INFERNO │ Marvel

5.8 the end of the line

Rogers, Wilson, and Stark took off running towards the Helicarriers. Amelia was the first to take to the skies, the second she had exited the building. She followed Steve when he jumped onto the Helicarrier and immediately incinerated seven men who fired at him with a dramatic wave of her hands. Meanwhile, Sam was taking fire from the heavy guns of the vessel.

"Hey, Cap," he called through the comms. "I found those bad guys you were talking about."

"Are you ok?" Steve asked. All the while, he was fighting off agents off his own.

"I'm not dead yet," he mockingly reassured.

The Stark woman flew up to meet him in the air and draw some of the fire away. Amelia had to be careful considering she was no longer bullet-proof. She conjured a fire shield and barrelled towards one of the guns, releasing her power when she got close enough and blowing it to smithereens. She repeated it with the other while Sam dealt with the human shooters.

"Cap, we're in," Amelia said just at the same moment that Sam cursed. She followed his line of sight to see two jets headed straight for them. She sighed. "It never ends."

One followed Sam while the other followed her. She drew it away from the Helicarrier before circling around and dragging her wing down the side of its own wing. When it tilted to the side, she blew out the wing entirely and sent it hurtling into the water below, the fiery explosion minimal as she absorbed its flames.

Back in the Triskelion, Natasha had successfully infiltrated the World Security Council and was beginning to work on exposing all of HYDRA's secrets. At the same time, Steve was entering the interior of the first Helicarrier.

"Alpha lock," he eventually said to confirm he had inserted the chip.

"Falcon, Inferno, where are you now?" Maria asked the two.

"Had to take a detour!" Sam yelled through his comms. Bullets could be heard in the background. "Firebird's got this one."

"That I have," Amelia responded from inside the second carrier, having just inserted her chip as well. She looked down through the glass dome below just in time to see Sam flying by, the jet exploding behind him. "Good job, Birdman. Bravo lock."

"Two down, one to go," Maria confirmed.

"Heading to third now," Amelia replied. "Need a ride, Cap?"

She didn't give him time to respond when she and Sam flew towards him, each taking an arm and hauling the captain to the third and final Helicarrier. They had just landed when the Winter Soldier came hurtling towards them. Amelia, being the most powerful of the three, was his first target. He had caught her so off guard that she didn't have enough time to conjure a shield.

She couldn't perfectly describe the feeling of being riddled with bullets, but it was enough pain to make her squeeze her eyes tightly shut. She could pinpoint exactly where each of the bullets were, especially when her fall made them shift inside her flesh: two in her abdomen, one in her right shoulder, one at her left hip, two in her left leg and one that had grazed her right arm. By the time she had opened her eyes again and managed to focus through the gloss of her tears, both Sam and Steve had been thrown from the Helicarrier.

Amelia wasn't sure how long she would survive with this many wounds. The blood spilling out was warm, and it made her feel faint, but she had to do something now or this whole thing would be for nothing. She didn't even bother standing as she flared her wings and shot off of the Helicarrier herself. Steve was hanging off of its edge below, so she moved to aid him in climbing back up. When the man was on a flat surface, she fell back down to her knees and clutched at the wounds in her stomach.