On the Run (An Avengers Fanfiction) ✔️Completed

Cast out

A lengthy talk with an extremely angry director of shield later...

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Astrid's p.o.v.

Fury gestured for two agents to open the office doors and let us out. Instead we opened the doors ourselves and walked out, dazed, in the direction of the medical room to say goodbye to Norman. We had been discharged, permanently suspended of our duties. We were to say our very quick goodbyes collect our things and leave immediately. For some reason Fury wanted to give Norman a third chance. Said he'd showcased some serious potential and would have been about to be promoted if not for his involvement in recent events. I didn't expect him to keep the job very long without Amy around but it was a shock all the same.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the medical room we were refused access to apologise to Norman personally and they would, for some reason unknown to us, not pass on a message but simply told us he was not going to die and that we had to leave. Amy was furious but knew that taking action would just make the situation a lot worse and it really wasn't going to make our day any easier. We didn't have many belongings with us after joining S.H.I.E.L.D. But what little we did have was hurriedly packed into one shared suitcase. Then we were collected and directed to an office. Once we were both stood inside we were forced to hand over our outfits and badges and equipment to Julie and Derek who both had broad, smug grins on their faces because they were being their usual 'pleasant' selves. I couldn't believe they had come to spectate. Moreover that they had been allowed to do so.

"So what are you going to move onto next you two, demolition work...I hear that's what happened the last place you went." Julie snorted with laughter like a piglet being strangled. Her 'joke' wasn't even funny but it was still hard not to retaliate.
"Bet it took you a while to come up with that one huh?" I asked, flourishing a deliberately fake smile.
"You really do amaze me sometimes... Are you always this stupid or is this a special occaision?" Amy backed me up.

One of the other agents sniggered and he got a glare from the commanding officer who was overseeing the whole thing, as well as Julie and Derek. We were pushed back out through the door and ushered down the hall. Then two armed guards came and escorted us to the hangar where our transport was waiting for us, I thought that it was a little unnecessary that they had been sent. What exactly did Fury or Coulson think we would do? As I glanced back for one last look at our home for the last few weeks I thought about how I had hated being here at first, now none of that seemed to matter and I wished that I hadn't screwed up more than ever. I had let Amy and Norman down again and this time it would be harder to find a fresh start with such a bad run of being fired from our jobs... Why was my luck so bad? i hadn't meant for any of this to happen.

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Amy's p.o.v

When we were on board the aircraft it really began to hit us; we had lost both our jobs, our new friends and now we were  a couple of unemployed homeless teenagers with a bad record of the last nine jobs ... Things were not looking good at all for us. Where would we go? Neither of us had a clue. Heck, Astrid had almost gotten arrested until S.H.I.E.L.D. had intervened... What would happen if they tried to take her again and they weren't there to stop them? I would probably be welcome back at the circus but I didn't want to leave my best friend to fend for herself.

I decided to listen to my iPod music to try and cheer me up, Astrid just stared ahead blankly: obviously she was blaming herself again. I pretended not to care but I was very slightly annoyed with her... because technically it was her fault and now I was worried about Norman. I tried my utmost not be since she hadn't meant for anything to happen and it really wasn't her doing as I watched cloud after cloud float by finding it hard not to show her how upset I really was. I watched as later we flew out towards the ocean. I couldn't believe that S.H.I.E.L.D had insisted we leave the US and go back to England. I wanted to go to California and spend some time on the beach, maybe even live there... Why had they thought deporting us was necessary? Did they know something we didn't? I was becoming more and more distrustful of S.H.I.E.L.D.

After a few hours we seemed to be approaching a huge storm over the sea; the guard warned us it might get a little bumpy but that we didn't have to be worried. I tried to stifle a laugh of disbelief; as if I cared! A little turbulence was the least of my worries right now. Astrid's eyes displayed concern but not panic. At first I carried on listening to my music trying to block out the deafening sound of crashing thunder. But then Astrid, whom hadn't spoken a word since we set off, gently tugged an earbud out of my ear and said:

"Something really doesn't feel right"
"Nothing bad is going to happen. You worry about everything" I retorted, surprised by how harshly I spoke the words.
"I know, I'm sorry" she mumbled.
"No, I'm sorry for being rude," I sighed.
The last thing I wanted to do was to be mean to her and I felt terrible for lashing out. She tried not to look hurt by my comment and glanced down at her hands which she'd placed on her lap. After a little while we both calmed down and dismissed the storm; we had endured some pretty violent turbulence on the plane on the way over to America from the Uk the first time around. Then the first wave of rain showered against the window, as we entered the enormous clouds of the storm system itself, the droplets battering against the aircraft like a barrage of bullets. Raindrops soon became hailstones. The thunder soon turned from distant rumbling to earsplitting crashes, the dim flashes of lightning to visible scars tearing through the thick grey blanket of the cumulonimbus clouds. The pilots fought against the gale force wind that side swiped us and the third guard looked slightly concerned himself. The plane's flight path became more and more erratic as the little box of metal that it was desperately tried to defy the elements, the raw brutal power of nature. I looked out of the now icy window again, now genuinely afraid.

Suddenly the whole aircraft jerked around still more violently and another blinding flash of lightning illuminated the sea below us for a brief second, just long enough for me to catch sight of a tiny group of islands hundreds of miles below us from the misty pane of rattling glass. It continued to jerk so violently with the turbulence that our bags flew out of their positions somewhere above our seats, narrowly missing the member of the crew whom had been watching us, as he'd fallen to the floor a few seconds before. He scrambled to get up and stumbled forward into the cockpit where the co-pilot was desperately trying to control the aircraft because the pilot had hit his head on the controls and got knocked out in the process. I could feel their panic in the air, adding to that of mine and Astrid's.

Astrid screamed when she realised that the pilot was unconscious and screwed her eyes shut. I stayed firmly stuck in my seat, trying to remember to breathe. Of course this situation would have been survivable if the instruments themselves weren't reacting so strangely to this freak weather. Then the thought crossed my mind that we could all be about to plummet to our deaths, or if we survived we'd drown, or freeze in the raging sea below us. I knew that Astrid was certain this was about to happen. For the first time I realised that we were not absoloutely fine flying and that Astrid's panic was more than reasonable. My own took hold of me.

The co-pilot and the guard were determined not to let us die and, as the aircraft shuddered, as if it was taking a final dying breath, and gave way into a nose dive, they struggled against gravity to their feet, dragging the unconscious pilot with them. Unbuckling ourselves and pulling our bodies from our own seats was made more difficult by the awkward angle the plane was now in and we fumbled desperately with our seat-belts. Astrid managed to unclip hers and drag herself onto the floor. She hurriedly freed me from mine and tugged me up with her. We gripped onto each other for support. I saw the crew took out the three parachutes, there was just one problem: there were two of them and two of us and one unconscious pilot. One of us would have to parachute unassisted if they were going to live and we had about 3 seconds to make that decision...

Before I had a chance to say anything and to my astonishment, Astrid grabbed a parachute. The remaining pilot strapped it to her before attending to his own. Astrid cursed as she heaved open the door and let herself drop from the plane. I couldn't believe what she had done, she had chosen to parachute by herself so that I didn't have to. She was terrified of flying and heights and she has made that call in barely ten seconds. One of the crew members strapped me to him and the other to the unconscious pilot before bailing out of the falling plane. I would have stood there in pure shock had the guy I was now sharing a parachute with not jumped out of the plane. Astrid and I screamed in terror but the sound was lost amid the raging storm's own banshee cry. I still couldn't believe she had made that potential sacrifice for me.

The wind tore at our falling bodies and rain thrashed across our faces as we were tossed around like rag dolls amidst the raging storm. Even If we pulled our strings and released the parachutes we would not make it, we all knew that, it had been one last attempt at surviving and it had failed. We needed a miracle...