When I started to come around, I could hear Rumlow shouting, and feel myself being dragged across the floor. I went to grab and remove the hand of whoever was dragging me, then I began to realise what was happening, the shouting was from my comms, I had never reported in and Rumlow wanted to know where I was. But they'd soon realise what was going on as who ever it was hauled me by the back of my tactical vest and up the stairs to the back porch.
I could hear someone running down the stairs, just as Jenner turned from his position on the ground floor and saw me. His eyes widened as he caught sight of me, bringing his gun up to take my assailant down, but just as quickly, he lowered it again, and I found out why when I felt the cold melt of my assailant's gun pressed against the nape of my neck.
"Boss we got a problem here." I heard Jenner come in over the comms.
"What?" Came Rumlow's reply just as Rollins entered, gun raised as well, his finger seemed to tighten on the trigger, itching to take down whomever had gotten hold of me, but Jenner blocked him, he didn't want him shooting while the gun was pressed against me.
Suddenly, I was pulled up, an arm around my neck as my assailant moved to take better control of me.
"Hostile has a hold of Williams, too risky to take a shot." There was no reply from Rumlow, but I could hear the hurried footsteps above me, Rogers and Rumlow moving into the room making it seem very crowded.
"Now, you can make this easy on yourself, just let the lady go and there won't be any problems." The man's arm only tightened around my throat in response.
Rumlow was glaring intensely at my captor, while Jenner and Rollins both looked unsure what to do.
My captor moved the gun from my head and began firing at them, forcing them to dive out of the way, but his grip on my throat never loosened.
As he turned, his focus switching to Rogers, I pulled free the blade from my waist and sunk it deep within his arm, trying to get him off of me. The grip loosened enough for me to get free, but otherwise it didn't seem like it had much effect.
I twisted my body, pulling the knife with me and forced it into his leg as Rogers pulled me back, pushing me into Rumlow who moved me into the hallway just as the assailant opened fire. From the sound of it, Rollins and Jenner returned fire.
When I inched back into the room, whomever it was had been put down. I breathed a sigh of relief I didn't know I'd been holding.
"What the hell happened out there Williams?!" Rumlow barked, far angrier than I felt he should have been.
"I was in a tree, I had no support on the ground, I had no idea he was there till he pulled me from the tree." I pressed my palm against the side of my head, right at the point of contact. I could feel the blood there, but rather than make a big deal about it, I pulled my hand away and wiped it against my combats, no one needed to fuss over me.
"Who was supposed to cover Williams?" Rogers asked and I could see Rollins pale slightly, but his voice was strong and steady as he spoke.
"The area was clear, hostiles had been confirmed inside, I saw no reason to stay outside."
"Look, what's done is done - okay?" I didn't need Rollins hounding me about this too. Then something on the assailant's wrist caught my eye and I stopped to look. "What is this?" Pulling his sleeve up revealed to us what looked like some kind of mechanical centipede attached to his arm, a kind of orange liquid swirled in the segments that made up its 'body'.
"Whatever that is we should call in a crew to take his body back to SHIELD and find out what that thing actually does." Rogers suggested. "And you should get your head looked at Williams, you're bleeding." And just as he said it Jenner pulled out gauze from a pocket somewhere and moved to me.
"Here lets try and clean some of that up." I pushed his hand away gently, shaking my head as I did while Rogers and Rollins began to move the body outside. "Jenner I'm fine, stop fussing me." I breathed out. "
You're-" He began till Rumlow cut across him.
"Jenner you heard her, get the team ready to go- call in the cleaners and make sure there is a detail in place for the Councilwoman and that the other council members are upping their security."
"Sir." Jenner nodded and moved off. Rumlow seemed to hesitate before moving back to me, gauze now in his hand. He pulled out a chair and pointed to it. "Sit down, Williams- let me look at the cut." I frowned, I had said I was fine.
"I'll be fine sir, lets just get things wrapped up and..." The look he gave me stopped my protests and I moved to sit down. I wasn't being given a choice. "Really its fine."
"Let me be the judge of that." He murmured, pulling my hair from its bun, he raked his fingers gently through it before moving to lift it to try and get a look at the cut. I knew when he found it as he pressed the gauze to it, causing me to wince. "Thought you said it was fine?" I could almost hear the smirk in his voice.
"Well if you're going to prod it like that, then yeah its going to hurt." I resisted the urge to turn and shake my head at him, instead settling for an eye roll.
"Good for you its just a small cut, we'll clean it up properly back at HQ, with a little luck it should heal without any more help. But from now on, you partner with Mikel." He left no room for me to question it as he stood up straight and motioned me out the door as our ride began to land.
