Disclaimer: Do I own any of the characters or ideas that you recognize? You ask. No I say. Should I be sued for this work where I take some known things out to play for a while? Also no. Do I have any money at all? You ask. My answer is my tears and a helpless gesture at my student loan statements.
So... Showing up at the airport is- Oh what's the word Cassie wants?
Interesting?
Close but no. "Interesting" is a bit too benign for the way things go down. Nothing about what happens at the airport that day could be considered benign.
Catastrophic?
No. Catastrophic is still technically too bad for what happens considering that nobody dies. Nobody is even paralyzed at the end of it thanks to the dual circumstances of Cassie being present and the sun being out. Rhodey's spinal cord can thank her for that later. Maybe after he gets a full pension, a promotion, and an Air Force retirement party complete with fucking solid gold watch. It's honestly the very least that they owe him.
Problematic?
Again, accurate, but still inadequate. The situation does cause them monumental problems going forwards. The things that happen aren't so much a wrench in the machine works as they are an entire garage worth of tools dumped inside the clockwork mechanics of Big Ben. Problematic therefore, does not sum up the sequence of events.
Cassie decides to go with the term "complicated" for the amount of flexibility and latitude it allows her while still conjuring the correct levels of tiring magnitude to deal with in the minds of those she tells. "Complicated" also implies multiple levels of issue without necessarily causing panic which Cassie decides is a good thing. Enough in her life is objectively panic inducing at the surface level that having further hysteria lurking in wait should she delve any deeper is just a little too much.
Also, it is well proven that panic clouds judgement. Cassie needs her judgement in tact. Because of all of the complication.
Panic and complication often went hand in hand in Cassie's experience. She wishes that those too things had less of a committed relationship. An off and on fling between the two of those concepts would be much more to her preference. She thinks some kind of space between them might be healthy for them both. Let them define themselves separately for a while...
Cassie may have lost the plot in this explanation.
Where was she? Oh right, the airport. The airport which Cassie will forever have to avoid for the rest of her life. Not that she can actually foresee another reason for her to ever need to fly through Leipzig again. Though to be fair, as little as twenty-four hours ago, she wouldn't have been able to predict ending up at a private runway at the Leipzig airport this time.
Cassie doesn't often wish for prophetic dreams, but it's theoretically possible that they would have been helpful going in to this week in particular. Or not. Mythological views on the subject very generally say "no" on that question. All she's saying is, she wouldn't have minded having a heads up on this one. Her dad had dropped her a hint about Ultron. Would a cryptic poem about the governments of the world and the press being horrible and generally lacking in sanity have been that inconvenient to anyone?
Anyway, their initial arrival at the airport is immediately rendered as solely and individually fantastic based purely on the fact that Steve is waiting to meet her in the parking garage. Tony is with him of course. He probably arranged whatever transportation got the two of them there so fast, but Cassie doesn't really care about Tony's presence or any of the logistics that made the situation possible for the first thirty seconds or so after climbing out of the car.
Instead, Cassie gives in to the cultural influence of every romantic comedy she's ever seen and rushes straight to her fiancé. Steve helps close the distance between them in a few quick steps and then plants his feet and opens his arms to catch her. Cassie takes the invitation and barrels straight in to his chest, feeling Steve's arms close around her as her feet leave the ground and her legs wrap around his hips. Cassie buries her face in the crook of his neck for a long moment and breaths in deeply. She feels Steve's shaky exhale as he brings a hand up to cradle the back of her head.
After a few heartbeats she pulls back far enough to kiss him, keeping it regretfully chaste because she can't actually forget the fact that they are all most definitely on a clock. Steve mostly mimics the kiss, but steals a second one of his own before setting her back on her feet. His eyes flick over her, probably searching for injuries.
"You got here faster than we expected," he says.
Cassie grimaces. "I overshot the jump," she explains. "By a lot. We ended up not all that far from a road and were able to pick up a decent car."
"And by overshot she's being literal," Reyna contributes, rolling her neck to relieve the tension caused by their long car ride. "We showed up at least a thousand feet up. Sam ended up in a tree."
Steve turns his head to see Sam better, taking in the blood on his shirt and the torn fabric. "You okay Sam?"
"All in one piece," Sam says with a shrug. "Wasn't my best landing, but Cass got me fixed up right there. One nice little shot of magic and-" he clicks his finger "good as new."
"Yeah, great feathers," Tony interrupts. "Now get over here. I've made a few tech upgrades on the wings and I want 'em on you yesterday. Romanov hasn't called in any problems from the tarmac but I don't want anyone out there without full kit." Sam obligingly approaches and lays his wing pack on the hood of the car as Tony begins to fiddle. He darts a sharp look at Bucky. "Same goes for you Barnes. Time to give that arm an upgrade."
Some of the tension Bucky's been carrying for a while now bleeds out of his shoulders and Cassie suddenly realizes that he's been worried about what the bombing accusations might bring up for Tony about the deaths of his parents. He's been wondering if this would call an end to the truce the two of them had reached. Cassie thinks that if this Tony were the Tony from two years ago instead, those worries might have been a lot more well founded.
Steve does a time check on his phone and his expression tightens. "Ten minutes Stark."
Tony acknowledges the time call with a brief nod and a wave of the hand. "I need seven to do this badly and twelve to do it right. It'll take what it takes."
Steve grimaces but doesn't argue. Then he turns to Reyna and Cassie. "Whatever gear came out with you guys in what we recovered back at the headquarters I'd get in to it," he warns. "I'm with Stark on this. Everyone gets suited and booted before we head for the plane."
Cassie nods and she and Reyna duck around behind the car to pull their armor on over their clothes. They leave their weapons stored for the time being, but Cassie makes sure that her necklace is above her collar and easy to get at. Reyna zips her cloak/jacket of protection from Athena over her blouse in place of her normal jacket. The two of them exchange a look, a nod, and then step back out in to the open where Sam is sliding back in to his wing ring and Tony is bent peering over Bucky's arm and watching him wiggle his fingers.
A van pulls in to the parking lot just as they're finishing up and Cassie goes instinctively on guard before realizing that Steve is still calm. Cassie decides to trust his reaction and forces her hands away from her necklace as whoever is driving the van pulls in to park. A moment later Clint Barton is throwing open the drivers seat door and hoping out of the vehicle, thus explaining Steve's nonchalance. He or Tony must have called Clint earlier.
Belatedly, Cassie feels a surge of guilt for not having taken the time before to wonder where Clint was and what the plan was for extracting him to somewhere safe. She supposes she'd probably assumed that the sniper had at least temporarily gone to Asgard with Banner and his family to help them get settled. Failing that, maybe she'd just subconsciously been assuming that Barton would be wherever Romanov was.
"Sorry I'm late," Clint says mildly, as though this is a team breakfast and his alarm went off late or something. "Agents flooded the safe house Laura and the kids had been waiting in pretty much as soon as they left with Thor and Banner. That bridge thing, the Bifrost or whatever uses a lot of energy and apparently the government knows the signature." He reaches in to the trunk of the car, extracts a duffle bag, and shuts it again before calmly tossing his keys on to the roof of the vehicle.
"Did they all get out okay?" Tony asks.
Clint nods. "All good. Bruce was halfway in to science mode when the rainbow thing beamed down. The kids are freaked, but they're young and they'll get over it. Laura was doing a pretty good job at keeping it together for them." Clint looks at Steve. "The feds showed up in minutes," he repeats. "They were waiting for the Bifrost to go active and they were ready to move when it did. Everything in me says that that is not good."
"No it's not," Reyna says, eyes narrowing as she lets her mind whirl over the strategic possibilities presented by the information and running mental equations on how that could effect their own efforts to clear out. "They were waiting for the Bifrost," she muses. "Waiting for Thor and Banner- arguably our strongest offensive forces to leave."
Steve's jaw tightens but he nods. "Ross is playing this like the old school generals," he says. "All brutality and dirty tricks. He thinks we're having a fight and he wants to make sure he wins it. The idea that we might choose to run instead, and really run as a complete team hasn't occured to him yet. He's probably interpreting Banner and Thor bugging out as a sign of fractured group cohesion, not a measure taken to protect innocent parties."
Reyna is looking grim now. "I think it's more than Ross assuming we'll fight," she says. "I think he's counting on us doing it. His pitch this whole time is that the Avengers are volatile and dangerous. If he gets footage of all of us picking sides and choosing to fight each other, on government property where we cause damage, he can use it as proof that he's right. And say somehow we fought and then lost, he'd be proving that his people don't need our help. A group that can beat the Avengers obviously can take care of things without them. Either way, if we fight, we don't come out of this shit storm smelling rosy."
"Do we ever?" Tony asked.
"No."
"That's what I thought."
Steve interrupts the exchange, clearly ready to get moving and letting Captain America wash over him more firmly. "The plan stays the same," he says. "We get on the tarmac and haul it to the plane. The Maximoffs, Rhodey, and Natasha are ready to give us cover but we're going to hope we won't need it. Best case scenario, nothing happens, we get on board and take off and that's the end of it. Worst case, we put one foot on the tarmac and we get attacked. If that's what's playing, i want Sam, Stark, and Cassie to each grab whoever is closest and get the fuck on board. We have to get as many of us out of here as possible so that anyone stuck on the RAFT gets the best available rescue team."
The rest of them all nod. It's a pretty good plan, and even if it weren't, it's the only one they've got. They'll improvise the rest of the details as and when they need to.
It looks like they're in version one of the situations Steve had outlined (you know, the one where they just casually jog to the waiting plane and fly away without interference) for approximately the first twelve seconds after their feet hit the tarmac. By second number thirteen, they are clearly in version two of these things. By twenty seconds in, they are in to the little expected though much feared unforeseen worst case scenario.
The worst case involves the runway surrounded by heavily armed individuals encased in flat black uniforms. They're also wearing sunglasses, which Cassie figures probably means that someone has reviewed footage of her fighting and taken precautions against her trick of bending the sun to blind her attackers. They're utterly indistinguishable from one another and Cassie briefly wonders if someone in the government has quietly cracked cloning for military purposes.
That thought gets dismissed on the grounds that up until forty-eight hours ago, she had access to almost all the research that the government was doing thanks to Stark. What this access had shown was that Stark Enterprises was theoretically much farther ahead on such matters than the government was, and had better resources to accomplish it practically besides. Thankfully, Tony and Dr. Cho shared the opinion that actual cloning was a Bad Idea, with capital letters, and thus he technology was unlikely to become a reality when it came to humans.
Ominous though the presence of the many, many, armed operatives, they aren't what Cassie considers to be their biggest problem when it comes to making a clean get away. No, the honor of that position belongs to the two suited figures standing in front of the soldiers. And that award is so given because whoever and whatever the two of them are, they are an unaccounted for variable and enemy.
Pro tip about battle, unexpected enemies are never the good kind.
Cassie should write these things down sometime. Maybe she should make a sampler. Only Cassie isn't any good with sewing that doesn't involve skin and gaping wounds. Maybe Annabeth could weave it in to a blanket for her or something. Calypso makes clothes too. Maybe she could do tee shirts.
ADHD tendencies sometimes manifested in Cassie's thoughts wandering down strange and unhelpful avenues at unfortunate times.
Right.
Snapping sharply in to the moment as her battle reflexes take over, Cassie focuses and makes her vision close in on the newcomers to make an assessment of them. Any technical information she can give the rest of the team with what she can see but they can't will be valuable. Regardless of weather or not this situation ends in extreme violence, the team will want to figure out who these two are later.
One of the men has a suit that looks to be along the same lines as the Iron Man suit. The chest doesn't glow so it's not using an arc reactor (which is good news even if nothing else is), and the helmet is different. It has bigger eye pieces and seems t o be more pointed at the front. The flexible articulated metal plating of the suit is familiar, but Cassie can clearly discern the fact that this individual's apparel has considerably more fabric involved. Probably to increase their mobility.
The other person's garb seems to be nothing but fabric. It's flat black so it must be absorbing heat like crazy, but Cassie can't identify the material as any fiber she recognizes. It looks almost like the leather of her own armor, but isn't quite. Small metal chips form a sort of necklace over the collar bones of the wearer, and Cassie is able to make out the gleam of sharpened metal at the fingertips, making the hands in to clawed weapons.
It also has ears. It's a cat suit. A militarized, super tough, reinforced, high tech, exceptionally dangerous... cat suit.
"I recognize the one in red," Sam says. Cassie has to strain to hear him a little because he's standing directly next to Bucky and a few people away from her. Steve had made sure that those of them who could fly or teleport were scattered through the group to better their chances of getting out. "He shrinks."
"I saw that security tape," Tony acknowledges. "Rapid shrinking to the submicroscopic level and then growing back to regular size in half a second. Dad had notes about the possibilities of the tech but wrote it off as too impractical to make work. Plus the copyright went to a different guy."
Bucky nods and Cassie can just see Steve shifting the grip he has on his shield. "Got it, he shrinks. Any way to track him anyway?"
"I might be able to in the HUD. Having FRIDAY run it now."
Cassie frowns a little and scans her vision more closely over both figures. "The other one is wearing some kind of material I don't recognize," she shares. "Looks kinda like hyper flexible leather but I wouldn't be surprised if it's kevlar or something stronger. Seems to cover the whole body- no seams or gaps. Metal claws on each finger so watch the hands."
"He's a cat," Sam says, in a non-plussed sort of voice. "Why is he a cat?"
Steve turns his head very slightly to look at him. "Can we stay focused please?"
"What?" Sam shoots back. "Guy shows up dressed like a cat and you don't wanna know more?"
"Isn't your code name a bird?" Bucky quips, joining the campaign to raise Steve's blood pressure and probably enjoying the opportunity to needle Sam a little despite the greater circumstances at present. "Wanna talk about how you've named your drone?"
Sam shrugs. "Stark did it first."
Cassie doesn't engage in the banter, but all the cat talk does make her wonder if anyone has made any plans regarding The Smallest Bob. She hopes that there will be a way to get their pet back. The purring skeleton fur ball has been growing on her. Maybe she can ask Nico to call him for her, The Smallest Bob technically being a creature of the Underworld.
"Sam, Stark, Cassie, go," Steve says. "Run."
Taking that for the obvious cue that it is, Cassie grabs on to Reyna's hand with one of her own and latches on to Clint's forearm with the other. She lets the energy she's been absorbing in to her bloodstream since they hit the tarmac overflow her cellular structure, pulling them all out of existence where they are, and back in to it again directly inside the opened doorframe of the plane. Cassie can feel the vibrations of the engine through the floor and is relieved to register them because it means that whoever is in the pilot's seat is holding the plane still by leaving on the breaks with the engine ticking over.
Clint is on his feet already and sprinting for the cockpit. Reyna is thrown a bit more by the momentum of their arrival and rolls across the cabin a ways to disperse it before Pietro catches her. Cassie herself is steadied by Rhodey. She just manages to nod at him in thanks and register that Wanda is kneeling at the rear of the cabin with her hands pressed flat to the ground, a faint red glow spreading out from them. Cassie supposes that that glow might well be why none of the soldiers have yet dared to interfere with the plane, either on foot or with weapons fire.
She takes in all of this over the course of perhaps three seconds before she pivots in the doorway to look back at the scene that is rapidly developing on the runway. Sam, Steve, Tony, and Bucky have taken on a divide and conquer sort of strategy. They're hindered in things by their deliberate efforts not to engage with the enemy first or offensively. All four of them are ducking, weaving, dodging, and twisting, all the while pushing to move closer to the plane.
Tony and Steve have their hands completely full with the two unknown suited individuals. The one in red seems to phase and shudder in and out of existence as he and Tony battle it out, and Cassie surmises from what Sam had said earlier that the operative must be rapidly shrinking and growing again to sneak in hits and then dash away without ever disengaging. With a strain of the ears, Cassie can just about make out the sounds of Tony swearing and, oddly enough, an unfamiliar male voice apologizing each time he manages to land a hit.
The figure in black is clearly enhanced because he and Steve seem to be engaged in a very nearly even match. Maybe the suit is part of the enhancement and maybe it isn't, but either way it's forcing Steve to fight back genuinely in a way that Cassie's actually only seen him do in training against Bucky. A shower of sparks erupts in her field of vision as the figure's claws make contact with Steve's shield and Cassie startles.
Nothing should be able to spark off of Vibranium like that.
Sam is outside of her immediate range of vision and Cassie has to crane her head upwards to find him. Sam had obviously kicked his wings in to action at about the same time that Cassie had dragged Reyna and Clint away. He could probably have made a quick blast straight to the plane using the element of surprise to make it, or have taken to the air and waited for the plane to hit his altitude before getting on board, but instead he had stayed behind to help give them cover.
Sam Wilson really is a wonderful person.
Bucky is dodging and weaving around tanks of fuel and supply trucks. Cassie watches him pop up for the tiniest half moment to fire off a shot from what looks like a modified rifle that Stark must have brought him. He fires twice, and two guns drop from the hands of their opposition and hit the ground, too warped in the barrel and pistol to fire any longer. Bucky moves, keeping low, to the next place of cover and fires three more times. This time the shots are accompanied by fizzles of blue-white energy and Cassie realizes that they're taser pellets, designed for knocking people out instead of killing them.
Thinking that this is just about the right idea, Cassie activates her bow and knocks an arrow set up to release a knock out gas on impact. Worst case scenario, it knocks out Tony, Steve, and Bucky too and they have to get out of the plane and collect them before they can leave. At least, that's what she assumes before Wanda's voice corrects her.
"Don't," she warns. "I am shielding the plane, directing the focus of the more weak minded away from us. It will not work if you draw their attention on purpose."
Cassie swears graphically but puts the bow away, letting it resume it's necklace form.
Fifty yards away, Steve whips his wrist out to the side to send his shield flying. The metal disc gleams in the sun, the red and blue pain incongruously bright and cheerful as it catches in the light. It flies through the air, knocking in to four of the perimeter soldiers before hitting a metal pole and returning to Steve's arm. Cassie swears again, more quietly this time. That's the first move Steve has made against the un-enhanced operatives and it doesn't mean anything good.
For one thing, Steve taking action against the soldiers means that he's allowing his focus to split between his own individual battle and threats to his side. Cassie knows from experience that you can last in battle with that kind of broadened hyper awareness in the short term, but not for any real period of time. For another, it means that the rough strategy he had developed before engaging is officially fractured.
"We can't do nothing," Reyna mutters, mostly to herself. Most of her focus is on tracking Steve with her eyes as she mentally calculates weather or not she has the energy reserves left to flash to each of her teammates and back to the plane one at a time. She concludes that her odds are just about good enough to make it worth trying when Rhodey steps forwards, shoving her gently but firmly to the side of the door.
"We won't," he says. "They need back up, but that's me not you." He fixes her with a steady look. "You're the medic. You stay here until somebody gets hurt."
He taps his bracelet and the War Machine suit springs up around him. It's done in a matter of seconds, but he looks to her for confirmation before leaving the plane. Cassie gives it, wanting him to go quickly and understanding his logic even if she doesn't particularly like it.
A rush of air and a blur of blue and silver flashes past her, around a part of the perimeter, and back past her again as Pietro comes to a skidding stop back inside the plane. He's carrying a pile of clearly confiscated government weaponry which he disarms in quick succession before dropping them to the floor and dashing out again and repeating the process. Clearly his piece of whatever strategy he's developed with Rhodey and Natasha is to relieve their opposition of a fair amount of their weapons so that if the other side still wants to fight, they'll have to go hand-to-hand in close quarters against two super soldiers, an armed and airborne pilot, and Iron Man.
Cassie has the feeling that that prospect will have a fair few rent-a-soldiers rethinking their life choices and making casual retreats, to arm up again with whatever spare weaponry they've brought to the airport at the very least.
Tony has managed to get the amazing shrinking man's arms isolated and locked away, clearly cutting off his access to whatever technology it is that makes him able to pop away. "Just. Give it. A rest. Would you?!" he's saying. "We just want to leave! Okay?"
Sam has the Red Wing drone active and targeting certain soldiers, causing them to drop one by one. Bucky has switched over to knock out darts, and his victims are joining Sam's on the ground. A small phalanx of the men have begun to organize a retreat, presumably to replace the weapons now piled on the floor of the plane in front of Pietro.
Steve is still locked in his battle agains the man in black (Cassie guesses it's a man based on the vocal range of the grunts and other sounds of exertion he's emitting)/ However, he's managed to back himself up so that he can let himself slip closer and closer to the jet. He still has his shield, using it equally for offense and defense as he goes.
Apparently, Colonel Rhodes is also seeing what she's seeing because he takes advantage of their apparent advantage to go on loud speaker, his voice magnified by the technology in his helmet. "This is Colonel James Rhodes of the U.S Air Force," he announces. "You are directly interfering with one of my operations. Get me your C.O ASAP and until he gets here you men get the hell out of my jurisdiction."
It's a good speech, and it's extra impressive coming from a massively armed figure completely plated in grey metal hovering fifteen feet off of the ground. For a moment, everything seems to pause as the massive bluff (backed with nothing but bullshit and a confident delivery) seems to settle on the assembled crowd of combatants on both sides. All shooting on both sides ceases, the shrinking man stops struggling against Tony for the time being, Pietro catches his breath, and Steve and the man in black break away from each other to regard each other warily, gauging if they need to reengage each other and on what terms.
The whole runway seems to be holding it's breath.
Then out of seemingly nowhere, a pulse of light emanates from the other side of the plane and straight in to Rhodey. It shatters the moment.
It breaks Rhodey's spine.
Cassie knows that immediately, would know it even if she hadn't heard the crack of bone along with the shearing tones of breaking metal. Her adrenaline is spiked through the roof and she has a personal investment in the people around her. Her abilities are running on overdrive to keep her updated, and if she had to she could probably tell anyone who asked what Steve's blood pressure is right now.
She knows that Rhodey's spine is broken.
Third through fifth lumbar vertebrae.
Probably nerve damage too.
Prognosis: paralysis, numbing, patient likely wheelchair bond for duration of life. Possible mobility recovered through the use of artificial legs after intensive physical therapy. Lasting phantom sensations? Probable.
Unless Cassie can fix it and get there right the hell now.
Maybe she should think about it longer than she does, but this doesn't seem like the time. Her purpose on this team is to repair injuries. She's going to do that job.
Without considering it twice, she flashes out of the plane and straight to Rhodey's side where he lies crumpled on the asphalt. She arrives right as all Hades breaks loose. Of course.
Tony lets out a shout of incoherent anger and Cassie dimly registers the sound of all four of his repulsers firing at once. The quick snap, snap, snap of Bucky and Sam both firing again joins in.
Cassie tunes it all out, funneling all the energy she has in to her hands before sinking it in to Rhodey's spinal column in wave after wave of healing power. Her vision actually blanks out and goes gold as her power buzzes through her skull and the glow obscures her eyes. Her blood feels like a line of Greek Fire in her veins.
Please, she prays. Dad... Please. We've got to make it. All of us. They're family. Please...
The bones reform. The spine straightens. Bone hisses and pops as it molds itself to her will. Nerves pop and fizzle on the edges of her awareness as Cassie's magic relieves the pressure on them, restores blood flow, and forces them back online.
Rhodey groans as the pain of the finishing healing hits his newly restored nervous system and Cassie wrenches her hands away, gasping and panting as her blood cools and the gold leaches slowly from her vision.
Their is a dull buzzing in her ears that seems to roar in and out and she suddenly becomes aware of a sticky substance clinging to her palms where she has them shoved in to the ground. She lifts them to look at and is surprised to see strings of melted asphalt covering her skin. She looks up and sees that the previously solid surface of the tarmac is now so much melted goo.
A red glow tinges the sunlight, and looking up Cassie sees Wanda standing in the doorway of the plane with her palms raised. A shimmering net of energy is encircling the plane, Cassie, Bucky, Rhodey, and Sam as well as Steve, Tony and their opponents. Reyna is standing behind Wanda, feeding her her strength.
Soldiers are still hammering at the outside of the glowing field and Cassie decides she'll worry more about how long the shield can possibly last later. Right now Rhodey is her primary concern and she crawls up towards his head. The faceplate on his helmet springs up at her touch, which is lucky because she really needs to see the man's face right now.
"Rhodes!" She calls urgently. "Rhodey! Rhodey look at me," he blearily meets her eyes and focuses on her which Cassie takes as the first sign that at least something has worked. "Hey!" she snaps her fingers in front of him to keep his focus. "Stick it out. You can pass out on me in just a minute Colonel but first i need you to do one thing okay? Just one."
He nods, and Cassie gives an internal sigh of relief. Whatever she's pulled off. Rhodes won't end up a paraplegic or in a full body cast for life. "What is it?" he asks, voice cracking.
Cassie makes herself a mental note about getting the man hydrated. "Move your feet," she orders. "Wiggle your toes. Do that now and then you can sleep for as long as you damn well please."
Rhodey makes a choked noise that might be a laugh. It sounds like it hurts. Then his feet slowly, slowly, slowly, knock together in their metal War Machine boots. "They moving?"
Cassie is so relieved that she could actually burst in to tears.
She doesn't though. She's learned over the course of her lifetime treating patients that they don't find it very reassuring when their doctor bursts in to tears. Call it a quirk of the medical profession.
Instead, she manages to give him a small smile. "You bet your metal plated ass they are," she tells him. "You're gonna hurt like hell when you wake up, but you're gonna be able to get up and walk in a day or two."
He smiles. He sighs. Then he passes out.
Cassie doesn't at all blame him. In fact, she'd kind of like to copy his example. The backs of her eyes are burning and large dark blue blobs are swirling across her line of sight.
But there's still work to do. So instead of curling up on the disturbingly gooey ground and sleeping for a week, Cassie pushes herself to stand up. Her feet make a disturbing squelch as she moves and there's a frankly horrendous pulling sensation when she takes a step. The rubber soles of her shoes have melted off.
Huh.
The man in red is also sitting, fortunately for him he's free of the melty zone, and his helmet is off now. The man looks... well he looks like an early middle-aged man. The father of a fifth grader who helps run the science fair. He also looks like he's utterly done fighting, and isn't thrilled about having been signed up fro this particular combat experience in the first place.
Cassie can sympathize. Every instance of combat she was involved in before the age of thirteen and quite a few of the ones after that were ones she would have rather avoided if there had been an option. She'll leave him be for now.
Tony charges past her to kneel next to Rhodey.
"He's gonna be fine," Cassie promises, her voice sounding thin and exhausted. "I couldn't do everything. There was a lot of damage, and I didn't quite have the juice. He needs sleep and P.T and probably a cane for a week or two. But he's gonna be mostly okay."
Tony doesn't verbally acknowledge the words, but he does nod, so Cassie turns to Steve. She registers Sam landing behind her and sprinting directly to Rhodey as well. Sam has first aid training so that's probably a good idea. A moment later, the two of them pick Rhodey up between them and start to double time it towards the plane. Pietro zips forwards to help and gets Rhodey secured on board with Sam to monitor his vitals.
Steve is still facing off with the man in black who has now removed his helmet. Cassie is shocked to see that underneath is a face that she recognizes. "Prince T'Challa," she blurts out. She fumbles through a belated and half-aborted curtsy. "Um, your highness. Do you think you could, uh, let us just hop on that plane and take a nice trip to somewhere chocolatey and neutral?"
"That is why I am here," the prince announces. "I was attempting to speak with Captain Rogers without arousing suspicion from your General Ross. I have been pretending compliance with the United Nations and their absurd Accords in order to investigate the assassination of my father. I know that Sergeant Barnes was not the culprit and my Wakandan intelligence forces along with Agent Carter of the CIA have informed me that the true perpetrator was a man named Zemo. I do not know his motives, but we have uncovered evidence that he has discovered an underground bunker in Siberia that may be full of other soldiers from a program that HYDRA attempted to start replicating the serum in the blood of Sergeant Barnes locked in a state of cryogenesis."
These remarks are greated with a brief silence before Steve speaks. "What do you need from us?"
"It was my intention to investigate the situation, and if necessary, neutralize it. In exchange for your help in this matter, I am willing to offer you all protected refugee status in my country. As it's new hereditary sovereign, this is within my power."
Tony and Steve exchange a look that Cassie is too drained to read. If she had to guess, she would assume that it has something to do with the practicality of the entire team and all of their peripheral family members actually hiding out in Switzerland long term. There's also the question to deal with regarding the practicalities of Jane having to give birth to a demigod baby on Asgard in the presence of all sorts of external threats on the godly tier.
Maybe that last one is just a concern to her.
Cassie's thoughts are currently floating around through her brain like soap bubbles. Ephemeral, delicate, and shifting through her mind scape. Focusing on one of them at a time with any real clarity is taking a bizarrely high amount of effort.
Her own magical senses are quietly pinging at her in the metaphysical equivalent of text alerts or hospital monitors feeding back a whole raft of information on her own personal health after heeling Rhodey. She's now dehydrated, dizzy, and her heart rate is thready and skipping. Technically speaking, she also has a fever and has launched herself in to a state of hypoglycemia and has actually chewed through two pounds of her bodily fat reserves to supply the energy for the healing.
She should really sit down soon.
Or fall.
Falling is looking pretty likely considering the way the world is swaying.
Or is that her?
Two hands land on her shoulders, one made out of metal and Cassie turns her head to find that Bucky is helping to stabilize her. She tries to smile at him in thanks, but isn't entirely certain it comes out looking like that. His expression tightens perceptibly around his eyes. Cassie figures that this is probably the expression that most often haunted his childhood with Steve.
His frown deepens and Cassie finds herself guided gently- though firmly- over to an unmelted portion of tarmac and then Cassie finds herself lowered to the ground where she decides she might as well stay for a minute. She is able to see Steve and Tony nod to each other and then turn back to T'Challa. Evidently some kind of agreement has been reached between them and Cassie mentally notes that she should figure out which gods are most prominent in the modern culture of Wakanda.
The red bubble of magic protecting them long enough to have this conversation ripples and crackles and Cassie manages to crane her neck to see Wanda. The other girl is now leaning heavily on the doorframe of the plane, straining with the effort of keeping the bubble in place. Clearly this kind of level expenditure is taxing and Cassie estimated that it can't hold for very much longer, even with Reyna lending Wanda her strength. Even Reyna's ability to lend power is finite, and she won't be able to give if she is exhausted too.
Steve and Tony both turn at once. Cassie sees Steve's gaze sweep around them in panorama, taking in Wanda's shaking hands, Reyna's parlor, Cassie sitting on the ground, the soldiers hurling themselves against the side of the bubble, and the flickering quality of the red energy surrounding them. He takes a step towards Cassie just as a second burst of the energy that had hit Rhodey pulses towards them, and Wanda's shield flickers, and dies.
Cassie gets a tiny and intense flash of the immediate future. Such things happen rarely, but when they do they are vivid and often terrifying. Steve won't get the shield up in time, Tony's suit will block the energy with all the effectiveness that Rhodey's had, and at this point Cassie doesn't have the energy left for a second healing on that scale.
Before the instinct can be properly checked by Cassie's brain for categories like viability, survivability, and practicality, Cassie is gone from her spot beside Bucky and appears standing directly in front of Steve. Her hands flash upwards like she's preparing to catch a basketball and the energy pulse stops, shuddering in place before coalescing in to a solid and crackling ball. With a gasp, Cassie raises her hands, sending the rocket of energy shooting upwards.
Cassie can feel the power jerking at the far extremes of her consciousness, straining at her like a kite caught in a sudden wind, or a yoyo determined to hurtle back at them. With a jerk, she wrenches her hands apart and the ball of energy shatters, spilling out in a solid dome over them. This time the power is blueish white and crackles erratically, but the next bullet fired at it bounces off. An operative tries to hammer against it and falls back with a buzzing zap. It's like she's created a giant taser bubble out of a blaster weapon charge.
Her entire body feels like it's buzzing. Her stomach feels like water and her legs have been converted in to Jello, but with a jolt she realizes that while this shield is mentally taxing, it's not taking physical magic or energy from her. She realizes that it's because she's controlling existing energy, not generating it herself. Still, this definitely won't work very long.
"Go," she gasps out. "Steve, Tony, go with T'Challa. Stop HYDRA and Zemo. I'll tell Barton about Wakanda." A second burst of energy impacts the shield and Cassie wobbles on her feet as the magical impact pulls at her body. The energy absorbs in to the existing layer, actually strengthening the bubble's protective capabilities but forcing Cassie to shudder as the power pushes to be free from her control.
Cassie steels herself and forces herself to take a stabilizing breath. She risks tipping her head to meet Steve's eyes. He's looking at her with concern and fear and something that teeters dangerously on awe. "Go!" She orders. "Go so that you can come back."
Steve swallows, nods, and then bends to kiss her on the forehead. It's hard and fast and ineffably tender. It's a gesture that speaks of devotion and love. It's a promise and a goodbye and a thank you all in one.
Cassie smiles up at him, her hands still extended to hold the net of unstable protection in place. She tips her head to see Bucky. "You'll. Go. Too?" she manages to get out, each word a struggle to produce. "Keep him- safe?"
Bucky reaches out and squeezes her shoulder once fervently and he gives her a nod. He looks to Steve. "End of the line."
The words ease a not of tension in Cassie's stomach. If Bucky is with Steve, then they'll make it out alive. Tony too. Tony himself then crosses in to her line of vision and takes Bucky's place. Then he does something that chocks her so badly that the shield nearly falls, and hugs her tightly from the side. "I owe you," he states lowly. "For Rhodey, for..." he seems to struggle for words "For everyone I have."
Cassie nods, suddenly understanding. He and Steve would have stopped being friends the minute Bucky showed up at Avengers Tower if Pepper and she hand't interfered, if Reyna hadn't come on the scene. She won't take the credit for that really, Tony, Steve, and Bucky did the personal work, but she did keep the three of them from initially killing each other.
"Go- Now," she gasps. "Get everyone back- Alive."
Tony nods. "Deal."
T'Challa gravely inclines his head and he, Tony, and Bucky all turn and sprint for a second stealth jet parked on the tarmac. It seems to have been made with an unfamiliar design that Annabeth would probably love to study. Cassie assumes that it belongs to T'Challa. Clearly Wakanda is more technically advanced than it has led the rest of the world to believe. Which she must admit is a good thing if they're all going to be splitting time between there and Switzerland for the foreseeable future.
A shower of bullets flings off of the shield and Cassie stumbles as she tries to make her way to the plane.
"I can't leave you here," Steve protests. His voice is full of indecision and his face looks tortured. "You can't even walk. There's no way in fuck you can get to the plane and I will not abandon you."
Cassie stumbles another step forwards and Steve grabs her shoulder, holding her upright. If Cassie had more breath and strength available, she might point out a few things. Like for instance, the presence of several of their team members on board the plane, one of whom would surely come and get her. Also, should she be inclined or forced to make more of a sacrifice play, to her knowledge they have multiple infiltration plans for getting in to the RAFT where she would doubtlessly be taken.
Fortunately for her and her lung capacity and the lack of energy she has for annoyance and arguing with her overprotective and self-sacrificing martyr of a fiancé, a new voice joins the conversation.
"I'll get her to the plane," says the man in red, his helmet tucked under one arm. His hair is sweat soaked and messily sticking up in every direction. Up close Cassie can see that his face is inherently friendly, laugh lines etched around his mouth and a pair of innocent blue-green eyes. The look he gives Steve actually looks impressed boarding on awestruck but he swallows and straightens his shoulder.
"I didn't want to do this," he states. "I was a thief and spent time in prison. Someone in the government dug up my file and put me under surveillance. They figured out about the guy I was working with for the shrinking technology and tracked me down, asked me to join up and sign the Accords. I gave them the two fingered solute but," he gives a helpless shrug. "I have a daughter, and a girlfriend. They threatened them. My daughter is nine."
Steve narrows his eyes at the other man, assessing him with all the instincts born of more than a decade of leading men into battle and assessing their motives strengths and weaknesses. Then he nods. "Get on board. Tell Romanoff. They'll protect your kid." He kisses Cassie twice more, once on her cheek, and then on her forehead for a second time. He locks eyes with her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she pants. "Go!"
Steve nods, pivots on his heel and sprints for the other plane.
The man in red takes his place beside her and puts his helmet back on, twisting a dial on the arm. Cassie takes another step, leaning heavily on his arm and nearly blacks out. The man scoops her up in a princess carry and picks up a steady jog towards the door of their plane.
Cassie quirks an eyebrow at him but doesn't waste the energy to actually verbalize her question. The man catches her eyes and gives a little shrug. "The suit gives me the same relative strength as an ant," he offers. "Plus you're, you know, tiny. I'm Scott by the way. Scott Lang. Super cool trick with the laser burst-to shield bubble trick. What's the electrical engineering on that? Is it a mass electron dispersion? Or-"
She let's him just keep talking as he muses out loud. Scott Lang is clearly one of those people who doesn't actually need two people for a conversation and is a bit of a nervous talker. She'll happily explain everything she can about her various powers later if he wants to hear about them. Sometime when she can stand by herself. Next week maybe.
Lang joggs up in to the plane and they're both yanked the rest of the way on board by Sam and Natasha together.
"Go!" Nat calls, and the plane makes an honest to gods vertical take off under Barton's control.
Cassie shudders, thrusting her palms upwards and forcing the energy around them to both compress inwards and stretch elastically straight up with them to protect their assent. Reyna sees her and catches on immediately. "Up!" she shouts towards the cockpit. "Fly straight up! Engage the Stark stealth tech and go supersonic as high as you can!" Barton must agree because as far as Cassie can tell they just keep shooting up for the next forty seconds.
It feels like an eternity.
By the time Barton announces that they've reached max altitude and are completely screened from all radar Cassie has been settled on a chair she can't actually feel and her skin feels ready to burn away from the inside out. With a shout, her power breaks, and the soap bubble of her control pops. Her power senses briefly register that the energy sprang back against the ground like an over extended rubber band and snapped across the entire Leipzig airport.
It means that she's probably going to be marked as responsible for the destruction of a fair amount of German government property and a lot of unconscious government operatives. Maybe she'll feel bad about it later, but she'd bet probably not. It's hard to feel too guilty for peaceably knocking out a whole lot of soldiers who had tried to imprison her and everyone she loves. At the very least.
A hand appears in front of her holding a flask of liquid and Cassie drinks it immediately. It's either water, nectar, coffee, or alcohol, and Cassie will take any of the above. The taste of hot chocolate and cinnamon fills her mouth and warmth wells up through her stomach. Apparently, it had been nectar.
A fizzy and over caffeinated feeling buzzes through her bloodstream, but her vision clears and her arms and legs stop shaking. Her temperature has ratcheted up to a somewhat dangerous level, but a glass of water and a nap might even that out. For now, she can function even if magic is definitely outside the realm of possibility for the immediate foreseeable future.
"Okay," she says after a deep breath. She looks around at the concerned faces looking back at her and tries to smile. "I'm good now," she promises. "Or not about to pass out just yet anyway. Have we got any food on board?"
The question nets her a frankly disgusting MRE and a liter of water and she consumes both in minutes after which she feels much better. Sam comes over from where he's been monitoring Rhodey to take her pulse and frowns over the speed, but admits that it's decently strong and let's her go over to check on Rhodey herself, though his expression when she stands looks dubious. Wanda is curled in a reclined seat slowly consuming a granola bar and a juice box that Pietro is holding for her as he hovers near his sister. Sam bullies him in to eating an energy bar himself. Cassie gathers that he had wanted to zip out to collect her but had been distracted by Wanda collapsing in to him with the effort of holding the shield.
Reyna is awake but is staring gassy eyed at the wall. Cassie persuades her to drink some of the nectar and sits back down beside her after making her other medical checks. Reyna produces a semi-melted bar of chocolate and the two of them swap it back and forth. They do this in silence for several minutes, gathering themselves back together. The silence is broken by Reyna.
"That shield was big shit Cass," she says, handing over another square of chocolate.
Cassie pops it in to her mouth and chews. "Yeah, I didn't actually know I could do that," she swallows her mouthful and sighs. "I need to call Chiron when we land. My abilities seem to be expanding and I need to get a handle on them like, yesterday. None of the rest of my siblings can do that kind of thing, I've asked." She mulls it over for a second. "I know light and energy are technically similar enough for me to do some kind of temporary control, but that was a full electric shield."
Reyna cocks her head. "I saw Jason do something like that once," she offers. "It was like an electrical storm in a bubble. Kinda like what Percy does with the personalized hurricane. But nothing as big as the shield you did, and electrical storms are considered a standard element of Jupiter's power. Most of the Apollo kids in new Rome are perfect archers or great medics. They have a few tricks with sound and light. Nothing with pure energy."
"No one at Camp Half-Blood either," Cassie confirms. Then she sighs. "Of course, none of my father's children at either camp have made it past age twenty at either camp in the last century, much less hit twenty-five. So for all we know this is a perfectly normal development for any Apollo kid once they hit a quarter century."
"You're twenty-six and seventy-five percent god," Reyna points out. "There is literally nothing about you that has ever happened before."
"Thanks Rey," Cassie says, rolling her eyes and taking another piece of chocolate.
Her friend shrugs. "Just keeping it practical. Even if Chiron has information it probably won't apply to you directly. My advice, take some time once we get settled. Recharge, and then you and me will work up a training regimen and get you some practice. Work out your limits. That way next time you use it, you'll know. Meanwhile, make sure you burn something for your dad when you land. We don't need any gods pissed with us right now."
Cassie nods her agreement. "Good strategy. All of it. And point taken about the offering. I think one hundred and twenty-eight countries worth of angry mortals is plenty trouble enough." She bumps Reyna's shoulder. "You worried about Bucky?"
Reyna meets her eyes. "You worried about Steve?"
The question makes Cassie bite her lip. "I think they'll watch each others backs," she concludes. "And I trust Tony to have theirs too and vice versa. I don't know T'Challa well, but he's seemed like a good man the two times I've met him."
"What exactly did he say on the tarmac?"
Cassie sighs and stands up. She gestures with her head towards the others. "C'mon. It's easier if I tell everyone at once."
Reyna nods and gets up too. "I'll grab Barton. We should be safe to put the jet on autopilot for a bit, and he's going to want to hear this first hand."
They all reconvene for a make shift debrief about five minutes later. Wanda is sitting up now, looking pale and a little nauseous, but otherwise okay. Pietro is up and pacing, unable to sit still and not tired enough to want to try. Rhodey is still unconscious, but Cassie figures they can fill him in later. Nat and Clint are seated together and holding hands in a very rare show of PDA. Sam has taken a seat across from Lang, studying him in a manner that suggests he's trying to puzzle him out or possibly start a dossier.
Clint opens the meeting by simply asking, "So what do we need to know?"
Cassie takes perhaps four heartbeats to martial her thoughts, and then draws in a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her nose to settle herself.
"How much do you guys know about Wakanda?"
A/N: *Pokes head out from behind my computer screen and waves nervously* So... hi guys. Please don't skewer me! I know it's been a while since I posted an update and I am so sorry to leave you guys hanging! I've had some really lovely reviews and awesome support for you all and I've been meaning to get this out to you for ages. Real life has been majorly getting in the way lately what with online exams, social distancing, figuring out a job, and working through internship problems. Also (because of temporary insanity) I've been doing LSAT prep. Seriously pray for me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I do have plans going forwards. The next chapter will be picking things up towards the end of Black Panther. I promise you guys won't have to wait so long next time! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo