The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 14

Steve called a 'Code Green' within five minutes of us fighting. The Hydra base had advanced technology, which no one else was expecting. According to Jarvis, we were one and a half miles away from the base. I run alongside Steve, who is currently riding a motorcycle, as we advance towards the agents. Blasts surround us as we catch sight of the barrier. A sound of a car comes from my left and I look over seeing Clint and Natasha riding inside of it, Clint shoots arrows as Natasha drives screaming something to him. I look back at the base and jump up onto it, kicking the weapon while having purple flames surround my entire body. I punch and knee agents, sending them flying into the trees and I jump down to the ground. Thor looks over at me looking ticked off.

He drops the beam alongside a bunch of knocked out agents. We nod at each other and take off running towards the approaching troops from behind the barrier. Thor and I run, catching up to the rest of our team, and jump over the barrier along with them. I wrap the flames around my wrists as I chuck the balls of flame at the tanks causing them to explode with a purple light. I run after Steve, who somehow managed to keep his motorcycle, I gather green flames into my hand and send a wave flying towards a large group, causing them to freeze and fall over once I sent the purple flames.

"Grace what's your..." Barton begins through the comm.

"SHIT!"

"Language!" Steve shouts. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

Did he really just say? ... "The central building is protected from some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is more advanced than any other Hydra base we have taken." Jarvis responds.

I run next to Thor and knee a man before he fires his weapon at him.

"Loki's scepter must be here, Strucker couldn't mount his defense without it." Mjolnir flies past me and hits a man who was advancing towards us. "At long last."

I run back towards the woods and hit a tree to stop the troops, it falls right in their path just as I come up behind them and throw my arms to the ground causing a bright purple light to form and all the men to fall down.

"'At long last', is lasting a little long guys," Natasha says and gunshots follow.

"Yep, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint responds. A beam fires, missing me by a foot, I run towards the bunker and fly through the cement. While doing so I knocked out the person who was controlling it, I take out a bomb from my utility belt, pull out the safety pin and click it. I jump out of the hole I had created and green flames surround my arms, causing time to slow down for me. I run behind the tree and let time elapse, the bomb goes off with a loud bang causing pieces of cement to go flying. I breathe heavily and look down at my bracelet Tony had designed for me to keep an eye on my heartbeat when we noticed I would be out of breath when I used my time abilities. It beeps that annoying high pitched beep to warn me that my BPM is high. I press the button and a diagram of my heart shows up, alongside it reads '245 beats per minute' I lean against the tree and place my hands above my head, trying to make it easier for me to breath.

"Wait second, no one else is gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?" Tony says through the comms.

"Yeah, Cap, you swear all the time," I say as I adjust my sleeves on my suit. "At least compared to the rest of us."

"I know, it slipped out," Steve says.

I make the diagram disappear and run towards a tank advancing towards me along with soldiers running alongside it. As I weave through the trees, I throw balls of flames at the people before jumping up and hitting the tank. Purple breaks through the cracks, breaking it apart. I jump off the tank as it collapses and hears shouts come from behind it. I create balls of flames and form a shield to protect me from the blasts. Throwing the flame balls at the Hydra agents, I run at them and jump up, making the flames wrap around my entire arm once more, and hit the ground hard. A blast circles me and causes the people to go flying out into the woods.

"We've got an enhanced in the field." Steve's voice says through the comms.

"Clint's hit!" Natasha yells.

"What do we have?" I ask and I get knocked into the air. I fly back and hit a tree and fall to the ground. A streak of silver and blue surrounds me and I summon the green flames to see who my attacker is. A boy, not much older than me, runs past me almost knocking into me again. His hair is grey at the ends and he wears a black suit. He turns and comes back towards me, I feel the flames begin to diminish and time begins to speed back up to normal. A look of fury crosses the boy's face and he tackles me to the ground. I lose my grip on time, feeling the air get knocked out of me from his speed. I gasp for breath as I feel my heart try to break free from my chest. The bracelet beeps faster telling me that my heart rate is faster than before.

The boy runs up to me and smiles down at me.

"The infamous Valiant," he says with a strong accent, "can't truly grasp onto her powers properly."

"It's abilities jackass," I say and he just chuckles before taking off. I slowly move my hand and push onto the bracelet, my heart pumps unnaturally quickly and I look over at the BPM, 287. I try to slow down my breathing but it's not working. I sit there as I wait for my BPM to go down but it won't. Footsteps approach me and slowly flames appear, forming a ball in my hands.

"Grace?" I look up and Steve stares down at me. "What happened?"

"An... the enhanced." I gasp out between breaths. Steve kneels down next to me taking in the BPM rate. He presses his hand to his ear to go to the channel.

"Thor, I need you to bring Grace back to the jet."

The ball of flame still rests in my hand and I send it up to let Thor know where we are.

"Grace, why do you think this happens?" He asks setting his shield down to the ground.

"It only happens when I manipulate time." The numbers begin to slowly drop on the diagram. Footsteps emerge behind us and Steve quickly gets up and takes off towards them. Grunts followed the cling of his shield, lightning blasts announce the arrival of Thor.

"The enhanced?" Thor says to Steve, I still haven't seen him due to my back facing them.

Steve mumbles something along with Thor, I can't understand most of it due to them being on my bad hearing side.

"Clint's hit pretty bad guys, we're going to need an evac," Natasha says through the comms.

A tank approaches them along with agents. Thor and Steve continue talking, but I can't understand what they are saying.

"Yeah, well they're excited," Steve says after a few moments. A loud dong sounds and a breeze comes from behind me. I twist myself around in time to see the top of the tank fly off. Thor comes back towards me and lifts me up, I look down at the number on my bracelet and see it had gone down to 250. It continues to beep in that annoying way.

"Find the scepter," Thor shouts to Steve. "Grace, you may want to hold on."

I wrap my arms around Thor before he takes off, we blast above the trees before Thor guides us back to the place we had left the ship. He carries me into the ship and places me down onto the bench.

"Grace, stay." He said.

"What if I feel better?" I ask.

"Do as he says Grace," Steve says through the comms. Damn, I forgot to shut it off, "stay on the ship, you've done your part."

I roll my eyes and Thor takes off leaving me alone, he returns after a few minutes with Clint. A large gash appears on his side and I quickly get up. I could heal him with my abilities. My hands begin to shake as flames surround my arms.

"Grace, don't," Clint says. Thor turns around and his eyes widen. I look down at my watch and read the numbers flashing across the screen, '268'. The flames disappear and I collapse to the ground. Thor runs to me and lifts me up to lay down on another table.

"Thor, I've got eyes on the prize," Tony says through the comms. Thor nods and smiles.

"Grace, please just stay." He says again.

"Fine," I say since I literally can't do anything with two sets of eyes here. "Could you at least give me my phone?"

Thor nods and goes off to look for it in my bag, he returns after a few moments with it and I thank him. I select the playlist Tony and Natasha had put together for me so I could calm down, as I place the earbud into my one good ear after taking my comm out.