Softcore - The Neighbourhood
I'm always gone, out on the go
I'm on the run, but you're home alone
I'm too consumed with my own life
Are we too young for this?
Feels like a can't move
Sharing my heart
It's tearing me apart.
Amara Stark wasn't aware that Pietro was feeling sidelined and she felt awful about it. As they baked cookies and sang karaoke that night, they made a promise to tell each other everything once again.
At that moment Amara told him everything: all about her new friends, her recent patrols, and that MJ knew everything too.
"What!? You told your friend? What did Stark say?"
"Uh... I haven't actually told anyone, yet..."
"You blew your cover, by choice, and didn't think it was important to tell your mission commander?"
"No, it's not, because this has nothing to do with the mission, that's my personal life."
"Okay, how about telling your dad about your personal life?"
"Peepee, I think you're taking this a little too seriously."
"I don't think you're taking this seriously enough."
"Would you relax! I'm gonna tell him."
"It better be soon."
"Oh, come on! He'll be fine! It's not like he hasn't told the whole world his identity."
"If he'll be fine, then why don't you tell him."
"I'm going to, would you chill!"
"Okay, fine."
They sat in silence for a little while until Amara said, "You want to meet MJ?" Amara loved how, no matter what the two of them said to each other, neither of them ever took it personally, they just moved on.
Pietro thought for a second, "Yeah, let's do it."
"Great, I'll tell her, she'll be excited. Now give me a cookie, and next time we're not adding paprika, I don't what possessed you to do that."
"It's a Sokovian delicacy, you're lucky you got to try it."
"You can't just add paprika to everything and call it a Sokovian delicacy."
"Paprika is a Sokovian delicacy, for your information."
"N-no paprika is from Mexico and became popular in Hungary, Sokovia is nowhere on that map. Paprikash is a Sokovian delicacy, but not paprika, I'm sorry."
"I can't believe you know so much about paprika."
"And I can't believe you don't for someone who claimed it was a staple of your home."
"Is that skirt new?" Pietro asked, once again, talking about something new.
"Yeah, I bought it yesterday, what do you think?" Amara smiled grateful for how their relationship was.
"I like it, looks good on you."
"Thanks!"
"Go to bed, you have school tomorrow!"
"You know, Peepee, I am actually kind of tired so I'm gonna go to bed, but not because you told me. Just because I want to."
Pietro turned to speed out the door and said, "night," before closing the door behind him.
Amara slept well that night.
—————
Amara was ready on time the next day, she had picked out a perfect outfit, had time to put on all of her makeup - including eyeliner -, had a delicious breakfast and managed to chat with Pietro once more, until it was almost time to leave.
She was using her powers to bring her shoes and bag toward her when Steve caught them both as they were flying through the air.
When Amara gave Steve a confused look, he said, "No school today, we need you, we got a lead on Rumlow, the first one for months, and we need all the backup we can get."
"Okay."
Steve addressed everyone now, "Suit up, 5 minutes."
Amara made her way back up to her room and placed her things down to one side and then walked over to the far wall of her room. She used her powers to unlock the mechanism holding her suit from within - a genius idea from Amara herself, ensuring that only she would have access to her suit - and she put it on, quickly.
She met Pietro on the way out and questioned him on whether or not he'd be joining them.
"No, Stark assigned me with him for that university fund thing, he said that I need to become less dependent on Wanda, whatever that means. I'm protective, but I'm her brother and she's my only family, so of course, I will prioritise her safety over anybody else's," he said in reply.
"Yeah that makes sense, but I think that point is that you rely on her too much, you need to learn to fight without her, and she does, too," Amara replied, defending her father's choice.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Plus, working with new people means new... combo moves!"
"Yeah! I'll see you when I get back, yeah?"
"Yeah."
—————
The flight to Lagos was longer than she expected it to be, but Amara wasn't complaining, she had sat on the side with her earphones in, almost falling asleep and only disrupting this when Wanda nudged her awake for Steve's mission briefing.
It was a simple enough plan, set a perimeter and slowly close in on the suspects. They also had to recover a few vials of some unidentified substance.
And when they finally got there they readied themselves into positions. Amara, Wanda and Natasha sat at a coffee shop, separate tables, spaced far enough away from each other that they can each get a different scope of their surroundings, but still close enough to see each other in case they had to communicate.
Amara watched as Wanda adds a pack of sugar to her coffee and stirs it as she looks around her.
Suddenly Steve's voice comes through their earpieces, "All right, what do you see?" He said from his viewpoint from a hotel room window.
Wanda replied swiftly, "Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street."
"It's a good target," Amara replied from the opposite table. She looked around trying to take note of everything around her.
Steve's voice was heard again through the radio, "There's an ATM in the south corner which means..."
"Cameras," Wanda replied, catching on.
"Both cross streets are one way," Steve continued.
"So compromised escape routes," Amara replied.
"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen, he isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out," Steve said. "You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
Wanda looked ahead, "Yeah, the red one, it's cute."
"It's also bulletproof," Natasha chimed in, "which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody, probably us."
Wanda glanced over at Amara, taking a sip from her coffee, "You guys know we can move things with our minds, right?"
Amara smirked, "Just give us the word, we'll lift them up, take them out, easy peasy."
"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Natasha said in that way that tells us she's teaching us something valuable, but she's also not Steve.
Suddenly, Sam, who was standing on the roof of a nearby building, could be heard through the earpieces, "Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?"
"Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?" Natasha remarked.
"Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him," Steve said in an attempt to keep everyone on track.
Amara heard Sam chuckle as he said, "If he sees us coming that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us."
Amara sensed the problem before Steve pointed out the garbage truck trying to squeeze its way through a small crowded street; crashing into anything in its way. "Sam, see that garbage truck? Tag it," he said.
Amara assumed that Sam had done what was asked of him when Sam addressed his suit's UI, "Give me X-Ray." A moment passed, "That truck's loaded for max weight. And the driver's armed."
Natasha spoke up in realisation, "It's a battering ram."
"Go now," Steve ordered.
"What?" Wanda and Amara said together.
"He's not hitting the police," Steve said rushing out of the hotel room.
Amara saw Sam gliding through the sky above her and she got up to fly beside him.
They made their way to the Institute for Infectious Diseases but were only in time to see the truck slam into the gateway ahead and flip over, destroying the security barrier. Just as quickly, two trucks drove in through the new entrance and soldiers in black armour emerged, firing rifles into the courtyard.
Four soldiers threw what appeared to be gas canisters into the building as soldiers wearing gas masks entered the scene.
Finally Sam and Amara landed, but not before they saw Cap's dive past them and land straight onto a soldier leaning on the car, knocking him clean out.
Amara landed on the roof of a nearby car while Sam still hovered above. She watched as Steve blocked three bullets with his shield and kicked the car he landed on, sending an oncoming solider onto the floor. He threw his shield, which hit another officer, flipping him over with the force and rendering him unconscious, all in a split second the shield came back to his arm.
Steve headed around the back of a car and climbed up the bumper of another kicking another armed man, waiting on the car roof, into the side of the institute, "Body armour, AR-15s. I make nine hostiles."
Amara was busy herself, she had launched herself off of the car and used her powers to pull on of the soldiers towards her before kicking him in the crotch and slamming him onto the floor. She used the man's unconscious body almost like a bowling ball to knock over a nearby hostile. She then used her powers to draw the weapons from their unconscious bodies to her, "I make seven."
Amara looked up as she saw Sam fly under an underpass and head for the roof, she sensed two rogues up there, but as she levitated herself up to help him, she saw him cocoon himself using his wings as protection from the oncoming bullets then as he got closer, opened his wings so he was facing his attackers and kicked them both with one leg each and used the momentum to twist himself so he was facing them.
The kick however had only stunned them and they both got up again. Sam headed for the one on the right so Amara took the left. She ran towards him punching him in the gut and formed a flame in her right fist as she twisted her entire body to right hook the guy, leaving him asleep on the floor. Sam had also been successful at shooting the right guy off the side of the roof, she assumed from the way he was looking over the ledge. "Make that five," he said.
Amara made her way towards Sam, standing next to him at the ledge and watching Wanda approaching in the sky as she flew over Sam's head and onto the pavement below, a red burst of energy emanating from her. She used her powers to creat an energy force field between her and the bullets currently being fired at her by one officer. "Amara," she said encouraging her. Then she grabbed ahold of him with her powers and sent him flying their way.
Amara levitated off of the ledge and caught him in midair with her own powers and twisted herself and the man so as to keep his momentum going, and sent him flying towards the concrete.
Sam landed next to them and continued walking as his wings shrunk back into his suit, "Four."
Sam's drone flies by, scanning the building.
"Rumlow's on the third floor," Sam said while they all approached each other.
Steve addressed Wanda, "Wanda, just like we practiced."
"What about the gas?" She asked in reply.
He addressed Amara and Wanda this time, "Get it out."
Steve got up on a car once again and jumped, but this time, when he jumped, Wanda's powers pushed him into the building.
After that Amara wasn't sure what was happening inside the institute, but that doesn't matter, she had enough to deal with outside.
She saw Wanda break the windows and draw the gas out of the building. Wanda looked at Amara and gestured toward the building cloud - she knew what she had to do. Amara joined in, but her job wasn't to draw the gas out, it was to convert the gas to something less harmful, after a split second, she decided on water vapour.
Amara whirled the gas into a small tornado, converting the particles to H2O and dispersing it into the atmosphere above her; it was a beautiful sight, like the barrier between the sky and the earth had been bridged over.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon," Steve said through the radio.
"I'm on it," Natasha said, riding into the car park on her motorbike.
"Took you long enough," Amara shouted over the sound of the growing gas cloud in front of her.
Nat braked harshly allowing the tires to skid along the floor as she pushed the bike away and into a mercenary coming towards her, "Well, not all of us can fly," she said as she ran towards the remaining guards.
She threw an electric disk at one of them and and grabbed onto them, using the momentum of her run up to kick the man behind into a car. Then she threw the man she was holding onto the floor, slamming him down with force.
She noticed a soldier trying to get inside the truck so she kicked the door into him as he tried to enter, backed him up against the side of the vehicle, before uppercutting the guy in nose and kneeing him in the groin. He fell to the ground and she caught his gun before he did.
Natasha turned around and used the gun to throw the other guy's gun away from him. She kicked him in the stomach and he fell, only for her to be approached by the guy she electrocuted. She kicked him in the stomach, too and towards the ground once more.
Finally, the last two guys approached her and she caught one's punch, using the momentum to flip him onto the ground. Then she leaped onto the hood of the car and threw another electric disk at the officer in front of her.
Suddenly, Natasha felt herself being pulled by Rumlow, himself onto the roof of the car. Natasha delivers punch after punch, kick after kick, but it was almost like he wasn't affected by it at all. She grabbed another electric disk and aimed it for his neck, but she realised with shock, that even that, had no effect on the man.
"I don't work like that no more," he said in a gravelly voice. He flipped Natasha into the hole at the top of the vehicle and threw a hand grenade in after her, "Fire in the hole," then he closed the latch, Natasha trapped inside.
Amara who had been watching the whole time, while carefully trying to convert the gas quickly, shouted, "No!"
She was about to step in when she felt, all of a sudden that Natasha would be okay. Still, she remained on standby, just in case.
Sure enough, half a second later, Natasha made it out and it looked like she had used a soldier that was inside as a shield from the blast. Smart, I guess that's what she means by thinking on your feet, Amara thought to herself.
She saw an officer emerge from a truck, a big gun in hand. Steve was out on the balcony, but luckily saw the gun aimed at him just in time. He ran across the top floor, looking for an escape as the officer kept firing.
Amara couldn't see Steve. She wanted to help. She pulled one hand away from the gas, careful to keep the gas under her control, still, and used it to crush the truck in on itself, trapping the soldiers inside.
Steve jumped out the end of the building, hitting the side on a parked truck on the way down. He groaned in pain and said in his earpiece, "Thanks, kid."
"Anytime, Captain," she replied, smiling at the fact that he was alright.
"Sam," Steve called through the radio, "He's in an AFV heading north."
Amara and Wanda were still occupied disposing of the gas, but she could hear the truck crashing into everything in its way. They gave each other a look to say we need to hurry up, they might need backup.
Sam replied after a moment, "I got four, they're splitting up."
Amara heard Natasha's voice sound through her ears, "I got the two on the left."
"Amara, That's all of it, you okay to finish it off?"
"Yeah! Go! Help them!"
"Good!"
Wanda lifted herself off of the ground and shot across the sky, leaving Amara to convert the last of the gas to water vapour.
"They ditched their gear. It's a shell game now. One of them has the payload," Steve said.
Amara worked desperately, quickly, but confidently, rushing to get this done as fast as she could. She looked ahead in the direction Wanda left, sure enough, she saw Cap's shield being thrown into the air and it let off a blast a second later, "Shit! I'm almost done!" Amara shouted.
Amara heard Rumlows voice, faintly through Steve's comms, "There you are, you son of a bitch. I've been waiting for this," Then a crash.
Sam and Natasha were taking down the guys with the possible weapon, Amara could hear the gunshots, then, "He doesn't have it. I'm empty!" Sam's voice could be heard.
"Out of the way!" Natasha shouted to onlookers.
"Ok last bit," Amara said to herself, panting. An enormous amount of energy had been used to do this task and she wouldn't be able to fully recover, not yet. But was still gonna try. Amara twisted her hand one more time, allowing her power to die through her and when it was over, she fell to the floor, coughing and sputtering. She took a few deep breaths and got back up again, determined to help.
"Done! I'm done! Coming to you!" Amara shouted.
"Get to Steve," Sam said.
"On it!"
Amara had used too much energy, she couldn't get herself to fly, she had to run, "Great, now I have to run."
She ran faster than she had ever run before, she only hoped she would make it in time. She had this sinking feeling that something bad was about to happen.
—————
On the other side of the city, Natasha was fighting off two guys, looking for the biological weapon. One of them had it. She had a gun aimed for one guy, but the mercenary next to her had the vial in his hands, "Drop it," he said. "Or I'll drop this."
Amara tensed up, sensing what was happening.
The guy Natasha was aiming a gun at repeated, "Drop it! He'll do it!"
Sam's drone appeared behind the vial guy and shot him in the neck, in that shock filled moment he let go of the vial, letting it fall to the floor.
Without thinking, Natasha shot the soldier in front of her and dove for the vial, catching it just before it hit the ground. She got up and looked at the drone, "Payload secure. Thanks, Sam."
"Don't thank me," Sam replied smugly.
"I'm not thanking that thing," Natasha said, confused and slightly amused.
"His name is Redwing," Sam said proudly.
"I'm still not thanking it."
"He's cute. Go ahead, pet him," Sam said, clearly amused at the situation.
—————
Amara was three minutes away, or at least that's what her heads up display said, she could make it there quicker, she knew she could. She could still hear the fight between Rumlow and Steve.
"Come on," Rumlow shouted.
Amara was close enough now to sense what was going on. Rumlow head butted Steve, stunning him slightly then he punched him, throwing him into a nearby confectionary stand. Steve dodged his oncoming attacks, landing a few punches, too.
Rumlow had Steve pinned to the side of a building, "This is for dropping a building on my face," then he extended a knife out from his gauntlet and tried to stab Steve, but he dodged it, elbowed him and pulled the gauntlet off of him, throwing it to the floor. Rumlow had one more knife, but Steve dodged him again and kicked him down across the floor.
Amara was there, she made it, but she was stuck behind the crowd. She tried to push her way to the front, and she saw Rumlow take his helmet off, kneeling on the floor.
Steve walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar, "I think I look pretty good, all things considered," Rumlow said, Amara was confused was he surrendering?
"Who's you're buyer?" Steve asked.
And that's when Amara noticed it, "Cap! Cap! It's a bomb vest!" She saw no reaction from him, "Cap? Does anyone copy?" She reached for her ear, her comms were fine, then she realised that Steve's comms had been badly damaged, he can't hear her.
"You know, he knew you," Rumlow said, distracting Steve.
She heard the others try telling Steve, but it was useless. She had to get these people away. "Everybody move! Get out of here! It's a bomb! Move, People, let's go!"
"Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky," Amara knew that once Rumlow mentioned Bucky, all hopes of Steve noticing the vest was gone.
"What did you say?" Steve said, angrily.
"He remembered you. I was there. He got all weepy about it. Till they put his brain back in the blender," Steve was quiet and Amara stepped forward, just as confused as Steve. "He wanted you to know something. He said to me, "Please tell Rogers. When you gotta go, you gotta go."" Then a villainous look plastered Rumlow's face as he said. "And you're coming with me." He reached into his pocket and took out the trigger for the bomb.
Wanda rushed forwards, attempting to contain the blast and as Amara stepped forward to use her fire powers to extinguish the flame, it seemed that Wanda was losing control of the blast.
Amara tried to quickly extinguish the flames, and it started to work until Wanda had almost completely lost control and sent the ball of flames flying through the air and devastating entire floors of a nearby office building.
Amara gasped in shock and saw Wanda take a shaky breath as she pulled her trembling hand to her mouth, her eyes shocked at what she had just caused.
Steve looked up in horror, "Oh my... Sam. We need... Fire and Rescue... on the south side of the building. We gotta get up there."
Amara rushed over to Wanda in a heartbeat, taking her by the shoulders and turning her away from the damage she caused, "It's okay, they'll be okay, fire and rescue's going up, it'll be fine, they'll be saved," she said repeatedly to Wanda to calm her down.
"I- I did that, I hurt those people, it's my fault," Wanda responded, her lip quivering.
"It's your fault, it's my fault, it's everyone's fault, okay, we're a team, and I should've helped you keep control. You did what you needed to do, and it would've worked."
"I can't- I don't want-"
"It's okay, don't worry. They'll be fine," Over and over she repeated herself, but as she looked back at the damage behind her, she believed what she was saying less and less. Nevertheless, she made sure that Wanda never looked back for fear of the guilt that would come crashing down onto her even more than it already was. She would never let her know.
Natasha approached them, seconds later and Amara whispered, "Have you got her? I'm gonna try and help."
"Yeah, go," Natasha replied.
Amara leaped up and into the building, trying to save as many people as she could, using her powers, she didn't know if it would be enough, but she had to try.
(A/N: what do you guys think. I spent ages on this chapter replaying and rewatching civil war to analyse every move that the characters made to make this story as authentic as possible. I hope it lived up to your guys' expectations!!!)