A/N: You would not believe how crazy life has been lately. Srsly guys. Anywho. Short chapter, to finish up Age of Utlron. Hope you enjoy!
The quinjet approached Sokovia in stealth mode, the better to read the situation. It was very much not-good.
The HYDRA goons had Pepper, Jane, and Darcy tied to posts in the center of the town square. The citizens from the town crowded around them. Electric fences kept them from breaking free or overwhelming the HYDRA agents.
"I count sixteen hostiles," Steve said. "Tony? Nat?"
"Seventeen," Nat said. "Guy in the crowd with the cattle prod."
Steve nodded. "Missed him. Seventeen. Clint, take us back to the forest, we gotta come in on a regular approach."
"Got a plan, Cap?" Tony asked, his entire being too focused.
Steve nodded. "They don't know the twins are Avengers now, so we'll use that. Go in on foot, negotiate for a trade. Wanda, while we talk you'll need to untie the hostages. Iron Man, Thor, and I will escort them. Vision, you and Widow will disable the fences. Hawkeye and Barnes, you'll set up perches, and as soon as I give the signal start taking them out. Falcon, you'll be ready to swoop in and grab Darcy, and Iron Man and Thor can get their girls out. Pietro, when the fences go down I'll need you to start evacuating people from the town square, fast as you can, out of the town completely. I'll start evac from the ground."
"Don't you think that's a lot of plan for seventeen agents?" Sam ventured.
Steve shook his head. "They've had two days to do who-knows-what to the town itself and its citizens. We should be ready for anything super-powered or drastic, and I wouldn't be surprised if they'd rigged the entire square to blow if they fail. Civilians are our first priority."
Nods all around.
Steve looked at Bruce. "If we need you-"
"I'll be there," Bruce said, wryly.
"All right. Hawkeye take us down."
As soon as the doors to the quinjet opened, everyone filed out and melted away to their positions.
"Once Hawk and Barnes are in position we'll go," Steve told his group. He gave the nervous twins an encouraging smile. "Just stay alert and follow my lead," he said firmly. "We'll save your capital if we can."
Identical nods.
The plan started well. The twins acted calm, the HYDRA agents demanded, and the Avengers tried to reason with them.
Then the pulse cannons started rising out of the old stone building.
Cap sighed. "All right. We'll do this the hard way. Go."
All the Avengers exploded into action. The three Avengers swooped into action to retrieve the hostages who'd been freed by Wanda. Falcon nearly got blasted by a turret as he lifted Darcy above the town, but Vision repelled the blast in time.
Pietro was in his element, moving faster than the eye could see, making holes in the crowd that Cap was systematically ushering out of the square.
The fight was over too quickly, the HYDRA agents being rounded up and the turrets blasted away.
"Did this seem too easy to anybody or is it just me?" Tony asked seriously.
"Something's not right," Bucky replied, his head starting to hurt as a memory surfaced. "This is... Belgrade, '74..." A jolt of adrenaline hit his systems and he abandoned his perch. "There are bombs in all the buildings! If all the agents are dead they'll go off! Don't let the prisoners die!"
Black Widow was tying up the prisoners and pulling cyanide teeth out of their mouths. She knocked them all out. "Don't even think about it," she warned the last guy.
"It's to late," he rasped triumphantly. "It's on a timer."
Bucky was sprinting for the main building, the church in the center of town. He ripped the thick door off its hinges and paused. "I found it," he said, swallowing hard.
There was a tall, blue, glowing cylinder on the dais, and thick cables were running away from it in all directions. A complicated bank of machinery was connected to the tube.
"Guys, it's huge," Bucky said nervously. "I think it's powered by the Tesseract and I don't know how to disarm this."
"On my way," Tony said, and in a flash he was there. "Uh-oh."
Bucky's eyes traveled to the timer on the center of the tube. 10 minutes and counting. "Uh-oh."
"Iron Man, can you disarm it?" Steve asked urgently.
"Uh... give me a minute."
A pause. Then, "Iron Man?"
"Just gimme a second Cap! This thing has more wires than things!"
"Can you do it or not? We need to evacuate."
"I can't disarm it," Tony said, his tone defeated. Then he brightened up. "But, we might be able to tear it right out of the town. Cap, Soldier, Vision, Thor, I need you to help me pull 'em out. Thor, you and I will drag the bombs upwards so it can explode in the air instead of the town."
"Understood," came from four different comms.
The muscles began to move from building to building, bodily ripping wires and detonators from the buildings and carrying them out to the streets. There were ten total, and as the countdown began to hit the last minute, the fliers grabbed the blue core and began to fly it upwards. They managed to get it clear of the town.
"Guys, get clear," Steve commanded anxiously.
"We're going, we're going," Tony grunted, heaving the tube a final few meters before he and Thor reversed course.
The tube blew up a second later, sending out a shockwave that dropped Tony out of the sky and sent Thor tumbling end over end like a tumbleweed. Vision let the shockwave pass through him, and dove down to get Tony. He caught him just before the suit hit the ground. Thor managed to land and roll in the grass.
"Everyone okay?" Cap asked.
"Ugh," Tony grunted.
"I am well," Thor replied, standing up and shaking himself like a dog shaking off water.
Vision nodded.
"All right." Steve relaxed. "Let's do a final sweep through the town and make sure there's not any leftover surprises."
The Avengers swept through the town, clearing each building, and letting the civilians back in. Wanda and Pietro were lifesavers, communicating with the locals and letting them know that the Avengers were truly the good guys. It was a tense situation, but Tony offering to pay for damages helped ease the tension by a lot.
They stayed in Sokovia for another two days, securing the area, and helping with clean-up and rebuilding efforts. Then it was time to leave.
"So," Steve said, looking at the twins. "Are you guys coming back with us, or do you want to stay here?"
Wanda and Pietro looked at the devastated town, the rebuilding efforts, the way their fellow countrymen eyed them warily. Twin shakes of the head. "No," Wanda said, "this is no longer the place for us."
"We want to do good," Pietro added.
"All right then," Steve said, giving them each a smile. "Quinjet leaves in five. Shall we?"
A~A~A~A
Allie welcomed them home enthusiastically. She hugged them all, kissed their bruises, and ordered them to shower and sleep, and if they weren't tired they could come watch Ice Age with her.
Vision accepted her offer, as did Bruce. Clint and Natasha showered and came back quickly to cuddle with Allie.
"So, sweetheart, how did it go with Maria?" Clint asked, kissing his daughter's soft hair.
She giggled and leaned into his embrace. "It was good, daddy. Maria's real good at everything, like mommy. She's more bossy'n' Steve, but that's good too. We made cookies, and I watched all the movies on my tab, and I read a whole book all by myself."
He gasped. "A whole book all by yourself?"
"Yup."
"What'd you read?" Bruce asked.
"Boxcar Childwen," Allie replied. "The firstest-first one. It was good."
"That's awesome," Clint said.
Natasha pulled Allie into her arms. "We're very proud of you, malyshka." She kissed her cheek. "Thank you for being so brave and helpful."
"I liked it," Allie said matter-of-factly. "Superhero-ing is good."
The lights flickered, and everyone stiffened. "What was that?" Clint asked, his fingers itching for his bow.
The intercom clicked on. "Sorry, sorry, that was the system reboot," Tony's voice announced. "I'm loading the new AI. Say hello, FRIDAY."
"Hello," a female, Irish voice said.
"We are good to go," Tony said, pleased. "No more light flickers." He clicked off the intercom.
"FRIDAY," Allie said slowly. "FRIDAY, why are you called FRIDAY?"
"I was originally designed to function as Tony Stark's secretary," FRIDAY replied. "The movie 'His Girl Friday' was the inspiration for my name."
"Oh. Cool. You sound weally pretty."
"Thank you, Allie."
A~A~A~A
A/N: Next chapter, a certain general, some fluff, a new house, some more fluff, possible time travel...got all sorts of things brewing.