❪ written by nymphcallisto ❫
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"Stark, what's your status?"
Steve Rogers's voice was partially drowned out by the roaring of the Quinjet's engine as they flew past miles of forests. The scene outside the windows was a blur of trees and hills at the aircraft's speed, save for a streak of red and gold that flew somewhere far ahead of them.
Lunaria Volkova, S.H.I.E.L.D Agent and former assassin, stood over the control panel with her arms crossed, eyes trailing the screen that showed their position relative to their current target. The captain was operating the Quinjet as Natasha Romanoff stood next to him, eyes focused in the distance.
"Cameras and security have been disabled," Tony spoke through his earpiece from wherever he was, "Should be safe to land."
There weren't many missions where all the avengers had to assemble, but the current situation seemed dire enough to call together most of the team. Other than the norse god Thor who was impossible to contact and Bruce Banner who had vanished after the recent battle with Ultron, the four original Avengers had all assembled when an old threat chose now to arise.
Then there was Sam Wilson and Wanda Maximoff, the newer members of the Avengers Initiative who had joined the team after the Battle of Sokovia. The Falcon stood near the back of the aircraft while Wanda stared out one of the wide windows, her expression unreadable.
Since the death of Baron Strucker courtesy of Ultron, Lunaria had assumed the entirety of HYDRA to be history too. The sheer annoyance of finding another existing base left many questions to be asked regarding how much of the organization was still alive.
On another recent mission, Lunaria had discovered that a HYDRA operative called Grant Ward, an ex SHIELD operative who had turned out to be an undercover agent, managed to keep whatever was left of HYDRA after Strucker's death functioning. She figured that was the only reason she was on this mission, seeing as she was never really officially part of the team. Lunaria quite clearly remembered two years ago when Nick Fury had tried to recruit her to join "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," and remembered equally clearly how she had proceeded to laugh herself hoarse, realize he wasn't kidding, and then firmly refuse the offer.
Laughing in Nick Fury's face. That was something few could say they had done.
Lunaria furrowed her brows as she glanced back at the screen to evaluate their distance from the HYDRA base, "You know they're going to notice their systems going down. Stark, any sign of Agents scouting the place or exiting the building?"
"Yes Elsa, there is a stray cat with one eye walking by that might be a threat," Tony muttered sarcastically, "I disabled their cameras, not their wifi router. No one's going to notice a thing."
"The name's Volkova," Lunaria snapped, "Speaking of which, I've been meaning to talk to you about the very unfunny changes you made to my name in the Quinjet's security sequence—"
"First of all, I happen to be very funny—"
"Alright, I'm going to politely interrupt this absolutely irrelevant conversation. We're landing."
Steve clicked something on the control panel, the vehicle slowly descending after he set the Quinjet to auto-pilot. He stood up and turned to the rest of the team, picking up his shield as they landed.
"Everyone knows what they're doing," He started, "Sam and Wanda, scout the perimeter and stay alert, get Ward's location. Stark will be working on taking the base. Nat and I are going to retrieve HYDRA's files and focus on heading straight for Ward. Lune and Clint, you two are backing us up and clearing any corners where the target may be located."
"Don't expect another regular base," Lunaria added as she loaded a handgun, "According to intel from my last mission, there's something strange about this one. Nothing was recorded, but it seems they're hiding something that they aren't excited about the rest of the world knowing."
Steve picked up his vibranium shield and strapped on his helmet, "Keep each other updated. And like Volkova said, be careful. We'll get in, do the job, and get right back out."
Lunaria stalked out of the aircraft, cocking a gun that had a polished dark blue handle. A Sirenfire, designed by Tony Stark that would play an advantage when it came to her own enhancements that most weren't aware of. She pushed a strand of her raven-black hair out of her face as she trailed the captain who headed straight for the back door.
Wanda's palms glowed red as she levitated off the ground, splitting off towards the left side of the large building while Sam took the right. Tony didn't seem to be anywhere in sight, which was mildly concerning but Lunaria brushed it off.
Although HYDRA's security systems had been shut down, she knew that the base would be prepared for an attack, and would have been prepared since Grant Ward brought them back to life. So when the shouting and gunfire started the moment Steve struck down the door, and the alarms instantly went off.
It was a corridor leading to a pair of wide hallways already surrounded by agents. Steve's shield took the first round of bullets, and then the group separated. Two of the agents closed in on Lunaria as she shot one through the chest and whipped around to the other, her elbow colliding with his face. He fell as she kneed him in the stomach and sent a bullet at another approaching agent.
She burst into one of the rooms and ran at an agent facing away from her, catching him off-guard as she jumped, wrapping her legs around his neck as she scissored around and flipped over, landing just as the sheer force knocked him to the ground.
The other five in the room looked up in shock, preparing to advance, and her assassin instincts kicked in. She raced for the nearest one, grabbing his arm and twisting it back. She leaped over him, tucking her legs in as she somersaulted through the air to land in a crouch. Lunaria rolled over as she struck. She kicked an agent's legs out from under him before kipping up to face the remaining three.
She intercepted the first one to move, aerialing as her legs found his head and shoved his skull into the floor as she landed on her feet and kicked him to the side. She slid past the next one and grabbed one of the chairs in the room, slamming it into the last agent and throwing him back just as she twisted around to the last one. Kicking him in the side, she spun around to shove him head-first into a glass table and watched as the table shattered on impact.
"Sam and Lune, status and location update?" Steve called through her earpiece.
"Control room is on the third floor, fourth hallway from the staircase!" Sam's voice came on, "The control room is the second door to the left, we're still working on locating Ward."
She looked around the room and the people she'd rendered either unconscious or dead one more time, "My side of the first floor is secure, and no sign of Ward either."
Then from out of nowhere, another pair of agents appeared at the doorway just as she was heading out. Lunaria grunted as she grabbed an agent's arm to dodge his incoming punch but had no choice but to take the blow to her gut. She spun around, and twisted her arm back, feeling the crack of his shoulder dislocating before throwing him down. When she looked up, she would have been plummeted by another one, had a vibranium shield not flown out of nowhere and instantly knocked the agent unconscious.
The shield flew back to Steve who walked up from behind, "You know, you'd make this a lot easier for yourself if you took a note from Wanda and actually put your abilities to use."
"I don't use my enhancements if I can help it, and you know that," Lunaria scoffed as she looked around, "We're clear here. Third floor, Wilson said?"
Steve nodded as he took the lead and headed for the staircase, only to be stopped by another dozen agents. Lunaria reloaded her gun firing on instinct as Natasha appeared and did the same on the other side of the hallway.
A clean shot from Clint took down the last one, but the spiraling staircase provided another challenge as more armed men waited above with higher ground. Natasha swung herself over the railings of the stairs, shooting a wire towards the ceiling. She shot upwards as the wire shortened, bullets still firing.
Lunaria jumped from where she was standing and grabbed a railing on the opposite side of the staircase, swinging herself over it just in time to take out the agent waiting there. She silently cursed as more of them flooded in from above, all armed.
Steve was probably right about making things easier for her. Shooting a gun and throwing punches was only going to get her so far.
Lunaria threw out her arms and narrowed her eyes in concentration. Right out of thin air, six streaks of water materialized and hovered in slow spirals. A twitch of her fingers, and they solidified into frozen icicles with sharp, gleaming edges. They shot towards the agents as she thrust her palm forward, each frozen shard finding their mark.
With the quick warm-up out of the way, she waved her arm again and all the weapons belonging to the agents were suddenly covered with a solid layer of ice, rendering them useless. Steve followed up by throwing his shield which ricocheted off of the walls at calculated angles and took out half of the remaining agents. The ones who were left were impaled by arrows and bullets from Natasha, and Lunaria sent a projectile of water that sent one of them flying through the center of the staircase, towards the ground.
"More of them heading towards you guys!" Sam's voice sounded again. Just as he said that, the doors from a lower level opened, and more agents indeed poured in.
"Rogers, you and Nat head for the secure room!" Lunaria turned to face Steve, "Like we planned, Barton and I will deal with this."
As the other two vanished from the staircase, Lunaria turned her attention towards the group closing in on her and Clint. She narrowly avoided being hit in the blast of Clint's explosive arrow and sent forward more blades of pure ice that found their marks. She dropped her gun and drew the twin Sirenfires that Stark had made.
A single thought from her and clear water droplets that the weapons ran on appeared and shot through them. The blue bands on the sides of the guns glowed bright turquoise and lit up as Lunaria leaped onto another platform and fired them both.
The frozen bullets exploded on impact, taking out at least three of the agents each. Reloading them with more droplets of water, she and Clint finished off the rest of them and continued up the stairs, throwing open the door to the third floor of the base.
It was almost haunting how similar the place was to the HYDRA base where Lunaria had spent two years of her life, and she forced down memories that were now flooding into her head. Every drop of water that she called to her, every icicle she sent at an enemy were the products of when HYDRA had gotten a hold of her and spent months perfecting the Siren Serum. Months that she spent in agony and tortuous states of twisted experimentation that she had been forced to endure.
The Redroom, HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D, the Avengers. Assassin, experiment, agent. Lunaria didn't seem to be able to stay loyal to one place at any given time. Probably another reason Fury trusted her unconditionally while the rest of the team thoroughly didn't.
"Let's split up," Clint said as he drew another arrow, "You take the left and I'll take the right. Clear the area and find Eric's location, and we regroup when Cap gives the word."
Lunaria nodded and went on her way. At this point, everyone in the building would have for sure known they were there, so no more element of surprise. She had barely turned the corner when a bullet whizzed past her ear and would have killed her in an instant had her reflexes been just slightly slower.
She gritted her teeth and unleashed a sheet of hail at them, running forward as she flipped over one of them and shoved her heel into his chest as she brought him down with her. One of them that raced towards her ran into a solid wall of ice that he collapsed upon crashing into, and with a wave of her arm the wall shattered into small and thin blades that each shot towards an agent.
That quickly cleared the area. Continuing on, she threw open the door to a room that was crowded with agents, and didn't even bother fighting this time. She gave a shrill cry and water slowly formed around the bodies of everyone in the room excluding her, the water slowly becoming ice. Before any weapons could be fired, the room was filled by a dozen frozen human statues.
Lunaria didn't give herself any time to rest, although that feat alone drained much of her energy. How tired she was didn't matter when she was on a mission; that's what she'd been taught her entire life. The mission always came first. Before other people, before the law, before the public's safety, and certainly before her own wellbeing.
With each turn and each room, she called water and ice to her will. Freezing her opponents, impaling them with dagger-like shards, drowning them in hastily made aquariums of ice. She pushed herself through each power-draining task. By the time she found herself in the final hallway across from where she and Clint would meet again, she finally realized what a toll it was taking on her.
The physical exertion of everything she did as an assassin and a spy were nothing compared to the strength she was using now. Lunaria couldn't remember the last time she even came close to tiring on a mission. Normally, she could have twenty bullets in her body and still continue fighting, but she was now in a different state. She was breathing heavily, straining to even summon a few droplets of water, and she didn't need the reflection of a giant ice statue to tell her she was about as pale as a ghost.
Now, she was faced with a final dozen of agents, and she knew she would have to be stupid to continue to rely on her abilities. So Lunaria grit her teeth. drew two guns, and advanced.
She shot two of them down and dodged a volley of bullets towards her, shielding herself with a thin circle of ice that she created with incredible difficulty. She screamed as it almost instantly shattered, something in her head snapping as she completely over-exerted herself. Lunaria grabbed a fallen shard from the ground and plunged it into the neck of an agent that was advancing on her, dropping him as she leaped at the next one.
Kicking him down, she rolled out of the way of a bullet and sent two bullets right back, turning around to grab the arm of an agent shooting at her and pressing the gun to his own skull instead. She pulled the trigger for him and ducked to avoid getting shot by someone else.
There were still six of them left. Against her better judgement, she sent two blasts of ice to knock out two of them, and with a sharp cry she dropped to her knees right as she did. She didn't react fast enough even as she heard the bullet from behind, and couldn't move out of the way as the bullet found its mark in her shoulder.
She hissed as pain flared through her, but forced herself back to her feet and ignored it to the best of her ability. Turning around, she ran for the agent who shot her and flipped into the air, her leg extending and forcefully hitting him in the chest. She faced the remaining three agents and elbowed one of them and pushed him down before swinging her leg over to kick another. She slid out of the way as she lunged again, legs wrapping around his torso as she spiraled over and threw him onto the ground with a thud.
Lunaria looked up towards the third one, only for an exploding arrow to take him out. She turned around to see Clint holding his bow and walking towards her.
"You're bleeding," He said.
"I don't care," she muttered as she headed over to him, "Everything here's clear, and no sign of Ward. Anything on your side?"
He didn't have time to respond as another group of armed men appeared, and he nocked another arrow into his bow. Lunaria extended a hand forward and spent what was likely the last of her energy on a frozen beam that shoved one of them into the wall behind him.
Without any time to react, she was suddenly knocked off her feet and sent flying across the hall, slamming against the wall and collapsing onto the ground. Something flew towards her in a blur that she just barely dodged, hissing as another bullet grazed her upper arm.
She rolled out of the way of another blast, landing in a crouch as she whipped her head up to see what had attacked her. Lunaria had to blink twice when she saw a giant snow leopard standing before her, fangs bared and a single eye narrowed.
Lunaria drew a gun and fired at the animal repeatedly. She didn't have the brainpower left to ask why a wild leopard was here in the middle of the HYDRA base, nor did she have the brainpower to care. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Clint take out another agent.
Her eyes only widened as the bullets bounced right off of the snow leopard, clattering onto the ground. The snow leopard lunged at her as she leaped out of the way. Instinctively, she released another load of bullets at it, and again, nothing.
And it wasn't an animal anymore. The bullets clattered to the ground with absolutely no effect. No wound opened, but the snow leopard shrunk in size and shifted into another agent of HYDRA, a woman with fiery red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She didn't seem to be armed with any weapons, but long curved claws extended from her fingers and she looked absolutely feral.
Without saying a word, the agent shifted into something else. Dark, feathered wings extended from her back, and she shot into the air. Lunaria had to duck to avoid being knocked over as the redhead vanished past her, in the direction of where Steve and Natasha had gone.
"Cap, there might be a problem!" Lunaria called as she recovered and raced down the corridors, "We have an enhanced after you and Romanoff. Female, red hair, somewhere in her twenties."
Clint turned around, knocking someone down with his bow before taking off after Lunaria, "Lune and I are dealing with it, you two focus on Ward and the files!"
She fired again at the girl, dodging two more agents advancing on her. An icicle extended from the band on her wrist as she stabbed one of them with it. He reciprocated with a kick to her side and she doubled over, sliding between his legs and bringing herself to her knees as she shoved him from behind, right into a wall of ice that materialized in front of him.
Lunaria winced slightly as she grabbed her shoulder that still had a bullet in it, taking a moment to catch her breath. She had completely lost sight of where the enhanced agent or Clint had vanished to.
"Hey, you alright?" Steve seemed to have lost his shield somewhere in the fight as he was heading towards her without his signature weapon.
Lunaria pulled herself up, and walked over to meet him, "Some idiot shot me, but I'll deal." She looked around them, "Barton, I have Cap here. Any sign of Ward or the enhanced?"
"Volkova, I'm still in the control room with Nat," Steve's voice spoke through her earpiece, "I—Where are you?"
"I'm literally right next to you, what are you even talking . . . about . . . " Lunaria slowly turned her head around to glance at Steve standing right next to her.
Then his image flickered, shifting into the form of the red-haired agent again.
And she lunged right for Lunaria.