I had fun with this!
XxXxXxXxXx
Both Steve and Tony helped Hotaru up as they stumbled out of the lab.
"Hotaru!" Trista stumbled over to the three.
"Trista, are you alright?" Steve asked in concern and worry.
"Yes." She nods. "Are you?"
"Yeah."
"Ladies, we need to get to the engines." Tony informs urgently.
"I'll meet you there." Trista said as she reached for Hotaru's hand. The two started to hurry down the hall in search of Michelle.
They soon found her with Maria Hill inside the bridge. "Stay with Agent Hill." Trista told Hotaru.
"Where are you going?" Maria asked watching as Trista leaves.
"To help Steve and Tony." Trista answered.
"And I'm going to help Thor." Michelle said as she moves.
Hotaru turns to Maria. "You need me to sit in a chair, don't you?" She asks.
XxXxXxXxXx
Trista ran towards engine 3, meeting up with Steve.
"Oh Lordy." Trista gasped, her eyes wide at the huge gap.
"Stark, we're here!" Steve yelled into his com.
"Good, let's see what we've got." Tony said, flying to a part of the ruined piece of machinery. "I get this superconducting coolant system, before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris." He continued. "I need you two to the engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overdrive position."
Trista walked backwards, then ran and jumped, flipping side ways through the air and landed like a cat. Steve was in awe and shocked at the ability and of course couldn't help checking her out too.
"Captain, work first, then drool!" An annoyed Tony ordered. Steve groaned before he followed Trista to the landing. Trista pulls open the panel and pulls out the relay panel.
"What does it look like in there?" Tony asked in the comlink.
"It seems to run on some kind of electricity." A confused Steve answered, gaining a giggle from Trista.
"Well you're not wrong." She giggled again. "I got this. Watch my back?"
"Always." He breathed, his blue eyes stared deeply into her red eyes. She smiled before going to work on the panel. After awhile, they were fixed.
"Ok, the relays are intact." Steve said as Trista pushed the panel back in its place. "What now?"
"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't engage without a jump. I'm going to have to get in there and push."
"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded." Steve warns him.
"That star control until can reverse the polarity." Tony begins only for confuse Steve more.
"Speak English!" A very confused Steve exclaimed.
"See that red lever?" Tony asked him. "It will slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out."
Trista places a gentle hand on Steve's shoulder, getting his attention and she uses her free hand to point, he follows her finger.
"I see it." Steve said.
"Stand by it and wait for my signal." Tony instructed.
Together Trista and Steve hurried over to the lever. After a few minutes some men wearing SHIELD uniforms rushed in firing.
"Trista!" Steve tackles him to the floor of the catwalk, avoiding the gun fire. Steve leaps in the air to hit a granada, knocking it back away from Tony. Steve landed on the landing below and took out the men easily. Trista knocks some men off the ledge, suddenly a hail of bullets showered towards them, Trista tried to dodge the bullets as Steve grabs a gun to return fire.
"Captain, pull the lever!" Tony calls over the coms.
"In a minute here!" Steve calls back.
"We're taking enemy fire!" Trista added.
"Lever, now!" Tony called desperately. Trista turns to the lever, with a look of hard determination she ran for the lever.
"Trista! No!" Steve cried, watching her.
"Oh no." Tony suddenly said over the coms. "Help!" He cried in pain as Iron Man disappears suddenly. Trista grabs the lever and yanks it down, at the same time a bullet hits her side, she screams in pain and starts to fall.
"Trista!" Steve rushes up to her, catching her and holding her close and shielding her from the remaining gunfire. Iron Man shows up and knocks out the remain hostiles by crash landing. Steve breathed in relief as he held Trista closer to his chest.
"We need a medic at engine 3!" Steve yells into the coms. "Now!"
"Steve?" Trista whispered, looking up at his face as she started to lose conscious. "Steve?" She whispered before passing out in his arms.
"Trista." He hugged her close. "I'm here, I'm right here." He assured her softly.
"Don't move her." Tony said with worry as he approaches and kneels down next to Steve. "It'll make the wound worse." He added as he showed his face.
"Trista, hold on." Steve hugged her close as the medical team arrives. Tony had to pry Steve away from Trista so the medics could do their job.
"You did your job, Captain." One of the Medics said, looking at him. "Let us do ours."
XxXxXxXxX
Trista slowly awoke groggily. Her eyes fluttered open and as her eyes adjusted to the light, she felt a hand holding hers. She slowly turns her head to the side to see Steve sitting there and holding her hand. "Steve?" She whispered.
He jumps out of his thoughts and looks down at her. "Trista." He smiles. "You're ok?"
"What happened? Where am I?"
"One of Loki's men shot you when we were helping Stark." He answered. "You're in the infirmary."
"Where's that slippery snake now?" She asks referring to Loki as she tries to push herself to sit up. Steve helped her sit up.
"He got away."
"Of course he did." Trista sighed heavily.
"Um, Trista? I know you just woke up and gonna need a little more time in healing." Steve began nervously, she looks at him. "But um." A red tint started to stain his cheeks. He pulls his hand away from hers and stood up. "I wish Bucky was here." He mutters nervously to himself. "He made it look so damn easy." He then takes a deep breath and exhales. "Would you go out on a date with me?" He asks out loud. "Once the war is over of course."
She blinks in surprise at him. No one's ever dared to ask her out, then again she had that cold nature about her.
Steve took her silence as her answer and his shoulders slump. "Uhhh … cause a beautiful dame … lady can't stay sing." He trails off. "Never mine." He started to back up. "I - I." He stutters. "Forget I asked." He turns to leave.
"Steve!" Trista jumps out of the medical bed and rushes up to him, grabbing his arm. He looks at her in surprise. "I'm sorry. No one's asked me before."
The door suddenly slides open. "Trista!" Hotaru cries, rushing in but stops short when she sees the two standing close. "Oh." She blushes. "I interrupted something." She starts backing out of the room. "I'm sorry, go back to doing what you were doing." She backs into the hall and the doors close.
"I did promise to help save Clint." Trista said with a smile. "So." She turns to Steve. Resting her right hand on his chest and resting her left hand on the side of his neck, then kissed him gently, his hands rest on her waist, after a long moment she pulls away. "Thank you." With that she leaves the room.
Steve just stood there comically, then a goofy smile plasters over his face. "Yes." He does a victory dance. "Bucky would be proud." He said to himself with pride.
XxXxXxXxXxXx
Inside another room, Clint Barton is strapped to a chair with his head hung. Hotaru is sitting on the bed with an upset look as studies her father.
"I don't have Serena's powers." Trista said as she summoned her Garent Rod. "But I do have my talisman." She lifts it from the top of her staff. Leaning her staff against the wall, she moves to stand in front of Clint. The orb starts to glow and a strong soft glow flows towards Clint surrounding his head in a thick energy fog. "Clint, it's Trista. Can you hear me?"
Clint thrashed around and rapidly shook his head, crying out in pain.
"Daddy!" Hotaru cried, leaping off the bed and rushing up to Trista's side. "Daddy, please!"
Clint stopped trying to thrash around. "Hotaru?"
Trista concentrates harder on the real Clint. "Clint, concentrate on my voice." After a long moment, a bright purple light surrounds the assassin. It died down and Trista stumbled backwards breathing heavily as well as Clint.
"Trista!" Natasha hurried over to her when she stumbled backwards into a wall.
"I'm ok." She breathed. "I think." She collapses to her knees as she continued to breath heavily.
Clint lifted his head, his eyes normal.
"Daddy!" Hotaru bounced into his lap, gaining an 'oof' sound as her arms locked around his neck.
"Hotaru?" He breaths. "The hell are you doing here?" He asks in shock.
She instantly pulls away. "I wanted to come. I wanted to help save you."
He looks at her. "You are so grounded till the end of the century."
"That's not fair!"
"I think it is. You are still a kid! You have no business being in the middle of this war!"
"I brought them here Clint." Natasha revealed and he looks at her sharply.
"Excuse me?" He demanded.
"We should let you two to talk." Trista said as she lifts herself up from the floor, she reaches for Hotaru's hand and pulls her out.
XxXxXxXxXxXx
Trista approaches Steve from behind as he's leaned on the wall with his arms folded.
"Was he married?" Steve is asking Tony.
"No, I think there was a cellist." The billionaire answered, turning to Steve.
"I'm sorry." Steve apologized sincerely. "He seemed like a good man." He added as Tony started to walk past him.
"He was an idiot." Tony said as he continued to walk past Steve.
"Why? For believing?" Steve questioned.
"Or for doing his job?" Trista added, gaining Steve's attention.
"For taking Loki on alone." Tony said emotionally.
"He was doing his job." Steve said.
"He was out of his league. He should have waited." An upset Tony, said.
"Sometimes there isn't a way out." Trista responded.
"Right, I've heard that before." Tony huffed.
"Is this the first time you lost a solider?" Steve asked with sympathy.
Tony spun around to glare at him. "We are not soldiers!" He snaps, he then takes a breath to calm himself. "I'm not marching to Fury's fight."
"Neither am I." Steve's tone is hard. "But he has the same blood on his hands as Loki does."
"Right now we need to put that aside and get this done." Trista said. "We can all grieve later, right now Loki is too much of a threat, one little slip up from any of us and he wins."
"Loki needs a power source." Steve added.
"He made it personal." Tony suddenly said, annoying Steve.
"That's not the point."
"No, that's the point." Tony said. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To divide us?" Steve asked, he turns to Trista and takes her hand, lacing their fingers together.
"Yes, divide and conquer is great. But he knows he has to take us out to win." Tony said. "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, and he wants to be seen doing it."
"An audience." Trista added.
"Yeah, caught his act in Stuttgart." Steve nodded.
"That was just previews." Tony said as he walked around them. "This is opening night." He was getting excited. "He wants flowers, parades. He wants a monument built to the sky with his name." He cuts himself off as he soon realizes. "Son of a bitch!"