Wanda threw up her hands. Red energy formed a shield, blocking the bullets. Natasha dove behind a corner. Steve crouched, protecting his whole body with his shield, and Vision faded, letting the bullets hit the wall behind him. Wanda could see about fourteen people, mostly men, in dirty clothes and mismatched guns, shooting from behind her shield.
Natasha peeked out from her corner and returned fire with her own guns. Vision drifted forward forward and shot two men with his ray of golden light. Steve crept forward, shielding himself until he reached the closest man. Using his shield he hit the man, flipping him over and using the momentum to propel himself into a flip, landing on the other side of the man as the man fell to the ground unconscious. Steve landed and slammed into the next closest man, Natasha covering him. Wanda dropped her shield and used her red energy to pull the guns out of the enemies' hands and threw them into the wall.
"'Ze Avengers," Wanda heard one of the men whisper in a heavily accented voice. The enemy group raised their hands in surrender.
Defeated by Captain America, Wanda almost smiled. Natasha stepped out from her corner, both guns still pointed at the now unarmed enemies.
The Avengers surveyed their surroundings. The parts of the Chitauri once housed there had been pushed against the wall, as well as any remaining pieces of Ultron. On the table were human sized glass containment boxes filled with an orange liquid. One of the boxes contained what appeared to be a young man with dark hair and blood on his shirt suspended in the orange substance. Steve stiffened.
"Who are you?" He asked in his commanding voice. "Are you Hydra?"
"Hydra?" the accented man asked. "You killed Hydra."
"Who are you?" Steve asked again. A women stepped forward.
"Some of us worked for Hydra," she said in a calm, commanding voice. "Not for their goals, but for the people who believed in us. When Hydra fell we were in disarray, finally forced to see the monsters Hydra really were. We retreated and ended up here. Maybe not the smartest of hideouts, but safe places are on short supply. We came here to regroup and create the life we thought Hydra could provide us with."
Wanda studied the woman. She had short dark brown hair in a low ponytail, dark eyes, a slender build, and dirt streaked across her face. Her story seemed believable enough, except for the box with a body inside.
"Who's in the box?" Natasha stepped forward, her guns still raised.
The women sighed. "The price we had to pay to stay here."
"Did you kill him?" Steve stepped forward.
"No." the woman crossed her arms defensively.
Wanda walked up to the box. The man was about her age. He had a burn on his chin and soot on his face. He looked tired and innocent. She rested her hands on the edge. She could feel emotion trapped within although the man was definitely dead, she could see the bullet wounds, three of them in his chest. There was fear of someone who was chasing him, but also of something else, something inside him, something that felt ancient, something she couldn't describe, in his blood. She glanced back. Steve was watching her.
"Someone was hunting him." she said. Steve looked back at the woman.
"It wasn't us," the women said. "Some rich guy I don't know asked to house him here."
"Why?" Steve pressed.
"I don't really know," the woman said. "He said he was different, the future or something like that, he wanted to make something and needed something in his blood."
"What is the orange stuff?" Wanda asked.
"Gel matrix, it's supposed to preserve his body."
"Why don't we pack this up and take it back to the compound?" Natasha said, coming up beside Steve, guns lowered but still present.
"What if we'd rather stay here?" the woman asked.
"Well," Natasha said, "then we'll persuade you."
The woman nodded. "Good thing you won't have to," she said.
The room became very busy. The woman, Jamie, called the remainder of the people living there to the front room. The guards who had been knocked out were roused, the ones who hadn't made it were loaded into a special compartment in the airplane, along with the gel matrix containers. All nineteen prisoners were cuffed with special Stark bracelets that monitored them closely, ready to tazer them.
Wanda sat in a corner, watching the movement around her. She knew this place well, she had trained here, met the Avengers here, been with her brother here. Every wall, window, and corner brought the memory of him back. The pain felt so fresh as though he had died yesterday. She missed him everyday, but being here reminded her of their plans, reminded her how he always fought for her no matter the odds. They were planning to kill Tony Stark, but ended up on their team, fighting Ultron instead, and in the end she had ended up an Avenger, instead of a sister.
She felt the consuming guilt every day, every smile, every emotion, she didn't deserve to be happy, not anymore. It was why she had stayed, to do something, anything, to add something to her life that was all consuming, to lose herself in it.
She stood up, the team was done packing. She took one last look around and left for the plane.