The Quinjet was flying over cities and sun was on top of the sky as it was noon, the atmosphere inside was pretty tense, the mission was half complete to say the least.
At least the teenager they were looking for was found, but definitely in an unexpected condition. She was laying down on the medical bed deep in her sleep, while the avengers were wide awake after watching the chaos at the HYDRA base,
Black widow was busy in a heated fight, she was going against the HYDRA soldiers when she heard Hawkeye's voice in com,
"they're escaping from southern side of building, I'll need backup though."
"on my way." She replied.
She ended the last one standing with a punch on his face and made her way to Hawkeye,
Hawkeye had his arrow ready to shoot at the target while he was hidden behind a tree, ignoring all the bodies of soldiers who were defeated but luckily still alive, Black widow came close enough, also hiding behind a tree on his left,
"what's our status?" she asked.
"our target's gonna come out of there, but won't be alone."
"won't have to worry about that."
Just as she was finished saying that, Brandon came out of the building with more soldiers for protection with a briefcase in his hands, indicting he had the cube and that's just what the two avengers were ready for, they both nodded as a signal before coming out of their hiding spot,
Hawkeye shot an arrow that blasted near the soldiers, taking 2 down, others soon got alert and took their positions and aimed at them both, Hawkeye ran behind another tree and kept shooting while Black widow slid down on ground to get closer to one of the soldier and kicked his knee, when he lost his balance in pain she quickly stole his gun and shot his other leg before shooting 3 more down, other remaining ones left with Brandon as the duo followed behind them,
Brandon and his soldiers were still a bit far away from the chopper when they noticed they were the next target,
"hold them here."
His soldiers obeyed the orders and started shooting making the duo take cover while Brandon ran away with the briefcase, hawkeye got ready with his flash arrow and shot it, as soon as it reached soldiers, the flash made them blind for few seconds, taking this opportunity black widow threw taser disks at them, soldiers felt the shock up their bones and fell on the ground.
The duo once again continued on their way to Brandon but they saw more soldiers coming their way,
"they just keep coming."
"I'll take care of them, you go." Hawkeye told her.
Natasha ran towards chopper leaving Hawkeye to deal with them, once she was close enough she was about to use the Widow's bite but got tackled down by someone,
Someone had hold of her from behind choking her, she used her Widow's bite on that person and got up to see who it was.
"you?" she asked staring at the cold eyes of the winter solider.
He didn't take much time to recover and got up in an instant, she had only ever seen him once at a mission, but she remembered him vividly, her scar would always remind her of him, while on the other hand, Bucky could care less who was on the other side, she was just an obstacle in his way to complete his orders, something he had to get rid of.
He ran forward and tried to punch her face but she ducked down and kicked him on stomach but it didn't hurt him, instead he grabbed her ankle and threw her on the ground before making a tight fist to hit her on face, Black widow luckily rolled to her right making him hit the ground instead. Black widow got up and kicked him on the face before performing her signature Black widow move, when she was on his shoulder she kept hitting his head with her elbows but he knelt forward making her back hit the ground harshly and lost her grip on him.
Before he could do anything else she pulled out a Widow's bite again and this time she made sure it hit his forehead where his skin was exposed. Luckily it indeed worked, he was struggling against it and would keep him down for a short amount of time. Taking this advantage, she ran after Brandon again, who was already in the chopper which was already far from ground and the facility,
"Thor, our package is flying away."
Right after saying this, lighting shattered the atmosphere and Thor came charging in from the sky and landed infront of the chopper, the ground beneath his feet left cracks and burnt grass as he swung his hammer in air gathering lighting before striking it on the chopper.
The chopper started shaking before crashing on ground harshly, but not enough to kill anyone inside it, the pilot tried to take off again but nothing was working anymore,
"what happened? Start it again." Brandon ordered in anger,
"sir, I'm trying. Every system has failed."
"fuck it." Brandon got out of the chopper with briefcase in his hands and saw Thor coming his way with pure rage,
"this doesn't belong to you." he said,
Back with Black widow,
Bucky was on his feet again and came charging towards Black widow, ready to attack with his metal arm but got interrupted by a shield instead. Both black widow and the winter soldier gazed where the shield came from,
Captain America caught the shield back and starred at the cold eyes of his best friend, unaware of the fact of who he was behind the mask, the winter soldier was gazing back not remembering his pal standing at the end of the line, a little part of Bucky had a light telling him to wake up but not strong enough to overpower the winter soldier.
With Hawkeye,
He was shooting every target infront of him, arrows upon arrows, until something bigger caught his attention, on his right he saw an army with tanks coming his way,
He stared at the sight with big eyes and gave an awkward laugh,
"I knew it was going to be a tiring day"
He took out another arrow and aimed at the army when he heard loud thumps and growling echoing everywhere, before anyone could figure out what it was, Hulk came flying in and smashed one of the tanks .
The army kept shooting at Hulk but it didn't even put a scratch on him, while he was destroying all of their tanks with ease
With Thor,
He was beyond angry that the cube and scepter were being misused by wrong hands, he didn't have time for this, he had a war to stop, he cannot be interrupted by some humans.
In a matter of seconds an army was ready to defend the HYDRA scientists, Thor tightened his hold on mjolnir and got ready to strike again,
Captain tightened the belt of his shield on his arm while black widow loaded her guns and got ready to fight the mysterious figure with a metal arm,
Hawkeye and his target set, he just needed to shoot the target while Hulk was tightening his fist to smash.
Suddenly,
Everyone heard a faint noise coming from far away which felt like a scream, it didn't take long until they all felt the ground shaking, it felt like a mild earthquake, everyone's attention was shifted, it felt unsettling but couldn't see what it was. Yet.
Everyone heard blasts and crashes coming from the north side of the facility, the view they saw was not what anyone expected, giant spikes were rising from the ground that were demolishing the facility, everyone stopped what they were doing to gawk at the sight, the spikes that looked to be made of crystals kept expending and consuming more and more area and it was coming their way.
"oh shit." Hawkeye said.
Hulk ran towards him and grabbed him before jumping ahead on opposite direction, the solider on the other hand were running for their life screaming,
Black widow and Captain were running away as fast as possible to get out of the area and so was Winter soldier who was separated from them,
Thor and the scientist were shocked by the horrifying sight and forgot about their own fight, Thor was confused because he had never seen anything like this, but the scientists knew what was that about, specially Strucker. At the moment they only had one job. run. But Thor was determined to take the cube back, he swung his hammer to hit Brandon but got hit by a blue beam from the sky,
In the sky there was a chopper which came down to take the HYDRA scientist, Brandon quickly climbed inside and took off.
Thor was trying to follow them by flying but saw Captain and Black widow running down on the ground who were close to the spikes, he couldn't leave them behind, he glanced at the chopper one last time before going down to help them escape.
Hulk landed on the ground and threw Hawkeye away, he crashed harshly but got up grunting nonetheless,
"ughh, my back."
Thor also landed near them with Captain and Widow.
They all took a breath and looked at the area behind them, everything was destroyed, the whole facility was down, there was nothing left, nothing but those spikes that caused it all, everyone were equally confused,
What happened?
The cube and scepter were gone, facility destroyed, the people to blame had escaped. The mission wasn't 100% successful, but they still had the girl they were looking for at least. Well, not in a state they were expecting.
Coulson was piloting the quinjet, Thor was sitting around the corner not saying much, Steve, Clint and Bruce were standing nearby while Natasha was treating Diya's injuries, which were more than enough to raise concerns, Tony didn't leave her side this whole time,
He was just as shocked as everyone else but more angrier too for obvious reason, he was feeling guilty and responsible, maybe if he made different decisions they wouldn't be in this situation, if he didn't let her go that day, if only he stayed with her, he should've been faster to locate that base.
"is she alright?" Michael asked who was handcuffed at the corner.
"no, thanks to your people." Tony answered.
"I'm sorry I'm confused why is he here?"
"he's the only one we were able to capture." Steve answered.
"correction, I stay behind on purpose." Michael asked defending himself.
"and why would that be?"
"I don't want to work for them anymore."
"what makes you think we would believe you that easily?" Clint jumped in their conversation.
"then don't believe me, but remember that I'm your only insider intel so far."
"Nick Fury wants to interrogate him personally as soon as we land." Agent Coulson informed everyone.
"nothing new, he always wants the first bite of the cake." Tony remarked.
Thor got up from his place before he could overthink the situation and worry more than he already does because the war threat still stands and he had to keep his calm and make a wise decision. For now there are other problems at their hands,
"how is the little one holding?" he asked approaching the group.
"not so good, I've treated all the bruises but her fever is getting worse."
"once we get back at the tower we can give her proper treatment." Banner told them.
"so are we just going to talk about that thing or not? I know we all saw that, it almost killed us and destroyed the facility in matter of seconds...." Captain America said and turned to Michael once again, everyone's attention was shifted to him now, they all knew what captain was talking about, it left them all terrified to say the least, "...what was that? Another HYDRA weapon?"
Tony sunk deeper in his seat and looked away before glancing at the brunette, "it wasn't them."
"then who was it?"
"Loki's scepter?" Black widow suggested.
"...it was her...." Michael answered before Tony could. Everyone frowned and turned their head towards the girl in shock, that was the last answer they were expecting to hear, "they did something to her."
"what?"Black widow asked glaring daggers at him,
"I don't know....they were trying some human enhancing experiments with help of that scepter....and it worked."
Both Captain and Widow's eyes got wide hearing that, they slowly looked back at her,
When Natasha joined SHIELD, she did it because she had a second chance at life and to redeem her deeds and wash the red, to make sure no more kids could have the same fate as her, yet this happened again, to someone she knew personally, by someone who she thought existed to help the world not destroy it, This was something that hurt her on a personal level.
Steve took part in human enhancing but it was his choice, he volunteered willingly because he wanted to help his country, he joined SHIELD because of Peggy, it was like a part of her would stay with him forever if he worked there, but from past few days he is rethinking his decisions, this isn't what he signed up for, this is everything against what he believed in. maybe if he stayed with her a little longer that night, maybe if he sensed something was wrong, just maybe.
The rest of the flight was mostly silent, half of them were tired and the rest were just not in the mood to talk, not to mention their mission was left incomplete with the cube and scepter still out in enemy's hand. This case would take longer than they thought.