The Will Of The Free
A/N: I'm glad the response to the last chapter was so positive! Thanks for reviewing!
After taking out the hostiles on the third floor, Steve sprinted into the lab. An alarm from the lab rung out, signalling that the bioweapon had been removed.
The door to the glass container was swung wide open, and the vial of liquid missing from its' secure place.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon," Steve grunted over the communicator.
X
"I'm on it," Natasha answered, the low hum of the motorcycle she was riding echoing in the mostly-empty courtyard.
One mercenary stood stationary in front of a car, raising his gun, about to fire.
Natasha gripped the brakes tightly, spinning the motorcycle onto the ground and using it to flip her opponent over onto the concrete floor.
She sprinted forwards, watching two men stand by another car, and three others run behind it.
One, wearing a blue-lined bullet-proof vest, raised his pistol at her shakily. She ran at him, going under his arm and using her momentum to flip him over onto his back.
Another emerged from the armoured vehicle, but she quickly slammed the metal door back onto his head, a pool of blood seeping slowly out of his helmet.
A mercenary, bullets strapped across his chest, reached a hand out to try and stop her from going any further. Natasha brought her knee up to kick him in the groin, and pushed him onto the ground, prying the gun he was holding from his hands.
She struck another over the head with the heavy gun, discarding it within seconds of the hit. She swiftly turned her attention to the next mercenary, bringing her leg up to deliver a powerful kick to his chest. He stumbled backwards, creating a thud as he hit the ground. Natasha flipped another over her shoulder, tossing his gun into the nearby bushes. She slid over the bonnet of another armoured car, using the taser strapped on her wrist to send a shock through his arms.
Natasha remained tense, sitting on the bonnet of the car, scanning the area in front of her for more hostiles. Suddenly she was dragged, by her neck to the roof of the car.
A man with a white 'X' spray painted over the chest piece of his armour held her neck tightly in a vice-like grip. She struggled, managing to turn herself around despite his tight hold on her neck. Natasha punched, landing several powerful hits on his thick forearm. She span around to kick him and he let his hold go, dodging her kick before regaining his hold on her neck. Crossbones pulled on her ginger hair, bringing her up to look through his mask and into his eyes. She reached up to an exposed piece of flesh on his neck, and promptly stabbed him with the taser she had used before.
He let out a rough laugh, before yelling at her, "I don't work like that no more!"
He flipped her over with his forearm, and threw her head-first into the armoured vehicle.
She hit the floor with a resounding clang, and looked around her to see two mercenaries sitting at the back of the truck. She gazed upwards, looking through the hole she had been thrown into and at the man that had thrown her.
"Fire in the hole," He grinned beneath his mask, taking the pin out of a grenade and dropping it into the truck.
X
Shippou ran around the corner, the smell of both Kagome and the poison becoming more dominating. He stopped in his sprint as he saw Kagome standing outside the building, a brunette next to her and a man with metal wings on his back some way off.
He saw the destruction, the broken windows, the shards of glass lying around, the entrance in ruin, chunks of concrete strewn about the site and he growled. 'What the hell is Kagome doing in a place like this?' He thought lividly.
His anger flared quickly, remembering Fury's promise that she would remain safe, 'If Sesshomaru didn't want me to keep my distance, and observe, I would have taken her someplace safe by now.'
He stalked off along the pavement, finding a bench to sit and watch on. 'Sesshomaru wants me to clean up after her? No way in hell!'
X
The grenade started ticking, signalling that it was ready to detonate. Natasha scrambled backwards, grabbing one of the men sitting at the back of the truck and using him to shield herself from the blast.
The back doors of the vehicle were violently blown off their hinges, leaving Natasha lying, coughing, with two burnt bodies next to her on the grass.
X
Steve ran out onto the external stairs on the side of the building, where Rumlow had been standing minutes earlier.
He gazed downwards, spotting Natasha lying on the grass, coughing, soot covering her face. Steve furrowed his brows, watching Crossbones crawl through the top of a tank to reach the guns at the top. The man grasped onto the rubber handles, before starting to shoot, a rain of bullets coming down hard on the balcony. Captain America sprinted back inside, his vibranium shield pulled close to deflect the bullets.
The man with the 'X' on his chest loaded a different type of projectile into the heavy weaponry, and proceeded to start firing the small missiles through the walls of the institute on the third floor, where he could see Steve through the gaps in the walls where windows once were.
Concrete and the remainder of the glass went flying, with Steve running to the balcony, hoping to escape the blast.
The missile ticked, a low humming sound filling the air. Steve heard the noise, and ran faster, realising it was ready to explode.
The missile went off in a fiery explosion, powerful enough to catapult Steve over the balcony, a plume of fire and smoke following him out into the air.
He spiralled through the air, thudding against the cold wall of the institute before landing on the ground.
Pain rippled through his body after landing on the stone pavement, from three floors up. He gritted his teeth, rolling himself over onto his stomach before pulling himself up.
"Sam," He called over the communicator, "He's in an AFV headed north."
X
Kagome gasped as Steve was thrown violently through a balcony and onto the ground below by a powerful explosion on the first floor.
"Steve?" She asked, before turning to Sam as she watched him struggle up, "Will he be okay? Should I help?"
"Nah, he a super-soldier, he just needs to walk it off." Sam smirked. "Steve says our target's in an AFV headed northwards," He relayed the message.
His wings spread, the mechanical feathers stretching outwards in preparation for flight. Before he took off, he looked Kagome in the eye, "Stay with Wanda, I don't want to be responsible for losing you."
After that last sentiment, he took off, glancing at the keypad on his forearm.
"Let's go- we can try to cut them off," Wanda nodded at Kagome, pointing at an alleyway, "We'll meet the others there."
Kagome nodded in return, running alongside her into the alleyway.
The sun glared down upon them, rays of light penetrating the alleyway and falling upon the heads of the two girls running through it.
Once they came out of the small alley, they reached a turning point. One way, to the left, lead out to a marketplace, people in bright colours bustling about. The other, to the right, lead out onto an empty road, the way back to the building they had stayed in the night before.
"They'll want to get lost in a crowd. We start looking for anyone in armour, with weapons or looks suspicious," Wanda told her, eyes scanning the area.
"Let's go, there's a lot of people that way, we should try there first." Kagome nodded.
Their eyes met quickly, before they started pacing towards the fruit stands, several people yelling at them to attempt to persuade them to buy their produce. The market was busy, a loud and crowded area, it would be easy to get lost amongst the people.
'It'd be easy enough for me to escape,' Kagome thought, 'But where would I go? The phone SHIELD gave me is at the hotel, none of my friends are in Nigeria, and I'm pretty sure Wanda could subdue me until help arrives if I make a run for it.'
"There!" Wanda pointed at an armoured truck.
"An AFV," Kagome breathed, "Abandoned." She sighed, sensing no auras from within the vehicle.
X
Sam soared over the market, absentmindedly noting Kagome and Wanda's location as he passed over them. He landed with a thud atop the metal roof of a market stall. He put his hand to the side of the red glasses he wore over his face, searching for any of their targets in the crowd.
"I got four, they're splitting up," Sam cursed.
"I've got the two on the left," Natasha replied icily, speeding on the motorcycle she had previously discarded through the crowd, before once again leaving it and jumping over cars to chase her targets.
Steve, too, tore through the crowd, kicking off of a taxi to propel himself forwards. He spotted a military-style vest lying on the ground, and bent down to look at it. He recognised it as part of the armour the mercenaries had been wearing during the fight, "They ditched their gear, it's a shell game now. One of them has the payload."
Kagome was instantly relieved to hear Steve's voice over the communicator, thankful that he sounded unharmed.
Seconds after he relayed the information to the team, a red metallic device implanted itself on the front of his shield. Reacting quickly, he swung the shield into the air, leaving the bomb to detonate in the air.
Suddenly, he was jabbed from behind, and fell to the ground a few meters away.
"There you are, you son of a bitch," Their target, Brock Rumlow, chuckled from behind him.
Steve struggled to get up, before Crossbones ran at him landing a heavy punch that tossed him into a table.
"I've been waiting for this!" His enemy yelled hysterically.
X
Natasha ran through the marketplace, ignoring the whines and screams of the civilians as she ran past them.
The falcon, too, was looking for the hostiles. He soared through the air, constantly scanning the crowds to track them. He set his sights on a man running, in all black, through the crowd, desperately trying to lose him. Sam brought his legs together, flying down quickly to deliver an efficient kick to the man's ribs.
Another came up behind him, firing shots at him with a small pistol. Sam brought one of his wings up to shield himself from the barrage of bullets that were aimed in his direction. He ran forwards, before extending one wing and using it to hit the man with the gun in the face, knocking him into a fruit stand.
Noticing the man's unconscious state, Sam hurried himself to sort through the black satchel that was strung over his enemy's shoulder.
"He doesn't have it," Sam rolled the man over, checking for the biological weapon on his person. "I'm empty." Sam sighed, turning on his heel.
"Out of the way!" Natasha yelled, sprinting through the colourful market. She flipped herself over a yellow bike, dodging crates, chairs and people to stalk her target. The target in question pushed past people and into a more open space. Natasha realised her opportunity, running up onto a table to gain higher ground. She launched herself onto him, tackling him and bringing them both down and into the sand.
The man quickly got on his feet, pulling out a pistol from his pocket. Natasha wrestled with him ferociously, pulling the weapon out of his hands and punching him in the chest repeatedly.
X
Kagome could hear an explosion over the communicator, followed by Sam's cries that his two targets didn't have the weapon. When she returned from the Feudal Era, she found herself craving the adventure and comradeship she had in the past.
She wanted that all again, but she wanted it to be on her terms.
X
A/N: Wow, another update in two days! Amazing! Thanks for all the love and support I've had on this story! PLEASE REVIEW! First, I'd like to address a few things.
Clint is on this mission, but he isn't in the action because I have other plans for him, (I hadn't forgotten about him!) And about my version of Kagome, when I finish this story, I'm going to revise all of the chapters and bring her back into character! PLEASE REVIEW THEY KEEP ME MOTIVATED TO UPDATE!