Serephina clung to the cold metal bar. The wind whistled loud and booming in her ears without the walls that had protected her before. Her knuckles already stood out white as she pressed herself closer to the metal. Not even daring to open her eyes, the girl said. "Don't look down. You just have to go up!" she whispered to herself, desperately hoping she could give herself courage.
A second shaking followed and the girl heard an eerie sound. The cracking of screws being levered out of the wall, thus no longer giving the bar any support. Slowly but surely, the metal the girl was clinging to bent towards the earth. No sooner had the screws popped out of the metal of the wall than a sharp cry escaped the younger girl as she held on as tightly as she could. She squinted her eyes and her knuckles had turned unhealthily bright.
"Stark!" she heard Steve shout after a few seconds had passed. She had to remind herself to breathe in that time. She heard, between the whistling of the wind and her own pulse, the drives of Stark's suit approaching again. "Maybe you'd better leave the climbing to the adults," the man spoke, almost annoyed, as he lifted the girl from the pole. She still had her eyes closed and was silent, hoping to calm her pulse again. "Shut up, Stark," she muttered half-heartedly.
When she finally had solid ground under her feet again, she was able to breathe more calmly and open her eyes. She looked briefly back and forth between Rogers and Stark before simply stepping past the captain, towards the switchboard. "Children," she heard Stark say before he took off again.
The brunette pulled the switchgear out of the wall as Steve stepped closer. "Everything okay?",he asked her calmly, not even really sounding reproachful. "I'm fine," she said with a wave of her hand, she had looked at the captain for a moment but then turned back to the switchgear. "The relays are intact Stark!" she declared after a few seconds in her commlink, well aware that Stark had long since hacked into the system. "Even if I can get the rotors free, I'll have to crank this thing manually. I'll get in there and jump start you," Tony's calm voice was heard over the commlink. Almost aghast, Steve looked at the younger one before speaking into the commlink himself. "You'll be shredded when that thing powers up," the captain replied loudly. "The control unit can reverse the polarity long enough for the magnetic levitation motor to-" this time the millionaire was cut off as Steve admitted aloud that he didn't understand a word. Serephina stepped up to the older man and then pointed to a lever on the side, another wide hole separating her from the lever. "That one slows the rotors until Stark is out. Wait for his signal.", Serephina quickly explained, to which the captain did not hesitate and simply jumped across the wide gap. Once again, Serephina remained alone on the narrow strip of metal while they all three caught their breath once more.
"Breach of security perimeter. Hostile forces in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. Secure all passageways!", the voice of their Chief of Security on the bridge sounded stressed, almost panicked. Serephina felt a chill run down her spine, there were announcements that Maria had always warned her about.
This was one of them.
"The Hulk and Thor are on research area level 4. Levels 2 and 3 are dark!" the stressed voice added hastily. Serephina looked somewhat hastily at Steve, who was only aware of the radio message. Then everything happened very quickly.
Three men in armour entered the level below Steve and Serephina. Neither reacted at first, then the man in front pulled the safety ring of a grenade and threw it upwards. Immediately Steve reacted and jumped back to Serephina, knocking the grenade down like a baseball. While the grenade was still exploding, Serephina swung herself down to the men on a wide metal pole.