A/N: WARNING: Major spoliers for Age of Ultron ahead, if you haven't seen the movie, please take extreme caution. I'm attemting to upload a chapter every Saturday night and so far I've managed to keep to schedule, but we'll see how long that lasts. So chapter 2, the events of this chapter take place right in the climax of Age of Ultron, and since this story stays in cannon, there are no changes to any main events. I've considered making this series an AU, but I want it to expand along with the MCU storyline. Anyway that's enough waffle from me. As always; don't forget to read, review and enjoy.
Natasha felt her feet hit the ground as The Hulk gently lowered her out of his arms and onto the surface of the Helicarrier. The Hulk hesitated for a minute and looked down at her, before he jumped and launched himself upwards, roaring as he flung himself at the quinjet that Ultron had commandeered.
There was a banging of metal from behind her as someone flung open the door to the inside of the Helicarrier. "Natasha!" The person cried in relief as they ran outside and onto the runway. Natasha recognised who it was the instant the sun hit her, and her red hair gleamed almost gold in the light.
"Phoenix?" Natasha questioned in surprise as she ran at Natasha. Natasha wrapped her in a hug once she reached her, and they remained in an embrace for a second before Natasha released her. Overcoming the shock of seeing her, Natasha put her hands on Phoenix's shoulders. "What are you doing here? It's too dangerous."
"I'm here with The Experiments. Fury called us in to help with the evacuation," Phoenix answered, grinning at Natasha as she spoke. "It's good to see you."
Natasha placed a hand on Phoenix's cheek, allowing herself to return the smile. An explosion overhead brought them back to reality as War Machine shot down another Ultron Sentry. Natasha took her hand away from Phoenix's cheek and took a step back, remembering that she still had a job to do.
"Get The Experiments together and be prepared for the evacuees coming in," Natasha instructed Phoenix. "Some of them might be injured, they'll need your help once the Helicarrier lands. I've still got something I need to do. And Phoenix, promise me you won't go near the fight."
Phoenix looked as if she was about to protest, but with a stern look from Natasha she nodded. "I promise."
Natasha nodded. "It's good to see you to Milaya Moya."
Phoenix smiled at the use of her Russian nickname, and watched as Natasha ran into the Helicarrier through the door Phoenix had just emerged from. Phoenix considered running after her so she could gather The Experiments, but decided against it as she saw more Ultron Sentries flying overhead.
Phoenix moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier and placed a hand to her comms. "Experiments come in, I need you outside," she spoke over the comms, her voice urgent.
Phoenix stared dead ahead as Sokovia continued rising into the air, it was above the Helicarrier now, and it just kept on rising. Just as Phoenix saw the bottom of the landmass rise above the Helicarrier, the small light emitting objects that were placed at the side of the landmass and responsible for sending it into the air, began to activate.
The landmass dropped.
Phoenix cried out and ran to the edge, knowing full well what would happen if that landmass hit the ground. The other Experiments ran towards her, each of them equally as frantic as they looked over the side and watched Sokovia plummet towards the ground.
Phoenix put a hand over her mouth while she prayed that they would be able to stop it before it caused mass destruction. The Experiments grabbed each other's hands as they waited with baited breaths as Sokovia kept moving towards the ground at a frightening speed.
At the very last minute before it hit the ground, the landmass of Sokovia exploded. The Experiments screamed and shouted in triumph, their excitement uncontainable as they hugged each other and jumped up and down, screaming and crying at the same time.
Phoenix's joy faded once panic struck her. Where were the rest of The Avengers? Had they made it off the landmass in time? Where was Clint? Phoenix remembered her objective with a jolt as she felt the Helicarrier 's engines come to life beneath her feet. They were about to begin flying away, which meant The Experiments needed to get inside.
As they made their way to the doors, Phoenix saw a shape flying towards them. She prepared for an attack from an Ultron Sentry that had avoided death. Instead, she was surprised to see a man with pink skin wearing a cape. Phoenix was going to send a fireball in his direction, but stopped herself when she saw the strange humanoid thing was carrying a young woman in his arms.
The humanoid creature saw The Experiments standing there and flew over to them. As it got closer, Phoenix was able to make out human features, and some features that weren't human, the pink skin was one of those features, but it also had a glowing yellow stone embedded in its forehead.
It descended onto the Helicarrier and gently lowered the young woman to the ground. It nodded to Phoenix, before flying away. Phoenix watched it leave, before she was able to wash away the shock, and tend to the woman who seemed to be a Sokovian refugee.
The woman was young, in her early twenties, and the very instant she was placed onto the ground, she fell to her knees and begun to sob. Long auburn hair fell in front of her face as she leaned forward and cried with her hands cupped over her mouth.
Phoenix placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and tried speaking to her. "It's alright you're safe," she reassured the young woman. "Come with us, it'll be alright."
The young woman said nothing but allowed Phoenix to gently pull her to her feet and lead her in the direction of the Helicarrier doors. They made it inside just in time as the Helicarrier began its descent. They stepped into the Helicarrier's bridge, Phoenix still supporting the young woman, who continued sobbing loudly.
Phoenix looked around the room and saw the damaged body of an Ultron Sentry that had collided with the conference table, having flown into the room through the glass panel at the front of the bridge. Although she knew the sentry had been destroyed, she still gave it a wary glance.
A SHIELD agent stepped forward and Phoenix quickly explained that the young woman was a refugee. Halfway through her explanation, the young woman broke her silence. "I am Wanda Maximoff," she told them in a distinct Eastern European accent."
The SHIELD agent must've recognised the name, because he nodded nervously and called over another agent. The agent went off and retrieved Fury, who stepped towards them, looking Wanda up and down curiously. He sent the SHIELD agents away with a flick of his hand and turned to Phoenix.
"You've got a knack for finding trouble you know," he commented dryly to Phoenix, before turning to look at Wanda. "I hear you helped out our team up there on Sokovia. Thanks for that. But how exactly did you make it onto the Helicarrier? Our reports said you were up there when it started falling."
"A man with pink skin, wearing a latex outfit and a cape, with a glowing yellow stone in his head, flew over to the Helicarrier with her in his arms, and left her here before he flew off again," Phoenix answered for Wanda, looking at Fury with a raised eyebrow. "At least that's what I saw."
"Duly noted Romanoff," Fury responded with a sideways glance at her as he nodded to Wanda. "Once we reach the nearest body of water, we'll land the Helicarrier and start loading the refugees off the Lifeboats. We could use your help, some of them might be injured. Once we relocate the refugees somewhere safe, we'll discuss what happens next for you."
Wanda hesitated, before she nodded stiffly to Fury, wiping some of the tears from her eyes as she did so. Fury gave her a curt nod of appreciation before walking away, leavings The Experiments alone with Wanda Maximoff, who had now stepped away from Phoenix and was eyeing her curiously.
"He called you Romanoff," Wanda stated, staring at Phoenix with narrowed eyes. "That is the name of the Black Widow."
"Yeah," Phoenix responded, drawing out the h as she spoke. "She's technically my adopted mother, well not really, but kind of. It's complicated." Turning her eyes to the left, Phoenix spotted Natasha and held up a hand to Wanda. "That's her now, just give me a sec."
Phoenix walked over just as Natasha closed a video communication and looked away with a pained expression. Phoenix saw her expression, and approached slowly. Reaching out a hand, she gently touched Natasha's arm. "Is something wrong?" She asked softly.
Natasha turned around to face her and made eye contact, forcing a smile as Phoenix looked at her in concern. "There are some things I need to bring you up to speed on," she told her with a sigh. "But that can wait for now. We're about to land and there are refugees that still need our help."
As Black Widow and the girl conversed, Wanda watched them with a tilted head. She focused her eyes on the girl, curious to find out more. Wanda quickly found that the girl's name was Phoenix, and delving deeper, she found that she was hiding things away. Wanda made the mistake of venturing even further into Phoenix's mind, her defences broke away all at once, and she was nearly flooded with the horrible memories and emotions that had been left as scars in the girl's mind.
Phoenix realised that something was happening and snapped her head around to Wanda who was staring at her in horror. Natasha saw the exchange, and having been victim to the Maximoff girl's mind games before, she stepped in front of Phoenix defensively.
"Project Achilles," Wanda breathed in fear. "You worked for The Doctor."
Phoenix heard her mumble, but couldn't make out what was said. "What did you say?" Phoenix questioned.
At that moment, the Helicarrier landed, shuddering as it lowered itself gently onto the surface of the water. There was a small splash sound as it connected with the water, and the rotor engines powered down with an electronic whine. Phoenix looked out ahead of her, and saw that they had landed in the centre of a small lake.
Natasha gave Wanda a sideways glance before she nodded to Phoenix. "Go with The Experiments and help the refugees," Natasha instructed her. "Our objective is to get people off the Lifeboats and onto the Helicarrier, and if there are any serious injuries we have agents standing by in the infirmary."
Phoenix nodded, and gathered her team who had been waiting silently at the back of the room, conversing amongst themselves and eyeing Wanda with a mixture of curiosity and fear. They followed Phoenix, and moved in a group as they walked through the Helicarrier to the runway door.
Once outside, they saw that two Lifeboats had already begun landing, and two more were making their descent at the other end of the Helicarrier. The Experiments moved towards the first two, splitting up, Heather, Josh and Bella moved toward the first one, while Sam, Phoenix and Mark took the second.
The Lifeboats were strife with chaos. Sokovian refugees huddled together in groups of family and friends, crying and sobbing over what they had just witnessed. Phoenix stepped into the Lifeboat first, calling out to those who understood English, to explain what she was telling them, to those who only understood Sokovian.
She moved amongst the crowd, seeking out anyone with severe injuries, while Mark and Sam helped those who were uninjured off the boat. SHIELD agents with gurneys arrived to take away those too injured to walk and the rest were directed inside the Helicarrier to find their friends and family.
In the corner of the Lifeboat, Phoenix found a little girl, no more than seven years old huddled in the corner. She didn't understand English, but somehow Phoenix managed to coax her from the Boat. She took the girls hand and looked around for help, she approached a SHIELD agent who was directing the refugees on where to go.
"She keeps repeating something that sounds like matka," Phoenix explained to the Agent. "I think she's looking for her mother, it's possible her mother could be on another boat. You might need to find someone who speaks Sokovian to try and figure out what she's saying. At least put the word out that a seven year old girl is missing her mother, someone might come forward."
The agent nodded to her and moved off, spreading the word to the Sokovian's who understood English. Phoenix released the girl's hand and bent down to make eye-contact with her. Mark and Sam walked up behind her as Phoenix tried to find a way to communicate with her.
"Phoenix," she said slowly as she pointed to herself. "My name. What's your name?"
The girl shook her head and looked down, scrunching up her face she began to cry silently. She held out her arms and walked forward, hugging Phoenix as she looked for comfort. She said something in Sokovian as she cried, but Phoenix was still unable to understand what she way saying.
"It's gonna be ok," Phoenix comforted her, rubbing her back as she looked up to see Sam and Mark looking down at her in concern. "She's scared. It's understandable considering what just happened. I just hope we find her mother, or another family member who can look after her."
No sooner than the words left Phoenix's mouth, a woman cried out from behind her. Phoenix released the girl and turned around to see a woman running towards them, tears streaming down her face. She reached them, and the little girl moved away from Phoenix and ran into the woman's arms.
The woman cried in relief and began speaking Sokovian to the girl, stroking her hair as she did so. Looking up at Phoenix, the woman smiled. "Thank you," she said in a heavy accent, her attempt at English coming out in pieces as she tried to express her gratitude.
Phoenix smiled and waved at them as the woman and her daughter walked away. Mark came up beside her and elbowed her playfully. "Nicely done," he commented. "Although I'm not impressed that you didn't know Sokovian. Come on, I thought you're meant to know everything."
Phoenix rolled her eyes and him and motioned to the other two lifeboats that refugees were beginning to be unloaded from. "We're not done here yet," she reminded him sternly. "There are still people that need help. You can joke around later."
They made it to where people were being directed off the Lifeboat. Phoenix moved past the groups of refuges and entered the lifeboat, eyes scanning the people still seated in the transporter, searching for those with serious injuries.
Slumped over in a chair looking exhausted and holding his side, was someone very familiar. Phoenix spotted him and ran forward, throwing herself into his arms as he stood up. He was knocked off balance, but returned the hug. He gently pushed her off after a minute and looked at her in confusion.
"Phoenix? Why are you here?" Clint demanded. "For the love of God, please tell me that you weren't involved in the fight."
"I wasn't," Phoenix promised. As she took a step back she looked down and saw a man lying on the ground, a vacant cold expression in his wide eyes. Patches of blood stained what he was wearing and he seemed frozen in a state of empty shock. Phoenix realised that the man wasn't alive and stared at his body with a blank expression. "Who was he?"
"Pietro Maximoff, he helped us in the fight and sacrificed himself to save me and civilian boy," Clint answered, looking down at Pietro regretfully. He put a hand on Phoenix's shoulder and turned her away, bringing her closer to him so she didn't have to look at the body.
"Maximoff?" Phoenix questioned. "I just had a weird encounter with a girl who said her name was Wanda Maximoff."
"That would be his really creepy sister," Clint nodded in clarification and began leading Phoenix away from the body. He gave instructions to several SHIELD agents who moved to cover up the body, placing a white sheet over him.
"That explains why she was so distraught when we found her," Phoenix commented as she released herself from Clint's grip and began looking him up and down. "You're not injured are you?" she asked as she held up his arm and tested for broken bones by squeezing his arm in various places.
"I'm fine Phoenix," Clint shrugged her away with the hint of a smile on his lips. "Go help everyone else."
Phoenix nodded and turned around sharply, immediately she moved to help a man who was slumped to the ground and clutching his leg in pain. Phoenix helped to move the man onto a stretcher and watched as the agents carried him away to the infirmary.
Phoenix turned her head to scan her surroundings, spotting someone familiar, Phoenix ran over to him. Steve saw Phoenix approaching and held out his arm, wrapping her in a tight one-armed hug. As Steve released her, he looked her up and down, furrowing his brows and narrowing his eyes.
"You look different," he observed. "You look older."
Phoenix scoffed as she started to look over his various wounds. "That's what happens when you don't see someone for four months," she commented while examining a gash down his arm. "How's the fight against Hydra going?"
Steve knew that it was a sarcastic question, and decided to respond in a similar way. "Fantastic," he sarcastically retorted as he gestured around him. "We just barely stopped floating landmass from plummeting to the ground and causing an extinction level event. How's your Wednesday been?"
Phoenix laughed dryly as she looked over her shoulder to see the last of the refugees being escorted inside the Helicarrier. "You did a good job Steve," she told him, her voice level and serious. "Hundreds of people owe The Avengers their lives. Not to mention you stopped Ultron."
"You're right. At the end of the day, I guess we didn't do that badly," he gave her a small grin as he looked up and spotted two figures in the distance. "Looks like Tony and Thor made it out. Come on, let's go meet them. Unless you've got something you need to be doing?"
Steve was looking over Phoenix's shoulder at Mark and Sam who were waiting for her with anxious looks. Phoenix waved them away with a single gesture and walked with Steve to where Thor had landed on the runway of the Helicarrier. About a minute after Thor, Iron Man descended, landing just beside Thor.
"Nice work guys," Steve praised them.
"I should think so, that was..." Tony trailed off as his eyes fell upon Phoenix. "Do you always show up where there's trouble?"
"Fury pulled us out of a mission in Cleveland 3 days ago after the incident at Johannesburg," Phoenix informed him. "Since then The Experiments have been waiting on the sidelines in case we needed to step in if in something went wrong. Fury brought us with him on the Helicarrier as a precaution."
"It is good to see you once again Phoenix," Thor said as he stepped forward. "While you are a powerful warrior, I believe that it was too dangerous a battle for you to have joined. Maybe one day, once you have undertaken the appropriate training."
"For the last time Thor, Phoenix is not going to Asgard with you," Steve cut across him sternly.
"You spoil all the fun Captain," Thor joked as he threw an arm around Phoenix. "She would make a fine Asgardian."
"Try selling that pitch to Natasha," Tony challenged him.
Mark watched Phoenix with folded arms as he leaned against the wall of the Hellicarrier's bridge. She stood on the other side of the room, laughing and talking with Avengers. He frowned to himself before looking down at the rest of The Experiments, sitting in a circle with their legs crossed like they were in preschool.
Looking back up at Phoenix, he sighed to himself. "The Avengers show up and suddenly we get sidelined," he muttered bitterly.
Sam looked up at him with a flat expression. "She hasn't seen them for four months dude, calm down," he scolded him. "They mean a lot to her. They're practically her family. Heck, Black Widow and Hawkeye are literally her adopted parents."
"And Iron Man is her eccentric rich Uncle, those are Phoenix's exact words," Heather spoke up with a giggle in her voice. "Captain America might as well be her Uncle as well, or a weird older brother," The Experiments laughed at the comment and Heather looked up at Mark with a raised eyebrow. "Let her enjoy herself, and stop acting so jealous all the time."
"Jealous!" Mark exclaimed in surprise. "I'm just wondering why The Avengers take priority. I get that Natasha and Clint are her parents, but what about the rest of them? Thor hardly ever comes to Earth, all Iron Man does is buy things for her, I don't even know why she hangs out with Captain America, and Dr Banner... Where is Dr Banner?"
Bella looked around the room, eyes searching for any sign of him. "I- I don't actually know. Has anyone seen him at all?" She asked the rest of the group.
"No," the group responded.
"Phoenix probably knows," Josh suggested. "I nearly stumbled across her and the Black Widow having a serious talk about half an hour ago. And there are some rumours floating around about something going on between Black Widow and Dr Banner."
"I'll ask her," Sam volunteered immediately and jumped to his feet.
Mark watched with his eyes narrowed as Sam strode over to Phoenix wearing a warm smile. He placed a hand on her arm gently, and drew her to the side. Sam kept his back to where Mark was standing, but Mark was still able to watch Phoenix's expression closely.
"Are you jealous now?" Heather rose to her feet and whispered into Mark's ear, prompting a scowl as he continued watching the two of them converse.
Phoenix listened closely to what Sam was saying, and once he finished her expression turned serious and she leaned in closer to Sam to whisper something. She seemed concerned, and kept casting wayward glances over her shoulder at Natasha. Sam nodded once she was finished talking, and touched her arm once again, rubbing it comfortingly.
Mark scowled as Phoenix returned to The Avengers and Sam turned around and walked back over to them. "What'd you find out?" Mark asked him in a cold voice.
"Come here guys, Phoenix wants the situation kept under wraps for now so I have to tell you in a whisper," Sam beckoned the others over and lowered his voice to a barely audible murmur. "After the fight, the Hulk took off in a quintet that was set to stealth mode. He gone completely off the grid and they have no way of tracking him down. He's gone."