Sy

She sat on top of the quinjet, her violin balanced across her knees, listening to the ongoing battle. They'd purposefully landed within range of her heightened hearing, so that if necessary she could fly in as back up. She'd had to physically force herself to not leap into the fight when it began, reminding herself why they'd decided that it was a better idea for her to stay by the quinjet with Bruce. The most important reason being that she was the only person on the team who they knew couldn't be mind controlled by Wanda Maximoff.

Sy knew that with the mind control, someone would need to stay coherent to fight Ultron or the twins if the need arose. So she stayed away, tears slipping down her face as she let her friends suffer. A soft whoosh of wind set her on alert.

"I want to finish the plan. I want the big one." The thick sokovian accent of the witch was much too close all of a sudden. Sy glanced across the field to the see the twins among the wreckage in the junkyard, not even a hundred feet away from the jet. She scrambled to prevent Bruce from leaving the jet, shouting a warning to stay inside as she dropped over the side of the plane. But she wasn't faster than the brother, and Bruce had already let the ramp down.

Sy hit the ground with a thud, staying balanced on her toes. Dust flew into the air as Bruce changed, the Hulk roaring in fear and anger. She had to force herself not to flare her wings aggressively as she reached for the knives strapped to her belt. Sy didn't want to give them away if she didn't have too.

She didn't have time to go for the violin she'd left on top of the quinjet, and she didn't want to kill if she didn't have too. Sy sang a soft melody, her powers considerably stronger now than it had been all those years ago on the helicarrier. She only kept half her focus on the twins, who were watching the Hulk with an odd mixture of fear and satisfaction. Sy kept singing softly, trying to calm her friend as she edged towards the twins. Hulk roared again, but didn't go anywhere. Suddenly, she was struck from the side, a force slamming into her. She hit the ground with a grunt, both of her knives knocked from her hands. Sy scrambled to grab for them when the white blonde man picked one of them up and waved it tauntingly at her.

"Looking for this?" He mocked, holding it out in front of him aggressively, his grip on the hilt all wrong. The other one was in her hand in a flash, Sy staying in a loose and relaxed stance, poised for action. But regardless of his inexperience, she knew that the brother moved too quickly for her to be able to fight like this. If he really wanted to, he could kill her before she could even try to counter his attack.

"Pietro, don't." His sister snapped, one wrist flicking out, red power flashing through the air. The Hulk roared and took off, whatever the vision she had implanted in his mind driving him away. Pietro hesitated, looking towards his sister. Sy took advantage of their distraction and and took off, her wings flapping hard. She snagged her violin as she soared past the quinjet before taking off as low and as fast as she could, dodging towards the tall grass to stay out of sight. She heard the confused shout as the twins realized she was gone. Sy ignored them both as she shot off in the direction the Hulk had disappeared in.

Sy's eyes widened as the city of Johannesburg came into view. She didn't have any time to waste, evaluating the danger of the situation as she landed lightly behind her friend. The Hulk stood at the top of the ridge overlooking a city, chest heaving wildly as the panicking Hulk tried to breath. This would be her only chance at stopping him before he attacked the unsuspecting populace of the South African city.

"Hey!" She shouted. The Hulk's head snapped in her direction, eyes red and bloodshot from magic. He was twitching and suddenly his face contorted into a vicious snarl. Sy ignored the thrum of fear in her stomach and she quickly drew her bow across the strings.

She'd been briefed on the Lullaby Protocol before the mission, so the first thing that came to mind as she played was... a lullaby. A memory of her dad singing to her when she was little flashed through her mind as the first soft notes of Elvis's Can't Help Falling in Love floated across the wind and Sy slowly dropped back down to the ground, her wings folding back into her spine. She felt power flare around her as she imbued the notes with feelings of calm and safety. She felt the music float through her, and channeled it into the Hulk. As the first song ended, she seamlessly switched to Brahms lullaby. And when that ran out she moved onto Somewhere over the Rainbow. She drew on every positive, warm, calming emotion she had. She let the humanness of her own anxiety and fear seep through, along with her tentative acceptance of those emotions. The Hulk began to sway in place, the red slowly vanishing from his eyes.

Sy heard him before he touched her. The only problem was that she couldn't get out of the way fast enough. She tried to dodge and keep up the music, but Pietro Maximoff caught her by the wrist and yanked her around. The music stopped, her violin flying out of her hands, smashing to the ground. Luckily the Hulk was calm enough to not go rampaging down the mountain towards the city. Instead he only saw her and Pietro. The Hulk let out an enraged snarl and pounced. At the last moment, the twin whisked her away. In one blink to the next, she was far enough away that she could barely hear the Hulk racing back towards the marina to her rescue. Sy ripped her second knife from its sheath on her side and moved to stab him, but before she had the chance, she found herself dumped to the ground.

"Wanda made me promise not to hurt you. She said Strucker hurt you." He drawled lazily, watching for her reaction. Sy growled and stood up.

"Take your pity and shove it." She snarled, holding the knife in front of her defensively. She reached to her back and finally drew the sword Tony had made her. The brother let her, openly curious as he studied the weapon she wielded like an extension of herself.

"Why do you fight with them? All they do is destroy." He asked her, curiosity reflected in his voice. She couldn't detect any real hostility in his voice, no sense of danger from him. Just endlessly bitter, like the raw olive Malcom had once convinced her to try. She cautiously lowered her weapons a little. Still ready, but less confrontational.

"Because they try. And they try a lot harder than most anyone else in the world." He considered her answer, his forehead crinkling as he thought. His next question wasn't surprising, but the whiplash topic change did surprise her.

"How did you shatter my sister's power? No one has ever resisted her." Sy smiled grimly.

"I was born into this world. You and your sister have barely dipped in a toe. There are things in this world far more powerful that you could ever imagine." Sy tucked her weapons away. She could hear the sound of the Iron Man suit, knew that Tony was coming for her, knew that Pietro would be gone in the next instant.

"So what?" He asked her, his tone carefully indifferent. She could still taste the fear in his voice. Sy smiled and removed her helmet. She pulled her braid out from the collar of her armor and dropped all her emotional masks. She let the music and power inside of her rise to the surface. The grass whispered in the wind and it sounded like the ghost of a song.

If Pietro Maximoff was even half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd recognize what she was showing him. And hopefully he would appreciate the trust she was extending him.

"Because I am one of those things."

And in the next moment he was gone.