A/N: Just realized it's not Switzerland but Siberia that Steve and the others are trying to get to... and I forgot about War Machine being a character in this (so I pretended it was Maria and the others forgetting about him which makes zero sense as they're basically family/friends...)! Damn... Lots of things to correct when I get the time to rewrite this series ':S sorry about that, guys! Hope you still enjoy this anyway
Once more, thanks to everyone who favorited and followed!
Make You Feel My Love
~Book IV~
Disclaimer: I do not own Civil War or any other Marvel characters in this story. All I own is the story I've come up with and my own characters.
Chapter 20
"Does everyone understand the plan?" asked Steve in a whisper as they made their way through the abandoned airport towards the landing bay.
"Yeah," answered Sam with a small hint of distain in his voice, "Tell me again why I've got to go with Bucky?"
"Because you have to," replied Maria simply. "Now go."
Redwing lifted off of Sam's back and flew out into the open through an airvent, beginning to circle the area and scanning for the jet Tony and the others had gotten to the airport in, while Sam and Bucky started jogging their way through the terminals. Although Clint's original idea of a chopper had not been a bad idea, a quinjet would get them to Siberia ten times faster. And the only quinjet they knew of, was whatever jet Tony and the others had arrived in.
"So they're after Bucky then, not us?" asked Scott.
"Primarily Bucky. But because we refused to do something the government wanted us to do-"
"Sign the accords," added Steve.
"Yeah. Because of that, we're seen as criminals," sighed Maria.
"Oh, well, no difference from my everyday then," said Scott with a shrug before he pressed a button on his suit to make him shrink.
"Are you all ready?" asked Steve, his hand on the door that led out onto the landing bay.
Wanda and Clint nodded their heads heading back towards a different part of the landing bay as back-up for when things would start to go down. Maria simply stared at Steve, who gave her a saddened look before he opened the door.
Maria felt strangely tiny as she, Steve and Scott (in tiny ant-mode as Maria had joked) walked out into the open onto the landing bay, in that exact order as well. Both of them stopped once they caught sight of Natasha and Tony, all suited up, standing there; waiting for them. Strangely enough, Maria felt relieved there was only the two of them. They could not afford to go through a big fight seeing as they had to get to Siberia as quickly as possible. That doctor already had a head start, and Maria was not prepared to give him anymore of a head start.
However, Maria grew far more worried as she realized that Tony and Natasha were not the only ones there. Rhodey, the one member of the team who of course would stand by Tony's side no matter what (and also the one member of the team that Maria and the others had completely forgot about), landed beside Tony.
"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport," hummed Tony, the mask of his suit opening up to reveal his face.
"Definitely weird," replied Rhodey while Natasha simply stared ahead, her face monotone.
"Hear me out, Tony. That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this," began Steve seeming to want to at least try and reason with the man who used to be his family.
Another man joined Tony's side suddenly, leaping over a nearby truck with elegant movements.
"Captain," greeted T'Challa as he positioned himself next to Natasha.
To anyone who knew Tony, it was rather clear that he had staged all of it and told the remainders of his team to come out one by one. All Maria could hope for was that there was no one left, cause they had barely anymore time to lose and Maria truly didn't feel like beating up anymore people who were, like herself, special. Not only that, but she hoped Tony had not asked any of them to pop out from the terminals, seeing as that was where Sam was leading Bucky away from the fight so at least he would not get caught.
"Your highness," greeted Steve back.
From the corner of Maria's eye, she noticed two things. First of all she noticed how Steve's grip on his shield tightened. The second thing she noticed was how he turned his head ever so slightly to the right as though he heard something behind them.
Don't let it be someone else… Don't let it be someone else…
"Anyways. Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?" said Tony, his tone indicating that he was not, in any way, expecting them to go quietly.
"You're after the wrong guy," tried Steve again, moving his head back to look at Tony.
"Your judgement is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday," said Tony with a gentle voice, though still through gritted teeth.
"And there are five more super soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find them first. Tony, I can't."
Maria's fingers curled around the hilt of her sword, her shoulders tensing up. In her mind she tried her best to picture this as a really good duelling session that was about to begin, with some added roleplay… Though it didn't quite work. This was still her family standing before her. But the safety of the world was at risk and she couldn't just let that happen, no matter who stood in the way for her to do her duty.
"Steve…" spoke Natasha, her voice less angered than Tony's, "you know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?"
Silence fell over the heroes.
"Alright. I've run out of patience. Underoos!"
Before either of them had time to register what Tony had just yelled, something sticky and white shot out from the corner to their left where Steve had obviously heard something. The goo stuck onto Steve's shield and within in a matter of milliseconds, the shield shot out from Steve's grip and towards the person who had just appeared, leaving Steve shield-less and with his hands tied together with the strange web-like goo. Maria went to help him out, though Steve shook his head at her.
She wondered briefly why Tony had not asked for her to be tied up as well. Did he not think of her as a threat?
The new recruit landed on the truck T'Challa had jumped across before the shield landed in his hand. Much to Maria's surprise, the man who had just appeared seemed very short and very agile, as he stood crouched on the edge of the truck's roof, holding the shield without ever even seeming to lose his balance. To her, he looked much like a real-life acrobatic who had turned his skills into crime-fighting… Though that sounded too much like Robin for Maria to believe the new recruit's origin was like that.
His suit was red and blue with a pattern of what seemed like dark webs criss-crossing all over it. On his chest was a small bug, and Maria couldn't resist the urge to smirk at the thought that both 'teams' had added a new member who both seemed to like some form of insects.
"Nice job, kid," praised Tony.
Kid?
"Thanks! Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit… Well, it's nothing, Mr Stark! It's-It's perfect. Thank you," rambled the new guy, his voice a pitch higher than Maria had expected. Indeed, he seemed rather young.
"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation," said Tony awkwardly, the mask of his suit moving back into place again.
"Okay…" responded the new guy. "Cap… Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man."
Maria couldn't help but smile slightly at the dorkiness of Tony's new guy. Oh how she wished they were all still a family so she too could have met this new recruit!
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just…"
"Hey, Mater Mortis! Hey, everyone!"
"… Good job," muttered Tony.
"You've been busy," declared Steve, the same faint smile on his lips as Maria had on hers.
"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave; a safe place. I'm trying to keep… I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."
"Steve!? Yeah, right. Steve's the one tearing us all apart," announced Maria, rolling her eyes.
"You shut your mouth!"
Maria was too stunned to retort anything, staring at Tony with wide eyes.
"Out of all the people here, you should be the one to side with me the most! You are all about us being a family. Families keep each other safe! Steve's version of the Avengers, where we roam free and do whatever the hell we want, makes sure that nothing is safe. Neither us. Or the world."
"I'm sorry Tony but… When you signed those accords, you signed up to make sure our family can't be a family anymore. Families don't take orders from no one," said Maria.
"And what happens when our family is, once again, the main reason for destruction in this world?!"
"Tony…" breathed Maria, shaking her head. "We've saved it-"
"Alright, we're done," stated Tony. "You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. NOW! Because it's us, or a squad of J-SOC guys… With no compunction about being impolite."
Maria glanced back at the terminals.
"Redwing's found their quinjet. Hanger five. North runway."
"Come on," pressed Tony, not having noticed their little secret talk.
Much according to plan, Maria saw a small reflection from Scott's helmet from where he sat, waiting for the signal, on the new recruit's shoulder. The plan had been to go for whoever had made the first move, and so Scott was on Spider-Man's shoulder.
Steve suddenly shifted, lifting his hands up so Clint, who still should have a clear view of Steve and Maria in case something did happen, had a clear shot of the webbing around his wrists. With a single, well-aimed arrow, Clint removed the webbing and freed Steve whom immediately looked over at his shield, "Alright, Lang."
"Hey, guys? Something's…" Before Spider-Man could finish his sentence, Scott managed to free Steve's shield from Spider-Man's hands before jumping down and running back to Steve with the shield. From everyone else's view, it looked rather hilarious. Something invisible was moving the shield along the ground as though it was walking on its own, hence why no one moved or did anything. As it stopped next to Steve, Scott re-grew to his normal size, showing himself to the others for the first time.
"What the hell was that?!" asked Rhodey.
"I believe this is yours, Captain America," said Scott, handing Steve the shield back.
The moment Steve had his shield back, all three of them began to run away from Tony's team, something that normally would not have worked had Maria not used her powers to lift up whatever dirt was lying on the ground between the teams, lifting it up to create a barrier much like smoke between them so they could run away unharmed. The plan now was to get to the jet Sam had told them about, which hopefully Wanda and Clint were already doing.
However the dust did not help much as Rhodey quickly charged threw it, aiming his hands at the three of them. Steve turned, mid-running, and threw his shield at Rhodey. It bounced back to Steve's hand and caused Rhodey to stop what he was doing, clearly a bit startled. The three stopped their running, turning to face Rhodey.
"Where'd the others go?" asked Scott.
"Shit… Bucky!"
Steve glanced at Maria and Scott, "They'll make it. We gotta focus on getting to the jet."
Though from the corner of her eyes, something caught Maria's eye and she suddenly darted off away from Steve. Shooting his shield one more time at Rhodey who this time was propelled backwards away from the fight, Steve ran after Maria. Scott moved to do the same, though Natasha suddenly appeared in front of him, leaving him behind to fight his way away from the Black Widow.
Steve easily caught up with Maria even though she had a head-start, and he soon saw the same thing Maria had seen; T'Challa moving in towards the terminals where Bucky and Sam were. They both knew T'Challa still had a grudge against Bucky after what happened to his father, and so, they knew they had to at least try and stop him from getting to him. Steve threw his shield at his back, causing him to stumble slightly before he threw himself at T'Challa, the two tumbling down to the ground while Maria drew her sword. As T'Challa caught himself on all fours, staring up at Steve who was still on the floor, Maria went in to tap T'Challa on the shoulder with her sword, just enough to send him flying and get him out of the fight for a little while, though he had heard her and quickly turned and used his claws to punch away her sword from him. Shocked at T'Challa's fast movements, Maria didn't have time to dodge his next move and ended up on the concrete ground with him looking down at her. Her back hurt slightly, though it was nothing against the pain in her stomach. Although she tried her best to not acknowledge it.
Steve's shield hit T'Challa on the back again, causing him to turn around and move away from Maria who quickly crawled over to her sword which had fallen to the ground a little further away from her.
"Move Captain. I won't ask a second time," warned T'Challa.
Steve simply smirked at his words, not moving away at all, and as T'Challa jumped up and gave a few kicks at Steve, he easily deflected them with his shield.
Clang, clang, clang.
Maria jumped back up onto her feet as she grasped the hilt of her sword again and upon hearing the sounds Steve's shield made, she turned her head to look over at where T'Challa was. Quickly, she charged again, only being able to watch as T'Challa clawed and punched at Steve, who did nothing else but dodge all of T'Challa's tries at hurting him. Maria knew he was waiting for her, understanding that T'Challa would not be out of the fight until Maria managed to tap him with his sword. He was a strong fighter.
Suddenly, however, Maria stopped running as she saw Rhodey appear behind Steve with, what looked to be, a mace with some electrical charge sparkling around it, in his hand. Maria let out a frustrated noise at Tony's new ideas before, without him noticing, jumping up onto T'Challa's back as he kept trying to hit Steve, leaping up into the air and forcing her sword right at Rhodey's chest. The tap had not been a light tap and both she and Rhodey broke apart, landing loudly on the ground a few feet apart from each other. She heard him groan where he lay, though she didn't pay any notice to him. Instead, she quickly sat upright, her hand over her stomach as a little bit of blood was coughed up. Breathing deeply, she stood back up, wiping her mouth clean with the sleeve of her suit before she, with her sword still in her hand, started to stumble towards Steve again. The pain was intense, though she was not going to give up.
With a battle cry that was more of a cry of pain than anything else, Maria lifted her sword up right as T'Challa managed to knock Steve off his feet. Albeit he tried, he did not get away from her sword that time and was knocked back, staying down as well. She helped Steve up, checking him over for any injuries before the two nodded their heads at each other and started running over to the right area of the landing bay, hand in hand. However, they both noticed something behind them.
T'Challa and Rhodey were getting back up again.
"Okay. So. My sword isn't as effective towards Avengers as I thought it would be," said Maria quietly as Steve and Maria stopped again, facing the two heroes who were preparing to charge at them.
"Hey, Cap!" called Scott as he appeared next to Steve and Maria. "Throw this," he said and handed Steve a small toy-truck, which only earned confused looks from both Steve and Maria, "at this," he finished and showed Steve a small disc that was almost glowing with a faint, blue light.
Trusting the new recruit, Steve did as Scott obeyed, throwing the small toy-truck at the disc the moment Scott had thrown it towards the two charging heroes. The toy-truck suddenly grew in size, revealing to Maria and Steve that it was no, in any way, a toy, but actually a real-life truck which was not headed towards T'Challa and Rhodey, tumbling towards them. They jumped out of the way before it could hit them and the explosion caused both Maria and Steve to jump back in surprise.
"Oh man, I thought that was a water-truck. My bad," apologized Scott before Maria and Steve turned him around, the three running away from the fire while they had a chance to get away from their fighters.
Close to the hangar where the quinjet was stationed, Steve, Maria and Scott met up with Wanda and Clint who were already running towards it. Soon, Bucky and Sam joined them as well and together, the seven of them ran as fast as they could… Well, Steve and Bucky didn't really as they then would have outrun the others and everyone was supposed to get onboard that jet.
Everything seemed fine. Tony and the others were not behind them nor were they in view. The jet was right there… So close!
And then, suddenly, a yellow light shot down at the ground in front of them, slicing the concrete as though it was made out of paper and burning its surface. The seven of them stopped and looked up, seeing Vision hovering in the air in front of them, seemingly guarding the jet.
"Captain Rogers," called Vision. "I know you believe what you're doing is right. But for the collective good, you must surrender now."
Tony's team arrived, positioning themselves underneath of Vision and Maria sighed. They had been so close. No one had gotten hurt yet…
Her hand unconsciously found its way to her stomach as she feared what was going to happen next.
"What do we do, Cap?" asked Sam.
.
.
.
"We fight."
