Chapter 11
Steve took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to do. Even though he knew he'd done this a thousand times before, he still felt that familiar knot of apprehension in his stomach even though he kept telling himself that he was trained for this.
"I'm in position," Hawkeye said over the comms. "There's a few spots I can't see, but as long as you're not pressing yourself up to the wall on the right you're fine."
"Can you see anything?" Natasha asked, speaking quietly. Since she had to sneak in the back, stealth was more of an issue for her than it was for Captain America and Hawkeye.
"It's hard to tell," Hawkeye replied. "I can see movement, but whoever it is doesn't seem to enjoy decent lighting."
"The weather isn't exactly helping," Black Widow added. Clouds had rolled in, threatening rain. The city was plunged into an early darkness because of that, which wasn't really helping the patrolling Avengers.
"Be careful, Cap," Hawkeye warned. "You're practically going in blind."
"Give a shout when you want me to save you," Black Widow added, her tone completely serious. Captain America smiled slightly, pulling his shield off his back. The green warehouse loomed in front of him, at least ten meters tall and as run-down as a building could get without collapsing. It was hard to tell if the green color was from paint or mold.
"Here we go," Captain America muttered to himself, rolling out his shoulders to get the blood flowing. He took a deep breath and then strode forward, throwing open the large doors that had stood in front of him.
Bucky and Thor had decided on training dummies. They were simple, but significantly less fatal. Thor didn't begrudge Bucky for impaling Thor with a knife, and Bucky didn't mention the fact that Thor had been trying to blast him with lightning. The result was a very awkward silence while the two men practiced their hand-to-hand combat.
After a few minutes of intense concentration, Bucky stepped back from his dummy. His right hand stung – his left was fine, of course – and he let his eyes wander. Only then did he realize that Thor's dummy was a lot thicker and heavier looking than Bucky's, and that it appeared to be breaking in several different places.
I'm not regretting not going into close combat with Thor, Bucky thought, cracking his knuckles. The movement didn't work with one of his hands, but the effect was the same.
Thor suddenly stopped hitting his dummy and stepped back, shaking out his hands in a gesture that was all too familiar to Bucky. Catching his comrade's look, Thor smiled.
"'Tis much better than combat, is it not?" He asked brightly. Bucky nodded silently. "If you would like more of a challenge," Thor added, "Tony has dummies that move in the ring behind you."
Turning, Bucky realized that there was a boxing ring where before he could've sworn there had been nothing.
Dummies that move? Does he mean robots or people?
Bucky decided that Thor meant robots and, after nodding his thanks to his teammate, Bucky walked over to the ring. It was the size of the boxing rings Bucky remembered from the old days, and Bucky easily ducked inside. Immediately, a voice came from the walls.
"Would you like to initiate training session one, sir?"
It's that voice Steve called "Jarvis".
"Yes," Bucky replied, not really sure what to expect.
"Initiating sequence. If you are fatally wounded, I will be sure to report that flaw in the programming to Mr. Stark."
A sarcastic voice in the wall. Great.
A panel in the other side of the ring slid open and a humanoid, white robot climbed out, made of some kind of hard material that Bucky couldn't place.
Needless to say, Bucky was caught slightly off guard when the robot lunged at him.
There were four men dressed in various types of black clothing standing near the door when Steve burst in. Each of them reacted with surprise when Captain America infiltrated their top-secret lair, and that surprise only compounded when a certain shield knocked the weapons out of one guy's hands.
"Care to explain what you gentlemen are doing?" Captain America asked mildly as he caught his shield.
They stared at him in shocked silence. One of them began to reach for what was presumably a gun in his belt.
"Please don't," Cap said softly, switching his shield to his right hand. The man didn't listen, of course, and pulled out a pistol. Captain America immediately ducked behind his shield, hearing and feeling the bullets pinging off the metal.
Why do they always do what I tell them not to?
"Hawkeye!" Captain America called, seeing a bullet hit the floor a few inches too close to his foot.
"One sec, Cap. They're moving towards the wrong wall. I can't get a good shot off."
"Luckily for you boys," Black Widow cut in, "I'm here."
Two seconds later – to Captain America, they felt like full minutes – the gunshots stopped one by one. Each pause was accompanied by a man's pained yell and the sound of a body hitting the ground.
Slowly, Captain America lowered his shield. He saw Black Widow adjusting one of her stingers, standing over four unconscious men.
"Natasha," Clint said slowly, "are they alive?"
"Of course," Black Widow snapped, looking and sounding indignant. "I'm not barbaric. Give me some credit, Hawkeye."
"That's what you said in Budapest and we both know how well that worked out."
"We're not talking about Budapest," Black Widow snapped.
"Black Widow, Hawkeye, focus," Captain America ordered. "We need to figure out what was going on here. Widow, get those crates over there. I'll secure these four."
"On it," Black Widow replied, taking one last glance at the unconscious men at her feet before walking into the shadows of the building.
The robot tackled Bucky, driving him to the floor. Bucky rolled with the motion, ending up on top of the robot – which turned out to be a lot heavier than Bucky was expecting. Quickly, Bucky got in two quick jabs and then jumped back before the robot could counter. Bucky's punches left deep dents in the metal of the robot's head, but as Bucky watched the metal slowly smoothed out again, making it seem as if Bucky had never hit the robot at all.
What in the-?
The robot and Bucky slowly circled each other. Bucky noted that the robot moved like a normal person, and didn't seem to have any obvious weak points.
But if it's a robot . . .
Quickly, Bucky launched an attack at his opponent. The robot dodged, barely, and kicked Bucky in the stomach. Bucky hit the ground hard, his air leaving him in a rush. However, the robot was still turned the wrong way, and with a savage kick while still down Bucky sent it flying into the ropes on the other end of the ring. It lay there, stunned.
Taking advantage of its immobility, Bucky took two hands and wrenched the robot's head to the right. Something cracked and the robot spasmed. Bucky continued the motion, repeating it over and over until finally the robot's head snapped off, accompanied by a large number of wires and circuitry.
With a grin on his face, Bucky got up and tossed the robot's head to one side, feeling pretty proud of himself. He didn't notice the headless robot slowly getting back to its feet.
Captain America finished securing the four men who had been in the warehouse with specially made handcuffs that were nearly indestructible and then tied a long, sturdy rope around all of them, ensuring that they were held in place, at least temporarily.
"Anything, Widow?" He called, unable to see through the darkness of the warehouse. Outside, the day was fading quickly; it was already past three in the afternoon and the darkness was only growing.
"Whoever secured these crates didn't want them opened," Widow replied curtly, sounding strained. "I'm having a little difficulty opening them."
"Do you need any he-?"
"No. You should get the other crates."
"I'll just sit here," Hawkeye put in. "Contribute to team spirit!"
"You like sitting in high places," Captain America said, slinging his shield over his back and walking to the other side of the warehouse opposite where Black Widow was. There was a momentary pause, and then Hawkeye sighed.
"True."
It didn't take long for Captain America to find a stack of crates against the wall. They were large and bulky looking, making Captain America wonder how they were transported to the warehouse without attracting attention.
It must've been done at night when no one was outside. A holiday, maybe?
"I've almost got a crate open," Black Widow stated.
"Got it," Cap replied, isolating one crate. He checked it over, searching for the top and the crack between the lid and the rest of the crate. Keeping that in mind, he pulled his shield off his back and positioned himself carefully, mentally picturing what he was about to do. The darkness wasn't helping, but Captain America trusted his instincts.
In one smooth movement, Captain America swung his shield, jamming the edge into the crack between the lid and box. Instantly, the box popped open, various nails and splinters flying into the air before falling to the ground.
"What was that?" Hawkeye asked.
"Don't worry," Captain America reassured him. "I was just opening a box."
Captain America could've sworn that he heard Black Widow mutter something, but he couldn't be sure.
"Well, Cap, what's in the box?" Hawkeye asked.
Suddenly, there was a large crashing noise that echoed throughout the warehouse. It was brief, but enough to startle Captain America.
"Widow!"
"Sorry," the woman replied without a trace of regret. "One of the crates fell."
"Fell?" Hawkeye questioned. "Because from my angle it looked like-"
"It fell," Widow interrupted icily. Hawkeye instantly backed off.
Those two never stop.
Captain America pulled out a small flashlight he kept on his person and flicked it on. The small beam of white light immediately illuminated the sides of the crate, highlighting a logo that Captain America hadn't seen before.
How in the world . . .?
Disregarding the logo on the crate itself, Captain America peered inside the box, shining his light on the items inside.
"I don't believe it," Black Widow muttered over the comms. Captain America agreed.
Inside the crates were at least twenty of the electrified whips that the criminals from the previous fight had used.
Each of them were emblazoned with the Stark company logo.
"Natasha," Steve breathed, "are you seeing this?"
"If you're seeing Stark tech weapons," Natasha replied, "then yes."
"Wait, what?" Hawkeye cut in. "Tony's stuff is in there?"
"Remember those three guys we fought the other day?" Widow asked.
"Yeah. So?"
"Their weapons are in here."
There was no response from Hawkeye. Steve waited a beat, feeling the knots in his stomach begin to emerge again.
"Hawkeye?" He asked. Again, there was no reply.
Suddenly, a sharp screech came from the earpiece and Cap ripped it out of his ear, feeling his head pound from the sudden noise. Black Widow was next to him in an instant, the faintest traces of panic in her expression.
"Cap," she began, "Hawkeye's been compromised."
"I know. We need to get out of here."
They turned to go, prepared to get backup, but the door to the warehouse shut with a loud bang. Immediately, the building was plunged into darkness. Captain America shut off his light and prepared himself for a fight that never came. Something pinched his neck, the sensation immediately followed by an irresistible drowsiness.
Just before Captain America blacked out, he managed to press the distress beacon on his belt.
Then everything went black.
Holy supportive reviews, Batman! You guys are amazing (and really I apologize for being so harsh last chapter that was my wounded pride speaking).
Allow me to address one or two things I noticed in the reviews:
1. Yes, my chapters are short. In my regular story on the other site, the chapters tend to be in the 2 or 3 thousand range, but that's a much different kind of storytelling. For fan fiction, it's easier for me to separate the story into much smaller, more manageable pieces. And if I did longer chapters, that would mean it could take up to three times as long for me to get a new chapter out, so I figured this would work better.
2. You people must be great friends in real life like wow. I thought about what you guys said all day and I finally managed to put my feelings into words as to why I really like reviews. So here's a metaphor/comparison/simile/whateverIdon'tlikeEnglish
Writing is like yelling into an empty room. You get all your feelings back, plus the echoes that you can later improve on. It's moderately satisfying.
Writing with feedback is like yelling into a room with other people. You get your own feelings back, plus the echoes and voices of other people that offer their own kind of noise to the mix. It's more satisfying.
SO yeah. It's not a great way to explain it, but it's all I could come up with.
Hopefully, those of you that are able to can keep reviewing/reading/doing things!
-RoR
(also, with the author's note, this chapter is over 2,300 words. That makes it the longest yet, I think)