High above the Big Apple skyline, looking out over the cityscape, sat the Avengers Tower. The sun blazed a trail through the sky on a particularly hot summer day. Inside the topmost suit floor of the tower where the avengers gathered, it was air conditioned and cool. At a huge round conference table sat the earth's protectors, all sitting with grim expressions as their friends detailed the past few months of adventures.
"I don't think it's a good idea Rogers", Natasha stated evenly after a few moments of silence, "you said it yourself, he's not the same person he was back then. You can't just retrain someone to be like they were. Personally, I think he should be locked up."
"Yeah? Well you don't know Bucky like I know him," snapped the Captain back at her, "I got through to him a couple times, and I'm not giving up on him that easily," he finished a bit calmer.
"All I'm saying, is that he isn't worth going after. What's left of Hydra should be our main concern. After everything that's happened, if we let the rest of Hydra get away, what was it all for?"
"It's fine Nat, I understand. But I believe that he could help us. He has more information than anyone here has about Hydra, and if not so I can rest easier at night, can we go after him for the intel he has?"
The tension in the room drained out immediately as Steve noticed the sympathetic looks he was getting from the rest of his team.
"If this was anyone else, I know that you guys would be all over it. And I know that none of you know him. But you gotta understand, he was like family to me. He was my brother. I can't leave him."
Everyone shifted in their seats, uncomfortably acknowledging that he was, once again, right.
"I say we put it to a vote," Clint remarked after another long silence.
Eyes shifted around and looked around at each other, and heads began to slowly nod.
"So, are we going to do this?" the Captain asked.
Clint raised his hand first. Then Thor, next Tony, and lastly Bruce. Natasha leveled with Steve, but refused to put her hand up.
"If we do this, we're going to get in deep, and very dirty with the kind of people that take a long time to sort out," she spoke, "and for the record... I do think you're right, Steve," she muttered.
"Thank you all. Really. This means a lot to me. I know we'll find him."
The team was somewhere in the northwest of the United States in a thick forest of pine. They had clogged through many miles of crowded trees and shrubs. The wind whistled through the branches eerily, like a howl from a wounded animal. The group stopped about midday to rest and set up a temporary camp amidst the towering trees.
Steve started building a fire using twigs and dried moss he found hanging around. He flicked his lighter a few times until he saw smoke, then built the fire up slowly using bigger logs he broke off of branches he found lying around. Once the fire had grown enough in size, he sat back and stared at the tops of the trees and the slivers of sky you could see through them.
The Avengers had split up into groups where the soldier had last been sighted. Several reports of gas station robberies by a man who matched his descriptions had found their way into Tony's repertoire of informational data banks. They followed his trails and came all the way to the northwest corner of the states. It had only been a week since Steve had last faced his old friend, and they were now running short on options. He had evaded them at every turn. Everytime they had gotten close enough to catch him, they received news of him just a couple states ahead. They already talked to a few of the gas station's employees and they had come up with blanks. Most of them said the same thing. Big scary guy dressed in black army-looking clothes barged in, took some water, some food, and left. A few of the braver ones pulled out a gun, but were immediately disarmed by the stranger and knocked unconscious. A few others had tried to run after him, but they said he completely disappeared after leaving. He only ransacked the stores that were close to areas of high density forests or mountains, never in the city, or even small towns. They were all at a dead end. Most of the team had split up and found motels to stay in until the next day, or went back home entirely. Only Steve, Natasha, and Tony stayed.
Tony was busy looking through his laptop for new evidence, or watching videos. Nobody knew, and nobody bothered asking if he was doing any real work, which was a little bothering to him because he was actually really doing work and staying focused this time and nobody was even noticing. It was times like these when he realized how immature he really was, and began to reevaluate his decisions to see if he should act a little more adult about situations like this. The answer was mostly the same every time.
Nah.
Tony made a face at his screen, laughing silently at his own private jokes. He then got up and began walking around the small camp site occasionally touching some trees, and spinning around others. Steve and Natasha looked back at him doing his weird little dance with concern, but neither said anything except passing a silent what the hell look to each other. Natasha shrugged and continued her survey of the trees while Tony sat back down with his computer.
There wasn't much for her to look at, considering. But it did make any sort of movement through the trees glaringly obvious, which made her job easier. No one told her this was her job, she just sort of did it anyway. It was essential to have a lookout for all missions, especially with someone as skilled as the assassin she fought a week earlier. She had very rarely seen someone so skilled in the art as he was. And that made her a little nervous, truth be told. She was still recovering from that shot to the shoulder. Even though she was pretty sure he didn't have any guns on him, she was still wary, and brought a few of her own in case. And then of course, there was the metal arm, which doesn't really need explaining. Human muscle versus cold steel didn't add up to a fair fight at all.
The day drug on until dusk had reached them. The lighting was slim and made everything look monotone, except for objects that you could see through the blinking lights on Tony's gadgets.
Everything was silent and stilled, even the birds sang slowly through the last rays of sun. Tony was immediately covered with a lunging body.
"What the heck Tasha!" he complained before hearing a few thumps of something hitting the trees around them shut him up.
There was silence again, and slightly ragged breathing. The black widow got up off of Stark and was plowed back by a dark form into the brush. Steve got up off his cover from the ground and ran after her. Tony looked around and saw small daggers implanted in all of the trees around him. He pulled his suitcase out, and suited up. He quickly checked his laptop again, grunting in affirmation, and blasted off through the trees in pursuit. He stopped short when he found the others facing off a man dressed in black.
Natasha was pulling herself up off the ground after being tackled so violently. Steve and the winter soldier were circling around each other, the captain with regret in his eyes, and the soldier with malice in his. The soldier lunged forward punching Steve in the gut and threw his knee back up into the captain's face while he was bent over. Cap righted himself and threw a roundhouse kick, which the soldier blocked and flipped him over with. While Steve was on the ground, the black widow saw her opportunity and lunged for the soldier's back, pushing him forward with her kick. He twisted back around and cut off another heavy kick with a solid backhand that sent her flying into a tree. Tony dove into the soldier and flew him into a large tree, hearing the breath escaping from his opponent. Tony sent metal fist after fist into the soldier's face uninterrupted until he was kicked back. Stark slid a ways through the leaves, and came back running at the soldier. He jumped into the air using his thrusters and came down hard over the solder's head with a foot. Natasha and Steve recovered and came running after the fight. The team went full forward at the soldier and pushed him further back into their campsite.
Steve and Natasha faced off with the soldier and dodged his attacks when he pulled out another knife every time they disarmed him. At one point, all three members of the team managed to tackle him and take him to the ground. Tasha straddled his chest, while Tony and Steve held down his arms and legs as he struggled.
"Bucky stop! We're trying to help!" the captain ordered as he held his grip on his former friend.
"YA ne nuzhna vasha pomoshch', mudak! Graahh!" came the frustrated reply.
"What is he saying," Steve fumed, "speak English, I know you can!"
"Pereyti trakhat' sebya!" the soldier spit in his face.
"You don't want to know, Steve," Tasha informed him, "he's just trying to avoid answering."
With a yell, the soldier threw all three people off and took off running through the woods again, but he didn't get very far. Natasha slid underneath him and kicked his legs out. He fell hard on his side and rolled to his back and she jumped on top of him, pinning his legs and metal arm down. She pulled out one of her silenced pistols and pointed it at his sternum.
"Don't. Move." she warned him with a set jaw.
He glared at her as the other two Avengers caught up to them. Before they reached him, he sent a fist straight for her gut and flipped her over. There was a silent sound of impact as Natasha pulled the trigger.
"What did I just say? Don't move."
The soldier's angry face contorted and he reached out to punch again, and there was another impact. Each time he tried to move, another shot. Once. Twice. Three, four, and five times. He slammed his metal fist on the ground in pain, and knocked the gun out of her hands and made a run for it. He fell a few feet from where he started running, and didn't get back up. Steve and Tony caught up and saw the fallen soldier and the gun on the ground a few feet away from a worn looking Romanov.
"What-did you just shoot him Tasha?" Steve locked frightened eyes with Natasha' s cool green ones."No. Well, yes. That was one of my specialized stings. One of the few I managed to smuggle out while everyone was busy pointing guns at each other at the old headquarters. It's amazing what you can take when you're wearing a smile and a nice outfit." She smiled firmly, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"So, he's not hurt, is he?" Steve asked as he started walking towards his friend.
"Shouldn't be. These are high impact mini darts. Here."
She pulled out the magazine of the pistol and showed him the contents. There were small metallic balls, barely bigger than a small bead, all compartmentalized into three rows of the clip.
"Once the darts come in contact, they start to evaporate, releasing a toxin into the system. One of these has enough juice to knock out a three hundred pound person for up to six hours. There are seven of these in him right now."
She pointed over to the winter soldier lying face down on the ground.
"He should be out for a couple of- oh shit."
She jammed the clip back in the gun and aimed for the trees right where the soldier used to be. He was now zigzagging through the trees, headed right for their camp. She let off a couple of rounds before she realized that he was too far out of range.
"Shit." She repeated and took off after him.
"A couple of what exactly, seconds?" Steve countered as he ran alongside her.
"Shut up."
The metallic smell of sweat and blood intermingling fought its way into their senses as they chased down the black clad figure. Tony flew up beside them and gave them and 'okay' sign with his hand.
"Don't worry guys, I got this!" He yelled as he blasted off through the trees.
"What's he planning?" Muttered Natasha under her breath.
Back at the camp site the soldier was just to the edge, but was stopped short by a giant metal flying man. Stark hovered with his hands out in front of him, repulsors glowing brightly in the dim forest like headlights.
"Hold up there mean swing. You're not going anywhere."
The soldier's eyes trained on every single exit point possible, but saw only one. The red haired assassin was approaching from the back right, and the man called Steve was coming from back left. They were forming a triangle around him. So he made his only possible move; he ran head first into the flying suit of armour. Lashing out with his bionic arm, he pulled a knife and went straight for the face mask. Before he even touched Tony though, he heard a "get down!" and saw everyone drop to the ground. A flash echoed through the trees, and everything lit on fire.
The small team watched under ducked heads the barrage of electricity go from the small trees surrounding the camp, straight into the Winter Soldier.
The electricity shut off and the soldier stopped seizing and hit the ground. Thin trails of smoke lazily lingered up from where the bolts struck, and there was a smell of burnt clothing.
"That should do it," Tony said getting back up and walking over to the man on the ground.
He was sprawled on his back completely knocked out. He was wearing a black stained hoody, his black cargo pants from a week earlier, and a nasty looking brown shirt with splotches of what looked like car oil on it.
"So that's what you were doing to the trees." Natasha made a sound of approval.
"Are you guys trying to show off or something?" Steve said as he jogged over with his shield now in hand.
"Well if we are, I'm definitely winning."
"Don't push your luck Stark. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve if he decides to go for another jog." Natasha smirked and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay, well, I was the one who got him so I should at least-"
"Shut up Tony." She looked more serious now as she noticed Steve crouching over his friend.
Steve gingerly reached out to check his friends pulse, and pulled back after seeing it was fine. He sat down fully on the damp ground, and worked the dirty, burnt, and torn sweater off his friend's shoulders, and threw it to the side. There were small burn marks, like spots, dotted along his upper arm, and a couple on his chest, but the majority of the electrical charges looked like they hit his left arm. It was covered in black, partially from the electricity, and partially from the hoody being incinerated. The Captain frowned and stood up.
"He's fine. For now. But I have a feeling he'll be back up soon, we need to get him home." Steve bent down and put an arms under Barnes' legs and behind his neck. He lifted him up wedding style, while Tony took off his suit and Natasha packed up their gear into hiking backpacks.
"I'll call our ride." Tony said before pulling on his pack, and picking up his suit-in-a-suitcase. They started their trek back the way they came through the woods.
A/N: This story is dedicated to the chillest friend ever, and the person who came up with this story idea in the first place, all credit to you, Becca :) This will likely be a longer story, not sure how long yet. We'll see. I always put notes at the bottom of chapters because it bugs me when they're at the top, and ruins the flow a bit...Suggestions, ideas, corrections, and love are all welcome. Constructive criticism is what helps us become better writers :) please leave a review if you can, and thanks for reading!