Avengers: Liberation

Chapter 17- Guilt Ridden Spy

I could smell thick smoke invade my senses. I was quickly pulled from my own memories to welcome the screams of a desperate mother. I looked up and saw a small child on the top floor of apartments leaning against a locked windows pounding on the glass with tiny fists and the smoke grew closer. I looked as the woman struggled against two fire fighters as she tried to save her only daughter. I looked around me, and saw the men dressed in their uniform helpless to save the small child.

"The stairs are completely gone, no one can save her." They meant they couldn't save her, but I was willing to try.

I pushed past the helpless men. Their hands tried to stop me but all they caught was the ash filled air as I leapt into the burning building. I looked up to see the wooden floor burning like paper against a flame quickly receding and growing more fragile.

"Liberty what are you doing?!" Hawkeye's thoughts shot through me as I reached up and jumped up and grabbed the smoldering floor boards above my head, causing the embers to burn through my skin. I pulled myself up and soon heard the weak cries of a child.

"There's a little girl in here, the firemen outside said they couldn't help her, so I had to." I looked to see a barely standing set of stairs, my feet barely touched them as I ran up them, but still they collapsed into a pile of embers under the lightest touch.

"Help me!" the little girl cried, as I raced towards the next set of stairs, suddenly the house gave a large groan, then I felt it the burning wood beneath my feet gave way. My fingers clutched onto the exposed beams above my head, I pulled myself up through a burnt hole in the wood to see the thick smoke twisting a billowing violently toward the young girl barely steps away from my. The burnt wood, sliced into my hands with raw splinters and burnt down to the bone as the embers still burnt in the boards. I screamed as I pulled my hands out from the wood. The girl looked towards me as sweat poured from my forehead and evaporated on contact with the heated floor. I clutched my hand to my body and ran over the girl.

Her eyes were full of fear, but still full of hope.

"I'm going to get you out of here." She looked up at me with light blue eyes, and she smiled at me. The black smoke and embers had covered her face in ash, I quickly opened my arms to her, as the fire continued to climb the wooden and brick structure around us. The house groaned and warped around us.

"I need you to hold on tightly to Me." she nodded as she buried her face into my neck. I pressed the palm of my hand against the hot glass and watched as it shattered but stayed perfectly suspended as I moved it away from the window frame. I looked down into the street below to see Clint Barton looking up at me as I stood on the window ledge.

I looked down, I know I would survive if I jumped from this height; I looked at the little girl into my arms and held her closer to me. But I didn't know if she would.

"Clint I need you to shoot a zip wire into the corner of the building and air the end toward you." He moved through the crowd under silent instruction and drew out his bow with arrow in place.

"I can't send you up a guide Liberty." I nodded to myself as I watched the fire eat through the floor boards making the brick outer shell more and more unstable. I watched as the zip wire was fired upwards, it locked itself into the brickwork. I held the girl tightly against my body with one arm as I slowly moved myself towards the zip wire on the outside of the building.

"I'm scared." She mumbled as she buried her face deeper into my neck.

"Don't worry; you'll be with your mum soon." I feel her fear filled tears drip onto my burning skin, as sweat covered my skin a thin layer. I reached one hand out to the zip wire and grasped it tight.