"I can't believe I've set up such a stupid mission!"
Tony flew over the roof of the building and silently landed next to the door, scanning the floor with his arm and sighing at the presence of no one but homeless people barely standing on their own two feet.
"Are they really keeping all the drug here?" Wanda asked through the com, following Natasha around the building to search for an emergency exit.
"Well, it was kind of a smart move. Who would ever look for criminals in such a place?!" Natasha stated, kicking one of the back doors open and pointing the gun in front of her, searching for any sign of human movements. Heavily dressed people looked at the two women with terrified expressions, although they probably weren't even strong enough to put up a fight, if it was necessary.
"Well, turns out someone did," Tony mocked, observing his two teammates' movements as they walked through a small hallway, leading them towards a room with homeless unharmed people.
"Take them away from here and reach me as soon as possible, I'm going on the upper floor," Tony stated. He barged into the room and shoot small rockets at two guards who had immediately stood up and pointed their guns at him. They fell limply on the ground and Tony surpassed them insensitively, scanning the whole floor.
"Shit, they have an enormous amount of drugs in here. What about taking some of them for our personal needs, Romanoff?" he joked, walking into the first room and making the whole content of it catch fire.
"You wish, Stark. We're too old for this shit."
As the two women kept helping the people to evacuate the building, Tony set on fire most of the drugs they had been keeping in the rooms. The only armed people in the buidling seemed to be the two Tony had already knocked out.
"Something tells me this is not their headquarter. Nat, you see something suspect?" he said, climbing down the stairs to scan the lower floor.
"Nope," she replied immediately.
"Then let's hurry up and get the hell out of here."
As they took in that no one was on the main floor anymore, Natasha and Wanda reached the floor Tony was already in and started to look around for any type of clues, not finding anything but improvised beds and small kitchens.
Tony sighed in exhaustion. "I guess I'll have to give away a big amount of money here. It was a total hole in the water."
"We found the drugs, though," Wanda noticed, looking around herself, her powers tingling at the tip of her fingers. She was eager to use them, but something told her it wasn't going to go the way she wanted.
"It was just a small amount. They're not enough to keep an entire empire stable, kid. We've seen entire skyscrapers almost built out of drugs, this was nothing. I don't know if they were just this weak, or it was just a way to fuck with us. Either way, let's get out of here."
The sudden sound of an explosion made the three of them shoot their head towards the ceiling, parts of the concrete falling next to them as the hot sensation of something burning made their foreheads sweat.
"Was there something flammable in there?" Natasha asked, pointing up.
Tony didn't even have the time to answer when a dark figure appeared behind Wanda and, before she could turn around to notice it, the figure wrapped a silver bracelet around her wrist and she immediately fell on the ground with a loud screech, her body shaking from an electric shock paralyzing in her body.
"Wanda!" Natasha exclaimed, trying to reach her before a bomb exploded right in front of her and she instinctively jumped on the side, hiding behind a table as a dark cloud of fog dispersed in the area, making it impossible for her to see.
"Tony! Where are you?" she exclaimed, covering her mouth and nose with a hand as she squinted her eyes.
"I'm right here, Nat, don't worry. I can't seem to locate Wanda, though." His voice came somewhere in front of her and she moved frantically around, trying not to inhale the gas.
"What does it mean? How can you not locate her?"
"Because she's not in here anymore, Nat."
-
Hazel's hands slightly shook around Steve's waist as he drove slowly, trying not to scare her too much. He would have driven full speed if he was on his own, mostly to clear his mind, but she was with him, and it was enough for him to be careful.
"You ok?" he yelled, trying to be heard by her over the sound of the engine.
"Yeah," she said unsurely, the faces of all the people she had met in their warm shelter running in her head like an album of old photos. She hadn't created a particularly strong bond with them, so she hadn't suffered when she left them, but they were still the closest thing she had had to a family, once she had run away from her home. She had spent almost five months in there, before realizing that they were making way too many questions about her physical stability despite of her way of life, which forced her to leave, once again.
And the thought of seeing them again in an autopsy room wasn't thrilling her.
"We're almost there," Steve said, spotting the hospital in front of him. He parked next to the sidewalk and waited for Hazel to jump off before doing the same, leaving both of the helmets on the motorbike.
Hazel waited for Steve as she looked at the frightening building and sighed heavily, trying to focus on her powers and nothing else.
"Come on, let's go," Steve said, squeezing her shoulders gently before leading the way inside. They walked side by side as nurses and patients started recognizing them –mainly Steve-. They were identified by one of the secretaries that guided them towards a long hall and a flight of stairs to reach what they both read was the -2 floor.
The secretary walked them towards a cream colored door and waited for them to enter before following them and close the doors behind her, standing in front of it as the two superheroes reached the hospital beds with human shaped black cases laying on.
Hazel's breath hitched as she took in the amount of dead people in the room and instinctively squeezed Steve's hand, who turned towards her with a worried expression.
"You okay?" he mouthed for probably the thousandth time that day, and she insecurely nodded, wanting nothing more than to get this over and done with.
"Who am I starting from?" Hazel asked at the secretary, who nodded her head towards the first body on her right. Hazel walked slowly towards it as Steve eyed the woman suspiciously, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the situation. Why wasn't there any nurse or doctor to give them information about the time of death, or their physical conditions when they died? The injuries? Why was Hazel walking towards the body as if she was purposely walking on a mine?
Hazel zipped the case without even listening to Steve but, as she spotted a red object appearing in front of her instead of a cold face and she turned towards the secretary who had disappeared, her eyes widened in shock.
"Steve!" she exclaimed, slowly turning towards the man as the sound of an explosion made her move towards him, a green shield suddenly covering them as they both flew towards the wall, Steve's body tried to protect Hazel's as he hit the wall harshly, a metal bar stabbing him in the chest and snapping in two as he fell on the ground. Hazel tried to keep herself steady as her fingers held the shield for dear life, red flames surrounding it dangerously while Steve remained unconscious behind her.
"Steve, please, wake up. Steve!" she exclaimed, tears pricking at her eyes as she steadied her back towards the wall, sweat dripping down her body.
As the explosion started to cease down, so did the shield. Flames kept crackling in the room, but didn't seem a menace at the moment for the girl, too intent in making sure Steve was alright. He slowly opened his eyes and coughed harshly as he clutched his stomach, his hands getting immediately stained with blood.
"Oh my god," she whispered, staring at the piece of metal that had pierced him from side to side at the level of his belly button.
"Ok, ok. It's ok, you'll be ok," she started stuttering, more to herself than to the captain, whose breath seemed unsteady and too forced. She placed her hands on his chest and her green power flowed towards his wounded body, slowly healing his burns and the concussion that had caused his fainting. It was the metal bar that worried her the worst, but she knew she could have healed him. She just needed time, and she didn't know if she had any.
She managed to remove the bar slowly as her power shielded the walls of his organs, making sure the amount of blood that was leaking wasn't too much.
But she was too soon taken away from him as a pair of hands grabbed her from her shoulders and pushed her away from him, a faint green still dancing on top of Steve's stomach.
"Hazel..." Steve managed to mutter over the unbearable pain soothed only by the hint of her power. He tried to steady himself and reach for Hazel, but she was too far away from his touch.
Another hand had reached her mouth to keep her from yelling and another one ended on her wrist, clutching it with a bracelet that released an electric bolt that made her whole body shake. She let out a whimper as Steve turned blurrier and blurrier behind the gases of the previous explosion.
And, soon enough, he was completely gone.
I couldn't wait to publish this chapter omfg
I'm noticing this story has already a few readers and, even if some are not voting or commenting, I still want to thank you for having taken some of your time to read this story, it really means a lot to me c:
love you all a lot,
Elena.
EDITED