They had been at the camp for almost twenty minutes, and Steve felt bad for the kids, even if S.H.I.E.L.D was only using sedative darts and non-lethal weapons, these were just kids after all. They had been planning on sneaking in the West border and taking them by surprise while they slept, that hadn't happened. Somehow not everyone in the cabins had been knocked out by the sedatives that had been planted by the advance team earlier, and by the time the main force had gotten past the first few patrol teams the kids had realized what was going on. This wasn't how the plan was supposed to go. Then with the loud thunder that had sent most kids into a retreat, they seemed to be moving forward without any resistance. It was a big camp though, what were the kids planning?
"We almost have the perimeter secured," an agent said over coms. "So we should be able to see anyone trying to sneak out."
"Understood, try and engage minimally. We don't want to harm the children anymore then absolutely necessary," Fury told everyone. The was a muttering of affirmative words from all the team leaders, and they all started heading for where the biggest group of kids was gathered. According to the chatter Steve was half listening to apparently the kids were trying to move those who had been knocked out by the sedatives in the cabins.
Steve was walking through a clearing with what looked like an arts and crafts building and a stable, when he saw four kids darting through the tree line towards a low outlaying building that he had just passed. "I've got some who might be trying to escape or resupply, should we go after them?" Steve asked quietly.
"I'll join you Rogers, if any of these kids contact their superiors this could get real ugly real fast.," Natasha replied. Steve started heading towards the building the kids had gone into, and he felt more then saw when Natasha joined him. They went in and heard voices.
"-rything, I'm gonna get the files," a boy's voice with a southern accent said quietly. "Don't forget to grab the emergency supply from the back." Natasha glanced at Steve, then cracked the door open slowly. Steve and Natasha saw the kids split up quickly, not knowing that the two of them were there. Natasha handed Steve one of her dart guns as she headed down one hall. Steve went down the other looking into rooms as he did. It looked like a small hospital, which was weird. He heard something in a room to his left, he peeked in through the cracked door and saw a blond girl emptying drawers into a bag at her feet. He felt bad as he shot the dart at her, and even worse when he heard the muffled curse right before a soft thunk as the girl slumped to the floor. He kept going until he heard a loud clang and another muffled curse from a room at the end of the hall, he cracked the door open but didn't see anyone. But he did see an office like room with an open window. The kid must have jumped out and gotten away from the building, but Steve knew that they wouldn't get to far. He walked in farther and saw a file cabinet with one of the drawers on the ground and the others all open. A few loose papers fluttered on the floor, but other than that there was no movement. Steve went to the window to see if the kid was still in sight, and spun around when he heard someone behind him. A stinging blow hit him across the cheek and Steve stumbled in shock blinking as a large binder hit the floor, a flash of blond raced past him and almost too late Steve reached out to grab him, but before he could the boy froze in shock.
"Shist, Nico's gonna kill me," the blond boy muttered before falling to the ground at Steve's feet, another large binder tumbling from his hand. Slightly behind the boy, a backpack with several more binders had been stuffed behind the door. Natasha stood in the doorway with her dart gun empty.
"Four are ready for extraction at our location, anyone copy?" Natasha asked into her com. Someone must have answered because she motioned for Steve to follow her and they left. This was not how this was supposed to go down, and Steve was getting a bad feeling that this was about to become their biggest mistake yet.
Authors Note:
I'm back! So I'm not going to make excuses, life has just been busy and I decided to revamp this fic. If you want to see the really new/edited stuff, start at chapter 12, but feel free to do a full reread and see some of the other small things I've also changed. I'm going to try to get back to a normal posting schedule for Saturdays but no promises. So if you're still here reading, thanks for staying for the ride!