Barton and Romanoff were in a supped up jeep, Barton laying down cover fire for the rest of the team from the passenger side seat while Romanoff drove like a mad person. Tony swopped in on their other side shooting back some HYDRA agents as they closed in on the large base. Thor took out one of the enemy jeeps then moved onto a lookout tower using his hammer to smash all in his path.
Taylor swooped through the air, using her control over fire to propel her through the air. She thrust her left hand forward freezing the legs of the tower until they became brittle just as Thor jumped off, sending it plummeting to the ground.
She wore a black hooded high-necked long sleeved top that reached down stopping mid-thigh with gold pipping accents, a gold sash, a pair of elbow length black gloves, and a pair of black tights that tucked into a pair of calf high black boots.
Steve shot past her on his motorcycle dragging a man before throwing him into another man then tossing his shield taking out some more.
The Hulk was also out in full force throwing tank jeeps left and right, their attacks having no effect on the green beast. They came to a barrier forcing Clint and Natasha to abandon their jeep, all of them leaping forward over the barrier before continuing their onslaught. Tony pulled away from the others going for the HYDRA base only to hit a force field hard.
"Shit!" Tony snapped.
"Language." Steve admonished him before he could stop himself. "JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?"
"The central building is protects by some kind of energy shield." JARVIS replied from the ship. "Strukers technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base you have taken."
"Loki's scepter must be here." Thor said as he fought. "Strucker couldn't mount his defense without it. At long last."
"At long last is lasting a little long." Natasha commented as she fought.
"Then let's speed things up." Taylor called out as she landed on the ground. She summoned a spells over her hands throwing herself into the battle slicing through the enemy lines.
"I think we lost the element of surprise." Clint said as he blew up a bunker.
"I didn't know we ever had it." Taylor commented blocking a round of enemy fire.
"Wait, no one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said language?" Tony asked.
"I know." Steve groaned out as he charged a jeep then flipped his bike sending into said jeep and landing perfectly safe on the ground. "It just slipped out."
Barton tried to take out another base, but his arrows were stopped, then out of nowhere he was hit to the ground.
"You didn't see that coming?" The silver haired boy smirked before speeding off. Clint stood to his feet only to get shot down again.
"Clint!" Natasha ran for him while Steve had his own run in with the speedster.
"We have an enhanced on the field." Steve said just as Taylor came face to face with said enhanced. She attacked him as best she could, but he dodged her fire and ice attacks.
"Would…you…hold…still?!" Taylor snapped with each blast.
"Usually I would do anything for such a lovely lady, but this is war after all." The boy smirked as he grabbed her swinging her around then releasing her causing her to skid along the ground. Pietro raced after her watching in interest as she brought up her hands deflecting his attack with one of her spell walls. "That is a neat trick."
"Wait till you see my next one handsome." Taylor said with a wink.
She dodged to the side as she formed a fire ball in her right hand. He took off, but her assault with fire was just a distraction for the snow turning to ice under his feet. He slipped hard, his momentum throwing him to the ground, skidding along straight into a tree. He recovered quickly though and raced up to her grabbing her cuffs.
"This is nice, I think I will keep it." He grinned as he tossed them from hand to hand.
"I'd give them back if I were you." Taylor cautioned him with a smirk as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Why would I do that? It is clear this is where you get your abilities from, they light up whenever you use them. No bracelets no powers." He grinned back then let out a yelp when the bracelets lit up. Ignis burning his hand and glacium freezing the other. He stumbled back dropping them allowing them to shoot back to Taylor wrapping back around her wrists.
"That's why. They don't like anyone else to touch them." Taylor let out a bust of fire forcing him further back.
"That's not going to stop me. I don't give up that easily." He replied as their fight continued, Taylor getting forced back.
With a sly look she held out her hands and performed a strange series of moves as he went in for another attack, but she wasn't there and for the first time he wasn't fast enough. There was a strange sound like breaking glass to his left that gained his attention.
Glancing to his left he saw a strange round symbol of light before it hit him hard and he went crashing through the trees landing harder on his back, his breath leaving his lungs in a breathy wheeze. He quickly recovered stumbling to his feet and then taking off again. Taylor quickly took a defensive stance, a spell over each hand, getting ready for an attack that didn't come much to her confusion.
"Clint's hit." Natasha called out kneeling down next to Clint and applying first aid. "Anyone want to deal with that bunker?" The Hulk slammed into it. "Thank you."
"I'm on my way." Taylor gave one last look around herself before she ran for them, using her fire to shoot up into the air and her spells to keep blasts at bay.
"Stark, we really need to get inside." Steve said.
"I'm closing in." Tony replied taking out more men with his repulsers. "JARVIS am I closing in? You see a power source for that shield."
"There's a path way below the north tower." JARVIS replied.
"Great, I want to poke it with something." Stark said flying in, then sending in a missile that drilled into the ground taking out the power source and the shield. "Drawbridge is lowered people."
Thor came down from the sky slamming his hammer into the ground taking out all of those around him as Steve ran up to him.
"Enhanced?" Thor looked to Steve.
"Of all the new players we've faced I've never seen this." Steve said shaking his head. "In fact I still haven't."
"Do you think its mutants?" Taylor asked over the comms as she ran over Natasha and Clint, dodging the enemy as they went.
"I don't know, there's no telling with HYDRA." Steve replied, blocking returning fire.
"Clint's hit pretty bad guys." Natasha said over the comms. "We're going to need evac."
"I'm on it." Taylor said as she sent out a wave of spiked ice forcing the soldiers back.
"It's like they're lining up." Thor noticed the men coming at them.
"Well they're excited." Steve said raising his shield as Thor brought his hammer down on it at the same time knocking all of the men back along with the tank.
"I need some cover to get Clint out of here." Taylor called out.
"Find the scepter." Thor said before he swung his hammer and took off into the air. "I'm on my way!"
"Taylor, what's the situation with Clint?" Steve asked as he ducked under more enemy fire.
"I got him, taking him to the ship now." Taylor replied as she slipped on her sling ring and moving her hand in a circle formed a portal to the ship while Natasha and Thor kept the soldiers at bay. Taylor hefted Clint up and half dragged him to the ship, closing the portal behind her.
"And for gosh sakes, watch your language." Stark said teasingly over the comms.
"That's not going away anytime soon." Steve muttered before he took off into battle again, finishing it soon after.
"Nope." Taylor laughed over the comm as she got Clint settled into one of the beds and started to take care of his injury. Over time she had become the triage doctor for the team, having learned of medicine from the mysterious school she had yet to tell any of them about.
"How's Clint?" Steve asked, pushing on.
"He'll be fine." Taylor assured him, spreading a purple cream over his wound before bandaging it. "Right Robin Hood?"
"Fine? I got shot…right there…and it hurts…." Clint groaned out sarcastically.
"See, fine, a little whiney, but fine." Taylor smiled brightly securing the bandage. "How are things on your end?"
"We're locked down out here." Natasha said as the HYDRA soldiers were rounded up by Starks sentries.
"Then get to Banner, time for a lullaby." Steve said to Natasha.
-0-
Tony blasted into the lab where he was immediately besieged by gun fire. He hovered in the window he had come through while the bullets bounced off of him with no harm what so ever.
"Guys stop, we got to talk this through." Tony said as the small rockets on his shoulders fired, each one taking out one man. "It was a good talk."
"No it wasn't." Someone groaned out. He moved into the building taking out a man on a computer before stepping out of his armor.
"Sentry mode." Tony ordered and his suit went on stand by watching his back then plugged his phone into the computer. "Ok JARVIS, you know, I want it all. Make sure you copy it to HQ."
Tony started to look around the room, taking in the limited technology with a skeptical eye.
"Hey J, give me an IR scan of the room." Tony ordered and the suit scanned everything around them.
"The wall to your left, I'm reading steel reinforcement and an air current." JARVIS said as Tony walked over to the wall.
"Please be a secret door…" Tony chanted pressing against the wall which slid open allowing him to walk inside the long dark tunnel. "Yay!"
-0-
Natasha made her way through the sparse forest following the sounds of the Hulk who was still on a rampage. She soon found him and cautiously walked up to the Hulk who was still tearing apart a tank with vicious angry noises.
"Hey big guy." Natasha gained his attention. "Then sun's gettin' real low."
Natasha crouched down as the Hulk growled, her gloves were off. She held up her hand and the Hulk reluctantly approached. They held their palms up facing each other, then Natasha turned her hand over palm up, the Hulks resting in hers also palm up. She then ran her hand along the inside of his wrist, down over his palm, then to the tip of his finger. The Hulk stumbled back as the effects of their trick took hold and he turned back into Bruce Banner.
-0-
Steve cautiously entered the large castle like building easily overcoming any who came at them. The last soldier Steve struck back causing the man to fall in front of the Baron himself, a severe self-centered looking man.
"Baron Strucker." Steve eyed the man. "HYDRA's number one thug."
"Well technically I'm a thug for SHIELD." Strucker said.
"Well technically you're un-employed." Steve pointed out. "Where's Loki's Scepter?"
"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat." Strucker said. "You'll mention how a cooperated of course."
"I'll put it right under illegal human experimentation." Steve replied sarcastically. "How many are there?"
Suddenly a girl stepped out of the shadows sending out a pulse of red light that sent Steve hurtling down some stairs before she disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
"We got a female psychic enhanced, do not engage." Steve rushed back up the stairs.
"You have to be faster than…" Baron never got the chance to finish when Steve kicked up his shield from where he had dropped it smacking Strucker in the face sending him to the ground hard, his monocle breaking.
"Guys, we got Strucker." Steve informed the others.
"Yes, I got something…bigger." Tony said over the comms.
"Be careful Stark." Steve cautioned.
"Roger Rogers." Tony replied.
-0-
"Yes, I got something…bigger." Tony said as he came to the end of the hall that let out into a large room that housed a leviathan.
"Be careful Stark." Steve cautioned.
"Roger Rogers." Tony replied. He walked through the room observing the tables with machines from the alien invasion laid out on them, then he saw it, but not what was following him. "Thor, I think I got eyes on the prize."
He didn't see the girl as she came up behind him, her hands moving around his head allowing a red light to enter into his skull. His eyes flashed red before he shook his head and the girl slipped away. He glanced around then up when suddenly the leviathan came to life, the world shifting around him to that of space.
He stood upon an asteroid drifting before the very alien forces home base that he had destroyed with the nuke. Laid out all over the asteroid before him were the Avengers, all of them dead, Steve's shield cracked straight down the middle with Steve lying next to it. He was about to rush to the Captain's side, but then he saw her.
Vanessa was laid out her eyes wide and unseeing starring straight up, her mouth opened wide in a silent scream twisting her face into a mask of terror and pain. She was a mess of nightmarish wounds from head to toe, her uniform in tatters, and covered in so much blood that it was flowing from her in tiny rivulets pooling around his feet.
"Vanessa!" He ran to her side with an anguished cry gathering up his baby girl in his arms rocking her back and forth.
Her blood now soaking through his shirt, onto his arms, his hands, and staining his skin. Suddenly her eyes snapped to him and her hand cupped the side of his face leaving a bloody hands print. Tony could only gasp out breaths unable to look away from her eyes, struggling not to scream for more reasons than one.
"Dad, you…could have….saved us." Vanessa gasped out before her head lulled back, her disembodied voice drifting around him. "Why didn't you do more?"
He tore his eyes away from his daughter looking up to see the alien armada moving unhindered through the portal to earth. Then, like waking up from a nightmare, everything disappeared and he was back in the base. He looked around completely shaken by what he had seen looking down at his blood free hands, but still able to see it all within his mind's eye. He shot to his feet as he reached out his hand calling his armored arm to him, pushing everything into the back of his mind. He reached through the shield and grabbed the scepter as the twins watched him staying back in the shadows.
