Tearing Relationships Apart (Book Eleven of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Chapter One

This chapter is all Lagos. I was surprised - it took up a good five pages to write this! Here come the Avengers, everyone!

Here's chapter one!

***

Present – 2022

Wanda Maximoff leaned over her teacup, finishing stirring it up, when she heard a voice in her ear. "All right, what do you see?"

Wanda lifted her cup to her lips, her eyes looking around. "Standard beat cops," she answered. "Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."

"There's an ATM on the south corner," Steve Rogers said. "Which means – "

"Cameras," Wanda finished.

A pair walking by made her duck her head back down, though her brother and his girlfriend were looking around as well. "Both cross streets one way," Clara Oswald supplied.

"So, compromised escape routes," Wanda said.

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen," Steve agreed. "He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out."

"Did you see the Range Rover halfway up the block?" a Scottish voice asked.

Wanda's eyes found the Doctor where he was looking at a nearby newspaper stand, then saw the Rover he meant. "Yeah, the red one? It's cute."

The Doctor snorted, then a female voice a few tables behind echoed in her ear. "It's also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody."

"Probably us," Jessie Nightshade agreed as she and Natasha Romanoff exchanged looks.

"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda quirked an eyebrow.

"And I am fast enough to more than likely take those guns?" her twin brother, Pietro, asked as he and Clara stopped at a crosswalk.

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Natasha told her.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam Wilson cut in.

"Not to my face," Natasha quipped. "Why, did you hear something?"

Jessie snorted into her cup, Wanda ducking her head as she smirked. "Eyes on target, folks," Steve reprimanded. "This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him."

"If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem," Sam said dryly. "He kind of hates us."

"Sam, Doctor, see that garbage truck?" Steve suddenly asked, and Jessie took a look over her shoulder. "Tag it."

"The truck is loaded for max weight," the Doctor answered after a moment.

"And the driver's armed," Sam added.

"It's a battering ram," Natasha narrowed her eyes.

"Go, now!" Steve called sharply.

"What?" Wanda asked, even as she got to her feet, seeing Jessie and the Doctor get up from their places as well.

"He's not hitting the police!" Jessie realized, even as they watched the garbage truck ram into the doors for the Institute for Infectious Diseases.

***

Steve crashed into one of the first soldiers at the drive leading up to the Institute, Sam flying overhead. The Doctor was the next to arrive, jumping down from the building he'd run across, making a slashing motion with one hand. A wave of the Aether spun one soldier end over end before he crashed, Jessie running through one of the assault trucks and tackling the other to the ground. Steve ran around the car his soldier had been hiding behind, holding his shield in front of him protectively, before jumping on the other truck, taking out the soldier that had been inside. He rolled into a crouch, seeing Jessie taking cover behind one of the trucks, the Doctor atop another, looking around. "Body armor, AR15s," he said, looking around. "I make seven hostiles."