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Natasha had always thought that breaking into a super-max floating prison would be harder than it actually was, but then again she was one of the greatest superspies in the world. Even so, breaking into the facility should have taken far longer than it actually did. The trouble, Natasha thought, would come when they have to break back out again with four extra people. Bucky was outside in the chopper, fully in disguise of course as a Raft prison escort; Steve was already inside, searching for the rest of their friends and Nat was looking for their gear. It might be easy to replace Clint’s bow (they’d have to replace that anyway thanks to T’challa) and Wanda’s outfit, but trying to find another wingsuit for Sam or having Dr Pym build another Ant-Man suit would be a bit more of a hassle.
Natasha was just glad that she’d had the foresight to look at Tony’s files in the mansion when he was out tending to Rhodey, she’d found copies of the prison’s layout and floor plans that Tony had obviously stolen himself when he was in the Raft asking Sam questions. Obviously, they had no idea where exactly Sam and the gang were being kept, but at least it marked where prisoner storage was. Besides, Steve would find them quick as hell; Nat was convinced that he had sort of sixth sense when it came to the location of one Sam Wilson, either that or some really good tracking devices.
She heard a noise and darted to hide in a doorframe. A minute later a guard walked past. She sprang from behind the doorway and incapacitated him, pulling him out of sight. She quickly continued her search, looking through windows on doors and checking up corridors to make sure no guards were aware of her presence. She was making fast progress through the prison.
She put her hand to the comm. unit she was wearing in her ear, “Cap, you find them yet?”
“Still looking Nat. You find their stuff?”
“Still looking too. Ran into much trouble so far?”
“Nothing I can’t handle, you?”
“About the same,” she shrugged regardless of the fact that he wouldn’t be able to see the action. “You’d have thought someone would have set the alarms off by now, I mean that’s just sloppy.”
“You can thank me for that, found the control room on my search. Let’s just say some of them won’t be considering getting up off the floor ‘til morning.”
Natasha laughed, “who knew Captain America had such a vindictive streak in him?” Cutting Steve off mid-splutter as he tried to think of a response to that, she had finally come up to the section of the prison marked ‘prisoner storage’. “I think I’ve found what I’m looking for, check back in 10.” She finally reached the door she was looking for, there were a few armed guards in there and a locking mechanism on the door with a keypad. Child’s play.
Using a gadget she’d brought with her, she quickly got the code she needed for the door and snuck quietly in. The room was made up entirely of ceiling high metal structures that looked pretty similar to filing cabinets, albeit incredibly fancy filing cabinets, all with small walkways between them. She darted to the first walkway in sight of her and checked out the naming convention on the front of the first couple of storage boxes. It appeared to follow alphabetical order, that made her job at least ten times easier. Her plan was to be as quick and stealthy as possible, only taking out the guards that she came across rather than every guard in the room.
Five minutes later she was running out of the room, the duffle bag she had taken with her full with everyone’s things, alarms blaring throughout the prison and the sound of distant gunfire echoing throughout the corridors.
“I’m assuming that was you?” She ran into a couple of guards, before they could aim their guns she threw the bag at the first one, and ran towards the second jumping up and knocking him out with a kick aimed at his head. She then dealt with the first guy and reclaimed the bag, before continuing on her way out.
“Yeah!” She heard Steve say over the muffled sounds of a fight going on, “won’t be long, found Sam and the others, we’re almost at the helipad!” More sounds of fighting, she could hear Clint yelling in the background, the sound of Wanda’s magic and Scott and Sam trying to out-quip each other; she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that. The only thing missing was the distinctive sound of Steve’s shield.
No wonder there were so many supervillains/criminals out on the streets, the Raft was almost criminally badly prepared for a break out situation, Nat almost felt bad for them. Apart from the fact that they’d arrested her friends, and Secretary Ross was a bit of a dick, in fact scrap that she didn’t feel sorry at all.
It took her all of five minutes to reach the helipad where Bucky was fending off at least 6 guards. She threw the bag into the chopper, and went to help him incapacitate them. More guards started pouring out of the doors all around the top of the prison, there must have been at least 30 of them.
“We may have a bit of a situation up here Cap,” she said as she pulled out a gun and shot one of the Kevlar clad guards in the chest twice, she wasn’t aiming to kill anyone this time. She shot a few more, dodging bullets herself left, right and centre before finally finding cover behind a raised door at the side of the platform. Bucky was in the same situation as Natasha now that he’d lost his metal arm, diving behind a low wall to give him some cover whilst the guards were shooting.
“Give us a sec! We’re almost there!” She heard Steve yell through the comm. unit, Bucky looked towards Nat and nodded, he could use the earpiece to convey what exactly he meant by the nod, but he seemed to know that it irked Natasha slightly, and he was enough of a dick to resort to just using gestures instead. She sighed and decided to continue covering her position with gunfire to stop the soldiers from advancing as fast as they would like. They wouldn’t last long like this though, that was for sure.
Suddenly, Steve burst through the set of doors that Natasha was opposite with the whole gang on his heels. Everyone began clearing a path to the helicopter, Wanda with her magic, Natasha and Bucky with their guns and the rest with brute force. They didn’t need to take out everyone on the ground just as long as they reached the helicopter. Natasha and Bucky reached it first, Bucky already getting the rotors started up as the rest of them headed as quickly as they were able to towards it. Clint and Wanda jumped in, quickly followed by Scott and Sam, and finally Steve who took a position on the landing skids to make sure they weren’t going to be boarded. Bucky quickly had the helicopter in the air and Steve got into it and closed the doors.
“Well, that was far more eventful than anything I had planned to do today,” Scott laughed breathlessly looking a little dazed, then again he always seemed to have an awestruck expression plastered onto his face whenever he was in Steve’s presence. Natasha had thought it would have worn off after he’d gone to jail for the man, but no, still in awe of Steve Rogers.
Sam snorted, “Dude, it’s not like you actually make plans, like ever.”
“I’ll have you know I make plans all the time!” Sam raised his eyebrows at Scott, “Okay, maybe I have been a little rash lately. But I do usually think about things before I-“
“Damn straight. Like the fact that you rely on chains of people to deliver messages to people instead of I don’t know, actually using a phone.”
“To be fair you started that.”
“Like when you made a joke about that guard on the way to the prison and he overheard and punched you in the face?” Clint piped up from the other side of the helicopter.
“When you shrank down that gas truck at the gas station on our way to Leipzig and we got chased for at least 20 miles?” Wanda interjected from beside Clint.
“Okay, okay, okay! I get it! So I make a lot of bad decisions!”
They all continued to playfully argue with each other, they all seemed to be banded around Wanda making sure she was okay. Natasha was sure she’d hear why later off of Clint, but she could guess by the way that Wanda kept moving her arms and fidgeting that she’d not just been put in a cell like the others but probably restrained too. She winced at that, Wanda was only a kid, she didn’t deserve to be treated that way just because she was different.
Natasha was glad to see Clint though, she was worried that they might have left things on a sour note, being on opposite sides, but she should have known that Clint wouldn’t care about that as long as she came to get him when all was said and done. He kept glancing at her every few moments offering a wry smile, but she would prefer it when they got off the plane and she could have a conversation with him. She didn’t really want to hash everything out across the helicopter, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t join in with the comedy fest that seemed to be going on.
“You know Clint, it wasn’t actually that hard to both break in and out of there, I think you’re losing your touch, retiree.”
“Aww Nat! No fair!” Clint whined, “You know I’ve not had coffee in like however many weeks we’ve been in there!”
“You were in there for a maximum of three days,” Steve laughed.
“Well, we all know us superspies can’t function without coffee, right Nat?”
“You keep telling yourself that Clint, we all just think you have a caffeine problem.”
“You guys suck, I’m gonna go sit over with Scott. We’ll make our own team without all this negativity.” There was a chorus of laughter from all of the patrons of the helicopter, even Clint was laughing along as he pretended to get up and move.
The rest of the journey carried on pretty much in that vein, no one asked where they were going or when they’d get there. It seemed that no one cared as long as they were no longer in the Raft. Even Natasha hadn’t asked where Steve was planning on taking them, but she trusted him almost as much as she trusted Clint. They would get to wherever they were headed and make plans then, but for now they were content.