Run to You|Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Nineteen

Ira's hands gripped the edge of the building as she crept around the corner. She saw a man ahead, and quickly threw him to the floor. She continued walking, staying close to the building as she waited for Steve to signal that he had entered the back door. They were taking down another HYDRA base, but this one was much more advanced than any of the others. The whole team had come on the mission, and it was more serious. If someone was caught, they risked capture or death.

Finally, the signal came. "I'm in," Steve whispered through comms. Ira pressed her finger to her ear.

"Copy," She replied, and continued to the entrance of the building. It looked normal enough; just an abandoned shipping warehouse off the coast of Virginia. But to s trained eye, there were tells that gave it away as a covert base. There were tiny security cameras and alarms hidden on the walls, and armed men standing guard outside the door.

She reached the entrance, and found five armed men guarding the entrance. She pressed against the wall, and planned her attack. And then, she sprung out, and threw the first guard into the second, sending them both hurtling to the floor. She then picked up the third and fourth guards and flung them against the building, then against the fight guard. They were all knocked down, and Ira continued to the entrance.

"Nat, what's the code?" Ira asked Natasha, who was currently hacking into the system from the Quinjet, which was cloaked nearby.

"Working on it," came the muttered reply, and then, "Got it. Thirty-six, eighty-two, seventh-three." Ira quickly typed in the numbers, and the door slid open. She rushed inside, expecting to see guards, but it was eerily quiet. The blond-haired woman crept through the base, until she reached the archive room.

"I'm at the archives," She announced. She could see a blue out of the corner of her eyes as Pietro sped into the room. He carried the key to the archives stolen from an agent. "Did they notice you take them?" She asked him in hushed tones.

He shook his head. "I was in and out before anyone noticed me." He slid the key into the lock, and turned it gently. The lock clicked, and he pulled the door open. "After you," he motioned, holding the door open for Ira before entering the room.

A motion sensor turned on the lights as they walked into the room, illuminating row after row of boxes containing HYDRA files. "Every heard of a flash drive?" Ira murmured as she gazed around the room. Suddenly, they heard a crash from across the building, and an alarm went off. Soldiers could be heard rushing out in the hallway to the cause of the sound.

"Well, it looks like Sam and Clint's distraction is going well," Pietro acknowledged, and Ira nodded.

"Remember," Natasha's voice echoed into the earpiece. "Find the file marked 'Project Metamorphosis." Ira walked through the aisles while Pietro sped through them, searching for the file. She came to section 'P', and found a box marked with a large blue 'PM' on the side.

"Project Metamorphosis," she breathed as she took down the box, and handed it to Pietro. "Take this to the Quinjet. I'll catch up."

"Where are you going?" Pietro asked as he took the box.

"I'm gonna find Steve and Wanda," she told him, and he nodded. He sped out of the base, and towards the Quinjet, while Ira left the Archive room, and headed to the detention center, where she knew they would be.

She encountered a few soldiers on the way, but with a simple flick of her hand, they were flung against the walls and knocked down. She made her way through the narrow halls, following the sounds of fighting. Finally, she came upon Steve and Wanda fighting a group of HYDRA soldiers.

She immediately sprang into action, using her telekinesis to hurl a soldier into one attacking Wanda. Wanda smiled at her friend, before attacking another soldier. They continued to take down soldier after soldier, until there were only a few left. Ira slammed one into the wall, while unnoticed, another snuck up behind her.

Steve noticed just in time, and hurled his shield at the man, knocking him down. But it was still enough time for the man to fire a single bullet at Ira. Time seemed to go slowly as the bullet hurtled towards its target. And then suddenly, Ira was in the floor clutching her shoulder. She lifted her hand, and it was coated in sticky red blood. Thankfully, the bullet hadn't hit anything important, but she was still in intense pain. Steve rushed towards her, while Wanda, in a fit of rage, exploded energy from her hands. The brunette's eyes glowed bright red, and her hands burst with untamed energy.

Ira had enough energy to throw up a shield to protect herself while Steve used his shield, but the other guards weren't so lucky. They were thrown into the walls and to the end of the hallways, landing unmoving on the floor. Wanda quickly rushed to her friend, while Steve helped her stand.

Ira began using what little strength she had left to direct healing energy to her injured shoulder. The bullet had lodged deep inside her flesh, so she couldn't get it out yet, but she healed the tissue on the inside of the hole, to help with the pain and prevent an infection.

"We should get back to the Quinjet," Steve told them. "Tony and Vision will have finished rounding up the stragglers, and Sam and Clint should be onboard." Steve supported Ira as she walked to the Quinjet, her hand still pressing down on her shoulder, although the bleeding had mostly stopped.

When they reached the Quinjet, Wanda helped Ira sit down, and she went to grab bandages. Pietro immediately rushed over to her. "Are you okay?" He asked as he worriedly kissed her. "What happened?"

"Someone shot me," Ira said, Lifting her hand to show him her shoulder. His eyes widened.

"Why can't you heal it?" He asked.

"I have no energy left right now, and the bullet is pretty deep in the tissue," she explained to him, as Wanda came back with the bandages. She carefully cleaned the wound and wrapped gauze around Ira's shoulder, before sitting down next to her.

"I'm sorry I let you get shot," Wanda murmured.

Ira looked at her in shock. "Are you kidding? You took all of them down in one fell swoop. And if you didn't I might be dead. You did all that you could, and it was enough." Wanda smiled slightly.

They spent the rest of the flight back talking, and when they landed, Pietro helped Ira to the lab. Tony was waiting there with a doctor, as the matter wasn't serious enough to bring in Helen Cho. The doctor had her lay down on a medical table while he readied equipment to remove the bullet.

Pietro sat fidgeting on the chair beside the table, nervously looking at Ira. "Okay, you're going to have to leave," she told him after enduring it for a few minutes.

"Why?" Pietro asked.

"Because you're making me nervous by just looking at you," She replied, and he left the room.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and the doctor prepared to pull out the bullet. "I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt," he told her.

She shrugged. "What else is new?" He chuckled, and dug the tweezers into her shoulder and grasped the bullet. Ira clenched her jaw, and squeezed her eyes shut as he pulled out the bullet. 

"I'm afraid you're going to lose that arm," Tony sighed. "Well, chop it off," he told the doctor, and Ira smacked him.

"Not funny," She told him as she sat up. The doctor bandaged the wound, just until, Ira had enough strength back to fully heal it. He cleared her, and she went to her room. She found Pietro there, who immediately rushed to her.

She laughed. "I'm fine," she said, knowing what he was going to ask. Pietro breathed a sigh of relief, and they sat down on the bed.

"I worry about you a lot," he said. "You're important to me, dragoste." Ira smiled.

"I know," she said, fingering the pendant he had gotten her. "And I worry about you too. Just, not as openly," she teased.

Pietro feigned hurt. "Wow. That hurt." She laughed.

"But really, I do love you," She told him, pressing her forehead to his.

"And I love you too," He said back.