"There is no way that my tech is going to work fast enough," Dr. Cho said, strapping Pietro's nearly lifeless body into her equipment. "The chamber in my lab would stand a chance, but he won't make it all the way to Seoul."
Hawkeye paced back and forth, finally stopping in front of Fury. "Is there anything else we can do?" he asked desperately. "Please."
"I talked to Wanda on our way back from Sokovia," Steven chimed in, putting a hand on Clint's shoulder. "She said that she wanted us to do everything and anything possible to save him."
"Good," Fury said, "because Agent Hill is currently bringing in Amelia."
Steve's face fell. "Amelia is incredibly unstable, is that really the point we're at?"
"She's this bastard's only hope at this point," Fury said, looking over at Pietro. "Or she's the death of him."
Maria Hill returned within the hour, barging hospital room with a 20-something girl in tow. The girl was none other than Amelia Hart, one of SHIELD's most troubled and troubling agents. They must of pulled her right out of bed, because she was in pajama pants and a loose tank top. Despite her bedtime attire, she had fingerless gloves secured tightly on her hands. She followed Maria Hill into the room with a grim expression and a determined gait.
"What's the deal with him," Amelia asked, surveying Pietro's form.
"Well, he's basically a slice of Swiss cheese, thanks to Ultron," Fury explained, earning a glare from Clint. "Nothing too out of the ordinary though, just a lot of bullet wounds. Dr. Helen Cho's trying to use her tech to restore his tissue, but it's not fast enough and we're losing him."
"So what do you want me to do?" Amelia asked, unfastening and removing her gloves.
"Whatever you can," Fury said. "Water could aid Dr. Cho's tissue restoration, electricity could jumpstart his functions if you lose him at all, and fire wouldn't hurt to give his enhanced metabolism and homeostasis a kick in the ass."
"Gotcha, so nothing big," Amelia said sarcastically. She stood over Pietro, looking at him closely and cringing at the damage that had already been done. "In all seriousness, you know that's a tall order, right?"
"Of course," Fury responded.
"And you're well aware that I could easily mess up and kill him?"
"He's already dead if you do nothing, so it can't hurt."
"If you say so," Amelia said, looking around at Steve, Clint, and Maria's anxious faces. "I wanted everyone out of the room except for Dr. Cho," Amelia decided. "This could go south fast, and besides, you're all making me anxious."
Fury ushered everyone out to the hallway, where they could watch without breathing down Amelia's neck. Just as everyone was leaving, Dr. Cho's equipment started beeping like crazy. "He's coding, we're losing him," she said urgently, frantically checking for a pulse that she didn't expect to last.
Amelia took a deep breath to steady herself as she held her bare hands out above Pietro's body. She closed her eyes and flexed her fingers, praying that she could control the static that was already beginning to dance across her palms. She lowered hands so they were almost on Pietro's chest. "Cross your fingers, boys," she muttered before pushing down with her hands.
"CLEAR!" She shouted, holding her hands down until she felt the electricity make its way into his body. She pulled her hands away and waited, anxious to see if his body jolted back to life or imploded.
Dr. Cho's face lit up when Pietro jolted, the monitor of her equipment picking up his heartbeat once again. Cheers could be heard from the hallway.
"We're far from done," Dr. Cho said, coming over to Amelia as she monitored Pietro's vitals. "Can you really do all that Fury said? Because if you could heat him up a bit to boost his metabolism and homeostasis, it would really help the tissue repair."
"Hopefully," Amelia said, pulling back and trying to fully expel the electricity from her system without electrocuting anyone in the room. "It's a bitch to switch between elements quickly," she explained, "and fire is just a bitch in general. There's a real fine line between helpful heat and instant inferno."
"Well, try to avoid the latter if you can," Dr. Cho advised. She noticed that Amelia's gaze had drifted to the window where everyone was watching. There was a girl with wide eyes and long dark hair. She had both of her hands pressed up against the window and tears streaming down her face.
"That's his twin sister, Wanda," Dr. Cho explained, biting her lip as she watched Amelia try to refocus. "Come on, let's keep going, we don't want to lose him again."
Amelia nodded, trying to repress the surge of guilt and panic she felt as she realized just who she'd be disappointing if she killed this guy. However, she felt a wave of reassurance as she met Wanda's glowing red eyes.
Amelia cracked her knuckles and shut her eyes, breathing deeply and prepping to summon fire. When she did, her hands blazed, like she was holding a miniature bonfire. She quickly pulled her hands away, extinguishing the flames as she noticed the ugly scorch marks she had left on Pietro's chest.
She backed away from the table, holding her head in her still-warm hands. "I can't do this," she said panicking. "I'm going to burn him alive."
Dr. Cho ran over to her. "Amelia, please, stick with us, alright," she said soothingly. "I can handle fixing burns, but if you don't keep going, it won't matter because he will die."
Harmony heard Pietro's erratic heart beat growing fainter on Dr. Cho's monitors. She steeled herself, refusing to look anywhere near the window where everyone was watching. She focusing on the warmth that she still felt in her palms, but she held it down to avoid inspiring flames again. As her hands stabilized at a useful, but not harmful, temperature, she moved them slowly up and down Pietro's body, watching with decreasing panic as his heartbeat because stronger and less erratic.
"His advanced homeostasis is kicking in," Dr. Cho said, rapidly pressing buttons on her tech. "Are you ready to help me bond the new tissue?"
"Are you just going to bond it over the bullet wounds?" Amelia asked, expelling fire from her body as harmlessly as she could. Steam was rolling off of her as she spoke to Dr. Cho and examined Pietro.
"We don't have much of a choice," Dr. Cho said. "His body can't handle the extraction of the toxic materials at this point, at least not any extraction that I could perform. We just have to hope that his body can heal after we fully revive him."
Amelia shook her head. "He's not up for that, and he won't be soon enough. The bullets will kill him even if he makes it through this," she muttered. "I'll go in with water to remove the toxic fragments and fluids from the bullets. It'll help rehydrate him for the tissue growth anyways.
"If you can, go for it," Dr. Cho said.
The hallway outside of the operating room was tense. Wanda was still, though her sobs had died down to silent tears as she watched Amelia work to revive her brother. Wanda kept her hands on the window, glowing red occasionally as she tried to help Amelia stay calm while she worked.
"No remind me, what exactly is Amelia's deal?" Clint asked, having to look away after a while.
Maria Hill pulled up her file on her tablet. "Child of two either enhanced or mutant parents, sent forward in time after her mother's death by her father, which in turn killed him," she explained.
Steve shook his head. "Why would her father do that?"
"Her mother was a talented doctor, but she was caught using her powers to help heal her patients, and she was burned for being a witch," Maria summarized, continuing to read through Amelia's file.
"She is an orphan," Wanda's voice surprised everyone. "Like my brother and I."
"Well, she was, but not for long," Maria continued. "Tony found her a few years back, shortly after he became Ironman. She was getting ready to drop out of high school when she had a run-in with the police because she couldn't control her powers."
"What exactly are her powers?" Steve remembered seeing the girl hanging out with Tony and Pepper occasionally, but he had never known about her powers.
Maria raised an eyebrow as she surveyed Amelia's file. "Hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis, aerokinesis, geokinesis, electrokinesis, cryonkinesis, umbrakinesis, the list goes on."
Steve and Clint both turned to look at Fury at this point. "And when were you going to tell us about her?" Steven demanded.
"As soon as she wanted me to," he answered, slowly turning away from the operating room to face them. "Because we barely know anything about her parents, we don't know how much of her powers are mutation and how much are enhancement, but we're about 90% sure at this point that they're a mix of both."
"She could be a powerful asset to the team!" Steve argued.
"She could kill the team faster than anyone else on it," Fury countered. "This is some of the best control I've seen her demonstrate to this day," he explained, gesturing back to the operating room. "I don't blame her one bit for hiding out."
Steve was about to say something back when the door to the operating room opened as Dr. Cho poked her head out. "We've stabilized him," she reported with a tired smile. "All that's left now is for my technology to finish up repairing his tissue."
Fury smiled. "Excellent," he said, already muttering into his comms at a rapid rate.
"I'm all done with Amelia, so you can dismiss her whenever works for you," Dr. Cho added before ducking back into the operating room.
Amelia exited the room as Dr. Cho entered, fastening her gloves back onto her hands. She felt anxious once she realized that everyone's eyes were on her. It wasn't until Wanda rushed forward and embraced her that she felt a little more at ease.
"Thank you, thank you!" Wanda kept repeating, holding Amelia tightly as tears continued to pour from her eyes. "You saved my brother, moya vtoraya polovina."
Amelia managed to smile, hugging Wanda back. "I'm just glad I could help."
Fury and Maria were getting ready to leave when he turned to look at Amelia. "You did a good job today," he assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I called Tony and he's on his way over to get you, so just hang tight."
Amelia nodded, sinking to the floor now that she finally knew she was done. She leaned her head back against the wall, too tired to even notice the super soldier and assassin in the hallway with her.