∆ {3²} {ENHANCED} ∆

THE WORLD SEEMED solidly determined to make Roxi's life as hard and complicated as possible. While she knew exactly what she wanted to do, it seemed as though it was going to be harder than she'd originally predicted. Slipping between the thin bodies of the trees, Roxi watched her opponents for a moment, the wind whispering softly in her ear, the other one being filled by the slight static of radio silence. She came across the first group of soldiers a couple of minutes later, a group of three who were talking quietly. Each of them had guns, as well as the standard HYDRA armour that all of them worse. She stood behind one of the trees, the trunk looking almost black against the glare of the snow, and extended her quarterstaff, the metal glinting gently in the sunlight. A moment later, the three raised their guns and pointed them at her as she entered the clearing with her quarterstaff in hand. Their fingers pulled on the triggers, but nothing happened. They looked at their guns in confusion and tried to shoot again as  Roxi smirked slightly and continued toward them. It was Natasha's idea, to learn how to block guns and stop another threat from occurring on a battlefield. It didn't take her long after that to disable all of them, and then the real fight began. 

She met up with Natasha and Clint again, giving the redhead a small nod confirming that she'd done as they agreed. The other ex-SHIELD agents had seemingly stolen a HYDRA truck, and Clint slowed down so that Roxi could jump on as they drove past. After a moment, Roxi took over while Clint and Natasha began to shoot at and take out the HYDRA agents who had started to shoot back. They had initially been planning for this to be a stealth mission, but clearly it wasn't going to work out that way.  Yelling began to fill the air, mixed with gunshots and various explosions. A few times, she had to take her attention off driving (as much as she hated doing so) to get rid of a HYDRA agent who had taken it upon themselves to jump at a moving vehicle and tried to cling onto it. Thor launched past them with a yell, using his hammer to fly through the air towards a guard tower. When they reached a spiked barricade, Roxi twisted the steering wheel to the side, throwing the vehicle to one side, allowing the momentum to throw them over the barricade, further into the fight. 

"Shit!" Tony's voice burst through the comms, making Roxi flinch at the loud sound. His voice was accompanied by a ringing noise that whined through.

"Language!" Cap replied immediately scolded, making Roxi raise an eyebrow as she stabbed her quarterstaff into one of the HYDRA agent's throat and spun around to block another blow intended for her own neck.

"JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?" Steve followed up, as if he hadn't noticed what he'd said. He probably hadn't noticed, she reasoned; he'd grown up in a time where such language wasn't nearly as accepted as it was today.

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield," the cool, accented voice of Tony's A.I filled Roxi's earpiece for the first time in a while. It was comforting, in a way, knowing at least someone would know where she was if she got in trouble, even if it was just a few 1s and 0s in binary code.

"Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken," JARVIS continued, explaining their 'errand'.

"Loki's sceptre must be here," Thor reasoned, probably smashing someone's face in with his hammer while he was at it. Natasha was standing in the clearing next to her, both covering each other's backs. Natasha had her guns out, while Roxi was relying completely on her quarterstaff. She didn't want to use her powers, in case something went wrong. The randomly occurring headaches hadn't gone away, instead they'd gotten more often, more intense and longer.

"Strucker couldn't mount this defence without it. At long last" The god added. Roxi caught Natasha's eye, whose gaze flicked to something behind her, and both of them knew what to do. Roxi dropped to the ground and spun as she did so, using her quarterstaff to slam it into their knees so they dropped to the ground and Natasha shot them over her head. The redhead came over to her a moment later and offered a hand. 

"Don't tell me I got you falling for me already," she teased with a smirk. Roxi rolled her eyes playfully and matched Natasha's expression with a similar one, taking her hand and letting the other woman help her up. It felt strangely comforting to Roxi, having the other woman's calloused hand in hers, and she attributed it to the feelings she had for the redhead. She'd have to do something about that soon.

"You gotta let me know when I can tell you, then,"  she fired back, turning her eyes to the surrounding area, missing Natasha's look of surprise at the comment. The emotion didn't stay much longer as a HYDRA car drove past them, and both women exchanged a look before Natasha ran after them and threw a grenade in the back of the truck, while Roxi stayed a little behind to stop any hopeful ambush attacks. The truck blew up as she ran past it, just far enough out so that she wasn't injured following Natasha after a small stack of sandbags and inelegantly stumbling down the hill on the other side, instead of just rolling down it like Natasha, who was now on the shoulders of one of the HYDRA men, bringing him to the ground. Seeing a slight opportunity, Roxi used her momentum and jumped off the slope near the bottom, throwing herself at another of the men and stabbing the quarterstaff through his vest  with such force that it came out the other side. It took her a moment to get the weapon out, and when she did, a large section of the gleaming silver was now replaced by dark red blood, causing her to grimace slightly. As she did so, Natasha complained through the comms

" 'At long last' is lasting a little long, boys," before shooting a man behind a gunning turret three times and Roxi joined her in the small ditch she was in.

"Yeah," Clint agreed, something blowing up in the background, "I think we lost the element of surprise."

"You sure? Maybe we should try walking in and saying 'hi'." Roxi offered, shivering slightly in the cold.

"Wait a second. No one else is gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language?' " Tony inquired as he zoomed around up at the castle.

"No," Roxi told him as she stabbed a man in the face who'd tried to sneak up on her, "because the rest of us are trying to stop HYDRA from kicking our asses."

"Language!" Roxi smirked. It hadn't been intentional, but if she could piss off Steve and Tony together, why the hell wouldn't she?

"Seriously?" Came the latter's voice and she laughed lightly, smirking at Natasha, who was still in sight. Natasha rolled her eyes playfully.

"I know," Cap began, the sound of his engine faintly filtering through the audio, before there was a crash and a yell, "it just slipped out."

"If you keep destroying those bikes, you're gonna start having to pay for them." Roxi scolded him, thoroughly enjoying pissing him off, until Natasha sent her a soft glare and she shut up with a shrug. 

"Sir, the city is taking fire," JARVIS' voice filtered through the earpieces as the huge HYDRA cannons fired from the bunkers and threw up the snow around them.

"Well, we know Strucker's not gonna worry about civilian casualties," Tony muttered gravely and Roxi flinched very slightly at the thought. It reminded her of New York and Washington D.C, "send in the Iron Legion." Tony commanded. She wasn't overly fond of the 'Iron Legion', made up of individual 'Legionnaire' buggy suits controlled by JARVIS under Tony's command. While in the right situations, they might prevent unnecessary injury or casualties, in the circumstances in which they'd been used, people would panic and would be unlikely to listen to a robot controlled by a millionaire who'd done some questionable things.

Clint let out a cry through that carried through the comms, and Roxi felt her whole body tense. Natasha ran off through the woods towards where Clint had last been, but Roxi stayed to try and take care of any stray HYDRA thugs that might try to do something while their guards were down. Or, as down as their walls could be, in the middle of a battlefield in the snow with huge large laser cannons firing everywhere. 

"Clint!" Natasha yelled as she ran, and Roxi tightened her grip on the quarterstaff as she surveyed her surroundings. She couldn't see anything, but it felt like someone was watching her. 

"We have an enhanced in the field," Cap reported, and instantly, she straightened up, her muscles tensing then relaxing as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she prepared herself for a highly probable fight between her and the enhanced. 

"Clint's hit!" Natasha yelled through the comms as the firing of the gunshots began to feel distant and Roxi focused solidly on the world around her, twirling her quarterstaff in her hand to rid some of the apprehension that mixed with the adrenaline coursing through her body. She was alone, and that made her more of a target, though she hoped she could take it. If she couldn't, then she could just expect the worst and hope for the best. 

Something whizzed through the trees around her, throwing up the snow. Roxi froze, breathing shallowly and not blinking in an attempt to remain ignored by whatever - or whoever was around her. She wasn't sure exactly why she felt like that was gonna make them leave her alone. Maybe it was instinct. A moment later, something slammed into her at great speed and hit her off her feet onto the ground - or would've if she hadn't planted her quarterstaff into the ground with great force. Still, it knocked the breath out of her so hard that it made her wheeze harshly. It took her a few moments, but she stood up and faced the culprit. He seemed slightly surprised that he hadn't sent her flying. He looked young, with brown eyes, silver hair and his face was currently confused as he watched her. Roxi yanked the tip of the staff out of the ground with a little difficulty due to the frozen earth and met his hazel eyes with her own icy, blank ones. 

"You, uh.. Saw that coming?" He asked with his Russian accent, screwing his face up slightly. Roxi smirked at him slightly and slowly stood up from her crouched position.

"I guess I did," She answered with a shrug. 

"Somebody wanna deal with that bunker?" Natasha's voice asked through the comms as Roxi stared the boy down. Her headache was finally receding. Maybe the break in the fighting had helped. Breaking eye contact for a moment so she could see where the bunker was, Roxi raised her hand towards the metal cannon and closed her eye for a second as she slowly crushed the weapon. It was strangely satisfying, seeing the huge weapon crumple under her control. She reminded herself that she needed to moderate her powers. She didn't want to become reliant on them.

When she turned back to the boy, he looked at her then the cannon with complete shock for a few seconds before disappearing, probably running back to the base. Hulk smashed through the concrete part of the bunker a moment later, as Roxi made her way over to Clint and Natasha, deciding that no-one else was going to come her way.

"Thank you," Natasha said, looking up at Roxi as she said it. She dropped to the ground next to the redhead to look over Clint's wound. It was quite big, and the shot had slashed through the archer's side, leaving it raw and angry. Natasha had applied what Roxi assumed to be an anaesthetic as she arrived.

"Stark! We really need to get inside," Steve reminded through the comms as Roxi retracted her quarterstaff and brought out her guns.

"I'm closing in," Tony replied as she loaded her gun and shot a HYDRA agent who'd come up behind them.

"JARVIS, am I closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?" He continued as Clint stared at her for a moment despite the injury.

"What was that?" He barely managed to ask before Natasha continued caring for his wound and he let out a sharp breath.

"Long story," Roxi began, shrugging before shooting another person, "Not much time."

"There's a particle wave below the north tower," The A.I informed through the earpieces as Clint gave her a look and Roxi ignored him.

"Great. I'm gonna poke it with something." She rolled her eyes at the Tony's comment as she blocked all the HYDRA agents' guns in the immediate area and proceeded to shoot them.

"Did you know about this?" Clint asked Natasha, a suspicious look on his face. The redhead didn't answer, but glanced at the man with a gentle smirk on her face. Clint's mouth fell slightly open as he looked between the two of them and shook his head in friendly disbelief.

"Drawbridge is down, people," Tony informed through the comms as Roxi ducked an energy shot from another giant cannon headed her way. 

"The enhanced?" Thor asked as the cannon dropped to the ground and she bent over slightly to catch her breath, which formed in front of her in icy clouds.

"He's a blur. Of all the new players we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't" Steve replied as gunfire continued on in the background.

"I have. Young kid, under 20, silver hair, Sokovian," Roxi listed off the information through the earpiece. 

"Alright," came Steve's response.

"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys. We're gonna need evac," Natasha reported through the comms, and Roxi glanced back at the two of them, slightly unnerved, before shooting another approaching HYDRA agent. 

"I can get Barton to the jet," Thor started as she started to reload both guns, the bullets clinking as she shakily put them in the magazine, "As soon as we're gone, the better. You and Stark get the sceptre."

"Copy that."

"Roger that, Rogers," Roxi said under her breath as she successfully slipped the magazine back into the gun and cocked it. 

"Oh good, they're lining up for us," Thor told them as a small group of HDYRA agents approached the clearing.

"You too?" She asked, beginning to block their guns one after another, just crushing some when they started to get too close.

"Well, they're excited," Steve reasoned and Roxi gave a small nod as she began shooting the agents. She missed a few times and internally cursed herself as the bullets hit the snow, and some of them took the liberty of trying to hide behind the skinny trees.

"Find the sceptre," Thor commanded as Roxi rolled her eyes at the hidden agents. They weren't playing hide and seek, they were playing Russian Roulette - only with all the chambers filled. 

"And for gosh sake, watch your language," Tony scolded, making Roxi smirk slightly.

"That's not going away any time soon," Cap muttered quietly. 

"Nope," Roxi agreed.

"What's got you so chirpy?" Tony asked her. It was true, she'd been talking much more than normal, and she supposed it was because she was trying to take her mind off of the grave she'd been visiting and the inevitable conversation involving it with Natasha later on.

"Oh, you know, playing deadly hide and seek with members of an evil organisation really gets your adrenaline pumping," she joked quietly, only half-focusing on what she was saying as she crept through the shadows of the trees towards the next HYDRA agent. It wasn't hard, and with that man down, there were five left. She didn't want to kill like this, but they worked for HYDRA; she had to.

"Guys, stop. We gotta talk this through," Tony suggested, no doubt to some other HYDRA agents, causing Roxi to open her mouth in slight surprise.

"He listened to me for once," she said in fake shock through the comms as she found the next person. Instead of shooting them though, she hit them on the base of the head with the handle of the gun, causing them to collapse to the floor. 

"Good talk," Tony continued as Natasha caught Roxi's eye, as if asking if she would be okay, and after a nod, the redhead moved away slightly. The next person she had to seal with seemed much more alert, because the moment she made a move to knock them out, they twisted around and elbowed her in the gut before slamming their own gun off her head. Even the sudden pain and swimming vision that suddenly came upon her didn't stop Roxi from reacting instinctively and fighting back. She kicked his legs out from under him so he fell to the floor and knocked him out. 

"We're locked down out here," Natasha said through the  comms, and Roxi could just about make out a Legionnaire corralling the remaining HYDRA agents. The redhead caught sight of the other woman and jogged over, putting an arm around her back to help her walk. Roxi accepted the help much more openly than she normally would, some part of her head still fixed on the name carved into the stone. Natasha seemed to be asking her something, but she couldn't quite focus on it. The way the world was swirling made her want to lie down, close her eyes and focus on the way Natasha stood next to her. It comforted her, more than anything else had in a while.

{A/N:} Sorry this is so late xD. I'm moving rooms and I had to do a lot of work on it. Plus my kitten distracted me. Also this one's quite long again, I hope you don't mind. This one's not my favourite, it's a bit thrown together, but I hope it's good enough for now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry again it's so late. Also two chapters in one day (even from different stories) because this one's late lol.

JabberJay_011

3120 Words

Written: 26 / 10 / 2020

Published: 26 / 10 / 2020