Fall of the Mighty ★ [4] ✔

Recruitment

⏳ 2016

Well, what a goddamn shitstorm we'd gotten ourselves into. And you knew that for sure when Thunderbolt Ross turns up on your front doorstep and tells you how much of a failure you are. Doubly so, if Miss Mysterious gives you the 'I'm going to roast your nut sack over the fire like chestnuts' look, you are far from a failure. No, you're that and you're boned.

She didn't tell me what happened exactly a few hours earlier with Barnes and Cap; I'd had a feeling she wouldn't detail it. Whatever did happen, though, it must've been brutal. The fact that she was still healing her wounds like a dog licking its was an indication of that, as well as the glare in her eyes as Thunderbolt Ross waltzed into the conference room where she, Nat and I sat.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where they are?" Ross interrogated, mostly directed at Andi, who remained silent as her upper lip curled.

"We will," I replied. "GSG Nine's got the borders covered. Recon's flying twenty-four-seven. They'll get a hit. We'll handle it."

"You don't get it, Stark," Ross blew off. "It's not yours to handle. It's clear you can't be objective." He sighed, pocketing his hands. "I'm putting Special Ops on this."

"What happens when the shooting starts?" Nat asked, her expression deadly. "What, do you kill Steve Rogers?"

Andi tensed at such a notion. Killing her man was a dangerous move, and I was about to move to highly suggest against it.

Ross sent a sideward glance at the redhead. "If we're provoked." And her expression deepened like a snarling wolf ready to defend her den if need be, her hand healing her gashed arm closing around it and tightening, trails of blood trickling down it and through her hands before the cut healed again. "Barnes would've been eliminated in Romania if it wasn't for Rogers. There are dead people who would be alive now. Feel free to check my math."

I took a seat. Yeah, I didn't agree with that at all. And, by the looks of Andi's expression gaining fuming momentum, neither did she. It seemed to me that she was going to bring the two in whether Ross allowed it or not. No one was going to lay a hand on her man but her. Alternatively, I was going to lay a hand on him to bring Barnes in. Perhaps two or three.