Bailey flew in the air with her hands tucked under Nat's arms, faster than her teenage self would only dream of being able to do one day.
The Avengers were called to assemble in the church, the final part of the city where the Ultron's roamed freely. Together they had managed to get nearly all the Sokovians in the city into lifeboats, saving them from the risk that was invading. They had also destroyed nearly half of the robots, the rest dispersing and trying to run to survive.
They were half-way to saving the Earth. What was left for them now was to make sure they disabled the key that could send the meteor crashing into the world's surface and wiping out millions, as well as making sure not a single Ultron left to the real world, and every civilian did get transported off. Injured, dead, alive, unconscious, they deserved to feel the world again someway.
"Romanoff, you and Baxter better not be hiding in a dark corner," Tony impatiently teased, waiting for the last two members of the team to arrive and aid them in the never-ending fight.
"Relax, Shell-Head. Not all of us are enhanced with super-speed," Nat rolled her eyes with her left hand clicked her mic on, shooting back to him with a quip on the enhanced Maximoff Kid that was able to speed through the city in less than a few seconds.
They came in through a wide Church window that had been smashed during the previous fight, leaving a rainbow of colours to litter the floor of the Church. Bailey dropped down next to the glass, unwrapping her hands from around Nat and immediately falling into a stance that looked out the giant doors where she could watch the metal figures creep up on them.
Natasha wasn't far behind her, stepping to her side and too was focused with the robots approaching, ready for battle. Robots circled the surroundings, trying to close in and reach the key. Bailey snarled at one that got too close to her, and shot at it from in the sky. She was using her eagle-eyes, and of course the help from Friday, to scan the makeshift Ultron's picking out possible threats to her teammates. The robots seemed to concentrate on the Avengers stationed on the ground rather than the four that flew around everywhere.
"What's the drill?" Natasha asked Tony, scanning the room around her.
"That," Tony pointed his steel hand at the vibranium key, "is the drill."
"Three o'clock," Bailey listened to Fridays accented voice, and turned to shoot at a creeping metal man.
"If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose," Tony broke it down perfectly, not adding any pressure at all to the already complicated situation.
As if they needed a better reason to place their lives on the line, now it was really happening, again. They were completely ready to kick as many asses as they possibly could. This moment in time Bax was completely grateful she had a gun in her hands, where she didn't have to get up close and personal like Pietro, or Cap. Even Natasha surveyed the grounds, electroshock batons in hand, and lodged them in the chest of her opponents.
The Hulk fell down on the ground next to Bailey, lading on two of the robots she was currently fighting with. She looked up to his face, and he let out a grunt of dusty air, which she smiled back to as he somehow held recognition in his eyes. Did he know who she was, or how she managed to convince Banner to clean his image he hated and paint it over by saving a couple more lives?
The real Ultron floated down to get a closer look at what was happening, he probably held another speech up his sleeve.
"Is that the best you could do?" Thor shouted out to him, popping his arms and head forward like a pigeon trying to intimidate a worm.
Okay that was a weird comparison.
"You moron, have you never watched a movie? You don't ask that!" Bailey sighed, slapping her forehead with her hand.
Ultron raised an arms, as if summoning more of his minions, which was in fact his intentions. Every one of his copies came running down the streets, or flying past buildings, all in an army formation and never breaking away from their group.
Ultron's arms raised, as if accepting praise from a whole world, "You had to ask," Steve sighed and looked at Thor with a tiring expression.
"This is the best I can do," The mechanical voice that would surely haunt every one of Bailey's nightmares replied to Thor.
"This is exactly what I wanted. All of you... against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?" He clamped his fist in front of his body, a signal sent to each of his minions.
Bailey breathed in deeply, holding it in as she looked behind her, meeting the bright green eyes of Natasha Romanoff who simply made a smirk at the challenge before noticing the woman staring at her. When they made eye contact, Bailey pulled away with a smile stretched on her face and a new reason to make it out of this alive. With every pulsing thought, The Avengers knew they would die on this rock rather than let a single soul beneath them.
"Well, like the old man said. Together," Tony's machine made a noise as he shrugged his shoulders and stood in a battle stance. There were no other words Bax could think of that would've spoken the message better.
At the last breath of his sentence, the army raced forward, charging into a two-sided battle.
Bailey didn't have any great feeling about this at all, she drew in sharp takes of air, her chest tightening in fear. She still balled her hands around her gun, squared her shoulders and raised her head. This would definitely be a great story to either tell at a celebratory party, or her funeral.
She could only hope they would mention she was a great baker.
Hulk let out a roar, and that was the boost Bax needed to start moving through the air. She closed her right eye, and aimed each shot almost as perfectly as Clint was. She managed to kick a few of the robots down that had climbed up the rocks, and flew over her team's heads trying to keep them in the advantage.
They were all using their abilities to the limit, trying their hardest to minimise the group of Ultrons as quickly as possible. If a fist wouldn't keep the Ultron's down, then hot lasers were sent into the skull by either Bailey, Tony or even Vision. They worked in harmony, as if the fight had been perfectly choreographed and practised for months.
As a barely concentrated team, one that didn't pay much mind in strategizing together, they were doing very well. So far, no one was dead, and they managed to improvise moves that were never imagined in their small meetings. Their first fight with Wanda and Pietro on their side sufficed well enough, and definitely benefited the team greatly without a single complaint falling out anyone's mouths.
They all had their perks and skills that contributed to the fight, and Bailey liked to think of herself as someone who assisted her teammates whenever she could- meaning when there wasn't a personal robot trying to tear at her throat or shoot a bullet into her chest.
One of her shots went into the abdomens of four Ultron's lined up after one another, and she smirked. This only helped raise her ego, getting her into the fight with a clearer head and more concentrated mind-set. She was here to protect the Earth as a whole, no longer 'just a city'.
She was losing count on her Ultron kill list, and continued to fire her gun at any piece of metal she saw. This might've included Steve's shield at one point, but luckily the laser rebounded off the strongest metal on Earth and just managed to hit two Robots.
She widened her eyes, and tried to give a confident smile at Steve who was nodding his head in approval to her; she definitely wanted to seem like it was planned instead of an accident. Bax was going to watch herself better, that could be an Avenger next time.
She didn't look as badass as Steve was, flipping around in the air the whole time and seeming professional with his shield. Nor did she look as cool as Tony was when he was flying around, she just looked like a flying squirrel in comparison to him. Oh, and Wanda, she was definitely aesthetically pleasing to any right mind.
But Bailey did kill a bunch of robots, which was good enough for now. She made a promise to herself to pick up on her skill and moves if she survived the fight.
A baton passed her face, and she leant backwards as Nat embedded the electricity in the reactor of an Ultron getting too close to Bailey. The woman touched down on the ground, smiling to Nat and turning. They stood, back-to-back, and Bailey got her first taste of the hand-to-hand combat with the robots as she threw punches of her 'magical' hands at the much harder metal. She was punching a bag that would never fall if she didn't phase and rip them apart.
She became more grateful for her special ability when she watched Nat have to actually punch one's face and withdrew her hand with a shake and a curse.
That was when Bailey promised herself to also kiss Nat again of both made it out of this fight. The thought tightened her chest with the picture of a future without Nat, how the woman had quickly impacted her life without either realising she would leave a heavy mark. That would be on her, if a single one of her teammates had the unfortunate fate. Especially if anything were to happen to the newest, and youngest, editions.
I know what you're thinking, a potential relationship shouldn't be what's flowing through Bailey's head right now. But who do you think of before you're about to die saving the world? Oh wait, you haven't done that before? Point proven.
Wanda sent out a cloud of red psionic energy, freezing a robot centimetres from Bax's face, and she kicked its chest, watching pieces crumble to the ground. There wasn't time to thank the young girl, so she continued doing the job that would repay the team as a whole, she took down a couple robots. Fighting with Nat at her side, they swung their bodies back and forth, spinning around to help the other as a routine that resembled one of Nat's Ballet recitals.
Bailey spun her arm around from where she was shooting, and aimed the gun over to the redhead. She shot three lasers, and then heard a terrible sound that sent shivers down her spine.
The low battery sound.
The blue translucent lights running on the sides of her gun flickered, threatening to blank out. Bax cursed, and slapped the gun a few times. When there was no response, she just threw it at the head of an approaching Ultron.
Then, the real Ultron let out a frustrated groan, and tackled into Vision from where he was flying above them. Punches launched at each of their faces, metal against modified metal. It sounded exactly like Bax's gun making contact with the life source of the robot, bringing it to the ground. She tried to ignore the fight above her, and pulled out the last weapon she had packed: a knife.
A quick flip in her hand, and she launched it at heads of Ultron's. She had to be quick to slide and fly over each time to remove it and then send it into another robot. It was like a dance: Throw, spin, slide, pull, fly, throw, repeat.
She turned back when she noticed Vision send a yellow beam into Ultron, forcing the Being out of the church. Thor and Tony noticed as well, and followed in pursuit. All three of them aimed their weapons, shooting as much energy and force to try and break him down as much as they possibly could.
The Robot groaned as he lifted his body up from the ground the second they stopped.
"You know, with the benefit of hindsight..." Bailey never held her appreciation for The Hulk so high than she did that moment when he decked Ultron, sending him rocketing in the sky.
Bailey froze where she stood, a punch seconds away from phasing into the motherboard of an Ultron she gripped in her palm that was halfway into its chest, holding him at eye level to the 5 foot 9 woman.
The robots surrounding her froze as well, watching the black dot fall off the edge of the Earth, into oblivion. They didn't know what to do now, continue fighting? Back down and accept surrender? Make Bailey a smoothie she so obviously deserved?
An echoing roar sounded into the air like a warning siren going off, and the rest of the Ultron's scattered away from the scene almost as quickly as they had arrived.
The one in Bailey's grip dropped itself to the floor, a chuck of its chest left in her hand as it tried to crawl away.
"No!" she shouted, kicking the robot in the back and sending it to the floor, then frantically watches her surroundings as the metal beings ran away from the city centre, away from a Church built for their deaths or rebirths.
"They'll try to leave the city," Thor pointed out.
"We can't let a single one get away," Bailey worried, looking to her friends.
She watched a couple dozen take to the sky, igniting their rocket thrusters and trying to escape the rock that would inevitably result with their deaths and fate of becoming recycled computers. Bailey's eyes scanned over the blue sky, her goggles circling out too many figures for her to concentrate on signalling down just one spot to fly to in order to take down the biggest group of robots.
"Rhodey," Tony called out, praying his best friend could help in some way.
Bailey sighed in relief, watching the War-Machine appear from the clouds and flying in the direction of the dispersing group. That was when she realised that maybe she could try and help with the numbers left on the ground. She turned to run after them, but only watched the scatters of metal fall from the sky.
Apparently they all had the single, sole thought to jump into the sky because flying was the best escape plan, but when Bailey watched a beam of yellow light quickly pass over the Church roof and another Robot fall to the floor, she knew exactly how their pan had been foiled.
"I'm on it. Oh no, I didn't say you could leave," not a single bullet had left the Veterans Armor when the familiar yellow-beam shot into the sky and vaporised all of them.
"Okay. What?" Rhodes asked in disbelief, and a little disappointment of another ruined story.
Bailey laughed at him, and rested her hand on her hip as she tried to collect some oxygen into her lungs. Steve immediately ran over to her, and helped her stand straight.
Her lungs burned all of a sudden, like a fire burning away at her chest and each drawn in breath just fuelled it with more gas. She looked to where Nat and Clint stood, doubling over with the same pain and opened their mouths to try catch more of the air around them. She pulled on a brave face, her lungs were used to this kind of air pressure from adaption, but none of the rest were gifted with the ability to fly.
"Okay, we gotta move out. Even I can tell that the air is getting thin," Cap looked from his friend, to his team.
"You guys get to the boats," Bailey waved to the Avengers, "I'll sweep for stragglers. I'll be right behind you," she promised them, and pushed Steve off her.
"I'll come with you," Nat tried to step forward, but stumbled a little with her footing that was barely noticeable, but Bailey saw it.
"No. I'm used to the thin air, may not seem like it but I'm just getting old. You get out. Get Banner," Bailey protectively replied, wrapping the woman's arm around her shoulder and walking Nat back to where Clint stood with a hand out-stretched.
"Take Steve, he's practically immune to this."
Bailey looked to Steve, who only replied with picking his shield up and clicking into place and his arm. Bax smiled at this, pulling away from Nat's warm and comfortable touch.
"What about the core?" Clint asked.
"I'll protect it," Wanda stood up.
They all looked to her, but Bailey didn't doubt her abilities for a second. She had watched the girl in this fight, and she was way more advanced in her capabilities and powers than any of them were.
"It's my job," she looked to Clint for approval, acceptance, and maybe even recognition from her words.
Bailey smiled at them, and wrung her hands in preparation. She drew in a deep breath, and pointed a look to Clint after he stopped looking at the Scarlet Witch.
"Nat?" he asked, noticing the pleading in Bax's eyes, "This way." He ordered her to walk with him, and although the Red-head wanted to refuse, she knew she couldn't. This was their job, Bailey would do the same for her. Nat looked to Bax for a brief moment, their connection in Gem coloured eyes sent a very important message.
"If you die, I'll kill you," she warned.
"If I die, I expect nothing less than a resurrection from you," Bailey joked.
"God, I wanna kiss you now," maybe the Team should've expected it. The slight tension and chemistry between the two women was increasingly noticeable, but such a bold sentence just thrown in casually, it shocked them all.
"Make sure you feel that way after this," Bailey eased, and kissed the lightened hand she held in her own, leaving a little dust from the dirt on Nat's hand sitting above her lip.
Nat laughed at her, and brushed her thumb at the mark of Earth, letting her hand fall to the side of Bax's face and rest for a moment.
It was a small, and memorable moment, but they had to pull away. The second their skin no longer touched, Bailey shot up and through the roof of the church. She knew that if she had to look at Nat after that, she probably would never want to leave her side ever again.
Bailey didn't know that she was leaving Nat in an awkward silence, where Clint just stood with an outstretched hand and a shocked expression on his face. He was stuck in position, while Steve wore a taunting and wavering look on his face, a smirk evident on his face. The twins were merely confused.
Captain Rogers just shrugged his shoulders, happy for the two woman.
He turned, and darted out the rubble.
"Say a word, and I'll split your tongue," Nat pointed a finger up to silence the words about to fall out Clint's mouth.
She still dressed her face in a broadened smile, watched the sky above her.
"How about more than one word?"