Chapter 6

"Of all things," Bucky complained, "it had to be Winter?"

Now that I think about it, Steve sighed, hearing his friend whine, it does sound a bit dumb.

"I agree with Terminator," Tony called, his voice coming in through Steve's earpiece. "Can we please change it to that? Terminator? That would be awesome!"

"Sir, you may want to focus on the fighting."

"Not now, Jarvis!"

Steve smirked at Tony's annoyance, and then focused on what was going on.

"Bucky, if you want, we'll just you the Winter Soldier."

"That's only one word longer!" Falcon complained from the sky. "Where's your originality?"

"Can it, guys," Hawkeye cut in. "We've got-" he was interrupted by the sound of an explosion, and Steve saw a cloud of smoke rise up from a nearby building- "trouble!"

He's right. Time to focus.

"Falcon!" Steve called, "where is the one with the whip?"

"Two buildings up and to your right! He's on the roof!"

Captain America and the Winter Soldier exchanged a look, and then they both increased their speed, heading towards what looked like a bank. As Captain America got closer, he saw that the entrance had been destroyed. He and the Winter Soldier carefully made their way inside and began looking for roof access, trying not to look at the damage the high-tech trio had wrought.

"Careless . . . " The Winter Soldier muttered as he and Captain America ascended a nearby stairwell.

"What was that?" Captain America asked, diving through the destroyed doorway at the top, ready for anything. There was no one there, so the duo continued searching for roof access, another floor up.

"Nothing," the Winter Soldier replied, kicking down a nearby door and checking inside. At the disapproving look from Captain America, he shrugged.

"It's more efficient."

"Well, be more careful," Captain America ordered, quickly pushing open a door. The Winter Soldier sighed and followed suit, checking to see if the doors were locked or not before kicking them in.

The two spent two minutes searching before Captain America found the roof access door.

"Winter Soldier!" He called. Seconds later, Bucky was by his side, and together the two kicked down the locked door.

An alarm should've sounded, Captain America thought. The thieves must've disabled it.

He and the Winter Soldier quickly went up the stairs, shoving open the door that led to the roof. The wind wasn't strong, as the nearby skyscrapers blocked most of it. However, the sun was close to blinding and Captain America barely got his shield up in time to deflect an electrified whip from wrapping around his neck.

"Falcon! A little warning!"

"Sorry, Cap! I was helping Thor!"

He's doing all he can, Steve told himself.

Captain America quickly rolled to the right while the Winter Soldier rolled to the left. The man with the whip stood about fifteen feet away, two metal ropes extending from metal bands on his wrists, both crackling with multicolored energy. There was a spinning blue wheel on the harness the man wore, which Captain America assumed was the power source. The man also wore silver body armor, completely covering his body and head.

"I was looking forward to fighting Iron Man," The man called, cracking his two whips. "You're a disappointment!"

In reply, Captain America threw his shield. The man quickly dove to one side, letting the shield bounce off an air-conditioning unit behind him, causing the shield to return to Captain America.

"What do you call yourself?" Captain America replied, holding his shield in a ready position to deflect the man's electric whips. The man laughed.

"No need for names," he replied, holding out his weapons. "You can just call me Whip and keep things simple!"

"At least that's easy," the Winter Soldier muttered, "but it won't matter what we call him when we take him down."

Captain America shot his ally a worried look and saw an unfamiliar - yet at the same time recognizable - coldness in his eyes.

Don't do anything reckless, Bucky, he thought.

"Bucky!" Captain America called. "Be careful! Your arm can block the electricity from his attacks, but you shouldn't do it too often!"

The Winter Soldier nodded his understand and, in one smooth movement, unsheathed both his knives and flipped them into his hands, the blades shining in the sun. Whip whistled mockingly, clapping his hands.

"Oh, wow!" He said sarcastically. "Knives! I'm so scared! How about you- crap!" While Whip had been distracted by the Winter Soldier showing off, Captain America moved slightly close and threw his shield again. This time, however, he wasn't aiming for Whip himself; as the man dove to his right side - his dominant side, as Captain America had predicted from the way he cracked his whips - the iconic shield hit the right whip. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the electricity from the point where the shield had hit up to the tip of the whip vanished, though the rest of the whip still worked.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Winter Soldier leapt forward, simultaneously kicking Captain America's shield back and slashing his knives at the cuffs on Whip's wrists in a dazzling display of skill as Whip desperately tried to defend himself.

"Cap!" Falcon's voice came in through the comms channel. "One of the cannon guys is looking your way!"

"Winter Soldier!" Captain America yelled, running towards his friend. "Move!"

Looking up, the Winter Soldier began to jump off of Whip, who had begun laughing maniacally. However, it was too late as a bolt of crackling blue energy struck the Winter Soldier straight in the chest, sending him flying right to the edge of the roof. The only thing that stopped him from going over the side was the slight railing, and the impact the Winter Soldier's body made on the stone was nothing short of ugly.

"You shall pay for that, villain!" Thor yelled, his voice loud enough to be heard even without the comms. More thunder rumbled and the sky darkened, but Captain America had no time to worry about Thor or even the Winter Soldier as Whip recovered, grinning victoriously.

"Not so tough, are we?" He mocked, tensing in preparation to attack. Captain America didn't waste breath replying as he dodged his opponent's strikes, his mind working quickly to come up with a strategy. Using his shield was easy enough to deflect attacks, but if Captain America got too close Whip's weapons would be able to wrap around the shield and hit Captain America without too much trouble.

And throwing the shield is really more of a distraction, unless I can get Whip to the point where he isn't expecting me to throw it.

The entire time Cap had been thinking, he and Whip had been slowly circling each other, with Captain America moving ever closer to the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier, for his part, was handling the pain of his injury extremely well, even though his heart had stopped for a few moments when he was hit.

"Cap," Tony was saying seriously through the comms, "you need to get the Winter Soldier medical attention right now."

"I'm not delaying that on purpose," Captain America replied, keeping his eyes on Whip. Around him, the other Avengers were battling the two men with cannons and seemed to be having no better luck than Captain America and the Winter Soldier.

At least they were smart enough to leave Bruce behind on this one; I don't think the Hulk would be the best man for the job here, and a gamma scientist won't be able to do anything either, no matter how much of a genius he is.

"You're losing time, Captain!" Whip called, lashing out in the middle of his sentence. The captain barely flinched as his shield caught the blow, the whip not quite long enough to wrap around the circular piece of metal. Whip had struck with his left whip, meaning that it was an electrified blow. Captain America could feel his arm aching where it was in direct contact with his shield from the electricity being conducted, but his suit absorbed most of it.

Even so, I shouldn't make the blocking bit a habit. I need to end this quickly, especially for Bucky.

On cue, the Winter Soldier groaned, tightening into a ball. Whip laughed.

"Your friend is going to die!" He yelled, attacking again. Captain America was forced on the defensive as Whip laid blow after blow on his shield, making Captain America's arms quickly grow numb.

Whip was laughing the whole time, seeming to enjoy himself as he put Captain America in pain.

"Don't worry, Cap!" Falcon said. "I've got you!"

Falcon dropped out of the sky where he had been circling, kicking Whip in the back with both feet and sending the criminal face-first into the rooftop.

"Thanks, Falcon," Cap gasped, getting to his feet but remaining on guard.

"No problem," Falcon replied with a grin. "Just don't count on me doing that again. Tony's yelling at me right now for help!" With that, Falcon took off again.

"Oh no you don't," Whip snarled, having gotten up enough to send his left whip flying at Falcon. It caught the hero's ankle and Falcon yelled in pain as the electricity arced through his body. He crashed to the ground, unconscious, a serious-looking burn on his ankle.

"You'll regret that," Captain America said, glaring at Whip. Whip's face was bloody, the skin a mess and his nose and jaw clearly broken. He didn't talk - most likely it was too painful - but he did flip Captain America off with both hands before going on the offensive again. However, this time Captain America was ready. During the last salvo of blows, he had examined the patterns of Whip's attacks and now knew his fighting style, which was actually not that advanced. The only real advantage he had was his weaponry.

Captain America held off Whip's assault for a moment while he mustered his strength. As soon as Whip lashed out with his weakened right whip, Captain America came out from under his shield and caught the weapon where it wasn't electrified, shocking Whip. At the same time, he threw his shield, pinning the other whip to the roof in one smooth move.

"You are only as good as your weapons," Captain America said sadly. "And that makes you no threat at all."

With Whip's weapons completely useless, Captain America stepped in close and, after giving the man in front of him a disapproving look - even though he was wearing armor - punched him in the face.

Whip fell, his helmet cracked.

He didn't get up.

"Tony!" Captain America said, putting one finger up to make sure his comms unit was on, "I got mine, but Winter Soldier and Falcon are down and need medical attention!"

"Roger that, Spangles. We'll get Feathers and Flashy back to the tower as soon as we're done here."

Captain America waited for a moment, and wasn't disappointed when a massive lightning bolt tore down from the sky, creating a massive explosion on a nearby roof.

"We got one," Hawkeye stated obviously.

"Aye!" Thor agreed. "He was scum, but a worthy opponent!"

There were multiple other explosions and various flashing lights, and then a tired-sounding Iron Man came on the comms.

"Mine's down too. Thanks for the help, guys."

"I'm here too!" Black Widow protested. "If it wasn't for me, you would've gotten hit at least five times."

"She is right, sir," Jarvis put in.

"You all hate me, don't you," Iron Man muttered.

"Can we focus here, guys?" Captain America asked. "First of all, we've got people we need to get medical attention, and second of all-"

"Fury," Iron Man groaned. "Oh, man. Nick's going to kill us for the property damage."

"It's not as bad as New York was during the alien invasion," Hawkeye said, trying to be positive.

"Nothing's as bad as the alien invasion," Black Widow replied. Each conscious Avenger shared a small chuckle, and then abruptly got serious.

"Let's get the wounded back to the tower," Iron Man ordered, "and then we'll deal with the fallout of today. Anyway, I want to have a little look-see at their weapons."

There was a general chorus of agreement, and the Avengers quickly got away from the destruction, taking both the unconscious teammates and the unconscious criminals with them.

Don't do anything stupid, Bucky. Or you, Sam, Steve thought. If either of you die on me . . .

He didn't want to finish the thought.

I am quite literally uploading this at midnight; you'd better believe I like you readers because my parents are going to be very annoyed with sleepy-and-grumpy me tomorrow.

As a response to the general chorus of guest reviews saying my idea of calling Bucky "Winter" sucked:

thank you for the constructive criticism. I appreciate your feedback and it was taken into consideration in the making of this chapter.

Please keep reviewing!

-RoR