, looking out over the lake that surrounded a third of the building. Sunlight made the water sparkle. The easy breeze water created tiny waves on the surface. It was a peaceful sight; a type of calm before the storm.
Excluding the obvious death and destruction that would come with the day ahead, I had no clue of what to expect, nor if I would see a peaceful sight again following our fight. The winners would determine that.
A whirring underneath the building broke the serenity. Three platforms were opening; the helicarriers were being readied for launch.
"They're initiating launch," warned Maria.
"Is there a way to evacuate the building?" I asked.
"There's no telling what side they're on," said Sam.
"If we don't give people the chance to live, we're no better than them," I defended.
There was a smile in Steve's voice. "You heard her, Hill. Evacuate the building."
Retreating from the edge, I began on my main task: creating a portal large enough to swallow a helicarrier. To complete that task meant pushing my portals past a limit I hadn't ordered them to ever go.
Above my head, I opened a single portal of normal size. I hooked my fingers on the bottom curve, stretching it. It was sparking, surging, with the rough way I pulled on it.
"Falcon, status?" asked Maria.
Sam hadn't answered right away. "Alright, I'm in," he said at last. It was followed by a panicked, "Shit."
I had started to stretch the portal horizontally when he uttered that. My head turned between my sparking portal and the sky, searching for Sam's winged figure, but keeping an eye on the status of portal.
"Sam?" asked Steve.
"Quinjet on my tail," said Sam.
"Need help?" I asked.
"Focus on your job," insisted Sam, "I got this!"
Maria was reminded of my presence. She asked about my status.
I looked at my portal. It held, stuck at a ten by ten foot size, which was not at all close to being capable of capturing a helicarrier.
"Uh.. Well, I'm working on it," I said finally.
"Be aware of your time," warned Maria.
If I was going to stretch a portal to swallow those massive carriers, manually prying a single one open wouldn't suffice in the short time frame we had.
Unsure of a sudden idea, I snapped my fingers, creating a portal beside the original. I held my hands out, gaining manual control, and brought them together gradually. The twin portals merged.
Sparks flew from their blue borders, resisting collision. I kept a tight hold on them together for several minutes before I withdrew my hands. The borders on the colliding sides disappeared, becoming one. With the new trick working, I snapped my fingers multiple times and merged a dozen portals together, all of them exiting at the same spot: outside the Triskeleon.
I held the portal open horizontally on top of the roof to keep it away from prying eyes. If the time came, I had to flip it vertically and position it near a helicarrier.
"Alpha lock!" yelled Steve.
"And I'm ready if needed," I said.
"You did it?" he breathed, "How does it look?"
"Pretty awesome, actually. First time I've ever done this.."
"First?" repeated Maria, "You mean that was pure luck?"
My sense of accomplishment faltered. "Well, the right answer is yes, but I kind of don't want to admit it."
"Bravo lock!" yelled Sam, interrupting the argument.
"Two down, one to go," informed Maria.
"Copy that," we chorused.
I observed my surroundings. One of the carriers was moving over the Triskeleon, smoke wildly blowing from the top. I assumed from Steve and Sam beating their way through.
Also from the carrier was a speck falling through the sky, which I thought was a piece of debris, until the 'debris' began to scream.
Sam, stripped of his wings, free fell from the carrier.
No matter what I tried to do, how many portals I could drop him through, the speed he had already gained would kill him if he hit the roof. I was forced to run out of the way and watch intently, praying my friend's life wouldn't end in front of my eyes.
Sam yanked the trigger to his parachute. It decreased his speed enough to leave him uninjured.
Sprawling out on the ground, he called out to Steve: "Cap! You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm still on the helicarrier, where are you?"
"Grounded," sighed Sam, "The suit is down. Sorry, Cap."
"Don't worry. I've got it."
Sam craned his neck to look at me. "I almost turned into a pancake, Clara Blake."
"I'm aware," I laughed. I helped him to his feet. "What happened?"
"The Winter Soldier," was all he had to say for me to understand. He unzipped his vest, tossing it to the ground, along with the pack that held his broken wings. "So, Clara," he continued, standing at attention. He was going to ask for an order from me.
Maria chimed in before I had the chance: "Falcon, Rumlow's headed up to the Council."
"You heard her," I said, "Door's over there."
Barely ten minutes after Sam left the roof, he shouted urgently to me over the earpiece. "Clara, you've got incoming!"
"How many?" I asked. I spun to look at the door, it was kicked open, allowing entry for three HYDRA agents.
The girl ran at me, fist clenched and arm outstretched. I grabbed her elbow with my left hand and threw my right elbow into her nose. I twisted her arm, driving her face into the railing. She dropped unconscious, which was a cue for the remaining two men to attack.
It's not the fighting, the person I'm fighting, or the struggle to keep my portals open while in a fight that made abrupt action difficult for me. It's the fact that there is never time for a set plan. I'm familiar and accustomed to being on a team, and teams are used to work together.
I had gained the security of having a plan and a team on the mission to take down S.H.I.E.L.D/HYDRA. Since it was formatted as a mission, I had no problem taking out the HYDRA agents. I was prepared for combat, for being attacked.
Within four minutes I had dropped their bodies. It would have been a solid two minutes if I wasn't juggling the portal. Combat while holding open a portal is similar to doing activities with one hand coated with fresh nail polish. Uncomfortable, but rather quickly, one becomes a professional.
No real injuries were given to me by the attackers, just a few hard hits to my abdomen and one nasty kick to the shin. A bruise was already forming on my stomach, causing the. feeling of accomplishment to return. Having injuries meant I wasn't becoming arrogant in my abilities. There was still room for improvement.
"What's the countdown, Hill?" I asked.
"The targets are acquiring," she said, "Cap, where are you?"
I jerked my arms beside me, grabbing control over the portal and tossed it, pushing it to the closest helicarrier. Uncomfortable tingles tickled through my hands while I repositioned my massive portal. I kept my full focus on it.
The blue brimmed border halted as my attention split, distracted by the whirring of a quinjet.
"Did anyone hack a quinjet by chance?" I asked.
Silence filled the line.
The quinjet rose over the roof, whirring while the guns moved to target me. They fired automatically. A shriek escaped my lips, in fright, I broke one hand from pushing the portal. I tossed a new portal in front of me as a shield, its exit behind the quinjet. It stopped firing, realizing it was firing on itself and soared hard to the right, trying to catch an open shot for me.
I glanced at the massive portal. It started moving again, slower, having lost my full attention. I pushed my hand further, spreading the unknown tingle to my elbow. My arm was starting to tremble with the intense force I put on moving the portal.
I closed the shielding portal and snapped open two new ones, the entrance portal swallowed the quinjet and the exit portal drove it nose first into the roof. feet off the top of the roof. Once the entire jet was through the entrance portal, I spun my fingers into my palm, closing both portals. The tingling sensation was making my entire body tremble, but I couldn't question it, not in that moment.
The building started to shake, presumably because of the quinjet crash. As I swung around to apply my focus to the massive portal again, I saw that was not the case.
My portal had reached the nearest carrier and enclosed about a third of it. The building shake was not only because of the crashing jet, but also caused due to the helicarrier moving through the portal and crashing into the building.
"Charlie lock," breathed Steve.
My spread fingers relaxed, allowing the portal to stay in place and let the carrier fly into it, rather than wasting the energy on moving the portal. A dizzy feeling took over my head and my knees buckled. With both hands, I caught the edge of the roof to steady myself. The tingles in my hand went throughout my whole body.
"Okay, I've changed the targets to the carriers. Clara, you're good to leave. Cap, get out of there."
I snapped my chin up, expecting to not see my portal. But somehow, someway, the massive portal was surging normally, and content in its position. I was mentally controlling it, without even knowing.
Suspicious of my suddenly heightened ability, I grasped control of the portal with my hand. I took long strides backwards. I had to keep the entrance portal open long enough to make the carrier disappear completely. Could I manage that task with such a great distance between us? The question had to unfortunately be answered in that moment.
"Fire now," he said.
I scrunched my eyebrows. We had come into that mission understanding that death might be a possibility. Facing the situation so close to completing the mission seemed unthinkable.
"Rogers," I tried, thinking that I could rack my brain to remember the layouts of the helicarrier he was on and send him a portal.
I thought I could save him. But I was talking to someone who didn't want to be saved, nor spend anymore longer wasting valuable time.
"Clara, you can't," he mumbled, sounding pained, "Do it. Do it now!"
I didn't have time to focus on the loss of him; the shot of pain through my abdomen as I knew I made the wrong decision. It was Captain's orders, and I had to follow.
I jogged around the diameter of the circular roof. If I was fast enough, I could catch Fury and Natasha before they took off in the chopper, which was only a couple hundred feet jump down from the roof.
"Clara? Natasha? Tell me one of you isn't busy!" yelled Sam.
"What's up?" I asked, glancing behind me.
The helicarrier was gaining distance, more than half of it fit through the portal.
"Forty-first floor, north corner! Gonna need someone to catch me!"
I picked up the speed, changing direction to aid him. I could portal in, find him and jump though another portal to safety in less than a minute.
"Stay where you are, I'll be right there," I yelled. I readied my fingers to snap.
"Not an option!" Sam's scream filled my ears. His grunt followed. "Clara, I'm okay. I'm in the chopper."
"Where's your location? We'll come get you," said Natasha.
"Not an option!" I yelled, quoting Sam, "I'll find you when this is over!"
Too surprised with my answer, anyone who heard decided to stay quiet.
It was a great thing I didn't have a fear of heights. My portals were always there to catch me. Well, if I had enough of a drop to ponder the location of a safe exit portal. Fortunately, jumping from the roof of the Triskeleon gave me that chance.
Twenty feet remained before I made the jump of my life. I'd done training jumps, parachuting from quinjets.. Never before a building. Slowly, I was learning that unplanned action was equally terrifying and fun.
The time arrived. I jumped onto the edge of the roof and leaped off the Triskeleon.
The soaring wind roared in my ears and made it hard to breathe. Disgracefully, I flipped onto my stomach. My squinted eyes caught sight of a part of the Potomac that hadn't been touched by debris. I snapped my fingers, sucked in a breath and dropped through a horizontally placed portal, belly-flopping into the water.
Resurfaced, I blew water out from my nose and floated on my back, moaning. The burns on my hands from the night with Zola were still present, so were the cuts on my back from the first encounter with the Winter Soldier, and a new pain was added to the list: red marks on my bare arms and my stomach.
"Good Lord, that was not as graceful as I'd hoped..." I mumbled to myself.
"You are correct, but it did look cool," chimed Sam.
On my back, I started a back-stroke. "When did the earpieces turn waterproof? You know what, forget it. I'm going to swim to shore."
Turns out, the swim from the middle of the Potomac to the shore was not as easy as I'd planned. I didn't get very far before I was panting, my legs and arms were turning unable to move another inch. I opened a portal to the shore just above the water. I grabbed the border and hoisted my hips over it, flipping onto the shore.
"Anyone else getting sleepy?" I wondered, closing my eyes.
"Probably shouldn't fall asleep," said Sam.
So, I laid peacefully in the sand, water splashing my feet for a while.