" then why aren't you just running away like the coward you are "
split
things climax
Steve watched as Bucky and Sam immaturely wrestled each other when they all heard it.
When they heard the b a n g.
Everyone jolted up. "What was that?" Thor frowned, wrapping his fingers around the bat he brought.
"That sounded awfully like a bullet," Steve stated.
"Are you sure?" Darcy 'eeshed', worriedly.
Steve picked up his makeshift shield. "Uh, we were shot at last term last term I think I know what a bullet sounds like,"
"They're probably in trouble we have to go," Wanda urged.
"You're right, let's go," Steve nodded. The team jogged down to the house when they saw the front of the house completely gone. The whole front wall facing the street was obliterated from existence. There was no door, no window. The edges were scorched.
"Was that a gun's doing?" Darcy asked, observing the scorch marks from the faint light coming from Sam's old torch and Wanda's glowing hands.
"No, that looks pretty similar to some of Stephen's magic accidents in classes,"
"He burned down half of the A'lar house?" Thor said, amused.
"Let's go," Wanda quickly said, snapping them back to reality. The group cautiously entered the house, finding a hole in the kitchen leading down to what seemed like a secret base.
"Well," Sam shrugged. "We are intruding the house of the guy who planned to shoot us, can't expect less than a secret base.
Steve raised his shield and entered first, slowly edging in.
Everyone followed behind.
As they walked through the small corridor they approached a room. Steve stopped in time, making sure the people inside didn't see them.
"Who is it?" Thor asked.
"I don't know," Steve tried to peer over the control panel that sat in the middle of the room.
"I see Than's ugly dad," Bucky pointed out when he came in sight. He was holding a pretty large gun.
"That doesn't look pretty,"
They watched as Than's dad began shouting at someone. They figured it was their friends.
"YOu and your sneaky friends ruin our plans, arrest MY son, do you really think you can get away with this?" He snarled at a corner not visible to the observing group.
"And you Strange, I initially thought you were a small scrawny kid who could barely fight. I'm not wrong, I just didn't anticipate your extensive ability in the magic arts. You're nothing more than a wannabe witch and soon you'll be nothing at all,"
"What do we do?" Thor whispered. There was no answer as Than's dad loudly ordered one of his mates.
"There, take the wizard, the girl and the blond chicken to the others. Let's extract this machine from Stark," he ordered.
As the men pulled Clint, Loki and Stephen to another room, all the others could hear was Clint's whines about how 'he wasn't a chicken'.
"What do we do?" Thor repeated as the kinky sounds of torture tools echoed through the room.
"Uh," Steve looked frantically around the room.
...SceneChange...
Clint, Loki and Stephen fell on top of each other in the room.
"I'm not a chicken you incompetent idiots-" Clint yelled through the thick iron door.
They scrambled to their feet to find the rest of their friends there.
Peter, Gamora, Nebula, Carol and Rocket were sitting on the floor of the room, beaten.
"Hey," Peter mumbled.
"What happened you guys? We came looking for you," Stephen frowned.
"We got caught," Rocket rolled his eyes.
"That stupid son of a b*tch has a whole defence system out there. No magic boundaries, smoke machines, ugh," Nebula growled.
"Yeah," Stephen sighed.
"We need to get back out there, they're going to take out Tony's arc reactor and that's not good for anyone," Loki began.
"We're stuck in here, trust me we've tried," Carol pointed to the big scorch circle on the wall where it was obvious she'd tried to blast open multiple times.
"There must be another way," Stephen looked around the square box they were imprisoned in.
"Look, the others are outside, Steve and that. They'll figure something out," Clint figured. "Then they'll get the police and then we'll be free,"
"Yeah, but what if they need our help," Stephen argued. "If we create a really big blast, almost like a bomb, we can blow this thing from the inside,"
"One problem Dumbledore," Rocket stuck his tongue out. "We're inside,"
"Shield," Stephen stuck his tongue out in return as he conjured up a small spherical shield in his hands.
"Hm, that could work," Carol began. "I have made a blast big enough before that blew up that one building back at home. The CIA got involved," she mentioned sheepishly.
"Then? What are we waiting for," Clint grinned.
"What about the timing?" Peter spoke up. "Carol will need to initiate the blast and then Stephen will have to create his shield immediately after. If you're a millisecond too late we'll be burnt toast,"
The room was silent for a bit when Loki spoke up. "Well, I am quicker and more accurate than Stephen. I can create shields as well, although not as strong as Stephen's. I can begin the shield and then Stephen, who will follow as soon as he can, can strengthen mine. Then it won't matter if he's a bit late because my shield will protect us in case,"
Peter seemed content. "I've done more dangerous things,"
...SceneChange...
Natasha heard the radio buzz from the police officer beside her. The others watched as she grabbed the radio off the officer.
"Who owns the house?" She hastily asked.
"Um, uh, you aren't Officer Lar-"
"No I am not but I may know more than he does, just tell me, who owns the house" Natasha urged. The address seemed too familiar.
"Uh, The A'lar family," the reply crackled through the radio.
"We're sending back-up," and Natasha shut off the radio. She turned to the Chief in the room. "Hey, Chief, we need to send back up to 34 Titan Rd,"
The buff police officer initially seemed amused at the bundle of kids rushing in there with Than accusing him of being behind the school shooting case but now he was a lot more entertained. "Listen here, kid. You're being paranoid. We'll send one or two officers to check out the scene. Officer Orwell just said he heard a bang and some smoke, coulda just been a bonfire accident,"
Natasha seemed furious. "I know for a fact my friends, one of them who the A'lars are personally targeting, are there right now. I am positive there's no accident, I'm sure there are fire-arms involved and we need a whole team,"
The chief chuckled. "Hey look," he turned to some of his officers. "Jackson, Erlwright, go check out the scene," He faced Natasha. "There, now they'll report back. If there is indeed firearms we'll send more people.
Natasha flicked out her student ID. "I attend SHIELD, I have been assigned to this case and you have to listen to me!" but she only received more laughter in response.
"Hey," Ned whispered. "I called Mr Fury. He's sending some SHIELD agents here tp convince them,"
"Thank god," Natasha sighed, still glaring at the chief.
It wasn't moments when four fully armed and suited SHIELD agents entered the station.
"Agent Larson, go get the son out of custody," the head agent order one of the others.
"Excuse me, Than A'lar is in own custody-" but the chief was cut off.
"Agent Jai of SHIELD," the head agent held up his ID card. "We've taken over this case, that was ours initially but we'll brush past that. We need your officers to go to 34 Titan Street. We have a confirmed case of firearms and the organisation that was behind the school shooting last term,"
Natasha smirked behind Agent Jai.
The Chief nodded. "Alright, you heard him, guys! Gear up," he nervously glanced over at Natasha and her friends.
Agent Jai turned to Natasha. "Fury has assigned you to head advisor of this assignment,"
"That means I get to instruct all of you?" Natasha asked, bewildered.
"You advise me what's best and I see what's reasonable," he nodded. "Let's go," he began to leave. "You three, come as well," he pointed to Ned, Val and Jane.
Sirens filled the atmosphere as the four students ended up behind a police vehicle. As they entered the empty neighbourhood at about 9pm, the sirens went off. Soon enough, they reached Titan Street and placed themselves outside.
"What do you suggest we do?" Agent Jai asked Natasha.
"Chances are, they've taken out the arc reactor from Tony by now, we should call for an ambulance with any special necessities," Jane pointed out.
"Do what she said," Agent Jai order a standing officer.
Natasha glanced at the scorched house. "All of my friends are in there. Do you have a phone? I'm going to try and call someone in there,"
Jai passed her a phone. Natasha thought for a bit of who to call. She quickly dialled a number and waited for someone to answer. The phone beeped as someone did answer.
"Wanda?" Natasha exclaimed through the phone. "What's going on? It's Natasha, we've got a whole team out here-"
"Yeah well get people down here because we're being attacked-" Wanda's voice was muffled by what sounded like an explosion. The ground shook a bit, supporting the fact it was an explosion.
The phone cut off.
"What the hell was that?" Val asked, holding a metal bat she somehow acquired in her hands.
...SceneChange...
"What do we do?" Thor repeated
"Uh," Steve looked frantically around the room. He spotted an electrical box. "Okay, I'm going to take the power out. Once it's dark, Thor, Sam and Bucky, go find Tony. I'll take down the big guys with Wanda and Darcy you-"
The whole room fell silent as Wanda's phone started ringing.
"Now!" Steve exclaimed, throwing his wonky shield at the electrical box, making the room instantly dark.
He heard everyone scramble around. He also heard Than's dad yelling at his co-workers along with multiple clangs of falling items and hitting people.
Steve crawled to Wanda was clutching her phone. "Who is it?"
"SHIELD," Wanda replied.
"Answer it," Steve pressed the button himself.
"Wanda?" Natasha's voice was distinct through the phone. "What's going on? It's Natasha, we've got a whole team out here-"
They were running out of time. Wanda cut off. "Yeah well get people down here because we're being attacked-" but she couldn't finish her sentence as an explosion hit the room and the room got even darker.
As the ringing in her eyes started to fade, she uncovered her head from her hands. "St-teve?" she coughed.
"I'm here," Steve stutter, helping Wanda up. He waved the dust out of their faces.
"What happened?" Wanda asked.
"I don't know, where's your phone?"
"I- I dropped it somewhere," She tried to squint past the smoke. "Look,"
Steve looked up and saw the bright yellow-green light of a magic shield where their friends had been continued. They stumbled towards it.
As the shield flickered and disappeared, they saw Stephen collapsed.
"What happened?" Steve asked.
"Made an explosion to escape," Rocket summarized.
"I made the explosion," Carol pointed out, her face covered in soot and her hair frizzed up. She was the only one from the room that was covered in dust like Steve and Wanda were.
"Loki! Are you alright?" Wanda left Steve's support and help Loki up, who seemed to be struggling to stand.
"Yeah," she muttered, coughing. "Stephen's used most of his energy," Steve knelt down to help Stephen up.
"What happened out here?" Peter asked, suddenly wary of the dark dusty room that once had three big men with guns that wanted to kill them.
"No idea, but SHIELD's outside. Natasha's there," Steve answered.
"Natasha? Is she alright?" Clint asked.
"She's fine,"
"GUYS!" Darcy's voice was heard. "We've got a lot of blood, so get your asses here,"
The group stumbled over to where Darcy was speaking.
She was kneeling over Sam, who had a nasty head injury. It was obvious some debris hit him. Bucky was trying to lift a slab of concrete off Thor's legged.
Underneath some other debris was a body that was quickly identified as one of Than's dad's bodyguards.
"Is he alright? I don't know medical stuff," Darcy asked, wiping her hands on her dusty skirt (which wasn't a good mix).
Stephen dropped out of Steve's arms and knelt beside Sam, inspecting his head. "He's fine, probably mild concussion, we should get him out of here," he muttered weakly.
"That might be a problem," Clint stated, shining his dodgy torch at what used to be the entrance. The concrete and steel roof of the fortified basement had fallen and completely blocked the entrance.
"Can you blow it?" Peter asked Carol.
"I'm on the verge of collapsing, I doubt it," Carol shook her head.
"Can you?" Loki asked Wanda as they held each other up.
"I don't know, I haven't done big blasts before," Wanda doubted.
"Plus, I think what's holding the roof up right now is the slab that blocking our exit," Bucky pointed out.
"Where's Tony?" Stephen asked.
There was a bit of silence.
"We went to get him but both of the men attacked us," Thor stated, pointing to the probably dead body of the man beneath the debris. "Than's dad must've gone off with Tony when the explosion went off,"
"That means there's an exit," Gamora said. The sisters had been silent for the whole time. "We need to go after him,"
"Half of us can't even stand," Steve looked at his friends.
"We split up," Nebula said what everyone was thinking. "Sam, Caorl, Thor, Loki, and Stephen can stay behind until SHIELD makes an exit. Darcy can stay to supervise them-"
"I'm going," Stephen managed to stand up.
"No you're not," Steve insisted. "You can barely walk. I know how much Tony means to you but he's our friend too. We will get him to safety. You'll just slow us down," Stephen sat back down in exhaustion but didn't protest.
"Alright, let's go," Gamora grabbed a lying slightly-bent steel rod.
Wanda helped Loki sit down. "Get a phone, or find mine, maybe you guys can call SHIELD again.
The new team then walked into the darkness of the rest of the room with only Clint's flashlight to guide them. It wasn't soon when they found a thinner corridor, about the width of one person and a half.
"I guess this is where they went," Rocket sighed, eying the drops of blood that trailed down.
Back with the others, Darcy had managed to find Wanda's phone. Unfortunately, it had been crushed and didn't work. "Darn it. How are we supposed to talk to SHIELD now,"
"Shh," Loki whispered. Darcy fell silent. Everyone heard some muffled footsteps. Dust was seen falling like crumbs. "They're above us,"
On cue, they heard some voices and thuds on the otherwise of the debris that blocked the entrance. They were trying to clear the exit. In reply to this, the room shook.
"Stop!" Thor tried to call through the rocks. He stood up, holding his bleeding and broken leg. Darcy helped him stay up. "You're gonna make the roof fall on us!"
There was silence.
"Thor?" Val's voice was pretty clear despite their location.
"We're here," Thor nodded.
"Is everyone alright?" Natasha was heard.
"Um, no, Tony and Than's dad ran off somewhere after the explosion. The others who weren't hurt went after them," Thor explained.
"Who's hurt? Is everyone okay?" an Agent asked, who was Agent Jai.
"We've got a broken leg, three Enhanced that are exhausted and almost passed out and Sam's got a bleeding head. He's knocked out," Darcy pointed out.
"Darcy?" Jane's voice was now heard. "What are you doing here?"
"Jane? What are you doing here?" Darcy asked, surprised.
"Nevermind. How do we get to you if moving this thing will break the roof?" Agent Jai asked.
Loki stared at the roof. "We go through the roof,"
"What?" Almost everyone asked.
Loki sighed, probably from the lack of energy she had. "Most of the steel and concrete that makes the roof is on the floor right now due to the explosion. What's left of the roof is basically just the floor of the living room. We cut a hole in the living room,"
"She's got a point," Agent Jai's voice was heard. The group heard a muffled discussion on the otherwise.
After a bit, Natasha replied. "Okay, we're coming above you,"
It didn't take long for them to cut a hole into the wooden floor and let in some light into the dark and dusty basement they were trapped in.
Agent Jai and Natasha jumped in. "Alright, get Sam onto the stretcher," Natasha helped Jai carry Sam onto the stretcher that had been lowered. Once he was up, a harness was lowered to lift everyone up.
"Darcy you're fine," Jane hugged her friend. Jane was suited up in some basic protection gear, as was Val, Ned and Natasha.
"Where's Peter?" Ned asked, looking through the small group of people they recovered.
"He went with the others to find Tony," Darcy answered. She turned to Agent Jai. "Also I think there are two dead bodies under all that mess, uh, they were Than's dad's men,"
"Alright," Agent Jai nodded to his team. "You guys start clearing the area, you lot, we're going down to follow the rest of the kids,"
"What about us?" Natasha asked.
"You stay here. We don't want any more people in danger," Agent Jai pursed his lips. "Help your friends," and with that, most of the agents disappeared down the basement.
"They'll be fine, Nat," Val placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"I hope so,"
...SceneChange...
The group was silent as they went through the stuffy corridor in single-file. A couple of sneezes and coughs occurred here and then but there wasn't an end to the hallway yet.
"Wait," Steve paused, causing a few bumps as people stopped. "The blood drops have stopped,"
Clint, who was behind him, shone the light on the floor. Indeed the bloodstains had stopped. Instead, the last one was significantly bigger, as if multiple blood drops had dripped onto the same spot.
"Maybe they stopped the blood in the wound?" Bucky frowned.
"Wait," Clint raised his torch to the roof. Everyone tried to see. "There's a door. Steve, help me up,"
Steve knelt down to support Clint higher. Clint held his torch with one hand and opened the door with his other. Slowly, he pushed the door open. Once the door had opened just a centimetre, a gunshot was heard and Clint let go of the door.
There was some silence.
"What was that?" Peter asked nervously.
"Someone's up there," Clint concluded, he hopped off Steve.
"How do we get up there without getting shot then?" Wanda asked.
"You," Steve began. "You can produce small shields. Go up there and make their bullets run out. Then they'll be easy to take out. Even if it's Than's dad,"
"Just hide behind your shield and it'll be fine," Bucky assured her.
"Alright..." Wanda slowly squished her way past Bucky and Clint. She hopped onto Steve and held the trap-doors handle. After taking a deep breath she opened the trap-door, immediately pushing a shield out so her hand wouldn't get shot.
Two gunshots were shot then silence. She pushed the door all the way open and hoped up to the surface, still holding up her maroon coloured shield. As she did this, more gunshots followed. Two more, in fact.
As she opened her eyes (that she didn't realise she had closed) she saw the attacker. It was Than's dad, no surprise. Tony was in a chair, not moving. He was unconscious with a bloody shirt, the blood more concentrated at his chest area.
Wanda grimaced and turned back to Than's dad, still holding out her shield.
"Listen, little girl, just drop it. He'll live. Let me get out of here," Than's dad tried to coax.
"You still need the arc reactor," Wanda's voice shook. The gun was still pointed at her. She noticed it had two shots left.
"I already have it," Than's dad lifted a bloody hand that had the arc reactor in it. It was drenched in blood, probably since it wasn't taken out properly but rather hastily due to the change in plans.
Wanda held her breath. "Then why aren't you just running away like the coward you are,"
"The door's behind you sweetie," Than's dad's mouth curled into a nasty smile.
Wanda quickly glanced behind her to see the door of the odd room. In this moment she felt a punch on her shoulder. In the rush, she blasted a ball of energy in Than's dad's general direction. Hitting him successfully, he flew back into the wall.
"What's going on?" Steve called from below. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, give me one sec," Wanda lowered her shield as she spotted the gun on the floor far away from Than's dad. She cautiously kicked Than's dad's leg. He was unconscious. "He's out cold," she called.
As she bent down to grab Tony's arc reactor, Steve and Clint managed to climb up. "Shit, is he alright?" Clint exclaimed, at the sight of Tony's body.
Steve and he walked over and began checking. "He's got a pulse," Steve stated.
Wanda walked up to the body and show the two the arc reactor. "I'm guessing they basically ripped it out of him,"
Before they could say anything else, a few other people popped out of the hole. SHIELD Agents.
"Thank god you're here," Steve sighed of relief.
"Here," Wanda passed them the arc reactor. She seemed a little dazed.
After that, it was just a blur.
aha,,,, I'm so sorry for the late update,,hm I managed to keep a good schedule until recently,, :/
but? the books almost at an end,,maybe one or two chapters left? this has been a big part of my life, I've been writing this highschool au for a whole year now phew. once again, I cannot express how much thank you I want to say to all you readers, to those who comment, reread it, vote and just an amazing thank you to those who even made it this far.
stay tuned, and stay safe ;)
thanks/DJ
extra note: i am mostly active on wattpad, which has an extension where i can post announcements. i have realised that where my wattpad readers can be notified of any delays, you guys cannot so if there are any long delays i apologise in advance, i get really busy a lot TwT
