Golden Eyes

“Hill?!”

Ah! I flinched and rubbed at my at my ears desperately wanting to yank my ear piece out. Fury was yelling for Hill to figure out what the hell was going on and it was taking a few moments for her to answer, not that I blamed her. The helicarrier was rocking back and forth and I felt it struggling to keep itself in the air. If this thing went down over a city, millions of lives could be lost and many more causalities. So basically pandemonium was erupting.

Emergency alarms were continuing to be set off, fire extinguishers activated near surrounding fires and every agent was in a spinning and scramble for their positions and armaments. I could hear Agent Hill keeping the bridge as calm as possible.

I was panting as I clutched at my lower ribs trying to keep up with Stark and Steve. That large metal table falling on me really did a number. I could feel my insides healing thankfully so I knew it wasn’t too bad. The one perk to being a mutant basically I guess.

“Hey Hill, we have time before this whole thing goes down?” I asked rounding a corner. I lost sight of the guys for a second and I stopped. Where the hell did they-.

They came out of door on my right nearly slamming into me. They had quickly changed into their suits and I was impressed with how quick they had been. No wonder guys always got ready faster. I pointed towards where the engine was that had been damaged and they nodded running for it again.

“We lose one more engine, we won't be. Somebody's got to get inside and patch that engine.” Hill replied back, sounding anxious.

“Carson, Stark! You copy that?!”

“Sir, yes sir!” I yelled out picking up speed and getting ahead of the guys because let’s face it, anyone would get lost on here if they didn’t know where they were headed.

“I'm on it!” Stark replied, switching into hero mode. The man was bipolar, I swear.

We continued to run through a dim, debris filled hall, jumping over fallen items and dodging sparks from hanging electrical wiring. Tony grabbed my arm to stop and I almost collided with his massive suit as he yanked me back. “Find engine three. I'll meet you there Agent Carson!”

I didn’t even ask what he was going to do, just merely nodded and started running again. Steve peels off after myself as Tony approached the tech room. Good, better he than I. I was about as helpful as a rock when it came to how most of SHIELDS technology worked.

I came to the door leading to Engine 3 and I cursed in every language I knew. It was locked and the glass to the key pad was smashed. I tried pulling at the door to maybe slide it open but I wasn’t anywhere near strong enough.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed and almost fell backwards because as I was pulling my fingers slipped. I caught my balance and glanced at Steve. “Care to help a girl out?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” He smiled at me and I rolled my eyes. I shouldn’t have to ask honestly.

Steve, pushing with all his strength, moves the door to portside. We both glance in to see SHIELD tech personnel in full oxygen masks, shooting fire extinguishers and covering from sparks -- largely unable to do anything anymore. Engine 3 was totally dead, with a large chunk of the port side having been torn away.

“Okay Stark, I'm here!” I said waiting for further instructions. There was a loud popping sound next to my ear causing me to jump. The wiring was flying everywhere and I really didn’t want to get electrocuted.

“Good. See what we got.” I continued to wait when he finally spoke up again. “I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris.”

My ears perked up at his voice. I turned my head behind me and saw Stark flying above me looking at all the boards and switches for the engine. Wasn’t he just-. Oh never mind. He began pulling on the stuck rotors before looking over at Steve.

“I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.” He flies towards the giant cooling conductors as Steve jumps over to the other side of the broken railing.

I flinched and reached out towards him like I could actually grab him if he fell. I let my eyes wander down and I felt all the blood rush away from my face, and my heart rate speed up. We were God knows how high off the green Earth below and moving at a fast pace. I gulped and grabbed onto the side of the opening. I wasn’t one to be afraid of heights but this was just simply terrifying. Steve got himself to the control panel and opened it up. And then he paused in confusion. I knew that look, because it was my look when I needed to work on something technological.

“What's it look like in there?” Stark called out.

“It seems to run on some form of electricity.” Steve said sarcastically but I could hear that he was frustrated.

“Well, you're not wrong.” Tony continuously blasts broken debris off the turbine engine. It's bad, but still fixable.

“The relays are intact. What's our next move?” I called out as I told Steve what to touch and leave alone.

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push.”

“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!” I snapped my head to look at him, horrified.

“Then tell your boyfriend to stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag-.”

I yelled out, “He’s not my boyfriend!” as Steve yelled at Stark to, “Speak English!”

“See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.” Steve started looking for the lever when I pointed it out to him, over at the other side where he was. He saw the red lever and jumped towards it. Tony laser cuts a big piece of broken metal, then jumping on it, relieving the rotors.

On the other side, men enter the port side catching my attention. They were wearing SHIELD uniforms but I didn’t recognize any of them. I grabbed at my handgun that hung from waist belt and began firing when one of them turned a gun on me.

“Hurry up boys! I can only cover your asses for so long!” I said sending a man down with a shot to the head. One of them aimed at my feet so naturally I jumped up as bullets started spraying there. As I landed however, a chuck of the metal broke away and I lost my footing. I grabbed onto a cable to keep from falling. Well shit, that was WAY to close. Steve saw I was in need of assistance so he jumped to the other railing and down with the men. He began to take them down, even going as far as throwing one off. A few more entered, firing away. Steve turned and grabbed one of their guns from them and jumps back up to his position, firing down at them. Meanwhile I hand regained my footing and jumped down to be level with them. I was always better at hand to hand combat anyways.

When landed I roundhouse kicked one to the face, sending him flying backwards into his comrades. One leveled a gun at my face, and without blinking I knocked it upwards sending the bullets spraying into the sky just behind me before I then jumped up kicking off his body. I somersaulted and landed, ducking down, as another guy punched at where my head would have been. Not today honey.

I kicked out my leg, knocking his out from underneath him. I grabbed his gun and started firing at the men, rolling behind a crate to keep from being hit myself. My chest was rising and falling bullets began raining down on me On the other side, Steve continuously shoots at the enemy. I don’t know what happened but I guess he blinked at the wrong moment, loses the upper hand against one of intruders. He knocked Steve down and sent him sliding off the railing, but not before Steve grabbed onto a loose cable.

“You okay Rogers?” I called out, springing up and taking aim. I hit one guy who fell without so much as I sound but the other wasn’t going down so easily.

“Yeah!” Was the simply word I got.

“Cap, I need the lever!” Stark yelled and it was then I noticed he had the rotor going.

“I need a minute here!” Steve yelled pulling himself up.

“Lever. Now!” Tony let go of the rotors as I started making my way over to the lever to pull it for him. They began spinning by themselves. I smiled as it began to work but then realized that Tony was then caught in one. He was now fucked. He slipped into the rotors, getting chewed up.

“Stark!” I screamed and ran as fast as I could. I missed the guy that came out of nowhere on my left as I was looking at Tony at my right. The guy flat out bulldozed into my side sending me flying towards the opening on the helicarrier. I had no time to try and balance myself out because he didn’t stop at just plowing into me, he went all the way. He had grabbed onto me as he had slammed into me like he was in the NFL and he wasn’t letting go.

So we both went over the ledge.

I don’t think I had ever felt so much fear in my life as the ground was sweep up and away from my feet. I barely had enough time to grab onto a cable swinging there as the guy continued to fall to his death. With wide eyes I looked up to Steve hoping he could come save me from following after the guy.

Steve had finally pulled himself up and was running over to grab me when more men came piling in and firing at him. My hands began to slip on the cable and I was near sobbing as I tried to pull myself up as well. It was to no avail.

“Steve!” I screamed out as the helicarrier jolted with another loud boom, sending me further down the cable and closer to death. My dark hair was being flung every which way and I could feel the heat radiating off the sun in waves. We were high up, way to high up. I wouldn’t survive this even in my dreams.

“Vanessa! Just hold on! I’m coming!” The fear in his voice made me realize it was a lot worse than I thought.

“Steve, please hurry! I’m slipping!”
“Just hold on!”

“I’m trying.” I whispered more to myself as I let go to try and pull myself up. “Somebody please! Pull me up!”

Another jolt.

I screamed in true fear now as I was at the end of the cable. My hands were too sweaty to pull myself up and I wasn’t going to let go to wipe them off. Steve was watching me in worry still trying to get to me without being shot down in the process. He passed the lever, stopping to pull it down, before he got down on his stomach to reach for me.

But it was too late.

We locked eyes and I was already falling having lost my grip. I heard the most terrible and heartbreaking scream come out of his throat as he tried to grab me and call out my name.

All I could do was scream into the wind because I lost my voice as I fell the earth below, kicking and flinging my arms around. Like I thought maybe I could fly away from this.

As I watched the ground approaching rather quickly I began to cry. I cried for parents. I cried for my lost friends. I cried for Steve. I cried for my past life where everything was normal. I cried for the shitting present life I was in. And lastly, I cried for the future I would never have. I finally just closed my eyes and screamed because I didn’t want to see anything anymore.

I just prayed it didn’t hurt.