This Is Stella's Reality

November 14, 2014

My feet bounded down the hallway near the garage. Paintball shots fired behind me, missing but only barely. I ducked, sliding under a shelf that had been knocked over and leaned against a wall.

Strong hands grabbed me and dragged me into a closet. I yelped, but their hands silenced me. I wiggled away, pausing when I heard my previous assailant running past.

I turned around to see Steve standing over me. He pointed the barrel of his paintball gun at me. "Hey, Stel," there was amusement in his voice.

"Hey, Stevie."

He shuddered and moved his gun closer to my forehead. My eyes narrowed at him, "You wouldn't."

"I would."

There was a moment of silence as we studied each other. It was pitch black outside, and the lights of the compound had been turned off halfway through the game. Many of us were flying blind.

I was smart enough to go to weapons storage before most of the carnage began. My helmet switch was tucked in my ear, ready to expand and give me night vision at any moment.

Steve crouched down to meet my eyes, "I'll spare you for now, but I need you to do something for me."

My face burned, "And if I refuse?"

"I'll shoot you the moment you betray me."

He was serious. Sometimes I forgot how competitive Steve was. He stood up again, towering over me. His hand extended to me. I shoved it away and stood on my own. He seemed amused by that.

"I need your night vision. I can't see anything in this damn compound." The lights had been off for a while. I wondered how long he had waited here for someone to come running by.

"Where are we going?"

"I spared Bruce earlier, and in exchange he told me Tony's got a stockpile of paintball bullets and different guns in the third floor supply closet," there was a smirk that danced across his lips. "We're going to take it from him."

We had limited bullets. I had fired many of mine at Thor early in the game. I hadn't seen him since. His aim wasn't the best, but he was a wild card that pledged no allegiance to anyone.

"Fine," I stuck my hand out to shake Steve's. He grinned and met my hand.

I turned towards the door, clicking the button for my helmet. The world was suddenly alive in my vision with green digitized outlines marking significant landmarks.

My hand felt the doorknob, and I turned it carefully. Steve followed as I crept down the hallway towards the stairs. The living room was empty and destroyed. Broken vases and glass table tops were shattered at our feet and crunching under our boots.

I heard yelling and several shots in the distance. It was coming from the training room. Steve grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the windows. We waited, breathing through the adrenaline rush that shot through us.

A shot broke through the glass by Steve's head, narrowly missing him. We ducked, crawling back the way we had come.

Steve peeked over the windowsill and fired a few paintballs out of the shattered window. I pushed his head down, "You can't see shit, idiot."

I moved my head to look out the window. Natasha and Clint were moving along a line of shrubs. I pointed my gun towards them. I didn't have the best shot, but I took it anyway.

By inches, I missed Clint's head as he ducked behind a statue. Frustrated, I moved back to crawl below the window sills with Steve.

With the shooting over, we started again towards the stairs.