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CHAPTER EIGHT
pirates of the indian ocean
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THE BED THAT Diana laid in was warm and soft, and so hard to get out of. Sunlight pooled into the floor of her room, gently waking her up, contrasting to the alarm that blared from her bedside table. She groaned at the idea of getting up as she shut off the alarm, finally hearing her phone. She sat up, furrowing her brows as she grabbed her phone and barely glanced at the caller ID before she answered it.

"Hello?" Diana's morning voice croaked as squinted against the light. A cold draft went down her back as it left the warmth of her mattress, leaving goosebumps down her neck and arms.

"Did I seriously wake you up?" Natasha's voice was directly in her ear, too loud for Diana as the sleep fogged her brain.

"I thought it was my day off," Diana looked over at the alarm, frowning at the time "it's six am, the sun is still rising."

"Well you got a mission, I'm waiting for you in a car outside so get up and get ready."

"Yes, dear," Diana yawned and hung up. She fell back into her pillow and groaned, ripping the cover off and placing her feet on the cold floor, pushing the shock away before she walked into her bathroom to wash her face and melt the tired thoughts from her mind.

She hoped Steve made a pot of coffee before he left for his jog but she knows that he often forgets.

Diana quickly got dressed, wearing something simple since she would be changing into her uniform soon anyway. By the time she made it to the kitchen, she was awake enough that she didn't care that the coffee pot was empty. Diana quickly left the apartment, locking it behind her and giving a wave to her neighbor, Kate the nurse as she passed.

Diana rushed out to see a sleek black four-door sedan with Natasha in the driver's seat. She rolled down the window as Diana walked up.

"Hey sexy, come here often?" Natasha asked, making Diana snort as she got in. The car sped off before Diana could even begin to buckle up.

"Damn, Nat!" Diana yelped as she glanced at the driver, yanking the belt over the body and quickly locking it in, "you should've told me the mission was that serious I would've gotten ready faster."

"Where's Steve?" Natasha asked as she pulled out her phone, typing away in the shield secured program on her phone, Diana, Nat, and Steve only contacted each other on it when it came to missions like the one Natasha was being ominous about.

"Uh, he said yesterday night that he was going to run around the national mall, I told him about how the sunrise is beautiful there," Diana furrowed her eyebrows as she tried remembering the conversation they had over dinner the night before.

Diana had a few glasses of wine with her dinner due to her supposedly being off today but since she only knows Steve and Nat and Kate whose schedule is too weird for them to regularly hang out, Diana doesn't mind coming in for extra hours, and it helps that she's normally saving someone or protecting countries from whatever arises.

The two eventually made it to the street where Steve was talking to a man that Diana vaguely remembered. She ran with the man once before. She only got his first name from the interaction and a bit of small talk after, a quick chat about moving to a new state, but since Diana had been here for two years now, things don't seem to be all that new anymore.

"Hey fellas," Natasha called out through the open window, "either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? We're here to pick up a fossil."

Diana cracked a grin at Natasha's joke, waving to Sam who crouched down a bit to peer through the window, he gave a wave back to the girl.

"How you doin'?" Sam asked.

"Hey," Natasha greeted with a sly smile.

Steve had climbed into the backseat, Diana moving the seat up to give his long legs room. The backseat window was also down as Steve looked out the window.

"Can't run everywhere," Steve said, Diana felt a twinge of confusion with their conversation as Sam watched Diana and Natasha in the front seat.

"No you can't," Sam responded. Diana gave one last wave at the windows rolled up and Natasha sped off. Breaking a bunch of traffic laws on the way.

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THE QUINJET WAS dark save for the screen that Diana stood before with the rest of her teammates. Rumlow, the head of the S.T.R.I.K.E team, was next to the screen, tapping away as he explained the situation to the rest of them. Natasha and Steve stood on either side of Diana as Steve adjusted his gloves. Diana adjusted her jacket as turbulence jerked the jet slightly. She didn't even realize she grabbed Natasha's arm until the woman raised an eyebrow at her.

Diana smiled awkwardly and let her go, her attention being pulled back to Rumlow.

"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star." He explained, tapping at the screen to show blueprints of the ship, Diana scanned it, learning it before he tapped the screen again which changed what was being displayed, "They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety-three minutes ago."

"Any demands?" Steve asked as Diana adjusted her fingerless gloves.

"A billion and a half." Diana raised her eyebrows at the number Rumlow gave them, do they not care about the fragile economic health?

"Why so steep?" Steve asked.

"Because it's SHIELD's," Rumlow answered. Diana looked back at the screen, she thought the blueprints looked familiar, she looked in the corner to see the shield logo staring at her as if she was stupid.

"So it's not off-course," Steve's sigh was a borderline huff, Diana couldn't blame him, he had a day off too and now they're overseas cleaning up their boss's mess, "it's trespassing."

"I'm sure they have a good reason." Natasha tried to reason out but both Diana and Nat knew that the taller man would not be forgetting about this anytime soon.

"You know," Steve spoke to everyone and no one, "I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor."

Diana nodded as she pulled a smooth stone out of a pouch where a gun holster normally would be on her thigh. Diana didn't need to be armed like that when she could turn a stone into a rocket launcher or a grenade. She turned the stone in her hand into her staff, attaching it to the holster that was strapped across her back. Her Chitauri spear was also holstered against her back so she had options when fighting pirates.

"Relax, it's not that complicated," Natasha's tone made Diana feel calmer about the situation. It was pirates, after all, all they have is swords, bad breath, and repressed homosexual feelings.

"How many pirates?" Steve asked, moving on from his frustration.

"Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy."  Rumlow tapped the screen some more, revealing the photo of a man whose head was round but also seemed to square off at the bottom, his hair was crew cut, probably to even out his head but it didn't hide that fact considering it was the first thing Diana saw. "Georges Batroc."

"Ex-DGSE, Action Division." Rumlow stated, giving Diana an idea of what they're up against, "He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

Diana's gonna let Steve handle that fight.

"Hostages?" Steve asked.

"Uh...mostly techs." He answered off the top of his head, tapping at the screen once more to pull up the hostage list, "One officer, Jasper Sitwell."

"They're in the galley," Rumlow advised.

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve asked, adjusting his sleeves and gloves, "Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions. Diana, service the control room, draw out Batroc if he's there. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get 'em out. Let's move."

"STRIKE, you heard the Cap." Rumlow called out to his crew, making Diana wince at how loud it was in her ear, "Gear up."

Diana huffed and walked over to the open shelf on the side of the jet. She put an earpiece in her ear and adjusted the channel to stop hearing the static from a device in her glove as they were getting ready to dive off the jet. There was a draft that Diana had noticed for a while and it made her shiver. It was going to be cold out there in the Indian Ocean but the payout for it had seemed to be a fair trade to Diana.

"Secure channel seven," Steve spoke, spoke into his wrist communicator. Diana glanced over at Steve as she adjusted her earpiece to the right channel. He looked at her and gave her a nod in a slight way of greeting.

"Seven secure." Natasha responded, "Did you guys do anything fun Saturday night?"

Diana rolled her eyes with a smile at the woman's question, she knew it would eventually come up. Natasha was still subliminally trying to set the two up. Diana just couldn't see herself being in a relationship with Steve, nothing against him, but it's hard not to see him as an old man.

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so..." Steve's response only furthered Diana's point, "No, not really."

Natasha looked over at Diana, expecting a response to the question.

"Oh my Saturday Night consisted of wine and watching E.R," Diana answered as she pulled as much hair as she could back into a ponytail. She wanted it to be out of her face when she got down there on the ship.

"Coming up by the drop zone, Cap." The pilot announced to Steve, alerting him to finish getting ready to jump, Diana used to get severely stressed by his drop methods but it's now reduced to a slight discomfort in her gut.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes." Natasha pointed out to Steve, he got closer to the edge as he strapped on his helmet, adjusting his ears so that his earpiece doesn't fall out.

"That's why I don't ask." Steve had a bit of humor in his tone as he made his way to the door that was now opening. Diana had walked over to the wall that was lined with parachutes, she pulled one off, getting in on and ready since she'll be jumping soon, she didn't want to be unprepared and then die in an ocean.

"Too shy or too scared?" Natasha called out her question over the wind.

"Too busy!" Steve yelled back, diving out of the jet right after. One of Rumlows men stood in between Diana and Rumlow, shock evident on his face from what he had witnessed.

"Was he wearing a parachute?" The man asked, his eyes so wide, Diana was worried that they would jump out of their sockets.

"No. No, he wasn't." Rumlows humorous tone lifted the mood as they lined up to jump out of the jet. Diana was the first due to her being Steve's backup.

She straightened her back, readying herself for the harsh wind she'll face on her descent to her target. They counted down and she was the first out, she jumped, pulling on her parachute instantly to open it up, she pulled her staff and turned it into a gun, ready to shoot the pirates on sight.

The wind whipped her hair loose out of the ponytail and she rolled her eyes as she got closer to the ship, she rounded around the corner, out of sight from the control center that she would soon be in. A pirate was holding a gun to Steve's head. Diana aimed and was about to fire when the man dropped dead. Rumlow and Diana landed side by side and Diana made her way over to Steve, releasing herself from the parachute.

"Thanks." Steve nodded to Rumlows as Diana turned her gun into a pebble, putting it in her pocket as she assessed the deck littered with the bodies of the pirates.

"Yeah." Rumlow scoffed, "You seemed pretty helpless without me."

Natasha and another STRIKE agent parachuted down onto the deck to join them, Natasha looking effortless as usual, Diana had to look away as her heart slightly fluttered at the sight.

"What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you?" Natasha asked Steve, the three of them now walking in unison as they made their way to their positions, "She seems kind of nice."

"Secure the engine room," Steve instructed, "then find me a date."

"I'm multitasking," Natasha called out to them as they walked off and she jumped over the railing onto the lower deck.

Steve and Diana were walking in unison for a few more steps until she parted from him, making her way to the control center. She broke into a run. She had pulled her staff out and turned it into a wide, heavy pipe with a concrete filling in one end for effect.

There weren't many people she had to go through thanks to Steve but then she tried sneaking in the door, hoping no one was in the room she entered but that didn't have the effect she wanted.

Two men were on either side at the end of the hall she realized she was in and she charged at them, she pulled out a pebble and turned it into a shield, the bullets dropping as she ran at them. She pushed one man against the wall, hitting the other man with the pipe. Hard.

He dropped to the floor and she focused on the man she pushed, she dodged a punch and swung her pipe around, cracking it against his temple, which made him join his friend on the floor. Diana smirked and grabbed the guns, turning them into teddy bears just in case.

She stepped over the men and pushed through the next door to find a stairwell. She groaned, beginning her climb by skipping steps to quickly make it to the top. She had knocked down a few men who were on the stairs, but there were only three. Diana didn't know how many people were going to be in the control room, but she was just going to have to deal with it. She stood against the wall the door was a part of, readying the pipe in her hand as she waited.

"Renfrey in position," Diana spoke quietly into her comm, listening as the others announced similar messages. She turned her shield back into a pebble and put it in her pocket, not expecting its need for the rest of the night since the men inside won't see her coming.

"Natasha, what's your status?" Steve asked, Diana had her ear to the door where she tried to hear what they were saying, it was silent for her.

"Status, Natasha?" Steve's voice matched the worry that was filling Diana's head at the silence coming from her friend

"Hang on!" Natasha yelled into her comm, there were a few minutes of more silence and then, "Engine room secure."

"On my mark." Steve instructed- "Three-" Diana took a deep breath, calming her nerves- "Two-" She readjusted her grip on the pipe in her hands, sure that her swing would be more powerful now- "One.

Diana kicked the door down and swung at the first man she saw, sending him to the floor, Georges Batroc was across the narrow room by the windows. Diana herself could see the shield coming for the two of them and prepared to catch it, until she saw how fast it was coming and ducked at the last second, hoping the shield would take care of Batroc for them.

It didn't, but it was fine. Diana stepped over the crumpled man and swung at Batroc who jumped back, Steven, who climbed in through the shattered window was kicked at by Batroc who had dived for the ground to get away from Diana's swings.

Batroc ran off and Steve went for his shield that was embedded in the metal wall. He looked at her as he stood at the door.

"Make sure no one can come in here and move the ship," Steve instructed and he ran out.

Diana smiled and looked at her pipe, with a blink, she turned it into a metal mallet. She swung the mallet down on the control center, buttons and extra metal flying out in all different directions as she went down the row of control panels. This probably isn't what Steve meant, but Diana felt like hitting something and she wanted to see the range of the mallet she made.

She could hear people talking in her comm, ignoring their words, Diana finished her work, her grin etched into her face as she looked back at it. A man who wasn't in strike gear ran in, Diana's mallet turned into a shield as she charged him, pulling her spear out. She's glad she and Steve spar together using his shield and her abilities, otherwise, she wasn't sure how'd she expected herself to pull off what she planned on doing.

Diana jumped, using the wall to kick off to get higher, her new shield forward as she swung it directly into his face. The man stumbled back and she swung the spear around under, swiping him over his feet, the spear was turned back into her new favorite form of knocking people out, the Pipe.

He was out like a light and Diana straightened up, turning the shield into her staff and stored it back against her back from its harness that was strapped across her chest. She turned the pipe back into the spear and quickly made her way out of the control room.

A rumble on the ship made Diana stumble down the last few steps, a frown quickly finding its way on her face as she furrowed her brows together in confusion. She rushed out, looking around to see Steve covered in soot and dirt speed-walking past.

"Cap!" Diana called out to get his attention, he stopped, looking at her, "what was that? What got you that dirty?"

"Romanoff decided to complete another mission besides ours and Batroc got away," Steve snapped, glancing back where he came from and walking off in the direction he planned on going in.

Diana's furrowed brows seemed to pinch together even more at the information and she looked over at the doorway he came through. Natasha stood there, looking the same as Steve when it came to being covered in soot. She was holding a drive in her hand, similar to the ones Diana uses on extraction missions.

This was a rescue mission, not extraction.

Natasha missed her rendezvous point to download files, and now Batroc is in the wind.

Disbelief had tried to crawl to Diana's mind but the facts are all there and the damning piece of evidence is the technology in her friend's hand.

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3.2k words

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS DAMN CHAPTER

bitch took FOREVER but it's here and HOPEFULLY i can keep it up. i cant WAIT for y'all to see Jiana to meet bc it's *chefs kiss* everything to me. I even stole it for my MCU bucky dr.

new chapter will hopefully be soon so stay tuned!

thank you for reading pls leave your thoughts on diana and the story so far !

-greta!