Chapter 8

Our feet slammed into the asphalt again and again as we ran for our lives from a pack of Australian mammals with mad dog disease.

For the record, this is not how I wanted this night to end up.

Add the fact that half of us were running in heels or wedges. Darcy had ditched her wedges long ago, Betty was briskly jogging in her three inch heels, Jane (luckily) was wearing flats, and Natasha and I were both wearing kitten heels and running as fast as we could.

"How long can we keep this up?" Darcy pants from behind Betty.

"How long do we need to?" I shout back.

"Until we see help or the rabid things tire out or flop over and die!" I'm jealous that Natasha's voice is steady like she's been doing this for thirty seconds, not what must be closer to thirty minutes.

"Wonderful." Jane's voice shakes, both with fear and exhaustion.

I turn my eyes to the sky, praying that the hawk-like sight of my boyfriend came after he started archery.

Nothing.

But I do spot an abandoned warehouse off in the back of a small side street.

"Head down this road to the warehouse! Move it!"

We all eventually make it to the shady concrete building, diving inside just as the rabid pack stampedes past us.

I untangle myself from the pile that we ended up in on the musty, moldy floor as take a look around our temporary hidey hole.

And come face to face with the barrel of a gun. Held by the shaking hands on a yellow toothed, red eyed hobo-looking person with drugs on his breath.

I put my hands us and motion for the rest of the group to do the same as we back up a few slow steps.

"Hey, hey, let's not do anything crazy, dude." I can feel Natasha's gaze on my back and trust in my hands.

"W-who are you fellas?" Hobo dude asks with chattering teeth and twitchy eyes.

"Us? We're just heroes." Faster than anyone can blink, I have my gun drawn and a shot blasted into the guy's forehead.

Everyone watches in stunned shock as the guy falls to the cement floor, dead before he hits the ground.

Betty is the first to regain her voice. "…Did you just kill an innocent civilian?"

I shake my head as I walk over towards the pile of blanket covered boxes behind the guy. "No, I did not. Look."

I throw back the blankets to reveal cubes of plastic wrapped green drugs (most likely weed) and Ziploc bags filled with white powders.

Natasha lets out a low whistle as she sees what I uncovered. "And you knew that was there how?"

I shrug. "A little bit of instinct and a little 'hey, something smells weird.'"

Natasha nods and returns to the cooling body to pat him down and search for an ID.

"Eureka! Joseph Petiori. He has twenty two countries hunting for him as of right now. He is in the top five Most Wanted on five of those, including the US."

Darcy lets out a bitter chuckle. "Well, now I can check off 'Unknowingly take down a drug lord' off my bucket list."

I smile as Jane speaks up for the first time. "How are we going to report this? We can't use our phones and we can't afford to wait until we get out of the dead zone."

I begin to pace, listening to my heels click and clack as I think of a solution.

"That's it!" I snap my fingers. "Does anyone have a pen and paper?"

Betty fishes an old sticky note from her small dress pockets as Darcy hands me a pen. I scribble a note –

Uncle Rhodey-

I happened to stumble across Joseph Petiori and his stash with friends the other day. You're welcome and you owe me cake.

-Taylor

- before tucking the sticky note under one of the bags and unclipping the necklace I was wearing.

I press my thumb onto the purple plastic jewel in the center and it pops open to reveal a compartment with a small black device fit snugly inside.

I glance up to be met with four confused looks.

"A transmitting tracker." I explain. "It'll send a signal to two people: my dad and Colonel James Rhodes, my uncle and godfather."

"But won't the dead zone block it?" Betty asks with narrowed eyes.

"Yes. But the second the dead zone is no more, it will send and emergency signal to Rhodey."

"How do you know he'll come?"

"Because this is a shady warehouse in the backstreets of Australia. I just know he will."

They nods as I turn back to the tracker. I flip a tiny red switch to send it into emergency response mode – so the signal will go automatically – and set it on top of the note.

"Does anyone hear that?"

I lift my head at Natasha's question and I do hear the quiet thump-thump of helicopter blades.

"I'll go see if it's friendly!" I shout over the rising noise. "Wait here! Natasha, with me!"

Tasha nods as she follows me up the stairs and onto the roof.

I shield my eyes against the blinding spotlight as I try to make out any distinguishing logos.

Before I make any real progress, my eyes register the gun pointed at me and I dive to avoid the strafe of bullets pelting the roof.

"Well, it's not friendly!"

"So what do we do about that?"

I stay silent as a light bulb suddenly goes on in my head and I smile.

"You're going to think I'm crazy in a second." I tell Natasha as I slip my feet out of my shoes and thrust them at her, leaving me barefoot. "Hold these."

Natasha just shrugs as she takes the heels. "Nothing new. But what are you doing?"

I let a devilish smile overtake my face. "Just wait and see."

I take a running start towards the edge of the warehouse roof as I leap forward towards the chopper.

My right fist closes around the bottom rails and I use my remaining momentum to swing myself up into the underbelly of the chopper.

I glance down to see Natasha staring at me, slightly dumbfounded. "So care to explain?"

"Taking control!" I shout as the helicopter whisks me away and down the streets of Australia as I shimmy my way to the door.

Something makes me snap my head down again as we pass a major street about two miles from the bar.

I smile when I catch a glimpse of red fabric, a hammer, streaks of red, white, and blue, and a blue glowing dot.

The cavalry has arrived.

A~A~A

The first thing I see when my feet hit the ground is a koala foaming at the mouth and barreling at me. I ready my bow, but there's no need because it freezes and goes limp.

And I have never been so happy to see a woman wielding a gun.

"Oh thank god." Betty exclaims as she lowers her weapon, nodding at Steve, Tony, and Thor as they jog over. "We were getting worried." She glances around and then frowns slightly. "Where's-"

"In the jet. Didn't want to risk him." I cut her off, answering her unfinished question. "Where is everyone?"

She just motions for us to follow as she jogs down a side street. Her gun is still out, so I notch an arrow and hand a gun to Tony.

Five minutes and two kangaroo corpses later, we enter an abandoned warehouse. Betty leads us through a drug scented room, past the body in the corner, and up the stairs to the roof, where Jane, Natasha, and Darcy and looking at something in the sky.

Thor rushes forward to hug his girlfriend and I smile at Tasha, but I frown as I look at the line up in front of me and I consider what I'm not seeing.

"Where is Taylor?"

Natasha just stays silent as she fixes me with a strange look and points skywards.

I follow her finger and let my eyes focus on the moving shadow zooming past above us.

It takes only a second for me to register the lithe figure clinging to the underside of the copter.

"Holy crap!"

It takes another second for me to register who it is.

"Holy crap."

Why, Taylor?

A/N

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