Red. | marvel [1]

t w e n t y - n i n e

They crash through the previously silent bushes, shoving branches out of their way and making an almighty amount of noise. Bullets begin ringing out behind them and Elana throws up an energy shield quickly. Most ricochet off, but if they don't then they miss the running girls. Sofia is gripping onto Elana's neck and torso with her little arms and legs as hard as she can, face buried firmly in her neck. Elana pushes onwards, ignoring the shouts from behind. She releases Sofia slightly, only supporting her with one hand as she reaches for one of her guns and fires behind her. She hears some people fall, but then the gunfire just increases.

She breaks through the forest back into the clearing where the Quinjet is. Tony notices her determined face before he notes the small girl in her arms. They run and Elana puts Sofia down around the back of the Quinjet.
"оставайся здесь," she instructs, placing a hand on the small girl's shoulder. Sofia nods. Stay here.
Elana runs back out from behind it and stands beside Tony at the front.
"Cap and Nat, you're on Sofia duty. Tony and I will head off the attackers but your job is to keep her safe and make sure she doesn't run off," Elana says, emphasising the last bit when she hears snippets of Sofia's thoughts.

The sounds of people following their tracks through the undergrowth snaps Elana away from people's thoughts. She grabs her guns, hoping to keep the fight long range so she can continue to watch everything. As the first people begin filing through, Elana begins firing. Her bullets always hit their targets, be it a fatal hit or a debilitating one. The crowd thins a little bit, and Bruce makes his way out as another wave begins coming through.
"Code Green, Bruce," Elana says gravely. "We need help clearing some of the ones at the back."
Bruce nods and runs through, beginning to Hulk out as soon as he needs to.

The roar of Hulk echoes around and the crowd begins thinning as some run away. Still, though, there are more coming.
"It's practically an army, Elana, what are we going to do?" Tony hisses, clearly panicking.
"Fight them," she says simply. "And I wouldn't call this an army... more of a collection of small groups of assholes."
Tony just stares at her incredulously, but he sees her determination as soon as he looks away from the crowds and suddenly he knows he can trust her to get them out alive.

She steps forward and grabs her batons, replacing her guns and readying for close-contact fighting since her attention is no longer divided between Sofia and the soldiers.
She watches before beginning to use all those skills she was taught.

The first one brave enough to take her on is put down easily with a simple hit to the crown of his head. The next takes a kick, and soon Elana is taking down two to four people at a time. She grabs the head of one and flips herself over him, grabbing someone else's neck with her knees and delivering an electric shock to the first person's neck. He falls to the ground and then she's left to deal with the second one. She uprights herself and the man beneath her tries scratching at her legs. Unfortunately for him, Elana's suit is tougher than that (and so are her legs, for that matter) and he's doing more damage to himself than her. He changes tactic as Elana shoots three people in succession. He tugs at her back and her legs. She finally has enough and shoots him in the forehead, propelling herself backwards before his body falls and landing in a crouched position. She takes out people by their legs, swinging around on her hand and then flicking her feet up and over and carrying her momentum and standing. She shoots around in a circle, shots the head and the chest to all five people on the floor around her. A man tries to shoot from behind, but the energy shield deflects the bullets all around, hitting other soldiers.

A woman approaches her alone and many of the men back away at the sight of her. They focus their efforts more on Tony now. Elana twists and turns flawlessly, helping to control the influx of attacks on Tony while simultaneously keeping an eye on the woman in front of her. She's being circled like prey by this woman, but little does the newcomer know Elana is far from being prey: in fact, she's practically an apex predator.

The woman advances and Elana stills perfectly. She doesn't sway an inch, her feet together and her shoulders relaxed- almost like she's not going to fight. The woman smirks, mistaking the stillness for hesitation and fear. She takes a final step forward and brings her leg up to kick. In one swift movement, Elana has re-sheathed her batons and her hands come up to block the kick. She doesn't even waver, feet still closed. If she's going to make an example of anyone, it must be the one everyone else is scared of. Elana grabs her by the ankle and pulls her around, twisting the joint harshly until she hears a click. The woman stumbles and Elana shows her how a real kick looks, sending her falling backwards into a tree. The ruthlessness with which the two women fight is incomparable to the way the men fight. Ruthless elegance. Elana gets a few punches to the face and chest, but the other woman gets double what she gives- a winding kick to the stomach, a flip onto the floor and- finally- a knife to her throat.

"You could never win against someone like me," Elana hisses before switching knife for gun and finishing the fight swiftly. The next five minutes pass and everyone who had possibly wanted to attack them is gone or has been taken down. Elana and Tony had taken on the highest load, but Elana doesn't look tired. In fact, quite the opposite. She refuses to sit and rest and instead approaches Sofia. Hulk had done Elana a favour and had cleared some of bodies and dumped them elsewhere to make the environment more child-friendly. She had wiped away the blood from a small cut above her forehead- it's minuscule, but head wounds always bleed like a bitch.

"Are you okay?" she asks the girl, lowering herself to her height. Sofia nods softly. "Okay, good. We're going to set up the Quinjet- we'd like to offer you a place to train and live until you have control or longer, if you'd like."
She nods hesitantly. Elana smiles before turning her back and beginning to walk up the ramp. Suddenly, a shot rings out. Elana feels it before she sees it: Sofia has been shot.

She whips around in record time to see the little girl sprawled on the floor.
"No! No!" Elana screams, jumping down the ramp, panic on her face.
Bruce rushes out after, the green in his face gone and a change of clothes having been forced onto him. Elana holds the girl's head up, trying to stop the bleeding somehow with her hands. She tries to think of a way that her powers could help, but at that exact moment she had no idea. She couldn't lose Sofia, she couldn't. She has so much potential, Elana can feel it radiating off of her. She can't die now. She can't.