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This is Sergeant Helena Cain’s second time working with the Avengers. Well, ‘with’ is a relative term, the last time she mostly handled evacuating the civilians and guarding the perimeter. But what the hell, she’d been close enough to the action, and she even killed a couple of the bastards they were fighting, so she counts it as one anyway.
There is none of that this time. She was in the thick of the action, ducked behind a crumbling wall with the archer - Hawkeye, was it - and picking off whatever they’re fighting this time, one by one. Robots? Monsters? Aliens? She can’t even tell anymore, but it doesn’t really matter, does it, when the most important thing is that they die when they get shot in the head.
She keeps up the assault for a while, but eventually her bullets run out and there was nothing she could do but stay crouched and hope that nothing gets past the shelter.
She sees bright colours through the corner of her eyes and turns to see Captain America running into the fray, his shield flying true, hitting one, two, three enemies in the head before returning to his outstretched hand. There was another man beside him, and her heart drops when she recognises him. She’s seen him before, over and over on the news when all the madness was going down; helicarriers going down, Captain America arrested for treason, the gunfight in the streets. She shudders just thinking about it.
Apparently the man - the Winter Soldier, that was what they called him - is fighting on the Avengers’ side now. He’s keeping up with Cap’s pace, watching his back and not letting any threat get too close to him.
Watching them fighting side by side was, well, interesting, to say the least. They aren’t perfectly in sync, not yet at least. It reminds her of her rookie days, when she was still trying to get used to the NYPD blues, still trying to shake the awkwardness with her partner.
She and Danny had gotten there eventually, and she had a feeling these two would, too. It was obvious that they were used to keeping each other safe, at least. The Captain’s shield would come down in front of the Winter Soldier, blocking a blast, and come back up just as the other man lines up his shot, a split second before he pulled the trigger.
The longer the fight goes on, the more restless she gets. She hates feeling like a sitting duck, and the feeling multiples tenfold when an explosion erupts somewhere near her, showering her with debris. Hawkeye had disappeared somewhere, presumably running out of ammunition just like her.
She chances a look around the wall, and finds that a silvery weapon-looking thing was lying there beside a dead enemy. She tries not to focus on the dead body, not wanting to lose her nerve, and gauges the distance of the weapon. It’s just out of her reach, so she takes a deep breath and listens carefully to the sound of the fighting. When she thinks it’s the best chance she is going to get, she goes for it, darting out of her hiding place, grabbing the weapon and dashing back as fast as she can. She presses back against the wall for a second, heart pounding, and then takes a look at the thing.
The weapon isn’t too hard to figure out. It’s a kind of laser blaster, long and hollow, with the trigger at the end. She doesn’t fiddle with any of the buttons, just sights along the barrel and pulls the trigger, bracing for a recoil. There isn’t any, just a sharp whine as a bolt of light leaps out of the front. Her first shot is wide, but as she gets used to the strange trigger, she begins to hit closer and closer to where she was aiming.
That is, until a loud shout makes her jump. It is already very loud around her, but the anger and desperation in the cry makes her turn to take a look. It was the Captain, shouting something she couldn’t hear as he shoved the Winter Soldier back with his shoulder, taking the brunt of the shot that was meant for him.
She hears the Soldier’s panicked yell as the Captain goes down. He makes quick work of the enemies around him and pulls the Captain over his shoulder as he looks frantically around for cover. Helena feels the need to help, and waves her hand cautiously to get his attention. When he spots her, he gave her an assessing once over, and moves towards her while still fending off enemies with one hand. She tries to give them as much cover as possible, but she’s wary of aiming too near to the friendlies, since her aim still isn’t perfect.
As soon as they reached cover, the Soldier sets Cap down, gently, and proceeds to chew him out for being a reckless idiot. “Steve, you dumbass, what do you even have the shield for…,” and it continues as he inspects the wound on the Captain’s side.
The Captain lays a gentle hand on the Soldier’s metal arm, stilling his movements as he pushed up his uniform to expose the damage. “It’s fine, Buck. See, it’s already starting to heal,” he says, and his voice was almost too soft to hear.
As she watched the scene, Helena felt like she was intruding into a private moment, so she turns back to the fight and concentrates on hitting every enemy she can. Behind her, she can half-hear the other two talking, running strategies and making plans while wrapping some makeshift bandages around the Captain’s ribs.
After a few minutes, the Captain - Steve - moves closer to her position and thanked her for her help. He asks if she wanted them to escort her to a safer place. It’s tempting, it really is, but they are so much more useful out there fighting these monsters, and she doesn’t even know where she could go anyway.
So she squares her shoulder and says, “Thank you, Captain, but I’m gonna do my job. You’d do more good out there, and I can’t do much, but I can help.”
She finds herself receiving a fierce smile at that, and the Captain nods. “Good luck, then. Stay safe.”
The Winter Soldier looks at her for a moment, before pulling a gun out of his thigh holster and offering it to her, handle first. “Just in case,” he says, and she thanks him for it.
“You ready?” the Soldier asks, looking at his partner.
“What, you gettin’ sleepy?” comes the answer, as they both tense up, ready to move.
Hell no, is the last thing she hears from either of them, as they jump back into the fray, side by side.