The Family Business (Steve Rogers)

Chapter 30: Where The Hell Do You Think You're Going?

Cara swallowed hard, readying herself as Wanda's eyes began to glow and she began to raise her arms slowly. Immediately Cara felt it. It started as a tingle in her rib cage, then it grew to an itching feeling, then popping. She began to sweat as she felt like needles were pricking her, quickly growing to a feeling of being stabbed with knives repeatedly. She wanted to fall to her knees, gritting her teeth intensely, but Wanda was holding her up, her arms fully raised out at shoulder height now.

Cara began screaming as it felt like she was being cut open with white hot blades. The only thing she could see were flashes of red and white before there was a loud crack and she fell to the floor gasping for breath. Wanda stood tall in front of her, slowly the red in her eyes faded as well as the red around her hands. Looking down at Cara she gently offered her a hand. When she was able to, she took her hand, standing up. There was no pain in her torso anymore, only the tenderness she felt from the collapsed lung and her deep breathing. She looked at Wanda in surprise.

"I told you it would hurt. I am still learning and bones are never easy."

"I'm sure I deserved the pain a little."

"You did." Wanda said staring at her.

Exhaling, she pulled Wanda into a hug. She slowly reciprocated, putting her arms around her in return. When Cara let go she thanked her  before running to her room as quickly as she could, unnoticed. Changing quickly into an all black, un-torn suit, she then grabbed her bow and arrows, gun and knives and slipped out back into the hallway.

Running into the hangar she quickly jumped behind some crates, ducking out of sight but still within earshot. Walking from an adjacent direction was Steve, talking with Clint and Nat, all three of them were suited up, walking toward a quinjet. Cara listened intently.

"So if all of the bullets we confiscated are accounted for, where does that leave us?" Steve asked.

"Well Justin Hammer is in jail, so he's either operating from prison or maybe he had a partner." Nat offered.

"He's not operating from prison. That guy can barely screw in a lightbulb let alone secretly operate from inside of a cell. Plus I checked the prison logs, he's had no visitors over the past 3 years and all of his cell mates ask to transfer out, even they can't stand the guy." Clint added.

"Okay so who do we know that has worked with him in the past?" Steve pushed.

Cara moved along quietly, slightly behind, staying out of sight so she could follow the conversation.

"Trevor Slattery." Nat said.

"In jail." Clint answered.

"Aldrich Killian." Nat said.

"Oh he's definitely dead." Clint said.

"And Ivan Vanko." Nat said

"Oh that guy was nuts!" Clint said raising his eyebrows.

"He wasn't nuts he was angry." Nat corrected.

"Could it be him?" Steve suggested.

"He's dead." Nat and Clint said together.

Steve stopped abruptly turning around with his hands on his hips in front of a quinjet and Cara dropped quickly, completely hiding herself so she wouldn't be seen.

"Then we have nothing." Steve said frustrated.

Nat and Clint were silent a moment. When Steve exhaled loudly Clint got punchy.

"Listen we're trying Cap. I don't think you have the right to be mad at us for anything."

"I know you're trying but we can't have nothing, they tried to kill my-" Steve stopped himself suddenly.

The hair on the back of Cara's neck stood up. Had he almost just yelled that she was his girlfriend to  her brother?

"Your what Cap?" Clint said agitated.

"Never mind Barton."

"No you're what?? They almost killed your what?"

"His partner Clint. He didn't want to tell you, he wanted you to hear it from Cara, but Fury promoted her." Nat said stepping in.

'Great save Nat' Cara had thought with relief. The two of them were seriously going to have to get their shit together.

"He what??"

"You can be angry about this later. Come on, let's go pay a visit to Hammer Industries, make sure they aren't making anymore Judas Bullets, and see if we can dig anything out of their systems as far as having a connection to Hydra or anyone else. Then we can go from there." Nat said.

So this was all some connection to Hydra and some special bullets. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with her next move. Hearing them walking up the ramp into the quinjet, the thought occurred to her suddenly. If she checked the scene of the crime, she might be able to find some sort of evidence as to who the shooter was before the three of them did. Once their jet started up the elevator platform toward the landing pad, Cara stood up bolting toward the second jet in the hangar.

Running up the ramp she immediately strapped in and started flipping switches. The rear hatch closed and she queued up the elevator to lift the jet to the now clear landing platform. Starting the engine she put the headset on and typed into the computer, bypassing the clearance procedures for take off. She had paid better attention than Steve thought she had during their flying lesson. Just as the large doors opened above her, there was a firm grasp on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"