The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 50

Novi Grad, Sokovia

Spring 2015

Nadine let out a long slow breath, her index finger firm on the trigger, the familiar feel and weight of her rifle grounding in her hands as her focus narrowed on her target.

And she took her first shot.

Then another. And another. Round after round she fired into the fray, each one unerringly finding its mark. As the reverberation of the first gunshot echoed through the square, Nadine could swear she saw her little sister spin to glance her way out of the corner of her eye, a grin on her face, but she didn't pause to look. She was far too focused on finding her next target. Though, a small, mischievous, even petty side of her couldn't help but grin as the Captain started when she used his shield to ricochet one of her bullets into a sentry charging toward Rogers that she couldn't quite get a clean shot at.

But all too soon she was running short on ammo. Even more worrisome, Ultron's sentries had finally caught on to what she was doing and subsequently her position. It was time to truly join the fight, it seemed. Inhaling deeply, she leapt from her perch as the first sentry dove toward her, rolling to her feet just in time to catch a second sentry in the face with a point-blank shot from her rifle. As the robot crumpled at her feet she was already moving.

And then, just like her sister and the rest of the Avengers, Nadine was in the thick of it. Ultron's sentries just kept coming, lunging and grabbing at her almost too quickly to combat. But Nadine was just that little bit faster, spinning and lunging herself, ducking and dodging around the metal-fisted blows the robots tried to land. Her rifle quickly became a contact weapon in her hands instead of a firearm, crashing into the nearest sentry with a strident clang. It didn't last as long as she would've liked, though—it wasn't intended for that kind of combat, sturdy as it was—not against robots; flesh and other organic materials, maybe, but it wasn't up to withstanding repeated abuse from the tempered metal bodies of Ultron's sentries. With a well-placed slash, one of the robots caught the main mass of the gun's body, shearing through the weapon. Nadine was only just able to back-pedal in time to keep the same blow from catching her square in the chest, rolling backward into a low crouch.

In a flash her sidearms were in her hands, bullets pinging off the metallic body before a couple finally penetrated. With a hiss and grinding squeal, the sentry collapsed. Only for another one to appear behind it before Nadine could even think of catching her breath. So she dispatched that one too, diving around him to rip out one of his spinal processing cables and firing off two rounds into the gap, severing its main power supply.

But as she spun, ready to face the next one, she realized there were no more. Nadine's body tensed in wary anticipation as the square was suddenly empty save for the Avengers and the lifeless bodies of Ultron's sentries littering the ground. But Nadine's instincts told her it was far from over. It couldn't be the end of it . As her keen eyes roamed the square, searching for any hint of a renewed onslaught, she caught her sister's eye where Natasha stood a few dozen yards away. The redhead looked just as wary and uneasy as Nadine felt.

Then she was gone, disappearing as the city was suddenly blanketed in a dense, eerie mist. Nadine blinked in momentary bewilderment before she realized the city must have entered a thick bank of cloud. Sure enough, the chilled air seemed to cling damply to her skin as she struggled to pick out her surroundings. As the clouds shifted and rippled around her, buildings and people slowly came back into view.

The rest of the team was taking advantage of the lull in Ultron's attack to move the civilians left in the city, directing them to more centralized locations, trying to keep them together as they got them to shelter. But Nadine couldn't focus on them; her attention was still fixed on scanning their surroundings, senses peeled in effort to detect the next wave as quickly as possible when it inevitably came.