Who am I

Chapter 18

-April 9, 2015-

The battle didn't start with a fight but more of a mass panic. Sophiea and Pietro had run around the city trying to get everyone out of city limits, and far away from the incoming danger.

"Let's go!" He called zipping past people sweeping people away one by one. "Hurry up, it's not safe here."

Sophiea took the more reasonable approach, running with families and groups of children. "Come on guys, you got this!"

Her phone started to buzz in her pocket. "Ultron's out of the internet!" She laughed. "The newbie did well."

Steve's uneasy laugh came though the com. "Sophiea, you're a newbie too."

"Yeah, love you too." She froze suddenly. "Pietro, do you feel that?" He ran up to her. "The ground is shaking."

She was right, the street beneath them had started to shake. The rocks trembled, and the two of them ran back to the heart of the city, ready to move more people away, but as they sprinted the cobblestone broke apart, the roads cracked, the land lifted up.

"We're flying."

"I know."

They ran, passing screaming people, and soon there were no people. An eerie silence filled the air and then there was a screech of metal. Swarms of robotic figures spilled out of the ground. Fighting and killing along the way.

Pietro zoomed off. A line of bots fell where he went.

Sophiea pulled out her handguns from her leg holsters. Shooting the robots wasn't the best thing to do, but it worked. Finally, she grabbed a long scrap of metal. She soon learned that if hit hard enough, a robot's head would go flying. She smiled fondly at her unusual weapon.

"Guys you got incoming," Tony cut in.

"Well, incoming already came."

Sophiea looked around. She was alone, in one of the back roads of Sokovia. If she wasn't fighting on a flying city, she would have wanted to stay.

Running to where her team was took longer than expected. She saw the ocasonal robot and she put it out of its misery quickly. Once she arrived to where her team was, all the robots had been taken care of.

"Do the math, everyone up here, or everyone down there? There's no math here." Natasha was getting angry with Steve, a rare sight.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"I didn't say we should leave." The heartbreaking reality set in. They were never getting off, never getting away. "I mean where else can I get a view like this?" Sophiea went over to her and wrapped an arm around her. "I just wanted to see the kids one more time."

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Fury's voice came crackling through their coms, a welcome sound in the solemn silence that had surrounded the team seconds before. The helicarrier rose up to the level of the city.

"How on earth did you get here in time?" Disbelief was written in Steve's words.

"Ah, well, a little birdy told me you might be needing a flying fortress." Tasha smiled fondly at the younger girl. "Now we are deploying lifeboats, get everyone on one. Then we can blow the floating rock and go home."

"Here comes the next wave of bots, OG Avengers, take them out, everyone else, evacuate the city."

Sophiea ran off in a hurry, but not before she saw Cap stare at Tony in confusion and whisper "OG?" under his breath.

She found the first family she could, they were huddled in the lobby of an apartment building. She grabbed the smallest child, who looked around 5 or 6, and turned to her siblings and parents.

"Come on guys, we can get you out of here." They stood and followed her to the lifeboats. 2 of which were already full. A blue blur kept coming past her, and every time it left there were more people than there were before.

Pietro stopped just in front of her with a child in his arms, "Come on Sophiea, you gotta keep up." And with a smirk he sped away again.

"Not cool dude. Not cool." She muttered under her breath as she situated the family amid other refugees. "You guys are going to be fine. I'm going to go get more people, I'll be back."

She sprinted out of the of the small aircraft and back to the city but was stopped by Pietro. "Everyone's out, you have to tell your team to get back to the jets and such, we can leave."

She nodded. "Get back to the life boats, everyone's out and we need you guys back. As Fury lovingly, said, lets blow this rock and go home."

She ran into a lifeboat and sat next to a tearful woman. After a moment Sophiea understood what she was saying. "Costel. Costel." It was a name. "We were in the market. Where's Costel?"

Sophiea panicked and ran back down into the street, calling for the boy. A small voice answered her. "I'm here."

She followed the noise and found the small child trapped under some rubble. "You're going to be ok. I've got you." She pulled him out of the dust and bricks and started to walk with him.

A jet flew past, peppering the ground with bullets. Sophiea fell to the ground, covering the small boy, but nothing hit her.

"Come on Sophiea, you didn't see that coming?" The blond man fell to the ground, his uniform turning red with the blood spilling from his wounds.

"No, come on. Pietro, come on." She crawled over to him and gently shook him. "No, you have to help Wanda, she needs you Pietro."

A soft touch came on her shoulder, and the small boy looked on with sad eyes. "We have to go." Sophiea knew he was right, she grabbed the body of her friend and stumbled to the lifeboats. The boy sat with the lady who had called for him, and Sophiea laid by Pietro as the boat took off, heading back to the helicarrier.

"Why'd you do that for me?" She whispered. She knew he wouldn't answer, but the question still hung in the air.

Phil Coulson found her as soon as she stepped on the ship, hugging her tight and rocking her from side to side. "Oh, Sophiea. I'm glad you're safe. Fury is too." He let go and looked at her. "He would want to lose his best agent, now would he?"

She just hugged him again and let a lone tear trickle down her cheek. He led her to the control room where her family sat waiting.

When they saw her, they ran at her, hugging and holding and rocking her. Cries of "You're alive!" and "We were so scared." and even a "I never thought I could miss you, but here we are." rang though the room. She looked around and saw one member of the team missing.

"Where's Bruce?"

All suddenly went silent. Tasha was the one to answer. "Hulk took off in the Quinn jet, we can't track it right now, it's in stealth mode."

"And what of Wanda?"

A soft voice came from behind Sophiea. "I'm here. Do you know where they put my brother?" One of the older agents led her out of the room and to Pietro was laid.

The rest of the trip passed in silence, no one talked, and Sophiea was glad, she wasn't ready to talk.

As they descended though the smog and clouds of New York City and the tower came into view, only one word echoed through everyone's mind. Home.

They were home at last.