168

            Slowly, you pick yourselves up out of the wreckage, brushing flakes of blackened paint and metal from your uniforms.

“What happened? Where’s Tony?” you ask, because of course if something complex and mechanical explodes, it’s Tony’s fault.

            Natasha looks around wordlessly for a minute, still disoriented, then freezes and just points over your shoulder. When you spin, you see Tony, all right, and Steve, too, and they’re...

...yeah, this is a Hydra job, all right, because Steve and Tony are fighting a giant metal octopus monster thing, and jeez, doesn’t Hydra ever get tired of using those? You’re sure as hell getting tired of fighting them.

            Still, familiarity has its benefits, and you know the thing’s weak spots, so you consider - maybe Steve and Tony don’t need any help and you and Natasha can be useful elsewhere.

To help Bruce, Thor and Sitwell with the prisoner evacuation, turn to page 169.