The heavy rain didn't let me see clearly what just happened, but I heard someone screaming and a huge explosion. The ear phone was not working so I decided to investigate by myself. I focused the energy on my eyes so I could see the halos to find who was wounded. I rushed through the trees of the huge forest while checking the trace of blood and corpses that my team were leaving behind them. I approached the battlefield they were fighting now. There were too many soldiers to handle, even Steve was having a hard time. I checked if the rest were ok and I saw Sam, Vision and Rhodney flying around and shooting. Only one left. I carefully searched for Nat trying to cover myself from the bullets. And then I saw a white trembling light. It was hard to see well with the pouring rain but I could recognize her red hair any where. She was laying on the ground, but still shooting with her gun.
"Nat!" I shouted as I approached her. I quickly picked her up and covered us behind a tree.
"Don't move." She was in pain, she couldn't hide it. Her arm had cuts and most of it was burned, as well as part of the left side of her body. The rain calmed it a bit luckily, but still, it must be really painful. I grabbed her hand and started focusing on her wounds. They were superficial, so it was an easy and fast process. After 20 seconds all her burned skin was fine again and the cuts were closing. I helped her stand up and nodded.
"Thank you. Now go back and don't get shot!" She was already running to the battlefield again while saying this. I looked around, still covered, as I could still heard a lot of shootings. It was ridiculous that they didn't let me use a gun, at least for protection. And the rain didn't help, it was so hard to see. I couldn't leave, it was obvious that Nat wasn't going to be the only one wounded, so I had to stick around.
I was running from tree to tree trying not to be seen on that ocean of bullets keeping track of everyone when a huge explosion was heard, followed by an enormous metal sound that crossed the forest. I knelt to cover my ears as a painful noise got in my brain, like if it vibrated and made my head in pain. It was still not over when I started looking for the source, but it was pretty obvious that only one thing could cause that kind of sound. The shield. Everything was covered in smoke, so I guessed he tried to stop a bomb with the shield, but it must have been too powerful. I looked for Steve really anxious and I fastly found him laying on the ground near a tree. He was not moving, and the shield had been thrown away a couple meters ahead. I rushed to his position while the enemies were recovering from the explosion. I knelt by hi side and put his head between my hands.
"Steve! Steve! Can you hear me?!" He was unconscious, but alive, I could see his halo shining. But I had to take him out of there right away. The soldiers were recovering, I was not going to have time. I saw shadow over me.
"Sam! Rhodney! Take Steve out of here!" They flew down to our spot and took Steve out of sight. They left and I found myself alone in the middle of the battlefield, with no weapons. I could see Nat , but she was pretty far away. The enemies were up again and most of them were pointing at me. I couldn't scape. I heard the bullets coming out of their weapons and all I did was cover my face with my arms, absolutely terrified, but also calmed, assuming what was coming. I expected excruciating pain but after some seconds, nothing came. I saw a really strong white light and felt the palms of my hands burning. They burned really bad, so I opened my eyes to see what happened. My hands looked awful, almost black and the skin was pretty much burned, which hurt a lot, but it was starting to heal. I felt a bit dizzy, like when I overuse my powers. Then I looked around. Most of the enemies were on the ground, with burns too, I could see them. Did I do that? Vision and Nat were paralyzed for a second until they checked I was fine, then made their way inside the base through an underground passage. I was really confused, because I didn't understand what just happened, but I was pretty sure I did it.
I was following them inside the base, when I saw that not all of them were dead. I hid behind a tree, wishing they hadn't see me. They were just three, and only one of them had a weapon. I could handle them. I approached them from the back, first I had to get rid of the one who had a gun. I was going to grab him by the neck, but he heard me, I don't know how, but he did, and the rest too. He placed the gun on my stomach and shot me. The bullet went trough my body, luckily. Even though I felt like my stomach burned, I knew I was already healing, so why not helping it a bit? I grabbed the enemies' hand and started stealing his energy, his life, to use it on my wound. He fell to the ground, not dead, but very weak, and my wound was completely healed. Now the other two. It was the first time I was actually gonna fight something "real", not a mannequin. When I was ready to punch one of the guys, something hit them in the back pretty strongly and they both fell. Steve was there, with Sam and Rhodney. He must have thrown the shield. I was glad to see he was fine.
"Are you okay? You have a lot of blood on your clothes..." Sam flew down to check if I was harmed.
"No, don't worry. One of them shot me, but I healed, I'm fine."
"Go back to the carrier, we will handle it from this point. Make sure everything is ready to take off as soon as we arrive." I nodded to Steve and started my way back to the carrier while they entered the base. I really wanted to go with them, but I had to follow Steve's orders. I ran back to the carrier, avoiding stepping on bodies. I focused on them making my eyes look white. Most of them were dead, and some others were severely injured. I couldn't help them, but I wasn't gonna end them either. I didn't want to kill anyone else. I got to the carrier after 5 minutes of running through the forest. The rain was still falling really heavily, so I made my way in the carrier and prepared everything to take off.
I was going to rest for a bit when I heard a strong noise outside, like wood breaking. I went to check what happened and I couldn't believe my eyes. A freaking tank was in front of me, stepping on fallen trees, making its way to the carrier. No. Without the carrier we'd never be able to get out of here. I went out running and waving, I had to distract them from the carrier, make me the new target. The upper part turned following my steps, so I kept running away from the carrier, to the left. The tank stopped and without hesitating it was shot directly onto me. I avoided it by very little, but it crashed on a tree some meters behind me, which made it explode and a lot of wood and trunks flew over me. I covered as some were falling where I was. They were heavy and some bits nailed on my skin, on my arms and back mainly. It was really painful, and I was not going to heal until they were taken off from my skin. I stood up surrounded by a fog of smoke. I couldn't see anything! I focused the energy on my eyes and I saw three lights, three people who were inside the tank, right in front of me. I had to do it again, when I burned my hands. It was the only way I could possibly fight against a damn tank. I focused all the energy I had left onto my hands until they burned, and a strange light could be seen through my skin. What I did now was just intuitive, it felt like it. I pointed my hands where the tank was and I don't really know how, directed the energy outside, instead to transferring it on to another body, like I usually did. A huge amount of energy came out of my palms, like a bright white light that made the tank blow up in a million pieces the moment the ball of energy touched it. The explosion made me jump back and fall to the ground really hard, making the wooden bits sunk in more in my flesh.
Everything hurt, my palms were burning and I could feel how the wood stang when I tried to move. I was exhausted and everything started to turn black, like that time in Sokovia. I had overused my powers again. I just hoped Steve and the others would see me, I had to come back, I had to. My eyes slowly closed but I had to remain awake, make sure I got back to the carrier, but I couldn't move. I turned around even though it was painful, but I had to check if the carrier was still there. I couldn't see much due to the rain, but I could see its silhouette. No one was there. I tried to focus the energy I had left in my eyes, so I could see their halos when they approached, but I hadn't had enough. The rain falling on my skin calmed the pain a bit, specially my hands, which had not fully healed. I couldn't keep my eyes opened, my body needed to rest to recover energy and heal. So I let go, hoping they would see me, or at least search for me. Before passing away I thought about my friends, whether they'd accomplish the mission. I thought about Wanda and Pietro and how much I wanted to be back with them at the headquarters. And then everything turned black.
It was like last time. I could see and hear things, but I couldn't move. I still felt pain in my back and arms. But it was a different kind of pain. Like if they were removing the wooden bits from my skin. I heard voices, familiar voices. And it wasn't raining anymore. So they found me. We were going back home. I felt we were in the air. I could hear Nat's voice, but I didn't understand what she said. The pain slowly disappear after feeling a tiny sting on my arm. We stopped. I heard steps, but I didn't feel like moving or being carried. His voice. I could hear Pietro. And Wanda. But far away, like if they were shouting. Suddenly I felt like flying again. What? I wasn't in the headquarters, I knew it. I was still in the carrier. Where were they taking me? I wanted to move, to wake up, but on the outside nothing happened. A bright white light, pain again, my head hurts. I felt I had controlled over myself again so I tried to move my fingers successfully.
The light blinded me at first, but I quickly was able to see. I needed to know where I was. It was a wide room, with a lot of stuff I didn't know, machines and gadgets, but I saw something familiar. The Craddle. I saw the palms of my hands had healed, and my back didn't hurt anymore. Maybe they used it on me. But who? Was Helen here? As I questioned myself about that place the one of the glass walls slid to one side as a man came in the room. I knew his face, I had seen him before.
"Oh, you're awake! Let me introduce myself. I'm Tony, Tony Stark." Iron Man? Seriously? Oh, it's true, Helen was working with him on the Craddle.
"Welcome to the Stark Tower."