"Alright. What do you see?"
The noisy market street couldn't block out the focus of the five or six members waiting with their eyes trained for trouble. Three of them, all women, were positioned at an outdoor cafe, stances relaxed but hearts beating fast.
"Standard beat-cops. Small station. Quiet street." Wanda's voice echoed in the intercom as she took a sip from her white coffee cup. "It's a good target."
Steve spoke again from his position in a nearby hotel room, the view high enough to watch the streets below for any sign of trouble. "There's an ATM on the south corner which means…"
"Cameras." Wanda finished, brushing her nose so her voice would go unnoticed by the citizens around her.
"Cross streets both ways."
"So, compromised escape routes." Steve was testing her, wanting to see what their summer of training had taught her.
"Means our guy isn't afraid to be seen. He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out." Steve shuffled through some newspapers on the desk beside him. Some were recent and some older but all related to the same terrorist organization, run by a man he knew all too well. He went back to the window.
"See that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
"Yeah, the red one? It's cute."
Natasha joined the conversation, sitting across the cafe watching another connecting street. "It's also bulletproof which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us."
"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda took another sip of her coffee, giving a slight grin.
Natasha raised her eyebrow. "Well you're not the only one and looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature."
Another voice entered the conversation. "Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid." Sam was walking along the roof of the same hotel Steve was positioned in, suited up with his special wings.
Natasha smirked. "Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?"
Steve came back on the com. "Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him. Anya, how are you holding up?"
One member of the group had remained silent throughout the reporting. Anastasia Belikov was the newest member of the Avengers training program and most mysterious. With long dark hair and fairly tan skin, she sat alone at the cafe in between Wanda and Natasha. She appeared fragile looking with a more delicate feature and her big dark brown eyes nearly melted any person staring into them, but Natasha and Wanda were both on the outside to protect the other people from her, not vice versa. Her powers were still underdeveloped, resulting of course from her unfortunate background but after spending the last several months training alongside of Wanda with Steve and Natasha, the team decided to take her along for her first official mission. Steve and Natasha had both grown particularly attached to her.
"I am doing fine." She held an accent similar to that of Wanda, strong yet held a certain light note to it which made it all the more enticing. Everything about her screamed beautiful, she was small yet sexy and the people who knew her knew not to mess with her after seeing what she is capable of.
Steve spoke up again. "Alright, Anya. Stick close to the team, this is your first mission so no hero moments alright? Use your power to knock them out and try not to get hurt."
She took a sip of her coffee as she joked lightly. "It will take a lot for someone to hurt me."
Steve gave a slight smile. "Well let's hope you remain that confident. Alright team, once again, don't lose our lead."
Sam scoffs. "If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us."
Loud honking suddenly came from a particularly crowded section of the square. A garbage truck was driving quite recklessly for its crowded surroundings.
"Sam," Steve ordered. "See that garbage truck? Tag it."
A special compartment quickly unfolded itself from the back of Sam's suit and a tiny metal device popped out and took off in the sky, zooming over to the truck in notice.
Sam spoke a command into his earpiece and the metal device flew underneath the garbage truck and scanned it for contents.
"That trucks loaded for max weight. And the driver's armed."
"It's a battering ram." Natasha realized.
"Go now." Steve's command was sudden and purposeful.
"What?" Wanda said caught off guard. Anya looked up to see Sam take a giant leap off of the building, spreading out his wings and diving down at the truck.
"He's not hitting the police."
The garbage truck picked up speed as it zoomed towards one building in particular: The Institute For Infectious Disease.
Anya could only watch as the driver opened the door and dived out, rolling on the ground as the truck went over the speed bump, flipping up in the air and sailing forward to crash into the facility's gates. Chaos bursts into action as two yellow vans screech into the compound. The trunks open and several masked men carrying machine guns jumped out, firing at the workers at the facility. One man in particular walked through them, barking orders and pointing out routes.
The masked men shot at the windows, sending gas bombs into the building to rid of any people on the inside. Once the area was down, the man lead a small team of soldiers inside, leaving the rest of the men outside on guard duty.
Steve suddenly dropped from the sky, landing on his shield taking out one of the men before proceeding onto the others.
"Body armor, AR-15s." He said into his com. "I make seven hostiles."
Sam swooped out of the sky, taking down a man before pulling out a handgun and shooting another one.
"I make five."
Wanda came in next, followed by Anya and together they used their energy to knock another man out.
"Four." Said Wanda.
Sam sent his personalized air drone over to the building to do a body scan.
"Rumlow's on the third floor."
"Anya," Steve started. "Just like we practiced."
"What about the gas?" Her face remained neutral as she assessed the situation.
"You and Wanda get it out."
Steve then walked over to a car, and Anya used her power to launch him up into the building so he could find Rumlow.
Anya focused on the gas, working with Wanda to pull the dangerous gas out of the building and sent it up into the atmosphere as Sam protected their backs.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon." Steve's voice was urgent.
Natasha grabbed her motorbike and raced off after the men. "I'm on it."
She jumped off allowing her bike to knock one of them over before proceeding to take out the rest.
As she fought, Anya suddenly emerged and used her energy to send a man flying behind her. She slowly walked over to Natasha who was taking on Rumlow, but was overtaken and forced down one of the tanks with a grenade curtesy of Rumlow.
Closing her eyes, Anya focused on where Natasha was trapped and created a shield around her, protecting her from the explosion. She then threw the back door out allowing Natasha to escape.
Rumlow hopped in a car and drove off, heading into the crowded city.
"Sam, he's in an AMV driving north." Steve was calling the rest of the gang over so they could follow him.
When it had reached the busiest section of the town, the truck rammed into a few cars before lodging itself in some fruit stand. The doors flew open and several men in black jumped off and raced off in different directions.
Sam was the first to reach the spot, landing on a platform and overlooking the square.
"I've got four. They're splitting up."
Natasha was the next to arrive, ditching her motorbike and hopping on top of the cars as she sprinted towards the men. "I've got the two on the left."
Steve headed to the car, noticing the loose items on the ground. "They ditched their gear. It's a shell game now. One of them has the payload."
A small bomb latched on to his shield, and he barley had time to throw his shield up before it exploded, sending his shield off out of his reach.
Suddenly, he was smashed in from behind, throwing his to the ground in a painful fall. Anya arrived with Wanda and she stood ready to defend Steve as Rumlow advanced at him.
Rumlow continued to hit Steve, throwing him through the crowd of panicked people. Anya felt her energy creep up inside of her, threatening to break out as she watched her friend fight. She tried taking deep breaths, spreading out a thin wave of energy to pinpoint Natasha's location who was currently in a three-way gun point with the vial.
Her energy started piling around her in blue wisps, Anya clenched her fists trying to keep her power at bay. She couldn't help her friends in this state.
Wanda grabbed her wrist, noticing her spike in energy.
"Anya, now is not the time for this. You have to remember your control. Steve needs us."
Anya noticed how Steve was turning the battle around, returning the punches until Rumlow was forced to his knees in defeat.
Something wasn't right. The way Rumlow was smiling at Steve sent a chilling feeling in Anya. Her energy refocused and she started walking over to them. The way Rumlow was talking was causing Steve to get angry, she knew that. Steve never got angry unless it was a personal matter.
In a split moment, there was a shift of energy that left Anya. Rumlow exploded as her energy surrounded him and she grit her teeth in agony at the pure raw power she was trying to contain. Her vision was going blurry and she was afraid she couldn't contain it when Wanda jumped in and helped. Together the two starting lifting the blast up in the air away from the crowd when Anya collapsed, her energy returned to her body as the blast detonated at the side of a building, causing the whole floor to explode in a wave of glass and bodies.
Wanda gasped and covered her mouth at the sheer terror that had just occurred.
"Anya! Anya! Can you hear me?" Steve rushed over to her body on the ground and lifted her up in his arms as she softly cried, unable to face her own mistake.
Natasha spoke. "Sam, we need Fire and Rescue on the south side of the building."
Anya kept shaking her head, crying harder as she heard the screams around her, burying her face into Steve's chest, hoping to block out the sound.
*If you like this story or have any suggestions, please leave a review
