ALRIGHT so warning again, violence in this chapter so here is your secondary warning if you don't wish to have the nitty gritty details. There will be a tldr version of events at the end for those that want the basics for future events. Just look for the line of ******** Author out.
I was awake, but kept my eyes shut and body limp to fein still not being conscious. Least that was the plan had they not been sitting and watching me I guess. Because no sane human being can just sit there with no reaction when someone strikes you in the face. It was sharp, created a loud cracking noise, and made me shriek out in pain.
Shaking my head while blinking the stars away cleared the image of the room around me.
A spare bedroom where someone has been kipping out for at least a while. I mean going by the suitcase that smells distinctly of beer and dirty laundry...gross. Three people, all wearing cheap Wal-Mart masks, one was sat in front of me while the other two almost awkwardly mingled behind him. Wait scratch that, four people, the last was fiddling with various items on the table to the left of the room.
Well, isn't this just charming? Heaving a heavy sigh I stretched my jaw around with a pissy expression.
"I'm guessing you haven't left a note?" A glance down at my hands had me internally rolling my eyes, handcuffs what complete and utter morons.
"Be quiet, you so much as let out a sound and we start sending Tony Stark some fingers." The delivery was weak enough that I didn't truly believe he would be the one to do it, but still I clenched my jaw to keep silent. I can't believe I managed to get myself kidnapped, not even five minutes after throwing my own temper tantrum to try and prove Happy wrong! I severely dislike being wrong, in fact I strive to make sure I am right in any and all scenarios.
Already I was compartmentalizing away facts in an attempt to formulate a plan to, you know, get the hell out of here. In this very moment I am severely outnumbered and outgunned. The waiting game it is, people always tell me what I need to know in more ways than one.
The fact that they had masks to begin with showed that they didn't plan on killing me (...oh the horror? Question mark? eh…) but they also clearly did not understand that there literally was a process to this. Stark Industries had to receive a definite proof of life, that was then voted as undeniable by the board, THEN had to go through another vote by the board where it had to be a unanimous call for any ransom money to go through. Biggest problem with that plan? The board absolutely disliked me on a rather personal level. Still no real clear idea as to why, not with those knuckleheads.
The woman, clearly feeling as if she has done more than her fair share, decided to leave the now awkward silence and literally go take a god damn nap. I'm not even kidding I could hear the bed springs creak through the wall to my right as she settled down right to sleep. Man apparently kidnapping someone must be just exhausting the poor lamb.
The other three dudes basically used her as a cue and soon filtered out after her, and just as I predicted their footsteps mapped out the layout of the building amazingly. A flush, a microwave ding, the creaks of the staircase, all little sounds that added up into one much bigger picture. Town house, has to be, nothing else is about the size of an apartment and also had a stairwell.
So...the true question to pose. How exactly am I going to get out of here, or in the terms of the nitty gritty, just what are the parameters of how far I am willing to take things? Who the hell am I kidding? I mean...it's not as if I haven't killed before right?
I felt my lips start to spread into that predatory grin, heartbeat starting to kick up surging up with dare I say excitement. One shaking breath in, one out, and I was ready. Hands lifted up to my hair where bobby pins pulled away the wild hairs that never actually got pulled into my braid and easily dislodged one. Those tricks about using a bobby pin came from somewhere, just not the way people think since you weren't actually supposed to jimmy the actual locking mechanism. Nope, ignore that it ain't your friend here. The part where the teeth close everything tighter that is what you should focus on, if you stick the straight end of the pin against the teeth along the band then you can bypass the teeth's function. Course things will get a bit tighter before they get better but hey following those directions you've successfully gotten yourself out of a pair of cuffs!
With the alarming amount of practice I have with getting out of these stupid things it was pretty instantaneous as well as silent. Now, what kind of goodies do these losers ha- you have got to be kidding me. These guns are fake! And their knives are so dull butter knives are somehow sharper. Beggars can't be choosers, but STILL! This is almost insulting...or a challenge, that makes me feel better. We'll go with that, you should just agree with me here I am the one holding the fake gun.
Walking out of the room with silent feet had me entering the other bedroom, gazing upon the slumbering form of the woman who took me. It was weird, that little niggling furl of anger that I felt in the pit of my stomach seeing her there as if holding a child hostage wasn't enough to warrant her being awake. My hand itched fiercely holding one of the sharper knives I stole, in fact my entire being was thrumming with a sudden burning...something.
'You know you have to do it,' do...what? 'You really think you're going to get out of this without a fight? Not if they are after Dad's money.' Okay yes I know they are after money, which automatically makes them all the more dangerous because this is a profit, but seriously inner voice? How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling Tony 'Dad'?
Anyway, swallowing down any potential guilt made it easy to silence her snores. In the permanent way if you catch my drift.
The hall was dark, saving the power bill? Either way it wasn't a problem, not really. I paused at the landing hearing voices below.
"Any word from Stark?" There was a harsh sigh through someone's nose.
"No, dumbass, we still haven't given proof of life." Well...glad to know I was only kidnapped by the best of the best. Man this was embarrassing. "Speaking of, Kyle why are you not watching the brat?" Excuse me? Glancing round for a place to hide only brought be up.
"It's a fucking kid Ted where the hell is she going to go?" Shit, shoving the handle of the knife into my mouth I straddled the wall and spider crawled upwards into the shadows. Once cloaked in darkness I slipped the knife out of my mouth into my palm waiting for-
"Get your ass back up there before you don't get jack squat of the payout!" 'Ted' sure got a temper on him don he! Feeling that feral grin split across my face again soon found a real portly man starting to lumber up the stairs laboriously. He is so out of shape that this really was just a favor to him at this point.
Three, and two, and one, releasing the wall had me dropping into a crouch on his shoulders, slamming the knife with such excessive force into his throat that the blade broke through the vertebrae. Unfortunately that also means it's stuck, requiring a flip forwards to build up enough momentum to dislodge it. I am still a shrimpy six year old there is no way I could ever be strong enough to catch a fully grown human male, so I got to watch in annoyance as his body flopped backwards in a dead weight (that was far funnier than it should be) down each step.
"Kyle?! Dude what the hell man?" Oh that's just great. He had ran to the steps but stuttered to a halt at the scene that lay before him, obviously more than shocked. However his face hardened with determination, alrighty then bambino fine by me. Let's dance.
He sprinted up towards me, but I met him halfway down with a battle cry fierce as can be. With a running start I took a flying leap that had me landing with my legs around his throat. Inwardly I knew the jist of what needed to be done to proper execute it all, but c'mon this is way harder than it looks! Sure I already had the direction of motion, the power, and the gumption. However the finesse and the grace of execution seriously have got to be worked on this was far from polished.
Basically I threw myself wildly down his back under the sheer hope he would land there I needed him to go. Course to disentangle myself from the idiot I had to do some incredible feats of gymnastics involving a fancy flip that needed a twist from my body. The downside? This, like I have mentioned, was a staircase flips mean that you won't land on a flat surface. It is only through dumb luck I didn't break my ankle, the pain of my ankle giving out against the step sure felt awful enough for me to want to call it so, but really this was a sprain.
Again, sheer dumb luck, I managed to not stab myself like a complete and utter moron during the entire debectacle, instead using the fury to slam it deep into the dude's eye socket….I will readily admit that I let my anger get ahold of me in the moment, seeing as it made me twist the thing with a furious sneer.
I didn't notice the final foe until I was in pretty significant danger. Managing to sneak up behind me he pinned with his entire form, hands clasped tight around my throat. Panic, this was the body's response to not getting enough air. Oxygen makes the world go round after all. Said panic made rational choices fly out the window, fists raised to try and beat him off and legs flailing with wild abandon.
"Those were my friends!" he howled, "We weren't even going to hurt you! We just wanted money, why?! WHY!?" Spittle was flying into my face as he squeezed even harder with each sentence he screamed. My throat was starting to make that very scary clicking noise, and my limbs were heavy all noodle-like.
Just when my vision was starting to become speckled with grey and black around the edges everything exploded with red. The sound hit me seconds later but nothing was quite like how the mountainous weight of him sprawled upon me. Course the whole...being soaked thing was a problem too but I'm compartmentalizing. Now any weight falling upon you isn't going to be pleasant, but the entirety of a two hundred and fifty pound man falling upon your ribs sucks balls.
Hands pushed in a futile attempt to deadlift the body off, and I felt my teeth scrape together as I gritted out of yell of indignant fury. This was until a man entered my field of vision, causing me to freeze in well deserved panic. It was the Winter Soldier, absolutely no doubt about it unless I was suffering from hallucinations via oxygen deprivation...that is always a possibility.
That internal theory was killed off as he removed the body as if he were lighter than a pillow. That's just not fair I guess I don't even lift bro.
I have NO idea what the hell I was even supposed to say in this scenario. Truth be told this was just awkward, maybe more on my end than his. So we were just standing facing each other silently as if just waiting for the other to break it. He didn't have his mask on, so I could see the small twitches in his face the longer he stayed fixated on my face. It was if he was trying to stare as forcefully as he could, like someone staring at a math problem they learned the concept for long before.
Slowly, so so slowly, he knelt to the floor staining the knees of his tac pants before me. His right hand tentatively reaching out to touch my soaked curls that were now more scarlet than strawberry. There was something in his eyes, a sense of deja vu?
I don't know why, it inwardly felt like a really dumb idea, but just as unsure I placed my hands on either side of his jaw feeling the scruff scratch at my fingertips. Even knelt on the ground I had to ever so slightly lean my head back to look into his eyes. Right before my eyes I could see them shifting and lighting up which was odd to say the least.
"Почему я тебя знаю?" (Why do I know you?) He whispered it gruffly gaze traveling up and down my person as if wanting to keep the memory ingrained into the deepest part of himself.
"Я не знаю, но я знаю тебя." (I don't know, but I know you.) This was the truth after all. His expression shifted before decisively lifting me up as if I were a feather.
"Положи меня." (Put me down.) I was too tired to be as firm as needed for him to listen, and my eyes just about popped out of my head when he glanced at me with challenge.
"Вы ранены, я ношу вас." (You are injured, I am carrying you.) The stubborn part of myself desperately wished to argue further, but conceded once the pain in my ankle flared smartly. It was with grievous air, but I nodded having him take me out of the scene of destruction.
It was awe inspiring seeing his skill in avoiding people and their keen eye for noticing "off" things. It was effortless, fascinating, and I for sure had skill envy.
"Куда вы меня везете?" (Where are you taking me?) It only just occurred to me that I should ask this. He faltered for a second before looking unsure. "Отведи меня домой, Тони ждет меня." (Take me home, Tony is waiting for me.) Deciding to take the initiative for the destination seemed to be the wisest idea at the moment. "Ты пойдешь со мной, останься." (You come with me, stay) There was no room for argument, especially because once my feet were planted in the ground I say "No you move."
He never responded, but he didn't say no either. I'm counting it as a win.
I.F.
It look less than an hour to reach the Malibu mansion, the entirety of which I was using to try and rationalize all the thoughts whipping about through my brain. None of it was actually going by in any logical sense, in fact the more I tried to sort everything out the more jumbled it all became. Why does a timeline have to be so complicated?!
The best way I can rationalize out the Soldier being there was I have gotten onto Hydra's raydar as well...awesome so we can now identify which side those agents I was placed with were with. But I can't really do anything, no powers, no nothing. No one yet knows of my knowledge of the (hopefully preventable) future so it can't be that.
But that also doesn't explain why he was taking me back to Tony, or how he is ever so slightly broken from his conditioning. He made it seem as if he recognized me, me and not someone else. God my head hurts...scratch that my everything hurts.
The thing that broke me from my reverie was Tony sprinting out of the building with one of the Iron Man arms wrapped around his own.
"Tony!" Wisely the Soldier let me down so I could limp/throw myself into Tony's arms. Once there I melted and just clutched at his shirt feeling his breaths hitch alongside my own. He pressed his free arm around my back so tightly that the arc reactor was almost making an imprint into my own sternum.
Tony was rambling breathlessly, to where I couldn't even understand what he was saying. Oh...is that Italian? No wonder it made hardly any sense. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the Soldier start to internally question what he was doing still being here, and getting ready to bolt.
"Останься, пожалуйста." (Stay, please.) He froze, but otherwise did as requested. Here was where Tony switched to English.
"God, don't you ever ever do this to me again, I can't take it not with this heart." The waterworks started up again in full.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Tony I'm sor-ry!" I was no doubt ruining his shirt but I just needed to be held.
Tony sighed, "It's okay, I've got you kiddo…" He paused and stood while putting himself between me and the Soldier, "Though it looks like we certainly have a lot to talk about. How do you manage to make things so complicated all the time?" The way he said it was with tired acceptance at least didn't make me too worried for the 'things to talk about'.
A/N
Right so, as you know Anika got kidnapped, the group consisted of one woman and three men. Anika used the power of incredible wit and skill to escape her bonds, but then in the attempts of escape killed three of the kidnappers before getting attacked by the fourth. Who was then taken out by a surprise appearance of the Winter Soldier. Which hello! Timelines? I don't know her. He then takes her back to Tony, tearful reunion commences, and for now the Soldier is still on the grounds of the Malibu mansion.
Now, how awful was my Russian? I had to use google translate (I know the HORROR) because while I can understand a surprising amount listening (and a smidge reading) I absolutely cannot spell it to save my life, and grammar is a thing I do not know...yet. Any Russian speakers reading who would be inclined to do so could you shoot me a message with corrections/tips? So...I saw End Game and I was wrecked to the point where I was Toby Maguire ugly crying for basically 4 hours in total. So knowing plenty feel the same here is this chapter somewhat early! I still can't believe this is getting as many reads as it is, so truly I thank you all for reading. Til the next time.