Mage arrived, his wand arm coming up, ready. Steve, didn't even look in his direction, instead continuing to simply stare at the Soldier. The other guy gave him a brief nod of recognition and Mage recognised him as a 'friendly'.
Without warning, the Soldier lifted an arm, a pistol in his hand but before he could fire, a small missile came out of nowhere, slamming into a car, exploding it and sending the Soldier flying.
Mage noted that it'd been Natasha that had fired the missile before taking off after the Soldier.
Mage shook his head at the sight of the Soldier already getting to his feet, his hand going behind him, obviously for a new weapon, not that Mage planned on giving him enough time to draw it.
A simple red spell was snapped from his wand. But with super-human reflexes, the Soldier blocked it with his metal arm, the stunner splashing against it harmlessly.
Taking a step forward, Mage's wand whipped into a blur, shooting spell after spell. The first was blocked. The rest, though, did their work, leaving the Soldier bound, silenced, petrified and unconscious on the ground at Mage's feet.
A simple accio relieved the man of his weapons – a surprising haul that Mage promptly shrank before placing into one of the pockets on his belt. He eyed the metal arm, considering the safest way of dealing with it. But not knowing how it was tied into the Soldier's human anatomy, he left it for Tony to deal with later.
"Let's get you some place safe for now, shall we?" Mage said to the unconscious man.
A quick disillusionment spell, levitation spell and a rope tied to him satisfied Mage. Then, after drawing and enlarging his broom, Mage flew back up to the quinjet, trailing the body of the Soldier behind him.
ooo00ooo
"Harry, you better get back down there!" Bruce called from the pilot's seat.
Harry's head looked up and around from where he was in the process of strapping the rigid, unconscious body of the Winter Soldier to one of the benches on the side of the quinjet.
"What's happening?" Harry asked.
"I'm counting eight black SUVs with flashing lights heading towards the others," Bruce relayed.
"Give me one more sec," Harry said before turning back to complete the job.
ooo00ooo
Thor and Iron Man flew into what had been a combat zone, landing lightly beside Steve.
"You alright?" Iron Man asked.
Steve nodded dazedly. Something had obviously shaken the guy.
"Nat. She was shot," Steve said, beginning to snap out of whatever it was.
Before Thor had even gone two paces towards their comrade, black SUVs began pulling up all around them, a legion of black-clad soldiers emerging from them like ants, all carrying rifles and a multitude of other weapons strapped to their body.
"On the ground! Get on the ground!" the lead S.H.I.E.L.D. soldier ordered.
Iron Man simply raised his arm towards him, his repulsar weapon lighting up brightly.
"Not gonna happen," Iron Man replied. "And I'd lower those weapons if I was you, you don't want to make Hulk angry now, do you? And he's watching from up there."
A couple of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers glanced nervously at the hovering quinjet; their weapons, however, remained steadily on target.
Thor, though, hadn't even broken his stride, reaching Nat's side moments after a smaller soldier had done so. A simple glare was enough to force them to back off.
"Tony, be ready to grab Steve; Thor do the same for Nat. As soon as you have them, get them up to the quinjet," Harry's voice ordered through their comms.
And then, with a much louder crack than was normal, Mage appeared in their midst. A number of the soldier's weapons spun so that they were now covering him as well.
"I suggest you back off, gentlemen," Mage ordered the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers.
When not a single rifle was lowered, Mage seemed to gather himself for a second before forcefully dropping to one knee, stabbing his wand at the ground in the process.
Instantly, a massive shockwave pulsed outward through the ground, causing everyone upright to stagger, car alarms to begin shrilling their protests and entire buildings to shake.
Seeing the opening, Thor pulled Natasha close, spun Mjolnir and shot up into the sky. Iron Man, too, was quickly airborne, Steve in his arms. The winged man quickly joined them, following along behind.
As for Mage, he simply stood in the calm of the storm before turning, vanishing without a sound.
ooo00ooo
Mage appeared high in the sky above the quinjet and began to fall. He'd barely dropped a dozen metres before he transformed into Ged, his sparrowhawk form, his wings spread to catch the air currents. A bank, a dive, some flapping of wings brought him shooting into the quinjet where he transformed once again, moving from bird form to walking on the ramp with ease.
"Whoa!" the black guy with the mechanical pack on his back said, stepping backwards out of the way. "I didn't know you could do that!"
"Not many do," Mage replied. "Cool wings, by the way."
"Yeah, you too," he replied, almost automatically, it seemed.
Nat was propped up on one of the seats, one hand clutched to her shoulder and her face looking decidedly pale. Seeing her, Mage began pulling vials from his belt pockets even before reaching her.
"That bullet still in there?" he asked.
Nat shook her head. "No. A straight through and through."
"That'll make things easier," Mage commented. "Right, get that shirt off."
Instead of doing exactly what he'd asked, she managed to slip the shirt to the side and down so that he could see the injury. A scourgify cleaned the area of blood before Mage uncorked the first vial and pulled out its dropper.
"This is going to sting," he warned.
At her nod, he dropped firstly three drops on her front bullet hole and then a further three on the wound on her back. A purple cloud of gas rose off of her as the skin began glistening and melting together. Nat's hiss of pain told its own story; ordinarily she wasn't one for showing any sort of pain. By the time that the Essence of Dittany had finished its work, the wounds looked to be at least half a week old.
"Right, drink this," Mage ordered, pulling out the second vial.
"What is it?" she asked suspiciously, looking at the viscous dark red liquid.
"Blood replenishing potion, it'll give you back the blood that you lost," Mage stated.
In one go, Nat slugged the potion down, grimacing at the taste, just as everyone who took it did.
"Right, what's going on," Tony asked before cocking a thumb at their extra passenger. "And who's this guy?"
"Sam Wilson, he's a friend and ally," Steve replied from where he was standing staring down at the unconscious form of the Winter Soldier.
"As to what's going on, I think I might have a lead," Nat stated.
She thrust a hand into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, holding it up for all to see.
"What is it?" Mage asked.
"A set of coordinates," Nat replied. "It was slipped into my pocket by that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before Thor chased them off."
"Where are they for?" Bruce asked.
"Only one way to find out," Mage stated.
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