Who Am I? » [Stucky]

181. Coordination and Choreography

The Avengers split in half, as did Carol’s team, filtering through the two breached holes in the base, hunting the caverns loaded with Hydra operatives who dwelled within. Above them, all around them, beneath them, they could hear the tunnels filled with the sounds of rapping boots, pattering and fleeing, standing to attention and obeying orders.

They were storming the place ruthlessly, on task and without deviation.

As the first wave of footsoldiers were sent to replace the lackeys instantly blown to the high heavens, Natasha took charge.

Avoiding a string of randomly fired bullets, she dodged every single one with gymnastic round-offs: shrinking her consumption of space within the corridor and giving them a moving target. They couldn’t pinpoint her and bullets pranged past, ricocheting off the wall and falling dead. Without so much as brushing Natasha, Clint fired off a series of penetrating arrows surrounding her: skewering a Hydra agent to her left as the feathers narrowly missed her hip, barbing one to her right as it flew past her waist with a slicing sound and kebabed one as it zipped between her slightly parted legs and lodged itself in some unfortunate’s skull. All three went flying as the arrowed imbedded within them, impaling them where they stood.

As the completed her routine, she brought down two men with her outstretched arms to reach the finishing pose: slamming their heads into the ground and cracking them like eggs on a mixing bowl. Crouched, she kicked a third away, whipping her leg around like a pendulum and catching him out.

Over her back leapfrogged Bobbi: swinging her batons out as she swished her arms like the wings of a bird: two men had the wind knocked out of them. She cracked one over the head and simultaneously donkey kicked the one behind her, sending them shooting in opposite directions and knocking them unconscious.

Maria put her shots in from a distance, marching at a significant pace and firing over the heads of her team of leading ladies, taking out men at the peripheries and watching their masked bodies flop to the ground. She cleared the rim of enemies shrinking in on them before they’d reached the proximity to do damage.

May was next to run down the way, she instantly tore into the young ill-trained stock Hydra had thrown together for their last stand. She snapped necks with a jarring kick under the chin, dislocated elbows and knees with angled kicks to the joints in the wrong direction. As men ran at the slim woman from behind, she curled tight and flung them over her head; slamming onto their backs, gasping before she turned out the lights with her pistol.

“They had it all wrong about dames in our day...” Bucky stated casually, wandering past his combat frenzied friends, a bowie knife clutched in his metal hand and a 44. Magnum resting in the gloved palm of his other. “If they’d let women join the army, the war would’ve been over a helluva lot sooner...”

Bucky put the heel of his boot in the belly of an oncoming Hydra agent followed by a bullet between the goggles. He rotated to face the wailing one running at him from behind and with a flick of the wrist he’d drawn a scarlet line across the masked villain’s throat, cutting straight through the dehumanising hoods they all wore.

“The world needed more Peggy Carters...” Steve said offhand, running at a man, twisting his weapon arm up and around and flipping him over. He was swept off his feet by the powerful tide that was Captain America, and with his shield he coshed him.

“Captain, I have news,” Simmons’ excitable young voice rattled through the hazy communications line.

“Go ahead sport, and if you can, make it good...” Steve uttered, finger planting his earpiece deeper.

Two men came at him at one and he whirled around with his shield outstretched, the edge of the shield acting like a blade sliced their armour and the speed of the typhoon twist sent them falling back.