DARKNESS.
012. | ❛ we fight. ❜

"WOW, IT'S SO WEIRD HOW YOU RUN INTO PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT." TONY'S VOICE WAS HEARD THROUGH THEIR COMMS, PROJECTING INTO THE REST OF THE TEAM'S EARS AS THEY MOVED INTO POSITION. Clint and Wanda head up to the higher level, while Kiara and Caroline kept watch with Bucky and Sam through the glass terminal, waiting for Steve's signal.

"Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in." Tony continues as Caroline tenses hearing someone who she once considered family, ready to turn them over to the authorities. Kiara's hand twitches slightly in hers as her head turns to Kiara's, smiling at her nervous expression, trying to ease her anxiety as her hand sends a small pulse back to her. Caroline had never seen her sister so nervous, even in prior missions. What she couldn't tell was that Kiara also had a bad feeling of what was about to go down, and she wasn't prepared to lose anyone else today; especially Caroline and Bucky.

"Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday." Tony's voice rises, as Bucky bites his lip.

"Steve," Caroline heard Natasha's voice enter the scene, "You know what's about to happen... Do you really want to punch your way out of this one?"

That was one thing that Caroline didn't want to do, fight against people who have had her back. Against Natasha who she considered like a sister, the full weight of her question rang through her. She rolled shoulders back, steeling her resolve to stand and fight, knowing for certain the justice of the cause.

Sam focuses on his goggles as he presses his finger to the pad on his arm, following Red Wing as the small robot scans for Stark's quinjet, trying to find an alternative way out of here.

"Alright, I've run out of patience." Stark speaks nonchalantly, raising his hands to his mouth.

"Underoos." Tony shouts, and Sam panics, thinking it was an attack on Steve. He tenses, his eyes breaking from the screen of his glider, focusing back on the scene outside.

"What the hell?" Caroline head snaps quickly focusing on the conversation outside. Confused by the sudden appearance of a red suit of a kid.

"Captain," the kid salutes Steve awkwardly, "Big fan, I'm Spiderman." 

"When you're ready to be free of those bonds Cap, just raise your wrists." Clint speaks quietly into the com, reminding them of the delicacy of the situation at hand.

"Alright now. You're gonna turn Barnes over and you're going to come with us now, because it's us..." Tony's voice rises again, and Caroline tensed protectively, with Kiara also settling into a defensive position.

Sam finally gets a small red flash on his goggles, locating the escape route. "Their Quinjet is in hanger five, north runway." He reports, Steve's hands rise as Clint fires an arrow straight through the bonds created by Spiderman.

"Alright Lang" Steve speaks into the com giving the signal for everyone to begin moving towards the quinjet as Scott grows back to normal size, retrieving the Captain's shield. The Kingsleys, Sam, and Bucky begin to move, running down the glass hallway as Caroline's  eyes keep flittering back to the scene taking place on the runway below them.

Stark rises into the air, heading off in the direction of Wanda and Clint on the top of the parking deck as Rhodey advances on Steve. Sprinting forward after Bucky and Sam as they moved through the glass terminal, glancing outside to see T'Challa moving quickly towards the terminal, Cap running hastily on his tail. Caroline could see that Steve was quickly outnumbered, turning and running in the opposite direction towards a stairwell.

"Caroline! What are you doing?" Kiara shouts, stopping to watch her as Sam groans, halting his steps as well.

"Sam, Kiara, get Bucky to the quinjet. Steve needs help, he can't take them all on his own." She yells as Sam raises his eyebrows to her. "You know I'm right so stop looking at me and do it!"

"Kiara, I know you're scared of losing me again. But you have to trust me, go with Sam and protect Bucky. I'll be ok, I promise." Kiara  nods, sprinting quickly towards her, pulling her forcefully as she wrapped her in a bear hug. Tears sprouted instantly from both of their eyes, holding each other closely not knowing if it would be their last. It reminded her of the one of the last ones they had before they never saw each other again back in the days.

"Oh come on!" Sam shouts, slapping his hands together in frustration, "We do not have time for this." He yells, as Kiara pull away from Caroline, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek before moving backward speedily back to Sam and Bucky. They resumed their pace, sprinting forward as Caroline turned to race down the stairs, heading to the tarmac to join Steve.

Bursting out onto the tarmac, looking up as glass rained down upon her, the Spiderman crashing through the glass of the terminal. Hesitating for a moment, thinking of returning to protect Bucky and help Sam and Kiara. Until she was
pulled from thought quickly as she  saw T'Challa moving hastily against Steve. As Rhodey flies past her, advancing rapidly on the already outnumbered Captain. Without hesitation, the vampire  moves forward to Steve's defense. Falling into a sprint as she tried to catch up on Rhodey, making little progress as she was thrown back by the pulse of Rhodey's phasor baton as it connects and shatters against Steve's vibranium shield.

Her legs tumble over her shoulders as she rolled into a crouch, regaining footing and pushing quickly to her feet, falling back into a sprint. She reached towards a knife, sheathed in the back of her corset, the weighted hilt ideal for hand to hand combat. Caroline moves quickly from the side, slamming a forceful kick to T'Challa's ribs as he attempts to advance on Steve once more. He stagers back slightly, repositioning himself towards her as she flips the knife in her hand, gripping the hilt in her fist.

He springs forward, flying towards Caroline with his claws extended. Swiftly side stepping him, causing him to land on all fours in front of her, allowing to land another kick to his abdomen, sending him rolling backwards, quickly falling back into a crouched position. He rises to a run, moving forward at full height, coming with a wide punch, but blocked it quickly but fail to notice his moving thigh as his knee catches her forcefully below her rib. Caroline staggered slightly, having difficulty regaining her balance as she sucked in a painful breath, replacing the one he had knocked out of her.

Glass shatters above Caroline again, as they both raised their arms to block the debris. Seeing  the Spiderman being dragged through the air by Red Wing before being dropped onto a truck. Smiling slightly, falling back into a fight position as T'Challa turns to face her once again.

"Stand down Bloodlust. I don't want to hurt you; I just want the soldier." T'Challa growls, pausing to address her but not breaking his guard.

"Well, you have to go through me first." She growled lunging at him, pulling back her fist with the weighted dagger and throwing it hard forward, into T'Challa's jaw, knocking him backwards as she turned with her momentum slamming a quick kick into his chest.

Lunging forward, she threw herself  on top of T'Challa, straddling his chest. Raising her weighted fist to hit him once again, but getting caught in a sticky white material wrapping around her hand. She felt a pressure on her back as she was suddenly yanked backwards, sliding along the asphalt towards the spiderthing. Moving swiftly, turning her knife in her palm to slice through the white binding, quickly freeing as she moved the knife behind to disconnect the cord attached to her back. She hurriedly rolled to your feet spinning to face the spiderling as he turns and begins to run.

She glanced behind her to see a large truck appearing out of the sky heading towards Rhodey. Hastily turning and beginning to sprint away from the scene as she felt the heat of the exploding truck. Steve and Scott fall in beside her as she ran, steering Caroline in the direction of the quinjet. Her speed increases as Steve overtakes Caroline, Wanda and Clint falling in as well, with Kiara, Bucky, and Sam joining moments later.

Steve slows up suddenly as Vision blasts a line in the ground, halting your progress, "Captain Rogers."

Vision's deep voice echoes above them, radiating loudly in the large space, "I know you believe what you're doing is right."

Tony flies over, dropping Natasha safely on the ground as the opposing lineup filters in, forming a barricade between their team and the quinjet.

"But for the collective good," Vision continues, "You must surrender now."

Standing there and falling into line, Caroline slipped a quick grip on Steve's hand before disconnecting immediately. Turning back to Tony's team and sizing up her opponents, their friends.

"What do we do, Cap?" Falcon asks, waiting for Steve's decision on how to proceed. Steve glances briefly to Caroline and Bucky, his eyes first falling to his friend, before flicking up to make contact with his fiancée's gaze. She nodded, encouraging the decision she knew he has already made. Steve turns away from her, rolling his shoulders back.

"We fight." He says confidently, stepping forward towards the opposition. Falling into step behind him, noticing Natasha's reluctant movements as her own team begins to advance. Breaking out into a run, heart pounding forcefully in her chest as she prepared for the oncoming collision of forces.

She quickly focused her attention on the damn spiderkid, feeling a flare of revenge burning inside her from his interruption before. Watching as he hopped from floating object to floating object, propelled through the air by Wanda. He shoots a web to a lamp post, getting ready to swing forward for a kick to Wanda, but Caroline reacted quickly, sending a knife through the air. It cleanly severs his web sending him falling quickly to the ground, rolling briefly before skidding to his feet.

"Holy crap!" He exclaims, "I'm fighting Bloodlust! Oh this is too cool! You being a vampire is super cool, like you were bitten and so was I. You totally were my inspiration!" He babbles as she landed a hard kick to his chest, sending him sprawling backwards.

"And what the hell are you exactly?" Caroline baited him as he lands on his back, shooting two web lines out to wrap around her wrists, pulling himself upwards as she staggered forward at his weight. His foot connects with her jaw as he runs up her chest, flipping backwards into a standing position.

"Me? I'm... I'm Spiderman!" He says excitedly causing Caroline to roll her eyes as she regained her balance, moving forward once more to engage with him, dropping two matching combat knives into her grip.

"Spiderman? I don't think so." She respond harshly, her blades moving quickly to block every move he made and every web he shot. "Spiderboy, possibly. Spiderchild, probably."

Taunting him as she quickly counteracted any damage he tried to cause to her other team members, keeping him occupied within a small scope.

"No! It's Spiderman! I'm Spiderman!" He shouts indignantly, frustrated by his inability to gain the upper hand.
Caroline laughed as she ducked easily from one of his wide swings, recognizing his reliance on his abilities rather than training to develop a skill. Hand to hand, Caroline had the edge. She ducked again as he tried to swing, dropping low to land a hard hit to his abdomen before popping up with an uppercut to his jaw, sending him falling backwards.

"Honey, you don't get to call yourself a man until you've earned it." She laughed, looking down at him on the ground once more.

"Where are you from anyways?" Caroline asked one last question before returning to action, still keeping the kid down.

"Queens." He said which caused a smile to grow on Caroline's face, running backwards away from him.

"Brooklyn." She responded before running to hear Bucky grunting. Distracted her from continuing, and seeing that T'Challa three Bucky roughly against a shipping crate nearby.

He rose once more as T'Challa lunges at his throat, claws out, reaching for the kill.

"No!!" Caroline screamed, but not before Kiara herself threw a knife in vain towards T'Challa, knowing that it would not penetrate his suit.

Bucky winces as T'Challa's hand flies towards his neck, bracing for the impact. But it didn't come. The breath releases from both of their chest as she sees the red aura around T'Challa's halted hand, Wanda stopping his attack as she flings him backwards through a metal crate, nodding at Bucky as he smiles in thanks.

Caroline knew that karma was to blame for her lapse in attention as the spiderchild's web is finally able to connect with a lamp post, allowing him to swing forward and kick her in the chest as he flies through the air, sending her sprawling to the ground, gasping for the breath that just escaped her.

Caroline sat up restoring her breathing to normal before she glanced around to see the Spider-Man falling once again, his web severed by Steve's shield as the two engage in combat.

Clint and Scott moving to take on Stark. Caroline wasting and running behind a baggage carrier before Bucky and Kiara came to work out a plan. Steve comes to join them behind the carrier, having made quick work of the spiderkid.

"We gotta go." Bucky looks at Steve, a serious expression pulling on his face, "That guy's probably in Siberia by now."

Steve looks around, trying to construct an escape plan, "We gotta draw out the flyers. I'll take Vision, you three get to the jet." He nods to them, causing Caroline to pause, unsure of whether or not leaving Steve, the love of her life, behind is the best call.

"No, you get to the jet! All of you." Sam contradicts immediately over the com, "Blondies and freeze pop won't get anywhere without you Steve, you have to go."

Steve looks at the three of you, weighing Sam's words as Caroline nodded, her eyes imploring him to listen to Falcon and come with them.

"The rest of us aren't getting out of here." Sam finishes honestly, giving his consent to be left behind for the greater good.

"As much as I hate to admit it" Clint chimes in, "if we're going to win this one, some of us might have to lose it." Steve's head hangs down, grappling with the difficult decision of whether or not to abandon his team.

"This isn't the real fight, Steve." Sam speaks through the com once more, his words finally convincing his Captain.

"Alright Sam, what's the play?" Steve concedes, reaching out to his team, his voice heavy with regret.

"We need a diversion something big" Sam decides.

"I've got something kinda big, but I can't hold it for very long." Scott chimes in, "On my signal run like hell. And if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me."

Bucky furrows his brow, perplexed at Scott's statement, "He's gonna tear himself in half?"

"You sure about this Scott?" Steve asked, worry on his face after Bucky's comment.

"I do it all the time," Caroline heard Scott huff as he runs, "I mean, once. In a lab. Then I passed out."

Suddenly Scott erupted into a 10x of his normal size, towering over the area as he takes Rhodey in his hand, swinging him around like a child with a toy action figure.
Bucky and Steve step out from behind the luggage carrier, gaping at Scott's massive body as he creates a barrier between the four of them and Stark's team.

"I guess that's the signal." Steve says, smiling slightly as Caroline laugh, whooping into the air in elation.

"Way to go, Tic Tac!" Sam exclaims as he flies through the air around Scott's head, backing up the man made barricade. Scott throws Rhodey forward as all four of them make a break for it. Caroline legs straining at the exertion at sprint that she had to keep up with the three super soldiers.

The four of them duck and weave through obstacles, running around Scott's gigantic legs, sprinting towards the hanger. Caroline glanced behind them to see T'Challa following fast on their tail.

"You want to get to them? You gotta go through me." Scott booms down at T'Challa, stepping to block his path and delay him. Raving underneath the airplane into the open field that stretches between the four of you and the exposed hanger. They see a bright light flash to their right, Vision using his power to collapse the adjacent watch tower.

"Come on!" Cap shouts as he speeds up. Caroline picking up her speed and running as if her life depended on it. Suddenly a red aura appears around the tumbling tower, maintaining its falling debris in a bubble above the hanger entrance.
Wanda.

Speeding forward with Bucky and Steve, trying to sneak under the falling tower, knowing Wanda wouldn't hold it for much longer.
Just as she reach the falling tower, Wanda's powers disappear. Steve pulled Caroline forward, throwing her in front of him as the tower collapsed above her. Kiara takes her sister's wrist pulling her just out of the way of the rubble as Steve barely slides by the collapse behind her.

"Are you..."

"I'm fine!" She assured Steve, as they all turned to notice the new presence in the hanger.

"You're not gonna stop." Natasha looks at Steve shaking her head before her eyes fall to Caroline.

"You know I can't." Steve responds stoically. Natasha exhales as her eyes travel up to Care once more, her gaze pleading with her, silently begging her to let you go.

"I'm gonna regret this." She sighs raising her arm to aim her shock bracelet forward. At the last second she moves, firing past them. All of their heads whipped round to see the discharged shock come in contact with a faltering T'Challa as he falls to his knee.

"Go." Natasha speaks firmly, nodding to them as they moved past her, smiling gratefully.

She fires again, halting T'Challa in his tracks once more. And they moved quickly to the jet, loading in as Steve races to the cockpit, frantically flipping switches. Caroline hesitated standing back as she watched Nat fire a third shot to stop T'Challa, his dedication to reach Bucky unwavering.

Steve raises the jet, firing forward to clear some of the debris. There was a large bump as a red light flashing on the consul.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Bucky asks, as he moves forward to stand behind Steve in the cockpit.

"The wheel, won't rise, it says that it is 200 pounds overweight," Steve's stunned voice is rich with confusion as he flips switches, frantically trying to solve the problem.

Caroline eyes moved to Steve's, her eyes rapidly memorizing every detail of the man she loved. His carved jaw smooth and clean, the way his cheeks hollow out slightly, cutting perfect angles of his face. His blue eyes, always full of love and life when he looked at her.

Caroline bite her lip as she knew what she had do. She moved quickly to the drop bridge, throwing a spare knife at the lever to open it. Steve looked around to see her standing in front of the open hatch, the noise of the engines roaring into the plane.

"What are you doing?" he screams moving quickly towards you, but not quick enough.

Caroline stepped back into the drop hatch, allowing her hands to catch briefly on the edge. She swung her body backwards, to get enough momentum. As she pump forward while Steve and Kiara screamed her name, reaching for Caroline's wrist a moment after she release, propelling her body forward towards T'Challa's position on the wheel.

Her hands wrapped tightly around his neck as she hung her full weight on him. She threw a knee hard into his backside connecting roughly with his kidneys as she yanked on his neck. At last he releases, falling from the wheel.
Dropping with him, landing hard on the ground, her knees bending roughly beneath her as she crumple to the floor, the air rushing out of her lungs.

"Caroline!" Steve screamed into the com as she groaned, feeling the full and painful impact of your landing.

"Don't you dare turn that her around for me. Steve. Go forward with the mission. I'll be ok. I love you." She paused feeling the awkwardness of the open com link as everyone heard her words.

"I love you." Steve sighed in response.  Her eyes stinging at his words, not knowing if she would ever see him again, see either of them again.

She fought to steady her voice, "Please keep each other safe... please."

Caroline rolled onto her stomach pushing to her knees to see the jet in the distance, flying off into the sky, Rhodey moving quickly in pursuit.

"I said I'd help you find him, not catch him." Natasha says casually, walking over to pull Caroline to her feet as she looks at T'Challa.

"There's a difference." She smirks, shrugging casually. Caroline weakly smile, silently thanking Nat for her help as she moved forward.

As Caroline emerged from the hanger to see Vision bent by Wanda, as he turns to fire a shot into the air at Sam.

"Sam!" Caroline and Wanda both exclaim. Sam hears them and ducks, avoiding the blast as it flies past him, making contact with Rhodey. She watched as Rhodey drops from the air spiraling downwards as both Tony and Sam redirect, diving to reach him.
But neither is able to get there in time. Seeing a small puff of dirt in the distance as Rhodes makes contact with it.

Her hands jump to her mouth as she gasped, tears falling fast from her eyes at the sight. Praying that all this fighting didn't injure him. Rhodey was once her teammate and was her friend. She just needed him to be alright before she was shipped off to Ross.