The Archangel (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty

I dropped all pretense of stealth and made my way through the caravan, taking out combatants with effortless precision. And though I was dispatching them as efficiently as I was trained to in Hydra, I refrained from dealing any blows that might cause a fatality. I noticed Okoye fighting another combatant nearby, must've figured that we needed help after the gunshots.

Concern for Bucky was overwhelming every other instinct I had which was why I was now darting through the hostiles, however, I knew that we both needed to stay on mission. The hostages were the priority, I just hoped he was okay. I was the first to get to the vehicles that housed the prisoners and shielded them with my metal wings while I ushered them into the safety of the foliage. Once the two trucks had been cleared of hostages, I converged on the remaining hostiles. I could see Bucky out of the corner of my eye—unharmed, thank god—fighting his own batch of combatants.

I'll admit, the grenade launcher was unexpected and totally came out of nowhere. The grenade itself was knocked away by Bucky but not far enough. I covered him with my wings but the force still knocked us off our feet. I landed on top of Bucky pretty hard but we were both still smiling at the position. I kissed him briefly, then got up and pulled him to his feet. A groan of pain pulled our attention away from each other and toward where Okoye lay on the ground, grimacing in pain.

"Okoye!" I called, as we rushed over and I knelt at her side, Bucky standing guard in case there were others we had missed, "where does it hurt?"

"Ribs," she grimaced out, "broken, I think." I glanced up at Bucky and he shook his head, we couldn't do anything for that type of wound, not here anyway.

"We'll get you to safety, General."

"I'm not dying from a little explosion. Help me up." Okoye tried to pull herself to her feet, but we immediately pushed her back down.

"You stretching your ribs like that is only going to cause internal bleeding. We'll get you up." Bucky warned. He and I helped Okoye to her feet and supported her as we moved back to where she had landed the aircraft. "Stay here, General, or we'll force you."

"Don't worry, Okoye, we'll take it from here." I reassured.

We made sure Okoye was alright before going back out to look for Nakia. It was still hostile territory so I remained in my metal form as a precaution despite believing that all of the hostiles had been eliminated. Flashing a light into the bushes, we called out for the hostages to come out and from the bushes they came hesitantly, still expecting the worst. Those who didn't recognize us or our uniforms were skittish, even those that did were a bit hesitant, but Nakia was confident as ever, striding out of the bushes as if she owned the place.

Nakia was a beautiful woman, spunky too, I could tell instantly why T'Challa had a thing for her. "What are you doing here? You are ruining my mission."

"The king requests your presence." Bucky informed, folding his arms across his chest at her demeanor. I put a hand lazily on his shoulder and leaned against his tall frame, both for my own enjoyment and to cool him off a bit.

"I haven't even breached the inner circle of this ring, I can't come back, not yet." She was quite emphatic, which I could understand. Why would she want to return when she hadn't done what she set out to do? And with Wakandans still at risk? I wouldn't want to come back either.

Bucky nodded, also understanding what I had, but always the soldier boy, continued, "T'Challa will not be pleased."

"He will see reason." Nakia exclaimed, "innocent Wakandans going missing, taken hostage, trafficked by these sorry excuse for human beings. I will not stand for it and he won't either after he learns what I have discovered, how big their operation has grown."

I interjected, "You know where we stand, Nakia, we would help if we could. But what do you want us to do? We can't go back emptyhanded."

"For once in your life, would you stop being so efficient?" Nakia muttered under her breath. "Fine, T'Challa should hear it from me anyway but I'm escorting these people back to Wakanda myself and then I'm coming back to finish the job."

I smirked, typical Nakia, "We only need to get you there, what you do after that is up to you."

Nakia went to tell the others the plan. That was when we heard gunshots, Nakia and the other Wakandans ran for the cover of the brush. My first instinct was to protect Bucky, not to run or protect myself. My wing flashed out and covered his most vital organs and good thing too, every impact created a hollow sound and sent a zing up through my wing, most bullets I couldn't feel anything at all, so this was an entirely new sensation.

Turning, I located the source of the gunfire—a hostile that had been overlooked perhaps—and advanced on the man, careful to keep my body between Bucky and the unusual gunfire that I could feel in my metal form. I held up my hands to shield my face after a stray bullet clipped my cheek and though it sparked off, I could physically feel the dent it had left behind.

I couldn't delay any further, this onslaught could seriously damage my wings what with the rapid gunfire that was leaving various dents and scratches across my feathers. I leapt at him and sliced with the razor edge of my feathers, knocking the gun from his hands, but strange they hadn't completely destroy it. Without hesitation, I punch the guy in the face and knocked his lights out.

Shifting my wings, I examined the damage that a few moments with that gun had done to them and cursed to myself. They were dented, in some places so bad that chunks of the bullets were stuck in the divots the impact had created. I had never been faced with a weapon that could so much as scratch my metal form, let alone dent it. Not even in Hydra. Discounting the hostile, there was nothing significant about a foot soldier, I strode over to where the gun had fallen in the brush and picked it up.

It was like nothing I had ever encountered before. There was barely a scratch from where the razor edge of my wings had struck it when they had previously sliced through Tony's titanium suits like butter. Pulling the clip from the firearm, I examined the visible bullets and instead of tossing them like I had with the other weapons, I kept a hold of them. I was curious and alarmed that I had found a weapon that could harm me, Shuri would definitely want to examine them upon our return.