There's Worse Ways To Go

Eight

Coming close to the coordinates of the Cuda planes, we fall silent, the quinjet dropping low into a forest of trees. Sam sets us down to group with them and Tony lands next to us as the doors open.

"We should be able to ambush them here," Steve explains, laying out the plan. "Sam, Vic, and Tony will take them out of the sky and hopefully their attention will be directed down to us with Vic's shooting. They should land and unload whatever cargo they're carrying onto us. Sam, I want you to take Vic up to the tallest tree you can find with good visibility."

"You got it, Cap."

With that, Sam hauls me up as I salute them goodbye. He brings me to the top of a pine, setting me softly in the branches, not letting go until I have my footing.

"Good?" he asks.

"I'm good. Fly away, little birdie."

He smiles. "Chirp if you need me."

With that, he launches further into the sky. I pull out my rifle and expand it, nestling it into the branches of the tree so I'm steady. Friday pulls up radar of the Cuda and I catch them in my scope.

"Coming in hot, ladies and gentlemen," I warn.

"Yeah, I see 'em," Tony reports.

The sound of their engines gets louder, and I position my sight on the far right plane, aiming directly at the metal panel that holds the engine. As they come overhead, I fire, my bullet slipping between the threads of the plane and into the engine, causing the front end of it to explode in a ball of fire. It nosedives just past my place in the tree, safely crashing out of range from the others.

"That's my girl!" Sam shouts, tussling with the windshield of another plane. I see him wrangling with the glass, then rip it open, hauling the pilot out. He flies down to the ground and drops him gently, then shoots back up.

Tony uses his Repulsars and fires energy blasts at the back end of the planes, sending them swirling down to the Earth. Below, I catch the faint sounds and shouts from the battle. Wanda's red power glistens through the trees as Nat's gun fires. Steve's shield bounces off trees.

"Sam! I need better visibility of the ground!"

"You got it."

He comes swooping him, snagging me by the handles on my shoulders and dropping me in a lower tree. I begin scoping out potential targets. The men my team are fighting seem human, with no special abilities. But they wear their power like Tony and Sam do.

Fixed to themselves like a harness is what looks like a metal exoskeleton, thin bars and pipes with a compressed energy backpack. It allows their kicks to land as strong as Steve's, their punches to hit as hard as Bucky's.

I snipe a few, hitting them in the knee so they can't get up again. Some of their harnesses are equipped with jetpacks, offering them small bursts of flight.

Nat is sparring with one of them, and he reels back and punches her across the face. Her head snaps to the side, and rage boils in me hotter than I've ever felt. I've been going easy on the places I aim, non-lethal shots most probably won't die from. But this time I fire straight through his left leg, finding the artery there. He cries out, staunching the bleeding with his hands as he falls. If he's lucky, he lives to see the battle end. If he's not, he lives for the next minute.

Nat turns and looks up at me, taking a moment to scan the trees. When she finds me she smiles, and I wink at her in return.

I move on to Steve, taking his opponent's ankle. Bucky's guy's hip, shattering his pelvic bone. I stick to the heroes who don't have the most power. Vision is indestructible and Wanda is one of the strongest Avengers, so I'm confident she has her opponents handled. Peter is moving so quickly I can't even keep up with him. He cocoons the Cuda and hangs them upside down from the trees.