"Rhodey, tell me again why we are here?" Tony sounded supremely bored as the drab landscape smeared by below.
The eye roll contained in the pause was audible, "Because there are nukes involved here, Tony."
"Oh yeah. That. I think I'm an expert on those. Did I ever tell-"
"Yes. Yes you did." Rhodey stopped him mid-sentence not wanting to hear all about the chitauri and their space window again.
"At least you haven't bored Parker to death with that yarn." Natasha purred from the quinjet.
"Thanks for reminding me."
"What did I miss? Did I miss one of your Avengers stories, Mr. Stark?" Peter chimed in optimistically.
"Don't get him started!" Rhodey interjected, sounding slightly panicked.
"Kid, if you were old enough to drink, I'd take you out and tell you all the stories." Tony sounded wistful.
The rest of the team, besides Parker and Vision, who had remained quiet, groaned.
"What?" Tony asked indignant.
"Approaching target." Vision commented. The bunkers were low, almost invisible buildings from the sky, but very solidly defended. Anti-aircraft guns were hiding under camo tarps as the sky began to light up with ordinance.
"Great idea to come in at day time eh?" Tony remarked as he flew a zig zag pattern to avoid the projectiles.
"Not sure this one made any difference." Natasha answered as she piloted the quinjet expertly, dropping altitude while firing her own missiles. Parker sat crouched in the seat, nervous. Natasha glanced over at the boy, "Calm down kid. I've done this a thousand times."
As she said those words, a missile struck the wing with a thud and loud boom. Flames erupted near the engine.
"Romanov, you ok?" Rhodey was besides her in his Iron Patriot suit.
Natasha began to flick switches and punch buttons, "Yep. Gonna put her down nice an easy here but this changes a few things."
"Yeah just a few." Rhodey dodged ordinance.
"Are going to crash, Ms. Romanov?" Peter asked, his voice a bit unsteady.
Natasha looked fondly at him like a puppy, "Yes. And it's Natasha."
Peter swallowed trying to reassure himself that if he can fight the Vulture, then he can certainly handle this.
The other airborne Avengers swooped and dove around the sky firing at the ground support as Natasha guided the plane down. Eventually, they stopped firing all together and the sky became quiet.
Climbing out of the smoking quinjet, Romanov and Parker jogged a safe distance from it and took cover behind a small hill covered in scrub plants. "Anyone think it's weird they just gave up?" she asked.
"Not really." Tony replied from above with an acid note. "I bet they are here."
"Who are they?" Parker asked.
Natasha looked at Peter, his mask a pile of wrinkled red fabric on his head like a messy headband, "Cap."
"He's not Captain America anymore." Tony snapped, circling. Natasha regretted for a moment her mic was on.
"We know Tony." Rhodey soothed, thinking in his head and feeling like a child between two divorced parents, "This is still hard for all of us."
Parker looked, wide eyed at Romanov and nodded in understanding. Vision alighted nearby and approached their position.
"The question remains; do we go in as planned or play it by ear?" Visions characteristically neutral voice hinted at something because he knew Wanda might be nearby.
"I think we secure the target, neutralize it before it makes a getaway." Stark replied his voice cranked up a few notes from just a moment ago when they were cruising towards their objective.
"Can you handle it?" Natasha interjected pointedly. It had only been a few months after Siberia.
A flash of dust and the whirr of gears later, Romanov was looking into the angry, unmasked face of Stark, his eyes dangerously black, "What I can and cannot handle, Natasha, is none of your damn business."
She coolly regarded him with her green eyes and replied smoothly, "Honey, we don't want to fight in front of the kids."
Peter slowly pulled his mask down as if that made him invisible.
With a huff, Stark launched again, Natasha throwing up a hand to protect her face from flying debris.
"Move in." Iron Man streaked towards the bunkers. The rest of the team followed suit.