POV: Third Person.
Triskelion, Theodore Roosevelt Island
Potomac River, Between Washington D.C. and Virginia.
Shortly after Stark and Banner's Arrival.
Sam Wilson could do nothing but run through the corridors of the Triskelion. After having one of his wings torn off, he was lucky to fall inside the building unharmed. However, luck didn't last long. Soon after, he came face to face with the commander of the STRIKE team, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best and most trained units.
Brock Rumlow certainly earned his position in STRIKE. It took a lot of intelligence and a bit of luck to defeat him. After the victory, Sam felt proud and joyful. But once again, the situation worsened. Two large robots appeared in front of him and attacked. With no weapon to fight against these robots, he could only flee down the stairs.
After informing Natasha about the situation, he received information about the robots that were pursuing him. He wasn't the only one having trouble with them. He was without reinforcements for the time being.
The Triskelion was spacious enough for the two Sentinels to move around, but the staircases leading to each floor were not. So, the two robots flew outside the facility and fired their repulsors, targeting Sam. They seemed to have some kind of heat vision because the staircases were hidden from view, but that didn't seem to be a problem. The energy blasts were powerful enough to pierce through the entire structure, posing a great danger to Sam, who leaped down the stairs floor by floor like a monkey.
Outside the Triskelion, the destruction was much worse. The Sentinels locked onto Sam and didn't care about collateral damage. The building was a mess from the beginning of the battle.
Many members of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra were fighting and fleeing on every floor. The Sentinel's energy blasts were certain death if they hit anyone. Many of them, regardless of their allegiance, were caught by the blasts, and others by the resulting explosions. Even the ceiling of one floor collapsed on them, and this destruction only increased as Sam descended the stairs. Of course, he had no way of knowing this.
"Sam, stop two floors below!" Natasha shouted, a little out of breath in his earpiece.
"Understood," Sam replied, equally breathless.
It didn't take long to descend two more floors, as the enemy's gunfire was a good incentive. After passing through the door, he found himself in a spacious area filled with office desks, lined up one after the other. Aside from the desks, chairs, and office supplies, the area was empty—a good place to fight. Seconds later, two black flying robots faced the floor outside the window.
They didn't care about the glass and fired their hands at Sam. He was quick to duck, avoiding the shots, but they hit the door leading to the stairs, causing it to collapse, cutting off his escape route, as taking the elevator would be suicidal.
The Sentinels then entered the building and continued their attack on Sam, who could only run crouched using the fragile tables as cover—a futile effort, as the Sentinels didn't need a clear view of their target.
A few seconds later, the entire floor filled with tables was almost destroyed. Sam found himself cornered against the wall with no escape route. The two Sentinels were in front of him, their hands lowered, indicating they understood their enemy couldn't flee. Panting on the ground, Sam closed his eyes, awaiting the end.
With his eyes closed out of fear, he didn't see or hear the sound of a Quinjet getting louder. However, the Sentinels did.
They turned their bodies, ignoring Sam on the ground, and looked outside the Triskelion. There, a Quinjet was facing the window of the floor.
"Dodge, quickly!" Natasha shouted over the communicator, causing Sam to snap awake. When he understood the situation, taking advantage of the Sentinels' distraction, he ran into the adjacent room—a personal office. At that moment, Natasha, piloting the Quinjet, launched a full-scale attack against the machines.
"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!"
Unable to blow up the entire floor with missiles due to Sam's presence, Natasha attacked them with her machine gun, which could easily pierce tanks. The two Sentinels changed their color once again to their standard black and wasted no time. They pointed their hands at the Quinjet.
Natasha, airborne and quick, twisted the controls, making the aircraft spin in the air just in time to evade three shots. But the fourth hit its wing, exploding one of the engines. Natasha acted quickly, kicking out the glass in the pilot's cabin. She then unbuckled her seatbelt, and as the aircraft began to spin in the air, about to crash to the ground, she leaped, entering the floor where everyone else was.
When she landed in the room, she acted swiftly. First, she pulled out her two daggers from her thighs and rolled to the side, dodging another attack. She got up as quickly as she could and ran toward one of them. One of the Sentinels transformed its hand into a sword and ran toward her, while the other stayed back and fired at her.
Natasha dodged the Sentinel's sword attack and rolled on the ground behind it. She then cut the robot's Achilles' heel, which didn't seem to bother it much.
She then turned invisible, dodging another energy attack. Still invisible, she aimed at the other Sentinel's leg, but to her surprise, she was hit by one of the shots from the Sentinel that stayed behind.
The shot hit her arm directly. If it weren't for the enhancements she had because of her weapons, she would have lost her arm. She got up from the ground, now with only one hand useful for fighting.
She attacked the robot in front of her once again. It was easy for her to dodge the sword attack with her agility, so she cut the Sentinel's chest using her dagger. The cut was deep, but not deep enough to cause serious damage to the machine. When she was about to step back to try to attack again, the Sentinel that she had injured attacked with an energy blast. She bent her body to avoid the attack, but she remembered the second one that stayed behind. It turned toward her and held her dagger in front of its body to try to protect itself, But when the second robot was about to fire, Sam appeared. He struck the extended arm of the robot with a piece of wood, likely from a destroyed table. The wood didn't damage the robot, but the blow was strong enough to make its arm tremble, causing the shot to miss by a few inches, thus saving Natasha.
It was a brave move by Sam. He knew that the moment he attacked, he would become a target again. The Sentinel he had attacked moved too quickly for a normal human like him to dodge. It grabbed Sam by the neck and lifted him into the air. Sam hung there, squirming and kicking the robot desperately.
Natasha saw this and ran towards him to help, but the Sentinel near her wouldn't allow it. It attacked her with its arm, forcing her to defend herself with her dagger. Natasha then glanced back at Sam, who was nearly dying. She threw her dagger aiming for the Sentinel's head. The machine noticed this and released Sam to dodge the blow.
With a thought, her dagger returned to her hand. She turned to face the Sentinel she had turned her back on and tried to defend against the attack. But even though she had quickly recovered her weapon, Natasha didn't have enough time to defend herself perfectly. The robot's hand, shaped like a sword, grazed against her golden dagger, slightly altering its trajectory. Instead of hitting her heart, as intended, it struck her shoulder, piercing through her body and hitting the ground, pinning her.
With her free hand, the Sentinel aimed at Natasha's face. She was doing her best to free herself, but the injuries were slowing her down.
"Zumm!"
Before the Sentinel had a chance to kill Natasha, a golden flash sliced through the air, shattering the Sentinel's sword blade and freeing Natasha. The flash of light resembled a powerful laser. After cutting and freeing Natasha, the flash didn't dissipate; it seemed alive. It arced through the air, striking the second robot's head just as it was about to step on Sam, who lay unconscious on the ground. Though the blow lost some of its force, it still managed to catch the second robot's attention.
Both Sentinels then turned their focus to the open elevator doors, from which emerged a man clad in black leather, with golden hair and eyes. Without hesitation, he raised his golden bow once more, drawing the string to conjure golden arrows, which he swiftly launched towards the Sentinel attacking Natasha.
The robot wasn't foolish; it fired two energy blasts, aiming to destroy the incoming arrows. In the brief moment, Hawkeye had already fired four more arrows at the Sentinel targeting Sam. Perhaps the previous attack had damaged the robot's vision, as it failed to evade the arrows like before. This time, the four golden arrows had a different effect; they fused together, forming two cords of golden energy—one wrapping around the Sentinel's torso and the other around its legs, slicing through the robot as if it were made of butter.
With the first target destroyed, Clint turned his attention to the one before him. Ignoring Natasha still on the ground, the Sentinel attacked Clint with its reconstructed sword. Rolling on the ground to dodge the blow, Hawkeye fired a point-blank arrow at the Sentinel's face. The robot managed to intercept the arrow with its hand, which pierced through, though lacking the force to hit its mark.
Then, from behind the Sentinel, Natasha emerged. Her arm, previously struck by the sword with the regeneration-inhibiting metal, had not fully healed, but with sheer determination and pain resistance, she managed to raise her dagger and plunge it beneath the Sentinel's neck, right into the spine. Natasha exerted all her strength to pull the dagger downward and split the robot's spine, but she couldn't succeed.
The robot twisted its body, delivering a slap to her face, sending her flying. Clint, nearby, seized the opportunity and fired two more arrows that somehow curved around the Sentinel and hit the opening in its back that Natasha had created. As the two arrows entered the opening, they exploded, tearing the Sentinel's body from the inside out.
With everything under control, Clint sheathed his bow and walked over to Natasha, who knelt on the ground.
"I take a few days off, and when I come back, you guys destroy my workplace," he joked, lowering himself to inspect Natasha's wounds.
"We were planning a renovation anyway," she quipped, grasping his shoulder.
"Who's the newbie?" Clint asked, glancing at Sam, who was starting to rise.
"I'll tell you later; right now, we need to go there," Natasha said, pointing to the Helicarriers, still suspended in the air.
"I don't think we'll need to go there, Nat," he said, smiling at his friend.
She agreed after looking up at the sky above the Helicarriers because at that moment, the once-clear skies turned golden.
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