Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
꧁꧂
MALEFICENT HAD WOKEN up early the next morning. She had gotten dressed in her suit, a trench coat tied over it.
Today, she would go to watch Jasper Sitwell. The Winter Soldier would join her later on to assassinate Natasha Romanoff and Steven Rogers.
Grabbing her bag, which discreetly contained all of her valuables(the valuables being weapons), Maleficent exited the hotel.
She blended in with the crowds on the streets. Arriving at the location of Sitwell, she orders a drink before sitting down at a table.
Sitwell was inside the building in front of her. She would follow him when he would leave.
After thirty minutes, he exited the building with bodyguards and Senator Stern.
"Listen, I got to fly home tonight because I got some constituency problem and I got to press the flesh." Maleficent perks up the tiniest bit as she watches the men walk, hearing their conversation with her heightened ears.
"Any constituent in particular, Mr. Senator?" Sitwell speaks, Maleficent locking the voice in her head.
"Oh, no, not really. Twenty-three, kind of hot. Real hot, you know? Wants to be a reporter, I think. I don't know. Who listens at that point?"
"Doesn't sound like much of a problem to me."
"Really? Because she's killing my back. But this isn't the place to talk about it. This is a nice pin."
"Thank you."
"Come here." The Senator pulls Sitwell into a hug. Maleficent strains her ears to hear, but she picks up the words, "Hail HYDRA."
Maleficent is filled with a relief as she hears those words.
The two men say their final goodbyes before the Senator walks away.
Sitwell's phone rings at that moment. He pulls it out, checking the caller ID.
"I need a minute. Bring the car around." Sitwell dismisses his bodyguards, answering the phone once they are out of hearing range.
"Yes, sir?"
"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious."
Maleficent didn't recognize the voice on the other end of the call. She also noticed the expression change on Sitwell's face. He didn't recognize it either.
"Who is this?"
"The good-looking guy in the sunglasses, your 10 o'clock." Maleficent looks to upper left direction. Sitwell looks the opposite. "Your other 10 o'clock."
She watches as a man raises his drink. Locking in her target, she watches the interaction with anticipation. "There you go."
"What do you want?"
"You're gonna go around the corner to your right. There's a gray car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up."
Maleficent looks at his tie, seeing a red dot. Sniper. Maleficent leaves her untouched drink on the table, standing and following Sitwell secretively to the car.
Once she sees him get in, she transforms into her winged form, flying over the car to its destination.
The gray car stops at a tall building, three people walking inside and up the steps.
Maleficent stiffened as she recognized the other two. Her targets: Natasha Romanoff and Steven Rogers.
Maleficent waits on the roof of the building beside theirs, watching for anything to happen.
She'd be there if Sitwell needed her to. But if he leaks, he's all hers.
Sitwell burst through the rooftop's door, Steven and Natasha following after him.
"Tell me about Zola's algorithm," Steve demands from Sitwell.
"Never heard of it."
Good response.
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steven questions further, marching with a purpose at Sitwell, Natasha following right at his heels.
"I was throwing up. I get seasick." Sitwell's feet touch the edge of the building, Steven being the only thing holding Jasper up.
"Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."
Bad response.
"You're right. It's not. It's hers." Natasha kicks Sitwell off the roof.
Maleficent widens her eyes, not expecting the sudden action.
Sitwell screams, limbs flailing as he falls several stories.
"Oh, wait. What about that girl from Accounting, L-Laura, Lis-" Natasha casually carries on a conversation with Steven.
"Lillian! Lip piercing, right?"
"Yeah, she's cute."
"Yeah. I'm not ready for that. And besides, if we find Charlie, she's the girl I wanna be with. Not anyone else."
Before Maleficent can take off the roof to fly and save Sitwell, the man on the call from earlier does it for her.
He has wings, just not ones like hers. His are mechanical. Hers literally grow out of her.
"Zola's algorithm is a program-" Maleficent sighs disappointedly. Now, Sitwell's a dead man. "-for choosing Insight's targets."
"What targets?" Steven presses.
"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA. Now, or in the future."
"In the future? How could it know?"
Maleficent doesn't listen any further. She stands from her spot on the other roof, preparing to kill the man.
She catches the words. "Oh god, Pierce is gonna kill me," from Sitwell.
"You have that right," Maleficent mutters.
The four get back into the gray car, driving down the highway. Maleficent lands silently on the roof, hair flowing in the wind. She attaches the muzzle onto the lower part of her face.
"What? Are you crazy? That's a terrible, terrible idea." Maleficent reaches her hand, interrupting Sitwell to throw him in the busy traffic.
The Winter Soldier lands beside her on the roof. He pays her no mind, still irritated about last night and this morning.
Pulling a gun from its holster, he shoots into the roof of the car with the intention of hitting one of their targets.
Steven pulls the car into park, causing the vehicle to stop automatically and for the two assassins to go flying off the roof.
The Winter Soldier flips in the air, sliding on the ground with his metal arm.
Maleficent opens her wings, letting air catch in them and stop her midair. She lands softly beside the Soldier, wings spread out behind the two.
Steven, Natasha, and the other man stare wide-eyed at the two assassins who stand with a purpose.
It was them.
• • • - J.S. 6. 21. 2021 Published: July 13, 2021 1062 words
