Eve of Destruction [Completed]

Strength endurance testing

     They ran down the hall, Tony talking into his earpiece,
"I'm on it!"
The three ran through the dim, debris filled hall,
"Find engine three. We'll meet you there." Eve ordered roughly,
Cap parted from them as the two approached a tech room. Inside, the Iron Man suit was waiting. Eve slid on a pair of black sportsman sunglasses over her eyes. Then her earpiece. She nodded to Tony as he opened a side hatch,
"Are you sure about this?"
"Either I help, or a shit ton of people are gonna die."
She calmly stepped into the open air. Giving her powers a little stretch while she hovered, waiting for Stark to join her in the air. His mask shut closed and the two shot off like a pair of rockets.
"Patch me in to the comms. I want to hear everything,"
"Done."
"Stark, I'm here!" Steve's voice rang through her ears
"Good. See what we got."
The two fly closer to the damaged engine. Eve sighed sadly at the gaping hole in the side of the Helicarrier.
"I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris." Stark thought out loud.
Eve started pulling out stuck debris with ease, Tony looked over at Steve,
"I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position. Eve, do you think you can level this thing out?"
She cracked her knuckles nervously,
"Maybe? It's been awhile since I actually used my strength for anything. There's a chance I might flip the damn thing."
"Welp, that's better than nothin'. Do it."
She nodded, shooting off so she was just below the rotor. She slowly lifted herself until her hands were pressed against the cool metal. With a deep breath, she slowly pushed upwards. Oddly enough she was struggling to keep pushing for a moment before her usual strength suddenly filled her system.
"Steady Now! It's even. Hold it there Eve." Stark ordered, "Alright Cap, what's it look like in there?"
"It seems to run on some form of electricity." Came his exasperated tone,
Eve snorted softly, "Well, you're not wrong."
Tony started talking the man through the process of connecting the relays.
"The relays are intact. What's our next move?
"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push."
"That's insane Stark!" Eve shouted over the wind.
"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!"
"Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag..."
Eve rolled her eyes at the science talk,
"For fucks sake speak English!" She growled.
"See that red lever?" He directed Steve blindly, "It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word."
Eve felt the weight lessen just a smidgen. She slowly eased off on her strength, but still supported the ship. Gunshots echoed through the com system.
"Spangles?"
No response,
"Steve?" Eve tried again.
"Shit." She growled, "Stark, I'm going to help him."
She boosted up with as much force as she could muster without flipping the floating base before shooting off to help Steve. That's when her eyes saw the falling soldier. She placed her hands at her sides and dove down. Breaking the sound barrier as she went.
"Stark, we're losing altitude!" Nick shouted.
"Yeah. Noticed."
She got there just in time to catch Steve out of midair, instantly stopping to a hover, smirking down at him,
"So much for fast reflexes."
Before he could respond, Stark interrupted.
"Cap, I need the lever!"
She scowled. Moving quickly to catch up to the ship,
"I need a minute here!" Steve responded breathlessly.
Cutting off just in time for her to throw him into a opening.
"Lever. Now!" Tony panicked.
Steve gripped the railing, hauling himself up and roughly yanked the lever down.
Eve avoided Iron Man's armored body as he tackled Cap's original shooter. Cap let out a sigh of relief.

The two men caught their breaths as Eve checked over Tony's injuries from his game of tug-of-war with the rotors. And made sure she didn't accidentally dislocated Steve's shoulder from when she threw him, Nick's solemn voice made her freeze,
"Agent Coulson is down."
"Paramedics are on their way."
"They're here." He paused for the slightest of moments, "They called it."
Eve forced herself not to cry as Steve walked with her back to the briefing room.

They all sat at the table. All in a daze, numb with the shock of losing the man that helped them all in some way. Eve bit her lip when Nick came over to Steve with bloodied cards in his hands,
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them."
He tossed the trading cards onto the table, Steve slowly picked them up. Still in denial.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He hesitated for a beat, then started saying some truths, "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."
Tony got up. Not wanting to hear it anymore.
"Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Nick muttered.
The rest of them dispersed, Natasha tailed Eve out into the hall. Gripping her forearm lightly, making the blonde halt in her movements.
"We got him." She smiled weakly, "Clint's in the MedWing."
Eve smiled stiffly at the redhead,
"Thanks. Tell him I said hey."
"Why don't you do that yourself?" She asked, for once genuine.
"You know he doesn't want to see me."
"Evie. I know we're never going to get along well after...after everything, but I know Clint, he wants to see you. He's been dying to see you ever since the falling out. Go see him, please."
"I gotta check up on the boys first."
Natasha rolled her eyes, but this time it was more playful than usual,
"Go check up on your brother. I got our boys."
Eve frowned, "Hey Tasha?"
Nat turned to look at her curiously. Eve licked her lips nervously,
"That night, when I left. I didn't abandon you down because I didn't want you. If anything I was having a hard time trying to not pounce on you but I...I was just afraid I would've hurt you in some way if we went any further with our..." She trailed off, looking down at her feet.
Natasha took in the woman that once shared her bed,
"It wasn't just that," Eve's gaze snapped to meet Tasha's dark green ones, "I was more upset about the lying. My job is only lying...but I never thought you would keep something so important from me."
Eve nodded sadly, "Just...I'm sorry, for everything."
Nat smiled, "I am too."
The women went their separate ways.